802 24 26018 https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/1007ab87214d3a4b8978ca2520db88fe.pdf e3511f546e3243f70b11cb76dc36aec4 PDF Text Text Is Christianity Dying? From the series: Tough Questions; No Easy Answers Scripture: Habakkuk 1:1-5; 3:17-19; Luke 3:1-9; 19:37-38 Richard A. Rhem Christ Community Church Spring Lake, Michigan August 10, 1997 Transcription of the spoken sermon Is Christianity dying? That is a tough question and there is no easy answer. Let me acknowledge at the outset that no one can answer that question with certainty. Is Christianity in trouble? Yes. If that is challenged by pointing out that it is in trouble in Europe and the West in general, but flourishing in Africa and some other regions, I would respond by saying that the same secularizing tendencies and advance of scientific knowledge that have put it in peril in the West will have to be dealt with wherever the Church extends itself. I suspect Christianity as an institutionalized religion is dying in the form in which we have known it. But, perhaps the question, "Is Christianity Dying?’ is not the best way to formulate the question. It would be better to ask as does Charles Davis in the book he entitled What Is Living, What Is Dead in Christianity Today? And I even prefer a further sharpening of the question: "What can Christianity become for us?" That is a crucial question and that is the really critical matter: What can this 200year-old religious tradition, through which and in which we have been formed, become for us? To become a significant shaper of our lives and an ongoing, dynamic faith tradition, Christianity must undergo a major creative transformation. Continuing on its present course in fundamentalist form, or even in strongly orthodox or timidly mainline expression, Christianity will not continue. Let’s probe this question and as we do, I will do as I have been driven to do throughout this series - I will focus on the phenomenon of religion because, obviously, Christianity is a religion and to examine it, we must be clear about the nature of religion. © Grand Valley State University   �Is Christianity Dying? Richard A. Rhem Page 2   Lest you forget, I say again; religion is a construct of the human mind. We create religions as human beings. A religion is a humanly constructed symbol system that provides an orientation for our lives, supplying us with a map for negotiating life’s passages, offering us an interpretation of culture, history, human action and the transcendent Mystery of our existence. Feuerbach in the 19th century saw religion as a human invention arising out of the human situation of need and threat. In Feuerbach’s understanding, God was simply a human projection of one’s own idealized self. We have recognized the genius of Feuerbach’s analysis of religion, but we have demurred at one critical point; we have claimed that the creation of religion on the part of humankind is the consequence of a prior address from beyond or from our depths, an address that puts us in question, that calls forth our response in the form of religious faith, devotion and practice. Religious faith or awe or wonder or fear is response to an experience of some Reality. Charles Davis writes, The reality experienced in faith does not manifest itself as an object. It reveals itself as the term of a feeling response but remains hidden from us or unknown inasmuch as it does not appear to consciousness as an apprehensible object. ... feelings rest upon a oneness between the subject and what is felt.... Feelings are responses springing from what we are. They are responses of our being to reality as we meet it. Our feeling responses depend upon what we have become as beings, what we are as persons. Feelings are the resonance of reality upon human subjects, the arousal of our personal being through union with a reality present to us. In the case of religious feeling, the response of our spiritual effectivity to transcendent reality precedes knowledge and continues without any direct knowledge of a kind that would make the term of that response a known object. The reality that draws us where our own being falls off into nothingness, the reality that gives a sense of basic fulfillment at the center of our emptiness, remains outside our intellectual grasp. (pp. 9-10) Feuerbach’s claim that religion is a merely human activity with no referent beyond the human subject remains an unproven and unprovable assertion. The same is true for the claim I make that faith is response to that which encounters us, to the Mystery that meets us, but can never be grasped because it remains hidden. This is the watershed; the great Divide. But the claims are beyond verification; each of us must decide if we believe we are addressed by Someone, Something beyond us, or, conjuring up a fiction. © Grand Valley State University �Is Christianity Dying? Richard A. Rhem Page 3   To conclude the latter is the end of religion as a viable, meaningful human activity; to conclude the former sees the variety of religions and religious beliefs and practices as modes of response to a Reality beyond us, although present to us. And that is our claim. That being the case, we can see Christianity as a human creation in response to the Mystery as manifested in Jesus of Nazareth. In sum: we affirm the Mystery we term God and we affirm the nature of that Mystery as defined in Jesus, the concrete, human, historical expression of the Mystery. Well, perhaps you breathe a sigh of relief; Christianity is then a genuine article, a faith response to the Mystery of Reality, to God. And that is true enough, except it is not the only religious response to the Mystery; religion is a universal phenomenon of humankind. Are we prepared to say that our response in the Christian tradition is the only response that reveals the Mystery and mediates a saving, healing communion? That’s one question; but there is a second: Has the tradition faithfully and adequately responded in light of the ongoing drama of creation and human development? Let’s deal with the second question first and let us be reminded of the temptation to which all religion in institutional form is subject, the temptation to freeze a given form and absolutize it, denying the dynamic movement of history and human development, and thus denying the imperative that the religious symbol system remain open to re-symbolization, to fresh expression and new forms. I chose the scripture lessons with this tendency of religious institutions to absolutize themselves in mind. A late seventh century B.C.E. prophet in Judah surveyed the moral and spiritual life of his people and found it wanting. Habakkuk, in the prophetic book that bears his name, cries out to the God of Israel, O Lord, how long shall I cry for help, and you will not listen? Or cry to you, "Violence!" and you will not save? In a word, the prophet cries out to God to do something to turn the nation from its spiritual decay. The writing goes on to record the Lord’s response - the work becomes a dialogue between God and the prophet. God’s response: © Grand Valley State University �Is Christianity Dying? Richard A. Rhem Page 4   ... a work is being done in your days that you would not believe if you were told. We learn that Judah is indeed in for judgment and that to be inflicted by the great and growing power of Babylon. Thus Habakkuk has his answer: God is doing something, but now the prophet has a larger problem. How can the God of Israel utilize a pagan power to bring judgment on God’s chosen people? Judah had strayed from God’s ways and the prophet sought God’s movement to judge and through judgment bring grace. But Babylon or, as they are called in the text, the Chaldeans? No way! That was too much. Israel was God’s chosen; Judah was God’s special people. Habakkuk simply could not conceive of God raising up a foreign power against God’s own. That attitude was always present in the tradition of Israel and always challenged by Israel’s own prophetic voice. It is such an attitude that was attached by John the Baptism who called the Jewish people to repentance on the banks of the Jordan River outside Jerusalem. It was the first century C.E., a time of apocalyptic expectations, a time of great ferment and expectation of some dramatic in-breaking of God ringing down the curtain of history. John the Baptist, like Habakkuk before him, was a fiery preacher of judgment calling God’s people to repent and prepare to meet their God. But the party line of the religious establishment resented such radical preaching and the exposing of their spiritual and moral apathy. Were they not God’s elect, immune to God’s purging action? No, claims John the Baptist. Do not begin to say to yourselves, "We have Abraham as our ancestor;" for I tell you, God is able from these stones to raise up children to Abraham. Even now the ax is lying at the root of the trees... Luke 3:8-9 Jesus, too, ran headlong into the religious establishment, the guardians of the institutional forms and traditions of Israel. Luke tells us of the Palm Sunday procession to Jerusalem. The disciples are praising God with joy and no doubt displaying a festive holiday spirit. The Pharisees tell Jesus to make them cease their celebration, to which Jesus responds, ... if these were silent, the stones would shout out. And Luke tells us, Jesus came over the crest of the hill and saw Jerusalem in full view and he wept. He wept for what he saw as the inevitable horror that would befall the city because of the mind-set, the spiritual blindness he had encountered in the Temple establishment, which was also the center of political power. © Grand Valley State University �Is Christianity Dying? Richard A. Rhem Page 5   If you, even you, had only recognized on this day the things that make for peace! But now they are hidden from your eyes. ... you did not recognize the time of your visitation from God. ...Luke 19:41-44 What is my point? Simply this: Religion is a human construction in response to an address from beyond, an encounter with the Mystery of Reality that becomes present in the consciousness of humankind. All religious response is not the same, offering equal clarity or illumination, resulting in equal fruitfulness in human lives. Some responses are the result of penetrating insight, the Gift of the Spirit. Some have less of beauty and elevating capacity, but no religion is absolute; none is without human limitation and distortion. And none is absolutely essential for the unfolding of the Mystery of the cosmic drama. Let me expand on that for a moment. I raise the question, "Is Christianity Dying?" in this message. I would never have conceived of such a question when I arrived here in 1960, nor when I returned in 1971. To contemplate the demise of Christianity would have been beyond the boundaries of my thinking. Jesus was God’s supreme and last word; Christianity the one true religion, the result not of human construction, but totally of God’s revealing. History was moving toward an End at which point Jesus Christ would appear on earth and bring in the Kingdom of God. It never occurred to me that such simplistic thinking was one more instance of Habakkuk’s horror at the thought of Babylon breaking Judah, or John’s opponents who said, "Hey, we have Abraham as our father," or the religious establishment who refused God’s visitation in Jesus. Neither was I at all aware of the uncritical arrogance of such a position; o The arrogance of assuming God’s ways were synonymous with the human religious response of my tradition; o The arrogance of assuming no other human religious response could be the consequence of a genuine encounter with God; o The arrogance of assuming God’s ultimate purposes could not be accomplished apart from my religious system. It just never occurred to me. In spite of the prophetic core of the Hebrew Scriptures and the ministry of Jesus in his own conflict with the established religious structure, I failed to see that I had made an idol of my own tradition and absolutized it, as though God had created it rather than recognizing it as a human creation of response. © Grand Valley State University �Is Christianity Dying? Richard A. Rhem Page 6   That it is a human response, a human construct does not mean that it is not response to authentic encounter, that the encounter has not yielded genuine insight into the nature of the Mystery as gracious, nor that the structured response does not mediate healing grace. All of that, I believe, is true of our Christian faith tradition; all of that has indeed been the fruit of Christianity. But, it is not the only tradition; it is not alone the true glimpse of the Truth. Earlier I raised two questions: Has Christianity faithfully and adequately responded to the Light of the ongoing drama of Creation and human development, and is it the only response that is genuine response to the Mystery? To the second question, I answer "No." To the first "Yes" and "No." Yes, Christianity has been a faithful response mediating true insight and grace, but "No," in the sense that it has become frozen, absolutized itself and failed to continue to remain open to new knowledge requiring new symbols bearing fresh understanding of the Mystery that is God, the cosmic process, the meaning of human existence and the wonder of it all. Unless Christianity undergoes creative transformation, it will die. In a recent interview in The Christian Century, a Yale professor of the philosophy of religion speaks of the failure of Christianity any longer to provide the integration of all other elements of life. Louis Dupré contends, ... religion must in some way integrate the profane and the sacred. Obviously, Christianity no longer plays an integrating role in the life of modern societies. Certainly for most people in the West, especially in Western Europe, it has lost its creative, formative power. Christianity has become simply one element of civilization among many others, and by no means the most important. In the past religious integration was handed down by a tradition. But that tradition itself has lost its authority in the eyes of our contemporaries, including most believers. (July 16-23, 1997, p. 655) Dupré sketches a historical perspective much as we have been attempting in this series. Why, he was asked, is it especially difficult to be Christian in our time? To that question, he responds, Culture as a whole has become secular in a way that it has never been before. One may plausibly argue that the 18th century was the first nonChristian century. Most leading thinkers and artists, even if they were not opposed to Christianity, ceased to take their inspiration from it: secularization became dominant. Still, even at that time, Western culture was so penetrated by Christian values and ideas that one might mistake entire passages of Voltaire or Diderot as having been written by believing Christians. Eighteenth-century culture was still steeped in a tradition that had been Christian since its beginning, and it was extremely difficult for these thinkers to free themselves from a language saturated with religion. © Grand Valley State University �Is Christianity Dying? Richard A. Rhem Page 7   The 19th century was different. It was an epoch marked by a virulent antitheistic campaign to clean the culture slate of all Christian traces. Yet these attacks were the work of an elite; culture at large retained distinct remnants of its Christian roots. Even today ties still exist between Christianity and culture in Europe and more so in the U.S.. But on a more fundamental level, the West appears to have said its definitive farewell to a Christian culture. Little of the old hostility remains. Our secular colleagues are happy to recognize the debt our civilization owes to the Christian faith to the extent that the faith, having been absorbed by culture itself, has become simply another cultural artifact. Christianity has become an historical factor subservient to a secular culture rather than functioning as the creative power it once was. The new attitude of benign atheism was, I think, prepared in the late 19th and early 20th centuries by the three most prominent secularizers of the time, Marx, Freud and Nietzche. The interviewer then asks: Why single them out? How did they differ from the earlier atheists you mention? For Marx, Freud and Nietzche, the idea of forcibly eradicating religion had become unnecessary. Religion for them was a passing symptom that was rapidly vanishing by itself. Already Marx had moved beyond the idea of atheism as a mere assertion of the unreality of God. For Marx, concentrating on atheism distracts us from the positive task of liberating humanity from social oppression. Lenin’s active atheism, in which he used the state to try to destroy religion, is actually a fallback to earlier attitudes about religion. Freud admitted that no one can be forced not to believe. But as rational thought shows nothing in favor of religion and everything against it, to persist in a faith because no argument can decisively refute it is for Freud the sign of a lazy mind. Nietzche preached a spiritual gospel, a new religion without God, beyond Christianity and atheism, that could still learn much from the old faiths. Moving further in that direction, contemporary secular culture, especially in its communications media, shows a surprising openness toward religion. But little suggests that this interest surpasses the purely horizontal cultural level. Culture itself has become the real religion of our time, and it has absorbed all other religion as a subordinate part of itself. It even offers some of the emotional benefits of religion, without exacting the high price faith demands. We have all become atheists, not in the hostile, antireligious sense of an earlier age, but in the sense that God no longer matters absolutely in our closed world, if God matters at all. © Grand Valley State University �Is Christianity Dying? Richard A. Rhem Page 8   Further along in the interview, Dupré suggested what I believe will be essential if Christianity is to be renewed and find new and vital expression. He had spoken of the necessity of individual spiritual renewal and then the statement was made, Your view of the spiritual life seems to encourage interfaith encounter. He responded, In our age we have come to understand our faith within the context of the aspirations, desires and needs expressed in so many forms since the beginning of the human race. We have learned to respect these many ways of humankind’s longing for God in the light of our own faith. Some Christians have been inspired to integrate pious attitudes and meditative practices derived from other faiths within their own, without betraying Christianity’s unique identity. In doing so they are following ancient examples. Christians have received so much from the Hebrew mother faith of which they are no longer aware. Also from the fourth century on, Greek fathers generously borrowed Neoplatonic speculation to an extent that, via Gregory of Nyssa, Dionysius and Maximum Confessor, late Greek piety has shaped the very nature of Christian mysticism. Why should we then not be allowed, as even the desert fathers were, to borrow meditative exercises that centuries of pre-Christian practice have left us? In fact, here also the analogy of faith urges us to see the existence of other religions in the light of God’s providence. Buddhist silence may help the Christian in deepening insight into the mystery of the Trinity where the Father is the silent source of the eternal Word. And how could God’s omnipresence in Vedantic Hinduism not remind the Christian of the Spirit, qui replevit orbem terrarum—who fills the entire world? Such analogies cannot be fortuitous to the Christian mind, and we do well to heed them as signs of a divine Providence that, with loving care, rules not only Christians but all humans. It would be wrong, however, to regard these analogies as justifying a syncretistic relativism that entitles each person to compose his or her own religious collage. This attitude, all too common today, shows a lack of respect not only for one’s own faith but also for those faiths one so casually dismantles for spare parts. It is yet another manifestation of that radical anthropocentrism, the main enemy of sincere religion, that tempts believers to bring the language of transcendence down to the level of purely human wants and choice. Without detracting from the providential nature of other faiths, Christians cannot ignore the fact that this same Providence has led them to a faith that is not a "choice" but, for those chosen to it, an absolute summons. To relativize faith is, I think, to subvert its fundamentally divine character. Here I think Dupré points to that which we have begun to experience - © Grand Valley State University �Is Christianity Dying? Richard A. Rhem Page 9   that encounter with other genuine faith traditions not only leads us to a new respect for the breadth of response to the Mystery in the broad spectrum of religious traditions, but also deepens us in our own faith tradition and enhances our own spiritual experience, enriching it and authenticating it as indeed revelatory and the mediator of grace. What we are recognizing is the distinction between faith as response to the address of God, the Mystery of our existence, and the structure of beliefs that are formulated in response to that revelatory encounter. Such a formulation of beliefs is the human construction of a religious tradition. The encounter is initiated from the other side. Religion is the consequence, a human activity of reflection and the attempt to give some shape to the experience of the Mystery. In the words of Charles Davis, The absoluteness of faith is the absoluteness of total demand and total response in an experience of unrestricted love in relation to hidden transcendence or mystery. Faith is the drive toward transcendence, the thrust of human beings out of and beyond themselves, out of and beyond all the limited orders and human certainties under which they live, in an attempt to open themselves to the totality of existence and reach unlimited reality and ultimate value. It is a total response to the felt reality of a total demand. That absoluteness of faith should not be confused with a certitude of belief. (p. 67) Faith, Davis points out, gives assurance of a lived relationship, not absolute intellectual certitude. The human construction of religion takes the form of concepts and propositions. These cannot give absolute certitude; they are human constructs, not to be identified with the Divine. They are pointers, gropings, partial, limited, in a word - human. As David claims, Faith has a paradoxical character. It is a presence that is at the same time an absence, because no positive experience can lay hold of the transcendent. At the heart of faith is a negative experience, an experience that seems like a non-experience, because it is the breakdown of every finite experience, of all our concepts, images and feelings. Faith follows a narrow path between idolatry on the one side and nihilism on the other. Much religion is idolatrous inasmuch as it absolutizes some finite experience or expression. When faith is not idolatrous, it is difficult to distinguish from nihilism, because the presence it mediates is as transcendence, an absence on the human level, its plentitude is a void or emptiness of finite reality and meaning, its love co-exists with a sense of abandonment. What distinguishes the negative experience of faith from the unfaith of nihilism is precisely the refusal of closure, the willingness to accept a world without boundaries, even though on the cognitive level that © Grand Valley State University �Is Christianity Dying? Richard A. Rhem Page10   demands the surrender of a stable truth, a fixed center, a final meaning of our religious texts and of our human existence. (p. 76) Is Christianity dying? In its present form, unless it undergoes creative transformation, "Yes." But, God is not dead; the Mystery continues to breathe through the whole cosmic process, enlivening all that exists, beckoning us toward fuller spiritual life. And the concretization of the Mystery in the humanness of Jesus, in which our faith tradition finds its center, still challenges us to humane existence lived in the Presence of God. This is the amazing possibility to which this incredible moment in our life together calls us; this is the opportunity of a lifetime. We are cut loose, set free, not to separate ourselves from our spiritual heritage, but to open ourselves to a whole new appreciation of the encounter from beyond ourselves, calling us beyond every limited understanding and formulation to wonders not yet dreamed of. Thus, Christianity will not die, but live, transformed, standing in continuity with the heritage of faith we have entered into, continuing to provide us with insight, meaning and confident assurance. Its authentication will be its capacity to connect with our ongoing human experience. No longer will authoritarian claims, whether of tradition, Church, or Bible, be submitted to. That is not to deny the reality of divine revelation; it is simply to recognize in Davis’ words, that The appeal to revelation belongs to a culture in which the important truths concerning human life and society are handed down by teachers having authority and are proclaimed for acceptance as sacred. Such a culture no longer exists for us. Post Enlightenment, the appeal is rather to critical rationality and that presupposes an open community of discourse in which all the members participate in seeking knowledge and in which any claim to acceptance must rest upon evidence and argumentation open to scrutiny and criticism by all. Biblical criticism will not be reversed. We simply know, as Davis declares, The typical biblical book does not come down to us all of a piece from some acknowledged prophetic figure or divine messenger, but as the documentary sediment of the history of a people, with originating factors too complex for disentanglement with more than changing probability. This has changed our understanding of the authority of a biblical text. It is © Grand Valley State University �Is Christianity Dying? Richard A. Rhem Page11   not that of an oracle from on high but that of an expression of the religious identity of a particular people. (p. 110) Nevertheless, what we find in the Bible are paradigms of faith, expressions of the total response of persons and a community of persons whose experience of having been addressed elicits the absoluteness of trust in the Mystery of grace. Habakkuk found himself in turmoil over the ways of God; his parochialism was shattered; he did not pretend to understand. But his encounter with the Holy One of Israel issued in that beautiful expression of trust with which his writing concludes. In a word, he says, "Strip me of everything, let disaster come; Yet I will rejoice in the Lord; I will exult in the God of my salvation. God, the Lord, is my strength; he makes my feet like the feet of a deer, and makes me tread upon the heights. Such trust is absolute, even when life is confusing and answers to our questions evade us. Such trust is enough in life, in death. References: Charles Davis, Interview, The Christian Century, July 16-23, 1997, p. 655f). © Grand Valley State University � https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/db1c0b8c4e1d51a10971cd4c559cc50d.mp3 08823404cd64b316f074b5e2c0838f97 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Richard A. Rhem Collection Description An account of the resource Text and sound recordings of the sermons, prayers, services, and articles of Richard Rhem, pastor emeritus of Christ Community Church in Spring Lake, Michigan, where he served for 37 years. Starting in the mid 1980's, Rhem began to question some of the traditional Christian dogma that he had been espousing from the pulpit. That questioning was a first step in a long and interesting spiritual journey, one that he openly shared with his congregation. His journey is important, in part because it is reflective of the questioning, the yearnings, and the gradual revision of beliefs that many persons in this part of the century have experienced and continue to experience. It is important also because of the affirming and inclusive way his questioning was done and his thinking evolved. His sermons and other written and spoken materials together document the steps in his journey as it took a turn in 1985, yet continued to revolve around the framework and liturgies of the Christian calendar. Subject The topic of the resource Clergy--Michigan Reformed Church in America Christ Community Church (Spring Lake, Mich.) Religion Interfaith worship Sermons Sound Recordings Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Rhem, Richard A. Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/514">Richard A. Rhem papers (KII-01)</a> Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives. Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Kaufman Interfaith Institute Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Language A language of the resource English Type The nature or genre of the resource Sound Text Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context KII-01 Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant 1981-2014 Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource audio/mp3 text/pdf Sound A resource primarily intended to be heard. Examples include a music playback file format, an audio compact disc, and recorded speech or sounds. Event Pentecost XII Series Tough Questions: No Easy Answers Scripture Text Habakkuk 1:1-5, 3:17-19, Luke 3:1-9, 19:37-38 Location The location of the interview Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI References Charles Davis, Interview, The Christian Century, July 16-23, 1997, p. 655f. 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-0-19970810 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1997-08-10 Title A name given to the resource Is Christianity Dying? Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Richard A. Rhem Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Subject The topic of the resource Clergy--Michigan Reformed Church in America Christ Community Church (Spring Lake, Mich.) Sermons Relation A related resource Richard A. Rhem - An Archive of Sermons, Prayers, Talks and Stories: http://richardrhem.org/ Language A language of the resource eng Type The nature or genre of the resource Text Sound Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource audio/mp3 application/pdf Description An account of the resource A sermon given by Richard A. Rhem (Dick) on August 10, 1997 entitled "Is Christianity Dying?", as part of the series "Tough Questions: No Easy Answers", on the occasion of Pentecost XII, at Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI. Scripture references: Habakkuk 1:1-5, 3:17-19, Luke 3:1-9, 19:37-38. Mystery Nature of Religion Pluralism Religion as a Human Construct https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/9bc8d24a71344fd5126b6f11128337ca.pdf c2e24361d2adbdef80499caef9abd244 PDF Text Text The Church: Who Needs It? From the series: Tough Questions; No Easy Answers Text: Ephesians 4:15 Richard A. Rhem Christ Community Church Spring Lake, Michigan August 24, 1997 Transcription of the spoken sermon Our summer sermon series, Tough Questions; No Easy Answers, concludes today with a focus on the church, the institutional form of the Christian religion: "The Church: Who Needs It!" Who needs it? That is a question. However, you may have noticed in the printed liturgy that the question is terminated with an exclamation point rather than a question mark. Who Needs It! This reflects not so much a genuine inquiry into who really needs the church as a statement reflecting a serious question about whether or not perhaps the church in its present forms and structures has a future; even more, whether it would be a serious loss if it continues in its present process of demise. Let me acknowledge at the outset that I am not able to be completely objective in the contemplation of the question. Who needs it! is probably the expression of my own frustration with, and disappointment in, the institution in which I have been nurtured and to which I have given my life. You will simply have to hear me keeping my own bias before you. Granting that, let me tie this sermon on the church in with that which I have been stressing throughout this series, namely, that religion is a human construct, a human creation, which in multiple religious forms and institutional structures is a response to the experience of God, the sense of a Presence that fills all things, a Mystery which is always hidden from us, yet so present in its absence that its reality cannot be denied. This is true of religion in the earliest forms discovered in the practice of ancient and primitive peoples; it is true of the great world religions. Religion as a phenomenon of humankind is a humanly shaped response to an encounter from beyond or from the depths. This is true of the Christian religion as it is institutionalized in the church in all the manifold forms and structures that have emerged over 2000 years and in all © Grand Valley State University   �The Church: Who Needs It? Richard A. Rhem Page 2   the wide variety of churches with us in our day. The Christian church is a human creation, a human institution consisting of a belief system (doctrine), cultic forms for worship and devotion (liturgy/ritual), and a moral code (ethics). To claim this does not deny that the Christian religion is a genuine and authentic response to God, that it is a mediator of truth, of revelation, that it is an agency of God’s grace. It is simply to recognize that, in response to the revelation of the Mystery that is God in Jesus Christ and the grace that he mediates by God’s Spirit, those who have been encountered by revelation and embraced by grace have created a religious institution we call the church in order to witness to their experience and pass on their faith. The religious faith and institutional structure which provided the womb for the Christian faith was Judaism. One of the fruits of current study of the historical Jesus is our recognition that Jesus was a Jew. Of course, the church has always known this, but the fact is, the church has not recognized the Jewishness of Jesus sufficiently, nor done justice to the rootedness of Jesus in his own religious tradition. He was born a Jew, lived as an observant Jew and died a Jew. It was Jewish tradition he was seeking to renew. It was the Jewish institutional religion he was seeking to dismantle in the fashion of Israel’s prophets. From our present knowledge of Jesus’ time from cross-cultural studies, we get a sense of the institutional forms and structures that he was up against. We also recognize the Gospels as post-Easter documents that were based on oral tradition that went back in part to Jesus himself but, at their writing, were documents that reflected the situation of the Christian communities from which they arose decades after Jesus’ life and ministry. It seems apparent that Jesus never intended anything but the renewal of his own Jewish faith. The early Jesus movement that developed in the wake of Easter was a Jewish movement in its entirety. In the early years, the Jesus movement was a movement within Judaism. But, this was a time of ferment and crisis for Judaism. In a struggle with Rome who occupied her land, she saw her temple razed and Jerusalem destroyed. The question was what would emerge as the ongoing Jewish tradition. By the time Matthew wrote his Gospel, from which we read this morning, two generations separated his community from Jesus himself. It was clear by the time Matthew wrote that the majority of Israel was not going to follow Jesus as God’s Messiah. The Jesus Jewish movement had reached out to Gentiles. The movement was constituted of Jews and Gentiles and was taking on an identity over against Israel. We see this in the passage read from Matthew 16. At Caesarea Philippi, Jesus asks, "Who do people say that I am?" The disciples answered, Elijah or Jeremiah © Grand Valley State University �The Church: Who Needs It? Richard A. Rhem Page 3   or John the Baptist - one of the prophets. And then Jesus asks, "Who do you say that I am?" Peter answers for the group, "You are the Christ (or Messiah), the son of the living God." Jesus praises Peter for the answer - giving him the nickname Rock and declaring that on the Rock he would build his church. It is fascinating that Matthew used Mark as his basic source, but in this instance, he goes beyond Mark. In Mark, Jesus does not give Peter his nickname, nor does he praise him; rather, he sternly warns the disciple to say nothing of this messianic identity. But, even in Matthew’s account, Jesus continues after his high praise of Peter to speak of his forthcoming suffering to which Peter objects, actually rebuking Jesus for such talk. In response, Jesus says, "Get behind me, Satan! You are a stumbling block to me; for you are setting your mind not on divine things, but on human things." Even though Matthew intends some six decades after Jesus to make Jesus the establisher of the church, he lets show through the constant peril in which the church will live - becoming human, all too human. The Protestant Church should never have argued with the Roman Church that Peter was the first Pope because if anyone puts the lie to papal infallibility, it is Peter. Calling Simon "Rock" may well have been a bit of Jesus’ humor. Rock-like, he was not; human, he was. Well, it seems we have a guest. (At this point, "Peter" arrives, hurrying down the aisle, excited and emphatic.) Peter: I’m Peter, and, "On this rock I’m gonna build my church." That’s what he said. If you don’t believe me, you can look it up. Oh, you just did. I never understood the rock thing. Who would call somebody a rock? Would you call somebody a loaf of bread, a tree? "Hey, Shrub, come over here." How would you like that? But, who could figure him? The way he talked sometimes? Very mysterious. So, this is church, eh? A little breezy. Reminds me of the old days, Sermon on the Mount. No air-conditioning there. Whew! It was a scorcher. They don’t tell you that, do they, in that book you got there? Ninety-eight degrees that day, and lots of humidity. But, this is just for fun today, right? You got your buildings for regular. I see you’ve gone to Sundays ... Saturday wasn’t good enough? Anyway, I’m really pleased to see you’ve made it so big. I kept telling Jesus, all we needed to do was get to the big boys, the movers and shakers, the Big Kahunas, show them we could work with them. I said, "Jesus softer, softer. Ease up on the ‘Woe is you, Pharisees,’ stuff. And ‘Woe to the lawyers.’" You just don’t say "Woe to the lawyers" and get ahead in this world. © Grand Valley State University �The Church: Who Needs It? Richard A. Rhem Page 4   They got such a powerful lobby, you wouldn’t believe! And getting into real estate ... that’s smart. Oh, that’s smaaaart. I told him all along. When he had that shmooze with Elijah and Moses, and he turned all sparkly, I told him then. Build three tabernacles here ... Okay, just one. At least put up a plaque, "Jesus transfigured here, June eleventh, 0-0-27." But, no. "Don’t tell anybody," he says. So, what are you pulling down? 40-50 big ones? You know what I got? Lunch, I got. On a good day, maybe breakfast. I’m not complaining. I was in on the ground floor - that counts for something. I got statues all over the place. None of ‘em look like but, but, hey, the headquarters in Rome? St. Peters! That still seems a little weird to me. St. Rock. Who would do that to a friend? "Simon," I says, "what’s wrong with Simon?" "Give up your stuff and follow me," he says. I brought this nice young kid in to see him once. Very well connected. Good family; the Dad’s really big in olive oil. And the kid wants to join. I’m thinking, this could be good. So, Jesus asks him the big one, you know, what’s the most important commandment? And the kid spouts it right off, not a hitch. Okay, so I prompted him a little going into the interview, but the kid’s sincere. And Jesus loves him, you can tell. He’s a good looking kid, well behaved, nice clothes. But, then Jesus says, "You want to go with me, you gotta get rid of all your stuff first. Give it away to folks who don’t have any stuff, then come back and see me." I couldn’t believe my ears. So we lost him. I said, "Jesus, this kid was loaded. You just blew a potentially large investor." And then he goes on at me about how tough it is to get to heaven if you’ve got a lot of stuff, and something about camels going through needles, and I don’t know. Anyway, I’m glad to see that’s changed. I mean, this looks like a pretty well heeled bunch here. What’s the weekly take? Pretty good, I bet. Oh, you got a good thing going here. One night the boys and I, we’re sitting around a campfire with Jesus singing "Michael, Row Your Boat Ashore," "We Are Climbing Jacob’s Ladder," some of the oldies but goodies, and then Jesus starts talking about he has to go to Jerusalem and the Son of Man is going to have all sorts of bad things happen to him, and we’re not understanding what he’s saying, so a few of us start trying to work out an organizational chart. You know, Jesus is the CEO, that’s a given. But, who’s the V.P.s? I mean, you can’t have any kind of operation like that without flow charts. You got to have your P.R. section. Quality Control, and so forth. Well, Jesus just threw a fit and says, "You want to be Vice President, you’ve got to be the custodian. You want to lead, you’ve got to serve!" He was always saying things like that. "You gotta die to live. The first are last and the last first." I kept saying, "Jesus, you’re going to drive ‘em away with that sort of stuff. You need upbeat, upbeat! ‘It’s the real thing!’ - take a tip from the Coke folks, Nike, whoosh! The Pillsbury Doughboy." © Grand Valley State University �The Church: Who Needs It? Richard A. Rhem Page 5   But, don’t let me interrupt. You guys are doing great, just great! It’s a real pleasure. I’ll just sit down here, zip the lip. You were saying? (Mr. Rhem) I was saying, Peter, you never got the message. In the paragraph following our reading, we have Jesus speaking to the disciples about denying themselves, taking up the cross and following Jesus. Those who want to save their life will lose it, Jesus warns. Those who lose their life for Jesus’ sake - that is, for the sake of the way of Jesus will find life. But, that word has too often been muffled in the history of the church. It just may be that what appeared to be the triumph of the Christian religion and its institutional form, the church, was its undoing. In the year 312 C.E., the Roman Emperor Constantine was victorious in battle and he attributed his victory to Jesus Christ. Constantine decreed that Christianity would be the established religion of the Empire. Thus, the movement that sprang from Jesus, beginning as a Jewish sect, becoming a persecuted minority evolved into the state religion of the Roman Empire and Jesus, the destabilizer of the religious institution of Judaism, was co-opted by the Roman Emperor to bring unity and cohesion to the Empire. It is no coincidence that the Constantinian decree of 313 was followed in 325 C.E. by the Council of Nicaea, perhaps the most critical Council in terms of the definition of the deity of Jesus and his relationship to God in the Trinitarian formula. John Dominic Crossan, in his Jesus, A Revolutionary Biography, writes, ... Constantine, wanting a unified Christianity as the empire’s new religion, ordered the Christian bishops to meet, under imperial subsidy, in Nicaea, southeast of Constantinople, and there erase any major theological disagreements between them. Even if one is not already somewhat disturbed at imperial convocations, presence, and participation, it is hard not to become very nervous in reading this description of the imperial banquet celebrating the Council of Nicaea’s conclusion, from Eusebius’ Life of Constantine, 3.15: Detachments of the bodyguard and troops surrounded the entrance of the palace with drawn swords, and through the midst of them the men of God proceeded without fear into the innermost of the Imperial apartments, in which some were the Emperor’s companions at table, while others reclined on couches arranged on either side. One might have thought that a picture of Christ’s kingdom was thus shadowed forth, and a dream rather than reality. (p. 201) © Grand Valley State University �The Church: Who Needs It? Richard A. Rhem Page 6   Crossan comments, "Dream or reality? Dream or nightmare?" There are many serious students of the history of the church who see the Constantinian establishment not as the church’s triumph, but rather, as the critical moment it lost its soul. The collusion of throne and altar, the mating of secular power and religion is always finally fatal to religion; it becomes a tool of the state or, when in the ascendency, wields power as ruthlessly as any secular government. I am always struck by the passage in Mark’s Gospel where Jesus mentions his forthcoming death, and James and John come to him to request positions of power when he enters into his glory. Let us sit on your right and left hand, they ask. It is in response to this that Jesus tells them that greatness lies in servanthood. Obviously, from the beginning the religion that evolved from Jesus - Christianity - has lived with the temptation to save its life, preserve its life, enhance its life. Surveying its history, one must recognize great fruits that have derived from Christian faith, from the church. It has, indeed, shaped our Western civilization, combining as it has the heritage of Athens and Jerusalem. But it has been, as well, the enemy of the one whose name it claims. Were I to cite its greatest failings, I would point to its triumphalism of attitude, coercion of method, exclusiveness of spirit. Triumphalism is arrogance. We are first. It is one thing when expressed by the Marine Corps. It is unbecoming when expressed with nationalist zeal. But, it is downright betrayal when manifested by a religious tradition, especially a tradition that looks to Jesus, the crucified one, as its founder. And triumphalism soon leads to tactics of coercion. No longer do we simply witness to what we have experienced, but we use power to enforce our views and policy. Throughout its history, when the church has been in a power position, it has forced its way, leveling the opposition, the Inquisition of the 15th century only the most glaring example. And such coercion is justified by the claim of exclusiveness - the claim that truth is finally captured in the church’s creeds and that there is truth and salvific grace alone through the channel of the church. But it is not working anymore; the church has lost its position of dominance in the West. We speak of Europe as post-Christian and, appearance to the contrary, the church as institution is not a vital, confident body going from strength to strength. Multitudes are saying, "The Church: Who Needs It!" But, there are astute observers who are deeply committed to the Christian faith who see the dis-establishment of the church as a blessing. We are now, they say, in the same situation as the Jewish folk following Jerusalem’s destruction. We are © Grand Valley State University �The Church: Who Needs It? Richard A. Rhem Page 7   in a diaspora situation. Douglas John Hall writes in Confessing the Faith, citing the great Catholic thinker, Karl Rahner, ... we "must" accommodate ourselves to the diaspora situation, and this "must" emanates not only from our actual, empirical condition, but from the same gracious sovereignty that is contained in the journey of Jesus toward the cross. But we must and may do this joyfully. (p. 221) To do so, we must cease striving for "total victory." But, says Rahner, this is not resignation and defeatism. ... If we once have the courage to give up our defense of the old facades which have nothing or very little behind them; if we cease to maintain, in public, the pretense of a universal Christendom; if we stop straining every nerve to get everybody baptized, to get everybody married in church and onto our registers ... if, by letting all of this go, we visibly relieve Christianity of the burdensome impression that it accepts responsibility for everything that goes on under this Christian top dressing, the impression that Christianity is ... a sort of Everyman’s Religious Varnish, a folk-religion ... then we can be free for real missionary adventure and apostolic self-confidence. (p. 222) Douglas Hall, Karl Rahner, Hans Küng - and many more of the most acute thinkers in the church see our present situation as holding great promise. As a minority without cultural assent or political power, we are free to get back to the way of Jesus, the way of the cross, of loving service and gracious embrace. In the word of the apostle, we may yet grow up into the likeness of Jesus and speaking the truth in love become the true servant people as Jesus envisioned. The Church: Who Needs It! as a coercive institution seeking power. But, the church as community, a community of worship, of nurture, of gracious servant serving the world in Jesus’ name - that is the church I need, for which I will live and, if need be, die. Reference: Douglas John Hall. Confessing the Faith: Christian Theology in a North American Context, Vol. 1. Fortress Press, 1991. © Grand Valley State University � https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/2f9819f95c4de7aba6e9587f5da0fe92.mp3 1edec60d2acdc59cccbdc62aa9a1b501 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Richard A. Rhem Collection Description An account of the resource Text and sound recordings of the sermons, prayers, services, and articles of Richard Rhem, pastor emeritus of Christ Community Church in Spring Lake, Michigan, where he served for 37 years. Starting in the mid 1980's, Rhem began to question some of the traditional Christian dogma that he had been espousing from the pulpit. That questioning was a first step in a long and interesting spiritual journey, one that he openly shared with his congregation. His journey is important, in part because it is reflective of the questioning, the yearnings, and the gradual revision of beliefs that many persons in this part of the century have experienced and continue to experience. It is important also because of the affirming and inclusive way his questioning was done and his thinking evolved. His sermons and other written and spoken materials together document the steps in his journey as it took a turn in 1985, yet continued to revolve around the framework and liturgies of the Christian calendar. Subject The topic of the resource Clergy--Michigan Reformed Church in America Christ Community Church (Spring Lake, Mich.) Religion Interfaith worship Sermons Sound Recordings Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Rhem, Richard A. Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/514">Richard A. Rhem papers (KII-01)</a> Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives. Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Kaufman Interfaith Institute Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Language A language of the resource English Type The nature or genre of the resource Sound Text Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context KII-01 Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant 1981-2014 Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource audio/mp3 text/pdf Sound A resource primarily intended to be heard. Examples include a music playback file format, an audio compact disc, and recorded speech or sounds. Event Pentecost XIV Series Tough Questions: No Easy Answers Scripture Text Matthew 15:13-23, Ephesians 4:1-7, 11-16 Location The location of the interview Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI References Douglas John Hall. Confessing The Faith: Christian Theology in a North American Context, 1991. 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-0-19970824 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1997-08-24 Title A name given to the resource The Church: Who Needs It? Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Richard A. Rhem Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Subject The topic of the resource Clergy--Michigan Reformed Church in America Christ Community Church (Spring Lake, Mich.) Sermons Relation A related resource Richard A. Rhem - An Archive of Sermons, Prayers, Talks and Stories: http://richardrhem.org/ Language A language of the resource eng Type The nature or genre of the resource Text Sound Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource audio/mp3 application/pdf Description An account of the resource A sermon given by Richard A. Rhem (Dick) on August 24, 1997 entitled "The Church: Who Needs It?", as part of the series "Tough Questions: No Easy Answers", on the occasion of Pentecost XIV, at Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI. Scripture references: Matthew 15:13-23, Ephesians 4:1-7, 11-16. Myster Religion as a Human Construct Servanthood Way of Jesus https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/cc3d3e57a03c845674654a2b99ff1361.pdf 29005dc923ec671e693eb5e7c6449d58 PDF Text Text Shall the Fundamentalists Win? From the series: Meeting God Again For the First Time Scripture: Acts 5:27-42; Matthew 5:17-21 Richard A. Rhem Christ Community Church Spring Lake, Michigan September 21, 1997 Transcription of the spoken sermon It was May 21, 1922 - a Sunday morning. In the First Presbyterian Church of New York City, Harry Emerson Fosdick preached what is probably the most famous sermon ever preached in this country. I borrow his title and texts this morning. Shall the Fundamentalists Win? That was the question Fosdick posed. It was a gracious appeal to the fundamentalist party in American Protestantism to give room within the fellowship of the Christian church for those of more liberal views. Fosdick was gentle, in no way derogating those who held to the old doctrinal positions of Christian faith. He acknowledged the fruitfulness of sincere Christian lives that had long lived by ancient formulations of faith. But he challenged the illiberal and intolerant spirit that marked the fundamentalist parties in the respective denominations that were attempting to cast out those who were seeking to rethink Christian faith in light of the explosion of new knowledge and to understand the burst of new knowledge in terms of their Christian faith. Fosdick based his plea for tolerance and inclusiveness on the passages read this morning. The 1920's were not the first years of religious conflict. We could point to many such crisis times, but surely the ministry of Jesus brought about a serious crisis for the established religion of Judaism. The Gospels record the conflict of Jesus with the main religious parties of the Jews. And as is the case time and again, Jesus was not about introducing a new religion, but about the renewal of the tradition within which he was born, nurtured and carried out his ministry. Do not think I have come to abolish the law or the prophets; I have come not to abolish but to fulfill. But, that was not how Jesus was received. Rather, he was seen as a troubler of Israel, a threat to the established religious institution and a danger to the good order of society. © Grand Valley State University   �Shall the Fundamentalists Win? Richard A. Rhem Page 2   Jesus was crucified by Roman power that wanted no popular uprising in the province, but certainly with the consent and to the relief of the religio-political leaders of the Temple cult. Such use of violent force settles nothing, however; rather, it spurred his followers, convinced he was not dead but living, to take up the message and further the movement. Thus, the authorities were forced to go to round two. They now attempted forcibly to silence the disciples. That is the setting of Luke’s account in Acts 5. After the apostles’ imprisonment, the authorities called them in and charged them to cease and desist in their preaching, but they refused, driving the authorities to the brink of violence again. Then it was that a voice of wisdom and reason was raised. Gamaliel, a respected Pharisee and member of the Sanhedrin, addressed the body. He reminded them of two recent popular uprisings that came to nothing with the death of their leaders and, he suggested, the counsel of wisdom would be to set the apostles free - have nothing to do with them, he said, for if this Jesus movement was of human origin, it would fail, and if it was of God, nothing they could do would overthrow it. Indeed, they might then be found fighting God. Good advice. Wise counsel. And Gamaliel prevailed that day. Gamaliel is Fosdick’s model in his appeal to the fundamentalists of the 1920's. He raised the question I have often raised: What might have happened if Gamaliel’s advice had been heeded, not only that day, but from that point on, and the Jesus movement might have been a flowering of Jewish faith, renewal and rediscovery of the spiritual depth of Israel’s faith? But, such was not to be the case. Nor was it the case in the 16th century when the Roman Church was rent asunder and the Protestant movement developed its own identity over against Rome. Fosdick raised the question, "Shall the Fundamentalists Win?" and his answer was "No" because intolerance never brings a solution to conflict situations. Intolerance solves nothing. Rather, pleads Fosdick, the church must be "intellectually hospitable, tolerant, liberty-loving, open-minded and fair." Fosdick’s appeal was reprinted in three Christian journals and John D. Rockefeller, Jr. paid for the publication of 130,000 copies of the sermon for distribution across the nation. He appealed for liberals and conservatives to assume a posture of courtesy, kindliness, humility and fairness, but the appeal had the opposite affect. Conservative response was swift and strong. The Presbytery of Philadelphia, led by Clarence McCartney, requested the General © Grand Valley State University �Shall the Fundamentalists Win? Richard A. Rhem Page 3   Assembly to "direct the Presbytery of New York to take such action as will require the preaching and teaching in the First Presbyterian Church of New York to conform to the system of doctrine taught in the Confession of Faith." The issue was joined; there was no turning back. For the next dozen General Assemblies there was serious conflict. This was the time during which G. Gresham Machos left Princeton Seminary and founded Westminster Seminary and the Orthodox Presbyterian Church. As to Fosdick, he was First Presbyterian’s preacher by special arrangement, being himself a Baptist. Rather than taking him on, the General Assembly voted to require him to enter the ranks of Presbyterian clergy, thinking he would have had to pass their theological requirements. The liberal element in the Presbyterian Church pleaded with him to do so, but he declined, stating, I simply could not make the sort of even formal assent required of all candidates for your denomination’s ministry. I would choke - for, rightly or wrongly, I should feel as if I were lying like a rogue. Fosdick was out of a pulpit, but not for long. John D. Rockefeller, Jr. asked him to come to the Baptist Church in New York City that he attended. He is said to have refused, saying he would be concerned about being the pastor of the wealthiest man in the country. Rockefeller replied, "How do you think I will feel having Harry Emerson Fosdick as my pastor?" With that, Fosdick agreed and eventually Rockefeller built the great Riverside Church in New York City as the showcase for Fosdick’s remarkable gift of preaching. What was going on in the early decades of this century that came to a head in the ministry of Fosdick? In the sermon he preached on that May Sunday morning in 1922, Fosdick spoke of the new knowledge. Now the knowledge was not new in the sense of a sudden arrival of knowledge in 1922. Rather, there had been a growing body of knowledge over the past decades that simply had to be assimilated to the biblical worldview if there was to be any possibility of intellectual integrity. Fosdick declared, A great mass of new knowledge has come into man’s possession: new knowledge about the physical universe, its origin, its forces, its laws; new knowledge about human history and in particular about the ways in which the ancient peoples used to think in matters of religion and the methods by which they … explained their spiritual experiences; and new knowledge, also, about other religions and the strangely similar ways in which men’s faiths and religious practices have developed everywhere. Now, there are multitudes of reverent Christians who have been unable to keep this new knowledge in one compartment of their minds and the Christian faith in another. They have been sure that all truth comes from the one God and is his revelation. Not, therefore, from irreverence or caprice or destructive zeal, but for the sake of intellectual and spiritual integrity, that they might © Grand Valley State University �Shall the Fundamentalists Win? Richard A. Rhem Page 4   really love the Lord their God not only with their heart and soul and strength, but with all their mind, they have been trying to see this new knowledge in terms of the Christian faith and to see the Christian faith in terms of this new knowledge. This, of course, is the imperative for every generation and also the source of the tension that is always present in faith and of the conflict that has always marked institutional religion. For a time in the Presbyterian Church it seemed as though the Fundamentalists had won. Fosdick was out and the fundamentals of doctrine were reaffirmed. But, they did not win, for in the long run the repression of knowledge and honest inquiry can never prevail. It is my contention that, although the mainline Protestant denominations eventually yielded to the more liberal perspective, there is much of the church that has not yet brought its faith into engagement with modern knowledge. This I believe is the fascinating challenge and opportunity that we face at Christ Community. We have a new freedom to interpret the Christian faith for our day. We have been at this for a long time; or, at least I have, and you have been supportive of that. But, now as a people, we have been galvanized through the ordeal through which we have passed. This is one of those rare moments when a whole community is thinking, asking questions, wrestling with matters of faith. Thus it is that we embark today on a new series of sermons under the theme, Meeting God Again for the First Time. Some of you have read Marcus Borg’s book, Meeting Jesus Again for the First Time, where he relates how he moved from childhood faith to unfaith and then with a fresh spiritual experience returned to vital Christian faith. It is my hope that we as a community might come to a fresh experience of the living God Who is big enough to encompass our questions, our best knowledge, and our deep yearning for communion with the Ultimate Mystery in Whom we live and move and have our being. Next Sunday Dr. Duncan Littlefair will preach for us. For decades in Grand Rapids at the Fountain Street Church he was known as the Voice of the Liberal, as a radical, even as one who did not believe in God. But I have gotten to know him well, to feel his passion and sense the deep spirituality of his being. He is deeply concerned for the future of the Christian tradition. I want you to meet him, to experience him as he will challenge us not to stop now, simply treading water, but to continue to wrestle with how to bring the Christian message to our society in the present context. The following Sunday during the Perspectives hour, Dr. Littlefair will be joined by Dr. Lester DeKoster, former Librarian at Calvin College and Editor of The © Grand Valley State University �Shall the Fundamentalists Win? Richard A. Rhem Page 5   Banner, the Christian Reformed Church publication, a stout Calvinist whose conservative credentials are impeccable. These two men, longtime friends and friendly adversaries, will dialogue on the future of religion. In all of this I am inviting and challenging you to think deeply, to ponder the faith that has shaped us and to struggle with me to find the manner in which the faith tradition must be translated for today and tomorrow. Bishop Krister Stendahl who preached for us last year was the moderator at the recent Jewish/Christian dialogue. On the way from the airport, he mentioned a phrase that has stuck with me since our first encounter in 1991 when he was David Hartman’s dialogue partner. He said, "Tradition is an instrument of continuity and change." I was struck by that when I first heard it in ‘91 and I have used the phrase frequently. That tradition provides continuity with the past - that was always obvious to me. But that the faith tradition is, as well, an instrument for change, I had never realized. I suspect my too narrow sense of tradition’s function stemmed from my nurture and training - always focused on relating to and being faithful to the past formulation of the faith that had come to us from our forbears. In all my theological education, the stress was on explanation of the faith as given and the defense of that faith as received. I cannot remember ever being challenged to think about the reformulation and revision of the faith tradition for fresh statement in the present, in a context dramatically different from the context in which the faith was initially formulated. In a word, I had no sense of a living tradition, a growing, developing faith understanding that not only puts me in continuity with the past, but illumines present experience and continues to light up the path into the future. Thus, breakthroughs in knowledge impact faith’s understanding and faith creates a framework within which to assimilate new knowledge. One is open to embrace the world in all its wonder and new experience because one is rooted, one has a place to stand. But, one is not swept away on a flood of new learning, but examines new thought and experience critically with some distance and detachment because one has a trusted tradition within which to think, to reflect, to take in the new. This is the critical issue before the Christian church today. As I stated above, much of the evangelical Protestant church, to say nothing of the Roman Catholic Church, has not yet come to terms with modern knowledge. The resurgence of fundamentalist religious mentality in our day is a flight from honest engagement with what we know about the world, the human story, history and scientific probing of our universe. We find the conservative churches that have not been traditionally fundamentalist in spirit turning to worship as entertainment and emotionalism in mass movements. And all of this, I am convinced, is an escape © Grand Valley State University �Shall the Fundamentalists Win? Richard A. Rhem Page 6   from wrestling with the impact of knowledge on faith’s understanding and the critique of modern knowledge and life from faith’s perspective. No one need be faulted for not engaging in this serious and taxing endeavor. No one need be condemned who is seeking simply a bit of comfort and security. But someone needs to find a way to the experience of God, the way of Jesus and the presence of the Spirit in the midst of this world, here and now. There will always be those who will continue to parrot yesterday’s answers to today’s questions and with intolerant spirit seek to set outside the community of faith others who are searching for today’s expression of faith in light of today. But, the fundamentalists shall not win because a fearful, rigid and intolerant spirit convinced of its own rectitude is a denial of everything Jesus incarnated. If we dare pursue the path upon which we have embarked, we must be clear-eyed about the fact that we will be swimming against the tide of current cultural opinion as well as choosing the road less traveled by the churches as the agents of institutional Christianity. But, we will be set free to recognize the crisis of the church at large in the present, to see the denial in which it is living and to be free of fear that drives it, whether conscious or unconscious. Further, we will provide a place for people who value intellectual integrity and whose heart cannot find rest where their minds cannot follow. We will provide a place for those whose hearts yearn for God and whose spirits thirst for spiritual depth, but who cannot abide the narrow mind and intolerant spirit that marks so much institutional religion. And we will revel with delight in the Presence of the Mystery that is God amidst the ambiguity of the human condition, having few answers but able with abandon to raise our questions and, in community, experience the presence of the Spirit and know the compassion of Jesus, trusting that finally all is Grace and all will be well. And again and again we will meet God as if for the first time. Reference: Harry Emerson Fosdick, “Shall the Fundamentalists Win?: Defending Liberal Protestantism in the 1920s,” historymatters.gmu.edu © Grand Valley State University � https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/4880597d0cfd2cdf624d36fe1f5cda59.mp3 e0cd2cb775cef742148c021960e6a513 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 XVIII Series Meeting God Again for the First Time Scripture Text Acts 5:38-39, Matthew 5:17-21 Location The location of the interview Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI References Harry Emerson Fosdick, Shall the Fundamentalists Win?: Defending Liberal Protestantism in the 1920s, 1921 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-0-19970921 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1997-09-21 Title A name given to the resource Shall the Fundamentalists Win? Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Richard A. Rhem Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Subject The topic of the resource Clergy--Michigan Reformed Church in America Christ Community Church (Spring Lake, Mich.) Sermons Relation A related resource Richard A. Rhem - An Archive of Sermons, Prayers, Talks and Stories: http://richardrhem.org/ Language A language of the resource eng Type The nature or genre of the resource Text Sound Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource audio/mp3 application/pdf Description An account of the resource A sermon given by Richard A. Rhem (Dick) on September 21, 1997 entitled "Shall the Fundamentalists Win?", as part of the series "Meeting God Again for the First Time", on the occasion of Pentecost XVIII, at Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI. Scripture references: Acts 5:38-39, Matthew 5:17-21. Community of Faith Fundamentalism Inclusive Re-imagining the Faith Worldview https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/e8fe37a112257c26aace32ba40fc3346.pdf d7b3417b7cd2257d01e14bb1764cc202 PDF Text Text Religion: Has It a Future? From the series: Meeting God Again For the First Time Scripture: Romans 7:14-25; Mark 8:11-21 Dr. Duncan Littlefair Christ Community Church Spring Lake, Michigan September 28, 1997 Transcription of the spoken sermon (Mr. Rhem) It is for me a very great pleasure and privilege to introduce to the congregation of Christ Community and our friends visiting with us today the Rev. Dr. Duncan Littlefair. My friendship with Dr. Littlefair goes back over a couple of years through one of those wonderful providences when a friend of his became a friend of mine, and we found ourselves on Tuesdays enjoying table fellowship and absolutely wonderful conversation. We meet on Tuesdays religiously. During the past couple of years in which we have been through some difficult waters, it has been a source of great encouragement to me to come to know Dr. Littlefair. His strength and his vision have steeled my purpose. As I said to the 8:30 congregation, when I reflected at the lunch table about the things we were dealing with, Dr. Littlefair told me that they had handled that 100 years ago at Fountain Street Church in Grand Rapids and, when I came with some brave new insight, I found out that he had published it in a primer on religion 50 years ago. I don’t know why some of us are so Johnny-come-lately, slow to learn, if not slow to speak. As we gathered around that lunch table, it was obvious to me that there was fire in the belly, there was a sermon brewing, ready to be delivered, and so I broached the subject, asking Dr. Littlefair if he would be our guest at Christ Community. He has been in our worship and warmly affirmed us, but he goes a step further in giving us the gift this morning of his presence in this pulpit. I want to say to you very sincerely that I am deeply moved and greatly appreciative of his presence here this morning. Welcome, Dr. Duncan Littlefair. (Dr. Littlefair) You cannot be human without being religious. You may doubt that in the course of my presentation to you this morning, but I want it to be in your mind. You cannot be human without being religious. Now, there are very many levels of humanity, and there are equally many levels of religion. You can have a profound religion. You can have a trivial religion. You © Grand Valley State University   �Religion: Has It a Future? Richard A. Rhem Page 2   can have an intellectual understanding religion. You can have an ignorant religion. You can have a religion that is equal to the best of knowledge, or you can have a religion that is full of superstition, but religious you must be if you’re going to be human. Or, I like it better the other way, to be human means to be religious. There has never, ever been a people anywhere in the history of this globe (and that history goes back a long, long way now; we’ve extended it enormously), never any people without a religion. Isn’t it, then, more than just a little absurd that any one religion should claim that it is the only way? If you stop to think about it, can you imagine anything more absurd than for one religious people to proclaim that its way of reverencing and worshiping this Creative Source that makes us is the only way? And Christians have done that all these centuries. They’re still doing it! Criticizing this church because it moves out to the possibility - that’s all you’re doing - move out to the possibility that there are other ways. I cannot contain myself when I hear such stupidity and prejudice as to assume that there is no other way but your own. And as a result, Muslim faith grew out of Christianity and Judaism, you know. Of course you know. And, Islam faith claims that it’s the only valid way and scorns the Christian, or the Christian scorns the Muslim and the Buddhist. And I’ve been prophesying for some ten years and I think that it will come to be that any crisis that occurs in this world will be a crisis between these two faiths proclaiming themselves to be absolute and the only way. And they are meeting. As Colette made mention in her prayer, they are meeting across the world and they are fighting each other. They will engage in mortal conflict. The tenth and eleventh centuries all over again, and this is the twentieth, moving into the twenty-first. I know of no institution in the world that is as riddled and ridden by superstition as religion. Now, I want to make the definition of religion. I have said that it was a universal product, that there was never a person or a people without it, never a people, and that’s historically true, archeologically, anthropologically true, but I’m going to define religion for you and follow my definition in the course of my discussion because it doesn’t run counter to what I’ve said, it’s a definition and a description of it. Religion is to care. That’s all. To care. Care about what? I think anything. Anything. We start off with our children. We encourage their caring on their level, whatever it is. Care for money? Fine. Then it will be your religion. It is the religion of many people. Stupid. Trivial, insubstantial, insufficient. But, it can be a religion. But, if we start out with religion as caring, see, then you come to a place like this, this beautiful place, and you join yourself together with other people like you, beautiful congregation in this building. I’ve been here, I’ve seen you and felt you. You come to a place like this, you see, to deepen your caring. To illumine your caring. Enlighten it. Make it more profound. Make it more impressive and make a greater impact with it on yourself, and let the chips fall where they may, because you have a society of persons who care, you’ll have a caring society. © Grand Valley State University �Religion: Has It a Future? Richard A. Rhem Page 3   Now, I want to mention that I think we are in a cultural crisis in the world. A cultural crisis is not something that occurs in a lifetime, not a few years or months, you know. It’s a long, long thing. Our cultural crisis has been brewing for 350 years, maybe 400, we don’t argue about 50 or 100 years in this sort of thing. It started with the beginning of the scientific approach to knowledge. Not until the 1500s, Galileo the middle of the 16th century, 1500s, the beginning of the scientific approach to the world, not to go on here say, not to go on folklore, not to go on imagination, not to go on superstition, not to go on campfire ideas, but to begin to probe the nature of the world to see what it’s like, what it’s truly like. Not until the middle of the 16th century. It wasn’t until the middle of it the 17th century, which Whitehead calls the century of genius, that we even discovered the circulation of the blood. And that was the same century that Newton discovered the nature of gravity. And since then we’ve been growing so wonderfully in our ideas and appreciations so that now, after 350 years, it’s beginning to take account. It hasn’t taken hold yet. People feel it, but