763 24 26018 https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/f752bfb83983da3d38384392dd0df16d.pdf 56868c9b33bdeb0659e090d69a94a537 PDF Text Text Memory and Hope in Our Cosmic Journey From the sermon series on the Cosmos Text: Isaiah 11: 1, 2-5 Richard A. Rhem Christ Community Church Spring Lake, Michigan Advent I, November 29, 1981 Transcription of the spoken sermon Advent means coming. The Advent of our Lord has for us a double focus: We remember that He came, We live in the hope of His coming again. Today we enter a new year - not a new calendar year, but a new Church Year or Christian Year. The Season of Advent comprises the period of the four Sundays before Christmas. It is a Season of preparation, a Season of penitence, a Season in which we ponder the mystery of grace in the first coming of Jesus and contemplate the Christian Hope, His coming in power to reign. It is appropriate that we enter this Holy Season around the table of our Lord for this Supper is a Feast of Remembrance and a Feast of Hope. He instructed his disciples, when they broke bread and poured out the cup of wine to remember him whose body was broken, whose blood was shed for them, for us, for the whole world. And in his instructions to them, he called them to do so "until he comes." Thus we are people who live in the time between the times. In the fullness of time, Jesus came. In the time of the End, he will come again. In the meantime, we celebrate his presence with us in the Spirit and in the signs he has given, the Bread and the Wine. The People of God are a people who always live by memory and hope. In recent weeks we have caught a glimpse not only of the immensity of space, but also of the eons of time in which our world has been evolving. We have a past. We have a future. © Grand Valley State University   �Memory and Hope in Our Cosmic Journey Richard A. Rhem Page 2   God has acted in our past. God will act in our future. In this confidence we live. We remember. We hope. So it was with Israel. The symbol on our Advent Banner is a branch, reminding us of the promise which inspired the Old Testament prophet. Through long centuries Israel sustained its hope for the future Kingdom by remembering God's action in its past. Israel was born in the Exodus, a great liberation movement which was annually commemorated in the Passover Feast. Each spring, Israel reenacted their freedom flight as the Passover Lamb was slain, roasted and eaten. In the ritual of remembrance, there was the note of expectation and hope for the day when the Messiah, God's anointed one, would come and bring to fruition Israel's dream of a Kingdom of grace and righteousness. Through the long, weary centuries faith often grew faint and almost succumbed to numbing doubt and debilitating despair. Then she cried, "How long, O Lord, how long?" She lived by the promise. She clung to the hope of the coming One. There shall come forth a shoot from the stump of Jesse, and a branch shall grow out of his roots. Isaiah 11:1 Listen to the description of this One Who was to come. And the Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him, the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and the fear of the Lord. And his delight shall be in the fear of the Lord. He shall not judge by what his eyes see, or decide by what his ears hear; but with righteousness he shall judge the poor; and decide with equity for the meek of the earth; and he shall smite the earth with the rod of his mouth, and with the breath of his lips he shall slay the wicked. Righteousness shall be the girdle of his waist, and faithfulness the girdle of his loins. Isaiah 11:2-5 How Israel longed for such a leader; one who would take the twisted, the warped, the crooked and the deformed facets of her history and her world and usher in the Age of Peace and Righteousness and Justice and Truth. And one day, when hope was about gone and the flame of faith was flickering but faintly, Mary had a child. One of the few still hoping, praying, waiting was old Simeon who took the child in his arms and blessed God, realizing that this was indeed the long-awaited One. Lord, now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace, according to thy word; for mine eyes have seen thy salvation which thou hast prepared in © Grand Valley State University �Memory and Hope in Our Cosmic Journey Richard A. Rhem Page 3   the presence of all peoples, a light for revelation to the Gentiles, and for glory to thy people Israel. Luke 2:29-32 For Simeon, for Israel, their hope rooted in a memory was realized. Jesus was born; Messiah had come. In the wake of that birth, life and death, a new community was born, gathered around the resurrected and reigning Christ who was present in the Spirit. And the story was repeated. Just as Israel looked back to its redemption from Egypt, so the Church looked back to the Crucifixion and Resurrection of Jesus as God's mighty act of salvation for the world. And looking back to the One Who came and reconciled the world to God, she waited in expectant longing for His coming again to wind up the drama of history and finally establish the Kingdom of God. Just as Israel annually remembered the event of its Redemption, so the Church regularly commemorates the event in which she finds salvation. Just as Israel remembered her past and hoped for the future action of God in the coming of the Messiah, so the Church commemorates Jesus' death in the hope of His coming again. That is where we are today — remembering, hoping. In this Advent Season we take courage from our remembrance of the past. Jesus has come. God's anointed has assumed our flesh and blood. Eternity has invaded our time. Grace has touched planet Earth. And we sense the excitement of John who had a vision of the glorified Christ who promised He was coming. Hear John's words... Behold, he is coming with the clouds, and every eye will see him, everyone who pierced him; and all tribes of the earth will wail on account of him. Even so, Amen. And the coming Christ says, “I am the Alpha and the Omega”, says the Lord God, who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty. What are we to make of this promise of his coming nearly 2,000 years after this revelation to John? One need only to tune one's radio to most any frequency © Grand Valley State University �Memory and Hope in Our Cosmic Journey Richard A. Rhem Page 4   today to hear announced the near appearing of our Lord, coming to judge the world. The schemes and descriptions of the Last Things, the End Events, are without number. This waiting from which we take our text for this message has been the victim of the most fantastic and bizarre interpretations. Dates are set, predictions are made, but still He does not come. If already at the end of the First Century they were questioning, as II Peter tells us they were, the appearing of Jesus, then how much more must we, 2,000 years later? Surely in the light of 10 to 20 billion years of cosmological evolution since the "Big Bang," 2,000 years is a blink of the eye. Yet our time is measured in generations and 2,000 years for us earthlings is a long time. Is it possible that, just as our expanding knowledge of the physical universe called for a new understanding of the Bible's references to the heavens and the earth, so our present understanding of time is calling us to a new interpretation of time and eternity? Time and space are interwoven. You cannot peer out into space without going back in time. And at high velocity, time slows down. For example, light travels at 181,000 miles per second. If we could design a spaceship to travel at near the speed of sound, we could reach the center of the Milky Way Galaxy of which we are a part in 21 years. However, what for us would be 21 years would be for those we left on Earth 30,000 years. Not many of our friends would be there to greet us upon our return. Time is relative to motion. At the speed of light there is no elapse of time. Thus, time and space are interrelated, both integral aspects of our cosmic journey. But they are not absolute. They are relative. Perhaps Einstein's Theory of Relativity is calling us to a new conceptuality, a new model of Eschatology - that is, the doctrine of the Last Things, the End. Behold He is coming! That is the message to every generation. That is the word for us. He is coming. Could it be that every generation lives on the edge of Eternity; that every generation is equidistant to the End? The End, that is, of this phase of our cosmic journey? If that is so, then death becomes the gateway to Life in a new dimension. If that is so, then death becomes but the moment of transition, the momentary passage into the Light of Eternity and the presence of the Lord. And if that is so, then, my friends, we do stand always but a breath away from His appearing. And at this new Season of Advent the question is, are we ready? Are we so living that at any moment we are ready to meet the Lord? © Grand Valley State University �Memory and Hope in Our Cosmic Journey Richard A. Rhem Page 5   Memory and Hope in the Cosmic Journey. Take the Bread and remember. Remember Jesus, remember the Cross, remember the event of Easter morning. Then reflect on your journey. Where did He first encounter you? Can you recall the early spiritual impression of your journey? Can you let your mind have free wheeling for a moment to recapture the emotions of those times when He revealed to you His grace? Let your cosmic journey be projected like a film on the screen of your conscious memory. In light of those encounters of Grace in your past, where are you now? Are you moving or plunging deeper into the wonder and mystery of Grace? Or have the wells of your soul dried up? Has the flesh of your heart, once tender, hardened and become encrusted with bitterness, made brittle with the acids of cynicism, despair and hopelessness? And for what do you long? Where does yearning take place in your life? Do you believe He is coming? Do you believe one day all wrongs will be righted, all hurts healed, all dreams realized, all hopes come to fruition? Come to the Table of our Lord. Remember that which bread broken, wine poured out symbolizes. He died that you may never die, but live, live abundantly. Come to the Table of our Lord. Hear the Word today — Behold, He is coming! Learn to hope again. From this Table, with memory refreshed, with hope renewed, go to live fully alive, fully conscious, praying for and expecting with confidence and joy, the Lord Who is surely coming. © 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 Advent I Scripture Text Isaiah 11:1, 2-5 , Luke 2:29-32 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-0-19811129 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1981-11-29 Title A name given to the resource Memory and Hope in Our Cosmic Journey 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 November 29, 1981 entitled "Memory and Hope in Our Cosmic Journey", on the occasion of Advent I, at Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI. Scripture references: Isaiah 11:1, 2-5 , Luke 2:29-32. 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 Advent Cosmos Eschatology Eternity Faith Grace Hope Spiritual Journey https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/b5155090b59250db8cbbd5273b649ddf.mp3 4249f0aef42f89f291aaa6fc225e6f83 https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/ebed986fd94159edf0e532bbc2a33d3b.pdf 82786c59cf5eb1d5de10cd10948752da PDF Text Text The Simplicity of Faith in the Gracious God Second sermon in the series: What the Church Has Forgotten, AA Remembers Text: Mark 9:23-24: “I believe; help my unbelief.”” Richard A. Rhem Christ Community Church Spring Lake, Michigan July 18, 1982 Transcription of the spoken sermon Once you accept the existence of God - however you define Him, however you explain your relationship to Him - then you are caught forever with His presence in the center of all things. You are also caught with the fact that man is a creature who walks in two worlds and traces upon the walls of his cave the wonders and the nightmare experiences of his spiritual pilgrimage. So declares Morris West in a preparatory note to his bestselling novel The Clowns of God. I think Alcoholics Anonymous would subscribe to that statement. They would appreciate the simple statement of the existence of God without an attempt carefully to define the nature of God with exactitude. They would agree, as well, that the acceptance of the existence of God has profound implications for our lives. And I think they would identify with this idea of human existence as being a very mixed bag - that humankind walks in two worlds: a world full of wonder and a world of nightmare experience. In this second message of the series, “What the Church Has Forgotten, AA Remembers,” we move to Step Two of the AA program for a recovering alcoholic. Let me repeat what I said last week: I speak of AA not simply to publicize it, although I am greatly impressed with this fine organization. Neither am I concerned in these messages with the use of alcohol per se. Rather, I wish to use the AA program to illustrate the biblical truths which constitute God’s method of human transformation, for I believe what AA has discovered and put effectively into practice is nothing new but rather the simple application of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. What the Church too often only talks about, AA practices, and the persons who have been helped and healed are legion. In the first message we addressed the question of control - "Who is in charge?" Step One of the AA program is the admission that one's life is out of control "Our lives had become unmanageable." I suggested last week that to the profound realization, "I need help!", comes the obvious question, "Is there someone who can help?" That is what Step Two is all about. © Grand Valley State University   �The Simplicity of Faith in the Gracious God Richard A. Rhem Page 2   We came to believe that a Power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity. That may sound like a highly religious statement from an organization that claims it is not religious - and it is not, but its principles are spiritual in nature and at this very early stage the person who has come to the conviction that he is helpless, that his life is unmanageable, is confronted with the suggestion that there is a Power greater than himself and that this Power holds the key to recovery, to the return to sanity, to wholeness. Is there someone who can help? AA says Yes, and suggests that all that is necessary to encounter that Power however defined - is an open mind, a mind open to faith, to faith that God exists. Once again, we are only at the beginning. Step Two points to the existence of a higher Power. Not until Step Three do we deal with trust or commitment. AA does not move too rapidly, expecting giant steps. What is necessary once one has said, “I need help,” is to come to believe that there is Someone Who can help and will help. Thus I entitle this message on Step Two, “The Simplicity of Faith in the Gracious God.” Before one commits one’s life to God, one must believe that He is and, before one who has come to the realization that he needs Someone beyond himself will be willing to commit himself, he must believe that that Someone is gracious, that the Power that is, is Grace. There is a story in the Gospels that illustrates very well what AA understands by Step Two. Mark tells us of a man whose son was possessed by a spirit that made him speechless. It would from time to time dash him to the ground and throw him into a convulsive-like state. Whether the child suffered epilepsy or what precisely his situation was, we are not certain, nor does it matter. Let us simply recognize a situation of great human suffering and great human need. The man brought the child to the disciples, but they were powerless to alleviate the child’s distress. When Jesus came, the man came to him seeking his help, explaining the impotence of the disciples. Jesus inquired further about the child’s condition and the father explained, concluding with the desperate plea, "If it is at all possible for you, take pity upon us and help us." There you have the situation - a life situation which reflects human suffering - a child whose life is bound in physical and mental and emotional anguish, a parent's anguish at the anguish of his child. In short, here we are back at Step One. We admitted our lives were unmanageable. We admitted we were powerless. It may be a physical ailment. It may be an emotional weakness. It may be the desperate plight of one dear to us. It may be the external circumstances of our © Grand Valley State University �The Simplicity of Faith in the Gracious God Richard A. Rhem Page 3   lives. Whatever breaks through the mask of our respectability, whatever wears thin the facade of our normalcy, whatever finally unhinges the floodgates by which we keep the raging sea at bay – sometime, somehow, somewhere, most of us come to recognize with profound conviction that we need help. As difficult as it is to get out the cry, finally we must say, If it is at all possible, help us! The response Jesus makes demonstrates that he was practicing the Twelve Step program long before AA inaugurated it. He said, If it is possible! Everything is possible to one who has faith. Certainly Jesus was triggering faith’s mechanism, bringing to the Father's consciousness that which alone can appropriate God's power. That will not be possible which we do not believe possible. I do not think Jesus was saying that one who has faith will arbitrarily regard anything as possible but rather that, in a given situation, it is faith that is the response by virtue of which God makes His limitless power available. What is faith here? I do not think it is much more than open-mindedness to whatever Power there is. And this is precisely AA's suggestion. It is precisely here that the Church must be willing to learn again faith's simplicity. Jesus is not carefully defining faith, the nature of God and the conditions of the application of His power. He is rather calling for an attitude of openness, which will allow the power of God to operate. Just as at Step One AA brings one to the consciousness of need but does not moralize or condemn, so here AA points to the source of help without feeling compelled to define that power and guard against misconception. Jesus says, "If it is possible! Certainly it is possible if you are open to the possibility." The response of the father is beautiful because it is so honest, so authentic, so free of pious cliché and mealy-mouthed evasion. I believe; help my unbelief! I love that. Perhaps I love that response so much because I have found that my response so often. And I suspect few statements in all of Scripture have given such comfort to struggling believers trying desperately to believe. The marvelous message of this passage is that such struggling faith, no more than an openness to the power of God, is enough to put us in touch with the Grace that heals and redeems. © Grand Valley State University �The Simplicity of Faith in the Gracious God Richard A. Rhem Page 4   The child was healed. And I suspect the minimal faith of the father grew to a profound confidence in the limitless power and grace of God. This, of course, is precisely what happens in the experience of the alcoholic. At the point of having faith, alcoholics are no different than anyone else. Like the rest of us, they have multiple barriers to faith. Faith is not easy. It is always exercised as a risk. But for the alcoholic, there is a reality check, for in a desperate situation, to turn to a Power beyond themselves begins to effect a human transformation. And, as that transformation takes root, the minimal faith that is little more than openness to a gracious Power grows into a more mature faith which takes on the character of trust. But again that gets us beyond Step Two. In fact, that is precisely Step Three. Let us stop with this simple faith in a gracious God for a moment - the faith that cries, I believe; help thou my unbelief! Let me make some observations. First of all, let me suggest that the question of God's existence is not so much an intellectual question as an existential question. It is not an academic matter but a life matter. It cannot be limited to a question of the head but is rather a question of the heart. Or perhaps better, it is not a question that touches only the mind but rather involves the whole person. The question of God pursued intellectually in calm and cool reflection is interesting, but it is not serious. Now I must make a qualification lest I be misunderstood. I am not saying that we are not called upon to think clearly about the question of God nor that in our serious pursuit of the question of God we must not fully utilize our critical faculties. There is far too much mindless religion and the Church has been guilty far too often of ducking the hard questions, hiding behind a smokescreen of pious platitudes. There has too long been too much fearful response to the critique of faith, too much defensiveness against honest questions and too much condemnation of honest doubt. Faith is not irrational. What is irrational is immoral to believe. God gave us minds to think clearly and if there is anything about which we ought to think clearly, it is the question of God and the faith of the Church. In fact, if we fail to think clearly about the faith, it is not to our credit but rather betrays the fact that we do not really believe at all. As much as anyone in our time, Hans Küng is carrying on this critical dialogue with the Christian tradition. In his book Does God Exist? He investigates the question of God as it has been addressed in the last four centuries. Beginning with the father of modern philosophy, Descartes, he traces the development of the God question. Küng compares and contrasts two seventeenth-century theologians, Descartes and Pascal, showing how the modern era began with © Grand Valley State University �The Simplicity of Faith in the Gracious God Richard A. Rhem Page 5   Descartes’ systematic doubt of everything he believed until he found certainty only in his own existence – the fact that it was he, himself, who was thinking. “I think; therefore I am.” This at least he could not doubt. From this small block of certainty he began to build the structure of knowledge. Pascal was critical of Descartes. He was a brilliant mathematician and scientist, but he recognized the fact that human reason could not be the gauge of reality or truth. Pascal's famous dictum expressed that well - "The heart has reasons the reason cannot know." Not cool, rational reflection, but a passionate pursuit of the truth and reason by the whole person was the way to the truth for Pascal. He declared the problem to be not intellectual certainty, but rather existential security. From these two thinkers - both incidentally Christian - can be traced a fascinating development of critical rationality as it has been applied to the question of God. That history of thought has led to the modern problem of God and the serious question of the existence of God, and Küng engages in the ongoing debate, indicating that he is convinced that all of our rational powers should be involved in this problem. But his research convinces him that the question of God's existence cannot finally be solved by human reason but rather calls for a decision of the will, a leap of faith if you will, not in the face of rational evidence but in the full light of rational evidence. Thus Küng would agree with the observation made above that the question of God cannot be solved by a detached academic pursuit but only by a passionate, existential quest. The roots of modern atheism, according to Küng, lie not in the amazing development and success of natural science and the emancipation of human reason from the shackles of superstition and traditionalism, but much rather in the alienation of the masses from the faith, due to the Church's inability to open itself and its dogma to the findings of science, as well as the Church's failure to address the sociopolitical problems that followed in the wake of the Renaissance and the Enlightenment and French Revolution. Rather than aiding and abetting the cause of human liberation and humanization, the Church aligned itself with princes and powers of established order. When revolution came, the Church was on the wrong side, identified with the power of oppression rather than on the side of liberation. When the Church as institution was rejected, so was the faith of the Church and the God Whom the Church claimed to worship. There you have the roots of modern atheism. In the cause of human liberation, the leading spirits of the last centuries have had to take a stand against the traditionalism of the Church. To be pro-human they were forced to be anti-God. You can trace a fascinating thread of thought through Ludwig Feuerbach, who claimed God was but a human projection, Karl Marx, who saw God as a consolation serving vested interests, Sigmund Freud, who claimed God was but © Grand Valley State University �The Simplicity of Faith in the Gracious God Richard A. Rhem Page 6   an infantile illusion – all leading to the nihilism of Friedrich Nietzsche who declared, "God is dead and we have killed him!" And we are not yet done with these thinkers and the problems they raised and the questions they put. But Küng has rendered a great service in helping us to understand where we are and how we got there. He has also demonstrated, I believe, what I said above the question of God must not only be answered; it must be answered out of the total human situation, out of our existential situation. For the question of God engages the whole person in his life situation, not just his head in splendid isolation. This brings me to a second observation: the question of God will most often arise in a situation of crisis. We have seen that in the program of AA. Step Two - openness to a Power beyond oneself follows Step One - life discovered to be unmanageable. This was the case in our Gospel lesson: a parent in anguish over the distress of his child. I think we would all testify to the fact that it is in the wrenching of the soul that we cry out, "Is there Someone Who can help?" This is the origin of the charge that religion is for the weak, for those who fail to find in themselves the resources to cope with life’s harsh reality. Do we have any defense against this charge? Not really. It is certainly true that it is most often in our extremity that God has His opportunity. But if we agree that human existence is fraught with peril and painful at best, then what are the alternatives to resting in the Lord? Gritting one's teeth and flying in the face of the pain? Cynicism and bitterness that corrode and poison the human spirit? Despair? Cursing the darkness? Feuerbach denied the existence of God, seeing Him as a projection of our need. God is not, but we have created Him out of our need for Someone to help in our helplessness. That is a possible explanation. In fact, I am afraid in far too many cases that is all God is to us - a combination of a super Santa Claus and Grandaddy created out of our craven fear and wanton desires. But that is not the only possible explanation. It could be that Augustine was right when he said... Thou hast created us for Thyself and our hearts are restless til they find their rest in Thee. It could be that God created us to find our security and our foundation in Him. It could be that life is unmanageable, that we are played upon by forces and pressures and tides not of our own making nor under our control. It could be that © Grand Valley State University �The Simplicity of Faith in the Gracious God Richard A. Rhem Page 7   only One beyond us can provide for us a solid ground for our lives and that it is His intention that in the perilous vicissitudes of life we find our rest and peace in Him. Perhaps there is Someone to help, a Power available if only we would open our lives to it. That brings me to a third observation. It is the testimony of the centuries; it is the witness of every recovering alcoholic; it is the experience of every truly religious person: all that is required is the simplicity of faith in the Gracious God. Again, there are depths of faith to be plumbed; there is a profundity of true Christian experience to be probed, but the transforming, liberating, redeeming grace and power of God are available to the one who can in honesty say no more than, "Lord, I believe; help Thou my unbelief!" I submit to you that that is amazing and marvelous. All God asks is that we throw down our weapons of defensiveness, our arguments and the barrier to belief we have erected. All God asks is openness to a dimension of reality beyond us, openness to a Power that transcends us, openness to a Grace that can heal us. Oh, I confess the sins of the Church. Too often we have encrusted the simple invitation of the Gospel with the baggage of our traditions and the burden of our dogma. We have thought it our duty to guard God and Truth through our careful definition and we have demanded not the simplicity of faith but whole systems of doctrine, most of which have never been through the refining fires of modern critical reflection. And I confess another sin. In the Church we have demanded conformity to our narrow conception of the moral life, most of which has precious little to do with morality, a conception of morality which majors on the peripheral matters and neglects the heart of the matter: love and justice and truth. But God must not be rejected even though the Church has offered only a distorted glimpse of Him, for to reject Him is to reject the only Power that can save us, heal us and make us whole. Only God can help us, transforming our nightmare experiences into experiences of wonder as He heeds our cry of simple faith and leads us into the expansiveness of Grace. Lord, I believe; help Thou my unbelief! © 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. Series What the Church Has Forgotten, AA Remembers Scripture Text Mark 9:23-24 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-0-19820718 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1982-07-18 Title A name given to the resource The Simplicity of Faith in the Gracious God Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Richard A. Rhem Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Subject The topic of the resource Clergy--Michigan Reformed Church in America Christ Community Church (Spring Lake, Mich.) Sermons Relation A related resource Richard A. Rhem - An Archive of Sermons, Prayers, Talks and Stories: http://richardrhem.org/ Language A language of the resource eng Type The nature or genre of the resource Sound Text Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource audio/mp3 application/pdf Description An account of the resource A sermon given by Richard A. Rhem (Dick) on July 18, 1982 entitled "The Simplicity of Faith in the Gracious God", as part of the series "What the Church Has Forgotten, AA Remembers", at Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI. Scripture references: Mark 9:23-24. Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Lemmen Library and Archives Alcoholics Anonymous Faith Grace Transformation https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/6e9969320ea8676eab566d86bb163913.mp3 8a892bc3c3e6c110509b1962fe6e6bc0 https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/097e028340500adc6941bfd440c6e7c6.pdf 4c29f2bfd768b1583fe119b54ebcd23a PDF Text Text Trust Third sermon in the series: What the Church Has Forgotten, AA Remembers Text: Romans 7 Richard A. Rhem Christ Community Church Spring Lake, Michigan July 25, 1982 Transcription of the spoken sermon "Miserable creature that I am, who is there to rescue me... God alone, through Jesus Christ, our Lord " To trust is to have faith or confidence in; to rely or depend upon; to commit oneself to. Faith is a key word in the New Testament, being the term regularly used to denote the many-faceted religious relationship into which the Gospel calls persons - trust in God through Jesus Christ. Trust in God involves the whole person. If faith is the most common umbrella term, trust carries with it strong connotations of the total commitment of oneself to another. When one says, "I believe," it is a conscious and deliberate act, but it carries with it the idea of surrender to a new reality. A variety of terms can be used to describe this surrender, but implicit in the act of faith or trust is the element of acknowledgement - one knows and acknowledges the one in whom one trusts and the element of commitment - the entrusting of oneself to another. Volumes have been written on faith or trust. The nature of faith and its place in the Christian scheme of redemption have been endlessly discussed and debated. Too often trust has been defined and delineated in abstraction and what has resulted is a sterile theological proposition or doctrinal statement. Our interest in this message is more practical and experimental. We will look at trust as an act of stepping out of ourselves and outside our experience, looking to a gracious Power beyond ourselves, surrendering ourselves to the care of that Power - that Power that for us has been made known as the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. In this series of messages we are paralleling the Twelve Step program of Alcoholics Anonymous with the Gospel of Christ, not in order to learn AA’s Twelve Steps, but rather to learn again the Gospel diagnosis of the human situation, the remedy in the Grace of God and the way of life to which the Gospel © Grand Valley State University   �Trust Richard A. Rhem Page 2   calls us. These things AA has discovered and by them alone they live. These things too often the Church forgets, encrusting this way of human transformation with religious burden and institutional baggage. Step One: We admitted we were powerless over alcohol -that our lives had become unmanageable. Step Two: We came to believe that a Power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity. That Power was left undefined, our relationship to that Power left unexplained. In the AA program - which is spiritual, but not religious, that Power is never defined, nor must one subscribe to a carefully delineated formula of relationships. Step Two is little more than a positive response to the cry out of desperation -Is there Someone who can help? Step Two points to the existence of a higher Power. Step Three takes us further We made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God as we understood Him. Step Two speaks of little more than our openness to the truth of the existence of a higher Power - of God. Step Three speaks of opening one's life to God. It speaks of decision, thus to a deliberate act. The decision is to turn one's will - indeed, one's whole life - over to the care of God. Steps One and Two were reflective in nature: My life is unmanageable! Possibly there is Someone who will help! Step Three requires more than the acceptance of the truth of a statement. It calls for affirmative action. At Step Three the alcoholic is called to act to let God into his or her life. It is the profound conviction of AA that anyone can begin to let God into his life if he is willing. Willingness is the key. One has acknowledged he is powerless. One has come to a point of at least minimal faith that there is a Power - gracious Power. Now one is at the point of decision; one decides to turn over one's will, one's life to the care of God. AA shows great wisdom in separating Steps Two and Three. The world is full of people who believe there is a God, but too few have ever experienced the power of God operating in their lives. It is the entrusting of one's life to God that allows the © Grand Valley State University �Trust Richard A. Rhem Page 3   flow of God's power to effect our lives. It is trust - which is more than intellectual assent to the proposition "God exists" - which puts us into vital relationship with God. Trust is the action called for when Steps One and Two have become our profound conviction. Step Three is the watershed. It is the end of the self-life. It is the beginning of the God-controlled life. This step is what the New Testament means by conversion. It is a turning point. A turning from self to God, from independence to dependence, from self control to God-control, from self will to God's will, from impotence to Power, from death to life. There are many people who are religious. Too few people experience power in their religion. It is when one consciously and deliberately turns from oneself and turns to God that one is in a place to appropriate the Power that transforms human existence. Only a vital, personal, total surrender of our wills to God puts us in touch with His life-changing Power. There is much that could be said about the background of this commitment according to Christian teaching. Behind the commitment must be the prior work of the Holy Spirit convincing us of our need. And the work of the Spirit points to the Grace of God - His initiative as He reaches out for us and pursues us through the labyrinth of our human predicament. But it is clearly a biblical teaching that decision is demanded. That decision may be an undramatic, quiet resolution of the heart. That decision may come at the end of a long process of conflict and struggle. That decision may be made as a result of a sudden crisis experience. There is no stereotype that can be advocated. What must be insisted upon is that one must decide to turn over one's life to God. There is an interesting aspect of AA's understanding of this decision to turn one's life over to God which is largely forgotten in the Church - especially that part of the Church that most stresses conversion. Conversion is not once for all, as though once accomplished one was through with it. Too much of the evangelical Church stresses the initial commitment so strongly that the impression is made that once that is handled one simply goes on as a Christian. Perhaps this is why there are so many professing Christians who demonstrate little power, little of the reality of God in their lives. AA has discovered what the Heidelberg Catechism understood in the sixteenth century; conversion is not once for all, but daily - the daily dying of the old man and the daily making alive of the new man. AA goes further; it is the moment-bymoment turning over of one's life to God. One day at a time - one moment at a time. Living by the power of God is a dynamic process of appropriating that power, of turning over our wills to His. © Grand Valley State University �Trust Richard A. Rhem Page 4   There is another AA insight the Church needs to relearn. While we must stress the deliberate, conscious act of the will in commitment, we must know that we are dependent on the enabling grace of God even for such an act of faith. If it were I who finally chose for God it would still be "I", the self determining the self. But it is precisely self-sufficiency of which I must be rid. Thus the appeal to the will of so much hardcore evangelism is still an appeal to self-determination. Rather than having confidence in his self-determination, the alcoholic says only he is willing. To clench my fists, to grit my teeth and to say, "I am determined..."is quite different from saying, in total self-resignation and surrender, "I am willing..." The latter is AA's way. It is a way that acknowledges that rescue comes by grace. As one recovering alcoholic put it, You don't reach for God. You become willing to have Him take over, and He reaches for you! Trust is surrender. AA lives by this truth and, if we understand ourselves and our faith, so do we in the Church. Surrender to God. Total dependence upon God. Moment by moment appropriation of His grace and power. That is salvation, rescue, redemption. Consider now the experience of St. Paul. I chose Romans 7 as the biblical basis for this message even though it is not one that would seem to speak to the matter of conversion as the church has understood it. Yet I believe this passage illustrates vividly what these first three messages have been trying to point out. Romans 7 is a hotly debated chapter. Was Paul speaking autobiographically, telling his own story, or was he speaking of the human situation in general? And even more hotly contended is the question whether he is describing the experience of a believer or the experience of one before conversion. Perhaps as with no other passage, there continues to be little agreement on that question and excellent biblical scholars, ancient and contemporary, can be lined up on either side of the questions. Obviously, I will have to give you space to understand this passage as you become convinced in your own mind. I will, however, tell you how I read it while admitting one should not be dogmatic and should always remain open to a new insight and angle of truth. © Grand Valley State University �Trust Richard A. Rhem Page 5   I believe the passage describes the human condition - the enigma of our human nature; but I believe Paul does that so poignantly, so vividly, so powerfully because it is a description of his own experience. So much for the first question. I believe as to the second question that Paul is describing in Romans 7 the experience of a believer rather than a pre-conversion struggle. As we look at the passage I trust that my reasons for adopting these positions will be clear. Let me begin the exposition by pointing to the text - a cry of miserable despair, an expression of grateful trust. Listen to Paul: "Miserable creature that I am, who is there to rescue me out of this body doomed to death?" There you have despair, although not absolute despair. Paul has not given up on the possibility of Someone to rescue him. Do you recognize Steps One and Two? There follows an expression of grateful trust: "God alone, through Jesus Christ our Lord! Thanks be to God!" Do you recognize there Step Three? Although the word trust or faith does not appear, it is obvious that Paul points to God Who has reached him through Jesus Christ - God alone; God his only hope, the God of Salvation in Whom he trusts, to Whom he commits himself, the God to Whom he has made unconditional surrender. Having begun with the conclusion, let us now examine the dilemma out of which Paul cried for deliverance. The great question Paul is dealing with is how a person becomes right with God. Essentially there are two ways, two ways which divide all religions into two camps. Either through human effort and achievement one makes oneself right, or one trusts the grace of God to make one right, trusting God to do what one has found impossible to do. Paul's position is... Salvation (being right with God) is God's gift. It is of grace. It can never be achieved, earned or merited. His antagonists, in this case, Jewish legalists, believed Salvation must be achieved through obedience, the performance of God's will in obedience. The Jewish position saw the human will as having the ability, the power, to perform, to keep the Law. © Grand Valley State University �Trust Richard A. Rhem Page 6   Paul saw the human will as powerless so that the more one was concerned fully to follow the Law, the deeper one mired oneself in the misery of powerlessness. Paul's position will be illustrated somewhere in this area today. On a beautiful Summer Sunday with thousands flocking to the beach, the parking lots will be filled and people will have to park on the street and just off the street. Someone will misjudge the shoulder, not realizing it is nothing but sand. The car will sink. As they try to accelerate to gain sufficient power to extricate the car, the wheels will spin, but rather than propelling the car forward and out of the sand, the wheels will spin where they are, digging themselves in. The more gas that is given, the quicker the car will burrow down until the axle will be resting solidly on the sand. The only possible deliverance is for a power from the outside to pull the car out - its own wheels moving in response to the power of the other vehicle, but simply turning as they are turned with no power applied from the buried car itself. This was precisely Paul's experience. Read his autobiographical statement in Philippians 3. He says if you want to talk about credentials, confidence on external grounds, qualification, achievements, in sum, one's own record, let me mention mine. "Circumcised on my eighth day, Israelite by race, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew born and bred; in my attitude to the Law, a Pharisee; in pious zeal, a persecutor of the Church; in legal rectitude, faultless." Phil. 3:5-6 That is some record. Never was one more serious about life's ultimate concern. Not one of his detractors could match that achievement. Paul knew whereof he spoke. And where did it get him? In despair. What did he learn? The powerlessness of his own will to perform what his reason agreed was the just requirement of the Law. He knew the problem was not with the Law. He says, "...The Law is in itself holy, and the commandment is holy and just and good." But what did that good Law accomplish in him as he tried to follow it fully? It brought about his death - spiritually. Why? Because he says, "...The Law is spiritual; but I am not. I am unspiritual, the purchased slave of sin." In utter amazement, Paul says, "I do not even acknowledge my own virtues as mine, for what I do is not what I want to do, but what I detest." What is the solution? © Grand Valley State University �Trust Richard A. Rhem Page 7   To look to Someone who can do for me what I cannot do myself. Here is Step One - Misery; life unmanageable/ Here is Step Two - A Power beyond myself. And Paul took Step Three - God alone - through Jesus Christ our Lord! I believe what Paul describes here is universal. Surely not every person goes through that agonizing struggle because not everyone has been sensitized by the claim of God upon his life. Paul acknowledges that, before the Law came, rebellion was out of the question. But for the person who becomes serious about being right with God - having one's life in conformity with the Law of love and justice and compassion, the greater the struggle, the greater the sense of powerlessness. But I am convinced Paul can speak so vividly of a universal condition because he read the experience out of his own heart. Is there no let up, no abatement of the struggle? Yes, there is. That is why I added the first four verses of Chapter 8. The power of the Spirit, which is the Power of God, sets us free from the Law of sin and death. When I entrust my life to another, when I surrender to God through Jesus Christ, the grace and power of the Spirit accomplish in me what I through my own efforts could not accomplish. Are there any more blessed words in Scripture than this marvelous declaration? " There is now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus." Here we have the victory cry! Here is rescue, redemption, salvation, help, healing and wholeness. Is the struggle over? Do we move from misery to victory once for all? Is Romans 7 the state of unbelief and Romans 8 the state of faith? I do not think so. I do not think we ever move finally from Romans 7 to Romans 8, from the life of misery to the life of victory. Notice the summary of Romans 7 in the 27th verse... "In a word then, I myself, subject to God's law as a rational being, am yet, in my unspiritual nature, a slave to the law of sin." To be sure, Paul has made other statements that would seem to contradict this. For example, "If anyone be in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has passed away; behold, the new has come.” II Cor. 5:17 And we know the truth of that statement, too. But it is not as though we move beyond the first into the second once for all. Here the AA experience has much to © Grand Valley State University �Trust Richard A. Rhem Page 8   show us. It is precisely the day by day and moment by moment appropriation of the power of God or, to put it more precisely, the moment by moment trusting, yielding, surrendering to the Spirit that enables us to live in the realm of victory and escape the situation of misery. Is there no alternative to the life of Trust? There is none. But to live in conscious trust is to live in constant power. And to live in constant touch with God's saving power is to live in grace. And to live in grace is to live in gratitude. And to live in gratitude, in grace, in touch with God's power is to live indeed! AA leaves to each person the task of defining God. Note Step Three speaks of God as we understand him. Here the Gospel of Jesus Christ leaves us no doubt. We see Him in the face of Jesus. We come to Him through Jesus Christ our Lord. Jesus said we come to the Father through him and he said, "He that cometh unto me, I will in no wise cast out." Have you come to the Father through Jesus, the Son? Can you remember some moment past that was filled with the glory of His presence, power and grace? Can you remember when you said clearly and deliberately, "Jesus, I come"? Have perhaps the years passed and the stress of life taken its toll? Would you now in the sanctuary of your heart surrender again to the gracious God Who calls you to Himself, to rest and peace, Who calls you simply to trust Him and find in Him salvation, healing and health? Come... He will set you free! © 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. Series What the Church Has Forgotten, AA Remembers Scripture Text Romans 7 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-0-19820725 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1982-07-25 Title A name given to the resource Trust 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 25, 1982 entitled "Trust", as part of the series "What the Church Has Forgotten, AA Remembers", at Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI. Scripture references: Romans 7. Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Lemmen Library and Archives Alcoholics Anonymous Grace Spirit Transformation Trust https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/6fd4ef89af77cff0482a45870bfdd8f7.mp3 e17b783ad80ade701de0df7a632beeca https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/317666d5c073b7eb886135e979808b1c.pdf 5688549704c5c610d5126701eb2023b6 PDF Text Text The Grace That Enables Us To View Ourselves Honestly Fourth sermon in the series: What the Church Has Forgotten, AA Remembers Text: Psalm 139 Richard A. Rhem Christ Community Church Spring Lake, Michigan August 15, 1982 Transcription of the spoken sermon Thoreau said that all men live lives of quiet desperation, and I often believe that he was right. One evening this week the telephone rang and the person on the other end told me of a young man who had entered this sanctuary some months ago. Being in his 30th year and never being a part of the Church, he was amazed at what he heard and what he felt here and was one of the most sincere and serious seekers with whom I had ever dealt. In a number of sessions I developed a real fondness for him, the reality of his questions, his search, his struggle to find meaning, his reaching out after God. The voice on the other end of the telephone line informed me that last week he committed suicide. And so, one recognizes that Thoreau was right. All over this community churches gather, congregations assemble to worship very much as we have done here with our Sunday clothes, our respectability, and our cordiality. We meet one another, but we do not really meet. We manage to keep things on the surface and we major in trivialities. We major in trivialities because any deeper probing might unmask us and reveal the quiet desperation and the storm that rages within. Churches meet, people singing hymns and saying prayers and going forth from the sanctuary still bleeding and bruised and wondering what to make of it all. And not only in the churches, but also in the streets of the city, the throngs go to and fro, carrying within the raging storm. How can we penetrate the thick armor with which we shield our deepest hurts, our anxieties, our fears? How can we learn to live lives of health and wholeness? How can we come to an honest self-awareness that is the prelude to human wellbeing? Today we make a significant shift in our study of the parallels between the Twelve Step Program of Alcoholics Anonymous and biblical faith. In the terminology of the Church we begin at Step Four to speak of the Christian life. To use the doctrinal term, we begin now to speak of sanctification or the way of holiness, which I would like to translate as the way to wholeness. © Grand Valley State University   �The Grace that Enables Us to View Ourselves Honestly Richard A. Rhem Page 2   Step One was a step of diagnosis - Our lives had become unmanageable. Step Two took us beyond our misery to a Power beyond ourselves - We came to believe that a Power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity. Step Three was the watershed moment - We made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God, as we understood Him. With those three steps we have admitted we have a problem - or better, we are a problem - and we are powerless to help ourselves and we have committed our lives, turned ourselves over to God. In biblical terms, we have entrusted our lives to God. Where do we go from here? I have entitled this series "What the Church Has Forgotten, AA Remembers" because AA is actually doing what too often for us in the Church is only a way of life acknowledged but too little lived. AA is responsible for the transformation of millions of lives that once were broken and miserable. Human transformation is what we in the Church are about. We must learn again our own faith in order again to be effective in changing human nature, bringing healing and creating wholeness. Step Four calls for a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves. For the alcoholic, sobriety has been won through the admission of powerlessness and the commitment to the Power of God. But now that sobriety has been achieved, how can one go on to a new life? How does one appropriate the power of God on a day-by-day, moment-by-moment basis not only to stay sober but to find the fullness of life? Step Four calls for an honest self-appraisal - true self-knowledge as the way to a transformed life. Self-knowledge is not an end in itself. It is, however, a necessary first step toward the goal of accepting responsibility for our own lives and beginning to work at behavior modification. The Gospel too calls us to an honest appraisal of who we are and sets before us the model of Jesus Christ as that fully human existence to which we are called. My thesis in this message is that the Grace of God enables us to view ourselves honestly. Knowing that we are loved unconditionally and accepted just as we are gives us the courage to accept ourselves, own our own behavior and take responsibility for our lives. Let me suggest first of all that seeking self-knowledge takes courage. We must admit that we avoid self-knowledge both because we are proud and we are afraid. By self-knowledge, I mean a knowledge of who I am, an understanding of myself, why I react as I do, my strong points and my weak points, my deepest desires, my greatest fears. I mean a knowledge of how I react in given situations, how I affect © Grand Valley State University �The Grace that Enables Us to View Ourselves Honestly Richard A. Rhem Page 3   people and how other persons affect me. By self-knowledge I mean understanding myself, understanding the past which has shaped me and the present which conditions me and the future which determines me. By selfknowledge I mean an honest appraisal of my strengths and my weaknesses. In a word, self-knowledge is knowing who I am. In the case of AA, it is obvious why the new life begins with a searching and fearless moral inventory. Alcoholism is a disease and for some persons there is an immediate chemical reaction, which leads to addiction. But for most people alcohol is first of all a way of escape from life and its realities. It is a cover for fears and anxieties, feelings of resentment or frustration, a compensation for feelings of inferiority. The first requirement was the admission of powerlessness and then the willingness to turn one's life over to the power of God. Thus sobriety is achieved. But the problems that lie behind the turning to drink in the first place remain. It is those problems that need to be named, owned and dealt with. But the alcoholic is not unique. He is not the only person with problems. We are all alike. Our problems differ. The way we handle our problems differs. But we all devise some method of coping with life. We may choose some escape mechanism that does not lead to an addiction such as alcohol, but we all have our ways. Some of us chain smoke. Some of us bite our fingernails. Some of us keep on a merry-go-round of activity. Some of us overeat. Some of us withdraw into ourselves. Some of us overwork. Some of us play too hard. Some of us know it. Some of us don't. Self-knowledge is painful, but living without self-knowledge is pitiable. AA is very serious about the moral inventory. As I have mentioned in each message, AA is a spiritual organization but it is not a religious organization. It is not precise in the definition of its terms. It leaves to each person to form his own conception of God and, in regard to the moral inventory; it leaves to the individual the freedom to define the problems of his own character. The biblical term would be sin. That term is expressed by several biblical words meaning missing the mark, or transgressing the bounds, something twisted or distorted; sometimes it refers to rebellion. Sin is not a popular word. If one prefers, as one approaches the inventory one can speak of character defects or maladjustments. However one speaks of it, what is being asked is to be completely candid about those attitudes and actions and behavior patterns in one's life which are the roots of the disruption one experiences within one's self and in one's relationships. AA is not only very serious about this process; it is very practical, as well. It calls for a written report. The inventory is very concrete and specific, naming the fault, © Grand Valley State University �The Grace that Enables Us to View Ourselves Honestly Richard A. Rhem Page 4   how one behaved in light of the fault and the consequences of that behavior. For example, from the outstanding clinic for alcoholic recovery, Hazelden, comes this pamphlet, "A New Fourth Step Guide", which is an instrument to help one do the Fourth Step meaningfully. In the instructions it says: Step Four (like each of the Steps) marks the beginning of a new way of life. It says that today I will begin to take a realistic assessment of myself. We hope this guide will help you begin to learn to know yourself. Three attitudes are important: To be searching, fearless and moral. 