764 24 26018 https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/d3957a97440a01f7ed8fcad325076a2c.mp3 7e0b7afe40231e326ccfeb169336ab73 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Richard A. Rhem Collection Description An account of the resource Text and sound recordings of the sermons, prayers, services, and articles of Richard Rhem, pastor emeritus of Christ Community Church in Spring Lake, Michigan, where he served for 37 years. Starting in the mid 1980's, Rhem began to question some of the traditional Christian dogma that he had been espousing from the pulpit. That questioning was a first step in a long and interesting spiritual journey, one that he openly shared with his congregation. His journey is important, in part because it is reflective of the questioning, the yearnings, and the gradual revision of beliefs that many persons in this part of the century have experienced and continue to experience. It is important also because of the affirming and inclusive way his questioning was done and his thinking evolved. His sermons and other written and spoken materials together document the steps in his journey as it took a turn in 1985, yet continued to revolve around the framework and liturgies of the Christian calendar. Subject The topic of the resource Clergy--Michigan Reformed Church in America Christ Community Church (Spring Lake, Mich.) Religion Interfaith worship Sermons Sound Recordings Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Rhem, Richard A. Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/514">Richard A. Rhem papers (KII-01)</a> Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives. Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Kaufman Interfaith Institute Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Language A language of the resource English Type The nature or genre of the resource Sound Text Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context KII-01 Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant 1981-2014 Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource audio/mp3 text/pdf Sound A resource primarily intended to be heard. Examples include a music playback file format, an audio compact disc, and recorded speech or sounds. Event Pentecost Scripture Text Exodus 3:2, Acts 2:17 Location The location of the interview Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context KII-01_RA-0-19850526 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1985-05-26 Title A name given to the resource Visions and Dreams: Reaching Toward Century Twenty-One 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 26, 1985 entitled "Visions and Dreams: Reaching Toward Century Twenty-One", on the occasion of Pentecost, at Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI. Scripture references: Exodus 3:2, Acts 2:17. Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Lemmen Library and Archives https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/b3ef26f6a99628a61ffd77bf62df632c.mp3 6792c9a786e83d32f7b99915c98e63f6 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Richard A. Rhem Collection Description An account of the resource Text and sound recordings of the sermons, prayers, services, and articles of Richard Rhem, pastor emeritus of Christ Community Church in Spring Lake, Michigan, where he served for 37 years. Starting in the mid 1980's, Rhem began to question some of the traditional Christian dogma that he had been espousing from the pulpit. That questioning was a first step in a long and interesting spiritual journey, one that he openly shared with his congregation. His journey is important, in part because it is reflective of the questioning, the yearnings, and the gradual revision of beliefs that many persons in this part of the century have experienced and continue to experience. It is important also because of the affirming and inclusive way his questioning was done and his thinking evolved. His sermons and other written and spoken materials together document the steps in his journey as it took a turn in 1985, yet continued to revolve around the framework and liturgies of the Christian calendar. Subject The topic of the resource Clergy--Michigan Reformed Church in America Christ Community Church (Spring Lake, Mich.) Religion Interfaith worship Sermons Sound Recordings Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Rhem, Richard A. Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/514">Richard A. Rhem papers (KII-01)</a> Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives. Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Kaufman Interfaith Institute Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Language A language of the resource English Type The nature or genre of the resource Sound Text Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context KII-01 Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant 1981-2014 Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource audio/mp3 text/pdf Sound A resource primarily intended to be heard. Examples include a music playback file format, an audio compact disc, and recorded speech or sounds. Event Trinity Sunday Baccalaureate Sunday Scripture Text II Corinthians 4:6 Location The location of the interview Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context KII-01_RA-0-19850602 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1985-06-02 Title A name given to the resource God: The Open Secret Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Richard A. Rhem Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Subject The topic of the resource Clergy--Michigan Reformed Church in America Christ Community Church (Spring Lake, Mich.) Sermons Relation A related resource Richard A. Rhem - An Archive of Sermons, Prayers, Talks and Stories: http://richardrhem.org/ Language A language of the resource eng Type The nature or genre of the resource Sound Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource audio/mp3 Description An account of the resource A sermon given by Richard A. Rhem (Dick) on June 2, 1985 entitled "God: The Open Secret ", on the occasion of Trinity Sunday, Baccalaureate Sunday, at Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI. Scripture references: II Corinthians 4:6. 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/5cd65f9e12adb0ccd31b55bb61c3d9b8.mp3 62f16444e1f08a85b800883a6409fbc4 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Richard A. Rhem Collection Description An account of the resource Text and sound recordings of the sermons, prayers, services, and articles of Richard Rhem, pastor emeritus of Christ Community Church in Spring Lake, Michigan, where he served for 37 years. Starting in the mid 1980's, Rhem began to question some of the traditional Christian dogma that he had been espousing from the pulpit. That questioning was a first step in a long and interesting spiritual journey, one that he openly shared with his congregation. His journey is important, in part because it is reflective of the questioning, the yearnings, and the gradual revision of beliefs that many persons in this part of the century have experienced and continue to experience. It is important also because of the affirming and inclusive way his questioning was done and his thinking evolved. His sermons and other written and spoken materials together document the steps in his journey as it took a turn in 1985, yet continued to revolve around the framework and liturgies of the Christian calendar. Subject The topic of the resource Clergy--Michigan Reformed Church in America Christ Community Church (Spring Lake, Mich.) Religion Interfaith worship Sermons Sound Recordings Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Rhem, Richard A. Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/514">Richard A. Rhem papers (KII-01)</a> Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives. Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Kaufman Interfaith Institute Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Language A language of the resource English Type The nature or genre of the resource Sound Text Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context KII-01 Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant 1981-2014 Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource audio/mp3 text/pdf Sound A resource primarily intended to be heard. Examples include a music playback file format, an audio compact disc, and recorded speech or sounds. Event Pentecost II Scripture Text Isaiah 46:4 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-0-19850609 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1985-06-09 Title A name given to the resource The Living God Saves Us from Religion Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Richard A. Rhem Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Subject The topic of the resource Clergy--Michigan Reformed Church in America Christ Community Church (Spring Lake, Mich.) Sermons Relation A related resource Richard A. Rhem - An Archive of Sermons, Prayers, Talks and Stories: http://richardrhem.org/ Language A language of the resource eng Type The nature or genre of the resource Sound Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource audio/mp3 Description An account of the resource A sermon given by Richard A. Rhem (Dick) on June 9, 1985 entitled "The Living God Saves Us from Religion ", on the occasion of Pentecost II, at Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI. Scripture references: Isaiah 46:4. 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/1223610e5d2c58061a324a8c59259dfa.mp3 8bd64f4ab7f8f434d4eb309f8a6c5ae2 https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/12ab3716818658641056afca62ceee92.pdf 788283e70bfb9f4a773724c65de742ef PDF Text Text The Church: From Tradition to Mission Text: Acts 6: 5, 8 Richard A. Rhem Christ Community Church Spring Lake, Michigan June 30, 1985 Transcription of the spoken sermon The Church lives in a tension. It is always caught in the dilemma of having to find the forms and structures that will enable it to execute its mission to the world and having to remain open and flexible so that those very forms and structures do not bind the Spirit and paralyze the mission. The Church will inevitably develop tradition and must continually struggle free from that tradition in order to get on with the mission. Perhaps I should use traditionalism rather than tradition, for actually tradition is a positive factor in the life of the Church. There is a living tradition - the ongoing moving of the Faith embodied in the community of faith. Someone has said tradition is the living faith of the dead. Traditionalism is the dead faith of the living. Tradition rightly understood is a living, growing movement always being expanded, modified, enlarged in the light of experience, the experience of being in mission. But tradition can so easily become traditionalism. Then movement ceases and the mission is paralyzed. Thus the Church must be always vigilant, self-critical, humble before her Lord, ready to learn new truths, gain new insight and design new structures that will enable her in every age to be God's agent of reconciliation in the world. We cannot learn all we need to know about the form of the Church or the translation of the Gospel from the New Testament. We do have, however, in Acts and the Epistles some principles and models that can help us to find our way in our day. Let me use the early experience of the Church - the experience clustered around Stephen - out of which to make these very significant statements about the Church. These principles have been lived out in our past; they must remain our charter of freedom for the future as we seek to be God’s people – the instrument of His purpose and grace in our day. I want to say a word about Church structure, about Church growth, and about theological understanding. © Grand Valley State University   �The Church: From Tradition to Mission Richard A. Rhem   Page 2   My points are simple: The form of the Church must flow from the function of the Church. The growth of the Church must result from the care of the Church. The theology of the Church must be shaped by the experience of the Church. Form follows function. Growth rises from care. Knowledge is shaped by experience. First of all, from the story of Stephen we can see that structure flows out of mission; form follows function. You know the story. That beautiful community that took shape in the wake of Pentecost was a community of spontaneous sharing where no one considered his possessions his own but all shared their possessions so that none were in need. It was the true community of the Spirit and it was a beautiful sign of the presence of the Kingdom, but it did not last long. Soon the harmony was shattered. The Hellenist group - those who spoke Greek - complained that their widows were discriminated against in the distribution of food. The Apostles, deeply involved in the proclamation of the Gospel, saw the need of others to take responsibility for the physical needs of the community and they appointed seven whose names are listed in the sixth chapter of Acts, one of whom was Stephen. Although the name Deacon is not used we have generally seen that appointment as initiating the office of Deacon. However these seven were viewed, Stephen at least did not serve at table very long because soon we find him a powerful, persuasive preacher of the Gospel. But let me underscore the point I am trying to make - the Apostles met a specific crisis, a concrete historical situation with an improvisation of structure. Now, to be sure, there was as yet no set structure. In fact, from the New Testament it is impossible to derive a structure for the Church. Whatever form of Church structure may be followed - Episcopal as in the Roman Church, or Congregational, or Presbyterian as in Reformed Churches, all can find data in the New Testament but no one system of polity arises as we have developed them in our structure. Indeed Edward Schillebeeckx, the Dutch Catholic New Testament scholar, has published a book entitled, Ministry, in which he demonstrates beyond question that the Early Church in the first centuries after Christ had a fluid form of structure and government - a book by which he has not endeared himself with the Vatican. This should put us on notice that the forms and structures of the Church are negotiable and that a constantly changing historical milieu in which we minister will call for changing structures. Structures are negotiable. Jesus Christ remains the same. Form must follow function. © Grand Valley State University �The Church: From Tradition to Mission Richard A. Rhem   Page 3   This may seem obvious enough. Yet how often do we not get bogged down in structural questions? We tend to absolutize forms that arose in a given situation to meet a specific need, freezing that form forever as though to change the structure would compromise the Gospel. Paul says, "Where the Spirit is there is freedom." The Spirit directed the mission of that Early Christian community, improvising forms into order to enable the community to function. We must live in that same freedom, determining how best to structure our life in order most effectively to get the Gospel out. The structure of the Church must flow out of the mission of the Church. My mentor, Professor Hendrikus Berkhof of the Netherlands, writes in his book Christian Faith in the chapter on the Church that the Book of Church Order must be done in loose-leaf today. The implications of that are far-reaching. If only we would remember that when classes and Synods convene we would save ourselves so much energy. We would avoid painful debate and endless discussion and we would be able to get on with the task. Otherwise we are simply playing Church and we are no good to God or the world. II. There is a second learning from this story that can aid us in getting the right perspective on our calling as the People of God. It is this: Growth is the consequence of community, a caring community. Certainly there was strong proclamation of the Gospel in those Apostolic days and my claim here in no way is meant to detract from that powerful proclamation of the Lordship of Christ. But from the window Luke gives us on the life of that early community we can see that it was indeed a community that the Spirit created. The description of the life of the community in the second chapter is a marvelous picture of a caring community, where no one was left out, no one's needs neglected and where the wellbeing of the whole community was the deepest concern of all its members. Barnabas’ action is a case in point. He sold his estate and brought the money to the Apostles. In that paragraph in the fourth chapter, we read, There was not a needy person among them.... Again we read, ... The company of those who believed were of one heart and soul, and no one said that any of the things which he possessed was his own, but they had everything in common. Stephen and six others were appointed to see that the physical needs of the members of the community were met. The early Church was characterized by caring and that community life was so attractive that it drew thousands in those exciting days following Pentecost. © Grand Valley State University �The Church: From Tradition to Mission Richard A. Rhem   Page 4   There is a great deal of talk about Church Growth in our day. At Pasadena, California, there is an Institute on Church Growth and from that center other leaders of the Church Growth movement have spun off. And, of course, who could or would desire to argue against Church Growth. The great Commission still stands and we are called to be witnesses to Jesus Christ bringing the message of His grace to the whole world including our own neighborhoods. Yet I sense sometimes that we get interested in Church Growth out of desperation. We see the statistics. We know if we do not turn things around many congregations will continue to wither and die. And so we decide to grow. Now it is true that a church must decide to grow and without that intentionality it is not likely that much will happen. Yet to aim at growth for growth’s sake is to commit a fatal error. Let me suggest that we must commit ourselves to be the People of God, a caring community reaching out in Jesus’ name to share the compassion of God, ministering His grace with no question asked. We are called to give our life away – literally to die that new life may spring forth. Church growth as I find it practiced today smacks too much of institutionalism, the preservation and perpetuation of our institutions. We get trapped into thinking that it is the institution - be it the denomination or our local congregation - that we must preserve when what God is asking is for a people willing to die to pride of tradition and denomination and congregational security and invest our lives in caring for the world. We get so turned in on ourselves and begin to feel that in our church we are ends in ourselves, forgetting that we are blessed of God to be a blessing to the world. Let me suggest that the Christian Church would do well to forget its heavy focus on evangelism and learn to love the world. We must concentrate on making our congregational life reflect the quality of the Spirit of Jesus. When we become a caring community the bruised and bleeding will come in seeking refuge, healing and grace. Harvie Conn, a professor of Mission at Westminster Theological Seminary, was the Pre-Synod Festival speaker at Kalamazoo this year. He had spent some years in Korea as a missionary before becoming a teacher. He told of the first year of language study which was so frustrating because he wanted to get on with the work but first he must master the language. After nearly a year when he was still very insecure in the language, he could not stand it any longer. He packed a bag and took a train to a Korean city where there was an army base. As he arrived he walked by the base entrance where the prostitutes were lined up. A Korean came up to him and asked if he were a Christian. He said yes and the Korean invited him to his home. He was a Christian pastor and opened his home to him. He was served a plate of uncooked, beaten rice for supper and then when it came time to retire, he learned he was to sleep with the pastor’s father, an old man who had asked him many questions. The family lived in very small quarters and he found that Grampa’s bedroom was really a small space between two buildings with © Grand Valley State University �The Church: From Tradition to Mission Richard A. Rhem   Page 5   walls improvised to keep out the wind. Grampa had one blanket and Harvie simply got under the blanket with Grampa, sleeping on the ground. Two years later he received a letter from the pastor asking him to come to the village to baptize his father. He explained that his father had not been a believer. When Harvie ate the simple meal with the family and spent the night in those primitive circumstances without complaint, Grampa was impressed. He came to believe and now wanted to be baptized by Harvie. It was not the answers he gave in broken Korean, but the genuineness of his life, his love that penetrated the heart of that old man. It was the same thing with two prostitutes with whom he shared a meal. He learned a few years later that they had become Christians because for the first time in their lives a Christian had treated them like human beings. It is when God’s love becomes concrete in the love with which we touch another that one becomes open to grace. If only we could genuinely love the world, God would handle the rest and the result would be a growing Church. Growth flows out of care. III. The third learning I would share from this passage is that knowledge of God flows from experience of God. This is a word about our theology - the articulation of what we believe about God and His revelation of Himself to us in the New Testament. God revealed Himself in Jesus: ... if you have seen me, you have seen the Father. That revelation in Jesus finds expression in the New Testament. The New Testament along with God’s revelation in Israel’s history is our Scripture and is the authoritative record in which we hear the Word of God, the witness inspired by the Spirit and the instrument the Spirit uses to reveal God to us today. From the Scripture the Church draws its knowledge of the Faith and, as that Scriptural knowledge mixes with our present experience, we seek to translate the Gospel for our day. The point I am seeking to make here is that there must be an ongoing encounter with the witness of the Scripture and the contemporary culture in order that the Gospel of God’s grace may come to expression in every age and generation in meaningful fashion. The Church historically has erred on two counts: The failure of orthodoxy has been to take the biblical record and absolutize it in every aspect - not only its witness to God’s grace and that salvation that appeared © Grand Valley State University �The Church: From Tradition to Mission Richard A. Rhem   Page 6   in Jesus, but also the shape and form of that revelation - that is, the historical accoutrements of that revelation. The result has been the freezing of the Word of God in the thought forms and world and life view of the first century. The failure of classical Liberalism has been to fail to take seriously the biblical record as an authoritative norm by which every new expression of the Gospel must be judged, and to determine the "truth" only through analysis of the contemporary world with its "modern" understanding. There are two poles of knowledge by which our expression of the Gospel must be shaped - the biblical record and the contemporary scene. Both are important. It is meaningless to convey biblical knowledge with no attempt to translate that knowledge in terms of what we have learned in the explosion of knowledge in the modern world. It is equally meaningless to master the latest of scientific knowledge and cultural wisdom and fail to bring it into confrontation with the biblical word. The proclamation of the Gospel in every age must be a translation of the event of Jesus in the idiom of the day, which is the result of hearing the Gospel and possessing the best wisdom of the age. We must read the Bible and read the world. We must hear the witness of Scripture and be sensitive to the questions and insights of our age. Let me illustrate this from the experience of the Apostolic Church. Think for a moment of what radical revolution the understanding of the Apostles had to undergo to realize that God was in Jesus reconciling the world to Himself. It took a vision on the Damascus Road to break through to Paul. His fierce persecution of the followers of Jesus was his effort to stamp out a dangerous heresy. It was carried out in the name of the God of Israel. Peter did not understand that God’s grace was for all people, Jews and Gentiles, until the housetop vision and the experience at Cornelius’ house, where he experienced the Gentiles receiving the Holy Spirit just as had the Disciples on Pentecost. Look at the Scripture lesson – Stephen’s great witness that brought him to martyrdom. But Stephen, filled with the Holy Spirit, and gazing intently up to heaven, saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing at God’s right hand. "Look, he said, there is a rift in the sky; I can see the Son of Man standing at God's right hand!” Acts 7:i>5-56 What a moving spectacle that must have been. Stephen, about to be the first martyr for Jesus because he had been the first to see and understand deeply all that had been accomplished in Jesus’ life, death and resurrection – because, © Grand Valley State University �The Church: From Tradition to Mission Richard A. Rhem   Page 7   therefore, he was the first eloquent witness - and witness and martyr are the same word in Greek - Stephen, filled with the Holy Spirit, saw the glory of God and Jesus standing at God’s right hand and he cried to all present, oblivious to the hostility and violence breeding in their breasts – There is a rift in the sky! I can see…! And there you have it; all the ingredients that eventuated in the historic Church’s confession that God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit are One God, blessed forever. The Risen Lord has promised He would not leave His own alone but would come to them and He did. On the day of Pentecost those gathered in the Upper Room knew a power and a Presence that overwhelmed them with the conviction that God was in their midst, that the Spirit of Jesus was with them, that the Spirit of Jesus or the Spirit of God was one Spirit and suddenly it all became clear; they began to comprehend what God had been doing in and through His Servant Jesus. It took a long time for the Church to be able to articulate that experience – centuries, in fact. The need to give expression to experience was obvious, for they were called to be witnesses to the world, but that was not so simple, for how does one express the inexpressible? The Christian mission advanced through the Hellenistic world shaped by Greek language and Greek thought forms. Greek philosophy was the highest expression of human reflection on life’s ultimate issues. Christian apologists borrowed the language and the philosophical concepts and did their best to say, God has visited this world. God revealed Himself in Jesus. The Spirit of God is with us, dwelling in us. After centuries of struggle to articulate the experience of the Apostolic community and the ongoing experience of the Church, creedal formulations were advanced - the Nicene Creed and the Chalcedonian formula - with which the Church has lived all these centuries. My point is that creeds derive from experience and those first Apostles had to do some radical revising of their theological understanding in the light of what confronted them in Jesus, his cross and resurrection and the baptism of the Spirit. To be sure, God’s dramatic intervention in our history was in Jesus. What happened in Jesus became normative for every subsequent age. But history is dynamic, history is movement and we continue to gain knowledge and understanding of our world, of history, of ourselves. All of that must be understood in the light of Jesus Christ and Jesus Christ must be proclaimed in the light of that knowledge . © Grand Valley State University �The Church: From Tradition to Mission Richard A. Rhem   Page 8   Jesus Christ is the answer. That is true for every age. But what is the question? The question that moves the human heart will be variously formulated in every age and it is the task of the Church to listen for the questions and then speak to the questions the Gospel in ever-new translation. Therefore, theological understanding will be dynamic, just as history is dynamic. Theology is derived from two poles - one rooted in a concrete history, the history of Israel and Jesus, one moving with each new age and generation. Theology must be the expression of God’s grace and salvation in Jesus in terms of contemporary culture in order that the timeless Gospel may come to timely expression. Knowledge of God and experience of God are reciprocal. The knowledge in which we are nurtured prepares us for the experience of God in our life situation and out of the experience of God in concrete living our knowledge is reshaped and translated anew. Thus we do not have the knowledge of God expressed in creeds once for all with the last word spoken. We have the knowledge of God revealed in Jesus coming to ever-new expression in every new historical context. It is thus that Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today and forever. Stephen’s death was an eloquent witness to the insight of faith he had received. He died as Jesus died. He was filled with the Holy Spirit; he saw the glory of God and Jesus standing at God’s right hand. Stephen saw a "rift in the sky;" he was given a vision of God. The reality of his faith and knowledge was demonstrated in the manner of his death. In the midst of a violent crowd with murderous intent he gazed into heaven. They stoned him but he, falling to his knees, prayed, Lord Jesus, receive my spirit. Lord, do not hold this sin against them. With that, he "fell asleep." Is that not a remarkable description of the manner of death of one being stoned by an angry crowd? And is not the truest test of one’s knowledge and faith the way one lives and dies? What a dynamic movement the Church was in those days. A handful of convinced and committed disciples turned the world upside down. The Cross conquered the mighty Empire of Rome. It could happen again if we stopped arguing about structure and got on with the mission; stopped worrying about bringing everyone into line with our faith formulas and simply loved the world; stopped debating doctrinal points that divide and allowed the Gospel to come to ever-new expression. © Grand Valley State University �The Church: From Tradition to Mission Richard A. Rhem   Page 9   If, in a word, we could move from tradition to mission, we might become again a fruitful instrument in the Master’s hand for the salvation of the world and the triumph of the Kingdom of God. © Grand Valley State University � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Richard A. Rhem Collection Description An account of the resource Text and sound recordings of the sermons, prayers, services, and articles of Richard Rhem, pastor emeritus of Christ Community Church in Spring Lake, Michigan, where he served for 37 years. Starting in the mid 1980's, Rhem began to question some of the traditional Christian dogma that he had been espousing from the pulpit. That questioning was a first step in a long and interesting spiritual journey, one that he openly shared with his congregation. His journey is important, in part because it is reflective of the questioning, the yearnings, and the gradual revision of beliefs that many persons in this part of the century have experienced and continue to experience. It is important also because of the affirming and inclusive way his questioning was done and his thinking evolved. His sermons and other written and spoken materials together document the steps in his journey as it took a turn in 1985, yet continued to revolve around the framework and liturgies of the Christian calendar. Subject The topic of the resource Clergy--Michigan Reformed Church in America Christ Community Church (Spring Lake, Mich.) Religion Interfaith worship Sermons Sound Recordings Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Rhem, Richard A. Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/514">Richard A. Rhem papers (KII-01)</a> Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives. Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Kaufman Interfaith Institute Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Language A language of the resource English Type The nature or genre of the resource Sound Text Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context KII-01 Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant 1981-2014 Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource audio/mp3 text/pdf Sound A resource primarily intended to be heard. Examples include a music playback file format, an audio compact disc, and recorded speech or sounds. Event Pentecost V Scripture Text Acts 6: 5, 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-0-19850630 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1985-06-30 Title A name given to the resource The Church: From Tradition to Mission Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Richard A. Rhem Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Subject The topic of the resource Clergy--Michigan Reformed Church in America Christ Community Church (Spring Lake, Mich.) Sermons Relation A related resource Richard A. Rhem - An Archive of Sermons, Prayers, Talks and Stories: http://richardrhem.org/ Language A language of the resource eng Type The nature or genre of the resource Sound Text Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource audio/mp3 application/pdf Description An account of the resource A sermon given by Richard A. Rhem (Dick) on June 30, 1985 entitled "The Church: From Tradition to Mission", on the occasion of Pentecost V, at Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI. Scripture references: Acts 6: 5, 8. Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Lemmen Library and Archives Community of Faith Creeds Followers of Jesus Grace Mission Nature of Theology Non-exclusive Pluralism Stephen Traditionalsim https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/dca1f2e32d3aa34b6f9b64675ff45760.mp3 9ad74fd3ec8457396c65bb8b0f3a8bd7 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Richard A. Rhem Collection Description An account of the resource Text and sound recordings of the sermons, prayers, services, and articles of Richard Rhem, pastor emeritus of Christ Community Church in Spring Lake, Michigan, where he served for 37 years. Starting in the mid 1980's, Rhem began to question some of the traditional Christian dogma that he had been espousing from the pulpit. That questioning was a first step in a long and interesting spiritual journey, one that he openly shared with his congregation. His journey is important, in part because it is reflective of the questioning, the yearnings, and the gradual revision of beliefs that many persons in this part of the century have experienced and continue to experience. It is important also because of the affirming and inclusive way his questioning was done and his thinking evolved. His sermons and other written and spoken materials together document the steps in his journey as it took a turn in 1985, yet continued to revolve around the framework and liturgies of the Christian calendar. Subject The topic of the resource Clergy--Michigan Reformed Church in America Christ Community Church (Spring Lake, Mich.) Religion Interfaith worship Sermons Sound Recordings Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Rhem, Richard A. Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/514">Richard A. Rhem papers (KII-01)</a> Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives. Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Kaufman Interfaith Institute Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Language A language of the resource English Type The nature or genre of the resource Sound Text Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context KII-01 Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant 1981-2014 Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource audio/mp3 text/pdf Sound A resource primarily intended to be heard. Examples include a music playback file format, an audio compact disc, and recorded speech or sounds. Event Independence Day Pentecost VI Series God Our Ally Scripture Text Habakkuk 1:5b, 3:18, Revelation 19:6 Location The location of the interview Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context KII-01_RA-0-19850707 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1985-07-07 Title A name given to the resource The Sovereign of History Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Richard A. Rhem Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Subject The topic of the resource Clergy--Michigan Reformed Church in America Christ Community Church (Spring Lake, Mich.) Sermons Relation A related resource Richard A. Rhem - An Archive of Sermons, Prayers, Talks and Stories: http://richardrhem.org/ Language A language of the resource eng Type The nature or genre of the resource Sound Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource audio/mp3 Description An account of the resource A sermon given by Richard A. Rhem (Dick) on July 7, 1985 entitled "The Sovereign of History", as part of the series "God Our Ally", on the occasion of Independence Day, Pentecost VI, at Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI. Scripture references: Habakkuk 1:5b, 3:18, Revelation 19:6. 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/eaffc0ebda3e36798ccf63eb121224ea.mp3 cfafb7a9ff11dc0c63fe34be26ef2ae8 https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/71e0200e982e076d0c2c422109477cc6.pdf a1256cc3cd868296042b959a9ac521a8 PDF Text Text The God Who Is There For Us From the sermon series: God, Our Ally Text: Isaiah 57: 15; Hebrews 4: 13, 16 Richard A. Rhem Christ Community Church Spring Lake, Michigan July 14, 1985 Transcription of the spoken sermon God, Our Ally. That is an affirmation of faith. It is certainly one of the most significant and meaningful statements one could make and to live with such a conviction is to be in possession of one of the most necessary truths for human happiness and wellbeing. God is for us. Human existence is embraced by grace. So to live is to have a foundation for the present and hope for the future. Who is this God? How do we know Him? These are deep questions whose answers are shrouded in mystery. God is not "at hand." He is not simply available. To know Him is beyond human capacity; yet He has made Himself known. This series of messages is an attempt from a variety of biblical texts and a variety of angles to say "God is our ally; He is for us." But to speak of God, let alone to speak of Him in a whole series of messages seems almost presumptuous. How dare one presume to speak of this One Who is hidden in mystery? Would one not do well simply to be silent? Yet that cannot be the answer, for God has revealed Himself; He has made Himself known. Thus He wills to be known and He wills that we have knowledge of Him. On the other hand, as I reflect on this task, I am quite certain most sermons purport to know too much. I am certain as well that there is often a craving in the human mind and heart to know more than can be known of God and, rather than acknowledging the limits of our thinking in proper humility, we tend to cut God down to a size in which we can handle Him. © Grand Valley State University   �The God Who Is There For Us Richard A. Rhem Page 2   I make this confession early on in this series because I want to admit to the impossibility of speaking about God even as I attempt to do so, simply to make you aware that I am aware of how inadequate are these stammering attempts to speak of Him. Thus we look to the Spirit to reveal to us truth too deep for us to grasp through our own power of reason and intuition. "The God Who Is There For Us." That is the focus. "There for us" in the sense of being the solid foundation of life, the sustainer of our life, the strong support and source of comfort for the human pilgrimage which is our life. I. Let me begin with the simple assertion that we need God. The consciousness of that fact must be why we are here. Of course, for some of us this appointment is not a matter of decision. We have made that decision long since - this is the Lord's Day and it is a day first of all for worship. And so it is not as though we awoke with a conscious longing for that encounter and communion that happens in this setting and therefore we have come. Yet, however we happen to be here, it is reflective of some deep-seated sense that we need God, that we long for His presence, that we find a fulfillment of life not within ourselves but only in relationship to One Who is beyond the limits of our time and space and human rationality. Were I to make a list of the dozen most influential books that have shaped my thinking, one would surely be Ernest Becker's The Denial of Death. It won the Pulitzer Prize for general non-fiction in 1974 and it is one of those works that gives an overview and summary in lucid fashion of a vast area of human thought and endeavor. In this case the book focuses on the insights gained from the movement of psychoanalysis from its beginnings in the work of Sigmund Freud through the modification of those insights in the work of Otto Rank. What gripped me in this summarization of the best insight of psychoanalysis into the nature of the human being was the acknowledgment that what a human being most desperately needs to be fully human is precisely what the Christian Gospel offers. Through the work of Freud, the work of an earlier philosopher and Christian came to be appreciated for the depth of truth it contained. That thinker was Soren Kierkegaard. Kierkegaard summarized the human situation profoundly and found the answer to the human dilemma in the leap of faith, casting oneself into the arms of God. Kierkegaard held that Once a person begins to look to his relationship to the Ultimate Power, to infinitude, and to refashion his links from those around him to that Ultimate Power, he opens up to himself the horizon of unlimited possibility, of real freedom. This is Kierkegaard's message, the culmination of his whole argument about the dead-ends of character ... One goes through it all to arrive at faith, the faith that one's very creatureliness has © Grand Valley State University �The God Who Is There For Us Richard A. Rhem Page 3   some meaning to a Creator; that despite one's true insignificance, weakness, death, one's existence has meaning in some ultimate sense because it exists within an eternal and infinite scheme of things brought about and maintained to some kind of design by some creative force. Again and again throughout his writings Kierkegaard repeats the basic formula of faith: one is a creature who can do nothing, but one exists over against a living God for whom "everything is possible." (Becker, The Denial of Death, p. 90) From a life-long study of the human psyche in the discipline of psychoanalysis, Otto Rank concluded Kierkegaard was right. ... Rank joins Kierkegaard in the belief that one should not stop and circumscribe his life with beyonds that are near at hand, or a bit further out, or created by oneself. One should reach for the "highest beyond of religion. ... (p. 174) Rank recognized that the scientific study of the human being could strip him bare, expose his delusion and defense mechanism, but could not allow the person to find out who he is and why he is here on earth, why he has to die, and how he can make his life a triumph. (p. 193) He declares, Modern man needs a "Thou" to whom to turn for spiritual and moral dependence, and as God was in eclipse, the therapist has had to replace Him. ... Becker indicates that these two disparate thinkers, one a Christian of the 19th Century and one a psychoanalyst of the 20th, ... reached the same conclusion after the most exhaustive psychological quest: that at the very furtherest reaches of scientific description, psychology has to give way to "theology" - that is, to a world-view that absorbs the individual's conflicts and guilt and offers him the possibility for some kind of heroic apotheosis. Man cannot endure his own littleness unless he can translate it into meaningfulness on the largest possible level, (p. 196) Rank was not a Christian believer nor is Becker. Neither of them espoused the answer of the Christian faith. Yet they saw that the lostness of the modern person is precisely that she has been robbed of faith in transcendence. The one thing modern man cannot do is what Kierkegaard prescribed: The lonely leap into faith, the naive personal trust in some kind of transcendental support for one's life. (p. 200) © Grand Valley State University �The God Who Is There For Us Richard A. Rhem Page 4   The characteristic of the modern mind is the banishment of mystery, of naive belief, of simple-minded hope. (p. 200) Perhaps I could summarize Becker's view and Rank's by saying that they believe that the Judeo-Christian faith provides precisely the view of Reality which a human being needs to be happy but they also believe it is an illusion. What they call illusion we hold to be the truth. God is and God is Who we need. The analysis of human nature and the scientific study of the human psyche confirm that to be human is to be frustrated and restless as long as one is turned in upon oneself or imprisoned within the structures and meanings of this world. There is something intrinsic in the human spirit that longs to leap beyond itself, to commit itself to a transcendent Reality - in a word - to God. Israel's God provided a resting place for the soul. In Isaiah 57 God speaks of His coming in judgment on His people but that judgment here, as is always true, was in order to turn his people back to Him. The prophet knew there was no peace except in Him. God expresses His gracious way thus: I cured him and gave him relief, and I brought him comfort in full measure, brought peace to those who mourned for him, ... peace for all men. ... But the wicked are like the troubled sea, a sea that cannot rest, whose troubled waters cast up mud and filth. There is no peace for the wicked, says the Lord. (Isaiah 57:19-21, NEB) Wickedness in the Old Testament is unbelief. It is life lived on a purely human, secular plane. It is life without trust in God. Such a life says the Lord knows no peace. We do need God - to be fully human, to know peace. II. The Good News is that the God we need is the God Who is there for us. We have in the text from Isaiah a marvelous capsule summary of the biblical God. God speaks. He tells Who He is. For thus says the high and lofty One who inhabits eternity, whose name is Holy; I dwell in the high and holy place, and also with him who is of a contrite and humble spirit, to revive the spirit of the humble, and to revive the heart of the contrite. There is a portrait of the God we need. We see in this statement both the otherness of God and His nearness. God is the Wholly-Other. That is a designation made popular by Karl Barth. He had been schooled in the classic Liberalism of the 19th Century. Christian faith had become pretty much a © Grand Valley State University �The God Who Is There For Us Richard A. Rhem Page 5   man-centered affair. The Gospel was reduced to the limits of human reason. It was Barth who sounded the alarm and called the whole European continent back to the Otherness of God - the Godness of God; the One Who contradicts us. He is a God beyond us. He is not like us only a little more so. He is other than we are. He is the Creator, we the creature. He is not of one being with us but the source and ground of our being. God is the exalted One - high and lofty. God is the Infinite One, the Absolute, the Ultimate Power. God is the Eternal One - beyond the limits of our time and space. It would be difficult to find a more exalted conception of God. Yet in the same breath we are told that He dwells with him who is of humble and contrite spirit. He dwells with the one who is crushed. And he draws near to revive. He is thus not only the Wholly-Other, but He is the God Who is near. He is the God Who in gracious condescension has come near to us to revive and redeem. In the classic doctrine of God the theologians have spoken of God's transcendence and God's immanence. In so speaking they have sought to let God be God - to honor His Otherness, to recognize that He is beyond us. Yet, in faithfulness to Scripture, they have spoken of His drawing near, of His being with His people. We must never lose that tension. God is God and, as we have already seen from the analysis of the human psyche, nothing less can satisfy the human heart or provide a resting place for the human spirit. God is a mystery. He is not at our disposal. Could we fathom his depths He would not be God and we would be restless still, striving on to find that Ultimate One Who limits our existence and grounds our being. Barth called the world back to the Otherness of God. The 19th Century had domesticated God and formed Him in the human image. About the same time another theologian, Rudolf Otto, wrote a book entitled The Idea of the Holy. In a forward to the English translation, Otto wrote, This book ... makes a serious attempt to analyze all the more exactly the feeling which remains where the concept fails. ... The English translator, John W. Harvey, in his Preface raised the question addressed in the work. © Grand Valley State University �The God Who Is There For Us Richard A. Rhem Page 6   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. XIII) Obviously Otto believed that in religious experience we apprehend the divine or God. But he recognized that God is not at our disposal. That a God within the limits of human reason is not God at all. Otto studied the history of religions and found a common thread. There was an apprehension of the divine which could only be described as a knowing beyond knowing. ... a unique kind of apprehension ... not to be reduced to ordinary intellectual or rational "knowing" with its terminology of notions and concepts, and yet - and this is the paradox of the matter - itself a genuine "knowing," the growing awareness of an object, deity. ... 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 presence, ‘the beyond,’ even where it is also felt as ‘the within’ man. There you have the text from Isaiah. Otto's classic study names that transcendent presence the Holy, but the word Holy carries with it such a strong, ethereal connotation that he needed another word to describe that residue of experience. He chose the word "numinous" from the Latin numen, the most general Latin word for supernatural divine power. 'Numinous' feeling is, then, just this unique apprehension of a Something, whose character may at first seem to have little connection with our ordinary moral terms, but which later 'becomes charged' with the highest and deepest moral significance. (p. XVI) 'Numinous' and 'Numen' will, then, be words which bear no moral impact, but which stand for the specific non-rational religious apprehension and its objects, at all 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) It was Otto's contention that in Christianity The numinous elements, such as the sense of awe and reverence before infinite mystery and infinite majesty are yet combined and made one with the rational elements, assuring us that God is an all-righteous, allprovident, and all-loving Person, with Whom a man may enter into the most intimate relationship. The paradox of Isaiah's text is maintained. © Grand Valley State University �The God Who Is There For Us Richard A. Rhem Page 7   It is a real knowledge of, and real personal communion with, a Being whose nature is yet above knowledge, and transcends personality. (p. XVII) One could not hope for a better commentary on the text than the explanation of the thesis of Rudolf Otto and his book did greatly impact theological development. The text itself is simply a condensation of the experience of Isaiah recorded in the sixth chapter of his prophecy where he entered the temple and saw the Lord "high and lifted up." He heard the angels sing the Sanctus, "Holy, Holy, Holy is the Lord of Hosts." The vision left him awestruck, smitten with his own unworthiness. But through the ministry of the angel he was cleansed and through the voice of God called and commissioned to service. In the midst of awe and wonder he was addressed, cleansed and given a task. The high and lofty One stooped to grace His servant. III. The God Who is there for us is the God with a human face. If we leave Isaiah we find in the New Testament the same gracious God Whose glory is now revealed in the face of Jesus Christ. The writer of Hebrews was concerned for Jewish Christians who had responded to Jesus, received him as the Messiah, the fulfillment of the Old Testament hope. They left the Temple and recognized the provisionalness of the Law and ceremony of the Old Covenant and embraced the Gospel. But now they were experiencing persecution and they were living under pressure. How normal for them to wonder if they had made a mistake, if perhaps this was a judgment on their offering of allegiance to Jesus. This letter addresses that question showing that Jesus is indeed the fulfillment and the culmination of the whole Old Covenant system. He warns them against drifting away or falling off in slackness and disobedience, as had that generation that was delivered from Egypt's bondage only to lose faith in the wilderness. He points them to the word of God that is, in this case, the message of God by which they have been addressed. It is, he claims, ... alive and active. It cuts more keenly than any two-edged sword, piercing as far as the place where life and spirit, joints and marrow divide. It sifts the purposes and thoughts of the heart. There is nothing in creation that can hide from him; everything lies naked and exposed to the eyes of the One with whom we have to reckon. (Hebrews 4:12-13) That is a call to faithfulness couched in a word of warning. The One with Whom we have to do is no marshmallow God, no passive deity or dumb idol. The words resonate with a seriousness that the thought of God calls forth. In a word, the writer is saying that one's whole life and existence is an open secret before the eyes of the living God Who judges according to absolutes of truth, righteousness and justice. There is no game of charades with Him. In the © Grand Valley State University �The God Who Is There For Us Richard A. Rhem Page 8   presence of one another we mask the deep intent and purposes of our hearts and even before our own minds we hardly dare face the truth of our personal ambiguity, faithlessness and meanness. But He knows us - better than we know ourselves. What a frightening thought! But no; it is not so. In the very next paragraph the God Who searches the heart is described in magnificent fashion as the gracious God Who has drawn near to us in Jesus and Who bids us come to Him through Jesus to find in his grace timely help. Once again as in Isaiah 57:15, we have a marvelous juxtaposition -the Judge Who might be thought to instill fear and trembling is the God Whose seat is a throne of grace. To be sure, He is God; to be sure, He is pure light; to be sure, to be in His presence must inspire awe and wonder and certainly there is a proper reverence described in Scripture as the fear of God which must be part of any experience of His presence. But "fear and trembling" are not the last word; the last word is grace. For the God with Whom we have to do is the God with a human face. Did not Jesus say, If you have seen me, you have seen the Father. (John 14:9) Did not Paul write, For the same God who said, "Out of darkness let light shine," has caused his light to shine within us, to give the light of revelation - the revelation of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. (II Corinthians 4:6) Quite consistent with the whole witness of the New Testament our writer points us to Jesus who brings us to God. Since therefore we have a great high priest ... Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast to the religion we profess. For ours is not a high priest unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who because of his likeness to us, has been tested every way, only without sin. Let us therefore boldly approach the throne of our gracious God where we may receive mercy and in his grace find timely help. (Hebrews 4:14-16) One could meditate on that gracious invitation for a long time and never fathom the mystery of love and depth of mercy there set forth. The Eternal God, the Infinite One, the Ultimate Power, the King of the Universe is full of mercy, ready to give grace in every time of need. The way is open; access is available at any moment. The invitation is come. © Grand Valley State University �The God Who Is There For Us Richard A. Rhem Page 9   The God we need is the God Who is there for us - the God with a human face - the God we see in the face of Jesus - the God of grace without limit and mercy without measure. That is the message - God, our ally is full of Grace. His anger is for a moment, the other side of His love in order to turn us and return us to Himself. His love is everlasting and His Grace will finally conquer us with gentle wooing and steady faithfulness. But these are words, expressed in stammering fashion, attempting to express the inexpressible. When all this has been said, it must be said further that words cannot convict us. That is the Spirit's work. Yet we have this encouragement that, if with all our heart we truly seek him, we shall surely find him. The longing of our hearts is already the sign of His early work and those who thirst for God will be satisfied. God is our Ally. He is there for us. Come to Him through Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen. References: Ernest Becker. The Denial of Death. First published in 1973. 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 Pentecost VII Series God Our Ally Scripture Text Isaiah 57:15, Hebrews 4: 13, 16 Location The location of the interview Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI References Ernest Becker, The Denial of Death, 1973 Rudolf Otto, The Idea of the Holy, 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-0-19850714 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1985-07-14 Title A name given to the resource The God Who is There for Us 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 14, 1985 entitled "The God Who is There for Us", as part of the series "God Our Ally", on the occasion of Pentecost VII, at Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI. Scripture references: Isaiah 57:15, Hebrews 4: 13, 16. Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Lemmen Library and Archives Awe God of Grace Immanence Meaning Mystery Nature of God Revelation Spiritual Quest Transcendence https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/f60998192905d443efa05e6dcbf72d98.mp3 72ab03bb0dac595433ebbbb6277f69e0 https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/72a4b4af1a415396820fe1e1b4e7f0bd.pdf 8e3bdb0a270e803101a6a54b663fd6b3 PDF Text Text The God Who Is Absent From the sermon series: God, Our Ally Text: Job 23: 3, 10; Mark 15: 34 Richard A. Rhem Christ Community Church Spring Lake, Michigan July 21, 1985 Transcription of the spoken sermon Oh, that I knew where I might find him… Job 23: 3 But he knows the way that I take; when he has tried me, I shall come forth as gold. Job 23: 10 …My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? Mark 15: 34 God, our Ally. That is the focus of this series of messages. The reiteration of that theme over a sustained period of time will write it indelibly on our minds and weave it into the fabric of our hearts. With such a conviction being foundational to our lives, we will be able to negotiate life's perilous way with confidence and hope. At no time will that be more important and necessary than at those times when it seems that the God with Whom we have to do is absent. It is such times that this message addresses and it is with such times that Christian preaching must honestly deal lest it become superficial sentimentality, a kind of religious "whistling in the dark." The proclamation of the Gospel, the announcement of Good News, must never be an upbeat, positive message of good cheer that communicates the idea that one should simply keep one's chin up because it is really not as bad as it seems. If the Church conveys that impression; if Christian preaching is no more than cheerleading, then it will serve well those who live on the surface of life with no depth of experience and certainly no encounter with suffering, but it will fail miserably and soon alienate more serious souls who have been brushed with the mystery of evil and suffering in the world. Not only will such superficiality offend those who know the experience of darkness; it will also fail to do justice to the full spectrum of biblical truth, for the © Grand Valley State University   �The God Who Is Absent Richard A. Rhem Page 2   biblical message never makes light of the darkness but rather announces a Light the darkness can never overcome. But, darkness there is. Real. Devastating. Causing fear and trembling. God is our Ally. God is there for us. That affirmation of faith I am attempting to declare from Scripture, approaching that truth from various angles. But certainly one of the most critical situations from which to trust that truth is the experience of God's absence. One of the greatest concerns I have in preaching is that the Truth declared may leave the one who needs it most in a worse state than before, simply because the dark night of the soul is so deep, the pain so great, the feeling of desolation so overwhelming that a message that promises joy and triumph simply cannot be received. That may sometimes happen in spite of the sensitivity of the preacher. But it will certainly happen if the message fails to acknowledge the hell of experiencing the absence of God. If Scripture is faithfully taught, there will be no danger of soft-pedaling the darkness, the horror of being alone, lost, in a world from which God is absent. Let us look then for a moment into the soul of Job. This Old Testament drama deals in classic fashion with the problem of suffering. Its theme is familiar and its purpose well known. The book was written to counter the prevailing idea that there is always a connection between human sin and human suffering. It is a drama. The opening verses present the greatness and prosperity of Job. Then scene one takes place in the Court of Heaven. God speaks of Job's righteousness; Satan, the accuser, says it is not surprising that Job is so good - see how he has prospered. God says, "Go ahead, remove everything, test him." So Job loses everything; great calamity and loss are his. But through it all Job remains faithful. His classic response: Naked I came from the womb, naked I shall return whence I came. The Lord gives and the Lord takes away; blessed be the name of the Lord. (1:21) Scene two: Again the Court of Heaven. Obviously God won round one. Job was stripped bare but yet worshiped the Lord. Satan says that the real test comes when Job’s own health, his flesh and bone are touched. God says, “Go ahead, test him but do not take his life.” And it happens. Job suffers terrible physical disease. His wife cries out angrily, Are you still unshaken in your integrity? Curse God and die! (2:9) But Job remains a rock. © Grand Valley State University �The God Who Is Absent Richard A. Rhem Page 3   If we accept good from God, shall we not accept evil? (2:10) The suffering was massive. Friends came to comfort but for seven days simply sat there, numbed by the magnitude of the horror. Now we have the setting for the lesson of the drama. Job finally breaks out in bitter complaint. He curses the day of his birth. He lets it all spill out. His friends had been silent, quite overwhelmed by the magnitude of his suffering and as long as he bore it in silence they too said nothing. But now that he has finally broken out in bitter complaint, they find their own preconceived notions and pre-set judgments threatened. Now they feel constrained to answer because what they believe - their little systems of making sense of the world - was being challenged. They would have claimed that they were coming to the defense of God, of truth, of the proper view of things. In reality of course they were coming to the defense of their own dogmatic opinions. They had certainly come with good intentions of being comforters to Job in his affliction, but they had also come knowing the answer to the mystery before they heard the question. Their religious system was now under attack and so their intention to bring comfort was now overcome by their need to preserve intact their own world and life view. Listen to Eliphaz go on the attack: ... now that adversity comes upon you, you lose patience; it touches you, and you are unmanned. (4:5) Then he comes to the point: ... what innocent man has ever perished? Where have you seen the upright destroyed? (4:7) That was the prevailing