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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
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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
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https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/ef97da966eca29767cef3f84008e9752.mp3
dab6cf4bdefc5177b69f3adcc2fdbe2a
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Richard A. Rhem Collection
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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
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Clergy--Michigan
Reformed Church in America
Christ Community Church (Spring Lake, Mich.)
Religion
Interfaith worship
Sermons
Sound Recordings
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Rhem, Richard A.
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<a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/514">Richard A. Rhem papers (KII-01)</a>
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Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives.
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1981-2014
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Advent IV
Series
Memory and Hope
Scripture Text
Micah 5:1-5, Luke 4:16-30
Location
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Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI
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1999-12-20
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A Larger Hope
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Richard A. Rhem
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Grand Valley State University
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<a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a>
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Clergy--Michigan
Reformed Church in America
Christ Community Church (Spring Lake, Mich.)
Sermons
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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Event
Advent III
Series
Memory and Hope
Scripture Text
Isaiah 35:4, Matthew 3:12
Location
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Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI
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KII-01_RA-0-19991212
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1999-12-12
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A Hope Too Narrow
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Richard A. Rhem
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Grand Valley State University
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Clergy--Michigan
Reformed Church in America
Christ Community Church (Spring Lake, Mich.)
Sermons
Relation
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Richard A. Rhem - An Archive of Sermons, Prayers, Talks and Stories: http://richardrhem.org/
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eng
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Text
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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
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Richard A. Rhem
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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
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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
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Richard A. Rhem
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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
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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
�
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f15d3cf618295bb94005e1c09d53cf50
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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
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Clergy--Michigan
Reformed Church in America
Christ Community Church (Spring Lake, Mich.)
Religion
Interfaith worship
Sermons
Sound Recordings
Creator
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Rhem, Richard A.
Source
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<a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/514">Richard A. Rhem papers (KII-01)</a>
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Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives.
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Kaufman Interfaith Institute
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<a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a>
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English
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Sound
Text
Identifier
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KII-01
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1981-2014
Format
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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
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KII-01_RA-0-19981220
Date
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1998-12-20
Title
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Incarnation Here and Now
Creator
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Richard A. Rhem
Publisher
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Grand Valley State University
Rights
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<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
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Richard A. Rhem - An Archive of Sermons, Prayers, Talks and Stories: http://richardrhem.org/
Language
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eng
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Text
Sound
Format
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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
-
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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/.
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Richard A. Rhem Collection
Description
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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
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Clergy--Michigan
Reformed Church in America
Christ Community Church (Spring Lake, Mich.)
Religion
Interfaith worship
Sermons
Sound Recordings
Creator
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Rhem, Richard A.
Source
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<a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/514">Richard A. Rhem papers (KII-01)</a>
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Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives.
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Kaufman Interfaith Institute
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English
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Sound
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KII-01
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1981-2014
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audio/mp3
text/pdf
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Event
Advent III
Series
The Presence of the Future
Scripture Text
Matthew 2:3, 2:18
Location
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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/.
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KII-01_RA-0-19981213
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1998-12-13
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The Threatened Present in the Presence of the Future
Creator
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Richard A. Rhem
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Grand Valley State University
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<a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a>
Subject
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Clergy--Michigan
Reformed Church in America
Christ Community Church (Spring Lake, Mich.)
Sermons
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Richard A. Rhem - An Archive of Sermons, Prayers, Talks and Stories: http://richardrhem.org/
Language
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eng
Type
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Text
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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."
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Richard A. Rhem
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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
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Richard A. Rhem
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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
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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.
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Clergy--Michigan
Reformed Church in America
Christ Community Church (Spring Lake, Mich.)
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Interfaith worship
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Rhem, Richard A.
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<a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/514">Richard A. Rhem papers (KII-01)</a>
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Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives.
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Kaufman Interfaith Institute
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1981-2014
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Event
Advent IV
Series
Waiting for the Messiah to Come
Scripture Text
Isaiah 65:17-25, Luke 2:1-20
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Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI
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1996-12-22
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To Bring Joy
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Richard A. Rhem
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Grand Valley State University
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Clergy--Michigan
Reformed Church in America
Christ Community Church (Spring Lake, Mich.)
Sermons
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Richard A. Rhem - An Archive of Sermons, Prayers, Talks and Stories: http://richardrhem.org/
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eng
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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
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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
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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
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Richard A. Rhem
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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
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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,
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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/.
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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
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Clergy--Michigan
Reformed Church in America
Christ Community Church (Spring Lake, Mich.)
Religion
Interfaith worship
Sermons
Sound Recordings
Creator
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Rhem, Richard A.
Source
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<a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/514">Richard A. Rhem papers (KII-01)</a>
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Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives.
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Kaufman Interfaith Institute
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English
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Sound
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KII-01
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1981-2014
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audio/mp3
text/pdf
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Event
Advent III
Series
Waiting for the Messiah to Come
Scripture Text
Micah 4:1-5, Luke 1:67-80
Location
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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/.
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KII-01_RA-0-19961215
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1996-12-15
Title
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To Bring Peace
Creator
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Richard A. Rhem
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Grand Valley State University
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<a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a>
Subject
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Clergy--Michigan
Reformed Church in America
Christ Community Church (Spring Lake, Mich.)
Sermons
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Richard A. Rhem - An Archive of Sermons, Prayers, Talks and Stories: http://richardrhem.org/
Language
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eng
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Text
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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
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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
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KII-01_RA-0-19961208
Date
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1996-12-08
Title
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To Bring Justice
Creator
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Richard A. Rhem
Publisher
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Grand Valley State University
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<a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a>
Subject
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Clergy--Michigan
Reformed Church in America
Christ Community Church (Spring Lake, Mich.)
Sermons
Relation
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Richard A. Rhem - An Archive of Sermons, Prayers, Talks and Stories: http://richardrhem.org/
Language
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eng
Type
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Text
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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
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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
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Kaufman Interfaith Institute
Rights
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<a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a>
Language
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English
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Sound
Text
Identifier
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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
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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
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Clergy--Michigan
Reformed Church in America
Christ Community Church (Spring Lake, Mich.)
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Richard A. Rhem - An Archive of Sermons, Prayers, Talks and Stories: http://richardrhem.org/
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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
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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
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Richard A. Rhem
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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
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Richard A. Rhem
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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
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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
�
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6b2e6007e6461b2ca078e5b8b93295e5
Dublin Core
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Richard A. Rhem Collection
Description
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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
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Clergy--Michigan
Reformed Church in America
Christ Community Church (Spring Lake, Mich.)
Religion
Interfaith worship
Sermons
Sound Recordings
Creator
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Rhem, Richard A.
Source
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<a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/514">Richard A. Rhem papers (KII-01)</a>
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Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives.
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Kaufman Interfaith Institute
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English
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Sound
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KII-01
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1981-2014
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audio/mp3
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Event
Advent II
Series
Now _ But Then
Scripture Text
Isaiah 11:9, I Corinthians 13:13, Luke 1:37
Location
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Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI
References
Arthur Peacocke, God and the New Biology, 1987.
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KII-01_RA-0-19951210
Date
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1995-12-10
Title
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When the Crisis Comes - It's Too Late
Creator
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Richard A. Rhem
Publisher
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Grand Valley State University
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<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
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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
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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