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A Tale of Three Cities
From the Advent Series: God in the Mirror of Christmas
Micah 5:2-5a; Revelation 19:1-6; Matthew 2: 1-6, 16-18
Richard A. Rhem
Christ Community Church
Spring Lake, Michigan
Advent II, December 9, 2001
Transcription of the spoken sermon
Advent 2001 would be similar in some respects to Advent 1941, for we celebrated
on Friday sixty years of the attack on Pearl Harbor, which would have been the
crisis of the world at the time that Advent was celebrated in ‘41, and once again,
our world is in crisis in this 2001 Advent season. It is a season in which we are
particularly thoughtful about history, about the calendar of God, about where
things are and whether or not there is something going on which is more than
meets the eye.
I remember a story told me by Bruce Thielman, who is a pastor of the First
Presbyterian Church of Pittsburgh, a great pulpit historically, who had a great
preacher of a former generation, Clarence McCartney. Bruce Thielman said he
was rummaging around in the attic of old First Presbyterian, Pittsburgh, one day
and he came across some sermons, including the sermon that McCartney
preached on the 14th of December in 1941 and he said from reading the sermon
there would have been not the slightest hint that the world was in crisis, which
perhaps is a symbol of the oftentimes irrelevancy of the pulpit.
Certainly in Advent we cannot escape contemplating the meaning of the events
that have pressed in upon us because it is the theme of this season of the year
when we particularly wonder about the course of human history and the
engagement of God in that history. The Christian faith inherited that concern
about history from the womb of Judaism from which it emerged, for the Hebrew
prophets are credited with causing the world to think historically, to think in
terms of beginning and process and consummation.
The prophets lived by a dream. I don’t know what it was, call it the inspiration of
the Spirit of God, call it the intuition of a particularly blessed people who were
living as a very small and beleaguered people through most of their existence, but
in any case, the Hebrew prophets had a magnificent dream of an alternative
world. You remember that dream - of a world of human wellbeing, when the lion
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Richard A. Rhem
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and the lamb would lie down together and they would not hurt or destroy in all
God’s holy mountain, that dream of shalom.
The early Jesus Jewish movement, of course, were the children of that dream,
that dream which was so powerful in its provision of hope for a people who had
suffered so much and so long, and there were those in the early movement, the
Jesus movement, who said certainly this one, Jesus, was the designate of God. He
must be the anointed one of whom the prophets spoke. The Hebrew word for
anointed is messiah, of course, and so they were saying this Jesus is the messiah.
That so characterized, so marked Jesus, that he became known as Jesus Christ,
but Christ is simply the Greek word for anointed. Jesus, the anointed, Jesus the
messiah, Jesus the Christ - what the early Church was saying was that that one
the prophets foresaw, that one who would come and bring justice and
righteousness and peace to the earth, that one was none other than Jesus. And so,
the Christian Church came into its future expectation honestly, out of the womb
of its Hebrew mother.
Then, of course, there was a surprise, for that anointed one was crucified. Who
could have thought it? Who could have dreamed it? And yet, the crucified one
they experienced alive in their midst, and they spoke of resurrection. And
certainly, then, this time of Jesus’ absence from them would be a brief interim in
which the good news could be proclaimed, and then certainly, soon, he would
come again. The Book of Revelation from which I read a moment ago ends with,
“Come quickly, Lord Jesus,” and he says, “Behold, I come quickly.” So, the early
Church lived in that expectation of the imminent return of the one who had
come. And the Church’s celebration of Advent historically has been a celebration
of that expectation of the one who came, coming again, and Advent has been
particularly the season in which we have thought about the movement of history
and history’s culmination and history’s end events. And here we have
reinterpreted that coming again, that second coming, so to speak, for we have
come to acknowledge that an imminent return after 2000 years can hardly be
compelling. Certainly that early interpretation of where the world was in the
timeline of God erred, although understandably so.
David Hartman, the rabbi from Jerusalem, has re-interpreted the prophets’
dream, as well, so that that shalom on earth, David Hartman says, is not
necessarily some future time and place, but rather, the critique of every
movement of history. Every human arrangement, every historical arrangement,
every age, every epic, every moment comes under the judgment of that dream of
shalom, and every human arrangement is shown to be inadequate compared to
the intention of God according to the dream of the prophet.
But, here we are in another Advent season, making our way toward Christmas.
What I’d like to do today and for the next couple of weeks is to have us think
about Christmas as a mirror that reflects the nature of God. What kind of a God is
reflected in the mirror of Christmas? From what we know about the event, what
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kind of a God is revealed from the Christmas mystery? Think with me this
morning about A Tale of Three Cities as we reflect on world history, its course,
and perhaps its culmination.
Three Cities: Rome, obviously, the seat of imperial power, a city still today
magnificent as evidenced by its ruins. Rome, who ruled the world as the ancient
world had never been ruled before, ruled by the most powerful empire that the
world had known. The Roman Empire. The Roman Emperor. Imperial Rome, on
top of the world, its empire stretched far and wide, and it held peoples and tribes
in subjection. It was the occupying power at the time of the birth of Jesus.
Luke tells us the story of Jesus in reference to Caesar Augustus, for it was Caesar
Augustus who proclaimed an edict that all the world should be taxed, and that
was the way by which Luke brought Mary and Joseph to Bethlehem for the birth
of Jesus. But, here in this far out province, the lives of people are implicated by
the decree of an imperial ruler who lives in Rome.
Roman law, Roman order - it was a great civilization. There was much to
commend it. It was, perhaps, the finest human arrangement in terms of
government and rule and the ordering of society. Rome, famous for its law,
famous for the magnificent civilization that arose under its aegis. Rome was an
empire not without its own dreams and ideals. After Julius Caesar was
assassinated, there ensued a fifteen-year civil war, a civil war which was bloody,
indeed, but which culminated finally with Octavian coming to Rome in 29 before
Christ as the sole ruler. Before that, the Roman poet, Virgil, had written in his
Fourth Eclogue a tribute to Augustus, Caesar Augustus, who was one declared, on
his birth, as a savior, as a son of God. In 1890, in Asia Minor in a little village,
there was an inscription found, “To Augustus as the Son of God, the Savior of the
World.” Virgil had dreamed about the birth of one who would bring the world
peace, and the Roman world began its new year, subsequently, on the 23th of
September, which was the birth of Octavian who became Caesar Augustus. So,
the Roman calendar was gathered around the birth of this one who was
purported to be son of God. He was the great nephew of Julius Caesar. Julius
Caesar had been elevated to deity. This one was understood as son of God, and
the word savior was applied to him. And so, in 29 before Christ, there is one on
the seat of authority in the Roman empire, one who is understood as son of God,
Savior, a bringer of peace and wholeness to the brokenness of the world.
As I say, Rome, this gigantic empire, was not without its integrity, it was not
without its idealism, it was not without its dream, and yet, it was the super power
of the day and it was committed, above all, to the perpetuation of its preeminence
and power. And so, when it came down to it, it may have a man of peace on the
throne and, incidentally, the first official act of Caesar Augustus was to close the
Temple of Janus, the double-faced god of war, and he dedicated a gigantic altar to
peace, the Augustan Altar of Peace. So, again, it is not as though this people was
without its ideal, its hope and its dream. It is not as though the Roman hierarchy
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did not understand that which was good for humankind. But, when push came to
shove, it was the Roman legions that ruled, and by military might and the power
of the sword, Rome enforced the Roman peace, the Pax Romana. That’s the irony,
isn’t it? This powerful, powerful human institution with high ideals enforced by
the power of the legion and the sword.
I suppose you’re already suspecting that I might suggest that Rome’s situation in
that ancient world 2000 years ago was not so different than our situation in our
world in 2001. We, too, are the world’s one great super power, and we, too, are a
people of a high idealism. There’s a kind of moralistic strain, even in our foreign
policy. We are a people who engage in a military action and are more concerned,
really, about humanitarian aid. All of the ambiguity of our present situation, eh?
A mighty power with high ideals and humane concerns and yet, of course, if we
would be honest, we, too, are a people like Rome whose hands are dirty, with
alliances and coalitions with regimes who are oppressive of their own people, but
good for our own preservation of power and preeminence.
Oh, the world is a messy place, and the human story is full of such ambiguity.
Here we are, the world’s great power, so reflective of Rome in the days of its
glory, struggling, I suppose, with that tension between idealism and real politic,
the rough and tumble of national, international affairs. Ah, 2001 - not so different
than year one.
And there was Jerusalem, of course, a bit of a different situation and yet, also so
reflective of the human situation. There a man named Herod who was both
Jewish and Edomite, so he had Jacob and Esau in his veins – there Herod got
himself into the good graces of Rome and was appointed governor in 47 before
Christ and in 40 before Christ became king, King Herod the Great. And he was
great. We’re told the story of Herod having melted down his own personal gold in
order to buy corn to feed people in time of famine. Another time of crisis, he
remitted the taxes of the people. He was a builder; people came from the ancient
world to examine the glories of Jerusalem, the building projects of Herod the
Great. And Jerusalem was ruled well.
There was the other side of Herod, though. He was a paranoid individual,
ruthless and brutal. Herod had his wife Alexandra and her mother put to death.
When he came to power in 40, when he was crowned king, he had the Sanhedrin
slaughtered just to remove the old guard, so to speak. Another time, 300 court
officials were slaughtered at one fell swoop. He had his own eldest son murdered,
and two others of his sons were murdered. Caesar August said it would be better
to be Herod’s pig than his son. And after his long, long rule, knowing that he had
not endeared himself to the people, he retired to Jericho, knowing he was about
to die, and he had the finest of Jerusalem arrested and imprisoned so that when
he died, they could be put to death, because he said, “When Herod dies, no one
will cry. But, when Herod dies, tears will flow.” There’s a nice fellow for you. That
was Herod the Great.
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Richard A. Rhem
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Jerusalem. And Herod is so representative of those who are in power, who worry
about keeping power, for when the magi came, inquiring about the birth of a king
because they had seen his star, Matthew tells us that Herod was greatly troubled,
and all Jerusalem was frightened with him. You see, when you have an
established order and when you are on top, you have always to worry about
maintaining that order and preserving your position and your pre-eminence. So,
Herod, this brutal, paranoid ruler, when he realized that the magi had gone home
another way, simply had all the children two years and under slaughtered. We
call it the “Slaughter of the Innocents.” A brutal act for the preservation of power
and the removal of any possible threat to his authority.
And, of course, Jerusalem wasn’t only marked by that kind of civil king, but also
entwined in the ruling establishment of Jerusalem was the Sadducean party, the
high priestly party, and we know from the story of Jesus that when this prophet
made his way and made his point, and proclaimed in the center of Jerusalem that
which he believed to be reflective of the will of God for this people of God, it was
the collaboration of the Herodian party and the Roman government, Pontius
Pilate, that Jesus was killed. So, Jerusalem was that city, too, that knew in all of
its dimensions that vying for earthly power, the political games that people play,
the vying for position and the preserving of preeminence - that was Jerusalem in
the days of the one who was born on Christmas.
I read from the Revelation to give a sense of the biblical story, the outcome of that
kind of power play, for the 19th chapter of Revelation is that from which comes
the Hallelujah Chorus. But, when you read the 19th chapter, you have to be
shaken just a bit because there is such vengeance in that chapter, and what is
being celebrated? Well, it is the devastation and the ending of Rome, called
Babylon, the great harlot, the great whore. Babylon, standing for Rome,
represents in the biblical perspective that whole gamut of human arrangement
that is set on power, and the enforcement of rule by force and military might,
economic domination, all sorts of domination systems, and in the 19th chapter of
Revelation, she is overthrown and the smoke rises and there is this hallelujah
celebration. And there is this great affirmation, “The Lord God Almighty reigns.”
You can understand, perhaps, the vengeance, because this people has suffered. It
has suffered terribly at the hands of imperial power, and so they rejoice in the
dream of that ultimate overthrow because the revelation of John is again in that
biblical tradition that believes finally Almighty God will bring it out right.
It is rather amazing to me, when I realize that that picture is in tension with the
Christmas miracle, because that picture in Revelation is the kind of expression
for that human desire for vengeance, and that human desire for God Almighty to
take charge and to damn the darkness and to establish the righteous. And yet
that’s not at all what I see in the Christmas miracle, because there is a third city –
Bethlehem.
© Grand Valley State University
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Richard A. Rhem
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Micah speaks of Bethlehem, “Least of the tribes of Judah.” Little Bethlehem, from
you will come a ruler and he will be a shepherd to his people, be a man of peace.