1. Are you searching? Are you really digging into your own selfawareness and describing your behavior as it really is? 2. Are you fearless? It takes courage to face yourself in terms of what has really been going on in your life. 3. Are you moral? Take a good look at the "good-bad" implications of your behavior, your own values? How does it size up with your own values? Then there are some thirty pages, most of which are blank spaces for one to write in response to questions raised at the top of the page. Let me cite just a couple: FALSE PRIDE What we mean is excessive pride; being so thin-skinned that we have trouble admitting any human weaknesses at all. Another word for this kind of pride is grandiosity. Describe how your pride has kept you from looking at your own behavior. HUMILITY Now that you are learning that it is safe to admit your powerlessness and unmanageability, do you find it easier just to be human? Being humble doesn't mean being weak. It means accepting ourselves - our strengths as well as our weaknesses. Do you know something now about what humility really means? Are you able to be less defensive? To enjoy the peace that comes with genuine humility? Explain. SELF-PITY This is hard to recognize, and it's something no one likes to admit. It's a matter of feeling sorry for ourselves. Maybe because we feel people just don't understand us. Or maybe it's feeling that people don't respect us or don't love us enough. It means feeling hopeless, feeling like a victim of © Grand Valley State University �The Grace that Enables Us to View Ourselves Honestly Richard A. Rhem Page 5   circumstances. Have you ever felt self-pity? Do you feel sorry for yourself right now? After each brief statement, it is your turn to respond. Sounds scary, does it not? That is why I began by saying that honestly to seek knowledge of ourselves takes courage. As I said earlier, self-knowledge is painful. Yet I also said to live without self-knowledge is pitiable. That brings me to the second point I want to make Self-knowledge is freeing. As much as our pride and our fear resist self-knowledge, there is nothing more freeing than the honest admission and acceptance of who we are. So many of us expend so much energy covering up who we are. We spend our days in selfjustifying behavior. We explain ourselves and excuse ourselves and when we are cornered, we strike out in defensiveness. To some degree we all play roles. We wear masks. We hide the person we are behind a cloak of respectability. The roles we play, the masks we wear depend on where we are and with whom we are. We tend to live up to others' expectations and so much of human relationship and human society occurs on a very superficial level. We have surface contact and we major in trivialities. What a relief it is to be able simply to be ourselves in the presence of someone with whom we feel safe, not worrying that we will be discovered for what we are rather than known for what we project as our facade. This brings me to the Old Testament lesson, Psalm 139. This magnificent poetry sings of the sovereign and gracious presence, power and knowledge of God. After reciting the completeness of God's knowing, His inescapable presence, His limitless power, the Psalmist concludes with a morning prayer for God to search his inmost being, to make him transparent and to lead him in the way of truth. I submit to you that only one who has found God to be gracious would dare to offer such a prayer. Obviously this is the prayer of one who knows God intimately and has been convinced of His steadfast love for he cries out, "How precious are Thy thoughts to me!" To be known completely, and to take comfort in that, is to know that God is gracious. But does the recovering alcoholic necessarily know God in the intimacy of His love and grace? Not necessarily. He may still be at the stage of speaking of an Anonymous Power. Whence, then, comes the Grace? © Grand Valley State University �The Grace that Enables Us to View Ourselves Honestly Richard A. Rhem Page 6   In the AA experience it comes from another person, perhaps his sponsor, and from the AA group. The mediation of grace comes through persons who know where the recovering alcoholic is coming from and who reach out without judgment offering total acceptance. The AA fellowship provides the tangible expression of God’s grace to the person who has finally come to seek help much as Jesus mediated grace to the woman at the well. That fascinating narrative which John has written into his Gospel for his own purposes of telling the story and significance of Jesus is a beautiful instance of the Grace with which Jesus dealt with persons. Jesus, gracious Jesus, able to engage in conversation a woman of Samaria. Every word is loaded; for him to talk to a woman, for him to talk to a Samaritan woman - all of that immediately spoke volumes, which he did not have to say in so many words. Jesus, gracious Jesus, reaching out to a woman living in quiet desperation, communicated to her that kind of grace that enabled her to come to self-knowledge. It is an interesting little story. Starting out at Jacob's Well, a drink of water, Jesus moving directly to the point... "Bring your husband." "I have no husband." "You're right, you have no husband. You have had five husbands, and the one you are with now is not your husband." She says, "My, you must be a prophet. Let's talk about worship." But he had gotten to her. Not an unmasking that left her denuded, but a gracious peeling away of the facade that opened her up to the healing of his acceptance and unconditional love, enabling her to go back home to say, "Come, meet a man that told me everything that I ever did." Honesty can only happen in the context of grace. I wish the Church could learn that. The Church is the last place in the world you would want to be honest. A sinner wouldn't be caught dead in church, for the Church is for the righteous, for the religious, for those that need no physician. But Jesus said, "I came to call not the righteous, but sinners, sick people, people with problems, people with fears, with resentments, wallowing in self-pity, people with self-destructive tendencies. People who are poor bets and high risks, bleeding people, bruised people, people beaten in the game of life. I've come to help people say, "That's who I am, and God loves me anyway'" - the prelude to movement toward wholeness. © Grand Valley State University �The Grace that Enables Us to View Ourselves Honestly Richard A. Rhem Page 7   It is grace that enables us honestly to look at ourselves. Apart from grace we keep our defenses up and go on our self-justifying way, expending tremendous energy to avoid the reality we would rather not face. Grace enables the courage of self-knowledge. Grace, enabling self-knowledge, creates the possibility of freedom. Grace alone provides the climate for healing and the fullness of human existence. When we have seen the Father in the face of Jesus and experienced His grace in the acceptance of another in whom the Word becomes flesh, we can view ourselves honestly, accept ourselves and take responsibility for our lives and find the flow of God's power, which moves toward wholeness. Thank God! Through Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen. © 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. Series What the Church Has Forgotten, AA Remembers Scripture Text Psalm 139 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-0-19820815 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1982-08-15 Title A name given to the resource The Grace That Enables Us To View Ourselves Honestly 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 15, 1982 entitled "The Grace That Enables Us To View Ourselves Honestly", as part of the series "What the Church Has Forgotten, AA Remembers", at Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI. Scripture references: Psalm 139. Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Lemmen Library and Archives Alcoholics Anonymous Grace Humility Transformation https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/02cd9fb24e9d9f5ccc1b473ccf0e110e.mp3 f9c4e7a981799d63fbddd98b447d5d08 https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/64b29f5b4287791a35ae38aa7a422f35.pdf 9aa61f64592a50159b3e73adbb028b2d PDF Text Text The Place of Confession in the Christian Life Fifth sermon in the series: What the Church Has Forgotten, AA Remembers Text: Psalm 32:1; I John 1:10; 2:2 Richard A. Rhem Christ Community Church Spring Lake, Michigan August 22, 1982 Transcription of the spoken sermon "Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven..." Psalm 32:1 "If we confess our sins, he ... will forgive our sins and cleanse us..." I John 1:9 How did you react to the Corporate Prayer of Confession this morning? You probably recognized it as one of the more familiar Prayers of Confession because we use it from time to time. If you were ever part of the Episcopal or Anglican tradition you likely knew it by heart. It is the General Confession from the Book of Common Prayer. Almighty and most merciful Father, we have erred and strayed from Thy ways like lost sheep. We have followed too much the devices and desires of our own hearts. We have offended against Thy holy laws. We have left undone those things which we ought to have done; and we have done those things which we ought not to have done; and there is no health in us. But Thou, 0 Lord, have mercy upon us, miserable offenders. Spare Thou those, 0 God, who confess their faults, restore Thou those who are penitent; according to Thy promises declared unto mankind in Christ Jesus our Lord. And grant, 0 most merciful Father, for His sake, that we may hereafter live a godly, righteous, and sober life, to the glory of Thy holy name. Amen. I ask about your reaction because it has often elicited strong reaction. In a book written in 1942, an Anglican priest, D.R. Davies, discussed the prayer phrase by phrase. He gave the book the delightful title Down Peacock Feathers. That says it very well. Honestly to offer the General Confession is to have one's wings clipped. It is an exercise in genuine humility. But that is precisely why the prayer elicits such strong reaction - it hits us where it hurts; it assails the citadel of our pride. Davies writes, Nothing has been a subject for greater merriment or jeering raillery in the pages of our modern novelists than that part of the Confession on which © Grand Valley State University   �The Place of Confession in the Christian Life Richard A. Rhem Page 2   people describe themselves as "miserable offenders." I seem to remember that Mr. H.G. Wells found this a particularly rich vein for his brilliant and riotous pen. With his incomparable facility for skinning people's souls, he has pictured Anglican congregations – which, of course, were very bourgeoisie, very complacent and very respectable – describing themselves, with the greatest hypocritical gusto, as "miserable offenders." And somehow the whole confession withered away in the contempt that flowed from Mr. Wells' pen. And how his readers - of whom I was one rocked with laughter. That was a long time ago, and today we are rocking with something that is very different from laughter. Mr. Wells himself has ceased to laugh. (p. 116, The Centenary Press, 1942) D. R. Davies makes reference to World War II and the great peril in which Europe and the world stood. In a most penetrating analysis of the historical scene of his time he shows that the General Confession is not overstated but rather the kind of humble confession that alone is fitting in the world writ large with war, bloodshed and violence. I came across another reference to the General Confession in a more recent book, Madeline L'Engle's A Circle Of Quiet. She was raised in the Episcopal tradition and attended an Episcopal boarding school. She tells of her encounter with the prayer, which was part of the liturgy at chapel every morning. She writes, When it came to the General Confession in Morning Prayer I was, with proper humility, willing to concede that I occasionally left undone a few things which I ought to have done (I was, after all, very busy), and I occasionally did a few things which I ought not to have done. (I was, after all, not "pi" (pious); but I was not willing to say that I was a miserable offender and that there was no health in me. (p. 233. The Seabury Press, 1972) Later in her life, having married and in process of raising her family, she lived in New England and attended a Congregational Church. They came out with a new hymnal which had a section of prayers in it, as does our own. The General Confession was printed but without the two offending phrases. She says. It is an interesting commentary on human nature in this confused century that precisely those words which I could not, would not say as an adolescent were deleted from the congregational prayers. But by now a mature Madeline L'Engle had lived enough and had enough selfknowledge to know that it was precisely those words which reflected honestly the human condition. She goes on, © Grand Valley State University �The Place of Confession in the Christian Life Richard A. Rhem Page 3   By that time, in the midst of my fumbling agnosticism, it had become very clear to me that I was a miserable offender, and that there was very little health in me. (p. 234) She told her pastor, It's all right to think you can be virtuous if you try just a little harder when you're an adolescent, but I don't like having the Church behave like an adolescent. (p. 234) Coming from a different perspective, Robert Schuller contends that the Prayer of Confession in the liturgy is detrimental to human self-esteem. You will never have to confess to being a "miserable offender" with "no health in you" at the Crystal Cathedral. Schuller has a point. The Church has certainly done the world a disservice with its dour emphasis on human sin and failure and its failure to communicate effectively the Gospel of Grace. He is quite right that the Church has been responsible for creating for many of its people low self-esteem, producing a lack of ego strength and thus crippling psyches. But the question remains whether the remedy lies in deleting the Prayer of Confession from the liturgy. If we were to submit the question to Alcoholics Anonymous they would tell us in no uncertain terms that to drop the element of confession of sin from the Church's liturgy and from the Christian life is to court disaster. I suspect there is a good deal more honest and humble confession going on in AA than in the Christian Church, and AA claims that only through such confession and forgiveness is human transformation possible. Human transformation. That is what we are about. Since it seems to be happening with greater regularity and greater effectiveness through AA than through the Church, perhaps we ought to ask why. That is what this series is about. What the Church has forgotten, AA remembers. What is the central act of Christian worship has become a practical steppingstone for the recovering alcoholic on the way to health and wholeness. AA recognizes the truth D.R. Davies was driving at; the great human problem is to rein in the peacock feathers. Step One was a giant first step: We admitted we were powerless...our lives were unmanageable. © Grand Valley State University �The Place of Confession in the Christian Life Richard A. Rhem Page 4   Steps Two and Three were a reaching beyond oneself to a Power greater than oneself to find help - to be rescued. Step Four was the beginning of the life of sobriety - a searching and fearless moral inventory, revealing the roots of one's drinking in character faults. But having gained self-understanding, having gotten insight into who one really is, standing exposed with all one's glaring faults, what does one do? To whom does one turn; what does one need? It must be obvious: one needs Grace. One needs forgiveness, the assurance that all the wrongs one has discovered and all the damage one has done do not hang around one's neck like an albatross, but rather are removed, pardoned, covered. One needs the freedom that God's forgiving grace alone can provide. That is where we are: Step Five: We admitted to God, to ourselves, and to another human being the exact nature of our wrongs. Step Six: We were entirely ready to have God remove all these defects of character. Step Seven: We humbly asked Him to remove our shortcomings. There you have confession in the life of the recovering alcoholic. Again, here there is great wisdom and insight. After taking the moral inventory, which we noted last week was a painful process, the alcoholic is counseled to come to terms with it. It must be admitted to God. Now that is an awesome assignment. If we have a sense of the majesty and holiness of God, then, to borrow a phrase from Kierkegaard, we will come before Him with "fear and trembling." But that is not all that is required. We must have faced our faults honestly and owned them ourselves and then, further, shared them with another human being. It is one thing to tell God; but we can get accustomed to that. It is another thing to blurt out the whole sorry tale to another person. Confessing our sins to another gives a certain concreteness to the act. Here is the wisdom of the Roman Catholic practice of the confessional booth. You have no doubt heard many Protestant sermons affirm that Jesus is our High Priest. He is the one mediator between God and humankind and we need no other priest. That is true in theory, but it is less than successful in practice. We should have reflected more carefully before we did away with the booth. Did not God reach us in the flesh of Jesus? Should not the incarnation have given us a clue that God's love and grace and forgiveness are always mediated through the tangible encounter with another? © Grand Valley State University �The Place of Confession in the Christian Life Richard A. Rhem Page 5   If we really believe and act on the priesthood of all believers, we will still be all right. This is in fact what happens in AA. Fellow members hear confessions and mediate grace. This we must learn again in the Church, for there will be no profound religious experience for anyone, who has not given place to confession in the Christian life. The Scriptures give wide place to the experience of confession and forgiveness. Psalm 32 is a classic statement of the confession of sin and the joy of forgiveness. The opening verse is a ringing announcement of the happiness of one who has confessed his sin and experienced the grace of God's forgiveness. The Psalm is attributed to David. This would then be a song written sometime after that passionate cry for cleansing found in Psalm 51. David loved and longed for a woman who belonged to another. He took her to himself and she conceived his child. Failing to cover the transgression, he had her husband, Uriah, the Captain of his army, exposed to the thick of the battle where he lost his life. He then took Bathsheba as his wife and she bore a child. David lived with all that on his conscience and the experience, he writes, on reflection, was pure hell. Confronted with his sin by Nathan, the prophet, he acknowledged his wrong and sought the mercy of God. Now he sings of that experience, expressing vividly both the agony of guilt and the freedom of forgiveness. The New Testament tells the story of Jesus who came to mediate to us a knowledge of God, of His grace and to secure for us, for the whole world, the forgiveness of sin. John writes in his First Letter, If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sin, he is faithful and just and will forgive our sin and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. This is the Gospel. This is the Good News! To those who truly repent, acknowledging their sin, genuinely seeking its removal, God will grant forgiveness, full and free. Involved in that forgiveness is the love of God and the agony of crucifixion. He will forgive us and cleanse us because Jesus bore our sins in his body on the tree, in the words of Peter, and God made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in him, in the words of Paul. In another marvelous expression of the same truth, Peter says, There is now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus. © Grand Valley State University �The Place of Confession in the Christian Life Richard A. Rhem Page 6   This is the word we so desperately need. There is no health in us and, as AA well knows, as long as wrong rages within us, unrecognized, unacknowledged and unconfirmed, it creates hell within us. The manifold disturbance of human personality is the devastation wrought by wrong-headedness and wrongheartedness, rationalized, excused, justified by the person who uses huge amounts of emotional and psychological energy to repress the truth. Great relief has come to troubled people through the insights of psychoanalysis, and Sigmund Freud has made a large contribution to our knowledge of ourselves. There is a great deal of distortion and misconception, resulting in a sense of guilt which has no basis in reality and much relief can come to one who gains such insight. But when all wrong-thinking and damaging psychological experience has been discovered and exposed, there is still one great problem remaining... Real guilt. For we are wrong. And for this hard core of real guilt, what we need is not insight, but forgiveness. Grace is our only hope. It is precisely Grace that is offered through Jesus Christ, our Lord. Psychoanalysis can expose and reveal; it cannot heal. Only God can heal; if we confess our sin, He forgives our sin. The General Confession can be prayed only by one who has faced his sin, admitted it, and sincerely desires its removal. It is a strong statement: There is no health in us, miserable offenders. Why does that offend us so? Perhaps we can understand that better if we remember that it is offensive both inside and out of the Church, but not in an AA meeting. For those outside the Church there is still the need to mask the truth, to deny the dark reality. For those taking their chances, leaning on their own resources, there is the necessity of self-justification. No one going it alone is about to admit such a devastating truth. For those in the Church - at least for many in most churches the reality of sin has been handled, not in the context of grace, but in a moralizing, judgmental manner. Too often in the Church we have not addressed the biblical doctrine of sin but rather have condemned sins, too often concentrating on minor matters while leaving great issues untouched. I am convinced that any serious, thinking person can read the biblical doctrine of sin written large in the course of human history as well as reading it in his own heart. And such a person will recognize that the only answer to radical evil is the radical grace of God. But the Church majors in minors and denies its own message of grace with the self-righteous posture of the Pharisee. Congratulating itself that it is not like others, it fails to take sin with sufficient seriousness. © Grand Valley State University �The Place of Confession in the Christian Life Richard A. Rhem Page 7   Here we must learn from AA. There is no soft-pedaling what is wrong. The recovering alcoholic knows too well the folly of excusing his behavior. He learns to say, "I am wrong." And in the environment of grace provided by those in the meeting - which is concretely an expression of the grace of God - he dares to look at himself honestly. He experiences grace. He finds himself forgiven. He learns to forgive himself and others. Let me suggest that, if the Church is to be a redeeming, reconciling fellowship, if the Church would be the instrument to set people free, give them hope and a new self-image, filling them with self-esteem, the best method is not to downplay the problem but to lift up the forgiving grace of God that is the salvation to our greatest human need. The Church, then, must reclaim this truth - that the Grace of God, mediated through persons, alone brings health and wholeness to humankind. The Church is not institution. The Church is you and me, in honest relationship together, embraced by the Grace of God. © Grand Valley State University � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Richard A. Rhem Collection Description An account of the resource Text and sound recordings of the sermons, prayers, services, and articles of Richard Rhem, pastor emeritus of Christ Community Church in Spring Lake, Michigan, where he served for 37 years. Starting in the mid 1980's, Rhem began to question some of the traditional Christian dogma that he had been espousing from the pulpit. That questioning was a first step in a long and interesting spiritual journey, one that he openly shared with his congregation. His journey is important, in part because it is reflective of the questioning, the yearnings, and the gradual revision of beliefs that many persons in this part of the century have experienced and continue to experience. It is important also because of the affirming and inclusive way his questioning was done and his thinking evolved. His sermons and other written and spoken materials together document the steps in his journey as it took a turn in 1985, yet continued to revolve around the framework and liturgies of the Christian calendar. Subject The topic of the resource Clergy--Michigan Reformed Church in America Christ Community Church (Spring Lake, Mich.) Religion Interfaith worship Sermons Sound Recordings Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Rhem, Richard A. Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/514">Richard A. Rhem papers (KII-01)</a> Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives. Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Kaufman Interfaith Institute Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Language A language of the resource English Type The nature or genre of the resource Sound Text Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context KII-01 Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant 1981-2014 Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource audio/mp3 text/pdf Sound A resource primarily intended to be heard. Examples include a music playback file format, an audio compact disc, and recorded speech or sounds. Series What the Church Has Forgotten, AA Remembers Scripture Text Psalm 32:1, I John 1:9 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-0-19820822 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1982-08-22 Title A name given to the resource The Place of Confession in the Christian Life Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Richard A. Rhem Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Subject The topic of the resource Clergy--Michigan Reformed Church in America Christ Community Church (Spring Lake, Mich.) Sermons Relation A related resource Richard A. Rhem - An Archive of Sermons, Prayers, Talks and Stories: http://richardrhem.org/ Language A language of the resource eng Type The nature or genre of the resource Sound Text Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource audio/mp3 application/pdf Description An account of the resource A sermon given by Richard A. Rhem (Dick) on August 22, 1982 entitled "The Place of Confession in the Christian Life", as part of the series "What the Church Has Forgotten, AA Remembers", at Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI. Scripture references: Psalm 32:1, I John 1:9. Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Lemmen Library and Archives Alcoholics Anonymous Confession Forgiveness Grace Transformation https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/e401f59c1b5e07f75a89362a3755c57a.mp3 0488fa85e4fae8e4910594c9726df648 https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/326d6b9176de8f7e3e743299c2960091.pdf 0ab0b7d00fbf92f950d1f22d837b81ef PDF Text Text A Circle of Quiet Sixth sermon in the series: What the Church Has Forgotten, AA Remembers Text: Isaiah 26:3-4; Psalm 46:10; Romans 12:1-2 Richard A. Rhem Christ Community Church Spring Lake, Michigan August 29, 1982 Transcription of the spoken sermon "Be still, and know that I am God..." Psalm 46:10 "Thou dost keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on Thee, because he trusts in Thee. Trust in the Lord for ever, for the Lord God is an everlasting rock." Isaiah 26:3-4 "...present your bodies as a living sacrifice, ...which is your spiritual worship...be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that you may prove what is the will of God..." Romans 12:1-2 Madeleine L'Engle writes, ...often I need to get away completely, if only for a few minutes. My special place is a small brook in a green glade, a circle of quiet from which there is no visible sign of human beings. There's a natural stone bridge over the brook, and I sit there, dangling my legs and looking through the foliage at the sky reflected in the water, and things slowly come back into perspective….The brook wanders through a tunnel of foliage, and the birds sing more sweetly there than anywhere else; or perhaps it is just that when I am at the brook I have time to be aware of them, and I move slowly into a kind of peace that is marvelous….If I sit a while, then my impatience, crossness, frustration, are…annihilated, and my sense of humor returns. (A Circle of Quiet, p. 4) She wrote that in a book entitled, A Circle Of Quiet. From that passage she named the book after it was finished and the title is a happy choice. It describes the book which, in journal fashion, records Madeleine L'Engle's deepest thoughts and intuitions, the kind of reflections that come to one who has developed a circle of quiet in her life. I borrow the phrase “a circle of quiet” for this message, which deals with the importance of solitude, meditation and prayer in the nurturing and sustaining of the new life in Christ, a truly spiritual existence. © Grand Valley State University   �A Circle of Quiet Richard A. Rhem Page 2   Once again, what the Church has forgotten, AA remembers. In the wonderful logic of the Twelve Step Program for recovering alcoholics, AA recommends a daily practice of meditation and prayer. I am jumping over steps eight and nine which have to do with making restitution for whatever wrongs one has done, where amends can be made without doing further injury, and step ten which encourages a continued moral inventory such as we have earlier discussed in step four. I turn now to Step 11, which deals with the discipline of a devotional life: We sought through prayer and meditation to improve our conscious contact with God as we understood Him, praying only for knowledge of His will for us and the power to carry that out. Such a practice is not new to us in the Church. Perhaps it is not fair even to say that the Church has forgotten it. I think, however, we would not be far wrong if we said that for most of us in the Church it is a practice not practiced. Here again perhaps the recovering alcoholic is more fortunate than those of us that do not share his particular problem. His problem is such that, once having been rescued from his plight, he knows he can continue on the road to health and wholeness only by the daily appropriation of the power and peace of God. That is why we speak of a recovering alcoholic, not a recovered alcoholic. He is never cured; he lives one day at a time – indeed, moment by moment. The Power - God, as he understands Him - has set him free from the tragic slavery that held him bound. But that freedom is nurtured one day at a time and the secret is a day-by-day conscious cultivation of the power and peace of God. I hope you know by now that this series is not primarily for recovering alcoholics, nor is it for the purpose of advertising AA, although I am happy to do so. I have stressed throughout that the alcoholic is not unique. He has a particular problem but then, we all do of one sort or another. The Steps of the AA program are simply borrowed from the Scripture and translated into the language of one particular group of people. But the steps follow diagnosis and remedy of the human condition found in the Scripture and they go on to counsel how that new life must be nurtured and sustained. What the recovering alcoholic knows to be absolutely essential, too many of us believe to be optional. He cannot make it without daily prayer and meditation. None of us can, but because we don't necessarily fall on our face without it, we think we can get by. But we are only fooling ourselves, or, I should say, cheating ourselves out of the richest dimension of human experience - the practice of the presence of God. Let me suggest to you today that every life needs a circle of quiet. Let me encourage you to set about developing for yourself the habit of devotion, a time for solitude, meditation, prayer. © Grand Valley State University �A Circle of Quiet Richard A. Rhem Page 3   AA provides practical helps for the development of the discipline of devotion. There are several publications which are very helpful. What I suppose one could call the AA Bible is a little pocket-sized book entitled Twenty Four Hours A Day. There is a brief paragraph on some aspect of life, a meditation and a prayer. For today's date, for example, this is what is written: We cannot get along without prayer and meditation. On awakening, let us think about the twenty-four hours ahead. We consider our plans for the day. Before we begin, we ask God to direct our thinking. Our thought lives will be placed on a much higher plane when we start the day with prayer and meditation. We conclude this period of meditation with a prayer that we will be shown through the day what our next step is to be. The basis of all our prayer is: Thy will be done in me and through me today. Am I sincere in my desire to do God's will today? In another AA publication, Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions, Step