3
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https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/178ce7bb325fa13f78a5e71f3beea7c9.pdf
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PDF Text
Text
Come, Lord Jesus
Advent I
Scripture: Revelation 22:8-13; 16-21
Richard A. Rhem
Christ Community Church
Spring Lake, Michigan
November 27, 1994
Transcription of the spoken sermon
If you had a Bible like mine, you would find that the words of Jesus are in red. If
you looked at that last chapter of Revelation that was just read, you’d find three
red passages. In the vision John hears the voice of Jesus, and three times over
Jesus says, “I am coming soon.” He did not come soon, of course. It’s been now
nearly two thousand years. Is it possible really for one to sit on the edge of one’s
seat, to be, as it were, on tip toe waiting for a rift in the sky and the appearance of
the Lord from glory? It is not possible for me to do that. Certainly, in all honesty,
we have to say these words – that John at least sensed he was hearing from the
Risen One – these words were wrong. For to speak of an imminent return, after
two thousand years, is to make nonsense of language.
What then is our Advent hope as we continue our earthly pilgrimage and move
toward whatever end may be? What can one yet believe, and what can one put
one’s heart upon in terms of this Advent hope—this conviction of those
immediate followers of Jesus that they must be on the edge of the end, and that
very soon their Lord would return? What is it in Advent 1994 that the Church can
still hold to? Well, it seems to me that if we can acknowledge that the expectation
of an imminent return was wrong, then what we must do is to jettison the form of
that hope and expectation, and try to discover the inward essence of what that
form pointed to. What we need to do is to try to discover the source, not only of
Christian hope, but of the fact that it seems that hope continues to bloom within
the human heart against all evidence to the contrary.
Why do we hope? Why do we continue to hope? We cannot believe as they did, as
John did, that at any moment our Lord would return. Oh, I know there are those
who do. I am amazed over and over and over again at some movement or other
announcing the day of the end or still calling Christian people to prepare for the
coming of the Lord. I suppose as we come to the end of another millennium there
will be even more of that. But in all honesty I cannot say that to you. I believe that
that timeline, that calendar of events, simply was the form, which now obviously
has been proven wrong in terms of a literal form. But the hope that lives within
that form, what is that hope? Is it not simply this: is it not our continual
© Grand Valley State University
�Come, Lord Jesus
Richard A. Rhem
Page 2
experience of the disparity between the dream and reality? Is it not that in our
experience we constantly come up against that which is so contrary to the dream?
Don’t we know that the prophet’s dream was true? Don’t we know that it could
be, and should be that they would not hurt or destroy in all God’s holy mountain?
Don’t we long for and believe in the possibility and even in the ultimate reality of
the Peaceable Kingdom? Don’t we believe what that early church believed that is
recorded so vividly in the images of the Book of Revelation: the righting of all
wrongs, and the city whose center is coursed through by a river of crystal with
trees whose leaves are for the healing of the nation? Don’t we know that that is
the reality which must be, which ought to be, which should be, which could be?
Are we not people of hope because in the disparity between the reality we live and
the dream we dream, we refuse to give up the dream? It seems to me that that is
the source of that indomitable hope with which we live. So that, even though it
seems to me that the calendar, the dating, and all of that has fallen by the wayside
through just hard-nosed historical experience, I refuse to give up the dream.
I tried to think, in preparation for this morning, what can one really experience,
what can one really believe and hold on this first Sunday in another Advent? A
recent experience of mine came to mind as perhaps a parable of what this might
be. I wrote of it in the Courier recently. Three weeks ago I was in the Netherlands
in order to join in the celebration of my old professor and dear friend, Hendrikus
Berkhof, in his eightieth year. The celebration was to be on Monday but I was
able to go the Saturday before to him in the nursing home and to spend an hour
and three-quarters with him—just the two of us. And in intimate connection and
intense conversation we spoke of the past and our memories floated through the
room . . . his father, his professor, his university days, the Nazi occupation of the
Netherlands, his having to hide because of his own preaching, his coming in the
wake of the Second World War into prominence in the Netherlands with a
shaping of that theological posture of the country at that time, calling the Church
to faith and renewal, our time together, those four years when we studied
together and struggled together and wrestled with questions. We spoke of it all
and I, as it were, probed into the treasure of this dear friend of mine, trying to
wrest every last bit I could of his wisdom and his understanding, and after an
hour and three-quarters I had totally exhausted him. When he moaned a bit, I
said, “Henk, put your head down and rest awhile now.” He said, “Ja, we must
quit.”
And I took his hands and I offered a prayer, a Eucharistic prayer. The Greek word
Eucharist means thanksgiving. It was a Eucharist prayer, thanking God for the
time we shared, thanking God for the memories of which we had just spoken –
but not only memories – thanking God in those moments that this was not all,
this was not an end, that there was something more, something better, that the
best was yet to be, and in that moment there was grace, and there was the
presence of the One of whom we spoke together. At the end of my prayer which
was a bit interspersed with his “Ja . . . Ja . . .Ja,” there was his “Amen. Amen.”
© Grand Valley State University
�Come, Lord Jesus
Richard A. Rhem
Page 3
I left him and I walked the old streets of Leiden, the old haunts, the old
University Center, the Roppenberg, the canal that courses through the center,
stood on a little hump bridge and listened to the bells in that ancient building of
the twelfth century where I had gone to lectures and had my doctoral exam, stood
there in the misty, deepening darkness of that Saturday evening and let it wash
over me. And as the bells tolled from that old bell tower, I said, “Yes, the bell tolls
for him, for me, but that’s not all there is.”
It has nothing to do with calendars and dates. It has nothing to do with images
and models. It has everything to do with the deep intuition, which I believe lives
and thrives in the depths of the human being, a deep intuition that it is not the
reality, so disparate from the dream, but it is the dream that is true, the dream
that will not let us go, the dream that continues to be dreamed again and again.
And I thought to myself, having been so poignantly aware that maybe this was my
last moment with him, that it wouldn’t be the last moment at all, but that
someday, somewhere, somewhere beyond where we’ll have a thousand and a
million years in some starred galaxy, that we’ll laugh together about our shabby
dreams, and our little hopes, and our groundless fears, and the conversation will
continue as we probe the inevitable mystery of the good and gracious God.
When I cry from my heart, “Even so, Lord Jesus, come,” that’s what I mean.
© Grand Valley State University
�
https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/66c671fdf0fd67eb1013fdf16a40a00d.mp3
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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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Advent I
Scripture Text
Revelation 22:8-13, 16-21
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Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI
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1994-11-27
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Come Lord Jesus
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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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Text
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An account of the resource
A sermon given by Richard A. Rhem (Dick) on November 27, 1994 entitled "Come Lord Jesus", on the occasion of Advent I, at Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI. Scripture references: Revelation 22:8-13, 16-21.
Advent
Grace
Hope
Shalom
-
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96f798d246f377744a2c6de8e0a6482f
PDF Text
Text
Can We Be Truthful and Hopeful?
From the sermon series: Now–But Then
Text: Isaiah 9:2; I Corinthians 13:13; Luke 1:79
Richard A. Rhem
Christ Community Church
Spring Lake, Michigan
Advent III, December 17, 1995
Transcription of the spoken sermon
For just a few moments, for your meditation, think with me about Christian hope
and the question whether or not we can be both truthful and hopeful. The Church
of England, in a statement entitled, "Christian Believing," wrote this:
Christian life is an adventure, a voyage of discovery, a journey, sustained
by faith and hope toward a final and complete communion with love at the
heart of all things.
It's really a marvelous statement, obviously taking its cue from the Apostle Paul
in the 13th chapter of his first Letter to the Corinthians. The understanding of life
as an adventure, a voyage of discovery, a journey. And that voyage, that journey is
negotiated by faith and hope with a final destination, the culmination, being the
complete communion in love. And so it is by faith and hope that we move toward
the fullness of love, which is, according to this statement, at the heart of all
things. I do think that is the content of Christian hope. That at the heart of all
things, there is love, and that it is by faith, in hope, that we grasp that love in
foretaste in the confidence that the love that we experience here and there, now
and again, is but a foretaste of a final communion in love, at the heart of all
things. That is, I believe, the content of Christian hope.
But that experience is an experience that we only appropriate in the present, but
never fully realize. It is the present experience of a future reality. It is the present
vision of that which is last week in relationship to faith - you don't derive faith
from experience. You bring faith to experience. And you don't derive hope from
experience, you must bring hope to experience, because experience, sooner or
later, will defeat you badly. It is not from the observation of our human
experience that we learn to hope. Look at it; think about it for a moment. Human
experience is uneven. Human experience is unfair. Human experience is laced
with injustice, inequity. The Psalmist knew that long ago. Psalm 73 - he looked
about him and he saw the prosperity of the wicked and he was angry about that.
It seemed to him that those who were wealthy and doing just fine were reckless
and careless, while he had kept his hands and his heart clean and he was angry.
© Grand Valley State University
�Can We Be Truthful and Hopeful?
Richard A. Rhem
Page 2
He could see an injustice; he could see in human experience that something was
wrong. No, it is not on the basis of our experience that we learn to hope. It is the
gift of hope that we bring to our experience that enables us to stand and to go
through and to negotiate and to hold on. Hope is that which God gifts us with in
order to keep us dreaming, even in the darkness.