Now, you can feel it coming. This is the typical sermon cant. This is the naive
preacher’s talk, because Rome will be overthrown and Jerusalem will be
devastated, but the one who comes out of the poverty and the obscurity of
Bethlehem will be established as the Lord of Lords and the King of Kings. And
yet, that Christmas miracle reveals a God who comes out of the most unexpected
place, and in the most unexpected way, a God who is embodied and reflected in a
human face and, for God’s sake, as a child.
But, do you see what I am trying to put before you? The paradox of the God
reflected in the mirror of Christmas? The God reflected in the mirror of
Christmas is not the God of Revelation’s almighty triumph. The God reflected in
the Christmas mirror is a God of vulnerability, born as a child, become a man,
crucified for God’s sake, crucified violently by the power structures, the human
power structures of this world. The Christmas mirror reflects a God who is
vulnerable, whose supreme revelation is in a human face and in the form of a
child, because the revelation of Christmas at its heart is that human, historical
arrangements will not finally prevail. They will prevail and prevail and persist
and persist, but finally, they all come to nothing. And so, I talk naive preacher
talk this morning, because we all know that finally, it is a power game. Finally,
you can have humanitarian concerns, but the bottom line is still military might
enforcing our will, preserving our position, and yet - Christmas is about a God
who can be crucified, God embodied in a child. And you see, I am aware of how
naive is this talk.
But, remember – Rome fell. Because no matter how strong you are, no matter
how many legions, no matter how many swords, there comes a point in the
human story when you tire of trying to preserve a position of preeminence. There
comes a time in the human story when people worry, weary of protecting
themselves and projecting themselves. There comes a time when every great
power finally fades, sometimes in devastating fashion. And in the meantime,
people have been consumed with the power game, with the preservation of
preeminence and the perpetuation of position. And so, dear friends, 2001. We
have fought the totalitarianism of Fascism under Hitler’s regime and prevailed,
we have outlasted the Communist experiment under the USSR and we have
prevailed, and we are engaged now in a war which will not be won by military
might. We know that, don’t we? And we are a people who are at the top of our
game and we know no people has ever stayed there. And from that third city,
Bethlehem, came one who was like a shepherd, who was a man of peace, and that
really is what Christmas reveals about the nature of God. God is love. Love can be
crucified. Love is vulnerable. Love is patient and kind. And love never fails. Every
other strategy finally will fail. Christmas reveals the God who will prevail –
because love never fails – but who is the opposite of all of our human domination
systems.
© Grand Valley State University
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Richard A. Rhem
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I’d like to have sent you out with a cozy little Christmas message this morning.
Forgive me for that. But, there is enough for you to think about here to disrupt
your whole Advent season.
© Grand Valley State University
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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.)
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Interfaith worship
Sermons
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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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Event
Advent II
Series
God in the Mirror of Christmas
Scripture Text
Micah 5:2,3, Matthew 2:3, Revelation 19:2
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Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI
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2001-12-09
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A Tale of Three Cities
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Richard A. Rhem
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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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Richard A. Rhem - An Archive of Sermons, Prayers, Talks and Stories: http://richardrhem.org/
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eng
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A sermon given by Richard A. Rhem (Dick) on December 9, 2001 entitled "A Tale of Three Cities", as part of the series "God in the Mirror of Christmas", on the occasion of Advent II, at Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI. Scripture references: Micah 5:2,3, Matthew 2:3, Revelation 19:2.
Advent
Followers of Jesus
Hebrew Prophets
Love
Nature of God
Shalom
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God in the Mirror of Christmas: A Child
Advent IV
Scripture: Hebrews 11-4; Luke 2:1-7
Richard A. Rhem
Christ Community Church
Spring Lake, Michigan
December 23, 2001
Transcription of the spoken sermon
The thing that I want to say to you this morning is really quite simple. I broached
the subject last week; it is the realization on my part of that tension within the
New Testament between the Christmas story and what it mirrors about God, and
the post-Easter biblical material that speaks of the triumph and the reign and the
coming again of Jesus with power to reign and to judge. As I indicated last week,
I have lived with that tension for years and years and I never recognized the
tension. It never struck me that to speak about the one who came in poverty and
humility and then to speak about that one who came as coming again with the
splendor of royal power was giving me two pictures of God, two mirrors.
It was reflecting God in two contrasting ways: the mirror of Christmas, that is the
mirror of the God with the human face– the God who is in the manger as a child
in all of the vulnerability and all of the beauty of that moment which we will
celebrate again tomorrow evening – and the God of the rest of the New
Testament is the same old God, the same almighty, omnipotent God who is in
control, the God who at the right moment will send the Son and the Son will
come in glory and splendor with power to reign and to judge, and there will be
the vindication of the righteous and there will be vengeance on the wicked. That
whole judgment scene of the God in control, the sovereign Lord of history, that
picture of the New Testament is strung throughout the whole New Testament,
and if you want to read it in all of its bare horror, read the book of Revelation.
That picture is in contrast to what the Christmas story mirrors about the nature
of God.
Last week we read in John's Gospel, "In the beginning was the divine intention,
and the divine intention became flesh and dwelt among us. No one has ever seen
God but the son has revealed God." Or Paul's statement "We have seen the light
of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ." Or the statement
from the Epistle to the Hebrews that I read a moment ago, where how could it be
more explicit? Jesus is spoken of as the Son who is the exact image of God, the
reflection of the exact nature of God. That's the Christmas story, and what God is
mirrored as being in the Christmas story is a God of vulnerability and ultimately,
© Grand Valley State University
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Richard A. Rhem
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finally, a God of love. Christmas is about heaven touching earth with love.
Christmas mirrors a God who moves by love to persuade, but never coerce, for
the child that is the central focus of this Christmas season is a child with all of the
wonder of a child, dependent, vulnerable, beautiful, innocent, harmless - there is
a picture of God.
But that stands in such sharp contrast to the revelation of God in the rest of the
story, almost as if Christmas happened and the life of Jesus happened, Jesus of
the Sermon on the Mount, counseling compassion over against the good and the
evil, the righteous and the unrighteous as reflective of God's attitude and spirit.
Jesus of the parable of the Good Samaritan, Jesus of the parable of the Prodigal
Son, Jesus - all those stories of the God who draws near, the God who is full of
grace, the God who is accessible, the God who is approachable. Jesus of Passion
Week who goes right into Jerusalem and speaks his truth to power and is
crucified for it, not resisting. Resisting only violent response, praying finally for
his enemies, "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do”– that Jesus
gets jettisoned on Easter, and from there on the Christian story and the Christian
Church has become one triumphalistic procession down through the centuries,
waiting for that one who came in humility and vulnerability, to come in smashing
glory.
How could I preach for years and years and years and not feel that contradiction?
And which God do we choose? Well, of course, we choose the God who raised
Jesus from the dead. Of course we choose the God who will bring history to its
culmination point. Of course we will choose the God who has time in his hand,
who will call the shots, who will send the Son in clouds of glory to judge the quick
and the dead, finally to reign. Of course, that's the God we will choose, the God
we can worship. That’s the God we can be secure with, that's the God who can set
things right.
And what happens to the God of the child? What happens to the God mirrored at
Christmas? What happens to the God with a human face? We talked about that
last week, but I want to say this week one further insight on this whole week, and
that is that, in spite of the fact that we have moved too quickly from Christmas, in
spite of the fact that we pray, "Come, Lord Jesus," nonetheless, every year we
come back to Christmas. We can't forget it. We can't get it out of our system. We
can't get it out of our bones. Every year we come back to this moment. Every year
we begin to experience the magic and the wonder of Christmas. Every year we
come again to bow before the manger that holds the child, and every year it
happens again. We all know it. There is no question about it. The world is a softer
place this weekend. The world is a softer place at Christmastime. The tear flows,
the lump in the throat, the old carols stir something deep within us. The simple
and beautiful story told again moves us.
I've already celebrated Christmas because I have gone through a couple of
rehearsals for the early service for tomorrow night. So, I know the baby gets born
© Grand Valley State University
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Richard A. Rhem
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again, a real-live baby cries, and as I stood as one of the narrators for the story,
being beautifully portrayed by our lovely young dancers and our shepherds, and
Mary and Joseph, as I saw it again yesterday, I was cognizant myself of the fact
that it does move you again. It happens again. It's a lovely story. It's a story that
reaches the deepest part of the human being, and we come back to it every year,
and it's the same old story but it's new every year and it moves us every year, and
we celebrate every year, and we rejoice in it every year, and I want to submit to
you that we do that because it has gotten into the marrow of our bones and we
know intuitively that that story is the ultimate truth. We know that the love that
came down at Christmas reflects the grain of the universe, the truth deep down in
things.
You see, most of the rest of the year, we don't live that way. Most of the rest of the
year, we simply get caught up in all of the power games and all of the power
structures, political life, economic life, social life. We move away from Christmas
and we forget the radicality of the vision that we have seen. But, for just a little
while, we remember and it touches us because it is true. It is the final truth. And
there is that within us that knows it is the final truth. Jesus is our window to God.
Jesus isn't the only window to God. Jesus isn't everybody's window to God, but
Jesus is our window to God.
I appreciate the fact that a dozen or so of you sent me the last page of Time
magazine, the essay by Rosenblatt entitled, "God Is Not On Your Side Nor On My
Side." I like the fact that so many of you thought of me when you read it, because
it tells me that you are listening and that you identify with me with that kind of
idea. I appreciate that fact. But, Jesus is our window, and I want to tell you, Jesus
is a radical window. Jesus is a magnificent window. Jesus is a window on God
that is so profound and so magnificent, that we ought not to miss it. It is so easy
to take it for granted because it is the old, old story and we know the story so well,
and how could we ever find anything new in it, and then one sits back for a
moment, and says, "My God! Do you realize what that story is telling me about
God?" It is radical! It is revolutionary! It is so radical and revolutionary that the
world hasn't been able to deal with it yet.
Our old world is rocking with war again and I am sure the reason that this Advent
season I was not able to live with the contradiction without at least lifting it up
was the fact of current events, what is going on in our world. That often happens.
One has an old story, an old tradition, and suddenly something happens to you or
something happens in the world, and one sees something that was always there
and one didn't see it at all! Suddenly I see it everywhere now. I see what the
future, if there is to be a future, I see what it has to be. It has to be a world that is
posited on the nature of God reflected in Bethlehem, in Jesus.
That is hardly the way we have lived, even though in the West Jesus has been our
window. That’s hardly the way we have lived. It's dangerous to live that way. It
can put your national security in jeopardy, of course. But, you see, in this old
© Grand Valley State University
�God in the Mirror of Christmas: A Child
Richard A. Rhem
Page 4
world of ours, after 9-11, it has become apparent to us what has long been true,
and that is that there is no ultimate security through power or might or force of
arms.
It would be political suicide for our national leaders without talking about
securing this nation, but this nation is not secure, and given the technology of our
world today, given where we are in our world today, it will never be secure again.
It will never be secure in a world where there are those who are dispirited and
despairing and hopeless and helpless and alienated and angry and full of rage –
never be secure again. And so, what we really have to do is find out another way
to be in this world, because power isn't going to do it. It just might be that, while
we're number one, it might be the smartest, most savvy thing in the world for us
to begin to create a new one world reality. You see, right now, the way it has been,
might, force, power has ruled, and the international game is a vast chess game,
and those analysts of international affairs plot out those chess moves. We should
do this, they'll do that, and if we do this, we can checkmate at this point, because
it's a power game, it's a game about winning, or at least not losing. And it isn't
going to work anymore.
Our world is rocking with war and there is no security and down deep in our
hearts, we know, and we keep coming back to Christmas every year and we're
moved by it Our eyes moisten again, we get a lump in our throat again, our hearts
are softened again. You can feel it on the street, because down deep we know
that's true, and we try to get on with life according to the only way life can be
survivable, right?
Well, one wonders. We come back and we're touched, because that is the deepest
truth and, if that is the deepest truth, I wonder when we're going to try it Let me
tell you about a savvy move we made in that chess game. You know it, too; it's
been in the news. You know that we funded Osama bin Laden. You know that we
funded and gave arms to the Taliban, right? As long as they were fighting the
Soviet Union. And why did we do that? Simply because we didn't like the Soviet
Union? We are smart. We knew if we could get the Soviet Union to have our own
Vietnam, it would suck the life blood and resources right out of them. We'd bring
them to their knees. And, by God, we did it. There are those among our leaders
right now who were responsible for that policy, who are defending it, and I'm
sure there are some of you out there who would say that was a good move,
because the Soviet Union was brought to its knees. Didn't President Reagan call it
"the evil empire"? Ah, dear friends, as long as we're in that kind of a game, we will
be trying to save our necks, we will be trying to defend our borders, we will be
trying to perpetuate the preeminence of our position, and it's a no-win game,
ultimately.