opinion. That is what everyone took for granted. It was a life axiom, no longer even questioned. But Job questioned. He refused to bow to popular opinion - "What everyone knew." He was a good man. There was no secret iniquity he was hiding. His probing of the mystery is eloquent. The dialogue continues: Job's friend defending God for punishing Job, convinced that whatever Job gets he has coming to him; Job defending himself against their insensitive taunts. Finally Job cries out in despair at the blindness and obstinacy of his friends and makes his appeal to God. Oh, that I knew where I might find him, that I might come even to his seat! I would lay my care before him ... Behold, I go forward, but he is not there; and backward, but I cannot perceive him; by the left hand I seek him, but I cannot behold him; I turn to the right hand, but I cannot see him. (23:3-4, 8-9) Job found no comfort or understanding from his friends whose insensitivity has gotten them the label "miserable comforters." He refuses to accept the popular © Grand Valley State University �The God Who Is Absent Richard A. Rhem Page 4   wisdom. He refuses to believe God is doing this to him as a punishment. He refuses to believe that God would not solve his terrible dilemma. But, God is absent. He cannot find him. This is the point I want to make for the purpose of this message. Sometimes God is absent. Let me simply summarize the resolution of the drama of Job. There is never given an answer to the why of suffering, the suffering of the innocent, the pervasive presence of Evil in God's good creation that brushes us all at some point. What is soundly refuted and persuasively denied is that there is a correlation between sin and suffering. God does reveal Himself to Job. Job is quite overwhelmed by the majesty of God. His persistent questioning seems almost silly in the light of the revelation of Who God is. He bows and worships. No answer is given. But the absent God does reveal Himself. And Job finds that God is enough. A light scatters the darkest darkness when the Presence is known. But let us remain with Job in his anguish for a moment. It is so very real and so very terrifying. In the midst of that darkness, no light is visible, not because there is no light, but because one is so numbed by the pain that one simply cannot penetrate the shroud of darkness that envelops the soul. Perhaps in the Church we do not deal well with the darkness because it makes us nervous - like Job's friends we rush to God's defense - not that God needs to be defended but the darkness threatens our own little security systems. We are really defending ourselves against that darkness. We grow anxious when someone close to us in a time of great trauma seems to question God or even to deny that God is, is good and merciful, is there for us. Job's friends did not do wrong in coming to Job. They did well in coming and being silent before the awful reality of his suffering. They seriously erred when they spoke, trying to explain, to rationalize, to defend God. God needs no defense. We often simply have no answers. It is our proper posture just to be there and wait in silence, bringing the comfort of a presence that cares even when it cannot fathom. Sometimes God is absent. Sometimes we must simply trust, holding on with white-knuckled grip. Job did not give up on God. But he could not find him. Thus his piercing cry, © Grand Valley State University �The God Who Is Absent Richard A. Rhem Page 5   "Oh, that I knew where I might find him!" Job's darkness was terrible indeed; yet it did not match the darkness of another whose cry is differently expressed, yet essentially the same; a cry of total abandonment and utter desolation: "My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?" Still there was a clinging to God - the address is a personal address, "My God." Yet there was a sense of being abandoned, of being alone in the darkness. The darkness is real. There is a mystery of Evil in the world. Sometimes there is no clue - no answer to the anguishing, "Why?" Let us simply acknowledge that. Perhaps the most horrible instance of such darkness and suffering of the innocent occurred in our own time. The Holocaust, which claimed the lives of six million Jews in Nazi death camps, can never be fully taken in. The most eloquent statement of the darkness I have ever encountered is in Elie Wiesel's account of his own childhood nightmare in the camps, seeing the smoke rise from the gas furnaces that consumed his mother and sister and watching his father die by inches. His account is entitled simply Night. He writes, Some talked of God, of his mysterious ways, of the sins of the Jewish people, and of their future deliverance. But I had ceased to pray. How I sympathized with Job! I did not deny God's existence, but I doubted His absolute justice. (p. 55F) One day a young boy was executed, hung from a gallows with the whole camp marched out to witness. Elie Wiesel watched, too, himself only a boy. As the child twisted in the air suspended from the noose, someone behind Wiesel said, "Where is God? Where is He?" Again, as he was marched by the child dying agonizingly, he heard it again, "Where is God now?" And he writes, And I heard a voice within me answer him, Where is He? Here He is - He is hanging there on the gallows... (p. 76) The Jewish New Year, Rosh Hashanah, was at hand and on the eve of that day is a great Jewish festival celebration. In the prison camp the Jews gathered for worship. Wiesel writes his thoughts. © Grand Valley State University �The God Who Is Absent Richard A. Rhem Page 6   "What are you, my God," I thought angrily, "compared to this afflicted crowd, proclaiming to You their faith, then anger, then revolt? What does Your greatness mean, Lord of the Universe, in the face of all this weakness, this discomposition, and this decay? Why do You will trouble on their sick minds, their crippled bodies?" (p. 77) … "Blessed be the Name of the Eternal!" Thousands of voices repeated the benediction; thousands of men prostrated themselves like trees before a tempest. … Why, but why should I bless Him? In every fiber I rebelled. Because He had had thousands of children burned in His pits? Because He kept six crematories working night and day, on Sundays and feast days? ... How could I say to Him: "Blessed art Thou, Eternal Master of the Universe, Who chose us from among the races to be tortured day and night, to see our fathers, our mothers, our brothers, end in the crematory? Praise be Thy Holy Name, Thou Who hast chosen us to be butchered on Thine altar?" (p. 78) … This day I ceased to plead. I was no longer capable of lamentation. On the contrary, I felt very strong. I was the accuser, God the accused. (p. 79) And what was the sensation of this awful situation? My eyes were open and I was alone - terribly alone in a world without God and without man. Without love or mercy. (p. 79) Elie Wiesel has become a strong advocate of the Jewish cause. I do not know where he is now in relation to the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. But certainly the poignancy of the pain could hardly find more powerful expression than he gives it in his account. In his book, The Meaning of Christ, Robert C. Johnson records an incident from the ministry of H.H. Farmer. Many years ago I was preaching on the love of God; there was in the congregation an old Polish Jew who had been converted to the Christian faith. He came to me afterward and said, 'You have no right to speak about the love of God, until you have seen, as I have seen, the blood of your dearest friends running in the gutters on a gray winter morning. I asked him later how it was that, having seen such a massacre, he had come to © Grand Valley State University �The God Who Is Absent Richard A. Rhem Page 7   believe in the love of God. The answer he gave in effect was that the Christian gospel first began to lay hold of him because it bade him see God - the love of God – just where he was, just where he could not but always be in his thoughts and memories - in those bloodstained streets on that grey morning. It bade him see the love of God – not somewhere else, but in the midst of just that sort of thing, in the blood and agony of Calvary. He did at least know, he said, that this was a message that grappled with the facts; and then he went on to say something the sense of which I shall always remember though the words I have forgotten. He said, "As I looked at that man upon the cross, as I heard him pray, 'Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do,’ as I heard him cry in his anguish, ‘My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?’ I knew that I must make up my mind once for all and either take my stand beside him and share in his undefeated faith in God ... or else fall finally into a bottomless pit of bitterness, hatred, and unutterable despair. (p. 46F) That I submit to you is a profound and moving response to the incomprehensible mystery of human suffering. The darkness is real. Wiesel’s God died in the onslaught of senseless suffering, human cruelty and the absence of God. The Polish Jew found the love of God in a similar life situation because he sensed that in the awful agony of another Jew, Jesus, who expressed that absence, there was yet an undefeated trust in God - even in the depths of hellish torment. He sensed that Christian faith, the Gospel, if you will, was not a superficial pep pill that asserted God was in His heaven and all was right with the world, but was an invitation to trust in the God of love in the deepest darkness, not because an explanation was offered for the suffering, but that the God of Jesus and the Cross is a God present in the moments of most acute abandonment. He trusted God in the darkness because the alternative was horrible beyond description – a bottomless pit of bitterness, hatred and unutterable despair. That is the choice we must finally make. The darkness is real. Biblical faith never denies its reality. Sometimes one finally cries to heaven, "Oh, that I knew where I might find him!" Sometimes one's God dies on the gallows of human evil as did Wiesel's. Sometimes one cries, "My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?" Sometimes - realizing this God invites us to trust him at the very point of history's darkest hour, one comes to find the love of God just there, as did the Polish Jew. © Grand Valley State University �The God Who Is Absent Richard A. Rhem Page 8   Biblical faith never takes lightly the darkness; Biblical faith declares a light that the darkness cannot overcome - the Light of Easter, of resurrection, of the promise of God's final triumph over the darkness. Good Friday was not the last word. Had it been the last word, there would have been no further word. But Good Friday found its answer in the Easter wonder of Jesus' resurrection. That is the one supreme moment of God's revelation - within history, a moment from beyond history, illuminating history's meaning. An event of the End happening in the middle of history, throwing its light forward and backward, giving meaning to the whole and filling the whole with meaning - that life is not a cruel joke, a cosmic mistake; that life is not a tragic moment bracketed by oblivion before and oblivion beyond; that life with all the vicissitudes of our human experience is undergirded and overshadowed by the Presence of the God Who sometimes seems absent. St. Paul said it well: "God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself." The French Christian writer, Francois Mauriac, wrote the foreword to Elie Wiesel's Night. This is how he ended: And I, who believe that God is love, what answer could I give my young questioner, whose dark eyes still held the reflection of that angelic sadness which had appeared one day upon the face of the hanged child? What did I say to him? Did I speak of that other Israeli, his brother, who may have resembled him - the Crucified, whose Cross has conquered the world? Did I affirm that the stumbling block to his faith was the cornerstone of mine, and that the conformity between the Cross and the suffering of men was in my eyes the key to that impenetrable mystery wherein the faith of his childhood had perished? Zion, however, has risen up again from the crematories and the charnel houses. The Jewish nation has been resurrected from among its thousands of dead. It is through them that it lives again. We do not know the worth of one single drop of blood, one single tear. All is grace. If the Eternal is the Eternal, the last word for each one of us belongs to Him. This is what I should have told this Jewish child. But I could only embrace him, weeping. (p. 10f) The Gospel we proclaim points to a gracious God, our Ally, Who will overcome the darkness with His light. God is our Ally; God is God. The darkness is real but it is not final. But Mauriac was quite right not to speak but to embrace the suffering one, weeping. That sensitive silence was the most cogent invitation to trust in the darkness. © Grand Valley State University �The God Who Is Absent Richard A. Rhem Page 9   If that is where you are, or if tomorrow that should be your lot, cling to God Who seems absent but Who feels our pain more deeply than any human support and who promises that dawn will yet break and light break through. Amen. Reference: Elie Wiesel. Night. English translation, Hill & Wany, 1972, 1985. © Grand Valley State University � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Richard A. Rhem Collection Description An account of the resource Text and sound recordings of the sermons, prayers, services, and articles of Richard Rhem, pastor emeritus of Christ Community Church in Spring Lake, Michigan, where he served for 37 years. Starting in the mid 1980's, Rhem began to question some of the traditional Christian dogma that he had been espousing from the pulpit. That questioning was a first step in a long and interesting spiritual journey, one that he openly shared with his congregation. His journey is important, in part because it is reflective of the questioning, the yearnings, and the gradual revision of beliefs that many persons in this part of the century have experienced and continue to experience. It is important also because of the affirming and inclusive way his questioning was done and his thinking evolved. His sermons and other written and spoken materials together document the steps in his journey as it took a turn in 1985, yet continued to revolve around the framework and liturgies of the Christian calendar. Subject The topic of the resource Clergy--Michigan Reformed Church in America Christ Community Church (Spring Lake, Mich.) Religion Interfaith worship Sermons Sound Recordings Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Rhem, Richard A. Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/514">Richard A. Rhem papers (KII-01)</a> Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives. Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Kaufman Interfaith Institute Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Language A language of the resource English Type The nature or genre of the resource Sound Text Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context KII-01 Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant 1981-2014 Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource audio/mp3 text/pdf Sound A resource primarily intended to be heard. Examples include a music playback file format, an audio compact disc, and recorded speech or sounds. Event Pentecost VIII Series God Our Ally Scripture Text Job 23:3, 10, Mark 15:34 Location The location of the interview Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI References Elie Wiesel, Night, 1972, 1985 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-0-19850721 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1985-07-21 Title A name given to the resource The God Who is Absent 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 21, 1985 entitled "The God Who is Absent", as part of the series "God Our Ally", on the occasion of Pentecost VIII, at Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI. Scripture references: Job 23:3, 10, Mark 15:34. Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Lemmen Library and Archives Grace Hebrew Scriptures Job Nature of God Sin Suffering Trust https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/fe84308f8c827e539c1872fa95336bfd.mp3 f16030dfcac039db2a0043f1bdfa5a28 https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/cd717ff899bf7a876f53b7e956fd3be5.pdf 3aa232682bbb0d719974b213d55d09ef PDF Text Text The God Who Forgives Us From the sermon series: God, Our Ally Text: Micah 7: 18-19; Romans 11: 33-36 Richard A. Rhem Christ Community Church Spring Lake, Michigan July 28, 1985 Transcription of the spoken sermon God is our Ally. That is the center of our faith, the heart of the biblical revelation. He is there for us, our friend, at our side, on our side. Our lives are undergirded by His faithfulness and mercy, overshadowed by His love. Even when we cannot sense it amidst tragedy, in the darkness, He holds us still. Even when our conscience condemns us and our guilt threatens to overwhelm us - even then, God is our Ally, for He is the God Who forgives us. That is the theme of this message. We recite the familiar Apostles' Creed and we affirm, I believe the forgiveness of sins. That is a great affirmation. That speaks to the deepest need of the human heart to be forgiven, to be accepted, to be right with God. That which is our deepest need is that which God has provided, for He is a God Who forgives us. Micah ends his prophecy with a great exclamation of hope and confidence, an expression of sheer wonder at the grace and mercy of God. Who is a God like Thee? Thou takest away guilt, Thou passeth over the sin of the remnant of Thy people... Thou wilt show us tender affection and wash away our guilt, casting our sins into the depth of the sea. This amazed exclamation comes at the end of a prophetic book that had dealt seriously with the sin of God's people, Judah. Micah prophesied near the end of the Eighth Century, B.C. With Amos, Hosea and Isaiah he formed the quartet of Eighth Century prophets that represents the golden age of Hebrew prophecy. The social structures of Judah were in a state of deterioration. The nation lacked moral integrity and Micah realized that this people was ripe for judgment. © Grand Valley State University   �The God Who Forgives Us Richard A. Rhem Page 2   He was a contemporary of Isaiah and although Isaiah, too, knew of the sin of the nation, he could not yet conceive of the fall of Jerusalem. Micah, however, predicted that fall, believing that Judah was not immune to the righteous judgment of God. He did not whitewash the estate of a people who had left the paths of righteousness. But as for me, I am filled with power, with the Spirit of the Lord, and with justice and might, to declare to Jacob his transgression and to Israel his sin. (3:8) Micah was no "soft touch." But true to the prophetic tradition and the whole biblical perspective, judgment was not the outpouring of the wrath of a vengeful God Who found pleasure in destroying but rather the disciplining hand of a loving Father Whose purpose was always and forever the redemption of His children. For Micah, then, the last word was not judgment, but grace; not wrath, but mercy. He does not retain his anger forever because he delights in steadfast love. The forgiving grace of God is the last word and the psalm that concludes this prophetic book sings it beautifully with a sense of wonder - the wonder known and understood by all who know what it is to be forgiven. Let us attempt to understand the wonder expressed in our text by acknowledging the biblical diagnosis of the human condition - the condition of sin. We can get this diagnosis from Micah or any other biblical writing. The text is a statement that takes this human condition for granted; it is an expression of amazement at the forgiving grace of God, given the human condition of sin. Paul cites a Psalm and puts it bluntly: All have sinned. To be in a state of sin is to be in a state of alienation from God and one's neighbor. In the Old Testament the Genesis stories portray the human person doubting God's word and God's goodness, the unwillingness to live as creature trusting the Creator, but rather wanting to usurp the place of God and to be Lord of one's own destiny. It was Israel's lack of trust in God that is portrayed as the root of their alienation and separation from God, which led to all the disastrous consequences of their corporate and individual lives. Sin is an old fashioned word. Its reality has been soft-pedaled, its seriousness denied. Yet its manifestation is universal and its devastating effects everywhere to be seen. Anyone with a pinch of common sense must acknowledge that something is wrong. Those profound stories in Genesis, full of symbolic meaning, © Grand Valley State University �The God Who Forgives Us Richard A. Rhem Page 3   tell us that something is wrong indeed, because we are out of relationship with the God Who created us for Himself. Modern psychiatry recognizes that something is wrong. A few years ago Karl Menninger of the famed Menninger Clinic wrote a book that was titled, Whatever Became of Sin? in which he implored the pulpit to preach on human sin because this was to recognize the humanity of persons - that they are free and responsible beings, accountable, with the need and capacity to repent. Otherwise we rob persons of their unique humanness, their freedom and responsibility, making them marionettes in a cosmic drama of fate. This is the biblical perspective... God is good and not the author of evil. We make wrong choices, foolish and brazen, and create chaos for ourselves and our world. We get entwined in a web of wrong and we are wrong-headed and wrong-hearted. We must own our wrong but we cannot unwrite the record of our deeds. Therefore, we need to be forgiven or our situation is hopeless. Ernest Becker, in his book, The Denial of Death, gives a fascinating analysis of how the biblical picture of human sin parallels the findings of depth psychology and psychoanalysis. He compares the work of the psychoanalyst, Otto Rank, with the insights of the Christian thinker, Soren Kierkegaard. He writes: Both men reached the same conclusion after the most exhaustive psychological quest: That at the very furthest reaches of scientific description, psychology has to give way to "theology" - that is, to a worldview that absorbs the individual's conflicts and guilt and offers him the possibility for some kind of heroic apotheosis (to be exalted to the rank of a god). Man cannot endure his own littleness unless he can translate it into meaningfulness on the largest possible level. Here Rank and Kierkegaard meet in one of those astonishing historical mergers of thought: that sin and neurosis are two ways of talking about the same thing - the complete isolation of the individual, his disharmony with the rest of nature, his hyperindividualism, his attempt to create his own world from within himself. Both sin and neurosis represent the individual blowing himself up to larger than his true size, his refusal to recognize his cosmic dependence... In sin and neurosis man fetishizes himself on something narrow at hand and pretends that the whole meaning and miraculousness of creation is limited to that, that he can get his beatification from that. Rank's summing up of the neurotic world-view is at the same time that of the classic sinner: The neurotic loses every kind of collective spirituality, and makes the heroic gesture of placing himself entirely within the immortality of his own ego ... (p. 196) © Grand Valley State University �The God Who Forgives Us Richard A. Rhem Page 4   There is not only the neurotic and the sinner's unreal self-inflation in the refusal to admit creatureliness, but also a penalty for intensified self-consciousness "The failure to be consoled by shared illusions." The result is that the sinner (neurotic) is hyperconscious of the very thing he tried to deny: his creatureliness, his miserableness and unworthiness. (p. 197) But there is a significant difference between the classical sinner and the modern neurotic. Both of them experience the natureliness of human insufficiency, only today the neurotic is stripped of the symbolic world-view, the God ideology that would make sense out of his unworthiness and would translate it into heroism. Traditional religion turned the consciousness of sin into a condition for salvation; but the tortured sense of nothingness of the neurotic qualifies him now only for miserable extinction, for merciful release in lonely death. It is all right to be nothing vis-à-vis God, who alone can make it right in His unknown ways; it is another thing to be nothing to oneself, who is nothing. (p. 197) In Rank's own summary: The neurotic type suffers from a consciousness of sin just as much as did his religious ancestor, without believing in the conception of sin. This is precisely what makes him "neurotic"; he feels a sinner without the religious belief in sin for which he therefore needs a new rational explanation. (p. 198 in Becker from Rank, Beyond Psychology p. 193) Thus declares Becker: Thus the plight of modern man: a sinner with no word for it or, worse, who looks for the word for it in a dictionary of psychology and thus only approaches the problem of his separateness and hyperconsciousness. Again, this impasse is what Rank meant when he called psychology a "preponderantly negative and disintegrating ideology." (p. 198) And sounding like a biblical prophet, Rank concludes, according to Becker, that if neurosis is sin, and not disease, then the only thing which can "cure" it is a world-view, some kind of affirmative collective ideology in which the person can perform the living drama of his acceptance as a creature. Only in this way can the neurotic come out of his isolation to become part of such a larger and higher wholeness as religion has always represented. (p. 198F) © Grand Valley State University �The God Who Forgives Us Richard A. Rhem Page 5   That is the conclusion of the best insight of the science of psychoanalysis and it is a striking conclusion. Believing religion an illusion, Rank nonetheless believed that human health could be achieved only by living in that illusion. Only thus could the isolation and alienation of creatureliness be overcome by one being caught up in a larger framework of meaning and purpose. The diagnosis of the human condition is the same whether read from the Bible or from the journals of psychiatry. The terminology differs but the meaning is the same. The human being turned in upon himself, rejecting the status of creature, grasping for autonomy - that person is in biblical terminology a sinner, in the parlance of modern psychology a neurotic. Probably as much as anybody, Robert Schuller has attempted to utilize the findings of the psychological science in his presentation of the Gospel. In his book, Self Esteem, he contends that we are born with a lack of trust. This is suggested by Erik Erikson in his studies in child psychology. Thus Schuller contends we are by nature fearful, anxious, but not wicked. However one responds to Schuller's dialogue with classical Reformed theology, he does make an important point. For too long in the Church we have assaulted the dignity of human personality and have ground persons even deeper into the paralysis of their sinful condition with our heavy handed preaching of human sin. The question is not whether we are sinful and thus commit sins for which we are guilty. That is plain for anyone to see. The question is rather how can we understand the human predicament and meaningfully bring the Gospel to that predicament so that human transformation will result? Somehow we must recognize that all the wrong we do, all the hell on earth we create, is a reflection not of the human nature God created in his own image, but of a negative response of that human nature which fails to understand God, itself, and the way to wholeness. This is not to downplay the havoc wrought by the person. Schuller uses the image of a golf ball. Outside is a thin, dimpled cover. Beneath are layers and layers of rubber wrappings. The core is a hard rubber ball. To describe a golf ball simply in terms of the outer cover is superficial. The real nature of the golf ball is still unknown. The outer cover he compares to human rebellion. But whence comes that rebellion? Schuller claims we are like that golf ball. At the core is a natural lack of self-esteem, a negative self image - all coming from a lack of trust. From that core come all those rubber wrappings: anxiety, fear and all negative emotions resulting in a face that appears angry, mean, rebellious. At the core of our being we are non-trusting, insecure, defensive and our response to life is angry, negative, destructive. Projecting our fear and suspicion outward, we ruin our interpersonal relationships and generally make a mess of our lives and the community. © Grand Valley State University �The God Who Forgives Us Richard A. Rhem Page 6   Berkhof in his Christian Faith sees our sin "rooted in the creaturely structure of the risky being called man." We do seem to live in two worlds; we are part of the animal kingdom and we are created in the image of God. There is both our misuse of freedom and therefore our guilt and there is a gravitational force from below. In Berkhof s terms: Sin is not a fall from a higher form of existence, but the refusal to rise to the higher form of existence of loving fellowship with God. Sin is contrary to nature precisely because it is a yielding to the pull of our inherited nature. Man falls victim to it if he does not in confidence, in surrender, and in obedience open himself to the call from on high as it invites him to join unconditionally and with his whole being in God's venture of a joint history with man. (p. 207) While not contending that Schuller and Berkhof are saying the same thing or share a common analysis of the human condition, this much can be said - and needs to be said - it is possible to understand the sinful behavior of persons, acknowledging the seriousness of the wrong that we do, without painting the human being as a monster, wicked and incorrigible. Invited to friendship with God from above, pulled by a gravitational force from below, the human being is both guilty and tragic, wonderful and capable of transformation. What, then, is the deepest human need? Is it not unconditional love, unlimited grace, full acceptance and free forgiveness? What we most need God provides, for He is the God Who forgives If the rather long path we have taken to diagnose the human condition is accurate - the biblical picture, the insight of psychoanalysis, of Schuller and Berkhof, then what is it that can effect human transformation? How can human nature be changed? Simply stated: An encounter with unconditional love and grace. If it is true that at our core we are lacking in trust, fearful and anxious and if all forms of negative behavior are the consequence, then it is precisely in the experience of being encountered by an all-embracing grace and a nonthreatening love that we will find our anger dissolved, the shell of our hostility shed and our defenses fall away. The Gospel is the good news about God whose nature is love and Whose love in action toward us is grace. And God encounters us in Jesus Christ. It is when we encounter God in Jesus Christ that we know what it is to be unconditionally accepted and embraced by grace. We meet God when we meet Jesus and we meet Jesus when we meet a brother or sister in whom he lives and through whom he loves. © Grand Valley State University �The God Who Forgives Us Richard A. Rhem Page 7   Then we may well exclaim with Micah, Who is a God like thee? Thou takest away guilt... casting our sins into the depths of the sea. Is it that simple? Yes, it is. But it is not cheap. The story of Jesus reveals the costliness of that forgiveness. His life, his death. He lived a fully human life in total harmony with the Father. He bore our sin in his body on the tree. God made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in him. We are forgiven through Jesus Christ our Lord. We are accepted in Jesus. When we can receive that, "hear" that, really appropriate that, we are changed, transformed, inside out. The Gospel announces forgiveness through the grace of God; He the God Who forgives us. No wonder Micah exclaimed in wonder, Who is a God like thee? Paul was awestruck, too, at the forgiving grace of God offered in Jesus Christ. In Romans 9-11 he struggles with Israel's failure to believe in Jesus as their Messiah. He finally concludes that in the mystery of God's ways Israel's disobedience has resulted in