1 24 33 https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/e47f89aecad3ff2f122dd65210985108.pdf 178abf2b8ef5b8d34919c89b876537a5 PDF Text Text A Larger Hope From the series: Memory and Hope Micah 5:1-5; Luke 4:16-30 Richard A. Rhem Christ Community Church Spring Lake, Michigan Advent IV, December 19, 1999 Transcription of the spoken sermon Advent is a time of contemplation, reflection, and preparation - preparation for what? For the future, surely, but what future? A future in this world and this present age, or a future in another reality, in heaven? The Kingdom of God - is it a present reality and experience, or is it a future state? Advent is a time of remembering, for we have our minds focused on the coming celebration of Christmas and thus on our founding story as Christians - But, Advent is a time of expectation - a time of waiting and the biblical sense of waiting is waiting in hope. The biblical story is a story about God's engagement in history past and the promise of God's action in history future. History is the ongoing story between God's action, past, and God's action, future. That is the biblical notion. In traditional biblical and liturgical terms, we are in the time between the times - the past coming of God in our flesh and the future appearing of the one who came, coming now to judge and bring all things to their consummation. Year after year, the same story - The child was given; the King is coming. And it is quite a lovely story that is lodged deeply in our hearts and overflowing with affectional memories as well as filling us with hope and confidence - It is a story that enables us to negotiate the passages of our lives in this world, speaking to us of another world. The story originates in another realm and culminates likewise in another realm. We speak of God's salvation and, while that is a present experience, its real significance is the promise of eternal life beyond the limits of our earthly journey. Salvation becomes a very personal matter. We hear much about having Jesus Christ as our personal savior, the one who came to die for us in order to make possible God's forgiveness and eventual entrance into heaven. © Grand Valley State University   �A Larger Hope Richard A. Rhem Page 2   Now I'm speaking about Advent and Christmas in traditional terms. I could have you open the hymnbook and over and over again I could demonstrate the primary focus of our Christian faith as we have learned it. God so loved the world that God gave the son - Born a child of Mary, to live for us and die for us and bring us to heaven. Annually we are immersed in the story of one born a child who became a King - a King who will be coming in blinding glory to judge and rule and bring us to heaven. I'm not really telling you anything new. This is the old, old story. God's gift of Jesus, our savior, to take away our sins and open heaven's gates. And what about this in-between time, this time between his first coming and his coming again? Well, it is a time for the Gospel to be preached, a time to offer the salvation God has provided through Jesus' death and resurrection. The story is about a spiritual Kingdom, about salvation, about heaven. There are present responsibilities - to preach the Gospel, to work for human well-being, acts of charity and the alleviation of suffering. But, essentially, there is no hope for this old world, this present age, this earthly reality of which we are a part. The world is simply reeling toward hell. It will be destroyed; we must be saved out of the world. But, what if we get it wrong? What if we missed the point of Jesus? What if we made a religious cult out of what Jesus intended as a revolutionary movement of world transformation? What if we got all bogged down with sin and guilt and threat of damnation when Jesus was about social, economic and spiritual transformation? Let me read a description of the world. See if you recognize it. ... a world where dreams of limitless material wealth and technological progress danced in the heads of the great entrepreneurs and in the rhetoric of ambitious politicians - and where the looming nightmares of family breakdown, crime, sudden loss of livelihood, and untreated and untreatable illnesses plagued the minds of the vast majority. It was, in short, a world that should seem ominously familiar - in which sweeping social and economic change was embraced by some and condemned by others, dramatically transforming the life of all the empire's people, from the wealthiest nobles in their palaces to the poorest shepherds wandering with their flocks in the hills. This is becoming increasingly clear because modern scholars have at last begun to explore the vast area covered by the rule and civilization of the Caesars to search for the life styles of both the rich and famous and the far larger, yet mostly hidden, world of the Roman havenots, peasants, plebians, and slaves. Richard Horsley, The Message and the Kingdom, p. 2F. As this citation begins, one might think one is reading a description of life at the end of the 20th Century, © Grand Valley State University �A Larger Hope Richard A. Rhem Page 3   but it is, as becomes clear, a description of the Roman Empire at the time of Jesus' life in the occupied land of Israel. Through archeological exploration and cross-cultural studies we are gaining a wealth of information about the ancient world of Jesus' time and beginning to understand the poverty and suffering of the lower classes which formed the vast majority of the population. Occupied by a foreign power, exploited by the imperial rule through taxation and land appropriation, there was a brewing cauldron of frustration and anger. And, where was god? What if the promises of prophets of a new creation, of a time of prosperity and peace - the shalom of the peaceable Kingdom when swords and spears would be changed into implements of agriculture? Where was God? When would this awful suffering cease? Is it not a natural human question and normal human response? Why, O Lord, why? How long, O God, how long?" Well, one answer - a common one found in the Hebrew prophets was that Israel was suffering for its sin. That is how Jeremiah explained the Babylonian Exile. I could cite passage after passage from the prophetic book - You have sinned; God is punishing. But, why should the righteous suffer? Another solution must be found. And thus the rise of the idea that the world was in the grip of an evil power. For the time being, God was allowing Satan to hold sway creating havoc in history, the suffering that was everywhere. But God would not always remain passive. God would act. God would intervene. This was the origin of Apocalypticism - Apocalypse - meaning "unveiling" or "revelation." God would intervene in history; God's judgment and grace would be unveiled or revealed. In the cauldron of suffering and discontent, there was the feverish expectation of the exploited and suffering masses when John the Baptist preached. And John was not the only one. There was a widespread anticipation of God's dramatic intervention to destroy the evil one and all the agents of oppression and darkness and the vindication and salvation of the suffering righteous. We noted John's preaching of the coming Kingdom in the last sermon - God would wreak vengeance on the enemies and oppressors of God's people, whether foreign agents or native collaborators. This was the angry God of Isaiah 34, a God whose cup of wrath was filled up, ready to overflow in burning judgment. Jesus came to John to be baptized. Jesus was caught up in the Baptist movement, himself baptizing down the river a piece. After a time, he distanced himself from John and his preaching took on a different note - a grace note. There is a wonderful debate going on in the circle of historical Jesus scholarship as to whether Jesus was an apocalyptic prophet like John or not. We will have that issue debated here next March when Dom Crossan and Amy-Jill Levine discuss Jesus' life, death, and resurrection. But, whether or to what degree Jesus © Grand Valley State University �A Larger Hope Richard A. Rhem Page 4   was part of the apocalyptic expectation, this would seem to be certain - Jesus was dealing with earth, not heaven, this life, not some life to come, concrete, down to earth human existence, not some spiritual Kingdom in another dimension. Jesus left John the Baptist because he pointed to an alternative vision of God and called for an alternative community. Luke writes his Gospel with an opening scene of Jesus' ministry in which he announces what he is about. The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor. John's hope was an apocalyptic hope of imminent judgment and salvation from beyond. For Jesus, that was a hope too narrow. I used the word tribal last week. Religion tends to become tribal - our God looking after our well-being and destroying our enemies. God on our side. God favoring and saving us. God giving us the truth, the way to salvation: others need not apply. For Jesus, that was a hope too narrow. Jesus embodied a larger hope. In his home synagogue in Nazareth, they were not happy with the expansiveness of his vision and hope. He pointed to an Elijah story where the Sidonian widow was provided for in famine, and the Elisha story where the Syrian Naaman was healed of his leprosy, thus pointing to the broader swath of God's care and concern. The hometown folk were not happy about God's wider grace and their anger rose against Jesus. Jesus lived by and offered a larger hope from which no one was excluded. There were no outcasts in Jesus' purview. He pointed to a God whose grace was of expansive embrace. But, the grace he offered was the grace that created human dignity and worth to people who had lost their dignity and all hope. The Kingdom is in the midst of you, he told them. This is the year of the Lord's favor. To the poor, the blind and the lame, he brought the Good News of God's presence and called the people to care for one another. This was an appeal to the traditional covenantal life of Isaiah, to community of mutual respect and care. And the life to which Jesus called the people was revolutionary in its impact. He touched the anger, frustration and despair of the people, but in a positive way of giving them dignity and solidarity before their oppressors - the covenant ideal of Israel where God was King alone and the people lived in covenant community. That was Jesus' larger hope - a hope that embraced all. © Grand Valley State University �A Larger Hope Richard A. Rhem Page 5   This was the Kingdom that was already present for Jesus, in the towns and villages, if only people recognized its sanctity and reoriented their community accordingly - They were poor, oppressed, fragmented. They were disoriented and dislocated. They had lost hope and they forgot how to live in community. Jesus called them to remember who they were and to reclaim their lives as children of God. He called for an alternative community, an alternative society. Jesus was not a revolutionary of the type that was certainly present -the guerilla bands that roamed the Palestinian hills, the Zealots that pressed for armed conflict against Rome - and eventually in revolt brought out the legions of Rome that destroyed Jewishness in 70 C.E. But Jesus was revolutionary in calling for the transformation of human society. This is why he was proved too dangerous to let live. This is why he was crucified. That he was revolutionary has been proved in our own time by those who learned civil disobedience from him. First of all, people must be given a sense of themselves - their dignity and worth as human beings, as children of God. Then they can resist, non-violently, passive resistance, civil disobedience, Gandhi, Martin Luther King, the South African Black Church - all examples of Jesus' Way. Jesus was not tribal. He had not a hope too narrow. Jesus had a larger hope for human transformation in this down-to-earth concrete reality of history. Jesus gave people hope for the transformation of their life here and now. That is a striking fact. Do you at all sense how revolutionary and radical that is? It should give us pause. Who is Caesar? Who is Herod? Who are the Priests and Sanhedrin? Who has the legions and the swords? Who are the poor whom Jesus called to awareness of their human dignity and thus to their birthright as children of God? How are we doing as the Millennium turns? We are the rich and powerful. Jesus was engaged with concrete human social, economic, and religious conditions. Then, can we honestly make him into a savior of a spiritual Kingdom whose issue is heaven? Wherein lies the hope for the world? Will it not call for transformation - social, political, economic? The world could be transformed - what if the vision was caught not by the poor and powerless, but by the rich and famous? I can't think about it too long and hard. I would have to change. Better simply to go once more to Bethlehem and see him as God's gift to save us from our sins and bring us to heaven - And forget about what he was really about. © Grand Valley State University �A Larger Hope Richard A. Rhem © Grand Valley State University Page 6   � https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/ef97da966eca29767cef3f84008e9752.mp3 dab6cf4bdefc5177b69f3adcc2fdbe2a 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 Memory and Hope Scripture Text Micah 5:1-5, Luke 4:16-30 Location The location of the interview Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context KII-01_RA-0-19991220 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1999-12-20 Title A name given to the resource A Larger 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 December 20, 1999 entitled "A Larger Hope", as part of the series "Memory and Hope", on the occasion of Advent IV, at Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI. Scripture references: Micah 5:1-5, Luke 4:16-30. Advent Community of Grace Inclusive Grace Transformation https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/5c1c0599df0066206e4b97c1289e22a0.pdf eaaca59c6b5ee71ae2f424f5009e636b PDF Text Text A Hope Too Narrow From the series: Memory and Hope Text: Isaiah 35:4; Matthew 3:12 Richard A. Rhem Christ Community Church Spring Lake, Michigan Advent III, December 12, 1999 Transcription of the spoken sermon Have you noticed how you might hear of a person or a region or perhaps discuss a disease, you've never heard of them before, you had no knowledge of them, and the next day you go out and you see the same thing referred to and within the next few days you find that particular new piece of information everywhere? It's not as though it suddenly came to expression, but simply because you suddenly had an awareness, your attention was called to a certain phenomenon and then you began to see it everywhere. You had a fresh awareness that caused the filter of your mind to take in that piece of data and to register it. It's a common human experience, and I have found that to be the case as I have reflected on the larger religious scene and, more specifically, the Christian tradition and the Christian church. It continues to impress me, startle me, and amaze me how narrow is the hope of the Christian church. I want to suggest to you today that the Christian church has traditionally had a hope too narrow and, that being the case, it is not true simply for Christian faith, but I come to see more and more that it is an aspect of religion itself. Ironically, religion doesn't always make us very nice people. Religion can bring out the worst in us and can feed the baser nature, which is a part of our human creaturehood, and so this morning I had you open your Bibles to that section in Isaiah to see the contrast between Isaiah 34 and 35. I didn't intend to do that, frankly, until I got studying the whole thing. I was going to simply use 35; it's a wonderful passage. However, there is one verse in there, verse four, which contrasts the blessing of God for Zion, for God's people over against the vengeance with which God will come to judge the rest. But, as I was studying and I read Chapter 34 before, I said, "Oh, my goodness! What a picture!" Did it shock you just a bit? Did you know that that was in there, this chapter about the vengeance of God, the furious God, the God who is furious with the nations, who is going to come to judge the nations, whose sword is sated with blood? The judgment scene of the devastation of the nations and specifically of Edom. © Grand Valley State University   �2   A Hope Too Narrow Richard A. Rhem Page Edom was a neighboring tribe, a neighboring people, and perhaps you will remember that Edom comes from Esau so that what we have is the old rivalry between Jacob and Esau, the rivalry between the brothers and, of course, no one gets our vengeance more than those who are closest to us. So, what we have in Isaiah 34 is a picture of a coming devastating judgment on the nations about Judah, and in Chapter 35, the restoration of Judah and the desert blossoming as a rose. Some phrases out of Chapter 35 you have seen on greetings cards, Christian greetings cards - streams in the desert, for example. How many sympathy cards haven't you seen with the last phrase that I read, that time "when all sorrow and sighing will flee away"? Chapter thirty-five is magnificent in the images that it portrays for the people of faith; it is as wonderful as chapter 34 is terrible in that awful judgment that is depicted for all of those who are not the people of God, Zion, Jerusalem. As I see that contrast, I see something that, unfortunately, I am seeing everywhere and that is the tendency of religion to polarize people, the tendency of religion to become tribal. Tribal religion. Now, we don't face that fact very often because we say, "Well, the Bible begins 'in the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.' We're talking about the one true God, the creator of all," and so forth. And to be sure, there is a complex tapestry that makes up the Hebrew Scriptures as well as the New Testament documents. There is not a one-party line, there is not a consistent witness, and so next week I'll take a couple of passages that will show that larger hope. But this morning I want simply to call to your attention that aspect of religion that tends to hold a hope too narrow. That tendency of religion, in all kinds of religious communities and in all kinds of religious traditions, to become tribal, to put it bluntly in a word, the tendency of too much religion that tends to hope for God to lift one up and damn one's foes, tribal religion which can become very violent and which shapes an unsavory human character. Bad religion is really bad stuff because it is so powerful, because it is so potent, because its claim is that it puts one in touch with God, because its claim is that it gives one truths that are absolute, and therefore that will justify almost any kind of human action in the name of that God and that absolute truth. That kind of religion is alive and well in our world today, and in this Advent season as the millennium is about to turn, we have an added emphasis on that end time drama. You'll hear from various angles in various forms, that kind of religious faith set forth that says this is the way to salvation, and either says explicitly or leaves for you to draw your own conclusion that, for all the rest, there is condemnation, eternal suffering, torment, and darkness. That's tribal religion. That is religion with a hope too narrow and there is something in the human person, it seems, an insecurity and a fearfulness that tends to make us vulnerable to that kind of message that will secure us over against the others, that will convince us that we have the absolute truth and the corner on the truth and the only way of salvation. The violence of Isaiah 34 can be duplicated throughout the © Grand Valley State University �3   A Hope Too Narrow Richard A. Rhem Page Hebrew scriptures, to say nothing of the Book of Revelation which you had wellexpounded to you last week, that apocalyptic frame of mind that so permeated the century before Christ and into the first century, that apocalyptic frame of mind that was expecting the end of the world and was hoping for the judgment of God to fall on all of the rest. I can understand how it comes about. You have a little people like Judah, just a little tribal people and they're the pawn of the power brokers from Egypt up to Assyria to Babylon. You have them as this pawn in the power plays of the great empires; they are occupied, abused and oppressed, and the most natural reaction in the world for the human creature is anger, frustration, and finally the crying out for vengeance. It’s all in the book and it is expressive of a tribal religion, of a tribal God, my God, not the God of my enemies, the kind of religion that divides the world into my kind of people and all of the rest, the kind of religion that wants God to lift us high and damn our foes. I call it to your attention because it's so alive and well in our day. As I began, sometimes you become aware of something and then you see it everywhere, and I have to say that, having been in this business all of my life, which is a long time now, I have become increasingly aware of the tribal nature of much religious and especially Christian expression in the media, newspapers and journals. Then, being somewhat masochistic, I tune into late night evangelical television. Now, it's not exactly the kind of thing that soothes me and puts me to sleep, but the thing that concerns me is that those who are the true believers cough up the kind of funds that keep this kind of mentality and this sort of spirit alive and well so that it almost seems to me that the public expression, the broadcast expression of Christian faith is permeated with more of the spirit of Isaiah 34, or if that's too strong for you, consider John the Baptist. Now, John's situation was different. John wasn't talking about "us" and "them." John was talking about us and those of you within the circle, the religious leadership whom John condemned in strong terms. But, the spirit is the same. John the Baptist breathes fire. John the Baptist speaks about a God who is violent, a God who will come with vengeance, a God who will square the accounts with a wicked world, and it is a God that cannot be squared with the God and father of our Lord Jesus Christ. It is the kind of religious message that betrays what we really believe about the grace of God and the love of God. If it is true that Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life, if it is true, as Jesus says according to John's gospel, "If you've seen me, you've seen the father," you're talking about another kind of God than the God of Isaiah 34, and you're talking about a God of quite another spirit than the God of John the Baptist. I've gone through that more than once here. Jesus distanced himself from John the Baptist, distanced himself from the ministry of John, the ministry of fire and judgment, and, if you want the starkest contrast reflective of Jesus over against this other mentality, then just remember him in the anguish of crucifixion praying, "Father, forgive them for they know not what they do." There was an awareness in Jesus of a God who was © Grand Valley State University �4   A Hope Too Narrow Richard A. Rhem Page beyond the tribal gods, and at this time of the year, in the lines of George McDonald, They all were looking for a King To kill their foes and lift them high. Thou cam'st a little baby thing That made a woman cry. I wonder why it is that there is such a tendency to hold on to the spirit of John the Baptist rather than to see through the eyes of Jesus the totally different understanding of God, a God full of grace, the God of whom John wrote, "God is love, and those that dwell in love dwell in God and God abides in them." Why is it that so much of religion even to our day is marked by the kind of arrogance that says we have the truth and the whole truth and there is not truth or salvation any other way? Why is it, in spite of the possibility of the experience of other traditions, there is still in our day such a shrill note sounded about the exclusivity of Jesus Christ? Why does what I find in Jesus Christ, why is it in any way diminished if that is not the only way? I know from personal experience the difference in my whole demeanor, in my whole being, having moved from an exclusivist position with a God of vengeance whose vengeance would never have come on me, of course, but always on the other; I know the difference it makes to live with a larger hope. Why is it that so much of religion lives with the hope too narrow, shaping people with a spirit bristling, on edge, condemnatory, afraid, defensive? Why have we not been able to see that so much of religion is focused on a tribal God rather than on the God and father of our Lord Jesus Christ? Why can we not see that no understanding of God is worthy that doesn't understand that God will not rest until all God's children are home, because God loves all and embraces all and has come to us so wonderfully in the vulnerability of the child that should give us a clue from the beginning that it is not by domination, coercion, and condemnation, but by the embodiment of grace that God is best served. Only such will keep us from living with a hope too narrow. © Grand Valley State University � https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/58322d63d5e461ed39770445a48efe9a.mp3 3dd10fe480640b1328b808102b473f77 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 Memory and Hope Scripture Text Isaiah 35:4, Matthew 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-0-19991212 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1999-12-12 Title A name given to the resource A Hope Too Narrow 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 12, 1999 entitled "A Hope Too Narrow", as part of the series "Memory and Hope", on the occasion of Advent III, at Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI. Scripture references: Isaiah 35:4, Matthew 3:12. Advent Grace Inclusive https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/1176b9f3952e7bdc571f685e86b951ab.pdf 336b528adbcaf306f9b056935b81f250 PDF Text Text Incarnation Here and Now From the series: The Presence of the Future Text: John 1:14; I John 4:12; 16 Richard A. Rhem Christ Community Church Spring Lake, Michigan Advent, December 20, 1998 Transcription of the spoken sermon The Advent season is a season whose theme traditionally has been "The One who came is coming again." A main emphasis in the Christian tradition and a clear biblical teaching is that the one who was born in poverty and humility is the child who will return in power and glory to judge the nations and issue in the end and the consummation. On the second Sunday in Advent, I suggested to you that we have to rethink that: that Jesus is not coming again in that sense. As someone said to me, "You’re not usually that dogmatic." I said, "Well, I’m not usually that sure." Well, I didn’t say that. Nancy said to me, "Why do you say things like that? You don’t know everything." Amen. But, I said it the way I said it because I wanted you to hear me. I could be the perfect heretic and preach all my life and you would never know it. All one has to do is fudge a bit, use vague terms, dance around, and I don’t want to do that. I’m too old; I’ve got too little time left. I want to be simple and I want to be clear. I do not think that the Christian model, the biblical model of history coming to an end with the appearing of the Lord from the clouds of heaven is, as a matter of fact, the way it’s going to be. I think history is going to continue to unfold and to develop, and going I know not where. But it is a part of a cosmic process of 15 billion years, unfolding in this cosmic wonder and majesty all those years, until finally there was the arrival of the human, the unfolding, then, of the story of history, even to the present moment, and I do not know where it is going, but I suggested to you that the good news is that, though I don’t expect Jesus to come from the clouds of glory, Jesus has come. Jesus has come again and again and again, and the key to our understanding, I believe, a more profound biblical understanding beneath that structure of things is a sense of Immanuel, God with us, here and now. Thus, Jesus with us, in spirit. "If you ask anything in my name, I will pray the Father, and God will give you the Spirit, the advocate, one to stand with you, one who will lead you into all truth, one who will call to remembrance the things that © Grand Valley State University   �Incarnation Here and Now Richard A. Rhem Page 2   I have said." And so, the present has within it the seeds of the future. The present is pregnant with the future. The vast potential beyond our conception is already incubated in the present, in the cosmos, in our history, in our humanity. But that future that is already in our present, is always under threat. We noted last week that the future that is trying to be born is always threatened by the present establishment for, if we have achieved a position of prestige and power and affluence, why in the world would we work for the transformation of tomorrow? And that’s the story of human history. As I said last week, if nature is red in tooth and claw, then human history is a veritable river of blood, violence and destruction, war and death, most often because the future that is trying to be born will be crucified by the present that is established and very happy with the way things are. Herod, on the throne, wanted to hear nothing of a royal child that might threaten his position and so, not being able to find the child, simply decreed that all children two years of age and under should be slaughtered. The Slaughter of the Innocents is the subtitle of the story of history. It has always been thus, for the future that would be born, the dawn that would break in this unfolding story of history which is the unfolding development of the cosmic reality, will always be threatened by those who would vie for power and position and stifle the spirit and crucify tomorrow. That’s human history. But, that’s not the whole story. If we are not to wait for someone to come and clean up our mess, then, as I said to you last week in concluding, it is our responsibility. History is our responsibility. The future is our responsibility. It is for us who have caught a glimpse of the vision, who’ve dared to dream the dream, to engage in the ongoing story, to stand for justice and righteousness, to live with compassion and to work for peace. The transformation of tomorrow is incubated in today and it is our task to midwife it into birth. The old model, that really doesn’t work anymore because it’s inconsistent with our experience of history and our knowledge of the cosmos, the old model would have us at this season of the year look for the big event somewhere out in the future, another place and another time. My Advent theme is a plea to you to find it here and now. Incarnation here and now. For that is the radical and profound declaration of the Gospel - that God has been embodied in human flesh. In the beginning was the word, reminding us of the first chapter of Genesis, "In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth." John, in telling the story of Jesus, is trying to connect the whole cosmic reality from the beginning with that historical manifestation in the midst. The Creator of the heavens and the earth is embodied and enfleshed in the humanness of Jesus. The word became flesh and dwelt among us. Incarnation, here and now. Human history now manifesting divinity in the concrete. Paul said we have seen the light of the knowledge of God in the face of Jesus Christ. Jesus, in John’s Gospel, is purported to say, "If you have seen me, you have seen the Father." The © Grand Valley State University �Incarnation Here and Now Richard A. Rhem Page 3   incarnation here and now in human history, and the image that Paul uses in his letter of the body of Christ simply says that that was not a one time happening. That was not a once-for-all-event. That was an emergence into history which continues in the body of Christ, where you are the body of Christ, you are the flesh of God in the world. You are the concrete manifestation of God in this marvelous, awesome, wonderful, unraveling of cosmos and history and humanity. Incarnation, here and now. The big event is not in the future. The future is incubated in the present and the present is pregnant with the future, and it’s for us to allow it to come to birth. That’s our task as humankind, in history, the children of the Big Bang, stardust children of cosmic reality manifesting our life in an ongoing story of history. I don’t want you to lose the moment. I don’t want you to live with anything less than awe and wonder at the gift of life and the marvel of the ongoing drama. How can I speak with such glowing terms on the Sunday after the week through which we have just lived? As I thought about this message and I thought about Christmas and incarnation, I was all too well aware that, unless something is said this morning about the debacle that has been played out in our midst as a nation, then I will simply give credence to the widespread sense that the pulpit is the epitome of irrelevancy. But, how does one speak about the crisis of our times? How does one speak with some objectivity and sensitivity without partisan bias? It’s impossible. So, let me warn you at the beginning that anything I say is no word from the Lord; I have no word from the Lord. Let me speak about it, however, as one responsible to say something in the face of that which faces us, is in our face. Someone who simply broods on these things and muses on these things, let me say a word, if I may, and let me share with you something that’s been very helpful to me in giving me some perspective. Andrew Sullivan is a journalist. He writes in The New York Times Magazine of October 11 a marvelous article in which he addresses the present situation and, although he is himself a liberal, he speaks very fondly of Conservatism at its best and the great tradition of Conservatism historically. He suggests that the Conservative movement today is betraying itself and its own finest principles. Let me read you a few paragraphs, even though I know that’s a boring exercise, but it says it better than I can say it, and I want it said here. Speaking about the Conservatives, he says, ... Conservatives have always been concerned with morality - and rightly so. They have long understood that political order rests upon a vibrant civil society, and on the morality that such a society sustains. But conservatives have also always been aware of the dangers of excessively policing that morality, and of the evils that can occur when the morally certain gain power. Hence the apparent conservative paradox. Conservatives want morality but they don’t want the big government that © Grand Valley State University �Incarnation Here and Now Richard A. Rhem Page 4   could effectively enforce it. For true conservatives, the evils of moral chaos are usually outweighed by the evils of a moralizing big brother. And so conservatives have learned over the years to live with a little paradox. They have resisted the temptation either to become morally indifferent libertarians or to become morally repugnant ideologues. Although they have worried about moral and social trends, they have resisted easy pessimism and the jeremiad. And they have left the impositions of morals to the churches and preachers and mothers and fathers and teachers and friends of America to sort out. When it comes to preaching, true conservatives would much prefer to praise the examples of Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa than to demonize the likes of Dennis Rodman or Marv Albert. Above all, true conservatives have not been depressed by freedom. This, after all, is where the modern conservative movement in America started in the 1950's - in a revolt against the creeping power of the postwar welfare state. When American conservatives lose sight of that central strain in their philosophy, when their love of freedom becomes an afterthought to their concern for morality, then they lose sight of what makes them both conservative and quintessentially American. They lose sight of what distinguishes them from the darker history of European conservatism... Truly American conservatives would not recoil at the greater liberty enjoyed by women, racial minorities and homosexuals, as the truly American conservative Barry Goldwater showed. In the last decade, true American conservatives would have been heartened by the declines in divorce, crime and teen-age births, and encouraged by the move among gay people for more stable, responsible relationships. They would have been elated by the collapse of collectivism and totalitarianism abroad, and encouraged by the return of fiscal prudence and social responsibility at home. They would have seen in Bill Clinton a dangerous proclivity for dishonesty and abuse of power, but they would not have seen him as the degenerate apotheosis of an entire generation - let alone an entire nation. And they would have seen the emergence of religious dogmatists on the far right as a threat to constitutional order and political civility, not as a boon for votes. Above all, they would not have fatally overplayed their hand and tried to impeach a President not for illegality but for immorality, and they wouldn’t have shredded the virtues of privacy and decency and common sense for the emotional release of a cultural jihad. ... Well, he goes on, and I find what he says to be profoundly true, for what has happened in this nation is that, in the debacle we’ve experienced before a President that should have resigned a long time ago, I suppose, Andrew Sullivan suggests the same, but nonetheless, we have come to focus on that which is © Grand Valley State University �Incarnation Here and Now Richard A. Rhem Page 5   miniscule, in light of the constitutional tragedy that is being played out in our midst. And the Congress has stooped so low that Larry Flynt can remove the Speaker-elect of the House of Representatives, not because Larry Flynt has become a major player in the American political scene, or somehow or other risen from his normal arena of operation, but because the Congress of the United States has descended into that arena for partisan mean-spiritedness, and that decrying of the social condition of America which is rampant in conservative intellectual journals in our day fails to take seriously the Christmas miracle of incarnation. In this day, on the threshold of another Christmas, I want to speak of incarnation, here and now. I want to say that what has happened in our nation’s capital is a betrayal of that which is highest and best and most noble in the American tradition. I want to say that I refuse to join in the bitterness and the cynicism and decry this present moment. This is human history; human history is messy! Whoever said it was anything else? It is violent, it is destructive, it is deathdealing, it is power hungry, it is all of that, and it is also the arena into which God has emerged. I want to give you another image, the old Christmas image of love coming down at Christmas is an image of intervention from beyond. That won’t work anymore. It is not love came down at Christmas. It is that love emerged in the incarnation 2000 years ago in Jesus Christ, the embodiment of God emerged out of the process and has been emerging ever since. It is trying to be born, the spirit of the flesh of Jesus trying to be born in this world of ours. I don’t give up on it. I have hope in history, as did the prophets who didn’t blind their eyes to anything that was wrong, to the darkness, to the evil, to the destructiveness. But, nevertheless, because they believed that God was in the process, God was in the midst, they believed in God, trusted in God, hoped in God, and therefore, dreamed a future and a vision. I do not believe that America is going to hell in a hand basket. I know you. I know too many people. I believe in the basic decency, honesty, civility of the American public across the board as well as around the globe. I do not believe that this is the worst of times. There have been good times and bad times vying for position throughout the whole spectrum of human history. This is a time at Christmas to remember that, not an intervention from beyond, but an emergency from within has resulted in one like Jesus in whose face one could see the heart of God. The heart of God is like the face of Jesus. Jesus is the human flesh – a concrete sign of God with, Emmanuel – the same kind of human flesh