You know the problem with the American people? We're a good people at the
pinnacle of power, and Christmas has seeped into the marrow of our bones. If we
could just use our power in any brutal and violent fashion, we could shape this
© Grand Valley State University
�God in the Mirror of Christmas: A Child
Richard A. Rhem
Page 5
world up. You wouldn't have to pray. You wouldn't have to ask for God's blessing.
You wouldn't have to pray "God bless America." Just turn our resources loose
with no moral qualms, with no ethical consideration, just bomb 'em, baby. Bomb
them into submission. We have the stuff, folks. We could do it.
But, we can't do it, because we have Christmas in the marrow of our bones. We
have been touched by Jesus. We've seen God in the face of a child, and once
you've seen God in the face of a child, you just can't go on being a mean S.O.B.
anymore. That's our dilemma. A good people at the pinnacle of power who know
the ultimate truth, but haven't quite dared to live by it yet. Maybe this year.
© Grand Valley State University
�
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
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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
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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
Text
Identifier
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KII-01
Coverage
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1981-2014
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
audio/mp3
text/pdf
Sound
A resource primarily intended to be heard. Examples include a music playback file format, an audio compact disc, and recorded speech or sounds.
Event
Advent IV
Series
God in the Mirror of Christmas
Scripture Text
Hebrews 1:1-4, Luke 2:1-7
Location
The location of the interview
Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
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KII-01_RA-0-20011223
Date
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2001-12-23
Title
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A Child
Creator
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Richard A. Rhem
Publisher
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Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives
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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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Sound
Text
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 23, 2001 entitled "A Child", as part of the series "God in the Mirror of Christmas", on the occasion of Advent IV, at Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI. Scripture references: Hebrews 1:1-4, Luke 2:1-7.
Advent
Divine Intention
Incarnation
Pluralism
-
https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/57693ed96a6a2854de47cc7aa318cae0.mp3
7d130dfa615728037c40134515ef6ff5
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Richard A. Rhem Collection
Description
An account of the resource
Text and sound recordings of the sermons, prayers, services, and articles of Richard Rhem, pastor emeritus of Christ Community Church in Spring Lake, Michigan, where he served for 37 years. Starting in the mid 1980's, Rhem began to question some of the traditional Christian dogma that he had been espousing from the pulpit. That questioning was a first step in a long and interesting spiritual journey, one that he openly shared with his congregation. His journey is important, in part because it is reflective of the questioning, the yearnings, and the gradual revision of beliefs that many persons in this part of the century have experienced and continue to experience. It is important also because of the affirming and inclusive way his questioning was done and his thinking evolved. His sermons and other written and spoken materials together document the steps in his journey as it took a turn in 1985, yet continued to revolve around the framework and liturgies of the Christian calendar.
Subject
The topic of the resource
Clergy--Michigan
Reformed Church in America
Christ Community Church (Spring Lake, Mich.)
Religion
Interfaith worship
Sermons
Sound Recordings
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Rhem, Richard A.
Source
A related resource from which the described resource is derived
<a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/514">Richard A. Rhem papers (KII-01)</a>
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives.
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
Kaufman Interfaith Institute
Rights
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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
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
audio/mp3
text/pdf
Sound
A resource primarily intended to be heard. Examples include a music playback file format, an audio compact disc, and recorded speech or sounds.
Event
Advent I
Series
The Vulnerability of God
Scripture Text
I John 4:7-8, 12, 16, 19, Luke 1:46-55
Location
The location of the interview
Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Identifier
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KII-01_RA-0-20031130
Date
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2003-11-30
Title
A name given to the resource
Life Broken and Poured Out
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Richard A. Rhem
Publisher
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Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
<a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a>
Subject
The topic of the resource
Clergy--Michigan
Reformed Church in America
Christ Community Church (Spring Lake, Mich.)
Sermons
Relation
A related resource
Richard A. Rhem - An Archive of Sermons, Prayers, Talks and Stories: http://richardrhem.org/
Language
A language of the resource
eng
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Sound
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
audio/mp3
Description
An account of the resource
A sermon given by Richard A. Rhem (Dick) on November 30, 2003 entitled "Life Broken and Poured Out", as part of the series "The Vulnerability of God", on the occasion of Advent I, at Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI. Scripture references: I John 4:7-8, 12, 16, 19, Luke 1:46-55.
Advent
-
https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/e6923caf9c514a5b83f02c5640401bd5.mp3
a7441e0ca5332b057577ae518e056fd9
https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/c711fd3f8fa3336d7156c42abff17272.pdf
b5084b5be7335ebc53d58928da63ae53
PDF Text
Text
Two Births, Two Views, Two Empires:
Where Does Peace Lie?
From the series: The Vulnerability of God
Text: Isaiah 11:1-9; Luke 2:1-58
Richard A. Rhem
Christ Community Church
Spring Lake, Michigan
December 21, 2003
Transcription of the spoken sermon
I conclude this morning the series on “The Vulnerability of God,” which has been
our Advent series in which I have been once again trying to bring to your
consciousness and awareness the nature of God as reflected in the Christmas
story, particularly in the birth and the life and the death of Jesus.
As a Christian community, our claim is that Jesus is the word made flesh, that the
divine intention from eternity came to temporal expression in the humanity of
Jesus, and I would like to go on to say that it is in the emergence of humanity that
we find the presence of that infinite Mystery coming into concrete form and
being. If we believe that Jesus, in his birth, life and death, is, indeed, a mirror of
the nature of God, then that God is a vulnerable God, in contrast to the God that
the Church has set forth forever – and that we religious people have really wanted
to have be the case – that is, the Lord God Almighty, Omnipotent, Sovereign of
history, in control.
That is an interesting tension, as I have been saying over these weeks. I hope that,
whether or not you appreciate and enjoy the tension, you nonetheless sense that
it is not something that I have imagined or made up, but rather, something that is
intrinsically in our Christian faith.
The God mirrored in Jesus is a vulnerable God. The God that we prefer is
Almighty God, in control, able to secure us in our weakness, in our fear, and in
our vulnerability.
This morning, just one more attempt to make that clear, with the contrasting of
“Two Births, Two Visions, and Two Empires,” raising the question, “Where Does
Peace Lie?” Two births - the one birth, Caesar Augustus, the Roman Emperor
who was ruling at the time of the birth of Jesus. The other birth - Jesus.
© 2013 Kaufman Interfaith Institute and Grand Valley State University
�Where Does Peace Lie?
Richard A. Rhem
Page 2
In a poem written in 40 BCE, the Roman poet Virgil penned lines that express
the longing of an ancient people for peace. It is in the Fourth Eclogue, a rather
frequently mentioned poem of this great Roman poet. One stanza says,
“Now the virgin is returning,
a new human race is descending from the heights of heaven,
a birth of a child with whom the iron age of humanity will end
and the Golden Age begin.”
We just sang “It Came Upon a Midnight Clear,” about the circling years, the
coming ‘round of the age of gold, a reference to Virgil in the Fourth Eclogue.
There are those who want to claim Virgil as the prophet unconscious, a pagan
witness to the coming birth of Christ. But I don’t really think that’s necessary. It
is amazing, however, that there was this fine poet who was looking for the birth of
a child, and for the rebirth of the ages, one who was writing 40 years, give or take
a few years, ahead of the birth of Jesus, one who was writing in the wake of the
assassination of Julius Caesar.
We know more about Caesar from William Shakespeare than we do from ancient
Roman history. I was reading some of that history again in preparation for today.
It is fascinating history. There was the great Roman Republic with the Senate,
and that excellent form of government that had been created. But, now in the last
decades of the first century before the Common Era, there was violence, war,
conspiracy, civil strife, and the names of Cassius and Brutus, for example, who
assassinated Julius Caesar. Then Octavian, who was Caesar’s great-nephew and
adopted son and who was now moving toward the replacement of his uncle,
Julius Caesar, but not without having to fight his way to that position. His
opposition was the well-known Marc Antony, known perhaps better because of
Cleopatra. Someone said history would have been different, had there been a
different shape to Cleopatra’s nose. I don’t know whether that’s true or not but
there was continual civil war, vying for power. The poet Virgil wrote in 40 BCE of
this longing for peace in a Roman setting that was riven with strife. But, by 29
BCE, Octavian Caesar, or Augustus, as he became known, came into Rome, the
sole ruler. Interestingly, whether conscious of Virgil’s Fourth Eclogue, or whether
simply because this was who he was, his first official act was to close the temple
of Janus, the double-faced god of war.
Augustus was a very astute ruler. The old republic in Rome was crumbling, and
they were on the threshold of empire. They had created this sprawling expanse
which could be ruled, it was assumed, only by power. And so, Augustus is trying
to restructure something that would give some order and stability to society,
creating a form of government, the empire, which lasted for a couple of hundred
years. We talk about the Pax Romana, or the Pax Augusti, the two hundred years
of Roman peace. It was relative peace; it was not perfect peace. But, there was
order, security, civility and Augustus, in his ordering of that empire, yielded up
the powers that he had been able to accumulate to himself and those powers were
© 2013 Kaufman Interfaith Institute and Grand Valley State University
�Where Does Peace Lie?
Richard A. Rhem
Page 3
given back by the Senate. It was a positive kind of situation that Caesar Augustus
sought to install in that ancient world.
Was he aware of Virgil’s poem, or was he simply another human individual who
knew somehow or other, down deep, that there should be peace among
humankind? In the year 9 BCE, he dedicated the gigantic Augustan Altar of
Peace. In 1890 there was an excavation in Asia Minor in the town of Priene in
which an inscription was found, “To Augustan, Son of God, Divine One,” who was
announced in this inscription as Saviour and God, who brought well-being and
peace, and through whom would come this whole new order, this whole new age.
So, that was one birth and his vision was of peace. It was peace, however, at a
price. It was not the kind of peace of which Isaiah spoke that would be the case
when the one anointed with the Spirit of God came. It was not a peace in which
poetically, symbolically the lion and the lamb would lie down together. It was
empire, and the peace was an enforced peace. The Roman Legions, at the
outskirts of that empire, protected its borders and kept its internal affairs under
their thumb. So, there was a Roman peace, a peace through power that was the
vision.
It is interesting that it was into such a world that Jesus was born, and into a little
corner of that empire. We know something of that Roman peace and the
circumstance and condition of that time, because today there have been all kinds
of cross-cultural studies about the times of Jesus. Because Jesus was born in that
period and we have the Gospels, we get a picture of the underside, if you will, of
that empire which Augustus Caesar would have ruled in peace. We know it was a
time in which a province such as Judea, part of that great Roman Imperium, was
a province under domination and exploitation. We know that the landowners
were being forced off their land. We know that there was urbanization which
created all kinds of social dis-ease among the people.
Hans Küng suggests that it is no mistake that Luke in his Christmas stories, in
his Gospel, sets the context the way he does. For, what is Luke trying to say?
Remember those Gospels are written after Jesus is dead. Those Gospels are
written in retrospect, and Luke is telling the story of Jesus, believing that Jesus
was the one through whom peace and an alternative world would come. And so,
how does Luke tell us the story?
He tells us that Caesar Augustus was ruling in Rome and Quirinius was the ruler
in Syria, but he tells us that the birth of this Jesus was announced to a Jewish
maiden girl, and that the word never came to Herod’s court, the lackey of Rome,
but rather, to some spiritual astrologers from the East who were on a spiritual
journey. He tells us that the news of the birth was announced, not in Herod’s
court, but to shepherds in the field, the nameless ones, the poor ones, and he
introduces the Gospel story with the song of Zechariah, the Benedictus, and of the
song of Mary, the Magnificat.
© 2013 Kaufman Interfaith Institute and Grand Valley State University
�Where Does Peace Lie?
Richard A. Rhem
Page 4
It is not accidental that the story of Jesus, the life of Jesus, is introduced in the
context of an expectation and a hope and a vision for peace and well-being in the
world that involved the casting down of the mighty and the lifting up of the
nameless ones, not accidental that it is cast in terms of the poor being fed and the
rich being turned empty away. This is the story of an underdog people who, in the
birth of this one, believed that somehow or another an alternative world will be
effected. It is a vision, as a consequence of a birth, of a different kind of a social
order. It is a vision of peace through vulnerability.
Caesar is born and his birth is celebrated and he has a vision of peace through
power.
Jesus is born and his life is recorded and it is a life of vulnerability, a vision of
peace through powerlessness.