Eleven is discussed in a very practical way. Recognizing that for many a daily practice of meditation and prayer may be totally new, simple hints are given as to how to begin. The suggestion is made that one take the Prayer of St. Francis, "Lord, make me an instrument of Thy peace..." and let it soak into one's consciousness. Read it. Read it over. Read it slowly, thinking about every phrase, savoring every word. This, of course, is but one example of how devotional material can be used to get us started. The literature available is immense and the devotional suggestions many. The aim of all our striving must be the practice of the presence of God, the developing of conscious contact, communion with God. For us who would nurture and nourish our spiritual life, our life in Christ, the greatest source of devotion, the greatest aid we have is the Bible, and the practice of daily Bible reading is indispensable for one who would have his life conformed to the image of Christ. The Old Testament lesson is Psalm 46, one of the most familiar and best loved of the Psalms, which are the favorite source of devotional reading in Scripture. Psalm 46 celebrates the safety and security of God's people because of His presence with them. Perhaps it was written to celebrate the preservation of Jerusalem from the Assyrian hosts. But the historical situation is not important. In itself, it breathes of the security that comes to God's people because of His presence with them. The Lord of hosts is with us; The God of Jacob is our refuge. How many times have not these words brought calm and peace to those in peril, confusion and fear? Be still and know that I am God. © Grand Valley State University �A Circle of Quiet Richard A. Rhem Page 4   What steadiness comes to one who repeats those words and with those words comes into the conscious presence of God? The Psalms are full of such comfort and strength and not only the Psalms. I added another example of the promises of God's words from Isaiah: Thou dost keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on Thee, because he trusts in Thee. Trust in the Lord for ever, for the Lord God is an everlasting rock. Isaiah 26:3-4 That statement was inscribed on a plaque and hung in our living room when I was growing up. It promises precisely what AA knows the recovering alcoholic needs. It promises what each and every one of us needs. It promises peace to the mind concentrated on God. It calls us simply to trust in God, the Rock of Ages. Christian hymnology has taken up texts such as these and enabled us to sing our faith. Martin Luther's great hymn, "A Mighty Fortress Is Our God" is based on Psalm 46. Augustus Toplady based the familiar "Rock of Ages" on Isaiah 26:4, where "everlasting rock" is literally "rock of ages." Rock of ages, cleft for me, Let me hide myself in Thee. These two hymns are directly based on words of Scripture and the hymnal is a great source of Christian devotion, providing much substance for meditation and prayer. The Old Testament texts I offer as examples of what one finds in rich supply in the Scriptures, great statements that, once imbibed and appropriated, bring peace and calm to the heart. But I selected the New Testament text as the biblical parallel to Step Eleven, the call to spiritual worship, which leads to the transformation of life. Paul urges, Therefore my brothers, I implore you by God's mercy to offer your very lives to him; a living sacrifice, dedicated and fit for his acceptance, the worship offered by mind and heart. Adopt yourselves no longer to the pattern of this present world, but let your mind be remade and your whole nature thus transformed. Then you will be able to discern the will of God, and to know what is good, acceptable, and perfect. Romans 12:1,2 The Apostle with his "therefore" moves in this great statement of Christian faith to the practical application of Christian truth in the everyday life of the believer. He appeals on the basis of all that has been set forth as the foundational truth of Christian faith for a life wholly offered up to God. The sacrificial system of the old cultic worship is now superseded. Jesus, the Lamb of God, has been offered over for all -the perfect sacrifice. No longer do we come with sacrificial offerings as the token of our lives offered in worship. Rather, as new creations in the Risen Christ, © Grand Valley State University �A Circle of Quiet Richard A. Rhem Page 5   we offer ourselves in the totality of our lives to God. Our worship is the offering of our whole being, the worship of mind and heart in the practical affairs of our every day. A change has taken place; a transformation. The mind is remade. The whole nature transformed. Now all of life's energy is focused on learning to know and do the will of God. In his paraphrase, Phillips renders Paul's words thus... Don't let the world around you squeeze you into its own mold, but let God remold your minds from within, so that you may prove in practice that the plan of God for you is good, meets all his demands and moves toward the goal of true maturity. I submit to you that no statement could better reflect what AA suggests is the goal of human existence than this word from Paul. Step Eleven counsels prayer and meditation to improve our conscious contact with God as we understand Him and the focus of prayer is the knowledge of His will and the power to carry that out. Living out God's will for our lives by the power of God is an excellent statement of maturity, of full human existence. If one would read the rest of this twelfth chapter as a prelude to every day, one would find its shaping impact on one's life and this, of course, is the purpose of a life of prayer and meditation, the purpose of practicing the presence of God. Let me speak personally for a moment. Over the years I have spoken on the subject of prayer and spiritual formation. I did so because it is a subject that from time to time should be addressed in the course of one's preaching. I have tried to do so honestly, never claiming to have cultivated the art of Christian devotion with great skill, nor to have achieved great success in the practice of devotion. In fact, what stands most vividly in my mind about my attempts to speak to this area of Christian life is that I was most helpful because I admitted my own failure, neglect and inconsistency in the life of prayer and meditation. After an experience of regular prayer with a prayer list, a weary morning appointment and a sense of heavy obligation during my years in seminary, I backed off any kind of regular devotional practice. I think there was some negative reaction on my part as well as recognizing, in a more positive vein, that the devotional life cannot flourish under legalistic constraint. After all, I reasoned, one can pray any time, anywhere. And it is true. Yet I think it is also true that one does not pray "without ceasing," any time, anywhere unless one has some more purposeful, disciplined pursuit of prayer and meditation. I have had another barrier to meaningful devotion. I have wrestled with the theology of prayer and have too much made prayer a matter of the head than the heart. © Grand Valley State University �A Circle of Quiet Richard A. Rhem Page 6   Now as I speak to you on the subject of practicing the presence of God, of a circle of quiet in your life, I can speak of that circle of quiet out of the experience of a circle of quiet in my own life. I want to share with you what I have found rich and meaningful. I sense finally in my own life the real joy and richness of a daily experience of solitude, prayer and meditation. I simply recommend it to you - not on the basis of legal constraint or religious duty, but rather as a way to be human, whole, at peace with self, others, the world and God. Step Eleven puts the central concern of such prayer and reflection into sharp focus Show me thy will and give me the power to do it. There, too, I have battled with God. I have not always wanted to say, "Nevertheless, Thy will be done." Yet when we really sense the grace of God, the graciousness of God, then what better can we desire than His will? What better can we ask than His power? His will fulfilled in our lives through His power. Is that not life's highest possibility? And that will is made known to us in the circle of quiet; that power flows through us as we move out of the circle of quiet into the demands of our ordinary days. He will speak gently to us all. Be still and know that I am 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. Series What the Church Has Forgotten, AA Remembers Scripture Text Isaiah 26:3-4, Psalm 46:10, Romans 12:1-2 Location The location of the interview Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context KII-01_RA-0-19820829 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1982-08-29 Title A name given to the resource A Circle of Quiet 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 29, 1982 entitled "A Circle of Quiet", as part of the series "What the Church Has Forgotten, AA Remembers", at Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI. Scripture references: Isaiah 26:3-4, Psalm 46:10, Romans 12:1-2. Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Lemmen Library and Archives Alcoholics Anonymous Meditation Prayer Transformation https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/c605b62e13ccccb71c79b96915de1c16.mp3 1e18a14f81ae402188ea003331a2121c https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/80240669a58a179132f39cb0f78dd0ca.pdf f0d56eaa9b173b3b3f9ba87d5ba164ee PDF Text Text On Being Available to Another Final sermon in the series: What the Church Has Forgotten, AA Remembers Text: Galatians 6: 1-10 Richard A. Rhem Christ Community Church Spring Lake, Michigan September 5, 1982 Transcription of the spoken sermon "...set him right again very gently... Help one another to carry these heavy loads... So let us never tire of doing good ...as opportunity offers, let us work for the good of all." Galatians 6:1-10 Our capacity to love reaches its full maturity when we "can look upon the twisted features of a fellow human being in pain and not turn away in fear or disgust but catch a glimpse of the face of the suffering Christ and minister to him in all simplicity and tenderness." (Timothy J. Gannon, Emotional Development and Spiritual Growth, p. 31, cited by Morton Kelsey, Caring, p. 181.) Human maturity can be measured in one's capacity to love and one's capacity to love can be measured by the extent that one is willing to be available to another. Being available to another is what Step Twelve of Alcoholics Anonymous' Twelve Step Program for recovering alcoholics is about. Having had a spiritual awakening as the result of these steps, we tried to carry this message to alcoholics, and to practice these principles in all our affairs. With this step the recovering alcoholic moves outward to engage in a caring, compassionate ministry to another person caught in the bondage of alcohol addiction in order to witness to the way of human transformation. AA does not spend time and energy arguing over terminology and definitions and I suppose I should not either. Yet I must say that the mere statement of Step Twelve does not adequately convey what is involved. "To carry the message" is more than "telling one's story", although that is an essential element. Step Twelve Work for an AA member involves being willing to go anywhere, anytime and to do anything necessary in order to heed a call for help. The "message" is clear because it is acted out; it is lived. To use a good term from Christian theology, the © Grand Valley State University   �On Being Available to Another Richard A. Rhem Page 2   message is incarnated; it is clothed with flesh, the flesh of another human being. Step Twelve as it is stated might seem to involve no more than "witness" in Christian terms. To be sure, the biblical conception of witness also demands more than words - proclamation. Yet the danger of the phrase "to carry the message" is that it might be reduced to "mere words" as has too often been the case in Christian witness. To counter this danger in the Church we have come to speak of witness in word and deed, of "word-deed". There is probably not so much danger of misunderstanding in AA because again here, as at every other point we have examined, AA practices what it "preaches." It is what Christian faith should be for the Church - a way of life. What the Church has forgotten, AA remembers because it will not continue if it forgets. What the Church has forgotten - that its witness must become action, redemptive, reconciling, tangible, love in action, AA remembers and practices. There is no more amazing or beautiful aspect of the organization we have been examining than its Twelfth Step Work: the willingness of the recovering alcoholic to go anywhere, anytime, to do anything in order to help a brother or sister in need. Alcoholics Anonymous presents a model which the Church could well emulate. The fellowship of AA practices unconditional acceptance, supportive love and total availability to anyone in need. In so doing, it has borrowed a page from the Gospel and has become in fact what the Church ought to be. And being true to itself - the incarnation of redemptive grace and supportive love - AA is growing. In fact, the growth is phenomenal when one remembers that its appeal is to only a limited group of persons. I want to say a few things about AA's manner, method and motivation in its outreach program, its Twelfth Step work and then show from the New Testament that this is also the mission and ministry to which we are called. AA's manner is one of being available. An AA member will go anywhere, do anything, anytime. This is the response he makes out of gratitude for the recovery he has experienced. This is the action that flows out of his transformation. This is the outward expression of his new life. Having gone through all of the steps, finding himself and living in the flow of a Power beyond himself, his spontaneous response is ministry to others who are suffering what he knows only too well. The "circle of quiet" issues in a life of service. © Grand Valley State University �On Being Available to Another Richard A. Rhem Page 3   I use the word available because it conveys the manner of AA's approach to the person in need. AA does not go where it is not invited. It comes with no axe to grind and no manipulative or coercive methods are used. Alcoholics Anonymous has found it is unproductive and fruitless to try to help someone who is not convinced he needs help. AA does not try to force its recovery program or its fellowship meetings on anyone. But just let someone indicate the need and desire for help. Someone will be there. And they will stay there as long as they are needed. Obviously there is much Twelfth Step work which begins in the real hell of a sufferer's misery. There is urgency about it, a kind of emerging rescue work at the beginning and then a consistent follow through, sticking with the one who is seeking deliverance from bondage. I do not want to create the impression that every time an alcoholic calls out for help and an AA member responds, there is a new member for AA and another person is on the way to sobriety. Many reach out but are never rescued. Many reach out and are rescued only to fall again and again before finally they arrive at a consistent sobriety. The success of AA is astonishing but success in terms of the growth of the organization is beside the point. Here I would simply lift up the posture of availability. AA does not force itself or its program on anyone. AA does not write off the person who makes many false starts. AA never gives up on anyone. AA is and remains available. That is the manner of its outreach. AA's method is a caring presence and humble witness. I link presence and witness. Presence is "being there" for the other. Witness is telling one's own story. The adjectives caring and humble are extremely important. One is present to another not because of heavy obligation simply to render a duty. One is there because one genuinely cares. A recovering alcoholic who has moved toward health and wholeness and happiness has deep compassion for the one struggling in the hell of addiction. He has been there. He knows the hopelessness, pain, loneliness and despair that overwhelm the sufferer. He is present because he cares and thus his is a caring presence. Humility. That spirit runs through all twelve steps. No one gets past Step One without a painful humbling which then is cultivated and nurtured with each progressive step. A recovering alcoholic lives a day at a time, moment by moment. He depends on a gracious power beyond himself. Apart from that, he cannot make it. He has nothing of which to boast. With genuine humility he tells his own story helping the victim he has come to help to realize that he is not alone, that his friend knows whereof he speaks, understands the agony he is experiencing and without judgment or condemnation accepts him just as he is. © Grand Valley State University �On Being Available to Another Richard A. Rhem Page 4   The recovering alcoholic tells his own story in an effort to identify with the one who is seeking help, letting him know that there is no lost cause, no person beyond redemption's point. Witness, not preaching! Acceptance, not judgment! As one of AA's co-founders counsels in the book As Bill Sees It, Never talk down to an alcoholic from any moral or spiritual hilltop; simply lay out the kit of spiritual tools for his inspection. Show him how they worked with you. Offer friendship and fellowship. (P. 192) That's the method: a caring presence, a humble witness. The motivation for Twelfth Step work is compassion for the alcoholic and self-preservation for the recovering alcoholic. One who has suffered the horrors of bondage to alcohol will most naturally feel compassion for another person caught in that bondage. The desire to help another person flows naturally from the new way of life he has found. To be delivered, freed, released and transformed again into a useful citizen with a measure of happiness and serenity will issue in a longing to tell others the secret and lead them toward health and wholeness. The one who goes to help will naturally suggest the AA meetings and witness to the effectiveness of the Twelve Step Program, but not for the greater glory of AA or its program. Fortunately, Alcoholics Anonymous has been able to keep the institutional aspects of AA in low profile. The meetings, the disciplines are not ends in themselves and no one is out to make a name for himself in AA or to build a super organization. Motivation is compassion for the alcoholic and a desire to see him restored to sobriety. Nothing is asked in return. Twelfth Step work is selfless service. But there is another motivating factor: self-preservation. It has been the experience of AA and the testimony of countless recovering alcoholics that the best therapy in the world, the strongest defense against relapse is Twelfth Step work. Through his selfless service, in the paradox of grace, the recovering alcoholic finds his own life strengthened, his joy deepened, his own soul refreshed as he finds himself the instrument of restoration for another to whom he has made himself available. There you have the manner, the method, and the motivation of the Twelfth Step of the AA program. © Grand Valley State University �On Being Available to Another Richard A. Rhem Page 5   Does it not sound strangely familiar? Have you not heard it all before? Is it not precisely the biblical conception of Christian witness? I have gone into considerable detail on this step because, once I have set forth AA’s conception of outreach, I can simply say, "Go thou and do likewise." Nevertheless, this is a sermon, so let me take you to the Scripture lesson where I believe we will find the same manner, method and motivation for Christian witness, the same conception of what the Church should be and do. Paul's letter to the Galatians is his letter of Christian freedom where he sets forth in all its radical glory the grace of God. In the course of his discussion, Paul describes the fellowship of the Church as a community of forgiveness and mutual support, a community of supportive love in a spirit of gentleness, a community of care, one for another. Galatians 5:25 could well serve as a motto for the whole Twelve Step Program. If the Spirit is the source of our life, let the Spirit also direct our course. AA would speak of "Power" or "God as we understand Him." The New Testament tells us that God active in our life is the Spirit. Salvation is effected by the Spirit and it is in the Spirit that we live the life of a Christian. But then Paul deals with the Church as a community of mutuality and support. Restoration of the fallen is counseled: If a man should do something wrong, ...set him right again very gently. Gentleness and humility are counseled because you may be tempted, too. Recognizing that life is not easy, Paul goes on to say, Help one another carry these heavy loads. And in the 10th verse he says again, Therefore, as opportunity offers, let us work for the good of all. . . There are so many points of contact between this letter and the Twelve Step Program, but I must limit myself to the spirit of this passage as it relates to AA and its posture. The spirit is one of kindness and gentleness as we deal with one another, sharing each other's load and walking in humility. Grace must permeate the fellowship of the Church. Unconditional acceptance and supportive love must be its hallmarks. The concern that comes through strongly is the restoration of the person to wholeness and Paul pleads that we will never tire of doing good. © Grand Valley State University �On Being Available to Another Richard A. Rhem Page 6   I submit to you that the spirit of this passage permeates the fellowship of AA and the practical counsel is what is acted on in Twelfth Step work. Now let me apply this to the outreach of the Church. If Step Twelve is AA's outreach program, why did I select Galatians 6 as my scripture rather than a passage dealing specifically with Christian witness? I chose this passage because I want to say that effective evangelism happens through compassionate ministry. Earlier I said the phrasing of Step Twelve does not convey the manner and method of Twelfth Step work. "Carry the message" might sound like "witness to Jesus Christ" and be thought of in terms of "words." Words are important. It takes words to tell one's story. Yet that is only part of the outreach. The caring presence is that which puts flesh on the words. The story is told in the context of a humble, gracious presence. It is being available, being present to another in unconditional acceptance and supportive love that creates the environment where the words, the witness, can be heard. This is what the Church has forgotten. This is what AA remembers and puts into effective practice. The Church has been too "word" oriented, forgetting that God's great move toward us was a Word made flesh. There are too many words. We are too wordy. We print tracts and we talk ceaselessly. But in the final analysis, it is the compassionate, caring presence of a community of persons that is the most effective instrument of evangelism. And what we need in this church and every church is not more committees on Evangelism, but more Stephen Ministers, persons who will carry out a ministry of care, persons who will provide a caring presence in a spirit of humility with kindness and gentleness. This is not a new note being struck here at Christ Community. It has been our posture over the last decade. We are probably the only congregation in the world with a Minister of Evangelism and no Evangelism Committee, and no formal program of outreach. Gordon has always maintained that the best evangelism is a happy congregation. This is what I meant earlier when I said that AA is growing by simply being true to itself. So the Church will grow if it is really the Church - if it is a community of compassion, care, humility and grace. As an interesting sidelight, Gordon just gave me a note. The statistics of the Reformed Church for 1981 are just out: In 1971 we numbered 678 members; at the end of 1981 we numbered 2430. In 1971 we were 130th in size in the RCA; at the end of 1981 we were 4th. In 1971 we were 36th in size in Michigan; at the end of 1981 we were first. © Grand Valley State University �On Being Available to Another Richard A. Rhem Page 7   I share that not as a matter of pride. Even to share it is dangerous because it so easily leads to pride of institution. But I share it as the best evidence I know next to the phenomenal growth of Alcoholics Anonymous that a community that cares about people cannot help but prosper. There is an Institute of Church Growth in California where they have stressed the imperative of the New Testament that the Church grow. They have approached the matter scientifically and set forth certain sociological principles for church growth. But I have never been impressed. Church growth smacks of institutionalism. Church growth smacks of competition. Church growth smacks of pride. What matters is not church growth, but people, people touched by grace; people accepted, loved, healed; people forgiven and given hope. Church growth is an accident, a byproduct of the Church being true to itself, being a community of compassion and care. We really do not need more evangelistic tracts, or crusades, or evangelism seminars. We need a whole army of people who have been touched by the grace of God who are willing to be available to another. In such a church, the Word becomes flesh and the love of God becomes tangible and the grace of God flows out to embrace, to forgive and to renew. Numbers are not important but the human beings for which they stand are all important and I do believe that where persons are primary - primary over all institutional considerations, primary over all doctrinal definitions, primary over all rules of order, primary over all confessional loyalty – there the Church will grow, and the grace of God will flow, and Christ will be magnified. It is as simple as being available to another. © 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. Series What the Church Has Forgotten, AA Remembers Scripture Text Galations 6: 1-10 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-0-19820905 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1982-09-05 Title A name given to the resource On Being Available to Another 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 5, 1982 entitled "On Being Available to Another", as part of the series "What the Church Has Forgotten, AA Remembers", at Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI. Scripture references: Galations 6: 1-10. Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Lemmen Library and Archives Alcoholics Anonymous Empathy Transformation Unconditional Love https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/36f8d445c84874816fe81f8f38adbee1.mp3 d3dd9bb9c6dcbbe46fa3853a3692047e 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 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-0-19840415 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1984-04-15 Title A name given to the resource Jesus, You Are Really Something 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 15, 1984 entitled "Jesus, You Are Really Something", on the occasion of Palm Sunday, at Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI. Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Lemmen Library and Archives https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/44c51af84095a33d50d0cac4902b9f3a.mp3 ecee59979c42771d14e67381f09e91d1 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 Bible Study at Crystal Cathedral Scripture Text Luke Location The location of the interview Crystal Cathedral, Orange Grove, CA 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-0-19840902 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1984-09-02 Title A name given to the resource Only Love Changes People Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Richard A. Rhem Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Subject The topic of the resource Clergy--Michigan Reformed Church in America Christ Community Church (Spring Lake, Mich.) Sermons Relation A related resource Richard A. Rhem - An Archive of Sermons, Prayers, Talks and Stories: http://richardrhem.org/ Language A language of the resource eng Type The nature or genre of the resource Sound 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 September 2, 1984 entitled "Only Love Changes People", on the occasion of Bible Study at Crystal Cathedral, at Crystal Cathedral, Orange Grove, CA. Scripture references: Luke. 