It's quite remarkable, I think. It's that which marks our human existence. We're
not locked into this present moment. By memory we can go back into the past
and taste again joys and sadness. And by our imagination we move into the future
and we can see things in another way. And in this present moment, we can find
meaning, going backwards and forwards and appropriating that which is not
present, except in hope. Someone has said that where there's life there's hope.
But, wouldn't it be more correct to say that where there's hope, there's life? And
where there is no hope, there is no life? And I think that it is precisely because we
have become so acutely aware of the gulf between what is and what might be that
much religion is a projecting into the future, the resolution of that conflict of the
present.
The biblical frame of reference is that time-line which is the framework in which
we live. How else can we human beings think than in the past, in the future,
standing in the present moment? And, as that conflict between the present reality
and that dream in the human heart became acute, I think there was the tendency
to push the resolution off into the future. And so, religion often has become a
kind of escape from the present moment. Even the doctrines of heaven and hell
and that whole future existence are the construction of those who looked at life
and said, "It isn't fair. It isn't right If anybody is in charge, if God is God, then
there must be out there some future resolution." There's always a temptation to
escape the present or to deny the present in light of a future where everything will
be settled.
But, think about it for a moment - the only way we can think is in a time-line. And
so, of course, in Advent season we remember that the one who came is coming
again and we are called to contemplate the end. But, is the end out there? Or, is
not the end right here? Is it really a matter of moving toward a future resolution
of all things or is it being able to find, in this present moment, the resolution that
comes by the experience of the presence of God, God with us? Is the coming of
Jesus the dawning of an age that will soon end? That's what they thought. Indeed,
that's what the prophet thought. The people who walk in darkness have seen a
great light, a child is given to us, all will be well. But, it wasn't well! And Luke
said, in the song of Zacharias, "You, Child, will prepare the way of the Lord in the
light according to the tender mercy of God, the light is dawning on the people
who walk in darkness." But, it didn't dawn, folks. It's 2000 years later and my
point to you this morning is that simply to say out there it will be taken care of is
to deny the reality of our present experience and to miss the presence of God here
and now. Can we be both truthful and hopeful? Is hope something that enables
me to live presently without escape, without cynicism, without despair and
© Grand Valley State University
�Can We Be Truthful and Hopeful?
Richard A. Rhem
Page 3
without denial? Can I face the present darkness, believing that it is always true in
every moment that that light will dawn upon me in the presence of the Presence
of the Lord?
You see, you come to the end of a century, as we are, and the end of a millennium,
as we are, and you always find there's that kind of apocalyptic preaching that
proclaims the End. And you're going to hear it more in the next few years as we
move toward the year 2000. The Lord is coming; the End is coming; the
Judgment is coming. I don't believe that, you see. I think that is to miss today. It
is to miss this moment. Because it is the year 2000 doesn't mean we're any closer
to any kind of consummation. I don't know about that consummation. I know the
only way these things can be spoken of is to speak about a future resolution, but
my point this morning is, if you're always hanging on that future resolution, you
will never come to peace and hope and joy and delight in this present moment.
To know Emmanuel is to know that God is with us, God is with us here and now;
God is with us in the darkness; God is with us in our health and God is with us in
our dying. God is with us in our loving and our caring. God, here and now! That's
the content of Christian hope, the fact that this process that has been underway
for billions and billions of years - is it drawing to its close at the year 2000? Will
God ring down the curtain of history? That is bad religion! That looks like some
kind of escape from the present engagement of life. God is in this process of
which we are a part, and embraces it all and goes through it all with us and gives
us that amazing capacity in the darkness to live as though the Light is about to
dawn. Hope, hope doesn't come from experience. Experience shatters hope!
Hope comes from God, and it is hope in God and it is the experience of the
presence of God, here in the darkness where we dwell in the land of the shadow of
death. Advent calls us to think about the end, but not the year 2000 or 3000 or
10,000. It calls us to speak about the end of life, the purpose of life, the meaning
of life, which is God with us. God with us.
Why do we keep on hoping? That, to me, is an amazing thing. After all these
years, we keep on hoping. After all of the wars, after all of the death and disease,
after all of the brokenness, we keep on hoping. To me, it is the best sign I know
that the hope stems from God, Who says to us there is no darkness so dark, there
is no coldness so cold, there is no storm so severe, but what I will be with you, I
will keep you, I will never let you go. That is Advent hope. It is the present
appropriation of a future consummation. Hope teamed with faith keep us moving
toward love, which is at the heart of all things. I believe that, and in that, I hope.
And in that hope, the darkness is scattered and the Light dawns, because God is
with us in the meantime. If we don't feel for something more, we'll fall for
something less. If we don't reach for something above us, we'll fall for something
below us. It is in the gift of hope that the present is transformed. And I can say in
regard to now and then, all is well. All is well.
© Grand Valley State University
�
https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/a57f0f013daf0169b661dac2081b0346.mp3
112e5eb063b89b13d4c00af80f8b9657
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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
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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>
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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
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
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KII-01_RA-0-19951217
Date
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1995-12-17
Title
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Can We Be Both Truthful and Hopeful?
Creator
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Richard A. Rhem
Publisher
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Grand Valley State University
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<a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a>
Subject
The topic of the resource
Clergy--Michigan
Reformed Church in America
Christ Community Church (Spring Lake, Mich.)
Sermons
Relation
A related resource
Richard A. Rhem - An Archive of Sermons, Prayers, Talks and Stories: http://richardrhem.org/
Language
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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
-
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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
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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
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Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives.
Contributor
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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
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Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Identifier
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RA-1-20021201
Type
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Text
Title
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Advent Prayer, 2002
Creator
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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>
Language
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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
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2002-12-01
Advent
Prayer
-
https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/3da42e40db011119c88cd9f2c256bc06.mp3
3ae2ec1de6b29dc4254513c3e48b23b0
https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/d46dcd58140ad682bd27813bbcaab207.pdf
3d60e7959b62e04bf93f9f443c72d12e
PDF Text
Text
Advent Hope: Jesus Will Bring Us All Together Again
Text: I Thessalonians 4: 14; 5: 9-10
Richard A. Rhem
Christ Community Church
Spring Lake, Michigan
Advent II, December 7, 1986
Transcription of the spoken sermon
My soul doth magnify the, Lord.
Our Advent hope is that deep assurance in our heart that Jesus Christ will bring
us all together again. The biblical word is clear that our hope is sure, that we shall
be redeemed, not only in this our present life, but through death into life eternal.
We shall be together with the Lord. Not only together with the Lord, one to one,
but all together, all together with the Lord – all together in the brightness of His
eternal presence. That is the Christian hope; that is the Advent hope.
Paul brings together very intimately the relationship of the coming again of Jesus
and the realization of that final hope of the Christian Church. In this Letter to the
Thessalonians, which was perhaps the earliest letter that we have from Paul, we
have him dealing to a great extent with the coming again of Jesus. Paul must have
gone through that ancient world with such passion and intensity focused on the
event of Jesus, his life, his death, his resurrection, and his coming again, that he
put his hearers on tinder hooks, as it were. He got his congregation to sit on the
edge of their seats, to catch their breath, and to study the skies to wait for a rift in
the clouds and the appearance of Jesus Christ. We know that, after writing this
first letter, which must have reflected what he had preached to them, he had to
write them a second letter which said to them, "Now wait a minute. It's good to
get excited about these things, but a real part of life is also business as usual. So,
don't quit your jobs, don't file for your Social Security, don't collect your pensions
yet, don't take that world cruise on your life insurance. Keep working and waiting
and watching and be alert. Jesus is coming, but in the meantime, be responsible
and be active in your Christian life." He had to write to them to correct a sense of
expectancy that was causing them to let go in the immediate expectation of all of
this to happen.
Paul didn't know what was going to happen, and he didn't know when it was
going to happen - he simply believed that something would happen that would
involve the appearance of Jesus who had been here, crucified and risen, and
which would involve, as well, the summing up of all of history. We have to
© Grand Valley State University
�Advent Hope: Jesus Will Bring Us All Together
Richard A. Rhem
Page 2
restructure what Paul said because we don't believe in the physical universe like
Paul understood it. Heaven was up, earth was in the middle, hell was down - a
three-story universe. The ups and downs of Paul are not the beyonds of the
physical universe as we know it. We know that Paul shared with the early Church
that sense of the imminent return of Jesus Christ, but we certainly cannot, after
2,000 years, continue to hold our breath. And it really doesn't work for us to try
to whip up some kind of emotion, to psych ourselves up so we can recapture that
sense of the imminent coming of Jesus.
I was reflecting on that myself. The Advent season - I'm really thankful for the
return of the season. It becomes increasingly meaningful for me to celebrate this
season because I am confronted again these weeks with the cry, "Come, Lord
Jesus." And our prayer this morning said something to the effect that our hymn is
our prayer - "Come, thou long-expected Jesus." And yet, good friends, to be
honest, most of us live most of our days without really thinking very much about
that or anticipating that or praying for that, let alone longing for that. It was
different in the wake of the life and death and resurrection of Jesus. It was
different in that first century when Paul had a sense of all of this now coming to
its fruition, believing that the resurrection of all the saints would follow
immediately on the resurrection of Jesus. He spoke of the resurrection of Jesus as
the first fruits, and the first fruits are the first grain ripened of the harvest, but
the whole harvest follows immediately. And surely it would have boggled Paul's
mind if he would have had any sense that some 2,000 years later we would be
taking his word and looking for the same event.