Hans Küng says that we haven’t lost the meaning of Christmas because of
excessive commercialization. We have lost the meaning of Christmas, primarily,
because we have made it a romantic idol, a song, a lovely story, a cozy narrative,
and who wants to be the Grinch that stole Christmas? Who wants to be old
Scrooge?
Well, just for five minutes or so, let me suggest that Christmas, as beautiful as it
is, as lovely as it is, I wouldn’t miss it - the beauty of the surroundings, the
change in human feeling, the set of the heart. The world becomes a softer place at
Christmas. So, I really don’t want to put down anything that Christmas is able to
do to humanize us and to soften us and to lead us into greater intimacy. Not at
all.
But, I do want you to see that the Gospels that we claim to believe are political
documents that tell the story of Jesus in a social-economic-political context
which is intentionally set over against the political-economic-social context of the
time of his birth. I do want you to see that Luke never really intended us to gather
in beautiful sanctuaries with poinsettias and to give each other gifts and hugs and
to cry a lot. Luke wanted to say, “I’m telling you the story of one who was born
into a social context that was marked by Roman imperial power that was a
system of domination and exploitation, and I want to tell you about the good
news, not of Caesar Augustus, who indeed had a vision of peace through power. I
want to tell you about the birth of Jesus who had a vision of peace through
vulnerability.”
They result in two kinds of empires - the Roman Empire, mighty Rome,
magnificent in so many ways, the source of so much that is wonderful in Western
civilization. But, Rome that ruled by power finally crumbled, finally overextended, finally became weary of securing itself, finally became weary of
defending itself, finally became vulnerable to decay from within because when
© 2013 Kaufman Interfaith Institute and Grand Valley State University
�Where Does Peace Lie?
Richard A. Rhem
Page 5
you have that pressure to domination, you have always to live with fear and
insecurity.
Over against that is the birth of Jesus, whom we claim to be a reflection of the
nature of God, whose vision of peace was a vision through powerlessness, whose
empire we call the realm of God.
On Christmas 2003 you don’t have to be a rocket scientist to know that I am
thinking about Rome and that ancient story in terms of my own day and age. You
don’t have to be particularly perceptive to know that I am saying to you that the
present superpower syndrome that has gripped this nation is a reiteration of
Rome and the repudiation of Jesus.
The real world is tough and brutal, and I really don’t purport to have answers as
to how to find that alternative world of which Isaiah dreamed, where the lion and
the lamb would dwell together and a child could play in safety. I don’t know how
we could move from this. When I say superpower syndrome, I am quoting a very
astute observer of the present, Robert Jay Lifton, who talks about our mind set,
that drive for dominance which has its own idealism about it, but which, in our
confrontation of the war on terror, has increased that war, that terror, has
expedited the recruitment of terrorists, and has not, contrary to all rhetoric, made
us more secure, but more afraid.
I can understand Virgil, can’t you, four decades before Jesus, in a Roman world
torn with strife, longing for something different? I can understand Luke thinking
now that he had seen the one of whom Isaiah spoke, because whether it is the
pagan Virgil or the prophet Isaiah or the evangelist Luke, or people of common
sense and good heart in every day and generation, don’t we know that there is
only one path to peace? It is not through power. It is not through might. It is not
through domination and exploitation. It is in the creation of another kind of
world marked by vulnerability which we say is like God. That is really what
Christmas is about.
Christmas is gutsy.
Christmas is real.
Christmas is demanding.
Christmas is condemning. Because Christmas is about the way God envisioned
the world. Some vision!
If nothing else in this Christmas season, I hope you will feel the dissonance, the
dissonance between the present rhetoric and the Gospel declaration.
© 2013 Kaufman Interfaith Institute and Grand Valley State University
�Where Does Peace Lie?
Richard A. Rhem
Page 6
In your pockets, if you have a dollar bill, there is the great seal and under the
pyramid it is Novus Ordo Seclorum. Do you know where that comes from? Virgil.
We sang about it in “It Came Upon a Midnight Clear,” the Golden Age. Old Virgil
four decades before Jesus talked about a Golden Age and hopes of the birth of
one who would bring about a change in the world. Luke hoped for the same thing.
It was Charles Thompson who created that great seal who put the date 1776
underneath the pyramid. Do you recognize that date? The birth of this nation,
with all the idealism of a New Age and a new beginning.
Dear God, I wish this Christmas that we in this wonderful nation of ours, so richly
blessed, could recapture that kind of idealism and could learn from Rome that
the mightiest power on earth that would continue to perpetuate its position and
privilege and power is going to live in fear and insecurity, under stress, every day
of its life. And I wish we, with our considerable power and possession, would find
a way to make Christmas come true.
© 2013 Kaufman Interfaith Institute and Grand Valley State University
�
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Richard A. Rhem Collection
Description
An account of the resource
Text and sound recordings of the sermons, prayers, services, and articles of Richard Rhem, pastor emeritus of Christ Community Church in Spring Lake, Michigan, where he served for 37 years. Starting in the mid 1980's, Rhem began to question some of the traditional Christian dogma that he had been espousing from the pulpit. That questioning was a first step in a long and interesting spiritual journey, one that he openly shared with his congregation. His journey is important, in part because it is reflective of the questioning, the yearnings, and the gradual revision of beliefs that many persons in this part of the century have experienced and continue to experience. It is important also because of the affirming and inclusive way his questioning was done and his thinking evolved. His sermons and other written and spoken materials together document the steps in his journey as it took a turn in 1985, yet continued to revolve around the framework and liturgies of the Christian calendar.
Subject
The topic of the resource
Clergy--Michigan
Reformed Church in America
Christ Community Church (Spring Lake, Mich.)
Religion
Interfaith worship
Sermons
Sound Recordings
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Rhem, Richard A.
Source
A related resource from which the described resource is derived
<a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/514">Richard A. Rhem papers (KII-01)</a>
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives.
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
Kaufman Interfaith Institute
Rights
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<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
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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
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
audio/mp3
text/pdf
Sound
A resource primarily intended to be heard. Examples include a music playback file format, an audio compact disc, and recorded speech or sounds.
Event
Advent IV
Series
The Vulnerability of God, Advent IV
Scripture Text
Isaiah 11:1-9, Luke 2:1-58
Location
The location of the interview
Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Identifier
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KII-01_RA-0-20031221
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2003-12-21
Title
A name given to the resource
Two Births, Two Views, Two Empires - Where Does Peace Lie?
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Richard A. Rhem
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
<a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a>
Subject
The topic of the resource
Clergy--Michigan
Reformed Church in America
Christ Community Church (Spring Lake, Mich.)
Sermons
Relation
A related resource
Richard A. Rhem - An Archive of Sermons, Prayers, Talks and Stories: http://richardrhem.org/
Language
A language of the resource
eng
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Sound
Text
Format
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audio/mp3
application/pdf
Description
An account of the resource
A sermon given by Richard A. Rhem (Dick) on December 21, 2003 entitled "Two Births, Two Views, Two Empires - Where Does Peace Lie?", as part of the series "The Vulnerability of God, Advent IV", on the occasion of Advent IV, at Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI. Scripture references: Isaiah 11:1-9, Luke 2:1-58.
Advent
Nature of God
Peace
-
https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/24da570cb8f339eb148bded094de0575.pdf
f7ccff7646a273e0c1d5cd7d32731153
PDF Text
Text
Advent Eucharist Prayer 1994
Richard A. Rhem
Christ Community Church
Spring Lake, Michigan
Advent, December 1994
Transcription of the prepared text
O God, beyond our fathoming –
eternal, infinite,
terms we use to describe what is indescribable,
to express what is inexpressible.
We bow in these moments
conscious that we are in the presence of Mystery,
a Mystery that embraces us
and will always defy our lust to define,
to reduce to manageable terms.
Yet you are a Mystery not all mysterious –
for, eternal though you be,
yet you have taken time for us.
In the beginning you stepped out of eternity’s depths
and called a world into being.
In the fullness of time
you spoke once more
and the Word that wrought our time
became flesh in our midst.
A human face gave shape to the glory of your being
and revealed you full of grace.
And in this Advent Season we celebrate a time
that is not yet, but surely will be –
an end time when your love will gather our tattered times
into the abyss of eternity,
bringing all your children home.
Eternal, you have taken time for us.
We are amazed.
© Grand Valley State University
�Advent Eucharist Prayer 1994
Richard A. Rhem
Infinite God,
you are without form, limitless in your being.
How could we even begin to know you
if you had not appeared in the garments of our finitude –
indeed, in the concreteness of a child?
Standing on the threshold of another Christmas,
we are amazed again.
Who would have expected
that the Infinite would become finite;
that the eternal would become time-bound;
that the Creator would become creature;
indeed – that God should become human
so that one could write –
We declare to you what was from the beginning,
what we have heard,
what we have seen with our eyes,
what we have looked at and touched with our hands –
a child, a human person, a crucified one,
one whom death could not bind.
Infinite God – there you are enfleshed –
and we find it so, still:
in the flesh of another whom we touch –
a newborn’s vulnerability,
a restless youth full of potential,
an old Simeon or Zechariah, an Anna or Elizabeth,
wise with many Christmases,
now severely limited, vulnerable again
yet full of grace.
Ah, dear God, there you are
in the other, the flesh we touch –
the souls with whom we become one –
there you are embodied:
Grace become tangible,
Love concrete.
There you are.
Down through the centuries you have been known
by those who have sought you,
yearned for your grace –
embodied in the flesh of your people.
You have given signs of your presence.
© Grand Valley State University
Page 2
�Advent Eucharist Prayer 1994
Richard A. Rhem
A loaf broken, a chalice of wine –
the stuff of creation: grain from the field, fruit of the vine,
these you have impregnated with your life
in order that your people might remember
and find hope renewed.
Eternal God, be known to us at this time.
Infinite God, make your presence tangible
in these common elements.
Breathe through bread and wine –
inspirit them
that we might be inspirited
as we take them,
remembering, hoping
knowing in awesome ecstasy
a timeless moment,
an Infinite Grace.
And then, Spirit of God, enliven us
so that we may know the joy of which angels sang
as never before.
Hear our prayers
through Jesus Christ our Lord.
© Grand Valley State University
Page 3
�
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Richard A. Rhem Collection
Description
An account of the resource
Text and sound recordings of the sermons, prayers, services, and articles of Richard Rhem, pastor emeritus of Christ Community Church in Spring Lake, Michigan, where he served for 37 years. Starting in the mid 1980's, Rhem began to question some of the traditional Christian dogma that he had been espousing from the pulpit. That questioning was a first step in a long and interesting spiritual journey, one that he openly shared with his congregation. His journey is important, in part because it is reflective of the questioning, the yearnings, and the gradual revision of beliefs that many persons in this part of the century have experienced and continue to experience. It is important also because of the affirming and inclusive way his questioning was done and his thinking evolved. His sermons and other written and spoken materials together document the steps in his journey as it took a turn in 1985, yet continued to revolve around the framework and liturgies of the Christian calendar.
Subject
The topic of the resource
Clergy--Michigan
Reformed Church in America
Christ Community Church (Spring Lake, Mich.)
Religion
Interfaith worship
Sermons
Sound Recordings
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Rhem, Richard A.
Source
A related resource from which the described resource is derived
<a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/514">Richard A. Rhem papers (KII-01)</a>
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives.
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
Kaufman Interfaith Institute
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
<a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a>
Language
A language of the resource
English
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Sound
Text
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
KII-01
Coverage
The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant
1981-2014
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
audio/mp3
text/pdf
Text
A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text.
Event
Advent
Location
The location of the interview
Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
RA-1-19941201
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1994-12-01
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Text
Title
A name given to the resource
Advent Eucharist Prayer 1994
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Richard A. Rhem
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
<a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a>
Language
A language of the resource
eng
Description
An account of the resource
Prayer created, delivered, or published by Richard A. Rhem (Dick) on December 1, 1994 entitled "Advent Eucharist Prayer 1994", on the occasion of Advent, at Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI. Tags: Advent, Prayer, Eucharist.
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
application/pdf
Advent
Eucharist
Prayer
-
https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/a4e714a77be00e7d62b2d8079d98e3a1.pdf
7cb25dccc56b8e54a132fa2ca64043d3
PDF Text
Text
Advent Prayer 2002
Richard A. Rhem
Christ Community Church
Spring Lake, Michigan
Advent, December 2002
Transcription of the prepared text
In the serene beauty of this sacred space
let us be still, be attentive, fully conscious, fully aware –
aware of our lives in this world in crisis, in this season of holy symbol,
quite overwhelmed by frenetic activity.