the salvation of the Gentile world but he never gives up on Israel either. Quoting from Isaiah 27:9, From Zion shall come the Deliverer; he shall remove wickedness from Jacob, And this is the covenant I will grant them, when I take away their sins… He contends that God will one day remove Israel's sin as well because he is certain of the faithfulness of God and the unconditional nature of his promise. "... God's choice stands, and they are his friends for the sake of the Patriarchs. For the gracious gifts of God and his calling are irrevocable." (11:28-29) He can only conclude - even though he cannot fully fathom For in making all mankind prisoners to disobedience, God's purpose was to show mercy to all mankind. (11:32) This leaves him breathless. In a mood similar to Micah's, he breaks out in grand doxology: O depth of wealth, wisdom and knowledge in God! How unsearchable his judgments, how untraceable his ways! ... Source, Guide and Goal of all that is - to him be glory for ever! Amen." (11:33-36) © Grand Valley State University �The God Who Forgives Us Richard A. Rhem Page 8   What a doxology! What a God! And what calls forth that irrepressible praise of the whole human being? The marvel of a grace that forgives! God is a God Who forgives us! Now if only we could believe it; if only we could receive it. Let me speak of God's forgiveness lifting up some aspects of it that may cause us to sense more deeply its wonder and to appropriate more fully its blessing. The first thing 1 would point out is that God's forgiveness has already been provided - it is a reality now offered unconditionally to all who will receive it. God does not hold us at arm's length, seeing first if we measure up, if we are worthy, if we will do it all right now and not abuse His free grace. We do not deserve it. It was while we were yet enemies that we were reconciled - while we were yet sinners that Christ died for us. (Romans 5:6-8) Forgiveness is not conditional on good behaviour; there is no parole system with God - just a declaration of undeserved mercy and freedom from the guilt of our sin. Forgiveness is not a future possibility if in the meantime we keep our nose clean. Forgiveness has already been procured through the one offering of Jesus and is ours now. There is now therefore no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. (Romans 8:1) The Gospel is not a religion. A religion has a teaching, a ritual, a way of life. Christianity is a religion, but the Gospel is the announcement of what is true now because God has acted: Forgiveness is provided already - secured, forgiveness is freely offered, forgiveness can be now received - received only as gift. A second reflection I would share is that it is those who need it most who find it the most difficult to receive it and personally to appropriate it. Certainly there are those who bulldoze their way through life with seemingly little sensitivity to the havoc they produce and the hurt they inflict. But I am more concerned about the one of sensitive conscience, the one who longs to be right but senses her failings and perhaps even despairs, feeling simply a failure. That one tends to withdraw from the grace of God and from the fellowship where that grace is extended. Such a one feels unworthy which is true enough; yet it is precisely there that the misconception of forgiveness manifests itself. For if I do not allow myself the luxury of grace, being unworthy, then I must be saying that those who do receive it are worthy and then, of course, grace is no longer grace. When I feel wrong, then I feel I do not belong. Withdrawal, isolation, alienation the bitter fruits of failure and despair not dispensed by God's unconditional grace that will never be defeated, will not give up or let go. © Grand Valley State University �The God Who Forgives Us Richard A. Rhem Page 9   I wonder if in this state we do not take ourselves too seriously. Are we so allimportant and our sin of such cosmic dimension that even God can not forgive us and create for us a new beginning? Is not such withdrawal really the last holdout of pride that says, "I will do it on my own or I will not do it"? This leads me to a third observation which follows as a matter of course: Forgiveness is only for the helpless, the hopeless, the one who cannot help himself. We know that; it is a truism of the Gospel. But we find it difficult to keep that truth before our minds. That is inevitable in the Church, I suppose. In the Church you hear about the "oughtness" of life. Certainly there is an "oughtness" in Christian existence: We ought to love God. We ought to love our neighbor. We ought to live truthfully, honestly, nobly, purely, faithfully, etc. Thus the Church becomes the society of oughtness, the place where duty and obligation are set forth, the place where discipline and censure are applied and where failure is not easily tolerated. It is the last place one would dare be honest about his life. Thus develops the paradoxical situation that the place of grace becomes a place of judgmental spirit and the place of Good News becomes the place of bad news. And what kind of people do we form? People grim-faced, tightly wound, anxious, masking their real life full of conflict and ambiguity behind a facade of community respectability, lacking real spontaneity and joy. Are you a hopeless case? You are very near the Kingdom; you are forgiven; breathe easy and begin to enjoy the journey. Finally, I can hear a chorus of dissent: You make the Gospel too easy; you make a mockery of the Christian life. To that I can only say I will take that risk if only I can help one suffering, sensitive struggler to hear and receive the Gospel of forgiveness. And further, religion doesn't work anyway; it only binds another burden on people and places one more monkey on their back. Religion never transformed anyone. It controls, manipulates, keeps one in line (in public,) but it can never free and heal and make whole. If I am accused of announcing a grace that might put in jeopardy duty and obligation and law, then I am in good company; St. Paul was likewise objected to. He spoke glowingly of the triumph of grace in his Roman letter: But where sin was thus multiplied, grace immeasurably exceeded it, in order that, as sin established its reign by way of death, so God's grace might establish its reign in righteousness, and issue in eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. (Romans 5:21) © Grand Valley State University �The God Who Forgives Us Richard A. Rhem Page10   That "immeasurably exceeded" follows an earlier "vastly exceeded by the grace of God" in verse 15 and an "in far greater measure" -verse 17. Thus Paul knows what will be countered. What are we to say, then? Shall we persist in sin, so that there may be ail the more grace? (6:1) He answers sharply, "No, no!" And his answer contains the key to mystery of human transformation; it is precisely the reality of an unconditional love and gracious acceptance that triggers inward change; this is the reality that by the Spirit effects new birth. Law can point the way, Law can indicate duty, Law can carry with it threat, Law can hem us in, bind us up, keep us in tow, effecting an external conformity to righteousness, But Law cannot change us. Law will never make us dizzy with wonder, speechless in awe finally to exclaim, “What a God!” Who is a God like Thee? God is our Ally; He is the God Who forgives us. References: Ernest Becker, The Denial of Death. First published in 1973. Hendrikus Berkhof, Christian Faith: An Introduction to the Study of the Faith. Wm Eerdmans & Co., 1979. Robert H. Schuller. Self-Esteem: The New Reformation. Word Books, 1983. © Grand Valley State University � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Richard A. Rhem Collection Description An account of the resource Text and sound recordings of the sermons, prayers, services, and articles of Richard Rhem, pastor emeritus of Christ Community Church in Spring Lake, Michigan, where he served for 37 years. Starting in the mid 1980's, Rhem began to question some of the traditional Christian dogma that he had been espousing from the pulpit. That questioning was a first step in a long and interesting spiritual journey, one that he openly shared with his congregation. His journey is important, in part because it is reflective of the questioning, the yearnings, and the gradual revision of beliefs that many persons in this part of the century have experienced and continue to experience. It is important also because of the affirming and inclusive way his questioning was done and his thinking evolved. His sermons and other written and spoken materials together document the steps in his journey as it took a turn in 1985, yet continued to revolve around the framework and liturgies of the Christian calendar. Subject The topic of the resource Clergy--Michigan Reformed Church in America Christ Community Church (Spring Lake, Mich.) Religion Interfaith worship Sermons Sound Recordings Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Rhem, Richard A. Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/514">Richard A. Rhem papers (KII-01)</a> Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives. Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Kaufman Interfaith Institute Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Language A language of the resource English Type The nature or genre of the resource Sound Text Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context KII-01 Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant 1981-2014 Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource audio/mp3 text/pdf Sound A resource primarily intended to be heard. Examples include a music playback file format, an audio compact disc, and recorded speech or sounds. Event Pentecost IX Series God Our Ally Scripture Text Micah 7:18-19, Romans 11:33-36 Location The location of the interview Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI References Ernest Becker, The Denial of Death, 1973 Hendrikus Berkhof, Christian Faith, 1979 Robert H. Schuller, Self-Esteem: The New Reformation, 1983. 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-0-19850728 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1985-07-28 Title A name given to the resource The God Who Forgives Us 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 28, 1985 entitled "The God Who Forgives Us", as part of the series "God Our Ally", on the occasion of Pentecost IX, at Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI. Scripture references: Micah 7:18-19, Romans 11:33-36. Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Lemmen Library and Archives Forgiveness Grace Hebrew Scriptures Judgment Micah Nature of God Prophets Sin Transformation Trust https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/fdba54f855d583a4d6662e9f95b32bfd.mp3 6c2bfb4d0d42019fb6a49df280fc1e50 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Richard A. Rhem Collection Description An account of the resource Text and sound recordings of the sermons, prayers, services, and articles of Richard Rhem, pastor emeritus of Christ Community Church in Spring Lake, Michigan, where he served for 37 years. Starting in the mid 1980's, Rhem began to question some of the traditional Christian dogma that he had been espousing from the pulpit. That questioning was a first step in a long and interesting spiritual journey, one that he openly shared with his congregation. His journey is important, in part because it is reflective of the questioning, the yearnings, and the gradual revision of beliefs that many persons in this part of the century have experienced and continue to experience. It is important also because of the affirming and inclusive way his questioning was done and his thinking evolved. His sermons and other written and spoken materials together document the steps in his journey as it took a turn in 1985, yet continued to revolve around the framework and liturgies of the Christian calendar. Subject The topic of the resource Clergy--Michigan Reformed Church in America Christ Community Church (Spring Lake, Mich.) Religion Interfaith worship Sermons Sound Recordings Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Rhem, Richard A. Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/514">Richard A. Rhem papers (KII-01)</a> Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives. Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Kaufman Interfaith Institute Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Language A language of the resource English Type The nature or genre of the resource Sound Text Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context KII-01 Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant 1981-2014 Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource audio/mp3 text/pdf Sound A resource primarily intended to be heard. Examples include a music playback file format, an audio compact disc, and recorded speech or sounds. Event Pentecost X Series God Our Ally Scripture Text Jeremiah 2:13, John 4:14 Location The location of the interview Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context KII-01_RA-0-19850804 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1985-08-04 Title A name given to the resource The God We Forsake Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Richard A. Rhem Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Subject The topic of the resource Clergy--Michigan Reformed Church in America Christ Community Church (Spring Lake, Mich.) Sermons Relation A related resource Richard A. Rhem - An Archive of Sermons, Prayers, Talks and Stories: http://richardrhem.org/ Language A language of the resource eng Type The nature or genre of the resource Sound Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource audio/mp3 Description An account of the resource A sermon given by Richard A. Rhem (Dick) on August 4, 1985 entitled "The God We Forsake", as part of the series "God Our Ally", on the occasion of Pentecost X, at Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI. Scripture references: Jeremiah 2:13, John 4:14. 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/8f4ed85998d92d6d8f526c81e93c99f4.mp3 c17db53599bd8df6c8eb53dfd9c299df Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Richard A. Rhem Collection Description An account of the resource Text and sound recordings of the sermons, prayers, services, and articles of Richard Rhem, pastor emeritus of Christ Community Church in Spring Lake, Michigan, where he served for 37 years. Starting in the mid 1980's, Rhem began to question some of the traditional Christian dogma that he had been espousing from the pulpit. That questioning was a first step in a long and interesting spiritual journey, one that he openly shared with his congregation. His journey is important, in part because it is reflective of the questioning, the yearnings, and the gradual revision of beliefs that many persons in this part of the century have experienced and continue to experience. It is important also because of the affirming and inclusive way his questioning was done and his thinking evolved. His sermons and other written and spoken materials together document the steps in his journey as it took a turn in 1985, yet continued to revolve around the framework and liturgies of the Christian calendar. Subject The topic of the resource Clergy--Michigan Reformed Church in America Christ Community Church (Spring Lake, Mich.) Religion Interfaith worship Sermons Sound Recordings Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Rhem, Richard A. Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/514">Richard A. Rhem papers (KII-01)</a> Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives. Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Kaufman Interfaith Institute Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Language A language of the resource English Type The nature or genre of the resource Sound Text Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context KII-01 Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant 1981-2014 Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource audio/mp3 text/pdf Sound A resource primarily intended to be heard. Examples include a music playback file format, an audio compact disc, and recorded speech or sounds. Event Pentecost XI Series God Our Ally Scripture Text Psalm 139:1, 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-0-19850811 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1985-08-11 Title A name given to the resource The God Before Whom Our Life is Open/The God We Cannot Flee Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Richard A. Rhem Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Subject The topic of the resource Clergy--Michigan Reformed Church in America Christ Community Church (Spring Lake, Mich.) Sermons Relation A related resource Richard A. Rhem - An Archive of Sermons, Prayers, Talks and Stories: http://richardrhem.org/ Language A language of the resource eng Type The nature or genre of the resource Sound Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource audio/mp3 Description An account of the resource A sermon given by Richard A. Rhem (Dick) on August 11, 1985 entitled "The God Before Whom Our Life is Open/The God We Cannot Flee", as part of the series "God Our Ally", on the occasion of Pentecost XI, at Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI. Scripture references: Psalm 139:1, 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/119cab40c8ace5c44f5ec182217df4b3.mp3 d96aaefcbdc4d7d1797a9ad5aef15577 https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/cbe72f6ebf61b1e64ee79a26ebfd3bc2.pdf 9cc3758d69dc66d8406053ed81a40908 PDF Text Text The God Who Cares From the sermon series: God, Our Ally Text: I Peter 5: 7, 10 Richard A. Rhem Christ Community Church Spring Lake, Michigan August 18, 1985 Transcription of the spoken sermon Cast all your anxieties on him, for he cares about you. …The God of all Grace, who has called you to his eternal glory in Christ, will himself restore, establish and strengthen you. I Peter 5: 7, 10 God is our Ally; He is a God Who cares. He cares about you, a creature of His making, a child of His love. He cares about all that pertains to your life and touches your existence. He cares about you so much that that which affects you, affects Him. He is not an impersonal determiner of your fate nor an impassive observer of your pain or your pleasure. He cares about you. He cares about the whole creation. He cares about the twists and turns of human history. He cares about His Kingdom, His rule present and coming. God is engaged with us; He is engaged with the movement of history. In that engagement, He is for us, on our side, at our side. This has been emphasized from various angles in this series of messages. The focus today is on the personal dimension of God's relationship to us. The message is a personal address to you. God cares for you. He enters into healing closeness with His people. He is our Ally. The text is from the first letter of Peter - a simple, concise imperative with a beautiful promise Cast all your anxieties on him (the imperative); For he cares about you (the promise). Let us begin with the promise declared in the text: God cares about you. That simple declaration contains a whole world and life view of things. It is a faith statement. It affirms a total perspective on the cosmos, history and human © Grand Valley State University   �The God Who Cares Richard A. Rhem Page 2   existence. It is a statement about the nature of God and the meaning of life. All of that is embraced in the promise of our text that God cares about you. Let me remind you of the place we left off in the last message - the watershed of faith decision - There is No one, or There is Someone. Both alternatives, as I indicated last week, are faith decisions. If you want to study the question in depth, I would refer you to Hans Küng's great study on the question of God in the thought of the last two centuries, Does God Exist? Küng cites one of the leading logicians and epistemologists of our time, Wolfgang Stegmuller, who asserts: The academic expert, concentrated on his special field (mathematics, history, natural science,) does not like to be told that basic assumptions of his thinking are metaphysical in character; the metaphysician does not like to be told that his mental activity rests en a prerational, premordial decision; philosophers of all types - apart from skeptics - do not like to be told that the kinds of skepticism that are to be taken seriously are irrefutable; and skeptics themselves, of all shades, do not like to admit that they cannot prove their standpoint. Such a complex assessment more or less provokes the indignant protest: "This cannot possibly be your last word. One way or another, there must be a solution of some kind." To which I can only reply: "The solution is in your hands, at any time. Make up your mind. Decide." (Metaphysik, Skepsis, Wissenschift, pp. 1-2) Without belaboring this point, I do think it is important for us who have decided to believe in God to know that one can also decide not to believe in God, but in both cases it is a faith decision. We are the people who have decided to believe in God. Thus we have Someone, not No one. That is a fundamental life decision. But having made that fundamental decision, we still have to determine the nature of the "Someone" to whom we look and before whom we bow. Stoicism appeared in Greece in the Fourth Century B.C. and continued to find expression into the Roman period into the Second Century A.D. At its center, it was Pantheistic, believing that God was the principle of Reason that permeated all reality. The Cosmos was a vast machine grinding on its way according to the Divine Logos, the Divine Rationality. The individual found his peace in bowing to his fate. At the heart of things was not a heart, but a principle of reason, impersonal, unfeeling, untouched by the pain and pleasure of humankind. We might call this view of things fatalistic because whatever will be, will be. The world was not seen as capricious and arbitrary; it was moving rationally, but without a Personal Center. Perhaps we could say there was Something, but not Someone. Stoicism produced strong persons. We still use the term "stoic" to describe someone who bears unflinchingly life's adversity. A dash of stoicism would do us © Grand Valley State University �The God Who Cares Richard A. Rhem Page 3   all good. However, we must recognize here a world and life view which teaches fortitude in the face of whatever happens because of a belief in a cosmic determinism, a universe permeated by a divine principle but wholly indifferent to the human cry, be it an anguished prayer or a joyful exclamation. Sometimes we understand a teaching best by setting it in contrast to another. Our text makes a great claim, which is quite different from the stoic view which says that at the heart of things is not Someone, but Something – an impersonal principle of Reason. Our text claims that at the heart of things is not Something, but Someone - a loving, gracious Presence. He cares about you. Care is an interesting word. Henri Nouwen in his meditation, Out Of Solitude, points out the ambivalence of the word. For example, if one says, "I will take care of him!" it is probably the announcement of an impending attack rather than an expression of tender compassion - but it could be either. The word "care" has also come to be used as an expression of apathy and indifference. "I don't care." Given various alternatives, one may simply shrug one's shoulders and say, "I don't care." That may mean all alternatives are equally satisfactory, but the "I don't care" usage has come to mean not infrequently "I'm really not interested in any alternative - it doesn't matter to me." But, as Nouwen points out, care in its original and deepest sense has nothing to do with indifference and apathy and certainly not with belligerence. The root of care is in the Gothic, Kara meaning “lament.” He writes: The basic meaning of care is: to grieve, to experience sorrow, to cry out with. (p. 340 Nouwen declares, I am very much struck by this background of the word care because we tend to look at caring as an attitude of the strong toward the weak, of the powerful toward the powerless ... we feel quite uncomfortable with an invitation to enter into someone's pain before doing something about it. (p. 34) Yet, he continues, who really helps us? What kinds of persons make a difference? Is it not, Nouwen asks, Those who, instead of giving much advice, solutions, cures, have chosen rather to share our pain and touch our wounds with a gentle and tender hand. The friend who can be silent with us in a moment of despair or confusion, who can stay with us in an hour of grief and bereavement, who © Grand Valley State University �The God Who Cares Richard A. Rhem Page 4   can tolerate not-knowing, not-curing, not-healing and face with us the reality of our powerlessness, that is the friend who cares. (Ibid.) Thus the friend who cares is not the one with the ready solution, the quick fix, the explanation for it all, but precisely the one who is present with us, present to us, owning his own powerlessness and lack of simple answers. To be present with another in their pain is often avoided and evaded by us. Nouwen is quite right when he says, Our tendency is to run away from the painful realities or to try to change them as soon as possible. But cure without care makes us into rulers, controllers, manipulators, and perverts a real community from taking shape. (p. 36) Nouwen is speaking about human community, human caring, but what he says of the horizontal relationship, person-to-person, sheds great light on the care of God for His people. Our text affirms, "He cares about you." That contains a whole world and life view; that claims there is Someone; that Someone cares. That care is the opposite of apathy and indifference. That care is not manipulative and controlling. That care is a loving, gracious Presence with us in the pain and pleasure of our human existence. Many times we might wish that the God Who cares about us would show His hand, intervene, demonstrably move things around to fix matters for us. We would like God to be a manipulator, controlling things from His throne room beyond the ambiguity of history's drama. A not infrequent cry of anguish is, "Why don't you do something?" The people to whom Peter wrote were enduring persecution and knew great suffering and hardship. I am sure they would not have been offended at God's moving in on their situation even if it did infringe on the arena of freedom He carved out for the drama of history. But just here the insight Nouwen shares on the nature of care illumines the care of God for His people. To cure without care is to do violence to the subject of the cure. That is not God's mode of operation. He cares; that means He grieves, experiences sorrow, cries out with. Speaking of Jesus who is the reflection of the heart of God, the writer to the Hebrews says, For we have not a high priest who cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities… (4:15) Stated positively: He is touched. He is affected by that which affects us. © Grand Valley State University �The God Who Cares Richard A. Rhem Page 5   Again, let me stress that our text contains a fundamental world and life view. There is not No one, but Someone; not Something, but Someone; not a manipulative controller, but a loving, gracious Presence. M. Scott Peck is a psychiatrist. He wrote a book in 1978 entitled, The Road Less Traveled. In that book he speaks of God and of Grace, although at the time he was not consciously a Christian. The response to the book made him examine the Christian Faith and he received baptism. He begins his book with the straightforward statement, Life is difficult. He claims that most of us do not recognize this fact, but rather, ... moan more or less incessantly, noisily or subtly, about the enormity of their problems, their burdens, and their difficulties as if life were generally easy, as if life should be easy. (p. 15) He writes about the disciplines by which the array of problems life presents can be handled. He writes about Love and Growth and Religion and then, in the final quarter of the book, he writes about Grace. His insights are so fascinating because he came to them from long experience as a psychotherapist. From his experience He came to believe in a powerful force originating outside of human consciousness which nurtures the spiritual growth of human beings. (p. 260) The religious, he explains, ascribe the origins of this grace to God. He calls the force love, but then asks where love comes from and his answer is from God. To explain the miracles of grace and evolution, we hypothesize the existence of a God who wants us to grow - a God who loves us. To many this hypothesis seems too simple, too easy, too much like fantasy; childlike and naive. But what else do we have? (p. 269) I cannot develop here the extended argument of Peck and his purpose is different from mine in this message. But his final word expresses vividly what I would express from our text and I find it fascinating that the truth of the text coincides with the data gathered by a contemporary psychiatrist prior to his conscious Christian commitment. He writes, The fact that there exists beyond ourselves and our conscious will a powerful force that nurtures our growth and evolution is enough to turn our notions of self-insignificance topsy-turvy. For the existence of this force (once we perceive it) indicates with incontrovertible certainty that our human spiritual growth is of the utmost to something greater than ourselves. This something we call God. The existence of grace is prima © Grand Valley State University �The God Who Cares Richard A. Rhem Page 6   facie evidence not only of the reality of God but also of the reality that God's will is devoted to the growth of the individual human spirit. What once seemed to be a fairy tale turns out to be the reality. We live our lives in the eye of God, and not at the periphery but at the center of His vision, His concern. It is probably that the universe as we know it is but a simple stepping-stone toward the entrance to the Kingdom of God. (p. 312) Again, Peck's purposes are different in his book than mine in this message, but his discovery of that positive, nurturing force from beyond ourselves – in a word, his discovery of grace – is the heart of that reality to which the text points. God cares about you. That means that Reality is benevolent. That means that in the human experience with joy and sorrow, victory and defeat, agony and ecstasy, there is a loving, gracious Presence that undergirds us, overshadows us, nurtures and sustains us. The text contains this promise: God cares about you. The text contains an imperative: Cast your anxieties upon him. We could translate this directive with the word "cares", thus achieving a beautiful parallelism, Cast your cares ... He cares... The words in the Greek language are not the same, however, just as their meanings are not the same in English. The "cares" of the first part of the text are anxieties, worries; it refers to anxious caring, the exercise in futility in which we all engage when we worry about things beyond our control. The Greek word Merimna comes from a verbal root which means "to divide." Anxiety distracts and divides the mind so that there can be no peace of mind, no wholeness. The instruction of the text then is to take those matters, which are eating away at us like an acid dissolving our peace and serenity, and handle them up and throw on God. The tense of the verb to cast is aorist in Greek, which speaks of a single decisive action. Clearly, Peter is pointing to a conscious, deliberate action. The problem with anxiety is that it is a vague dis-ease whose cause (or causes) are not always readily apparent. Peter would counsel us to set down and determine to the extent possible what it is that is jabbing away at our peace of mind, what it is that is "eating away" at us. Once determined, "pitch it," turn it over to God. Such an imperative is found elsewhere in Scripture. The Psalmist's word is perhaps being cited here by Peter: Cast your burden on the Lord, and he will sustain you. (Psalm 55:22) Jesus, in the Sermon on the Mount, taught us, © Grand Valley State University �The God Who Cares Richard A. Rhem Page 7   ... put away anxious thoughts ... ...do not be anxious about tomorrow ... (Matthew 6:25, 34) St. Paul wrote, …have no anxiety, but in everything make your requests known to God in prayer and petition with thanksgiving. Then the peace of God, which is beyond our utmost understanding will keep guard over your hearts and your thoughts, in Christ Jesus. (Philippians 