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/78f0f822976704e5796fd4b388650f25.mp3 786bf1c4964087c952d2b9eb0dfc8698 https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/f86f0959d5e11c2580c47b15f1ed20e0.pdf 12c2bedea336d56a751e4e3cdd4defe8 PDF Text Text Follow the Star: Trust the Vision Text: Matthew 2: 9 Richard A. Rhem Christ Community Church Spring Lake, Michigan Epiphany, January 6, 1985 Transcription of the spoken sermon ...The star which they had seen at its rising went ahead of them... Matthew 2:9 Today is the Festival of Epiphany. In the calendar of the Ancient Church this is a special Feast Day with which a new Season is inaugurated, the Season of Epiphany. We have celebrated the twelve days of Christmas. Christmastide moves today into Epiphany, the Season that extends to Ash Wednesday, the beginning of the Season of Lent. The theme of this Season is the manifestation of Christ to the Gentiles. Epiphany, the word, comes to us from the Greek; it means "manifestation." In this Season we celebrate the universality of the Gospel. Jesus was born of the House and lineage of David. The Angelic messenger to the shepherds said there was good news, great joy coming to the whole people, but in that context that probably was a reference to the whole House of Israel. We must go to Matthew for the Epiphany theme. He tells the romantic tale of the visit of the Magi who saw the rising of a star in their Eastern land and journeyed West to Jerusalem and then to Bethlehem where they found the child Jesus, bowed down in adoration and offered him precious gifts. In that search for the newborn king, their adoration, worship and offering, the Magi have become the symbol of the coming of the nations to the true God, to light and truth, to salvation. In the coming of Jesus, God brought the light of the knowledge of Himself to all nations, thus fulfilling the promise to Abraham that in him all peoples of the earth would be blessed. Let this narrative recorded by Matthew be the focus of our reflection as we recognize in Jesus the revelation of God Who calls us to live by the vision that revelation provides. To begin with, let us look at the story. We are told by Matthew of astrologers from the East who arrived in Jerusalem asking, "Where is the child who is born to be © Grand Valley State University   �Follow the Star: Trust the Vision Richard A. Rhem Page 2   king of the Jews?" They came according to the Gospel because they had observed "the rising of his star." Who were they, these astrologers? We sing of "three kings." They are referred to as "the Magi" in Christmas lore. Actually there is nothing in the record that speaks of their being kings and neither is there any reference to number. There is much popular mythology and legend that has sprung up around the story of the Nativity and later generations have embroidered it liberally. While we cannot be certain about these Eastern visitors, there is relative agreement that they were members of a priestly caste who engaged in occult arts and the name "Magi" refers to a broad range of persons involved in astrology (astronomy), fortune-telling, priestly augury and magicians. The "Magi" of Matthew were astrologers. We know that the ancient East had gained a great deal of knowledge of astronomy and there was a widespread conviction that human destiny was determined by the star under which one was born as well as the movement of the heavenly bodies. These Magi in Matthew's narrative represent the best of pagan lore and religious perceptivity which has come to seek Jesus through a revelation in nature. (Brown, The Birth of the Messiah, p. 168) They came from East of Palestine. Three locations are proposed as their point of origin: Parthia, or Persia, Babylon, or Arabia, or the Syrian Desert. There are arguments in favor of each location but it is not important for us to pursue the matter. It is enough to know that the ancient East was known for its astronomical investigation and for priestly castes that studied the stars and ancient writings. There was a common belief that great events and the birth and death of great rulers were signaled in the heavens. Thus, whatever historical core lies behind the story of the visit of the Magi, it was not extraordinary that such astrologers should make such a journey and join in such a quest. As to the star itself, what can we say? We have the story in its simple beauty. What the story is meant to convey we shall come to shortly. Perhaps it is best simply to leave the story as it is. Yet questions come to mind. Raymond Brown in his marvelous study of the nativity narratives writes of the "intrinsic unlikelihoods" of the story. A star that rose in the East, appeared over Jerusalem, turned South to Bethlehem, and then came to rest over a house would have constituted a celestial phenomenon unparalleled in astronomical history; yet it received no notice in the records of the times. (The Birth of the Messiah, p. 188) On the other hand, there were some unusual astronomical phenomena which occurred around the time of the birth of Jesus, which best estimates place in 6 B.C. Speculation suggests the heavenly light may have been a supernova or "new © Grand Valley State University �Follow the Star: Trust the Vision Richard A. Rhem Page 3   star." It may have been a comet or it may have been a planetary conjunction. Brown explains the conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn. Jupiter and Saturn are the slowest of the visible planets in their orbit around the sun: for Jupiter there is an orbit every twelve years; for Saturn, every thirty years. In the course of these orbits the two planets pass each other every twenty years; and in so passing, even though they may be considerably north or south of each other, they are said to be in conjunction. A much rarer occurrence is when a third planet, Mars, passes during or shortly after the conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn, so that the three planets are close together. Kepler saw this occur in October 1604. He calculated that it happens every 805 years and that it had happened in 7-6 B.C. ... From calculations we know that the three high points of the conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn were in May/June, September/October, and December of 7 B.C. - a rare triple conjunction. ... - and that Mars passed early the next year. This "great conjunction" of Jupiter and Saturn took place in the zodiacal constellation of Pisces. ... Pisces is a constellation sometimes associated with the last days and with the Hebrews, while Jupiter (an object of particular interest among Parthian astrologers) was associated with the world ruler and Saturn was identified as the star of the Ammonites of the Syria-Palestine region. The claim has been made that this conjunction might lead Parthian astrologers to predict that there would appear in Palestine among the Hebrews a world ruler of the last days. (p. 173) This is all very speculative as Brown asserts; yet it is fascinating and it does immerse the story of the Magi's visit with mystery and wonder. As already indicated, we cannot strip off the legendary aspects of the nativity narrative and get down to the “facts.” Scripture is not a book of “facts” in that sense. The Word was made flesh. That is fact – historical truth. Jesus was born at a particular time and place. He grew and entered upon his ministry, was crucified and raised from the dead, ascending to the Father where he reigns and from whence he will appear a second time. The Apostles and the Early Christian community were certain of the risen Christ who was the same as Jesus of Nazareth. As they witnessed to God's revelation in him they told the story of his birth and his life, death and resurrection. That is what we have in our Gospels of which Matthew is one. As this Gospel was composed, there was a specific purpose in its composition. Matthew included a nativity narrative and that narrative included the story of the Magi. Why? What was Matthew telling us with this story? © Grand Valley State University �Follow the Star: Trust the Vision Richard A. Rhem Page 4   It is the consensus of biblical scholarship today that this Gospel called Matthew was written in Syria by an unknown Greek-speaking Jewish Christian living in the 80's in a mixed community with converts of both Jewish and Gentile descent. The writer was concerned to instruct the community of mixed background. Matthew interprets what he sees happening in the first century Church. As Brown writes, A Christian community, at first Jewish, had seen an increasing number of Gentiles come to believe; and with the rejection of Christians by the Synagogue, it now seemed as if the Kingdom were being taken away and given to a "nation" that would bear fruit (21:43). In this situation of a mixed community with dominance now shifting over to the Gentile side, Matthew is concerned to show that Jesus has always had meaning for both Jew and Gentile. (p. 47) Thus asserts Brown, In the person of the Magi, Matthew was anticipating the Gentile Christians of his own community. Although these had as their birthright only the revelation of God in nature, they had been attracted to Jesus; and when instructed in the Scriptures of the Jews, they had come to believe in and pay homage to the Messiah. (p. 199) This is the meaning of Epiphany and the message of this Season. God's calling of Abraham was the calling of one to reach the many. God's long and patient dealing with Israel in the Old Covenant was in order to bring finally to the world the Saviour of all. Matthew tells us of Magi from the East who followed the star and trusted the vision of the birth of one who would rule the world with righteousness. On this Epiphany Sunday, then, let us recognize that I. God has revealed Himself. This is a foundational truth of our faith. Having just come through the Christmas Season again, we have celebrated that divine visitation of our planet by the Eternal God in the flesh of Jesus. We have heard those great New Testament affirmations again — the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us and we beheld his glory... John 1:14 We have seen the light of revelation - the revelation of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. II Corinthians 5:6 ...in this the final age he (God) has spoken to us in the Son ... who is the effulgence of God's splendor and the stamp of God's very being…Hebrews 1:2 © Grand Valley State University �Follow the Star: Trust the Vision Richard A. Rhem Page 5   What these writers affirm in theological reflection Matthew tells us in a story, the story of a star and of those hungry for God who traveled mile after weary mile until they found the child born to be a king. Matthew was pointing to a sign in Nature which triggered the longing of the human heart for a knowledge of God. And the point he was making was that the sign was given for all the world to see. The Magi are used by him as signs of that universal revelation of God to all humankind. Paul speaks of God's revelation in the natural order. For all that may be known of God by men lies plain before their eyes; indeed God himself has disclosed it to them. His invisible attributes, that is to say his everlasting power and deity, have been visible, ever since the world began, to the eye of reason, in the things he has made. Romans 1:19, 20 Paul goes on in that passage to show how that knowledge has been suppressed by mankind. Nonetheless the revelation is there had we eyes to see it. Bringing the Magi to Herod's court where they learned of Micah's prophecy of the Messiah's birth in Bethlehem was Matthew's way of saying that the revelation of God in Nature is not sufficient to bring one to a knowledge of the grace of God. Yet the truth remains; God has revealed himself and in Jesus that revelation came to all humankind. God has revealed himself. That is our bedrock conviction. That is the heart of Christmas and the truth of Epiphany. II. Those who seek him will surely find him. In the visit of the Magi Matthew finds the sign of the coming of people of every tribe and nation. That was a giant breakthrough in the thinking of the Jewish Christian community. The struggle of the Early Church on the question of the Gentile converts to Jesus is recorded in the Book of Acts. Matthew is saying that what was happening in that early community was right on schedule and according to plan. God so loved the world that whosoever ... There was an exclusiveness in the Old Testament. Yet had not the prophet Jeremiah written centuries before, When you seek me, you shall find me; if you search for me with all your heart, I will let you find me, says the Lord. Jeremiah 29:13 In the Magi we have representatives of those who hunger for God and whose hunger is satisfied. They were seekers and searchers after God. They had no doubt studied ancient writings. They may very well have known of the ancient © Grand Valley State University �Follow the Star: Trust the Vision Richard A. Rhem Page 6   prophecy of Balaam recorded in Numbers 24:17 about the star that would rise out of Jacob. They were men open to revelation, seeking the truth. We might say that these were early examples of the human hunger for transcendence. They were seeking something more beyond the limits of space and time. They lived in a world filled with mystery. They believed that beyond the world there was One Who wrote in the stars. They believed that behind the appearance of Reality there was One Who made the planets do His bidding. They followed the star and trusted the vision. They acted on their faith and they found the Saviour. Those who seek Him will surely find Him. III. Those who find Him worship Him. This, too, is clearly Matthew's intent in portraying the Magi in Eastern magnificence bowing before the child offering their treasures. The universality of God's revelation and the universality of the yearning in the human heart are matched by the universality of the response of those who see the glory of the Father in the face of the Son. This is something we take for granted perhaps, but it was an amazing discovery to those who had been brought up in the exclusiveness of Judaism, who had been taught that the non-Jew was something less than human. Certainly there had been those strains of universalism - in Abraham's call and in the prophetic vision of the exaltation of Mount Zion and the flowing of the nations to Jerusalem. But it was nonetheless a truth hardly conceivable and thus one of the major stumbling blocks in the world evangelization which happened in Paul's ministry - that God was making of Jew and Greek one new humanity - united in the worship of God through Jesus Christ. In these Eastern visitors Matthew saw the sign of the world coming to the Saviour who would be the Lamb of God who would take away the sin of the world. Do you sense what a compelling vision that was? In the midst of an occupied people in a tiny piece of the earth's surface, in the poverty and humility of a peasant family was born a child - a child, Matthew declares, who is the light of the revelation of the glory of God for all people of all time. That is the stupendous claim of the Christian Gospel. In the worship of the Magi Matthew witnesses to the universal truth of the Gospel that Jesus Christ is the light of the world, the Saviour of all, who draws all people to him. Those who find him worship him, for those who find him find God. © Grand Valley State University �Follow the Star: Trust the Vision Richard A. Rhem Page 7   We have just celebrated another Christmas. We stand on the threshold of a new year. What has the celebration done for us? In what mind and spirit do we enter this new year? The lessons of the Magi visit are simple and clear: God has revealed Himself; those who seek Him find Him; those who find Him worship Him. Will the truth so recently celebrated be connected to the restless longing of our hearts and will we respond to the revelation of God's glory with adoring worship and committed life? It does not follow automatically. It is possible to be so caught up in trivial pursuits and penultimate matters that we never see the star nor follow the Saviour. The Magi came to Jerusalem where Herod was King and their question posed to him, not the possibility of the advent of the Saviour of the world, but rather a threat to his throne, his rule and authority. On December 28 the Church celebrated the Feast of the Holy Innocents, the remembrance of Herod's decree that all male children two years old and under should be slain. Such a ruthless deed can hardly be conceived of. Yet that is precisely the bestiality of which human pride and blind ambition is capable. George Schultz leads the American delegate to Geneva where he will engage the Russian delegates in arms talks. There will be posturing and maneuvering but the bottom line will be to come out in the position of power because our world lives under the delusion that security resides in power and the greater nuclear arsenal when, as a matter of fact, those very arsenals on either side of the great ideological divide have made the world more insecure than at any time in its history. And to what lengths will either side not go if threatened? Is there any stopping point in this international madness? Perhaps only Herod's desperate conspiracy to rid the world of God's Messiah can be compared with our present age marching to its doom. Not truth, mercy and compassion, but power; that is our madness. The Magi came to Jerusalem and the Scribes and chief priests, the servants of God, His representatives among the people were able to answer the question when the Messiah was to be born, but we hear nothing of their own pilgrimage to find him. But before we are too hard on them, let us remind ourselves that we just celebrated the coming of God in our time and space and, yet, has not perhaps our very familiarity with that amazing story left us dull and untouched? If God has come to us, revealed His grace to us, placed His claim upon us, what sort of people then ought we to be? © Grand Valley State University �Follow the Star: Trust the Vision Richard A. Rhem Page 8   Need I expand on that question? Does not the question itself convict us of the apathy and spiritual deadness of our lives? But the Season is Epiphany, the sign is a star, the truth - God revealed in Jesus, and all who hunger and yearn and long for God will find Him and finding Him, worship and in worship find their true selves. And those that find God in the face of Jesus will be a people of hope, knowing that God has entered our past to give us a sign of our future - a future determined not by human possibility but by the grace and power of God Who will create new heaven and a new earth. His People are a people of hope living in the present in light of the future, which God has prepared for those that love Him. We have celebrated Christmas. Now it is ours to live out in all our ordinary days, following the star, trusting the vision. Reference: Raymond E. Brown. The Birth of the Messiah: A Commentary on the Infancy Narratives in the Gospels of Matthew and Luke. Anchor Bible Reference Library, Doubleday, 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 Epiphany Sunday Scripture Text Matthew 2:9 Location The location of the interview Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI References Raymond Brown. The Birth of the Messiah: A Commentary on the Infancy Narratives_,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-0-19850106 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1985-01-06 Title A name given to the resource Follow the Star: Trust the Vision 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 January 6, 1985 entitled "Follow the Star: Trust the Vision", on the occasion of Epiphany Sunday, at Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI. Scripture references: Matthew 2:9. Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Lemmen Library and Archives Epiphany Hope Inclusive Magi Mystery Nativity Revelation Spiritual Quest https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/30efd72a365ac1ef2f695ed2119482b5.mp3 3d215c3b370b35f117dc19a602431d1f https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/69bf57baa7f46260026bf9181618c0e1.pdf e25215b622cdfb94575ac450564b7894 PDF Text Text Living From Commitment From the sermon series: Lifelines Text: Luke 14: 27, 33 Richard A. Rhem Christ Community Church Spring Lake, Michigan Epiphany II, January 20, 1985 Transcription of the spoken sermon Noone who does not carry his cross and come with me can be a disciple of mine…none of you can be a disciple of mine without parting with all his possessions. Luke 14: 27, 33 To commit is to entrust oneself to another. In the Christian Faith it is to entrust one's life to God through Jesus Christ. It is to turn over the controls of one's life to Christ, to yield to His Lordship, to recognize Him as one's sovereign, one's King. The Christian Life is a life lived out of commitment to Jesus Christ. That commitment involves the whole of life; every area of life is affected - human relationships, vocational decisions, attitudes, political and economic decisions. In the Christian understanding of things, one's spiritual commitment is not one dimension of life among others, but the primary decision of life which shapes all others. It is also the Christian understanding of human existence that yielding one's life to the Lordship of Jesus Christ is not to lose one's life, but rather to come into the fullest possible realization of being, of a truly, fully human existence. I begin with this message a series entitled, "Lifelines." It will be my purpose to show that the total commitment of oneself to Jesus Christ and the consequences of that commitment, or the living out of that commitment lead to life in its fullness. Commitment to Christ and the disciplines of Christian living are Lifelines. In this series we will focus on several facets of the Christian life in order to find the path to the abundant life Jesus came to bring and which He makes available to us. Before we examine some of the disciplines of life, however, let us begin with the recognition that the call of Jesus to follow Him involves us in a costly choice: He calls us to radical commitment. Radical is a word deliberately chosen. It comes © Grand Valley State University   �Living From Commitment Richard A. Rhem Page 2   from radix, root. The call to follow Jesus reaches to the very root of our existence. His claim and call are uncompromising. His claim and call are serious. He would shape us from the core of our being so that the attitude and actions of our daily lives are the fruit of that one primary and fundamental commitment to be His disciple. The choice of texts presented a problem only because there are so many possibilities. The Gospels carry the theme repeated in various contexts. I point you to the Gospel of Luke, Chapter 14. The paragraph beginning with verse 25 begins, Once, when great crowds were accompanying him… No one could accuse Jesus of inviting followers on false pretenses. He always laid it on the line. Obviously He was not running for election. He was not astute at winning friends and influencing people. There was nothing manipulative in His manner. He was a person consumed with God and the Kingdom of God He came to inaugurate. In the vivid language of the East, He put it this way when the crowd swelled and He feared there were many following without really understanding what was at stake. If anyone comes to me and does not hate his father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, even his own life, he cannot be a disciple of mine. No one who does not carry his cross and come with me can be a disciple of mine. …none of you can be a disciple of mine without parting with all his possessions. Luke 14: 25-33 The sharpness of the saying jars us and that is precisely its purpose. To hate means literally to love less and the counsel is obviously not hatred in intimate human relationships which are sacred but simply to say there is no relationship or claim upon the disciple of Jesus which takes precedence over the claim of Jesus on our lives. The renunciation of possessions was a familiar model for conversion in the world of Jesus. The gentile who converted to the God of Israel was called to such a oncefor-all act of renunciation, which entailed a break with one's social relationships. Edward Schillebeeckx, in his book, Jesus, points out that this pattern was taken over from late Judaism. Being converted meant in practice surrendering all one's possessions, becoming odious, having to leave father and mother, etc., and all one's worldly goods. The radical break with the past was called for by Jesus in light of the coming rule of God. The narrative of the rich young ruler who came to Jesus illustrates that this young man was not ready for radical conversion because he was unwilling to renounce all and give to the poor. The actual surrender of all material goods was the sign of a true conversion. As for the call to cross bearing, that was a familiar sight in the Palestine of Jesus' day. Crucifixion was the fate of the Zealots who were always plotting against the © Grand Valley State University �Living From Commitment Richard A. Rhem Page 3   Roman occupiers. Once again here, cross bearing was a sign of the willingness to lay down one's life and Jesus' own death on the cross became the concrete illustration of the cost of discipleship. Cross bearing was the willing assumption of the suffering involved in following Jesus and aligning oneself with the cause of the Kingdom of God. It is voluntary. It is not a burden thrust on one about which one can do nothing; it is an active assumption of the consequences of following Jesus. All of the imagery of this paragraph and the others liberally sprinkled throughout the Gospels speak of death, the dying to self. In his book, Alive in Christ, Maxie Dunnam tells of a friend, Brother Sam, a Benedictine monk who shared with him the service in which he took his solemn vows and made his life commitment to the Benedictine community and the monastic life. On that occasion he prostrated himself before the altar of the chapel in the very spot where his coffin will be set when he dies. Covered in a funeral pall, the death bell that tolls at the earthly parting of a brother sounded the solemn gongs of death. There was silence - the silence of death. The silence of the gathered community was broken by the singing of the Colossian words, "For you have died, and your life is hid with Christ in God. " (Col. 3:3). After that powerful word, there was more silence as Brother Sam reflected on his solemn vow. Then the community broke into song with the words of Psalm 118, which is always a part of the Easter liturgy in the Benedictine community: "I shall not die, but live, and declare the words of the Lord. " (Psalm 118:17 King James Version). After this resurrection proclamation, the deacon shouted the works from Ephesians: "Awake, O Sleepers, and arise from the dead, and Christ will give you light." (Eph. 5:14). Then the bells of the Abbey rang loudly and joyfully. Brother Sam rose, the funeral pall fell off, and the robe of the Benedictine Order was placed on him. He received the kiss of peace and was welcomed into the community to live a life "hid in Christ." (p. 27F) That is a beautiful ritual, a vivid image of the call to discipleship, not just to monastic orders. Jesus calls us to life through death, the death of self, selfcontrol, self-life. That this is the call of Jesus and that His claim on our lives is absolute there can be little argument. But granting that, how do we live that out in our world in our day? What does it mean to follow Jesus today? We have just been reminded of one of our own generation who put his life on the line and paid the supreme price for his discipleship. Martin Luther King said shortly before he fell from an assassin's bullet: © Grand Valley State University �Living From Commitment Richard A. Rhem Page 4   Every now and then I think about my own death, and I think about my funeral. ...I don't want a long funeral. And if you get somebody to deliver the eulogy, tell them not to talk too long... Tell them not to mention that I have a Nobel Peace Prize... Tell them not to mention that I have three or four hundred other awards... I'd like somebody to mention that day, that Martin Luther King, Jr., tried to give his life serving others. I'd like for somebody to say that day that Martin Luther King, Jr., tried to love somebody... Say that I was a drum major for justice, say that I was a drum major for peace. That I was a drum major for righteousness, and all of the other shallow things will not matter. I won't have any money to leave behind. I won't have the fine and luxurious things of life to leave behind. But I just want to leave a committed life behind. Martin Luther King, Jr., Ebenezer Baptist Church, Atlanta, Georgia. February 4, 1968 And he did. Would anyone say he was a failure? About three years ago Archbishop Romero was likewise gunned down while saying Mass in EL Salvador. He was killed because his call to discipleship led him to take up the cause of the poor and oppressed in that troubled nation. The moving film, "Gandhi," has reminded us again recently of that great spiritual leader who changed the face of India and he too took an assassin's bullet. Around the world today many languish in prisons because they have espoused unpopular causes in situations of tyranny. Our world is no stranger to the violent death that pursues those that seek to bring justice and righteousness to bear on the concrete conditions of humankind. But what of ordinary mortals like you and me living in the safety and security of Western Michigan? What does it mean for us to live from commitment to Jesus Christ as Lord? Sometimes I fear we put discipleship out of reach when we speak of King and Gandhi and of course, Jesus, who remains the preeminent model. One hardly knows where to begin and certainly there are many more things to say than can be dealt with in the compass of this message. Yet we can say some, things. First, the call to commitment is the call of the gracious God revealed in Jesus Christ. There are not two Gods. The God of grace Who in Jesus has touched our world is the only true God and His heart is love and His movement toward us is gracious. In the face of Jesus we have seen into the heart of God. © Grand Valley State University �Living From Commitment Richard A. Rhem Page 5   This is the God of tender compassion Whose love will not give up on His people, Whose judgment is the other side of His love with the intention of calling His people to their senses and to return unto Him. The call to commitment is issued by Jesus Whose heart was moved with compassion because the people were restless, harassed, like sheep without a shepherd; Jesus Who said, "Come to me all who are weary and heavy laden and I will give you rest." The call comes from one Who dealt tenderly with the weak and embraced the sinner, offering unconditional acceptance and a continuing positive regard for persons. It must be obvious then that total commitment is not the call of a despotic sadist who enjoys seeing people on the rack. A second thing that comes to mind is that the call to commitment issued by Jesus is not properly responded to by a heavy religiosity. Any cursory reading of the Gospels will detect a strong strain of anger in Jesus, anger directed toward the most religious groups of the day. His anger was not a disapproval of religious practice as such but against religious practice as a way of self-righteousness, selfjustification before God, religious practice that was outward conformity to structured ritual and ceremony without corresponding inwardness, religious practice that fulfilled institutional demands but was exercised apart from the more important matters of love, justice and mercy. A third observation I would make is that the call to commitment transcends institutional structures. Perhaps I can put it simply this way: Jesus calls persons to life in God, not simply to join the Church. By now you know me well enough to know that I consider the institutional form of the Church as a necessary evil. Spirit needs form and apart from the institutionalization of the Gospel in the community with creeds and rituals and forms of organization, the Gospel would not have reached us. All organized religion involves a set of rites, an ethical code and a body of doctrine. The institutional Church - just like the Judaism of Jesus' day, consists of rituals, ethics and doctrines and these structures become the vehicle by which religious reality is mediated from one generation to the next. By these institutional forms – rituals for worship, rules for conduct, articles of faith for understanding – a religious system is shaped which is the carrier, the mediator, of religious belief and practice. But when Jesus called to commitment he was calling persons to something more than institutional loyalty. In fact, it was the perception that He was a very great threat to the institution that got Him crucified. There was fear for the Law and the Temple. He dared point beyond Law and Temple to the God toward Whom both Law and Temple pointed, thus relativizing Law and Temple in the face of the absolute demand of God. Keeping the Law was not an end in itself; rather the Law was God's gift to Israel that they might find fullness of life. The Temple was not an end in itself; rather it © Grand Valley State University �Living From Commitment Richard A. Rhem Page 6   was the place where altar and sacrifice and Priesthood were present to mediate the presence of God to the worshiper and bring him beyond the outward forms into the gracious presence of his God. That would suggest a fourth comment: The institutional forms of religious faith and practice fulfill a necessary function in providing the structures by which we find our life's fulfillment in the worship and service of God. Here I am not saying anything not already mentioned, but I say this explicitly lest I be understood to be cavalier about institutionalized religion. How could I be? My whole life is spent in the cause of institutional religion because I see in it the only means by which the Truth of God may be conveyed and the worship and service of God cultivated, through which God is glorified and His people led into the fullness of life. There are rare souls that seem to be able to go it alone, to find the ecstasy of mystical contemplation of God in splendid isolation, but such is not possible for many. And even those who find the vision of God in the solitude of contemplation did not learn of God in a vacuum. The institution is necessary; its forms and structures are the vehicle upon which the Truth of God is conveyed. They are the signs pointing beyond themselves to the mystery of God and apart from them the vision would soon die. The institution also provides the social structure within which we are aided in the spiritual quest. We are social beings. We do not live as isolated atoms in the Universe. We are bound together in the bundle of life. We were created for community and we need the support and encouragement of one another. Personal devotion is essential; contemplation in solitude is essential. But such cannot take the place of corporate worship when as one body we are caught up into the presence of God and lose ourselves in the wonder of worship. The purpose of religious structures then is to mediate the knowledge and experience of God. If we did not have them we would have no access to God but if, having them, we never rise beyond them, we will never experience the mystery of God. Charles Davis says it well: Religion is the drive toward transcendence, the thrust of man out of and beyond himself, out of and beyond the limited order under which he lives, in an attempt to open himself to the totality of existence and reach unlimited reality and ultimate value. This drive cannot be confined to the observance of a moral code, settling questions of right and wrong within a limited frame of reference. The person who is merely moral knows nothing of the heights and depths of human experience and existence. Even a religious system set up to mediate the drive toward transcendence cannot contain it. It never fits exactly and at its best is inadequate © Grand Valley State University �Living From Commitment Richard A. Rhem Page 7   precisely because it is in itself limited and relative, not transcendent and absolute. (The Temptations of Religion, p. 73) Again, David writes, For religion the relativity of any human order of truth and value indicates its mediating function. Its purpose is to become transparent, to lead beyond itself and mediate a transcendent experience. Summarizing what we have said: 1. The call to commitment is the call of the gracious God revealed in Jesus Christ. 