784 24 26018 https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/74b77428c7c752c4d7fb88963056f02b.mp3 00ae38289d8994ced70174121d9e4747 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Richard A. Rhem Collection Description An account of the resource Text and sound recordings of the sermons, prayers, services, and articles of Richard Rhem, pastor emeritus of Christ Community Church in Spring Lake, Michigan, where he served for 37 years. Starting in the mid 1980's, Rhem began to question some of the traditional Christian dogma that he had been espousing from the pulpit. That questioning was a first step in a long and interesting spiritual journey, one that he openly shared with his congregation. His journey is important, in part because it is reflective of the questioning, the yearnings, and the gradual revision of beliefs that many persons in this part of the century have experienced and continue to experience. It is important also because of the affirming and inclusive way his questioning was done and his thinking evolved. His sermons and other written and spoken materials together document the steps in his journey as it took a turn in 1985, yet continued to revolve around the framework and liturgies of the Christian calendar. Subject The topic of the resource Clergy--Michigan Reformed Church in America Christ Community Church (Spring Lake, Mich.) Religion Interfaith worship Sermons Sound Recordings Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Rhem, Richard A. Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/514">Richard A. Rhem papers (KII-01)</a> Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives. Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Kaufman Interfaith Institute Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Language A language of the resource English Type The nature or genre of the resource Sound Text Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context KII-01 Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant 1981-2014 Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource audio/mp3 text/pdf Sound A resource primarily intended to be heard. Examples include a music playback file format, an audio compact disc, and recorded speech or sounds. Event Eastertide IV Scripture Text Genesis 1:26, II Corinthians 3:2-3 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-0-19950514 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1995-05-14 Title A name given to the resource Portraits in Flesh Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Richard A. Rhem Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Subject The topic of the resource Clergy--Michigan Reformed Church in America Christ Community Church (Spring Lake, Mich.) Sermons Relation A related resource Richard A. Rhem - An Archive of Sermons, Prayers, Talks and Stories: http://richardrhem.org/ Language A language of the resource eng Type The nature or genre of the resource Sound 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 14, 1995 entitled "Portraits in Flesh", on the occasion of Eastertide IV, at Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI. Scripture references: Genesis 1:26, II Corinthians 3:2-3. 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/905ec78eef487f82c9a1fe89c9f67ab4.mp3 c0aeb127b469f472c2ac863b095a37df Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Richard A. Rhem Collection Description An account of the resource Text and sound recordings of the sermons, prayers, services, and articles of Richard Rhem, pastor emeritus of Christ Community Church in Spring Lake, Michigan, where he served for 37 years. Starting in the mid 1980's, Rhem began to question some of the traditional Christian dogma that he had been espousing from the pulpit. That questioning was a first step in a long and interesting spiritual journey, one that he openly shared with his congregation. His journey is important, in part because it is reflective of the questioning, the yearnings, and the gradual revision of beliefs that many persons in this part of the century have experienced and continue to experience. It is important also because of the affirming and inclusive way his questioning was done and his thinking evolved. His sermons and other written and spoken materials together document the steps in his journey as it took a turn in 1985, yet continued to revolve around the framework and liturgies of the Christian calendar. Subject The topic of the resource Clergy--Michigan Reformed Church in America Christ Community Church (Spring Lake, Mich.) Religion Interfaith worship Sermons Sound Recordings Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Rhem, Richard A. Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/514">Richard A. Rhem papers (KII-01)</a> Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives. Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Kaufman Interfaith Institute Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Language A language of the resource English Type The nature or genre of the resource Sound Text Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context KII-01 Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant 1981-2014 Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource audio/mp3 text/pdf Sound A resource primarily intended to be heard. Examples include a music playback file format, an audio compact disc, and recorded speech or sounds. Event Eastertide V Scripture Text Luke 24:51, Ephesians 4:15 Location The location of the interview Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context KII-01_RA-0-19950521 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1995-05-21 Title A name given to the resource Baptized into Christ: Called to Maturity 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 21, 1995 entitled "Baptized into Christ: Called to Maturity", on the occasion of Eastertide V, at Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI. Scripture references: Luke 24:51, Ephesians 4:15. 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/65e7ec8e951dcd5e782cf6294654eae1.mp3 78654c85009d500b5c0c45f3b49656d8 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Richard A. Rhem Collection Description An account of the resource Text and sound recordings of the sermons, prayers, services, and articles of Richard Rhem, pastor emeritus of Christ Community Church in Spring Lake, Michigan, where he served for 37 years. Starting in the mid 1980's, Rhem began to question some of the traditional Christian dogma that he had been espousing from the pulpit. That questioning was a first step in a long and interesting spiritual journey, one that he openly shared with his congregation. His journey is important, in part because it is reflective of the questioning, the yearnings, and the gradual revision of beliefs that many persons in this part of the century have experienced and continue to experience. It is important also because of the affirming and inclusive way his questioning was done and his thinking evolved. His sermons and other written and spoken materials together document the steps in his journey as it took a turn in 1985, yet continued to revolve around the framework and liturgies of the Christian calendar. Subject The topic of the resource Clergy--Michigan Reformed Church in America Christ Community Church (Spring Lake, Mich.) Religion Interfaith worship Sermons Sound Recordings Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Rhem, Richard A. Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/514">Richard A. Rhem papers (KII-01)</a> Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives. Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Kaufman Interfaith Institute Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Language A language of the resource English Type The nature or genre of the resource Sound Text Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context KII-01 Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant 1981-2014 Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource audio/mp3 text/pdf Sound A resource primarily intended to be heard. Examples include a music playback file format, an audio compact disc, and recorded speech or sounds. Event Eastertide VI Scripture Text Psalm 33:10, Jeremiah 37:17, John 21:18, 22 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-0-19950528 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1995-05-28 Title A name given to the resource God, Nation and the Integrity of Leadership 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 28, 1995 entitled "God, Nation and the Integrity of Leadership", on the occasion of Eastertide VI, at Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI. Scripture references: Psalm 33:10, Jeremiah 37:17, John 21:18, 22. 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/76e6bb7cda0796b95b552429aa18a1c3.mp3 02c9d352f6f22b4b59662aa846264dd5 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 Acts 2:17, John 20:22 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-0-19950604 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1995-06-04 Title A name given to the resource Dreams Don't Die Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Richard A. Rhem Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Subject The topic of the resource Clergy--Michigan Reformed Church in America Christ Community Church (Spring Lake, Mich.) Sermons Relation A related resource Richard A. Rhem - An Archive of Sermons, Prayers, Talks and Stories: http://richardrhem.org/ Language A language of the resource eng Type The nature or genre of the resource Sound Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource audio/mp3 Description An account of the resource A sermon given by Richard A. Rhem (Dick) on June 4, 1995 entitled "Dreams Don't Die", on the occasion of Pentecost, at Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI. Scripture references: Acts 2:17, John 20:22. 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/cba89b9c458ec3ddde5ebd95899de0cc.mp3 365e0473079b90f0ca3f653221dd266a 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 40:28-31, Ephesians 3:20 Location The location of the interview Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context KII-01_RA-0-19950618 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1995-06-18 Title A name given to the resource Beyond Our Wildest Dreams! 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 18, 1995 entitled "Beyond Our Wildest Dreams!", on the occasion of Pentecost II, at Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI. Scripture references: Isaiah 40:28-31, Ephesians 3:20. Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Lemmen Library and Archives https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/dd8fdbe40a2288d2cc4cb412288f6a53.mp3 3c8f520f47563794f13ab5b753b6a045 https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/715b241e4cee12390d72a3b7f9be25c1.pdf 55819d86b65ab3b4bc066a9c34bb5d58 PDF Text Text Light of the World From the series: A Millennial Vision Text: Isaiah 49:6; Matthew 2:9 Richard A. Rhem Christ Community Church Spring Lake, Michigan January 9, 2000 Transcription of the spoken sermon Some weeks ago, as I was thinking about this morning, contemplating the beginning of a new year, the beginning of a new century, the beginning of a new millennium, I thought, "Dear God, I ought to have something profound to say," and nothing came. But, I did think long and hard about it, realizing that this is a rather significant time. The human calendar is a human calendar; it's a human construct. It doesn't have anything to do with the divine plan of anything, the cosmic reality. It's simply something that we've put together, but it's a handy item. It is a good instrument. It enables us to get the sense that life moves and that history unfolds and that there is development. And the calendar gives us a way to mark time, to mark the seasons of our lives. It gives us a chance to evaluate where we have been, the extent to which we've accomplished our dreams and our goals, and it gives us a fresh start, an opportunity to set again those goals that we might go after and to have a sense of that which is beckoning us. And so, while the calendar is a human construct, nonetheless, this is a significant time. There aren't many of our brothers and sisters in the human family who ever get to experience the turn of a millennium, and so I thought to myself, “What are the critical insights that we have gained, that we need to actualize, to implement? What are the important matters before the human family, before the Christian church, before the religions of the world, and how might we set for ourselves a vision for the third millennium?” And because this Sunday is also the celebration of Epiphany, I thought, “Why not think together about the light of the world?” It is the symbolism of the star that points to the light that led the Magi to the adoration of the Christ child in Matthew's story. The word Epiphany comes from the Greek language meaning manifestation, and in this congregation your children speak about Epiphany Eyes, that is, eyes that are able to see through, to see deeply. Epiphany has to do with seeing with insight. Epiphany Eyes are eyes that see, not was not there, but what was always there and not seen or understood, and the Festival of Epiphany is the celebration © Grand Valley State University   �Light of the World Richard A. Rhem Page 2   of the fact that it is the Christian Church's witness that in the birth of Jesus light came into the world. Matthew tells a delightful story of those Magi who saw a star rise in the east and followed it until it led them to Jerusalem where they consulted with Herod the King, and he with the religious leaders, as to what this bright star might be because such a heavenly body would often, in the eyes of the astrologers of that time, signify the birth of some royalty, some ruler of the world. And so, Matthew prefaces his story of the life and ministry of Jesus with this delightful story of the Magi who follow a star that leads them, finally, to the stable where they worship and where they praise God. Where did Matthew get the story? Well, interestingly, if you would read the 60th chapter of Isaiah, which would be a good Hebrew lesson for a day like this, you would find, “Arise, shine, for your light has come and the glory of the Lord has risen upon you. Nations shall come to your light and kings to the brightness of your dawn. A multitude of camels shall cover you and your camels of Midian and Ephah, and all those from Sheba shall come and they shall bring gold and frankincense and shall proclaim the praise of the Lord.” Of course, Matthew simply dipped into his Bible and he found there a promised one who would be thus worshiped and adored by kings who would bring gifts. And in order for Matthew to give expression to what he believes Jesus to be, what he believes to have happened in Jesus, out of his own biblical tradition he tells us a story. There probably was such a bright light around that time and there probably were conversations about what the brightness of that heavenly body should signify, but all of it is put together beautifully by Matthew who wants to say in Jesus, the child that was born, the light of God came into the world. John also, in the prologue to his Gospel, mentions light coming into his world. This was the light that enlightens everyone coming into the world. And in John's Gospel, he even has Jesus say, “I am the light of the world.” But, even in John's Gospel, it's obvious that John recognized that the light that is in Jesus was a light that pointed to a greater light beyond Jesus. Right? Follow me? Even in John's Gospel where we have such a bold declaration, “I am the light of the world,” even there it is obvious as you read that Gospel that John is aware that that human, historical manifestation of light was a beacon and a pointer to the true light that transcends all. In other words, even John did not absolutize the light that was in Jesus as a light synonymous with the Light of the world. Wilfred Cantrell Smith, who was one of our great scholars of this century, studied comparative religions, going back a thousand years. I find it rather interesting on this first century of the third millennium that he went back to the first century of the second millennium and he identified five leading exponents of five religious traditions. In his study of their work he says it was obvious, in the case of all five, that all five of them had experienced God. They had an intuition, they had an insight, they knew there was this Ultimate, this deep Mystery, and then each of © Grand Valley State University �Light of the World Richard A. Rhem Page 3   the five in their own way sought to express what they had experienced. The insight or the intuition was one thing. The expression was another. And so, this common experience of coming into the presence of that Absolute Mystery that is the ground of all being and the source of all life, this experience came to expression in five different traditions. Smith, in his book, Faith and Belief, said the first experience is faith. That is the experience of God. But, belief is the religious system that we create in order to stammeringly and stumblingly point to that ineffable experience of the One who was Light Inaccessible. And then Smith points out, interestingly, that each one of the five who gave particular expression to that common experience, each one of them was aware that when they had said what they could say, they had not said enough. Each one of them indicated in the very nature of that which they shared that they knew that there was more which was beyond their capacity to share. They could intuit it, they could experience it in the sense of being overwhelmed by a Presence, but when it came to giving expression, articulation, to put it into words and sentences and concepts and ideas, each one of them recognized that they were falling far short. They were not doing justice to the depth of the experience. To translate that into Christian terms, what that means is that Jesus for us is the light that reflects the Light, but the light that is in Jesus is not the absolute Light that is over all and beyond all. Epiphany is the time when we think about that Christian idea of revelation and for revelation to be revelation, something has to be revealed, something has to be communicated. And for something to be communicated, that communication has to be context-specific. For example, right now I am talking to you in English. Many of you would say, yawning, “It sounds like Greek to me,” but nonetheless, I speak English, I speak in ideas and concepts that we have in the interchange, in the intercourse of our lives. It's the only thing I can do. It wouldn't do me any good to speak Latin to you. We talk about these things that are common to our experience in a particular context because, being human, we are historical. That means we are limited to a time and to a place and we can only communicate with one another in the specificity, the particularity of our particular situation. Jesus was that particular word of the infinite and eternal God who came to expression in Jewish flesh in a child, in a Hebrew prophet, revealing that God beyond all religious concepts. Jesus is the light of the world for us because Jesus is our way to the experience that we have had of the Light of Lights. I like Paul's way of saying this better than Matthew and John, frankly. Paul said in the second letter to the Corinthians, the fourth chapter, 6th verse, “We have seen the light of the knowledge of the glory of God.” That's the big One. “We have seen the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.” In that historical, time-limited, race-limited, language-limited human flesh of Jesus, in the particularity of Jesus we have seen a glimpse. Now, of course, historically, what the Christian Church has done is to absolutize that historical manifestation as though that was all, the end all and the be all, as though that historical © Grand Valley State University �Light of the World Richard A. Rhem Page 4   manifestation was synonymous with the big One, and all you need is two different religious traditions to absolutize their own particular story and you have the seeds for conflict, and the possibility for violence. Nothing can fuel human conflict better than religion because it's right at the heart of our being, it's the thing we cherish most. The religious commitment of our lives gives us our sense of identity and, when you rattle that somehow, you create great conflict, great struggle. But, that's what we did. We took the particular manifestation that is ours, full of light and grace, and we said, “That is synonymous with the whole,” and, of course, to say that was to exclude all the rest. Wilfred Cantrell Smith said that a thousand years ago there were Jewish, Muslim, Christian, Hindu, Buddhist thinkers who were perfectly content with the experience of God they had which came to expression in their particular traditions, but they didn't realize that they were parallel traditions because they weren't aware of one another in a human situation where there was not this global mobility and CNN everywhere, satellites in the sky, and all of that. But, we know different. We know. We can see the origin and the source of all of these religious traditions. We can watch the development. We can see their claims and understand the articulation of that experience of the Ultimate. As a millennial vision, I would hope and pray that increasingly the Christian Church would also recognize that its grasp, its glimpse of the Ultimate filtered through the face of Jesus is true! But, there's more. I did a little research last night because I remembered an experience I had that was one of those life-changing experiences. I had been fussing around with the breadth of the grace of God and I had been including more and more people from the narrow little beginning where I began. And then some of us, ten years ago, 1990, traveled to Europe and we made a stop in Paris and took a trip outside of Paris to that magnificent cathedral at Chartres. There's a guide there, an Englishman named Malcolm, who gives fantastic lectures on that cathedral. He's lived in the shadow of it for years. He took us around and for the first time I realized that the great cathedrals, the stained glass of the great cathedrals, were really the libraries of these communities. This was before the time of the printing press; it was before the time of near universal literacy. And those stained glass windows told the significant stories of the human story. Particularly in the cathedral, they told the biblical story so if you came into the nave and looked to the west you would see the story of Creation in stained glass. If you went on to the transept, you would see the development of Israel, and perhaps in the depths of the choir you might see the birth of Jesus, the Christmas story, and perhaps in another transept the Crucifixion and then the Resurrection. This was a marvelous way to inform the people of the story. They had no Bible in their hand. They could see the story. I thought to myself as I was in the cathedral, and I told you this ten years ago, October 14 1990, in “A Place to Stand in a World of Religions.” I told you this story how being in that cathedral I thought to myself, “What if, what if there were a people who only looked through the windows in the west wall of the nave? What if there was another group huddled in the transept, in the choir, or in © Grand Valley State University �Light of the World Richard A. Rhem Page 5   another transept, in another part of the nave, people who didn't move out of their locale, who only knew there was light streaming through a particular part of the story? The only part of the story they knew was Creation or Christmas or Easter, or whatever it may be. Would they not think, That's it! That's the story.' But it wouldn't be the story at all. It was a chapter of the story. It was a facet of the story.” And then I thought to myself, “What if they were not all Christian groups, but what if there was a Jewish window with the community of people seeing the light stream through and a Christian and a Muslim and a Buddhist and a Hindu? What if all of these respective groups were gathered before their windows where the story was told, their story? And what would be the common thing that would bind them together? Being unconscious of one another and without knowledge of anyone else's story, what would be the common thing? Well, it would be the light that streams through all the windows, that illuminates all the stories.” And it was then that I saw a paradigm of that Light of the world which is greater than the light of the world that dawned in Jesus. The light that dawned in Jesus is an authentic and true light of Light Inaccessible. But God is Light Inaccessible and in the mercy of God, Light Inaccessible became light focused in a human face. And that's my story. And it's a true story, and through that story I have experience of that Light Inaccessible. But, so do my brothers and sisters in other respective traditions. I thought that was a rather good paradigm, a good model, a good symbol, a good story I told you. In fact, it was so clear that everything went downhill from that point, because it made so much sense, it seemed so obvious, and one way or another I've been hammering away at that and once in a while I get weary. I get weary about being so concerned about the things that don't concern many people. It's tough to be "strange," to see ultimate importance in things most people yawn about. I must have grumbled about that a couple of months ago, mentioning that maybe I was growing tired of it and one of my astute listeners wrote to me and said that she had been thinking about that often of late, and then one night she saw on public television, perhaps some of you did, as well, a documentary on Elizabeth Stanton and Susan B. Anthony, these two war horses that led the women's suffrage movement, and she said, “I was overcome by a deep sadness when reminded that from the time of the convention in Seneca Falls when the whole idea was affirmed, accepted, when it seemed as though everyone would say "Yes" to women's suffrage, it was 72 years before the Constitution was finally amended and the suffrage actually happened,” and my correspondent says, “Susan B. Anthony gave virtually all of her adult life to that struggle, and Elizabeth gave much of hers, as well. What can one say but, ‘Why? Why does the right thing take so long?’” © Grand Valley State University �Light of the World Richard A. Rhem Page 6   So I am counseled by my correspondent when I grow weary, because Susan B. Anthony never even saw the passage of the amendment for which she had given her life. So I am counseled when I grow weary to remember the ladies. They stirred and stirred until they created a wave of women who filled the streets with banners and songs and, at the end of her life, Susan said, “With such women consecrating their lives, failure is impossible.” And then my correspondent writes, “People are listening. The waters are churning. Minds are opening. Thank you for making CCC an exciting place to be, something of an Imagination Station for all ages, and when you are tired, remember the ladies.” An Imagination Station for all ages -I love that. And it's happening, and it will happen, friends, because people are hungry all over. They're not hungry for all of the ecclesiastical structures and the baggage of institutional religion. But they're hungry just like the Magi were hungry and took off on a journey following a star. People are still and again looking to the stars, looking here and there and everywhere for some authentic word, something that resonates to the depths of our humanity. It will happen, this millennial vision of a world at peace. As the Catholic theologian, Hans Küng has said, “There'll be no peace among the nations until there is peace among the religions,” and I have a millennial vision of a time when all of the religions will respect each other and enrich each other and teach each other and live together, hand in hand, in the harmony that alone can reflect the Creator's purpose. It will happen. What happened on New Year's Eve? From the far South Sea Islands, around the globe, in our own living rooms and kitchens, as a human family we celebrated the turn of the millennium. Has there ever before been such an event celebrated by the whole human family around the whole globe, celebrating all together the movement from the second to the third millennium in such a world? Let us rejoice in that light that has come to us in Jesus Christ that points us to Light Inaccessible and join arms and hearts with all of those of good heart who, likewise, have experienced the eternal and in their own way and own manner bring praise and worship to the eternal 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 Epiphany Sunday Series A Millennial Vision Scripture Text Isaiah 49:6, Matthew 2:9 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-0-20000109 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2000-01-09 Title A name given to the resource Light of the World Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Richard A. Rhem Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Subject The topic of the resource Clergy--Michigan Reformed Church in America Christ Community Church (Spring Lake, Mich.) Sermons Relation A related resource Richard A. Rhem - An Archive of Sermons, Prayers, Talks and Stories: http://richardrhem.org/ Language A language of the resource eng Type The nature or genre of the resource Sound Text Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource audio/mp3 application/pdf Description An account of the resource A sermon given by Richard A. Rhem (Dick) on January 9, 2000 entitled "Light of the World", as part of the series "A Millennial Vision", on the occasion of Epiphany Sunday, at Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI. Scripture references: Isaiah 49:6, Matthew 2:9. Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Lemmen Library and Archives Epiphany Global Peace Pluralism https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/3ac0795d7548124d03565b1149adb088.mp3 058f1d3e5cb239455bee5f7f55726e2c https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/f53ccd395529ebe27c7392fdf8122624.pdf 4f17f4b65394fe26e0117afa6c99dffa PDF Text Text From Babel to Bethlehem to Spirit and Truth From the series: A Millennial Vision Genesis 11:8; Acts 2:6 Richard A. Rhem Christ Community Church Spring Lake, Michigan January 16, 2000 Transcription of the spoken sermon I described for you last week a millennial vision of mine, the vision of a world where the great religions would live at peace with one another, mutually respecting one another, teaching each other, enhancing one another, and dedicated together to the well-being of the whole world and the whole human family. I used my favorite image of a cathedral whose respective areas have stained glass windows that relate the biblical story, but no section has the whole story. Each section has a part of the story and the common element that draws all together is the common source of light, the one Light that illumines all of the parts of the story that create the whole, and you can use that analogy for the respective religious traditions, none of which has the whole story, all of which are illumined by the one Light that enlightens us all. That particular image, I think, is justifiable on the basis of the biblical story, for that image speaks about the particular and the universal, all of the particular traditions pointing to the one universal, and I think that is true to the biblical understanding, as well. In the book of Genesis, the first eleven chapters are pre-history to Israel's history. What we refer to commonly as the Old Testament is the story of Israel. But, Israel, in telling its story, knew that it was a part of a larger story. It wasn't the whole story. It was well aware of that, and so those first eleven chapters of Genesis deal with universal themes, creation themes, the human theme, creation of the human being, and disobedience and alienation and confusion and judgment and salvation - it's all in there. After the judgment of the Flood, the rescue of Noah, there is, very interestingly, in the eighth chapter of Genesis, this covenant of God never again to destroy the earth. And that's with the whole of creation. And then in the ninth chapter we find the covenant with Noah, never again to destroy all flesh, and that covenant is with all flesh; it is a universal covenant with humankind. Israel doesn't exist yet. And then, as though to demonstrate that we human beings never would get it right, there's one more story told, the story of the Tower of Babel, a fascinating little tale about the human family, the flood survivors going to get together and build themselves a tower and create a city, a sort of a fortress over against God, as it were. They were going to do their own human thing, so God looks down and says, “Oh, that's © Grand Valley State University   �From Babel to Bethlehem to Spirit and Truth Richard A. Rhem Page 2   interesting.” God comes down and confuses their language because they had had one language and so they could pass bricks with one another and they could build a tower together, and then suddenly, they can't understand one another. But, the word for understand is shema in Hebrew, it's a word to listen or to hear, so ostensibly, that little myth perhaps explains why people are scattered over the face of the earth and why there are so many different languages but, at its deeper level, it was a story of our human community that is broken. It was a story of human beings who do not listen to one another, and when one does not listen to another, there's a breakdown of communication and then there's a breakdown of trust, and there's a breakdown of community. The story which prefaces Israel's history is a story of universal humankind marked by broken community. So, God knows that another strategy is necessary and so, in the 11th chapter of Genesis we find Abraham and Sarah, and Sarah has a barren womb because God will start over and out of barrenness will create a people and that people will be light-bearers to the nations. Israel understood its particular vocation; it believed it had the light, it believed it was in touch with God the Creator, and it believed that its light in the Torah was to be the instruction for all nations. All nations would someday flow to Mt. Zion and Israel would be the instructor. But, Israel knew it was not the whole story. It knew it was a particular amidst a universal humanity, and so its prophets dreamed of a day when one would come fully endowed with the spirit of God who would create shalom and there would be a time when they would not hurt or destroy in all God's holy mountain. You see, the biblical understanding, in this case Israel's understanding of God's intention for creation, was that it would dwell in peace and that there would be well-being and that it would be marked by community. In the Christian reading of that story it culminates in the birth of a child in Bethlehem, the child Jesus, and the parents bring the child to the temple and aged Simeon, the voice of all of Israel, takes the child in his arms and says, "Now, Lord, lettest thou thy servant depart in peace, for mine eyes have seen thy salvation which thou hast prepared beforehand for thy people, a light to lighten the Gentiles and the glory of thy people Israel." Beyond Jesus comes Pentecost and the outpouring of the Spirit of God and what is the consequence? Well, the city is full of visitors from around the ancient world and the Spirit falls on the disciples and they go out into the streets and they proclaim the story of Jesus and everyone, from the respective geographical locations and various languages, hear as though the word was spoken in their own native tongue. And Babel is reversed at Pentecost and the Spirit causes people to listen, to hear, to understand, and out of that gross community in those early chapters of the book of Acts we have that early Jesus movement marked by community in which no one had any need and all cared for the other. There was the intention of God realized. © Grand Valley State University �From Babel to Bethlehem to Spirit and Truth Richard A. Rhem Page 3   Too bad it didn't last. Too bad Pentecost got sidetracked. Too bad the church got stuck in Christology rather than in the theology of the Holy Spirit. Let me suggest, and it's a rather radical suggestion, but I do think that I can support this, that the intention as the story unfolds post-Pentecost was that God Who was Spirit would embrace the world until there be world community. What really happened? Well, this Jewish prophet, this one in whom God was visible, the embodiment of God, this Jesus, this Jesus in those early centuries, was exalted to high heaven, made to be none less than God, resulting in a rupture between that Jewish movement that gave birth to the Jesus movement, and the Christian church, and instead of community, we had one more great religious tradition. I wonder if that was not a betrayal of Jesus and Jesus' own vision. Take, for example, that conversation with the woman from Samaria at Jacob's well. Does that one impress you as God of God, Light of Light, before all world, etc, etc.? Or, is this Jesus, in all of his humanity and all of his fullness of spirit, engaging a hungry, thirsty human being, pointing her to the universal? She says at one point, "I think you're a prophet. Should we be worshiping here, we Samaritans on Mt. Gerizim where our shrine is? Or, should we worship at Jerusalem where you Jews say God is to be worshiped?" And Jesus says to her, "Lady, the hour is coming and now is when you'll not worship in Mt. Gerizim or Jerusalem, but in spirit and in truth." It seems to me that Jesus in that conversation, or the gospel writer instructing that conversation, was pointing to a universal that would transcend those particularities, that the intention of Pentecost would be that God would be worshiped in spirit beyond all tribal loyalties and religious particularities. It seems to me that the reversal of Babel at Pentecost can only be realized in global community, and that would be my vision, a millennial vision, a vision for the third millennium. As I grow older and more reflective on the religious scene which marks me more these days than once it did (once I was a busy pastor, I was building a congregation, I was working in the broader Church, I was involved in all of this institutional concern and construction and structuring and hardly had time to think about God), these days as I observe the religious scene, I'm not pleased with what I see. I see a frenzied religious activity on every hand. I know we live in Western Michigan which is saturated with churches and religion, but there are other places, Bible Belts, for instance, where this is evident. I think that what we see here is not characteristic of the whole country, but it's also not totally without duplication in other places. There is a tremendous amount of religious activity and it's a frenzied effort in many cases, it seems to me, to miss the point of Pentecost and the intention of God for the whole creation and the creation of a global and world community. There is worship as entertainment. It seems to me that it is a church in trouble trying to find out what will possibly bring people in. There's the whole © Grand Valley State University �From Babel to Bethlehem to Spirit and Truth Richard A. Rhem Page 4   therapeutic religious dimension, bringing health and healing, which is certainly a positive thing, and yet, it's not the main thing. There is the hot salvation sector calling people to repentance and faith, to deliver them from eternal condemnation. There is the emotional, charismatic community. One can go to any one of these sectors and find an intensity of activity which is religious, it is busy, it engages tremendous financial resources and a lot of human energy, and the more I look at it, the less satisfied I am with it and I wonder if it is really dealing with the longing in the heart of the Samaritan woman which is the longing in the heart of all of us who are human, which is to have our lives touched, in touch with experiencing the living God who is Spirit, that God beyond all of the trappings of our respective religions, the structures and institutions and forms, the various stories that we tell, that God Who is the Source and the Ground of all being, that God Who is eternal Spirit Who embraces the whole world. In a preacher's mind, a simmering sermon idea is like a magnet that draws filings from all over, but I didn't have to look very broadly yesterday. The religion section of the Grand Rapids Press had one article after another on God as Spirit and Truth. There was the note about the National Council of Churches that's in trouble, hoping that the Presbyterians will give them $400,000 because they have a $3.2 million debt, and the Methodists have withheld funds until they get financially responsible. Well, the National Council of Churches is a good organization. Dr. Joan Campbell went to Cuba and talked to the father of Elian Gonzalez who has the good sense to know that a child belongs with the child's parent. I know Joan Campbell; I've preached to Joan Campbell; she is a lovely woman, and the Council does a good thing, but it cannot get support anymore. Structures are just not there. And then I saw a little note about the University of Michigan Research Center that did some comparisons between 1981 and 1998 and there was a fall-off of church attendance in the country from 60% to 55%, which isn't too bad, actually. But, they said, then, that they had added a question about the meaning and purpose of life which they ask people and there had been a significant increase in the number of people who think regularly about the meaning and purpose of life. In Italy and South Korea and Australia and Germany, The Netherlands, over 10% increase in the number of people were asking spiritual questions. And then there was the Jewish Rabbi Laibl Wolf, who was in Grand Rapids last week who is from Australia but who is a Jewish mystic dealing in the old Cabala system 3500 years old, a system of meditation and contemplation which seeks to bring a balance between body and soul, and it reported that he has recently held a seminar with Fortune 500 company CEOs and also that Madonna is into Cabala. The rabbi didn't put Madonna down because he saw it as a sign of that emptiness, that hunger which is so common to our humanity, whether we're CEOs of a Fortune 500 company or Madonna or any one of us. In all the frantic religious activity, I wonder how much is offering some living water for the parched soul that cannot © Grand Valley State University �From Babel to Bethlehem to Spirit and Truth Richard A. Rhem Page 5   ever be satisfied with religious busy-ness and activity and tribalism and triumphalism and success. And then there was an article about the great religious traditions of the world that are the same at the third millennium as at the second millennium - Hinduism and Confucianism and Buddhism and Christianity and Islam and Judaism. If I could have gotten to the writer before he wrote his article, I would have told him the article could be better than it is because you could have said that it is the same as 2000 years ago, as well, because, as a matter of fact, great religious traditions arose simultaneously around the globe between 800 and 200 Before the Common Era. They all arose simultaneously, and the reason those great religious traditions arose with their significant insights is that there was a transformation of human consciousness. We call that period the First Axial Period when the human individual emerged out of that tribal sense and came to a sense of self-identity and individualism, and with the rise of that human selfconsciousness arose these great religious traditions, and they are representative of that which was happening similarly around the globe, in the human family. And then I wonder, are we at a hinge point in history now for another transformation of human consciousness to break forth? Might this period of time in which we are living be a time of the transformation of human consciousness from individualism to global consciousness? Might this not be the time to pick up Pentecost and to reverse the Babel sounds that mark the failure to listen to one another and the breakdown of trust and thus the breakdown of communication and the devastation of community? Is it not time that we look at the intention of God reflected in the scripture that the respective particularities pointing to the grand universal need to come into conversation and community? Might we have detoured off Pentecost for 2000 years when the one at the well fully intended that that particularity would be transcended as people came to worship God as Spirit and Truth? This Jew who dared speak to a Samaritan between whom there was terrible hostility, this male who dared speak to a female which was unheard of in that day and culture, this Jew who dared to say it's not in Jerusalem, not is it at Gerizim, but it is in spirit and in truth. Do you think there's hope? Is it the possibility that this vision and this dream could catch fire? Do you think that in a thousand years someone will write an article and will say that the same great traditions that there were 1000 years ago, or might someone a thousand years from now write and say, “You know, there was the breaking forth, here and there, of a larger dream, of the premonition of global community.” Well, it's a dream, but Martin Luther King, whose birthday we celebrate this week, had a dream, too. It was just a simple dream of how little black children and little white children could learn to play together and to live together, where there wouldn't be domination, prejudice, bigotry, hostility, and brokenness, but where there would be community, and that dream is far from being realized, but © Grand Valley State University �From Babel to Bethlehem to Spirit and Truth Richard A. Rhem Page 6   the dream has become a dream widespread. Isn't it time that we learn to listen in order that we might understand in order that we might live in the Shalom of God whose Spirit is beyond all of our separateness? The God who is beyond all of our partial insights, absolutized and made exclusive. Isn't it time for us all to wake up to the dream of Jesus? © Grand Valley State University � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Richard A. Rhem Collection Description An account of the resource Text and sound recordings of the sermons, prayers, services, and articles of Richard Rhem, pastor emeritus of Christ Community Church in Spring Lake, Michigan, where he served for 37 years. Starting in the mid 1980's, Rhem began to question some of the traditional Christian dogma that he had been espousing from the pulpit. That questioning was a first step in a long and interesting spiritual journey, one that he openly shared with his congregation. His journey is important, in part because it is reflective of the questioning, the yearnings, and the gradual revision of beliefs that many persons in this part of the century have experienced and continue to experience. It is important also because of the affirming and inclusive way his questioning was done and his thinking evolved. His sermons and other written and spoken materials together document the steps in his journey as it took a turn in 1985, yet continued to revolve around the framework and liturgies of the Christian calendar. Subject The topic of the resource Clergy--Michigan Reformed Church in America Christ Community Church (Spring Lake, Mich.) Religion Interfaith worship Sermons Sound Recordings Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Rhem, Richard A. Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/514">Richard A. Rhem papers (KII-01)</a> Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives. Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Kaufman Interfaith Institute Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Language A language of the resource English Type The nature or genre of the resource Sound Text Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context KII-01 Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant 1981-2014 Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource audio/mp3 text/pdf Sound A resource primarily intended to be heard. Examples include a music playback file format, an audio compact disc, and recorded speech or sounds. Event Epiphany II Series A Millennial Vision Scripture Text Genesis 11:8, Acts 2:6 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-0-20000116 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2000-01-16 Title A name given to the resource From Babel to Bethlehem to Spirit and Truth Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Richard A. Rhem Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Subject The topic of the resource Clergy--Michigan Reformed Church in America Christ Community Church (Spring Lake, Mich.) Sermons Relation A related resource Richard A. Rhem - An Archive of Sermons, Prayers, Talks and Stories: http://richardrhem.org/ Language A language of the resource eng Type The nature or genre of the resource Sound Text Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource audio/mp3 application/pdf Description An account of the resource A sermon given by Richard A. Rhem (Dick) on January 16, 2000 entitled "From Babel to Bethlehem to Spirit and Truth", as part of the series "A Millennial Vision", on the occasion of Epiphany II, at Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI. Scripture references: Genesis 11:8, Acts 2:6. Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Lemmen Library and Archives Consciousness Global Community Spirit https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/2c59a0b4727f8bc9c1ce05e1758ba70b.mp3 173bf16a40d643079bfe451f72b9757e https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/f744b45b0ad751d188742164216018fd.pdf 5af746d2e415ed1438b597fd2976a34e PDF Text Text The Clash of Civilizations and the Healing of the Nations From the series: A Millennial Vision Text: Genesis 2:9; Revelation 22:2 Richard A. Rhem Christ Community Church Spring Lake, Michigan January 23, 2000 Transcription of the spoken sermon At this beginning of the year and the century and the millennium, I have been sharing with you A Millennial Vision, a vision of a world at peace, a peace that is created by the understanding and mutual respect of the respective, great religious traditions of the world. It was over a decade ago that I began to probe this issue; for me, it was quite a transformation to move from a rather honest exclusivism that the Christian faith was the only way to salvation, the only truth of God - to a pluralist position that recognized that other great religious traditions were both revelatory and that they did put people in touch with God, and also salvific in that they were the mediators of the grace of God. As I began to probe the issues of that pluralist position, I was very much aware of all of the questions that I would have raised to myself in my earlier years and I moved rather gingerly at first, although I was more and more deeply convinced that the great religious traditions did mediate that light and salvation, as well as my own Christian faith. But, I felt it necessary to justify and to explain myself because it was quite a move for me and for the congregation, as well. I, in the course of that decade or so, mentioned many times that my greatest concern was the fact that there could be no peace without that kind of understanding, quoting the great Catholic theologian, Hans Kiing, who said there will be no peace among the nations until there is peace among the religions. He went on to say there will be no peace among the religions until there is peace among the churches, but I can't wait that long. I think Kiing's point was well taken and I did believe that and I think we have come together to see that more and more. But, I never saw it as profoundly and was never convinced of it so strongly as I am today. There was a book in the books that I was reading that was referred to now and again in footnotes, a name continuing to pop up, and that's always a sign that someone has gotten someone's attention, and so I went out and got the book. It's called The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of World Order, by Samuel P. Huntington who is at Harvard University, one of the recognized leaders in the country in the understanding of international policy and foreign affairs, and he writes this book about the clash of civilizations in order to indicate his understanding of where we are in the human global community today. It is his © Grand Valley State University   �The Clash of Civilizations, The Healing of Nations Richard A. Rhem Page 2   contention that the world is not ever going to become one world, one universal world empire, preferably dominated by the West, bringing the whole world into our own image, but rather, the world is made up of a group of civilizations. Those groups of civilizations include the West (America and Europe), China, Southeast Asia, Islam, Africa, and interestingly, Christianity, which is the religious root of the West over against Orthodoxy, Eastern Orthodoxy, Eastern Christianity, so that Christianity actually founds two different civilizational cultures. Huntington's claim is that where we have come is to a point of groups, civilizations, societies, cultures that must learn to co-exist with each other if there would be peace in the world. If you think about it for a moment, just over the last 50 years, for example, some of us at least can remember the euphoria of the end of the Second World War, and then the crisis of the Cold War, and during the Cold War decades the world was divided into two, two great super powers, and the rest of the peoples in nations and tribes and societies and cultures simply had to line up on one side or the other. It was a political division; it was a power play; it was a world at an impasse; it was a two-world system. Do you remember the euphoria in the late 80's, 1989 when the Berlin Wall came down? Do you remember when we in the West "won," and when, for example, the State Department analyst published a very provocative essay about ten years ago that suggested the end of history, that liberal Western democracy and liberal capitalism had won the day, had been proven right, that history was over in the sense that we had reached the universal and that the world would all come into tow in that kind of framework? Well, there was some objection at the time, but we did bask in the glory of that triumph after all of those Cold War years and all of those crises that we had been through with a standoff of terror with nuclear arms pointed at each other. And then what happened? Well, it all came apart, didn't it? Today, as we speak, Russian troops are engaged in that very awful conflict in Chechnya which is, if you go down deep enough, an Orthodox civilization against a Muslim civilization. And, of course, the falling apart of Yugoslavia - Croatia, Western Catholic, coming to its own independence, Serbia, Eastern Orthodox, both of them practicing some ethnic cleansing on the Muslim people, and most recently the horror of Kosovo. So, we who are enlightened, liberal, gracious Western people say, "What's going on? Won't the world ever learn?" Things fall apart. Fragmentation. Just when the world was being spanned with McDonald's golden arches and Hollywood's productions and American technology and American investment. Just when we were creating one world, things come apart. Samuel Huntington says of course it is never going to be one world. That demands global empire. It is impossible and we don't have the power to do it, anyway. Of course, it's not two worlds ideologically threatening each other. And nations - what are nations? Lines drawn on maps by powers at the time. Nations don't reflect deep reality. No, rather, the world is divided into a series of civilizations that are united at the deepest level of identity in their religion. I find © Grand Valley State University �The Clash of Civilizations, The Healing of Nations Richard A. Rhem Page 3   it fascinating that this probably is the best work since the Cold War in terms of the global situation, and it is by a Harvard scholar who points to the fundamental, critical nature of religion as that which informs the respective civilizational groupings. Four out of the five major traditions are the foundation, the glue and the emotional center of these respective civilizational groupings. You can ask Dr. Boyd Wilson afterwards why Buddhism isn't, but Huntington says it's because, born in India, it got exported and transformed somewhat in Japan and Vietnam and China. The point is this - that