Let us meditate on the wonder, miracle, joy and glory of life –
its mystery, its facile balance, our hopes, our dreams, our fears.
Let us be open to the Mystery of Being –
the Mystery we name God.
O God,
we confess that there is that within us
that wonders about the way you run the cosmos.
We would do it quite differently,
especially at those moments when things unravel,
when some crisis arises on the world scene,
when some evil is perpetrated, some injustice goes unrequited,
some tragedy so painful, some suffering so undeserved comes close to us.
We cry out but our voice is drowned out in the gale;
we try to keep hope alive, to keep trusting,
but the deep darkness leaves us numb.
We raise our voice if not our fist;
our “whys” pour forth in a torrent of anguish.
We would nominate for Supreme Ruler one who would unleash power,
destroy the wrong and establish the right.
We want a strong God because we feel so insecure, so frightened –
frightened that our health will fail,
frightened that a child will meet with an accident,
frightened that a loved one will be torn from us,
frightened that our dreams won’t come true…
© Grand Valley State University
�Advent Prayer 2002
Richard A. Rhem
Then it is that we wish you were the Lord God Almighty,
in total control,
in complete charge of every detail of our lives
and we would appreciate some sign that you are there – in charge.
Yet, O God, we really know that is not the way it is –
no blinding power, no show of force.
We sing, “What child is this…”
and “Why lies he in such mean estate?”
The poet glimpsed your way –
“They all were looking for a King
To slay their foes and lift them high;
Thou cam’st, a little baby thing,
That made a woman cry.”
You are with us in weakness rather than power.
How strange that is –
unsettling, unsatisfying –
until we come to realize that
only thus are you with us with our freedom intact;
only thus can our humanity in your image be real.
Sometimes we forget that and think of the traditional God Almighty
out there – in charge.
Then, when you don’t move in with heavy hand and fix things,
we are troubled.
We are tempted to think you don’t care.
Or, we wonder if some guilt we carry blocks your rescuing effort.
Sometimes we even wonder if you are there at all;
if perhaps we are not simply alone in the universe.
But, then we hear the story again –
a child in a manger –
one whom multitudes followed,
alone praying in agony in a garden,
finally hanging on a Roman cross,
crying into the darkness, “My God, my God, why…”
Then, at least sometimes, a light breaks through –
the god of almighty power to rearrange the world
is not the God we can really believe in –
not power, but presence;
not coercion, but persuasion;
not control, but grace;
not guarantee, but vulnerability.
© Grand Valley State University
Page 2
�Advent Prayer 2002
Richard A. Rhem
Ah, dear God,
such is the mystery.
We never live easily with that;
we never really hear that word once for all;
we need to learn it again and again –
in our weakness, we cry.
In our weakness, our hearts are open;
in our weakness, grace happens
and you are God with us.
In a child,
in a crucified one –
there you are.
In the embrace of another’s wordless presence,
there you are.
Not power to crush our will,
but love that breaks our hearts of stone–
that is Christmas;
that is the final truth.
We can live with that;
with that we can live.
Hear our prayers, through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Amen.
© Grand Valley State University
Page 3
�
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Richard A. Rhem Collection
Description
An account of the resource
Text and sound recordings of the sermons, prayers, services, and articles of Richard Rhem, pastor emeritus of Christ Community Church in Spring Lake, Michigan, where he served for 37 years. Starting in the mid 1980's, Rhem began to question some of the traditional Christian dogma that he had been espousing from the pulpit. That questioning was a first step in a long and interesting spiritual journey, one that he openly shared with his congregation. His journey is important, in part because it is reflective of the questioning, the yearnings, and the gradual revision of beliefs that many persons in this part of the century have experienced and continue to experience. It is important also because of the affirming and inclusive way his questioning was done and his thinking evolved. His sermons and other written and spoken materials together document the steps in his journey as it took a turn in 1985, yet continued to revolve around the framework and liturgies of the Christian calendar.
Subject
The topic of the resource
Clergy--Michigan
Reformed Church in America
Christ Community Church (Spring Lake, Mich.)
Religion
Interfaith worship
Sermons
Sound Recordings
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Rhem, Richard A.
Source
A related resource from which the described resource is derived
<a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/514">Richard A. Rhem papers (KII-01)</a>
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives.
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
Kaufman Interfaith Institute
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
<a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a>
Language
A language of the resource
English
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Sound
Text
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
KII-01
Coverage
The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant
1981-2014
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
audio/mp3
text/pdf
Text
A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text.
Location
The location of the interview
Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
RA-1-20021201
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Text
Title
A name given to the resource
Advent Prayer, 2002
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Richard A. Rhem
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
<a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a>
Language
A language of the resource
eng
Description
An account of the resource
Prayer created, delivered, or published by Richard A. Rhem (Dick) on December 1, 2002 entitled "Advent Prayer, 2002", at Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI. Tags: Prayer, Advent.
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
application/pdf
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2002-12-01
Advent
Prayer
-
https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/53000072d1a70f81f792fb2453c2a205.pdf
2e81236d2593aff2d86951c2fdd44882
PDF Text
Text
The Vision of Faith
Article by
Richard A. Rhem
Minister of Preaching and Theological Inquiry
Christ Community Church
Spring Lake, Michigan
Published in
The Church Herald
The Magazine of the Reformed Church in America
December 6, 1985, pp. 6-7
The Advent season calls to our consciousness the end of history; to the realization
that history has an end; that our personal history as well as the history of the
world and humanity are moving toward a terminus, a final moment.
If we can resist the insistence of the commercial world that the Christmas season
begins before Thanksgiving and make space and time for the keeping of Advent,
we will find rich resources for reflection on the biblical themes of the end of
history. There is great curiosity about the “Last Things” and all too little calm and
reasoned discussion about these matters of faith. Advent, properly kept, provides
the opportunity to be reminded that the Christ who came is the Christ who is
coming and to treat those questions which continue to live in the human mind
and heart: What is the point of it all, this human drama? Where is it all going—
whither the whole? What happens at death? What about heaven and hell,
judgment and salvation? What do you mean by eternal life?
In the autumn of 1983 I was involved in a seminar at the University of Michigan
with Professor Hans Küng, who gave a series of lectures entitled “Eternal Life?”
Standing in the center of that great secular institution of learning where there is
but a token recognition of the whole sphere of religion, he spoke without apology
on the themes of death, life after death, hell, heaven, and the kingdom of God. It
was a fascinating experience to witness, not only because of the great depth of his
discussion, but because there in the sophistication of this great university there
were hundreds of bright young people eager to learn about life’s ultimate issue.
This is simple witness to the fact that we can never be content to be born, to live
out our days, and to die without asking why, whence, whither. God has put
eternity into our hearts. When life has been experienced with its full spectrum of
activities the question arises, “Is this all there is?” The biblical faith answers, “No,
there is much more.” Reflecting the biblical teaching, Küng concluded his lectures
© Grand Valley State University
�The Vision of Faith
Richard A. Rhem
Page 2
after a careful and thorough examination of the questions from medical,
religious, and philosophical perspectives with this affirmation of faith:
To believe in an eternal life means—in reasonable trust, in enlightened
faith, in tried and tested hope—to rely on the fact that I shall one day be
fully understood, freed from guilt and definitively accepted and can be
myself without fear; that my impenetrable and ambivalent existence, like
the profoundly discordant history of humanity as a whole, will one day
become finally transparent and the question of the meaning of history one
day be finally answered.
That is a well-packed statement. It says in capsule form what Advent faith
teaches. Advent means “coming.” Advent means Jesus is coming; God's kingdom
is coming; consummation is coming.
Test Küng's statement by this most familiar word from St. Paul.
For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in
part; then I shall understand fully, even as I have been fully understood.
So faith, hope, love abide... (1 Cor. 13:12-13).
These are familiar words coming at the end of Paul's “hymn of love.” We rarely
recognize the fascinating future reference of his declaration, but in this great
statement we find acknowledged both the puzzle that is our history and the vision
of our Christian faith. Let these words of the apostle provide our Advent
reflection as we realize anew that God calls us to live trusting that he will fulfill
his promises and bring his kingdom to its consummation.
We must acknowledge the ambiguity of our present state. Is it not our common
experience that a veil of mystery hangs over our lives and over history as a whole?
It is impossible from an observation of the course of history to find history's
meaning, to detect purpose, direction, and goal. We are caught up in the stream
of history itself; we swim in the stream. We have no privileged position above
history from which to survey it.
There are those who deny any detectable meaning. H. A. L. Fisher, in his History
of Europe, writes:
One intellectual excitement, however, has been denied to me. Men wiser
and more learned than I have discovered in history a plot, a rhythm, a
predetermined pattern. These harmonies are concealed from me. I can see
only one emergency following another, as wave follows upon wave, only
one great fact with respect to which, since it is unique, there can be no
generalizations, only one safe rule for the historian: that he should
recognize in the development of human destinies the play of the
contingent and the unforeseen.
© Grand Valley State University
�The Vision of Faith
Richard A. Rhem
Page 3
That is an excellent statement of the case by an eminent historian. From the
study of history itself the conclusion is that it is “the development of the
contingent and the unforeseen.”
St. Paul admitted the same. If history itself be our focus or, more narrowly, the
data of our personal histories, then, “we see in a mirror dimly.” For Paul,
however, it is not only the data of history with which we have to do, but also the
revelation of God in the history of Israel and in Jesus. Thus we bring something
to history: the knowledge of the revelation of God. That revelation, which found
its supreme expression in Jesus, embraced by faith becomes the interpretative
principle by which we understand history.
There is more to come. Paul went on to write: “Then [we shall see] face to face.
Now I know in part; then I shall understand fully, even as I have been understood
fully.”
The meaning of history will be accessible to us only from history’s end. Paul
believed that just as there was a beginning, so there will be an end. He who spoke
and brought all things into being will speak yet again, and time will be no more.
As another Advent season comes around, we realize anew that we are faced with a
choice, a decision: Will we live by faith in God's promise or not?
To do so is a decision, not a conclusion at the end of rational argument. Trust is
necessary; not irrational trust but reasonable trust, trust as a decision of the
whole person.
Fundamental trust will live in the assurance of a gracious purpose threading its
way through the confusing patterns of history. Such trust is a gift. Its foundation
is laid in earliest infancy. We are from the beginning being pointed toward trust
or mistrust. As an adult it is only through a significant emotional experience that
one can move from mistrust to trust. An encounter with Jesus is the catalyst for a
life lived in trust. Such trust is confirmed in experience; yet it always remains
trust, an experience beyond verification in the scientific sense of verification.
Mistrust is an option. It is the consistent position of atheism. The Nobel Prizewinning biologist, Jacques Monod, an atheist, maintains:
If he accepts this (negative) message in its full significance, man must at
last wake out of his millenary dream and discover his total solitude, his
fundamental isolation. He must realize that, like a gypsy, he lives on the
boundary of an alien world; a world that is deaf to his music, and as
indifferent to his hopes as it is to his sufferings or his crimes (Chance and
Necessity, p. 160).
That is an excellent statement representing clear, concise thinking. As an atheist,
Monod is consistent. If there be no God, then there is no future resolution of
© Grand Valley State University
�The Vision of Faith
Richard A. Rhem
Page 4
history's confusion, no future righting of wrong, no future realization of our
hopes, dreams, and longing.
If this be an impersonal universe with no heart, no mind at the center, no
purpose at the beginning, and no consummation at the end, then it is true the
universe is deaf to our music, indifferent to our hopes, our sufferings, our crimes.
If, on the other hand, we bring trust to history’s puzzling data, then we live in the
assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.
Finally, we must choose. The vision of faith sees beyond history’s puzzle to the
promise of his coming, who came to a people who had for centuries cried, “How
long, O Lord, how long?” He has come. His promise is he will come again,
scattering the darkness, revealing the eternal purposes of God which now are
hidden from clear view.
To keep Advent is to keep faith in the promises of God.
The mystery will be removed and we will understand.
Faith will be vindicated as the king comes and the kingdom comes to
consummation.
© Grand Valley State University
�
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Richard A. Rhem Collection
Description
An account of the resource
Text and sound recordings of the sermons, prayers, services, and articles of Richard Rhem, pastor emeritus of Christ Community Church in Spring Lake, Michigan, where he served for 37 years. Starting in the mid 1980's, Rhem began to question some of the traditional Christian dogma that he had been espousing from the pulpit. That questioning was a first step in a long and interesting spiritual journey, one that he openly shared with his congregation. His journey is important, in part because it is reflective of the questioning, the yearnings, and the gradual revision of beliefs that many persons in this part of the century have experienced and continue to experience. It is important also because of the affirming and inclusive way his questioning was done and his thinking evolved. His sermons and other written and spoken materials together document the steps in his journey as it took a turn in 1985, yet continued to revolve around the framework and liturgies of the Christian calendar.