that you and I possess. I believe in you. I know you well. I believe in the future; I believe in history because history has emanated from cosmology that has emanated in the beginning from the God who said, "Let there be ..." I believe in the future; I believe in Christmas; I believe in you. © Grand Valley State University �Incarnation Here and Now Richard A. Rhem Page 6   This is a great day in which to be alive; this is a day to believe. We know all too well all of the dissembling - dishonesty, lack of integrity of a William Jefferson Clinton, and we don’t know it because we’ve seen it in him. We know it because we’ve seen it in our own hearts. When will we stop this kind of moralism and judgmentalism? Isn’t that perhaps why Jesus said, "Judge not, lest ye be judged?" Is it not we need a word of hope, a word of courage? Hope in history, hope in history’s God, confidence that we’ve not come this way through thousands and billions of years to end up in some fiasco of human conjuring. Oh, I think we have the potential to ruin it all, but one of the surest ways to do it is to become meddlesome, mean, small, and forget, by God, it’s Christmas! God in human flesh! God in flawed human flesh! God in your face and mine. God is love, and if one abides in love, one abides in God. God is present where two human beings love each other. Where love is, God is. I’ve seen God because I’ve seen you. I’ve experienced God because I’ve touched your flesh, and by God, I believe! I believe. © Grand Valley State University � https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/4d561c3f94442bddf3ebd4a11ab78d0c.mp3 f15d3cf618295bb94005e1c09d53cf50 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 The Presence of the Future Scripture Text John 1:14, I John 4:12,16 Location The location of the interview Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context KII-01_RA-0-19981220 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1998-12-20 Title A name given to the resource Incarnation Here and Now 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 20, 1998 entitled "Incarnation Here and Now", as part of the series "The Presence of the Future", on the occasion of Advent IV, at Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI. Scripture references: John 1:14, I John 4:12,16. Advent Emergence Love Presence Spirit https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/a7c503237a64b9af6921e548d3afc0b2.pdf 45e95dd2e89b03109196977835877092 PDF Text Text The Threatened Present in the Presence of the Future From the series: The Presence of the Future Text: Matthew 2:3; 2:18 Richard A. Rhem Christ Community Church Spring Lake, Michigan December 13, 1998 Transcription of the spoken sermon I left off last week with the question, "Where is the future going? What will become of us? Where will the process lead next?" And I admitted that we simply do not know. We do not know about the things of the beginning and that’s why the Hebrews long ago wrote stories, stories of a Garden of Eden, of a tree and a couple and a snake. Neither do we know things of the future and therefore, people have created stories about the end, visions and dreams of what might be. Visions and dreams that reflected their deep yearning and their longing. But, we noted last week that those stories of the end, the visions painted by the biblical writers, the expectation and anticipation of the Apostles simply were not realized in the way that they thought they would be, and for 2000 years now we have perpetuated those stories, even though they don’t really mesh with our understanding of reality and its cosmic form or its historic manifestation. And so, we noted that it is time for a new paradigm, for a new model of the end. We no longer really, literally, actually wait for the coming of our Lord in the sense of that Second Coming as it is expressed in the scriptures. But, the good news is that Jesus has come again and again and again and again, for he said, "I will come to you, I will not leave you alone, orphaned." And so, we noted that the key to a biblical understanding of history can better be understood under the word Immanuel, the name God With Us, God with us in the midst of the process, the Creator-Spirit from the beginning in that cosmic development of 15 billion years, emerging finally into history with the development of human consciousness and awareness, the development of human cultures. The story of human history of which we are at the vortex, moving into the future, continuing to write the story. And so, we need a new vision, a new dream, a new paradigm, a new model for that understanding of the cosmos from which we have emerged and the history in which process we find ourselves, so that we might have a life map and some orientation in order to find meaning and purpose in our present day, given the understanding we have of the human, of the world. We need a new paradigm in order that our faith vision may connect with our actual experience. © Grand Valley State University   �The Threatened Present Richard A. Rhem Page 2   To the question, "Where is it going?" as in the Advent season we think about the future, we really don’t know. I like the image of Martin Luther who gave expression to it this way. He said, if you can picture the infants baptized this morning, the secure and warm floating in the embryonic soup of the mother’s womb until the moment of birthing arrives, the pain that shoves that little embryo down the birth canal and out into a world, kicking and screaming, what infant in the womb could conceive of the drastic transformation of its world in a moment’s time, coming out into the harsh light and the chill of the real world into which it is being born? I saw a photograph someone showed me this week, taken by the Hubbell space telescope of the Eagle Nebula, which was caught exploding. I don’t know all the details, and I would be better off not even to attempt to describe what I saw in the photograph. It was like a cloud or an exploding star, I don’t know, but there were a couple of little fingers that went up at the top of this mass of whatever was happening and the person who showed me the photograph said those two little fingers each are larger than our whole galaxy. You can’t conceive of it, can you? Space and time beyond our imagination and in such a world so amazing, so full of wonder, where the future is already present in incubation, where the future is already present in the Spirit, where the present is pregnant with the future - in such a situation, we have to come to understand Advent anew as it calls us to our task to be engaged in the human endeavor. We need a new story that will energize us and motivate us to take responsibility for this history which is unfolding with us and through us, for, and I almost don’t dare say this, lest I be struck with lightning, being raised a sturdy Calvinist as I was, but, even though I almost don’t dare say it, I must say it - the future is in our hands. The future is in human hands, not apart from the Creator Spirit, but certainly in our hands now to move from that jungle survival instinct situation into which we have emerged, still having at the ready all of those survival skills that cling to us, threatened creatures that we are. It is our responsibility to move this cosmic drama, this unfolding history, this human story now, God’s story - to move it into a future, into a new day, into a brighter tomorrow. That’s the Advent task. And it’s a heavy responsibility, and of course, we’re not equal to it, we’re not up to it, and we will foul it terribly. Such is the nature of human history. Such has been the course, and will continue to be the course, because the present is not only pregnant with the future, full of promise, it is full of peril, as well, and it is our responsibility to address that reality. Let me give you a historical illustration from Matthew’s Gospel. The birth of Jesus is being recounted. The story of the Magi from the east, the astrologers who saw the star that signalled the birth of royalty, they followed the star until it came to Jerusalem and, naturally, they went to the royal court to learn of the birth. But, the birth was not in the royal court with King Herod the Great on the throne, and © Grand Valley State University �The Threatened Present Richard A. Rhem Page 3   when he heard of a star to announce a birth of one born to be king, he was terribly threatened. He was alarmed and afraid, and all Jerusalem with him, and he inquired of the scriptures where this event might be, and the scholars said to him, in Bethlehem. He sent the Magi there to seek out the child, requesting that they return to give him information, that he, too, might worship. But they, being warned, returned another way and when he recognized that he had been tricked, he was in a furious rage and decreed that all male children two years and under be slaughtered. That would fix any threat to the throne. And in the calendar of the Church, we call the event the Slaughter of the Innocents. One could write a story of human history under that title, the Slaughter of the Innocents. Matthew, in telling the story, reaches back to Jeremiah, chapter 31, verse 15, where Jeremiah holds up the image of Rachel weeping for her children, refusing to be comforted because they are not. Rachel was the wife of Jacob in the Genesis story, his favorite wife who birthed him Joseph, his favorite son, who was given a coat with sleeves, whose brothers were jealous of him, who sold him off into Egyptian slavery, bringing back the special coat drenched in animal blood in order to convince their father that a wild beast had done him in. Jacob wept for his son, and we read that he refused to be comforted, because his son was not. On his way back from his uncle Laban, where he had gotten his wives and a family, Jacob came to Ramah in Galilee, where his beloved Rachel died giving birth to Benjamin, and Rachel’s tomb is in Ramah, and centuries later the poet-prophet Jeremiah saw the devastation of Jerusalem, the torn down walls, the charred temple, the rape of the city, and he lamented over the terrible horror that had befallen Jerusalem and the people of God there, even though he had clearly foreseen it, and Jeremiah reached back to Rachel, because Rachel’s tomb was on the way that the exiles had to take from Jerusalem to Babylon in captivity. Jeremiah said, as the exiles were making their way into captivity, passing Rachel’s tomb, that Rachel was weeping in the tomb and would not be comforted because her children were not. And, when Jesus was born and King Herod decreed that the innocents be slaughtered, Matthew reaches back to weeping Rachel, weeping because her children are not, refusing to be comforted. Those images are the stories of human history. If nature is red in tooth and claw, then the human story is a veritable river of blood and violence. It is a story of brutality and unthinkable cruelty. That is the story, the history for which we are responsible. Such a history and such a story certainly makes it obvious why those who were dreamers and visionaries, who saw all of the hell on earth, longed for another world, for another day, for another reality - the prophetic vision of the lion and the lamb lying down together, therefore, the reconciliation of nature, where they would not hurt or destroy in all God’s holy mountain, therefore Peace, Shalom coming to earth. Were they not responding to the terrible violence and the hurt © Grand Valley State University �The Threatened Present Richard A. Rhem Page 4   and the pain, the Rachels weeping for their children because they were not? Certainly we can understand that eschatological hope, that yearning for something else, just as in the beginning they created stories about human responsibility because certainly the hell on earth could not be the consequences of a good God creating a good earth, therefore, stories of human rebellion. So, in the end are not those stories the human response to the harsh reality of human history, dreaming of another place and another time wherein dwells righteousness and justice marked by compassion and peace? We can understand how the stories arise. But, if it denigrates our present unfolding historical reality and our engagement with it, then we need a new model and a new paradigm, because the Herods of this world are all too plentiful yet in our day. Herod was half-Jew and half Edomite, the descendant of Esau. Herod had within himself Jacob and Esau, the conflict of brothers. It ran in his veins. He made himself useful to Rome and in 47 B.C.E. was appointed governor and then in 40, king, and he’s called Herod the Great. He was great. He at one time melted down his own gold to buy corn for the starving masses in a famine. On another time, in difficult times, he remitted the taxes in order that the people might have some relief. That disruptive, disorderly people was brought to law and order, and peace reigned for that long reign of Herod the Great. He was a great builder. People came from the ancient world to see Jerusalem and the marvels of its architecture, the glory of its buildings. Herod the Great. And he was a suspicious man. I suppose we’d call him a paranoiac today. He had his wife murdered, and her mother, Alexandra. He had his eldest son murdered, and two other sons. When he came to power, he had the Sanhedrin, the Jewish Supreme Court, slaughtered. At another time he had slaughtered 300 court officials. He had a long reign, you see. And when he was about to die, he retired to Jericho, having had the leading citizens of Jerusalem arrested on trumped up charges and imprisoned with the order that at the moment of his death they would be put to death, because Herod said no one will mourn Herod’s death, but at Herod’s death, nonetheless, tears will flow. Caesar Augustus, Emperor of Rome, said it is better to be Herod’s pig than Herod’s son. So, he was Herod the Great, at times moved with compassion, able to administer, create order and peace. And he was a murderer, taken over by brutality and violence and unspeakable horror, causing Rachel to weep in her tomb because her children are not. That’s the human story, and again, one can understand in the midst of the furnace, as was true of those early Christians at the end of the first century when the fires of persecution were burning, that they looked heavenward and said, "Maranatha. Our Lord come." Who wouldn’t want to escape the fiery furnace? © Grand Valley State University �The Threatened Present Richard A. Rhem Page 5   Who wouldn’t want release and relief from the anguish of this human experience? But, it is not so and it will not be so. It is for us to take responsibility and to change our world by the grace of God and the Spirit that is at work within us, the Spirit of the Jesus who comes again and again and again to those who are of open heart and open mind. It is for us to bring in a new day in our world, not to yield to cynicism or to bitterness, never to give up, but to work with hope unconquerable for a better world. On the 10th of December in 1948, the United Nations General Assembly adopted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. It is a fine document, speaking to the rights of every human being, social, political, economic, the kind of rights, the kind of regard that one, simply being human, should be accorded. It was celebrated this past week. It has only made a small dent in the realities and the brutalities of our history, and yet, it has made a mark, for this same week Jack Straw, the British Home Secretary, determined that General Pinochet could be extradited to Spain to be tried for human atrocities. And those who study these things are celebrating the fact that there is at least this one token sign that no dictator or totalitarian, evil leader of any nation can with impunity slaughter and kill. Herod is still alive and well on planet Earth, and we could point to several places on the globe where it is happening, even now. But, at least Pinochet, who was the military leader who led the coup that led to the assassination of the Socialist, duly elected Aliende some years ago in Chile - you remember the story? We were complicit in that action. We supported the coup that upended Aliende whose politics was threatening to the U.S. of A. This place of human rights and freedom and liberty has a very colored, checkered past in regard to universal human rights. We have been self-serving and self-protective, like every other people. We have had a strain of Herod in us, now and again, as I think Roosevelt said, who was instrumental in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, about some Latin dictator that we were supporting. "He’s a son of a bitch, but he’s our son of a bitch." In Advent 1998, if we want to keep Advent, if we want to be faithful followers of Jesus, it is that kind of pragmatism, that kind of politics of expediency, the kind of toying that’s going on in the Congress of the United States, even now, it is that against which we must speak as the followers of Jesus. As the angels said to the disciples when Jesus was ascending in clouds of glory, "Why stand you gazing up?" Get on with the work, because the responsibility is yours and mine, and we might be utterly frustrated if we try to change the whole world, but at least let us be certain that in this community of faith every human being is accorded dignity, that no one is excluded, no one is slighted, no one is denigrated, no matter who they are, no matter what their history, and that when it comes to the broader © Grand Valley State University �The Threatened Present Richard A. Rhem Page 6   community, let us be with clear voice taking the stand for all of the things for which the prophet longed and the church in its cry, "Maranatha," has yearned for. Jesus is not going to come back and do it for us. Jesus waits for us to follow him into the fray. © Grand Valley State University � https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/94a321f88a80b11c6b7fef07d72756c6.mp3 f8bebd78284195863149a380e600e899 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 The Presence of the Future Scripture Text Matthew 2:3, 2:18 Location The location of the interview Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context KII-01_RA-0-19981213 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1998-12-13 Title A name given to the resource The Threatened Present in the Presence of the 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 December 13, 1998 entitled "The Threatened Present in the Presence of the Future", as part of the series "The Presence of the Future", on the occasion of Advent III, at Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI. Scripture references: Matthew 2:3, 2:18. Advent Incarnation Inclusive Grace https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/a3d70fecbf0c09da682624a0bddb0ea3.pdf d0c255f9b73b60d2f5c8c28423af9757 PDF Text Text Spirit: The Now of the Future From the series: The Presence of the Future Text: Isaiah 61:1; John 14:18-19 Richard A. Rhem Christ Community Church Spring Lake, Michigan December 6, 1998 Transcription of the spoken sermon We had our first Advent Midweek Eucharist on Wednesday. It is such a lovely hour - the warmth of the Parlour beautifully decorated in the festive garb of the Christmas season, the intimate setting - there is something quite wonderful about it. I hope the secret doesn’t get out, because about 75 is all that we can comfortably handle. Well, Wednesday I had a rather startling revelation for those gathered - I told them Jesus is not coming again, which, of course, is the theme of Advent - The one who came a babe in human flesh, will come again in glory to judge and rule. I just came out with it; the early followers of Jesus, including Paul, expected Jesus to return in power and glory to bring history to its close and usher in the age to come. They got it wrong; the ongoing unfolding drama of history and human culture should surely tip us off - 2000 years of subsequent history and we still hear talk of the Second Coming of our Lord from Glory. Let me suggest in this season of Advent 1998, that it is time for us to take a sober look at the biblical time line - the divine calendar as it has been understood and declared over the centuries, and recognize that it really makes no sense of the reality we live, the cosmic unfolding, history developing, and the emerging of humankind. I have been thinking about this for a few years now. When I was in Europe in the 60s, there was a circle of young scholars who were swinging the pendulum back to an appreciation of God’s action within our history. It gave me a way to return here and preach good news. One European biblical scholar, Oscar Cullman, was not of that circle, but he had written a very influential book entitled Christ and Time. He pointed out what may seem obvious to one familiar with the Bible story - that the whole biblical drama was seen on a time line. Out of eternity issues the creative word, "Let there be" and the cosmos is formed, and time and history began - a time still ongoing in © Grand Valley State University   �Spirit: The Now of the Future Richard A. Rhem Page 2   the biblical drama. The biblical understanding was that those who were living the drama were in what they called "this age" or "the present age." But, they were looking for "The Age to Come." The whole Creation/historical drama was seen under that model or paradigm. This age and the Age to Come. The Hebrew prophets longed for the Age to Come on earth in history when Shalom would everywhere prevail. Then the fortunes of Judah reversed - they returned from Babylonian Exile, but never saw the glory return. They were the pawns of conquering powers, poor, oppressed, and without hope. For them, history was hopeless; they cried out to their God to intervene, to dash the wicked and vindicate them as God’s chosen. This was a move from the prophetic with its dream of Shalom to Apocalyptic - the longing for God to ring down the curtain on history and usher in the Age to Come. This is the setting of the time of Jesus. I suspect Jesus shared that longing, although that is a matter of debate. But, certainly St. Paul was looking for the return of Jesus who had been crucified, risen, and ascended to the throne of God. That was the picture: Jesus at the right hand of God ruling from heaven and soon to come again - this time not in human weakness, but in Divine Power. In Revelation, we hear the cry of that early church, "Maranatha," which, translated, is "Our Lord, Come," and we hear the ascended Lord declare, "I am coming soon." In the calendar of the church this cry of 2000 years is remembered with every returning Advent - The one who came is coming again. And there has never lacked Christian groups that have continued to affirm: He is coming soon! It is quite amazing that such a conception, such a hope could be sustained for 2000 years. Well, as I said, in Wednesday’s meditation I said quite simply, "He is not coming again." I say it that bluntly to catch your attention because I want you to hear what I am saying and I finally say it now because we are on the threshold of the Third Millennium. As the calendar moved toward 1000, there was a large scale stirring and disturbance. Expectation was aroused and many claimed they were at the end of the age. I am beginning to hear it now again as though the turn of the calendar will bring us to the end and the appearing of our Lord in glory for judgment and the final consummation of all things. My word to you is, "Don’t believe it, don’t get worked up about it, don’t be afraid." The Jesus who came is not coming again in the sense that is understood in the biblical story. Now if you have heard that rather bold denial, I hope you will be ready to hear an alternative declaration - Jesus who came, the word made flesh, the one in whom God was embodied, has already come again - again and again and again. © Grand Valley State University �Spirit: The Now of the Future Richard A. Rhem Page 3   Let me give you the text that says this very clearly. In John’s Gospel, Jesus is purported to say: “I will not leave you orphaned; I am coming to you.” (14:18) Just prior to this promise, Jesus promises the gift of the Spirit, the Spirit of truth. It is significant that this Gospel is late, probably in the 90s of that first century. Jesus had not returned on the clouds. Many of the Jews who had been part of the movement were returning to their Jewish spiritual home in the Synagogue. The Pharisaic Rabbinic movement was proving to be the ongoing shape of Jewish faith. As that movement gained power, there was an edict passed that said if one confessed Jesus as God’s Messiah, that one would be put out of the Synagogue. And so, it was decision time - continue to confess Jesus Messiah and be put out of the community, or give up that confession and continue in the Jewish community and tradition. That is always a crisis of great import. And what was no doubt the deciding factor? Jesus did not return. It is easy to understand that the early community expected a literal return of the ascended Lord from the throne of God. Jesus was a flesh and blood human being. Jesus lived, taught, healed, was killed - all the hard facts of historical existence. And they sensed his presence still - thus the resurrection claim - this one who died lives. God raised him up and took him "up." Why wouldn’t they expect him to come back in literal fashion? Read Acts 1:11. The scene is Jesus’ ascent into heaven. The disciples look on amazed. An angel appears and says to them: Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking up toward heaven? This Jesus, who has been taken up from you into heaven, will come in the same way as you saw him go into heaven. There you have it; it could not be plainer. Decades after the actual life and death of Jesus, that is how they told the story and expressed their hope and expectation. But, now John is writing even later. Now it is decision time - to remain in the Jewish Synagogue and faith tradition, or, to persist in the faith that Jesus was the Messiah who would soon return to bring the Age to an end and usher in the Age to Come. But, he didn’t come. And he still didn’t come. Nothing happened. Now, what is the Gospel writer to say? Will he say, "Hold on; he’s coming!" The author of II Peter did. He wrote, " ... in the last days scoffers will come, scoffing and indulging their own lusts and saying, ‘Where is the promise of his © Grand Valley State University �Spirit: The Now of the Future Richard A. Rhem Page 4   coming? For ever since our ancestors died, all things continue as they were from the beginning of creation!’ ... with the Lord one day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years like one day ... The day will come like a thief, and then the heavens will pass away with a loud noise, and the elements will be dissolved with fire, and the earth and everything that is done on it will be disclosed." (II Peter 3:1-13) But, the author of the fourth Gospel did not simply plead with the Jesus movement to hold on because surely he was coming soon. Rather, in the Gospel of John, we see a significant shift from the expectation of the imminent return of Jesus to a present experience of the Spirit. The Holy Spirit or the Spirit of Christ the Spirit is variously designated in the New Testament. He came: John says the word was made flesh and dwelt among us. This was the literal, historical presence of God in human form. And, crucified, resurrected and returned to the presence of God he comes again - not in human historical form this time; not in visible display of signs and wonder. No. Rather, he comes in Spirit, the spiritual presence of God abiding in the life of the one who believed and in the community that believes that he was the embodiment of God in the days of his flesh. The English biblical scholar, C. H. Dodd, whose special expertise was the Gospel of John, coined a phrase to point up this shift. He called John’s revision “Realized Eschatology." Eschaton is the Greek word for the end and Eschatology, the teaching about the end of history. Dodd, on the basis of the Fourth Gospel, claimed that the end had already occurred. The New Age Jesus ushered in was the Age of the Spirit. He understood the Fourth Gospel to be a dismantling of the future expectation and the declaration of the New Age in the Spirit. Although he was not widely followed in this claim, his point of the significant shift in focus has been acknowledged. This shift is pointed to in the Advent theme “The Presence of the Future.” For our present experience the future is not future, but present. I mean, in our human, historical experience, we have the presence of the Presence of God, the God enfleshed in Jesus, given us in the Spirit. Thus my title - Spirit: The Now of the Future. What I am suggesting is thus a shift from the commonly held assumption about the biblical teaching about the end of history. That biblical view is most commonly designated by the phrase "Second Coming." What I am suggesting is not without biblical basis, however. What we see with the New Testament itself is a shifting. There is no one consistent biblical scheme. I am picking up the hint from the fourth Gospel that we need to find another way to understand our ongoing historical experience that keeps moving into an uncharted future. We © Grand Valley State University �Spirit: The Now of the Future Richard A. Rhem Page 5   must have a fresh sense of the meaning of a key conviction of the Hebrew prophets and the Christmas story - the conviction contained in the name Emmanuel, God with us. God with us; the Spirit with us; the Presence present to us; the Mystery once enfleshed, but always the enlivening, creative Presence in the whole cosmic drama, the whole unfolding story we call history. In the beginning the Spirit hovered over the created Chaos. In Israel’s life, the prophet cried, "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me ..." The angel said to Mary, "The Holy Spirit will come upon you ..." On the Day of Pentecost, suddenly "... from heaven there came a sound like the rush of a mighty wind ... all of them were filled with the Holy Spirit." Through two millennia, the church has confessed"... Conceived by the Holy Spirit." Spirit: the Now of the Future. Spirit - God’s breath, in creation of cosmos and unfolding of history - the life, the creative, energizing Presence that in the evolving of Nature finally brought to emergence a creature conscious, aware, giving the whole amazing Reality a voice full of wonder. The biblical story was clear that Creation or Nature stemmed from God’s creative word, but it was in history that Israel heard God’s voice. They divorced themselves from Nature in repudiation of the Canaanite religion that was bound to the cyclic natural order with the seasons coming round in regular order. And there was great gain in that exalted view of the Creator who spoke reality into existence and was a living, active presence in the historical unfolding. History is where Israel encountered God, or better, was encountered by God. Thus, that the Word became flesh was an amazing claim. Spirit, the instrument of creating, creates a human being who was the Mystery embodied. And is it any wonder that such a sense of Reality should then look for this embodied one to return to bring history to its consummation? But, we no longer divorce history from Nature. Rather, we see one grand process from the cosmic explosion 15 billion years ago, to the present continuing evolving of Nature which has gained a sense of history because we have emerged who are conscious, aware, recognizing the unfolding. There is not Nature and history. Rather, Nature has a history. And that created Reality we call Nature is alive, evolving because it is permeated with a creative Spirit that gives life and nudges the whole process on. © Grand Valley State University �Spirit: The Now of the Future Richard A. Rhem Page 6   Not some dramatic, cataclysmic future event, some display of power and glory. No. Rather, the future is already present in the Spirit Who mediates to us the Presence of the Mystery - Emmanuel, God with us. That was the prophetic assurance to Israel in its dark moments of crisis. Emmanuel: God with us. That was what the early Jesus movement experienced. Emmanuel: God with us - now in human flesh. And the Revelation’s final vision, chapter 21:3, reads in some manuscripts: God-with-them shall himself be their God in the context where the great declaration is uttered, Now at last God has his dwelling among humankind. There you have, of course, a climax in some near future. That, I am saying, needs revision. But, what is claimed for that future consummation is the same claim made by Isaiah, by Matthew. The claim is Emmanuel - God with us. That is the Now of the Future. The implication of that claim changes our whole perspective on our place in the cosmos. Rather that those who sing mournfully, this world is not my home, I’m just passing through," that is, I’m heaven bound, longing to divest myself of this life, this world which is a vale of tears, we celebrate the wonder of the natural world - the whole creation so richly endowed that there has emerged creatures conscious, aware, with tongues to praise, with spirit to love and care, with vision full of hope. Where is the whole dramatic venture going? Who knows? The future is open. But, what will be true, we can be sure, is that the key to it all will ever be Emmanuel God with us - Spirit creating, moving, and the whole story unfolding. Thus, we wait not with anxious expectation for suns darkened, stars falling, and all hell erupting. Rather, we live now with eyes open, ears cocked, imagination full of dreams and visions in this present moment, marked by the deep trust that God is with us, alert to the ongoing drama, watching with wonder and awe. Spirit: The Now of the Future. © Grand Valley State University � https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/3af7e14d1ee5298a6cce550659ed2e3d.mp3 ccdd93e08140521b1344c2a7d2df730d 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 The Presence of the Future Scripture Text Isaiah 61:1, John 14:18-19 Location The location of the interview Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context KII-01_RA-0-19981206 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1998-12-06 Title A name given to the resource Spirit: The Now of the 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 December 6, 1998 entitled "Spirit: The Now of the Future", as part of the series "The Presence of the Future", on the occasion of Advent II, at Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI. Scripture references: Isaiah 61:1, John 14:18-19. Advent Emergence Incarnation https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/d0cbc4c2f0b9f7e6e1b19de7c6956fb8.pdf 6385cb79fef014fcf82e08e237e04668 PDF Text Text To Bring Joy From the series: Waiting For Messiah To Come – Text: Isaiah 65:18; Luke 2:10 Richard A. Rhem Christ Community Church Spring Lake, Michigan Advent, December 22, 1996 Transcription of the spoken sermon It is appropriate that twice a year the sanctuary is resplendent in beauty and we take a moment to remember those we've loved and lost a while, and to honor others whom we would value and affirm. It is appropriate that we do it on the two high feast days of the Christian Church. We do it, obviously, on Easter, because we celebrate the Resurrection and our confident affirmation that this is not all there is, that there is something more, and that those we've loved and lost a while are home in Eternal Light. But, it's appropriate that we do it also on Christmas, the Festival of the Incarnation, for if Easter declares that there is something more, the Incarnation declares that what is now is really good. It is the story of God's identification with the world; it is God's affirmation of creation; it is God's affirmation of the body, of material, of this life, of the human drama being played out in time and space - this present life, this present moment. Thus, the Christian faith makes two great affirmations. It says on Easter that this is not all there is, but there is something more; and it says on Christmas, what is now is very good. It is appropriate that we celebrate the Resurrection remembering those we've loved and lost, and that we celebrate Christmas as an affirmation of God with us, here and now. As we do that, we understand that this world is God's world and this life is a gift of God. What I've been trying to say in this Advent season is that there are some things that cannot be put off. I want to be very clear about my affirmation of that which lies beyond, but this morning I want to say that we ought not to wait for Messiah to come for the gift of joy, for joy is for now; it is for this present experience. To enter deeply into the experience of joy is the invitation of God and is that which enriches and deepens this present human experience. I've been suggesting during Advent that there is a tendency in the Christian Church to project into the future that which God intends for the here and now, that there has been a tendency in the Christian Church to miss this moment, throwing up our hands as though what is, is and cannot be altered and we simply endure this life, waiting for it to pass until we enter into that perfection, that © Grand Valley State University   �To Bring Joy Richard A. Rhem Page 2   bliss, that perfect state of righteousness and peace. I believe that if we are waiting for Messiah to come to do justice or to make peace, or to live with joy, we are missing God's intention for this moment, for this world, for this life. And so, at the risk of being misunderstood, let me be clear again - what I say detracts not at all from our Christian affirmation that this life is not all that there is. But, let me suggest to you that the way to live life fully with joy is to live as though this is the only life and this is the only day we'll ever have. Joy is not for the future. Joy is for now. I realize that to say that is simple enough, but I don't have some magic wand I can wave over you and send you on your way rejoicing. I also know that we're all programmed differently, our genetic makeup, the environment in which we've been raised - all of those things constitute the person that we are, and there are some of you that are sunny personalities. I can tell by looking at your face. And there are some of you that are grumps. I can tell that from your face, too. (No fair poking one another, now.) Well, it goes without saying that we do have a certain personality. And there are some of us that just live life in a happier mood than others. But, I'm not talking about happiness. Happiness is a surface thing. Happiness is having your Christmas list all fulfilled on Christmas morning; happiness is having the Detroit Lions win their final game on Monday Night Football; happiness is having Wayne Fontes back for another season or whatever it may be. Happiness is up and down; there are moments when things go well and we're happy and then everything falls apart and we're sad. I'm not talking about happiness. I'm talking about joy, which is something deeper. I'm talking about joy, which is a consistent perspective, a posture over against the whole of life and the whole of reality. I'm talking about a joy that sees through the surface, deep down in things, and has come to a kind of lightness of heart quite independent of the immediate circumstances of one's life. It is that posture of heart that keeps us steady, in sunshine and rain, in light and in darkness. Joy is a present possibility for those who get their thinking straight. And I do believe it is a matter of thinking correctly. We are shaped, finally, by our thinking and that's true of us as individuals, and it's true of us as a community of people. The Christian faith, the Christian Church was born out of the womb of Judaism, and somehow or other, Jewish people with that rich Hebrew scripture tradition, have been able to enter, I believe, more wholesomely into the celebration of this life than is often the case with Christian people. I believe that, in the Christian Church we have tended to project into another world God's intention for this world, and we have failed to celebrate Creation as God's creation, and we have often failed to enter fully into this present life with zest because we have tended to see it under a cloud. Oftentimes the impression I get from Christian preaching that I hear on occasion, or the expressions of Christian piety, is that this life and this world are something to be gotten through and endured in order that we © Grand Valley State University �To Bring Joy Richard A. Rhem Page 3   might enter into that final blessed