The whole structure of the universe, the whole understanding of the scheme of
the time calendar of the events of the redemption, all of that needs to be
renegotiated. We really need not to stumble over the fact that Paul expected Jesus
immediately, and it's been 2,000 years, or that he expected him to come from
above, even though we know there is no above or below - all of that is structuring
and symbolism. The only kinds of tools and equipment that were available to
speak about these mysteries need to be retranslated and reinterpreted in our own
experience, and I don't really know how to do that.
It's not terribly important, if we continue to focus on the message and the essence
of the matter. Paul was saying to Christians at Thessalonica, "Jesus, who has
come, is coming again, and when he comes again, those whom you have loved
and lost a while, will be with him, and you will be joined with them and together
with him you will live in the brightness of his presence forever." That's the Advent
hope. That is that toward which Christian hope is focused.
The reason that Paul gave us the immediate paragraph of our scripture lesson is
that, when a loved one died before Jesus returned, there was a fear in the hearts
of family and friend that those who were dying were going to miss out. It was as
though you have to keep alive and breathing until he comes, or you'll miss the
grand event. Paul writes this in order to put those fears to rest.
© Grand Valley State University
�Advent Hope: Jesus Will Bring Us All Together
Richard A. Rhem
Page 3
But we would not have you ignorant, brethren, concerning those who are
asleep, that you may not grieve as others do who have no hope.
(I Thessalonians 4:13)
The word for death there, sleep, was common usage. It was simply a euphemism.
It is interesting that Paul does use another word for Jesus' death when he says,
For since we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so, through
Jesus, God will bring with him those who have fallen asleep.
(I Thessalonians 4:14)
as though what Jesus endured, which was real death, enduring all of the
consequence of all of the darkness of all of the ages, and that sense of
forsakenness which he went through - Jesus died so that we would not die, but
rather, fall asleep. And his point is simply this. I write in order that you won't be
ignorant of these things. Those who fall asleep before he comes will not be at any
disadvantage over against those who are alive and present when he appears. Paul
was simply saying that whether we are alive or whether we have died, there will
come a point sometime in the future when we will all be gathered into the
presence of the Lord. In the 10th verse of that fifth chapter, toward the end of the
passage we read,
He died for us so that we, awake or asleep, living or dead, might live in
company with him.
The Advent hope is that Jesus will bring us all together again. And so, in this
Advent Season, the second Sunday in Advent, let me set before you this biblical
truth, which I believe is the great source of our comfort, and let me say to you
that there is a communion of the saints with Jesus Christ which is not touched by
death. There is a communion of the saints with Jesus Christ that is not touched
by death.
Philosophers have studied the human situation, and some very profound and
reflective spirits have said that the whole question of death is in the depths of our
psyche, the ultimate question that we face. We all know that we will all die, and
we will all, at some time or other, experience the loss, the death, of one dear to us,
so death is a subject that is very urgent in the human experience. The Christian
Gospel has something to say about death. What it says about death is that it is not
very significant. I repeat, what it says about death is that death is not very
significant.
I've not faced death, and I run a certain risk in making a statement like that. I
remember when I was a student, I did a little meditation at a hymn sing after
church on Sunday night. Those were the days in which I had all the answers, and
didn't understand the questions. What they should have done for the good of the
church was lock me up for five or six years and let me steep a bit. But I made this
grand proclamation about death holding no fear for us, and I remember a very
© Grand Valley State University
�Advent Hope: Jesus Will Bring Us All Together
Richard A. Rhem
Page 4
saintly Christian lady coming up to me at the seminary that next week and saying
to me, "My father was a godly man and he died a horrible death." That's all she
said. That's all she needed to say, because I may have been dumb, but I'm not
stupid. She said to me, "Be more sensitive when you talk about death." And so,
when I say to you that what the scriptures say about death is that it is not very
important, I say that knowing that I haven't faced death, knowing that some of
you have, and also knowing that I have buried a father and a mother who were
very dear, but both in their eighties after a full and rich life. With those
qualifications, let me say again that what the Christian Gospel says about death is
that it is not very important. Paul does admit that it is still the last enemy, but as I
have been reflecting on that in this Advent season once again, I am struck by the
Christian affirmation about the relativization of death.
There is a communion with Jesus Christ now and then, which is not affected by
our death, except that our death becomes the doorway through which we move
into a grander dimension of that communion. And we need to say that in our day
which has been blessed by medical science and by technological breakthroughs
that have enabled us to enhance life and, in many cases, prolong life. We need to
say that also in a day when keeping a body alive has become a task of heroic
dimensions. Death is not that important! And the prolongation of physical life in
this world is not that important. There is one thing that is preeminently
important, and that is that now I am in communion with God through Jesus
Christ, which binds me together with all brothers and sisters who are in Christ,
and which communion will not be touched but only enhanced as I move through
the portal of death. I want to say that with conviction and with some compassion,
even with some sensitivity.
The will to live is a God-given, wholesome, natural will and force. And the desire
to enhance human life and to prolong human life, I believe, is a proper response
to all that we know about the nature of life as it comes from the hand of God. But
I also believe that, in a world that has become an increasingly this-worldly, onelevel universe, materialistic in its goals and in its strivings, and so largely
disconnected from the spiritual reality which is the depth of our being - then I
need to say, also, that death is not very important! And that it is possible, by
laying hold of the comfort of the Gospel and the Advent hope of our Lord Jesus
Christ, to contemplate it with some equanimity and to face it with serenity.
If I stand at your bedside and you are terminally ill and you're afraid, I hope
you'll be able to share that with me, and that what I am saying this morning will
not add to fear or guilt because you may not be able to die easily, but nonetheless,
I have to say what I am saying this morning because it is the Christian Gospel and
it is true. When we lose someone we love, the loss is ours. When we are separated
from one who is dear, the pain is ours. And when we weep, we are in good
company because Jesus wept at the tomb of Lazarus, when he saw the pain that
death brings into the human scene. But finally if we hear the Gospel, death is not
that important. It is not that big a deal. Paul says that Jesus Christ died for us so
© Grand Valley State University
�Advent Hope: Jesus Will Bring Us All Together
Richard A. Rhem
Page 5
that whether we sleep or wake, we may be in company with him. That means,
whether I am dead or alive, I am in communion with him; that means whether I
am dead or alive, I am alive forever more. That means that the depths of my
being is fully alive and fully in tune and in touch with the Creator and Redeemer
of my being, whether I am dead or alive in this present, physical, historical sense.
The communion of the saints in the ancient creed spoke about that fellowship
that transcends death and all ages and all places, and makes us one with all the
people of God who have ever lived, all together, in the presence of God.
I have been reading a good deal about the experiences of those who have had
these near-death experiences and even, frankly, some psychical material. It is
most fascinating, and I am convinced that I to this point in my life have been very
shortsighted, and have tapped only superficially the depth of the comfort of the
Gospel that promises to us a communion and a fellowship in the body and out of
the body. There is more to us than these corpuscles and molecules that make up
our physical existence. And Jesus Christ, who died and rose again, will bring us
together with him when all things come to their consummation, however that
happens, whenever that happens. There will be a summing up of all things, and
when it happens, maybe some will be alive, and most will have died, but it won't
make any difference, for that communion is untouched, real life is not touched by
the portals of death, which is as normal on that end as birth is on this end. This
old proving ground that we're engaged in now, this earthly pilgrimage, this veil of
tears, this life that some of the cynics have characterized as being "no exit," as a
bad joke - all of this life which we believe is that time in which our own being is
being refined and prepared for the eternal fellowship - this life will be swallowed
up in life that is Life, indeed. That's the Advent hope. And those we've loved and
lost awhile are close to us, and more available to us than I've ever dared to
believe.
I've been thinking of my own father and mother recently and I read of a great
Christian Scotsman, Ian McClaren, whose mother said to him, as she was dying,
"There'll not be a day that I won't think of you, nor an hour in which I won't pray
for you, and where I'm going, I'll know better what to pray for than ever before."
The communion of the saints. Why do we give up? Why do we bury someone and
consider that it's all over and it's done? Why do we look for our own death
sometimes with fear and trembling, when – if we really, really believed the
Gospel and believed the eternal God and the promises that in communion with
Him through Jesus Christ we have life in another dimension, which can only be
clarified and made more grand with that movement through the limitations of
time and space and bodily existence – moving through death to life, that is Life
indeed.
Our Advent hope is that Jesus will bring us all together again. Our Advent hope is
that nothing that is true or beautiful or good will fall away, that all of that will be
gathered together and refined into the perfect kingdom of God, which is the
© Grand Valley State University
�Advent Hope: Jesus Will Bring Us All Together
Richard A. Rhem
Page 6
complete rule of God in the totality of things. And one day we'll all be together in
the presence of the Lord. At the risk again of sounding superficial or naive, let me
say it to you again. Death is no big deal. For Jesus is our life, whether we sleep or
whether we're awake, now and forever. That is our Advent hope. Thank God he
has come! Thank God he will come! Thank God he is with us now!