2. The call to commitment issued by Jesus is not properly responded to by a heavy religiosity. 3. The call to commitment transcends institutional structure. 4. The institutional forms of religious faith and practice fulfill a necessary function in providing the structures by which we find our life's fulfillment in the worship and service of God. If the above statements are true, then it must be evident that the call to commitment is a serious call to find the highest possible human fulfillment in a life whose first priority is the worship and service of God. God has made us for Himself. There is a hunger in the human heart for God. The universality of religion would seem to demonstrate that. To be sure that claim has been disputed and it does seem in our day there are many who live "onedimensional" lives with no transcendent reference, no worship, no sense of mystery beyond the human and the mundane. Yet our day would also seem to witness to that hunger for transcendence. We speak of the younger generation "turning East." With the lessening of influence of the traditional Church we have seen a rise of the cults and bizarre expression of religious devotion. Ernest Becker, the noted scholar in the field of psychoanalysis finds in the human being a longing for the heroic. He sees a universal fear of death but not the fear of extinction so much as extinction without meaning. We want our lives to be significant, to mean something, to find ourselves caught up in something bigger than ourselves. Although he does not profess to be a Christian thinker, he finds great truth in Kierkegaard who found in the Gospel's call to total commitment that which lifted the person out of himself and satisfied his longing for meaning, (cf. The Denial of Death). © Grand Valley State University �Living From Commitment Richard A. Rhem Page 8   God calls us to Himself not that He may be enhanced in His Sovereign Rule, but because God is love and love would bestow the best and highest gift on the creature made after His own image. The truth of Jesus' words has been proven over and over throughout the centuries. To grasp on to one's life is to lose it; to lose one's life in the service of Jesus and the Gospel is to find it. Thus the call to commitment is an invitation to experience Life at its highest. It is the call of the gracious God in Jesus Christ to experience abundant life. If that is true, then it must be evident that the successful living out of one's commitment is always threatened from two directions: a. From the danger of absolutizing the institution and its form and structure; b. From the danger of abandoning the institution or giving it only slight regard. The first danger is succumbed to by the religious. Jesus' greatest foes were the highly religious: those who absolutized the established form of Jewish faith, who made idols of Temple and Law and ritual. One can see this so very prevalent in our own day with the upsurge of visibility and volubility of the religious Right. Fundamentalism has become militant in our country as illustrated by the conflict over Creationism and Evolutionism. One can see it also in the mean-spirited militancy that crusades against abortion and the rights of homosexuals. There is little civility in the debate on issues in which there can certainly be differences of opinion. In great emotional display evidencing deep-seated anger, we see people demonstrate for God and Truth as though they had some corner on the truth. What they have done is absolutize their position, which is limited and relative because it is a human perspective on divine truth, not that truth itself. One can see the danger of absolutizing the institution where people are controlled and manipulated by religious leaders. Often the implication is if you do not follow my leading or support my program, or serve in my institution, you can have no part in the Kingdom. But there is danger on the other side, as well. Too many have "progressed" to where they recognize that God and the institutional forms structured to give access to Him are not synonymous and have thus simply written off the institution and the practice of religious life. One theologian of sorts writes that he doesn't need the institution or the symbols anymore. Growing up as a Scottish Presbyterian, it was all so deeply ingrained “that he can go on without it.” Fine. But who will tell his children and provide the © Grand Valley State University �Living From Commitment Richard A. Rhem Page 9   experience in which they might be overwhelmed with the mystery of God? Who will pass the torch of faith and maintain the community of faith for the generations yet unborn? For many years now at Christ Community I have chosen the difficult path of teaching you that our creedal statements are not the last word, our way of worship is not the only form of true worship, our grasp of the Christian life must always be open to examination. Our institutional life and structure is not absolute; our program as a congregation is not synonymous with God's perfect will. Yet I have called you to commitment to Christ and the Church and its life here, recognizing we have blinders, we are flawed, and we stand always in need of correction and further insight. What "sells" today is to reduce complex issues to simple formulas, claiming they are absolute, beating the drums, whipping up the emotions and leading a crusade. Such has not been my style nor the posture of this congregation. We have sought rather to be both Civil and Committed. Is it possible to recognize the relativity of our grasp of God's Truth and of the structures of our life and worship and yet be totally committed to God through Christ in the life and mission of the Church? I believe it is. I would hope that I might myself be "Exhibit A." I believe in what we are about here. I commit myself unreservedly to it, even though I recognize the flawed nature of all we do and are. This is the kind of commitment to which I call you. Spirit needs form. Faith needs structure. The Gospel of Christ will be perpetuated from one generation to another only if we maintain the community of faith, flawed though its every expression is, relative though its grasp of Truth may be, partial though its obedience always is. The cause of the Kingdom of God is carried on in the world by people like us for whom God is a priority, who, having found Him gracious, find the fullest experience of being human in the worship and service of His Name. We have striven never to come off as laying on you heavy duty and obligation. Rather, we have sought to lead you into the joy of losing yourself in the service of God. The Gospel paradox is true - greedily grasp your life to yourself and lose it; give your life away for Jesus' sake and find it. You don't have to do anything. God loves you anyway. But in failing to find yourself, your gifts and energies in the employ of God, you lose out on the deepest joy of being human. © Grand Valley State University �Living From Commitment Richard A. Rhem Page10   God's claim on you is absolute; Jesus' call to commitment is total, because God being the fountain of love would give Himself to you as you offer yourself to Him in response to His redeeming grace. Thus I set before you the key lifeline: Commitment. Living from commitment is to live fully, richly, deeply. It is the abundant life. © Grand Valley State University � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Richard A. Rhem Collection Description An account of the resource Text and sound recordings of the sermons, prayers, services, and articles of Richard Rhem, pastor emeritus of Christ Community Church in Spring Lake, Michigan, where he served for 37 years. Starting in the mid 1980's, Rhem began to question some of the traditional Christian dogma that he had been espousing from the pulpit. That questioning was a first step in a long and interesting spiritual journey, one that he openly shared with his congregation. His journey is important, in part because it is reflective of the questioning, the yearnings, and the gradual revision of beliefs that many persons in this part of the century have experienced and continue to experience. It is important also because of the affirming and inclusive way his questioning was done and his thinking evolved. His sermons and other written and spoken materials together document the steps in his journey as it took a turn in 1985, yet continued to revolve around the framework and liturgies of the Christian calendar. Subject The topic of the resource Clergy--Michigan Reformed Church in America Christ Community Church (Spring Lake, Mich.) Religion Interfaith worship Sermons Sound Recordings Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Rhem, Richard A. Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/514">Richard A. Rhem papers (KII-01)</a> Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives. Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Kaufman Interfaith Institute Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Language A language of the resource English Type The nature or genre of the resource Sound Text Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context KII-01 Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant 1981-2014 Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource audio/mp3 text/pdf Sound A resource primarily intended to be heard. Examples include a music playback file format, an audio compact disc, and recorded speech or sounds. Event Epiphany I Series LifeLines Scripture Text Luke 14: 27, 33 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-0-19850120 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1985-01-20 Title A name given to the resource Living from Commitment 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 January 20, 1985 entitled "Living from Commitment", as part of the series "LifeLines", on the occasion of Epiphany I, at Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI. Scripture references: Luke 14: 27, 33. Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Lemmen Library and Archives Community of Faith Epiphany Followers of Jesus Institutional Religion Nature of Religion Spiritual Quest Transcendence Worship https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/e9b237a80a1e2fc40d479052854283ae.mp3 f4293fa7f4f2040080942f229bdcb9b0 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Richard A. Rhem Collection Description An account of the resource Text and sound recordings of the sermons, prayers, services, and articles of Richard Rhem, pastor emeritus of Christ Community Church in Spring Lake, Michigan, where he served for 37 years. Starting in the mid 1980's, Rhem began to question some of the traditional Christian dogma that he had been espousing from the pulpit. That questioning was a first step in a long and interesting spiritual journey, one that he openly shared with his congregation. His journey is important, in part because it is reflective of the questioning, the yearnings, and the gradual revision of beliefs that many persons in this part of the century have experienced and continue to experience. It is important also because of the affirming and inclusive way his questioning was done and his thinking evolved. His sermons and other written and spoken materials together document the steps in his journey as it took a turn in 1985, yet continued to revolve around the framework and liturgies of the Christian calendar. Subject The topic of the resource Clergy--Michigan Reformed Church in America Christ Community Church (Spring Lake, Mich.) Religion Interfaith worship Sermons Sound Recordings Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Rhem, Richard A. Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/514">Richard A. Rhem papers (KII-01)</a> Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives. Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Kaufman Interfaith Institute Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Language A language of the resource English Type The nature or genre of the resource Sound Text Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context KII-01 Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant 1981-2014 Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource audio/mp3 text/pdf Sound A resource primarily intended to be heard. Examples include a music playback file format, an audio compact disc, and recorded speech or sounds. Event Epiphany II Series LifeLines Scripture Text Matthew 6:24, 33 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-0-19850127 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1985-01-27 Title A name given to the resource Living with Open Hands 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 January 27, 1985 entitled "Living with Open Hands", as part of the series "LifeLines", on the occasion of Epiphany II, at Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI. Scripture references: Matthew 6:24, 33. 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/48c9b87092b10fb0b98a3d392794e487.mp3 a7b777306adc129b2acf796f5e9e20b3 https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/61d9566a92d26dcdda169fd526207471.pdf a3e149ca05cd1d65c16576bff78decac PDF Text Text Living With Wonder From the sermon series: Lifelines Text: Isaiah 6: 1 Richard A. Rhem Christ Community Church Spring Lake, Michigan Epiphany IV, February 3, 1985 Transcription of the spoken sermon …I saw the Lord…high and exalted. Isaiah 6: 1 Viewing the Robert Kennedy story on television this past week I was reminded of the tumultuous events of the last quarter century. What drama and high tension have punctuated the flow of the years of recent decades. I remember vividly where I was the day John F. Kennedy was shot. Seeing familiar scenes flashed on the TV screen again this past week still sent a chill through me. The vast majority of our days flow without special significance and they are lost in the mists of the past. But not all days, not all events. Some days, some moments change us forever; they leave their imprint upon us and we can never be the same again. Isaiah knew that. He shared such an experience. Isaiah wrote, In the year of King Uzziah's death, I saw the Lord seated on a throne, high and exalted ... It was not necessarily the occasion of the King's death, although that is possible. Perhaps it was the annual enthronement festival. At least it was a great worship celebration, a state occasion in the setting of the Temple with, no doubt, the pageantry of priesthood, altar and incense. Whatever was the particular focus of the worship that day, for Isaiah, it was a moment of revelation, of the breaking through of the hidden majesty of God, the penetration of his whole being with the vision of the glory of God and he was transformed; his whole life was grasped, shaped and given its destiny. In chaste and restrained fashion he describes the vision: © Grand Valley State University   �Living With Wonder Richard A. Rhem   Page 2   ...the skirt of his robe filled the temple. About him were attendant seraphim ... calling to one another, ‘Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord of Hosts, the whole earth is full of his glory.’ As he was transfixed by the scene, The threshold shook to its foundations, while the house was filled with smoke. Such was the vision of the glory of God. In reaction to the vision of God's holiness, the prophet was overwhelmed and sensed his unworthiness, his uncleanness in the presence of the Lord and he cried, Woe is me! I am lost. He knew immediately that there was a great gulf between the creature and the Creator. Such a vision would be his undoing, for he cries, I have seen the King, the Lord of Hosts. But the gracious God revealed Himself not to destroy His servant; rather the ministering seraph took a glowing coal from off the altar and touched his lips, signifying his cleansing and the removal of his sins. Then it was that he heard the Lord saying, "Whom shall I send? Who will go for me?" To which Isaiah answered, "Here am I; send me." And the word of the Lord was, "Go and tell..." And Isaiah became one of the greatest of the Hebrew prophets, speaking the word of God to the People of God. This passage is obviously about the making of a prophet, about the vision of God and the prophetic call. In this message, however, I want to use the passage for another purpose, which, although not its primary teaching, is yet certainly a valid use. Let us consider the experience recorded here as an instance of the encounter with God in the celebration of worship. Worship is our focus. And even though Isaiah's experience was very personal, as all moments of divine revelation must be, yet its occasion was the corporate worship of God's people. It is corporate worship about which I invite you to think with me. Corporate worship is a lifeline; it provides the occasion in which Eternity breaks into our time, heaven touches earth, God reveals His glory, Grace and forgiveness are realized, the call of God is heard, and our response is offered. © Grand Valley State University �Living With Wonder Richard A. Rhem   Page 3   Worship provides the setting in which we are lifted out of ourselves, beyond the limits of the ordinary, in which we have the experience of transcendence and we are enabled to live with wonder. Living with wonder — That is the enrichment that worship affords. Moving from the experience of worship into the ordinary and the mundane to pick up our duties and exercise our vocations, all is transformed. A glow radiates over all of life. We move through the world as through a magnificent vaulted cathedral, conscious of the vertical dimension of life by which the horizontal plane of our lives has been intersected and transformed. Archbishop William Temple wrote: To worship is to quicken the conscience by the holiness of God; to feed the mind with the truth of God; to purge the imagination by the beauty of God; to open the heart to the love of God; to devote the will to the purpose of God. Those statements seem to flow directly from the experience Isaiah recorded for us. Worship is a lifeline because it is the highest action of the human person whereby true humanity is realized through the vision, grace and call of God. Worship is a spiritual discipline. It is means by which we are shaped into the persons God has called us to be. That shaping, that forming of persons, of a people, is accomplished most notably through the experience of corporate worship. In this message I recommend to you the great importance and value of regular corporate worship. I do so not to make it a legalistic requirement, the socalled "Sunday obligation." I do so because I believe the regular, corporate worship of the people of God gives structure and rhythm to life. I recommend regular, corporate worship to you as a spiritual discipline, indeed, a lifeline, because I believe it is so vitally important to have a regular weekly appointment in which you can be unlocked from the world's grip, freed from the grip of value systems and ideologies that would mold you into a sub-human existence, lifted above the economic struggle for survival, the competitive struggle that creates tension with values of mercy and compassion, the perils of a consumer culture that pummels you with eat, drink and be merry for tomorrow we die – like a dog, a culture that would convince us that this is all there is. No people can know spiritual formation, the shaping of life and value by the Word of God without a regular appointment with the occasion and the setting in which our lives may be encountered, confronted, judged, graced, healed and sent forth again to be the people of God in the world. Living with wonder. © Grand Valley State University �Living With Wonder Richard A. Rhem   Page 4   That could be a definition of being human. It speaks of living with the awareness of God, with the awareness that there is something more, a transcendent dimension; with a sense of grace that overcomes brokenness and failure; with a sense of vocation, calling, that gives life meaning and purpose. A sense of wonder. Living with wonder would enable others to sense through our language and behavior a life lived in openness and awesomeness before the world of things and peoples. As a friend and colleague described it, In an over-rational and over-explained world our overweened arrogance of knowledge teaches us that wonder is a temporary state of curiosity caused by an ignorance of adequate explanation. To realize that this universe, the one in outer space as well as inner space, holds mystery beyond imagination. Dag Hammarskjold was a celebrant of that mystery. He said in his diary, “God does not die on the day we cease to believe in a personal deity, but we die on the day when our lives cease to be illumined by the steady radiance, renewed daily, of a wonder the source of which is beyond all reason. (Howard Moody) Isaiah's life was transformed in that moment of vision which occurred in the context of corporate worship. Every time we gather together here we place ourselves in the posture and setting where lightning may strike. Reflect with me about the act of corporate worship. Obviously one could bring a whole series of messages on the subject of the corporate worship of God and I cannot begin to cover the subject in this one message. My focus is very limited and specific: I am setting before you the great importance of a regular corporate worship as a spiritual discipline by which your life might be characterized by a sense of wonder. In choosing this narrow focus I create for myself inevitable problems. First, I can point to the vision of God which transforms human existence but I cannot guarantee that that will "happen" every time we gather for everyone, or even for anyone. God reveals Himself. God gives Himself. God is sovereign in His own unveiling. The same thing stated negatively - God cannot be manipulated by liturgical acts, incantations, sacramental actions. God is God. He is not at our disposal. He is not a genie to be "rubbed," moved by a magical formula or coerced into action by ritual of priest or people. I face a second problem: To speak of the vision of God is not the same thing as experiencing the vision of God. To speak about worship is not worship. Speaking as I am now, tied to a biblical text over which we have prayed and to which we © Grand Valley State University �Living With Wonder Richard A. Rhem   Page 5   give attention is an essential action of corporate worship. In speaking as I am, I speak out of prayerful preparation with confidence in the promise of God to speak through my words. Yet here, too, God remains God; God remains free. In our Reformation tradition we have highly valued the sermon. We speak of the Word made flesh, the Word written and the Word preached and we call them all the Word of God. Nonetheless, apart from the present action of the Living God, the Word written remains a dead letter and the Word preached but human stammering. In other words, in corporate worship all of the forms, liturgical acts, gestures, sacramental actions are human structures that provide the framework in which the "happening" may occur. To use an analogy, the structure of the service and the actions in which we engage are like the train tracks. Whether the locomotive moves down those tracks is not in our power to determine. There is a third problem I face related to the one just mentioned: I can only describe that to which I refer rationally; yet what I am seeking to describe is beyond reason. Obviously as I speak to you I must attempt to be clear, to make sense. I work hard to make the message understandable. It must therefore be reasonable, able to be grasped by the reason. It must be logical so that its meaning can be grasped. But when I speak of the vision of God, of the inbreaking of God, of a “lightning strike” of revelation, I am speaking of an action of God, the experience of which is ineffable. The definition of “ineffable” is that which “cannot be expressed in words; unspeakable, unutterable, inexpressible.” Do you sense my dilemma? I am speaking about what is unspeakable, attempting to express what is inexpressible, trying to utter the unutterable. The best I can do is to point you by means of speech in logical thought, to a Reality which can only be experienced. In a classic study of the experience of God, which is beyond reason's ability to grasp or describe, The Idea of the Holy, by Rudolf Otto, the author states: This book, recognizing the profound import of the non-rational for metaphysics, makes a serious attempt to analyze all the more exactly the feeling which remains where the concept fails, and to introduce a terminology which is not any the more loose or indeterminate for having necessarily to make use of symbols. (Forward) To speak thus of "feeling" certainly is not to reduce religious experience to a purely human phenomenon. The translator of Otto's book writes in the preface: It is possible to devote our attention to religious “experience” in a sense which would almost leave out of account the object of which it is an experience. We may so concentrate upon the “feeling,” that the objective © Grand Valley State University �Living With Wonder Richard A. Rhem   Page 6   cause of it may fall altogether out of sight. Is religious experience essentially just a state of mind, a feeling, whether of oppression or of exaltation, a sense of “sin” or an assurance of “salvation;” or is it not rather our apprehension of “the divine,” meaning by that term at least something independent of the mental and emotional state of the moment of experience? (p. XIIf.) In reference to Otto's purpose, the translator affirms: He is concerned to examine the nature of those elements in the religious experience which lie outside and beyond the scope of reason - which cannot be comprised in ethical or "rational" conceptions, but which none the less as "feelings" cannot be disregarded by an honest inquiry. And his argument shows in the first place that in all the forms which religious experience may assume and has assumed, so far as these can be reinterpreted ... certain basic "moments" of feeling ... are always found to recur. Speaking directly to our point, he continues, Here we are shown that the religious "feeling" properly involves a unique kind of apprehension, sui generis, not to be reduced to ordinary intellectual concepts, and yet - and this is the paradox of the matter - itself a genuine "knowing," the growing awareness of an object, deity. ... a response, so to speak, to the impact upon the human mind of the divine," as it reveals itself whether obscurely or clearly. The primary fact is the confrontation of the human mind with a Something, whose character is only gradually learned, but which is from the first felt as a transcendent present. "The beyond," even where it is also felt as "the within" man. (XIV F.) When I speak of the problem of expressing what is essentially inexpressible, I am speaking of what Otto describes in his study. The translator states it thus: The "feeling" element in religion involves, then, a genuine "knowing" or awareness, though, in contrast to that knowing which can express itself in concepts, it may be termed "non-rational." The feeling of the "uncanny," the thrill of awe or reverence, the sense of dependence, of impotence, or of nothingness, or again the