intellectually it’s not clear. And even our leaders are not talking about it enough because it’s a frightening thing and they don’t want to offend people. They don’t want to frighten them, but they are frightened. The people of the western hemisphere are frightened, and rightly so, because we’re discovering that we live in a world that can brush us aside like any of the thousands of species that have been brushed aside, failed and lost out in the past, that can happen to us, too. We’re not that long established, you know. I like to point out that the human life has been here maybe a million years and the dinosaurs were here 100 million years. Now, if you understand the nature of scientific progression of knowledge and facts, then that has to be significant to you. And the cultural crisis is that we have to come to the conclusion that things are in our hands. Oh, I know that I violate most of the ritual that goes on around, even in this enlightened church, and some of the ritual that goes on in my church, but we have to come to the conclusion that we are on our own in this world! I don’t know how any intelligent person could avoid coming to that conclusion, I just do not understand it. There is to be no divine intervention! There is no miraculous intercession. Hasn’t been. Is not now, and never will be. I like the little story in the New Testament, which is a very important book to me, of Jesus in the midst of a circus, a parade. The man stood up in a tree so that he could participate in it, and Jesus said, "Come on down. Come on down, Zaccheaus, and get out of that tree. We’ve got things to do." We’ve got things to do. Did you hear Colette’s prayer? I have difficulty hearing behind there, but I heard it. We have to save our environment. We have to save the air. We have to save the water and make it open and accessible for quality and human living. We have to save our woods. We have to deal with our hatreds, with our tribal loyalties and devotions. We have to deal with our selfishness. We have to deal with our ignorance. We have to deal with our hatred, which leads people to fight against each other, killing neighbors year after year. No matter what we do, we cannot © Grand Valley State University �Religion: Has It a Future? Richard A. Rhem Page 4   stop it. This is a cultural crisis and religion is so far showing its awareness of it by its frantic, absolutely frantic retreat into what I call "warehouse religion," emotional binges without the slightest degree of interest in pursuing knowledge, understanding, and wisdom. Just emotional expression. Now I want to say, after having indicated that the cultural crisis is hinged on knowledge, that this kind of knowledge has really nothing to do with religion. I have a principle that I introduced to the men at lunch and I jokingly call it "The Littlefair Principle." I thought I might as well, nobody else has said it. To the degree that any religion depends upon the repudiation of knowledge and truth and facts, it is to that degree of dependence spiritually ignorant, illiterate, and unworthy. Now, the alternative: To the degree that any religion is founded upon and dependent upon knowledge of the world, it is to that degree, spiritually invalid. I have not excluded religion, now, because religion is to care. But, if your caring involves you repudiating the best and most established knowledge, it’s obviously unworthy, too trivial for any people to adhere to. But, if you make a religion out of the facts, you’re missing the whole point of a religion, which is to care. Now, we do not allow the religionists to tell us what the facts are. That would be ridiculous. They’re not trained to do it, obviously, are they? You want to know about the earth, what it’s made of? You want to know its structure, you go to the geologist, don’t you? They know. They have learned. They’ve applied the scientific method. They have irrefutable facts, not some dream that arose around a campfire about what the nature of the earth was. No way. You want to know about the human body? You go to a biologist. And let me tell you that I’ve heard from the biologists that if you don’t know the biology of the last 20 years, you’re ignorant, biologically speaking, so great has been the advance and growth and knowledge of the body. But, you don’t ask a religionist about the nature of the body. You want to know about the structure of things like this? And the rocks and some trees? You don’t go to the geologist, you go to the physicist and the chemist. He’ll tell you. You want to know about the history of life on this planet? You go to the anthropologist. They’re the ones who have been doing the studying on this thing, and they know. They’re not guessing, they’re not hoping. They have facts, and those facts are important for anybody trying to live the modern world so that you can make your caring an intelligent thing. © Grand Valley State University �Religion: Has It a Future? Richard A. Rhem Page 5   One other point: We’re on the stage of the democratization of religion. I’ve been wondering about this for some time and it suddenly occurred to me that what I’ve been after all these years in my ministry is the democratization of religion. Isn’t it amazing that we make God a monarch? Have you thought about that? We make God a monarch. We don’t believe in monarchies! Goodness sakes, we abolished them long, long ago! Even Japan. Certainly the monarchy in England, Britain, the one outstanding one is just decorative, it’s not the essence of the British Republic. We don’t talk about monarchs, but we make God to be sitting on a throne. We have people supplicating Him, fawning over Him, flattering Him. Most of our prayers are forms of flattery equivalent to a courtier and an emperor. God is not Louis XIV. Surely that ought to be clear to us. Degradation. Can you see Jesus on a throne? Can you really see that? You grew up thinking about it, having it given to you, and maybe you’re hearing it as adults, too - can you see Jesus on a throne? The man who put his arms, figuratively, around a prostitute and made her his best friend - that’s an emperor? My God and I walk through the fields together, we laugh and talk as good friends should and do. Our voices ring with laughter. My God and I walk through the fields together. You have your choice. Jesus talked about God as a father, and I assume the best of fathers is like a friend that you laugh and talk with and walk through the fields together. Now, I want very briefly to go to describe something more about religion as caring. I want to define Spirit for you, and I’ll be back next week, I trust, to talk some more about it. But, I want to define the Spirit. It just doesn’t get defined. I do a lot of philosophical reading and it just doesn’t get defined, and I’d like you to take it home and think with it, about it, and put it together with my notion that religion is to care. Spirit is to feel while you are aware. Now, listen to this - it’s not a "thing," almost anyone surely knows with their fourth-grade mind that it’s not a "thing." It’s not something that resides in the body and comes out. We’ve thought that for centuries. It’s too late for that kind of thinking. We’ve got things to do. The Spirit is a part of the body and so much it is a product of the body, and is never found apart from the body. No Spirit apart from the body. And I gave it the simple definition and I defy you to exhaust it. You or the geologist or biologist or anthropologist or any physicist or chemist - it’s a feeling awareness. Doesn’t sound like very much, but it’s the essence of being human. We’re not very aware, you know. I challenge you to go back over your drive here this morning to come to church - what do you remember of it? What were you aware of when you were driving? Oh, if something happens, you’d see it, if a red light came on or some child crossed the street, or somebody was driving - you’d see that and react to that, I know. Squirrels do that. But, what do you feel? What © Grand Valley State University �Religion: Has It a Future? Richard A. Rhem Page 6   are you aware of? Most of us live in a sleep, really almost 100% sleep. You can carry on business jobs just by being animal responsive. But, to be feelingly aware. Do you see this beautiful hanging? Maybe you notice that it’s red or black or white, but are you aware of it? Are you aware of that beautiful brick wall that you have? It’s so fascinating to me. I’ve spent my ministry in a church with the most magnificent stained glass windows in America. I find this wall just a total fascination. I come in and I sit there and I look at it and I think about it. What are you aware of? Are you aware of the grass? I’ve been aware this whole season long of leaves. I can’t believe the wonder of a leaf. And then of the trees - they stagger me! I cannot comprehend them. And I sit and look and I walk and look and I feel. The grass - yes. Leaf? - yes. Tree? - yes. Anything. How about a person? Are you aware of the person that you’re living with? Or is it like your awareness of driving to church? Women are particularly alert to this. Do you see the face? Do you see the concern? Do you see the agony? Do you see the depression? "You have eyes," said Jesus, "and you don’t see." Mr. Rhem read that this morning. It’s the most profound spiritual observation. "You have ears, but you don’t hear. You have hearts and you don’t understand. Woe is the person." To feel, to be aware of anything - anything! This is God’s world. I hear Him pass in the rustling grass, I see Him everywhere. My listening ears all nature sings. Feeling awareness. And then you treasure it. It’s no use bothering people about Sunday religion, but, of course, true, it’s wonderful to have it, that kind of Sunday following a custom, routine - it’s not enough! If you’re going to treasure your spirit, you have to treasure it every day! Or you lose it. Very few people ever arrive at the spiritual level, you know that. Jesus knew it. Every spiritual person has known it. You have to treasure it. You have to pay attention to it as if it were important, as important as the money you used to care for. Or the success, or the arrogance, or the pride, or the power. You have to treasure it, because where your treasure is, there your heart will be, and where your heart is, there your treasure will be, and if you have a treasuring of the spirit, you have something that nothing can take away - neither life nor death nor angels nor principalities nor powers nor height nor depth nor any other creature. Nothing! You treasure it, and you’re grateful for it. You’ve got to be grateful, because you didn’t make it. If you want to get down to the heart of religion, here’s another one of those fundamental things - you didn’t make it! The thing that you treasure. You didn’t make the leaf, you didn’t make the flower, you didn’t make the tree, you didn’t make yourself, you didn’t make your mind, you didn’t make your body. It’s a gift. We call it the gift of God, don’t we? So, you have to be grateful. No spiritual person swaggers with the qualities of the Spirit. No. No swaggering with the Spirit. It’s just the utmost of gratitude. © Grand Valley State University �Religion: Has It a Future? Richard A. Rhem Page 7   And then you celebrate it. You celebrate it by - you come to church and you light candles and you listen to that beautiful, beautiful music, and you have a birthday party or you give a gift or you bake a cake and you gather your friends around and you hold hands, and you say, isn’t it wonderful, the gifts that are ours? That’s a celebration, and there’s no religion without it. You have to have the Spirit there to make the celebration significant and real. Now, that’s a description of religion as best as I can do for you. What’s the language of religion? Just a word or two now and that’s all. What’s the language of religion? I said of religion, not about religion, because the investigation of religion or of anything falls into the realm of scientific categories. You explore religion like you explore the structure of a city or of an institution or of a piece of metal. Thus, we use technical language when you want to discuss the nature of religion. But, what’s the language of religion? I keep trying and I’m a preacher and I should know how to do it and I feel so helpless at it, and I want to tell somebody what it means to be in rapture by that blossom that I saw out my window. How do I do it? How do I tell somebody how much I love them? I don’t know how to do it; you stagger and you stumble. We don’t do very well at it. Well, the language of religion is story, it’s poetry. Poetry is the nature of religious language, because you’re explaining. You see something and you just let go. I keep thinking of David dancing before the ark of the Lord - just totally feeling. He expressed it in dance, like you do here so frequently. I have an enduring memory of being out there last spring sometime and you had all those children dancing down the aisles. And there was one child who caught my imagination so that I didn’t want to lose myself in the panorama of it. Interestingly enough, on the way home, the wife of the person I was driving with said, "I know who you meant. I saw that, too." What was it? I don’t know. I couldn’t describe it. But, that girl - she exemplified it to me, with all those children she exemplified the Spirit, the miracle and wonder of being human. We use myth and story, legend and song and dance and art. These are the language of religion. Mr. Bryson plays that organ and has that choir sing so beautifully they’re singing of the Spirit, if you have ears to hear. How better could you describe Paul’s dilemma, which is yours and mine - "I want to do good and I can’t because the evil’s all around me. I want to do good and the evil takes over. I know that in my heart reigns the law of God, but there is another law, the law of my members entangling me in sin." How would you describe this? Well, it’s never been better done than it was in our religious heritage. In the beginning the world was wonderful, beautiful, and everything was there. And then God made man and it was all right then, too, except that man ate of the fruit of the tree of knowledge. The fruit of the tree of knowledge. And then he became like one of us - gods, says the Bible. Knowing good and evil. And if you know good and evil, you’ll never, ever be totally free! Because the evil is always there; it’s part of being human. And that’s our biblical story. © Grand Valley State University �Religion: Has It a Future? Richard A. Rhem Page 8   You want to describe the miracle of life, the wonder of being human, the wonder of a child which is where we see it most and should not confine ourselves there, do you want to describe the miracle of the birth of a child - how would you do it? Well, we’ve had a description, a poetic, beautiful description that has been a cardinal part of my heart for all these years that I’ve been thinking about dreams. There was a man and a woman, simple man and woman, carpenter and his wife they had to go to a distant city and she was with child. But, they had to go and it was a difficult, long journey, and it came on wintertime and they were up in the mountains and the time for her came, and they didn’t know what to do and there was no place to go. There was a little village up in the mountain and every place was filled because everyone else was going as they were going to this thing that had been called by the emperor, and they had no place, no place in the inn or anywhere. And the innkeeper gave them a place where the cattle were. Not much, was it? Oh, no, but it was something. It was a gracious act and it was some comfort and protection, and they were there with the animals, you see, and she gave birth to her child and it was just a miracle. And there were three kings who had been out on the road for a long time, looking for the glory of God. And they had been told that they could find it, and there was a star that they had to follow. And they followed that star for many days, many weeks, and finally the star came and stood over a stable. Stood over a stable. And they knew that that was the end of their search. They went in and found the child, and they brought their gifts as tribute to the miracle of God in human life. And there were some shepherds out in the fields, not just the kings, but some shepherds, ignorant shepherds. And all of a sudden, when they were keeping watch over their flocks, the air was filled with angels singing, "Glory to God in the highest, for unto you is born this night in the city of David a Saviour." And the shepherds went off, left their flock and went up into the stable to pay tribute to the glory of God and the child. You have ears but you don’t hear. If we were to listen, if we were to listen, anytime, we’d hear the angels singing. © Grand Valley State University � https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/85c5c7ebd675c7c365e6dac356607ddf.mp3 6045c2bbb3d6bbc772595a6cf13df566 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 XIX Series Meeting God Again for the First Time Scripture Text Jeremiah 7: 1-7,, 11-15, Mark 13:1-2 Location The location of the interview Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context KII-01_RA-0-19970928 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1997-09-28 Title A name given to the resource Religion: Has It a Future? Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Richard A. Rhem Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Subject The topic of the resource Clergy--Michigan Reformed Church in America Christ Community Church (Spring Lake, Mich.) Sermons Relation A related resource Richard A. Rhem - An Archive of Sermons, Prayers, Talks and Stories: http://richardrhem.org/ Language A language of the resource eng Type The nature or genre of the resource Text Sound Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource audio/mp3 application/pdf Description An account of the resource A sermon given by Richard A. Rhem (Dick) on September 28, 1997 entitled "Religion: Has It a Future?", as part of the series "Meeting God Again for the First Time", on the occasion of Pentecost XIX, at Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI. Scripture references: Jeremiah 7: 1-7,, 11-15, Mark 13:1-2. Awareness Compassion Nature of Religion Story Wonder https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/061f039f53e1b1909c7a957f5f2e39d8.pdf ab7384b8853b936c8ef9c57ad3f7e62e PDF Text Text A Simpler Way From the series: Meeting God Again For the First Time Text: John 4:23-24 Richard A. Rhem Christ Community Church Spring Lake, Michigan October 5, 1997 Transcription of the spoken sermon The writer of the fourth Gospel tells us explicitly that he was very intentional in the creation of the Gospel he wrote: John 20:30-31 - a portrait painted, a story told, that you might believe that Jesus was the Messiah, thereby finding life through his name. This one, the author believed, came from God and was the embodiment in human form of God’s being, purpose, and grace that, through God’s Spirit, possessed him and filled him. The God Who in the beginning breathed the creative process into being was now breathing life in a new dimension in and through this one, Jesus - Jesus was anointed with God’s Spirit. The Hebrew word for that anointing was Messiah; the Greek word, Christ. John was writing at a time of great turmoil, tension and ferment in the Jewish community. The center of Israel’s life and worship - the symbol of God’s presence in their midst – had been destroyed in 70 A.D. by the Roman occupying power. How now would they maintain their peoplehood, their identity as God’s chosen ones? The dominant group emerging was the Pharisaic party - to become the group that eventually determined the Judaism of the future, the Rabbinic group ensuring that Judaism would be a people of the Book, the sacred text. But, in the last decades of the first century, the movement stemming from Jesus was a viable contender. The followers of this crucified one whom his followers experienced as living and present to them made up a significant segment of the population. But they had reached out beyond the narrow confines of the Jewish community; they had, in quite revolutionary fashion, formed a Jesus community among the Samaritans with whom the Jews lived in great hostility and even among the Gentiles - that is, with non-Jews. At least in part, the fourth Gospel was written to root this outward reaching of the very early movement in the understanding and ministry of Jesus himself. © Grand Valley State University   �A Simpler Way Richard A. Rhem Page 2   The reason is obvious: There were strong differences in the Jesus movement that in its early stages was exclusively Jewish. There were Jews who believed Jesus was the Messiah and the End was near, the reign of God approaching, but who failed to see the reason for reaching out beyond their own. And there were others - think of Stephen and of Paul who felt the call to bring the story of God’s grace in Jesus to the nations. In other words, there were advocates of a purely Jewish Jesus community and there were advocates of a universal mission. I think that is the rationale by which the Gospel writer chose the story of the Samaritan woman at Jacob’s well who was encountered by Jesus. I will not retell the story; suffice it to say that Jesus chooses to go from Judea in the south to Galilee in the north by the direct route which takes him through Samaria, a hostile territory peopled by those the Jews considered alien, whose worship the Jews considered false, even though the Samaritans stemming from the ten Northern Tribes of Israel shared the Mosaic heritage, following the Pentateuch, the first five books of the Hebrew Scripture. It is in Samaria at the place of the ancient well of Jacob that Jesus engages a Samaritan woman in conversation. He asks for a drink of water from the well, only to offer her living water. The writer’s literary technique is to reveal the soul thirst of this woman for the truth. The conversation issues in a question that divided the Jews and Samaritans: the Samaritans claimed their Mt. Gerizim was the place of true worship, pre-dating the establishment of Jerusalem later by David, while the Jews, of course, contended it was at Jerusalem that God caused the Holy Name, or the Presence, to dwell. This allows the Gospel writer to put Jesus on the side of those who saw the universal implications of Jesus’ ministry "Woman," he says, "the hour is coming and now is when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem ... The true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and in truth." Without attempting to give an in-depth explanation of that response, it must be obvious on the surface that Jesus here points to a new situation and a new manner of worship and devotion. He does not say worship at Mt. Gerizim or Jerusalem had never been true worship, or that God could not be worshiped at one place or the other. He does, however, relativize the question of place which would represent the whole apparatus of the cultic forms used in the worship of the respective communities. © Grand Valley State University �A Simpler Way Richard A. Rhem Page 3   We have come to a moment in the practice of religious worship, Jesus contends, according to this account, when place and all the external accouterments that go with it become matters of indifference. The external forms of worship are intended to be and can be means by which, through which, the human spirit comes into communion with the divine Spirit the liturgy, the ritual action, the very physical space designated for the worship of God, can be vehicles of grace through which the communion with God is affected. The setting and the manner of our worship is not a matter of indifference to be tended to in a slovenly way. But they are the triggers only to bring us to awareness of the Holy, of that transcendent source of our being by whose grace we live and move and have our being. It has been characteristic of Christian preaching to set Jesus and thus Christianity off from Judaism as a spiritual religion over against a religion of outward observance. This is a distortion and it misses the point. Jesus was a Jew. Jesus was not saying Judaism as a religion was being superseded, to be replaced now by Christianity. Jesus was pointing to the nature of true worship and the temptation of all religious worship to become an outward form lacking inward transforming power. The result of this encounter is not Christianity - Jewish - 1 and Samaritan devotion - 0. Worship that is inwardly aware of the gracious ground of our being is present in many religious traditions. Formalism, devoid of Spirit, is to be found, as well, in all forms of religious devotion, Christianity included. But, that in no way detracts from the stunning breakthrough that Jesus represented in his life and teaching. Jesus saw the temptation of the religious institution to make itself exclusive and absolute and he broke through the false barriers that purported to demarcate the only true way. Jesus saw the demonic barriers that walled people off from one another, defining those who were in and those who were out, the accepted ones and the rejected ones. He conversed with a Samaritan. Jesus saw the oppression and domination of women by men who considered women of a lesser subhuman class. In a society where a man prayed daily thanking God he was not born a woman, Jesus conversed with a woman, treating her with respect and dignity and human decency. Jesus saw the restrictive limitations of religious and cultural patterns and dared to defy them, to shatter them and to declare by word and action a new day, a © Grand Valley State University �A Simpler Way Richard A. Rhem Page 4   movement toward a fuller humanization of society. And Jesus did it not because it was in the cultural air, but because he believed that is the way God intended it. God is Spirit. God must be worshiped in spirit and in truth. Jesus refused to bow to social custom or religious regulation when those violated the reality of the Spirit. Traditional definitions, conventional wisdom, social mores, cultural patterns - all of that, for Jesus, needed constantly to be examined, reformed, transformed in the light of the spiritual reality that comes from inward awareness and attentiveness. There are times of cultural crisis when old ways are challenged and foundations crumble. We are in such a time; it has been a long time building - perhaps since the 15th century, or certainly since the 18th. It is my contention that the church has not yet faced the implications of the modern period. The structure of faith and biblical understanding in which I was nurtured and trained and that has shaped the Christian tradition, Protestant and Catholic, is largely the product of the postReformation, a 17th-century paradigm of biblical faith impacted very little by the explosion of knowledge in the modern world. The Christian tradition from which we stem still speaks in terms of an absolute truth it claims to possess and an exclusive truth to which it must bring the world, denying the salvific value of all other traditions. I included a couple of paragraphs from Gordon Kaufman’s God, Mystery, Diversity as an alternative to the absolutism and exclusivism claims of Christian orthodoxy. I think what Kaufman is contending is very much in the spirit of what Jesus said to the Samaritan woman The hour is come when the model can no longer be pronouncement of our way as the only way. Rather, the time has come when the Spirit is calling us to break down the barriers we have erected. Is it not ironic that the one who threw down the exclusionary barriers that divided people and defined the truth is, in the Christian church, made the absolute revealer of God and the exclusive source of the grace of God? The disciples returned from buying food to find Jesus in conversation with a Samaritan, and a woman at that, but they dared not mention it. Instead, they said, "Eat." But, Jesus wasn’t hungry any longer. The conversation triggered in him the realization of the deep hunger in the hearts of humankind. He was a man obsessed with his sense of calling to do God’s work. "Look around you," he said. "Don’t you see the spiritual hunger ... see how the fields are ripe for harvesting?" © Grand Valley State University �A Simpler Way Richard A. Rhem Page 5   Don’t you see it? The mainline churches are limping badly and the world is spiritually starved. The Promisekeepers have tapped into this spiritual hunger, but I don’t think the answer lies in what is an attempt to return to yesterday with a strong dose of emotion. The megachurches are flourishing, but there is no attempt to re-think the faith in the modern world. Jesus said neither in this mountain nor in Jerusalem - old forms can’t bear the weight of truth for our world. The old institutional alignments are dead - the old orthodoxy cannot prevail. But, God is God. There is yet living water flowing to quench the thirst and satisfy the hunger of the soul - if only we would let go, wait with openness and awareness to hear and sense what the Spirit is saying to us. If only we would give up our certainties and wait in the darkness, trusting that the living God will show us wonders of which we’ve not yet dreamed. Reference: Gordon D. Kaufman. God, Mystery, Diversity: Christian Theology in a Pluralistic World. Fortress Press, 1996. © Grand Valley State University � https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/c657977270b6d84ea29123f64fdadf45.mp3 63a277b14df03c33cbf65eb7249af756 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Richard A. Rhem Collection Description An account of the resource Text and sound recordings of the sermons, prayers, services, and articles of Richard Rhem, pastor emeritus of Christ Community Church in Spring Lake, Michigan, where he served for 37 years. Starting in the mid 1980's, Rhem began to question some of the traditional Christian dogma that he had been espousing from the pulpit. That questioning was a first step in a long and interesting spiritual journey, one that he openly shared with his congregation. His journey is important, in part because it is reflective of the questioning, the yearnings, and the gradual revision of beliefs that many persons in this part of the century have experienced and continue to experience. It is important also because of the affirming and inclusive way his questioning was done and his thinking evolved. His sermons and other written and spoken materials together document the steps in his journey as it took a turn in 1985, yet continued to revolve around the framework and liturgies of the Christian calendar. Subject The topic of the resource Clergy--Michigan Reformed Church in America Christ Community Church (Spring Lake, Mich.) Religion Interfaith worship Sermons Sound Recordings Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Rhem, Richard A. Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/514">Richard A. Rhem papers (KII-01)</a> Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives. Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Kaufman Interfaith Institute Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Language A language of the resource English Type The nature or genre of the resource Sound Text Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context KII-01 Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant 1981-2014 Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource audio/mp3 text/pdf Sound A resource primarily intended to be heard. Examples include a music playback file format, an audio compact disc, and recorded speech or sounds. Event Pentecost XX Series Meeting God Again for the First Time Scripture Text John 4:23-24 Location The location of the interview Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI References Gordon D. Kaufman. God, Mystery, Diversity: Christian Theology in a Pluralistic World, 1996 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-0-19971005 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1997-10-05 Title A name given to the resource A Simpler Way Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Richard A. Rhem Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Subject The topic of the resource Clergy--Michigan Reformed Church in America Christ Community Church (Spring Lake, Mich.) Sermons Relation A related resource Richard A. Rhem - An Archive of Sermons, Prayers, Talks and Stories: http://richardrhem.org/ Language A language of the resource eng Type The nature or genre of the resource Text Sound Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource audio/mp3 application/pdf Description An account of the resource A sermon given by Richard A. Rhem (Dick) on October 5, 1997 entitled "A Simpler Way", as part of the series "Meeting God Again for the First Time", on the occasion of Pentecost XX, at Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI. Scripture references: John 4:23-24. Awareness Follower of Jesus Inclusive Nature of Religion Spirit https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/8e9b8fcdf010c2da6c2bf5a32f3eae01.mp3 8f27b5b4482d542105d169d776946047 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 XXI Series Meeting God Again for the First Time Scripture Text Genesis 1:1, Psalm 139:7, Acts 17:28 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-0-19971012 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1997-10-12 Title A name given to the resource The God We Never Knew Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Richard A. Rhem Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Subject The topic of the resource Clergy--Michigan Reformed Church in America Christ Community Church (Spring Lake, Mich.) Sermons Relation A related resource Richard A. Rhem - An Archive of Sermons, Prayers, Talks and Stories: http://richardrhem.org/ Language A language of the resource eng Type The nature or genre of the resource Sound Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource audio/mp3 Description An account of the resource A sermon given by Richard A. Rhem (Dick) on October 12, 1997 entitled "The God We Never Knew", as part of the series "Meeting God Again for the First Time", on the occasion of Pentecost XXI, at Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI. Scripture references: Genesis 1:1, Psalm 139:7, Acts 17:28. https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/68ee2e65731d37e0e16ad9e281561428.mp3 ef4807d5b7579064ef2f63bd243976e0 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Richard A. Rhem Collection Description An account of the resource Text and sound recordings of the sermons, prayers, services, and articles of Richard Rhem, pastor emeritus of Christ Community Church in Spring Lake, Michigan, where he served for 37 years. Starting in the mid 1980's, Rhem began to question some of the traditional Christian dogma that he had been espousing from the pulpit. That questioning was a first step in a long and interesting spiritual journey, one that he openly shared with his congregation. His journey is important, in part because it is reflective of the questioning, the yearnings, and the gradual revision of beliefs that many persons in this part of the century have experienced and continue to experience. It is important also because of the affirming and inclusive way his questioning was done and his thinking evolved. His sermons and other written and spoken materials together document the steps in his journey as it took a turn in 1985, yet continued to revolve around the framework and liturgies of the Christian calendar. Subject The topic of the resource Clergy--Michigan Reformed Church in America Christ Community Church (Spring Lake, Mich.) Religion Interfaith worship Sermons Sound Recordings Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Rhem, Richard A. Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/514">Richard A. Rhem papers (KII-01)</a> Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives. Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Kaufman Interfaith Institute Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Language A language of the resource English Type The nature or genre of the resource Sound Text Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context KII-01 Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant 1981-2014 Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource audio/mp3 text/pdf Sound A resource primarily intended to be heard. Examples include a music playback file format, an audio compact disc, and recorded speech or sounds. Event Pentecost XXIII Series Meeting God Again for the First Time Scripture Text Isaiah 49:15, Matthew 7:10-11 Location The location of the interview Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context KII-01_RA-0-19971026 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1997-10-26 Title A name given to the resource Re-Imagining God: Why? Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Richard A. Rhem Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Subject The topic of the resource Clergy--Michigan Reformed Church in America Christ Community Church (Spring Lake, Mich.) Sermons Relation A related resource Richard A. Rhem - An Archive of Sermons, Prayers, Talks and Stories: http://richardrhem.org/ Language A language of the resource eng Type The nature or genre of the resource Sound Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource audio/mp3 Description An account of the resource A sermon given by Richard A. Rhem (Dick) on October 26, 1997 entitled "Re-Imagining God: Why?", as part of the series "Meeting God Again for the First Time", on the occasion of Pentecost XXIII, at Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI. Scripture references: Isaiah 49:15, Matthew 7:10-11. https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/befcd6a9717ce1988cae2762beb203e5.pdf de1954b1bb8b583be2337cb95c306751 PDF Text Text Living Before the Face of God: The Personal Dimension From the series: Meeting God Again For the First Time Text: Genesis 3:10; Psalm 130:1, 4; Psalm 132:1; Philippians 3:12 Richard A. Rhem Christ Community Church Spring Lake, Michigan November 9, 1997 Transcription of the spoken sermon About three weeks ago, our house began to tremble and a check out the window revealed that, down the driveway next door just south of us, lumbered a great big Cat, some kind of heavy equipment. It had a steel arm that seemed two stories high that came, finally, to an iron jaw. The next morning the engine roared, the Cat positioned itself in front of the home that had sat next to ours as long as we had been there. The arm went up, the jaw came down on the flat-roofed dwelling and punctured through it, here, there, in another place – through that roof like it was nothing but tar paper. And then the arm raised up and the jaw moved over and down to the side and simply nudged the wall in and another wall in and another wall in, and before one knew it, that which had been a home in which to dwell was lying in fractured rubble on the basement floor. And then those jaws reached down and hungrily grasped all of the shattered fragments, lifting them up and depositing them in a dump truck that was waiting. Once all of the rubble was out of that floor, once again the arm rose up and moved over to the side of that poured concrete wall and just went, "Poof, poof, poof," and then crrrunched those slabs of concrete until again the jaws could come down and pick up the pieces and put them also in the truck and, within a day’s time, where a dwelling had been there was now simply a vacant lot, a sandbox. Demolition. Deconstruction. Dramatic. Changing the landscape. Not just for the fun of it, but in order that in that place there might rise a new dwelling, to the end that my tax appraisal will go up. Deconstruction, demolition is a part of the human experience in order that there might be reconstruction, new construction. An old and inadequate dwelling was demolished in order that a new house might arise more adequate to the moment, to the time, to the person. And, as I experienced that event, I saw an analogy of my ministry, a ministry of deconstruction, perhaps even demolition – I hope not with the brutality of that iron Cat. Nonetheless, for the same purpose. The analogy breaks down at one point. In the case of the house, there was total demolition, total clearing of the space before the new construction could begin. In © Grand Valley State University   �Living Before the Face of God: The Personal Dimension Richard A. Rhem Page 2   the case of my teaching and preaching ministry, it is necessary, obviously, that there be deconstruction and, simultaneously, construction, that there be dismantling and, at the same time, mantling anew, lest we be left for a time with no place to dwell. But, the purpose is the same, and the deconstruction and the dismantling that must always take place in terms of our faith dwelling is not in order to demolish, but to clear the space for something new and more adequate to our ongoing knowledge and human experience. It has always been that way in the faith journey of the people of God. Jesus stood in the line of the Hebrew prophets. Jesus was born a Jew and died a Jew. His devotion, his worship, his communion with God was within the parameters of his Jewish experience. But he reached into that structured religious establishment and rearranged some rooms and created some new spaces, challenging the conventional wisdom that had moved God afar off. He brought God near, the unbrokered presence of the God Who was accessible to all. And, of course, he paid for it with his life. It was the same throughout 2000 years of church history, but perhaps nowhere more dramatically than in the 16th century. We are the children of the Reformation, that disruptive event in the life of the church that tragically tore asunder the body of Christ, and yet necessarily dismantled and deconstructed an institution that had become overlain with forms and structures that blocked and hindered and obstructed the flow of the grace of God rather than aiding that flow. It must have been difficult for people in the 16th century, at the time itself. I think, for example, of those who came to the altar for the bread and the cup, believing that when the bell sounded at the altar and the priest invoked the spirit of God there was a miracle that occurred, the transubstantiation of the bread and the wine into body and blood, literally. Martin Luther had a hard time moving away from that. His fine distinction was that the bread remains bread and the wine remains wine, but the body is above and around and under the physical element that doesn’t change. Similarly with the cup, so that over against the transubstantiation of the Roman church, the Lutheran tradition had consubstantiation, con, that prefix that means "with." The body was with the bread; the blood was with the cup. I suppose there were those who were troubled when John Calvin suggested that it is neither transubstantiation nor consubstantiation, but rather that Christ is present spiritually when one receives bread and cup with faith. I suppose there were those who brought their children to the baptismal font and got the baptism executed and breathed a sigh of relief because the Catholic tradition taught that the child was born with original sin and that in the baptismal act, the grace of God removed the original sin and gave the child a fresh possibility, a new start, a start for the first time, as it were. I suppose there were those who were troubled when they brought their child to the baptismal font in Geneva, only to learn that there was no automatic grace attached to the act, for © Grand Valley State University �Living Before the Face of God: The Personal Dimension Richard A. Rhem Page 3   the sacramentarian conception of things had been altered to where it was now the prayer and the faith that engaged the promise and brought the grace, but without that automatic guarantee. Throughout the history of the church, as human knowledge has expanded and human experience has grown, and reflection on the faith has continued, there has been that ongoing deconstruction, not in order to leave us naked and bare, but in order to clothe us anew with that which is more adequate, which is in accord with the broader spectrum of our human experience, so that one need not check one’s mind at the door and come in for mindless ritual or devotion but, rather, that one with mind and heart according well might offer one’s whole being to God. In these fall weeks we are re-imagining God, not simply because new is better or old is no longer valid in every case, but in order that we might meet God again for the first time, in order that we might have a fresh experience of the living God, a taste of new wine, that we might experience the presence of God, the illumination, the light of God on our total experience in a whole new way in order that it might be deeper and richer, in order that it might engage our whole being and our life of worship and our life generally might flow out of a center within us that is whole, in order that there might be cohesiveness in our life. Living before the face of God - that’s the purpose. That’s the end of our thinking and our rethinking. Our thinking and our rethinking are vitally important, but are always a step removed from what really matters. What really matters is the communion of the soul with God. What really matters is that we might live with that peace of God within us, that we might live with a kind of confidence and strength and serenity in the conscious awareness of the presence of God in whom we live and move and have our being. Sometimes it’s necessary to deconstruct some of our images and some of our systems and doctrines, because they become blocks. They no longer fit with that which we experience otherwise. They no longer illumine our lives, but they become, if they can be continued, just rote exercises that we do out of custom or superstition, rather than that which we do thoughtfully, with awareness, with attentiveness. Finally, all that we do here together is only for one purpose - that we might live before the face of God in a relationship that is personal. Let us be clear about that. What we are engaged in here week after week is sometimes a matter of deconstructing, but never as an end in itself, but always to aid and abet that living, personal relationship with God which is at the heart and center of our religion. The function of religion is the hatching of the heart; it is the opening of the self to the sense of the sacred, to the holy, to God. And in order to make that accessible, available, in order to create the environment, the setting in which that may happen, we stammer and stumble and we re-imagine, sometimes involving dismantling, but always in order to be mantled afresh with a sense of the gracious, living God. © Grand Valley State University �Living Before the Face of God: The Personal Dimension Richard A. Rhem Page 4   The images we carry of God, as we have noted, are terribly important. That Genesis story pictures the Garden of Eden, that blissful place in which the human persons are placed, protected, innocent, and unaware. The image of God in that old Hebrew myth which is so profound in portraying our human experience, our relationship with God, conveys the image of a God Who comes into the garden from outside, Whose very presence brings with it fear and guilt to the human person who has engaged in that inevitable human act of wondering, experimenting. The church, I think, has missed the point of that garden scene, particularly through the interpretation of St. Paul. The experience of experimentation, that transgression, the coloring outside of the lines is called "the Fall." As a matter of fact, there is part of the liturgy of the church that recognizes that there was something more going on there. It is called The Paradox of the Fortunate Fall, because obviously that which evolved in the human being following that transgression was gain along with the pain. There was that inquisitiveness that brought knowledge and awareness and fear and guilt. There is in that story a reflection of that which is endemic to the human person, a sense of fear and guilt, a sense of treading over boundaries. Dwelling east of Eden now involves alienation and estrangement. Yet, who could say that they should have stayed within Eden in that innocent unawareness? In the Hebrew tradition, the images of God were churned as they wrestled with the concrete experience of their life in the presence of this Creator God Who could only be conceived of as sovereign lord and king in a hierarchical society that was structured from the top down. Yet, there was also a sense of the grace of God. The Psalmist, in Psalm 130, speaks out of the depths. Have you ever been in the depths? Have you ever had to cry out of the depths? Out of the depths I cry to you, O God. O God, if you should mark iniquity, who could stand? But with you there is forgiveness, that you may be feared. And the forgiveness creates hope and newness. Here we have one model, one experience, but the experience of a personal relationship with God, the sense that there is a grace that embraces even the one who in the depths, in the crisis, feels estranged, alienated. The next Psalm is a poem of serenity out of creaturely humility, the human person being what the human person ought to be, not lifting up the eyes, not raising the sights too high, not haughty of spirit, and consequently, in that acceptance of the human condition, experiencing the presence of God as a child nursing at the mother’s breast. "O God, my soul is serene." Serenity through the awareness of God Who is Creator and I a creature. © Grand Valley State University �Living Before the Face of God: The Personal Dimension Richard A. Rhem Page 5   But, there are also people like Paul whose lives are going down the road one way and who have an experience, cataclysmic and dramatic that turns them around in their tracks and, whatever that vision of Jesus involved, it issued in the transformation of Paul’s life. Was it for him also a moment of awareness? Did he suddenly see everything in a moment? What he saw clearly was that religious structures are transcended in that kind of experience. His wrath was raised when religious people came in after him, into the communities that he had formed, like the community in Philippi, with "religion." He calls them dogs; "Beware of the dogs, the mutilators of the flesh." Paul has been pictured in a thousand sermons as a classic case of conversion, obviously from Judaism to Christianity. It’s just not so. Paul in the 3rd chapter of Philippians denigrates not at all his Jewish experience. It was a very positive experience. It was a very adequate experience. It had the potential for mediating to Paul the God of Israel. But that mystical encounter which he had, relativized it, until he came to see, not Christianity, but the possibility, the experience of the reality of the communion of the soul with God. He was born a Jew and he died a Jew. He would never have sensed himself to be anything else, but I think he would have said, "It’s not so important that I’m a Jew anymore," and I don’t think he had the foggiest idea that he would be the founder of Christianity, which he was. Jesus didn’t found Christianity. Paul did. But he would have said the form doesn’t matter, because religion is not a ritual form or a doctrinal system. The experience of God transcends religious ritual and doctrine. All is transcended in the communion of the soul with God. Once the soul has been indelibly marked, when it has been seared with the seal of the presence of God, the reality of God, then all religious form and structure is relativized. Then use it or put it aside. But know that, in a moment of awareness, the presence, the embrace, the undergirding, the overshadowing of God – of the sacred and the holy that permeates the whole of reality – sustains, succors and nurtures and nourishes us. So, where are you? That was God’s question to that first couple cowering in the bushes. "Where are you?" "Hiding." "Why are you hiding?" "Well, we decided to be human." God knows our frame. God remembers that we are human. God made us that way. God didn’t create this whole vast cosmos and all the myriad millions of humankind in order with a blast of God’s breath to damn it all. God is the One in whom we live and move and have our being, who says, "Where are you?" Why don’t you just stop for a moment, for just for a moment. You could become aware, if you could just hear you are loved. If you could just break through as © Grand Valley State University �Living Before the Face of God: The Personal Dimension Richard A. Rhem Page 6   Paul broke through and finally see that, if God is for us, who could be against us? That there is nothing in life or death or principalities or powers or things present or things to come, nothing in the heights or the depths, nothing in all creation that could ever separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus. If for just a moment you could become aware, it would transform us forever and enable us to rest from our restlessness and be reborn with an energy that, with the Apostle Paul, we would say, "I press on with joy, seeking to grasp that which has grasped me." © Grand Valley State University � https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/002f0445ebe2a49ab830148f2a3a450a.mp3 6279c408b092c1d3ef29f955d24915f8 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Richard A. Rhem Collection Description An account of the resource Text and sound recordings of the sermons, prayers, services, and articles of Richard Rhem, pastor emeritus of Christ Community Church in Spring Lake, Michigan, where he served for 37 years. Starting in the mid 1980's, Rhem began to question some of the traditional Christian dogma that he had been espousing from the pulpit. That questioning was a first step in a long and interesting spiritual journey, one that he openly shared with his congregation. His journey is important, in part because it is reflective of the questioning, the yearnings, and the gradual revision of beliefs that many persons in this part of the century have experienced and continue to experience. It is important also because of the affirming and inclusive way his questioning was done and his thinking evolved. His sermons and other written and spoken materials together document the steps in his journey as it took a turn in 1985, yet continued to revolve around the framework and liturgies of the Christian calendar. Subject The topic of the resource Clergy--Michigan Reformed Church in America Christ Community Church (Spring Lake, Mich.) Religion Interfaith worship Sermons Sound Recordings Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Rhem, Richard A. Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/514">Richard A. Rhem papers (KII-01)</a> Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives. Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Kaufman Interfaith Institute Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Language A language of the resource English Type The nature or genre of the resource Sound Text Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context KII-01 Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant 1981-2014 Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource audio/mp3 text/pdf Sound A resource primarily intended to be heard. Examples include a music playback file format, an audio compact disc, and recorded speech or sounds. Event Pentecost XXV Series Meeting God Again for the First Time Scripture Text Genesis 3:10, Psalm 130:1, 4, Psalm 132:1, Phil. 3:12 Location The location of the interview Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context KII-01_RA-0-19971109 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1997-11-09 Title A name given to the resource Living Before the Face of God: The Personal Dimension Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Richard A. Rhem Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Subject The topic of the resource Clergy--Michigan Reformed Church in America Christ Community Church (Spring Lake, Mich.) Sermons Relation A related resource Richard A. Rhem - An Archive of Sermons, Prayers, Talks and Stories: http://richardrhem.org/ Language A language of the resource eng Type The nature or genre of the resource Text Sound Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource audio/mp3 application/pdf Description An account of the resource A sermon given by Richard A. Rhem (Dick) on November 9, 1997 entitled "Living Before the Face of God: The Personal Dimension", as part of the series "Meeting God Again for the First Time", on the occasion of Pentecost XXV, at Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI. Scripture references: Genesis 3:10, Psalm 130:1, 4, Psalm 132:1, Phil. 3:12. Faith Journey Grace History of Church Re-imagining the Faith https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/b9f08d479468c8f1d31fac7ff41f5f95.pdf 648844b3872966b310cab47d13bf6d19 PDF Text Text Living Before the Face of God: The Social Dimension From the series: Meeting God Again For the First Time Text: Micah 6:8; Matthew 6:10 Richard A. Rhem Christ Community Church Spring Lake, Michigan November 16, 1997 Transcription of the spoken sermon I pulled a book from my shelves this week. It had been there for a long time. I always knew it was there, but I had never read it. I purchased it in the early 70's. It was published in 1970. To show you how ancient it is, it cost me $1.25. I pulled it down now because of its title, its title which I thought might have something of interest to say to the theme of this morning’s message, which is, "Living Before the Face of God: The Social Dimension." The title of that book is The Politics of God, and I smiled to myself as I realized that, from the time I came into the ministry until the present, I’ve done a 180° turn. When I came into the ministry, I was strictly warned not to bring politics into the pulpit. In fact, we all know that in polite conversation one is not to speak of religion or politics. In preaching it’s a little difficult not to speak about religion, although some do it successfully. But, politics – derived from the Greek word, polis, which means city – I’ve come to see, has everything to do with the biblical tradition on which we stand. The faith of Israel, which came to expression in Jesus, is from beginning to end very political in terms of its concerns for the polis, the city, or, extended, for the human community. The wellbeing of the human community is of extreme concern to the God of Israel, to the God Who comes to expression in Jesus Christ. One cannot be faithful to the biblical tradition without taking seriously the social dimension. It is there from beginning to end. While we ought never to neglect the personal dimension, as we said last week, it is the social dimension that is by far the major theme of the biblical tradition, and it is interesting to me that I could have missed that in all of my years of training and the early years of my ministry. But there are two ways to avoid that social dimension. I pursued the first way in the early years of my ministry. That is the way that is represented in the question – listen to the question, see if you recognize the question – "Where will you spend eternity?" Now, for one thing, that’s a question addressed to an individual and, secondly, it’s a question that takes the focus off the present and this world and focuses it on the world to come. I was very good at that. Most of you are happy you never knew me. I would have been trying to get you saved. Not so much to make your life © Grand Valley State University   �Living Before the Face of God: The Social Dimension Richard A. Rhem Page 2   good here now, but to get you secured for eternal life in heaven. That was my focus. I didn’t understand anything else. I thought that’s what it was all about. In the more recent decades, the social dimension of the biblical tradition has been avoided by an equally individualistic approach, but this time, the approach of self-fulfillment or peace of mind. It’s a focus on me and my comfortable adjustment in life. There was a very acute sociological analysis of American society published in 1985 called Habits of the Heart and, in that analysis of American society, American society was characterized by the phrase, "The therapeutic society." Not therapy in the sense of the clinical technique that deals with emotional or psychic disorder, but therapy in the sense of enabling us to be adjusted in our environment, in our situations. Now, there’s nothing really wrong with that, except to reduce the function of religion to be an agent for my personal adjustment is hardly worthy of the religious traditions that have marked the human family down through the centuries. But, in either case – whether the focus is on the individual to bring that person to personal salvation for eternal security in heaven, or whether it is on the individual to create peace of mind and self-realization here and now - what is missed is that social dimension which is in the scriptures from the beginning. Israel was born in a liberation movement. The founding event of Israel was the Exodus, and in those opening chapters of Exodus, you remember that the God of Israel was one who was understood to hear the cries of the people. It is stated in those opening chapters: the cries of my people have come to me, and God calls Moses to lead those slaves out of Egyptian bondage. Walter Brueggemann speaks about the royal consciousness of Egypt that had a totalitarian grip on the people who were held in oppressive economic exploitation. And that regime was legitimated by the royal priesthood. Israel moved out of that situation of slavery and into its own land and, for a couple of hundred years, lived under what we could describe as a theocracy. God was king. No more of that human monarch on the throne that led to oppression. But memory is short, and before long there was that debate within Israel. There were those voices saying we want to be like other nations. We need a king. And Samuel warned Israel about the implications of establishing a monarchy. But, nonetheless, it was established. And it went not so poorly with Saul and quite well with David, but you remember Solomon whose oppressive public works projects threw the people into servitude again, with economic exploitation and political oppression. It was a domination system all over again. But there was one thing that saved Israel from being just like all the other nations, because, with the rise of monarchy, came the voice of prophecy. If I were to name what gift Israel has given to the world, it would be that prophetic voice, that prophetic voice endowed with the spirit of God that had the courage to speak truth to power. That is the prophetic function and, in Israel’s history, that which © Grand Valley State University �Living Before the Face of God: The Social Dimension Richard A. Rhem Page 3   shaped it, made it unique was that prophetic voice that was always addressed to those who abused the people. I could have chosen most any prophet. I could have chosen passage after passage to illustrate what I am trying to say this morning, but I felt that Micah’s language was so descriptive as he addresses the leaders of Israel, addressing those who are responsible for the political and religious leadership of the nation. "You hate good and love evil. You tear the skin off my people and the flesh off their bones. You eat the flesh of my people, flay their skin off them, break their bones in pieces, chop them up like meat in a kettle, like flesh in a cauldron." He goes on to excoriate the prophets who play for pay, who have a word of peace for those who can pay, but no word at all for those who don’t put something in their mouth. He criticizes the priesthood which carries on an empty ritual, legitimizing a regime that is full of injustice, lacking all compassion. And then in his conclusion, he says, "Because of this terrible oppression of the vast majority of the people, Zion will be like a plowed field and Jerusalem shall become a heap of ruins." Well, there are those who say, "Well, what should we do? Would the Lord like 1,000 calves, 10,000 rivers of oil? Shall I give my firstborn, the fruit of my body? Would this please the Lord?" To which the prophet says, "Look, you know what the Lord requires - to do justice, to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God. It isn’t that difficult." This was the prophetic description for a society marked by justice and compassion. That prophetic voice came to expression again in Jesus. Over against that politics of exclusion through temple rites and holiness and being the right kind of people, Jesus countered with a politic of compassion. We sang together the Lord’s Prayer in which Jesus was teaching his disciples to pray and in which we have the words,"Thy kingdom come." In other words, your rule prevail. Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. The focus is here and now. Thy will be done, here and now, as it is in heaven. The Sermon on the Mount, in which the Lord’s Prayer appears, also has the Golden Rule, which wasn’t original with Jesus and has come to expression in several different forms. But, as a matter of fact, it still is very much at the heart of the social concern, albeit in that more personal relationship: Do unto others, as you would have them do unto you. And the very statement is in marked contrast to the rather flippant attitude of so much of contemporary society symbolized in a bumper sticker I saw recently which said, in Old English print, "Do Unto Others and Split." Jesus, in the tradition of the Hebrew prophets, called for a politics of compassion and embodied in his ministry, in his table fellowship, in his openness to all, that access to the grace of God and that embrace by God of all people. And it was in his challenge to that © Grand Valley State University �Living Before the Face of God: The Social Dimension Richard A. Rhem Page 4   established authority, reflecting very much the established authority of Micah’s day although without a reigning monarch, that Jesus was crucified. Someone has said that there were three times when the justice and compassion which God wills for society had been rejected - one time in the Hebrew monarchy, a second time in the ministry of Jesus, and then a third time when the emperor Constantine established the Christian faith. That establishment of the Christian faith by Constantine has often been characterized as the conquering of the empire by the Gospel, but has turned out in all truth to be the co-opting of the Gospel by the empire, because from 313 on, with the legitimization of the Christian faith, throne and altar once again came together. The throne created space for the altar and the altar legitimated the throne. Just as the kings of Israel had their retinue of prophets and priests who were paid to speak the party line and to speak no other line, just so the temptation of the church has been to baptize the regime rather than to stand over against it, in the name of the God of Israel, in the name of Jesus, and to say human community is to be structured other than the way it is. Well, what are we to do about it? It is such a massive problem. Are you aware that our world, our society, our global society and even particularly our American society are in a state of crisis, and that the crisis is not really a crisis of abortion or sexual orientation or crime on the streets? The crisis is rather the structures and the systems by which our societies are shaped and formed, the way in which they function. We are coming to see rather lately that the problem with the failure of human community is a systemic problem. It is not that there are not a lot of people of good will. It is not that there are not a lot of people who are trying to do good things. It is that the very way in which our systems, political and economic, are structured continue to exacerbate the problem rather than move us toward world community. In our own country, just to cite one facet of the crisis, there is a growing gulf between the rich and the poor. Let me give you some statistics, just to help you take that in. During the 1980s, 90% of the total increase in income went to the wealthiest 20% of the population. The remaining 10% of the increase was spread over 90% of the people. Obviously, that has to lead to the growing gulf between the rich and the poor. In 1963, the ratio of CEO salaries to average worker salaries in the same company was 41 to 1. Now, being the local CEO, I think that’s fair. 41 to 1. That was 1963. You know what it is now? 225 to 1. You know what it is in Germany right now? 20 to 1. In 1963, the wealthiest one percent of families owned 23% of the wealth in terms of homes and cars and stocks and savings. The wealthiest one percent owned 23%. In 1994, the wealthiest one percent owned 44%. In the U.S., the ratio of annual income received by the top 10% of the population compared to the bottom 10% is 6 to 1. For comparison purposes, in Finland it’s just over 2 to 1, in France, 2 ½ to 1, in Germany and the United Kingdom, 3 to 1. These statistics simply point to an inevitable growth in the gap between those who possess and those who lack. It is a trend. That’s the direction in which it’s moving. But those © Grand Valley State University �Living Before the Face of God: The Social Dimension Richard A. Rhem Page 5   particular statistics are only signs of something that can be seen in the social structures. Education, for example, is lacking severely in poor areas of urban blight, but is doing well in fortunate areas like ours. And yet, even here one doesn’t have to scratch too hard to find a begrudging of that which is the future of society. In those areas where wealth abounds, there are growing gated communities. Now, I like gated communities. I like to feel safe and secure behind those walls, to know that there is a guardhouse and a guard. And one can understand the growth in gated communities among the wealthy because there is so much crime and violence in society, and crime seems everywhere and out of control, and the need to build more prisons and to gain more prison beds is in the news all the time. Might we ask, might we ask why? Are American people simply more prone to crime? Or is there something in the social situation of our own country and our own time that is exacerbating that move to crime and violence? Are we so inured with the American dream? Are we so shaped by a consumerism culture that, failing to realize it, we turn violent? And is it possible that there can be human community where there is more crime on the street and more gated communities? We will not be able to survive that way. There is no human community that way. If you take God out of the equation, if you take human decency out of the equation, it is simply this, that any world that has people who have nothing to lose is a dangerous world. It cannot be a world of human community. It is simply a practical matter, of wisdom, even apart from God, even apart from the God of Israel, even apart from the way of Jesus, even apart from just plain human decency as we have been shaped by the biblical tradition. It is not an easy matter to address. I am not an economist. I am not a sociologist, and you must be tired of blustering rhetoric from the pulpit that would lay a layer of guilt in order to execute better performance. That’s not what this is about. It is extremely complex. It is a global problem. But, do you sense that it is a very real crisis in our world, and would anyone refute the fact that it is a central biblical concern and therefore that about which we must be concerned? Is it not true, as the followers of Jesus in the tradition of the God of Israel, that domination systems, economic exploitation and political oppression, poverty, hunger, people living below a subsistence level where there is nothing but hopelessness and despair - is that not something about which our souls should be wrenched? I was criticized after the first sermon because all I tried to do was raise the consciousness, whereas it was claimed I should have a passionate appeal to do something. Well, I’m not sure that it’s my responsibility to solve the problem. Why is it any more my responsibility to put the new system together than yours? Aren’t we in this together? There are those of you with greater expertise than me. And together, in community, if we are concerned about it, then ought we not to be putting our creative heads together and our creative caring, passionate souls together to say, "How in the world can we make this a more humane world?" © Grand Valley State University �Living Before the Face of God: The Social Dimension Richard A. Rhem Page 6   What would happen if we took our PAC money, Political Action Committee money, and pooled it and stormed Lansing and Washington and buttonholed our legislators and even greased their campaign fund a little and said to them, "What are you doing for the least of these, my brothers and sisters?" Rather than make sure you vote correctly on that amendment that will create a tax loophole so I can give more to Christ Community? You see, you don’t need a guilt-inflicting sermon from a preacher without expertise as to how to solve the thing. Hear me. Hear me. There is a social dimension to our faith and together we must address those structural, systemic problems that make for multitudes of humankind a human existence less than fully human. God cares, and we must care, too. © Grand Valley State University � https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/2c12c6f0dcec875c0e2de9196996ba51.mp3 09d5104dee4b9dc88eca42b11bade194 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Richard A. Rhem Collection Description An account of the resource Text and sound recordings of the sermons, prayers, services, and articles of Richard Rhem, pastor emeritus of Christ Community Church in Spring Lake, Michigan, where he served for 37 years. Starting in the mid 1980's, Rhem began to question some of the traditional Christian dogma that he had been espousing from the pulpit. That questioning was a first step in a long and interesting spiritual journey, one that he openly shared with his congregation. His journey is important, in part because it is reflective of the questioning, the yearnings, and the gradual revision of beliefs that many persons in this part of the century have experienced and continue to experience. It is important also because of the affirming and inclusive way his questioning was done and his thinking evolved. His sermons and other written and spoken materials together document the steps in his journey as it took a turn in 1985, yet continued to revolve around the framework and liturgies of the Christian calendar. Subject The topic of the resource Clergy--Michigan Reformed Church in America Christ Community Church (Spring Lake, Mich.) Religion Interfaith worship Sermons Sound Recordings Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Rhem, Richard A. Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/514">Richard A. Rhem papers (KII-01)</a> Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives. Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Kaufman Interfaith Institute Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Language A language of the resource English Type The nature or genre of the resource Sound Text Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context KII-01 Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant 1981-2014 Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource audio/mp3 text/pdf Sound A resource primarily intended to be heard. Examples include a music playback file format, an audio compact disc, and recorded speech or sounds. Event Pentecost XXVI Series Meeting God Again for the First Time Scripture Text Micah 6:8, Matthew 6:10 Location The location of the interview Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context KII-01_RA-0-19971116 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1997-11-16 Title A name given to the resource Living Before the Face of God: The Social Dimension Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Richard A. Rhem Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Subject The topic of the resource Clergy--Michigan Reformed Church in America Christ Community Church (Spring Lake, Mich.) Sermons Relation A related resource Richard A. Rhem - An Archive of Sermons, Prayers, Talks and Stories: http://richardrhem.org/ Language A language of the resource eng Type The nature or genre of the resource Text Sound Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource audio/mp3 application/pdf Description An account of the resource A sermon given by Richard A. Rhem (Dick) on November 16, 1997 entitled "Living Before the Face of God: The Social Dimension", as part of the series "Meeting God Again for the First Time", on the occasion of Pentecost XXVI, at Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI. Scripture references: Micah 6:8, Matthew 6:10. Compassion Inclusive Nature of Religion Prophetic Voice https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/c35ef3f269bd2608898f29714a20d01a.pdf 9314f7b24cb17020f041efa332106801 PDF Text Text Living Before the Face of God: Healed and Whole From the series: Meeting God Again For the First Time Text: Habakkuk 3:18; Luke 19:9 Richard A. Rhem Christ Community Church Spring Lake, Michigan November 23, 1997 Transcription of the spoken sermon Marcus Borg, whose book, The God We Never Knew, has provided for me the themes of the preaching this fall, concludes the book with a chapter entitled, "Salvation: What On Earth Do We Mean?" You know that I like language and I like play on words and I love the way he has used an idiom in that title, for "what on earth do we mean" is borrowing that idiom "on earth," an expression which we use without reflection, although we know how to use it and when to use it. I heard it in my youth most often, when my father said to me, "What on earth are you thinking?" And we all use it with one another when there is something that we think is out of line, something out of order, something that is being misused or maybe some ugliness or some meanness. "What on earth are you saying?" "What on earth do you mean?" "What on earth are you doing?" It is interesting to study the derivation of idioms. I don’t know where that one came from, but I know this - that when we use it, we don’t really mean, "What on earth are you doing," as opposed to, "What on the moon are you doing?" or, "What on Mars are you doing." We don’t mean anything by "on earth." It’s just an expression that has come into our language and we use it. We know when to use it and how to use it, and everybody understands when we do use it. When a phrase becomes an idiom that is taken for granted, then it can be rolled back, then it can be restored to its literal sense to make a point. And that’s exactly what Marcus Borg does. "What on earth do we mean by salvation?" Not, "What is salvation in terms of eternal life?" Not, "What is salvation in the religious sense in which we usually think about it?" Marcus Borg has tried to get us to re-imagine, to re-think, and in this final chapter he challenges us to re-think salvation or to think again about salvation and its meaning and, as he has done throughout the course of the book, he has sought to focus our attention here rather than there. Now rather than then. On earth rather than in heaven. © Grand Valley State University   �Living Before the Face of God: Healed and Whole Richard A. Rhem Page 2   What on earth do we mean by salvation? In other words, what is salvation in my present experience? What does salvation mean for the here and now, my everyday existence? That hauls us up short, because we tend to think about salvation as that escape that God has provided us in order to save us from condemnation and to bring us to glory. In so doing, focus is other-worldly. It is of another age, and far too often it has far too little content relative to the life I am living right now. And I think that tragically we pour another-worldly content into it, failing to stop to think in order to experience salvation on earth, now, every day, in our ordinary days, in our ordinary life. Salvation. The word itself reminds us of salve. Salve is a healing ointment which we apply to wounds. Another word in that family is salvage. Salvation includes the salvaging of our lives. Salvation, then, speaks about healing and the move toward wholeness. The title of the sermon is "Healed and Whole," and I should qualify that, lest I imply that salvation is some status that we achieve or some achievement that we bring to ourselves as a finished product. Much rather, let me say, living before the face of God, healing and moving toward wholeness, because I believe that salvation is a process, not a product. It is that which is engaging our existence day by day, not something that has moved us from one status to another and guaranteed the future. Salvation. What on earth do we mean? I wish for a few moments you could disengage from everything you have ever been taught, ever heard about, ever thought about salvation. These old words become so encrusted with baggage, with nuances, connotations. And they’re so connected with particular experiences, people and places that it is very hard for us to break through and to think salvation in a fresh and clear manner. I know that we can’t wash our minds of all of that which has accrued over all of our years but, just for a moment, think with me about salvation on earth, the process of being saved, here and now. I suspect that most of us have moments when we ask ourselves, what on earth is my life amounting to? What on earth am I doing? What on earth am I giving myself to? What is my life? Where am I going? What of my life? Most of the time we’re busy enough so that we can get off that in a hurry and we can get on to important things like appointments and setting new goals and allowing the drivenness of our lives and our compulsions to keep us moving, not pausing long enough to allow those moments of serious reflection to penetrate to the depths, just to stay and to wait long enough with the questions. What is my life? But, sometimes it does happen. Perhaps some of you are experiencing those questions this morning. Maybe a medical diagnosis, a loss of employment, a loss of a loved one. Maybe just a boredom of ordinary days. And then there is that pause and that question. © Grand Valley State University �Living Before the Face of God: Healed and Whole Richard A. Rhem Page 3   I suspect something like that was going on with Zacchaeus. We don’t know, but we are told that he was a chief tax collector, and that he was rich. So, externally, I suppose we would say Zacchaeus was doing all right. Of course, he had joined the enemy. He became an agent of the oppressing power; he was in the upper echelons of the tax bureaucracy and everyone hates tax people. And so, he had to make a decision. He could live, apparently, with the rejection of his fellow Jews, his countrymen. But something was going on. Something was eating at him. Maybe it was just that Zacchaeus no longer really liked Zacchaeus. We know something was going on because Zacchaeus scrapped his dignity and scrambled up a sycamore tree in order to get a glimpse of Jesus who was going to pass that way. The reputation of Jesus had preceded him. He was a person known for healing; he was a charismatic personality; he seemed to move multitudes and he had been an agent of the transformation of people’s lives, and I suspect that Zacchaeus was there on more than a celebrity hunt. I’m sure there were many who crowded around to see this person, but I suspect that anybody who goes to the measures that Zacchaeus goes to had something deeper in mind, and he must have been totally shocked to get the invitation of Jesus, who invited himself to Zacchaeus’ home. We’re not told a lot about it, except that Zacchaeus seemed to experience a total transformation, giving away half of what he earned, and being willing to restore fourfold to anyone whom he had defrauded. The story is just a little vignette, and the details aren’t there, but we can imagine something going on - a person suddenly stops to say, "What is my life? What on earth am I doing?", who encounters Jesus, drawing forth from Jesus the comment at the end, "Today salvation has come to this home." Salvation. Jesus didn’t say that Zacchaeus had been outside of the covenant and now came in. Indeed, he says he, too, is a child of the covenant. He, too, is a son of Abraham. No, it was something else that was going on internally with Zacchaeus. Maybe it was the dignity and the respect that Jesus accorded him, he being so used to being despised and rejected of all humankind. I can imagine that, when Jesus saw that little fellow up in the tree, called him down, watched him scramble, Jesus probably fell in love with him right there, maybe had a good bellylaugh. Maybe it was just that genuine human encounter, just the sense that someone looked at Zacchaeus as a human being, accorded him some dignity, some person-to-person reality that turned him inside out, transformed him. Jesus said that that was salvation. Jesus didn’t say a lot about repentance and faith and all of the stuff that we’ve barnacled that term up with. Jesus met a person and somehow or other must have said through body language or real language, "Zacchaeus, you are accepted." And Zacchaeus was changed forever. I love the description of grace that we have on the cover of your bulletin. It’s by Paul Tillich and I have never found anything that I think says it any better. I see Zacchaeus in those opening lines. Tillich says, © Grand Valley State University �Living Before the Face of God: Healed and Whole Richard A. Rhem Page 4   The experience of grace strikes us when our disgust for our own being, our indifference, our weakness, our hostility and our lack of direction and composure have become intolerable to us. It strikes us when, year after year, the longed for perfection of life does not appear, when the old compulsions reign within us as they have for decades, when despair destroys all joy and courage. I wonder if that’s not what was going on with Zacchaeus, if that’s not what made him scurry up the sycamore tree. Can you identify with some of this? Those moments of reflection when we pause long enough to look ourselves in the mirror and what we see causes us to say, "What on earth am I doing? What on earth am I giving my life to? Who am I, anyway?" Tillich says it can happen at a moment like that. Maybe grace is experienced at a moment of encounter such as Zacchaeus and Jesus when ... a wave of light breaks into our darkness, and it is as though a voice were saying, You are accepted. You are accepted, accepted by that which is greater than you and the name of which you do not know. Tillich says, if it ever happens to you, ... Do not ask for the name now; perhaps you will find it later. Do not try to do anything now; perhaps later you will do much. Do not seek for anything; do not perform anything; do not intend anything. Simply accept the fact that you are accepted! If that happens to us, we experience grace. You see, he belabors the point because the whole gospel of Jesus Christ has been associated with the religion of performance. We can talk about grace until we are blue in the face, but it always brings with it all of the trappings of religion that involve repentance and obedience and performance and that God Who is the monarch, the all-glorious king afar off, the God Who is the offended deity, Who, to be sure, loves us and has provided a way for the embrace, nonetheless is a God before Whom to be honest we cower because we know we can never measure up. So, Tillich says if there is ever such a golden moment in your life, just sit still, just wait, soak it in, absorb it. Don’t try to do anything. Don’t try to figure it out. Don’t intend anything; don’t perform anything; just let it soak in and accept it. I’m accepted. Just accept your acceptance! That must have been the experience of Zacchaeus, and it is really so simple because, you see, the gospel of Jesus Christ would not be good news if it brought with it some demand on our part, some performance, something we have to believe. How can you believe what you don’t believe? If you believe, it is a gift. Faith is a gift, not something you can generate within yourself, some path of performance. Well, that, too, is grace, the expression of our lives, the genuine, authentic expression of who we are. Grace is precisely that - it is the acceptance of who we are. © Grand Valley State University �Living Before the Face of God: Healed and Whole Richard A. Rhem Page 5   Evangelism is not going into all the world and telling the story that can get a response from people. Evangelism, good news, evangel is to go into all the world and tell the whole world what is already true, what has been always true, eternally true, and will be eternally true. It is the proclamation, not of what we ought to as human beings do for God, but it is the proclamation of what God has done. If we could just accept it. And it is simple. You are accepted! You are accepted. There’s nothing you can do about it. You can never get away from it; it will embrace you, it will chase you. You cannot flee the presence of grace because God is not some monarch afar off, offended, our adversary, our enemy, someone to be appeased and propitiated. God is the one in whom we live and move and have our being, the one who embraces these children at the baptismal font, who passively receives, who goes with us through all our days and will be there at our end; the One Who heard our borning cry and at the end has one more surprise. If you could just accept it - you are accepted! And if you can hear it, then you still may get into dismay and confusion as Habakkuk when the enemy’s at the door and disaster looms on the horizon, and you may cry to God and you’ll hear the words that Habakkuk heard, "The just shall live by faith or by faithfulness." In other words, trust, trust, trust that you are accepted. Trust. And if you hear it, then you say, "Okay, okay. So the olive crop fails, no herds in the field, no cattle in the stall. Strip me naked. Lay me bare, and still I will rejoice in God my salvation, my salve, my salvager, the One who doesn’t loom on the other side of eternity waiting to check me in, the moral policeman, the gatekeeper." No, God is here now, trying to get through to us, "You are accepted. You are accepted. You are accepted." And if ever once the soul is seared with the burning, branding iron of grace, then nothing will shake us, nothing will move us, for we have learned in the inner corpuscles of our being that all is grace and all will be well, and that’s all there is to it, and that is what on earth we mean by salvation, and heaven will take care of itself! Reference: Marcus Borg. The God We Never Knew: Beyond Dogmatic Religion to a more Authentic Contemporary Faith. HarperOne, 1998. Paul Tillich, “You Are Accepted,” Chapter 19, The Shaking of the Foundations. Charles Scribner & Sons, 1955. © Grand Valley State University � https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/30b24471b93930e6da17a43fc76ddb65.mp3 5335c7e7af47c15bff356d68b0d03a6c 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 XXVII Series Meeting God Again for the First Time Scripture Text Habakkuk 3:18, Luke 19:9 Location The location of the interview Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI References Marcus Borg. The God We Never Knew: Beyond Dogmatic Religion to a more Authentic Contemporary Faith, 1998 Paul Tillich, "You Are Accepted," Ch. 19, The Shaking of the Foundations, 1955 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-0-19971123 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1997-11-23 Title A name given to the resource Living Before the Face of God: Healed and Whole Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Richard A. Rhem Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Subject The topic of the resource Clergy--Michigan Reformed Church in America Christ Community Church (Spring Lake, Mich.) Sermons Relation A related resource Richard A. Rhem - An Archive of Sermons, Prayers, Talks and Stories: http://richardrhem.org/ Language A language of the resource eng Type The nature or genre of the resource Text Sound Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource audio/mp3 application/pdf Description An account of the resource A sermon given by Richard A. Rhem (Dick) on November 23, 1997 entitled "Living Before the Face of God: Healed and Whole", as part of the series "Meeting God Again for the First Time", on the occasion of Pentecost XXVII, at Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI. Scripture references: Habakkuk 3:18, Luke 19:9. https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/980a3d7a3c2d0646fed3f596b7806839.mp3 aa5df9dff05470359cf684faecef2d72 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Richard A. Rhem Collection Description An account of the resource Text and sound recordings of the sermons, prayers, services, and articles of Richard Rhem, pastor emeritus of Christ Community Church in Spring Lake, Michigan, where he served for 37 years. Starting in the mid 1980's, Rhem began to question some of the traditional Christian dogma that he had been espousing from the pulpit. That questioning was a first step in a long and interesting spiritual journey, one that he openly shared with his congregation. His journey is important, in part because it is reflective of the questioning, the yearnings, and the gradual revision of beliefs that many persons in this part of the century have experienced and continue to experience. It is important also because of the affirming and inclusive way his questioning was done and his thinking evolved. His sermons and other written and spoken materials together document the steps in his journey as it took a turn in 1985, yet continued to revolve around the framework and liturgies of the Christian calendar. Subject The topic of the resource Clergy--Michigan Reformed Church in America Christ Community Church (Spring Lake, Mich.) Religion Interfaith worship Sermons Sound Recordings Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Rhem, Richard A. Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/514">Richard A. Rhem papers (KII-01)</a> Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives. Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Kaufman Interfaith Institute Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Language A language of the resource English Type The nature or genre of the resource Sound Text Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context KII-01 Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant 1981-2014 Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource audio/mp3 text/pdf Sound A resource primarily intended to be heard. Examples include a music playback file format, an audio compact disc, and recorded speech or sounds. Event Thanksgiving Sunday Scripture Text Deuteronomy 8:12-14, Psalm 115:6, 7, 17 Location The location of the interview Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context KII-01_RA-0-19971127 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1997-11-25 Title A name given to the resource The Irony of Thanksgiving Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Richard A. Rhem Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Subject The topic of the resource Clergy--Michigan Reformed Church in America Christ Community Church (Spring Lake, Mich.) Sermons Relation A related resource Richard A. Rhem - An Archive of Sermons, Prayers, Talks and Stories: http://richardrhem.org/ Language A language of the resource eng Type The nature or genre of the resource Sound Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource audio/mp3 Description An account of the resource A sermon given by Richard A. Rhem (Dick) on November 25, 1997 entitled "The Irony of Thanksgiving", on the occasion of Thanksgiving Sunday, at Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI. Scripture references: Deuteronomy 8:12-14, Psalm 115:6, 7, 17. https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/c6ec17856214fb526f69c794dc3bf5c4.pdf 475c255234237542a6c033556bf696fc PDF Text Text An Ancient Dreamer From the Advent series: Songs of Liberation Text: Isaiah 11:9; John 1:14 Richard A. Rhem Christ Community Church Spring Lake, Michigan Advent I, December 7, 1997 Transcription of the spoken sermon It is Advent again and so we march out those same familiar passages of scripture. They are wonderful passages; we celebrate the Christian Year thus annually. We come around the cycle and the themes surface once again, and there is a familiarity about those prophetic scriptures and gospel lessons. In this Advent season, we’re going to be looking at the Songs of Liberation. Subsequently, we will be taking another look at Mary’s marvelous "Magnificat," Zachariah’s song of delight at the birth of John the Baptist, but today, "The Ancient Dreamer," the prophet Isaiah, who is representative of that prophetic vision that dreamed of a world other than it is, of a different human condition, of a transformed human society, of the kingdom of God, of Shalom on earth, of a totally transformed human situation. We hear the prophetic words, "From the stump of Jesse," seemingly just a dead stump, comes a sprout, and that sprout blossoms forth and becomes the king anointed with Spirit or a Christ, a Messiah, one who judges, not according to appearance or what people are saying, but according to truth, who advocates for justice, who has a concern for the poor. And not only is the whole social situation transformed, but nature itself is transformed. The wolf and the lamb lie down together and all of the nature red in tooth and claw is domesticated and docile in a beautiful, harmonious totality - the Shalom of God. The Ancient Dreamer paints the picture and, representative as he was of that poor and oppressed people, it was the longing and the yearning for things to be different than they were. We’re going to look at the Songs of Liberation once again this Advent season, but this morning I’m going to dump in your laps a problem. I want you to think about it with me in this Advent season. I’ll indicate, perhaps, the direction in which I’m thinking, but what I really hope to accomplish this morning is the rather modest task of confronting you, making you aware, bringing to your consciousness a very serious problem, and it is this - the Songs of Liberation that fill the prophetic scriptures of the Hebrew tradition and the ballads of liberation that fill the Gospel, telling the story of the arrival of Jesus, those songs of liberation are the songs of an underdog people. That must be obvious. People in dire straits, people under oppression, people under systems of domination, people in poverty, disease, hopelessness are still human. There’s © Grand Valley State University   �An Ancient Dreamer Richard A. Rhem Page 2   something in the human heart that cries out against that. There’s that cry of the Old Testament, "How long, O Lord, how long?" And so, it’s quite to be expected, and we would find emanating from Israel, a minor people, marginalized, just a pawn in the game of international power brokerage – it is rather obvious that that people in the situation of poverty and destitution into which Jesus was born, it was quite understandable that such a people should be marked by songs of liberation. They were underdogs. Now, here’s the problem for Advent. How do the Songs of Liberation emanating from underdogs get appropriated by top dogs? We love this season. It’s beautiful. We come into the sanctuary and there’s something that touches us deeply - the music, the ritual, and so much about the celebration of the Advent-Christmas season is very dear to us. We read the scriptures. They are the prescribed ones, but fortunately, we don’t really hear them, lest they ruin our celebration. Now, isn’t it true that we sort of take Advent in our stride? We hear these songs of liberation, but we don’t really want them to be realized, do we? Because if the songs of liberation, the ancient dreamer’s dream, Mary’s Magnificat, Zachariah’s paeon of praise - if they were to be realized, our world would be turned upside down. There would be such a radical transformation of the human scene, that everything about our lives would be changed. It’s one thing to sing that way when you’re an underdog, but it would be foolhardy to sing that way when you’re the top dog. Do you hear me? That’s easy enough, isn’t it? How does a top dog connect his or her life to the yearning of the underdog? Well, we’ve got a solution. We’ve pushed the dream out into the future, into the world beyond, and we, in the meantime, read these stories, these ballads, sing these songs, offer our prayers, and trust that nothing radical will happen until the end when God will fix it all. Because I think we’re not really against God fixing it right, just not right away. Eventually, eventually, let’s get everything straightened out, the Golden Age of the future. That way, we can read the passages, say our prayers, but carry on life pretty much business as usual. But you see what’s happening? The biblical story isn’t connecting with the reality of our lives. The biblical story has become a piece of our compartment labeled "Religion." But it is not in touch with the everyday reality of our life and profession and business, public life, society in general. And so we have a "Religious" compartment and it is not in connection with where we really live. So, maybe we have to look at those songs once again and revisit the scripture and see how it is that top dogs should respond to the longing of underdogs. Last September we had a Jewish-Christian Dialogue when Rabbi Hartman came back to town, and the theme of his discussion with Father Richard John Neuhaus was carefully selected - "The Word of God and Interpretive Communities." That means that the Word of God always comes filtered through an interpretive community. That means that there is no bare naked Word of God out there in the © Grand Valley State University �An Ancient Dreamer Richard A. Rhem Page 3   world. The only Word of God out in the world is the Word of God filtered through the human receiver. And then, underneath that title, "Possibilities for SelfCorrection." That biblical tradition, that Word of God as it has come down to us through interpretive communities - what are the possibilities for self-correction? Well, David Hartman gave the experience of the Jewish people which I think is very helpful. He said in the scriptures we have a couple of paradigms or models of the relationship of God to the people. The Exodus, the founding experience of Israel, was an experience where Israel was in bondage; they cried to God; God moved for deliverance, and they passively received the redemption of God: God’s unilateral movement to redeem a people. That was the Exodus model, which was the shaper of the founding of the people Israel. But, a little later, Moses led that people to the foot of Mount Sinai and they got the law of God and the covenant of God, and now we hear a little different tone. Now it’s not just God acting unilaterally, but now God invites them into responsible covenant relationship: "I have borne you on eagles’ wings and brought you to myself. Now, therefore, if you will hear my voice and obey my command...." And that Sinai covenant is summarized in the Book of Deuteronomy where we have Moses’ farewell sermons as he summarizes the experience, and what does he say in a climactic passage in the Book of Deuteronomy? "Look, I have set before you life and death, blessing and curse. Choose life, that you may live." Israel is confronted with a responsibility to respond to God, so there came that whole tradition in Israel of the responsibility of the leadership of the people, the rabbis, to implement the moral law of God, the active implementation of the moral law. When that was not implemented, when that moral law was not followed, the prophets rose up and condemned Israel and said, "You will be judged for this." But, David Hartman said there was another stage. It happened in the centuries right around Jesus, Second Temple Judaism, the Talmudic period. Then the Jews made another move. Not only did they take responsibility for the implementation of the law as it was written, but they became the interpreters of the law. Why did they have to interpret the law? Well, the situation had changed. History moved on. There were new situations, new conditions. They had to obey God, follow God, worship God in a whole new context, and so they developed the method of interpretation that not only said what the law said, but now they interpreted what the law meant. That was a significant move in the life of the Jewish people, whereas, David Hartman said, the rabbis, the biblical scholars became, as it were, the creators of the Word of God, never starting out with something brand new but, always working with that tradition, saying, "Now © Grand Valley State University �An Ancient Dreamer Richard A. Rhem Page 4   in this new situation, this is what the Word means, thereby becoming an interpretive community. But, the Jewish people still considered themselves to be in exile and the predominant, at least orthodox, opinion among the Jewish people was that they were scattered in exile waiting for the Messiah to come. We say that Jesus was the Messiah. But they say that Jesus was not the Messiah. Jesus could not be the Messiah, because, when Messiah comes, the world will be made right. And the world is still filled with war and violence and all the rest of it. Obviously, then, the Messiah has not come. Well, we said the Messiah came, but he came in a little different way than we expected and he’s going to come again and fix it up. Now, we have the Jewish people and the Christian church both looking for the Messiah to come - we looking for a return, they looking for the first time, because the predominant Jewish mood was, if history is going to be changed, God is going to have to change it through God’s anointed one, the sprout out of the stump of Jesse. In the 19th century there were some secular Jews, not observant anymore, who said, "You know, we’ve really had enough of prayer and fasting. We’ve really had enough of waiting on God. Let’s do something," and the Zionist movement was born. The Zionist movement was an innovative movement within Judaism in which the secular Jews for the first time took responsibility for history. They began to say it is not enough to pray and to say, "How long, O Lord, how long?" Let us roll up our sleeves and let us make it happen. The Zionist movement of the 19th century issued in the establishment of the Jewish homeland in the 20th century and there is Israel today, a reality. Now, my question to you this Advent season is whether or not that secular Zionist movement within Judaism did not perhaps get it right, and that maybe the Christian church ought to take a lesson and begin to implement the kingdom of God here and now? Maybe we ought to be done with that "golden age" out in the future which God will make happen. Maybe we ought to begin to say, "Where in the world is the Spirit of God moving now, and how can we get in the flow of that Spirit to realize more and more the kingdom of God, here and now, right here and now, in this world, in this place?" Maybe in Advent we ought to catch ourselves up short and not say, "How long, O Lord, how long?" And, "O Lord, when will be the day of his appearing?" But maybe we ought to hear, for example, Micah in the text of a couple weeks ago, "The Lord has showed you what is required of you and what does the Lord require of you, but to do justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God." Maybe we ought to take seriously what we profess when we say the Word became flesh. Maybe we ought to get serious about the fact that God has embodied in human flesh the eternal intention of God - "In the beginning was the word and © Grand Valley State University �An Ancient Dreamer Richard A. Rhem Page 5   the word was with God and the word became flesh and dwelt among us," and in the flesh of Jesus we have the embodiment of the intention of God. Maybe God is saying, when we say, "How long, O Lord," maybe God is saying, "That’s my line! Why are you crying to me? Haven’t I made it clear? Is it a problem that you don’t understand? Is it a problem that the way is not there? What do you want further from me? Why aren’t you doing something about it?" My problem with celebrating Advent unreflectively, according to custom, delightful though it is, is that we endanger ourselves in becoming very hypocritical, because, you see, it seems to me that Advent prayers in the sanctuary or the chapel ought to be not, "O God, bring in the day of your kingdom," but rather, "O God, give me wisdom, discernment and courage to affect your kingdom here and now." Perhaps our prayer and our worship ought to be a time of waiting on the Lord to give us that inward strength and courage and boldness to begin to act according to the way that clearly God has called us to act. And what would happen if songs of liberation began to be sung, not only by the underdogs, but by the top dogs? And is it possible that in our Western tradition we have already all kinds of things going for us that ought not to be seen as some secular developments, but perhaps as the beginning germination of the kingdom of God within the course of history? We could name a lot of things. How about the feminist movement, where a woman says, "Could you treat me as a human being, fully human? Could I be treated equally?" What about our growing understanding, as we have here, that sexual orientation is not a choice, but is a part of the vast diversity of God’s creation? What would happen if you took into your arms one who had felt the sting of rejection and felt her salty tears as she knew for the first time she was included? Wouldn’t it be the beginning of the kingdom of God? What about the dignity of the human person that we’ve come to appreciate in the West? What about the democratic process, what about the opportunity to worship God according to our conscience? Those values are not just human values arrived at through secular speculation, but I believe they are the consequence of the impetus of the Spirit of God in the course of history. What if we got serious about taking those things seriously and making them applicable in ever-widening circles? What if we got concerned as top dogs to begin to implement the yearning of the underdogs of the world? Wouldn’t that be something? We don’t have to throw our world away. We don’t have to throw our freedoms away. We don’t have to throw the economic miracle away; we don’t have to throw our medical miracles away; we don’t have to undo what we have done. What we have to do is to see that all that has been done has been done by grace and ought to be implemented more and more for more and more, and then, I believe the kingdom would be coming and then we would be less concerned about some golden age and less imperiling our soul with hypocrisy by praying, "Lord, when is © Grand Valley State University �An Ancient Dreamer Richard A. Rhem Page 6   the day of Your appearing?" and we would start making something happen here and now, and maybe for the first time be honest at Advent. There have been secular writers who have described political reality in marvelous terms that are somewhat comparable to the ancient dreamer, and people write them off. They call them Utopian. And when anyone comes up with a different idea of another world and the way it could be, they could easily be written off as Utopian. "Aaah, it’s Utopia! Why don’t you get in the real world? Get real!" You know what Utopia means from the Greek? Literally, no place. Utopia is no place, and the Messianic Age is no age. The Messianic Age and the ideal of Utopia is that critique of every moment of history and by God’s grace and by God’s Spirit, we are the people who have the resources and the power and the vision to make it happen. When will we begin to take responsibility for our world? There have been some interesting things written about the sextuplets as God’s miracle. That’s not God’s miracle, that’s a medical miracle and it has questionable qualities about it; it’s a question of medical ethics, it’s something that human beings ought to think about, wrestle with. God isn’t going to answer that problem. We need to stay out of the chapel and off our knees asking God to do what God asks us to do when He says, "Why don’t you do what you ought to be doing, have enough knowledge to be doing, enough wisdom to be doing, if you would do it humbly, walking with your God, conscious that life is gift and you are charged with responsibility, but have access to the Spirit so that you could change your world?" That is what I’d like you to think about this week. © Grand Valley State University � https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/4b4824d8aef5ba3fc0d0d31e19d90b0f.mp3 0337713fce117840ceb0a68d511a22ce Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Richard A. Rhem Collection Description An account of the resource Text and sound recordings of the sermons, prayers, services, and articles of Richard Rhem, pastor emeritus of Christ Community Church in Spring Lake, Michigan, where he served for 37 years. Starting in the mid 1980's, Rhem began to question some of the traditional Christian dogma that he had been espousing from the pulpit. That questioning was a first step in a long and interesting spiritual journey, one that he openly shared with his congregation. His journey is important, in part because it is reflective of the questioning, the yearnings, and the gradual revision of beliefs that many persons in this part of the century have experienced and continue to experience. It is important also because of the affirming and inclusive way his questioning was done and his thinking evolved. His sermons and other written and spoken materials together document the steps in his journey as it took a turn in 1985, yet continued to revolve around the framework and liturgies of the Christian calendar. Subject The topic of the resource Clergy--Michigan Reformed Church in America Christ Community Church (Spring Lake, Mich.) Religion Interfaith worship Sermons Sound Recordings Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Rhem, Richard A. Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/514">Richard A. Rhem papers (KII-01)</a> Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives. Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Kaufman Interfaith Institute Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Language A language of the resource English Type The nature or genre of the resource Sound Text Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context KII-01 Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant 1981-2014 Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource audio/mp3 text/pdf Sound A resource primarily intended to be heard. Examples include a music playback file format, an audio compact disc, and recorded speech or sounds. Event Advent II Series Songs of Liberation Scripture Text Isaiah 1:9, John 1:1-14 Location The location of the interview Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context KII-01_RA-0-19971207 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1997-12-07 Title A name given to the resource An Ancient Dreamer Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Richard A. Rhem Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Subject The topic of the resource Clergy--Michigan Reformed Church in America Christ Community Church (Spring Lake, Mich.) Sermons Relation A related resource Richard A. Rhem - An Archive of Sermons, Prayers, Talks and Stories: http://richardrhem.org/ Language A language of the resource eng Type The nature or genre of the resource Text Sound 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 December 7, 1997 entitled "An Ancient Dreamer", as part of the series "Songs of Liberation", on the occasion of Advent II, at Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI. Scripture references: Isaiah 1:9, John 1:1-14. Prophetic Voice Shalom Transformation Way of Jesus https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/952fee991d048fc5986f6deefdd34eb7.pdf 4cc183ab883e432ebcde2bd52a3c4f43 PDF Text Text When Hope Is Almost Gone From the Advent series: Songs Of Liberation Text: Malachi 3:1; 4:2; Luke 1:78-79 Richard A. Rhem Christ Community Church Spring Lake, Michigan Advent II, December 14, 1997 Transcription of the spoken sermon Well, did you do your assignment? The one I gave you last week? The assignment was to reflect on my question: How it is that we who are top dogs can sing the songs of liberation of the underdogs? We established last week that the songs of liberation with which Luke introduces his Gospel are, indeed, the songs of liberation of those who are living in darkness, who are longing to be delivered by the mighty hand of God, and that the famous songs that have played such a critical part in Christian liturgy, the Benedictus today, Zachariah’s song, the Nunc Dimitis, old Simeon’s song, and next week, the song of Mary, the Magnificat, that those are, indeed, songs of liberation in which a people are crying out to God to make good God’s promises to establish justice on the earth and to bring peace to all humankind. The songs of liberation are described very well by a recent author, Richard Horsley, in his book entitled, The Liberation of Christmas, in which he points out, I believe, beyond reputation, that the Christmas story is, indeed, a story of liberation which is a story told by those who are underdogs as they hope in the coming of this one to have justice established and peace brought to earth, the transformation of human society, indeed, the transformation of the world. The songs of liberation are the songs of underdogs. We who claim them today are top dogs. And, if we really understood what we were singing, we would realize that we are calling for the total transformation of the world and that what is being imagined in those songs of liberation is another way for the world to be, which would involve a radical transformation in our own experience in human society. And so, in order that we might keep Advent with integrity and celebrate Christmas honestly, I’ve asked you in this season to reflect on that fact - that we who are top dogs sing the songs of underdogs, and I think we seldom realize it. The people of Israel were always a minor pawn in the power brokerage of imperial affairs. They knew a moment of glory with David and grandeur with © Grand Valley State University   �When Hope Is Almost Gone Richard A. Rhem Page 2   Solomon but, outside of that, Israel never amounted to much in terms of an earthly power. They were caught between the great world empires, and yet they had a sense that they were chosen by God to be God’s instrument for the effecting of God’s will on earth. And as we saw last week, they had ancient dreamers who dreamed of a marvelous world, the Messianic Age. There would be a sprout out of the stump of Jesse, and he would change things. He would affect justice in the land, he would have compassion for the poor, he would bring about a world that was reconciled in all of nature so that the lion and the lamb would lie down together and they wouldn’t hurt or destroy in all God’s holy mountain, because the earth would be covered with the knowledge of God as the waters cover the sea. A beautiful picture, and Israel’s dreamers dreamed of such a picture, and it was a dream that lodged in the hearts of the people. They believed that, somehow or other, history was moving in a way which eventually would bring about that kind of a reality. But, it didn’t come. There are those beautiful words of Second Isaiah in the 40th chapter of the book by that name, "Comfort ye, comfort ye, my people," and the prophet calls out to the cities of Judah, "Behold, your God." There was all of this marvelous expectation as the exiles were going home from Babylon. They believed that this was the time. But it didn’t come, and, as it didn’t come and didn’t come, prophecy moved into the genre of apocalyptic which was a rather despairing understanding of history, believing that history no longer had the potential of realizing their dream. They prayed for the dramatic intervention of God that would damn the wicked and establish the righteous and would bring in the new age of God’s righteousness and peace. Malachi was such a voice. He is around 450, 475 years before the birth of Jesus. The exiles have returned from Babylon. Rather than Mount Zion being established as the top mountain of all the earth with all the nations flowing to it for instruction, they were a poverty-stricken, destitute people. They were still under the dominion of the Persian empire, and their city was lying in ruins, their walls were not built. This was a time that Ezra came to teach them the law again and Nehemiah came to build the walls, and they built a temple. Herod built the second temple. But the community was poor. It was a far cry from the glorious picture of Second Isaiah, and Malachi, speaking to that destitution, that human hopelessness, says, "But, my messenger is going to come." In fact, Malachi probably isn’t the name of a prophet. Malachi means literally, in Hebrew, my messenger. So this anonymous prophet is saying into a situation of despair and darkness, "In the name of God, my messenger will come. And it will be a time of judging and refining and purgation, and this will be preparation of the people of God for that great and terrible day of the Lord, a day of darkness and judgment when the wickedness of the earth will be thrown down and righteousness will be established." © Grand Valley State University �When Hope Is Almost Gone Richard A. Rhem Page 3   Well, we know from our Gospels that the early Jesus movement understood John the Baptist as fulfilling that role of the messenger who is portrayed by Malachi in terms of an Elijah returned. Jesus said John was fulfilling the role of Elijah. And so, this story of the nativity of John and Jesus is woven by Luke into a beautiful tapestry laced with these songs of liberation to give expression to that which was the deep conviction of that early Jewish Jesus movement that now God was present in human form, was moving things toward that culminating act when judgment would fall and light would shine for the people of God, and the purposes of God would be realized. The early Jewish Jesus movement was convinced that, in this one God was present, God was embodied, God was moving, and the kingdom of God would be effected, and the song that Zachariah sang, the Benedictus, celebrates this movement of God in the establishing of the horn of salvation, the one that will bring about salvation, and then he addresses his little child, John, and says that, "You, child, will go before this one to prepare the people who, in the tender mercy of God, will see the sun of righteousness dawn upon them. They who live in darkness in the shadow of death will finally, finally receive this gift of God." Well, that was the eschatology. That is, that was the understanding of the times, the last times of that community, of that world into which Jesus was born, and when the angel announced the birth of Jesus, "To you this day in the city of David is born a Savior," that Savior we automatically with our Christian ears think of as one who saves us from our sins in order to make us acceptable to God and bring us to heaven. But, in the understanding of that Jewish Jesus community that believed that God was present in Jesus, moving things toward the culmination, that community that believed that it was living on the edge of the end, for them the Savior was one who would salvage them, save them from their enemies, their occupying power, those who taxed them, took their land, abused and exploited them. Salvation in that community’s idea had social, political and economic implications. Israel always knew that God forgave their sins. The Psalmist said, "Lord, if you should mark iniquity, who could stand? But, with You there is forgiveness." Read David’s marvelous Psalm of confession, Psalm 51, where he acknowledges his sin and says to God, "But a broken and a contrite heart Thou wilt not despise, O God." It is not Jesus that brought grace. It is not Jesus that brought forgiveness. Israel lived in the reality of a gracious God Who forgave them. But, Israel was also a people that believed that God was to be experienced here and now, in this life, and that God was concerned about their society, about their economics, about their politics. That God was a God Who loved justice and righteousness, Who spoke out through the prophets against all exploitation of people in all systems of domination. This was the thrust of those songs of liberation that came to expression through the Gospel writers as they tried to say what they understood was happening in the appearance of Jesus and, before that, of John. Those songs of liberation were the expressions of a people who longed to have the yoke and © Grand Valley State University �When Hope Is Almost Gone Richard A. Rhem Page 4   the burden and the oppression of the human situation lifted off their shoulders, who were still dreaming the dream of the ancient dreamer, who said "That day is coming when there will be justice, mercy, peace, equity in all of God’s creation." Well, that’s what Jesus was about. Jesus addressed the concrete social situation of his day. He announced that God Who in grace is near to people. He especially embraced those who had been excluded. He made it clear through his table fellowship to those with whom he broke bread, that the embrace of God was as broad as the world and all humankind. No one, the voiceless ones, the marginalized, the excluded - none of them would be left out of the grace of the kingdom of God. And for that he was crucified, because the kind of social vision that Jesus had, with its political and economic implications, is the kind of vision that those who have vested interest in the status quo will not long tolerate, because it will transform human society and, rather than exploitation and domination, there will be community, justice and peace. Jesus was crucified for his vision, for that which he incarnated and embodied, and they experienced his presence and fully thought that he would return at any moment. That’s obvious from a study of the New Testament. They believed that this one who had come, who was crucified, whose living presence they experienced would return and all things would come to their consummation. But, they didn’t, did they? It’s been now 2000 years, and we don’t really look into the sky every morning to see whether or not this may be the day of his appearing. Although, if you travel I-96, there is a billboard where Jesus is in the rump seat of a plane predicting to come out of the blue soon. I can’t believe that kind of ignorance, frankly. It is such a terrible distortion of the Gospel. It is the perpetuation of an eschatology, an idea of the last things, which history itself has clearly indicated was the wrong conception, and what it has enabled us to do is to turn the Gospel of Jesus into a salvation cult by which we receive the forgiveness of sins and peace of God and preparation for heaven. We have taken the Gospel of Jesus Christ that was a world-transforming movement, domesticated it into a religious cult by which we find our personal peace while we go on with our lives politically, economically, socially, as though we never heard the songs of liberation. We have been able to take the Gospel with its Christmas story and subvert it into a marvelously beautiful, moving pageant that lacks totally what it really is about, which is about changing the world to reflect the intention of God. So, we still say, "When is the day of his appearing? When that comes out there some way, then it’ll all be fixed." As a matter of fact, it would seem to me we ought to go back and listen again to see whether or not it may be erroneous to be waiting for some future act of God to make it right. Possibly, possibly what God intends is for top dogs not just to sing absentmindedly the songs of underdogs, but to begin to use their power and resource to implement, to make real, the longing of the heart of the underdog that comes to © Grand Valley State University �When Hope Is Almost Gone Richard A. Rhem Page 5   expression in those songs that plead for the dawning of light, for the rising of the sun of righteousness, for the establishment of justice and the bringing of peace. Maybe, maybe we who are top dogs are called upon to be the agents to effect the cry of God’s heart that comes to expression through the underdogs. I wonder if God has anybody doing anything today. You know, Messiah means anointed, anointed with the Spirit, and Christ is the Greek word for Messiah. I wonder if God has any Christs in the world today, any people anointed with the Spirit who are seeking to effect the intention of God in a world that still lies, so much of it, in darkness, with so many people still living in the shadow of death. Let me make a suggestion; it will probably blow your mind and you will laugh me off the stool. Let me suggest another Jew - Steven Spielberg. You see, I wonder. It seems to me that, to the extent that the church has become a ghetto of salvation when we come together for our own personal spiritual renewal and our own eternal security, where we get our emotional fix through our religious devotion, maybe having become a ghetto and made the Gospel a salvation cult, God says, "Well, if you want to be off in that backwater, okay. Okay. ‘Cause it’s not bad to pray and sing hymns and worship. In fact, you really ought to be doing that, because that’s where you get the vision and the strength to go out and change the world. But, if you’re not going to do anything about the world, if you’re just going to enjoy this little pipeline you have to me, then I’m going to have to find some people in the strangest places. I’m going to have to find some people, for example, in show biz." Perhaps a Steven Spielberg, who a couple of seasons ago, two or three, gave us "Schindler’s List," who showed us a flamboyant playboy who got gripped in the midst of the Holocaust with the mass murder of the Jewish people and who used his industry and his fortune in order to rescue a couple of thousand of them. If you don’t like Holocaust stuff, then don’t watch "Schindler’s List." But, I wonder if Schindler was not a Christ, doing what top dogs ought to do. Another film by Spielberg is coming out: "Amistad." Amistad was the name of a slave ship that was bringing slaves from Africa around 1839, and they mutinied, these slaves. They killed the captain and several of the crew, and they impressed the navigators and told them to turn them around and take them back to Africa, but the navigators fooled them and they found themselves sailing into Long Island Sound where they were captured by a U.S. Navy ship and the mutineers, the blacks from Africa, were thrown in the brig and brought to trial. But, in one of the shining moments of the Christian Church, in this case, the Congregational Church, which is one of the merging bodies that forms the United Church of Christ, the church people began to lobby on behalf of these blacks. The faculty and the students of Yale University went to bat for them. Former President John Quincy Adams became their defense attorney. And in one of the better moments of American history, in American church history, these blacks were vindicated, their mutiny declared justified, and they were sent back to Africa, and I just © Grand Valley State University �When Hope Is Almost Gone Richard A. Rhem Page 6   wonder if someone like Steven Spielberg who can bring us those kinds of stories might not be someone upon whom the Spirit of God is dwelling in order to shake us loose, break us out, help us to understand that we have no business singing songs of liberation if they are simply the caressing of our own satisfied souls, that we who are the rich and the powerful, if not famous, are the ones upon whom it is incumbent to effect in human society the longing of the songs of liberation. It is that task to which I believe we are called. It is in contemplating that task that we will keep Advent. It is in welcoming that kind of a Savior that we will be honest with Christmas, and it is to that end that I believe Christ Community must be committed, for who knows but what some of you have come to the kingdom for such a time as this? Not only to sing songs of liberation, but to bring liberty to those who are oppressed, that the sun of righteousness may dawn upon us with healing in its wings. Ah, wouldn’t that be something? References: Richard Horsley. The Liberation of Christmas: The Infancy Narratives in Social Context. Wipf & Stock Publishers, reprint edition, 2006. © Grand Valley State University � https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/da6968a5ff20b4135698991f62a37e91.mp3 8b53d4a06dfd99c2e15523006b2814d1 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Richard A. Rhem Collection Description An account of the resource Text and sound recordings of the sermons, prayers, services, and articles of Richard Rhem, pastor emeritus of Christ Community Church in Spring Lake, Michigan, where he served for 37 years. Starting in the mid 1980's, Rhem began to question some of the traditional Christian dogma that he had been espousing from the pulpit. That questioning was a first step in a long and interesting spiritual journey, one that he openly shared with his congregation. His journey is important, in part because it is reflective of the questioning, the yearnings, and the gradual revision of beliefs that many persons in this part of the century have experienced and continue to experience. It is important also because of the affirming and inclusive way his questioning was done and his thinking evolved. His sermons and other written and spoken materials together document the steps in his journey as it took a turn in 1985, yet continued to revolve around the framework and liturgies of the Christian calendar. Subject The topic of the resource Clergy--Michigan Reformed Church in America Christ Community Church (Spring Lake, Mich.) Religion Interfaith worship Sermons Sound Recordings Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Rhem, Richard A. Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/514">Richard A. Rhem papers (KII-01)</a> Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives. Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Kaufman Interfaith Institute Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Language A language of the resource English Type The nature or genre of the resource Sound Text Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context KII-01 Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant 1981-2014 Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource audio/mp3 text/pdf Sound A resource primarily intended to be heard. Examples include a music playback file format, an audio compact disc, and recorded speech or sounds. Event Advent III Series Songs of Liberation Scripture Text Malachi 3:1, 4:2, Luke 1:78-79 Location The location of the interview Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI References Richard Horsley, The Liberation of Christmas: The Infancy Narratives in Social Context, 2006 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-0-19971214 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1997-12-14 Title A name given to the resource When Hope is Almost Gone Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Richard A. Rhem Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Subject The topic of the resource Clergy--Michigan Reformed Church in America Christ Community Church (Spring Lake, Mich.) Sermons Relation A related resource Richard A. Rhem - An Archive of Sermons, Prayers, Talks and Stories: http://richardrhem.org/ Language A language of the resource eng Type The nature or genre of the resource Text Sound 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 December 14, 1997 entitled "When Hope is Almost Gone", as part of the series "Songs of Liberation", on the occasion of Advent III, at Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI. Scripture references: Malachi 3:1, 4:2, Luke 1:78-79. Divine Intention Inclusive Grace Justice Prophetic Voice https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/c54387e56bc6b08f30e80878bc7d586a.pdf d3a6767376bdf929aa1f3db073fe446e PDF Text Text Too Good To Be True From the Advent series: Songs Of Liberation Text: Luke 1:47; Isaiah 7:14 Richard A. Rhem Christ Community Church Spring Lake, Michigan Advent III, December 21, 1997 Transcription of the spoken sermon Sometimes even the skeptic is forced to believe in the providence of God. I always have to list my sermon titles a couple months in advance; they are printed a month ahead of time, and last week how apropos, when hope was almost gone. But, even better today - "Too Good to be True." Maybe, maybe there’s something more to it than most of the time I believe. The songs of liberation, the song of Mary today, the Magnificat, is a song of praise in the conviction that God is doing something that will radically transform the landscape of the earth - the world re-imagined in another way; human existence in an alternative kind of community. With the announcement of the birth of Jesus, Mary breaks forth into praise because God is on the threshold of creating newness, a whole new world. But, the question this Advent that I’ve been putting to you and we’ve been thinking about is, how can we who are top dogs sing the songs of underdogs? Make no mistake about it, this is a peasant song. This is a song of liberation from one who has been oppressed and a part of a people who walked in darkness and lived under the shadow of death. Listen again as Mary sings: God has shown strength with his arm, he has scattered the proud and the thoughts of their hearts. God has brought down the powerful from their thrones and lifted up the lowly. God has filled the hungry with good things and sent the rich empty away. That’s a song from down under, because the whole human situation is about to be changed. But now, after 2000 years, who are the rich and the powerful? Who are the well-fed of the earth? Obviously, it is we. How then can we honestly sing the song of the underdog, which filled the hearts of those people of ancient time with such praise at this mighty Christmas miracle of God? Let me say just a couple of things this morning because it is a day not for heavy deliberation, but for joyful music and song. But let me say this - I am more convinced than ever that what the Gospel is about, tidings of joy, is this world, here and now, human existence in this present situation in which we find © Grand Valley State University   �Too Good To Be True Richard A. Rhem Page 2   ourselves. I am convinced that we have domesticated the Gospel, spiritualized it and projected it out into another age when, as a matter of fact, it is for here and now, for this place, for people, this earth, this age. Sometimes when you get an idea like that and you begin to trace it, it’s like putting on glasses - everywhere you look, it’s there. For example, that famous promise in Isaiah 7:14. It was given to a king who was the king of a people who were under siege and there were all sorts of international complications going on. It was about slavery or liberation in a very real political sense at the time. That was the word of God that came from the prophet to the king. And so, Mary’s song - is about the transvaluation of values; it is about a grand reversal, the powerful down, the lowly lifted, the hungry fed, and the full ones sent empty away. That’s what the Gospel is about, and the challenge to the people of God who, by God’s grace and goodness, have become so richly blessed, full of resource and power, the challenge is to learn how to sing the underdog’s song while seeking to make reality for the underdog humane and full of hope, marked by justice and peace. The early Jewish Jesus community for which Luke wrote the story was a community that believed that in its life it was beginning to realize another way to be human. Let me say, 2000 years later, that that is precisely the challenge for us. We are free at last and the future is open. We were seriously challenged because we dared to say that sexual orientation was a matter of the diversity of God’s great creation. We’ve been challenged because we refused to arrogate to ourselves a corner on salvation and the light of God and the movement of God’s Spirit. We were challenged because we dared take another look at this book and let it come off the page afresh, not in a wooden, literalist way, but rather as the storybook of those who were encountered by the living God in their historical experience. And now we’re free; now we’re free to be that community of grace where joy abounds, where there are no boundaries for the love of God, where there are no exclusionary clauses to all of those who are hungry and thirsty and seeking rest. We have a future before us to be everything that God is beckoning us to be and it has not entered into the human heart yet the things that God has prepared for those who love God and are willing to be the embodiment of all of that that was embodied in the word made flesh. Jesus, that one who was born, God’s word, incarnation of God’s intention, continues to be enfleshed where there are people who hear that word, who imbibe that spirit, who will be marked by that grace, and who with open heart and open mind will reach out to a world still much in darkness, to many still living under the shadow of death. In such a community there will be praise and there will be healing and there will be signs of what ultimately will be when the kingdoms of this world become the kingdoms of our God and of his Christ. Now, listen to the story again. It cannot be preached. It must be sung. It is a song; it is a poem; it reaches into the depths because it is so true. Listen to it and enjoy. © Grand Valley State University �Too Good To Be True Richard A. Rhem Page 3   (The Cantata, "The Christmas Story According to Saint Luke," by Richard Hillert, continues.) © Grand Valley State University � https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/13a9fe30bfc68411365e29e0af0238b4.mp3 c9e4f8895d5b7c3be8b1e9b290c9b175 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Richard A. Rhem Collection Description An account of the resource Text and sound recordings of the sermons, prayers, services, and articles of Richard Rhem, pastor emeritus of Christ Community Church in Spring Lake, Michigan, where he served for 37 years. Starting in the mid 1980's, Rhem began to question some of the traditional Christian dogma that he had been espousing from the pulpit. That questioning was a first step in a long and interesting spiritual journey, one that he openly shared with his congregation. His journey is important, in part because it is reflective of the questioning, the yearnings, and the gradual revision of beliefs that many persons in this part of the century have experienced and continue to experience. It is important also because of the affirming and inclusive way his questioning was done and his thinking evolved. His sermons and other written and spoken materials together document the steps in his journey as it took a turn in 1985, yet continued to revolve around the framework and liturgies of the Christian calendar. Subject The topic of the resource Clergy--Michigan Reformed Church in America Christ Community Church (Spring Lake, Mich.) Religion Interfaith worship Sermons Sound Recordings Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Rhem, Richard A. Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/514">Richard A. Rhem papers (KII-01)</a> Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives. Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Kaufman Interfaith Institute Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Language A language of the resource English Type The nature or genre of the resource Sound Text Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context KII-01 Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant 1981-2014 Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource audio/mp3 text/pdf Sound A resource primarily intended to be heard. Examples include a music playback file format, an audio compact disc, and recorded speech or sounds. Event Advent IV Series Songs of Liberation Scripture Text Luke 1:47, Isaiah 7:14 Location The location of the interview Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context KII-01_RA-0-19971221 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1997-12-21 Title A name given to the resource Too Good to Be True Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Richard A. Rhem Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Subject The topic of the resource Clergy--Michigan Reformed Church in America Christ Community Church (Spring Lake, Mich.) Sermons Relation A related resource Richard A. Rhem - An Archive of Sermons, Prayers, Talks and Stories: http://richardrhem.org/ Language A language of the resource eng Type The nature or genre of the resource Text Sound 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 December 21, 1997 entitled "Too Good to Be True", as part of the series "Songs of Liberation", on the occasion of Advent IV, at Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI. Scripture references: Luke 1:47, Isaiah 7:14. Community of Grace Justice Shalom https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/4eb16878619466fe1633e9624cfe0435.pdf 866401eb0300628e5e71a86925de0e15 PDF Text Text The Fairy Tale Is True Text: Luke 2:7; Revelation 12:5 Richard A. Rhem Christ Community Church Spring Lake, Michigan Christmastide, December 28, 1997 Transcription of the spoken sermon Children love fairy tales. I remember a fairy tale feast when I was a child of preschool age. I was ill with scarlet fever. The family was moved out into the garage, the house put under quarantine. But, of course, my mother couldn’t leave me. The shades were pulled and I was kept in bed. There was nothing to do but read to me - the same stories over and over, Jack and the Beanstalk, The Gingerbread Man, Goldilocks and the Three Bears. Mother read until she was tired of it. On occasion she turned two pages at once, hoping to abbreviate her task, but I always caught her at it; I knew the stories by heart. But it made no difference; each time it was like a first time adventure. This Christmas the family gathered to watch a video produced by David with all the children as his research assistants - 25 years of this family growing up and then each with their own families. There were several photos of me holding one of the grandchildren on my lap - reading to them. That was usually a Sunday after dinner pleasure, although I remember well getting very sleepy after a big dinner and wanting very much to get to a serious nap when the little one would say "Read it one more time, Bumpa." Why do you suppose children love fairy tales so much? Of course, they are great stories, but I think there is something more They turn out right; just as they begin with the classic phrase, "Once upon a time ..." so they end with, "... and they lived happily ever after." When you think about some of the most familiar fairy tales, they are not all sweetness and light - there is high adventure, danger, darkness and evil woven into the plot. A good fairy tale has moments of high tension; they can be scary which is part of their attraction. But, in the end, good prevails, right emerges on top and nobility and truth are vindicated. In that sense, the fairy tale is reflective of a whole philosophy of life and reality and, in turn, it is a teaching tool for the shaping of one’s perspective on life. © Grand Valley State University   �The Fairy Tale Is True Richard A. Rhem Page 2   Stories not only entertain, they form a philosophy of life. And the classic fairy tale reflects the conviction that the good and true will triumph in the end. Later on when the child develops the capacity for abstract thinking, one can discuss values, right and wrong, truth and falsehood and their implications, but a sense of ultimate value has already been richly laid in the child’s being by the tapestry of stories heard and lived. I was thinking about this because of a few conversations I’ve had with some of you who have wondered how to receive the Christmas story - a story that begins, "And it came to pass ...", and is laced with angelic announcements accompanied by a heavenly choir, Magi from the East following a brilliant star that comes to rest over a stable wherein lies a newborn child born to a virgin. Although scholarly research has investigated the whole of the biblical tradition for two hundred years, that research has only somewhat recently seeped into the church. But in our day, such research makes the feature articles of popular news magazines at Christmas and Easter, at least. So, how does one deal with the growing recognition that the Gospels are storied accounts of something that happened in the past? The question is not so simple. For one thing, we are dealing with something that happened; we are dealing with the story of an actual birth event, not of a makebelieve character, but of one whose historical existence is almost universally acknowledged. On the other hand, the story is a story laced with the supernatural - angels and stars and kings and a miraculous conception - aspects one finds surrounding the birth of other ancient heroic figures. Consequently, the stories have been scrutinized intensively in an attempt to ascertain facts from fantasy. I suspect this is inevitable. We make a faith claim that is entangled with concrete historical reality - the word became flesh and dwelt among us. There is no way that claim will not be tested. Nonetheless, such scholarly scrutiny of the historical event is the ruination of the story because the truth of the story is not in the narrative details, but in the meaning of the story - that which is "coming to pass" in the event - which is that God visits God’s people to rescue them from darkness and death and secure them in light and life. The story is the vehicle of the truth about reality, about the nature of things, about the meaning and end of life. Do you remember our Advent question - How can we who are top dogs sing the songs of liberation of underdogs? Well, I am not going to repeat that, only to say once again that the songs Luke includes in the birth story are songs of liberation sung by people who have borne the heavy load of oppression and domination and © Grand Valley State University �The Fairy Tale Is True Richard A. Rhem Page 3   they celebrate God’s visitation in this child through whom God will reverse the fortunes of the oppressed and their oppressors. The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light. Those dwelling in the shadow of death have had the sun of righteousness dawn upon them with healing in his wings. I stressed during Advent the very concrete nature of the salvation referred to - its social, political and economic dimension -This was good news of a different kind of world for the poor and the marginalized. But now let me suggest that there is another dimension spoken to, as well - the anxiety of being human. It is not easy to be human and that is universally true for rich and poor, powerful and powerless. We are all afraid, insecure - We are subject to disaster, catastrophe, disease - and we die and those we love die. Human existence is precarious, perilous, awesome, wonderful, and fragile. Not only in our individual experience, but also globally. The holocaust happened in the lifetime of many of us. Tyrants like Saddam Hussein hold our world hostage. In the ancient world of the birth story of Jesus, it was taken for granted that there were powers behind the actors on history’s stage, Herod and Caesar and Pilate – that the struggles on earth were reflective of cosmic conflict between the God of light and life and the Prince of Darkness. As you know, that time was an age of the expectation of the end of the age and the literature that pointed to the end was called apocalyptic - a word meaning "unveiling." The curtain was drawn back and one was given a glimpse of the transcendent world - the behind-the-scenes view of the powers of evil at work in the present and the sovereign God with whom the powers of darkness were in conflict. The Revelation of Jesus Christ to John is such a work. John was given a vision of what was going on in the cosmic drama. He was in exile for his testimony to Jesus. The Christian community for which he wrote the vision was experiencing severe persecution. Some were giving up their faith, returning to the imperial cult. John writes to encourage them to be faithful, to hold on. Chapters 12-14 are the center of the Revelation. A woman is pregnant. A dragon is poised to consume the child. The woman gives birth and the child is snatched up to heaven. There is war in heaven and Michael, God’s Angel Warrior, with the heavenly hosts defeats the dragon who is thrown down to earth. Although the victory is won in heaven there remains the mopping up on earth where the defeated dragon is causing all the hell he can. The saints suffer greatly; yet they sing of triumph because they know the ultimate victory is theirs because God has © Grand Valley State University �The Fairy Tale Is True Richard A. Rhem Page 4   conquered - for 1250 days, 42 months, they suffer the ravages of the dragon, but this is a brief period. If you go to the Hebrew Scriptures, Numbers 33, you will find that Israel made 42 moves on the way to the Promised Land. Thus, the writer says -Hold fast; this journey so full of suffering will end in the security of God’s Kingdom. A story, a vision. It borrows images from the Hebrew Scriptures – the Exodus, the wilderness wandering; the woman, Eve, Genesis 3:15, the seed of the woman will bruise the head of the serpent; the woman - Mary, pregnant with child; the child snatched up to heaven - but through death and resurrection by which victory is achieved, the dragon falls. Well, I cannot give you a full account of the rich imagery of this vision, but I think you can see how the vision weaves together images from Israel’s history and the event of Jesus’ birth, life, death and resurrection. Out of historical happenings whose details we can never recover, a story is told to convey a deeply held conviction that in the end God will reign, the God of life and light having conquered the forces of darkness that threaten human existence and bring death. Now here is an interesting fact - In Greek mythology, Zeus was the chief god. His consort, Leto, was with child. The dragon Python was determined to kill the child. Leto fled to the island of Delos where Apollo was born in safety. Eventually Apollo returned to the mainland and at the great shrine, Delphi, Apollo slew the dragon. When John, on the island of Patmos, not far from the island of Delos, told his story in vision form, he borrowed not only from the Hebrew tradition, but also from Greek mythology to convey the message - that the God of life and light will finally overcome the forces of evil and darkness. The biblical story as a whole is rooted in the conviction that finally God will subdue the darkness. It is the same conviction that underlays the beloved fairy tales of our childhood. That is faith’s conviction. That is hope’s ground - God is love. Love triumphs. Truth triumphs. Therefore, trust. Now, that’s the story; that’s what we celebrate. Just to tell you that straight out may get us into an intellectual discussion and you might say, "Well, the data is © Grand Valley State University �The Fairy Tale Is True Richard A. Rhem Page 5   ambiguous." You might end up not trusting; maybe you would become a cynic. But, let me tell you a story - deeper than reason can probe. You might then feel it and know it beyond knowing. Don’t you see it - the baby a sign of hope, of a future, of life? Don’t you hear the angels sing? Haven’t you seen a special star? Don’t you hold absolutely to much that you cannot rationally describe or defend? If you have eyes to see, ears to hear ...You know it’s true. The fairy tale is true Trust Hope Be of good cheer, All will be well. © Grand Valley State University � https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/e7f38e808835dfc95e1c04cfcf536539.mp3 42babc195984ed26cb1f9067f3f65645 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 Christmastide I Series Songs of Liberation Scripture Text Luke 2:7, Revelation 12:5 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-0-19971228 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1997-12-28 Title A name given to the resource The Fairy Tale Is True Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Richard A. Rhem Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Subject The topic of the resource Clergy--Michigan Reformed Church in America Christ Community Church (Spring Lake, Mich.) Sermons Relation A related resource Richard A. Rhem - An Archive of Sermons, Prayers, Talks and Stories: http://richardrhem.org/ Language A language of the resource eng Type The nature or genre of the resource Text Sound 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 December 28, 1997 entitled "The Fairy Tale Is True", as part of the series "Songs of Liberation", on the occasion of Christmastide I, at Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI. Scripture references: Luke 2:7, Revelation 12:5. All Will Be Well Apocalyptic Story Trust https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/e33da20f5ba6ab9ee95ccaaae15cc5ad.pdf 0204376c4afe5cefdc3ff1e3aa02c94e PDF Text Text It’s So Simple, Once You See It Ephesians 3; Matthew 2 Richard A. Rhem Christ Community Church Spring Lake, Michigan Season of Epiphany, January 11, 1998 Transcription of the spoken sermon, published in a collection of sermons, Re-Imagining The Faith by Richard A. Rhem (2004) The season is Epiphany, the season of manifestation, Jesus manifest to the nations. The symbol is the star which led the Magi to the Christ child, where they worshiped and offered gifts. The heart of the season’s truth is that the God of Israel is God alone, Creator of the cosmos whose embrace is as wide as the whole world; that what was embodied in Jesus, and came to expression in his life, was the moment when the particular revelation of God to Israel broke out to enlighten all humankind. That such should occur was clearly a theme in Israel’s prophetic tradition. Indeed, the calling of Abraham and Sarah was a particular call with a universal purpose–that all nations would be blessed within the Covenant of Grace intended for all peoples. The movement to the universal that occurred in Jesus was Paul’s great insight–given to him, he claimed, by revelation from the resurrected Christ. I cannot take you to the story of his “conversion” as he tells it in the first chapter of Galatians or as Luke records it three times in the Book of Acts, but clearly the consequences of his heavenly vision were his tireless efforts to bring the good news that happened in Jesus to the ancient world. Let me explain here that the reason the word conversion is in quotation marks is to indicate that the popular view and easy assumption that Paul “converted” from Judaism to Christianity is unfounded. Like Jesus, Paul was born a Jew and died a Jew. The God of Israel is the only God Paul ever knew or worshiped. What happened to Paul was not conversion from one world religion to another. Actually, Christianity as we know it did not exist in Paul’s time, although a strong case can be made for the claim that Paul was the founder of Christianity. But, out of his profound encounter with the risen Christ in the vision on the Damascus road, Paul was unintentionally drawing out the implications of Israel’s faith. Paul’s moment of revelation was not a rejection of Judaism. Rather, he was coming to terms with its most far-reaching implications: Yahweh was not a tribal deity. Yahweh was God alone, Creator of the Cosmos, the One who enlivened all things living. Out of his revelatory experience, Paul–without consulting the © Grand Valley State University   �So Simple Once You See It Richard A. Rhem Page 2   disciples in Jerusalem–went alone to Arabia for three years, trying to make sense of his faith tradition and his encounter with the Risen One. In a fascinating study, the English writer A. N. Wilson sets the context for Paul’s visionary experience. Wilson says that Paul was part of the Temple police on his way to Damascus to arrest the followers of Jesus. Was Paul already part of the Temple police when Jesus was arrested? Was he even involved? Certainly Paul knew the horror of crucifixion, and certainly he was party to the violence of religious persecution. And, while on another mission of such violence, he sees a light–a blinding light. He hears a voice which raises the haunting question, “Why are you persecuting me?” Wilson paints a picture of the world of Judaism in Paul’s day, telling us that the Temple was magnificent, one of Herod’s great building projects. People from the ancient world came to view its splendor. Yet, Herod was an Arab, purportedly a convert to Judaism, but not a native Israelite, and the financing came from Roman imperial funds. Wilson writes: There it was–a splendid Temple set on the Holy Mountain with spacious courts and colonnaded areas. Yet, the inner sanctum, the Holy of Holies, could not be entered by any non-Jew. Here was the conflict, the contradiction: Israel was to be a beacon, a light to the nations, yet marked off its inner sanctuary as exclusive territory. And the followers of the Way were, like Paul, Jews. Now the conflict was not only between the insider Jew and the outsider Gentile, but within the Jewish community itself–exclusion, persecution, violence. And he, Saul, is a part of it, on his way to perpetrate more violence when he sees a blinding light and hears a voice: “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?” Wilson uses creative imagination in setting the context for Paul’s vision, but not without good biblical data. The consequence of that encounter was not that Paul became a Christian. It was, however, a transforming moment when he became convinced that Jesus was the Christ–that is, the Messiah–and that, in Jesus, God was making evident what was always true: that God embraced Jew and Gentile and the purpose of God’s revelation to the Jews was to bring the light of God’s love and grace to all. That was Paul’s realization consequent upon the revelation. That is expressed nowhere so succinctly as in the Letter to the Ephesians. What does Paul understand his mission to be? “To make everyone see what is the plan of the secret hidden for ages in God who created all things.” © Grand Valley State University �So Simple Once You See It Richard A. Rhem Page 3   To make everyone see. The word in the Greek is photizo. From it comes our word photo; a photo is the exposure of a film to light. Paul’s mission is to proclaim “the light–becoming of the secret.” And the secret? Verse 6: “that is, the Gentiles (the nations, in Greek the ethnai, from which we get ethnic) have become fellow heirs, members of the same body, and sharers in the promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel.” The word mysterion can be translated as mystery or secret. Paul says it was a secret hidden in God throughout the ages, but now made manifest. Now, Paul claims, the secret is out. The secret revealed is that the outsider has been included together with the insider in God’s love and Messiah’s realm. For Paul, this was not simply a piece of intellectual information, it was a life-transforming truth and a transforming religious insight. Now Paul sees something bigger than peace among rival Jewish factors. Suddenly, or gradually perhaps, the lights come on for Paul. Not only is the intramural conflict within Judaism wrong, so is the Jewish exclusion of the Gentile wrong, at least now that light has dawned in Jesus. Now God has revealed in Jesus what was always in God’s heart - love for all humankind. Jesus brought peace. Jesus broke down the wall that separates. Jesus did away with the hostility. Now Jew and Gentile were made one new humanity. Now the community of Jew and Gentile would result in worship offered to God by Jew and Gentile alike, bringing peace to the world. Understand: here Paul moves out alone. Now he does battle on two fronts. Against him is the Jewish establishment, which had employed him, and the Jewish followers of Jesus who were not at all ready to open the doors to the Gentiles. Paul’s revelation made him a visionary. There was no rejection of Judaism. Paul remained a Jew, but was rejected by his native faith. And he was contradicted even by those who before him believed Jesus was the Messiah, for he saw something more radical in Jesus than did James or Peter. Paul saw in the revelation of God in Jesus Christ a Divine grace that embraced the whole human family. Following the destruction of the Temple at Jerusalem by the Romans in 70 C.E., only Rabbinic Judaism, the Pharisaic Party, survived and formed the basis for ongoing Jewish faith and life. Gradually the parochial Jewish Jesus movement died out. Because Paul had brought the good news of the God of Israel revealed in Jesus Christ to the Gentiles, there emerged the Christian Church through which we are included. © Grand Valley State University �So Simple Once You See It Richard A. Rhem Page 4   Paul’s mission, he writes, was to make everyone see the “light- becoming” of the secret that there is one God and one human family loved by God and thus, one family called to peace, to community. He was consumed by the passion of his insight. Listen to his prayer: I bow my knees before the Father from whom every family in heaven and on earth takes its name. ... That you may be strengthened in your inner being with power through his Spirit, that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith, as you are being rooted and grounded in love. ... That you may comprehend with all the saints, what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, so that you may be filled with all the fullness of God. And Paul is not through; such ecstasy of imagination brings him to doxology: …to the praise of the God who by the power at work within us is able to accomplish abundantly far more than all we can ask or imagine–to God be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus. One cannot read those words, I think, without being caught up in the surprising wonder of the vision that animated the apostle. He has no words sufficient to articulate the fiery passion that would burst his mind and heart. Remember who he is: a Temple policeman, committed to violence in the name of the religious institution, who in a moment of blinding insight and years of subsequent reflection sees the big picture. Paul sees the absurdity of claiming the God of Israel to be God alone, Creator of cosmos, and then acting as though that God was a tribal deity, mean-spirited, petty and narrowly limited in the offer of love and grace. Suddenly for Paul, the light goes on, the truth dawns in him; he sees! And his life from that realization was passionately poured out in the proclaiming of God’s grace in Jesus Christ for the whole human family. On the threshold of the Third Millennium, look at our world: still marked by exclusionary claims of competing religions and religious institutions; still bathed in violence fueled by religion; still crippled by divisions kept alive by petty meanness and narrowness. Look at the church in general, to say nothing of the perilous situation of competing religions. The church is divided and threatened, marked more by insecurity and threat than by confident joy; by shutting out rather than drawing in; by creating fear rather than giving confidence; by judgment rather than grace; by shrill claims rather than calming assurance. Thank God we’ve discovered something together here. We do not have easy answers, but we are discovering the real questions. We have not arrived, but we are a people on the way. We are not morally beyond reproach, but we know the © Grand Valley State University �So Simple Once You See It Richard A. Rhem Page 5   grace of forgiveness. We do not love fully or perfectly, but we have tasted the humanizing quality of loving the other. We have not the full spectrum of the human family represented here, but we are learning the enrichment of embracing the stranger. We have been marked for a quarter century by a theology of grace that is expressive of God’s love in action, inviting, embracing, healing. We have been open to all and have excluded none that sought community here. That theology of grace has worked on us, changing us, making us sensitive to a growing number of those traditionally outside our community. Jewish-Christian dialogue has opened us to the enrichment and beauty of the Jewish community. Sensitivity to the claims of women has opened us to an awareness of how injustice has marked us in the matter of gender. Breakthroughs in the understanding of sexual orientation have enabled us to stand against the exclusion and condemnation of persons of homosexual orientation. And we have only just begun. But begun we have, by God’s grace. Paul’s whole being throbbed with passion that could hardly find expression once he saw it. “The secret is out,” he said. No more are there outsiders and insiders; the whole human family takes its name from the one God who loves all and excludes none. And I pray you will begin to comprehend, to be strengthened in your inner being, rooted and grounded in love. “My whole life,” writes the apostle, “is a mission to make everyone see, to bring to light the secret now made manifest.” Ah, dear people, don’t you see it? God give us Epiphany eyes to see, to see! It’s so simple, once you see it! Reference: A. N. Wilson. Paul: The Mind of the Apostle. W. W. Norton & Co., 1998. © Grand Valley State University � https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/cc6c4a7e799735eb4072ab8224c9db12.mp3 7610b57b6833c3e9d1c4352bfae9fbc2 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Richard A. Rhem Collection Description An account of the resource Text and sound recordings of the sermons, prayers, services, and articles of Richard Rhem, pastor emeritus of Christ Community Church in Spring Lake, Michigan, where he served for 37 years. Starting in the mid 1980's, Rhem began to question some of the traditional Christian dogma that he had been espousing from the pulpit. That questioning was a first step in a long and interesting spiritual journey, one that he openly shared with his congregation. His journey is important, in part because it is reflective of the questioning, the yearnings, and the gradual revision of beliefs that many persons in this part of the century have experienced and continue to experience. It is important also because of the affirming and inclusive way his questioning was done and his thinking evolved. His sermons and other written and spoken materials together document the steps in his journey as it took a turn in 1985, yet continued to revolve around the framework and liturgies of the Christian calendar. Subject The topic of the resource Clergy--Michigan Reformed Church in America Christ Community Church (Spring Lake, Mich.) Religion Interfaith worship Sermons Sound Recordings Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Rhem, Richard A. Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/514">Richard A. Rhem papers (KII-01)</a> Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives. Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Kaufman Interfaith Institute Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Language A language of the resource English Type The nature or genre of the resource Sound Text Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context KII-01 Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant 1981-2014 Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource audio/mp3 text/pdf Sound A resource primarily intended to be heard. Examples include a music playback file format, an audio compact disc, and recorded speech or sounds. Event Epiphany I Scripture Text Ephesians 3, Matthew 2 Location The location of the interview Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI References A.N. Wilson. Paul: The Mind of the Apostle, 1998. 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-0-19980111 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1998-01-11 Title A name given to the resource It is So Simple, Once You See It Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Richard A. Rhem Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Subject The topic of the resource Clergy--Michigan Reformed Church in America Christ Community Church (Spring Lake, Mich.) Sermons Relation A related resource Richard A. Rhem - An Archive of Sermons, Prayers, Talks and Stories: http://richardrhem.org/ Language A language of the resource eng Type The nature or genre of the resource Text Sound 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 11, 1998 entitled "It is So Simple, Once You See It", on the occasion of Epiphany I, at Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI. Scripture references: Ephesians 3, Matthew 2. Inclusive Grace Theology of Grace Transformation https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/f28744aa7429cf1fc49520ed131e7c9d.pdf fc28f734e818df2d69d153de79009820 PDF Text Text Confidence Scripture: Isaiah 54:1-10; Philippians 1:1-18 Richard A. Rhem Christ Community Church Spring Lake, Michigan January 18, 1998 Transcription of the spoken sermon Confidence is a very common word used to describe the level of trust one has in oneself, in another, in the truth of a claim or reality of a situation. The word, as so many words in our English vocabulary, stems from the Latin: The prefix con, meaning with and fidere meaning trust. To live with confidence is to live with trust. Trust in what? A variety of answers are possible. One may have self-confidence in regard to one’s ability to perform one’s task or to negotiate some difficult feat. One may have confidence in one’s favorite team. In Green Bay, confidence runs high in the Packers only one week away from America’s Holy Sunday. One may have confidence in the people with whom one works, one’s spouse, one’s family. Obviously, one may have confidence in the goodness and mercy of God. But I want us to think about confidence more generally today at the top of another year. I want to think about confidence as a fundamental attitude over against the whole of one’s life, life itself and the attitude we share together as a faith community. Those who study human development point to the critical importance of fundamental trust as the foundation for a healthy adjustment to life. Trust not with a specific object attached to it, but trust as a basic orientation to life and reality. Studies in child development tell us nothing is more important for the nurturing of an infant through the earliest experience than the creation of a secure and loving environment in which the infant, the child, learns to trust. We know it is so. We know it is true for ourselves and we see it borne out in those around us. Healthy, whole, fruitful, productive people are marked by confidence; they live with trust. Where does it come from? © Grand Valley State University   �Confidence Richard A. Rhem Page 2   If one learns very early to trust or not, it must be passed on from generation to generation. But, where did it begin and on what is it based? Certainly trust in life’s goodness and ultimate meaningfulness is not obvious from simple observation of the human experience. Life is fragile, full of peril, haunted by tragedy. Experience is mixed. When one stops to think about it, trust cannot rise from experience. Concrete experience can often be the acid that eats away at trust. As I said at Christmas, children love fairy tales because, while filled with danger and darkness, things turn out all right and the good folk live happily ever after. But, it is not so in life - any honest appraisal will in the end reveal human experience as mixed. Still, there is something in us that goes on, picks up again, trusts again. And this is true of religious people and those who practice no religious faith consciously. Let me suggest that for the religious consciously and the non-religious unconsciously, confidence is rooted in trust in the goodness and mercy of God that at the heart and center of reality is God Who is for us, for life. Let me point you to the morning lessons which speak of confidence rooted in God. Second Isaiah, as we call the unknown prophet of chapters 40-55, sings of an eternal covenant of peace to the exiles of Judah living in Babylon. They were on the edge of despair thinking their God of covenant, Yahweh, had abandoned them, or had been overruled by the gods of the mighty Babylonian Empire. But the prophet begins to preach to them, interprets their experience and tells them stories of their past and encourages them to trust that God will yet deliver them. They will go home! He begins the poem recorded in chapter 54 with a call to the barren one to sing; she who was barren will birth many children. Therefore, the tent must be enlarged, the curtains stretched out, the stakes strengthened, the cords lengthened, for "You will spread out." The allusion to the barren woman would not be lost on these exiles. Who was the classic barren one in Israel’s past? Sarah, of course. You have heard me claim many times that Genesis 11:30 is a critical watershed in the biblical narrative. The first eleven chapters of Genesis record the repeated failure of humankind to live into the intention of the Creator and then God tries a new strategy - choosing one family in order to bless eventually all families of the earth. And how does God begin? With Sarah, who is barren. © Grand Valley State University �Confidence Richard A. Rhem Page 3   And not only Sarah, but Rebekah and Rachel and Hannah. The prophet of the exiles played on the memory of his people to remind them that precisely in barrenness, God acts to effect fruitfulness. And then, if that is not enough to trigger the rebirth of trust, he reminds them in verse nine of Noah. Out of the devastation of the Flood, God placed a rainbow in the sky as a sign of God’s promise that never again would the earth be destroyed. God’s faithfulness to Creation was signed with the rainbow. The Covenant with Noah preceded the covenant with Abraham and Sarah. With Abraham and Sarah, God sealed a Covenant of Grace with a particular family with the intention of reaching all families, but with Noah, the covenant promise embraced the whole Creation. Would not that story remind Israel that Yahweh was no tribal deity limited to their homeland, but the One Eternal God, Creator of all? Stories. They are the stuff of human confidence. When trust wears thin, we tell a story of what God has done and we find our confidence renewed that God will give us a future. Stories of faith. Remember and trust; trust God. Paul was a son of Israel and when he experienced the blinding vision on the Road to Damascus, he came to believe Jesus was indeed the Messiah, the anointed one through whom God was effecting that universal intention of the covenant of Grace sealed with Abraham and Sarah. We noted that last week; the secret hidden long ages with God was now being manifest. Paul was amazed and transformed. Now there would be no longer, as he wrote to the Galatians, Jew or Greek, slave or free, male or female, but all one in Christ Jesus. And, he adds, if you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s offspring, heirs according to the promise. No more barriers dividing humankind; No more hostility, No more outsiders and insiders. Thus transformed, the former persecutor of the people of the Way became the passionate Apostle of grace, the grace of God that is as wide as the whole human family. One of the ancient cities to which he took the story of God’s grace was Philippi, where a congregation was formed, a community with whom Paul had his most intimate relationship. There was a deep love affair between Paul and the Philippian congregation as is evident from his letter to that church. © Grand Valley State University �Confidence Richard A. Rhem Page 4   That letter begins with a rather extended thanksgiving - thanksgiving to God for this people who had stayed in touch with him and provided for his needs. Now in prison awaiting trial in the Imperial Court of Rome, Paul writes to express his deep affection for this people who joined him in a partnership in the Gospel. And in the midst of his expression of gratitude, he writes, I am confident of this, that the one who began a good work among you will bring it to completion by the day of Jesus Christ. Here the confidence has a specific object - that the work of grace begun among this people by God will be brought to completion. That confidence is, however, based on Paul’s fundamental trust in God - the God of the beginning is the God Who will be at the ending. Once again we find that Paul’s specific confidence is rooted in that basic confidence in God. Paul’s confidence was not based on experience; he was in prison. He would die for his faith. But, the particular circumstance did not dislodge Paul’s confidence. Indeed, he writes, the circumstance of imprisonment had actually resulted in an increase in the witness to the Gospel. I want you to know, beloved, that what has happened to me has actually helped to spread the gospel. The Imperial Guard received Paul’s witness; others gained confidence through Paul’s imprisonment and bore their witness with greater boldness, and even, what might have defeated a lesser person, some took advantage of Paul’s imprisonment to further their own rival point of view. But, says Paul, so what? Christ is preached. I rejoice. What lies behind this remarkable grace? Is it not Paul’s confidence that God is at work in what seems the most adverse circumstances? Confidence - a very great gift; a healthy way to live and engage life. Living with such trust, Paul rested easily. This restless, passionate Apostle who traveled the ancient world as a man with a mission of eternal significance found inner serenity as he contemplated the turn of events because, through it all, he trusted God. That was the bedrock of his life. Telling Paul’s story does for me what the prophet telling the stories of Abraham and Sarah and Noah did for the exiles in Babylon. Faith is renewed, trust restored when we remember - remember the stories of those who have gone on before us. There was a lovely celebration here last Sunday. There was joy. We have been through deep waters, but can we not say with Paul that what has happened to us has actually resulted in the furtherance of this work of grace? Is that not the © Grand Valley State University �Confidence Richard A. Rhem Page 5   wonder of it all - that the challenge and the struggle have positioned us with new freedom and joy to find our way to the embodiment of God’s grace here for the healing of persons? I could go back over the years to the times this text has been used here watershed moments when we were challenged to move out in a new dimension of faith. Always the ground was the God Who has begun a good work here and surely will not let it languish, but will bring it to completion. Confidence. It is a gift. It is the way to live freely, fruitfully, because it is a life rooted in God and the trust that God is for us. God will go with us, will keep us and will finally bring us home. All will be well. You can trust that, not because things work out, but because God is God. © Grand Valley State University � https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/e6e1d45af7daf1bb63a3b1c79c73bee4.mp3 fd6f0e7425e6f59c316ff20f0466fc78 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 Scripture Text Isaiah 54:2-3, Philippians 1:6 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-0-19980118 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1998-01-18 Title A name given to the resource Confidence Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Richard A. Rhem Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Subject The topic of the resource Clergy--Michigan Reformed Church in America Christ Community Church (Spring Lake, Mich.) Sermons Relation A related resource Richard A. Rhem - An Archive of Sermons, Prayers, Talks and Stories: http://richardrhem.org/ Language A language of the resource eng Type The nature or genre of the resource Text Sound 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 18, 1998 entitled "Confidence", on the occasion of Epiphany II, at Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI. Scripture references: Isaiah 54:2-3, Philippians 1:6. All Will Be Well Fundamental Trust Grace Love at the Core of the Universe https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/9df6f451074ee7c74ce0d0a28e86657d.pdf 3a75269830f92eb004f9b42beb1f3718 PDF Text Text Hope Scripture: Jeremiah 32:1-17; Romans 8:18-31; 35-39 Richard A. Rhem Christ Community Church Spring Lake, Michigan January 25, 1998 Transcription of the spoken sermon Hope is the certainty that God will make good the promise of life. Hope is an acorn dreaming its future. Hope is the inexplicable longing and expectation that resides in the depths of the human soul. Where there is life, there is hope. So goes the familiar proverb. But, one could turn that around, as well: Where there is hope, there is life. And one could add, Where hope is gone, life soon will be gone, as well. Yet, as someone has said, Hope and History never meet. That is, what our hope longs for always outruns the reality we live. The same preacher said, "Why do I go to church? It is longing - longing to see myself, you, this community and nation and world fulfilled ... My most insistent feeling is, ‘There must be something more.’" That is a true reflection of our human situation - the disparity between the longing of our hearts and the reality of our lives. Yet, hope is not quenched; it is an inexpungeable quality of the human being and it is imperative to human wellbeing that hope be fostered and nurtured. On what basis can we genuinely hope? Certainly not on the basis of human ingenuity, cleverness or dependability. Let me remind you of something I said last week when we considered "confidence" or "trust." I pointed to the fact that we trust not on the basis of experience, but in spite of experience, for our experience undercuts trust as often as it confirms it. Trust is brought to experience, not derived from it. So with hope: facing life with a positive, hopeful attitude full of expectation is what we bring to experience, not what we achieve on the basis of experience. When you think about it, it is quite remarkable that the human creature is marked by an indomitable hope. There certainly is enough evidence about that would seem to snuff it out. This is especially true in a society saturated with more media coverage than is helpful or healthy. © Grand Valley State University   �Hope Richard A. Rhem Page 2   The Pope makes an historic visit to Cuba and gets second billing to the feeding frenzy at the White House. The news media create a circus of all that devalues around the lowest exploits of public personalities, playing to and pimping for public prurience. And I am aware that what the public wants, the public gets, but I’m not ready to grant that that fulfills the public trust of those who mirror the happenings of our world. But, as long as money and profit is the sole aim of the media, that is what we will get. My point is that it is impossible to base the hope of the human soul on human experience. Human performance in its worst aspects is focused on and magnified incessantly and is cause for despair, not hope. Still, granting the presence of despair and even cynicism, not without good cause, we continue to be people marked by hope - and what a saving grace that is! What, then, is its ground? You will not be startled that I claim that hope is grounded in God. Grounded in God. It is easy enough to make that claim, but what does that mean? Certainly you know me well enough to know that I am making no naive claim that God simply fixes everything, that God will straighten what is crooked and right what is wrong. Finding hope in God does not mean a denial of the darkness, a refusal to acknowledge the hurt and pain of the human story, nor is it to see God as pulling the strings of human events making it all turn out right. Multitudes have left the church because their own experience put the lie to such Pollyanna thinking. Yet, is not that deep longing in our hearts reflective of some profound intuition that there is something more and we, with the whole cosmic drama, are in process, on the way? And is it not precisely the constant rebirth of hope that urges us on and calls us to work at world transformation? The French priestscientist, Teilhard de Chardin, said, "The world will belong tomorrow to those who brought it the greatest hope." Hope issues in desire, longing, the conviction that there is something more. And, I want to say - something more here and now! We have tended in Christianity to put off that something more to another age, another order. We have too often given up on this world, spiritualized the promises of God’s words, internalized the peace promised and abdicated our responsibility for Creation in all its fullness and history in all its potential. But that is not biblical hope. Let me tell you the story of Jeremiah as recorded in the morning lesson. Jeremiah is called the weeping prophet. His was a difficult task. He lived in the last days of Judah. He saw the decay of national life, the doom on the horizon for a society that was unjust and lacking in compassion. He saw, as well, mighty Babylon on the horizon and the inevitability of the coming © Grand Valley State University �Hope Richard A. Rhem Page 3   conflict. He was called a traitor, one who undercut the morale of the people with his dire predictions of imminent doom. But, here is the irony: while he spoke boldly of Judah’s imminent defeat, he was nonetheless a prophet of hope because he could see beyond the present tragedy that there was yet a future for this people because God would keep God’s promises. And this was not just wishful thinking. Chapter 32 tells of a relative coming to Jeremiah telling him as next of kin that he should buy a piece of land that had been part of the family heritage. Were Jeremiah a cynic, one without hope, he might well have said, "No way." Why should he pay good money for a piece of land that was part of a nation that would soon be overtaken by the enemy? What good would it be to hold title to land when chaos was around the corner? But, Jeremiah had hope for the eventual restoration of Judah. He bought the land, had the deed witnessed to publicly and instructed that the deed be buried in an earthen jar to be preserved for the future when he or his family could claim their inheritance. This was a parable - a concrete transaction involving economic reality as a sign of hope. Why Jeremiah? Because nothing bad will happen? Because maybe tragedy will be averted? No. Jeremiah believed in the future because he believed in God, he believed God intended a future for this people - in his words, because God was the creator of the earth, "Nothing is impossible for thee." That is hope. I’ve provided a paragraph in your liturgy from the theologian Paul Tillich: The name of this infinite and inexhaustible ground of history is God. That is what the word means, and it is that to which the words ‘Kingdom of God’ and ‘Divine Providence’ point. And if these words do not have much meaning for you, translate them, and speak of the depth of history, of the ground and aim of our social life, and of what you take seriously without reservation in your moral and political activities. Perhaps you should call this depth ‘hope,’ simply hope. For if you find hope in the ground of history, you are united with the great prophets who were able to look into the depth of their times, who tried to escape it, because they could not stand the horror of their vision, and who yet had the strength to look to an even deeper level and there to discover hope. As John A. T. Robinson, who quotes Tillich, remarks, © Grand Valley State University �Hope Richard A. Rhem Page 4   Hope is so near to the heart of the meaning of God that, like love, it can stand for it. I find this same sense of hope as God’s presence with and life-sustaining intention operative in the whole creation in St. Paul. Paul says we are saved by hope. From the context, I think Paul means our humanity is saved, rescued, preserved by the hope that is rooted in the conviction that God is engaged in lifecreating action in the whole cosmos. Paul operates with the biblical paradigm of Creation-Fall-Redemption. Thus, he sees Creation, the so-called natural realm, as under a curse due to human sin. Frankly, I’ve always wondered about that. Did weeds spring up in Eve’s garden because she ate the apple in disobedience to the divine command? Do animals and we ourselves die because of sin? I don’t really think so. But, what if we find another paradigm or model with which to understand the cosmic drama and the human story? What if for Creation-Fall, we think of emergent evolution? What if we translate Paul’s hope into such an understanding of cosmic reality as it appears in the best science of our day? Then is it not possible to see God as the source, creative energy, enlivening Presence in the whole scheme of things? A second reference in your liturgy is from the writer Nikos Kazantazkis from his Report to Greco. Here is the poet with creative imagination portraying the cosmic scheme of things. Blowing through heaven and earth, and in our hearts and the heart of every living thing, is a gigantic breath—a great Cry—which we call God. Plant life wished to continue its motionless sleep next to stagnant waters, but the Cry leaped up within it and violently shook its roots: ‘Away, let go of the earth, walk!’ Had the tree been able to think and judge, it would have cried, ‘I don’t want to. What are you urging me to do! You are demanding the impossible!’ But the Cry, without pity, kept shaking its roots and shouting, ‘Away, let go of the earth, walk!’ It shouted in this way for thousands of eons; and lo! as a result of desire and struggle, life escaped the motionless tree and was liberated. Animals appeared—worms—making themselves at home in water and mud. ‘We’re just fine,’ they said. ‘We have peace and security; we’re not budging!’ But the terrible Cry hammered itself pitilessly into their loins. ‘Leave the mud, stand up, give birth to your betters!’ ‘We don’t want to! We can’t!’ © Grand Valley State University �Hope Richard A. Rhem Page 5   ‘You can’t, but I can. Stand up!’ And lo! After thousands of eons, man emerged, trembling on his still unsolid legs. The human being is a centaur; his equine hoofs are planted in the ground, but his body from breast to head is worked on and tormented by the merciless Cry. He has been fighting, again for thousands of eons, to draw himself, like a sword, out of his animalistic scabbard. He is also fighting this is his new struggle - to draw himself out of his human scabbard. Man calls in despair. ‘Where can I go? I have reached the pinnacle, beyond is the abyss.’ And the Cry answers, ‘I am beyond.’ All things are centaurs. If this were not the case, the world would rot into inertness and sterility. Does not that give you goose bumps! I love Robinson’s comment: The Cry - it links with what the Bible speaks of as "the call" of God, that evocative, purposive love, which not only summons men to leave the securities and satisfactions of life about them, but "calls generations from the beginning" (Isaiah 41:4) ... But it links also with the cry of creation itself, the yearning sigh of all being for its goal ... There you have it; that is what I meant in the beginning when I said hope is grounded in God. That is the explanation of the mystery as to why it is, how it is, that the human being keeps on hoping. It is "The Cry," the relentless cry to transcend all we have yet been and known. And we are driven on by this creative, purposeful, enlivening life source. I can see no other explanation for the presence of indomitable hope. Thus we hope in spite of the news - Will the President be vindicated or will he resign? Will Saddam Hussein back down, or will we go once more to war? Will we acknowledge our arrogance and bully nature and open up to Cuba, or not? Will the stock market steady or plunge? The list goes on; nothing is certain, all is fragile and perilous. But hope will not be crushed nor defeated because God will not abandon Creation and God’s purposeful love is for life. I purchased an old book newly re-issued. I like the author; I like the subject matter, but to be honest, I bought the book for the title. It is The Lure of Divine Love. Is that not beautiful? Will you simply take that away with you from this sermon? Let it seep into the pores of your being, because that is the deepest truth of Christian faith - the lure of Divine love, pushing, pushing all things to life. Hope is justified because it is hope in God, by God. © Grand Valley State University � https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/3d8d33e2f6519d77ee6fa916d172dcad.mp3 d7f4de03179a1ad8efa7634505669d29 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 Scripture Text Jeremiah 32: 1-17, Romans 8: 18-31, 35-39 Location The location of the interview Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context KII-01_RA-0-19980125 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1998-01-25 Title A name given to the resource Hope Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Richard A. Rhem Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Subject The topic of the resource Clergy--Michigan Reformed Church in America Christ Community Church (Spring Lake, Mich.) Sermons Relation A related resource Richard A. Rhem - An Archive of Sermons, Prayers, Talks and Stories: http://richardrhem.org/ Language A language of the resource eng Type The nature or genre of the resource Text Sound 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 25, 1998 entitled "Hope", on the occasion of Epiphany III, at Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI. Scripture references: Jeremiah 32: 1-17, Romans 8: 18-31, 35-39. Divine Intention Emergent Evolution Hope Prophetic Voice https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/901be93d98ec83a9b9c9624e63c6e25c.mp3 52b603f4e5f56e6e2af7772a2d432ed6 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 Scripture Text Ecclesiastes 3:1-13, 18-22, I Corinthians 15:35-58 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-0-19980225 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1998-02-25 Title A name given to the resource Dust to Dust Plus Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Richard A. Rhem Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Subject The topic of the resource Clergy--Michigan Reformed Church in America Christ Community Church (Spring Lake, Mich.) Sermons Relation A related resource Richard A. Rhem - An Archive of Sermons, Prayers, Talks and Stories: http://richardrhem.org/ Language A language of the resource eng Type The nature or genre of the resource Sound Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource audio/mp3 Description An account of the resource A sermon given by Richard A. Rhem (Dick) on February 25, 1998 entitled "Dust to Dust Plus", on the occasion of Ash Wednesday, at Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI. Scripture references: Ecclesiastes 3:1-13, 18-22, I Corinthians 15:35-58. https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/dbcabbb600454d75647c1eaa645c590c.pdf 930a75ad0712f448f62ff2f6f9aeac33 PDF Text Text Baptized, Claimed and Called From the series: The Human Face of God Scripture: Isaiah 41:8-10; Luke 3:1-9; 21-22 Richard A. Rhem Christ Community Church Spring Lake, Michigan March 1, 1998 Transcription of the spoken sermon You may remember that the Episcopal Bishop of Newark, New Jersey, reached out to me when he read in The New York Times of my affirmation of God’s grace as extending beyond the limits of the Christian church. John Shelby Spong then invited Nancy and me to be guests in their home last May when the English scholar, Karen Armstrong, lectured for the Newark Diocese. Bishop Spong has published a number of books, tackling controversial subjects and pushing the church toward a more open posture, endeavoring to translate the Christian tradition into a new key. Recently I came across one of his earliest writings, just republished, and found these few lines prefacing the first part of the study which is entitled, This Hebrew Lord. Christpower Look at him! Look not at his divinity, but look, rather, at his freedom. Look not at the exaggerated tales of his power, but look, rather, at his infinite capacity to give himself away. Look not at the first-century mythology that surrounds him, but look, rather at his courage to be, his ability to live the contagious quality of his love. Stop your frantic search! Be still and know that this is God: this love, this freedom, this life, this being; and When you are accepted, accept yourself; © Grand Valley State University   �Baptized, Claimed, Called Richard A. Rhem Page 2   When you are forgiven, forgive yourself; When you are loved, love yourself. Grasp that Christ power and dare to be yourself! John Shelby Spong, 1973 Bishop Spong has been out in front for a long time and I realize more and more that I am indeed a "late bloomer." Coming back from Europe in 1971, I was beginning to look at Jesus "from below" as we said at that time, meaning that New Testament scholars were focusing on the human man from Nazareth, the Jesus of history, in order to understand and interpret how the developing Christian tradition came to its affirmation of Jesus as "fully God, fully human." The Christian tradition, the Christian church, is the consequence of an historical happening - the life of one Jesus of Nazareth. That he was a fully human being, no one questioned. That he was more than that was essentially the consequence of the sense of his ongoing presence with his followers after his crucifixion. That he was one with God or that God was with him in some unique sense was the growing conviction of those who constituted that early Jesus movement. The process of development of the claim that Jesus was not only human, but also God, was not a claim Jesus made; in fact, it was not confessed in creedal fashion until the Council of Nicaea in 325 CE and the culminating claim "fully God, fully human" stems from the Council of Chalcedon in 451 CE. What I began to understand as I returned from my graduate study in Europe in 1971 was that the high claims of Jesus’ divinity had to be understood from his historical life, a very human life. But it would be twenty years of reflection and preaching before I would preach an Eastertide series in 1992, From Proclaimer to the One Proclaimed. One sermon in that series was "How a Man Became God." Over the years, however, I was sensing more and more that it was Jesus understood in his humanity that was really compelling. In Lent 1984, I preached a sermon entitled, "Jesus, You Are Really Something!" I remember that sermon; I acknowledged that I was really more moved by Dietrich Bonhoeffer than Jesus. I realized it was because Jesus was never really understood in his humanness; he walked through darkness and suffered, but he had a leg up on us - he was also God, wasn’t he? How could he really know my "trouble?" It was then that I came to clarity: Jesus experienced what he experienced as a human being. He lived as he lived and died as he died as a human being. He had no card up his sleeve; it was his vision, his faithfulness that © Grand Valley State University �Baptized, Claimed, Called Richard A. Rhem Page 3   led him to crucifixion. He died the way he died because he lived the way he lived. He was really something! And to follow that one - that was a challenge! Well, I review that path my own pilgrimage has taken, a pilgrimage you have made with me for however long you have been here, because I want you to know that as we begin a new Lenten journey, we are wrestling again with this same Jesus, his way, his way of being human and his way of living before the face of God. And, hear this - precisely as he lives a human life before the face of God, he becomes the Human Face of God. When I read Bishop Spong’s "Christpower," I knew this would be my Lenten task - to see Jesus in all of his humanness in order to see in Jesus - in his face - the God before Whom he lived and to Whom he pointed. We will not look at his divinity. We will not focus on exaggerated tales of his power. We will not reiterate the first and second and third, fourth and fifth century mythology that was created to give expression to the Early Church’s faith. No, we will, to the extent it is possible, look at Jesus in all his humanness in order there to see God. Could anyone so live and so die, could anyone live with such firm resolve, following unwaveringly a vision, could anyone manifest such freedom and constancy except he had a deep sense of being claimed and called? That is the first aspect of Jesus that we will consider: Jesus knew with profound conviction - God claimed him; God had called him. How did he know? How does anyone know? One sees, that’s all. One knows. One cannot prove it, verify the claim, or prove the call. One gives evidence of the call’s reality and the claim’s validity by one’s life, by what one does with the conviction. This is true not only of Jesus; all who have lived out a vision faithfully with courage and conviction must believe they are under a mandate from beyond themselves. Such a conviction can be misinterpreted, can be the source of destructive fanaticism. Great violence has been perpetrated by persons believing themselves to be called by God. That is an ever-present danger. Nonetheless, nothing of great significance has ever been done in this world without a sense of claim and call, a sense of responding to a compelling urgency not of one’s own making. © Grand Valley State University �Baptized, Claimed, Called Richard A. Rhem Page 4   This was true of Israel. It comes to fine expression in the so-called Servant Songs of Second Isaiah. The reading for this sermon from the Hebrew prophet expresses the call and the assurance that the Calling One will be with the servant to strengthen and uphold. That sense of being called has always marked Israel - a people called by God to be light to the nations. It was that deeply rooted sense that marked Jesus, as well, and when the Gospel writers, decades after Easter, told the story of Jesus, they gave expression to his sense of being claimed and called at the moment of his baptism at the hands of John the Baptist. Last week there were ten of us from Christ Community at a seminar at Duke University entitled, "Jesus in Context." The leading Jesus Seminar scholars, John Dominic Crossan and Marcus Borg, were part of the panel of scholars along with five others, two of whom were Jewish, who teach Christian origin and New Testament interpretation. There was great diversity among the seven scholars, but agreement on two points - Jesus’ baptism by John and his crucifixion under Pontius Pilate. That there was a significant spiritual renewal movement under John the Baptist is undoubted. John preached repentance and baptism as a sign of renewal at what he and most of his contemporaries believed was the end of the age, the dawn of God’s fresh visitation of God’s people, Israel. Jesus was a part of that scene; he, too, was baptized and most likely shared the sense of the imminent movement of God to inaugurate God’s Kingdom. Jesus’ baptism is recorded by Matthew, Mark and Luke. John does not mention the baptism, but associates Jesus with John in the earliest phase of his ministry in Judea. Thus, there is unanimity among the Evangelists that Jesus began his ministry after joining the Baptist movement and himself being baptized. The three Synoptic Gospels record the heavens opening, the Spirit as a dove descending on Jesus, and a voice saying, "You are my beloved Son with whom I am well pleased." What really happened beyond the baptism itself, we cannot tell. Luke alone says Jesus, following his baptism, was praying when he received the vision and heard the voice. What is clear is that the tradition that gathered around Jesus in the years following his death ascribed to this moment the consciousness of a divine claim and call. From his baptism, Jesus inaugurates his ministry that lasted from one to three years. What did it mean - that sense of being claimed and called? To what would it lead? What would be involved in yielding to the call? I think none of that was clear to Jesus as he sensed himself under Divine compulsion. This he knew: no longer was he his own; he was embarking upon a path the end of which he could not foresee. Only this he knew: The Hand of God was laid on him. There was something he must do. © Grand Valley State University �Baptized, Claimed, Called Richard A. Rhem Page 5   "Must." Yes, in the sense of inner necessity. Could he have resisted? Refused to yield? Certainly. But not if he would be true to himself, for he had "seen" something; he had a sense of something; to be himself, he must give himself to it whatever it was, wherever it would lead. That is where the struggle comes in - Will I be true to what I have "seen," what I know deep down to be true, what the vision burned indelibly into my consciousness, what the "Voice" declared in the depths of my soul, or will I falter before calling in questioning the conventional wisdom held by the majority, the inevitable misunderstanding of what I "see," the questioning of my motivation? And who am I that God should claim me for some task, call me to do some special work? What of my family? Will my parents "see"? Will my spouse agree? Will my children suffer? Will I have to give up all plans for normalcy? The cost. It will cost to say "Yes" to the claim, to heed the call. It was thus for Jesus. In the 16th century, Luther said, "Here I stand; I can do none other." In our own time, Dietrich Bonhoeffer said, I shall have no right to participate in the reconstruction of Christian life in Germany after the war if I do not share the trials of this time with my people ... Christians in Germany will face the terrible alternative of either willing the defeat of their nation in order that Christian civilization may survive, or willing the victory of their nation and thereby destroying our civilization. I know which of these alternatives I must choose; but I cannot make this choice in security. Whatever happened that day on the banks of the Jordan, Jesus left there baptized, claimed and called. He embarked on a path which would lead him to the gory anguish of Golgotha. Could he have said "No"? Again, yes, of course. But, he did not; he yielded to the call because he saw something, knew something, and had the courage to act on it. Our lives will likely be marked by far less drama. Indeed, we might well pray, "Dear God, choose my neighbor." Yet, in the peculiarity of our own lives and in our life together, the same process is going on all the time - in our conversations, in the positions we take or fail to take. That is the point of this Lenten pilgrimage - Looking to Jesus, recognizing the very real human situation in which he encountered the claim and the call. In subsequent weeks, watching as he lives into that commitment, perhaps we, too, will sense God in our own lives, become sensitive to what it means to live © Grand Valley State University �Baptized, Claimed, Called Richard A. Rhem Page 6   before the face of God, and, perhaps in gazing on the face of the one who lived before the face of God, we may glimpse on his face the God before Whose face he lived, and died, for Jesus is the human face of God. That would be to make a good Lent. References: John Shelby Spong. This Hebrew Lord: A Bishop’s Search for the Authentic Jesus. HarperSanFrancisco, 1993. © Grand Valley State University � https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/7b4a3027d29f9e5b562a89224a02dc6d.mp3 4eb49e10ee15d19ac7703851faf423a0 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 Isaiah 41:8-10, Luke 3:1-9, 21-22 Location The location of the interview Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI References John Shelby Spong.This Hebrew Lord: A Bishop's Search for the Authentic Jesus, 1993 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context KII-01_RA-0-19980301 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1998-03-01 Title A name given to the resource Baptized, Claimed and Called Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Richard A. Rhem Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Subject The topic of the resource Clergy--Michigan Reformed Church in America Christ Community Church (Spring Lake, Mich.) Sermons Relation A related resource Richard A. Rhem - An Archive of Sermons, Prayers, Talks and Stories: http://richardrhem.org/ Language A language of the resource eng Type The nature or genre of the resource Text Sound 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 1, 1998 entitled "Baptized, Claimed and Called", 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: Isaiah 41:8-10, Luke 3:1-9, 21-22. Sacrifice Spiritual Journey Way of Jesus https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/4279d5914f03b86be1950c5364d2d6bb.mp3 ae1d2c3d2bb6df205149437838bb6a6d 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 Songs in the Night Scripture Text Psalm 42 Location The location of the interview Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context KII-01_RA-0-19980304 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1998-03-04 Title A name given to the resource When the Soul Is Cast Down Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Richard A. Rhem Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University 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 4, 1998 entitled "When the Soul Is Cast Down", as part of the series "Songs in the Night", on the occasion of Midweek Lent, at Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI. Scripture references: Psalm 42. https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/e0b87f61e8e2376a824657ab94bb3818.pdf b8dc41aed6eb4f9366bfa3d7131d2aa3 PDF Text Text Identity Crisis From the series: The Human Face of God Text: Isaiah 42:3; Luke 4:1, 2 Richard A. Rhem Christ Community Church Spring Lake, Michigan March 8, 1998 Transcription of the spoken sermon The lines from Bishop John Shelby Spong that triggered the Lenten series for me are printed on the inside cover of your liturgy this morning. The lines caught my attention because they present Jesus Christ in most compelling fashion, the Jesus Christ that grips me and that moves me: Look not at his divinity, but look, rather, at his freedom. Look not at the exaggerated tales of his power, but look, rather, at his infinite capacity to give himself away. Look not at the first century mythology that surrounds him, but look, rather, at his courage to be, his ability to live, the contagious quality of his love. Jesus is interpreted by the Christian church in very exalted fashion. But, that is interpretation, the interpretation of an experience. More and more, we try to lay back the layers that the tradition has placed on him to see if we can find the face of that one, that Nazarene who was here, who was baptized at the hands of John the Baptist and, in that experience, sensed that he was claimed and called by God. Luke tells us that in the baptism he was praying and it was as though the heavens opened and the Spirit in the form of a dove descended upon him, and he heard a voice, "This is my beloved Son; You are my beloved son in whom I am well pleased." With a claim and a call that dramatic, one might think that that’s all there was to it, simple, clear, not to be doubted, and sometimes, as the stories are written in the gospels, the exaggerated stories of his power, the first century’s mythological framework in which we find him portrayed, it might seem as though there was little room for any question, any doubt on his part, and yet there is enough of that real Jesus that obtrudes through, even in the gospel portraits that are written after Easter and paint him in exultant colors - there’s enough of that historical core that comes through that we can see that it was not so easy for Jesus. Jesus still had to determine who he was and the nature of the mission to which God was calling him, and that didn’t come automatically. © Grand Valley State University   �Identity Crisis Richard A. Rhem Page 2   It’s rather interesting that in Luke and Matthew, who follow Mark, they all record the experience of the temptations, Mark just a brief reference, but Luke and Matthew, some expanded conversation with the devil in the wilderness after forty days of prayer and fasting, and it is not by coincidence that the evangelist placed that struggle, that temptation experience immediately after the claiming and the calling in his baptism, preceding his ministry, obviously trying to tell us that Jesus had to struggle to understand who he was and the nature of the work to which God had called him and for which God had claimed him. Mythological? I would guess so. I don’t meet the devil engaging me in conversation out on the street, and of course, I don’t go into the wilderness where maybe I would meet him. It’s an obvious creation of the evangelist in order to make a point. Not that we deny the reality of darkness, the reality of evil in the world. Not that all of the religions in the world have not recognized that hindrance to wholeness and to the mending of creation. But, nonetheless, this is obviously a creation of the evangelist in order to tell us that Jesus, in the light of the claiming and the calling of God and in the prelude to the ministry he would execute, had to figure out who he was and how he was to go about it. The Gospel of John doesn’t mention the temptation experience. Nonetheless, the Gospel of John does have John the Baptist pointing to Jesus as the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. John witnesses to the fact that he saw the Spirit of God fall out on Jesus. He cannot do anymore than he does to affirm this one, and so John the evangelist also ties in Jesus to the ministry of John the Baptist. But he doesn’t tell us that John the Baptist baptized him, and he doesn’t tell us about this wilderness temptation experience. What he does tell us in the early chapters of his gospel, I think, is a narrative form of what Luke and Matthew were trying to tell us. It’s interesting that the Gospel of John, which is different in its chronology and so much of its import from the other three gospels, presents Jesus witnessed to by John, pointed out by John, but then going to Galilee. He’s in Cana of Galilee where he performs his first sign, changing the water into wine, and then already in the second chapter we have Jesus going down to the Passover in Jerusalem. Now, if you read these gospels, you find that in Matthew, Mark and Luke, Jesus goes to Jerusalem just one time, and it’s the last week of his life. But, in John, Jesus goes back and forth to Jerusalem, and early in his ministry, he goes to Passover in Jerusalem, and he comes to the temple and do you remember what he does? He’s infuriated. He’s filled with anger at what he sees - the whole temple establishment, everything that was going on there which he must have seen as a barricade to access to the grace of God rather than the instrumentality through which that grace is to be mediated. John tells us he made whips of cords, he overturned the moneychangers tables, and he made quite a scene. It was an angry scene, and, of course, people loved to have it so. I mean, this man has fire! This man has passion! And so, they come to him. Now, still in the second chapter of © Grand Valley State University �Identity Crisis Richard A. Rhem Page 3   John, we read that as they were coming to him, he realized it was because of what he had done, of the sign that he had perpetrated, and John says, "But Jesus wouldn’t give himself to them because he knew what was in them. He didn’t entrust himself to the multitude that came rushing on. What was going on? I suspect that what John was trying to tell us was that, in the early phase of Jesus’ ministry, he was very much in the mold of John the Baptist. Wouldn’t that be natural? John baptized him, and in his baptism he senses his calling, and wouldn’t it be expected that, having identified himself with that spiritual renewal movement at the end of the age as John presented it, that Jesus would have carried on very much with the voice and the manner of John the Baptist? John the Baptist was a fiery preacher of judgment and the wrath of God to come. I suspect that Jesus began in that mode, and at least the chronology of John’s gospel places Jesus and the cleansing of the temple in the wake of his initial call and claiming as the manner in which he had determined he was to carry out that ministry. Then he saw the reaction, and the reaction he saw was the reaction of anger and hatred and violence. Isn’t it interesting what religious rhetoric can do? Is there any rhetoric in the world more volatile and explosive than religious rhetoric? And seeing that, it must have raised questions in Jesus’ mind. Is this what I am to be about? It’s a little creative imagination, but I think I understand what was going on. In my earlier years, before I knew Jesus, I used to preach some angry sermons, and afterwards I didn’t feel so good about it. Now, there’s no question about the fact that you deserved it! But, leaving, I didn’t feel good about it. I had gotten wrapped up in the rhetoric and I didn’t like what I felt, and frankly, didn’t like what it did to you. Now, if stay with John’s gospel for a minute, you’ll find that Jesus carried on a ministry in Judea, down south of Jerusalem in the area of John the Baptist. Matthew, Mark and Luke don’t tell you that. Only John tells you that he began a ministry with his disciples down the banks of the Jordan, in the vicinity where John had carried on his ministry and where Jesus himself had been baptized. And if you read in the end of the third chapter of John, you will find that the word got around that Jesus was drawing better than John. John was holding forth in the First Presbyterian Church, and now there’s a Second Presbyterian Church down the line, and it’s doing better. (It used to be a Reformed Church, but it’s Presbyterian.) Now, they come to John and they say, "Hey, that fellow that started out with you is down there doing this thing, and the crowds are going to him." And then if you read a little further on, you’ll find that when Jesus gets wind of this, he leaves. He says, "I’m out of here," because there was something about the competitive nature of that ministry that he knew was a violation of the very ministry he was carrying on. And we read that Jesus went to Galilee, and how did he go to Galilee? He went to Galilee through Samaria, and at Samaria, what does he do? He engages the woman at the well, which is quite an astounding © Grand Valley State University �Identity Crisis Richard A. Rhem Page 4   thing for him to do. And James and John, who feel the inhospitable attitude of the Samaritans, suggest to Jesus, "You know, maybe we ought to call down fire from heaven on these Samaritans." Very much in the old mode, eh? The Sons of Thunder, they were called. Damn them. Wipe them out! Ah, there’s something down here in the visceral section of our being that responds to that. And Jesus said, "Stop. You don’t know what spirit you are of." And then he went to Galilee and carried on his Galilean ministry and do you remember what happened when John the Baptist was thrown into prison? He sent his disciples to Jesus in Galilee when he heard the ministry that Jesus was carrying on in Galilee and what was his question? "Are you the one? Or should I look for another?" Are you the one upon whom I had pinned my hopes for the future? Are you the one that I mentored and nurtured in this ministry? Are you the one who was to carry on the program of the kingdom of God when I lose my head? It’s really tough when you’ve mentored someone to have them turn away; when you have taught and nurtured and shaped and invested yourself, and then find them turning out to be quite other than the aspirations you had for them. I think that was behind John’s question. And the answer to John’s question would have to be, "Yes, and No. I am the one called and claimed by God, but no, not in the fashion in which you shaped me, John, because the fashion in which you shaped me is something that causes me to tremble. It flies in the face of what I’m sensing God to be and what God is calling me to be." Was there another model? Sure there was. And if John was modeled after the prophet Malachi, then I think that Jesus in his own reflection, in his meditation, in his fasting and in his prayer, came rather to see the suffering servant as the paradigm for his ministry. The suffering servant - there are four poems, four servant poems in Second Isaiah, Isaiah 40-55. We read one of them, Isaiah 42: My servant, my chosen one in whom my spirit dwells. The bruised reed he will not crush. The dimly burning wick he will not snuff out. Not only will he not call down fire from heaven, but he will take that which is bruised and broken and nurture it and care for it and fan it into life. I believe that Jesus, having sensed the claim and the call of God, and having begun in one direction was turned around in his heels, so that it was not John the Baptist who provided for him the model for his ministry, the ministry of condemnation and judgment and the wrath of God, not the announcement of the imminent wrath of God, but the announcement of the imminent breaking in of the grace of God, the kingdom of God, the reign of God. A message not of doom, but of good news; a message not of judgment, but of grace. That, I think, is what those temptation narratives in Luke and in Matthew, based on Mark’s statement, were intending to tell us - that Jesus didn’t come into this full blown, that Jesus © Grand Valley State University �Identity Crisis Richard A. Rhem Page 5   had to wrestle and struggle and fight his way through to a sense of who he was and the nature of that ministry to which he was called, that Jesus was not so cock sure. Interestingly, Luke tells us that the devil left him for a more opportune time. In other words, it wasn’t over. Indeed, it wasn’t over. Look at the Garden of Gethsemane. "Let this cup pass from me." He didn’t want to die. Look at the darkness of Calvary. "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" Did he mean that honestly, genuinely? I think he did. Might he not have expected, having come finally to determine who he had to be and how he had to be - might he not have expected, convinced that he was that he was the agent of God’s incoming kingdom, might he not have expected, even at the last moment, that God would have done something, some dramatic move? I think so. And nothing happened. And he died in the darkness, forsaken, trusting, forsaken, trusting, doubting, wondering, clinging to God. Where else could he go? The devil said, "Why don’t you get it over with right at the beginning? Why don’t you make God show God’s hand? Why don’t you get a demonstration, a public demonstration?" Jesus knew that was not the way he was to go. He was to go by faith. He was to trust. He was to embody grace, and he was to trust, and that was the only option available if he would be true to what he sensed God was about. Identity crisis. For us, too. Is grace still enough? Will we be doubly committed to being a place of grace? Will we dare follow Jesus so that, if it comes to standing in the face of religious establishment or political pressure or whatever else might be out there, we will stand as the embodiment of the grace of God where there is no exclusion? Will we dare to see Jesus as Jesus saw himself, as the servant of the Lord who was God’s agent, in whom God was embodied? God still transcending, God still larger, God’s embrace still broader? Jesus did not see himself as God! Jesus knew himself claimed by God, the servant of God, the embodiment of God. That’s where I see God; in the face of Jesus I see God. Paul said, "We’ve seen the light of the revelation of the glory of God in the face of Jesus." John has him say in the fourth gospel, "If you’ve seen me, you’ve seen the Father." It’s the human face of God. That’s where I see God. I see through the face; I see through the ages, giving me the clue to God Who is beyond it, beyond him, beyond us all. In that beautiful, gracious, compassionate, open, human being, I see God. God is like that. That’s how God is. And if that’s how God is, in that human face, then I still will be able to find God in human faces - in yours, and yours, and yours. And I will know the truth of that biblical statement, "The one who dwells in love, dwells in God and God dwells in that one." © Grand Valley State University �Identity Crisis Richard A. Rhem Page 6   It was not easy for him to gain his sense of identity and to know the nature of his mission, but by God he made it! Thank God he made it, and thank God for human community full of grace where God can still be touched. It’s really quite simple, once you see it. Christpower Look at him! Look not at his divinity, but look, rather, at his freedom. Look not at the exaggerated tales of his power, but look, rather, at his infinite capacity to give himself away. Look not at the first-century mythology that surrounds him, but look, rather at his courage to be, his ability to live the contagious quality of his love. Stop your frantic search! Be still and know that this is God: this love, this freedom, this life, this being; and When you are accepted, accept yourself; When you are forgiven, forgive yourself; When you are loved, love yourself. Grasp that Christ power and dare to be yourself! John Shelby Spong, 1973 © Grand Valley State University � https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/55fb4af1b617e1251ba6a53a0d47c133.mp3 1e60973218ff340f1b02ba4b2294b2fc 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 II Series The Human Face of God Scripture Text Isaiah 42:3, Luke 4:1,2 Location The location of the interview Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI References John Shelby Spong. Honest Prayer, orig. publ 1973 St. Johann Pr., 2001 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context KII-01_RA-0-19980308 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1998-03-08 Title A name given to the resource Identity Crisis Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Richard A. Rhem Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Subject The topic of the resource Clergy--Michigan Reformed Church in America Christ Community Church (Spring Lake, Mich.) Sermons Relation A related resource Richard A. Rhem - An Archive of Sermons, Prayers, Talks and Stories: http://richardrhem.org/ Language A language of the resource eng Type The nature or genre of the resource Text Sound 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 8, 1998 entitled "Identity Crisis", as part of the series "The Human Face of God", on the occasion of Lent II, at Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI. Scripture references: Isaiah 42:3, Luke 4:1,2. Inclusive Grace Suffering Servant Way of Jesus https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/3978ece23ec225faa785eace200be092.mp3 e3fde9e8ec24ae54c4550f9cfbb3139d 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 Songs in the Night Scripture Text Psalm 23 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-0-19980311 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1998-03-11 Title A name given to the resource When the Soul is Serene Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Richard A. Rhem Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University 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 11, 1998 entitled "When the Soul is Serene", as part of the series "Songs in the Night", on the occasion of Midweek Lent, at Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI. Scripture references: Psalm 23. https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/9f1ac52c851152465dc88ab7b19440b6.mp3 0525488b9f1e5d0111ed0b8acd973f9c 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 Songs in the Night Scripture Text Psalm 34 Location The location of the interview Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context KII-01_RA-0-19980318 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1998-03-18 Title A name given to the resource When the Soul is Freed From Fear Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Richard A. Rhem Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University 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 18, 1998 entitled "When the Soul is Freed From Fear", as part of the series "Songs in the Night", on the occasion of Midweek Lent, at Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI. Scripture references: Psalm 34.