Let us pray. O God, these are the things that we most deeply believe. Enable us to
lay hold of the Advent hope, and to live with the comfort of the Gospel, the
comfort of His coming, and give us the sense, O God, of a communion and a
fellowship that transcends every barrier, even death itself, making us one with all
who are yours in the fellowship of Your Kingdom. Through Jesus Christ, our
Lord, Amen.
© Grand Valley State University
�
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Richard A. Rhem Collection
Description
An account of the resource
Text and sound recordings of the sermons, prayers, services, and articles of Richard Rhem, pastor emeritus of Christ Community Church in Spring Lake, Michigan, where he served for 37 years. Starting in the mid 1980's, Rhem began to question some of the traditional Christian dogma that he had been espousing from the pulpit. That questioning was a first step in a long and interesting spiritual journey, one that he openly shared with his congregation. His journey is important, in part because it is reflective of the questioning, the yearnings, and the gradual revision of beliefs that many persons in this part of the century have experienced and continue to experience. It is important also because of the affirming and inclusive way his questioning was done and his thinking evolved. His sermons and other written and spoken materials together document the steps in his journey as it took a turn in 1985, yet continued to revolve around the framework and liturgies of the Christian calendar.
Subject
The topic of the resource
Clergy--Michigan
Reformed Church in America
Christ Community Church (Spring Lake, Mich.)
Religion
Interfaith worship
Sermons
Sound Recordings
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Rhem, Richard A.
Source
A related resource from which the described resource is derived
<a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/514">Richard A. Rhem papers (KII-01)</a>
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives.
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
Kaufman Interfaith Institute
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
<a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a>
Language
A language of the resource
English
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Sound
Text
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
KII-01
Coverage
The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant
1981-2014
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
audio/mp3
text/pdf
Sound
A resource primarily intended to be heard. Examples include a music playback file format, an audio compact disc, and recorded speech or sounds.
Event
Advent II
Scripture Text
I Thessalonians 4:14, 5:9, 10
Location
The location of the interview
Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
KII-01_RA-0-19861207
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1986-12-07
Title
A name given to the resource
Advent Hope: Jesus Will Bring Us All Together Again
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
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
audio/mp3
application/pdf
Description
An account of the resource
A sermon given by Richard A. Rhem (Dick) on December 7, 1986 entitled "Advent Hope: Jesus Will Bring Us All Together Again", on the occasion of Advent II, at Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI. Scripture references: I Thessalonians 4:14, 5:9, 10.
Advent
Communion of the Saints
Eschatology
Hope
Presence of God
-
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
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1994-12-01
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Advent Eucharist Prayer 1994
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Richard A. Rhem
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eng
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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.
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Advent
Eucharist
Prayer
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https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/89a765b4fa5daa2da2923097d60335f6.mp3
40ad615155dda5505c3292c2259d0cd2
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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
© Grand Valley State University
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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
© Grand Valley State University
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Richard A. Rhem
Page 3
kind of a God is revealed from the Christmas mystery? Think with me this
morning about A Tale of Three Cities as we reflect on world history, its course,
and perhaps its culmination.
Three Cities: Rome, obviously, the seat of imperial power, a city still today
magnificent as evidenced by its ruins. Rome, who ruled the world as the ancient
world had never been ruled before, ruled by the most powerful empire that the
world had known. The Roman Empire. The Roman Emperor. Imperial Rome, on
top of the world, its empire stretched far and wide, and it held peoples and tribes
in subjection. It was the occupying power at the time of the birth of Jesus.
Luke tells us the story of Jesus in reference to Caesar Augustus, for it was Caesar
Augustus who proclaimed an edict that all the world should be taxed, and that
was the way by which Luke brought Mary and Joseph to Bethlehem for the birth
of Jesus. But, here in this far out province, the lives of people are implicated by
the decree of an imperial ruler who lives in Rome.
Roman law, Roman order - it was a great civilization. There was much to
commend it. It was, perhaps, the finest human arrangement in terms of
government and rule and the ordering of society. Rome, famous for its law,
famous for the magnificent civilization that arose under its aegis. Rome was an
empire not without its own dreams and ideals. After Julius Caesar was
assassinated, there ensued a fifteen-year civil war, a civil war which was bloody,
indeed, but which culminated finally with Octavian coming to Rome in 29 before
Christ as the sole ruler. Before that, the Roman poet, Virgil, had written in his
Fourth Eclogue a tribute to Augustus, Caesar Augustus, who was one declared, on
his birth, as a savior, as a son of God. In 1890, in Asia Minor in a little village,
there was an inscription found, “To Augustus as the Son of God, the Savior of the
World.” Virgil had dreamed about the birth of one who would bring the world
peace, and the Roman world began its new year, subsequently, on the 23th of
September, which was the birth of Octavian who became Caesar Augustus. So,
the Roman calendar was gathered around the birth of this one who was
purported to be son of God. He was the great nephew of Julius Caesar. Julius
Caesar had been elevated to deity. This one was understood as son of God, and
the word savior was applied to him. And so, in 29 before Christ, there is one on
the seat of authority in the Roman empire, one who is understood as son of God,
Savior, a bringer of peace and wholeness to the brokenness of the world.
As I say, Rome, this gigantic empire, was not without its integrity, it was not
without its idealism, it was not without its dream, and yet, it was the super power
of the day and it was committed, above all, to the perpetuation of its preeminence
and power. And so, when it came down to it, it may have a man of peace on the
throne and, incidentally, the first official act of Caesar Augustus was to close the
Temple of Janus, the double-faced god of war, and he dedicated a gigantic altar to
peace, the Augustan Altar of Peace. So, again, it is not as though this people was
without its ideal, its hope and its dream. It is not as though the Roman hierarchy
© Grand Valley State University
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Richard A. Rhem
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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.
© Grand Valley State University
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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
�A Tale of Three Cities
Richard A. Rhem
Page 6
Micah speaks of Bethlehem, “Least of the tribes of Judah.” Little Bethlehem, from
you will come a ruler and he will be a shepherd to his people, be a man of peace.
Now, you can feel it coming. This is the typical sermon cant. This is the naive
preacher’s talk, because Rome will be overthrown and Jerusalem will be
devastated, but the one who comes out of the poverty and the obscurity of
Bethlehem will be established as the Lord of Lords and the King of Kings. And
yet, that Christmas miracle reveals a God who comes out of the most unexpected
place, and in the most unexpected way, a God who is embodied and reflected in a
human face and, for God’s sake, as a child.
But, do you see what I am trying to put before you? The paradox of the God
reflected in the mirror of Christmas? The God reflected in the mirror of
Christmas is not the God of Revelation’s almighty triumph. The God reflected in
the Christmas mirror is a God of vulnerability, born as a child, become a man,
crucified for God’s sake, crucified violently by the power structures, the human
power structures of this world. The Christmas mirror reflects a God who is
vulnerable, whose supreme revelation is in a human face and in the form of a
child, because the revelation of Christmas at its heart is that human, historical
arrangements will not finally prevail. They will prevail and prevail and persist
and persist, but finally, they all come to nothing. And so, I talk naive preacher
talk this morning, because we all know that finally, it is a power game. Finally,
you can have humanitarian concerns, but the bottom line is still military might
enforcing our will, preserving our position, and yet - Christmas is about a God
who can be crucified, God embodied in a child. And you see, I am aware of how
naive is this talk.
But, remember – Rome fell. Because no matter how strong you are, no matter
how many legions, no matter how many swords, there comes a point in the
human story when you tire of trying to preserve a position of preeminence. There
comes a time in the human story when people worry, weary of protecting
themselves and projecting themselves. There comes a time when every great
power finally fades, sometimes in devastating fashion. And in the meantime,
people have been consumed with the power game, with the preservation of
preeminence and the perpetuation of position. And so, dear friends, 2001. We
have fought the totalitarianism of Fascism under Hitler’s regime and prevailed,
we have outlasted the Communist experiment under the USSR and we have
prevailed, and we are engaged now in a war which will not be won by military
might. We know that, don’t we? And we are a people who are at the top of our
game and we know no people has ever stayed there. And from that third city,
Bethlehem, came one who was like a shepherd, who was a man of peace, and that
really is what Christmas reveals about the nature of God. God is love. Love can be
crucified. Love is vulnerable. Love is patient and kind. And love never fails. Every
other strategy finally will fail. Christmas reveals the God who will prevail –
because love never fails – but who is the opposite of all of our human domination
systems.
© Grand Valley State University
�A Tale of Three Cities
Richard A. Rhem
Page 7
I’d like to have sent you out with a cozy little Christmas message this morning.
Forgive me for that. But, there is enough for you to think about here to disrupt
your whole Advent season.