what is being recognized today is that religion, religious faith and commitment, is absolutely fundamental to a civilizational grouping, whether it be the West or the Orthodox East or Islam or the Confucian states in the Far East. These civilizational groupings have a rootage in a religious identity, or I could say their religious understanding is the source of their identity. It goes back hundreds and thousands of years. I recently read again a story of Athanasius and Arius in the third century. Alius was a priest in the Christian Church in Alexandria and he believed that Jesus was human, certainly God's mediator and representative, but human. And Athanasius said Jesus was God. The book, incidentally, is When Jesus Became God, written by Richard Rubenstein, a Jew. Very interesting. For two centuries that battle on the nature of Jesus Christ raged. Mobs in the streets, churches burned, people killed – it was a tremendous conflict between Athanasius and Arius, and Western Christianity centered in Rome was always more inclined to Athanasius and Jesus as God. The Eastern sector was always more inclined to Arius and the humanity of Jesus. Finally it was nailed together at Chalcedon at 451, true God, true man, but in the 11th century, East and West came apart. They mutually excommunicated each other. And today you have Western Christianity as the soil of the West and you have Eastern Orthodoxy as the soil of the East. Russia is the great core state whose religion is Orthodox, and when the Balkans began to explode, it was Croatia that is Western Christian and Bosnia that was Orthodox. Those splits going back through the centuries continue to manifest themselves and in our own experience, people, we have seen the horror and the slaughter of those ancient feuds and rivalries and competitions that continue to manifest themselves in this enlightened, advanced age of which we are a part. The point is this - we live in a world that has become a global community, but not one world, but rather, groupings of peoples, civilizational groups informed and identified by a religious commitment, ethnic lines, cultural characteristics. We in the West who have come to such power and such prosperity would like to think that we can throw our weight around, and we have, and that we can have it our way. Interestingly, Huntington points out with data that is irrefutable that we are on the threshold of decline. Nothing is inevitable, but his plea is for a renewal of that uniqueness of Western values and visions. He points out that at this moment of our power and glory that is precisely when societies are on the threshold of decline. The society that believes that it has come to the end of history, to the © Grand Valley State University �The Clash of Civilizations, The Healing of Nations Richard A. Rhem Page 4   universal, is a society that is at the point of decline because there are others waiting for their place in the sun. He speaks about the tremendous power, growing power in self-consciousness and assertiveness in China, for example. And the resurgence of Islam scattered around the world, with a growing selfconsciousness and a growing assertion of itself. It is a cultural, civilizational, religious grouping of people and those ties and those commitments are far deeper than a national allegiance or any other political alignment that can be concocted by leaders of nations. So, that's where we are in our world today: respective civilizational groups. And what are we to do? Huntington would suggest that we have to learn, for one thing, that we ought not to go in and throw our weight around in the midst of another civilizational grouping, and we have to accept that there are those civilizational groupings with deep commitments that will simply not be cowed into submission. Oh, they can be beaten up for a while, but they'll not be uprooted, and that we ought to, obviously, learn co-existence through mediation. And that we should find the commonalities that are human, common to all people because they are human. The civilizations and societies are particular and they are relative, but there are some basic, fundamental human qualities that need to be discovered and cultivated in order that the world might live at peace. He calls upon us, as I said a moment ago, to find again our own uniqueness, a strong word against multiculturalism that tries to make America the world. We are not the world. We are the West. The rule of law. Human rights. Personal liberty, and parliamentary democracy. A few fundamental pillars that make us who we are find their rootage in our Judeo-Christian tradition. Renew that. Believe in that. But recognize that we are one such group in the various civilizational configurations around the globe. Learn to co-exist. That word is politically pertinent. Considering the Iowa Caucases tomorrow, then New Hampshire, South Carolina. Would that the current Presidential candidates would discuss The Clash of Civilizations by Samuel Huntington. If they did, they would be unelectable because the things that need to be said and done in this country at this time would give the death knell to anybody's candidacy. That should disturb us. If that is a word to the political establishment, isn't there a parallel word to the Church? If it is false that there is one world to be universally made after our image, if it is immoral to do so, if it is dangerous to try to do so, it seems to me the same would be true in terms of our faith commitment; that there, too, we ought to learn, as I think we have been learning, to co-exist with the great religious traditions. Proselytizing ought to be out of bounds. World evangelization ought to be a goal yielded up as unworthy of the Christ whom we follow. It seems to me that in the church what we need to do again is cultivate our own tradition, preserve our own tradition, seek renewal for our own tradition and learn to understand, from which will come respect and mutual enhancement of the © Grand Valley State University �The Clash of Civilizations, The Healing of Nations Richard A. Rhem Page 5   religious traditions of the world. Not only pluralism passively, but I would call you to pluralism actively as the only appropriate response to the multiplicity and complexity of the world in our day, a world that politically needs to learn coexistence, a world religiously that needs to recognize the deep rootedness of those traditions that need to be respected and understood. If only we would come to understand that the other cultures of the world are saying to us, “Give us your technology, give us the wealth, send us your movies and your hamburgers, but frankly, we like our cultural values better than yours.” Who are we to tell the rest of the world how it ought to respond to life, what its values and vision ought to be? Who are we to tell the rest of the world that our truth is the only truth? In the Garden of Eden in the Genesis creation story, the writer was obviously saying that God's intention for creation is to be a garden, and there was a tree of life there. In the closing vision of the seer on the Isle of Patmos, the vision was not of a garden, but it was of a city, and it was paradise regained, that beautiful image of the city with the river of crystal and trees on the banks with its leaves for the healing of the nations. This is the vision, you see. This is the intention of the Creator according to the biblical writer. This is the dream, the healing of the nations. And how in the world will it ever be accomplished? Well, of course, just to throw a ringer into the works, let me point you to Jesus, the highly impractical Jesus who says when one slaps you on the right cheek, turn the other. Who says not an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth, but yielding up to the other. Who says love your enemies. There are those who take those chapters wanting to preserve them as the word of God and infallible and authoritative, who say of those sayings of Jesus that they are meant for personal ethics, but not for great nations. Well, would this stuff work? Somebody would get beaten up, I guess. But, if it were going to work, should we who are powerful invite those who are without power to yield up their swords? Or, would it make sense for we who are powerful to begin the process? Now, you try that in Iowa tomorrow. You see, Jesus is that disturbing presence in all of our rationalization. In all of our practicality and all of our wisdom, all of our savvy and all of our cleverness, we keep running up against Jesus. Would not Jesus say at least learn to live in a multi-civilizational world of diverse religious traditions, learn to see from the perspective of the other and understand, if you can, value your own path and seek its renewal, and follow me in the ways of peace. That, I think, is a task for the third millennium because in the third millennium we get angry and hostile and we have the means to blow it all up, you see. It's not really a possible way to go anymore. It's a matter of human survival beyond being the will of God. © Grand Valley State University �The Clash of Civilizations, The Healing of Nations Richard A. Rhem Page 6   References: Samuel P. Huntington. The Clash of Civilizations: Remaking of the World Order. Touchstone, 1997; reprinted, 2001. © Grand Valley State University � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Richard A. Rhem Collection Description An account of the resource Text and sound recordings of the sermons, prayers, services, and articles of Richard Rhem, pastor emeritus of Christ Community Church in Spring Lake, Michigan, where he served for 37 years. Starting in the mid 1980's, Rhem began to question some of the traditional Christian dogma that he had been espousing from the pulpit. That questioning was a first step in a long and interesting spiritual journey, one that he openly shared with his congregation. His journey is important, in part because it is reflective of the questioning, the yearnings, and the gradual revision of beliefs that many persons in this part of the century have experienced and continue to experience. It is important also because of the affirming and inclusive way his questioning was done and his thinking evolved. His sermons and other written and spoken materials together document the steps in his journey as it took a turn in 1985, yet continued to revolve around the framework and liturgies of the Christian calendar. Subject The topic of the resource Clergy--Michigan Reformed Church in America Christ Community Church (Spring Lake, Mich.) Religion Interfaith worship Sermons Sound Recordings Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Rhem, Richard A. Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/514">Richard A. Rhem papers (KII-01)</a> Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives. Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Kaufman Interfaith Institute Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Language A language of the resource English Type The nature or genre of the resource Sound Text Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context KII-01 Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant 1981-2014 Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource audio/mp3 text/pdf Sound A resource primarily intended to be heard. Examples include a music playback file format, an audio compact disc, and recorded speech or sounds. Event Epiphany III Series A Millennial Vision Scripture Text Genesis 2:9, Revelation 22:2 Location The location of the interview Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI References Samuel P. Huntington.The Clash of Civilizations: Remaking of the World Order. Touchstone, 1997, 2001 edition. 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-0-20000123 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2000-01-23 Title A name given to the resource The Clash of Civilizations and the Healing of the Nations Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Richard A. Rhem Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Subject The topic of the resource Clergy--Michigan Reformed Church in America Christ Community Church (Spring Lake, Mich.) Sermons Relation A related resource Richard A. Rhem - An Archive of Sermons, Prayers, Talks and Stories: http://richardrhem.org/ Language A language of the resource eng Type The nature or genre of the resource Sound Text Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource audio/mp3 application/pdf Description An account of the resource A sermon given by Richard A. Rhem (Dick) on January 23, 2000 entitled "The Clash of Civilizations and the Healing of the Nations", as part of the series "A Millennial Vision", on the occasion of Epiphany III, at Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI. Scripture references: Genesis 2:9, Revelation 22:2. Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Lemmen Library and Archives Global Peace Pluralism https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/95da6d57450014a47022f235252d9646.mp3 1b886c516419b8229d383d70a1ae608a https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/5f1364ad238a8f3fc7de4b605108324c.pdf 5a9ce24aac6bebdf54a03c202d5b3428 PDF Text Text The Question That Will Not Go Away From the series: The God Question Text: Psalm 42:2; Job 23:3; John 3:9 Richard A. Rhem Christ Community Church Spring Lake, Michigan February 20, 2000 Transcription of the spoken sermon While away on vacation, I was so glad, although I celebrated my 65th birthday, that I did not retire because I am still wrestling with the God Question. It is the question that will not go away. I find the God Question more fascinating with every passing year - and I've been thinking about it again intentionally, reading and reflecting, knowing I would be engaging with you, on my return, in conversation about God. Conversation about God, not with God. Ah, that is the problem, of course. You come longing for the experience of God and I speak to you about God. There is a difference, of course, a vast difference, the difference between experience and thought. The one is existential, the other intellectual, and every time I attempt to deal with the God Question in a sermon, I am sharply aware of the dilemma. How can I speak so as to create the possibility of some experience of God, some brush with Grace, without simply engaging your mind, your intellect. Can we think our way to experience? Let me be clear; I am painfully aware of the dilemma, but yet would claim that there is an important place for thoughtful reflection on the God question, lest our experience be devoid of understanding. And further, I would contend that the experience of the sacred that we have from time to time cries out for understanding. And so, let us begin - acknowledging the difficulty, being clear that our aim is not simply knowledge, but experience, or experience illumined by understanding. Religion is the quest for God and the great religions of the world point to the Mystery beyond human comprehension - beyond the change and decay that marks our common experience, the shifting tides of human opinion and practices - the Mystery that is sought as the truly Real, the final resting place of the restless human quest, the source and ground of being and the goal toward which all presses. © Grand Valley State University   �The Question That Will Not Go Away Richard A. Rhem Page 2   This human longing for God is well documented in our story, the biblical story. The story of Job in the Hebrew Scriptures is a powerful and eloquent witness to the struggle to find God in the midst of human suffering. Determined not to yield to the popular theology and conventional wisdom of his day, Job refuses to accept the idea that suffering is the punishment of God for sin and wrongdoing. In the midst of his debate with those miserable comforters who visited him, he cries out, "Oh, that I knew where I might find God; that I might come even to his dwelling! ... I go forward – he is not there – or backward, I cannot perceive him. On the left he hides, and I cannot behold him." Oh, that I knew where I might find God. Indeed! Or the Psalmist, again one whose soul is cast down, suggesting that it is most often at life's extremity that the God Question obtrudes itself writes, "As a deer longs for flowing streams, so my soul longs for you, O God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When shall I come and behold the face of God?" Job is a drama, not an historical account; the Psalmist is a poet writing a hymn. This is the stuff of poetry and theater because we are dealing with the depths of human experience, the longing for some clue or glimpse or token that our human existence has meaning, some significance, that it is not simply sound and fury, a tale told by an idiot. But it need not always be triggered by suffering or threat. Sometimes life experience itself simply raises the question - what is the meaning of it all? Nicodemus was a religious teacher, a rabbi, and in his own spiritual quest and questioning, he came to Jesus to ask about the God Question, to which Jesus responded with the familiar, "You must be born again," or "from above," pointing, of course, to a spiritual illumination beyond the capacity of pure intellectual, rational thinking. And Nicodemus reflected what we must all feel at some time - "How can this be?" My soul longs for God. Oh, that I knew where I might find God. How can this be? Born from above? And while I am not naive enough to believe that we all awoke this morning with the thought, "Thank God it's Sunday! I shall arise and go to worship and have an experience of God," nonetheless, we have gathered here in this sacred space - we have prayed and sung hymns of praise and longing, and we place ourselves before the Word, the story and the sermon – and, so doing, indicate even if unconsciously our longing for some touch of Divine Grace. The God Question - the question that will not go away. What a fascinating quest is this quest for God, and this is a great time in which to be engaged in the quest © Grand Valley State University �The Question That Will Not Go Away Richard A. Rhem Page 3   and question - the God Question is alive and well. It will not go away ever for long, but it is my sense that there is more open discussion about God, about the spiritual life, than has been true in my lifetime, and with the vast communication networks of our world, the God question flourishes as never before. The excellent British news magazine, The Economist, has a regular feature at the end of every issue entitled simply "Obituary." It features the death of some significant person from whatever area of life. The last issue of the 20th century, dated 12-31-99, a special millennium issue, was given over to God. It began, When your friends start looking for proof of your existence, you're heading for trouble. That was God's situation as the millennium got into its stride. Under the portrait (of whose imagination it doesn't say), are the words, After a lengthy career, the Almighty recently passed into history. Or did He? And to let it be known that the editors did not really think they had written God's obituary, the piece suggests near the end that as the 19th century ended, Nietzsche announced God was dead, but the Superman Nietzsche promised never got born and the Communist promise was never realized - the people did not agree; and the corpse just wouldn't lie down. He popped up in the oddest places. A. N. Wilson, the English writer, published last year a wonderful work on the 19th century entitled God's Funeral, a review of significant thinkers, poets, writers, politicians, and churchmen of the 19th century who saw the exploding knowledge of the modern world work its acid of doubt into the form of traditional Christian faith and God talk. The title comes from a deeply moving poem by Thomas Hardy in which he portrays the funeral procession bearing away the God figure that had informed the Christian faith for 19 centuries and Judaism before that. The poem is full of sadness and longing expressing great loss. But Wilson knows, too, the suggestion of "God's Funeral" is premature. The opening words of the preface are, "The God-Question does not go away." Another 1999 volume, Working on God by Winifred Gallagher, is a sixties person's account of reaching her forties having "dismissed religion as anachronistic wish fulfillment - half Brothers Grimm, half Hallmark, dreadful at worst and limited at best - that failed to jibe with my accumulating knowledge and experience." Gallagher chronicles her search for God or for some spiritual reality, returning to investigate her Catholic Christian roots, the Jewish tradition of her husband, and the Buddhism to which she was attracted as a spiritual seeker. She coins the phrase neoagnostic for her kind - those who long since gave up on traditional, institutional religion, becoming modern super-achievers, super consumers, now repelled by blind ambition and workaholism. "Rugged individuals" who were living on empty with low-grade alienation. She describes what is a growing phenomenon in our time – “millennial religion” is her term for it - the spiritual quest of so many who have given up on church and synagogue, © Grand Valley State University �The Question That Will Not Go Away Richard A. Rhem Page 4   dogmatic claims and moral certainties, who yet recognize a void in their lives that can be filled only by an authentic spiritual dimension. Three big questions Gallagher suggests motivate such seekers -What is real? What do I feel? What are my choices? I am struck by the contrasting situation of our culture as we begin the third millennium to the culture to which I addressed my early preaching. Ordained in 1960, that early preaching was in the context of the breakdown of much that had marked western civilization and certainly the institutional forms of society in politics, religion and social mores. In the early 60s, Harvey Cox, Harvard Professor of Theology, published a bestselling volume entitled The Secular City, which celebrated a new day for our culture, marked by the secular. His intention was to find ways to find God in a secular culture that had thrown off traditional religious forms and practices. I took that book to Europe with me in 1967, arriving there on March 1. The Time magazine issue published just before I left for Europe had a black cover with huge red letters that asked "Is God Dead?" Harvey Cox was attempting to address that cultural situation. Now Cox has written again. There have been several volumes from his pen, but the latest is Fire From Heaven, a study of the world-wide phenomenon of Pentecostalism, in which he sees a global spiritual renewal. In the preface, he writes, Even before I started my journey through the world of Pentecostalism, it had become obvious that instead of the "death of God" some theologians pronounced not many years ago, or the waning of religion that sociologists had extrapolated, something quite different had taken place. Perhaps I was too young and impressionable when the scholars made those sobering projections. In any case, I had swallowed them all too easily and had tried to think about what their theological consequence might be. But, it had now become clear that the predictions themselves had been wrong. Cox writes that the prediction of eroding participation in "Mother Church" was right, but what was not foreseen was the disillusionment with the promise of secularism and science to bring in a new day. What emerged was a spiritual wasteland. A final sign of the spiritual landscape of our time: Upon my return last week there was a package in the mail, a book, gift of the author sent out by the publisher. It was Karen Armstrong's volume just now becoming available entitled The Battle for God, a study of the phenomenon of fundamentalism - Christian, Jewish and Muslim - in our present cultural-religious situation. I can hardly wait to get into it; maybe before this brief series ends I will have something to share from Karen Armstrong's massive research. © Grand Valley State University �The Question That Will Not Go Away Richard A. Rhem Page 5   Do you sense the vitality and the dynamism of the present discussion of the God Question? Do you not find it fascinating that this question that will not go away is so widely recognized and discussed in our time? Let me conclude by saying how privileged I feel to be in a community like this where we can live together the God Question, acknowledging the Mystery while recognizing that that Mystery will be experienced in wholly new circumstances by means of fresh insight offered by the ongoing explosion of human knowledge and experience. The great religious traditions have changed and evolved over the centuries to accommodate new human experience. It is so today and will be so tomorrow. And what pleases me and stimulates me is that we have moved beyond a certain dogmatic system and rigid biblical interpretation that disallowed a wide-eyed openness to the ongoing saga of the human story. We are a free people, serious in our engagement with the Ultimate Mystery of our existence, open to fresh winds of the Spirit, yearning for the brush with grace in this amazing cosmic drama. Oh, that I knew where I might find God! My soul longs for God, the living God! Hear this word of assurance - "You shall search for me and you shall surely find me when you seek me with all your heart." References: Harvey Cox. Fire From Heaven: The Rise of Pentecostal Spirituality and the Reshaping of Religion in the 21st Century. Da Capo Press, 2001. Winifred Gallagher. Working on God. Modern Library Paperbacks, 2000. © Grand Valley State University � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Richard A. Rhem Collection Description An account of the resource Text and sound recordings of the sermons, prayers, services, and articles of Richard Rhem, pastor emeritus of Christ Community Church in Spring Lake, Michigan, where he served for 37 years. Starting in the mid 1980's, Rhem began to question some of the traditional Christian dogma that he had been espousing from the pulpit. That questioning was a first step in a long and interesting spiritual journey, one that he openly shared with his congregation. His journey is important, in part because it is reflective of the questioning, the yearnings, and the gradual revision of beliefs that many persons in this part of the century have experienced and continue to experience. It is important also because of the affirming and inclusive way his questioning was done and his thinking evolved. His sermons and other written and spoken materials together document the steps in his journey as it took a turn in 1985, yet continued to revolve around the framework and liturgies of the Christian calendar. Subject The topic of the resource Clergy--Michigan Reformed Church in America Christ Community Church (Spring Lake, Mich.) Religion Interfaith worship Sermons Sound Recordings Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Rhem, Richard A. Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/514">Richard A. Rhem papers (KII-01)</a> Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives. Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Kaufman Interfaith Institute Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Language A language of the resource English Type The nature or genre of the resource Sound Text Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context KII-01 Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant 1981-2014 Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource audio/mp3 text/pdf Sound A resource primarily intended to be heard. Examples include a music playback file format, an audio compact disc, and recorded speech or sounds. Event Epiphany VII Series The God Question Scripture Text Psalm 42:2, Job 23:3, John 3:9 Location The location of the interview Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI References Harvey Cox. Fire From Heaven: The Rise of Pentecostal Spirituality and the Reshaping of Religion in the 21st Century, 2001. Winifred Gallagher. Working on God, 2000. 