feelings of religious rapture and exaltation, - all these are attempted designations of the mental states which attend the awareness of certain aspects of "the divine." (p. XV) It is to the "feeling" that remains when the concept fails that I point you. I can only point to the experience. Isaiah described such an experience in the imagery of the Temple service. There in the midst of some festival celebration God broke through to him. © Grand Valley State University �Living With Wonder Richard A. Rhem   Page 7   It was a life-transforming moment. For the rest of his days he was shaped by that vision. Few of us will ever have such a vivid, dramatic encounter. But it is the contention of this message that it is in the setting of corporate worship that we put ourselves in the way of such an experience. It is here in the sanctuary that we are most likely to be encountered and that we have the greatest potential for apprehending the divine vision. If we would live with wonder then we can do no better than place ourselves in the presence of God with spirits open to the lightning strike of His glory. Rudolf Otto coins the word "numinous" to describe ... The specific non-rational religious apprehension and its object, at all its levels, from the first dim stirrings where religion can hardly yet be said to exist to the most exalted forms of spiritual experience. (p. XVII) But he maintains that we cannot dispense with the knowledge that comes through human reason and moral experience. He insists, writes Harvey, that for him the supremacy of Christianity over all other religions lies in the unique degree in which ... in Christianity the numinous elements, such as the sense of awe and reverence before the infinite mystery and infinite majesty, are yet combined and made one with the rational elements, assuring us that God is an all-righteous, all-provident, and all-loving Person, with whom a man may enter into the most intimate relationship. (p. XVII) Thus it is Otto's contention that religion ... is a real knowledge of, and real personal communion with, a Being Whose nature is yet above knowledge and transcends personality. This apparent contradiction cannot be evaded by concentrating upon an aspect of it and ignoring the other, without doing a real injury to religion. It must be faced directly in the experience of worship, and there, and only there, it ceases to be a contradiction and becomes a harmony. (p. XVII) God is the object of worship. We attempt to speak of God. The description of God is spoken of as the attributes of God and Otto writes, ... all these attributes constitute clear and definite concepts; they can be grasped by the intellect; they can be analyzed by thought; they even admit of definition. An object that can thus be thought conceptually may be termed rational. The nature of deity described in the attributes above mentioned is, then, a rational nature; and a religion which recognizes and maintains such a view of God is in so far a "rational" religion. Only on such terms is Belief possible in contrast to mere feeling. (p. 1) © Grand Valley State University �Living With Wonder Richard A. Rhem   Page 8   However, too much religion, including our Reformed tradition, has stopped there. As Otto says, ... so far are these "rational" attributes from exhausting the idea of deity that they in fact imply a non-rational or supra-rational Subject of which they are predicates. ... That is to say, we have to predicate them of a subject which they qualify, but which in its deeper essence is not, nor indeed can be, comprehended in them; which rather requires comprehension of a quite different kind. (p. 2) Otto points to the failing of Christian orthodoxy in that it found in the construction of dogma and doctrine no way to do justice to the non-rational aspect of its subject. So far from keeping the non-rational element in religion alive in the heart of the religious experience, orthodox Christianity manifestly failed to recognize its value, and by this failure gave to the idea of God the one-sidedly intellectualistic and rationalistic interpretation. (p. 3) So much for the problems I encounter as I point you to the discipline of corporate worship as the place and occasion for an encounter with the living God from which one derives the sense of wonder that transforms all of life. Recognizing that I can point to the vision of God but cannot guarantee that to speak about worship is not the same as worshiping, and that I must describe the worship experience rationally, but that it is an experience beyond reason, let me nonetheless say something about the experience of corporate worship. The first statement I would make is that our worship is response to God. He has taken the initiative; He has woven the truth of His being into the fabric of our being and no matter how much we deface His image in our souls, yet we can never fully divest ourselves of the trace of His imprint. This is where we part company with those following the German philosopher/theologian Feuerbach, such as Marx and Freud and company, who insist that religion is of human creation, prompted by human need and thus must be understood not as response to the revelation of God, but as a purely human action fashioning God out of human projections. We speak of the "feeling" that remains when the concept fails; we speak of that which shatters our reason and breaks the bounds of our rational thinking, but we insist that is a reflex action a response, a re-action. God reveals Himself; our worship is response. Thus worship is something the People do Godward; it is human action offered to God Who is the object of our worship. Therefore, while worship should be edifying and instructive, edification and instruction are not in themselves worship. Therefore, worship ought never to be boring, but neither is its purpose entertainment, simply holding the people's attention. Worship is the offering of praise and adoration to God Who has made © Grand Valley State University �Living With Wonder Richard A. Rhem   Page 9   Himself known to us so that we cannot but respond by acknowledging His worthship. Secondly, the corporate worship of God occurs in a carefully choreographed, dramatic pageant. Such a statement will certainly not be accepted by all without objection. Let me quickly admit that there is a large variety of acceptable modes of worship. Where God's people gather, God's truth is declared and God's Spirit is present, there the worship of God occurs. Let me acknowledge further that various modes and media of worship touch different persons. There must be no stereotyping of personality type that alone can worship truly, and worship depends not on one's theological understanding, liturgical training or aesthetic sense. Granting that I must insist that the worship of God demands of us the highest attention, the most strenuous care for detail, and the utilization of our best gifts all devoted to excellence of form and content in the experience of worship, I have acknowledged the legitimacy of variety in modes of worship: the silence of the plain Quaker Meeting House, the fervor of the Charismatic Pentecostals, the solemn dignity of Evensong in the setting of Cathedral magnificence. Yet, let me put in a word for the mode of worship created in this place week by week. I spoke of a carefully choreographed, dramatic pageant. The word pageant has several definitions. The most obvious is "a scene acted on a stage." Another definition is "a spectacle arranged for effect." And "pageantry" is defined as "splendid display; pomp." "Pomp" is defined as "splendid display or celebration; splendour, magnificence. " In the definitions of pageantry and pomp there is also another meaning of empty display or ostentation. That is interesting because it indicates what a fine line there is between truth and its counterfeit. That is why religious ritual and ceremony have so frequently through the centuries become empty, lifeless display without substance, without soul. Hollow forms have been the curse of the Church, foisted on her by ministers and priests without passion and faith, by religious leaders grown callous through familiarity with holy things. Acknowledging all of that, I must still contend that the celebration of worship of the People of God at its highest and best is the full-spectrum pageant in which is utilized the arts which appeal to the aesthetic sense: music that moves one in the depths; movement that expresses what leaves the tongue dumb; color and symbol creating a feast for the eye; the word of truth that engages the mind and triggers the emotion that triggers the will; candles and crosses and colors of vestments; incense and smoke rising heavenward; © Grand Valley State University �Living With Wonder Richard A. Rhem   Page10   the roar of the mighty organ; the chill of an obligate; the simplicity of a gesture - breaking bread, pouring wine, making the sign of the cross on a forehead with baptismal water; The word of assurance -"Your sins are forgiven; go in peace." Choir and congregation in one mighty voice, singing to Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, Alleluia! Go back to the definition of pageant: "A spectacle arranged for effect." That is it, you see: arranged for effect. What effect? The vision of God, surely! The vision of God, high and lifted up! I cannot in calm rational discourse affect the vision; I can only point to it, speak about it, draw out the implications of it. Sweet reason does not remove the veil from the face of the living God. Reason reaches its limit; rational discourse comes to its bounding and still beyond reigns the living God. He must come to us. He must penetrate our space and time. But if I can choreograph a pageant full of sound and sight which engages not only the head but the heart and soul, then at least I have set the stage - created the setting, arranged the spectacle where the effect might, if God be gracious, happen. In such a setting I just may catch a glimpse of His glory; there may well be a moment in which there is a rift in the sky and in that moment my life may well be transformed, become radiant with light and full of glory. Then I will have come to know God Who is beyond knowledge, and to possess a joy which is unspeakable. Then my life will be full of wonder, and I will walk beneath the blue sky of the heavens as though it were a great vaulted cathedral and my every day will be vibrant with praise. Finally, in such an experience of worship all of life is lifted into the presence of God, cleansed and claimed and sent forth to serve. It is here in worship that one is most likely to hear the Voice, "Who will go for me?" "Whom shall I send?" It is while one is lost in wonder, love and praise that one is most open to respond, "Here am I, send me." That, of course, is why this service always culminates in the offering. Where a People has caught a glimpse of the glory of God and heard the call of God, response is inevitable. Some action is called for, some gesture must be made. That is why the organ builds to mighty crescendo, the people rise, the gifts come forward and together we sing, "Praise God from Whom all blessings flow." © Grand Valley State University �Living With Wonder Richard A. Rhem   Page11   How could we remain seated, passive, uninvolved? Such is the wonder of worship. From such worship flows life full of wonder. Living with wonder is living with heaven on earth. Reference: Rudolf Otto. The Idea of the Holy. Translated by John W. Harvey. Oxford University Press, 1958. © Grand Valley State University � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Richard A. Rhem Collection Description An account of the resource Text and sound recordings of the sermons, prayers, services, and articles of Richard Rhem, pastor emeritus of Christ Community Church in Spring Lake, Michigan, where he served for 37 years. Starting in the mid 1980's, Rhem began to question some of the traditional Christian dogma that he had been espousing from the pulpit. That questioning was a first step in a long and interesting spiritual journey, one that he openly shared with his congregation. His journey is important, in part because it is reflective of the questioning, the yearnings, and the gradual revision of beliefs that many persons in this part of the century have experienced and continue to experience. It is important also because of the affirming and inclusive way his questioning was done and his thinking evolved. His sermons and other written and spoken materials together document the steps in his journey as it took a turn in 1985, yet continued to revolve around the framework and liturgies of the Christian calendar. Subject The topic of the resource Clergy--Michigan Reformed Church in America Christ Community Church (Spring Lake, Mich.) Religion Interfaith worship Sermons Sound Recordings Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Rhem, Richard A. Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/514">Richard A. Rhem papers (KII-01)</a> Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives. Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Kaufman Interfaith Institute Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Language A language of the resource English Type The nature or genre of the resource Sound Text Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context KII-01 Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant 1981-2014 Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource audio/mp3 text/pdf Sound A resource primarily intended to be heard. Examples include a music playback file format, an audio compact disc, and recorded speech or sounds. Event Epiphany III Series LifeLines Scripture Text Isaiah 6:1 Location The location of the interview Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI References Rudolf Otto. The Idea of the Holy. Translated by John W. Harvey, 1958. 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-0-19850203 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1985-02-03 Title A name given to the resource Living with Wonder Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Richard A. Rhem Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Subject The topic of the resource Clergy--Michigan Reformed Church in America Christ Community Church (Spring Lake, Mich.) Sermons Relation A related resource Richard A. Rhem - An Archive of Sermons, Prayers, Talks and Stories: http://richardrhem.org/ Language A language of the resource eng Type The nature or genre of the resource Sound Text Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource audio/mp3 application/pdf Description An account of the resource A sermon given by Richard A. Rhem (Dick) on February 3, 1985 entitled "Living with Wonder", as part of the series "LifeLines", on the occasion of Epiphany III, at Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI. Scripture references: Isaiah 6:1. Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Lemmen Library and Archives Epiphany Presence Prophet Isaiah Sacred Transcendence Wonder Worship https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/efa0b8cb04890365d330c491c8d5eafa.mp3 b0cce55d5901a27da5288fc7da68edb8 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Richard A. Rhem Collection Description An account of the resource Text and sound recordings of the sermons, prayers, services, and articles of Richard Rhem, pastor emeritus of Christ Community Church in Spring Lake, Michigan, where he served for 37 years. Starting in the mid 1980's, Rhem began to question some of the traditional Christian dogma that he had been espousing from the pulpit. That questioning was a first step in a long and interesting spiritual journey, one that he openly shared with his congregation. His journey is important, in part because it is reflective of the questioning, the yearnings, and the gradual revision of beliefs that many persons in this part of the century have experienced and continue to experience. It is important also because of the affirming and inclusive way his questioning was done and his thinking evolved. His sermons and other written and spoken materials together document the steps in his journey as it took a turn in 1985, yet continued to revolve around the framework and liturgies of the Christian calendar. Subject The topic of the resource Clergy--Michigan Reformed Church in America Christ Community Church (Spring Lake, Mich.) Religion Interfaith worship Sermons Sound Recordings Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Rhem, Richard A. Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/514">Richard A. Rhem papers (KII-01)</a> Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives. Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Kaufman Interfaith Institute Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Language A language of the resource English Type The nature or genre of the resource Sound Text Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context KII-01 Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant 1981-2014 Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource audio/mp3 text/pdf Sound A resource primarily intended to be heard. Examples include a music playback file format, an audio compact disc, and recorded speech or sounds. Event Epiphany IV Series LifeLines Scripture Text Mark 1:35, Luke 22:42, Luke 23:46 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-0-19850210 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1985-02-10 Title A name given to the resource Living in Dialogue 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 February 10, 1985 entitled "Living in Dialogue", as part of the series "LifeLines", on the occasion of Epiphany IV, at Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI. Scripture references: Mark 1:35, Luke 22:42, Luke 23:46. 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/fb100a79f720914d4ba398b12859755e.mp3 9642fc7d145f9d0f7c9632912e503c64 https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/bf131020b8c5003a093a3edcb5e60317.pdf 806359be2b93196a6c8a728181bad601 PDF Text Text Living With Care From the sermon series: Lifelines Text: Isaiah 42: 3, 6; Matthew 9: 36 Richard A. Rhem Christ Community Church Spring Lake, Michigan February 17, 1985 Transcription of the spoken sermon Having entered the circle of those whose life span has reached the half century mark, I have been thinking about life and decided that it would be a good time to have a thorough checkup, to get a reading on the present condition of this "house" I live in. A stress test was suggested, but I responded that I have one of those every day. Having been blessed with good health, I am not one that gives much thought to my physical body and I am quite sure I do not take care of it as I should. That is a confession. I certainly affirm the attention given to physical health in our day. Wellness is in and that is good; that is biblical, for our Judeo-Christian faith affirms the body and Paul speaks of proper regard for the body since it is the Temple of the Spirit. Proper eating, rest, exercise - all of that is important, and we could no doubt develop a series of lectures entitled "Lifelines" which would deal with the various disciplines by which good physical health is maintained. There is a high level of consciousness about health matters. In Times Square last week I saw the brilliant neon signs for Sony, Minolta and Tobishi, and sandwiched in there somewhere was a new weight control diet plan advertised in glittering colors. I noticed it on my way to Mama Leone's, where I had a sevencourse dinner. I have been setting before us in this series of messages another set of lifelines spiritual disciplines by which to enhance the spiritual dimension of our human existence. Do not misunderstand me, please! I would not want to set physical and spiritual over against each other. We are not "souls" and "bodies," compartmentalized so that we can deal with the one in isolation from the other. Neither should we choose to cultivate the spiritual and deprecate the physical, or vice versa. © Grand Valley State University   �Living With Care Richard A. Rhem Page 2   However, the lifelines I have been speaking about are spiritual disciplines through the exercise of which we deepen the spiritual life and cultivate the presence of God in our lives, thereby enticing the fullest, richest of human experience. Physical wellness has caught on; it has become with some even an obsession. Spiritual wellness (or fullness) is more difficult to "sell"; there is a great lack of spiritual discipline among us in the Church, let alone the population in general. This morning in Louisville, at the Human Heart Institute, the third person will undergo surgery to receive an artificial heart. Such medical experimentation is inevitable; we will continue to push back the horizons and establish new frontiers in medical science. I do not speak against that or call it into question. However, when we remember Barney Clark and when we see what William Schroeder has gone through, it must be abundantly clear that there is a sharp distinction between extension of physical existence, and quality of life. The stages we are going through are the only way to progress in our capacity to extend and enhance life, but it is obvious that extension is not synonymous with enhancement. One thing is certain: we will never beat out the Grim Reaper; we may stave off death, but it is only a matter of time. How important it then is that we get things in proper prospective. Might we not be giving our attention, time, energy and resources to the preservation of what we can never finally keep while failing to develop that which we will never lose? Life in the biblical sense, in the ultimate sense, is more than a beating heart. Jesus said, I have come, that they may have Life, and have it more abundantly. (John 10:10) Again he said, This is eternal life; to know Thee Who alone art truly God, and Jesus Christ whom Thou hast sent. (John 17:3) The life Jesus spoke of is eternal life and that is not some esoteric existence after death, but a present possibility, a present reality. Eternal life is here and now, living in communion with God through Jesus Christ. The spiritual disciplines I have been setting before you in this series are not ends in themselves; they are means to the end of life in relationship with God. They are forms and structures by which we may practice the presence of God. Spiritual disciplines give us access to abundant life: life which is full, deep, rich; life which is truly human, fully alive. © Grand Valley State University �Living With Care Richard A. Rhem Page 3   Spiritual disciplines practiced in the course of our present existence develop communion with God that robs death of its sting and makes it but a point of transition to a form of existence in the presence of God of which present experience is but a foretaste and foregleam. As I have indicated before, Jesus is our model. Paul prayed for the Galatian Christians "until you take the shape of Christ." In Jesus, God revealed Himself - we see who God is. In Jesus, God revealed His intention for human existence. To this point in this Lifelines series, we have suggested: 1. We must intentionally begin - commitment. 2. We must yield to God's grace, which transforms us from people of the clenched fist to people of the open hand. 3. We must present ourselves in regular appointment in the corporate worship of God with His people - living with wonder. 4. We must daily open our lives to Him and cultivate His presence -living in dialogue. Finally, let me suggest that we must become involved with God's mission in the world: 5. We must live with care. Care is an interesting word. It has taken on various meanings. To be full of care may mean to be burdened with worry and anxiety. Such care Jesus said is lack of trust. He would have us care-free, not care-full. We also use it in the sense of "Do you care if ..." Does it matter to you, in other words, and we may respond, "No, I don't care ..." Sometimes in that sense we communicate indifference. I am using care in another sense. I use it here to convey just the opposite of indifference. I am suggesting that God calls us to live with passionate concern and sensitivity to our neighbor and with a sense of responsibility for our world. Just as I began this series with a theme – Commitment, which was not itself a discipline but the prior decision to cultivate a disciplined life, so I end not with a specific discipline but rather with the fruit of such discipline - a life engaged in mission, a life of care. This is extremely important. We do not cultivate the spiritual life simply to turn in on ourselves; we are not content simply to develop our own soul as though we lived an isolated human © Grand Valley State University �Living With Care Richard A. Rhem Page 4   existence. That, in fact, is a contradiction: if we are isolated, we are not fully human. God created us for Himself and each other. We are created for community - a fully human existence is a life in relationship with God, and with neighbor. The highest, richest, fullest human existence is a life drawn out of itself, lived with care for the world and all God's children. The best of spiritual directors have seen this clearly. There is an inward journey the cultivation of a personal spiritual life. There must be an outward journey, the moving out in compassion to the world. The two journeys must be engaged in simultaneously. It is not the case that we can become spiritual masters and then begin to serve in the Kingdom. Training for Kingdom service is "hands on" training. It is as we engage in the mission of Christ in the world that we are driven deeper into the spiritual life and as we deepen the spiritual springs of the soul we will be driven out into the world in the cause of Christ. Inward journey. Outward journey. In worship and personal devotion we find our lives transformed into the posture of the open hand and we enter the arena of service. Such service requires regular maintenance of our spiritual life and thus we seek grace and power in worship and devotion. In Israel there is a classic example of what I am addressing in this message. From the heights of Mount Herman and surrounding mountain ranges fresh water flows into the Jordan River. When in the Holy Land, we came down from the Golan Heights and stopped at a small bridge over the sparkling, fresh, flowing water of the Jordan. We also took a boat trip on the lovely Sea of Galilee. The Jordan flows out of Galilee at its south end. The sea is still fished as it was in Jesus' day. The water is sweet. The Jordan flows south and empties into the Dead Sea. It is called the Dead Sea because of its heavy saline content. It is also called the Salt Sea. It is heavy with mineral content. I swam in the Dead Sea and could not submerge myself. One bobs on the surface like a cork. Surrounding the Dead Sea it is wilderness, a desert, stark and barren. The water is useless for irrigation; it cannot make the desert bloom. What is the difference? It is the same water. The difference is that the Dead Sea has no outlet; there is nowhere for the water to go and thus it becomes stagnant. It brings death rather than life. The Sea of Galilee is fresh, supporting life, watering the countryside and making it fruitful. The Dead Sea is stagnant, devoid of life, leaving the area a wilderness. The Sea of Galilee both receives and gives. © Grand Valley State University �Living With Care Richard A. Rhem Page 5   The Dead Sea takes in but has no outlet. And that is a parable of human existence. Through the cultivation of spiritual discipline we receive spiritual grace and power. Through caring ministry, grace and power flow through us to the world and our lives are fresh, vital, fruitful. God calls us to be channels of grace, conduits of love, instruments of peace, caregivers. This is so central a biblical teaching that I need only point you to the lessons of the day. The Old Testament lesson, Isaiah 42:1-7, is one of the so-called Servant Songs and response. The Servant Songs of Isaiah portray the mission of one who proclaims the Good News of God, suffers and finally gives his life in carrying out his service for God. Biblical scholars have pointed out that sometimes the Servant seems to be an individual, sometimes a corporate personality, thus representing Israel in its calling to be God's special instrument of salvation to the world. One commentary states it thus: The servant is conceived as an individual figure, but he is the figure who recapitulates in himself all the religious gifts and the religious mission of Israel ... He is the fullness of Israel; in him the history of Israel reaches its achievement. He incorporates the dominant features of Israel's past; he has some of the traits of a new Moses: he is the spokesman of divine revelation, he is the witness of the divinity of Yahweh to Israel and to the nation; he is a prophet. (The Anchor Bible, Servant Israel, p. LIII) Further, he writes, The Servant poems are not "predictions" of the future in the simple sense. They are rather insights into the future, into the ways of God with men, a projection of how judgment and salvation must be realized if they are to be realized at all. For the community to whom the Songs were addressed, they are a challenge to a commitment, to a faith in a future, which is revealed in the figure of the Servant. Unless Israel accepts the Servant as its incorporation, it cannot keep faith with Yahweh. (Ibid., p. LV) Chapter 42 presents the Servant. God's Spirit is on him and he "will make justice shine on the nation." His manner will be one of tenderness and compassion. He will not break a bruised reed, or snuff out a smoldering wick. He will bring God's teachings to the world. The word in Hebrew is torah, which we usually translate as law, but which does not mean law in the narrow sense of legal code but "way of life." It really means here "revelation." The Servant brings the revelation of the Truth of God to the Nations. He does so not in great public display with noisy ostentation, but quietly with sensitivity, setting forth the light of God's truth in the world's darkness. © Grand Valley State University �Living With Care Richard A. Rhem Page 6   The response to the Song in verses 5-9 sets forth clearly that God, the Creator, has called Israel to be His special agent to bring light and salvation to the world, to establish justice and create order in creation. Listen to this clear call: I, the Lord, have called you with righteous purpose and taken you by the hand; I have formed you, and appointed you to be a light to all peoples, a beacon for the nations, to open eyes that are blind, to bring captives out of prison, out of the dungeons where they be in darkness. Called. Formed. Appointed. Israel's mission is unmistakably clear. She is God's elect people. God called one nation to bring light and salvation to all nations. Election is to service. It is both privilege and responsibility. Israel was