© Grand Valley State University
�
Dublin Core
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Richard A. Rhem Collection
Description
An account of the resource
Text and sound recordings of the sermons, prayers, services, and articles of Richard Rhem, pastor emeritus of Christ Community Church in Spring Lake, Michigan, where he served for 37 years. Starting in the mid 1980's, Rhem began to question some of the traditional Christian dogma that he had been espousing from the pulpit. That questioning was a first step in a long and interesting spiritual journey, one that he openly shared with his congregation. His journey is important, in part because it is reflective of the questioning, the yearnings, and the gradual revision of beliefs that many persons in this part of the century have experienced and continue to experience. It is important also because of the affirming and inclusive way his questioning was done and his thinking evolved. His sermons and other written and spoken materials together document the steps in his journey as it took a turn in 1985, yet continued to revolve around the framework and liturgies of the Christian calendar.
Subject
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Clergy--Michigan
Reformed Church in America
Christ Community Church (Spring Lake, Mich.)
Religion
Interfaith worship
Sermons
Sound Recordings
Creator
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Rhem, Richard A.
Source
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<a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/514">Richard A. Rhem papers (KII-01)</a>
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Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives.
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Kaufman Interfaith Institute
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English
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KII-01
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1981-2014
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audio/mp3
text/pdf
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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
Location
The location of the interview
Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI
Dublin Core
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KII-01_RA-0-20011209
Date
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2001-12-09
Title
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A Tale of Three Cities
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
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Sound
Text
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audio/mp3
application/pdf
Description
An account of the resource
A sermon given by Richard A. Rhem (Dick) on December 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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https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/e47f89aecad3ff2f122dd65210985108.pdf
178abf2b8ef5b8d34919c89b876537a5
PDF Text
Text
A Larger Hope
From the series: Memory and Hope
Micah 5:1-5; Luke 4:16-30
Richard A. Rhem
Christ Community Church
Spring Lake, Michigan
Advent IV, December 19, 1999
Transcription of the spoken sermon
Advent is a time of contemplation, reflection, and preparation - preparation for
what? For the future, surely, but what future? A future in this world and this
present age, or a future in another reality, in heaven? The Kingdom of God - is it a
present reality and experience, or is it a future state? Advent is a time of
remembering, for we have our minds focused on the coming celebration of
Christmas and thus on our founding story as Christians - But, Advent is a time of
expectation - a time of waiting and the biblical sense of waiting is waiting in hope.
The biblical story is a story about God's engagement in history past and the
promise of God's action in history future. History is the ongoing story between
God's action, past, and God's action, future. That is the biblical notion. In
traditional biblical and liturgical terms, we are in the time between the times - the
past coming of God in our flesh and the future appearing of the one who came,
coming now to judge and bring all things to their consummation.
Year after year, the same story - The child was given; the King is coming. And it is
quite a lovely story that is lodged deeply in our hearts and overflowing with
affectional memories as well as filling us with hope and confidence - It is a story
that enables us to negotiate the passages of our lives in this world, speaking to us
of another world. The story originates in another realm and culminates likewise
in another realm.
We speak of God's salvation and, while that is a present experience, its real
significance is the promise of eternal life beyond the limits of our earthly journey.
Salvation becomes a very personal matter. We hear much about having Jesus
Christ as our personal savior, the one who came to die for us in order to make
possible God's forgiveness and eventual entrance into heaven.
© Grand Valley State University
�A Larger Hope
Richard A. Rhem
Page 2
Now I'm speaking about Advent and Christmas in traditional terms. I could have
you open the hymnbook and over and over again I could demonstrate the
primary focus of our Christian faith as we have learned it.
God so loved the world that God gave the son - Born a child of Mary, to live for us
and die for us and bring us to heaven. Annually we are immersed in the story of
one born a child who became a King - a King who will be coming in blinding glory
to judge and rule and bring us to heaven. I'm not really telling you anything new.
This is the old, old story. God's gift of Jesus, our savior, to take away our sins and
open heaven's gates.
And what about this in-between time, this time between his first coming and his
coming again? Well, it is a time for the Gospel to be preached, a time to offer the
salvation God has provided through Jesus' death and resurrection.
The story is about a spiritual Kingdom, about salvation, about heaven. There are
present responsibilities - to preach the Gospel, to work for human well-being,
acts of charity and the alleviation of suffering. But, essentially, there is no hope
for this old world, this present age, this earthly reality of which we are a part. The
world is simply reeling toward hell. It will be destroyed; we must be saved out of
the world.
But, what if we get it wrong? What if we missed the point of Jesus? What if we
made a religious cult out of what Jesus intended as a revolutionary movement of
world transformation? What if we got all bogged down with sin and guilt and
threat of damnation when Jesus was about social, economic and spiritual
transformation?
Let me read a description of the world. See if you recognize it.
... a world where dreams of limitless material wealth and technological progress
danced in the heads of the great entrepreneurs and in the rhetoric of ambitious
politicians - and where the looming nightmares of family breakdown, crime,
sudden loss of livelihood, and untreated and untreatable illnesses plagued the
minds of the vast majority. It was, in short, a world that should seem ominously
familiar - in which sweeping social and economic change was embraced by some
and condemned by others, dramatically transforming the life of all the empire's
people, from the wealthiest nobles in their palaces to the poorest shepherds
wandering with their flocks in the hills. This is becoming increasingly clear
because modern scholars have at last begun to explore the vast area covered by
the rule and civilization of the Caesars to search for the life styles of both the rich
and famous and the far larger, yet mostly hidden, world of the Roman havenots,
peasants, plebians, and slaves.
Richard Horsley, The Message and the Kingdom, p. 2F. As this citation begins,
one might think one is reading a description of life at the end of the 20th Century,
© Grand Valley State University
�A Larger Hope
Richard A. Rhem
Page 3
but it is, as becomes clear, a description of the Roman Empire at the time of
Jesus' life in the occupied land of Israel.
Through archeological exploration and cross-cultural studies we are
gaining a wealth of information about the ancient world of Jesus' time and
beginning to understand the poverty and suffering of the lower classes
which formed the vast majority of the population. Occupied by a foreign
power, exploited by the imperial rule through taxation and land
appropriation, there was a brewing cauldron of frustration and anger. And,
where was god? What if the promises of prophets of a new creation, of a
time of prosperity and peace - the shalom of the peaceable Kingdom when
swords and spears would be changed into implements of agriculture?
Where was God? When would this awful suffering cease?
Is it not a natural human question and normal human response? Why, O Lord,
why? How long, O God, how long?" Well, one answer - a common one found in
the Hebrew prophets was that Israel was suffering for its sin. That is how
Jeremiah explained the Babylonian Exile. I could cite passage after passage from
the prophetic book - You have sinned; God is punishing. But, why should the
righteous suffer? Another solution must be found. And thus the rise of the idea
that the world was in the grip of an evil power. For the time being, God was
allowing Satan to hold sway creating havoc in history, the suffering that was
everywhere. But God would not always remain passive. God would act. God
would intervene.
This was the origin of Apocalypticism - Apocalypse - meaning "unveiling" or
"revelation." God would intervene in history; God's judgment and grace would be
unveiled or revealed. In the cauldron of suffering and discontent, there was the
feverish expectation of the exploited and suffering masses when John the Baptist
preached. And John was not the only one. There was a widespread anticipation of
God's dramatic intervention to destroy the evil one and all the agents of
oppression and darkness and the vindication and salvation of the suffering
righteous.
We noted John's preaching of the coming Kingdom in the last sermon - God
would wreak vengeance on the enemies and oppressors of God's people, whether
foreign agents or native collaborators. This was the angry God of Isaiah 34, a God
whose cup of wrath was filled up, ready to overflow in burning judgment.
Jesus came to John to be baptized. Jesus was caught up in the Baptist movement,
himself baptizing down the river a piece. After a time, he distanced himself from
John and his preaching took on a different note - a grace note.
There is a wonderful debate going on in the circle of historical Jesus scholarship
as to whether Jesus was an apocalyptic prophet like John or not. We will have
that issue debated here next March when Dom Crossan and Amy-Jill Levine
discuss Jesus' life, death, and resurrection. But, whether or to what degree Jesus
© Grand Valley State University
�A Larger Hope
Richard A. Rhem
Page 4
was part of the apocalyptic expectation, this would seem to be certain - Jesus was
dealing with earth, not heaven, this life, not some life to come, concrete, down to
earth human existence, not some spiritual Kingdom in another dimension.
Jesus left John the Baptist because he pointed to an alternative vision of God and
called for an alternative community. Luke writes his Gospel with an opening
scene of Jesus' ministry in which he announces what he is about.
The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring
good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives
and recovering of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, to
proclaim the year of the Lord's favor.
John's hope was an apocalyptic hope of imminent judgment and salvation from
beyond. For Jesus, that was a hope too narrow. I used the word tribal last week.
Religion tends to become tribal - our God looking after our well-being and
destroying our enemies. God on our side. God favoring and saving us. God giving
us the truth, the way to salvation: others need not apply.
For Jesus, that was a hope too narrow. Jesus embodied a larger hope. In his
home synagogue in Nazareth, they were not happy with the expansiveness of his
vision and hope. He pointed to an Elijah story where the Sidonian widow was
provided for in famine, and the Elisha story where the Syrian Naaman was healed
of his leprosy, thus pointing to the broader swath of God's care and concern. The
hometown folk were not happy about God's wider grace and their anger rose
against Jesus.