state beyond. That is a denigration of this human existence in time and space, and quite illegitimately so, for this life, this creation, this human existence, these days have been affirmed by the Eternal God Who called it into being and in the Incarnation fully identified with it. We did not bring along with us out of our Hebrew past that celebration of this world, this life, this day. Now, it was not that the Hebrew Prophet did not know of the darkness and the pain of human existence. The 65th chapter of Isaiah indicates that the writer had experienced the darkness that is all too true. He says there's a day coming when they'll build houses and dwell in them, they'll plant gardens and eat the fruit thereof. No longer will they build houses and another dwell in them, or plant gardens and another eat. He says the day is coming when there will no infant die in infancy and everyone will live to a ripe old age. He's looking to those, to that future day when those things that are so painful in the present will be overcome. There was a future orientation in these prophets, to be sure, but it was a future within this world, it was a future within history. It was not projected into another world; it was not something about heaven out there. It was about here and now, this world, and it would come, the prophet said, because God would send a shoot out of the stump of Jesse. This one would judge according to righteousness and truth. There would be that day when one would come and they would beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks, and they would not learn war anymore. They would not hurt. There was a day, this prophet says, when they'll not hurt in all my holy mountain, when the lion and the lamb and the wolf, the whole of creation will live at peace. There will be Shalom. But, it was a this-worldly reality. So, they knew the darkness, but they knew something else, and this is where joy comes in. They knew that God was about something deep down in things. They knew that what was, the darkness they were experiencing, was not the intention of the Creator, because the intention of the Creator was for this life to be a sacrament, for this life to be a joy. God intended it as such, says the prophet. Listen to what he says: I will rejoice in Jerusalem and delight in my people. I am about to create Jerusalem as the joy and its people as a delight. And God caused the people, in turn, to rejoice. The creator says, according to the Hebrew prophet, "I delight in you. I delight in my people." Creation's end is delight. I have a friend who threatens to write a theology book, "The Theology of Delight." He was a student of A. A. Van Ruler at Utrecht in The Netherlands. Van Ruler used to chide the Church for putting so much stress on salvation, redemption, sin, guilt and that stuff. He said that's almost an appendix to what God is about. God is about creation. God is about new creation; God is about this whole drama and the bringing to fullness the human experience before God's face. God says "I delight in my people. I create Jerusalem with joy, so rejoice, my people." © Grand Valley State University �To Bring Joy Richard A. Rhem Page 4   That was the vision that shaped the thinking of the Jewish people, to be able to celebrate this world rather than seeing this world as a vale of tears to be traversed, endured and delivered from in order that we might finally arrive home in heaven. No, that is to fail to live fully into the gift of now which is marked through the Incarnation with the presence of God, Immanuel, God with us, here and now. So, I want to suggest this morning that if we wait for Messiah to come for joy, we will have sadly missed God's intention for our present, which is to revel in creation, to live fully, to actualize our potential, to live lovingly, embracing one another, to savor this world. I was driving down Lakeshore in the middle of the week, and all the snow had just fallen freshly. It was cold and crisp and snowballs tufted the pine trees and laid the dunes with a coat of ermine. For a moment the sun broke through. It was a transforming magnificence, and I thought to myself, "Dear God, what a world! What a splendid garden in which to dwell. What a home in which to be at home and celebrate God, the Creator of it all, who would have the creature live with joy on tiptoe, celebrating this present gift." I cannot speak of joy this morning without acknowledging that that joy must transcend the darkness. We've had too much death around here in this community of faith. I have buried too many recently whose lives were too brief. I know the agony; I cannot preach on joy this morning, having walked through the week that I have just walked through, without having to face up to the fact that there is a full complement of pain and sadness. But, again, if I cannot this morning speak of joy now, then our gospel is hollow. Then we're just kidding ourselves; then it is true what we need is a rescue operation to release us from this present wicked world. Ah, but the Church has majored in bad news, casting aspersions on Creation and this present existence. Joy is something that sees down more deeply and is able, even in the present circumstance, to say neither sword, nor hunger, nor famine, nor peril - none of these things will separate me from the love of God in Christ Jesus, who is Emmanuel, who is God with us here and now in this present moment. There is nothing in life or death or principality or power, or things in the heights or the depths or anything in all of creation that shall ever separate us from that God who at Christmas has come to identify with us, and who, through the Easter miracle, promises that this is not all there is. But, if we could only live as if this were the only day we had, if we could only live as if this were the only life we had, the only world we had, the only possibility we had if we could so live so fully, then we could throw ourselves with abandon into today - then, whatever else there is, is pure bonus. But already, this is pure gift, and so not when Messiah comes, but today. You see, today is the only day you'll ever have. If the gift of tomorrow comes, it will be today. So, if there are words of love to speak, speak them today. If there are those to embrace, embrace them today. If there are dreams brewing in your © Grand Valley State University �To Bring Joy Richard A. Rhem Page 5   heart, make work of them today. God delights in you and God calls you to delight in this present moment, in this present world, for it is a God-drenched world and it is made for your joy. So, enjoy and the rest will take care of itself. © Grand Valley State University � https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/c01dbe14d761e17da905328d9338ce97.mp3 246a81a530cc7d0e317bfefb5cc16979 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 Waiting for the Messiah to Come Scripture Text Isaiah 65:17-25, Luke 2:1-20 Location The location of the interview Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context KII-01_RA-0-19961222 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1996-12-22 Title A name given to the resource To Bring Joy 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 22, 1996 entitled "To Bring Joy", as part of the series "Waiting for the Messiah to Come", on the occasion of Advent IV, at Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI. Scripture references: Isaiah 65:17-25, Luke 2:1-20. Advent Divine Intention God of Love Incarnation Joy https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/b3b3fbf1988509bd1da148057f29f385.pdf 58739c9a133b622aeea85a9814951714 PDF Text Text To Bring Peace… From the series: Waiting For Messiah To Come – Text: Micah 4:3, Luke 1:79 Richard A. Rhem Christ Community Church Spring Lake, Michigan December 15, 1996 Transcription of the spoken sermon It's not easy to understand the prophets. One needs a lot of help. Of course, there was the old Scottish lady who was asked what she thought about a commentary and she said, "Well, the Bible throws a lot of light on it." Sometimes the help isn't very helpful, but the prophets are not easy to understand because you get things juxtaposed and it seems like you're moving from one world to another and that's certainly the case in Micah. The fourth chapter that we're going to read is a marvelous vision of world peace, international peace, but just prior to that is this statement of the decimation of Jerusalem. At the end of chapter three, Jerusalem is laid flat and then at the beginning of chapter four, it's raised up high. Now, there weren't any chapters, of course, in the original, no chapters or verses, but that juxtaposition is so interesting, and the reason Jerusalem is to be laid low is because people like me are most often unfaithful. For example, the heads of Jerusalem, the leadership, give judgment for a bribe; its priests teach for hire; the prophets divine for money. Yet they lean upon the Lord and say, "Is not the Lord in the midst of us? No evil shall come upon us." That's the temptation of a preacher, of course. Say, "Peace, peace," where there is no peace. At least it keeps the salary coming, you see? Keeps the people happy until disaster really happens. Therefore, because of you, that is, the leadership of God's people, "Zion shall be ploughed as a field, Jerusalem shall become a heap of ruins, and the temple hill a mound overgrown with thickets." That, set now in contrast to the vision of chapter four: It shall come to pass in the latter days that the mountain of the house of the Lord shall be established as the highest of the mountains and shall be raised up above the hills. And peoples shall flow to it and many nations shall come and say, 'Come let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob, that he may teach us his ways and we may walk in his paths.' For out of Zion shall go forth the law and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem. He shall judge between many peoples and shall decide for strong nations afar off, and they shall beat their swords into ploughshares and their spears into pruning hooks. Nation shall not lift up © Grand Valley State University   �To Bring Peace… Richard A. Rhem Page 2   sword against nation. Neither shall they learn war anymore. But they shall sit everyone under his vine and under his fig tree and none shall make them afraid, for the mouth of the Lord of hosts has spoken. For all the peoples walk each in the name of its God, but we will walk in the name of the Lord our God forever and ever. The word of the Lord. The question that I'm inviting you to think about with me this Advent season is whether or not in observing the Advent theme, Waiting for Messiah to Come, we might be abdicating our responsibility and our engagement with our own time and our own moment of history. In waiting for Messiah to come we are projecting to the end of history that Messianic vision that appears so eloquently in the Hebrew prophets, that vision of Shalom, the Kingdom of God, the rule of God, the peaceable kingdom, that picture of the situation of lion and lamb lying down together, of not hurting in all God's holy mountain, and today in Micah's vision, that total peace enveloping the whole human family and all nations. That vision or that dream comes to beautiful expression here and there in the Hebrew prophets. It is a dream that lies deep in the human heart, and it came to expression particularly in Israel as it believed that God's intention for the world was that kind of peaceable kingdom where God would be acknowledged and worshiped, and God's Torah, the way of life, would be observed by all people. And there would be this marvelous, peaceful harmony between God and humankind, between humankind and nature. In the totality of things there would be peace. Now, my question is this Have we taken that picture, that vision, and have we projected it to the end and thus absolved ourselves of real engagement, passionate engagement with seeking to bring about the reality of that vision in our own time? It's understandable that we would do that because the world is always reeling from one crisis to another and when one thinks of the global community, when one thinks of the problems that are rife around the world, one can very easily throw up one's hands, perhaps just out of weariness or dismay, just simply being overwhelmed with it all. I hear it all the time. I think I hear myself saying it what can I do? What can one individual do? Or, sometimes one will hear it with a bite of cynicism which says, in effect, promises, promises. I find that also in the Church. It's a good thing we all don't know what everyone else believes or doesn't believe in the pew behind us and before us and to our right and to our left. I'm amazed sometimes when I say to somebody, "You really believe that?" "No. Never did." "Oh, really? It's in the Bible." "Ah, don't believe that." This Messianic vision - we've projected it to the end and maybe become rather cynical about its realization within history. Or, this has also been a trick of © Grand Valley State University �To Bring Peace… Richard A. Rhem Page 3   religious people - withdrawal from the world, founding a little religious ghetto and signing the world off, saying, "Oh well, it's under the Devil's sway anyway. And so we just try to get our own little soul saved, survive, get through life until finally we can breathe on the other side. You see, in doing all of that, which is rather understandable, nonetheless, we are abdicating our responsibility for passionate engagement with our world in order to affect the realization of the dream which is not just a passing dream of an incidental Hebrew prophet, but I do believe is reflective of the intention of God for the world. I don't think the dream was ever intended to be some far point beyond history. I believe the prophets. I believe Luke when he told the story of Jesus and prefaced it with the birth of John the Baptist and the Song of Zachariah, speaking about the light dawning upon us and leading our feet into the way of peace. I believe that it was their intention to say to us, these biblical writers, that this peace is meant for history, it is meant for our history. It is not some heavenly vision; it is the way things ought to be in the world, here and now. And I think in waiting for Messiah to come, we too easily absolve ourselves from the kind of active engagement that the people of God are called to in order to be the agents of reconciliation and that beacon of light to the world. So, this Advent, that's the question. Have we copped out? Have we pushed to the end what ought to be our present obsession? Think about it with me. This vision as Micah portrays it is a marvelous vision. It is a vision of the exaltation of Mt. Zion, of the raising of Jerusalem as the center of the world, not in order to give great glory to Jerusalem, but Jerusalem as that place from which the law of God, the Torah, the way of life, will go. There is a beautiful image here; it is of all the nations flowing to the Mount of the Lord, flowing there in order to receive instructions, saying let us go to the God of Jacob in order that we might learn his ways and learn to walk in his paths. There the image is of all the people flowing to Jerusalem for instruction in the ways of God. And then there is the reverse - from Jerusalem flows out in mighty stream this instruction that illumines and enlightens the world and the consequence of that instruction in the Word of God, the Torah, the way of life, is that there is judgment, justice among the nations. It's almost as though God holds court in Jerusalem as a kind of divine Supreme Court, so that there is justice and equity among all. And then the consequence of that justice is a world at peace. "They shall beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks. Nation shall not lift up sword against nation; neither shall they learn war anymore. But they shall sit under their own vine and under their own fig tree and no one shall make them afraid." Now, isn't that a dream? There would be no more defense budgets, no more armaments, all of the human resources could go for human well-being. There'd have to be no more West Point or Annapolis. The world would be at peace and all of our efforts could be used for human betterment and the building of human © Grand Valley State University �To Bring Peace… Richard A. Rhem Page 4   community. And a person could sit under his vine and under his fig tree and he could contemplate his farm; he could have pride of possession; he could take pride in the accomplishment of his honest toil and no one would make him afraid. It's a great vision, isn't it? It's a dream. And what is usually done, I think, in the preaching of the Church with a vision like this is to say, "Well, but you know we'll never realize it in history because the human heart is so sinful and human society is so in the grip of human perversity. And so, we just have to live with wars and rumors of war and conflict and violence and all of the hell on earth and, in the meantime, we pray, 'Even so, come Lord Jesus. O God, do something. O Lord, how long? How long?'" And my question is whether or not God might be saying to us, "O Church, how long, how long?" You see, to simply cop out of an active pursuit of the realization of this vision on the basis of our human perversity is to fail to hear this word of God, which calls the people of God to be about creating this kind of reality in the midst of their own history. "For all the people walk each in the name of its god, but we will walk in the name of the Lord our God forever and ever." There is a vision, not of Israel or of Jerusalem being the center of an empire that is posited on power. No, not at all. This is not the consequence of the end of a power struggle. This is the end of power struggle! That's the vision. It is not as though Israel is now the center of a world empire, all other nations having been humiliated and put down. It is not even that Israel will convert all of the nations to Yahweh. All of the people will walk each in the name of its god - there's no abandonment of national gods, but there is a kind of loose federation, which is living under the word of God in justice and in peace, the consequence of which is human well-being. So, I'm just not satisfied one more Advent to paint this beautiful portrait and then to call you to pray for the Lord to come and end the drama. I think that's a cop out. Micah was talking about his own day, addressing his own day, talking about a future unfolding but not a future 2700 years away and then some. And Zachariah, in the birth of John, the forerunner of Jesus, was not talking about some far off, distant future. He was talking about the implications for his own day. And so, I want to suggest that we have to think about what is incumbent upon us to become the active agents for the implementation of a dream. Sounds like fool's talk, doesn't it? But, you see, the human situation will never be transformed by the powerful intervention of God. All you would get then is what we had for nearly half a century when the Soviet Union was dominating the Eastern Bloc. And there was an impasse between East and West. It was an impasse which was created by our nuclear arsenals and there was a mutual standoff of terror. Do you remember it? And then it seemed like there were convolutions within the human family and the Eastern people rose up and the human spirit revived and prayers were offered and the Berlin Wall fell. I remember, I think it was in 1989 in Advent, speaking about the falling of the Berlin Wall as perhaps the Spirit of God moving across the face of the earth, © Grand Valley State University �To Bring Peace… Richard A. Rhem Page 5   actually doing something, enlivening the human spirit to rise up for peace. But, you see what happened when the umbrella, the domination of the Soviet power was taken away? Yugoslavia falls apart. Ethnic feuds develop. Ethnic cleansing in its wake. Today is, what, the 27th day in Belgrade where hundreds of thousands will be gathering protesting Milosevic, the tyrant who has usurped the results of a free election? Well, that's a positive sign, isn't it? People are no longer just taking it; they are coming together, they are rising up, they're protesting. There is some ferment in the air. Last week South Africa – a constitution was signed in Sharpville. Do you remember Sharpville? Famous for the Sharpville massacres and the place where the white dominant government imposed Apartheid in the first place. Symbolically they signed a new constitution. South Africa, headed by Nelson Mandela, a black man - we didn't know if we would see it in our day, but we've seen it. In other words, history is so ambiguous, isn't it? Here there's a sign, there a sign, and there an "Oh, no." A step forward, two steps backward. In studying this text, I came across a statement by a commentator in 1932 who talked about world disarmament and pointed to the League of Nations as a sign of eventual world disarmament. 1932! Prior to Hitler, which shows the danger of saying that historical event is that particular text of scripture. Another commentator in 1942 said the problem with the League of Nations is that obviously there was not a resolution in the human heart to change an old way for a new way. And so we had World War II and all of its tragedy. And then the United Nations was born. Well, the United Nations comes into terrible criticism. This country is not very happy with the United Nations. Going down the highway this week, I saw a big sign, "Get us out of the U.N.!" Sure, get us out of the U.N. Let us be independent; we are strong; let's build Fortress America! At least if we are powerful, we can perpetuate the peace - and I want to say, "THAT'S NOT PEACE!" That's not biblical peace. Biblical peace is not the consequence of the enforcement by power. It is the permeation of human society by quite another spirit and we simply let ourselves off the hook if we say, "Well, that will come down the line way over there. God, You do it, and in the meantime, let's keep our powder dry." History is so ambiguous and, as David Hartman said in a piece which is printed in your insert today, a piece I referred to last week, this Messianic dream, this vision - it's not some fact at the end of history. It is the norm by which every moment of history is judged. It is that intention of God reflected in that dream and it is that intention and that dream to which we must be committed as God's people in order to bring about its realization in the midst of history. You see, I think what we do is we get drugged and we get complacent and we just take business as usual as the only thing that could ever be. We grow cynical and we grow weary; we don't believe anymore! We don't believe what God can do. I said last week I wish some of the powerful of the earth would own this problem of justice. And then I was chastised myself as I reflected on the fact that, when God © Grand Valley State University �To Bring Peace… Richard A. Rhem Page 6   made a major move 2000 years ago, it didn't happen in Jerusalem, it didn't happen in Herod's court. It happened in Bethlehem and in a manger and with a child. And so, who says God needs high-fliers like us? But, God knows God needs someone to stand up and to say, "Enough of this war, raging conflict, power struggle," and to believe that there is another way that is possible. When I say that, I almost don't believe it. When I say that, I almost say to myself, "Why do you say that?" Why do I harangue you with that? Well, at least I can spoil your Christmas. At least let us be disabused of any self-righteousness or any illusion that we are passionately engaged with the things that engaged the heart of God. You see, it is such a massive thing and it seems so unreal, even to talk like this. But, you say to me, "What can we do?" Well, I admit we cannot do things in a very broad swath, but at least we can do here what we have begun to do - we can live by our Mission Statement. We can live before the Presence of the Mystery of God Whose inclusive grace moves us to embrace all with unconditional love and gracious acceptance, irrespective of race, gender, of economic status, of age, or sexual orientation. We can love the world as God loves it, following the way of Jesus. And then we can find our window to God in the face of Jesus and yet affirm the quest and insight of other faiths, opening ourselves to dialogue and mutual enrichment in our pluralistic world. We can at least, here, honestly seek to build a human community that will value each and shun none, that will create the human oasis where we treat one another with dignity, having laid down our arms so that our arms are available to embrace one another. Power structures are not only government structures, not only political structures. The Church itself has been into the triumphalistic business seeking power and glory. I mentioned the falling of the Berlin Wall. Prior to that, Poland shook off the shackles of Communist domination because of a Polish Pope, and those were moving episodes when Pope John Paul II went to Warsaw and had a mass in that Communist country, when the country was ignited with hope, when because of the power of the Vatican supporting Solidarity, they threw off that ironclad oppression. But, the Chicago Tribune presently is running a series of articles on the Roman Catholic Church, the last one on this whole Polish situation: remembered all of that and the strategic role the Pope played, but then said the Church has overplayed its hand with its heavy-handed tactics, with its conservative social agenda, and just recently the Polish people voted against their bishops, defeated Lech Walesa and put in another man, to vote for whom the bishops said was a vote for the Devil. And the Polish Parliament just undid the anti-abortion legislation. Poland! Why? Because the Church, the people of God are at their best when they are weak and crippled, when they can depend only on God. When they become powerful they are as mad and hungry as any politician you want to name. © Grand Valley State University �To Bring Peace… Richard A. Rhem Page 7   The Church does not have to dominate. God never said Israel would be a majority. God never said the Church would cover the earth. God called Israel and called the Church simply to be that minority, that salt and that light in order that there might be some place in the human wilderness where there was the recognition of the kind of spirit that would bring peace and allow the human spirit to flower and to blossom. Oh, we can't do everything. We can't do very much. But, will we pledge one to another that in this place, at least, there will be unconditional love, there will be the arms of total acceptance, there will be the shunning of none, there will be no lust for power or domination, but simply by living in the light and embodying the spirit of Jesus, we might be just a sign of hope of the possibility of peace, if ever humankind would allow their deepest longings to find expression. "They shall learn war no more." When? When? When will we say, "Enough"? When will we quit waiting for Messiah to come and somehow or other stand up and say, "Enough! Enough!" Peace be with you. © Grand Valley State University � https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/747cd192c8b45e5e645c303ff1d2399a.mp3 eecf4c060858a146f7c538b6c8d3cc99 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 Waiting for the Messiah to Come Scripture Text Micah 4:1-5, Luke 1:67-80 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-0-19961215 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1996-12-15 Title A name given to the resource To Bring Peace 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 15, 1996 entitled "To Bring Peace", as part of the series "Waiting for the Messiah to Come", on the occasion of Advent III, at Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI. Scripture references: Micah 4:1-5, Luke 1:67-80. Advent Divine Intention Global Community Inclusive Peace Shalom https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/0dc2e2851a8bae9990018f78c1d4d5da.pdf 2b3370796315a085a7496679855e9837 PDF Text Text To Bring Justice From the series: Waiting For Messiah To Come – Text: Isaiah 11:4; Luke 1:52 Richard A. Rhem Christ Community Church Spring Lake, Michigan Advent, December 8, 1996 Transcription of the spoken sermon The lesson from the Hebrew scripture is Isaiah, chapter 11. Let me be clear this morning. I'm going to be asking you to engage with me in some thought about the meaning of Advent. I am not so much making claims as inviting you to think with me about the traditional ideas that are associated with this season and what we ought to be doing about it. The bold print in your bulletin says "Waiting For Messiah To Come," the smaller print, "To Bring Justice." Waiting for Messiah to Come - that is the posture of Advent. Waiting for Messiah to Come. And then, when he comes, to bring justice. It's going to take us all of Advent and Christmas, and you're going to have to stay with me because I probably can do no more than raise some consciousness this morning, but what I want to try to do in this season is to take a fresh look at this Advent expectation. In a word, I'm going to suggest to you that it's time we stopped waiting and started doing something about it. I'm going to suggest to you that for us to wait for Messiah to come to bring justice is to miss that which has been revealed to us so clearly - justice is not something that will come at the end of the line that Messiah will bring. The Call to Confession this morning was from Micah 6:8, "The Lord has shown you what is good, and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, to love kindness and to walk humbly with your God." We have that embodied in Jesus. So, it is not as though we don't know, and it is not as though we do not have the resources. It is that we lack the will. I simply want us to think about that in this Advent season. Advent is a season of preparation for the coming of the Lord. Now, we are not preparing to go to Bethlehem. We are preparing for the End, the end of history, the consummation, the Kingdom of God - that's what we are preparing for. Advent is a sober season in which we are reminded that we will all be called to give account of our lives before the Judge of all the earth. Advent in the Christian Church is not anticipation of the miracle of Bethlehem; it is anticipation of the End when the one who was born in Bethlehem comes in power and glory to judge © Grand Valley State University   �To Bring Justice Richard A. Rhem Page 2   the nations. That is the Advent theme. It's awfully hard to squeeze it in, to get a word in edgewise for Advent in the Church. This is not the Christmas season, in spite of appearances. The Advent theme of the final consummation of all things is to be considered in these four weeks prior to Christmas, and then, on December 24 in the evening, we can begin to celebrate Christmas. I take my life in my hands and I live with some peril. We haven't sung a Christmas carol yet. Some of you get downright testy about it. You really wanted "Jingle Bells" this morning, didn't you? But, you see, the Church has its own calendar and I think the Jewish people are a distinct people after all of these thousands of years because they live by their own calendar. What is it - the year 5757 or something like that on the Jewish calendar? They live according to their festivals and their seasons quite apart from the rest of the world. We have a calendar, too. There's nothing divine or inspired about it, but it's a calendar that sets out for us seasons, the rhythms of life, moods, foci of concentration, and to live by that calendar is to be shaped by those ideas. In the shaping, we are also able to distinguish ourselves from the culture at large. The culture at large has co-opted our day, eh? The commercial interests have backed Christmas way up on the other side of Thanksgiving. It was the 16th of November when Nancy and I went to Bethlehem at Radio City Music Hall. We've already been to Bethlehem! Fantastic, spectacular program, Rockettes and all. But, a Christmas show on November 16! How in the world do we ever get a word in edgewise for Advent and for the serious contemplation of that which lies before us at the end? We're waiting for Messiah to come. The Jewish people are waiting for the messiah, too, except they're waiting for Messiah to come the first time. They say to us, "Messiah has not come." We say, "Jesus was the Messiah." They say, "No, you've got to be wrong." They may be right, because Jesus did not claim to be Messiah. It was his followers who said, "That was the Messiah." But the Jewish people - after all, you know, we get the idea of Messiah from their book - they tell us quite rightly that the idea of Messiah coming was to issue in the peaceable kingdom. They say Messiah hasn't come. Look at the world - it's full of war and violence and destitution and poverty and all that's wrong. When Messiah comes, all that's wrong will be made right. There will be a total transformation of everything. Messiah, obviously, hasn't come. We say, "Well,... yes he has." But, we have to be honest. The whole New Testament, which is not a Christian book, folks; it's a Jewish book, you know. It's about Jesus, a Jew, written by Jews who had been nurtured in Jewish expectations. They encountered Jesus and they said, "That's the one!" And the only problem was he was crucified, and the world wasn't transformed, but they expected it to be transformed. They knew the vision; © Grand Valley State University �To Bring Justice Richard A. Rhem Page 3   they knew what Isaiah had spoken, that he wouldn't judge by what his eyes see or what his ears hear, but he would judge according to truth. They knew that he would decide with equity for the meek of the earth, and the consequence of that would be that the wolf and the lamb would lie down together and they would not hurt or destroy in all God's holy mountain, that beautiful Messianic dream. Those who encountered Jesus and who experienced Jesus said he's the one. They knew that dream. We read in the Gospel lessons and The Magnificat was also sung: He has shown strength with his arm. He has scattered the proud and the thoughts of their hearts. He has brought down the powerful from their thrones. He has lifted up the lowly. He has filled the hungry with good things and sent the rich empty away. They said Jesus was the one. But, Jesus was crucified. "Ah," they said, "but he lives. We experience his living presence; he's with God, enthroned in glory, but he's coming, he's coming soon. Just wait; just watch; hold on." Acts 3:19: "Repent therefore and turn to God so that your sins may be wiped out, so that the times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord and that he may send the Messiah appointed for you, that is, Jesus, who must remain in heaven until the time of universal restoration that God announced long ago through the holy prophets." They were living on the edge. They shared a general cultural expectation of the end of the age, and they believed that Jesus was the Messiah; they had not expected that detour of crucifixion and resurrection and ascension, but that Early Church, this whole New Testament document written about a Jew by Jews was posited on the supposition that the one who had come would come back very soon. That's clear. Now, 2000 years later, we still read the beautiful Messianic dream of the prophet, we still hear The Magnificat sung, and we get into Advent and we get into our prayers and our rituals and our hymns and our liturgical formulae and we sort of go through it, never, I think, stopping to think that, when we wait for Messiah to come, we are really copping out of what should be obvious to us and incumbent upon us - that Messianic dream that we read and love and that The Magnificat that we hear, that speaks the language of the underdog who is praying to God to reverse things, turn the tables, change things around. I think our problem in the Christian Church is that we have an underdog religion and we've become top dog. Just think about it for a moment. Listen to The Magnificat again - "He has thrown the mighty off their thrones. He has raised up the lowly. He has fed the hungry and he has sent the rich empty away." Who are they talking about? They're talking about us, folks! We have taken over the religious yearning and expression of an underdog people and now we who are the dominant, powerful, affluent people of the world are still waiting for Messiah to come to do justice! We're waiting for God, and I think God is waiting for us! © Grand Valley State University �To Bring Justice Richard A. Rhem Page 4   "For have I not showed you what is good and what does the Lord require but to do justice, to love kindness and to walk humbly with your God?" You see, that Messianic dream was Israel's dream, little Israel, that little piece of real estate at the end of the Mediterranean Sea, buffeted about by all the world's empires - they had chutzpa! They thought that God had chosen them; they considered themselves the navel of the earth; they were battered about by Assyria and Babylon and Persia and Greece and Rome, and the prophets of Israel, living in an occupied nation, in a conquered nation, being the pawn of the power brokers of the earth; yet they had a dream. They had a dream one day our God Who has called us will exalt Mt. Zion and all nations will flow to Mt. Zion and we will teach the world Torah. We will lead the world to God. We have been called by God to be a beacon to the nations. Is that chutzpa, or not? You bet it is! Here they were, this little people, and they had a dream. They said "One day it's going to be different than it is. One day Messiah's going to come, and the whole earth will be wrapped in beautiful peace, and we'll teach the whole earth to walk in the ways of our God." Then into that little community into which Jesus was born, poverty-stricken, occupied, down-in-the-mouth, poor, poor society, comes The Magnificat! It is a song of an underdog people. It is a song of a people who are oppressed, who are poor, who are hungry, who are saying, "God, when are you going to make it right?" And they saw Jesus and they said, "Aha. That's the one." But, then he died. They said, "Ah, but he lives. He'll come back; he'll come back. Come, Lord Jesus. Maranatha! Come, Lord Jesus. Come, Lord Jesus. Do it! Do it, do it, because if you don't do it, it is so awful. This human condition is so terrible, the darkness, the darkness. Do something!" And here we are, affluent, well-fed, well-dressed, comfortable, Christian people 2000 years later, and we say, "Maranatha. Come, Lord Jesus. Maranatha. Come, Lord Jesus." We don't even understand what we're praying. For us to pray the Magnificat is to take the oppressed and the underdog's song and to say, "Lord, throw us down. Lord, throw us empty away." I suspect that if it would ever get through to us, we'd have to say, "Ah, I guess we shouldn't be waiting for Messiah to come. I guess we should be about the transformation of the world. I guess we who have so much power and so much resource and so much knowledge and insight and Wow! We ought to be about changing the world, because the dream, the dream is there." Rabbi David Hartman says that Messianic dream - that's not the end of history. That is the critique of history in every moment. That's the plumb line of God that measures every historical period. You reach that dream and you measure your own day by that dream and you will see how out of sync it is, how crooked it is, how full of injustice and oppression and inequality. You measure your society, 1996, Christ Community - measure your world against that dream. How does it measure up? It doesn't measure up, does it? © Grand Valley State University �To Bring Justice Richard A. Rhem Page 5   That dream is God's dream, God's intention. That dream has been embodied, for God's sake. The world has become flesh; it has dwelled among us. Jesus, the mirror of God's intention. The way of Jesus, the way that God calls us to go. We say, "We're waiting for Messiah." God says, "What are you waiting for? I've showed you throughout all of the prophecy; I've showed you in the face of Jesus. Why do you keep praying for Messiah to come? Why aren't you about turning your world upside down?" Well, you know, one could really get going on this thing, and I could probably tell you stories about your world and you'd just say, "Oh, I give up." Last month in Rome there was a huge international conference on food. There was one in '74 because they were afraid then we weren't going to be able to feed the multitudes, and there was another one