Subject
The topic of the resource
Clergy--Michigan
Reformed Church in America
Christ Community Church (Spring Lake, Mich.)
Religion
Interfaith worship
Sermons
Sound Recordings
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Rhem, Richard A.
Source
A related resource from which the described resource is derived
<a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/514">Richard A. Rhem papers (KII-01)</a>
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives.
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
Kaufman Interfaith Institute
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
<a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a>
Language
A language of the resource
English
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Sound
Text
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
KII-01
Coverage
The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant
1981-2014
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
audio/mp3
text/pdf
Text
A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text.
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
RA-4-19851206
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1985-12-06
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Text
Title
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The Vision of Faith
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The Church School Herald Journal
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Richard A. Rhem
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eng
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Article created, delivered, or published by Richard A. Rhem (Dick) on December 6, 1985 entitled "The Vision of Faith", it appeared in The Church Herald, Dec., 1985, pp. 6-7. Tags: Advent, Faith, Eschatology, Mystery, Love, Fundamental Trust.
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Advent
Eschatology
Faith
Fundamental Trust
Love
Mystery
-
https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/2cb8bee2634fdd0c2a082b9b8b13221d.pdf
6b3ea8330abee2529dccac62bfefefcd
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Text
The Ground of Hope
Article by
Richard A. Rhem
Minister of Preaching and Theological Inquiry
Christ Community Church
Spring Lake, Michigan
Published in
The Church Herald
The Magazine of the Reformed Church in America
December 20, 1985, pp. 6-7
Our hope for the future is grounded in what God has done in the past
We have kept Advent, the time of waiting, of expectation. We have rehearsed
faith's vision in the midst of the puzzle of history. In this time between the times
we live by the vision, trusting that the King will come and we will understand.
The King will surely come; that is faith's vision, a vision grounded in the fact that
the King has come. If Advent is the time of expectation, Christmas is the time of
fulfillment. Into the puzzle of our history a child was born, and in that fully
human existence a light penetrated our darkness, and the darkness has never
overcome it. Our hope for the future is grounded in what God has done in the
past.
To celebrate Christmas is to discover the ground of our hope as we grope through
the darkness which is the puzzle of history. The King who is coming is the King
who has come. We are a people of hope, a hope grounded in the past enabling us
already to appropriate the future that still lies before us, living in the assurance of
things hoped for.
Christian hope is hope in God. Stating what may seem obvious is an attempt to
distinguish the Christian hope from today's cheapened hope, a worldly term for
wishful thinking regarding a thousand matters from the ridiculous to the
sublime: Will you win the game? I hope so. Will you have more sales in 1986 than
in 1985? I hope so. Will your health improve? I hope so.
Hope has become a catch-all word for all sorts of situations and conditions that
we would like to see happen or become realized. Hope in this sense refers to an
uncertain outcome. We do not know; we cannot tell; we “hope so.” That is not
Christian hope. Christian hope is hope in God. It is certain.
© Grand Valley State University
�The Ground of Hope
Richard A. Rhem
Page 2
There is another distinction. We use hope in its cheapened sense to express our
wish that something happens but about which we are uncertain. We also are then
using it to refer to a favorable outcome which lies within our capacity to bring
about: Will you win the game? I hope so—but the outcome is uncertain. Yet, I do
have it in my capacity to win the game if I play well, if I practice and am ready, if I
do not make the big mistake. Will you have more sales in 1986 than 1985? I hope
so—but I am not certain. Yet it is very possible, if I work hard; if I make sufficient
calls; if production is there. Will your health improve? I hope so—but I cannot be
sure. We enter a gray area because my health is not wholly within my power. Yet,
if I eat properly, get proper rest, exercise, and avoid stress, I can certainly
influence the outcome. Thus, in the cheapened sense of hope in contemporary
usage, hope refers to that which is uncertain, but is within my power to effect.
Biblical hope is something quite other. Biblical hope is in God; it is the present
certainty of what will be a future possession; it is certain of that which is
impossible in terms of human capacity.
As far as the quality of certainty is concerned, I simply refer you to the testimony
of Scripture. Biblical religion is a religion of certainty. I am not speaking now of
dogmatism. Surely there has been far too much dogmatism and far too many
dogmatic people in the history of the church. There is a lust for certainty in the
human heart and certainty about things that remain veiled in mystery. The Bible
is no answer book for all the questions of the less than serious curious ones. Too
many religious people “know” too much.
The Bible is, however, a book of certainty about the matters of ultimate concern:
That God is. That God is gracious. That God's kingdom will fully come. Biblical
religion in those ultimate matters is serious and certain. It is hope-full, not “hope
so.” It is the present certainty of what will be a future possession.
Further, it is certain of what is impossible in terms of human capacity. Let me
raise some questions to demonstrate that biblical hope is fastened on that which
lies beyond human capacity to effect.
Will there be a new creation as spoken of by Isaiah and in the Revelation to John?
Our Advent affirmation was yes. Will it come through human planning and
ingenuity? Will it come through human goodwill and harmony? Will some
president, king, or dictator arise who will effect it? Will it come through the
progressive education of the race, some evolutionary development?
Only the naive, the simple, the one ignorant of the human story could answer
affirmatively or even “I hope so.” Will there be life after life? The biblical faith
says yes. Will it come through medical research and the development of new
technology? Will death be defeated by future breakthroughs in science?
I need not go on. What all that conjured up is not only scarcely thinkable, it is not
desirable. It is apparent that biblical hope is certitude about a future reality which
© Grand Valley State University
�The Ground of Hope
Richard A. Rhem
Page 3
lies beyond human capacity to achieve. Hope reaches beyond what is possible.
Hope claims a future that can come only as the result of an act of God.
Living in hope means living in the tension between now and then. There is a great
difference between present experience and the future for which we hope. This gap
between the vision and reality, between the ideal and the real, becomes
understandable in terms of the hope of which Scripture teaches. That hope is
grounded in the Christmas event.
Life is difficult. Human experience is thoroughly laced with suffering. Many have
had their faith in God shattered on the rocks of human suffering and evil in the
world. Such people have never been taught the true biblical faith because biblical
faith will not be eviscerated by suffering but is rather the means for
understanding precisely the hard reality of human experience. Our life is caught
in the tension. The darkness is not denied, but the darkness is not ultimate; the
Light has come and the light shines in our darkness. Therefore we endure; we live
in hope.
Hope is grounded in the faithfulness of God which came to expression at
Christmas. God has acted. Hope has been vindicated. God has visited his people;
the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us.
We have seen the heart of God in the face of Jesus. Generations waited through
long centuries and then—Mary had a baby. Jesus was the fulfillment of God's
promise and in him redemption was accomplished—we have been saved. There is
a history to look back upon and a dramatic intervention in the life, death, and
resurrection of Jesus to remember and in which to trust. God did move in
faithfulness to his promises, and that move at history’s midpoint proved the
ground of a new promise, a new expectation, a new hope.
God's redemptive plan has touched down. He has connected with our history. He
has shown himself faithful in our past. Therefore our hope is grounded in history
and we have an anchor to which to hold as we wait in expectation. As we
celebrate another Christmas we acknowledge that we see only puzzling reflections
in a mirror, but our hope is renewed as we remember his coming and we wait in
hope for the day we will see him face to face.
© Grand Valley State University
�
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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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Kaufman Interfaith Institute
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English
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KII-01
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1981-2014
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RA-4-19851220
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1985-12-20
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Text
Title
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The Ground of Hope
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The Church School Herald Journal
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Richard A. Rhem
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eng
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Article created, delivered, or published by Richard A. Rhem (Dick) on December 20, 1985 entitled "The Ground of Hope", it appeared in The Church Herald, pp. 6-7. Tags: Advent, Hope, God of Grace, Faithful.
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Advent
Faithful
God of Grace
Hope
-
https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/5ed849daff585919ae0770822a3e0e8c.pdf
47b593e3bbe46cf0b7fc7dcab77532b1
PDF Text
Text
The Seasons of Our Lives
Editorial by
Richard A. Rhem
Minister of Preaching and Theological Inquiry
Christ Community Church
Spring Lake, Michigan
Published in
Perspectives
A Journal of Reformed Thought
December 1988
Perhaps the most frequently heard expression this month will be “Merry
Christmas and a happy New Year.” The order is dictated by the fact that
Christmas is celebrated on December 25, followed one week later by ushering in
of the new year. We speak of the period we are entering as the holidays. Holiday
is derived from “holy-day.” The definition of holy-day is a day set aside for
religious observance, but the dictionary notes that the derivative form, holiday, is
now usually restricted to the sense of “day of recreation.” In our popular
expression we combine a holy-day and a holiday. Although Christmas has been
co-opted by the world at large and transformed into a holiday, it still retains its
spiritual connection; it is still a holy-day. New Year’s Day, however, is a purely
secular observance of the beginning of the new calendar year, a calendar year
whose beginning and ending are quite arbitrarily set signifying nothing beyond
the regular cycle of 365 days.
It is not so with the calendar kept by the church. Although no one would argue for
the exactitude of the specific date designated for Christmas, December 25;
nonetheless it does point to a concrete event within our space and time—the birth
of Jesus of Nazareth, the incarnation of the Word of God. So it is with the days
that mark the critical moments in the life, death, resurrection, and ascension of
our Lord and the pouring out of the Spirit on the day of Pentecost. The Christian
calendar keeps before us the landmarks along the path of redemption wrought in
our history in Jesus Christ, and the annual observance of holy days gives a
rhythm to our Christian existence, rehearsing for us the events which ground our
hope.
There is an increasing use of the Christian year in Reformed congregations. This
value of such observance is being increasingly felt. As we are regularly involved in
the drama of redemption, we are caused to remember what God has done and are
stimulated to hope for what God will yet do.
© Grand Valley State University
�The Seasons of Our Lives
Editorial by Richard A. Rhem
Page 2
The religious observance of holy days is deeply rooted in the Old Testament
community of faith. Sabbath observance was the weekly celebration of God’s
work of creation (Exodus 20:8-11) and gracious redemption (Deut. 5:12-15). The
feasts of Passover, Unleavened Bread, Weeks, and Tabernacles punctuated the
ordinary existence of God’s people with the dimension of eternity.
The Christian church moved naturally to the observance of the first day of the
week as the Lord’s Day, a weekly festival of Easter, and gradually the feast days of
the Christian calendar took shape. This was a natural development because the
redeeming God had moved into our historical reality, supremely in the Word
made flesh.
The observance of the Christian calendar gives shape and meaning to our
existence and a framework for our corporate worship. Lessons, preaching,
hymns, and liturgy whose themes are determined by the Christian year tie us to
the central realities of Christian existence. Our spiritual formation is
fundamentally shaped by the rhythm of the life of the worshiping community,
and the growing observance of the Christian year is a source of great enrichment
to the experience of worship.
Religious observance is not a means of salvation; rather, it is an instrument by
which we are reminded of a salvation which has been effected beyond us, for us,
freely given to us in Jesus Christ, eliciting from us grateful worship of the eternal
God whose redeeming grace has come to expression within our history.
In The Screwtape Letters, C.S. Lewis’s satire in which Screwtape, a senior devil,
gives his nephew, Wormwood, a junior devil, an advanced correspondence course
on how to corrupt human souls, Screwtape recommends that Wormwood work
on Christians’ “horror of the Same Old Thing.” But, he acknowledges God’s
wisdom in that all the same:
He has balanced the love of change in them by a love of permanence. He
has continued to gratify both tastes together in the very world He has
made, by that union of change and permanence which we call Rhythm. He
gives them the seasons, each season different yet every year the same, so
that spring is always felt as a novelty yet always as the recurrence of an
immemorial theme. He gives them in His Church a spiritual year; they
change from a fast to a feast, but it is the same feast as before.
In his Letters to Malcolm, Lewis wrote:
It is well to have specifically holy places, and things and days, for, without
these focal points or reminders, the belief that all is holy and “big with
God” will soon dwindle into a mere sentiment.
Religious observance is not an end in itself but can be a powerful instrument for
the personal and corporate appropriation of the good news that was announced
© Grand Valley State University
�The Seasons of Our Lives
Editorial by Richard A. Rhem
Page 3
at the Savior’s birth. Our observances always fall short of giving adequate
expression to the mystery of God’s grace, yet pointing beyond themselves, they
give us a glimpse of the grandeur and glory of the grace of the God of our
salvation. There are those moments in our corporate worship when the glory
breaks through and we are lost in wonder, love, and praise.