Jesus lived by and offered a larger hope from which no one was excluded. There
were no outcasts in Jesus' purview. He pointed to a God whose grace was of
expansive embrace.
But, the grace he offered was the grace that created human dignity and worth to
people who had lost their dignity and all hope. The Kingdom is in the midst of
you, he told them. This is the year of the Lord's favor. To the poor, the blind and
the lame, he brought the Good News of God's presence and called the people to
care for one another.
This was an appeal to the traditional covenantal life of Isaiah, to community of
mutual respect and care.
And the life to which Jesus called the people was revolutionary in its impact. He
touched the anger, frustration and despair of the people, but in a positive way of
giving them dignity and solidarity before their oppressors - the covenant ideal of
Israel where God was King alone and the people lived in covenant community.
That was Jesus' larger hope - a hope that embraced all.
© Grand Valley State University
�A Larger Hope
Richard A. Rhem
Page 5
This was the Kingdom that was already present for Jesus, in the towns and
villages, if only people recognized its sanctity and reoriented their community
accordingly - They were poor, oppressed, fragmented. They were disoriented and
dislocated. They had lost hope and they forgot how to live in community. Jesus
called them to remember who they were and to reclaim their lives as children of
God. He called for an alternative community, an alternative society.
Jesus was not a revolutionary of the type that was certainly present -the guerilla
bands that roamed the Palestinian hills, the Zealots that pressed for armed
conflict against Rome - and eventually in revolt brought out the legions of Rome
that destroyed Jewishness in 70 C.E.
But Jesus was revolutionary in calling for the transformation of human society.
This is why he was proved too dangerous to let live. This is why he was crucified.
That he was revolutionary has been proved in our own time by those who learned
civil disobedience from him.
First of all, people must be given a sense of themselves - their dignity and worth
as human beings, as children of God. Then they can resist, non-violently, passive
resistance, civil disobedience, Gandhi, Martin Luther King, the South African
Black Church - all examples of Jesus' Way.
Jesus was not tribal. He had not a hope too narrow. Jesus had a larger hope for
human transformation in this down-to-earth concrete reality of history. Jesus
gave people hope for the transformation of their life here and now.
That is a striking fact. Do you at all sense how revolutionary and radical that is? It
should give us pause.
Who is Caesar? Who is Herod? Who are the Priests and Sanhedrin? Who has the
legions and the swords?
Who are the poor whom Jesus called to awareness of their human dignity and
thus to their birthright as children of God?
How are we doing as the Millennium turns? We are the rich and powerful. Jesus
was engaged with concrete human social, economic, and religious conditions.
Then, can we honestly make him into a savior of a spiritual Kingdom whose issue
is heaven?
Wherein lies the hope for the world? Will it not call for transformation - social,
political, economic? The world could be transformed - what if the vision was
caught not by the poor and powerless, but by the rich and famous?
I can't think about it too long and hard. I would have to change. Better simply to
go once more to Bethlehem and see him as God's gift to save us from our sins and
bring us to heaven - And forget about what he was really about.
© Grand Valley State University
�A Larger Hope
Richard A. Rhem
© Grand Valley State University
Page 6
�
https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/ef97da966eca29767cef3f84008e9752.mp3
dab6cf4bdefc5177b69f3adcc2fdbe2a
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Richard A. Rhem Collection
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An account of the resource
Text and sound recordings of the sermons, prayers, services, and articles of Richard Rhem, pastor emeritus of Christ Community Church in Spring Lake, Michigan, where he served for 37 years. Starting in the mid 1980's, Rhem began to question some of the traditional Christian dogma that he had been espousing from the pulpit. That questioning was a first step in a long and interesting spiritual journey, one that he openly shared with his congregation. His journey is important, in part because it is reflective of the questioning, the yearnings, and the gradual revision of beliefs that many persons in this part of the century have experienced and continue to experience. It is important also because of the affirming and inclusive way his questioning was done and his thinking evolved. His sermons and other written and spoken materials together document the steps in his journey as it took a turn in 1985, yet continued to revolve around the framework and liturgies of the Christian calendar.
Subject
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Clergy--Michigan
Reformed Church in America
Christ Community Church (Spring Lake, Mich.)
Religion
Interfaith worship
Sermons
Sound Recordings
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Rhem, Richard A.
Source
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<a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/514">Richard A. Rhem papers (KII-01)</a>
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Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives.
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Kaufman Interfaith Institute
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English
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KII-01
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1981-2014
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audio/mp3
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Event
Advent IV
Series
Memory and Hope
Scripture Text
Micah 5:1-5, Luke 4:16-30
Location
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Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI
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KII-01_RA-0-19991220
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1999-12-20
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A Larger Hope
Creator
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Richard A. Rhem
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Grand Valley State University
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<a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a>
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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 20, 1999 entitled "A Larger Hope", as part of the series "Memory and Hope", on the occasion of Advent IV, at Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI. Scripture references: Micah 5:1-5, Luke 4:16-30.
Advent
Community of Grace
Inclusive Grace
Transformation
-
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eaaca59c6b5ee71ae2f424f5009e636b
PDF Text
Text
A Hope Too Narrow
From the series: Memory and Hope
Text: Isaiah 35:4; Matthew 3:12
Richard A. Rhem
Christ Community Church
Spring Lake, Michigan
Advent III, December 12, 1999
Transcription of the spoken sermon
Have you noticed how you might hear of a person or a region or perhaps discuss a
disease, you've never heard of them before, you had no knowledge of them, and
the next day you go out and you see the same thing referred to and within the
next few days you find that particular new piece of information everywhere? It's
not as though it suddenly came to expression, but simply because you suddenly
had an awareness, your attention was called to a certain phenomenon and then
you began to see it everywhere. You had a fresh awareness that caused the filter
of your mind to take in that piece of data and to register it. It's a common human
experience, and I have found that to be the case as I have reflected on the larger
religious scene and, more specifically, the Christian tradition and the Christian
church. It continues to impress me, startle me, and amaze me how narrow is the
hope of the Christian church. I want to suggest to you today that the Christian
church has traditionally had a hope too narrow and, that being the case, it is not
true simply for Christian faith, but I come to see more and more that it is an
aspect of religion itself.
Ironically, religion doesn't always make us very nice people. Religion can bring
out the worst in us and can feed the baser nature, which is a part of our human
creaturehood, and so this morning I had you open your Bibles to that section in
Isaiah to see the contrast between Isaiah 34 and 35. I didn't intend to do that,
frankly, until I got studying the whole thing. I was going to simply use 35; it's a
wonderful passage. However, there is one verse in there, verse four, which
contrasts the blessing of God for Zion, for God's people over against the
vengeance with which God will come to judge the rest. But, as I was studying and
I read Chapter 34 before, I said, "Oh, my goodness! What a picture!"
Did it shock you just a bit? Did you know that that was in there, this chapter
about the vengeance of God, the furious God, the God who is furious with the
nations, who is going to come to judge the nations, whose sword is sated with
blood? The judgment scene of the devastation of the nations and specifically of
Edom.
© Grand Valley State University
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Edom was a neighboring tribe, a neighboring people, and perhaps you will
remember that Edom comes from Esau so that what we have is the old rivalry
between Jacob and Esau, the rivalry between the brothers and, of course, no one
gets our vengeance more than those who are closest to us. So, what we have in
Isaiah 34 is a picture of a coming devastating judgment on the nations about
Judah, and in Chapter 35, the restoration of Judah and the desert blossoming as
a rose. Some phrases out of Chapter 35 you have seen on greetings cards,
Christian greetings cards - streams in the desert, for example. How many
sympathy cards haven't you seen with the last phrase that I read, that time "when
all sorrow and sighing will flee away"? Chapter thirty-five is magnificent in the
images that it portrays for the people of faith; it is as wonderful as chapter 34 is
terrible in that awful judgment that is depicted for all of those who are not the
people of God, Zion, Jerusalem.
As I see that contrast, I see something that, unfortunately, I am seeing
everywhere and that is the tendency of religion to polarize people, the tendency of
religion to become tribal. Tribal religion. Now, we don't face that fact very often
because we say, "Well, the Bible begins 'in the beginning God created the heavens
and the earth.' We're talking about the one true God, the creator of all," and so
forth. And to be sure, there is a complex tapestry that makes up the Hebrew
Scriptures as well as the New Testament documents. There is not a one-party
line, there is not a consistent witness, and so next week I'll take a couple of
passages that will show that larger hope. But this morning I want simply to call to
your attention that aspect of religion that tends to hold a hope too narrow. That
tendency of religion, in all kinds of religious communities and in all kinds of
religious traditions, to become tribal, to put it bluntly in a word, the tendency of
too much religion that tends to hope for God to lift one up and damn one's foes,
tribal religion which can become very violent and which shapes an unsavory
human character.
Bad religion is really bad stuff because it is so powerful, because it is so potent,
because its claim is that it puts one in touch with God, because its claim is that it
gives one truths that are absolute, and therefore that will justify almost any kind
of human action in the name of that God and that absolute truth.