4: 6-7) Of course, the fact that these biblical references can be lined up does not make the accomplishment of the action any easier. Indeed, just the bold imperative, "Stop worrying!" can increase anxiety and we must be sensitive when dealing with others caught up in anxious care that we do not add to the load of their care, guilt because they are worrying and not trusting. But this message has as its aim to point to the possibility of peace of mind and a restful heart not simply by offering the imperative, "Cast your anxiety on him," but by lifting up the promise that grounds the imperative, namely, "because He cares about you." The imperative calls for a conscious, deliberate action - a decision. But it is not an act in isolation, but an action on the basis of a new vision of reality. That is why I began with the promise rather than the imperative even though that reverses the order of the text. If once the promise sinks into our minds and filters down to our hearts, then we begin to see reality as it is; then we gain a fundamental insight into the nature of God, of human existence, of the meaning of the world and history. Then we begin to glimpse the Truth that we are undergirded, overshadowed, loved and graced. Then we can realize that life is difficult but precisely in the difficulties of life we are being spiritually trained and disciplined, prepared for a fuller, richer existence here and now and for fullness of life in the presence of the Eternal God. The imperative then becomes a real possibility for all of us once we see the truth of our situation. Then we can act on the text and turn our cares into prayers. We are not alone. We are not shut up to our own resources and ingenuity. There is Someone. That Someone cares about us. His is a loving, gracious Presence. Communion is invited. Conversation is natural. Our cares become prayers and the consequence of prayer is peace. Prayer is not talking to one's self. It is conversation with Someone Who cares, that is, Who is present to us, present with us, in tune, in touch, feeling what we feel. © Grand Valley State University �The God Who Cares Richard A. Rhem Page 8   A Methodist Bishop of the last century, Bishop Quayle, tells of a time he sat up into the night worrying about the Church. There were so many cares that weighed down that he could not sleep, but simply sat there exhausted, full of anxiety. Then he says it was as if a voice spoke, the voice of God, saying, "You can go to bed now, Quayle, I'll sit up the rest of the night." Have you ever known such a moment when the load of care was suddenly lightened in the presence of God's loving, gracious presence? Such a moment can change one's life forever. We have heard the promise. We have heard the imperative. Let me close with the prelude to both. Peter enjoins those to whom he wrote who were in the heat of battle: Humble yourselves…under God’s mighty hand, and he will lift you up in due time. (I Peter 5: 6) That is the key. Have you humbled yourself under God's mighty hand? That is often where the battle lies. Life can be cruel and tragic and sometimes it is like swimming through asphalt, but we think we have to do it on our own. With Henley in his poem of defiant independence we may be "bloodied, but unbowed." We make it so difficult for ourselves. We fret and grow frustrated, struggle and complain and just when we think we have made it, the bottom falls out or it all goes up in smoke. Why do we fight the God Who is our Ally? Why do we flee that gracious Presence? Why do we resist yielding to Him Whose service is perfect freedom, Whose fellowship is perfect peace? Dorothea Day took Henley's poem and wrote its counterpoint: Out of the light that dazzles me, Bright as the sun from pole to pole, I thank the God I know to be For Christ - the Conqueror of my soul. Since His the sway of circumstance I would not wince, nor cry aloud. Under that rule which men call chance, My head, with joy, is humbly bowed. The outcome of such humbling of oneself beneath the mighty hand of God is a sense of freedom and release, a sense of being undergirded, overshadowed. Then one moves on taking life one day at a time, tending to those things that are within © Grand Valley State University �The God Who Cares Richard A. Rhem Page 9   one's competency and leaving to God the major issues which all the anxiety in the world cannot alter or control anyway. And you approach life with confidence, from a position of strength, knowing that the God of all grace, Who called you into His eternal glory in Christ, will Himself, after your brief suffering, restore, establish and strengthen you on a firm foundation. Therefore - To Him be the dominion forever and ever. Amen. Amen, indeed, so let it be. The Truth is simply this: God is our Ally. He cares about you! Therefore, humble yourself. Cast your anxieties on Him and rest in His loving, gracious Presence. References: Henri Nouwen. Out Of Solitude. Notre Dame: Ave Maria Press, 1974. M. Scott Peck. The Road Less Traveled: A New Psychology of Love, Traditional Values and Spiritual Growth. Touchstone, 1978. © Grand Valley State University � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Richard A. Rhem Collection Description An account of the resource Text and sound recordings of the sermons, prayers, services, and articles of Richard Rhem, pastor emeritus of Christ Community Church in Spring Lake, Michigan, where he served for 37 years. Starting in the mid 1980's, Rhem began to question some of the traditional Christian dogma that he had been espousing from the pulpit. That questioning was a first step in a long and interesting spiritual journey, one that he openly shared with his congregation. His journey is important, in part because it is reflective of the questioning, the yearnings, and the gradual revision of beliefs that many persons in this part of the century have experienced and continue to experience. It is important also because of the affirming and inclusive way his questioning was done and his thinking evolved. His sermons and other written and spoken materials together document the steps in his journey as it took a turn in 1985, yet continued to revolve around the framework and liturgies of the Christian calendar. Subject The topic of the resource Clergy--Michigan Reformed Church in America Christ Community Church (Spring Lake, Mich.) Religion Interfaith worship Sermons Sound Recordings Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Rhem, Richard A. Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/514">Richard A. Rhem papers (KII-01)</a> Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives. Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Kaufman Interfaith Institute Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Language A language of the resource English Type The nature or genre of the resource Sound Text Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context KII-01 Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant 1981-2014 Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource audio/mp3 text/pdf Sound A resource primarily intended to be heard. Examples include a music playback file format, an audio compact disc, and recorded speech or sounds. Event Pentecost XII Series God Our Ally Scripture Text I Peter 5:7, 10 Location The location of the interview Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI References Henri Nouwen, Out of Solitude, 1974 M. Scott Peck, The Road Less Traveled, 1978 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-0-19850818 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1985-08-18 Title A name given to the resource The God Who Cares 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 18, 1985 entitled "The God Who Cares", as part of the series "God Our Ally", on the occasion of Pentecost XII, at Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI. Scripture references: I Peter 5:7, 10. Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Lemmen Library and Archives Community of Grace Faith Love Meaning Nature of God Peter Presence of God https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/464b1eb62053df6c35ed462ef8342aa9.mp3 cf9d4b8d96760f9368f21d4cf4eaff11 https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/c74e44ab7a3365f9c7fad18100cc5c86.pdf e134ceba68982673df8ef23e77c70d87 PDF Text Text The God Who Never Gives Up On Us From the sermon series: God, Our Ally Text: Hosea 11: 8-9, 32; Hosea 14: 4 Richard A. Rhem Christ Community Church Spring Lake, Michigan August 25, 1985 Transcription of the spoken sermon God is our Ally. He will never give up on us - not because finally we will come round and deserve His love, but rather because His love, flowing out of His own depths, will never let us go. That is the theme of this message: He will never give up on us; He will never let us go. This is a message about the unconditional love of God. It is a message about what is translated from the Hebrew word hesed as God's "steadfast love." This is a message about God our Ally Who has called us into a covenant relationship to which He remains faithful even when we prove unfaithful. This message is a love story, the story of a love beyond compare, a love beyond human conception. This is the story of a love that will never give up, never let us go; a love that will finally heal us and bind us to the bosom of God. The message comes from Hosea, a great Eighth Century B.C. prophet who experienced deep pain in his own marriage and therein discovered the pain of God at the unfaithfulness of His people Israel, but discovered something more amazing - that God's love is unquenchable. The first three chapters of Hosea deal with biographical material from the prophet's own life. There has been much debate about the interpretation of these chapters. I cannot give you the whole discussion, but will summarize what I believe is the most adequate understanding of Hosea’s experience. In Chapter 1:2, we read, …The Lord said to Hosea, “Go, take to yourself a wife of harlotry, for the land commits great harlotry by forsaking the Lord.” This was probably a reflection after the fact. Hosea married Gomer and she proved unfaithful. The verse above summarizes what happened rather than indicating that Gomer was a harlot before Hosea married her. The first chapter © Grand Valley State University   �The God Who Never Gives Up On Us Richard A. Rhem Page 2   records Goner's unfaithfulness. Although it is not clearly stated, it would appear that Hosea divorced Gomer because of her wantonness. (cf. Hosea 2:2a, 4-5a). Then in chapter 3:1, we read, And the Lord said to me, "Go again, love a woman who is beloved of a paramour and is an adulteress; even as the Lord loves the people 0f Israel, though they turn to other gods..." So, Hosea redeems Gomer - buys her back out of the bondage of her harlotry and restores her as his wife. In his own experience, thus, he found a "lived parable" that pointed to the unquenchable love of God. He was tormented by his separation from Gomer, he felt maimed and incomplete, and he realized that however little Gomer might deserve his love… yet she retained it to an undiminished degree, and he was constrained even against his own judgment to attempt to restore the old marriage relationship. The mystery of the compulsive power of his own love for Gomer made Hosea reflect upon the love of God for erring Israel. It was thereon that he founded his message of hope for his people… (Interpreter Bible, Vol. VI, p. 562) Martin Buber writes, That a particular person should be bound to love another particular person in utter concreteness, is there such a thing as this? The word can only be spoken to one who already loves. He loves, he still loves the faithless one, he cannot suppress this love, but he does not want it, for he feels himself degraded by it. ...Into this state of soul God's word descends, "Continue loving, thou art allowed to love her, thou must love her; even so do I love Israel." (The Prophetic Faith, p. 113) Hosea loved Gomer still. He redeemed her and brought her back. She did not deserve such love and grace. But if Gomer did not deserve such merciful treatment as Hosea felt constrained to give her, no more did Israel merit the mercy and love of God. Her redemption from sin and shame was an act of God’s grace and of his love that would not let her go. (Interpreter Bible, p. 562) The statement of God's unconditional, unquenchable love is beautifully stated in the first verse of the eleventh chapter. Now the figure is not the marriage relationship, but that of God the Father and Israel the son. When Israel was a child, I loved him, and out of Egypt I called my son. © Grand Valley State University �The God Who Never Gives Up On Us Richard A. Rhem Page 3   But Israel was unfaithful; she worshipped the Canaanite gods. Tenderly, God nurtured her. I led them with cords of compassion, with the bands of love… (11:4) But still they failed to live faithfully in that covenant love. They succeeded only in eliciting God's anger. Judgment was surely coming; Hosea could feel it. Hosea prophesied around 745 B.C. Jeroboam II had brought the Northern Kingdom to prosperity, but Hosea could see the dry rot in the soul of the nation. Judgment would come and judgment did come. In 721, the Assyrian Empire came in and overthrew Israel, dispersing the ten northern tribes. But judgment was not the final word. Judgment was only a means to the end of finally bringing His people to their senses and causing them to return to Him. Listen to the "last word:" How can I give you up, O Ephraim! How can I hand you over, O Israel! How can I make you like Admah! How can I treat you like Zeboiim! My heart recoils within me, my compassion grows warm and tender. I will not execute my fierce anger. I will not again destroy Ephraim; for I am God and not man, the Holy One in your midst, and I will not come, to destroy. (11: 8-9) There you have the text, a text to ponder. There you have a statement of God's unconditional, unquenchable love, a love that will never give up on us, a love that will never let us go. In God's relationship to Israel, we see mirrored His relationship to all nations. God created the nation Israel in the event of the Exodus. Israel was a chosen nation. God elected Israel to be a representative people for all peoples. We cannot fathom the mystery of that choice, that election. It was not an election of one nation cutting off the rest of the nations, but the choosing of one on behalf of the rest. It was a particular choice with a universal purpose. Remember the call to Abraham: …by you all the families of the earth shall bless themselves. Genesis 12: 3 The basis of God's choice of Israel was simply love: It was not because you were more in number than any other people that the Lord set his love upon you and chose you…but it is because the Lord loves you… Deuteronomy 7: 7-8 © Grand Valley State University �The God Who Never Gives Up On Us Richard A. Rhem Page 4   Israel was the representative of us all. Berkhof calls Israel God's "Experimental Garden." In her concrete history – thus in the arena of our history – it has been demonstrated that the human covenant partner will never prove faithful. ... in an experimental garden the soil and what can be done with it are tried out, so that other fields, to which these experiments are applicable, may benefit from it. ... in the Old Testament, Israel, in distinction from other nations, is more than once pictured as a specially cultivated and tended vineyard, from which might thus be expected a greater yield, but whose unproductivity arouses the greater anger of God. (Christian Faith, p. 245) Pointing to Israel's election, Berkhof shows that as a People she had a special privilege and a special task; the outcome of the Old Testament is the demonstration in our history of the faithlessness of the human covenant partner and the faithfulness of the Divine covenant partner. Berkhof writes, And we who are witnesses of this way know that Israel is no better or worse than the other nations, but that her guilt and fate disclose the way of the whole human race. The abiding relevance of the Old Testament is that the experimental garden Israel has shown once and for all how unfruitful we humans are in our faithfulness to God and our neighbor; and then, too, how unimaginably faithful God remains to mankind which ever and again seeks life apart from him. (p. 245f) What is the solution? Certainly there is no hope from our side; there is no solution possible from the human covenant partner. When God moved to effect a solution through the gift of Jesus in whom He dwelt in fullness, we crucified him. This is the New Testament history that corresponds to Israel's failure. Thus we have in both Old and New Testaments the concrete history of radical human guilt. What is the solution? The solution is the radical grace of God, which flows from the unconditional love of God. It was this insight that gripped Hosea, written indelibly in his own soul through his personal experience. God says, in effect, “You deserve to be given up; I should give you up. But how can I give you up? I will not give you up.” In his book Unconditional Love, John Powell writes, In the Old Testament God reveals himself to the People of Israel as a God of unconditional love. His gift of himself in the choice and creation of "My People" is totally unsolicited, undeserved and unmerited. ... God decides, God chooses, God offers his gift of love. He is by his own free act forever committed to his People. The prophet Hosea uses the image of God taking a bride: "And I will betroth you to me forever." (2:19-20) Through the prophet Isaiah, God says, "Even if a mother should forget the child of her womb, I will never forget you." (49:15). © Grand Valley State University �The God Who Never Gives Up On Us Richard A. Rhem Page 5   The unconditionality of God's love for his People is a constant refrain in the Old Testament. God has promised and God will always be faithful to his promise. Jeremiah writes of God's constant willingness to forgive: "With an eternal love I have loved you. Therefore, in loving-kindness I draw you to myself." (31:3) (Unconditional Love, p. 97F) Hosea understood the faithfulness of God to his covenant which was rooted in a love that would never give up. As Bernard Anderson writes, Just as Gomer played the harlot, so Israel had broken the covenant. According to Hosea, this was the real historical tragedy, and all the contemporary troubles of Israel were only symptoms of it. The "wife" whom Yahweh had chosen and betrothed to himself had become a whore. A "spirit of hostility" had inflamed the people, and they had become estranged from their God. (4:12) Hosea's critique of Israel's society went far deeper than a mere condemnation of social immorality, political confusion, or religious formation. He was concerned with men's motives, with the devotion of the heart, with the things in which men place their trust. (Understanding The Old Testament, p. 247) Sounding the keynote of Hosea's message, Anderson writes, The deepest note struck in the book of Hosea is the proclamation that God's "wrath" or judgment is redemptive. God's purpose is not to destroy, but to heal. Through historical crises that shake the very foundations of human self-sufficiency, Yahweh acts to free his people from their enslavement to false allegiance and to restore them to freedom in the covenant loyalty. Just as Hosea's love was greater and deeper than Gomer's infidelity, so Yahweh's love for Israel is truly steadfast. It is a divine love that will not let his people go, despite their fickleness and harlotry. His "wrath" is not capricious, vindictive, and destructive; it is the expression of a holy love which seeks to break the chains of Israel's bondage and to emancipate her for a new life, a new covenant. (Ibid., p. 251) ... divine judgment is not the last word ... (verses 8-9). For even in the hour of catastrophe Yahweh does not abandon his people, nor does his love for them cease. It is not his will that Israel be destroyed as Admah and Zeborm were leveled during the holocaust of Sodom and Gomorrah, (cf. Gen. 19:24-25; Deuteronomy 29:23). Rather, the purpose behind Yahweh's judgment is love, like that of a parent who lovingly disciplines a wayward child. These verses passionately describe a struggle, as it were, within the heart of God - a struggle that doubtless reflects the agony of Hosea's experience with Gomer. But the triumph is on the side of the love that will not let Israel go. (Ibid., p. 252) Thus Hosea ends his prophecy with words of healing, © Grand Valley State University �The God Who Never Gives Up On Us Richard A. Rhem Page 6   I will heal their apostasy; of my own bounty will I love them. (14:4) The secret of such love lies in God. We cannot fathom it; we can only bow before its majesty. It is beyond human comprehension. God points to His own "Godness" as it were, differentiating Himself from us. ... for I am God and not man. Such is the amazing story of the love of God. It is interesting to relate Hosea's sense of God's love that never gives up on us to Paul's struggle with Israel's rejection of Jesus. Romans chapters 9-11 relate that struggle. Paul cannot understand how to put together God's faithfulness to his covenant promise with Israel's disobedience. His final conclusion is that, through Israel's rejection, the Gospel is being brought to the Gentiles. He concludes that section of struggle with these words: For in making all mankind prisoners to disobedience, God’s purpose was to show mercy to all mankind. (11:32) Then he breaks out in a great doxology, praising the God of so great salvation. What are we to make of this amazing love story, this tale of unconditional, unquenchable love? Must it not seem too good to be true? If it seems too good to be true, it is because we are not accustomed to hearing this message stated simply and straightforwardly. As the message has come to us filtered through centuries of Church tradition - our own Church tradition included - the message has been garbled and the unconditional love of God has been hedged in with numerous qualifications and conditions. I think it accurate to say that for the most part the message that has come through is that of a conditional love of God, conditional on our response, conditional on our good behavior. We speak much of grace, but we operate on the basis of good works and self-righteousness. Is it not perhaps that we are afraid to let the truth of the radical grace and unconditional love of God out because people might really believe it and presume upon it, take advantage of it? Do we dare tell people that the love of God will finally overcome their disobedience, their unfaithfulness, their unworthiness, their fickleness, in a word - their sinful rebellion and self assertion? Do we not rather make God's gift of salvation conditional on saying the right words, confessing the right beliefs, conforming to accepted morality? Have we not transformed the Gospel of God's radical grace and unconditional love into a morality game? Has not the message of the Church been strongly flavored with "Santa Claus theology" - that is – not "You better be good 'cause Santa's coming to town," but "You better be good 'cause Jesus is coming again?" © Grand Valley State University �The God Who Never Gives Up On Us Richard A. Rhem Page 7   That is so very human, just like us. We use reward and punishment on our children; good behaviour gets a reward; bad behaviour gets punishment. That seems only reasonable; that seems like a just mode of operation. Is that not also the way God operates? The answer is simply, "No." Is that not why when He makes His amazing declaration about not being able to give up on Israel, He explains, ... for I am God and not man. Similarly in Isaiah 55 we read after the gracious invitation to return to Him Who freely forgives, For my thoughts are not your thoughts, and your ways are not my ways… For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts; and as the rain and the snow come down from heaven and do not return until they have watered the earth, making it blossom and bear fruit, and give seed for sowing and bread to eat, so shall the word which comes from my mouth prevail; it shall not return to me fruitless without accomplishing my purpose or succeeding in the task I gave it. (Isaiah 55:8-11) God is God. God is other than we are. In His dealings, Love always triumphs. God will never give up on His People. His anger burns. His judgment falls. But His love wins out and the last word is grace. We hardly dare let this good news be known for we fear then we will lose our hold on persons, we will lose our control factor. A good dose of threat and a pinch of fear, the reinforcement of the guilt that is present and well deserved tends to keep the Church in the driver's seat and the people subservient and docile. What would happen if we really let it out that God's love is the final reality, the last word? A great Christian leader and spiritual giant of an earlier day, A.W. Tozer, wrote a beautiful essay entitled, "God Is Easy To Live With." He writes, Satan's first attack upon the human race was his sly effort to destroy Eve's confidence in the kindness of God. Unfortunately for her and for us he succeeded too well. From that day, men have had a false conception of God, and it is exactly this that has cut out from under them the ground of righteousness and driven them to reckless and destructive living. (These Times, 1-74, p. 10) He points out how our notion of God must always determine the quality of our religion. Instinctively we try to be like our God and if He is conceived to be stern and exacting, so will we ourselves be. We can speak of salvation by grace, but we reduce the glory of the Gospel to the drudgery of legalism. Tozer goes on: © Grand Valley State University �The God Who Never Gives Up On Us Richard A. Rhem Page 8   From a failure properly to understand God comes a world of unhappiness among good Christians even today. The Christian life is thought to be a glum, unrelieved cross-carrying under the eye of a stern Father who expects much and excuses nothing. If we think of Him as cold and exacting we shall find it impossible to love Him, and our lives will be ridden with servile fear. ... The truth is that God is the most winsome of all beings and His service one of unspeakable pleasure. He is all love, and those who trust Him never know anything but that love. Unfortunately, many Christians cannot get free from their perverted notions of God, and these notions poison their hearts and destroy their inward freedom. These friends serve God grimly, as the elder brother did, doing what is right without enthusiasm and without joy, and seem altogether unable to understand the buoyant, spirited celebration when the prodigal comes home. Their idea of God rules out the possibility of His being happy in His people, ... Unhappy souls, these, doomed to go heavily on their melancholy way, grimly determined to do right if the heavens fall and to be on the winning side in the day of judgment. We please Him most, not by frantically trying to make ourselves good, but by throwing ourselves into His arms with all our imperfections and believing that He understands everything and loves us still. Tozer had read Hosea. He makes such an important point. It is precisely the knowledge of God's unconditional love that has the power to change us inside out. What have we produced in so much of the history of the Church? Not happy, grace-full persons, but fearful, guilt-ridden persons whose external conformity to the Law is a mask over seething hostility and rebellious resentment. James Sandeishas written a book with the interesting title, God Has a Story Too. He points out that the Bible is a story about God's action first of all, not about human reaction. He argues that we moralize the Bible when we should theologize the life. By this he means that the biblical narratives are stories not about human achievements, human obedience, human goodness. We are not given a series of models to emulate in the Bible. Abraham lied about Sarah being his wife and laughed when God said they would have a child. Moses murdered and was a fugitive from justice. David was guilty of murder and adultery. Paul persecuted the Church. Peter denied Jesus. The Bible is the story of what God can do through the likes of such people - in spite of them. The story is God's story - a love story, a story of a love that never quits, a love that never gives up on us, a love that will never let us go. © Grand Valley State University �The God Who Never Gives Up On Us Richard A. Rhem Page 9   Thus when we become wiser than God, feel we must guard the morality of persons and keep their religious practice in line by qualifying the burning passion of His unquenchable love, we not only distort the amazing wonder of that love, we also miss the greatest single catalyst for transforming human personality and the greatest motivation for a life of trust and devotion lived in the light of His grace. Moralism produces self-righteous, proud and judgmental persons. Legalism produces tense, guilty persons lacking joy and assurance in the freedom of grace. Stressing a conditional acceptance produces fear and finally despair. In a word, the shading of the truth of God's love that knows no limits simply backfires; it does not accomplish the purpose. It does not work. In a quarter century of pastoral ministry, I must say that it is grace that is most difficult to receive and God's unconditional love that is most difficult to believe. We do not deserve it. We know we do not deserve it. We are guilty people and we know it. We despair of ourselves; why wouldn't God despair? We condemn ourselves; why wouldn't God condemn? We are faithless and fickle; we resolve, we perform, we fall away again, we have done it a thousand times; will the pattern ever be broken? And here is the greatest peril of spiritual existence: We despair and give up. Rather than responding to the call of the higher, we give up and yield to the lower. We write ourselves off: "Hopeless Case." The old Baptismal liturgy contains great insight and wisdom. Explaining the meaning of the sacrament, it teaches that Baptism is a sign and seal of our ingrafting into the body of Christ... By this assurance we are called to new obedience: to hold fast to this one God, ... to trust and love him with all our heart and soul and mind and strength; and to forsake the world, crucify our old nature, and walk in a new and holy life. Fine. That is what we are committed to. But who can realize that high calling? The Saints, right? Abraham, Moses, David, Peter and Paul? Maybe the Elders. Maybe even the Deacons. But that holy life is hardly within the range of ordinary mortals, is it? Maybe for some. Some folks seem full of goodness and steadiness and from all outward © Grand Valley State University �The God Who Never Gives Up On Us Richard A. Rhem Page10   appearance it would seem they are walking the straight and narrow. But as for me ... Then our liturgy comes with profound spiritual insight: And if we sometimes, through weakness, fall into sin, we must not therefore despair of God's mercy, nor continue in sin, since Baptism is the sign and seal of God's eternal covenant of grace with us. There you have it! Again, the liturgy does not at the point of our weakness issue a warning, but reminds us of a promise. It does not focus on what we ought to be, but on what God has already established. Baptism is a sign and seal of an Eternal Covenant of Grace. That Eternal Covenant of Grace flows from the heart of the Eternal God, which is Love; unquenchable love, unconditional love, love that will not quit, love that will not give up on us, love that will never let us go. Radical grace. Radical love. That is mind-boggling. If that is Who God is, then He is easy to live with, easy to love, a joy to serve, a delight to please. God is our Ally. He will never give up on us. His love will finally triumph. I do not know how; sometimes through judgment, sometimes through adversity, sometimes through death. That is His prerogative; for us the "how" remains a mystery. But the "that" is clear: Love is the last word. God is love. He will never give up on you! References: Bernhard W. Anderson. Understanding the Old Testament. Prentice-Hall, 2nd edition, 1966. Hendrikus Berkhof. Christian Faith: An Introduction to a Study of the Faith. Wm. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1979. John Joseph Powell. Unconditional Love: Love Without Limits. Resources for Christian Living; first printing edition, 1978. A. W. Tozer, “God Is Easy To Live With,” These Times, 1, 1974, p. 10. © Grand Valley State University � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Richard A. Rhem Collection Description An account of the resource Text and sound recordings of the sermons, prayers, services, and articles of Richard Rhem, pastor emeritus of Christ Community Church in Spring Lake, Michigan, where he served for 37 years. Starting in the mid 1980's, Rhem began to question some of the traditional Christian dogma that he had been espousing from the pulpit. That questioning was a first step in a long and interesting spiritual journey, one that he openly shared with his congregation. His journey is important, in part because it is reflective of the questioning, the yearnings, and the gradual revision of beliefs that many persons in this part of the century have experienced and continue to experience. It is important also because of the affirming and inclusive way his questioning was done and his thinking evolved. His sermons and other written and spoken materials together document the steps in his journey as it took a turn in 1985, yet continued to revolve around the framework and liturgies of the Christian calendar. Subject The topic of the resource Clergy--Michigan Reformed Church in America Christ Community Church (Spring Lake, Mich.) Religion Interfaith worship Sermons Sound Recordings Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Rhem, Richard A. Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/514">Richard A. Rhem papers (KII-01)</a> Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives. Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Kaufman Interfaith Institute Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Language A language of the resource English Type The nature or genre of the resource Sound Text Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context KII-01 Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant 1981-2014 Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource audio/mp3 text/pdf Sound A resource primarily intended to be heard. Examples include a music playback file format, an audio compact disc, and recorded speech or sounds. Event Pentecost XIII Series God Our Ally Scripture Text Hosea 11:8-9, 14:4, Romans 11:32 Location The location of the interview Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI References Bernhard W. Anderson, Understanding the Old Testament, 1966 John Joseph Powell, Unconditional Love, 1978 A.W. Tozer, "God Is Easy to Live With," 1974 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-0-19850825 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1985-08-25 Title A name given to the resource The God Who Never Gives Up On Us 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 25, 1985 entitled "The God Who Never Gives Up On Us", as part of the series "God Our Ally", on the occasion of Pentecost XIII, at Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI. Scripture references: Hosea 11:8-9, 14:4, Romans 11:32. Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Lemmen Library and Archives Covenant of Grace God's Unconditional Love Hebrew Scriptures Hosea Judgment Prophet Transformation https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/ab4238bb9bbb8bb6147c93b98f68d0b6.mp3 33ea2e940926a57988d6155d29c5a27f Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Richard A. Rhem Collection Description An account of the resource Text and sound recordings of the sermons, prayers, services, and articles of Richard Rhem, pastor emeritus of Christ Community Church in Spring Lake, Michigan, where he served for 37 years. Starting in the mid 1980's, Rhem began to question some of the traditional Christian dogma that he had been espousing from the pulpit. That questioning was a first step in a long and interesting spiritual journey, one that he openly shared with his congregation. His journey is important, in part because it is reflective of the questioning, the yearnings, and the gradual revision of beliefs that many persons in this part of the century have experienced and continue to experience. It is important also because of the affirming and inclusive way his questioning was done and his thinking evolved. His sermons and other written and spoken materials together document the steps in his journey as it took a turn in 1985, yet continued to revolve around the framework and liturgies of the Christian calendar. Subject The topic of the resource Clergy--Michigan Reformed Church in America Christ Community Church (Spring Lake, Mich.) Religion Interfaith worship Sermons Sound Recordings Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Rhem, Richard A. Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/514">Richard A. Rhem papers (KII-01)</a> Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives. Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Kaufman Interfaith Institute Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Language A language of the resource English Type The nature or genre of the resource Sound Text Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context KII-01 Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant 1981-2014 Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource audio/mp3 text/pdf Sound A resource primarily intended to be heard. Examples include a music playback file format, an audio compact disc, and recorded speech or sounds. Event Pentecost XIV Series God Our Ally Scripture Text Isaiah 58:13-14, Mark 2:27-28 Location The location of the interview Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context KII-01_RA-0-19850901 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1985-09-01 Title A name given to the resource The God Who Invites Us to Sabbath Refreshment 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 1, 1985 entitled "The God Who Invites Us to Sabbath Refreshment", as part of the series "God Our Ally", on the occasion of Pentecost XIV, at Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI. Scripture references: Isaiah 58:13-14, Mark 2:27-28. Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Lemmen Library and Archives https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/bdf38aa651e02ac5c31c296b74937148.mp3 4b9335edc13c403d8822f523ab9edc9e Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Richard A. Rhem Collection Description An account of the resource Text and sound recordings of the sermons, prayers, services, and articles of Richard Rhem, pastor emeritus of Christ Community Church in Spring Lake, Michigan, where he served for 37 years. Starting in the mid 1980's, Rhem began to question some of the traditional Christian dogma that he had been espousing from the pulpit. That questioning was a first step in a long and interesting spiritual journey, one that he openly shared with his congregation. His journey is important, in part because it is reflective of the questioning, the yearnings, and the gradual revision of beliefs that many persons in this part of the century have experienced and continue to experience. It is important also because of the affirming and inclusive way his questioning was done and his thinking evolved. His sermons and other written and spoken materials together document the steps in his journey as it took a turn in 1985, yet continued to revolve around the framework and liturgies of the Christian calendar. Subject The topic of the resource Clergy--Michigan Reformed Church in America Christ Community Church (Spring Lake, Mich.) Religion Interfaith worship Sermons Sound Recordings Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Rhem, Richard A. Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/514">Richard A. Rhem papers (KII-01)</a> Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives. Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Kaufman Interfaith Institute Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Language A language of the resource English Type The nature or genre of the resource Sound Text Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context KII-01 Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant 1981-2014 Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource audio/mp3 text/pdf Sound A resource primarily intended to be heard. Examples include a music playback file format, an audio compact disc, and recorded speech or sounds. Event Pentecost XV Series God Our Ally Scripture Text Deuteronomy 6:4-9 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-0-19850908 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1985-09-08 Title A name given to the resource The God Who Blesses Our Homes 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 8, 1985 entitled "The God Who Blesses Our Homes", as part of the series "God Our Ally", on the occasion of Pentecost XV, at Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI. Scripture references: Deuteronomy 6:4-9. Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Lemmen Library and Archives https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/bf54456a97fb95779eaa39070d16d5fa.mp3 e2219ef36adcf4cdfeb6ff3d1dc7e05f Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Richard A. Rhem Collection Description An account of the resource Text and sound recordings of the sermons, prayers, services, and articles of Richard Rhem, pastor emeritus of Christ Community Church in Spring Lake, Michigan, where he served for 37 years. Starting in the mid 1980's, Rhem began to question some of the traditional Christian dogma that he had been espousing from the pulpit. That questioning was a first step in a long and interesting spiritual journey, one that he openly shared with his congregation. His journey is important, in part because it is reflective of the questioning, the yearnings, and the gradual revision of beliefs that many persons in this part of the century have experienced and continue to experience. It is important also because of the affirming and inclusive way his questioning was done and his thinking evolved. His sermons and other written and spoken materials together document the steps in his journey as it took a turn in 1985, yet continued to revolve around the framework and liturgies of the Christian calendar. Subject The topic of the resource Clergy--Michigan Reformed Church in America Christ Community Church (Spring Lake, Mich.) Religion Interfaith worship Sermons Sound Recordings Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Rhem, Richard A. Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/514">Richard A. Rhem papers (KII-01)</a> Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives. Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Kaufman Interfaith Institute Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Language A language of the resource English Type The nature or genre of the resource Sound Text Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context KII-01 Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant 1981-2014 Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource audio/mp3 text/pdf Sound A resource primarily intended to be heard. Examples include a music playback file format, an audio compact disc, and recorded speech or sounds. Event Pentecost XVI Series God Our Ally Scripture Text I Chronicles 29:9-13 Location The location of the interview Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context KII-01_RA-0-19850915 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1985-09-15 Title A name given to the resource The God Whom We Worship 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 15, 1985 entitled "The God Whom We Worship", as part of the series "God Our Ally", on the occasion of Pentecost XVI, at Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI. Scripture references: I Chronicles 29:9-13. Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Lemmen Library and Archives https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/b940f6e884ccfcdbeb0f7820b74edc8b.mp3 72c7daeff82291e6639776a2855c1ded 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 World Wide Communion Pentecost XIX Scripture Text Isaiah 65:17 Location The location of the interview Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context KII-01_RA-0-19851006 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1985-10-06 Title A name given to the resource The Church - A Sign of Newness 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 October 6, 1985 entitled "The Church - A Sign of Newness", on the occasion of World Wide Communion, Pentecost XIX, at Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI. Scripture references: Isaiah 65:17. Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Lemmen Library and Archives https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/64bb203cf082ff3d7d68f925dd935276.mp3 acf8b6cf4816709938acdd3ce3f07020 https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/dc8a8c5ea56944240d0c30d3919a5c1f.pdf 71f323b369625f32bd744e62e681a1b2 PDF Text Text Creation – Covenant - Consummation From the sermon series: This Is Our Father’s World Text: Genesis 1:1; Ephesians 1: 9-10 Richard A. Rhem Christ Community Church Spring Lake, Michigan October 13, 1985 Transcription of the spoken sermon My message this morning introduces a new theme which will be with us for a few weeks, and what I want to say, in dealing with the doctrine of Creation and the early chapters of Genesis which are so foundational for all the rest of scripture, is that this is our Father's world, and our lives have meaning and purpose because they are rooted in reality, a reality that is embraced in the sovereign and gracious God. In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth, and that statement from the Apostle Paul is rooted in that kind of conviction and goes on to say that in the fullness of time God revealed Himself in Jesus Christ and is moving all things toward a point of consummation when He will realize the purposes of love with which He created in the first place. Creation, the whence from which we come; Consummation, the whither toward which we are moving; and in the meantime, a God of Covenant Grace and love Who calls a people into being to witness to the larger world about His creative intent and His consummate purpose. God, the Eternal God, calls us as His people to be His witnesses to a drama of cosmic dimension, of eternal scope. And I want to say to you in a very pastoral way this morning that, in thinking about the doctrine of Creation, what I would like to have you go out of here with is a sense that your life is plugged in and has a part in a movement that has meaning and purpose; that in the chaos of our lives which can so often be the case, there is a deeper order and foundation, for the Eternal God is our Refuge and underneath are His everlasting arms, and He is moving all things toward the realization of His purpose of love, which is to bring all things into a beautiful harmony in Christ. I don't know the dimensions of that beautiful harmony in Christ, or just exactly what it means that He will unite all things in Jesus Christ, but it would seem to mean at least that all of the various dimensions of our human existence and the created order and the movement of history will become something beautiful, and that even now we can begin to rest in the assurance that the Eternal God is moving things along from that beginning point at which He said, "Let there be…" © Grand Valley State University   �Creation-Covenant-Consummation Richard A. Rhem Page 2   to that end point when he shall say, "Let time be no more," and all things come into the full expression of His loving intention. And so, this morning we have a great word from Paul who assures us in the midst of our days, in the midst of history, in the midst of the kind of history which we have experienced again this week with hostage-taking, terrorist actions, encounters in the sky – in the midst of a crazy, bizarre world like this – we can be sure that there is Someone Else, something else of ultimate reality, of purpose, of love, and a goal that will be realized one day, somehow, because God is God. In the administration of the periods of time, the Eternal God Who began it all is bringing it toward an end in which we will say with Him Who said it at the beginning, "It's very good." That's the message. Not everybody believes that. Sometimes we take these biblical truths as truisms and the familiar almost become clichés that lose their cutting edge. "In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth." Doesn't everybody believe that? In the end, "the kingdoms of this world will become the kingdoms of our God and of His Christ." Doesn't everybody believe that? Can't you take that for granted? No, you cannot. Not in our day and our world. For example, sometimes a word on the opposite side can make that biblical truth sharper. An example is a statement by Eric Fromm, the psychologist, behavioral scientist, a very profound thinker and excellent author. In his book, Man For Himself, he says there is only one solution to his problem, to the human problem: to face the truth, to acknowledge his fundamental aloneness in a universe indifferent to his fate. To recognize there is no power transcending him, which can solve his problem for him. Eric Fromm is saying, "Brother, Sister, you are alone. There is no one else. There's no other dimension. There's no place to call, no one upon whom to trust. You are on your own." Now, I can identify a little bit with Eric Fromm. He is a psychologist who deals with human personality and he probably sees a lot of people who use religion as a crutch, who can't face the harsh realities of life and use religion as an escape. That's weakness. That's not healthy. And there are times when I would like to say to some people, "You must grow up. You must take responsibility for your life. God calls you to be responsible. Don't blame it on the Devil, and don't wait around for God. He calls you to be a responsible person." Perhaps some of that is behind Eric Fromm's statement. Yet it also expresses what he really believes, or what he really does not believe, and he really does not believe that there is another reality, there is a personal reality, that there is a purposeful intention in Creation moving toward consummation. He says, "You are all alone and the only meaning there is in life is any meaning that you can create. The only love there is in life is the love you can generate. There is no one else. There's nothing else." © Grand Valley State University �Creation-Covenant-Consummation Richard A. Rhem Page 3   Well, the French thinker, Andre Maurois, says this: "The universe is indifferent." He said, "Who created it? Why are we here on this puny mudheap spinning in infinite space? I have not the slightest idea, and I am quite convinced that no one has the least idea." That's the opposite from the Apostle Paul. He simply said, "I don't know why we're here, and I don't believe anyone knows why we're here on this puny mudheap spinning in infinite space." Reflective of a good deal of sophisticated thought in our day. In his inaugural lecture in Cambridge University, the historian, G.N. Clark, wrote, "There is no secret and no plan in history to be discovered. I do not believe that any future consummation could make sense of all the irrationalities of preceding ages. If it could not explain them, still less could it justify them." It's the other side of the pole. The irrationalities, contingencies, the universe as an accident - an accident going nowhere, with no reason or no purpose, with no goal. That's the opposite side of the pole of what the Apostle Paul said in our text. Remember Dag Hammerskjold, the former Secretary General of the United Nations who was such a deeply spiritual person? He understood what Paul had to say. He wrote this God does not die on the day that we cease to believe in Him, but we die on the day when our lives cease to be illumined by a steady radiance, renewed daily of a wonder, the source of which is beyond all reason. Hammerskjold knew better than to argue for the existence of God, but he did say with a kind of serenity that is rooted in some experience of that reality, "God does not die on the day that we cease to believe in Him, but we die on the day that our lives cease to be illumined by a ... radiance, renewed daily of a wonder ... beyond our human reason." The Apostle Paul knew what he was talking about. He believed that in the beginning God created the heavens and the earth, and he did not believe that the unraveling of time and space was simply an accident, that life was living itself out and reality playing itself out and the cosmic drama on its way just willy-nilly, meandering hither and yon, going nowhere; but rather he believed that the God Who in the beginning said, "Let there be ..." is the God Who through the periods of time continues to administer, to direct and to guide in a way that is beyond our comprehension toward a point of consummation where there will be a realization of His purposes and we will be able to join with all the hosts of heaven and say, in affirmation of what He said in the beginning, "It is really good!" The first chapter of Genesis is simply the proclamation that the Creator creates Creation. It is the proclamation, it is the article of faith that states that all that is, is because the Eternal God, the Sovereign and Gracious God, said, "Let there be © Grand Valley State University �Creation-Covenant-Consummation Richard A. Rhem Page 4   ..." That's really all it says. It says that all that is, is because He said, "Let there be ...", and it is not interested at all in science, it is not interested at all in portraying the history of how that happened. It has no interest in technique. As a matter of fact, this chapter is not as old as the second chapter, which is a companion account of the Creation. But this chapter was probably penned in about the 6th Century B.C. and was addressed to the Exiles in Babylon, who were wondering about their God as over against the pagan gods of Babylon (since they were a conquered people and Babylon was the dominant power): wondering about the comparative worth of their God against Babylon's god; wondering whether or not they ought to switch loyalties, trade allegiances; wondering, in the alien land and alien environment, where God was and whether now all of the purposes and promises of kingdoms and of the exaltation of Mt. Zion and all of that which made them what they were, whether all of that now was down the tubes; and wondering whether that put an end to the possibility of faith in the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. In that community, in the midst of its chaos, in the moment of its darkness, when its faith was faltering, when its worship was withering, this word came written by some priest or prophet, we know not whom, saying, "In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth and the pagan deities of Babylon are but the inventions of the mind and hand, but the God Whom you worship is present in this your judgment and will be present in the greater Grace." "In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth." Trust the Creator Who has made Himself known as your Redeemer and Who will redeem you yet again. This chapter is a proclamation. It is a theological statement; it leaves all the room in the world for whatever science can come up with, and all of the unfortunate debate over the centuries between science and religion is needless. And of that debate we should be heedless. Unfortunately, in our day, in the courts even today Evolution and Creationism are being battled and you can bet that whoever is arguing for Creationism in the courts of this country is not a friend of biblical religion. It is a benighted kind of obscurantism that does great harm to the cause of truth. But people get exploited in their fears and don't fully understand the nature of this biblical word. This word about Creation was the proclamation to a people in trouble that they could trust their God in the darkness, that He was indeed the Author of Reality, He Who said, "Let there be ... ," then let it be and gave Creation elbow room and room to develop. He Who is the Sovereign Lord Who brought all things into being also created the space and time where that created order could develop. He Who is Sovereign is not coercive. We're going to see that in those early chapters. He Who could, figuratively speaking, snap His fingers and control the winds and the world doesn't deal with Creation that way. Rather than coercing, He evokes response, He elicits love, He pleads, He waits, He anguishes, but He will never © Grand Valley State University �Creation-Covenant-Consummation Richard A. Rhem Page 5   abandon nor forsake, and He will wait and love until finally He conquers with grace. He will have His way. This first chapter of Genesis says that all of reality is graced. Three times over He blessed the created order. The grace of God that is right in the structure of reality – in the morning the sunrise, and in the evening the sunset, in the magnificent chords of the harp and the anthems and in a landscape resplendent with October colors, in the fact that the body heals itself and there's human relationship, and there is community – in the whole of everything there is Grace. All of reality is filled with Grace. And beyond that, it is the proclamation of the God Whose fatherly care will sustain and keep us so that we can celebrate "This is our Father's world." When we pause in so simple a moment as table grace and simply bow our heads and say, "Dear Lord Jesus, be our guest and to Thy service may these gifts be blessed," we are acknowledging that there is a deeply rooted Grace in the whole of reality that for us who are His people has been manifested fully in the face of Jesus. We can say with the Apostle Paul, '"Thanks be to God Who has created space for us to be and Who has loved us and continues to woo us, never crushing us or overpowering us, but never abandoning us until finally one day He'll bring us home and we'll look Him in the face with unveiled face, and we'll say, 'It was really good.'" Let us pray. O God, Whose artistry is able to weave sunlight and shadow, pleasure and pain, victory and defeat into a tapestry that spells love, we bow in wonder, love and praise, through Jesus Christ, our Lord. © Grand Valley State University � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Richard A. Rhem Collection Description An account of the resource Text and sound recordings of the sermons, prayers, services, and articles of Richard Rhem, pastor emeritus of Christ Community Church in Spring Lake, Michigan, where he served for 37 years. Starting in the mid 1980's, Rhem began to question some of the traditional Christian dogma that he had been espousing from the pulpit. That questioning was a first step in a long and interesting spiritual journey, one that he openly shared with his congregation. His journey is important, in part because it is reflective of the questioning, the yearnings, and the gradual revision of beliefs that many persons in this part of the century have experienced and continue to experience. It is important also because of the affirming and inclusive way his questioning was done and his thinking evolved. His sermons and other written and spoken materials together document the steps in his journey as it took a turn in 1985, yet continued to revolve around the framework and liturgies of the Christian calendar. Subject The topic of the resource Clergy--Michigan Reformed Church in America Christ Community Church (Spring Lake, Mich.) Religion Interfaith worship Sermons Sound Recordings Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Rhem, Richard A. Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/514">Richard A. Rhem papers (KII-01)</a> Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives. Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Kaufman Interfaith Institute Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Language A language of the resource English Type The nature or genre of the resource Sound Text Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context KII-01 Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant 1981-2014 Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource audio/mp3 text/pdf Sound A resource primarily intended to be heard. Examples include a music playback file format, an audio compact disc, and recorded speech or sounds. Event Pentecost XX Series This is Our Father's World Scripture Text Genesis 1:1, Ephesians 1:9-10 Location The location of the interview Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context KII-01_RA-0-19851013 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1985-10-13 Title A name given to the resource Creation-Covenant-Consummation Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Richard A. Rhem Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Subject The topic of the resource Clergy--Michigan Reformed Church in America Christ Community Church (Spring Lake, Mich.) Sermons Relation A related resource Richard A. Rhem - An Archive of Sermons, Prayers, Talks and Stories: http://richardrhem.org/ Language A language of the resource eng Type The nature or genre of the resource Sound Text Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource audio/mp3 application/pdf Description An account of the resource A sermon given by Richard A. Rhem (Dick) on October 13, 1985 entitled "Creation-Covenant-Consummation", as part of the series "This is Our Father's World", on the occasion of Pentecost XX, at Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI. Scripture references: Genesis 1:1, Ephesians 1:9-10. Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Lemmen Library and Archives https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/0120e21bbd6370e290d139caf3c21b40.mp3 afc648e986bb202fbbe57fea09b0b1eb https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/33fed34f89f0317aef1833a8500d9624.pdf cb2feedc0669bc8e77548048aa5bd1ff PDF Text Text Human Community in the Image of God From the sermon series: This Is Our Father’s World Text: Philippians 2: 1-11 Richard A. Rhem Christ Community Church Spring Lake, Michigan October 20, 1985 Transcription of the spoken sermon So if there is any encouragement in Christ, any incentive of love, any participation in the Spirit, any affection and sympathy, complete my joy by being of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind. Do nothing from selfishness or conceit, but in humility count others better than yourselves. Let each of you look not only to his own interests but also to the interests of others. Have this mind among yourselves which you have in Christ Jesus who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men and being found in human form, he humbled himself and became obedient unto death, even death on a cross. Therefore, God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name which is above every name that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus is Lord to the glory of God the Father. Philippians 2: 1-11 This is our Father's world. We can be comfortable here because it is not an alien environment; it is a created reality made for us, and we for it. This is our Father's world. This is the great affirmation of the opening chapters of the scripture. As we look for a few weeks at those first eleven chapters of Genesis, which are so foundational for all the rest of biblical faith, I want to focus today on the creation of man and woman, on the creation of the human person. I want to say that we are created for human community; created in the image of God for human community. We are created for God and for one another, and our creation from the hand of God reflects our value and our worth and our dignity. I can't say everything in this message that there is to be said about the human being, the human creature. I'll have to come back in another week and I'll have to deal with the shadow side, that rebellion that has led to alienation and all of the havoc that we have created in the wake of that. So, what I'm going to say today is far more fundamental than what I'm going to say next week. It's far more important for © Grand Valley State University   �Human Community in the Image of God Richard A. Rhem Page 2   you to hear that you are a creature of God and loved by Him and created for His glory than it is to hear that you're a sinner. We've reversed that in the Church. We've stressed so much that we are sinners, and I suppose that is because the need has to be created before the remedy can be applied, but the most fundamental thing is that we are created in the image of God. Human potential and human possibility, human dignity and human worth - that's more fundamental than human deviation. It's a great message. And incidentally, perhaps if that message were heard more, there would be less of the shadow side manifesting itself. If we could ever get hold of the fact of who we really are, we might start acting like it. So, this message is to underscore the simple truth that as human beings, as men and women, we are created by the good and gracious God. I want to say just a couple of simple things which you know already, but I'll say them again - we are created by God, we are created in the image of God, and we are created by God for community with Him and with one another. That's as simple as it is. We are created by God, and to say that we are created by God is to make an affirmation which in the Church may seem a truism which everybody believes and nobody would deny, but we don't live our lives out just in the Church and in the community of faith, and we have to recognize that, when we say that we are created by God, that is not a self-evident truth; it is not something believed by everybody; it is not something believed by every thinking person. It is a biblical statement. It is an affirmation of faith. We have to recognize that our conviction about creation based on the scriptures is a conviction that arises out of the proclamation of the scripture. The opening chapters of Genesis are like the creed of creation. They are a song, they are a message, they are a sermon. They are not a religious speculative statement; they are not a philosophical discussion. They are not a scientific statement. They are affirmations of faith based on the experience of God's grace in Jesus Christ, or in Israel's case, God's grace in that deliverance from bondage in Egypt. The conviction about creation is an article about faith. We believe it, but we have to recognize that it is not self-evident. We have to recognize, too, that it is so foundational for so much else that we believe that we cannot simply take it for granted, but we must continue to make that affirmation intelligently, selfconsciously with awareness. Because if we lose that, we lose everything. Almost everything that we believe subsequently in our biblical faith is posited on our conviction that we are creatures of worth and value and dignity because we have come from the hand of the Creator. There are other philosophies about, and there's a good deal of contrary opinion, and in very scholarly circles. Sometimes to make a point it is good to hear the other side, and I did that last week, and I want to do it once again. This time I cite as an example a Nobel Prizewinning biologist, Jacque Monod, in his book, Chance and Necessity. Already the title tells you something, doesn't it? Chance and necessity as over against © Grand Valley State University �Human Community in the Image of God Richard A. Rhem Page 3   purpose, intelligence and loving intention. Chance and necessity. This is what he said after a very negative statement about the human situation: If he that is a human person accepts this negative message in its full significance, man at last must wake out of his millenary dreams and discover his total solitude, his fundamental isolation. He must realize that, like a gypsy, he lives on the boundary of an alien world, a world that is deaf to his music and is indifferent to his hopes as it is to his suffering or his crimes. We say we are created by God. Well, wait a minute. What if that isn't true? If that is not true, then the other is true. Then we can't say this is our Father’ s world, and that somehow or other we are a part of the whole created reality. We say that this is a friendly environment which is good. According to the commentary of the Creator, there is a place where we can become what He has intended us to be. If that isn't true, then the other is true, that we live on the boundary of an alien world contrary to our purposes. Or worse, just indifferent to our purposes. Indifferent to our music. And indifferent to our hopes, our sufferings, our crimes. What that statement says is that, however we are involved in this process of human history as human creatures, there is no one at the beginning and there's no one at the end, and we aren't going anywhere in terms of any purpose or meaning. Now, I quote a very scholarly opinion so that I don't give the impression that biblical faith is just obvious and self-evident. No, there are good thinking people who have come to this kind of conclusion. That's why I say it is important for us to hear this as a declaration of faith. Then it's important for us to begin to draw the implications. The implications of Jacque Monod are that we have to wake up, grow up, face up to the darkness, to the coldness, to the meaningless of it all, so that whatever meaning there is, we'll have to create; whatever love there is, we'll have to generate. But there's no one and there's nothing more. We don't believe that. We believe that God created us with an intention for our good. We believe that God created us with a thought in mind, with a selfconscious intelligence, and with a great purpose, and that this world is not an alien environment, but a friendly place in which human potential may be developed to realize the high calling with which He calls us. Carl Sagan, the cosmologist, the one who does such a fantastic job with the films about the cosmos, and his book Cosmos, gives the other explanation. The other explanation is that some inanimate, non-living cell was triggered by some ray of light at some point, moved across the abyss from the inanimate to the animate stage, continued from that point in the development of cellular structure to increasing complexity to the present complexity of the human being. And where the primeval pea soup came from in the beginning, where the cell that God triggered came from in the beginning, how the ray of light ever activated it, about all of that, nothing is said. But what is claimed is that whatever is, is the © Grand Valley State University �Human Community in the Image of God Richard A. Rhem Page 4   consequence of accident, of chance, moving on with the kind of inbuilt necessity, but going nowhere and having no accompanying purpose. It's always good to look beyond the surface statement and say, "Then what does that mean?" So to say that God created us is a rather simple affirmation of faith, but it makes a world of difference as to how we view ourselves and understand our situation. We affirm that God created us, and when we say He created us, we're not talking about wind; we're not talking about techniques; we're not talking about the process. The Bible doesn't know anything about when it happened. It says, "In the beginning..." The Bible's affirmation is that all that is, is because He said, "Let there be ...," and that's all the Bible is interested in. All the rest the scientists can fight about. In my class on Wednesday night, someone told me that the "Big Bang" theory of the origin of the universe is being challenged. The Big Bang has been popular of late in the circles of the physicists, and I could smile and say, "Oh, really? Well, I hope the scientists have a field day fighting about it. I don't care." Now, if I had said, "The Book of Genesis finally is verified," because a group of very scholarly people has said that the universe started in a Big Bang, which therefore spoke of an original moment of creation, then when the Big Bang blew up, my faith would blow up, too. I can't identify this Book with any ideology, philosophical position or scientific plank of any platform, because when I do, that which is transient and of human generation will be an unsteady foundation for this word of God. This word of God only says one thing. It says, "Whatever is, it is because He said, 'Let there be...'" And then the whole world can try to figure out how it happened. I mean, it doesn't really make any difference, does it? I told you last week that I saw the jawbone of the Heidelberg man in the University of Heidelberg Museum recently. Six hundred thousand years old, they say. It was discovered just outside the city of Heidelberg, and up on the chart they had visualized what they thought this creature had looked like. He stood up straight, with a little resemblance to primates (big monkeys). Now, the Bible doesn't know anything about the linkage backward from where we are. And there are some people who have been offended by the claim that maybe we've got monkeys in our past. Well, I would say that just an objective observation of human behaviour would give a great deal of support to the idea that there might be a lot of monkeys in our past. "There's a lot of monkey business going on! But, you see, that's not even a biblical issue; it doesn't even matter. And yet, oh, has not the Church churned over that issue? When did a human being become a human being? Well, I'll tell you when. That's the second thing I want to say. It's when the whatever was there was addressed by God and knew himself, knew herself to be addressed and was able to respond in kind. It was in the moment in which consciousness dawned and that created person, animal, whatever you want to call it, suddenly understood itself, gained a beginning sense of identity and self-awareness, self-reflection and the ability to respond to being addressed. The first word of a first human being was a prayer. And when that creature learned to © Grand Valley State University �Human Community in the Image of God Richard A. Rhem Page 5   pray, that creature could be called human. For to be human is to be created in the image of God, to be like God. And it doesn't really matter whether the human being sprang fresh from the word or at some point in the process heard the word, the creative word that called him or her forth. The fact is that when this creature came face to face with God we could speak of being human. In the image of God, our scripture tells us, is like God. God made us like Himself. It's an amazing truth. Therefore, we accord to one another dignity and value and worth, and we never put ourselves down either; for the most fundamental fact about us is that we are a reflection of God. If I could pile up scripture upon scripture this morning I could have also read Psalm 8, "Lord our God, how excellent is Thy name in all the earth. When I consider the heavens, the work of Thy hands, the sun and moon, which Thou hast made, what is man that Thou art mindful of him, or the son of man that Thou visited him?" Ah, the Psalmist who didn't have an inkling about the expanses of the cosmos as you and I do, nonetheless looked into the starry sky and knew that those stars were a long way away, and he felt himself in the expansiveness of his world to be insignificant and small. But then he had even a deeper intuition, for he went on to say, "For Thou hast created him a little less than God and given him dominion." Reflecting our chapter this morning, the most profound thing is that we are created by God and made like Him to reflect Him. My Professor Berkhof coins, at least in the English translation, the word "respondable," in reference to the human being. Respondable. By that he is meaning to say he is responsible to respond, or he might not, but he can. Respondable. He has the capacity to respond. He has the capacity to respond to the address of God and he is created for love and he is free in that condition of respondability. So you're really something! I preached on that subject one time. You are really something. You can never put yourself down. No matter how tarnished and tainted and withered and wilted. No matter how great the failure, how deep the abyss - you can never put yourself down. Nor may we ever put one another down. For we've come from the hand of God, and we're a reflection of His glory. And He has created us for communion with Himself and with one another. To be human is to be addressable, respondable, to be in covenant with God. If we believe that He created us, then He created us with purpose, on purpose, with meaning and, of course, He created us to be that over against Him with whom He could commune and upon whom He could shed His love. And we'll have to speak next week about the fact that we've not taken well to that, that we've not opened ourselves up to that potential that is ours to live in the light of that love and grace. But there's still good news, because there is one of us that has done precisely that and that is Jesus. Paul, obviously with reference to Genesis 1, in Philippians 2 tells us about Jesus. Jesus who, though he was in the form of God, thought equality with God not to be © Grand Valley State University �Human Community in the Image of God Richard A. Rhem Page 6   something grasped after, but rather emptied himself, indeed was made in fashion as the human being and became a servant and humbled himself unto death, even the death of the cross. And that passage has been the center of Christological controversy over the centuries, but it's such a paradox because it is such a practical, pastoral appeal to this congregation whom Paul dearly loved. He wrote, If our common life in Christ yields anything to stir the heart, any loving consolation, any sharing of the Spirit, any warmth of affection or compassion, fill up my cup of happiness by thinking and feeling alike with the same love for one another, the same turn of mind and the common care for unity. There must be no room for rivalry and personal vanity among you, but you must humbly reckon others better than yourselves. And then he appeals to Jesus. And after saying all of this, after this warm appeal for warmth and the binding together of human community, he said, "Well, let this mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus." That's why he talks about Jesus and his relationship to God and his emptying and his death. Not to give us some Christological discussion about the divine and human in Jesus, but to say to the human congregation, "Will you be human and will you allow community to flourish and blossom through lowliness in mind, esteeming others better than yourselves, through warmth and affection and compassion, in a word, let this mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus." The first Adam grasped after the prerogative of the Creator. The second Adam, the new man, Jesus, offered himself up in total obedience and subservience to the Father and became the instrument of reconciliation between God and human beings, between human being and human being, and between human beings and the whole created order, so that now in Christ we can say we are new creations, restored in the image of God and if anyone is in Christ, it is a whole new creation. There is harmony with nature and peace with God and reconciliation one with another, human community, realizing the intentions of the Creator. The creation story in the first chapter ends with the celebration of all of this in the Sabbath rest. And the Sabbath rest is a sign pointing to the ultimate Sabbath rest when the Shalom of God will cover the earth as the waters cover the sea. How important it is, then, that we begin now to incarnate, to live out this peace with God through Jesus Christ and reconciliation with one another in harmony with the created world. You are really something! We are called to become what we are. Let us pray. God, our Father, enable us to catch a glimpse of the wonder of being human and then, through the power and grace of Your good Spirit, enable us to live humanly and to provide in the community of faith an alternative society and © Grand Valley State University �Human Community in the Image of God Richard A. Rhem Page 7   a sign pointing to that Kingdom which is surely coming when there shall be peace on earth. Hear our prayer 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. Event Peace Sunday Pentecost XXI Series This is Our Father's World Scripture Text Phillipians 2:1-11 Location The location of the interview Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context KII-01_RA-0-19851020 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1985-10-20 Title A name given to the resource Human Community in the Image of God Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Richard A. Rhem Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Subject The topic of the resource Clergy--Michigan Reformed Church in America Christ Community Church (Spring Lake, Mich.) Sermons Relation A related resource Richard A. Rhem - An Archive of Sermons, Prayers, Talks and Stories: http://richardrhem.org/ Language A language of the resource eng Type The nature or genre of the resource Sound Text Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource audio/mp3 application/pdf Description An account of the resource A sermon given by Richard A. Rhem (Dick) on October 20, 1985 entitled "Human Community in the Image of God", as part of the series "This is Our Father's World", on the occasion of Peace Sunday, Pentecost XXI, at Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI. Scripture references: Phillipians 2:1-11. Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Lemmen Library and Archives Community of Grace Covenant Creation Divine Intention Faith Hebrew Scriptures Image of God Shalom https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/045f1ed44d00c68d0de586feee0aac78.mp3 a3c63b3a70f42088495a9ecc872fb5eb https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/743dcb215101ac73b41b4cb8736b597d.pdf 7633130373880364236bb916d97c8ade PDF Text Text God’s Grace in Our Gloom From the sermon series: This is Our Father’s World Text: II Corinthians 5: 19, 20; 6: 2 Richard A. Rhem Christ Community Church Spring Lake, Michigan Reformation Sunday, October 27, 1985 Transcription of the spoken sermon God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them… II Corinthians 5: 19 …be reconciled to God. II Corinthians 5: 20 …now is the day of salvation. II Corinthians 6: 2 It is fitting that on Reformation Sunday we should address the theme, "God's Grace in Our Gloom,” because it was especially the Grace of God that came to expression in the 16th Century in the Reformation of the Church. It was the message of justification by faith, which was rooted in the gracious outreach of God toward His lost and straying children that was the good news of the Gospel that reverberated across the European continent. It was that message which had gotten buried under Traditionalism; that message, that good news which had been lost in the Church's control of people and its manipulation of people through tradition and structure and a kind of sacramental practice that did not come off as good news, but rather as bad news. God's grace in our gloom is a fit Reformation theme and it is also a fit subject for discussion of these early chapters of Genesis that we are looking for in these weeks. This is our Father's world, and in this world He has a struggle because He created us with the ability to disobey and turn our backs upon Him. He called us to a great destiny but gave us the freedom either to respond or not to respond and since He doesn't crush us or coerce us, since He doesn't use His almighty power to roll over us like a steam roller, but rather waits and pleads, there is built into the very structure of Creation the possibility that the one created in His image will not respond to Him, but rather will reject Him; will not find his peace in being the creature in the care of the Creator, but rather, as a rebel, will revolt against the Creator and the authority of God. © Grand Valley State University   �God’s Grace in Our Gloom Richard A. Rhem Page 2   The early chapters of Genesis are foundational for all that follows, and in Chapters two and three we find the creation of man and woman and their Temptation and Fall, falling out of fellowship with God and bringing with it all the consequences that came in the wake of that rebellion. As we look at these chapters, I want you to see that in Chapters one and two we really have two Creation accounts. We looked at the first Creation account the last two weeks; the fact that all there is, is because God said, "Let there be ..." And then the most fundamental fact about the human being - that he and she are created in the image of God. I said last week that was the most fundamental fact, and it is. I said last week there is more to be said, and we will do that this week, but before I go on to say any more, I want to stress once again that the human being is created in the image of God. That means that you are a person of dignity, of worth and of value. It means that the human being, then, can never be put down, and it means that we ought never to put ourselves down. We have been created in the image of God, and that is the most fundamental truth about our human nature. We reflect God. As the Psalmist said, He made us a little lower than Himself. It was precisely in the grandeur with which He created us that there lay the potential for the disaster that has ensued upon our turning away from Him. But even in our turning away from Him and the tragedy that we have introduced into the world, we have not overcome the most fundamental fact and that is that we are created in the image of God, we reflect God; in other words, you are really something! Now, I think in the Church we have perhaps had the stress the other way around. We have stressed the human being as sinner rather than the human being as creature. I don't want to make that mistake. I want to say it again loud and clear the human being created in the image of God is really something! You are really something. And our sin and rebellion with all of its disastrous consequences has never wiped out that most fundamental fact - that we were created like God and we are still called to be His ally and His friend and companion to live in relationship with God and with our fellow men. That is fundamental. Now, in these opening chapters, after Chapter one where we have the Creation account, we have in Chapter two a second Creation account where the focus is on the creation of man and woman. This is that delightful story of God's scooping up the clay and forming the man and breathing into him the breath of life, subsequently also seeing that it is not good for man to dwell alone, creating the woman from Adam's rib from which some have derived the idea that woman is really a "de-rib-ative" of man. (Sorry about that - I can never resist those.) Actually, that creation of the woman, a second act of Creation, would indicate that man and woman are created equally, that they stand equally before God. We could have a whole sermon and a whole series of sermons on the legitimacy of the feminist movement on the basis of Genesis one and two, and we could point out the tale of error and of horror which has ensued from a misreading of those © Grand Valley State University �God’s Grace in Our Gloom Richard A. Rhem Page 3   chapters in regard to the oppression of women down through the centuries. So, women of the world, unite! You've got biblical basis. But I'm not going to go into that today. I simply want to say that in Chapter two you have man and woman created by God and set in a garden in what we call that state of paradise. And then we have Chapter three and there we have the Temptation and the succumbing to temptation and the consequent judgment of God. And then Chapter four we will look at next week -the first murder. - it would seem that there is another Fall. And Chapter six, the story of the Flood, the disobedience and the judgment of God - another Fall. And then God starting over again, but in Chapter nine the Tower of Babel - another Fall, where finally the race demonstrates beyond a shadow of a doubt that they will not live as the creatures of God under His care and His communion, but rather as rebels against God and structuring life apart from Him. The early chapters of Genesis are the prelude to the story of Israel, to the call and the election of Abraham and the whole redemptive history that followed. The first eleven chapters are like a prelude to all of that specific history, and in these first eleven chapters the great issues of humankind and of God and of history are dealt with. And what I want you to see is that man and woman created in Chapter two and in that garden of paradise may not be separated from man and woman in Chapter three. The chapter divisions of the Bible are very handy for reference. I don't know what I would do about my text if it wasn't that there is Genesis one and two and three and so on, and all of those little verses that give preachers text, but as a matter of fact, what comes through is the idea in Chapter two that you have man and woman perfect in paradise, Chapter three as though now you make another step and you have man and woman in the Garden rebelling and falling into sin. If I were to try to wipe out of your mind the idea of a perfect state in paradise in Chapter two and the Fall of mankind in Chapter three, I would give up before I would start. It is so deeply engrained in our consciousness; we have thought so long that way that I don't think it is possible to get that out of your head, but if I could get it out of your heart, I would, because then I would say to you that what we have in Genesis two and three is not the story of Mr. Adam and Mrs. Eve, two historical figures way back in primeval history. What we have in Genesis two and three is the story of every man and every woman; the story of Adam and Eve is the story of you and me. The story of Adam and Eve is not about some primeval, distant past at the dawn of Creation. The story of Adam and Eve is the story about every human being that has ever been born, and those chapters which make one continuous story and ought not to be read in two stories, are not historical accounts such as we find later in the Old Testament when, for example, we read the exploits of David. David was a real historical figure, he was a king of Israel, he fought battles and did all kinds of things and we can read that in the kind of interpreted history that we have in the Old Testament. © Grand Valley State University �God’s Grace in Our Gloom Richard A. Rhem Page 4   We are not dealing with that kind of material in Genesis two and three. In the first chapter we are told that God spoke and created all things, and we are told that He created the human being in His own image. And now Chapters two through eleven will begin to unravel that story in preparation for the real story of the Bible that begins with Abraham. And these chapters are necessary because the Israelite who knew God as the God of Redemption said, "How do we relate to the rest of mankind? How does God relate to the rest of mankind? And if God is good and Creation is good, why is life so tough? If God is good and Creation is good - if it all came from Him, then why are things in such a mess? If God is good and this is His good Creation, then why is there such sorrow and such pain and such tragedy in the world?" Those are ultimate questions. Those are not questions about fig leaves and apple trees and snakes and two primeval human beings scurrying around the bushes. Those are the ultimate questions of life. Why is there anything rather than nothing? Who created the heavens and the earth? What relationship does the human being have to God? He is created in God's image; he is like God; he reflects the very being of God. Well, if the human being came from God and if all of Creation was pronounced good, then why is the human being like he is? Why are there wars and trials and all of the dark shadows that are a part of the human scene? Those are the questions underlying those early chapters. And in the third chapter, which we read a moment ago, we have the people of Israel, the people who had come to know God, the people who came to believe that their God was a God Who redeemed them in the Exodus experience and was also the Creator of the heavens and the earth. God alone. We have their testimony as to the fact that God is good and Creation is good and that humankind was created by God for His own purpose: created to live in relationship and fellowship with God, but given such a great gift of freedom, there was the opportunity for him to become a rebel rather than one who lived in relationship. And so those chapters are there to tell us the story of the Fall. Let me say it again: Not an historical story as though on Day One of Creation Adam and Eve walked to the Garden and picked grapes and chewed nuts and had fellowship with each other and a chat with God that evening. Day Two maybe went all right, and maybe Day Three, maybe six weeks, maybe six months, but eventually a snake came in and then there was a time when it all fell apart. Friends, that’s not what the story is all about. The story is a symbol; it is a sign, and it says to us that there is something about human nature that has endemic within it this struggle against the God Who is its only hope and its salvation, and in that story what it is saying to us, first of all, is that there are things that are wrong in the world, and there certainly are; it's not God's fault. What it is saying to us as human beings is that God created us good with a potential for good and for obedience, for following the path of life, but that there is something within us © Grand Valley State University �God’s Grace in Our Gloom Richard A. Rhem Page 5   that seems to choose the path that leads to disaster. It is saying to us that whatever sin is, it is not part and parcel of Creation. It does not stem from God, and you can't blame it on the Devil. Whatever sin is, whatever is wrong, is wrong because you and I choose to be wrong. That's the biblical message. It's a tough message because it holds us accountable. It does not allow us to slough off the accusing finger in any direction. We cannot blame God. We cannot blame the Devil. We cannot blame the environment or the circumstances, for that symbolic story tells us that we were created in the image of God and put in a situation that can be described as paradisiacal, that we had everything going for us and that in spite of all that, we turned our back on the One Who is life-giving and the source of all blessing. That is what the story is trying to tell us. And you see, it is my story and it is your story. Until we read the Bible as not some ancient book with answers to the questions that our curiosities might raise, but rather as a book that addresses us - until we can read this book so that my story becomes a part of The Story, then I see that I am a part of Adam and then I realize that whatever is wrong in my life and whatever dire consequences have flowed from those wrong choices, they are my choices. I am responsible. And that is one of the greatest things you can say to a human being. You are responsible. You are responsible for your life; you are responsible for your choices; and you are guilty when you choose the wrong way. Otherwise, what are we? Animals cannot be guilty. They have no freedom of choice. And those who have no mental capacity and no freedom of choice - neither can they be guilty. It is only people who are created with that God-like characteristic that can be held accountable as we are accountable, and in the story, this ancient story by which Israel came to understand itself, it was saying that there is something that is deadly wrong in the human heart and it stems from the human will. It is not because God did it to us, and it is not because the Devil did it to us, and it is not because the situation is so bad. Now, some situations are bad and environment does shape and there does, over the centuries and the generations, come to build up a kind of fate that does have its impact upon us. I don't want to say that we all come into the world with pristine situations where we can choose freely without any influence, any impact of environment or of heredity. All of that is true. But finally to be human is to be responsible and to choose. And the scriptures tell us that we chose to be gods rather than to be creatures of God. And so, the story will go on, the prelude to that history of God with Israel and Jesus, that we have in the Old and New Testaments, will go on and we will see another instance and another instance and another instance of this fatal flaw within us. But as we see that, we will also hear the more dominant note - the note of Grace. Even in this third chapter, if we had gone on to read, we would find that God speaks to that serpent and says that, although the serpent will bruise the heel of the seed of the woman, the seed of the woman will finally crush the head of the © Grand Valley State University �God’s Grace in Our Gloom Richard A. Rhem Page 6   serpent, and that has always been seen in the history of the Church as the first promise of the Gospel, so that the seed of the woman Paul interpreted as referring to Jesus. And the final crushing of the serpent's head as Jesus' crucifixion whereby he put an end to death taking upon himself our sin and our guilt. Even in Chapter three of Genesis there is a foregleam of something to come. But if we go to the New Testament we find those great themes that set Martin Luther afire and Zwingli and Calvin and the rest. For the theme of the Bible is not human