just last month. In the report of that conference on whether or not the earth is going to produce enough for the people in light of the population growth, etc, it said there are in our world today 800 million malnourished human beings. Eight hundred million, and so you could say, "Ah, ..." I mean, at the time of Jesus, there was this apocalyptic strain where, for example, John the Baptist was saying things are so bad, God come down. You know, rend the heavens and come down. Damn the wicked! Stamp out the darkness; establish the righteous. Bring in Your kingdom!" I can understand that apocalyptic urge. We human beings can get so overburdened with it, so baffled by it that we sort of throw up our hands and say, "What can I do? Who am I? Who am I? What can I do? I'm only one person and the problems are global!" And I probably could ruin your Christmas by putting a little guilt on you. Probably get a pretty good response to the Alternative Christmas Market by reminding you how much you're spending on one another and maybe, you know, a few bucks for the Third World would be good. We have an oversubscription for our Thanksgiving Offering. That's beautiful. That's wonderful. You're a generous people. We feed 350 people - that's great. I think it's wonderful! We adopt needy kids for Christmas - that's beautiful. But it's just tokenism. Those are just tokens of a world that is wrenched with human anguish. And you know what I think? I think Christ Community is the kind of community that has intelligence and commitment and generous hearts, the kind of leaders of society. And wouldn't it be something if out of Christ Community there would come a catalyst group of God's gadflies who would harangue the Ottawa County Commissioners and that would go to Lansing, that would sit on Engler's steps, that would go to Washington, that would bother the Congress, that would petition the President. Now, there are always in this world those kinds of people that go into the ministry, do-gooders. They're kind of soft, they're kind of flabby; they don't think critically; they don't understand how the world works. They just think if you'd just be nice, everything'd be nice. There are a lot of people like me. But, you know what we need? We need some of you hard-headed, hard-hitting corporate © Grand Valley State University �To Bring Justice Richard A. Rhem Page 6   professional people who would get together and would say, "For God's sake, this world is in trouble. How in the world could we do something about it?" You see, we've got an underdog religion; we sing The Magnificat, but down deep in our hearts, friends, let's be honest, when you're on top, the biggest preoccupation of your life is to maintain that top position, and the hungry masses of the world, the poor, the suffering - they are our threat. They tell us that the gap between the rich and the poor is getting bigger. And a world where the gap between the rich and the poor gets big enough is a dangerous world. If we didn't want to do it because Jesus calls us to do it, if we didn't want to do it for God's sake, we ought to be thinking about how this world can be transformed because it's not such a mystery. Has he not shown you, O mortal, what to do? Do justice, love kindness, walk humbly with your God. There is enough brain power; there is enough resource. There may be somebody here who could start a movement. After all, little Israel thought that God called it to be a light to the nations. There might be somebody here that would say, "You know, that's really true. We ought to be about something big, something big." The tokens - they're wonderful. Don't stop the tokens. But, there's a world out there, and at Advent I just can't let you hear The Magnificat four weeks in a row without feeling uneasy. "The mighty he has put down and the lowly he has raised up. He has fed the hungry and set the rich empty away." I don't have an answer. The human situation is so complex, but wherever there is injustice, wherever there is a human person given a less than humane existence, there's where we ought to be, in the name of God Who has given us that magnificent dream. You see, it's not that we can do it through human ingenuity alone. Obviously not. But, neither can God do it alone. The dream is God's dream and to be caught up in that dream - that would make Advent something really special. © Grand Valley State University � https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/470ca6c1bf1785eeec87b529c09c03c8.mp3 7a48cce9ebc19f65049903fb8ee78e80 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 Waiting for the Messiah to Come Scripture Text Isaiah 11:1-0, Luke 1:46-56 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-0-19961208 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1996-12-08 Title A name given to the resource To Bring Justice 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 8, 1996 entitled "To Bring Justice", as part of the series "Waiting for the Messiah to Come", on the occasion of Advent II, at Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI. Scripture references: Isaiah 11:1-0, Luke 1:46-56. Advent Eschatology Justice Way of Jesus Divine Intention https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/b386e2e6127c403860f00cfedb00a8eb.pdf df37d20d770d582693bf4cc49b76a8bb PDF Text Text Love’s Vulnerability From the sermon series: Now – But Then Luke 2:12; I John 4:16; I Corinthians 13:4-8 Richard A. Rhem Christ Community Church Spring Lake, Michigan Christmas Eve, December 24, 1995 Transcription of the spoken sermon Now - But Then, a phrase that comes from Paul's hymn of love in I Corinthians, the 13th chapter, where he contrasts the present and the future, the reality in which we live and the hope that we dream for another kind of world and experience. The Church of England makes this statement, entitling it "Christian Believing." I shared it with you last Sunday morning; I think it's worth repeating. The Christian life is an adventure, a voyage of discovery, a journey sustained by faith and hope towards a final and complete communion with love at the heart of all things. We have considered together the faith, the trust with which we live, and the hope that we have that the darkness will be dispersed by the light, and we come this evening, finally, to that supreme gift of which the Apostle writes - the gift of love. Faith, hope and love abide, but love is the greatest, says the Apostle Paul. And John would agree, for John says that God is love. And this evening for just a few moments, think with me about love - love's vulnerability. We say that love came down at Christmas, and this is such a beautiful time of the year and it's very easy to get blurry-eyed, to get lumps in the throat, tears in the eyes. The mystery of it, the wonder of it, just the beauty of it - all of that is really a marvelous gift to be taken in fully and to be celebrated and appreciated. But, it's also possible, as we talk about the love that came down at Christmas, to get a bit sentimental and to forget the real context out of which the Christmas story arises. Christmas in conjunction with a consideration of love caused me to think about love's vulnerability, because the love that came down at Christmas was the love that became vulnerable in a world that finally crucified it. The love that came down at Christmas is a love that entered into the very real world. The Christmas Gospel, the Christmas story is really quite a social criticism. We can forget about that in all of the sentimentality of the season, but Jesus came a child born into a very harsh world. And those to whom he came praised God because they saw his gift as a reversal of the reality they were living. The songs in the beginning of Luke's Gospel are really revolutionary ballads. They celebrate the © Grand Valley State University   �Love’s Vulnerability Richard A. Rhem Page 2   lifting up of the lowly and the putting down of the arrogant and the powerful. They are the songs of the voiceless and the powerless, ones who believed that God is visiting their lives and that their reality will be changed through this divine visitation. The love of which they speak is the love that took concrete form in the flesh of a child, but the flesh of a child that entered into a social, economic and political context that was criticized by the very appearance of that child in its midst. Love's vulnerability. As I think about that, I think about the concreteness of love. Love - everybody talks about love, everybody sings about love. Love is used in such diverse manner to cover so many different things, and for the most part it's really very superficial. It's very easy to say love. "I love you," "I love that." But, the love that came down at Christmas was God's concrete identification with a human reality that was harsh and brutal, and that visitation came with the intention of creating another kind of reality. Paul talks about Now - But Then, and I want to suggest to you tonight that the movement from Now, in the darkness, to the Then of the dream is possible only through the vulnerability of love. The love that came down at Christmas, in its manifestation, was vulnerable, for the heart of God was revealed in a child. Not in the intimidating presence of some great king, not with a blinding flash of glory. The love that came down at Christmas was a vulnerable love in its manifestation. Who would have guessed that love would be found enfleshed in a child? Quite God-like. Quite uncharacteristic of our own revelation of ourselves. But, love's vulnerability is seen not only in its manifestation, but also in its identification. For love came down at Christmas to a manger, to the peasants, to be adored by poor shepherds. The love that came down at Christmas, the love that revealed the heart of God was the love that identified with the weak and the powerless and the voiceless. I don't expect you to remember the first Sunday in Advent, but when I got into this theme I suggested to you as we gathered around the Lord's Table, that it is only through life broken and poured out that we can possibly move from the Now to the Then. It seems like the human story is only moved, nudged along at all through some demonstration of love that involves the self-giving of the lover. And in the identification of that love, of Christmas, with the poor and the weak and the voiceless and the powerless, there was a sharp criticism of the way our world is structured and the way our lives are structured. As I suggested to you on the first Sunday of Advent, when I get thinking about these things too deeply, I ask the question, "Is it possible for affluent, powerful, mostly white people like us to be Christian?" Have we not spiritualized it? Have we not made it a beautiful tale of God's love? Have we not made it a salvation story? Have we not made it something that pertains to that vertical relationship between the individual and God and forgotten that in that manifestation of love in the child there was the identification with the poorest of humankind, with the © Grand Valley State University �Love’s Vulnerability Richard A. Rhem Page 3   promise that their destiny would be altered and that another reality was dawning in the world? Love's vulnerability. I looked the word up. I use it all the time; I think I know what it means, but sometimes it's good to go to the dictionary and just say what does it say about this word, vulnerable? I found that, in the big, fat dictionary that I use, it says that vulnerability is exposing oneself to the possibility of woundedness, exposing oneself to the possibility of injury. That's a good definition. That's a definition of the love that came down at Christmas. Was not the heart of God revealed in the child in a way vulnerable, exposed to injury, exposed, indeed, to crucifixion? Is not the fact that the love, which came down at Christmas, was finally nailed to a cross a sign that that love contradicts the world, contradicts our society, contradicts our manner of life, contradicts the living out of the Gospel by the Christian church? Love's vulnerability. What is the love that became vulnerable at Christmas? Well, John says God is love. Not simply God loves, but God is love, which means that out of the fountainhead of God, love permeates the whole of creation, so that all that there is of love is that which flows from the heart of things. At the heart of things, there is love. And out of that heart of reality flows love into creation. And John says, further, that God is known in the concrete love of the other. The one who abides in love, abides in God. Paul makes that very concrete. Sometimes in the history of the Church, in the tradition of the Church, the Ten Commandments are read in every service. But, I must say I am never so stricken as when I read Paul's description: Love is patient, love is kind, love is not envious or boastful or arrogant, does not insist on its own way, is not irritable or resentful. It does not rejoice in wrongdoing, but rejoices in the truth. It bears all things, it believes all things, it hopes all things, it endures all things. Love never ends. At the heart of things is love, and that love flows into the whole created order. And that love seeks to flow through us and to find concrete shape and manifestation through us, who are the extension of the Incarnation. And the only way to live out the Christmas Gospel is to live in the vulnerability of love. And I don't do it very well. Love is patient and I'm impatient. Love is kind, and I'm not always. Love is not envious and I am. Love is not boastful or arrogant or rude and sometimes I plead guilty. Not irritable or resentful? Not true of me. Doesn't rejoice in wrongdoing? Sometimes I do, when it's your wrongdoing. Rejoices in the truth? Generally. Bears all things? Hopes all things? Endures all things? Dear God! To live love is to live vulnerably. Why, it's to be a veritable fool! Love's vulnerability. As I think about it, it seems to me that love in its shape is other-centered rather than being self-centered. Love, in its vulnerability, acts concretely with compassion. Love in its vulnerability believes in the ultimate triumph of love. Love in its vulnerability cares infinitely, never giving up. And © Grand Valley State University �Love’s Vulnerability Richard A. Rhem Page 4   love in its vulnerability identifies with the most vulnerable of its brothers and sisters. Someone has said that a society can be judged by how it relates to its most vulnerable members. There's a battle raging in this nation right now and the poor and the voiceless and the powerless are in the game as there's a struggle, and I don't have the political solution, but this I will tell you - in this nation that is rich and is powerful, God holds us accountable for the way we treat the weakest and the most vulnerable, and if we do not do that with compassion, if our hearts do not cry out for justice, if there is not within us a consuming care that won't quit, then all of this beauty and this wonder is just a game. Now there is so much darkness, but we dream of the possibility of Then, something other. Some years ago there was a film that moved me greatly. It was called "Places of the Heart." Perhaps you saw it A rural Texas farmer is murdered His widow is left with a crop to harvest. A Black man comes through town looking for work. She hires him. She boards a blind man. Between them, they struggle and they harvest the crop and they save the farm, only to see the Ku Klux Klan move in and drive the Black man away with their burning cross in the yard And one's heart sinks and one has to say, 'That's always the way it is!" But, the film then moves off into an ethereal future and there's a church service in that little rural community. And there's the man who was murdered and the man who murdered him. There's the bully of the Ku Klux Klan and the Black man and the widow and the blind man. And they pass the bread and the cup down the row with the words, "The peace of Christ be with you." And at first I wondered if the filmmaker was mocking the communion of the church as though one thing goes on out there and then we come here as though it isn't true, but I think, rather, he was saying, since the passage that was read in the service was I Corinthians 13, Now - But Then. Then, finally. Love's vulnerability will triumph over all of our selfishness and our self-centeredness and our failure to care. Christmas, if it would effect the miracle in our lives, must change us, calling us to love's vulnerability. I have an idea. I think I may even act on it. I want to print and mail to you in some fashion I Corinthians 13 and suggest that the whole Christ Community put it up on the cupboard or the refrigerator or the mirror and read it every day of 1996 until we are so permeated by love's vulnerability that we, like the eternal God, find ourselves naturally manifesting love and identifying with the loveless until Now becomes Then. © Grand Valley State University � https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/aa381e73299d7925c8e1007c5c36b1db.mp3 77aec517750d1b4f4518b4c5aea83809 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 Christmas Eve Series Now _ But Then Scripture Text Luke 2:12, I John 4:16, I Corinthians 13:4-8 Location The location of the interview Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context KII-01_RA-0-19951224 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1995-12-24 Title A name given to the resource Love's Vulnerability 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 24, 1995 entitled "Love's Vulnerability", as part of the series "Now - But Then", on the occasion of Christmas Eve, at Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI. Scripture references: Luke 2:12, I John 4:16, I Corinthians 13:4-8. Advent Compassion Justice Love at the core of reality https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/43fd0dbfb860334b5cd5cb83f0d8c895.pdf 96f798d246f377744a2c6de8e0a6482f PDF Text Text Can We Be Truthful and Hopeful? From the sermon series: Now–But Then Text: Isaiah 9:2; I Corinthians 13:13; Luke 1:79 Richard A. Rhem Christ Community Church Spring Lake, Michigan Advent III, December 17, 1995 Transcription of the spoken sermon For just a few moments, for your meditation, think with me about Christian hope and the question whether or not we can be both truthful and hopeful. The Church of England, in a statement entitled, "Christian Believing," wrote this: Christian life is an adventure, a voyage of discovery, a journey, sustained by faith and hope toward a final and complete communion with love at the heart of all things. It's really a marvelous statement, obviously taking its cue from the Apostle Paul in the 13th chapter of his first Letter to the Corinthians. The understanding of life as an adventure, a voyage of discovery, a journey. And that voyage, that journey is negotiated by faith and hope with a final destination, the culmination, being the complete communion in love. And so it is by faith and hope that we move toward the fullness of love, which is, according to this statement, at the heart of all things. I do think that is the content of Christian hope. That at the heart of all things, there is love, and that it is by faith, in hope, that we grasp that love in foretaste in the confidence that the love that we experience here and there, now and again, is but a foretaste of a final communion in love, at the heart of all things. That is, I believe, the content of Christian hope. But that experience is an experience that we only appropriate in the present, but never fully realize. It is the present experience of a future reality. It is the present vision of that which is last week in relationship to faith - you don't derive faith from experience. You bring faith to experience. And you don't derive hope from experience, you must bring hope to experience, because experience, sooner or later, will defeat you badly. It is not from the observation of our human experience that we learn to hope. Look at it; think about it for a moment. Human experience is uneven. Human experience is unfair. Human experience is laced with injustice, inequity. The Psalmist knew that long ago. Psalm 73 - he looked about him and he saw the prosperity of the wicked and he was angry about that. It seemed to him that those who were wealthy and doing just fine were reckless and careless, while he had kept his hands and his heart clean and he was angry. © Grand Valley State University   �Can We Be Truthful and Hopeful? Richard A. Rhem Page 2   He could see an injustice; he could see in human experience that something was wrong. No, it is not on the basis of our experience that we learn to hope. It is the gift of hope that we bring to our experience that enables us to stand and to go through and to negotiate and to hold on. Hope is that which God gifts us with in order to keep us dreaming, even in the darkness. It's quite remarkable, I think. It's that which marks our human existence. We're not locked into this present moment. By memory we can go back into the past and taste again joys and sadness. And by our imagination we move into the future and we can see things in another way. And in this present moment, we can find meaning, going backwards and forwards and appropriating that which is not present, except in hope. Someone has said that where there's life there's hope. But, wouldn't it be more correct to say that where there's hope, there's life? And where there is no hope, there is no life? And I think that it is precisely because we have become so acutely aware of the gulf between what is and what might be that much religion is a projecting into the future, the resolution of that conflict of the present. The biblical frame of reference is that time-line which is the framework in which we live. How else can we human beings think than in the past, in the future, standing in the present moment? And, as that conflict between the present reality and that dream in the human heart became acute, I think there was the tendency to push the resolution off into the future. And so, religion often has become a kind of escape from the present moment. Even the doctrines of heaven and hell and that whole future existence are the construction of those who looked at life and said, "It isn't fair. It isn't right If anybody is in charge, if God is God, then there must be out there some future resolution." There's always a temptation to escape the present or to deny the present in light of a future where everything will be settled. But, think about it for a moment - the only way we can think is in a time-line. And so, of course, in Advent season we remember that the one who came is coming again and we are called to contemplate the end. But, is the end out there? Or, is not the end right here? Is it really a matter of moving toward a future resolution of all things or is it being able to find, in this present moment, the resolution that comes by the experience of the presence of God, God with us? Is the coming of Jesus the dawning of an age that will soon end? That's what they thought. Indeed, that's what the prophet thought. The people who walk in darkness have seen a great light, a child is given to us, all will be well. But, it wasn't well! And Luke said, in the song of Zacharias, "You, Child, will prepare the way of the Lord in the light according to the tender mercy of God, the light is dawning on the people who walk in darkness." But, it didn't dawn, folks. It's 2000 years later and my point to you this morning is that simply to say out there it will be taken care of is to deny the reality of our present experience and to miss the presence of God here and now. Can we be both truthful and hopeful? Is hope something that enables me to live presently without escape, without cynicism, without despair and © Grand Valley State University �Can We Be Truthful and Hopeful? Richard A. Rhem Page 3   without denial? Can I face the present darkness, believing that it is always true in every moment that that light will dawn upon me in the presence of the Presence of the Lord? You see, you come to the end of a century, as we are, and the end of a millennium, as we are, and you always find there's that kind of apocalyptic preaching that proclaims the End. And you're going to hear it more in the next few years as we move toward the year 2000. The Lord is coming; the End is coming; the Judgment is coming. I don't believe that, you see. I think that is to miss today. It is to miss this moment. Because it is the year 2000 doesn't mean we're any closer to any kind of consummation. I don't know about that consummation. I know the only way these things can be spoken of is to speak about a future resolution, but my point this morning is, if you're always hanging on that future resolution, you will never come to peace and hope and joy and delight in this present moment. To know Emmanuel is to know that God is with us, God is with us here and now; God is with us in the darkness; God is with us in our health and God is with us in our dying. God is with us in our loving and our caring. God, here and now! That's the content of Christian hope, the fact that this process that has been underway for billions and billions of years - is it drawing to its close at the year 2000? Will God ring down the curtain of history? That is bad religion! That looks like some kind of escape from the present engagement of life. God is in this process of which we are a part, and embraces it all and goes through it all with us and gives us that amazing capacity in the darkness to live as though the Light is about to dawn. Hope, hope doesn't come from experience. Experience shatters hope! Hope comes from God, and it is hope in God and it is the experience of the presence of God, here in the darkness where we dwell in the land of the shadow of death. Advent calls us to think about the end, but not the year 2000 or 3000 or 10,000. It calls us to speak about the end of life, the purpose of life, the meaning of life, which is God with us. God with us. Why do we keep on hoping? That, to me, is an amazing thing. After all these years, we keep on hoping. After all of the wars, after all of the death and disease, after all of the brokenness, we keep on hoping. To me, it is the best sign I know that the hope stems from God, Who says to us there is no darkness so dark, there is no coldness so cold, there is no storm so severe, but what I will be with you, I will keep you, I will never let you go. That is Advent hope. It is the present appropriation of a future consummation. Hope teamed with faith keep us moving toward love, which is at the heart of all things. I believe that, and in that, I hope. And in that hope, the darkness is scattered and the Light dawns, because God is with us in the meantime. If we don't feel for something more, we'll fall for something less. If we don't reach for something above us, we'll fall for something below us. It is in the gift of hope that the present is transformed. And I can say in regard to now and then, all is well. All is well. © Grand Valley State University � https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/a57f0f013daf0169b661dac2081b0346.mp3 112e5eb063b89b13d4c00af80f8b9657 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 Now _ But Then Scripture Text Isaiah 9:2, I Cor 13:13, Luke 1:79 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-0-19951217 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1995-12-17 Title A name given to the resource Can We Be Both Truthful and Hopeful? 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 17, 1995 entitled "Can We Be Both Truthful and Hopeful?", as part of the series "Now - But Then", on the occasion of Advent III, at Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI. Scripture references: Isaiah 9:2, I Cor 13:13, Luke 1:79. Advent Hope Journey of Faith Love at the core of reality Presence of God https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/150579ce89eec17329090218cac9c295.pdf cea7f6253bb4c485f347c73fa36fa206 PDF Text Text When the Crisis Comes – It’s Too Late From the sermon series: Now – But Then Text: Isaiah 11:9; I Corinthians 13:13; Luke 1:37 Richard A. Rhem Christ Community Church Spring Lake, Michigan Advent II, December 10, 1995 Transcription of the spoken sermon Our Advent theme comes from Paul's first Letter to the Corinthians in the 13th chapter, where he sets in contrast, “Now - But Then.” He writes to this congregation that was bubbling over with spiritual gifts and enthusiasm run out of control, and he urges them to seek the best gift, the gift of love. And in the context of that discussion, he suggests that there are three things that remain faith, hope, love. He encourages the Corinthians to major in faith and hope and love as that which matter eternally. And in the remaining three weeks of the Advent season, I want to consider with you faith and hope and love. First of all, faith, or maybe the word that for us says it better - trust, that basic orientation of life that is trusting: trusting in God, trusting in life's meaning, in the goodness of reality. To trust is to have a place to stand and to be and then to be free to be in the fullness of every moment. To live by faith is to live by an eternal verity. The gift of faith, the gift of trust enables us to negotiate the passages of life, come what may. And that's really the issue of this message. I want to suggest to you that the time to cultivate basic trust is before you need it. I think it's at the Advent season that we feel the stark contrast between what is and what might be. It is at this season of the year that we are called to remember that we are people on the way, we are in a process, something's happening, we're going somewhere, there is something developing, something emerging, invisible, unseen. And yet, we're caught up in that process. And to remember, that is to be reminded that what is falls so far short of what might be. To be human is not to be locked in to the present, the present moment. It is to be free to unlock from this moment and to travel backward in time through memory and to experience again the joys of the past or the pain of the past. To be human is to have that gift of consciousness that allows us to unlock from this present moment and to travel into the future and to conceive of what might be, to dream of another possibility. In the Advent season we recognize that it's precisely because we are people on the way, going somewhere we have been and we will be, and the contrast between what is and what might be can be a painful contemplation. And it is only if we © Grand Valley State University   �When the Crisis Comes, It’s Too Late Richard A. Rhem Page 2   have received the gift of trust that we are able to negotiate every moment with a certain freedom and serenity. Isn't it remarkable that from ancient time humankind has conceived of something different than that which is? Take the dream, the vision of Isaiah, as we read it a moment ago. There, 2500, 2800 years ago there was a contemplative, there was a religious spirit that was contrasting that which was his context with that which was his dream. He dreamed of a day when there would be a ruler upon whom the spirit of God would fall, a ruler who would not judge by what his eyes saw or his ears heard, a ruler who would discern down into the depths of things. A ruler would arise who would rule with equity, with justice. He would be concerned for society's most vulnerable ones; he would rule with righteousness, and that righteous rule in the arena of history would spill over into nature so that the lion and the lamb would lie down together and the child could play over the adder's den, and they would not hurt or destroy in all God's holy mountain. What a dream! What a vision! Campaign '96 is warming up. Wouldn't we love such a candidate for office? Wouldn't it be great if we could cast our ballot next November for one upon whom the spirit of God would dwell in fullness, who would judge with equity and rule with righteousness and bring in God's peaceable kingdom? Luke believed that that one arrived in the child of Mary's womb, a child conceived by the Spirit of God, a child who would bring about that peaceable kingdom. Mary laid hold of the vision and sang a song of praise, The Magnificat, which we noted last week, about this child who would raise up the lowly and bring down the arrogant. And yet it seems as though history continues to go along, business as usual. Well, that's not a new problem. It was recognized 2000 years ago. The second Letter of Peter, if you want to refer to it – there were scoffers then who were saying to the likes of St. Luke, "Where is the day of his appearing? It looks pretty much like the same, tired old world to me." And, of course, it is, isn't it? Even 2000 years later. The Advent season gives us opportunity to reflect on the fact that something's happening. We're moving, we're going somewhere. And we can dream of something quite other than that which confronts us. And yet, troops move into Bosnia where there's a paper peace but no peace in the human heart. And Israel still reels from the assassination of its leader who was seeking peace. And if not on the national or international scene, there are those within our own community who enter into crisis, the kind of crisis that makes us wonder what it's all about and if it's all worth it, and if anybody, anybody is managing this cosmos into which we are caught up. The issue before us this morning: St. Paul says faith is that which abides, but, can I believe it? Can I hold on to the vision? Can I dream the dream? Can I be set free in the present moment because I believe that this present moment does not proscribe the parameters of my possibility? © Grand Valley State University �When the Crisis Comes, It’s Too Late Richard A. Rhem Page 3   You'll never gain trust by observing life. That's my point this morning. It is trust that you must bring to experience. It is faith that you must bring to the ongoing story. You'll never gain faith or come to trust simply by observing the story. One of the great historians of a former generation, H.A.L. Fischer, in his History of Europe, wrote these words, "One intellectual excitement has been denied me. People wiser and more learned than I have discovered in history a plot, a rhythm, a predetermined pattern. These harmonies are concealed from me. I can see only one emergency following another, as wave follows upon wave. Only one great fact with respect to which, since it is unique there can be no generalizations, and the only safe rule for the historian is that he should recognize in the development of human destinies the play of the contingent and the unforeseen." That's a good statement. If you go out to the beach today, you'll find one wave crashing on the beach after another - wild, stormy water, wave upon wave crashing on the beach. And Fischer says, "As I observe history, that's what I see." One emergency after another, one crisis after another, one valley of darkness after another. And I see no predetermined pattern. I see no rhythm. I see no pattern. Honestly, as I look at it as an historian, that's all I can see. And as an historian, that's all one can see if one starts out with a blank sheet, if one would simply, neutrally, somewhat objectively survey the human story, then one cannot say it more eloquently than Fischer has said it. The pattern is not in there to be seen. The pattern is imposed by those who have faith and that are given eyes to see it. I picked up a book last night, which someone sent me. I've been dabbling, you know, in cosmology, physics, astronomy, that sort of thing. But, this book is entitled, God and The New Biology, by an Oxford biologist, Arthur Peacocke. Fascinating discussion in which he acknowledges that it is in physics and cosmological speculation that science is giving us a sense of mystery before this unfolding cosmic drama. But, in molecular and sub-molecular biology as well, there is tremendous ferment and some breakthrough as to the development of the human person and indeed all living structures. And Peacocke suggests a sense of God more immanently involved in that process than we have yet conceived. But he also honors that which has come to light, and that is that there isn't some prescribed pattern, but rather there is both law and chance. And he suggests that the Creator has put into the structure of things a kind of law, a kind of regularity, a kind of structure that gives some stability, but within that, in its sub-molecular structure, as we learn from quantum physics, there are things that happen at that sub-molecular level that can only be described as chance. Unpredictable! Unprogrammable! And Peacock says that's precisely the point at which creativity is possible. In other words, reality is an open system, not closed. © Grand Valley State University �When the Crisis Comes, It’s Too Late Richard A. Rhem Page 4   I think the Christian tradition, or religious people generally, would love to have the system closed and to know that from the beginning to the end it is all determined. That's been used as a kind of security blanket to remove us from the sense of life's fragility and the peril to which our lives are always exposed, but it is not so, really, and we know it, too, out of our experience. H A.L. Fischer is right! One wave after another - that's the way we live. God answers prayer, yes. This one was healed. God answers prayer, maybe not. That one wasn't healed. In all of the existential experiences of our life we would so much love to be able to boil it down and get a finger on it, tie it in a package and put a bow on it and say, "Now, there. That's it. A manageable universe and a secure human existence." But, we know it is not so. It is not so! How, then, can I live? How, then, can I be set free from the constant anxiety of the next moment and tomorrow? By trust. By faith that I do not derive from the observation of the story, but that I bring to the story. Because I believe beyond what is observable that there is something happening, and that this process which is going somewhere will have an end which will not be nothing, but something, an end which will not be no one, but someone. Do you want me to prove it to you? Of course, I can't. That's my point. That's my faith! I trust that. And that's the great divide. Those who live with that trust and those who live perhaps with an agnosticism that says I don't know, or a bitter cynicism that says I don't believe it. Those are the choices. Well, how do you come with such trust? With some struggle, I would hope. And it is a gift not at our disposal. But a season like this does give us those moments of reflection. And if one longs for some breath as the Advent carol says, some pulse of being stirring as in a heart of stone, if in the longing of one's heart there is at least that openness – at the end of the day, in a moment of reflection – to that light as a falling star across the consciousness of the night of the heart, then perhaps we may be probing the edges of that gift of faith which is a gift of God that is the promise of Advent. And to live by such trust is not to denigrate the present in favor of the future. It is to give a promise for the future that releases us to delight in the present, fully to live, with a measure of peace and joy. The gift of Advent. The gift of the Child. © Grand Valley State University � https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/74a30e714c780cff96a7e6176a23fc75.mp3 6b2e6007e6461b2ca078e5b8b93295e5 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 Now _ But Then Scripture Text Isaiah 11:9, I Corinthians 13:13, Luke 1:37 Location The location of the interview Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI References Arthur Peacocke, God and the New Biology, 1987. 