God's special People; its mission was to be a beacon for the nations. Israel failed in its mission. The whole of Old Testament history was reduced to a righteous remnant, finally to Jesus. Jesus found the model for his ministry in the Servant Songs. He adopted the posture of the Servant of the Lord. He became the Suffering Servant. He finally died vicariously for the sin of the world, bringing salvation to the world. Jesus fulfilled the ideal of the Servant. Matthew, in our New Testament lesson, pictures him in his healing ministry. In 9:21-22 the Greek word Sozein is used three times in regard to the woman who touched his garment. She was healed. She was "saved." Jesus came to save, to heal, to make whole. He came to restore order and unity to God's creation. In this context he gives sight to the blind, hearing to the deaf and life to the dead. Jesus' miracles were not for the sake of sensationalism; rather they were signs of the presence of the Kingdom, the rule of God. They were signs pointing to the new order, the new Creation. God's presence and power were mediated through the life and ministry of Jesus. Our text paints a beautiful portrait of the Saviour. Matthew gives us a summary statement after citing miracle after miracle. He writes: So Jesus went round all the towns and villages teaching in their synagogues, announcing the good news of the Kingdom, and curing every king of ailment and disease. The sight of the people moved him to pity: they were like sheep without a shepherd, harassed and helpless… The sight of the people moved Jesus to compassion. He saw the multitude and sensed their confusion: sheep without a shepherd, harassed, helpless. His life was a gift to people; He proclaimed the Truth. © Grand Valley State University �Living With Care Richard A. Rhem Page 7   One translation reads instead of "announcing the good news of the Kingdom," "proclaiming the Freedom of the Kingdom." He brought the truth that set persons free. He brought wholeness to persons: sight, hearing, health - life itself. Thus the highest ideal of Old Testament insight - the calling to be the Servant of the Lord - found its embodiment, its fulfillment in the life and ministry of Jesus. If, then, Jesus is our model, if we are to take on the shape of Christ, we will not only imitate him in his life of communion, but we will follow him in his life of service. Like Jesus, we are called to live with care. The care with which we are called to live is as broad as the world and as personal as our neighbor. Obviously I am using care in the sense of concern and compassion that draws us out of ourselves, our private lives and personal pursuits. To live with care is to acknowledge that I am my brother's keeper; that the experience of the grace of God makes me, with St. Paul, a debtor to all, responsible to share the Gospel. To live with care means, again to cite St. Paul, "to look to each other's interest and not merely to your own." To live with care means to accept responsibility for the world, for the cause of justice and the doing of righteousness; it means to be engaged in the great issues that confront the world and society; to be informed and to exercise whatever influence one has in the network of one's relationships to work for and speak for truth and right and mercy. Let me draw from today's Scripture two dimensions of caring which find expression both in the Servant Song of Isaiah and the Gospel reading. First, to care is to proclaim the truth, to witness to the revelation God has given, to announce Good News, to share the message of freedom through the liberating action of God. This the Servant was called to do. "... the islands wait for his teaching." "To be a light to all peoples, a beacon for the nations. This Jesus did; he taught. "... teaching ... announcing the good news." This we are called to do. We are the People of God, the new Israel, the Body of Christ, the extension of the Incarnation. We have been given the knowledge of God's revelation in the face of Jesus. We have learned of His redemptive acts and we have experienced His grace. Therefore we are called to witness to the Truth. © Grand Valley State University �Living With Care Richard A. Rhem Page 8   We must do this with proper humility and deep sensitivity. We must not do so with arrogance in a proud spirit. Only out of gratitude and the awe that God should have been merciful to us do we in turn witness to the truth we have found in Christ Jesus. It is our conviction that God has revealed Himself supremely in Jesus and that His grace is extended to the world through Jesus. This does not deny that there is truth, goodness and beauty beyond the Christian Church. There is no need to deny that God's saving intention and action reaches beyond the bounds of the Church as we know it. It is to say, however, that His last word is Jesus. Jesus is the Truth that sets people free. All religions are not alike. One is not as good as another. The Gospel is liberating. That's why one can translate Matthew 9:35 announcing the Freedom of the Kingdom. The Servant's posture was one of humility. His approach filled with compassion, he did not break the bruised reed. But he faithfully bore witness to the Truth. My knowledge and understanding of world religions is limited and a religion can be understood fully only from within. Yet I am convinced that the Christian Gospel is the Truth that sets people free. The Gospel is a liberating Truth that changes human life and society. Where the Gospel has made its impact felt, there has resulted a humanization of society. It is still happening around the world and there is still great need for the worldwide witness to Jesus Christ. We call people not to religion; they have religion. We call them to the Way of Life. In our world this calls for greater sensitivity than ever before and the difficulties of bearing witness to God's grace are more complex than ever given the nature of today's world scene with ideological conflict and revolutionary ferment, especially since we are a world power seeking to maintain the status quo. Thus it is so very critical that the Christian Church claim its own identity as the People of God who are called to mission - a mission that will witness to God's truth both in our own nation and beyond - to the whole world. That's why the Catholic Bishops are doing what they are doing in publishing pastoral letters on subjects like nuclear warfare and economics. Differ with their conclusions, if you will, but recognize their responsibility to bear witness in that arena, for God has called, formed and appointed His people to be light to the people and a beacon to the Nations. This is why Desmond Tutu, newly appointed bishop in South Africa, speaks against the apartheid policy of that nation. It is the Church's calling to confront injustice and oppression. © Grand Valley State University �Living With Care Richard A. Rhem Page 9   I could go on. The People of God are called to care and caring equals costly engagement, concern for the Truth, for justice and righteousness and a commitment to tell the story and announce the liberating Truth of the Gospel. Secondly, to care is to touch and heal. The ministry of Jesus bears eloquent testimony to the care that flowed from him: Sight for the blind, hearing for the deaf, the lame walked, the dead were raised. Captives in all sorts of human bondage were set free. It is not without good cause that Jesus has been called "The Man For Others." Compassion flowed forth from him to all he met. He responded to the slightest spark of faith and never turned away from human need. He was moved with compassion as he looked on the multitude. So often we are moved with anger; we look with disgust at the action of the rebellious youth, the revolutionary, the poor and oppressed. Or, perhaps worse, we are indifferent, apathetic. We are hardened to human suffering; we become numb. We can wall ourselves off from the monstrous hurt of the masses and our neighbor. Non-involvement is the easy way out. Jesus cared. Jesus reached out and touched. Jesus brought healing and wholeness to human lives burdened with despair and futility. We stand on the threshold of Lent. We have a new opportunity to find the fullness of life to which he calls us. It will take intentionality - commitment. It will involve opening up and sharing, worshiping together, seeking God's presence in solitude, and a movement out of ourselves - a determination to care through costly involvement. Living with care is living at its best. Nothing can bring greater joy, deeper satisfaction. To care is to be - fully human, fully alive! © Grand Valley State University � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Richard A. Rhem Collection Description An account of the resource Text and sound recordings of the sermons, prayers, services, and articles of Richard Rhem, pastor emeritus of Christ Community Church in Spring Lake, Michigan, where he served for 37 years. Starting in the mid 1980's, Rhem began to question some of the traditional Christian dogma that he had been espousing from the pulpit. That questioning was a first step in a long and interesting spiritual journey, one that he openly shared with his congregation. His journey is important, in part because it is reflective of the questioning, the yearnings, and the gradual revision of beliefs that many persons in this part of the century have experienced and continue to experience. It is important also because of the affirming and inclusive way his questioning was done and his thinking evolved. His sermons and other written and spoken materials together document the steps in his journey as it took a turn in 1985, yet continued to revolve around the framework and liturgies of the Christian calendar. Subject The topic of the resource Clergy--Michigan Reformed Church in America Christ Community Church (Spring Lake, Mich.) Religion Interfaith worship Sermons Sound Recordings Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Rhem, Richard A. Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/514">Richard A. Rhem papers (KII-01)</a> Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives. Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Kaufman Interfaith Institute Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Language A language of the resource English Type The nature or genre of the resource Sound Text Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context KII-01 Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant 1981-2014 Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource audio/mp3 text/pdf Sound A resource primarily intended to be heard. Examples include a music playback file format, an audio compact disc, and recorded speech or sounds. Event Epiphany V Series LifeLines Scripture Text Isaiah 42:3, 6, Matthew 9:36 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-0-19850217 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1985-02-17 Title A name given to the resource Living with Care Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Richard A. Rhem Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Subject The topic of the resource Clergy--Michigan Reformed Church in America Christ Community Church (Spring Lake, Mich.) Sermons Relation A related resource Richard A. Rhem - An Archive of Sermons, Prayers, Talks and Stories: http://richardrhem.org/ Language A language of the resource eng Type The nature or genre of the resource Sound Text Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource audio/mp3 application/pdf Description An account of the resource A sermon given by Richard A. Rhem (Dick) on February 17, 1985 entitled "Living with Care", as part of the series "LifeLines", on the occasion of Epiphany V, at Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI. Scripture references: Isaiah 42:3, 6, Matthew 9:36. Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Lemmen Library and Archives Awareness Empathy Hebrew Scriptures Meaning Servant Songs Servanthood https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/94f8f922e3cb6d2688f695a1f7b7fd6a.mp3 f951132a7bc4663fb85baa0572f4e9fd Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Richard A. Rhem Collection Description An account of the resource Text and sound recordings of the sermons, prayers, services, and articles of Richard Rhem, pastor emeritus of Christ Community Church in Spring Lake, Michigan, where he served for 37 years. Starting in the mid 1980's, Rhem began to question some of the traditional Christian dogma that he had been espousing from the pulpit. That questioning was a first step in a long and interesting spiritual journey, one that he openly shared with his congregation. His journey is important, in part because it is reflective of the questioning, the yearnings, and the gradual revision of beliefs that many persons in this part of the century have experienced and continue to experience. It is important also because of the affirming and inclusive way his questioning was done and his thinking evolved. His sermons and other written and spoken materials together document the steps in his journey as it took a turn in 1985, yet continued to revolve around the framework and liturgies of the Christian calendar. Subject The topic of the resource Clergy--Michigan Reformed Church in America Christ Community Church (Spring Lake, Mich.) Religion Interfaith worship Sermons Sound Recordings Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Rhem, Richard A. Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/514">Richard A. Rhem papers (KII-01)</a> Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives. Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Kaufman Interfaith Institute Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Language A language of the resource English Type The nature or genre of the resource Sound Text Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context KII-01 Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant 1981-2014 Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource audio/mp3 text/pdf Sound A resource primarily intended to be heard. Examples include a music playback file format, an audio compact disc, and recorded speech or sounds. Event Lent IV Series The Blood of Christ Scripture Text Leviticus 17:11, John 6:54-55 Location The location of the interview Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context KII-01_RA-0-19850317 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1985-03-17 Title A name given to the resource The Life is in the Blood Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Richard A. Rhem Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Subject The topic of the resource Clergy--Michigan Reformed Church in America Christ Community Church (Spring Lake, Mich.) Sermons Relation A related resource Richard A. Rhem - An Archive of Sermons, Prayers, Talks and Stories: http://richardrhem.org/ Language A language of the resource eng Type The nature or genre of the resource Sound Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource audio/mp3 Description An account of the resource A sermon given by Richard A. Rhem (Dick) on March 17, 1985 entitled "The Life is in the Blood", as part of the series "The Blood of Christ", on the occasion of Lent IV, at Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI. Scripture references: Leviticus 17:11, John 6:54-55. Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Lemmen Library and Archives https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/f60cef922b4a7c06bb6a87b3fea9e460.mp3 0f4e4adc770dc54b6b65a57bb9f252ac Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Richard A. Rhem Collection Description An account of the resource Text and sound recordings of the sermons, prayers, services, and articles of Richard Rhem, pastor emeritus of Christ Community Church in Spring Lake, Michigan, where he served for 37 years. Starting in the mid 1980's, Rhem began to question some of the traditional Christian dogma that he had been espousing from the pulpit. That questioning was a first step in a long and interesting spiritual journey, one that he openly shared with his congregation. His journey is important, in part because it is reflective of the questioning, the yearnings, and the gradual revision of beliefs that many persons in this part of the century have experienced and continue to experience. It is important also because of the affirming and inclusive way his questioning was done and his thinking evolved. His sermons and other written and spoken materials together document the steps in his journey as it took a turn in 1985, yet continued to revolve around the framework and liturgies of the Christian calendar. Subject The topic of the resource Clergy--Michigan Reformed Church in America Christ Community Church (Spring Lake, Mich.) Religion Interfaith worship Sermons Sound Recordings Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Rhem, Richard A. Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/514">Richard A. Rhem papers (KII-01)</a> Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives. Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Kaufman Interfaith Institute Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Language A language of the resource English Type The nature or genre of the resource Sound Text Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context KII-01 Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant 1981-2014 Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource audio/mp3 text/pdf Sound A resource primarily intended to be heard. Examples include a music playback file format, an audio compact disc, and recorded speech or sounds. Event Lent V Series The Blood of Christ Scripture Text Hebrews 10:14, I John 1:7 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-0-19850324 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1985-03-24 Title A name given to the resource Cleansed by the Blood Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Richard A. Rhem Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Subject The topic of the resource Clergy--Michigan Reformed Church in America Christ Community Church (Spring Lake, Mich.) Sermons Relation A related resource Richard A. Rhem - An Archive of Sermons, Prayers, Talks and Stories: http://richardrhem.org/ Language A language of the resource eng Type The nature or genre of the resource Sound Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource audio/mp3 Description An account of the resource A sermon given by Richard A. Rhem (Dick) on March 24, 1985 entitled "Cleansed by the Blood", as part of the series "The Blood of Christ", on the occasion of Lent V, at Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI. Scripture references: Hebrews 10:14, I John 1:7. 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/d95451e15425a38b883ea5a4fe492e7f.mp3 05ab16805d47b4a7ff8405ec5cd60085 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 The Blood of Christ Scripture Text Colossians 1:20 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-0-19850331 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1985-03-31 Title A name given to the resource Reconciliation Through the Blood Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Richard A. Rhem Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Subject The topic of the resource Clergy--Michigan Reformed Church in America Christ Community Church (Spring Lake, Mich.) Sermons Relation A related resource Richard A. Rhem - An Archive of Sermons, Prayers, Talks and Stories: http://richardrhem.org/ Language A language of the resource eng Type The nature or genre of the resource Sound Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource audio/mp3 Description An account of the resource A sermon given by Richard A. Rhem (Dick) on March 31, 1985 entitled "Reconciliation Through the Blood", as part of the series "The Blood of Christ", on the occasion of Palm Sunday, at Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI. Scripture references: Colossians 1:20. 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/37473636fa28d2a8fe4e5ff869b59d71.mp3 fe80773137771991b6be2411026b8f83 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Richard A. Rhem Collection Description An account of the resource Text and sound recordings of the sermons, prayers, services, and articles of Richard Rhem, pastor emeritus of Christ Community Church in Spring Lake, Michigan, where he served for 37 years. Starting in the mid 1980's, Rhem began to question some of the traditional Christian dogma that he had been espousing from the pulpit. That questioning was a first step in a long and interesting spiritual journey, one that he openly shared with his congregation. His journey is important, in part because it is reflective of the questioning, the yearnings, and the gradual revision of beliefs that many persons in this part of the century have experienced and continue to experience. It is important also because of the affirming and inclusive way his questioning was done and his thinking evolved. His sermons and other written and spoken materials together document the steps in his journey as it took a turn in 1985, yet continued to revolve around the framework and liturgies of the Christian calendar. Subject The topic of the resource Clergy--Michigan Reformed Church in America Christ Community Church (Spring Lake, Mich.) Religion Interfaith worship Sermons Sound Recordings Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Rhem, Richard A. Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/514">Richard A. Rhem papers (KII-01)</a> Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives. Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Kaufman Interfaith Institute Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Language A language of the resource English Type The nature or genre of the resource Sound Text Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context KII-01 Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant 1981-2014 Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource audio/mp3 text/pdf Sound A resource primarily intended to be heard. Examples include a music playback file format, an audio compact disc, and recorded speech or sounds. Event Easter Sunday Series The Blood of Christ Scripture Text Revelation 5: 6, 9, 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-0-19850407 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1985-04-07 Title A name given to the resource Overcoming By the Blood 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 7, 1985 entitled "Overcoming By the Blood", as part of the series "The Blood of Christ", on the occasion of Easter Sunday, at Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI. Scripture references: Revelation 5: 6, 9, 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/2c59ca7a2d5ba0dedadc44611b1c72fb.mp3 65745db441129285465e37d84c152d1c Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Richard A. Rhem Collection Description An account of the resource Text and sound recordings of the sermons, prayers, services, and articles of Richard Rhem, pastor emeritus of Christ Community Church in Spring Lake, Michigan, where he served for 37 years. Starting in the mid 1980's, Rhem began to question some of the traditional Christian dogma that he had been espousing from the pulpit. That questioning was a first step in a long and interesting spiritual journey, one that he openly shared with his congregation. His journey is important, in part because it is reflective of the questioning, the yearnings, and the gradual revision of beliefs that many persons in this part of the century have experienced and continue to experience. It is important also because of the affirming and inclusive way his questioning was done and his thinking evolved. His sermons and other written and spoken materials together document the steps in his journey as it took a turn in 1985, yet continued to revolve around the framework and liturgies of the Christian calendar. Subject The topic of the resource Clergy--Michigan Reformed Church in America Christ Community Church (Spring Lake, Mich.) Religion Interfaith worship Sermons Sound Recordings Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Rhem, Richard A. Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/514">Richard A. Rhem papers (KII-01)</a> Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives. Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Kaufman Interfaith Institute Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Language A language of the resource English Type The nature or genre of the resource Sound Text Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context KII-01 Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant 1981-2014 Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource audio/mp3 text/pdf Sound A resource primarily intended to be heard. Examples include a music playback file format, an audio compact disc, and recorded speech or sounds. Event Eastertide I Series The Blood of Christ Scripture Text I Peter 1:18, 21 Location The location of the interview Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context KII-01_RA-0-19850414 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1985-04-14 Title A name given to the resource Victory Through the Blood 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 14, 1985 entitled "Victory Through the Blood", as part of the series "The Blood of Christ", on the occasion of Eastertide I, at Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI. Scripture references: I Peter 1:18, 21. 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/34b4c698b32b782e9d03b9d6b6edbb4f.mp3 88b739fb3c2118126eec56d929ac8778 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 Scripture Text II Corinthians 8:5 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-0-19850428 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1985-04-28 Title A name given to the resource A Sure Sign of Grace Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Richard A. Rhem Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Subject The topic of the resource Clergy--Michigan Reformed Church in America Christ Community Church (Spring Lake, Mich.) Sermons Relation A related resource Richard A. Rhem - An Archive of Sermons, Prayers, Talks and Stories: http://richardrhem.org/ Language A language of the resource eng Type The nature or genre of the resource Sound 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 28, 1985 entitled "A Sure Sign of Grace", on the occasion of Eastertide III, at Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI. Scripture references: II Corinthians 8:5. Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Lemmen Library and Archives https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/d960b3a6042b3ed7561b8e68a2d85a53.mp3 00d5de0fd405e9f0894b752b6a9ce115 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 Scripture Text No Scripture texts listed 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-0-19850505 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1985-05-05 Title A name given to the resource Jonah - The Runaway 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 5, 1985 entitled "Jonah - The Runaway", on the occasion of Eastertide IV, at Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI. Scripture references: No Scripture texts listed. 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/ad40920fa2521a9b044889a9cabcbfa2.mp3 38ff13e1179384c404b71fd1384266cb Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Richard A. Rhem Collection Description An account of the resource Text and sound recordings of the sermons, prayers, services, and articles of Richard Rhem, pastor emeritus of Christ Community Church in Spring Lake, Michigan, where he served for 37 years. Starting in the mid 1980's, Rhem began to question some of the traditional Christian dogma that he had been espousing from the pulpit. That questioning was a first step in a long and interesting spiritual journey, one that he openly shared with his congregation. His journey is important, in part because it is reflective of the questioning, the yearnings, and the gradual revision of beliefs that many persons in this part of the century have experienced and continue to experience. It is important also because of the affirming and inclusive way his questioning was done and his thinking evolved. His sermons and other written and spoken materials together document the steps in his journey as it took a turn in 1985, yet continued to revolve around the framework and liturgies of the Christian calendar. Subject The topic of the resource Clergy--Michigan Reformed Church in America Christ Community Church (Spring Lake, Mich.) Religion Interfaith worship Sermons Sound Recordings Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Rhem, Richard A. Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/514">Richard A. Rhem papers (KII-01)</a> Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives. Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Kaufman Interfaith Institute Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Language A language of the resource English Type The nature or genre of the resource Sound Text Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context KII-01 Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant 1981-2014 Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource audio/mp3 text/pdf Sound A resource primarily intended to be heard. Examples include a music playback file format, an audio compact disc, and recorded speech or sounds. Event Mothers Day Scripture Text I Samuel 1:27 Location The location of the interview Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context KII-01_RA-0-19850512 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1985-05-12 Title A name given to the resource Faith and Devotion are Found at Home 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 12, 1985 entitled "Faith and Devotion are Found at Home", on the occasion of Mothers Day, at Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI. Scripture references: I Samuel 1:27. Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Lemmen Library and Archives https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/ee85965076e1faed276f77f991cbb375.mp3 0c82cbc2f7c8775732da498efd4cc655 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 Ascension Sunday Scripture Text II Corinthians 9:7-8 Location The location of the interview Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context KII-01_RA-0-19850519 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1985-05-19 Title A name given to the resource A Blank Check from a Generous Father 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 19, 1985 entitled "A Blank Check from a Generous Father", on the occasion of Ascension Sunday, at Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI. Scripture references: II Corinthians 9:7-8. Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Lemmen Library and Archives