disobedience, is not human depravity and human sin. Oh, it's there and really you cannot underscore it enough, but if you stay there you miss the theme of the Bible, which is the theme of Grace. It is the story of God's grace in our gloom. Now, the thing that happened in the medieval Church was that the Church became the controlling agent of people's lives. It was almost as though the Church said, "You are sinners, and we're glad, because now we can control you." And the thing that really set off Luther and set off Zwingli was that agents of the Church were going through the land and were collecting money to say prayers to release loved ones from purgatory and one could even buy one’s indulgence into the sins that one might commit next week. And of course this was not the whole Church, but it was right at the heart of the Church and there were those who were going through the continent of Europe raising funds for the erection of St. Peter's. And there were good Catholic priests who said, "This is wrong." Martin Luther was one of them. Ulrich Zwingli in Zurich, Switzerland, was another. And they began to preach the Grace of God and as they began to preach the Grace of God, people responded to good news, because now it was no longer, "Come forward and drop in a coin or burn in Hell." Now it was not the continual laying on people their guilt and their unworthiness and their sin in order to hold them down and control them and manipulate them, but now it was the announcement of what God had done in the face of their sin. So that we have a proclamation like Paul's in the New Testament lesson where he says certainly we are sinful; certainly the whole world is guilty before God. But God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself so that if anyone is in Christ he is a new creation. Old things are passed away; all things are become new. So that Paul understood himself as an ambassador of Christ and he went through the world and he said, "Be ye reconciled with God. Stop hiding in the bushes!" Oh, that profound question of Genesis three as God walks through the Garden in that symbolic story and he says, "Where are you?" and Adam says, "I was afraid." Guilt, fear, shame. And the Lord God comes down and says, "Where are you?" Where are you, not because I want to lombast you, but where are you because I want to embrace you. Where are you because I want to love you, I want to tell you about my Grace which is greater than all your sins. For the New Testament message was that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, for God made him to be sin for us who knew no sin, that we might be © Grand Valley State University �God’s Grace in Our Gloom Richard A. Rhem Page 7   made the righteousness of God in him. And so the Apostle goes on to quote the Old Testament and he says, "In the day that you hear his voice, harden not your heart. This is the day of salvation. Now is the day of salvation." In other words, receive this good news. Accept this Gospel. Come and get a forgiveness that is already provided. If we would take one other New Testament passage, the fifth chapter of Romans, we would find Paul dealing with Genesis three and he says, "As in one man all sin, so in one man all are made righteous." And in that fifth chapter of Romans, it is the most glorious song, anthem, proclamation of the superiority of Grace. For one man sinned but the obedience of one man far surpassed it. And the disobedience of Adam was one thing, but the obedience of Christ was greater and the greater triumph of Grace throughout that passage is a marvelous testimony to the fact that the Church has one theme to proclaim and that is the triumph of Grace. That's the good news. And so you see, I didn't spend very long in Genesis three. It is the recognition of the Old Testament people of God that there is something wrong; there is something deadly wrong. I am wrong and you are wrong, and there is no softpedaling the guilt of the human heart. But I am Adam and I am Eve and you are Adam and you are Eve and the last word is not, "Get out of the Garden." The last word is, "Be reconciled to God." For where sin aboundeth, Grace did much more abound. Now, how can the Church be a place of bad news? How can the Church ever send anyone out guilty? How can the Church ever send anyone out in despair and hopeless, burdened with all of the rock of their life? There's only one message that ought to be sounded from the pulpit, from the evangelical pulpit, from the Christian pulpit, from the pulpit that is grounded in the Word of God and that is, "Be reconciled to God. Accept your acceptance, because you are already accepted and there's nothing you can do about it, except say, 'Thank you.'" God's Grace in our gloom. That's the bottom line. Thanks be to God! © Grand Valley State University � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Richard A. Rhem Collection Description An account of the resource Text and sound recordings of the sermons, prayers, services, and articles of Richard Rhem, pastor emeritus of Christ Community Church in Spring Lake, Michigan, where he served for 37 years. Starting in the mid 1980's, Rhem began to question some of the traditional Christian dogma that he had been espousing from the pulpit. That questioning was a first step in a long and interesting spiritual journey, one that he openly shared with his congregation. His journey is important, in part because it is reflective of the questioning, the yearnings, and the gradual revision of beliefs that many persons in this part of the century have experienced and continue to experience. It is important also because of the affirming and inclusive way his questioning was done and his thinking evolved. His sermons and other written and spoken materials together document the steps in his journey as it took a turn in 1985, yet continued to revolve around the framework and liturgies of the Christian calendar. Subject The topic of the resource Clergy--Michigan Reformed Church in America Christ Community Church (Spring Lake, Mich.) Religion Interfaith worship Sermons Sound Recordings Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Rhem, Richard A. Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/514">Richard A. Rhem papers (KII-01)</a> Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives. Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Kaufman Interfaith Institute Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Language A language of the resource English Type The nature or genre of the resource Sound Text Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context KII-01 Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant 1981-2014 Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource audio/mp3 text/pdf Sound A resource primarily intended to be heard. Examples include a music playback file format, an audio compact disc, and recorded speech or sounds. Event Reformation Sunday Pentecost XXII Series This is Our Father's World Scripture Text II Corinthians 5: 19, 20, 6:2 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-0-19851027 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1985-10-27 Title A name given to the resource God's Grace in Our Gloom Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Richard A. Rhem Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Subject The topic of the resource Clergy--Michigan Reformed Church in America Christ Community Church (Spring Lake, Mich.) Sermons Relation A related resource Richard A. Rhem - An Archive of Sermons, Prayers, Talks and Stories: http://richardrhem.org/ Language A language of the resource eng Type The nature or genre of the resource Sound Text Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource audio/mp3 application/pdf Description An account of the resource A sermon given by Richard A. Rhem (Dick) on October 27, 1985 entitled "God's Grace in Our Gloom", as part of the series "This is Our Father's World", on the occasion of Reformation Sunday, Pentecost XXII, at Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI. Scripture references: II Corinthians 5: 19, 20, 6:2. Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Lemmen Library and Archives Creation Forgiveness Freedom Genesis Grace of God Hebrew Scriptures Judgment Reformation Sin https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/ee8a36ba0b794e707ff1fc0cc8253975.mp3 35c4c0991c6b2bcf1efa8b271d2f16a0 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Richard A. Rhem Collection Description An account of the resource Text and sound recordings of the sermons, prayers, services, and articles of Richard Rhem, pastor emeritus of Christ Community Church in Spring Lake, Michigan, where he served for 37 years. Starting in the mid 1980's, Rhem began to question some of the traditional Christian dogma that he had been espousing from the pulpit. That questioning was a first step in a long and interesting spiritual journey, one that he openly shared with his congregation. His journey is important, in part because it is reflective of the questioning, the yearnings, and the gradual revision of beliefs that many persons in this part of the century have experienced and continue to experience. It is important also because of the affirming and inclusive way his questioning was done and his thinking evolved. His sermons and other written and spoken materials together document the steps in his journey as it took a turn in 1985, yet continued to revolve around the framework and liturgies of the Christian calendar. Subject The topic of the resource Clergy--Michigan Reformed Church in America Christ Community Church (Spring Lake, Mich.) Religion Interfaith worship Sermons Sound Recordings Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Rhem, Richard A. Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/514">Richard A. Rhem papers (KII-01)</a> Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives. Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Kaufman Interfaith Institute Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Language A language of the resource English Type The nature or genre of the resource Sound Text Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context KII-01 Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant 1981-2014 Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource audio/mp3 text/pdf Sound A resource primarily intended to be heard. Examples include a music playback file format, an audio compact disc, and recorded speech or sounds. Event Pentecost XXIII Series This is Our Father's World Scripture Text Genesis 4:6, Luke 15:20, 28 Location The location of the interview Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context KII-01_RA-0-19851103 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1985-11-03 Title A name given to the resource Alienation and Homecoming 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 November 3, 1985 entitled "Alienation and Homecoming", as part of the series "This is Our Father's World", on the occasion of Pentecost XXIII, at Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI. Scripture references: Genesis 4:6, Luke 15:20, 28. Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Lemmen Library and Archives https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/dc9db04259de56e78cea1300d9e677e2.mp3 d04cc1ee5f5f2f3eb40fc84becb7a3fb 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 Installation of Peter Theune Pentecost XXIV Scripture Text Ephesians 3:17-18, 20-21 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-0-19851110 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1985-11-10 Title A name given to the resource On the Threshold of Greatness 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 November 10, 1985 entitled "On the Threshold of Greatness", on the occasion of Installation of Peter Theune, Pentecost XXIV, at Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI. Scripture references: Ephesians 3:17-18, 20-21. 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/83ea86d6e8f8eccfc4cb66938f5247b4.mp3 dde03e324bff6c56add29cc9d3888530 https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/ac774425ba1616e8a5e0b61f743dd599.pdf ee4ad2c16c4745e3534df8837730d4ba PDF Text Text The Judgment That Aims At Salvation From the sermon series: This Is Our Father’s World Text: Genesis 6: 5-6; Genesis 8: 21; Isaiah 54: 8 Richard A. Rhem Christ Community Church Spring Lake, Michigan November 17, 1985 Transcription of the spoken sermon …The Lord saw that man had done much evil…his thoughts and inclinations were always evil, he was sorry he had made man…he was grieved at heart… Genesis 6: 5-6 …I will never again kill every living creature… Genesis 8: 21 …I hid my face from you for a moment; but now have I pitied you with a love which never fails… Isaiah 54:8 The story of the Flood in the early chapters of Genesis is a story of judgment and grace. That duality is found throughout the Scriptures. Judgment and grace are not, however, two equally balanced responses of God toward humankind, each equally ultimate. Rather, God's judgment is a means toward the end of Salvation. God judges a recalcitrant and resistant creation in order finally to redeem and recreate according to His eternal purpose of love. Judgment is God's instrument. Salvation is God's ultimate intention. The story of Noah and the Flood tells us of a resolve in the heart of God never to abandon His Creation but to stay with it with limitless patience and forebearance on the basis of a radical grace that will not finally be defeated. Thus the story of Noah and the Flood is not simply a curious, ancient tale from a stage of primitive religious development. Rather, it was finally cast in the written form in which we have it during the dark days of Judah's Exile as a proclamation of the faithfulness of the God of Israel, Who would yet remember and redeem His people. In a word, this story is a proclamation of the Gospel of Grace. Chapters six through nine of Genesis present an exceedingly dismal picture of the inclinations of the human heart and thus the fractured reality of the Creation © Grand Valley State University   �The Judgment That Aims At Salvation Richard A. Rhem Page 2   the betrayal of God's purpose of a faithful, harmonious created order in covenant with Himself. But these chapters present a most hopeful picture of the resolve of the heart of God to stay with, renew and redeem Creation, which has run afoul of His purposes. These chapters then are gospel, Good News. We can be assured that this is our Father's world and we can rest in the deep assurance that nothing will ever separate us from the love of God that is in Jesus Christ our Lord. The story is familiar and need not be rehearsed here. Let us rather begin by recognizing once again that Genesis 1-11 throughout is a preface to the history of God's redemptive action in our history. These eleven chapters are constituted by a series of episodes which reveal deep and ultimate convictions about God, the world and humankind, convictions which are the premise of the whole biblical story of God's saving action in the midst of the world's resistance and revolt. We have reflected on God's creative intention for humankind made in His image. We have examined the failed test in the case of Adam and Eve, the fatal choice to give way to jealous anger in the story of Cain and Abel. The fourth chapter points to the development of culture in the descendants of Cain and now we come to the story of Noah and the Flood. Yet these chapters are not really about a flood that covered the earth and an ark that some religious groups are still trying to locate. Much rather, these chapters relate the truth about the human condition and the response of God to that situation. The real drama of this story occurs in the heart of the Creator; this is a story about the grief and faithful love of God. The story is introduced by God's taking notice of the wickedness that corrupted His good creation and betrayed His purposes in Creation. Notice the anguish of God's heart and His decision to destroy what He had made: ... The Lord saw ... (vs. 5) …he was sorry he had made man ... (vs. 6) I will wipe them off the face of the earth ... (vs. 7) I intend to destroy them. (vs. 13) This sets the stage for the story. God's heart is grieved at the state of affairs He observes on earth. His first reaction is to destroy what He has made for He sees that evil has permeated to the core of the human heart and the corruption of Creation is complete. There is no hope that things might turn around of their own accord. It is a hopeless situation going from bad to worse. Destruction is God's determination. Creation has refused to be God's creation and God's decision is death to the whole world. The "very good" of Genesis 1:31 has become the "I will blot out" of this narrative. This story reminds us of the most severe preaching of the later prophets. © Grand Valley State University �The Judgment That Aims At Salvation Richard A. Rhem Page 3   But, contrary to the human response to such a situation which would be anger, we find in the heart of God anguish; He is grieved in His heart. The evil heart of humankind troubles the heart of God. This is indeed "heart to heart" between humankind and God. How it is between humankind and God touches both parties. (Brueggemann, Genesis, p. 77) Thus we are dealing with a God Whose purposes have been betrayed, a God Who brings a serious charge against His creature and Who resolves to destroy, in light of the recalcitrance of the world; but we are not dealing with an angry tyrant Who might use His almighty power to crush in a fit of rage. This is not a hostile God Whose dignity has been offended. Rather, this is a God of gracious intent, willing life and harmony and completeness for His Creation, finding to His deep anguish that such purposes of loving intention are being resisted and betrayed. The world stands condemned; the sentence is destruction, but the sentence is rendered from an anguished heart, not from a jealous rage. Could God abandon His world? Could He bring it to an end? The answer of this story – a reflection of Israel's faith and understanding – is obviously, Yes, He could. He could change His mind about His Creation and bring to nothing that which He created out of nothing. Brueggemann writes: Can he abandon the world which he has so joyously created? That is a central question for Israel. Many people hold a view of God as unchanging and indifferent to anything going on in the world, as though God were a plastic, fixed entity. But Israel's God is fully a person who hurts and celebrates, responds and acts in remarkable freedom. God is not captive of old resolves. God is as fresh and new in relation to creation as he calls us to be with him. He can change his mind, so that he can abandon what he has made; and he can rescue that which he has condemned. (Ibid., p. 78) Thus Brueggemann points out we come to the heart of this narrative which has to do "not with a flood, but with a heavy, painful crisis in the dealings of God with creation." The real crisis is the crisis in the heart of God - "because of the resistant character of the world which evokes hurt and grief in the heart of God." What is going on here is a parallel of that familiar and moving passage from Hosea where the same conflict rages in the heart of God. Israel's unfaithfulness is documented; certain judgment will be the result. Yet that judgment cannot be the last word. How can I give you up, Ephraim, how surrender you, Israel? ... My heart is changed within me, my remorse kindles already. I will not let loose my fury, I will not turn round and destroy Ephraim; for I am God and not man, the Holy One in your midst. Hosea 11:8-9 © Grand Valley State University �The Judgment That Aims At Salvation Richard A. Rhem Page 4   And then we meet Noah and Noah won favor in the sight of the Lord. You know the story from that point - the ark, the rescue of some of all kinds of living creatures, the terrible flood and eventually the return of the dove with a sprig of olive branch, the dry land and an altar built to offer thanksgiving to God Who had surely judged but, rather than destroy, had saved Creation. Now Creation can begin again; this is a point of re-creation and a fresh start. Thus we find the resolution of the conflict in the heart of God. The sentence of death is overcome by a gift of new life. Grace prevails. God begins again with a resolve greater than that which prevailed at the beginning. Note the end of chapter 8. Noah and his family are restored to dry land and he builds an altar. In response God says, Never again will I curse the ground because of man, however evil his inclination may be from his youth upwards. I will never again kill every living creature, as I have just done. While the earth lasts, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night, shall never cease. (8:21-22) Here is God's pledge of unwavering faithfulness to Creation; He will never destroy it. The conflict in His heart has been resolved and resolved in favor of mercy. A great change has occurred but the change is not in Creation nor in the heart of the creature; rather the change is in God Who determines to be gracious, come what may. It is critical to note that this resolve is not made in the light of the judgment that has just occurred in the belief that a fresh start will make everything all right. Notice the words "Never again ... however evil his inclinations may be from his youth upwards." To put it bluntly, God took the persistent evil of the human heart as a given and said I will redeem anyway. In this passage we have a statement of radical grace - a grace that saves because of God’s decision quite apart from human merit. Perhaps the wonder of this passage can best be seen by putting in juxtaposition two statements: The human situation is hopeless. God will redeem the human situation anyway. or In the creature himself there is no hope; the hope of the creature is God's grace alone. or Humankind is hopeless. Our hope is in God. © Grand Valley State University �The Judgment That Aims At Salvation Richard A. Rhem Page 5   Just as Hosea discovered, so the Genesis writer believed: God will never abandon the world or the people He has created. How can I give you up? By rights I should give you up! I cannot give you up! I will not give you up! He takes as his vocation not judgment but the resilient work of affirmation on behalf of the death-creature. The flood has effected an irreversible change in God, who now will approach his Creation with an unlimited patience and forbearance. To be sure, God has been committed to his Creation from the beginning. But this narrative traced a new decision on the part of God. Now the commitment is intensified. For the first time, it is marked by grief, the hurt of betrayal. It is now clear that such a commitment on God's part is costly. The God-world relation is not simply that of strong God and needy world. Now it is a tortured relation between a grieved God and a resistant world. And of the two, the real changes are in God. This is a key insight of the gospel against every notion that God stands outside of the hurt as a judge. (Ibid., p. 81) This story found written expression at the time of the Exile. A people under judgment through their own folly and disobedience heard this as a story of their God Who would never abandon them but finally bring them to salvation. Second Isaiah reminds the Exiles of the story of Noah and the Covenant pledge of the faithful God. For a brief moment I forsook you, but with great compassion I will gather you. In overflowing wrath for a moment I hid my face from you, but with everlasting love I will have compassion on you ... For this is like the days of Noah to me; as I swore that the waters of Noah should no more go over the earth, so I have sworn that I will not be angry with you and will not rebuke you. For the mountains may depart and the hills be removed, but my steadfast love shall not depart from you ... (Isaiah 54:7-10) Within the course of history judgment continues to occur. There is no sense of indifference to human wrong, no blasé attitude about creation's perversion and human sin. However, judgment is always embraced within the resolution to redeem and save. Judgment aims at salvation. This is the message of radical grace and our hope must rest in the God and grace and in nothing else. The Summit meeting brings the heads of State together. We pray for mutual understanding and progress with the reduction of world tension. But our hope is not in the negotiating skill of our leaders; our hope is in God, the Sovereign of the nations. © Grand Valley State University �The Judgment That Aims At Salvation Richard A. Rhem Page 6   In our personal lives, too, we encounter difficult experiences; we go through deep water. We do our best to handle the situation and we find what help and support we can. But finally our hope is in the God Who through His prophet said, When you pass through the waters I will be with you; and through the rivers, they shall not overwhelm you; when you walk through fire you shall not be burned, and the flame shall not consume you. For I am the Lord your God, the Holy One of Israel, your Savior. (Isaiah 43:2-3a) God has resolved in His own heart never to leave us nor forsake us. He will never abandon Creation. His steadfast love endures forever. Amen. Reference: Walter Brueggemann. Genesis: Interpretation: a Bible Commentary for Teaching and Preaching. John Knox Press, 1982. © Grand Valley State University � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Richard A. Rhem Collection Description An account of the resource Text and sound recordings of the sermons, prayers, services, and articles of Richard Rhem, pastor emeritus of Christ Community Church in Spring Lake, Michigan, where he served for 37 years. Starting in the mid 1980's, Rhem began to question some of the traditional Christian dogma that he had been espousing from the pulpit. That questioning was a first step in a long and interesting spiritual journey, one that he openly shared with his congregation. His journey is important, in part because it is reflective of the questioning, the yearnings, and the gradual revision of beliefs that many persons in this part of the century have experienced and continue to experience. It is important also because of the affirming and inclusive way his questioning was done and his thinking evolved. His sermons and other written and spoken materials together document the steps in his journey as it took a turn in 1985, yet continued to revolve around the framework and liturgies of the Christian calendar. Subject The topic of the resource Clergy--Michigan Reformed Church in America Christ Community Church (Spring Lake, Mich.) Religion Interfaith worship Sermons Sound Recordings Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Rhem, Richard A. Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/514">Richard A. Rhem papers (KII-01)</a> Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives. Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Kaufman Interfaith Institute Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Language A language of the resource English Type The nature or genre of the resource Sound Text Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context KII-01 Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant 1981-2014 Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource audio/mp3 text/pdf Sound A resource primarily intended to be heard. Examples include a music playback file format, an audio compact disc, and recorded speech or sounds. Event Pentecost XXV Series This is Our Father's World Scripture Text Genesis 6:5-6, 8:21, Isaiah 54:8 Location The location of the interview Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI References Walter Brueggemann. Genesis: Interpretation: a Bible Commentary_, 1982 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-0-19851117 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1985-11-17 Title A name given to the resource The Judgment That Aims at Salvation 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 November 17, 1985 entitled "The Judgment That Aims at Salvation", as part of the series "This is Our Father's World", on the occasion of Pentecost XXV, at Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI. Scripture references: Genesis 6:5-6, 8:21, Isaiah 54:8. Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Lemmen Library and Archives Divine Intention Flood Genesis God's Radical Love Hebrew Scriptures Judgment Noah https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/66c0b652a4bd4c312e30a4976d9edb6a.mp3 8332e7db20b6cef533be9086b3f4f536 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Richard A. Rhem Collection Description An account of the resource Text and sound recordings of the sermons, prayers, services, and articles of Richard Rhem, pastor emeritus of Christ Community Church in Spring Lake, Michigan, where he served for 37 years. Starting in the mid 1980's, Rhem began to question some of the traditional Christian dogma that he had been espousing from the pulpit. That questioning was a first step in a long and interesting spiritual journey, one that he openly shared with his congregation. His journey is important, in part because it is reflective of the questioning, the yearnings, and the gradual revision of beliefs that many persons in this part of the century have experienced and continue to experience. It is important also because of the affirming and inclusive way his questioning was done and his thinking evolved. His sermons and other written and spoken materials together document the steps in his journey as it took a turn in 1985, yet continued to revolve around the framework and liturgies of the Christian calendar. Subject The topic of the resource Clergy--Michigan Reformed Church in America Christ Community Church (Spring Lake, Mich.) Religion Interfaith worship Sermons Sound Recordings Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Rhem, Richard A. Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/514">Richard A. Rhem papers (KII-01)</a> Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives. Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Kaufman Interfaith Institute Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Language A language of the resource English Type The nature or genre of the resource Sound Text Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context KII-01 Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant 1981-2014 Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource audio/mp3 text/pdf Sound A resource primarily intended to be heard. Examples include a music playback file format, an audio compact disc, and recorded speech or sounds. Event Pentecost XXVI Series This is Our Father's World Scripture Text Genesis 11:7, 9, Acts 2:8 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-0-19851124 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1985-11-24 Title A name given to the resource The Chaos of Secularism and the Community of the Spirit 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 November 24, 1985 entitled "The Chaos of Secularism and the Community of the Spirit", as part of the series "This is Our Father's World", on the occasion of Pentecost XXVI, at Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI. Scripture references: Genesis 11:7, 9, Acts 2:8. Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Lemmen Library and Archives https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/2791b3195ad04dd2d1cd1d3d360264bf.mp3 01d5864195fa09b61e035813daa1d833 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 Thanksgiving Scripture Text Genesis 12:3 Location The location of the interview Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context KII-01_RA-0-19851128 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1985-11-28 Title A name given to the resource God's Strategy for a New World Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Richard A. Rhem Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Subject The topic of the resource Clergy--Michigan Reformed Church in America Christ Community Church (Spring Lake, Mich.) Sermons Relation A related resource Richard A. Rhem - An Archive of Sermons, Prayers, Talks and Stories: http://richardrhem.org/ Language A language of the resource eng Type The nature or genre of the resource Sound Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource audio/mp3 Description An account of the resource A sermon given by Richard A. Rhem (Dick) on November 28, 1985 entitled "God's Strategy for a New World", on the occasion of Thanksgiving, at Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI. Scripture references: Genesis 12:3. Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Lemmen Library and Archives