May Advent well-kept issue in a Christmas observance filled with the glory of God
bringing the water of life to our often arid lives.
© Grand Valley State University
�
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
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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
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Sound
Text
Identifier
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KII-01
Coverage
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1981-2014
Format
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audio/mp3
text/pdf
Text
A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text.
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Identifier
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RA-4-19881201
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1988-12-01
Type
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Text
Title
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The Seasons of Our Lives
Publisher
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Perspectives: A Journal of Reformed Thought
Creator
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Richard A. Rhem
Rights
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<a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a>
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eng
Description
An account of the resource
Editorial created, delivered, or published by Richard A. Rhem (Dick) on December 1, 1988 entitled "The Seasons of Our Lives", it appeared in Perspectives, December 1988, p. 3. Tags: Advent, Liturgical Year, Worship, Faith Community.
Format
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application/pdf
Advent
Faith Community
Liturgical Year
Worship
-
https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/bbdc2e52859c10bb1c82aead0f897df0.pdf
54a02004ada197cf0fd440bad88ce153
PDF Text
Text
Life Broken and Poured Out
From the sermon series: Now – But Then
Text: Luke 15:51-52; I Corinthians 13:12
Richard A. Rhem
Christ Community Church
Spring Lake, Michigan
Advent I, December 3, 1995
Transcription of the spoken sermon
I am finding that I am entering this season of Advent and this new Christian year
with anticipation, and my experience is that that is a growing anticipation and a
growing delight in the celebration of the Christian year. I am perhaps just getting
older, but I am enjoying the structure of the Christian Year, the form that it gives
to my spiritual life and pilgrimage, the life of worship. Obviously, for me whose
chief responsibility is worship, I suppose that's understandable, but I would hope
that it is true for you, too, that as a people you might even have thought this
week, "Advent begins. A new Christian Year begins. The color will be purple.
Soon the trees will be dressed, the stars lighted. We'll gather around the table; the
Advent wreath will be in our midst."
Those things are becoming increasingly meaningful to me over the years. I had to
learn all of that after the fact, because I grew up, as many of you have, in a
tradition where the Christian Year was not observed. Oh, well, Christmas, to be
sure. Easter, Pentecost, and I think we celebrated Ascension Day, too, because I
had to go to church on Thursday night. But, in this old Dutch Reformed Church
in which I grew up, we didn't observe the Christian Year because that was
Catholic, and even if it'd been 500 years, you can't protest too long! Actually, I
was trained that the order for preaching should be the doctrines of the
Heidelberg Catechism - Lord's Day by Lord's Day by Lord's Day. And so, if you
followed those doctrinal themes, you might be considering the death of Christ in
the Advent season, or you might be considering the Holy Spirit during Lent,
because you didn't observe Advent or Lent or Eastertide or Christmas as a season
of the Christian Year.
But, I'm finding the observance of the Christian Year meaningful. Obviously in
the wisdom of the ancient Church, they understood that to go through this cycle
was a way of remembering, the way of remembering the way in which God has
touched our history. "The Word became flesh, lived among us, died among us,
rose among us. The spirit came to dwell within us." You see, the Christian Year
puts it in story, in a narrative, and we can live in it and live through it and I'm
© Grand Valley State University
�Life Broken and Poured Out
Richard A. Rhem
Page 2
simply finding that I am eager to go through the cycle again. We begin this
morning, the First Lord's Day of the new Christian Year - the season of Advent.
Advent means "coming." And, of course, four Sundays before Christmas the focus
would be the One who came when the Word was made flesh. We are preparing
for Christmas. But, the real focus of Advent is not simply the One who came, but
that the One who came is the One who is coming. And so, the real theme of
Advent is the fact that there is a future and an end. And it is a season in which we
are invited to pause, to reflect, to ask in regard to our lives, "What time is it?" In
regard to our congregation, "What time is it?" In regard to the society of which we
are a part, "What time is it?" In regard to the world and world history, "What
time is it?"
Because, as a matter of fact, what the Advent season calls to our mind is the fact
that we are people on the move; we are people underway; we are people going
somewhere, and something's happening. That was the insight of the Hebrew
prophets. Israel gave to the world the sense of history. Over against that was that
cyclic sense of reality where things come and go and come and go in endless
cycle. But the Hebrews had the insight, "Not so. Beginning, movement, end." And
it's fascinating to me that the most recent cosmology, the work of physics, those
who study the stars and the planets and all of that deep, deep, mysterious reality
of our cosmos - they tell us now that time is irreversible. That means that the best
scientific sense of things is now concurring with that biblical sense of things, that
there is a point of beginning. There is a movement, an emergence if you will, and
an end. Emergence has become a very important word to me. I suggested this
summer that it might be a word, an idea that could help us to make more sense of
our lives and of history and the cosmos - more sense than the idea of Creation
and Fall. I like the idea of Creation and evolutionary development with constant
new emergence.
And the Advent season tells us that there is not only this process of movement,
this irreversible time line, but there is something out there. We're moving toward
something. And so, for the theme of this Advent season, I want the phrase to burn
into your consciousness and into your minds, into your heart. NOW, BUT THEN.
NOW, BUT THEN. I hope every party you attend, there will be a moment in
which you'll think, "Now, but then." I hope with every present you purchase,
you'll think, “Now, but then.” I hope in whatever quiet moments you can find in
this month of December, you'll think, "Now, but then."
I was at a seminar earlier, well last week, and it was a very stimulating couple of
days, thinking about our nation. The seminar was entitled, "Shall the Christian
Coalition Win?" And there was an evangelical leader, Jim Wallis, who founded
the Sojourners community years ago, and Joan Campbell, the Executive Secretary
of the National Council of Churches, who is the voice for the mainline churches
that seem to be in such trouble, and Alan Boesak from South Africa, who is so
intricately involved in the dismantling of Apartheid, and as we were discussing
© Grand Valley State University
�Life Broken and Poured Out
Richard A. Rhem
Page 3
together the state of the nation, the condition of society, the polarization, the
politicization of issues of social welfare and well-being, there were three young
men there who were pastors, graduates of Princeton. And as we were talking
about our lives and the life of the church and of society, one of these young men
said, "Dear God, I can't even get to know my people. My people (he's a pastor in
New Jersey, a bedroom community for the city), he said, "My people get on the
train at 5, 6 o'clock in the morning, they go into the city, they work all day, they
get home 7, 8,9 o'clock at night, exhausted; they get up in the morning, get on the
train, go into the city, come home exhausted." And he said, "They have no time!"
And Alan Boesak spontaneously responded, "They are corporate migrants!" And
then he went on to explain. Where he comes from in South Africa there are
migrant workers who still, out from camps, get on buses five o'clock in the
morning, go into the cities, work all day, come home 8, 9 o'clock at night,
exhausted, in order to get up in the morning to get on the bus to go into the cities
to work in order to come home, exhausted, 8 or 9 o'clock at night. They're
migrant workers. But, Alan said, your up-and-outers, your affluent New Jersey
corporate executives are also migrants. They're corporate migrants. And I
thought to myself, "Isn't it true of us all?"
We came home in the middle of the week and I opened up the calendar to
December! It is a disaster! And I thought to myself, I'll be saying to my people on
Sunday, Advent is a time of waiting, of anticipating, of preparation for the feast of
Christmas, a celebration that the Word became flesh, but more than that, it is a
time of waiting, anticipation, preparation for the fact that there is an end out
there, that in this evolving, emerging process there is something out there, an
endpoint. And I thought, how will we have time, how will we take time? And then
I thought perhaps the words of Paul to the Corinthians might keep surfacing in
our consciousness, Now, but then, reminding us to ask the question - "What time
is it?" What time is it in my life? What time is it in my nation? What time is it in
this world of ours? Where are we going? And where will we end? Because we are
on the way. It's just that we don't often have a moment to step back and to reflect
on the whole thing - What time is it in your life on this first Sunday in Advent?
I can do little more than set the theme this morning. Now Paul says, "We see
through a glass darkly." We grope, we see fuzzy images, we have a sense of
something, but it's not clear. We can't penetrate through the mystery, the mystery
that is life, that is history, that is cosmos. Now, dimly, but then - clearly! Now, he
says, we know in part. Dear God, don't we know a lot? Really? When you think of
the explosion of knowledge and then when you think of the computer capacity to
make that knowledge exponentially more applicable - what a world we live in!
What a fascinating time to be alive! Now! Knowledge.
But, the more we know, the more we know we don't know. And it's not as though
we edge up to the mystery in order to dissolve it. As we edge up to the mystery,
the mystery grows, doesn't it? Now we know in part, but then we will know even
as we are fully known.
© Grand Valley State University
�Life Broken and Poured Out
Richard A. Rhem
Page 4
This Advent season let me try to set this into your mind, this idea - Now, But
Then. Now in part; then fully. Now dimly, then clearly. Because, you see, we're
going somewhere. Something's happening. There's a process under foot, and we
are being moved along in that stream, either unconsciously or, if by God's grace
for just a moment we could step back and realize that we are in a process for
which we ought to be taking responsibility and living with intention.
What is emerging? That's the other thing I want to say this morning. What is
emerging? Well, if we take what Mary thought was emerging, we can look at that
Magnificat. She thought what was emerging was the gift of the child that she had
conceived : a new world, a different kind of world. And it excited her. She praised
God! But, as I reflected on the Magnificat, dear friends, and I thought how am I
going to say this to my people -I realized that the Gospel is Good News, really, for
the underdog. Mary was a peasant girl. Mary was one of the voiceless ones. Mary
had no power. And what did she celebrate? She celebrated the fact that in her
world, in her day, folks like us would be put down so that folks like her would be
raised up. Mary's song was a subversive song. He puts down the proud; he lifts up
the lowly. He turns away those whose tables are full and brings food to the
hungry. That's good news? Really? You got to be one of the underclass to
celebrate the Gospel. Unless, unless there's a way for us, the rich and the
powerful, to find a way to a new world. Unless, in this Advent season, we who
have voice, we who have power, we who call the shots for our world, unless we
could come to some kind of negotiation with that emerging future and perhaps
even become a part of the movement to bring it into being.
I know what it would cost. It only comes about through life broken and poured
out. You see, the child of Mary's womb, whom she celebrated in that anthem, was
a child who grew up to be crucified. If you would go into the next chapter of
Luke's Gospel, you could see that Luke was already foreshadowing that, because
he said to Mary, "A sword will pierce your heart because this one will be a sign
spoken again, this one will be for the fall and rising of many in Israel." It's
obvious that, in the Christian Church down 2000 years, we still call this the
Gospel, we don't understand what it's all about. I mean, it's really obvious, isn't
it? The Gospel is about the great reversal. The Gospel is about the creation of a
world, a community where everyone has enough and has a voice and has dignity
and can live in a community of compassion.
And you know what that would cost? It cost Jesus his life. It cost Gandhi his life.
It cost Martin Luther King his life. It cost Bonhoeffer his life. It cost Itzak Rabin
his life. Because, you see, our world is organized to hold off the future. Our world,
our politics, our social structures - they are put together in order to maintain
what is. I like it the way it is. Because the way it is puts me in a place of real
privilege, unbelievable privilege. If I would be true to the Gospel, I would become
one of those subversives that would undercut the way it is in order that there
might emerge a different kind of world. I don't have the blueprint for it. I don't
really have the courage for it. But, in this Advent season, I'm going to be just a bit
© Grand Valley State University
�Life Broken and Poured Out
Richard A. Rhem
Page 5
uneasy about the fact that the cost of that emerging future may involve my life.
We've been to the Table; we've taken bread and cup, the sign of life broken and
poured out, the sign of our identification with that One. The Good News in all of
this is that, if I ever had the courage, the wisdom, the heart to follow Jesus, I
would find abundant life. Because in many ways I'm a migrant, too. Life can
become that, where I no longer live it out of my insides, but am lived by the
outside. Advent - wonderful time of the year to take time, to count the cost and to
be drawn by the vision of that life, which is life indeed. I dare you.
© Grand Valley State University
�
https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/4ca906742f8a11e44b62a8b74c40b1f0.mp3
36bed7f97deac76cb3c45d52959801cc
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
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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>
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Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives.