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-0-20000220 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2000-02-20 Title A name given to the resource The Question That Will Not Go Away Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Richard A. Rhem Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Subject The topic of the resource Clergy--Michigan Reformed Church in America Christ Community Church (Spring Lake, Mich.) Sermons Relation A related resource Richard A. Rhem - An Archive of Sermons, Prayers, Talks and Stories: http://richardrhem.org/ Language A language of the resource eng Type The nature or genre of the resource Sound Text Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource audio/mp3 application/pdf Description An account of the resource A sermon given by Richard A. Rhem (Dick) on February 20, 2000 entitled "The Question That Will Not Go Away", as part of the series "The God Question", on the occasion of Epiphany VII, at Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI. Scripture references: Psalm 42:2, Job 23:3, John 3:9. Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Lemmen Library and Archives Hunger for God Meaning Spiritual Quest https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/68158c2d211139fc4b0a00afa0c95a77.mp3 22bd478f84f024654a7c9be2aee2a7fd https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/0b68f5bbb811ab70d657be9a3e4ceadf.pdf d0da7183cd09ac8c106b294d4f17bd30 PDF Text Text The Challenge of the Modern World From the series: The God Question Text: Isaiah 45:23; Philippians 2:10; Luke 4:18 Richard A. Rhem Christ Community Church Spring Lake, Michigan February 27, 2000 Transcription of the spoken sermon Last week I began a brief series on the question of God, the question that will not go away, and this morning I want to say that God has gotten into trouble because of the explosion of knowledge in the modern world. It's not that God is in trouble, but the church has been in trouble, because the church has failed to understand the nature of its own religious life and quest, and has gotten into a futile battle with the advance of scientific knowledge and understanding of this world. The church has been in a futile and tragic, losing, intellectual battle with the march of modern knowledge for the last three hundred years. Even as we speak, the church in its evangelical and orthodox expression has not yet come to terms with acknowledging the place and the function of modern knowledge, that which is available to us through the scientific disciplines, the scientific method, through the empirical quest through verification experience. The church has still not acknowledged the legitimate place of the scientific endeavor and the knowledge that is gained through that method, and it has failed, obviously, also, in understanding what religion is all about and what its business is, for the business of the church or the business of religion is not to give us knowledge of the natural world. It is not to give us a map of the heavens or the anatomical structure of the human creature, or the emerging, developing cosmic drama, or the course of history. Religion is about the experience of God. Religion is about the experience of that other dimension of reality that is beyond time and space and touch and smell. Religion is about human experience of meaning. Religion addresses questions about "Who am I and why am I here and how should I live, and what is of value, and what brings quality to human existence?" The onslaught of knowledge in the modern world over three centuries has put the church in a defensive position, for we have failed in the church to understand that religions arose in response to the human awareness of being creatures, of being alone in this vast universe with all of its wonder and all of its threat. Out of the fear and vulnerability of the human creaturely condition, once the human creature came to awareness, to consciousness, self-consciousness, once the human creature came to a sense of him or herself over against the vast cosmic scheme of things, at that point these deep and profound existential questions © Grand Valley State University   �The Challenge of the Modern Age Richard A. Rhem Page 2   arose and the religions, as they took shape and form, were the response to the answers that now and again came to one here or there, some answer that seemed to resonate in others about the meaning of it all or where value lies or where quality can be found, some interpretive word about the Mystery that seems to bear us up and yet is always beyond our grasp and grip. That is the nature of the obtuse paragraph printed in the inside cover of your liturgy by the philosopher Santayana, one of America's great thinkers. In this paragraph (not particularly easy to comprehend; don't try to read it now, it will take about a dozen readings this afternoon, after which you will say, "Why did he have that printed?"), what Santayana was saying in that context was there are poets and philosophers and saints who now and again bring something to expression and we say, "There is divine grace and truth and beauty." And what they said as a human channel is the important thing. The fact that they were historical figures was not critical. In fact, what we do with the historical channels through whom have flowed truth and grace and beauty, like Shakespeare or Jesus, what we do with those historical figures is that we soon wrap them in myth and they become mythical heroes. Did George Washington ever tell a lie? Did he chop down the cherry tree, or was it the outhouse with his father in it, I'm not ever sure? But we have human channels who bring something to expression, something of truth and grace and beauty, and we say, "Aha." The person has had an epiphany, if you will. And through their expression of it, they create an epiphanic experience for others. A Buddha experiences an enlightenment, a Jesus grasps the essence of what the Hebrew prophets were speaking about. And then we wrap those historical figures into mythical wraps and garments because they become symbols of that grace and truth and beauty which came to expression through them. I read from Isaiah where the prophet appeals to the Jews in exile to remember Yahweh their God, the God who says, "Before me every knee will bow and every tongue will confess." Then I went over and read from Philippians 2 where Paul is dealing with a congregation much like you and saying to that congregation, "I so wish you could get together, particularly you ladies. Stop all of that fracas. In fact, let this mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus." And then the humility of Jesus, the mind of Christ demonstrated in that descent from the glory of the Father through death and exaltation to the point at which what Isaiah said of God, that every knee will bow and every tongue confess, Paul now says is true of Jesus, the risen, ascended one at the right hand of God. This one, before this one every knee will bow and every tongue will confess to the glory of God. The passage is about an ethical matter. It's about the concrete way to live in a congregation. The illustration is the humiliation and the exaltation of Jesus. Well, of course, we got all wrapped up with christological discussions about who Jesus was, divine, human, pre-existent, present, exaltation, coming again - all of that made great fodder for theological discussion. What was missed was Paul's point and that is that people ought to get along together, following the example of Jesus in his historical, earthly sojourn here. But, what was Paul trying to say? Paul was trying © Grand Valley State University �The Challenge of the Modern Age Richard A. Rhem Page 3   to say that what did come to expression in that one was light and grace and truth that was reflective of none other than the eternal creator of all, the eternal God. The historical channel becomes the mythical hero who symbolizes the values and the qualities that are being advocated as the way to live, as the path to follow. That's what religion is all about. And what is dead in religion is religious content that refers to the nature of the world, to the factual description of reality which is the domain of the sciences, and the conflict between science and religion has been the fact that the church has failed to recognize that its domain is a domain of mystery, that what it is concerned about is the human question, "Who am I? What does it all mean? Whither am I going?" Not the date of creation or the nature of how everything has evolved and developed. The nature of religion has not really to do with the philosophical concepts like the Trinity, the dual nature of Christ, how history will end, whether Jesus will come again. All of these things that have divided the church, caused people to argue and fight, exclude one another and excommunicate one another. Sigmund Freud, who perhaps I could use as a symbol for modern knowledge, who was certainly one of the giants of human thought, who died earlier in the last century, beginning his work in the previous century, spoke of himself as an aggressive atheist. He would have affirmed the Death of God theologians who, in the sixties, were the subject of the Time magazine discussion about the death of God. Sigmund Freud believed that the sciences and religion were mortal enemies. I re-read again his fascinating little tract, "The Future of an Illusion," where he recognized quite correctly the origin of religion in that human consciousness and awareness of helplessness and aloneness in the vastness of this mysterious and threatening cosmos, and he recognized how the myths and the rituals were created in order to respond to that mystery, in order to come to terms with that reality, in order to be at one or at peace with whatever God may be. But Sigmund Freud, coming at the end of three centuries of the explosion of modern knowledge, was simply convinced that they had to get rid of religion in order to let science emerge and the human race mature. He was quite blunt about it. Well, in the middle of this past century, as I said, the theologians were talking about the death of God, and here we are at the beginning of the third millennium, and God is alive and well. But, God is alive and well still by those who are fighting a rear guard action. The fundamentalist response in the respective religions is an attempt to beat down and defeat the modern knowledge that is as obvious as the hand in front of me. Fundamentalism, with all of its present strength and vitality, cannot possibly have the last word. But what Sigmund Freud didn't understand is that the function of religion and the religious quest and the ubiquity of the spiritual quest is the consequence, not of needing knowledge about the natural world, but coming to some understanding of who we human creatures are in the vast scheme of things. Freud said very clearly we could do away with religion, we could have the human © Grand Valley State University �The Challenge of the Modern Age Richard A. Rhem Page 4   person live out of intellect by reason, and it would bring about liberation and maturity. He was wrong, as subsequent decades have demonstrated. We can think all day long, we can exercise our mental powers, we can acknowledge all of the knowledge that is available from all of the sciences, we can gather all of the data as accurately as possible, and what an explosion of knowledge, and what is available to us in our day, it's absolutely amazing. It's wonderful! But, once we have a handle on all of that and, of course, who can get a handle on all of that, but once we have, there remains the question, "Who am I? And what is the mystery that grounds my existence? What am I called to be? How should I live? Is this all there is? Is there anything more? What is of value? What are the qualities that are important?" Those are religious questions and those questions will not go away in the wake of the explosion of knowledge of the natural world, of the planetary system or the biological makeup of the human creature. Those are questions of meaning and those press in upon us as strongly today as ever they did in the dawning of the first awareness of the creature that we would call human. Your religion isn't "true," nor is it "false." True and false don't apply to religion. Religion is about quality and value. Why we fight about facts, I don't know. We are together on a journey in community before life's ultimate questions in the face of mystery, trying to find our way together. The Buddha has an illumination and that light shines on a vast community. Socrates comes along and says, "Know thyself." Jesus suggests we should love our enemies. Now and again a human channel becomes the conduit for divine grace and beauty and truth, and then we catch it and say, "Ah! There it is! I can live with that. I can rest in that. I can live fully, fully alive with a sense of well-being and peace and harmony with all that is about me and with those who are about me, from what I see about the nature of things in the contours of the face of Jesus." You see, he's our story. He's our window. There's not a lot of factual stuff that makes a great deal of difference. Unfortunately, the Bible is full of superstition and error, the reflection of the writers of the day and the culture in which it arose becomes a battleground for people trying to prove that all of its factual claims of science and history, and so on, are actually true. They are not true. They are simply the garments in which the respective channels gave witness to the truth and grace and beauty that was flowing through them, emanating from that mystery that grounds us all and embraces us all and overshadows us all, and as we make our way together, we share with each other and eventually, hopefully, we find our way to a place of peace, having experienced the mystery that is always beyond us, that is always pressing in upon us, and we rest our case, blessing the scientists and falling to our knees. © Grand Valley State University � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Richard A. Rhem Collection Description An account of the resource Text and sound recordings of the sermons, prayers, services, and articles of Richard Rhem, pastor emeritus of Christ Community Church in Spring Lake, Michigan, where he served for 37 years. Starting in the mid 1980's, Rhem began to question some of the traditional Christian dogma that he had been espousing from the pulpit. That questioning was a first step in a long and interesting spiritual journey, one that he openly shared with his congregation. His journey is important, in part because it is reflective of the questioning, the yearnings, and the gradual revision of beliefs that many persons in this part of the century have experienced and continue to experience. It is important also because of the affirming and inclusive way his questioning was done and his thinking evolved. His sermons and other written and spoken materials together document the steps in his journey as it took a turn in 1985, yet continued to revolve around the framework and liturgies of the Christian calendar. Subject The topic of the resource Clergy--Michigan Reformed Church in America Christ Community Church (Spring Lake, Mich.) Religion Interfaith worship Sermons Sound Recordings Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Rhem, Richard A. Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/514">Richard A. Rhem papers (KII-01)</a> Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives. Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Kaufman Interfaith Institute Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Language A language of the resource English Type The nature or genre of the resource Sound Text Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context KII-01 Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant 1981-2014 Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource audio/mp3 text/pdf Sound A resource primarily intended to be heard. Examples include a music playback file format, an audio compact disc, and recorded speech or sounds. Event Epiphany VIII Series The God Question Scripture Text Isaiah 45:23, Philippians 2:10, Luke 4:18 Location The location of the interview Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context KII-01_RA-0-20000227 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2000-02-27 Title A name given to the resource The Challenge of the Modern World Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Richard A. Rhem Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Subject The topic of the resource Clergy--Michigan Reformed Church in America Christ Community Church (Spring Lake, Mich.) Sermons Relation A related resource Richard A. Rhem - An Archive of Sermons, Prayers, Talks and Stories: http://richardrhem.org/ Language A language of the resource eng Type The nature or genre of the resource Sound Text Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource audio/mp3 application/pdf Description An account of the resource A sermon given by Richard A. Rhem (Dick) on February 27, 2000 entitled "The Challenge of the Modern World", as part of the series "The God Question", on the occasion of Epiphany VIII, at Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI. Scripture references: Isaiah 45:23, Philippians 2:10, Luke 4:18. Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Lemmen Library and Archives Meaning Mystery Nature of Religion https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/c3170370924a7b7d94fe83d67069f0bb.mp3 21bf86846056b14a4408855c095ad461 https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/73b721679a30d2e3ddaedc1adb5a7fc0.pdf 8788c992dacd6a9a925d2828dc74e6e5 PDF Text Text The World Is Not Enough From the series: The God Question Text: Ecclesiastes 2:11; I Timothy 6:17; Luke 12:21 Richard A. Rhem Christ Community Church Spring Lake, Michigan March 5, 2000 Transcription of the spoken sermon In this interim between my return from vacation and the beginning of Lent, I have been mulling over with you the question of God, the question of God that will not go away, remarking about the fact that God is alive and well on planet Earth, and rather surprisingly so, because, as I have indicated a time or two, it would have seemed at mid-century that the obituary of God was in order and, indeed, there were those radical theologians who spoke of the death of God. And, in the dark horror of the Nazi prison camps, Dietrich Bonhoeffer had spoken of man come of age, about edging God out of the world, and Harvey Cox wrote his best-selling book, The Secular City, which celebrated secularity and life lived on a horizontal plane, and as a theologian, tried to find traces of God, footprints of God in the secular city. And now here, having entered into the 21st century, we find that there is indication everywhere that religion is strong and vital and the question of God simply will not go away. It is a surprise. Sigmund Freud, to whom I referred last week, who may be the epitome of modernity, modern scientific thinking, was convinced that science and religion were mortal enemies and that religion had to be cleared out in order for the human society to come into its maturity and live by its reason, by its intellect, putting away its wishful thinking and its superstitions, the superstitions that abound in all of the religions and that have been a big part of the origin of religion. But, Freud was wrong. Not that religion had not fought for 300 years a losing intellectual battle, but rather, that the human being can live out of his or her mind alone, that intellect is enough, that if we could only rid ourselves of our religion and our superstitious ways, we could live out of the intellect by reason, and thus come to maturity. That hasn't proven to be the case. The God question just simply doesn't go away because, contrary to what Freud expected, our problem is not knowledge, but it is something far deeper: the intuition of a deeper reality. We have knowledge. We are awash in knowledge, and the super-information highway runs right to our laptop and personal computers at our side. We have a command of knowledge of © Grand Valley State University   �The World Is Not Enough Richard A. Rhem Page 2   the modern world, of the universe, of society, and of our own human being far surpassing the possibility of ever taking it in, and it's all right there at our fingertips. But, knowledge in itself is not the answer. Simply to describe what is doesn't deal with its meaning, its significance, those ultimate existential questions about whence have I come and whither am I going, and is this all there is, and what is the meaning of it all? Those are religious questions and they are of another sort than the knowledge that is the consequence of the use of the intellect, the rational processes of our mind. Someone just gave $350 million to MIT for the study of the brain. Wonderful! The brain is a great mystery and there's a tremendous amount of investigative focus on the brain. But, once we have come to be able to describe the brain fully, it's still not synonymous with understanding of that mental activity which is touched with Spirit which probes a deeper layer than that which is available to empirical investigation and research. We have knowledge aplenty. We can know the whole world, but the world is not enough, nor is the world that we can possess. Aren't you somewhat amazed at the wealth that is around today? The wealth that is everywhere, it seems, and even the least of us are among the wealthy of the world, and who of us has to deny ourselves very much in the way of creature comfort or pleasure or toys or globe-trotting to exotic places? We are bombarded, day by day, with the seduction of saying that one more trip or one more toy will make it all right. There was a study out last week that said 16 minutes and 43 seconds of every hour you watch television is given over to consumerism, making of us materialists, acquisitors. Robert Bellah, the American sociologist, wrote something that I jotted down the moment my eye fell on it, something to the effect that to secure happiness by material acquisition is denied by every religion and philosophy known to humankind, and yet it is preached on every American television set. Pleasure. Toys. Adventures. Wasn't that second chapter of Ecclesiastes taken as a script from our own contemporary life? The king who indulged himself without limits, denied himself nothing that his heart set itself upon, who ended up with his famous phrase, "Vanity, all is vanity," which has been translated also "Absurdity, all is absurdity," or emptiness, chasing the wind, because you can have it all and have nothing, because the world is not enough. The writer of the letter to Timothy says the same thing, warning those of us who are rich in this world not to be haughty or to set our hope on uncertain riches, but rather, on God. We find the same point being made in the Gospel lesson where one comes to Jesus to settle an inheritance dispute. Jesus declines and then tells a story about the farmer who prospered so greatly that he tore down his barns and built bigger ones, laying up enough store so he could relax and pursue his pleasure. © Grand Valley State University �The World Is Not Enough Richard A. Rhem Page 3   If Jesus had been in Naples this winter, he might have spoken not of barns, but of homes with a view. All along South Gulf Shore Blvd., houses are being torn down in order to build great, palatial residences. Obvious prosperity is everywhere, yet I get the impression we are more driven, more frenzied and under greater stress than ever. My Sony stock took a big hike this week. It's wonderful. I thought of how much more I could give to Christ Community. Twenty-three points, I think, and I wondered why until on the world news last night I noticed that Play Station Two is coming out. I didn't know there was Play Station One. I hadn't gotten beyond my grandchildren's Gameboys, but apparently there was Play Station One and now coming out in Japan is Play Station Two. Thousands of people sat up all night in the bone-chilling cold in Japan in order to be in line to get one of the two million Play Stations available on opening day. Stores had signs that they were sold out before they could open the doors. There was a frenzy of activity, and I watched as the people were playing these things. They were absolutely out of this world, playing with such intensity. This is not just a game. I don't understand it, but it apparently is like having in the palm of your hand a connection to everything you'd ever want to be connected to in the whole world. They interviewed one young lady who had a smile on her face and said, "Oh, I just love it. I couldn't live without it." And all the Play Stations in the world won't fill the hole in the soul or give one a peaceful heart. The question of God won't go away, and in our day we have such possibilities, endless learning, limitless pleasure, toys galore, the whole world to travel, but the scriptures which are ancient sound like they were written yesterday when they remind us that a life not built on God is a life that will ultimately unravel and come apart. It used to be easier to preach about this kind of stuff. I don't do this very much. Probably because it's more difficult now because God isn't some super-human person just above the sky. God isn't some King Almighty who is turning the gears of the universe and pulling the strings of people. God is not that external deity that runs things and rules things. When God was that for me, I knew how to tell you how to please and appease that God. And, with a sermon like this, particularly if you just bought a new lot with a view and planned to tear down the house on it and build a new one, you'd go out of here with guilt so heavy it would probably take you another seven days to recover. The pulpit traditionally in the church has been wonderfully eloquent in the imposition of guilt, crabby about people who have done well, who are successful, who are having a good time in life. That's not the point. I don't quite know how to do it with a conception of God so radically altered, as it is for me, and I think for many of you. It's not to please or appease some external ruler who holds us accountable and is ready to call in our guilt, but, how do we live with a God that is not outside, but inside? How do we live in harmony with a God who is the © Grand Valley State University �The World Is Not Enough Richard A. Rhem Page 4   inexhaustible ground and source of all being, that creative Spirit within the process, this process, this cosmic process of 15 billion years that has been unfolding and developing and emerging, of which we are a part, out of which we have emerged, we who are the outposts of Spirit, as it were, we who have come to consciousness and awareness, who are the containers of Spirit, who allow Spirit voice, who are able to be conscious of the wonder of it all, the amazement of this whole fantastic drama, and we are a part of it? How do we live with a Godconsciousness of the God who is not threatening just beyond the blue, but who is part and parcel of the process itself within us, the Spirit that would come to expression through us? Isn't it a matter of becoming comfortable in our own skin? Isn't it a matter of being at home in the world? Isn't it to find delight in being a part of the whole, wonderful process? Knowledge isn't the problem; it's just not the answer. And wealth isn't the problem, except if we've set our heart on it. But, all things are ours to enjoy if we come to the consciousness of God who is, once again, the inexhaustible ground of all being, that present Spirit that energizes all and enlivens all, that God who calls us to know ourselves, and I wonder, finally, if I would come to know myself, would that be to know God? And I don't know how to tell you to do it; some of you would do it, perhaps, with me, in a class where we'd go at it in an intellectual fever. Some of you could better walk the Labyrinth with Toni. All of us need to pause now and again and hear the questions of our existence which are the questions that are the voice of God, to be still and know that God is God, and if God is God and I live in that awareness, then all will be well. All manner of things will be well. © Grand Valley State University � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Richard A. Rhem Collection Description An account of the resource Text and sound recordings of the sermons, prayers, services, and articles of Richard Rhem, pastor emeritus of Christ Community Church in Spring Lake, Michigan, where he served for 37 years. Starting in the mid 1980's, Rhem began to question some of the traditional Christian dogma that he had been espousing from the pulpit. That questioning was a first step in a long and interesting spiritual journey, one that he openly shared with his congregation. His journey is important, in part because it is reflective of the questioning, the yearnings, and the gradual revision of beliefs that many persons in this part of the century have experienced and continue to experience. It is important also because of the affirming and inclusive way his questioning was done and his thinking evolved. His sermons and other written and spoken materials together document the steps in his journey as it took a turn in 1985, yet continued to revolve around the framework and liturgies of the Christian calendar. Subject The topic of the resource Clergy--Michigan Reformed Church in America Christ Community Church (Spring Lake, Mich.) Religion Interfaith worship Sermons Sound Recordings Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Rhem, Richard A. Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/514">Richard A. Rhem papers (KII-01)</a> Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives. Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Kaufman Interfaith Institute Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Language A language of the resource English Type The nature or genre of the resource Sound Text Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context KII-01 Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant 1981-2014 Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource audio/mp3 text/pdf Sound A resource primarily intended to be heard. Examples include a music playback file format, an audio compact disc, and recorded speech or sounds. Event Epiphany IX Series The God Question Scripture Text Eclesiastes 2:11, I Timothy 6:17, Luke 12:21 Location The location of the interview Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context KII-01_RA-0-20000305 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2000-03-05 Title A name given to the resource The World Is Not Enough Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Richard A. Rhem Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Subject The topic of the resource Clergy--Michigan Reformed Church in America Christ Community Church (Spring Lake, Mich.) Sermons Relation A related resource Richard A. Rhem - An Archive of Sermons, Prayers, Talks and Stories: http://richardrhem.org/ Language A language of the resource eng Type The nature or genre of the resource Sound Text Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource audio/mp3 application/pdf Description An account of the resource A sermon given by Richard A. Rhem (Dick) on March 5, 2000 entitled "The World Is Not Enough", as part of the series "The God Question", on the occasion of Epiphany IX, at Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI. Scripture references: Eclesiastes 2:11, I Timothy 6:17, Luke 12:21. Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Lemmen Library and Archives All Will Be Well Consciousness Presence of God https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/9c472b8063de6e77a4030d430a9d3ff8.mp3 d339015cd9bb01bbcca586c68dee222c Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Richard A. Rhem Collection Description An account of the resource Text and sound recordings of the sermons, prayers, services, and articles of Richard Rhem, pastor emeritus of Christ Community Church in Spring Lake, Michigan, where he served for 37 years. Starting in the mid 1980's, Rhem began to question some of the traditional Christian dogma that he had been espousing from the pulpit. That questioning was a first step in a long and interesting spiritual journey, one that he openly shared with his congregation. His journey is important, in part because it is reflective of the questioning, the yearnings, and the gradual revision of beliefs that many persons in this part of the century have experienced and continue to experience. It is important also because of the affirming and inclusive way his questioning was done and his thinking evolved. His sermons and other written and spoken materials together document the steps in his journey as it took a turn in 1985, yet continued to revolve around the framework and liturgies of the Christian calendar. Subject The topic of the resource Clergy--Michigan Reformed Church in America Christ Community Church (Spring Lake, Mich.) Religion Interfaith worship Sermons Sound Recordings Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Rhem, Richard A. Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/514">Richard A. Rhem papers (KII-01)</a> Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives. Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Kaufman Interfaith Institute Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Language A language of the resource English Type The nature or genre of the resource Sound Text Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context KII-01 Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant 1981-2014 Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource audio/mp3 text/pdf Sound A resource primarily intended to be heard. Examples include a music playback file format, an audio compact disc, and recorded speech or sounds. Event Ash Wednesday Series What Wouldn't Jesus Do? Scripture Text Daniel 6:10-13, 19-24, John 12:20-28 Location The location of the interview Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context KII-01_RA-0-20000308 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2000-03-08 Title A name given to the resource If I Should Wake Before I Die Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Richard A. Rhem Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Subject The topic of the resource Clergy--Michigan Reformed Church in America Christ Community Church (Spring Lake, Mich.) Sermons Relation A related resource Richard A. Rhem - An Archive of Sermons, Prayers, Talks and Stories: http://richardrhem.org/ Language A language of the resource eng Type The nature or genre of the resource Sound Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource audio/mp3 Description An account of the resource A sermon given by Richard A. Rhem (Dick) on March 8, 2000 entitled "If I Should Wake Before I Die", as part of the series "What Wouldn't Jesus Do? ", on the occasion of Ash Wednesday, at Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI. Scripture references: Daniel 6:10-13, 19-24, John 12:20-28. Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Lemmen Library and Archives https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/2c97312d3c94f4a18b8a0c23ebb8ed42.mp3 437e55c83555090b336ce2336f236545 https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/7fa23d603720880c9b1fbf874142100b.pdf d584d78702604f6b327f28d2cdf0ecc0 PDF Text Text The Face and the Flesh From the series: The Human Face of God Text: John 6:51, II Corinthians 4:6 Richard A. Rhem Christ Community Church Spring Lake, Michigan March 12, 2000 Transcription of the spoken sermon It is Lent again. If you have been with me over the years, you know that Lent is a very difficult season for me for preaching. It is when I contemplate the meaning of this season that I realize how costly and difficult it is to be a Christian - if not impossible. It is in Lent that I am faced with the fact that Jesus took up the cause of the poor and the oppressed, representing in his life and message the underdog in a world of imperial power and economic crisis. He envisioned and embodied an egalitarian world marked by justice, fairness and compassion. And we who hear his word today are the powerful and the affluent for whom his mission and message is a threat. One Lenten season I kept hammering away on the theme, "He died the way he died because he lived the way he lived," and I still believe that to be the case. As Dom Crossan reminded us a year ago on the first Sunday in Lent, the bread and the cup mean the separation of body and blood and that points to violent death; Jesus did not die in bed of natural causes. Neither did Gandhi or Martin Luther King or Archbishop Romero or thousands of others whose names we know not, but who stood in solidarity with the marginalized masses - the powerless and voiceless ones. And so, here we are again at this uncomfortable moment of the Christian calendar and what will we do with it? I have a good friend who says often to me as we speak of the human situation, the world events, the social scene, "Save your own soul." His advice is not intended as a counsel of withdrawal from the world, of narcissistic self-absorption, or disengagement from life. But, he means, I think, that one needs to be centered in oneself with a bit of detachment from which to understand oneself, the human condition, and the Spirit that is ever seeking to break through and become embodied in the human, in one's own life and in the life of the world. © Grand Valley State University   �The Face and the Flesh Richard A. Rhem Page 2   Lent is a season for that - a time to think, to seek to understand, "Who am I? What is my life? To what vision and values am I committed?" Lent is a time to cultivate awareness - to become aware in moments of reflection. "What am I doing? Why am I doing it?' In a word, to face what truth I'm living, or whose truth I'm living. This is easier to recommend than to accomplish because we are constantly bombarded with propaganda that would shape us and mold our actions and attitudes. I've noticed a television ad recently during the evening news. It advocates trade with China, which has become a sharp political issue. I'm not even aware of the motivation of all the players, those who want to trade and those who do not. But, I was struck by how this ad debases those who are against granting the most favored nation status to China. According to the ad, they are Isolationists. So, write your congress persons; tell them to vote for trade with China. If you catch the small print on the screen that appears momentarily, the ad is sponsored by the Business Round Table. Of course, the Business Round Table wants trade with China and they can make a good case for such trade being the best assurance of peaceful co-existence with the world's most populace and future most powerful nation. But, simply to write off those who oppose trade with China as Isolationists is to fail to recognize that there are some who are opposed because of human rights violations, who want to tie trade with movement toward a more democratic society. I am not saying anything about the issue itself - trade with China. I am only using this as an illustration of the twisted nature of the messages that pommel our minds and battle for our attention. Having just gone through the Primary battles, we have only begun to experience the distorted rhetoric of an election year - The object is not to carry on civil and humane dialogue; it is to get elected – and I find it all very disheartening. What to do - not disengagement, flight, cynicism or despair. But, let me suggest that it is wise and well to save one's own soul, cultivate a bit of detachment and then from a state of awareness engage where one can for the vision and values one holds. What I am suggesting for our Lenten journey is that we cultivate the intentional life - that we determine to live with intentionality, and not just any intentionality, but an intentionality shaped by the way, the life, the truth of Jesus. Old hat, you say. Admittedly so. Yet, still compelling and radical. Translation will be necessary; one cannot don a bathrobe and sandals and flee to Galilee's hills. It is here one must determine how Jesus' way can be embodied by the likes of us. We will not all settle on the same mode of incarnating the way of Jesus in our world of 2000, marked by power, affluence, politics and global © Grand Valley State University �The Face and the Flesh Richard A. Rhem Page 3   community. But, we can be about seeking to understand our world and what the implications are of following the way of Jesus. That is my hope for our Lenten experience. At the beginning, let me say a word about the theme - The human face of God. I get the phrase from Paul who claimed that God, the Creator, who is the source and ground of all being (Paul's language - The God who said "Let light shine out of darkness") has given us knowledge of the Mystery of God in the face of Jesus Christ. It was Paul's claim, it is the claim of the Christian faith that in the face of Jesus we get a clue to the nature of God. For the Jew, God is found in the Torah. Or the Muslim, Allah is revealed in the Quran, and so forth. I do not claim that God can be found only in Jesus, but I do claim, as a Christian, that God is revealed in the face of Jesus. In this Lenten journey, quite unremarkably, we will seek to understand ourselves in the Presence of God, of ultimate Truth and Reality, and our window to God is the face of Jesus. I could have created this meditation all out of the Gospel of John. Let me visit four moments in that Gospel. It begins with God's intention. That is how I would translate the Greek word logos, translated commonly as "word." 1:1 In the beginning was the Intention. 1:14 The Intention became flesh (human). 6:51 My flesh I give for the life of the world. 20:21 As the Father has sent me, so send I you. In the face of Jesus we see God - God has intention. The intention became embodied in the human. The intention embodied in this world is crucified, but cannot finally be killed. You are now the embodiment of the intention. Do you follow me? This, I think, is what at least John's Gospel was saying. What was the eternal intention of the Mystery we call God was, after billions of years of cosmic evolving embodied in the human - in our faith tradition, the human, Jesus of Nazareth. The Divine Intention that came to expression in Jesus of Nazareth was killed by the power arrangements of the world. But, what came to expression in that one's flesh cannot finally be killed; it is now embodied in his Body, that is, in you. That means that God's intention for the world is now in the human and the world will only ever realize God's intention if we manage to realize that intention in our lives and in world community. © Grand Valley State University �The Face and the Flesh Richard A. Rhem Page 4   God will not intervene to rescue us. God is not pacing the floor somewhere beyond our world now and again dipping into the chaos of our human reality to fix things, nor is God awaiting the time to intervene and bring the whole drama to a close as was the apocalyptic hope of many in the time of Jesus and many still today. The Divine Intention has been expressed in the human and its full realization awaits the transformation of human consciousness. I cannot make that happen, nor can you. But, as I become aware of the cosmic drama, the emerging wonder of the natural world, the dawning of consciousness and the human story, I can at least begin to understand what is going on, aware of that process of billions of years and limitless space which has spawned the human which can be understood as the incarnation of the Divine Intention. Contemplating the human face of Jesus, I see the meaning of the human as the image of God and I know the fullest, richest realization of my humanity is to express the Divine image, to embody the Divine Intention. When I see that I am saved, my soul is saved, I know who I am and that for which I want to live. I won't be bullied by political rhetoric or seduced by Madison Avenue or deceived by special interests. I will live out of my own center with detachment, awareness, doing what I can when and where I can to make the world safe for children and a place where the elderly can live with dignity and die in peace. I see it all in the Face which reflects the Divine Intention which has become flesh offered up for the life of the world. There were some who heard the claim and turned away. Jesus said to his disciples, "Do you also wish to go away?" Peter answered, "Lord, to whom can we go? You have the words of eternal life." Indeed. That is why I take bread and cup in a ritual action in community. I thereby seek the presence of the Spirit through whom the Divine Intention was made flesh and I stand in solidarity with him offering my flesh for the life of the world. © Grand Valley State University � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Richard A. Rhem Collection Description An account of the resource Text and sound recordings of the sermons, prayers, services, and articles of Richard Rhem, pastor emeritus of Christ Community Church in Spring Lake, Michigan, where he served for 37 years. Starting in the mid 1980's, Rhem began to question some of the traditional Christian dogma that he had been espousing from the pulpit. That questioning was a first step in a long and interesting spiritual journey, one that he openly shared with his congregation. His journey is important, in part because it is reflective of the questioning, the yearnings, and the gradual revision of beliefs that many persons in this part of the century have experienced and continue to experience. It is important also because of the affirming and inclusive way his questioning was done and his thinking evolved. His sermons and other written and spoken materials together document the steps in his journey as it took a turn in 1985, yet continued to revolve around the framework and liturgies of the Christian calendar. Subject The topic of the resource Clergy--Michigan Reformed Church in America Christ Community Church (Spring Lake, Mich.) Religion Interfaith worship Sermons Sound Recordings Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Rhem, Richard A. Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/514">Richard A. Rhem papers (KII-01)</a> Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives. Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Kaufman Interfaith Institute Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Language A language of the resource English Type The nature or genre of the resource Sound Text Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context KII-01 Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant 1981-2014 Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource audio/mp3 text/pdf Sound A resource primarily intended to be heard. Examples include a music playback file format, an audio compact disc, and recorded speech or sounds. Event Lent I Series The Human Face of God Scripture Text John 6:51, II Corinthians 4:6 Location The location of the interview Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context KII-01_RA-0-20000312 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2000-03-12 Title A name given to the resource The Face and the Flesh Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Richard A. Rhem Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Subject The topic of the resource Clergy--Michigan Reformed Church in America Christ Community Church (Spring Lake, Mich.) Sermons Relation A related resource Richard A. Rhem - An Archive of Sermons, Prayers, Talks and Stories: http://richardrhem.org/ Language A language of the resource eng Type The nature or genre of the resource Sound Text Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource audio/mp3 application/pdf Description An account of the resource A sermon given by Richard A. Rhem (Dick) on March 12, 2000 entitled "The Face and the Flesh", as part of the series "The Human Face of God", on the occasion of Lent I, at Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI. Scripture references: John 6:51, II Corinthians 4:6. Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Lemmen Library and Archives Awareness Divine Intention Lent Way of Jesus https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/0bee87b8d4ec331d7591858de1e4ebb4.mp3 4071cb3457a7a4719519e556d5e99248 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Richard A. Rhem Collection Description An account of the resource Text and sound recordings of the sermons, prayers, services, and articles of Richard Rhem, pastor emeritus of Christ Community Church in Spring Lake, Michigan, where he served for 37 years. Starting in the mid 1980's, Rhem began to question some of the traditional Christian dogma that he had been espousing from the pulpit. That questioning was a first step in a long and interesting spiritual journey, one that he openly shared with his congregation. His journey is important, in part because it is reflective of the questioning, the yearnings, and the gradual revision of beliefs that many persons in this part of the century have experienced and continue to experience. It is important also because of the affirming and inclusive way his questioning was done and his thinking evolved. His sermons and other written and spoken materials together document the steps in his journey as it took a turn in 1985, yet continued to revolve around the framework and liturgies of the Christian calendar. Subject The topic of the resource Clergy--Michigan Reformed Church in America Christ Community Church (Spring Lake, Mich.) Religion Interfaith worship Sermons Sound Recordings Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Rhem, Richard A. Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/514">Richard A. Rhem papers (KII-01)</a> Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives. Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Kaufman Interfaith Institute Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Language A language of the resource English Type The nature or genre of the resource Sound Text Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context KII-01 Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant 1981-2014 Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource audio/mp3 text/pdf Sound A resource primarily intended to be heard. Examples include a music playback file format, an audio compact disc, and recorded speech or sounds. Event Midweek Lent Series What Wouldn't Jesus Do? Scripture Text Philippians 2:1-11, 1 Peter 2:11-21, Luke 1:46-55 Location The location of the interview Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context KII-01_RA-0-20000315 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2000-03-15 Title A name given to the resource The Mind of Christ: Walking in His Steps Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Richard A. Rhem Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Subject The topic of the resource Clergy--Michigan Reformed Church in America Christ Community Church (Spring Lake, Mich.) Sermons Relation A related resource Richard A. Rhem - An Archive of Sermons, Prayers, Talks and Stories: http://richardrhem.org/ Language A language of the resource eng Type The nature or genre of the resource Sound Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource audio/mp3 Description An account of the resource A sermon given by Richard A. Rhem (Dick) on March 15, 2000 entitled "The Mind of Christ: Walking in His Steps", as part of the series "What Wouldn't Jesus Do?", on the occasion of Midweek Lent, at Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI. Scripture references: Philippians 2:1-11, 1 Peter 2:11-21, Luke 1:46-55. Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Lemmen Library and Archives https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/4f6ac05e79fe568005d203ffdbd29161.mp3 86c2e7df5ad4741f16cf893f0530ce06 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Richard A. Rhem Collection Description An account of the resource Text and sound recordings of the sermons, prayers, services, and articles of Richard Rhem, pastor emeritus of Christ Community Church in Spring Lake, Michigan, where he served for 37 years. Starting in the mid 1980's, Rhem began to question some of the traditional Christian dogma that he had been espousing from the pulpit. That questioning was a first step in a long and interesting spiritual journey, one that he openly shared with his congregation. His journey is important, in part because it is reflective of the questioning, the yearnings, and the gradual revision of beliefs that many persons in this part of the century have experienced and continue to experience. It is important also because of the affirming and inclusive way his questioning was done and his thinking evolved. His sermons and other written and spoken materials together document the steps in his journey as it took a turn in 1985, yet continued to revolve around the framework and liturgies of the Christian calendar. Subject The topic of the resource Clergy--Michigan Reformed Church in America Christ Community Church (Spring Lake, Mich.) Religion Interfaith worship Sermons Sound Recordings Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Rhem, Richard A. Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/514">Richard A. Rhem papers (KII-01)</a> Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives. Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Kaufman Interfaith Institute Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Language A language of the resource English Type The nature or genre of the resource Sound Text Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context KII-01 Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant 1981-2014 Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource audio/mp3 text/pdf Sound A resource primarily intended to be heard. Examples include a music playback file format, an audio compact disc, and recorded speech or sounds. Event Midweek Lent Series What Wouldn't Jesus Do? Scripture Text Matthew 5:38-48, Luke 23:32-38 Location The location of the interview Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context KII-01_RA-0-20000322 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2000-03-22 Title A name given to the resource Grace is the Last Best Word - But Will It Work in the World? Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Richard A. Rhem Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Subject The topic of the resource Clergy--Michigan Reformed Church in America Christ Community Church (Spring Lake, Mich.) Sermons Relation A related resource Richard A. Rhem - An Archive of Sermons, Prayers, Talks and Stories: http://richardrhem.org/ Language A language of the resource eng Type The nature or genre of the resource Sound Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource audio/mp3 Description An account of the resource A sermon given by Richard A. Rhem (Dick) on March 22, 2000 entitled "Grace is the Last Best Word - But Will It Work in the World?", as part of the series "What Wouldn't Jesus Do? ", on the occasion of Midweek Lent, at Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI. Scripture references: Matthew 5:38-48, Luke 23:32-38. Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Lemmen Library and Archives https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/5cee72a8c1657378d2e1154927845729.mp3 9fdb41bd8560f68bdce9cd00c8fc188b https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/ffd6b6f8c17f45c7bd2c4424d4b9b84e.pdf d379a9143b9f0469ff3a99c059afb731 PDF Text Text Seeking Justice in a Brutal World From the series: The Human Face of God Text: Matthew 3:2 Richard A. Rhem Christ Community Church Spring Lake, Michigan March 26, 2000 Transcription of the spoken sermon The subject of the sermon, this week, "Seeking Justice in a Brutal World," is always announced a week ahead of time and it's usually put together many weeks ahead of time, but I like to discipline myself to announce it at least the week ahead of time because it sensitizes me to the things that I encounter in the course of the week. This week it was a couple of pieces on the evening news, on a couple of different evenings: one about a therapist who is working with children through art therapy, trying to get them to bring to expression the fear and the rage and the anger that they feel, children who have witnessed the murder and dismembering of a father or a mother, little tykes, and the therapist saying that, with what they have been through, they have been scarred psychically for the rest of their lives. One bright-looking little fella who is asked, "Can you ever forgive the Russian soldier who killed your mother?" simply says, "No." Think of such a world in which we live where that is a part of the puzzle. Then, on another evening, there was a piece about a Russian town. The scene opened with some old Russian gentlemen sitting on their stools on the ice, icefishing, and I think the cameraman very purposely focused on a fish that had just been caught, still flopping. One sees the fish in the death throes of the dance of death, flexing its body, striving for another breath or swallow, but obviously dying. And then the camera switched to Katja, an attractive young woman who has been driven into prostitution, something she said she would never have thought of, except that she has a two-year-old daughter for whom she must provide and there is no other way for her. You see the night scenes with her along the road with the truckers stopping, negotiating for her services. Then it switches back to the old men on the ice who talk about the young men in the town, none of whom have employment, all of whom have been driven to thievery, to drugs, to alcoholism, and the old men say, "We didn't have it very good, but we had a subsistence. These young men - they don't have any place to go." The camera pans three obsolete, old monster factories, factories that once were productive and gave the people of the town work and at least a subsistence wage, but factories now obsolete, inefficient, outmoded and outdated which have not been able to make it in the most recent revolution in Russia, the revolution to the free © Grand Valley State University   �Seeking Justice in a Brutal World Richard A. Rhem Page 2   market. And so, you have human tragedy of that sort, human beings with no way to support themselves in a situation where, generations before them, people lived and at least were able to negotiate life. But now it seems so dark and so hopeless. I watched that piece and I thought, "Dear God, it's a brutal world." There are so many people that hurt so much and so many that fall through the cracks. In literature, I dislike stream of consciousness pieces; I can never understand them, but you're getting a stream of consciousness sermon this morning, because I went from Chechnya to that Russian town to a night in Boston in the 60s when I saw "Dr. Zhivago," which remains one of my favorite films, and I saw the Czarist Russia with its obscene opulence, its wealth, and its insensitivity to the suffering peasants, the masses, and then the Revolution and the liberators who overthrew the Czarist regime and established their Socialist government. I can remember my disillusionment when I came to realize that the liberators, liberated through violence, became violent oppressors fully as deadly as the regime that they had replaced. It was kind of a coming of age for me when I realized that violence and oppression are not the prerogative of the haves nor the have-nots, but of both. Whoever happens to have power, it seems it eventuates in oppressiveness, domination and violence and human tragedy. I thought how interesting that the Socialist revolution that overthrew the Czarist regime and brought in the Socialist pattern under which those old fishing men had at least subsisted has been replaced by another revolution, one we have applauded, the revolution of the free market, with its competition which has put out of commission the whole town, creating more human tragedy and despair. Now before you budding entrepreneurs who have broken into the Russian market turn me off, and you Left bleeding-heart liberals start applauding, let me plead I'm not making a political statement, nor an economic statement. I am talking about the injustice, about the brutality of the human situation. I'd like to have you join me in trying to feel it somewhat this morning, because this isn't about the free market or about Marxism; this is about the human situation which is so marked by so much pain. That may seem a modest goal, but at least it brings me to deal with the biblical lessons this morning in a way that I never would have done growing up and in my early years. I was brought up, as I'm sure you were, with the wise adage that you never, in polite company, talk about religion or politics. And I was trained and nurtured in the understanding that religion and politics don't mix. Can you imagine my dismay and my amazement when I come to realize that the Hebrew prophets that formed the background of the Christian Gospel and the Christian Gospel whose forerunner was John the Baptist and whose incarnation was Jesus Christ and whose apostle was Paul, that that whole story arose out of political and economic situations marked by brutality and injustice? I guess if you would ask me to mark some of the most significant ways in which my understanding of the Gospel of the Christian tradition has changed, I would have to say probably as much as anything it is that understanding that what John the © Grand Valley State University �Seeking Justice in a Brutal World Richard A. Rhem Page 3   Baptist was about and what Jesus was about was social, political, economic reality that was marked by injustice and brutality, and that growing up, for me the Gospel was something that had to do with the soul, that had to do with the spirituality of life, that had largely to do with my individual relationship with God. It had to do with the way of salvation, it had to do with a way of life here and a faith commitment which would lead to heaven over there. And then I wake up to discover that what John and Jesus were about was about the concrete, earthly reality of politics and economics, about empire and about slavery, about human suffering. That amazes me and that means that I can no longer not mix religion and politics, because my religion has political and economic implications so deeply entwined because it arose out of that matrix. We live in the generation that knows more about the first century than any generation before us, since the first century itself. Through textural studies, through archeological discoveries, through cross-cultural understanding of peasant societies in the time when Rome ruled the world, we have an understanding of that social, political, economic context in which John brought his message as an apocalyptic prophet, in which Jesus pointed to the kingdom of God. And we understand today that what is going on in Russia today was going on in Galilee two thousand years ago. For twelve hundred years in the Galilee, little villages dotted the hilltops and the valleys of the Galilee, and people lived in extended communities, little villages, able to subsist, able to live. Subsistence, not surplus. They made it. They just made it. But, they made it. Twelve hundred years in the Galilee, generation after generation, cultivating a little grass, raising some livestock, they made it. And then came the day of empire, the Roman legions, followed by the Roman tax collectors and the Roman entrepreneurs. Then subsistence was not enough; there had to be surplus, when conscripted labor was necessary for the building of the public works in the new cities that were being built and where taxation got real serious, such that many were put into debt, needing to borrow which would jeopardize their future, making them even more a debtor until finally their land was foreclosed on them and they became landless and homeless and hopeless. It was happening all over the Galilee, and Perea and the environs of Jerusalem. They were an occupied state by an imperial power that ruled rather well, but rule as all empires rule - for their own aggrandizement and, therefore, the people grinding under that system knew increasingly the pain and the brutality of the human situation. They also became ripe for a messenger, a prophet. They also became ripe for a John the Baptist who, in the tradition of the Hebrew prophets of Amos and Micah and Isaiah and Jeremiah, cried out for justice, for mercy, for the righteousness of the covenant of the people of God. There was a ready audience for that kind of call and John the Baptist was a fiery prophet who was steeped in his old covenant, who was angry, full of vengeance. © Grand Valley State University �Seeking Justice in a Brutal World Richard A. Rhem Page 4   Who can blame him? He was probably one of those vengeful children of a vengeful God, but who can blame him? Who can see the injustice, the tragedies, the hurt and the pain of the human situation? Who can contemplate it for very long without feeling something inside that rises up and says, "It is wrong and it must be righted." John, reflective of so much of the thinking of his day, felt that because he knew God, the God of Israel, the God of justice, the God of righteousness - because he knew this God, he knew this God could not countenance this thing; he could not let this thing go on. He knew that, somehow or other, the God of Israel would have to make some dramatic move, some direct intervention to right the wrongs and to establish the righteous and to put down the oppressor. There were others who had different voices. There was the Qumran community, the Essenes who went out into the wilderness, fasted and prayed and waited for God to do something. They left society. There were the Zealots, the guerillas who were trying, through guerilla activity, to undercut the Roman authority. But John, a prophet in the mold of the old prophets, brought his protest publicly. He preached his message at the banks of the Jordan; he called people to be baptized for the cleansing of their sin in a ritual act and to go back into Judea and the environs of Jerusalem and to wait for God to act. John was in that Messianic mode and it has continued to crop up now and then through the centuries and we got a little taste of it even at the turn of the millennium, that mode that says God is going to act, God is going to do something. Obviously, the God of justice will intervene. The problem with messianism, the problem with that apocalyptic anticipation of the intervention of God, is that it can always be proven wrong, and for two thousand years it's been proven wrong. Every date that was set, every growing expectation to the present has been disappointed. And so, one wonders about the world; one wonders what does one do? Does one simply reconcile oneself to its brutality? Does one simply accept the fact that that's the way the human situation is and ever will be? I was thinking about Karl Marx and Lenin. They had an idea and that idea spread like wildfire around the globe, once they got it started. They had to start it with violence and they had to keep it going with violence. But, it was an idea of another kind of world. It was an idea of a classless society in which there would be no need, in which everyone according to his ability would offer and everyone would receive, according to his need. It was Utopian and Utopian comes from utopus, no place. This has never existed; it's no place. This idea has no rootage, no home. It’s never landed; it has never become concrete. But the idea that Marx and Lenin had did catch fire. It did involve millions of people in that movement which was strong enough for us to get pretty worried about it. It was strong enough for us to engage in a Cold War over those decades. Thank God we had more muscle, more dollars, more technology, we were able to out-spend them and finally spend them into bankruptcy and we proved that that political, © Grand Valley State University �Seeking Justice in a Brutal World Richard A. Rhem Page 5   economic system doesn't work and the free market economy triumphs. But, what fascinates me is that there was an idea, an idea that took hold. We say we can't do anything. I feel that way. And yet, there was an idea and a vision and, By Golly, it swept the earth. So then, I wonder. Of course it was flawed, of course it was violent, of course it became oppressive, of course it was as brutal as that which it replaced. I'm not arguing, making no apology for it. I'm only saying look what happened when an idea captivated the masses. I wonder if anybody has an idea. You know, the Gospel that we proclaim was a Gospel that came out of John the Baptist and Jesus Christ and it was a word to those who were oppressed, to those who were out of sync, to those who were out of luck, to those who didn't have a prayer. That's where the Gospel was born. Now we wear the Roman toga; now we call the shots. What would happen if we had an idea? What would happen if someone had an idea as to how to change the landscape of the world and it could be implemented, because you need power to implement, but without violence? What if somebody here got an idea about how things could be other than they are so there wouldn't be so much brutality, so there wouldn't be so much hurt, so many people would not fall through the cracks, so our structures and our systems, political and economic and social, didn't exclude so many and didn't leave so many driven to all kinds of self-destructive behavior? I don't know, but I wonder about it because I am convinced that what John was about and what Jesus was about was about the concrete reality of everyday life. The kingdom of heaven was to come on earth; it was to be the kingdom of God; it was to be the way human society was organized if God were calling the shots. John was waiting for God to come, but God doesn't come, God doesn't intervene, God isn't going to intervene. It's no use waiting for God; God is waiting for us. I think we give up. I think we just think that's the way it is and we better keep our powder dry and we'd better stay strong, and if anybody comes around with a cockeyed idea that would too radically alter the whole situation, there's always the CIA. I don't know, friends, but I think a lot about it. I know in the meantime there is Micah 6:8, "What does the Lord require but that you do justly, love mercy, walk humbly with your God." And I know here and there, we can do a good thing, and I think all of us here would and we do, but you know, it's the Big Picture, it's the way everything is organized and structured. It's systemic. We could all sell all and give all and we wouldn't alter, ultimately, anything. It's the Big Picture. It's the idea. We'll have to see next week if Jesus had an idea. We'll continue. In the meantime, let it disturb you a bit. © Grand Valley State University � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Richard A. Rhem Collection Description An account of the resource Text and sound recordings of the sermons, prayers, services, and articles of Richard Rhem, pastor emeritus of Christ Community Church in Spring Lake, Michigan, where he served for 37 years. Starting in the mid 1980's, Rhem began to question some of the traditional Christian dogma that he had been espousing from the pulpit. That questioning was a first step in a long and interesting spiritual journey, one that he openly shared with his congregation. His journey is important, in part because it is reflective of the questioning, the yearnings, and the gradual revision of beliefs that many persons in this part of the century have experienced and continue to experience. It is important also because of the affirming and inclusive way his questioning was done and his thinking evolved. His sermons and other written and spoken materials together document the steps in his journey as it took a turn in 1985, yet continued to revolve around the framework and liturgies of the Christian calendar. Subject The topic of the resource Clergy--Michigan Reformed Church in America Christ Community Church (Spring Lake, Mich.) Religion Interfaith worship Sermons Sound Recordings Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Rhem, Richard A. Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/514">Richard A. Rhem papers (KII-01)</a> Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives. Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Kaufman Interfaith Institute Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Language A language of the resource English Type The nature or genre of the resource Sound Text Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context KII-01 Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant 1981-2014 Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource audio/mp3 text/pdf Sound A resource primarily intended to be heard. Examples include a music playback file format, an audio compact disc, and recorded speech or sounds. Event Lent III Series The Human Face of God Scripture Text Matthew 3:2 Location The location of the interview Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context KII-01_RA-0-20000326 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2000-03-26 Title A name given to the resource Seeking Justice in a Brutal World Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Richard A. Rhem Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Subject The topic of the resource Clergy--Michigan Reformed Church in America Christ Community Church (Spring Lake, Mich.) Sermons Relation A related resource Richard A. Rhem - An Archive of Sermons, Prayers, Talks and Stories: http://richardrhem.org/ Language A language of the resource eng Type The nature or genre of the resource Sound Text Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource audio/mp3 application/pdf Description An account of the resource A sermon given by Richard A. Rhem (Dick) on March 26, 2000 entitled "Seeking Justice in a Brutal World", as part of the series "The Human Face of God", on the occasion of Lent III, at Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI. Scripture references: Matthew 3:2. Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Lemmen Library and Archives Awareness Justice Sermon on the Mount https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/759e51153c5d31970bc3de9bbb24a99e.mp3 033339ac5248e6f48137f82205350ec9 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Richard A. Rhem Collection Description An account of the resource Text and sound recordings of the sermons, prayers, services, and articles of Richard Rhem, pastor emeritus of Christ Community Church in Spring Lake, Michigan, where he served for 37 years. Starting in the mid 1980's, Rhem began to question some of the traditional Christian dogma that he had been espousing from the pulpit. That questioning was a first step in a long and interesting spiritual journey, one that he openly shared with his congregation. His journey is important, in part because it is reflective of the questioning, the yearnings, and the gradual revision of beliefs that many persons in this part of the century have experienced and continue to experience. It is important also because of the affirming and inclusive way his questioning was done and his thinking evolved. His sermons and other written and spoken materials together document the steps in his journey as it took a turn in 1985, yet continued to revolve around the framework and liturgies of the Christian calendar. Subject The topic of the resource Clergy--Michigan Reformed Church in America Christ Community Church (Spring Lake, Mich.) Religion Interfaith worship Sermons Sound Recordings Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Rhem, Richard A. Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/514">Richard A. Rhem papers (KII-01)</a> Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives. Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Kaufman Interfaith Institute Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Language A language of the resource English Type The nature or genre of the resource Sound Text Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context KII-01 Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant 1981-2014 Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource audio/mp3 text/pdf Sound A resource primarily intended to be heard. Examples include a music playback file format, an audio compact disc, and recorded speech or sounds. Event Midweek Lent Series What Wouldn't Jesus Do? Scripture Text James 4:11-12, Matthew 7:1-5 Location The location of the interview Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context KII-01_RA-0-20000329 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2000-03-29 Title A name given to the resource Judging and Condemning is Not Our Prerogative Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Richard A. Rhem Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Subject The topic of the resource Clergy--Michigan Reformed Church in America Christ Community Church (Spring Lake, Mich.) Sermons Relation A related resource Richard A. Rhem - An Archive of Sermons, Prayers, Talks and Stories: http://richardrhem.org/ Language A language of the resource eng Type The nature or genre of the resource Sound Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource audio/mp3 Description An account of the resource A sermon given by Richard A. Rhem (Dick) on March 29, 2000 entitled "Judging and Condemning is Not Our Prerogative", as part of the series "What Wouldn't Jesus Do? ", on the occasion of Midweek Lent, at Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI. Scripture references: James 4:11-12, Matthew 7:1-5. Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Lemmen Library and Archives https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/693cd033e76448c469ebcd75733f25e6.mp3 fbae997aa6fe3ed67f64785e5cc83e17 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Richard A. Rhem Collection Description An account of the resource Text and sound recordings of the sermons, prayers, services, and articles of Richard Rhem, pastor emeritus of Christ Community Church in Spring Lake, Michigan, where he served for 37 years. Starting in the mid 1980's, Rhem began to question some of the traditional Christian dogma that he had been espousing from the pulpit. That questioning was a first step in a long and interesting spiritual journey, one that he openly shared with his congregation. His journey is important, in part because it is reflective of the questioning, the yearnings, and the gradual revision of beliefs that many persons in this part of the century have experienced and continue to experience. It is important also because of the affirming and inclusive way his questioning was done and his thinking evolved. His sermons and other written and spoken materials together document the steps in his journey as it took a turn in 1985, yet continued to revolve around the framework and liturgies of the Christian calendar. Subject The topic of the resource Clergy--Michigan Reformed Church in America Christ Community Church (Spring Lake, Mich.) Religion Interfaith worship Sermons Sound Recordings Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Rhem, Richard A. Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/514">Richard A. Rhem papers (KII-01)</a> Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives. Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Kaufman Interfaith Institute Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Language A language of the resource English Type The nature or genre of the resource Sound Text Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context KII-01 Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant 1981-2014 Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource audio/mp3 text/pdf Sound A resource primarily intended to be heard. Examples include a music playback file format, an audio compact disc, and recorded speech or sounds. Event Lent IV Series The Human Face of God Scripture Text Matthew 4:12, 17 Location The location of the interview Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI References Richard Horsley, Neil Silberman. The Message and the Kingdom: How Jesus and Paul Ignited a Revolution and Transformed the Ancient World, 1997. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context KII-01_RA-0-20000402 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2000-04-02 Title A name given to the resource The Message of the Kingdom: An Alternative Society Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Richard A. Rhem Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Subject The topic of the resource Clergy--Michigan Reformed Church in America Christ Community Church (Spring Lake, Mich.) Sermons Relation A related resource Richard A. Rhem - An Archive of Sermons, Prayers, Talks and Stories: http://richardrhem.org/ Language A language of the resource eng Type The nature or genre of the resource Sound Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource audio/mp3 Description An account of the resource A sermon given by Richard A. Rhem (Dick) on April 2, 2000 entitled "The Message of the Kingdom: An Alternative Society", as part of the series "The Human Face of God", on the occasion of Lent IV, at Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI. Scripture references: Matthew 4:12, 17. Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Lemmen Library and Archives Historical Jesus Jesus Movement Justice https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/433b783cd6821d0b0adb40fd91a1c9d4.mp3 2a2e49a1c1f0d95c4ce61d23ef7bc561 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Richard A. Rhem Collection Description An account of the resource Text and sound recordings of the sermons, prayers, services, and articles of Richard Rhem, pastor emeritus of Christ Community Church in Spring Lake, Michigan, where he served for 37 years. Starting in the mid 1980's, Rhem began to question some of the traditional Christian dogma that he had been espousing from the pulpit. That questioning was a first step in a long and interesting spiritual journey, one that he openly shared with his congregation. His journey is important, in part because it is reflective of the questioning, the yearnings, and the gradual revision of beliefs that many persons in this part of the century have experienced and continue to experience. It is important also because of the affirming and inclusive way his questioning was done and his thinking evolved. His sermons and other written and spoken materials together document the steps in his journey as it took a turn in 1985, yet continued to revolve around the framework and liturgies of the Christian calendar. Subject The topic of the resource Clergy--Michigan Reformed Church in America Christ Community Church (Spring Lake, Mich.) Religion Interfaith worship Sermons Sound Recordings Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Rhem, Richard A. Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/514">Richard A. Rhem papers (KII-01)</a> Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives. Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Kaufman Interfaith Institute Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Language A language of the resource English Type The nature or genre of the resource Sound Text Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context KII-01 Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant 1981-2014 Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource audio/mp3 text/pdf Sound A resource primarily intended to be heard. Examples include a music playback file format, an audio compact disc, and recorded speech or sounds. Event Midweek Lent Series What Wouldn't Jesus Do? Scripture Text Isaiah 57:14-15, Luke 9:46-48 Location The location of the interview Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context KII-01_RA-0-20000405 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2000-04-05 Title A name given to the resource Proud Ambition Comes Up Empty Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Richard A. Rhem Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Subject The topic of the resource Clergy--Michigan Reformed Church in America Christ Community Church (Spring Lake, Mich.) Sermons Relation A related resource Richard A. Rhem - An Archive of Sermons, Prayers, Talks and Stories: http://richardrhem.org/ Language A language of the resource eng Type The nature or genre of the resource Sound Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource audio/mp3 Description An account of the resource A sermon given by Richard A. Rhem (Dick) on April 5, 2000 entitled "Proud Ambition Comes Up Empty", as part of the series "What Wouldn't Jesus Do? ", on the occasion of Midweek Lent, at Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI. Scripture references: Isaiah 57:14-15, Luke 9:46-48. Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Lemmen Library and Archives https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/6d42da0ec8f7c3c48242fbbbbf609915.mp3 64f61d63258d82e993ef3ea257990410 https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/0c05ccaa292e88b5959491c7c1806dd2.pdf b6ef9a756768be9a2d3125cc87716e60 PDF Text Text Harmless Religion: Loss of Soul From the series: The Human Face of God Text: Amos 5:21, 24; 7:13; John 11:48 Richard A. Rhem Christ Community Church Spring Lake, Michigan Lent V, April 9, 2000 Transcription of the spoken sermon The Lenten focus on the human face of God is a focus that intends for us to concentrate on the life of Jesus. Because of what has been done archeologically and in cross-cultural studies of peasant societies of the Roman Mediterranean basin, we know more about the historical circumstances and the social context of the life of Jesus than any generation since that time. The more we learn about the circumstances which Jesus addressed, the more it becomes evident that Jesus dealt in a very concrete way with the contemporary issues of his day and that the kingdom of God of which he spoke was a very down-to-earth kingdom, having to do with social relationships and economic matters and political concerns, that Jesus was in the tradition of the great Hebrew prophets, that Jesus addressed the power structures of his day, structures of religion and politics, and that, in that confrontation with established authority, he was publically executed because he was deemed to be a dangerous, prophetic figure. The fact that I concentrate on the life of Jesus in the Lenten season or anytime, you have to know, is a surprise to me, and I do it with a guilty conscience, because I was raised on the conventional wisdom that religion and politics don't mix. I do it with a guilty conscience because it was drilled into me that you don't drag politics into the pulpit. I do it with a bit of foreboding because I hear those voices of my past that say, "Don't read the newspaper to me; tell me about God." That's the way it was said. I believed it. And so, when I deal as I deal in the season of Lent with the life of Jesus, and when I am forced to conclude that he died the way he died because he lived the way he lived, then I am doing about a 180-degree turn from where I came into this business, and one doesn't do that without having the old tapes continue to play. I am telling you things that in an earlier time in my ministry I would have written off as the social gospel of the late 19th century and early 20th century, the social gospel against which I was warned as the gospel of the old liberalism that saw Jesus as a model and an example. I present to you today, according to the best understanding I have, Jesus' dying a martyr's death which, at one time, I would have scorned. He wasn't a martyr; he was, rather, the Lamb of God destined before the foundations of the world to die for the sin of the world. The music we have just heard sung by the choir is lovely, © Grand Valley State University   �Harmless Religion: Loss of Soul Richard A. Rhem Page 2   but the theology is poor, and that's where I was. To come to where I have come is quite a radical adjustment. But the adjustment is necessary if I would be honest with you and would be honest to God, because I believe with all my being that Jesus is a heroic, magnificent figure who was filled with the Spirit of God, who was the embodiment of God in human flesh, who incarnated that which was truest of the depths of the heart of God. Being that, he faced what was wrong with this world and, in the name of the God of justice, the God of Israel and on behalf of the people, he confronted the established powers in the hopes that there might be transformation. Jesus, as John before him and Paul after him, I believe, expected that God would intervene very soon, and would right what was wrong. But, in the meantime, he called his people to live as what they were - the children of God, with dignity and honor, even in their oppressed state, and he confronted the powers of religion and politics in the name of the people, in the name of God calling for justice. The adjustment that I have made is an adjustment that I can illustrate to you by pointing you to the most familiar of Christian creeds, the Apostles’ Creed. You remember it? "I believe in God, the Father Almighty, maker of heaven and earth, and in Jesus Christ his only Son our Lord, who was conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, dead, and buried..." Do you note anything? Do you realize, in the light of what I have been saying, that we jumped from his birth to his death? "Born of the virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate." The whole of the life of Jesus lies in that comma. The Church in its creedal tradition and in most of the centuries of its existence has made of Jesus a cultic salvation figure and has failed to face the truth of his life. The most familiar creed of the church dumps it all into one comma, without a word. I do believe that Jesus was in the tradition of the Hebrew prophets, the tradition of the writing prophets of the 8th century, those great Hebrew prophets, the first of whom was Amos. Date him around 750-760 B.C.E. in the Northern Kingdom of Israel. Jeroboam is king. The country has prospered and expanded; it is affluent and all is well. But there is no compassion for the poor, there is no justice in the structures of society, and Amos is that prophet in the name of God who confronts the establishment with the conditions of the people of God that betray what God is all about. Amos was the first example of that which was true of Israel and made it unique. Do you remember Israel is born on the Exodus; they are brought into the Promised Land; they live for a period of time under the Judges. When there is a crisis, the Spirit of God falls on someone, a Samson or a Gideon, and they rise up and lead the people of God through the crisis and to peace, and then they go back and farm again. God is the king. Israel, in that situation, has a theocracy. But, then the greatest Judge of them all, Samuel, is the minister of the day and the people say, "We're tired of being this way. We want to be like other nations. We © Grand Valley State University �Harmless Religion: Loss of Soul Richard A. Rhem Page 3   want a king." Samuel says, "If you get a king, the king will tax you, he will take your sons and daughters, there will be conscripted labor. Think twice before you do it." They say, "We want a king." Saul is anointed, followed by David, followed by Solomon, and, with the rise of the monarchy in Israel, there arose the prophetic voice. The unique thing about Israel, and I suspect the thing that has kept Israel alive through all these millennia, is the fact that established power was always addressed by a prophet in the name of God. Religion and politics could never get away with it in Israel without hearing the word of the Lord. Amos was the first of the writing prophets who confronted that Northern Kingdom in the time of its prosperity and its social disregard and said, "You are going to die." I don't think Amos knew in terms of some predicted prophesy what was going to happen in the next few decades, but, as a matter of fact, in 722 the Assyrian empire came in and removed the ten tribes of the Northern Kingdom, and we still speak today of the Ten Lost Tribes of Israel. They were removed from their land, never to return. Amos said to them it is because there is no justice in the land. He said, "You have religion a-plenty. But, I despise your feasts; I can't stand your music. Your religion stinks." Well, he didn't quite say that. He said, "Your religion is an offense in the nostrils of God." Amos was tough. Amos was passionate, and Amos confronted the royal court, only to have the royal high priest come out and confront him. So, in the 7th chapter we have that encounter between Amaziah the priest and Amos the prophet, and Amaziah appeals to the king and says, "This man is saying things that cannot be tolerated. This language is unacceptable in the royal court. This is the royal temple; go back to Judah and earn your bread there." Amos said, “Look, I'm not a prophet getting paid for this thing, a professional religionist. I'm no prophet; I'm no prophet's son, but when I was following the flock, the word of God came to me and said, 'You go prophesy to my people Israel. ‘Now, therefore, hear the word of the Lord.’” That was old Amos. We have some familiar phrases from Amos. "Woe to you who are at ease in Zion. Prepare to meet your God." And the text of the morning, "Let justice flow down as mighty waters and righteousness as a mighty stream. Enough of your religious feasts and festivals and all of your liturgical finery. Give me justice. Don't think you can worship me and at the same time be living in a situation of injustice and oppression." So, the priest says to Amos, "Go away." But, as always happens, royal power coopts religion and, even though the monarchy grew and over against it the prophetic voice, the monarchy knew it couldn't make it without the religious blessing, and so it cultivated the priesthood that would offer it sacrifices, would pray at its presidential inaugurations, would bless the beans at the PTA, the kind of harmless religion that is ceremonial, that functions in order to give a gloss to © Grand Valley State University �Harmless Religion: Loss of Soul Richard A. Rhem Page 4   everything and not allow any examination of what is really going on in a society. That kind of religion is paid for by the royal court, and Amaziah was happy to be in the service of the king. But, Amos said, "Hear the word of the Lord," and thus we have the classic confrontation between the prophet and the priest, between religion and politics. In the gospel story that we read a moment ago, Jesus had performed the miracle of the raising of Lazarus and, contrary to Matthew, Mark and Luke, who make the cleansing of the temple the catalytic event, for John it is the raising of Lazarus which causes the people to stand in awe and believe, so they call a council meeting and ask, "What in the world are we going to do? If this goes on, the whole world will follow him and then the Romans will come in and destroy our holy place and our nation." Caiphus, sophisticated, suave, wily, a man about town with a lot of experience, says, "You don't know anything at all. It's better that this one man die than that the nation perish." (And John, being High Priest that year, spoke as a prophet, pointing to Jesus' death as the means of bringing in all the scattered children of God.) But, where would you have been? What side of the table if you had been at that Sanhedrin meeting? I mean, it's not such a simple matter; these were not bad people. In the situation in which Jesus emerged, Roman imperial power held the trump card, but the Sadducee and priestly families were the authority that was the buffer between Rome and the people. They were the ones that could keep the natives quiet and, as far as Rome was concerned, Rome knew how to rule. They had the priestly establishment that would keep the natives quiet while they exploited the countryside. Wonderful. If you were a Sadducee in authority, you were a high priestly person and playing ball with Rome, you would get along pretty well in Jerusalem. Yet, their fears were not unfounded. What they feared actually happened four decades later, because some fanatical, hysterical prophet came to town and aroused the populace and there was some kind of demonstration that brought in, finally, the Roman legions that decimated the town and leveled the temple. And these were responsible people. What would you have done, for example, if you had sat on the Board of Elders at that Jerusalem Council meeting? Where would you have been? Might you have said, "Look, what he's saying is in the tradition of our greatest prophets." Would you have argued on Jesus' behalf that he was reaching back into that old covenant history? Would you have been supportive of him and say, "He's non-violent. He's appealing to the people, to their dignity, to their sense of being the children of God. He's in the line of the prophets. What he is talking about is what we ought to be concerned about as those who are in authority for this people." Is that how you would have argued? Or, would you have said, "Caiphas, the old fox. That's it. I don't like to do it. I think essentially the guy himself is rather harmless, but he's got to go." © Grand Valley State University �Harmless Religion: Loss of Soul Richard A. Rhem Page 5   It's not such an easy thing. If you bear responsibility for the well-being of society or church, government, community, if that's your responsibility, then you do have to be careful about any traveling salesman that comes to town who would cause a disruption, that would be bad for the body politic. It's not so easy. But, you see, practicality and expediency demanded that Jesus be publically executed. Why? Because he was a danger to civil life and public order. Because he dared confront the religious, political authority with the devastating condition of the people of his day, and just like Amos in the name of the God of justice, Jesus stood for all of that which reflected the intention of God. The beat goes on. This kind of thing doesn't stop. There is a video about the life of Dietrich Bonhoeffer which I saw a year or two ago, a video which had footage I had never seen before, the leaders of the German evangelical church giving the Heil Hitler salute, embracing Hitler, affirming Hitler and Hitler them. That's a familiar story to us, but it's rather shocking again when you actually see it happen. And to the credit of Karl Barth and Dietrich Bonhoeffer and Pastor Neimueller and others, they formed the Confessing Church that came out of the evangelical church and, of course, Dietrich Bonhoeffer died. He gave his life because that's what happens to people who confront religious, political cooptation. We've just gone through again the anniversary of the assassination of Martin Luther King. The assassin, James Earl Ray, has died, but finally through the King family's own pursuits we know now that, what we've suspected all along, there was government complicity, because we don't publically execute people today. We get them assassinated. We have our own way of doing it, and Martin Luther King was a disruptive prophet. It was in the Civil Rights of the 60s which King was leading which was the beginning of my own coming to consciousness of the fact that the church had to be about more than the salvation of souls. I didn't march; I wasn't that awake. But I should have. It was about that time, as well, that Martin Luther King began to speak out on the Vietnam War. There were many protestors, particularly the young. And there were some voices in the church. The church was beginning to see that the very real world needs to be addressed, in the name of God, in the name of Jesus Christ. Martin Luther King was slain, assassinated. I remember in the wake of the sixties where I was starting to come awake, and having gone to Europe, came back here in 1971 and a few of us went out to the Institute for Successful Church Leadership in Garden Grove, California. April of 1971. Part of that Institute was a conversation with Bob Schuler in his office, and there were some seminarians there and there was a young professor of New Testament that didn't have enough to know that you don't needle the host. So, now this is 1971, in the wake of all of this "stuff," and he was pushing Bob Schuler because Bob had made some statements about "No controversy in the pulpit." That was something that was a hallmark of Bob Schuler's ministry. He got a little © Grand Valley State University �Harmless Religion: Loss of Soul Richard A. Rhem Page 6   agitated and he condemned those preachers who got out of their pulpits and took up picket signs and walked the streets. I had a little bit of concern for the young professor, and I intervened and said to Bob, "Well, what about Jesus?" He said, after a long pause, "I'm only 44; I don't have all the answers." Word for word quote. It’s not easy to make decisions, draw lines, know when to speak, where to speak, when to stand up. It’s not easy to know how to balance social serenity with public protest. But, I have to tell you, Jesus died because of the way he lived, because he embodied and incarnated the justice of which Amos spoke. Don't you suspect that I would rather come here week after week and be your priest rather than, from time to time, being a prophetic voice? Don't you think it would be more comfortable for me to inspire, encourage, comfort? Don't you think that Jesus as a salvation figure is harmless in terms of any contemporary issue that you are facing in your business or political life? Isn't the fact that the church is swept along with this worship as entertainment which is so noisy and blaring - isn't that because it's reflecting the culture that is noisy and blaring? You can't even go to a ball game without the action stopping and the organ starting. You turn on the TV and the commercials blast you out of the room. You go to a movie, and the previews knock you out of the seat. The culture is noisy; there's no time to be silent and to think, to ponder. Music, worship as entertainment. It's harmless. Or, worship, religion as therapeutic, helping you to be well-adjusted so that survive the pressures and tensions that you face in the world or the community life, giving you wisdom by which to be well-adjusted, well-attuned, to get by without ruffling feathers and causing trouble. Don't you think it would easier for me to peddle here week after week harmless religion, to use Dom Crossan's phrase, Religion as Prozac? There's a lot of it around. It's a lot easier to be a priest, and it's easy for me to be a priest because I love you and I love to pray with you and I love to be there with you and feel your pain and share your darkness. That's very natural for me. It's very natural for all of the people on this team. But, sometimes it's also liberating and freeing to gain one's own soul and to be honest to God. © Grand Valley State University � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Richard A. Rhem Collection Description An account of the resource Text and sound recordings of the sermons, prayers, services, and articles of Richard Rhem, pastor emeritus of Christ Community Church in Spring Lake, Michigan, where he served for 37 years. Starting in the mid 1980's, Rhem began to question some of the traditional Christian dogma that he had been espousing from the pulpit. That questioning was a first step in a long and interesting spiritual journey, one that he openly shared with his congregation. His journey is important, in part because it is reflective of the questioning, the yearnings, and the gradual revision of beliefs that many persons in this part of the century have experienced and continue to experience. It is important also because of the affirming and inclusive way his questioning was done and his thinking evolved. His sermons and other written and spoken materials together document the steps in his journey as it took a turn in 1985, yet continued to revolve around the framework and liturgies of the Christian calendar. Subject The topic of the resource Clergy--Michigan Reformed Church in America Christ Community Church (Spring Lake, Mich.) Religion Interfaith worship Sermons Sound Recordings Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Rhem, Richard A. Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/514">Richard A. Rhem papers (KII-01)</a> Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives. Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Kaufman Interfaith Institute Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Language A language of the resource English Type The nature or genre of the resource Sound Text Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context KII-01 Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant 1981-2014 Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource audio/mp3 text/pdf Sound A resource primarily intended to be heard. Examples include a music playback file format, an audio compact disc, and recorded speech or sounds. Event Lent V Series The Human Face of God Scripture Text Amos 5:21, 24, 7:13, John 11:48 Location The location of the interview Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context KII-01_RA-0-20000409 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2000-04-09 Title A name given to the resource Harmless Religion: Loss of Soul Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Richard A. Rhem Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Subject The topic of the resource Clergy--Michigan Reformed Church in America Christ Community Church (Spring Lake, Mich.) Sermons Relation A related resource Richard A. Rhem - An Archive of Sermons, Prayers, Talks and Stories: http://richardrhem.org/ Language A language of the resource eng Type The nature or genre of the resource Sound Text Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource audio/mp3 application/pdf Description An account of the resource A sermon given by Richard A. Rhem (Dick) on April 9, 2000 entitled "Harmless Religion: Loss of Soul", as part of the series "The Human Face of God", on the occasion of Lent V, at Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI. Scripture references: Amos 5:21, 24, 7:13, John 11:48. Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Lemmen Library and Archives Historical Jesus Prophetic Voice Transformation; Justice https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/eada650bceddb281e964444b4b8c6c6f.mp3 99695311691d4d9f5aa397559a533f05 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Richard A. Rhem Collection Description An account of the resource Text and sound recordings of the sermons, prayers, services, and articles of Richard Rhem, pastor emeritus of Christ Community Church in Spring Lake, Michigan, where he served for 37 years. Starting in the mid 1980's, Rhem began to question some of the traditional Christian dogma that he had been espousing from the pulpit. That questioning was a first step in a long and interesting spiritual journey, one that he openly shared with his congregation. His journey is important, in part because it is reflective of the questioning, the yearnings, and the gradual revision of beliefs that many persons in this part of the century have experienced and continue to experience. It is important also because of the affirming and inclusive way his questioning was done and his thinking evolved. His sermons and other written and spoken materials together document the steps in his journey as it took a turn in 1985, yet continued to revolve around the framework and liturgies of the Christian calendar. Subject The topic of the resource Clergy--Michigan Reformed Church in America Christ Community Church (Spring Lake, Mich.) Religion Interfaith worship Sermons Sound Recordings Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Rhem, Richard A. Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/514">Richard A. Rhem papers (KII-01)</a> Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives. Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Kaufman Interfaith Institute Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Language A language of the resource English Type The nature or genre of the resource Sound Text Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context KII-01 Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant 1981-2014 Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource audio/mp3 text/pdf Sound A resource primarily intended to be heard. Examples include a music playback file format, an audio compact disc, and recorded speech or sounds. Event Midweek Lent Series What Wouldn't Jesus Do? Location The location of the interview Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context KII-01_RA-0-20000412 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2000-04-12 Title A name given to the resource Angry Resentment Poisons the Soul Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Richard A. Rhem Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Subject The topic of the resource Clergy--Michigan Reformed Church in America Christ Community Church (Spring Lake, Mich.) Sermons Relation A related resource Richard A. Rhem - An Archive of Sermons, Prayers, Talks and Stories: http://richardrhem.org/ Language A language of the resource eng Type The nature or genre of the resource Sound Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource audio/mp3 Description An account of the resource A sermon given by Richard A. Rhem (Dick) on April 12, 2000 entitled "Angry Resentment Poisons the Soul", as part of the series "What Wouldn't Jesus Do? ", on the occasion of Midweek Lent, at Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI. Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Lemmen Library and Archives https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/52ee3c38d495ed197141897eec888655.mp3 19ee68b9059a6fade397bf54a2573e0f Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Richard A. Rhem Collection Description An account of the resource Text and sound recordings of the sermons, prayers, services, and articles of Richard Rhem, pastor emeritus of Christ Community Church in Spring Lake, Michigan, where he served for 37 years. Starting in the mid 1980's, Rhem began to question some of the traditional Christian dogma that he had been espousing from the pulpit. That questioning was a first step in a long and interesting spiritual journey, one that he openly shared with his congregation. His journey is important, in part because it is reflective of the questioning, the yearnings, and the gradual revision of beliefs that many persons in this part of the century have experienced and continue to experience. It is important also because of the affirming and inclusive way his questioning was done and his thinking evolved. His sermons and other written and spoken materials together document the steps in his journey as it took a turn in 1985, yet continued to revolve around the framework and liturgies of the Christian calendar. Subject The topic of the resource Clergy--Michigan Reformed Church in America Christ Community Church (Spring Lake, Mich.) Religion Interfaith worship Sermons Sound Recordings Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Rhem, Richard A. Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/514">Richard A. Rhem papers (KII-01)</a> Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives. Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Kaufman Interfaith Institute Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Language A language of the resource English Type The nature or genre of the resource Sound Text Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context KII-01 Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant 1981-2014 Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource audio/mp3 text/pdf Sound A resource primarily intended to be heard. Examples include a music playback file format, an audio compact disc, and recorded speech or sounds. Event Maundy Thursday Scripture Text John 13:2, 20 Location The location of the interview Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context KII-01_RA-0-20000420 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2000-04-20 Title A name given to the resource A Table of Inclusion Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Richard A. Rhem Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Subject The topic of the resource Clergy--Michigan Reformed Church in America Christ Community Church (Spring Lake, Mich.) Sermons Relation A related resource Richard A. Rhem - An Archive of Sermons, Prayers, Talks and Stories: http://richardrhem.org/ Language A language of the resource eng Type The nature or genre of the resource Sound Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource audio/mp3 Description An account of the resource A sermon given by Richard A. Rhem (Dick) on April 20, 2000 entitled "A Table of Inclusion", on the occasion of Maundy Thursday, at Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI. Scripture references: John 13:2, 20. Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Lemmen Library and Archives https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/6c6ef22c168ffec99992ab976c765285.mp3 6e3d953f4d2a3063267b496725847956 https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/b4d0ceb7ec32066d5e4a3efc13c05b48.pdf 992623983168a099772777cb7905d0d3 PDF Text Text The Truth That Will Not Die Easter Sunday Psalm 82; I Corinthians 15:12-29; Matthew 27:50-54 Richard A. Rhem Christ Community Church Spring Lake, Michigan April 23, 2000 Transcription of the spoken sermon Have you ever wondered where the idea of resurrection came from, where the thought arose? Actually, I suppose the question which is given classic form in the Hebrew drama of Job says it well: "If one die, will one live again?" That question probably arose in the very dawning beginnings of the human experience, the beginning of consciousness, self-consciousness, consciousness of myself and consciousness of another, and the beginnings of human relationship, and then one day the breath goes out of the other, the spirit leaves and there is death, and the mystery of death would eventually cause a thoughtful, human consciousness to say, "If one dies, will one live again?" What is this mystery of life and of death? But, actually, that endemic, human question has nothing to do, really, with resurrection. Resurrection finds its birth, its advent in Second Temple Judaism, the late centuries just before the birth of Jesus. Actually, the Torah, the five books of Moses, knows nothing of resurrection or deals at all with whatever there may be in life beyond this life. The common phrase is, "And he was gathered to his fathers," which I suppose was an expression of trusting at death as one had trusted God in life. But the situation of the Jewish people in Judah became severe due to the brutality of the Roman occupation and, prior to that, the persecution under the Syrian empire of Antiochus IV. Those awful experiences in the first couple of centuries before the birth of Jesus created a growing conviction that those righteous martyrs who suffered because of their faithfulness to God, who died because of their commitment to the covenant, would surely rise again. It wasn't the Greek immortality of the soul, an ongoing existence of the soul, but it was a bodily resurrection that was conceived of, and it was a bodily resurrection because in the body they had suffered, and the body had been put to death, and those experiencing that brutality, experiencing the loss of the righteous martyrs, began to speak of resurrection, a general resurrection when the righteous martyrs would come forth from the grave, bodily. What gave them the idea? The idea stems from the fact that the God of Israel is a God of justice, and in the face of persecution and suffering and the loss of these faithful ones, the question was asked: If God is just, will they not come forth © Grand Valley State University   �The Truth That Will Not Die Richard A. Rhem Page 2   again, for their life was cut short, their life was cut off? It is in that context that the idea of a bodily resurrection or the resurrection of the dead emerged. And again, it emerged not primarily because of the martyrs, but primarily because of the conception of God. Psalm 82 was read today. It is as though Israel's God holds a council of all the gods of the nations and God charges them with the failure to bring justice to the world, and God dismisses them and says, "Your time is over because you have failed to effect justice on the earth and, consequently, the very foundations of the earth are shaken." It was the Psalmist's conviction, reflecting a deep strain of Jewish faith that justice must prevail and where there is injustice, creation itself is brought into instability, and so the 82nd Psalm dismisses the gods of the nations for their failure and ends with a prayer to the God of Israel, "Come, 0 Lord, and judge the world, judge the nations, bring judgment, bring justice to bear." This was the deep conviction of Israel; it was the character of Israel's God and, consequent upon that, these righteous ones who died for their faith could not simply be left dead. There is a theme in the Hebrew Scriptures which is repeated over and over again. It is the theme of persecution and vindication. It is a very strong theme that one can trace through the Psalms and through the prophets. Persecution, vindication, with vindication taking place in this life, in this world. It was to be a vindication before the enemies. Daniel is thrown into the lions' den for his faithfulness, and God stops the mouth of the lion and saves Daniel. Queen Esther rescues her people from a conspiracy to bring them to annihilation and the adversary. The enemy is judged and brought to ruin. That theme of persecution and vindication ran strong in the Hebrew scriptures because of the conviction that God was God and God was good and God was just, and God was the living God and, consequently, God could not tolerate that kind of situation to go unmarked. There is the origin of the idea of the resurrection of the body. What will we do with it today? You found a piece of it already in Matthew's Gospel that was read. At the death of Jesus, people come out of their tombs. Now, Matthew had a little problem. He's obviously putting a couple of traditions together and it doesn't really make sense, to be honest, because they come out of the tomb at the death of Jesus but they have to sort of sneak around in the bushes until Sunday morning because they can't perceive Jesus. They show themselves at the resurrection, but they come out of the tombs at the crucifixion, and that is a reflection of this idea that's deeply written in those centuries just prior to Jesus' death, that the righteous ones would certainly be vindicated by God. But, what will we do with it? Paul assumed that with Jesus' resurrection the final, general resurrection would follow very soon. Everything seemed to hinge on that for Paul and, of course, as we know, it has not yet come 2000 years later. So, what do we do 2000 years later with this wonderful conception of the justice of God causing the vindication of the righteous dead? © Grand Valley State University �The Truth That Will Not Die Richard A. Rhem Page 3   Well, the world is a lot bigger for us than it was for the writers of the scripture. We know that we are engaged in a cosmic process of some 15 billion years. We know that we are the end products of that 15-billion year unfolding and that we live at the very fraction of the last second of that whole process. We know that we are quite amazing. We are, you know. Here we are on an Easter Sunday morning contemplating together our life, our existence, our death, and if there's anything more. Spirit has emerged and the human has become a spiritual being living in community, and what a wonder is this human existence. What a gift. What a marvel it is to encounter, here and there, the grace of life. There was a moment here last night as the Easter Vigil finished. It was rather chaotic with flowers all over the place, and there was a child barely a year old, Meika, whose mother brought her and sat her right here, on the steps of the chancel. She sat there like a little queen, with a long-stemmed tulip across her lap, and her picture was taken. I suppose that Nancy got that picture, too, and it will be on the bulletin board one of these days. A beautiful child. Have you ever stopped to wonder in the face of a child? Have you ever stopped to wonder in the face of the other in whom love dwells? Do we take time to be aware of the marvel of the human story? What are we going to do with this story that we are living and that we are experiencing? I rather think that in the Christian church what we have done with resurrection is move it from that vindication of the suffering righteous to simply life at another place and another time. I think we have lost that corporate community sense in which the justice of God was called in on behalf of those who died for their faith and we have made it our own personal excursion into some realms beyond and, in so doing, we have lost its footage. In so doing, we have lost the message that it was initially meant to convey. But, what are we going to do with it? What of Job's question, for it's your question and mine, as well: "If a man die, will he live again?" I don't think we can treat it the way the biblical writers did in terms of expecting God, somehow or another, to come in and "fix it." Could we dare hope for that? Expect that, after the Holocaust when the heavens were silent and God unmoved to action? Have we not learned in our human experience that the God of Israel is the God of justice who, in response to our question, "How long, 0 Lord, how long?"says to us, "How long, O people, how long?" Are we not called to the transformation of the world? You see, if we make resurrection just some personal excursion into the realms beyond after death, if we wait somehow or other for God to move the gears of the universe, then another Holocaust could occur. But, if we could only get a sense that the justice of God that came to expression in that Hebrew prophet Jesus is about world transformation and that God looks for us to change our world, then we could live fully. We could be totally engaged; we could love wildly, and we could give ourselves for the transformation of our world and, living fully, trusting © Grand Valley State University �The Truth That Will Not Die Richard A. Rhem Page 4   God, we could die well after a life full of meaning, full of significant engagement. And then, who is to say -after fifteen billion years - are we the climax of it all? Would that not be an arrogant assertion? Fifteen billion years and here we are, in the wonder of life, in the amazement of grace, in the beauty of human community. But, who knows? Who knows what yet may be? Who would say that this is all there is? In the light of the God of Jesus, the Jesus who embodied the God of justice, the God of Israel, I can live with meaning and significance now, and die in peace, full of hope, full of trust... waiting for just one more surprise. © Grand Valley State University � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Richard A. Rhem Collection Description An account of the resource Text and sound recordings of the sermons, prayers, services, and articles of Richard Rhem, pastor emeritus of Christ Community Church in Spring Lake, Michigan, where he served for 37 years. Starting in the mid 1980's, Rhem began to question some of the traditional Christian dogma that he had been espousing from the pulpit. That questioning was a first step in a long and interesting spiritual journey, one that he openly shared with his congregation. His journey is important, in part because it is reflective of the questioning, the yearnings, and the gradual revision of beliefs that many persons in this part of the century have experienced and continue to experience. It is important also because of the affirming and inclusive way his questioning was done and his thinking evolved. His sermons and other written and spoken materials together document the steps in his journey as it took a turn in 1985, yet continued to revolve around the framework and liturgies of the Christian calendar. Subject The topic of the resource Clergy--Michigan Reformed Church in America Christ Community Church (Spring Lake, Mich.) Religion Interfaith worship Sermons Sound Recordings Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Rhem, Richard A. Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/514">Richard A. Rhem papers (KII-01)</a> Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives. Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Kaufman Interfaith Institute Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Language A language of the resource English Type The nature or genre of the resource Sound Text Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context KII-01 Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant 1981-2014 Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource audio/mp3 text/pdf Sound A resource primarily intended to be heard. Examples include a music playback file format, an audio compact disc, and recorded speech or sounds. Event Easter Sunday Scripture Text Psalm 82, I Corinthians 15:12-29, Matthew 27:50-54 Location The location of the interview Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context KII-01_RA-0-20000423 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2000-04-23 Title A name given to the resource The Truth That Will Not Die Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Richard A. Rhem Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Subject The topic of the resource Clergy--Michigan Reformed Church in America Christ Community Church (Spring Lake, Mich.) Sermons Relation A related resource Richard A. Rhem - An Archive of Sermons, Prayers, Talks and Stories: http://richardrhem.org/ Language A language of the resource eng Type The nature or genre of the resource Sound Text Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource audio/mp3 application/pdf Description An account of the resource A sermon given by Richard A. Rhem (Dick) on April 23, 2000 entitled "The Truth That Will Not Die", on the occasion of Easter Sunday, at Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI. Scripture references: Psalm 82, I Corinthians 15:12-29, Matthew 27:50-54. Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Lemmen Library and Archives Easter Justice Resurrection Spirit Transformation https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/4cbaa1aa74bb0e10e45f309d4d993b60.mp3 8157d684f729cc063b4a7fa133a7ab2d https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/0cbbe6a3d86b44e18868513cedbeb6c8.pdf 0094c72fee3e0a90dc260c1c9870cdcc PDF Text Text Emmaus: Now You See Him; Now You Don’t Eastertide Luke 24:13-35 Text: Luke 24:31 Richard A. Rhem Christ Community Church Spring Lake, Michigan April 30, 2000 Transcription of the spoken sermon My name is Cleopas, not that it matters a great deal, because I didn't have anything particularly outstanding about me or any reason to be noticed in the Gospel narrative of the appearance story that was read a moment ago, but I was chosen as the example, I suppose, of that which was the experience of so many. I went to the Passover celebration; I was a part of that larger movement that was following Jesus and hoped that something would happen in Jerusalem, hoping that, somehow or other, we didn't know how, but somehow or other, God would move upon that city, would move through that man in whom we had come to trust, believe, and in whom our hopes were placed. I was there when he entered the city with acclamation. I was there when he made his bold statement in the Temple. I was proud of him, the courage, the unflinching courage with which he made his claim and pointed us to the eternal God, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. I was there when they crucified my Lord. The next day, Saturday, was the Jewish Sabbath, of course, but the day after any kind of a trauma becomes a rather formal affair. One just sort of goes through the motions. Thank God there was that ordinary Sabbath day to be observed, something one could just simply plod through without thinking, without feeling, just to get through. But, Sunday dawned like your Monday, and I was beside myself. It's as though the whole world came crashing in around my ears. Oh, there were some rumors. Some women said they'd been to the tomb and that it was empty and they had seen the vision of angels, but no one gave it much credence. Around noon, I said to a friend of mine, "You know, I have to get out of here. I'm going to burst open if I don't get away from Jerusalem and all of the memories and all of the crushed hopes and dreams. I can't stand it; I have to get out of here. Let's go to Emmaus." He said, "Fine. I'll join you." Well, you know how it is; you think you can escape; you think you can get away, leave it all behind you, but you can't, and so we found ourselves on the road, © Grand Valley State University   �Emmaus: Now You See Him; Now You Don’t Richard A. Rhem Page 2   taking apart every aspect of the week, trying to figure out what went wrong, wondering where was God and questioning our own understanding. How could we have gotten so mixed up about who this was and what might have happened through him? It was strange as we – obviously, as deeply in depression as we were as we left the city limits – sensed a presence with us, and sure enough, a stranger came up alongside us and said, "What is this conversation you're having?" Well, I couldn't believe anybody didn't know what had just happened in Jerusalem. But, he said, "No, what things?" And so, I told him, "Jesus of Nazareth, a man mighty with God, a prophet whom we hoped would set Israel free, they killed him. He's dead. And it's over. And frankly, we're just running away." And then, you know, the strangest thing happened. The stranger began to give us a Bible lesson like I've never had in my life. Oh, all the things he mentioned were familiar; I knew them from a child, all those scripture passages to which he referred. But, the case he was making is that we had totally mis-read our own scriptures, that what had just happened, after all, was something that we might have known would happen inevitably if we had understood our own scriptures. He took us into the Torah of Moses and through the Psalms and the prophets, all very familiar to me, but I was hearing it again as for the first time. It was all very familiar to me, but I never understood it before; I never put it together before; I never had a clue before. I knew the Psalmist's cry, “My God, my God, why hast Thou forsaken me?” I knew the suffering servant's story of Isaiah 53, the Lamb led to the slaughter. I knew the one who without violence does not lift up his voice in the street, but who with gentleness will never break a bruised reed or snuff out a smoldering wick. I knew all of that, but I never put it together. I guess, as a matter of fact, I was more turned on by, for example, the fiery prophet Elijah. My own expectation, I suppose, was shaped by Malachi who was looking for one to come to judge, to bring fire from heaven. And all of that other stuff in there, it's all there, but somehow or other I never identified it with Jesus. I guess I'd have to say I never recognized who he was at all. It was probably my own agenda I was projecting on to him, thinking about sitting on thrones and judging Israel and being in the top spot for the new regime. It was a Bible lesson like I'll never forget. In retrospect, my friend and I talking about it later realized that while it was going on, our hearts were burning, our hearts were palpitating. There was a blood rushing through our system; something amazing was happening to us. We approached the village and the stranger was going to go on, but we encouraged him to stay with us and we came to the evening meal, and again, a rather strange thing happened - he who was our guest became our host. He took bread, blessed it and broke it and gave it to us, and we knew it was he. Our eyes were opened; we recognized him. It was Jesus. He was with us. He was alive! Just the moment we began to feel the excitement rise and the joy break over, he was gone. Vanished from our sight. Disappeared. No trace of him. © Grand Valley State University �Emmaus: Now You See Him; Now You Don’t Richard A. Rhem Page 3   Well, you can imagine we couldn't put all that together, but one thing was certain - even though the day was far spent, we headed right back to Jerusalem and you know what we found there? Well, he'd also appeared to Simon and so there was already a party underway and they were celebrating and we said to one another, "The Lord is risen. The Lord is risen, indeed." And then, there he was again! Strange. Well, that's my story. But, you understand, the version of it that you have in the evangelist's Luke's Gospel is a version of my story some fifty years later, wellhoned. If you read Luke or, for that matter, Matthew or Mark, you'd think it was all settled on Easter Sunday afternoon. Of course, that wasn't the way it was. It was my experience, but it was my experience condensed. It was my experience as example of the experience of that numberless crowd that had put their hopes on Jesus and found their dreams smashed and who eventually came, as I came, to experience him once again alive. Because what the evangelist wanted to do was, in concise a manner as possible, tell the good news, and so, it's all in there, but it's sort of squashed together, that disappointment, that disillusionment, that sadness of heart. Oh, my God, it was awful and it didn't evaporate in a day or a week or a month or, frankly, for a year. We pretty much scattered after that traumatic crucifixion, back to Galilee, into the Judean countryside, sad of heart, with crushed hopes and broken dreams, wondering if there was any meaning to anything, wondering if one could believe anything anymore, wondering if one ever could put one's trust in someone or something, wondering if the noblest ideas and ideals of the human family would amount to anything, ideals of freedom and love and justice, whether grace and mercy, whether any of that would make any difference in the long run. Of course, you don't have an experience as we had with Jesus, even through the trauma of the crucifixion, without continuing to reflect on it, to think about it, and that Bible lesson that he gave us, of course, points to the fact that that is exactly what we did. We went back to our scriptures and we scoured them for some clue as to what in the world we had just experienced, and we did find the Psalm, "My God, my God, why has Thou forsaken me?" we did find the Lamb led to the slaughter, we did find all of those pointers that represent the graciousness of God in humility. As we did, we began to share with one another, and as we came together, we told Jesus stories and as we told Jesus stories and as we remembered, now and again, here and there, it was like he was really there. And, of course, for him in the days of his flesh, when he was with us, the meal was always the high point and everybody was welcome and he would take the bread and bless it and break it and give it to us. I remember the first time I gathered with a few friends as we had been talking about our hopes, our dreams, our disillusionments, and our sadness, and someone took the bread, it was like Jesus was there. It was as though his presence was as tangible as the presence of the © Grand Valley State University �Emmaus: Now You See Him; Now You Don’t Richard A. Rhem Page 4   one next to me, and we knew, in that community, breaking bread together, that he was alive. And so, as we began to understand with new eyes, as we looked at old, familiar scriptures and suddenly saw something we'd never seen before, hope began to rise in us and we began more and more to experience the wonder of that presence that was full of grace. And then, we came to the most amazing discovery of all and it was simply this - that Jesus wasn't about Jesus at all. Jesus was about God. That's why he never pointed to himself. That's why he never put himself forward. That's why he was marked by such humility, such gracefulness. That's why he was like one who refused to be the broker of the grace of God but, rather, said God is accessible to you all and grace is for you all. That's why he never set up shop and hung up his shingle because he wasn't about himself. He was about God. He was a God-presence. God was embodied somehow or other in that one, and when we were with him, we sensed the presence of God, and now the amazing thing was that he was dead and we experienced him alive, really just as before. We couldn't reach out and touch him as once we did, but he was there. Was it his spirit? Was it God's Spirit? I don't know. But, this I know - this we came to discover, that Jesus wasn't about Jesus. Jesus was about God and the fact that Jesus was no longer in the flesh was not at all any handicap for our experience of God as we experienced it when he was in the flesh. Can you sense what I am trying to say? I don't know how to say it any differently than that. If s like he wasn't there, but he was there. But, not being there, whatever we experienced when he was there, was the same, just as real. When we looked one another in the eye, when we held the one we loved, when we gathered in community, breaking bread, our eyes would be opened and we would know the presence of God. So, you see, I guess what I want to say to you is, maybe if you could, you would have liked to have been there. But, to have been there then in the days of his flesh would be no advantage to where you are now, because, as a matter of fact, he was the mediator of that mystery of life, that ultimate ground of all being, that creative spirit, that source of all, that guide of all, that goal of all. He simply was the presence of that One living God, whom death can never destroy, and he embodied forgiveness and love and justice and peace which all of the cruelty and violence and ignorance in the world can never put to death. So, you see, that's what the evangelists were trying to tell you when they honed the experience of the whole community over decades. They called it my story, Cleopas, and it was my story, but it wasn't really my story as though it happened just like that. Oh, there was real history there. That's why 2000 years later you're still struggling with it, but I have to admit that I am amazed and somewhat amused at how much you struggle to figure out what really happened. I want to tell you - we couldn't figure out what really happened. But, it was the presence. It was the God-presence. It was the embodiment of grace and community. It was © Grand Valley State University �Emmaus: Now You See Him; Now You Don’t Richard A. Rhem Page 5   the deep assurance that when the powers of darkness had done their worst, light burst forth and the last word was not sadness, but joy, not a broken heart, but a burning heart, not death, but life. © Grand Valley State University � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Richard A. Rhem Collection Description An account of the resource Text and sound recordings of the sermons, prayers, services, and articles of Richard Rhem, pastor emeritus of Christ Community Church in Spring Lake, Michigan, where he served for 37 years. Starting in the mid 1980's, Rhem began to question some of the traditional Christian dogma that he had been espousing from the pulpit. That questioning was a first step in a long and interesting spiritual journey, one that he openly shared with his congregation. His journey is important, in part because it is reflective of the questioning, the yearnings, and the gradual revision of beliefs that many persons in this part of the century have experienced and continue to experience. It is important also because of the affirming and inclusive way his questioning was done and his thinking evolved. His sermons and other written and spoken materials together document the steps in his journey as it took a turn in 1985, yet continued to revolve around the framework and liturgies of the Christian calendar. Subject The topic of the resource Clergy--Michigan Reformed Church in America Christ Community Church (Spring Lake, Mich.) Religion Interfaith worship Sermons Sound Recordings Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Rhem, Richard A. Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/514">Richard A. Rhem papers (KII-01)</a> Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives. Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Kaufman Interfaith Institute Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Language A language of the resource English Type The nature or genre of the resource Sound Text Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context KII-01 Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant 1981-2014 Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource audio/mp3 text/pdf Sound A resource primarily intended to be heard. Examples include a music playback file format, an audio compact disc, and recorded speech or sounds. Event Eastertide II Scripture Text Luke 24:31 Location The location of the interview Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context KII-01_RA-0-20000430 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2000-04-30 Title A name given to the resource Emmaus: Now You See Him, Now You Don't Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Richard A. Rhem Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Subject The topic of the resource Clergy--Michigan Reformed Church in America Christ Community Church (Spring Lake, Mich.) Sermons Relation A related resource Richard A. Rhem - An Archive of Sermons, Prayers, Talks and Stories: http://richardrhem.org/ Language A language of the resource eng Type The nature or genre of the resource Sound Text Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource audio/mp3 application/pdf Description An account of the resource A sermon given by Richard A. Rhem (Dick) on April 30, 2000 entitled "Emmaus: Now You See Him, Now You Don't", on the occasion of Eastertide II, at Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI. Scripture references: Luke 24:31. Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Lemmen Library and Archives Epiphany Humility Jesus Presence of God