That kind of religion is alive and well in our world today, and in this Advent
season as the millennium is about to turn, we have an added emphasis on that
end time drama. You'll hear from various angles in various forms, that kind of
religious faith set forth that says this is the way to salvation, and either says
explicitly or leaves for you to draw your own conclusion that, for all the rest, there
is condemnation, eternal suffering, torment, and darkness. That's tribal religion.
That is religion with a hope too narrow and there is something in the human
person, it seems, an insecurity and a fearfulness that tends to make us vulnerable
to that kind of message that will secure us over against the others, that will
convince us that we have the absolute truth and the corner on the truth and the
only way of salvation. The violence of Isaiah 34 can be duplicated throughout the
© Grand Valley State University
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Hebrew scriptures, to say nothing of the Book of Revelation which you had wellexpounded to you last week, that apocalyptic frame of mind that so permeated
the century before Christ and into the first century, that apocalyptic frame of
mind that was expecting the end of the world and was hoping for the judgment of
God to fall on all of the rest.
I can understand how it comes about. You have a little people like Judah, just a
little tribal people and they're the pawn of the power brokers from Egypt up to
Assyria to Babylon. You have them as this pawn in the power plays of the great
empires; they are occupied, abused and oppressed, and the most natural reaction
in the world for the human creature is anger, frustration, and finally the crying
out for vengeance. It’s all in the book and it is expressive of a tribal religion, of a
tribal God, my God, not the God of my enemies, the kind of religion that divides
the world into my kind of people and all of the rest, the kind of religion that
wants God to lift us high and damn our foes.
I call it to your attention because it's so alive and well in our day. As I began,
sometimes you become aware of something and then you see it everywhere, and I
have to say that, having been in this business all of my life, which is a long time
now, I have become increasingly aware of the tribal nature of much religious and
especially Christian expression in the media, newspapers and journals. Then,
being somewhat masochistic, I tune into late night evangelical television. Now,
it's not exactly the kind of thing that soothes me and puts me to sleep, but the
thing that concerns me is that those who are the true believers cough up the kind
of funds that keep this kind of mentality and this sort of spirit alive and well so
that it almost seems to me that the public expression, the broadcast expression of
Christian faith is permeated with more of the spirit of Isaiah 34, or if that's too
strong for you, consider John the Baptist.
Now, John's situation was different. John wasn't talking about "us" and "them."
John was talking about us and those of you within the circle, the religious
leadership whom John condemned in strong terms. But, the spirit is the same.
John the Baptist breathes fire. John the Baptist speaks about a God who is
violent, a God who will come with vengeance, a God who will square the accounts
with a wicked world, and it is a God that cannot be squared with the God and
father of our Lord Jesus Christ. It is the kind of religious message that betrays
what we really believe about the grace of God and the love of God. If it is true that
Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life, if it is true, as Jesus says according to
John's gospel, "If you've seen me, you've seen the father," you're talking about
another kind of God than the God of Isaiah 34, and you're talking about a God of
quite another spirit than the God of John the Baptist. I've gone through that more
than once here. Jesus distanced himself from John the Baptist, distanced himself
from the ministry of John, the ministry of fire and judgment, and, if you want the
starkest contrast reflective of Jesus over against this other mentality, then just
remember him in the anguish of crucifixion praying, "Father, forgive them for
they know not what they do." There was an awareness in Jesus of a God who was
© Grand Valley State University
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Richard A. Rhem
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beyond the tribal gods, and at this time of the year, in the lines of George
McDonald,
They all were looking for a King
To kill their foes and lift them high.
Thou cam'st a little baby thing
That made a woman cry.
I wonder why it is that there is such a tendency to hold on to the spirit of John the
Baptist rather than to see through the eyes of Jesus the totally different
understanding of God, a God full of grace, the God of whom John wrote, "God is
love, and those that dwell in love dwell in God and God abides in them." Why is it
that so much of religion even to our day is marked by the kind of arrogance that
says we have the truth and the whole truth and there is not truth or salvation any
other way? Why is it, in spite of the possibility of the experience of other
traditions, there is still in our day such a shrill note sounded about the exclusivity
of Jesus Christ? Why does what I find in Jesus Christ, why is it in any way
diminished if that is not the only way?
I know from personal experience the difference in my whole demeanor, in my
whole being, having moved from an exclusivist position with a God of vengeance
whose vengeance would never have come on me, of course, but always on the
other; I know the difference it makes to live with a larger hope.
Why is it that so much of religion lives with the hope too narrow, shaping people
with a spirit bristling, on edge, condemnatory, afraid, defensive? Why have we
not been able to see that so much of religion is focused on a tribal God rather
than on the God and father of our Lord Jesus Christ? Why can we not see that no
understanding of God is worthy that doesn't understand that God will not rest
until all God's children are home, because God loves all and embraces all and has
come to us so wonderfully in the vulnerability of the child that should give us a
clue from the beginning that it is not by domination, coercion, and
condemnation, but by the embodiment of grace that God is best served. Only
such will keep us from living with a hope too narrow.
© Grand Valley State University
�
https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/58322d63d5e461ed39770445a48efe9a.mp3
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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.
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Kaufman Interfaith Institute
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<a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a>
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English
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KII-01
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1981-2014
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audio/mp3
text/pdf
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A resource primarily intended to be heard. Examples include a music playback file format, an audio compact disc, and recorded speech or sounds.
Event
Advent III
Series
Memory and Hope
Scripture Text
Isaiah 35:4, Matthew 3:12
Location
The location of the interview
Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI
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KII-01_RA-0-19991212
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1999-12-12
Title
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A Hope Too Narrow
Creator
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Richard A. Rhem
Publisher
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Grand Valley State University
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<a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a>
Subject
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Clergy--Michigan
Reformed Church in America
Christ Community Church (Spring Lake, Mich.)
Sermons
Relation
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Richard A. Rhem - An Archive of Sermons, Prayers, Talks and Stories: http://richardrhem.org/
Language
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eng
Type
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 12, 1999 entitled "A Hope Too Narrow", as part of the series "Memory and Hope", on the occasion of Advent III, at Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI. Scripture references: Isaiah 35:4, Matthew 3:12.
Advent
Grace
Inclusive
-
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PDF Text
Text
God in the Mirror of Christmas: A Child
Advent IV
Scripture: Hebrews 11-4; Luke 2:1-7
Richard A. Rhem
Christ Community Church
Spring Lake, Michigan
December 23, 2001
Transcription of the spoken sermon
The thing that I want to say to you this morning is really quite simple. I broached
the subject last week; it is the realization on my part of that tension within the
New Testament between the Christmas story and what it mirrors about God, and
the post-Easter biblical material that speaks of the triumph and the reign and the
coming again of Jesus with power to reign and to judge. As I indicated last week,
I have lived with that tension for years and years and I never recognized the
tension. It never struck me that to speak about the one who came in poverty and
humility and then to speak about that one who came as coming again with the
splendor of royal power was giving me two pictures of God, two mirrors.
It was reflecting God in two contrasting ways: the mirror of Christmas, that is the
mirror of the God with the human face– the God who is in the manger as a child
in all of the vulnerability and all of the beauty of that moment which we will
celebrate again tomorrow evening – and the God of the rest of the New
Testament is the same old God, the same almighty, omnipotent God who is in
control, the God who at the right moment will send the Son and the Son will
come in glory and splendor with power to reign and to judge, and there will be
the vindication of the righteous and there will be vengeance on the wicked. That
whole judgment scene of the God in control, the sovereign Lord of history, that
picture of the New Testament is strung throughout the whole New Testament,
and if you want to read it in all of its bare horror, read the book of Revelation.
That picture is in contrast to what the Christmas story mirrors about the nature
of God.
Last week we read in John's Gospel, "In the beginning was the divine intention,
and the divine intention became flesh and dwelt among us. No one has ever seen
God but the son has revealed God." Or Paul's statement "We have seen the light
of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ." Or the statement
from the Epistle to the Hebrews that I read a moment ago, where how could it be
more explicit? Jesus is spoken of as the Son who is the exact image of God, the
reflection of the exact nature of God. That's the Christmas story, and what God is
mirrored as being in the Christmas story is a God of vulnerability and ultimately,
© Grand Valley State University
�God in the Mirror of Christmas: A Child
Richard A. Rhem
Page 2
finally, a God of love. Christmas is about heaven touching earth with love.
Christmas mirrors a God who moves by love to persuade, but never coerce, for
the child that is the central focus of this Christmas season is a child with all of the
wonder of a child, dependent, vulnerable, beautiful, innocent, harmless - there is
a picture of God.
But that stands in such sharp contrast to the revelation of God in the rest of the
story, almost as if Christmas happened and the life of Jesus happened, Jesus of
the Sermon on the Mount, counseling compassion over against the good and the
evil, the righteous and the unrighteous as reflective of God's attitude and spirit.
Jesus of the parable of the Good Samaritan, Jesus of the parable of the Prodigal
Son, Jesus - all those stories of the God who draws near, the God who is full of
grace, the God who is accessible, the God who is approachable. Jesus of Passion
Week who goes right into Jerusalem and speaks his truth to power and is
crucified for it, not resisting. Resisting only violent response, praying finally for
his enemies, "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do”– that Jesus
gets jettisoned on Easter, and from there on the Christian story and the Christian
Church has become one triumphalistic procession down through the centuries,
waiting for that one who came in humility and vulnerability, to come in smashing
glory.