Contributor
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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>
Language
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English
Type
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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 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
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KII-01_RA-0-19951203
Date
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1995-12-03
Title
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Life Broken and Poured Out
Creator
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Richard A. Rhem
Publisher
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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
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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
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audio/mp3
application/pdf
Description
An account of the resource
A sermon given by Richard A. Rhem (Dick) on December 3, 1995 entitled "Life Broken and Poured Out", as part of the series "Now - But Then", on the occasion of Advent I, at Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI. Scripture references: Luke 15:51-52, I Corinthians 13:12.
Advent
Community of Compassion
Emergence
Incarnation
Liturgical Calendar
-
https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/150579ce89eec17329090218cac9c295.pdf
cea7f6253bb4c485f347c73fa36fa206
PDF Text
Text
When the Crisis Comes – It’s Too Late
From the sermon series: Now – But Then
Text: Isaiah 11:9; I Corinthians 13:13; Luke 1:37
Richard A. Rhem
Christ Community Church
Spring Lake, Michigan
Advent II, December 10, 1995
Transcription of the spoken sermon
Our Advent theme comes from Paul's first Letter to the Corinthians in the 13th
chapter, where he sets in contrast, “Now - But Then.” He writes to this
congregation that was bubbling over with spiritual gifts and enthusiasm run out
of control, and he urges them to seek the best gift, the gift of love. And in the
context of that discussion, he suggests that there are three things that remain faith, hope, love. He encourages the Corinthians to major in faith and hope and
love as that which matter eternally. And in the remaining three weeks of the
Advent season, I want to consider with you faith and hope and love. First of all,
faith, or maybe the word that for us says it better - trust, that basic orientation of
life that is trusting: trusting in God, trusting in life's meaning, in the goodness of
reality. To trust is to have a place to stand and to be and then to be free to be in
the fullness of every moment. To live by faith is to live by an eternal verity. The
gift of faith, the gift of trust enables us to negotiate the passages of life, come
what may. And that's really the issue of this message.
I want to suggest to you that the time to cultivate basic trust is before you need it.
I think it's at the Advent season that we feel the stark contrast between what is
and what might be. It is at this season of the year that we are called to remember
that we are people on the way, we are in a process, something's happening, we're
going somewhere, there is something developing, something emerging, invisible,
unseen. And yet, we're caught up in that process. And to remember, that is to be
reminded that what is falls so far short of what might be. To be human is not to
be locked in to the present, the present moment. It is to be free to unlock from
this moment and to travel backward in time through memory and to experience
again the joys of the past or the pain of the past. To be human is to have that gift
of consciousness that allows us to unlock from this present moment and to travel
into the future and to conceive of what might be, to dream of another possibility.
In the Advent season we recognize that it's precisely because we are people on the
way, going somewhere we have been and we will be, and the contrast between
what is and what might be can be a painful contemplation. And it is only if we
© Grand Valley State University
�When the Crisis Comes, It’s Too Late
Richard A. Rhem
Page 2
have received the gift of trust that we are able to negotiate every moment with a
certain freedom and serenity.
Isn't it remarkable that from ancient time humankind has conceived of
something different than that which is? Take the dream, the vision of Isaiah, as
we read it a moment ago. There, 2500, 2800 years ago there was a contemplative,
there was a religious spirit that was contrasting that which was his context with
that which was his dream. He dreamed of a day when there would be a ruler upon
whom the spirit of God would fall, a ruler who would not judge by what his eyes
saw or his ears heard, a ruler who would discern down into the depths of things.
A ruler would arise who would rule with equity, with justice. He would be
concerned for society's most vulnerable ones; he would rule with righteousness,
and that righteous rule in the arena of history would spill over into nature so that
the lion and the lamb would lie down together and the child could play over the
adder's den, and they would not hurt or destroy in all God's holy mountain. What
a dream! What a vision! Campaign '96 is warming up. Wouldn't we love such a
candidate for office? Wouldn't it be great if we could cast our ballot next
November for one upon whom the spirit of God would dwell in fullness, who
would judge with equity and rule with righteousness and bring in God's peaceable
kingdom?
Luke believed that that one arrived in the child of Mary's womb, a child conceived
by the Spirit of God, a child who would bring about that peaceable kingdom.
Mary laid hold of the vision and sang a song of praise, The Magnificat, which we
noted last week, about this child who would raise up the lowly and bring down
the arrogant. And yet it seems as though history continues to go along, business
as usual. Well, that's not a new problem. It was recognized 2000 years ago. The
second Letter of Peter, if you want to refer to it – there were scoffers then who
were saying to the likes of St. Luke, "Where is the day of his appearing? It looks
pretty much like the same, tired old world to me." And, of course, it is, isn't it?
Even 2000 years later.
The Advent season gives us opportunity to reflect on the fact that something's
happening. We're moving, we're going somewhere. And we can dream of
something quite other than that which confronts us. And yet, troops move into
Bosnia where there's a paper peace but no peace in the human heart. And Israel
still reels from the assassination of its leader who was seeking peace. And if not
on the national or international scene, there are those within our own community
who enter into crisis, the kind of crisis that makes us wonder what it's all about
and if it's all worth it, and if anybody, anybody is managing this cosmos into
which we are caught up. The issue before us this morning: St. Paul says faith is
that which abides, but, can I believe it? Can I hold on to the vision? Can I dream
the dream? Can I be set free in the present moment because I believe that this
present moment does not proscribe the parameters of my possibility?
© Grand Valley State University
�When the Crisis Comes, It’s Too Late
Richard A. Rhem
Page 3
You'll never gain trust by observing life. That's my point this morning. It is trust
that you must bring to experience. It is faith that you must bring to the ongoing
story. You'll never gain faith or come to trust simply by observing the story.
One of the great historians of a former generation, H.A.L. Fischer, in his History
of Europe, wrote these words,
"One intellectual excitement has been denied me. People wiser and more
learned than I have discovered in history a plot, a rhythm, a
predetermined pattern. These harmonies are concealed from me. I can see
only one emergency following another, as wave follows upon wave. Only
one great fact with respect to which, since it is unique there can be no
generalizations, and the only safe rule for the historian is that he should
recognize in the development of human destinies the play of the
contingent and the unforeseen."
That's a good statement. If you go out to the beach today, you'll find one wave
crashing on the beach after another - wild, stormy water, wave upon wave
crashing on the beach. And Fischer says, "As I observe history, that's what I see."
One emergency after another, one crisis after another, one valley of darkness
after another. And I see no predetermined pattern. I see no rhythm. I see no
pattern. Honestly, as I look at it as an historian, that's all I can see. And as an
historian, that's all one can see if one starts out with a blank sheet, if one would
simply, neutrally, somewhat objectively survey the human story, then one cannot
say it more eloquently than Fischer has said it. The pattern is not in there to be
seen. The pattern is imposed by those who have faith and that are given eyes to
see it.
I picked up a book last night, which someone sent me. I've been dabbling, you
know, in cosmology, physics, astronomy, that sort of thing. But, this book is
entitled, God and The New Biology, by an Oxford biologist, Arthur Peacocke.
Fascinating discussion in which he acknowledges that it is in physics and
cosmological speculation that science is giving us a sense of mystery before this
unfolding cosmic drama. But, in molecular and sub-molecular biology as well,
there is tremendous ferment and some breakthrough as to the development of
the human person and indeed all living structures. And Peacocke suggests a sense
of God more immanently involved in that process than we have yet conceived.
But he also honors that which has come to light, and that is that there isn't some
prescribed pattern, but rather there is both law and chance. And he suggests that
the Creator has put into the structure of things a kind of law, a kind of regularity,
a kind of structure that gives some stability, but within that, in its sub-molecular
structure, as we learn from quantum physics, there are things that happen at that
sub-molecular level that can only be described as chance. Unpredictable!
Unprogrammable! And Peacock says that's precisely the point at which creativity
is possible. In other words, reality is an open system, not closed.
© Grand Valley State University
�When the Crisis Comes, It’s Too Late
Richard A. Rhem
Page 4
I think the Christian tradition, or religious people generally, would love to have
the system closed and to know that from the beginning to the end it is all
determined. That's been used as a kind of security blanket to remove us from the
sense of life's fragility and the peril to which our lives are always exposed, but it is
not so, really, and we know it, too, out of our experience. H A.L. Fischer is right!
One wave after another - that's the way we live. God answers prayer, yes. This one
was healed. God answers prayer, maybe not. That one wasn't healed. In all of the
existential experiences of our life we would so much love to be able to boil it down
and get a finger on it, tie it in a package and put a bow on it and say, "Now, there.
That's it. A manageable universe and a secure human existence." But, we know it
is not so. It is not so!
How, then, can I live? How, then, can I be set free from the constant anxiety of
the next moment and tomorrow? By trust. By faith that I do not derive from the
observation of the story, but that I bring to the story. Because I believe beyond
what is observable that there is something happening, and that this process
which is going somewhere will have an end which will not be nothing, but
something, an end which will not be no one, but someone.
Do you want me to prove it to you? Of course, I can't. That's my point. That's my
faith! I trust that. And that's the great divide. Those who live with that trust and
those who live perhaps with an agnosticism that says I don't know, or a bitter
cynicism that says I don't believe it. Those are the choices.
Well, how do you come with such trust? With some struggle, I would hope. And it
is a gift not at our disposal. But a season like this does give us those moments of
reflection. And if one longs for some breath as the Advent carol says, some pulse
of being stirring as in a heart of stone, if in the longing of one's heart there is at
least that openness – at the end of the day, in a moment of reflection – to that
light as a falling star across the consciousness of the night of the heart, then
perhaps we may be probing the edges of that gift of faith which is a gift of God
that is the promise of Advent. And to live by such trust is not to denigrate the
present in favor of the future. It is to give a promise for the future that releases us
to delight in the present, fully to live, with a measure of peace and joy. The gift of
Advent. The gift of the Child.
© Grand Valley State University
�
https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/74a30e714c780cff96a7e6176a23fc75.mp3
6b2e6007e6461b2ca078e5b8b93295e5
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
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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
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<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
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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
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
audio/mp3
text/pdf
Sound
A resource primarily intended to be heard. Examples include a music playback file format, an audio compact disc, and recorded speech or sounds.
Event
Advent II
Series
Now _ But Then
Scripture Text
Isaiah 11:9, I Corinthians 13:13, Luke 1:37
Location
The location of the interview
Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI
References
Arthur Peacocke, God and the New Biology, 1987.
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Identifier
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KII-01_RA-0-19951210
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1995-12-10
Title
A name given to the resource
When the Crisis Comes - It's Too Late
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Richard A. Rhem
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
Grand Valley State University
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
<a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a>
Subject
The topic of the resource
Clergy--Michigan
Reformed Church in America
Christ Community Church (Spring Lake, Mich.)
Sermons
Relation
A related resource
Richard A. Rhem - An Archive of Sermons, Prayers, Talks and Stories: http://richardrhem.org/
Language
A language of the resource
eng
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Text
Sound
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
audio/mp3
application/pdf
Description
An account of the resource
A sermon given by Richard A. Rhem (Dick) on December 10, 1995 entitled "When the Crisis Comes - It's Too Late", as part of the series "Now - But Then", on the occasion of Advent II, at Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI. Scripture references: Isaiah 11:9, I Corinthians 13:13, Luke 1:37.
Advent
Emergence
Faith
Love
Shalom
Trust
-
https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/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
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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
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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
A language of the resource
English
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Sound
Text
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
KII-01
Coverage
The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant
1981-2014
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
audio/mp3
text/pdf
Sound
A resource primarily intended to be heard. Examples include a music playback file format, an audio compact disc, and recorded speech or sounds.
Event
Advent III
Series
Now _ But Then
Scripture Text
Isaiah 9:2, I Cor 13:13, Luke 1:79
Location
The location of the interview
Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
KII-01_RA-0-19951217
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1995-12-17
Title
A name given to the resource
Can We Be Both Truthful and Hopeful?
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Richard A. Rhem
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
Grand Valley State University
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
<a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a>
Subject
The topic of the resource
Clergy--Michigan
Reformed Church in America
Christ Community Church (Spring Lake, Mich.)
Sermons
Relation
A related resource
Richard A. Rhem - An Archive of Sermons, Prayers, Talks and Stories: http://richardrhem.org/
Language
A language of the resource
eng
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Text
Sound
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
audio/mp3
application/pdf
Description
An account of the resource
A sermon given by Richard A. Rhem (Dick) on December 17, 1995 entitled "Can We Be Both Truthful and Hopeful?", as part of the series "Now - But Then", on the occasion of Advent III, at Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI. Scripture references: Isaiah 9:2, I Cor 13:13, Luke 1:79.
Advent
Hope
Journey of Faith
Love at the core of reality
Presence of God