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-0-19951210 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1995-12-10 Title A name given to the resource When the Crisis Comes - It's Too Late 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 10, 1995 entitled "When the Crisis Comes - It's Too Late", as part of the series "Now - But Then", on the occasion of Advent II, at Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI. Scripture references: Isaiah 11:9, I Corinthians 13:13, Luke 1:37. Advent Emergence Faith Love Shalom Trust https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/bbdc2e52859c10bb1c82aead0f897df0.pdf 54a02004ada197cf0fd440bad88ce153 PDF Text Text Life Broken and Poured Out From the sermon series: Now – But Then Text: Luke 15:51-52; I Corinthians 13:12 Richard A. Rhem Christ Community Church Spring Lake, Michigan Advent I, December 3, 1995 Transcription of the spoken sermon I am finding that I am entering this season of Advent and this new Christian year with anticipation, and my experience is that that is a growing anticipation and a growing delight in the celebration of the Christian year. I am perhaps just getting older, but I am enjoying the structure of the Christian Year, the form that it gives to my spiritual life and pilgrimage, the life of worship. Obviously, for me whose chief responsibility is worship, I suppose that's understandable, but I would hope that it is true for you, too, that as a people you might even have thought this week, "Advent begins. A new Christian Year begins. The color will be purple. Soon the trees will be dressed, the stars lighted. We'll gather around the table; the Advent wreath will be in our midst." Those things are becoming increasingly meaningful to me over the years. I had to learn all of that after the fact, because I grew up, as many of you have, in a tradition where the Christian Year was not observed. Oh, well, Christmas, to be sure. Easter, Pentecost, and I think we celebrated Ascension Day, too, because I had to go to church on Thursday night. But, in this old Dutch Reformed Church in which I grew up, we didn't observe the Christian Year because that was Catholic, and even if it'd been 500 years, you can't protest too long! Actually, I was trained that the order for preaching should be the doctrines of the Heidelberg Catechism - Lord's Day by Lord's Day by Lord's Day. And so, if you followed those doctrinal themes, you might be considering the death of Christ in the Advent season, or you might be considering the Holy Spirit during Lent, because you didn't observe Advent or Lent or Eastertide or Christmas as a season of the Christian Year. But, I'm finding the observance of the Christian Year meaningful. Obviously in the wisdom of the ancient Church, they understood that to go through this cycle was a way of remembering, the way of remembering the way in which God has touched our history. "The Word became flesh, lived among us, died among us, rose among us. The spirit came to dwell within us." You see, the Christian Year puts it in story, in a narrative, and we can live in it and live through it and I'm © Grand Valley State University   �Life Broken and Poured Out Richard A. Rhem Page 2   simply finding that I am eager to go through the cycle again. We begin this morning, the First Lord's Day of the new Christian Year - the season of Advent. Advent means "coming." And, of course, four Sundays before Christmas the focus would be the One who came when the Word was made flesh. We are preparing for Christmas. But, the real focus of Advent is not simply the One who came, but that the One who came is the One who is coming. And so, the real theme of Advent is the fact that there is a future and an end. And it is a season in which we are invited to pause, to reflect, to ask in regard to our lives, "What time is it?" In regard to our congregation, "What time is it?" In regard to the society of which we are a part, "What time is it?" In regard to the world and world history, "What time is it?" Because, as a matter of fact, what the Advent season calls to our mind is the fact that we are people on the move; we are people underway; we are people going somewhere, and something's happening. That was the insight of the Hebrew prophets. Israel gave to the world the sense of history. Over against that was that cyclic sense of reality where things come and go and come and go in endless cycle. But the Hebrews had the insight, "Not so. Beginning, movement, end." And it's fascinating to me that the most recent cosmology, the work of physics, those who study the stars and the planets and all of that deep, deep, mysterious reality of our cosmos - they tell us now that time is irreversible. That means that the best scientific sense of things is now concurring with that biblical sense of things, that there is a point of beginning. There is a movement, an emergence if you will, and an end. Emergence has become a very important word to me. I suggested this summer that it might be a word, an idea that could help us to make more sense of our lives and of history and the cosmos - more sense than the idea of Creation and Fall. I like the idea of Creation and evolutionary development with constant new emergence. And the Advent season tells us that there is not only this process of movement, this irreversible time line, but there is something out there. We're moving toward something. And so, for the theme of this Advent season, I want the phrase to burn into your consciousness and into your minds, into your heart. NOW, BUT THEN. NOW, BUT THEN. I hope every party you attend, there will be a moment in which you'll think, "Now, but then." I hope with every present you purchase, you'll think, “Now, but then.” I hope in whatever quiet moments you can find in this month of December, you'll think, "Now, but then." I was at a seminar earlier, well last week, and it was a very stimulating couple of days, thinking about our nation. The seminar was entitled, "Shall the Christian Coalition Win?" And there was an evangelical leader, Jim Wallis, who founded the Sojourners community years ago, and Joan Campbell, the Executive Secretary of the National Council of Churches, who is the voice for the mainline churches that seem to be in such trouble, and Alan Boesak from South Africa, who is so intricately involved in the dismantling of Apartheid, and as we were discussing © Grand Valley State University �Life Broken and Poured Out Richard A. Rhem Page 3   together the state of the nation, the condition of society, the polarization, the politicization of issues of social welfare and well-being, there were three young men there who were pastors, graduates of Princeton. And as we were talking about our lives and the life of the church and of society, one of these young men said, "Dear God, I can't even get to know my people. My people (he's a pastor in New Jersey, a bedroom community for the city), he said, "My people get on the train at 5, 6 o'clock in the morning, they go into the city, they work all day, they get home 7, 8,9 o'clock at night, exhausted; they get up in the morning, get on the train, go into the city, come home exhausted." And he said, "They have no time!" And Alan Boesak spontaneously responded, "They are corporate migrants!" And then he went on to explain. Where he comes from in South Africa there are migrant workers who still, out from camps, get on buses five o'clock in the morning, go into the cities, work all day, come home 8, 9 o'clock at night, exhausted, in order to get up in the morning to get on the bus to go into the cities to work in order to come home, exhausted, 8 or 9 o'clock at night. They're migrant workers. But, Alan said, your up-and-outers, your affluent New Jersey corporate executives are also migrants. They're corporate migrants. And I thought to myself, "Isn't it true of us all?" We came home in the middle of the week and I opened up the calendar to December! It is a disaster! And I thought to myself, I'll be saying to my people on Sunday, Advent is a time of waiting, of anticipating, of preparation for the feast of Christmas, a celebration that the Word became flesh, but more than that, it is a time of waiting, anticipation, preparation for the fact that there is an end out there, that in this evolving, emerging process there is something out there, an endpoint. And I thought, how will we have time, how will we take time? And then I thought perhaps the words of Paul to the Corinthians might keep surfacing in our consciousness, Now, but then, reminding us to ask the question - "What time is it?" What time is it in my life? What time is it in my nation? What time is it in this world of ours? Where are we going? And where will we end? Because we are on the way. It's just that we don't often have a moment to step back and to reflect on the whole thing - What time is it in your life on this first Sunday in Advent? I can do little more than set the theme this morning. Now Paul says, "We see through a glass darkly." We grope, we see fuzzy images, we have a sense of something, but it's not clear. We can't penetrate through the mystery, the mystery that is life, that is history, that is cosmos. Now, dimly, but then - clearly! Now, he says, we know in part. Dear God, don't we know a lot? Really? When you think of the explosion of knowledge and then when you think of the computer capacity to make that knowledge exponentially more applicable - what a world we live in! What a fascinating time to be alive! Now! Knowledge. But, the more we know, the more we know we don't know. And it's not as though we edge up to the mystery in order to dissolve it. As we edge up to the mystery, the mystery grows, doesn't it? Now we know in part, but then we will know even as we are fully known. © Grand Valley State University �Life Broken and Poured Out Richard A. Rhem Page 4   This Advent season let me try to set this into your mind, this idea - Now, But Then. Now in part; then fully. Now dimly, then clearly. Because, you see, we're going somewhere. Something's happening. There's a process under foot, and we are being moved along in that stream, either unconsciously or, if by God's grace for just a moment we could step back and realize that we are in a process for which we ought to be taking responsibility and living with intention. What is emerging? That's the other thing I want to say this morning. What is emerging? Well, if we take what Mary thought was emerging, we can look at that Magnificat. She thought what was emerging was the gift of the child that she had conceived : a new world, a different kind of world. And it excited her. She praised God! But, as I reflected on the Magnificat, dear friends, and I thought how am I going to say this to my people -I realized that the Gospel is Good News, really, for the underdog. Mary was a peasant girl. Mary was one of the voiceless ones. Mary had no power. And what did she celebrate? She celebrated the fact that in her world, in her day, folks like us would be put down so that folks like her would be raised up. Mary's song was a subversive song. He puts down the proud; he lifts up the lowly. He turns away those whose tables are full and brings food to the hungry. That's good news? Really? You got to be one of the underclass to celebrate the Gospel. Unless, unless there's a way for us, the rich and the powerful, to find a way to a new world. Unless, in this Advent season, we who have voice, we who have power, we who call the shots for our world, unless we could come to some kind of negotiation with that emerging future and perhaps even become a part of the movement to bring it into being. I know what it would cost. It only comes about through life broken and poured out. You see, the child of Mary's womb, whom she celebrated in that anthem, was a child who grew up to be crucified. If you would go into the next chapter of Luke's Gospel, you could see that Luke was already foreshadowing that, because he said to Mary, "A sword will pierce your heart because this one will be a sign spoken again, this one will be for the fall and rising of many in Israel." It's obvious that, in the Christian Church down 2000 years, we still call this the Gospel, we don't understand what it's all about. I mean, it's really obvious, isn't it? The Gospel is about the great reversal. The Gospel is about the creation of a world, a community where everyone has enough and has a voice and has dignity and can live in a community of compassion. And you know what that would cost? It cost Jesus his life. It cost Gandhi his life. It cost Martin Luther King his life. It cost Bonhoeffer his life. It cost Itzak Rabin his life. Because, you see, our world is organized to hold off the future. Our world, our politics, our social structures - they are put together in order to maintain what is. I like it the way it is. Because the way it is puts me in a place of real privilege, unbelievable privilege. If I would be true to the Gospel, I would become one of those subversives that would undercut the way it is in order that there might emerge a different kind of world. I don't have the blueprint for it. I don't really have the courage for it. But, in this Advent season, I'm going to be just a bit © Grand Valley State University �Life Broken and Poured Out Richard A. Rhem Page 5   uneasy about the fact that the cost of that emerging future may involve my life. We've been to the Table; we've taken bread and cup, the sign of life broken and poured out, the sign of our identification with that One. The Good News in all of this is that, if I ever had the courage, the wisdom, the heart to follow Jesus, I would find abundant life. Because in many ways I'm a migrant, too. Life can become that, where I no longer live it out of my insides, but am lived by the outside. Advent - wonderful time of the year to take time, to count the cost and to be drawn by the vision of that life, which is life indeed. I dare you. © Grand Valley State University � https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/4ca906742f8a11e44b62a8b74c40b1f0.mp3 36bed7f97deac76cb3c45d52959801cc Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Richard A. Rhem Collection Description An account of the resource Text and sound recordings of the sermons, prayers, services, and articles of Richard Rhem, pastor emeritus of Christ Community Church in Spring Lake, Michigan, where he served for 37 years. Starting in the mid 1980's, Rhem began to question some of the traditional Christian dogma that he had been espousing from the pulpit. That questioning was a first step in a long and interesting spiritual journey, one that he openly shared with his congregation. His journey is important, in part because it is reflective of the questioning, the yearnings, and the gradual revision of beliefs that many persons in this part of the century have experienced and continue to experience. It is important also because of the affirming and inclusive way his questioning was done and his thinking evolved. His sermons and other written and spoken materials together document the steps in his journey as it took a turn in 1985, yet continued to revolve around the framework and liturgies of the Christian calendar. Subject The topic of the resource Clergy--Michigan Reformed Church in America Christ Community Church (Spring Lake, Mich.) Religion Interfaith worship Sermons Sound Recordings Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Rhem, Richard A. Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/514">Richard A. Rhem papers (KII-01)</a> Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives. Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Kaufman Interfaith Institute Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Language A language of the resource English Type The nature or genre of the resource Sound Text Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context KII-01 Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant 1981-2014 Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource audio/mp3 text/pdf Sound A resource primarily intended to be heard. Examples include a music playback file format, an audio compact disc, and recorded speech or sounds. Event Advent I Series Now _ But Then Scripture Text Luke 15:51-52, I Corinthians 13:12 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-0-19951203 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1995-12-03 Title A name given to the resource Life Broken and Poured Out 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 3, 1995 entitled "Life Broken and Poured Out", as part of the series "Now - But Then", on the occasion of Advent I, at Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI. Scripture references: Luke 15:51-52, I Corinthians 13:12. Advent Community of Compassion Emergence Incarnation Liturgical Calendar https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/5ed849daff585919ae0770822a3e0e8c.pdf 47b593e3bbe46cf0b7fc7dcab77532b1 PDF Text Text   The Seasons of Our Lives Editorial by Richard A. Rhem Minister of Preaching and Theological Inquiry Christ Community Church Spring Lake, Michigan Published in Perspectives A Journal of Reformed Thought December 1988 Perhaps the most frequently heard expression this month will be “Merry Christmas and a happy New Year.” The order is dictated by the fact that Christmas is celebrated on December 25, followed one week later by ushering in of the new year. We speak of the period we are entering as the holidays. Holiday is derived from “holy-day.” The definition of holy-day is a day set aside for religious observance, but the dictionary notes that the derivative form, holiday, is now usually restricted to the sense of “day of recreation.” In our popular expression we combine a holy-day and a holiday. Although Christmas has been co-opted by the world at large and transformed into a holiday, it still retains its spiritual connection; it is still a holy-day. New Year’s Day, however, is a purely secular observance of the beginning of the new calendar year, a calendar year whose beginning and ending are quite arbitrarily set signifying nothing beyond the regular cycle of 365 days. It is not so with the calendar kept by the church. Although no one would argue for the exactitude of the specific date designated for Christmas, December 25; nonetheless it does point to a concrete event within our space and time—the birth of Jesus of Nazareth, the incarnation of the Word of God. So it is with the days that mark the critical moments in the life, death, resurrection, and ascension of our Lord and the pouring out of the Spirit on the day of Pentecost. The Christian calendar keeps before us the landmarks along the path of redemption wrought in our history in Jesus Christ, and the annual observance of holy days gives a rhythm to our Christian existence, rehearsing for us the events which ground our hope. There is an increasing use of the Christian year in Reformed congregations. This value of such observance is being increasingly felt. As we are regularly involved in the drama of redemption, we are caused to remember what God has done and are stimulated to hope for what God will yet do. © Grand Valley State University   �The Seasons of Our Lives Editorial by Richard A. Rhem Page 2   The religious observance of holy days is deeply rooted in the Old Testament community of faith. Sabbath observance was the weekly celebration of God’s work of creation (Exodus 20:8-11) and gracious redemption (Deut. 5:12-15). The feasts of Passover, Unleavened Bread, Weeks, and Tabernacles punctuated the ordinary existence of God’s people with the dimension of eternity. The Christian church moved naturally to the observance of the first day of the week as the Lord’s Day, a weekly festival of Easter, and gradually the feast days of the Christian calendar took shape. This was a natural development because the redeeming God had moved into our historical reality, supremely in the Word made flesh. The observance of the Christian calendar gives shape and meaning to our existence and a framework for our corporate worship. Lessons, preaching, hymns, and liturgy whose themes are determined by the Christian year tie us to the central realities of Christian existence. Our spiritual formation is fundamentally shaped by the rhythm of the life of the worshiping community, and the growing observance of the Christian year is a source of great enrichment to the experience of worship. Religious observance is not a means of salvation; rather, it is an instrument by which we are reminded of a salvation which has been effected beyond us, for us, freely given to us in Jesus Christ, eliciting from us grateful worship of the eternal God whose redeeming grace has come to expression within our history. In The Screwtape Letters, C.S. Lewis’s satire in which Screwtape, a senior devil, gives his nephew, Wormwood, a junior devil, an advanced correspondence course on how to corrupt human souls, Screwtape recommends that Wormwood work on Christians’ “horror of the Same Old Thing.” But, he acknowledges God’s wisdom in that all the same: He has balanced the love of change in them by a love of permanence. He has continued to gratify both tastes together in the very world He has made, by that union of change and permanence which we call Rhythm. He gives them the seasons, each season different yet every year the same, so that spring is always felt as a novelty yet always as the recurrence of an immemorial theme. He gives them in His Church a spiritual year; they change from a fast to a feast, but it is the same feast as before. In his Letters to Malcolm, Lewis wrote: It is well to have specifically holy places, and things and days, for, without these focal points or reminders, the belief that all is holy and “big with God” will soon dwindle into a mere sentiment. Religious observance is not an end in itself but can be a powerful instrument for the personal and corporate appropriation of the good news that was announced © Grand Valley State University �The Seasons of Our Lives Editorial by Richard A. Rhem Page 3   at the Savior’s birth. Our observances always fall short of giving adequate expression to the mystery of God’s grace, yet pointing beyond themselves, they give us a glimpse of the grandeur and glory of the grace of the God of our salvation. There are those moments in our corporate worship when the glory breaks through and we are lost in wonder, love, and praise. May Advent well-kept issue in a Christmas observance filled with the glory of God bringing the water of life to our often arid lives. © Grand Valley State University � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Richard A. Rhem Collection Description An account of the resource Text and sound recordings of the sermons, prayers, services, and articles of Richard Rhem, pastor emeritus of Christ Community Church in Spring Lake, Michigan, where he served for 37 years. Starting in the mid 1980's, Rhem began to question some of the traditional Christian dogma that he had been espousing from the pulpit. That questioning was a first step in a long and interesting spiritual journey, one that he openly shared with his congregation. His journey is important, in part because it is reflective of the questioning, the yearnings, and the gradual revision of beliefs that many persons in this part of the century have experienced and continue to experience. It is important also because of the affirming and inclusive way his questioning was done and his thinking evolved. His sermons and other written and spoken materials together document the steps in his journey as it took a turn in 1985, yet continued to revolve around the framework and liturgies of the Christian calendar. Subject The topic of the resource Clergy--Michigan Reformed Church in America Christ Community Church (Spring Lake, Mich.) Religion Interfaith worship Sermons Sound Recordings Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Rhem, Richard A. Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/514">Richard A. Rhem papers (KII-01)</a> Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives. Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Kaufman Interfaith Institute Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Language A language of the resource English Type The nature or genre of the resource Sound Text Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context KII-01 Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant 1981-2014 Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource audio/mp3 text/pdf Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. 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 RA-4-19881201 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1988-12-01 Type The nature or genre of the resource Text Title A name given to the resource The Seasons of Our Lives Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Perspectives: A Journal of Reformed Thought Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Richard A. Rhem Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Language A language of the resource eng Description An account of the resource Editorial created, delivered, or published by Richard A. Rhem (Dick) on December 1, 1988 entitled "The Seasons of Our Lives", it appeared in Perspectives, December 1988, p. 3. Tags: Advent, Liturgical Year, Worship, Faith Community. Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource application/pdf Advent Faith Community Liturgical Year Worship https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/2cb8bee2634fdd0c2a082b9b8b13221d.pdf 6b3ea8330abee2529dccac62bfefefcd PDF Text Text The Ground of Hope Article by Richard A. Rhem Minister of Preaching and Theological Inquiry Christ Community Church Spring Lake, Michigan Published in The Church Herald The Magazine of the Reformed Church in America December 20, 1985, pp. 6-7 Our hope for the future is grounded in what God has done in the past We have kept Advent, the time of waiting, of expectation. We have rehearsed faith's vision in the midst of the puzzle of history. In this time between the times we live by the vision, trusting that the King will come and we will understand. The King will surely come; that is faith's vision, a vision grounded in the fact that the King has come. If Advent is the time of expectation, Christmas is the time of fulfillment. Into the puzzle of our history a child was born, and in that fully human existence a light penetrated our darkness, and the darkness has never overcome it. Our hope for the future is grounded in what God has done in the past. To celebrate Christmas is to discover the ground of our hope as we grope through the darkness which is the puzzle of history. The King who is coming is the King who has come. We are a people of hope, a hope grounded in the past enabling us already to appropriate the future that still lies before us, living in the assurance of things hoped for. Christian hope is hope in God. Stating what may seem obvious is an attempt to distinguish the Christian hope from today's cheapened hope, a worldly term for wishful thinking regarding a thousand matters from the ridiculous to the sublime: Will you win the game? I hope so. Will you have more sales in 1986 than in 1985? I hope so. Will your health improve? I hope so. Hope has become a catch-all word for all sorts of situations and conditions that we would like to see happen or become realized. Hope in this sense refers to an uncertain outcome. We do not know; we cannot tell; we “hope so.” That is not Christian hope. Christian hope is hope in God. It is certain. © Grand Valley State University   �The Ground of Hope Richard A. Rhem Page 2   There is another distinction. We use hope in its cheapened sense to express our wish that something happens but about which we are uncertain. We also are then using it to refer to a favorable outcome which lies within our capacity to bring about: Will you win the game? I hope so—but the outcome is uncertain. Yet, I do have it in my capacity to win the game if I play well, if I practice and am ready, if I do not make the big mistake. Will you have more sales in 1986 than 1985? I hope so—but I am not certain. Yet it is very possible, if I work hard; if I make sufficient calls; if production is there. Will your health improve? I hope so—but I cannot be sure. We enter a gray area because my health is not wholly within my power. Yet, if I eat properly, get proper rest, exercise, and avoid stress, I can certainly influence the outcome. Thus, in the cheapened sense of hope in contemporary usage, hope refers to that which is uncertain, but is within my power to effect. Biblical hope is something quite other. Biblical hope is in God; it is the present certainty of what will be a future possession; it is certain of that which is impossible in terms of human capacity. As far as the quality of certainty is concerned, I simply refer you to the testimony of Scripture. Biblical religion is a religion of certainty. I am not speaking now of dogmatism. Surely there has been far too much dogmatism and far too many dogmatic people in the history of the church. There is a lust for certainty in the human heart and certainty about things that remain veiled in mystery. The Bible is no answer book for all the questions of the less than serious curious ones. Too many religious people “know” too much. The Bible is, however, a book of certainty about the matters of ultimate concern: That God is. That God is gracious. That God's kingdom will fully come. Biblical religion in those ultimate matters is serious and certain. It is hope-full, not “hope so.” It is the present certainty of what will be a future possession. Further, it is certain of what is impossible in terms of human capacity. Let me raise some questions to demonstrate that biblical hope is fastened on that which lies beyond human capacity to effect. Will there be a new creation as spoken of by Isaiah and in the Revelation to John? Our Advent affirmation was yes. Will it come through human planning and ingenuity? Will it come through human goodwill and harmony? Will some president, king, or dictator arise who will effect it? Will it come through the progressive education of the race, some evolutionary development? Only the naive, the simple, the one ignorant of the human story could answer affirmatively or even “I hope so.” Will there be life after life? The biblical faith says yes. Will it come through medical research and the development of new technology? Will death be defeated by future breakthroughs in science? I need not go on. What all that conjured up is not only scarcely thinkable, it is not desirable. It is apparent that biblical hope is certitude about a future reality which © Grand Valley State University �The Ground of Hope Richard A. Rhem Page 3   lies beyond human capacity to achieve. Hope reaches beyond what is possible. Hope claims a future that can come only as the result of an act of God. Living in hope means living in the tension between now and then. There is a great difference between present experience and the future for which we hope. This gap between the vision and reality, between the ideal and the real, becomes understandable in terms of the hope of which Scripture teaches. That hope is grounded in the Christmas event. Life is difficult. Human experience is thoroughly laced with suffering. Many have had their faith in God shattered on the rocks of human suffering and evil in the world. Such people have never been taught the true biblical faith because biblical faith will not be eviscerated by suffering but is rather the means for understanding precisely the hard reality of human experience. Our life is caught in the tension. The darkness is not denied, but the darkness is not ultimate; the Light has come and the light shines in our darkness. Therefore we endure; we live in hope. Hope is grounded in the faithfulness of God which came to expression at Christmas. God has acted. Hope has been vindicated. God has visited his people; the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us. We have seen the heart of God in the face of Jesus. Generations waited through long centuries and then—Mary had a baby. Jesus was the fulfillment of God's promise and in him redemption was accomplished—we have been saved. There is a history to look back upon and a dramatic intervention in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus to remember and in which to trust. God did move in faithfulness to his promises, and that move at history’s midpoint proved the ground of a new promise, a new expectation, a new hope. God's redemptive plan has touched down. He has connected with our history. He has shown himself faithful in our past. Therefore our hope is grounded in history and we have an anchor to which to hold as we wait in expectation. As we celebrate another Christmas we acknowledge that we see only puzzling reflections in a mirror, but our hope is renewed as we remember his coming and we wait in hope for the day we will see him face to face. © Grand Valley State University � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Richard A. Rhem Collection Description An account of the resource Text and sound recordings of the sermons, prayers, services, and articles of Richard Rhem, pastor emeritus of Christ Community Church in Spring Lake, Michigan, where he served for 37 years. Starting in the mid 1980's, Rhem began to question some of the traditional Christian dogma that he had been espousing from the pulpit. That questioning was a first step in a long and interesting spiritual journey, one that he openly shared with his congregation. His journey is important, in part because it is reflective of the questioning, the yearnings, and the gradual revision of beliefs that many persons in this part of the century have experienced and continue to experience. It is important also because of the affirming and inclusive way his questioning was done and his thinking evolved. His sermons and other written and spoken materials together document the steps in his journey as it took a turn in 1985, yet continued to revolve around the framework and liturgies of the Christian calendar. Subject The topic of the resource Clergy--Michigan Reformed Church in America Christ Community Church (Spring Lake, Mich.) Religion Interfaith worship Sermons Sound Recordings Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Rhem, Richard A. Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/514">Richard A. Rhem papers (KII-01)</a> Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives. Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Kaufman Interfaith Institute Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Language A language of the resource English Type The nature or genre of the resource Sound Text Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context KII-01 Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant 1981-2014 Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource audio/mp3 text/pdf Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. 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 RA-4-19851220 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1985-12-20 Type The nature or genre of the resource Text Title A name given to the resource The Ground of Hope Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available The Church School Herald Journal Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Richard A. Rhem Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Language A language of the resource eng Description An account of the resource Article created, delivered, or published by Richard A. Rhem (Dick) on December 20, 1985 entitled "The Ground of Hope", it appeared in The Church Herald, pp. 6-7. Tags: Advent, Hope, God of Grace, Faithful. Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource application/pdf Advent Faithful God of Grace Hope https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/53000072d1a70f81f792fb2453c2a205.pdf 2e81236d2593aff2d86951c2fdd44882 PDF Text Text The Vision of Faith Article by Richard A. Rhem Minister of Preaching and Theological Inquiry Christ Community Church Spring Lake, Michigan Published in The Church Herald The Magazine of the Reformed Church in America December 6, 1985, pp. 6-7 The Advent season calls to our consciousness the end of history; to the realization that history has an end; that our personal history as well as the history of the world and humanity are moving toward a terminus, a final moment. If we can resist the insistence of the commercial world that the Christmas season begins before Thanksgiving and make space and time for the keeping of Advent, we will find rich resources for reflection on the biblical themes of the end of history. There is great curiosity about the “Last Things” and all too little calm and reasoned discussion about these matters of faith. Advent, properly kept, provides the opportunity to be reminded that the Christ who came is the Christ who is coming and to treat those questions which continue to live in the human mind and heart: What is the point of it all, this human drama? Where is it all going— whither the whole? What happens at death? What about heaven and hell, judgment and salvation? What do you mean by eternal life? In the autumn of 1983 I was involved in a seminar at the University of Michigan with Professor Hans Küng, who gave a series of lectures entitled “Eternal Life?” Standing in the center of that great secular institution of learning where there is but a token recognition of the whole sphere of religion, he spoke without apology on the themes of death, life after death, hell, heaven, and the kingdom of God. It was a fascinating experience to witness, not only because of the great depth of his discussion, but because there in the sophistication of this great university there were hundreds of bright young people eager to learn about life’s ultimate issue. This is simple witness to the fact that we can never be content to be born, to live out our days, and to die without asking why, whence, whither. God has put eternity into our hearts. When life has been experienced with its full spectrum of activities the question arises, “Is this all there is?” The biblical faith answers, “No, there is much more.” Reflecting the biblical teaching, Küng concluded his lectures © Grand Valley State University   �The Vision of Faith Richard A. Rhem Page 2   after a careful and thorough examination of the questions from medical, religious, and philosophical perspectives with this affirmation of faith: To believe in an eternal life means—in reasonable trust, in enlightened faith, in tried and tested hope—to rely on the fact that I shall one day be fully understood, freed from guilt and definitively accepted and can be myself without fear; that my impenetrable and ambivalent existence, like the profoundly discordant history of humanity as a whole, will one day become finally transparent and the question of the meaning of history one day be finally answered. That is a well-packed statement. It says in capsule form what Advent faith teaches. Advent means “coming.” Advent means Jesus is coming; God's kingdom is coming; consummation is coming. Test Küng's statement by this most familiar word from St. Paul. For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall understand fully, even as I have been fully understood. So faith, hope, love abide... (1 Cor. 13:12-13). These are familiar words coming at the end of Paul's “hymn of love.” We rarely recognize the fascinating future reference of his declaration, but in this great statement we find acknowledged both the puzzle that is our history and the vision of our Christian faith. Let these words of the apostle provide our Advent reflection as we realize anew that God calls us to live trusting that he will fulfill his promises and bring his kingdom to its consummation. We must acknowledge the ambiguity of our present state. Is it not our common experience that a veil of mystery hangs over our lives and over history as a whole? It is impossible from an observation of the course of history to find history's meaning, to detect purpose, direction, and goal. We are caught up in the stream of history itself; we swim in the stream. We have no privileged position above history from which to survey it. There are those who deny any detectable meaning. H. A. L. Fisher, in his History of Europe, writes: One intellectual excitement, however, has been denied to me. Men wiser and more learned than I have discovered in history a plot, a rhythm, a predetermined pattern. These harmonies are concealed from me. I can see only one emergency following another, as wave follows upon wave, only one great fact with respect to which, since it is unique, there can be no generalizations, only one safe rule for the historian: that he should recognize in the development of human destinies the play of the contingent and the unforeseen. © Grand Valley State University �The Vision of Faith Richard A. Rhem Page 3   That is an excellent statement of the case by an eminent historian. From the study of history itself the conclusion is that it is “the development of the contingent and the unforeseen.” St. Paul admitted the same. If history itself be our focus or, more narrowly, the data of our personal histories, then, “we see in a mirror dimly.” For Paul, however, it is not only the data of history with which we have to do, but also the revelation of God in the history of Israel and in Jesus. Thus we bring something to history: the knowledge of the revelation of God. That revelation, which found its supreme expression in Jesus, embraced by faith becomes the interpretative principle by which we understand history. There is more to come. Paul went on to write: “Then [we shall see] face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall understand fully, even as I have been understood fully.” The meaning of history will be accessible to us only from history’s end. Paul believed that just as there was a beginning, so there will be an end. He who spoke and brought all things into being will speak yet again, and time will be no more. As another Advent season comes around, we realize anew that we are faced with a choice, a decision: Will we live by faith in God's promise or not? To do so is a decision, not a conclusion at the end of rational argument. Trust is necessary; not irrational trust but reasonable trust, trust as a decision of the whole person. Fundamental trust will live in the assurance of a gracious purpose threading its way through the confusing patterns of history. Such trust is a gift. Its foundation is laid in earliest infancy. We are from the beginning being pointed toward trust or mistrust. As an adult it is only through a significant emotional experience that one can move from mistrust to trust. An encounter with Jesus is the catalyst for a life lived in trust. Such trust is confirmed in experience; yet it always remains trust, an experience beyond verification in the scientific sense of verification. Mistrust is an option. It is the consistent position of atheism. The Nobel Prizewinning biologist, Jacques Monod, an atheist, maintains: If he accepts this (negative) message in its full significance, man must at last wake out of his millenary dream and discover his total solitude, his fundamental isolation. He must realize that, like a gypsy, he lives on the boundary of an alien world; a world that is deaf to his music, and as indifferent to his hopes as it is to his sufferings or his crimes (Chance and Necessity, p. 160). That is an excellent statement representing clear, concise thinking. As an atheist, Monod is consistent. If there be no God, then there is no future resolution of © Grand Valley State University �The Vision of Faith Richard A. Rhem Page 4   history's confusion, no future righting of wrong, no future realization of our hopes, dreams, and longing. If this be an impersonal universe with no heart, no mind at the center, no purpose at the beginning, and no consummation at the end, then it is true the universe is deaf to our music, indifferent to our hopes, our sufferings, our crimes. If, on the other hand, we bring trust to history’s puzzling data, then we live in the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. Finally, we must choose. The vision of faith sees beyond history’s puzzle to the promise of his coming, who came to a people who had for centuries cried, “How long, O Lord, how long?” He has come. His promise is he will come again, scattering the darkness, revealing the eternal purposes of God which now are hidden from clear view. To keep Advent is to keep faith in the promises of God. The mystery will be removed and we will understand. Faith will be vindicated as the king comes and the kingdom comes to consummation. © Grand Valley State University � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Richard A. Rhem Collection Description An account of the resource Text and sound recordings of the sermons, prayers, services, and articles of Richard Rhem, pastor emeritus of Christ Community Church in Spring Lake, Michigan, where he served for 37 years. Starting in the mid 1980's, Rhem began to question some of the traditional Christian dogma that he had been espousing from the pulpit. That questioning was a first step in a long and interesting spiritual journey, one that he openly shared with his congregation. His journey is important, in part because it is reflective of the questioning, the yearnings, and the gradual revision of beliefs that many persons in this part of the century have experienced and continue to experience. It is important also because of the affirming and inclusive way his questioning was done and his thinking evolved. His sermons and other written and spoken materials together document the steps in his journey as it took a turn in 1985, yet continued to revolve around the framework and liturgies of the Christian calendar. Subject The topic of the resource Clergy--Michigan Reformed Church in America Christ Community Church (Spring Lake, Mich.) Religion Interfaith worship Sermons Sound Recordings Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Rhem, Richard A. Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/514">Richard A. Rhem papers (KII-01)</a> Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives. Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Kaufman Interfaith Institute Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Language A language of the resource English Type The nature or genre of the resource Sound Text Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context KII-01 Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant 1981-2014 Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource audio/mp3 text/pdf Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. 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 RA-4-19851206 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1985-12-06 Type The nature or genre of the resource Text Title A name given to the resource The Vision of Faith Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available The Church School Herald Journal Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Richard A. Rhem Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Language A language of the resource eng Description An account of the resource Article created, delivered, or published by Richard A. Rhem (Dick) on December 6, 1985 entitled "The Vision of Faith", it appeared in The Church Herald, Dec., 1985, pp. 6-7. Tags: Advent, Faith, Eschatology, Mystery, Love, Fundamental Trust. Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource application/pdf Advent Eschatology Faith Fundamental Trust Love Mystery https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/a4e714a77be00e7d62b2d8079d98e3a1.pdf 7cb25dccc56b8e54a132fa2ca64043d3 PDF Text Text Advent Prayer 2002 Richard A. Rhem Christ Community Church Spring Lake, Michigan Advent, December 2002 Transcription of the prepared text In the serene beauty of this sacred space let us be still, be attentive, fully conscious, fully aware – aware of our lives in this world in crisis, in this season of holy symbol, quite overwhelmed by frenetic activity. Let us meditate on the wonder, miracle, joy and glory of life – its mystery, its facile balance, our hopes, our dreams, our fears. Let us be open to the Mystery of Being – the Mystery we name God. O God, we confess that there is that within us that wonders about the way you run the cosmos. We would do it quite differently, especially at those moments when things unravel, when some crisis arises on the world scene, when some evil is perpetrated, some injustice goes unrequited, some tragedy so painful, some suffering so undeserved comes close to us. We cry out but our voice is drowned out in the gale; we try to keep hope alive, to keep trusting, but the deep darkness leaves us numb. We raise our voice if not our fist; our “whys” pour forth in a torrent of anguish. We would nominate for Supreme Ruler one who would unleash power, destroy the wrong and establish the right. We want a strong God because we feel so insecure, so frightened – frightened that our health will fail, frightened that a child will meet with an accident, frightened that a loved one will be torn from us, frightened that our dreams won’t come true… © Grand Valley State University   �Advent Prayer 2002 Richard A. Rhem Then it is that we wish you were the Lord God Almighty, in total control, in complete charge of every detail of our lives and we would appreciate some sign that you are there – in charge. Yet, O God, we really know that is not the way it is – no blinding power, no show of force. We sing, “What child is this…” and “Why lies he in such mean estate?” The poet glimpsed your way – “They all were looking for a King To slay their foes and lift them high; Thou cam’st, a little baby thing, That made a woman cry.” You are with us in weakness rather than power. How strange that is – unsettling, unsatisfying – until we come to realize that only thus are you with us with our freedom intact; only thus can our humanity in your image be real. Sometimes we forget that and think of the traditional God Almighty out there – in charge. Then, when you don’t move in with heavy hand and fix things, we are troubled. We are tempted to think you don’t care. Or, we wonder if some guilt we carry blocks your rescuing effort. Sometimes we even wonder if you are there at all; if perhaps we are not simply alone in the universe. But, then we hear the story again – a child in a manger – one whom multitudes followed, alone praying in agony in a garden, finally hanging on a Roman cross, crying into the darkness, “My God, my God, why…” Then, at least sometimes, a light breaks through – the god of almighty power to rearrange the world is not the God we can really believe in – not power, but presence; not coercion, but persuasion; not control, but grace; not guarantee, but vulnerability. © Grand Valley State University Page 2   �Advent Prayer 2002 Richard A. Rhem Ah, dear God, such is the mystery. We never live easily with that; we never really hear that word once for all; we need to learn it again and again – in our weakness, we cry. In our weakness, our hearts are open; in our weakness, grace happens and you are God with us. In a child, in a crucified one – there you are. In the embrace of another’s wordless presence, there you are. Not power to crush our will, but love that breaks our hearts of stone– that is Christmas; that is the final truth. We can live with that; with that we can live. Hear our prayers, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. © Grand Valley State University Page 3   � 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 Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. 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 RA-1-20021201 Type The nature or genre of the resource Text Title A name given to the resource Advent Prayer, 2002 Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Richard A. Rhem Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Language A language of the resource eng Description An account of the resource Prayer created, delivered, or published by Richard A. Rhem (Dick) on December 1, 2002 entitled "Advent Prayer, 2002", at Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI. Tags: Prayer, Advent. Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource application/pdf Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2002-12-01 Advent Prayer https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/24da570cb8f339eb148bded094de0575.pdf f7ccff7646a273e0c1d5cd7d32731153 PDF Text Text Advent Eucharist Prayer 1994 Richard A. Rhem Christ Community Church Spring Lake, Michigan Advent, December 1994 Transcription of the prepared text O God, beyond our fathoming – eternal, infinite, terms we use to describe what is indescribable, to express what is inexpressible. We bow in these moments conscious that we are in the presence of Mystery, a Mystery that embraces us and will always defy our lust to define, to reduce to manageable terms. Yet you are a Mystery not all mysterious – for, eternal though you be, yet you have taken time for us. In the beginning you stepped out of eternity’s depths and called a world into being. In the fullness of time you spoke once more and the Word that wrought our time became flesh in our midst. A human face gave shape to the glory of your being and revealed you full of grace. And in this Advent Season we celebrate a time that is not yet, but surely will be – an end time when your love will gather our tattered times into the abyss of eternity, bringing all your children home. Eternal, you have taken time for us. We are amazed. © Grand Valley State University   �Advent Eucharist Prayer 1994 Richard A. Rhem Infinite God, you are without form, limitless in your being. How could we even begin to know you if you had not appeared in the garments of our finitude – indeed, in the concreteness of a child? Standing on the threshold of another Christmas, we are amazed again. Who would have expected that the Infinite would become finite; that the eternal would become time-bound; that the Creator would become creature; indeed – that God should become human so that one could write – We declare to you what was from the beginning, what we have heard, what we have seen with our eyes, what we have looked at and touched with our hands – a child, a human person, a crucified one, one whom death could not bind. Infinite God – there you are enfleshed – and we find it so, still: in the flesh of another whom we touch – a newborn’s vulnerability, a restless youth full of potential, an old Simeon or Zechariah, an Anna or Elizabeth, wise with many Christmases, now severely limited, vulnerable again yet full of grace. Ah, dear God, there you are in the other, the flesh we touch – the souls with whom we become one – there you are embodied: Grace become tangible, Love concrete. There you are. Down through the centuries you have been known by those who have sought you, yearned for your grace – embodied in the flesh of your people. You have given signs of your presence. © Grand Valley State University Page 2   �Advent Eucharist Prayer 1994 Richard A. Rhem A loaf broken, a chalice of wine – the stuff of creation: grain from the field, fruit of the vine, these you have impregnated with your life in order that your people might remember and find hope renewed. Eternal God, be known to us at this time. Infinite God, make your presence tangible in these common elements. Breathe through bread and wine – inspirit them that we might be inspirited as we take them, remembering, hoping knowing in awesome ecstasy a timeless moment, an Infinite Grace. And then, Spirit of God, enliven us so that we may know the joy of which angels sang as never before. Hear our prayers through Jesus Christ our Lord.   © Grand Valley State University Page 3   � 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 Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Event Advent 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 RA-1-19941201 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1994-12-01 Type The nature or genre of the resource Text Title A name given to the resource Advent Eucharist Prayer 1994 Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Richard A. Rhem Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Language A language of the resource eng Description An account of the resource Prayer created, delivered, or published by Richard A. Rhem (Dick) on December 1, 1994 entitled "Advent Eucharist Prayer 1994", on the occasion of Advent, at Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI. Tags: Advent, Prayer, Eucharist. Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource application/pdf Advent Eucharist Prayer https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/e6923caf9c514a5b83f02c5640401bd5.mp3 a7441e0ca5332b057577ae518e056fd9 https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/c711fd3f8fa3336d7156c42abff17272.pdf b5084b5be7335ebc53d58928da63ae53 PDF Text Text Two Births, Two Views, Two Empires: Where Does Peace Lie? From the series: The Vulnerability of God Text: Isaiah 11:1-9; Luke 2:1-58 Richard A. Rhem Christ Community Church Spring Lake, Michigan December 21, 2003 Transcription of the spoken sermon I conclude this morning the series on “The Vulnerability of God,” which has been our Advent series in which I have been once again trying to bring to your consciousness and awareness the nature of God as reflected in the Christmas story, particularly in the birth and the life and the death of Jesus. As a Christian community, our claim is that Jesus is the word made flesh, that the divine intention from eternity came to temporal expression in the humanity of Jesus, and I would like to go on to say that it is in the emergence of humanity that we find the presence of that infinite Mystery coming into concrete form and being. If we believe that Jesus, in his birth, life and death, is, indeed, a mirror of the nature of God, then that God is a vulnerable God, in contrast to the God that the Church has set forth forever – and that we religious people have really wanted to have be the case – that is, the Lord God Almighty, Omnipotent, Sovereign of history, in control. That is an interesting tension, as I have been saying over these weeks. I hope that, whether or not you appreciate and enjoy the tension, you nonetheless sense that it is not something that I have imagined or made up, but rather, something that is intrinsically in our Christian faith. The God mirrored in Jesus is a vulnerable God. The God that we prefer is Almighty God, in control, able to secure us in our weakness, in our fear, and in our vulnerability. This morning, just one more attempt to make that clear, with the contrasting of “Two Births, Two Visions, and Two Empires,” raising the question, “Where Does Peace Lie?” Two births - the one birth, Caesar Augustus, the Roman Emperor who was ruling at the time of the birth of Jesus. The other birth - Jesus. © 2013 Kaufman Interfaith Institute and Grand Valley State University   �Where Does Peace Lie? Richard A. Rhem Page 2   In a poem written in 40 BCE, the Roman poet Virgil penned lines that express the longing of an ancient people for peace. It is in the Fourth Eclogue, a rather frequently mentioned poem of this great Roman poet. One stanza says, “Now the virgin is returning, a new human race is descending from the heights of heaven, a birth of a child with whom the iron age of humanity will end and the Golden Age begin.” We just sang “It Came Upon a Midnight Clear,” about the circling years, the coming ‘round of the age of gold, a reference to Virgil in the Fourth Eclogue. There are those who want to claim Virgil as the prophet unconscious, a pagan witness to the coming birth of Christ. But I don’t really think that’s necessary. It is amazing, however, that there was this fine poet who was looking for the birth of a child, and for the rebirth of the ages, one who was writing 40 years, give or take a few years, ahead of the birth of Jesus, one who was writing in the wake of the assassination of Julius Caesar. We know more about Caesar from William Shakespeare than we do from ancient Roman history. I was reading some of that history again in preparation for today. It is fascinating history. There was the great Roman Republic with the Senate, and that excellent form of government that had been created. But, now in the last decades of the first century before the Common Era, there was violence, war, conspiracy, civil strife, and the names of Cassius and Brutus, for example, who assassinated Julius Caesar. Then Octavian, who was Caesar’s great-nephew and adopted son and who was now moving toward the replacement of his uncle, Julius Caesar, but not without having to fight his way to that position. His opposition was the well-known Marc Antony, known perhaps better because of Cleopatra. Someone said history would have been different, had there been a different shape to Cleopatra’s nose. I don’t know whether that’s true or not but there was continual civil war, vying for power. The poet Virgil wrote in 40 BCE of this longing for peace in a Roman setting that was riven with strife. But, by 29 BCE, Octavian Caesar, or Augustus, as he became known, came into Rome, the sole ruler. Interestingly, whether conscious of Virgil’s Fourth Eclogue, or whether simply because this was who he was, his first official act was to close the temple of Janus, the double-faced god of war. Augustus was a very astute ruler. The old republic in Rome was crumbling, and they were on the threshold of empire. They had created this sprawling expanse which could be ruled, it was assumed, only by power. And so, Augustus is trying to restructure something that would give some order and stability to society, creating a form of government, the empire, which lasted for a couple of hundred years. We talk about the Pax Romana, or the Pax Augusti, the two hundred years of Roman peace. It was relative peace; it was not perfect peace. But, there was order, security, civility and Augustus, in his ordering of that empire, yielded up the powers that he had been able to accumulate to himself and those powers were © 2013 Kaufman Interfaith Institute and Grand Valley State University �Where Does Peace Lie? Richard A. Rhem Page 3   given back by the Senate. It was a positive kind of situation that Caesar Augustus sought to install in that ancient world. Was he aware of Virgil’s poem, or was he simply another human individual who knew somehow or other, down deep, that there should be peace among humankind? In the year 9 BCE, he dedicated the gigantic Augustan Altar of Peace. In 1890 there was an excavation in Asia Minor in the town of Priene in which an inscription was found, “To Augustan, Son of God, Divine One,” who was announced in this inscription as Saviour and God, who brought well-being and peace, and through whom would come this whole new order, this whole new age. So, that was one birth and his vision was of peace. It was peace, however, at a price. It was not the kind of peace of which Isaiah spoke that would be the case when the one anointed with the Spirit of God came. It was not a peace in which poetically, symbolically the lion and the lamb would lie down together. It was empire, and the peace was an enforced peace. The Roman Legions, at the outskirts of that empire, protected its borders and kept its internal affairs under their thumb. So, there was a Roman peace, a peace through power that was the vision. It is interesting that it was into such a world that Jesus was born, and into a little corner of that empire. We know something of that Roman peace and the circumstance and condition of that time, because today there have been all kinds of cross-cultural studies about the times of Jesus. Because Jesus was born in that period and we have the Gospels, we get a picture of the underside, if you will, of that empire which Augustus Caesar would have ruled in peace. We know it was a time in which a province such as Judea, part of that great Roman Imperium, was a province under domination and exploitation. We know that the landowners were being forced off their land. We know that there was urbanization which created all kinds of social dis-ease among the people. Hans Küng suggests that it is no mistake that Luke in his Christmas stories, in his Gospel, sets the context the way he does. For, what is Luke trying to say? Remember those Gospels are written after Jesus is dead. Those Gospels are written in retrospect, and Luke is telling the story of Jesus, believing that Jesus was the one through whom peace and an alternative world would come. And so, how does Luke tell us the story? He tells us that Caesar Augustus was ruling in Rome and Quirinius was the ruler in Syria, but he tells us that the birth of this Jesus was announced to a Jewish maiden girl, and that the word never came to Herod’s court, the lackey of Rome, but rather, to some spiritual astrologers from the East who were on a spiritual journey. He tells us that the news of the birth was announced, not in Herod’s court, but to shepherds in the field, the nameless ones, the poor ones, and he introduces the Gospel story with the song of Zechariah, the Benedictus, and of the song of Mary, the Magnificat. © 2013 Kaufman Interfaith Institute and Grand Valley State University �Where Does Peace Lie? Richard A. Rhem Page 4   It is not accidental that the story of Jesus, the life of Jesus, is introduced in the context of an expectation and a hope and a vision for peace and well-being in the world that involved the casting down of the mighty and the lifting up of the nameless ones, not accidental that it is cast in terms of the poor being fed and the rich being turned empty away. This is the story of an underdog people who, in the birth of this one, believed that somehow or another an alternative world will be effected. It is a vision, as a consequence of a birth, of a different kind of a social order. It is a vision of peace through vulnerability. Caesar is born and his birth is celebrated and he has a vision of peace through power. Jesus is born and his life is recorded and it is a life of vulnerability, a vision of peace through powerlessness. Hans Küng says that we haven’t lost the meaning of Christmas because of excessive commercialization. We have lost the meaning of Christmas, primarily, because we have made it a romantic idol, a song, a lovely story, a cozy narrative, and who wants to be the Grinch that stole Christmas? Who wants to be old Scrooge? Well, just for five minutes or so, let me suggest that Christmas, as beautiful as it is, as lovely as it is, I wouldn’t miss it - the beauty of the surroundings, the change in human feeling, the set of the heart. The world becomes a softer place at Christmas. So, I really don’t want to put down anything that Christmas is able to do to humanize us and to soften us and to lead us into greater intimacy. Not at all. But, I do want you to see that the Gospels that we claim to believe are political documents that tell the story of Jesus in a social-economic-political context which is intentionally set over against the political-economic-social context of the time of his birth. I do want you to see that Luke never really intended us to gather in beautiful sanctuaries with poinsettias and to give each other gifts and hugs and to cry a lot. Luke wanted to say, “I’m telling you the story of one who was born into a social context that was marked by Roman imperial power that was a system of domination and exploitation, and I want to tell you about the good news, not of Caesar Augustus, who indeed had a vision of peace through power. I want to tell you about the birth of Jesus who had a vision of peace through vulnerability.” They result in two kinds of empires - the Roman Empire, mighty Rome, magnificent in so many ways, the source of so much that is wonderful in Western civilization. But, Rome that ruled by power finally crumbled, finally overextended, finally became weary of securing itself, finally became weary of defending itself, finally became vulnerable to decay from within because when © 2013 Kaufman Interfaith Institute and Grand Valley State University �Where Does Peace Lie? Richard A. Rhem Page 5   you have that pressure to domination, you have always to live with fear and insecurity. Over against that is the birth of Jesus, whom we claim to be a reflection of the nature of God, whose vision of peace was a vision through powerlessness, whose empire we call the realm of God. On Christmas 2003 you don’t have to be a rocket scientist to know that I am thinking about Rome and that ancient story in terms of my own day and age. You don’t have to be particularly perceptive to know that I am saying to you that the present superpower syndrome that has gripped this nation is a reiteration of Rome and the repudiation of Jesus. The real world is tough and brutal, and I really don’t purport to have answers as to how to find that alternative world of which Isaiah dreamed, where the lion and the lamb would dwell together and a child could play in safety. I don’t know how we could move from this. When I say superpower syndrome, I am quoting a very astute observer of the present, Robert Jay Lifton, who talks about our mind set, that drive for dominance which has its own idealism about it, but which, in our confrontation of the war on terror, has increased that war, that terror, has expedited the recruitment of terrorists, and has not, contrary to all rhetoric, made us more secure, but more afraid. I can understand Virgil, can’t you, four decades before Jesus, in a Roman world torn with strife, longing for something different? I can understand Luke thinking now that he had seen the one of whom Isaiah spoke, because whether it is the pagan Virgil or the prophet Isaiah or the evangelist Luke, or people of common sense and good heart in every day and generation, don’t we know that there is only one path to peace? It is not through power. It is not through might. It is not through domination and exploitation. It is in the creation of another kind of world marked by vulnerability which we say is like God. That is really what Christmas is about. Christmas is gutsy. Christmas is real. Christmas is demanding. Christmas is condemning. Because Christmas is about the way God envisioned the world. Some vision! If nothing else in this Christmas season, I hope you will feel the dissonance, the dissonance between the present rhetoric and the Gospel declaration. © 2013 Kaufman Interfaith Institute and Grand Valley State University �Where Does Peace Lie? Richard A. Rhem Page 6   In your pockets, if you have a dollar bill, there is the great seal and under the pyramid it is Novus Ordo Seclorum. Do you know where that comes from? Virgil. We sang about it in “It Came Upon a Midnight Clear,” the Golden Age. Old Virgil four decades before Jesus talked about a Golden Age and hopes of the birth of one who would bring about a change in the world. Luke hoped for the same thing. It was Charles Thompson who created that great seal who put the date 1776 underneath the pyramid. Do you recognize that date? The birth of this nation, with all the idealism of a New Age and a new beginning. Dear God, I wish this Christmas that we in this wonderful nation of ours, so richly blessed, could recapture that kind of idealism and could learn from Rome that the mightiest power on earth that would continue to perpetuate its position and privilege and power is going to live in fear and insecurity, under stress, every day of its life. And I wish we, with our considerable power and possession, would find a way to make Christmas come true. © 2013 Kaufman Interfaith Institute and Grand Valley State University � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Richard A. Rhem Collection Description An account of the resource Text and sound recordings of the sermons, prayers, services, and articles of Richard Rhem, pastor emeritus of Christ Community Church in Spring Lake, Michigan, where he served for 37 years. Starting in the mid 1980's, Rhem began to question some of the traditional Christian dogma that he had been espousing from the pulpit. That questioning was a first step in a long and interesting spiritual journey, one that he openly shared with his congregation. His journey is important, in part because it is reflective of the questioning, the yearnings, and the gradual revision of beliefs that many persons in this part of the century have experienced and continue to experience. It is important also because of the affirming and inclusive way his questioning was done and his thinking evolved. His sermons and other written and spoken materials together document the steps in his journey as it took a turn in 1985, yet continued to revolve around the framework and liturgies of the Christian calendar. Subject The topic of the resource Clergy--Michigan Reformed Church in America Christ Community Church (Spring Lake, Mich.) Religion Interfaith worship Sermons Sound Recordings Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Rhem, Richard A. Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/514">Richard A. Rhem papers (KII-01)</a> Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives. Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Kaufman Interfaith Institute Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Language A language of the resource English Type The nature or genre of the resource Sound Text Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context KII-01 Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant 1981-2014 Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource audio/mp3 text/pdf Sound A resource primarily intended to be heard. Examples include a music playback file format, an audio compact disc, and recorded speech or sounds. Event Advent IV Series The Vulnerability of God, Advent IV Scripture Text Isaiah 11:1-9, Luke 2:1-58 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-0-20031221 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2003-12-21 Title A name given to the resource Two Births, Two Views, Two Empires - Where Does Peace Lie? Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Richard A. Rhem Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Subject The topic of the resource Clergy--Michigan Reformed Church in America Christ Community Church (Spring Lake, Mich.) Sermons Relation A related resource Richard A. Rhem - An Archive of Sermons, Prayers, Talks and Stories: http://richardrhem.org/ Language A language of the resource eng Type The nature or genre of the resource Sound Text Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource audio/mp3 application/pdf Description An account of the resource A sermon given by Richard A. Rhem (Dick) on December 21, 2003 entitled "Two Births, Two Views, Two Empires - Where Does Peace Lie?", as part of the series "The Vulnerability of God, Advent IV", on the occasion of Advent IV, at Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI. Scripture references: Isaiah 11:1-9, Luke 2:1-58. Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Lemmen Library and Archives Advent Nature of God Peace https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/57693ed96a6a2854de47cc7aa318cae0.mp3 7d130dfa615728037c40134515ef6ff5 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Richard A. Rhem Collection Description An account of the resource Text and sound recordings of the sermons, prayers, services, and articles of Richard Rhem, pastor emeritus of Christ Community Church in Spring Lake, Michigan, where he served for 37 years. Starting in the mid 1980's, Rhem began to question some of the traditional Christian dogma that he had been espousing from the pulpit. That questioning was a first step in a long and interesting spiritual journey, one that he openly shared with his congregation. His journey is important, in part because it is reflective of the questioning, the yearnings, and the gradual revision of beliefs that many persons in this part of the century have experienced and continue to experience. It is important also because of the affirming and inclusive way his questioning was done and his thinking evolved. His sermons and other written and spoken materials together document the steps in his journey as it took a turn in 1985, yet continued to revolve around the framework and liturgies of the Christian calendar. Subject The topic of the resource Clergy--Michigan Reformed Church in America Christ Community Church (Spring Lake, Mich.) Religion Interfaith worship Sermons Sound Recordings Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Rhem, Richard A. Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/514">Richard A. Rhem papers (KII-01)</a> Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives. Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Kaufman Interfaith Institute Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Language A language of the resource English Type The nature or genre of the resource Sound Text Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context KII-01 Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant 1981-2014 Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource audio/mp3 text/pdf Sound A resource primarily intended to be heard. Examples include a music playback file format, an audio compact disc, and recorded speech or sounds. Event Advent I Series The Vulnerability of God Scripture Text I John 4:7-8, 12, 16, 19, Luke 1:46-55 Location The location of the interview Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context KII-01_RA-0-20031130 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2003-11-30 Title A name given to the resource Life Broken and Poured Out Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Richard A. Rhem Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Subject The topic of the resource Clergy--Michigan Reformed Church in America Christ Community Church (Spring Lake, Mich.) Sermons Relation A related resource Richard A. Rhem - An Archive of Sermons, Prayers, Talks and Stories: http://richardrhem.org/ Language A language of the resource eng Type The nature or genre of the resource Sound Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource audio/mp3 Description An account of the resource A sermon given by Richard A. Rhem (Dick) on November 30, 2003 entitled "Life Broken and Poured Out", as part of the series "The Vulnerability of God", on the occasion of Advent I, at Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI. Scripture references: I John 4:7-8, 12, 16, 19, Luke 1:46-55. Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Lemmen Library and Archives Advent https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/b9ee2be296e00a60c94406d20db6f026.mp3 6950e5504f8b048a9f86e92ac6104a61 https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/068f2a4e68a0c4b7e99542cd87a8d588.pdf 58318d32e9a0c4e7acfd047dbfbe557e PDF Text Text God in the Mirror of Christmas: A Child Advent IV Scripture: Hebrews 11-4; Luke 2:1-7 Richard A. Rhem Christ Community Church Spring Lake, Michigan December 23, 2001 Transcription of the spoken sermon The thing that I want to say to you this morning is really quite simple. I broached the subject last week; it is the realization on my part of that tension within the New Testament between the Christmas story and what it mirrors about God, and the post-Easter biblical material that speaks of the triumph and the reign and the coming again of Jesus with power to reign and to judge. As I indicated last week, I have lived with that tension for years and years and I never recognized the tension. It never struck me that to speak about the one who came in poverty and humility and then to speak about that one who came as coming again with the splendor of royal power was giving me two pictures of God, two mirrors. It was reflecting God in two contrasting ways: the mirror of Christmas, that is the mirror of the God with the human face– the God who is in the manger as a child in all of the vulnerability and all of the beauty of that moment which we will celebrate again tomorrow evening – and the God of the rest of the New Testament is the same old God, the same almighty, omnipotent God who is in control, the God who at the right moment will send the Son and the Son will come in glory and splendor with power to reign and to judge, and there will be the vindication of the righteous and there will be vengeance on the wicked. That whole judgment scene of the God in control, the sovereign Lord of history, that picture of the New Testament is strung throughout the whole New Testament, and if you want to read it in all of its bare horror, read the book of Revelation. That picture is in contrast to what the Christmas story mirrors about the nature of God. Last week we read in John's Gospel, "In the beginning was the divine intention, and the divine intention became flesh and dwelt among us. No one has ever seen God but the son has revealed God." Or Paul's statement "We have seen the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ." Or the statement from the Epistle to the Hebrews that I read a moment ago, where how could it be more explicit? Jesus is spoken of as the Son who is the exact image of God, the reflection of the exact nature of God. That's the Christmas story, and what God is mirrored as being in the Christmas story is a God of vulnerability and ultimately, © Grand Valley State University �God in the Mirror of Christmas: A Child Richard A. Rhem Page 2 finally, a God of love. Christmas is about heaven touching earth with love. Christmas mirrors a God who moves by love to persuade, but never coerce, for the child that is the central focus of this Christmas season is a child with all of the wonder of a child, dependent, vulnerable, beautiful, innocent, harmless - there is a picture of God. But that stands in such sharp contrast to the revelation of God in the rest of the story, almost as if Christmas happened and the life of Jesus happened, Jesus of the Sermon on the Mount, counseling compassion over against the good and the evil, the righteous and the unrighteous as reflective of God's attitude and spirit. Jesus of the parable of the Good Samaritan, Jesus of the parable of the Prodigal Son, Jesus - all those stories of the God who draws near, the God who is full of grace, the God who is accessible, the God who is approachable. Jesus of Passion Week who goes right into Jerusalem and speaks his truth to power and is crucified for it, not resisting. Resisting only violent response, praying finally for his enemies, "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do”– that Jesus gets jettisoned on Easter, and from there on the Christian story and the Christian Church has become one triumphalistic procession down through the centuries, waiting for that one who came in humility and vulnerability, to come in smashing glory. How could I preach for years and years and years and not feel that contradiction? And which God do we choose? Well, of course, we choose the God who raised Jesus from the dead. Of course we choose the God who will bring history to its culmination point. Of course we will choose the God who has time in his hand, who will call the shots, who will send the Son in clouds of glory to judge the quick and the dead, finally to reign. Of course, that's the God we will choose, the God we can worship. That’s the God we can be secure with, that's the God who can set things right. And what happens to the God of the child? What happens to the God mirrored at Christmas? What happens to the God with a human face? We talked about that last week, but I want to say this week one further insight on this whole week, and that is that, in spite of the fact that we have moved too quickly from Christmas, in spite of the fact that we pray, "Come, Lord Jesus," nonetheless, every year we come back to Christmas. We can't forget it. We can't get it out of our system. We can't get it out of our bones. Every year we come back to this moment. Every year we begin to experience the magic and the wonder of Christmas. Every year we come again to bow before the manger that holds the child, and every year it happens again. We all know it. There is no question about it. The world is a softer place this weekend. The world is a softer place at Christmastime. The tear flows, the lump in the throat, the old carols stir something deep within us. The simple and beautiful story told again moves us. I've already celebrated Christmas because I have gone through a couple of rehearsals for the early service for tomorrow night. So, I know the baby gets born © Grand Valley State University �God in the Mirror of Christmas: A Child Richard A. Rhem Page 3 again, a real-live baby cries, and as I stood as one of the narrators for the story, being beautifully portrayed by our lovely young dancers and our shepherds, and Mary and Joseph, as I saw it again yesterday, I was cognizant myself of the fact that it does move you again. It happens again. It's a lovely story. It's a story that reaches the deepest part of the human being, and we come back to it every year, and it's the same old story but it's new every year and it moves us every year, and we celebrate every year, and we rejoice in it every year, and I want to submit to you that we do that because it has gotten into the marrow of our bones and we know intuitively that that story is the ultimate truth. We know that the love that came down at Christmas reflects the grain of the universe, the truth deep down in things. You see, most of the rest of the year, we don't live that way. Most of the rest of the year, we simply get caught up in all of the power games and all of the power structures, political life, economic life, social life. We move away from Christmas and we forget the radicality of the vision that we have seen. But, for just a little while, we remember and it touches us because it is true. It is the final truth. And there is that within us that knows it is the final truth. Jesus is our window to God. Jesus isn't the only window to God. Jesus isn't everybody's window to God, but Jesus is our window to God. I appreciate the fact that a dozen or so of you sent me the last page of Time magazine, the essay by Rosenblatt entitled, "God Is Not On Your Side Nor On My Side." I like the fact that so many of you thought of me when you read it, because it tells me that you are listening and that you identify with me with that kind of idea. I appreciate that fact. But, Jesus is our window, and I want to tell you, Jesus is a radical window. Jesus is a magnificent window. Jesus is a window on God that is so profound and so magnificent, that we ought not to miss it. It is so easy to take it for granted because it is the old, old story and we know the story so well, and how could we ever find anything new in it, and then one sits back for a moment, and says, "My God! Do you realize what that story is telling me about God?" It is radical! It is revolutionary! It is so radical and revolutionary that the world hasn't been able to deal with it yet. Our old world is rocking with war again and I am sure the reason that this Advent season I was not able to live with the contradiction without at least lifting it up was the fact of current events, what is going on in our world. That often happens. One has an old story, an old tradition, and suddenly something happens to you or something happens in the world, and one sees something that was always there and one didn't see it at all! Suddenly I see it everywhere now. I see what the future, if there is to be a future, I see what it has to be. It has to be a world that is posited on the nature of God reflected in Bethlehem, in Jesus. That is hardly the way we have lived, even though in the West Jesus has been our window. That’s hardly the way we have lived. It's dangerous to live that way. It can put your national security in jeopardy, of course. But, you see, in this old © Grand Valley State University �God in the Mirror of Christmas: A Child Richard A. Rhem Page 4 world of ours, after 9-11, it has become apparent to us what has long been true, and that is that there is no ultimate security through power or might or force of arms. It would be political suicide for our national leaders without talking about securing this nation, but this nation is not secure, and given the technology of our world today, given where we are in our world today, it will never be secure again. It will never be secure in a world where there are those who are dispirited and despairing and hopeless and helpless and alienated and angry and full of rage – never be secure again. And so, what we really have to do is find out another way to be in this world, because power isn't going to do it. It just might be that, while we're number one, it might be the smartest, most savvy thing in the world for us to begin to create a new one world reality. You see, right now, the way it has been, might, force, power has ruled, and the international game is a vast chess game, and those analysts of international affairs plot out those chess moves. We should do this, they'll do that, and if we do this, we can checkmate at this point, because it's a power game, it's a game about winning, or at least not losing. And it isn't going to work anymore. Our world is rocking with war and there is no security and down deep in our hearts, we know, and we keep coming back to Christmas every year and we're moved by it Our eyes moisten again, we get a lump in our throat again, our hearts are softened again. You can feel it on the street, because down deep we know that's true, and we try to get on with life according to the only way life can be survivable, right? Well, one wonders. We come back and we're touched, because that is the deepest truth and, if that is the deepest truth, I wonder when we're going to try it Let me tell you about a savvy move we made in that chess game. You know it, too; it's been in the news. You know that we funded Osama bin Laden. You know that we funded and gave arms to the Taliban, right? As long as they were fighting the Soviet Union. And why did we do that? Simply because we didn't like the Soviet Union? We are smart. We knew if we could get the Soviet Union to have our own Vietnam, it would suck the life blood and resources right out of them. We'd bring them to their knees. And, by God, we did it. There are those among our leaders right now who were responsible for that policy, who are defending it, and I'm sure there are some of you out there who would say that was a good move, because the Soviet Union was brought to its knees. Didn't President Reagan call it "the evil empire"? Ah, dear friends, as long as we're in that kind of a game, we will be trying to save our necks, we will be trying to defend our borders, we will be trying to perpetuate the preeminence of our position, and it's a no-win game, ultimately. You know the problem with the American people? We're a good people at the pinnacle of power, and Christmas has seeped into the marrow of our bones. If we could just use our power in any brutal and violent fashion, we could shape this © Grand Valley State University �God in the Mirror of Christmas: A Child Richard A. Rhem Page 5 world up. You wouldn't have to pray. You wouldn't have to ask for God's blessing. You wouldn't have to pray "God bless America." Just turn our resources loose with no moral qualms, with no ethical consideration, just bomb 'em, baby. Bomb them into submission. We have the stuff, folks. We could do it. But, we can't do it, because we have Christmas in the marrow of our bones. We have been touched by Jesus. We've seen God in the face of a child, and once you've seen God in the face of a child, you just can't go on being a mean S.O.B. anymore. That's our dilemma. A good people at the pinnacle of power who know the ultimate truth, but haven't quite dared to live by it yet. Maybe this year. © Grand Valley State University � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Richard A. Rhem Collection Description An account of the resource Text and sound recordings of the sermons, prayers, services, and articles of Richard Rhem, pastor emeritus of Christ Community Church in Spring Lake, Michigan, where he served for 37 years. Starting in the mid 1980's, Rhem began to question some of the traditional Christian dogma that he had been espousing from the pulpit. That questioning was a first step in a long and interesting spiritual journey, one that he openly shared with his congregation. His journey is important, in part because it is reflective of the questioning, the yearnings, and the gradual revision of beliefs that many persons in this part of the century have experienced and continue to experience. It is important also because of the affirming and inclusive way his questioning was done and his thinking evolved. His sermons and other written and spoken materials together document the steps in his journey as it took a turn in 1985, yet continued to revolve around the framework and liturgies of the Christian calendar. Subject The topic of the resource Clergy--Michigan Reformed Church in America Christ Community Church (Spring Lake, Mich.) Religion Interfaith worship Sermons Sound Recordings Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Rhem, Richard A. Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/514">Richard A. Rhem papers (KII-01)</a> Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives. Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Kaufman Interfaith Institute Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Language A language of the resource English Type The nature or genre of the resource Sound Text Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context KII-01 Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant 1981-2014 Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource audio/mp3 text/pdf Sound A resource primarily intended to be heard. Examples include a music playback file format, an audio compact disc, and recorded speech or sounds. Event Advent IV Series God in the Mirror of Christmas Scripture Text Hebrews 1:1-4, Luke 2:1-7 Location The location of the interview Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context KII-01_RA-0-20011223 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2001-12-23 Title A name given to the resource A Child Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Richard A. Rhem Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Subject The topic of the resource Clergy--Michigan Reformed Church in America Christ Community Church (Spring Lake, Mich.) Sermons Relation A related resource Richard A. Rhem - An Archive of Sermons, Prayers, Talks and Stories: http://richardrhem.org/ Language A language of the resource eng Type The nature or genre of the resource Sound Text Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource audio/mp3 application/pdf Description An account of the resource A sermon given by Richard A. Rhem (Dick) on December 23, 2001 entitled "A Child", as part of the series "God in the Mirror of Christmas", on the occasion of Advent IV, at Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI. Scripture references: Hebrews 1:1-4, Luke 2:1-7. Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Lemmen Library and Archives Advent Divine Intention Incarnation Pluralism https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/89a765b4fa5daa2da2923097d60335f6.mp3 40ad615155dda5505c3292c2259d0cd2 https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/bbab33b4cc660ed59040308921d81511.pdf 6cca075d535e0eaaf2b64bacc0e71737 PDF Text Text A Tale of Three Cities From the Advent Series: God in the Mirror of Christmas Micah 5:2-5a; Revelation 19:1-6; Matthew 2: 1-6, 16-18 Richard A. Rhem Christ Community Church Spring Lake, Michigan Advent II, December 9, 2001 Transcription of the spoken sermon Advent 2001 would be similar in some respects to Advent 1941, for we celebrated on Friday sixty years of the attack on Pearl Harbor, which would have been the crisis of the world at the time that Advent was celebrated in ‘41, and once again, our world is in crisis in this 2001 Advent season. It is a season in which we are particularly thoughtful about history, about the calendar of God, about where things are and whether or not there is something going on which is more than meets the eye. I remember a story told me by Bruce Thielman, who is a pastor of the First Presbyterian Church of Pittsburgh, a great pulpit historically, who had a great preacher of a former generation, Clarence McCartney. Bruce Thielman said he was rummaging around in the attic of old First Presbyterian, Pittsburgh, one day and he came across some sermons, including the sermon that McCartney preached on the 14th of December in 1941 and he said from reading the sermon there would have been not the slightest hint that the world was in crisis, which perhaps is a symbol of the oftentimes irrelevancy of the pulpit. Certainly in Advent we cannot escape contemplating the meaning of the events that have pressed in upon us because it is the theme of this season of the year when we particularly wonder about the course of human history and the engagement of God in that history. The Christian faith inherited that concern about history from the womb of Judaism from which it emerged, for the Hebrew prophets are credited with causing the world to think historically, to think in terms of beginning and process and consummation. The prophets lived by a dream. I don’t know what it was, call it the inspiration of the Spirit of God, call it the intuition of a particularly blessed people who were living as a very small and beleaguered people through most of their existence, but in any case, the Hebrew prophets had a magnificent dream of an alternative world. You remember that dream - of a world of human wellbeing, when the lion © Grand Valley State University   �A Tale of Three Cities Richard A. Rhem Page 2   and the lamb would lie down together and they would not hurt or destroy in all God’s holy mountain, that dream of shalom. The early Jesus Jewish movement, of course, were the children of that dream, that dream which was so powerful in its provision of hope for a people who had suffered so much and so long, and there were those in the early movement, the Jesus movement, who said certainly this one, Jesus, was the designate of God. He must be the anointed one of whom the prophets spoke. The Hebrew word for anointed is messiah, of course, and so they were saying this Jesus is the messiah. That so characterized, so marked Jesus, that he became known as Jesus Christ, but Christ is simply the Greek word for anointed. Jesus, the anointed, Jesus the messiah, Jesus the Christ - what the early Church was saying was that that one the prophets foresaw, that one who would come and bring justice and righteousness and peace to the earth, that one was none other than Jesus. And so, the Christian Church came into its future expectation honestly, out of the womb of its Hebrew mother. Then, of course, there was a surprise, for that anointed one was crucified. Who could have thought it? Who could have dreamed it? And yet, the crucified one they experienced alive in their midst, and they spoke of resurrection. And certainly, then, this time of Jesus’ absence from them would be a brief interim in which the good news could be proclaimed, and then certainly, soon, he would come again. The Book of Revelation from which I read a moment ago ends with, “Come quickly, Lord Jesus,” and he says, “Behold, I come quickly.” So, the early Church lived in that expectation of the imminent return of the one who had come. And the Church’s celebration of Advent historically has been a celebration of that expectation of the one who came, coming again, and Advent has been particularly the season in which we have thought about the movement of history and history’s culmination and history’s end events. And here we have reinterpreted that coming again, that second coming, so to speak, for we have come to acknowledge that an imminent return after 2000 years can hardly be compelling. Certainly that early interpretation of where the world was in the timeline of God erred, although understandably so. David Hartman, the rabbi from Jerusalem, has re-interpreted the prophets’ dream, as well, so that that shalom on earth, David Hartman says, is not necessarily some future time and place, but rather, the critique of every movement of history. Every human arrangement, every historical arrangement, every age, every epic, every moment comes under the judgment of that dream of shalom, and every human arrangement is shown to be inadequate compared to the intention of God according to the dream of the prophet. But, here we are in another Advent season, making our way toward Christmas. What I’d like to do today and for the next couple of weeks is to have us think about Christmas as a mirror that reflects the nature of God. What kind of a God is reflected in the mirror of Christmas? From what we know about the event, what © Grand Valley State University �A Tale of Three Cities Richard A. Rhem Page 3   kind of a God is revealed from the Christmas mystery? Think with me this morning about A Tale of Three Cities as we reflect on world history, its course, and perhaps its culmination. Three Cities: Rome, obviously, the seat of imperial power, a city still today magnificent as evidenced by its ruins. Rome, who ruled the world as the ancient world had never been ruled before, ruled by the most powerful empire that the world had known. The Roman Empire. The Roman Emperor. Imperial Rome, on top of the world, its empire stretched far and wide, and it held peoples and tribes in subjection. It was the occupying power at the time of the birth of Jesus. Luke tells us the story of Jesus in reference to Caesar Augustus, for it was Caesar Augustus who proclaimed an edict that all the world should be taxed, and that was the way by which Luke brought Mary and Joseph to Bethlehem for the birth of Jesus. But, here in this far out province, the lives of people are implicated by the decree of an imperial ruler who lives in Rome. Roman law, Roman order - it was a great civilization. There was much to commend it. It was, perhaps, the finest human arrangement in terms of government and rule and the ordering of society. Rome, famous for its law, famous for the magnificent civilization that arose under its aegis. Rome was an empire not without its own dreams and ideals. After Julius Caesar was assassinated, there ensued a fifteen-year civil war, a civil war which was bloody, indeed, but which culminated finally with Octavian coming to Rome in 29 before Christ as the sole ruler. Before that, the Roman poet, Virgil, had written in his Fourth Eclogue a tribute to Augustus, Caesar Augustus, who was one declared, on his birth, as a savior, as a son of God. In 1890, in Asia Minor in a little village, there was an inscription found, “To Augustus as the Son of God, the Savior of the World.” Virgil had dreamed about the birth of one who would bring the world peace, and the Roman world began its new year, subsequently, on the 23th of September, which was the birth of Octavian who became Caesar Augustus. So, the Roman calendar was gathered around the birth of this one who was purported to be son of God. He was the great nephew of Julius Caesar. Julius Caesar had been elevated to deity. This one was understood as son of God, and the word savior was applied to him. And so, in 29 before Christ, there is one on the seat of authority in the Roman empire, one who is understood as son of God, Savior, a bringer of peace and wholeness to the brokenness of the world. As I say, Rome, this gigantic empire, was not without its integrity, it was not without its idealism, it was not without its dream, and yet, it was the super power of the day and it was committed, above all, to the perpetuation of its preeminence and power. And so, when it came down to it, it may have a man of peace on the throne and, incidentally, the first official act of Caesar Augustus was to close the Temple of Janus, the double-faced god of war, and he dedicated a gigantic altar to peace, the Augustan Altar of Peace. So, again, it is not as though this people was without its ideal, its hope and its dream. It is not as though the Roman hierarchy © Grand Valley State University �A Tale of Three Cities Richard A. Rhem Page 4   did not understand that which was good for humankind. But, when push came to shove, it was the Roman legions that ruled, and by military might and the power of the sword, Rome enforced the Roman peace, the Pax Romana. That’s the irony, isn’t it? This powerful, powerful human institution with high ideals enforced by the power of the legion and the sword. I suppose you’re already suspecting that I might suggest that Rome’s situation in that ancient world 2000 years ago was not so different than our situation in our world in 2001. We, too, are the world’s one great super power, and we, too, are a people of a high idealism. There’s a kind of moralistic strain, even in our foreign policy. We are a people who engage in a military action and are more concerned, really, about humanitarian aid. All of the ambiguity of our present situation, eh? A mighty power with high ideals and humane concerns and yet, of course, if we would be honest, we, too, are a people like Rome whose hands are dirty, with alliances and coalitions with regimes who are oppressive of their own people, but good for our own preservation of power and preeminence. Oh, the world is a messy place, and the human story is full of such ambiguity. Here we are, the world’s great power, so reflective of Rome in the days of its glory, struggling, I suppose, with that tension between idealism and real politic, the rough and tumble of national, international affairs. Ah, 2001 - not so different than year one. And there was Jerusalem, of course, a bit of a different situation and yet, also so reflective of the human situation. There a man named Herod who was both Jewish and Edomite, so he had Jacob and Esau in his veins – there Herod got himself into the good graces of Rome and was appointed governor in 47 before Christ and in 40 before Christ became king, King Herod the Great. And he was great. We’re told the story of Herod having melted down his own personal gold in order to buy corn to feed people in time of famine. Another time of crisis, he remitted the taxes of the people. He was a builder; people came from the ancient world to examine the glories of Jerusalem, the building projects of Herod the Great. And Jerusalem was ruled well. There was the other side of Herod, though. He was a paranoid individual, ruthless and brutal. Herod had his wife Alexandra and her mother put to death. When he came to power in 40, when he was crowned king, he had the Sanhedrin slaughtered just to remove the old guard, so to speak. Another time, 300 court officials were slaughtered at one fell swoop. He had his own eldest son murdered, and two others of his sons were murdered. Caesar August said it would be better to be Herod’s pig than his son. And after his long, long rule, knowing that he had not endeared himself to the people, he retired to Jericho, knowing he was about to die, and he had the finest of Jerusalem arrested and imprisoned so that when he died, they could be put to death, because he said, “When Herod dies, no one will cry. But, when Herod dies, tears will flow.” There’s a nice fellow for you. That was Herod the Great. © Grand Valley State University �A Tale of Three Cities Richard A. Rhem Page 5   Jerusalem. And Herod is so representative of those who are in power, who worry about keeping power, for when the magi came, inquiring about the birth of a king because they had seen his star, Matthew tells us that Herod was greatly troubled, and all Jerusalem was frightened with him. You see, when you have an established order and when you are on top, you have always to worry about maintaining that order and preserving your position and your pre-eminence. So, Herod, this brutal, paranoid ruler, when he realized that the magi had gone home another way, simply had all the children two years and under slaughtered. We call it the “Slaughter of the Innocents.” A brutal act for the preservation of power and the removal of any possible threat to his authority. And, of course, Jerusalem wasn’t only marked by that kind of civil king, but also entwined in the ruling establishment of Jerusalem was the Sadducean party, the high priestly party, and we know from the story of Jesus that when this prophet made his way and made his point, and proclaimed in the center of Jerusalem that which he believed to be reflective of the will of God for this people of God, it was the collaboration of the Herodian party and the Roman government, Pontius Pilate, that Jesus was killed. So, Jerusalem was that city, too, that knew in all of its dimensions that vying for earthly power, the political games that people play, the vying for position and the preserving of preeminence - that was Jerusalem in the days of the one who was born on Christmas. I read from the Revelation to give a sense of the biblical story, the outcome of that kind of power play, for the 19th chapter of Revelation is that from which comes the Hallelujah Chorus. But, when you read the 19th chapter, you have to be shaken just a bit because there is such vengeance in that chapter, and what is being celebrated? Well, it is the devastation and the ending of Rome, called Babylon, the great harlot, the great whore. Babylon, standing for Rome, represents in the biblical perspective that whole gamut of human arrangement that is set on power, and the enforcement of rule by force and military might, economic domination, all sorts of domination systems, and in the 19th chapter of Revelation, she is overthrown and the smoke rises and there is this hallelujah celebration. And there is this great affirmation, “The Lord God Almighty reigns.” You can understand, perhaps, the vengeance, because this people has suffered. It has suffered terribly at the hands of imperial power, and so they rejoice in the dream of that ultimate overthrow because the revelation of John is again in that biblical tradition that believes finally Almighty God will bring it out right. It is rather amazing to me, when I realize that that picture is in tension with the Christmas miracle, because that picture in Revelation is the kind of expression for that human desire for vengeance, and that human desire for God Almighty to take charge and to damn the darkness and to establish the righteous. And yet that’s not at all what I see in the Christmas miracle, because there is a third city – Bethlehem. © Grand Valley State University �A Tale of Three Cities Richard A. Rhem Page 6   Micah speaks of Bethlehem, “Least of the tribes of Judah.” Little Bethlehem, from you will come a ruler and he will be a shepherd to his people, be a man of peace. Now, you can feel it coming. This is the typical sermon cant. This is the naive preacher’s talk, because Rome will be overthrown and Jerusalem will be devastated, but the one who comes out of the poverty and the obscurity of Bethlehem will be established as the Lord of Lords and the King of Kings. And yet, that Christmas miracle reveals a God who comes out of the most unexpected place, and in the most unexpected way, a God who is embodied and reflected in a human face and, for God’s sake, as a child. But, do you see what I am trying to put before you? The paradox of the God reflected in the mirror of Christmas? The God reflected in the mirror of Christmas is not the God of Revelation’s almighty triumph. The God reflected in the Christmas mirror is a God of vulnerability, born as a child, become a man, crucified for God’s sake, crucified violently by the power structures, the human power structures of this world. The Christmas mirror reflects a God who is vulnerable, whose supreme revelation is in a human face and in the form of a child, because the revelation of Christmas at its heart is that human, historical arrangements will not finally prevail. They will prevail and prevail and persist and persist, but finally, they all come to nothing. And so, I talk naive preacher talk this morning, because we all know that finally, it is a power game. Finally, you can have humanitarian concerns, but the bottom line is still military might enforcing our will, preserving our position, and yet - Christmas is about a God who can be crucified, God embodied in a child. And you see, I am aware of how naive is this talk. But, remember – Rome fell. Because no matter how strong you are, no matter how many legions, no matter how many swords, there comes a point in the human story when you tire of trying to preserve a position of preeminence. There comes a time in the human story when people worry, weary of protecting themselves and projecting themselves. There comes a time when every great power finally fades, sometimes in devastating fashion. And in the meantime, people have been consumed with the power game, with the preservation of preeminence and the perpetuation of position. And so, dear friends, 2001. We have fought the totalitarianism of Fascism under Hitler’s regime and prevailed, we have outlasted the Communist experiment under the USSR and we have prevailed, and we are engaged now in a war which will not be won by military might. We know that, don’t we? And we are a people who are at the top of our game and we know no people has ever stayed there. And from that third city, Bethlehem, came one who was like a shepherd, who was a man of peace, and that really is what Christmas reveals about the nature of God. God is love. Love can be crucified. Love is vulnerable. Love is patient and kind. And love never fails. Every other strategy finally will fail. Christmas reveals the God who will prevail – because love never fails – but who is the opposite of all of our human domination systems. © Grand Valley State University �A Tale of Three Cities Richard A. Rhem Page 7   I’d like to have sent you out with a cozy little Christmas message this morning. Forgive me for that. But, there is enough for you to think about here to disrupt your whole Advent season. © Grand Valley State University � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Richard A. Rhem Collection Description An account of the resource Text and sound recordings of the sermons, prayers, services, and articles of Richard Rhem, pastor emeritus of Christ Community Church in Spring Lake, Michigan, where he served for 37 years. Starting in the mid 1980's, Rhem began to question some of the traditional Christian dogma that he had been espousing from the pulpit. That questioning was a first step in a long and interesting spiritual journey, one that he openly shared with his congregation. His journey is important, in part because it is reflective of the questioning, the yearnings, and the gradual revision of beliefs that many persons in this part of the century have experienced and continue to experience. It is important also because of the affirming and inclusive way his questioning was done and his thinking evolved. His sermons and other written and spoken materials together document the steps in his journey as it took a turn in 1985, yet continued to revolve around the framework and liturgies of the Christian calendar. Subject The topic of the resource Clergy--Michigan Reformed Church in America Christ Community Church (Spring Lake, Mich.) Religion Interfaith worship Sermons Sound Recordings Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Rhem, Richard A. Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/514">Richard A. Rhem papers (KII-01)</a> Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives. Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Kaufman Interfaith Institute Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Language A language of the resource English Type The nature or genre of the resource Sound Text Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context KII-01 Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant 1981-2014 Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource audio/mp3 text/pdf Sound A resource primarily intended to be heard. Examples include a music playback file format, an audio compact disc, and recorded speech or sounds. Event Advent II Series God in the Mirror of Christmas Scripture Text Micah 5:2,3, Matthew 2:3, Revelation 19:2 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-0-20011209 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2001-12-09 Title A name given to the resource A Tale of Three Cities Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Richard A. Rhem Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Subject The topic of the resource Clergy--Michigan Reformed Church in America Christ Community Church (Spring Lake, Mich.) Sermons Relation A related resource Richard A. Rhem - An Archive of Sermons, Prayers, Talks and Stories: http://richardrhem.org/ Language A language of the resource eng Type The nature or genre of the resource Sound Text Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource audio/mp3 application/pdf Description An account of the resource A sermon given by Richard A. Rhem (Dick) on December 9, 2001 entitled "A Tale of Three Cities", as part of the series "God in the Mirror of Christmas", on the occasion of Advent II, at Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI. Scripture references: Micah 5:2,3, Matthew 2:3, Revelation 19:2. Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Lemmen Library and Archives Advent Followers of Jesus Hebrew Prophets Love Nature of God Shalom https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/617013094e622c71e5bb1b65034f2767.mp3 a32fc3b7bed85673de5ab7e835aab04f https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/d20290c159099837d9d8b05315b8fc38.pdf 2ed64db7c8aefab2bd983d64a36dde01 PDF Text Text This Is Our Story Christmas Eve Candlelight Eucharist Text: Micah 5:5; John 1:14, 18 Richard A. Rhem Christ Community Church Spring Lake, Michigan December 24, 2000 Transcription of the spoken sermon I had a very easy morning; I didn't have to preach, so I was able to sit where you sit and to take in the wonder of the story in song, pageantry, drama, and as I sat there, I was very much aware of the fact that that is precisely the way the Christmas mystery ought to be experienced. That is the way it is best presented; that is the way it is best appropriated. It is a beautiful story and it can best be sung. Of course, eventually it catches up with me and here I am, trying to preach about it again. But, let me contrast for you the story as it was dramatically, musically, instrumentally set forth, and the account which we read a moment ago in John's Gospel. The drama, the pageant, of course, is from the birth stories of Matthew and of Luke, principally Luke's story, the shepherds and angels and the virgin with the baby boy, but, also from Matthew the kings, and in those birth stories we have the story form. Can't you feel the contrast with the reading of the first chapter of John, prologued in this Gospel, "In the beginning was the word and the word was with God and the word was God. All things were made through him and apart from him was not anything made that was made. In him was life and the life was the light of humankind. The light shines in the darkness and the darkness has never comprehended it." Then the little historical paragraph about John the Baptist, but then again the statement, "This was the true light that enlightens everyone that was coming into the world." And then another historical reference, "He came to his own and his own received him not," and that marvelous, climactic statement - "The word became flesh and dwelt among us." You don't have to be a rocket scientist or a literary critic to feel the contrast between Luke's marvelous story and John's more philosophical or theological presentation of exactly the same event. In Luke, it is story, and on Christmas Eve we're here to celebrate this, our story. It is a particular kind of story. Some would call it a myth, but it is not really myth in a technical sense, because it refers to © Grand Valley State University   �This Is Our Story Richard A. Rhem Page 2   historical events. This was the time of Caesar Augustus and Herod and his brutal reign. It happened at a particular place and in a particular social context, so the story is rooted historically. But, it is not just documentary history, either. It is not the kind of historical account, for example, if one would visit France and the Normandy Beach area and take in that marvelous museum that was built for the 50th anniversary of the D-Day invasion, where one becomes in a cinematic production, as it were, a very part of that climactic moment of the Second World War. That is not the kind of history it is, either. It is a story that is rooted in history about real history and real people, but it is told with legendary accoutrements that make it into a marvelous tale, as it were. John does not tell the story. John philosophically, theologically looks behind the story to its meaning. But, John and Matthew and Luke are trying to give expression to the same mystery, the mystery of Christmas that we celebrate tonight. This is our story. It is our story. It is not the only story. There are other peoples of other times and other places who have stories, too, and those stories also reflect their deepest intuitions about what is at the center of things, deep down. But, this is our story and it is a marvelous story. It is a beautiful story. It is a story with a profound meaning. This is our story and it tells us about the nature of God. John in his more philosophical, theological presentation reaches behind the story to say that what the story is about, what Luke wrote about the shepherds, the angels in the night, the virgin Mary giving birth to a child in a cattle stall, is the birth of one who is truly human, but in whose humanity there was an intensification of luminosity, of revelation so that he could say that that word that was in the beginning with God, which could also be translated the divine intention, in this moment in history, was enfleshed so that in the humanity of this one who was born, who came to maturity, those who saw him and were encountered by him could do no other than to say, "My God." The word became flesh and dwelt among us, and John says no one has ever seen God, but this one shows us who God is. This one, in human flesh, is the selfexpression of God. This one sounded like God. This one acted like God. What one experiences in this one is what one experiences in God and, maybe most profoundly, John would say that in the manner of this one's revelation, humble birth as a child, one has an insight into the nature of God, which is love revealed in all of the vulnerability of a child. The nature of God read in a human birth. The being of God revealed in a child. The love and the vulnerability of a child's birth, the ultimate revelation of that which is at the core of reality. That is our story. That is what the story says. It's a wonderful story. It's a beautiful story, and what it tells us is even more wonderful: that at the core of reality is the love unconditional, as wide as creation, that embraces us and will never let us go. Our story speaks of a God who is love, a love that is vulnerable, and a love that is with us and continues to be available to us in the enfleshment of the other. In the © Grand Valley State University �This Is Our Story Richard A. Rhem Page 3   letter of John we read God is love, and the one who abides in love abides in God, and God abides in them, the love of God experienced in human flesh, the ultimate truth about reality, as concrete and real as the person on your right and on your left, God revealed in Jesus, the nature of God, love, present with us. The story tells us what is true everywhere, at all times, and the ultimate, final word is love. That is our story. It is love that would stop at nothing to live out the embodiment of the heart of God, even to the extent of being broken and poured out in order that finally we earthlings might get it, with the ultimate truth lying in the vulnerability of love, because it's a reflection of the very core of reality. My, my, my, what a story! © Grand Valley State University � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Richard A. Rhem Collection Description An account of the resource Text and sound recordings of the sermons, prayers, services, and articles of Richard Rhem, pastor emeritus of Christ Community Church in Spring Lake, Michigan, where he served for 37 years. Starting in the mid 1980's, Rhem began to question some of the traditional Christian dogma that he had been espousing from the pulpit. That questioning was a first step in a long and interesting spiritual journey, one that he openly shared with his congregation. His journey is important, in part because it is reflective of the questioning, the yearnings, and the gradual revision of beliefs that many persons in this part of the century have experienced and continue to experience. It is important also because of the affirming and inclusive way his questioning was done and his thinking evolved. His sermons and other written and spoken materials together document the steps in his journey as it took a turn in 1985, yet continued to revolve around the framework and liturgies of the Christian calendar. Subject The topic of the resource Clergy--Michigan Reformed Church in America Christ Community Church (Spring Lake, Mich.) Religion Interfaith worship Sermons Sound Recordings Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Rhem, Richard A. Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/514">Richard A. Rhem papers (KII-01)</a> Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives. Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Kaufman Interfaith Institute Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Language A language of the resource English Type The nature or genre of the resource Sound Text Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context KII-01 Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant 1981-2014 Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource audio/mp3 text/pdf Sound A resource primarily intended to be heard. Examples include a music playback file format, an audio compact disc, and recorded speech or sounds. Event Christmas Eve Scripture Text Micah 5:5, John 1:14, 18 Location The location of the interview Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context KII-01_RA-0-20001224 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2000-12-24 Title A name given to the resource This Is Our Story Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Richard A. Rhem Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Subject The topic of the resource Clergy--Michigan Reformed Church in America Christ Community Church (Spring Lake, Mich.) Sermons Relation A related resource Richard A. Rhem - An Archive of Sermons, Prayers, Talks and Stories: http://richardrhem.org/ Language A language of the resource eng Type The nature or genre of the resource Sound Text Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource audio/mp3 application/pdf Description An account of the resource A sermon given by Richard A. Rhem (Dick) on December 24, 2000 entitled "This Is Our Story", on the occasion of Christmas Eve, at Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI. Scripture references: Micah 5:5, John 1:14, 18. Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Lemmen Library and Archives Advent Incarnation Love at the core of reality https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/04fae8e78999c087f73acbf444bd5df3.mp3 5c900bd76f93dda4743073d5e871cbe1 https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/92824c9b7765dd1454c511e648063236.pdf 7a097dda5e6479bb20737536e724ed17 PDF Text Text The Lost Cause of Christmas Advent III Text: I Samuel 2:8; Luke 1:52-53 Richard A. Rhem Christ Community Church Spring Lake, Michigan December 17, 2000 Transcription of the spoken sermon Last week I spoke a bit about Christmas and its drivenness and the frenzy of the season that can be so distracting for us that we fail, ironically, to do the very thing the Advent season is for, which is to wait, to be quiet, to contemplate. I spoke of that because I think it is an important fact of which to become aware, to be conscious. I didn't really mean to-be "Rev. Grinch," throwing a wet blanket on your celebrations, and it was not one more preacher's harangue about keeping Christ in Christmas or scolding you for the commercialization of the day. That is not how I understand preaching. My task is not really to scold you or to drive you or impose guilt upon you. My task as a preacher is to hold up a slice of life and invite you to think about it, invite you to think with me about it in order that we might come to full consciousness of our lives, in order that we might come to an awareness so that we live our lives and are not simply lived, in order that we might live from the inside out, and so I try to hold up that slice of life and invite you to think with me. This is really a conversation in which you are invited to think about it with me. Receive it not as some authoritarian proclamation, some declaration from above, some dogmatic utterance which is absolute. It's more often tentative. Someone went out last week and, apparently agreeing that the days could be frenzied and we could be driven in our life, said, "Now, next week tell me how to unplug." Well, as a matter of fact, we can't unplug. We are so thoroughly woven into the fabric of our cultural experience that what we have to do is live, learn to live with attention, and the only way that we can overcome that drive that would snuff out the spirit and stifle the emergence of spirit in our lives is through awareness and consciousness. But we cannot disengage from our social, political, economic structures, the whole social context in which we live. We could try to escape life somehow, maybe, flee to a monastery or a convent, but that's not possible for most of us. We're going to have to deal with life and all of its variety and all of its diversity and all of its seductiveness and all of its pressures and, in the midst of that, do our best to live with awareness that we might be intentional, that we might realize our fullest humanity and our greatest potential. © Grand Valley State University   �The Lost Cause of Christmas Richard A. Rhem Page 2   I saw a cartoon in The New Yorker the other day and clipped it out. The scene in the background was probably the Himalayas and there was a cave in front of which was sitting one of these Eastern gurus and there was a young man sitting in front of him with his backpack on, and the caption under the cartoon was, "Don't you think if I knew the meaning of life, I wouldn't be sitting in this cave in my underpants?" That's the way I feel often when I prepare to come here to try to say something with enough significance to get you out on a Sunday morning in a blizzard when you might well read the paper with a cup of coffee. So, hear me again this morning as I address the idea of the lost cause of Christmas. By the lost cause of Christmas, I want to set before you the almost impossibility of us celebrating the Christmas miracle as it originated in this world. I want you to think with me this morning about the fact that for people like us, it is almost impossible to observe Christmas according to its original meaning and intention – almost impossible, because the Christmas story is a story about a revolutionary movement toward liberation. It has a particular historical, social, economic, political context, and in the last decades we are becoming more and more aware of the times of Jesus, the time of Jesus' birth, the nature of the life of the average person the majority of which were peasants at the time that Jesus came into this world. I hope this afternoon sometime you take a moment and read the page in your liturgy from a book, The Message of the Kingdom, by Richard Horsley and Neil Silberman. Horsley has another excellent book that I did not quote called The Liberation of Christmas, and these scholars have taken what we know now about the concrete historical context of Jesus' birth and life and, in setting that forth, have come to understand the birth stories, as I believe they were intended when they were written by Matthew and by Luke. The context of the world into which Jesus came was a world in which the people of Israel, God's, people, Jesus' people, were a people occupied by a foreign power, a backwater province in a vast Roman empire, and there was social disruption brought about by heavy taxation, loss-of land, movement to cities, and the ever-present Roman legions. The period is spoken of as the Pax Romana, the Roman peace. The Romans were not bad people. In fact they were wonderful administrators. They are still revered for the law, the administration of government of which they were geniuses. But, nonetheless, the bottom line was the Roman legion, and there was the exploitation and the oppression of the poor of the provinces, and the people to whom Jesus came were a marginalized people who were voiceless and powerless, and the Song of Mary, is a revolutionary ballad. The closest I could come to in thinking about a parallel in our own experience would be the song “We Shall Overcome." There is tremendous power in music, tremendous emotional power that unites and bonds human beings in a cause or a movement- and those songs, in Luke's © Grand Valley State University �The Lost Cause of Christmas Richard A. Rhem Page 3   gospel the Magnificat which I read a moment ago, the song of John, the Benedictus, the song of Simeon, the Nunc Dimittis, those songs which were based on the psalmody of the people of Israel’s past – Mary's particularly, as I mentioned, very much dependent on the song of Hannah. Those songs that celebrated the birth of Jesus were revolutionary ballads, which celebrated the mighty act of God moving for the liberation of God's people. "The mighty cast down from their thrones, the lowly lifted up,,.the hungry fed, the rich turned empty, away." The world is turned upside down in those songs. The way of the world as experienced by those poor and dispossessed people is turned upside down. There is a reversal of circumstance, and God is praised in a spirit of Doxology with great joy because now God has acted, God has moved, and those songs and the birth stories of Matthew and Luke are probably some of the earliest records we have of that early Jesus movement that was a revolutionary movement, looking for a change of historical circumstance, moving from being the underdog to the possibility of a humane existence. I don't think that, if we look at those songs carefully and if we put them into the context of which we are becoming more and more aware, the social, historical, economic, political context at the time of Jesus, there can be any question about that. Those songs continue that grand tradition of the Hebrew prophets who saw the possibility of an alternative world, of an alternative kind of community. And so, I say to you what must be obvious - it is extremely difficult for us to celebrate Christmas in its original meaning and significance, because we just have nothing in common with the poor, marginalized, voiceless and powerless people among whom Jesus was born. We naively identify with those people. We put ourselves in the skin of Zechariah and Elizabeth and Mary and Simeon and Anna, the people of Israel to whom the Lord came, but, as a matter of fact, if we're honest, we're on the other side of the line. We are Rome. We are empire. We are affluent. We are powerful. We call the shots in our world, and for us to celebrate Christmas in its original meaning and significance is to undercut ourselves and the status quo, which has dealt very kindly with us. Now, that isn't so profound and I think it must be clear if we think about it for a moment. The reason that Jesus was crucified, my old Lenten theme put concisely, is that he died the way he died because he lived the way he lived. The autnorities, ecclesiastical and political, of the day of Jesus, rightly saw him as a threat to the world as it was organized at that time. Any time a world is organized in any time, those who are the power brokers are not going to want that world to be changed, and they are not going to be happy with the prophetic voice which suggests an alternative possibility. So, I simply make the point - for us to celebrate Christmas is pretty much of a lost cause. So, what have we done? Well, I talked about one possibility last week. We have made a holiday out of it, and it's a wonderful holiday. Friends gathering together, families coming home, beautiful trees and flowers, the sights and sounds and fragrances of the season, all the remembrances of Christmases past, all of that © Grand Valley State University �The Lost Cause of Christmas Richard A. Rhem Page 4   wonderful, beautiful, warm, human experience. Nothing wrong with that. We've made the Christmas mystery and miracle into a wonderful holiday. I emerged from my lofty perch last night only to find that Nancy was channel surfing. When Nancy surfs, she is bored. Now, on most Saturday nights she is bored because I am incommunicado from about Saturday noon until I get here Sunday morning, I grunt. That's all. But I emerged long enough to come down into the bedroom where she was surfing the TV only to see that Lawrence Welk had arisen from the dead and there he was! It was the conclusion of what must be a famous Christmas special that is probably trotted out every year about this time, and I entered just at the end of the program where Lawrence Welk said, "And here comes Santa Claus," and Santa Claus came out in all of his regalia and all of his splendor and the band struck up "Joy to the World, the Lord Has Come!" I said to Nancy, "God has just spoken to me. I'm going to write this down so I don't forget it." Precisely, precisely. On this wonderful holiday, Santa Claus comes and the band plays, "The Lord Has Come, Joy to the World!" In the Church we have done another thing with it In the Church we managed to celebrate Christmas by weaving it from its original intention as a social protest, as a social critique, and moved it to the personal experience of salvation. We sang it a moment ago as a supplication and one of my favorite carols, "0 Little Town of Bethlehem, Cast out our sin and enter in, be born in us today." It's wonderful. Nothing wrong with that, either. The personal experience of being in communion with God, being at peace with God, the experience of grace and forgiveness, my goodness, how could I be against that? It is very, very important. It is just that that is really not what Christmas was about. Christmas was about an alternative kind of community, a different kind of society, different power arrangements, different economic arrangements. Now, if Jesus had been about personal salvation, Jesus may have gone about to people and said, "Are you saved? This is how you can be saved, if you will repeat this formula, if you believe in me, your sins will be forgiven and you will have the hope of heaven, the promise of something in another time and another world." The Gospels were not good news about the fact that a person can be reconciled with God through Jesus Christ. Paul talks about that, but then Paul thought the end was right around the corner and so he was excited about the fact that this treasure of Israel was for all people and all people could come into this experience of grace in this God of Israel, and of course, he identified this with the death and resurrection of Jesus which you don't find in the Gospels. The birth stories in Luke serve as a preface to his Gospel, which is about the life and the ministry and the teaching of Jesus, and Luke tells us in those birth stories how he understood this Jesus. How he understood this Jesus, according to the Gospel that we read every Christmas, is that this one was the act of the eternal God coming into human experience in the flesh of Mary's child in order to change the world. But, we've been able to salvage some of the spirituality and the piety of © Grand Valley State University �The Lost Cause of Christmas Richard A. Rhem Page 5   the holiday by turning it into the possibility of personal salvation and making of our Christian religion, frankly, a salvation cult. That's what we are, and we invite people to faith in Jesus, to receive forgiveness and have then heaven's gates open wide. Go through your hymnal, read your Christmas carols and just see how we have domesticated and spiritualized the story of the birth of Jesus. I don't mean to ruin the carols for you but, if you read them perceptively over against what was quite obviously the intention in the original story, you will find that we have made of this revolutionary liberation document an event, a matter of personal piety and salvation. So, what are we to do? We can recognize, for one thing, that throughout the centuries the Christmas story has regained here and there its original intention, because there have been peoples who have read the story and found hope and been inspired and have initiated movements toward liberation and freedom. Most recently in our own experience we know of Liberation Theology that originated among the poor, particularly in Latin and South America, in what they call base communities where the poor folk, the peasant folk would come together in homes and study the Gospels and they actually read themselves into the story. As I said a moment ago, we tend to identify with Anna and Simeon and Mary and all of them, when really we have to identify ourselves with the Roman Empire. These base communities of people that are dispossessed and socially outcast, marginalized and powerless, read themselves into the story and are able to identify with it and it has become a tremendous source of ferment and a movement toward more justice and equity and it has had that revolutionary intent realized in many of those communities. Interestingly, the Vatican has silenced some of the leading voices of Liberation Theology because the Church, in order to maintain its establishment status, doesn't want to rock the boat and get a peasant rebellion going, and so the Church has officially said you may not talk about the original meaning of Christmas. Continue to speak about saving souls. You can have the most wonderful personal spiritual experience in the world and no one's going to care. You can be just as pious, just as devoted, just as full of faith, just as sure of your salvation as possible, and there is not a tyrant or a dictator or a politician anywhere who will bother you. It's only when you begin to speak and act like Jesus did that you get into trouble. But, the stories have been a stimulus for that through the centuries. Still, here we are. What are we going to do? How are we going to celebrate Christmas, being in the position we are? Here I am white, male, affluent, powerful. The nation went through an extended period of time without knowing which candidate for the Presidency actually won, and now we know. Some voices are being raised about the fact that there are minority groups that have been disenfranchised, and I don't suppose we're ever going to know the full story of everything that went on, or really who got what numbers of votes. But, I wonder © Grand Valley State University �The Lost Cause of Christmas Richard A. Rhem Page 6   if there is anything to that. Is it a fact that minority people were herded down to get registered and that they went to vote, and once they went there, they didn't really know what they were doing? That's a possibility, isn't it? And one shouldn't be too surprised about that. For whatever reason you might defend it or attack it today, the Electoral College originally was instituted in order to ensure that the elite would rule, and as a matter of fact, when the elite rules, things go better. For people like me, at least, they do. But, now, I wonder if there is anything to the claim that the poor and the marginalized were disenfranchised. Jesse Jackson says so. I don't like Jesse Jackson. I worry about the fact that I don't like him and I really ask myself, "Is it because he's black that you don't like him? Is it because he's black that your first response is negative?" I don't think it is; I think it's because of the curl of his lip and the shape of his moustache, but then, my mother didn't like my moustache, either. So, I have to say, when he comes on the screen, I don't want to hear him, and when he talks about a mass demonstration of minority folk on Martin Luther King's birthday in January, I say, "Jesse, we've just been through a rather strenuous period of time. Can't we get on with life? Can't you drop it? You're nothing but an opportunist, anyway. Why don't you just let it go?" And then, I realize that I'd jolly well like it to be let go. In fact, I wouldn't change anything if it were up to me, if nobody complained. If there wasn't somebody out there, a gadfly, an irritant, a revolutionary, with all of his flaws and all of his foibles, if there wasn't somebody agitating, I wouldn't do anything about the world. What can a white, male, heterosexual, powerful, affluent person do to capture something of Christmas? If I were a woman, I would use the revolutionary, ballads to get equal rights. If I were a person of homosexual orientation, I would use it in order to gain respect and dignity and be accepted just as a human being. But I'm on top of the heap. Any protest that changes anything is going to diminish my privileged position. How can I celebrate Christmas? Holiday cheer? Revel in my personal salvation? And then, these words from Rudy Wiebe. I don't know who he is, but I like what he wrote: Jesus says in his society there is a new way for people to live. You show wisdom by trusting people. You handle leadership by serving. You handle offenders by forgiving. You handle money by sharing. You handle enemies by loving. You handle violence by suffering. In fact, you have a new attitude toward everything, toward everybody, Toward nature, Toward the state in which you happen to live, Toward women, © Grand Valley State University �The Lost Cause of Christmas Richard A. Rhem Page 7   Toward slaves, Toward all and every single thing, Because this is a Jesus society and you repent, not by feeling bad, but by thinking different. Maybe the only way I can be honest with Christmas and honest to God is to work at thinking different. References: Richard Horsley and Neil Silberman. The Message and the Kingdom: How Jesus and Paul Ignited a Revolution and Transformed the Ancient World. Grosset & Dunlap, 1997. © Grand Valley State University � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Richard A. Rhem Collection Description An account of the resource Text and sound recordings of the sermons, prayers, services, and articles of Richard Rhem, pastor emeritus of Christ Community Church in Spring Lake, Michigan, where he served for 37 years. Starting in the mid 1980's, Rhem began to question some of the traditional Christian dogma that he had been espousing from the pulpit. That questioning was a first step in a long and interesting spiritual journey, one that he openly shared with his congregation. His journey is important, in part because it is reflective of the questioning, the yearnings, and the gradual revision of beliefs that many persons in this part of the century have experienced and continue to experience. It is important also because of the affirming and inclusive way his questioning was done and his thinking evolved. His sermons and other written and spoken materials together document the steps in his journey as it took a turn in 1985, yet continued to revolve around the framework and liturgies of the Christian calendar. Subject The topic of the resource Clergy--Michigan Reformed Church in America Christ Community Church (Spring Lake, Mich.) Religion Interfaith worship Sermons Sound Recordings Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Rhem, Richard A. Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/514">Richard A. Rhem papers (KII-01)</a> Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives. Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Kaufman Interfaith Institute Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Language A language of the resource English Type The nature or genre of the resource Sound Text Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context KII-01 Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant 1981-2014 Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource audio/mp3 text/pdf Sound A resource primarily intended to be heard. Examples include a music playback file format, an audio compact disc, and recorded speech or sounds. Event Advent III Scripture Text I Samuel 2:8, Luke 1:52-53 Location The location of the interview Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI References Richard Horsley, Neil Silberman. The Message and the Kingdom: How Jesus and Paul Ignited a Revolution and Transformed the Ancient World, 1997. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context KII-01_RA-0-20001217 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2000-12-17 Title A name given to the resource The Lost Cause of Christmas Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Richard A. Rhem Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Subject The topic of the resource Clergy--Michigan Reformed Church in America Christ Community Church (Spring Lake, Mich.) Sermons Relation A related resource Richard A. Rhem - An Archive of Sermons, Prayers, Talks and Stories: http://richardrhem.org/ Language A language of the resource eng Type The nature or genre of the resource Sound Text Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource audio/mp3 application/pdf Description An account of the resource A sermon given by Richard A. Rhem (Dick) on December 17, 2000 entitled "The Lost Cause of Christmas", on the occasion of Advent III, at Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI. Scripture references: I Samuel 2:8, Luke 1:52-53. Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Lemmen Library and Archives Advent Awareness Incarnation Intention https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/9884fed57d10a2d2cdd3d81bb4c64745.pdf 0a13e1061f5df9798816819d2b65c765 PDF Text Text Going Home From the Advent Series on “Home” Text: Isaiah 40:1, 11; I Thessalonians 4:17 Richard A. Rhem Christ Community Church Spring Lake, Michigan Advent III, December 11, 1994 Transcription of the spoken sermon I have chosen the texts and the themes for this season in the light of the course that we have followed through the fall in surveying the Biblical story of Israel. We left Israel in exile in Babylon, and I did that purposely because I knew Advent was coming. It’s a marvelous time to pick up the prophetic promises and themes that were addressed to that people in exile. Israel, Judah, in exile was in despair and in the midst of their despair where they were weeping on the banks of the rivers of Babylon, where they could not sing the Lord’s song, in the midst of that despair they received a surprising word of hope. The prophet Jeremiah sent them a letter in which he said to them, in effect, get on with your life and know that the Presence of God is not a matter of geography, but the location of God’s Presence is the heart. “And if with all your heart you truly seek me, you will surely find me,” find the Presence of God even in that situation of exile. Now, after some decades in which indeed they had settled in, there was another word from another prophet. We don’t know who he was, but his work is in Isaiah 40 to 55. This prophet’s word broke the silence and pierced the despair of this people who had given up on the covenant of grace and the promises of God, this people who had finally considered Babylon to be their home, this people who had really forgotten Jerusalem even though they had vowed never to do so. This prophet arose and spoke these words, “Comfort ye, comfort ye my people. You are going home.” This prophet who was a part of that exilic community observed the shifting of the balance of power on the international scene. This was characteristic of Hebrew prophets, for you will remember that it was Habakkuk who saw in the rise of Babylon the instrument through which judgment on Judah, God’s own people, would be brought. Now this prophet sees in the rise of another world power an instrument, not of judgment, but of grace, an instrument of liberation. Indeed, if we would go over just a few more chapters, to the 45th chapter, this is how God addresses the king of Persia, whose name is Cyrus. “Thus says the Lord to his anointed,” to Cyrus. Anointed. God’s anointed. God’s messiah. This king. © Grand Valley State University   �Going Home Richard A. Rhem Page 2   “Thus says the Lord to his anointed,” to Cyrus, “whose right hand I have grasped to subdue nations before him.” Why will God anoint a Cyrus in Persia in order to subdue nations? Well, the fourth verse says, “For the sake of my servant Jacob and Israel my chosen, I call you by your name. I name you though you do not know me.” You see, it was the conviction of the prophets in Israel’s tradition that God was a major player on the scene of history. It was the conviction of these prophets that the decisions were not made in smoke-filled cloakrooms, but rather that God was the invisible player, a major player of the dreams of history. So now we have a prophet bringing comfort, announcing liberation, saying to Judah, “You’re going to go home.” He didn’t immediately respond to the message. As a matter of fact, he resisted the message. He heard a voice that said, “Cry,” or as Martin Luther has translated it perhaps more effectively, he heard a voice that said, “Preach.” And he said, “Preach, why should I preach? The grass withers. The flower fades. Why should I preach?” The word comes back, “Preach. For it is true the grass withers and the flower fades, but the word of our God stands forever.” So this prophet in the dialogue heard the call and was confirmed in his conviction that the word of God after all was a liberating, saving word, and he announced that word in the midst of his people in exile. He said to them in effect, “Be comforted. You are forgiven. You are going home. Announce to the cities of Judah, behold your God.” They went home. They went home and the prophet’s word was confirmed. But it never lived up to the glorious image that he had set. They went home, a remnant. Oh, there was another temple, but it lacked the glory of the former temple. They rebuilt the walls, but that community was nothing more than a worshiping, waiting community in poverty and often in sorry straits. Yet, they went home. The prophet believed that God would bring God’s people home. His vision, his dream was a dream of a fulfillment and the consummation of the whole historical drama that would issue in that messianic kingdom, that kingdom of shalom where lion and lamb would lie down together, and where they would not hurt in all God’s holy mountain. It was a prophetic conviction that God is a major player in history. Do you believe that? For some nineteen hundred years the Jews in dispersion after 70 AD celebrated their Passover wherever they were and in the liturgy there were the words, “Next year in Jerusalem.” Rabbi David Hartman of Jerusalem says that, after nineteen hundred years, today they celebrate Passover in Jerusalem. Do you think that that has anything to do with God’s involvement in the drama of history? Did Habakkuk see behind Babylon’s rise the judgment of God? Did the prophet of this morning’s lessons see, behind the rise of Cyrus, God’s engagement? I suppose we © Grand Valley State University �Going Home Richard A. Rhem Page 3   could talk about that all day and not solve it, but that really is not the question of this Advent Sunday. The question that I would rather focus you on is this. Is it possible within history to be at home? Is it possible in the midst of our human experience, in the stream of history, is it possible to be home? Maybe Israel’s best gift to the world is the possibility of being home in history. If you read the Hebrew Scriptures there’s not much about anything beyond. There’s not anything about heaven. There’s not any discussion of life after death. Maybe Israel’s best gift to the world was the call to celebrate here and now. Israel delights in life—celebrates life. I think that it has a real gift to give us in calling us not to miss this life, to enjoy God in the land of the living. The Christian emphasis, in contrast, that has put the focus on heaven, that has been somewhat other worldly, has often removed from us the valuing of this life, and not enabled us to celebrate this life, I think, as perhaps God the creator of all would have us celebrate it. Israel celebrates God in this present life. History within history. Yet, I wonder if it’s enough? Bertrand Russell the English philosopher and avowed atheist writes this, “Brief and powerless is man’s life. On him and all his race the slow, sure doom sinks pitiless and dark, blind to good and evil. Omnipotent matter rolls on its relentless way, for man condemned today to lose his dearest, tomorrow himself to pass through the gates of darkness. It remains only to cherish ere yet the blow falls the lofty thoughts that ennoble his little day.” Sounds almost like the pessimism of the prophet who said, “All flesh is grass. The grass withers, the flower fades.” Bertrand Russell says, I may lose the love of my life unless for me the bell tolls first. That being the reality of our human situation, is it enough? Can one be home within history? It wasn’t enough for the people in Thessalonica. Paul had gone there preaching the Gospel. He preached a crucified, risen, ascended, reigning, coming Lord. And he preached it with such urgency and he pointed to the imminence of that return with such power that the people in Thessalonica began to expect that any moment the heavens would open and the clouds would be illumined and the Lord of Glory would appear. Then someone lost the love of her life. Then someone received the death sentence and they began to wonder, if I should die before the clouds sparkle with the appearing Lord, will I miss out on it all? Paul wrote to them to say, “No. We who are alive at the coming of the Lord won’t have an advantage over those who have died. For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, so those who fall asleep in Jesus, God will bring with him. So I write these things to you that you sorrow not as those who have no hope. I write these things to you; comfort one another with these words.” Paul’s pastoral concern for this people was to assure them that the entrance of death before the advent of the end did not mean that one would miss the party. He went on to describe the scenario of the end. Archangels, trumpets, clouds. And it didn’t happen. © Grand Valley State University �Going Home Richard A. Rhem Page 4   The messianic kingdom hasn’t come either. As I observe our history in our day it doesn’t seem that we are any closer to seeing the lion and the lamb lying down together than when the prophet dreamed the dream. And when I read Paul’s dramatic presentation of the end event and realize that it’s two thousand years later, frankly, I’m not going to hold my breath. Interesting, isn’t it, that both the prophet and the apostle had this intuitive sense of some kind of completion? But the images in which they set it forth, the symbols with which they presented it, the pictures that they painted in both cases—they haven’t come to be. They may still, and yet I wonder if perhaps the prophet’s dream and the apostle’s vision are not rather pictures of an intuitive conviction and truth that within history no one can finally be home. Oh, to be sure, the prophet’s dream had the culmination within history. The apostle, who was nurtured on that dream, had a vision of a culmination beyond history’s end. But, never mind. Both of them had to believe. In the case of the Hebrew prophet, the end could not be the chaos of history, but rather its resolution. And in the case of the apostle, the end could not be a gaping grave, but a meeting with God the Lord, the presence of God’s people with God everlastingly. Both the prophet and the apostle were simply wrong in the portrait that they drew or painted. So what? How would you have drawn it? They were stumbling, stammering humans trying to give some expression to something that was deep within them, that the end could not be history’s chaos nor the cold and open grave, but rather that there was yet something, something more. You see it seems to me that both the prophet and the apostle had that deep sense that yes. . . yes, the grass withers and the flower fades, yes . . . human life ends with history still in chaos and those who have loved experiencing loss, but there must be something more. I think both the prophet and the apostle, and I think probably you and I as well, know that God has made us such that we will always, always break down those end points. We will not be satisfied. There is something insatiable within the human mind and within the human heart. Within the human being there’s something that will not be satisfied until finally there is an expansiveness that we have not yet dreamed of. There is something in us that says there are places I have not yet gone, there are words I have not spoken, there are loves I have not yet expressed. There is not the possibility in the brief span of this historical existence to satisfy all of that that is within me. I’ll never, never, never rest with the contingency of history’s whirlpool. I will believe, I will hope that beyond somewhere, someway, sometime all of this that is in me that yearns for expression, for expansiveness, for eternity will be satisfied. Probably not with lions and lambs lying down together. Probably not as the issue of some flaming deity from heaven. But there must be something more. For down deep within us, when surrounded with the blackness of the darkest night, Oh how lonely death can be. At the end of this long tunnel there shines a light where death is swallowed up in victory. Can you imagine stepping on shore and finding it heaven? Of touching a hand and finding it God’s? Of breathing new air and finding it celestial? Of waking up in glory and finding you’re home . . . finally home? © Grand Valley State University � https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/f5dd3e967c8f36104f7ce83aa4a2cc68.mp3 4be04070436fd41993994f6c0dc26761 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 Scripture Text Isaiah 40:1, 11, I Thessalonians 4:17 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-0-19941211 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1994-12-11 Title A name given to the resource Going Home Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Richard A. Rhem Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Subject The topic of the resource Clergy--Michigan Reformed Church in America Christ Community Church (Spring Lake, Mich.) Sermons Relation A related resource Richard A. Rhem - An Archive of Sermons, Prayers, Talks and Stories: http://richardrhem.org/ Language A language of the resource eng Type The nature or genre of the resource Sound Text Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource audio/mp3 application/pdf Description An account of the resource A sermon given by Richard A. Rhem (Dick) on December 11, 1994 entitled "Going Home", on the occasion of Advent III, at Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI. Scripture references: Isaiah 40:1, 11, I Thessalonians 4:17. Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. 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