How could I preach for years and years and years and not feel that contradiction?
And which God do we choose? Well, of course, we choose the God who raised
Jesus from the dead. Of course we choose the God who will bring history to its
culmination point. Of course we will choose the God who has time in his hand,
who will call the shots, who will send the Son in clouds of glory to judge the quick
and the dead, finally to reign. Of course, that's the God we will choose, the God
we can worship. That’s the God we can be secure with, that's the God who can set
things right.
And what happens to the God of the child? What happens to the God mirrored at
Christmas? What happens to the God with a human face? We talked about that
last week, but I want to say this week one further insight on this whole week, and
that is that, in spite of the fact that we have moved too quickly from Christmas, in
spite of the fact that we pray, "Come, Lord Jesus," nonetheless, every year we
come back to Christmas. We can't forget it. We can't get it out of our system. We
can't get it out of our bones. Every year we come back to this moment. Every year
we begin to experience the magic and the wonder of Christmas. Every year we
come again to bow before the manger that holds the child, and every year it
happens again. We all know it. There is no question about it. The world is a softer
place this weekend. The world is a softer place at Christmastime. The tear flows,
the lump in the throat, the old carols stir something deep within us. The simple
and beautiful story told again moves us.
I've already celebrated Christmas because I have gone through a couple of
rehearsals for the early service for tomorrow night. So, I know the baby gets born
© Grand Valley State University
�God in the Mirror of Christmas: A Child
Richard A. Rhem
Page 3
again, a real-live baby cries, and as I stood as one of the narrators for the story,
being beautifully portrayed by our lovely young dancers and our shepherds, and
Mary and Joseph, as I saw it again yesterday, I was cognizant myself of the fact
that it does move you again. It happens again. It's a lovely story. It's a story that
reaches the deepest part of the human being, and we come back to it every year,
and it's the same old story but it's new every year and it moves us every year, and
we celebrate every year, and we rejoice in it every year, and I want to submit to
you that we do that because it has gotten into the marrow of our bones and we
know intuitively that that story is the ultimate truth. We know that the love that
came down at Christmas reflects the grain of the universe, the truth deep down in
things.
You see, most of the rest of the year, we don't live that way. Most of the rest of the
year, we simply get caught up in all of the power games and all of the power
structures, political life, economic life, social life. We move away from Christmas
and we forget the radicality of the vision that we have seen. But, for just a little
while, we remember and it touches us because it is true. It is the final truth. And
there is that within us that knows it is the final truth. Jesus is our window to God.
Jesus isn't the only window to God. Jesus isn't everybody's window to God, but
Jesus is our window to God.
I appreciate the fact that a dozen or so of you sent me the last page of Time
magazine, the essay by Rosenblatt entitled, "God Is Not On Your Side Nor On My
Side." I like the fact that so many of you thought of me when you read it, because
it tells me that you are listening and that you identify with me with that kind of
idea. I appreciate that fact. But, Jesus is our window, and I want to tell you, Jesus
is a radical window. Jesus is a magnificent window. Jesus is a window on God
that is so profound and so magnificent, that we ought not to miss it. It is so easy
to take it for granted because it is the old, old story and we know the story so well,
and how could we ever find anything new in it, and then one sits back for a
moment, and says, "My God! Do you realize what that story is telling me about
God?" It is radical! It is revolutionary! It is so radical and revolutionary that the
world hasn't been able to deal with it yet.
Our old world is rocking with war again and I am sure the reason that this Advent
season I was not able to live with the contradiction without at least lifting it up
was the fact of current events, what is going on in our world. That often happens.
One has an old story, an old tradition, and suddenly something happens to you or
something happens in the world, and one sees something that was always there
and one didn't see it at all! Suddenly I see it everywhere now. I see what the
future, if there is to be a future, I see what it has to be. It has to be a world that is
posited on the nature of God reflected in Bethlehem, in Jesus.
That is hardly the way we have lived, even though in the West Jesus has been our
window. That’s hardly the way we have lived. It's dangerous to live that way. It
can put your national security in jeopardy, of course. But, you see, in this old
© Grand Valley State University
�God in the Mirror of Christmas: A Child
Richard A. Rhem
Page 4
world of ours, after 9-11, it has become apparent to us what has long been true,
and that is that there is no ultimate security through power or might or force of
arms.
It would be political suicide for our national leaders without talking about
securing this nation, but this nation is not secure, and given the technology of our
world today, given where we are in our world today, it will never be secure again.
It will never be secure in a world where there are those who are dispirited and
despairing and hopeless and helpless and alienated and angry and full of rage –
never be secure again. And so, what we really have to do is find out another way
to be in this world, because power isn't going to do it. It just might be that, while
we're number one, it might be the smartest, most savvy thing in the world for us
to begin to create a new one world reality. You see, right now, the way it has been,
might, force, power has ruled, and the international game is a vast chess game,
and those analysts of international affairs plot out those chess moves. We should
do this, they'll do that, and if we do this, we can checkmate at this point, because
it's a power game, it's a game about winning, or at least not losing. And it isn't
going to work anymore.
Our world is rocking with war and there is no security and down deep in our
hearts, we know, and we keep coming back to Christmas every year and we're
moved by it Our eyes moisten again, we get a lump in our throat again, our hearts
are softened again. You can feel it on the street, because down deep we know
that's true, and we try to get on with life according to the only way life can be
survivable, right?
Well, one wonders. We come back and we're touched, because that is the deepest
truth and, if that is the deepest truth, I wonder when we're going to try it Let me
tell you about a savvy move we made in that chess game. You know it, too; it's
been in the news. You know that we funded Osama bin Laden. You know that we
funded and gave arms to the Taliban, right? As long as they were fighting the
Soviet Union. And why did we do that? Simply because we didn't like the Soviet
Union? We are smart. We knew if we could get the Soviet Union to have our own
Vietnam, it would suck the life blood and resources right out of them. We'd bring
them to their knees. And, by God, we did it. There are those among our leaders
right now who were responsible for that policy, who are defending it, and I'm
sure there are some of you out there who would say that was a good move,
because the Soviet Union was brought to its knees. Didn't President Reagan call it
"the evil empire"? Ah, dear friends, as long as we're in that kind of a game, we will
be trying to save our necks, we will be trying to defend our borders, we will be
trying to perpetuate the preeminence of our position, and it's a no-win game,
ultimately.
You know the problem with the American people? We're a good people at the
pinnacle of power, and Christmas has seeped into the marrow of our bones. If we
could just use our power in any brutal and violent fashion, we could shape this
© Grand Valley State University
�God in the Mirror of Christmas: A Child
Richard A. Rhem
Page 5
world up. You wouldn't have to pray. You wouldn't have to ask for God's blessing.
You wouldn't have to pray "God bless America." Just turn our resources loose
with no moral qualms, with no ethical consideration, just bomb 'em, baby. Bomb
them into submission. We have the stuff, folks. We could do it.
But, we can't do it, because we have Christmas in the marrow of our bones. We
have been touched by Jesus. We've seen God in the face of a child, and once
you've seen God in the face of a child, you just can't go on being a mean S.O.B.
anymore. That's our dilemma. A good people at the pinnacle of power who know
the ultimate truth, but haven't quite dared to live by it yet. Maybe this year.
© Grand Valley State University
�
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Richard A. Rhem Collection
Description
An account of the resource
Text and sound recordings of the sermons, prayers, services, and articles of Richard Rhem, pastor emeritus of Christ Community Church in Spring Lake, Michigan, where he served for 37 years. Starting in the mid 1980's, Rhem began to question some of the traditional Christian dogma that he had been espousing from the pulpit. That questioning was a first step in a long and interesting spiritual journey, one that he openly shared with his congregation. His journey is important, in part because it is reflective of the questioning, the yearnings, and the gradual revision of beliefs that many persons in this part of the century have experienced and continue to experience. It is important also because of the affirming and inclusive way his questioning was done and his thinking evolved. His sermons and other written and spoken materials together document the steps in his journey as it took a turn in 1985, yet continued to revolve around the framework and liturgies of the Christian calendar.
Subject
The topic of the resource
Clergy--Michigan
Reformed Church in America
Christ Community Church (Spring Lake, Mich.)
Religion
Interfaith worship
Sermons
Sound Recordings
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Rhem, Richard A.
Source
A related resource from which the described resource is derived
<a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/514">Richard A. Rhem papers (KII-01)</a>
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives.
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
Kaufman Interfaith Institute
Rights
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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 IV
Series
God in the Mirror of Christmas
Scripture Text
Hebrews 1:1-4, Luke 2:1-7
Location
The location of the interview
Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
KII-01_RA-0-20011223
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2001-12-23
Title
A name given to the resource
A Child
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Richard A. Rhem
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
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
audio/mp3
application/pdf
Description
An account of the resource
A sermon given by Richard A. Rhem (Dick) on December 23, 2001 entitled "A Child", as part of the series "God in the Mirror of Christmas", on the occasion of Advent IV, at Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI. Scripture references: Hebrews 1:1-4, Luke 2:1-7.
Advent
Divine Intention
Incarnation
Pluralism