1
12
1
-
https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/3beaea8e4177efca51fe3639d4e03cd7.mp3
a9b639ee202efa59b3154fd63d5dfc03
https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/a2b89b74740616688e08cc3d9836e321.pdf
8c031b1a084e9e240797f7a092ca06c1
PDF Text
Text
The Hopes and Fears of All the Years
Text: Isaiah 7:14; Matthew 1:23
Richard A. Rhem
Christ Community Church
Spring Lake, Michigan
Advent, December 14, 1986
Transcription of the spoken sermon
…Behold, a young woman shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name
Immanuel. Isaiah 7:14
…his name shall be called Immanuel (which means God with us). Matthew 1:23
The great Boston preacher of the 19th Century, Phillips Brooks, wrote the carol,
"O Little Town of Bethlehem," in 1868 for the children of his parish to sing in
their Sunday School Christmas program. It has become a favorite. It was as I was
reflecting on the course of the Christian era over centuries past that the phrase
from Brooks' carol came to mind The hopes and fears of all the years are met in thee tonight.
In that small Judean village a child was born and the carol's author sensed well
the biblical witness regarding that birth; it was the pivot point of history.
Hopes and fears - a rather good description of the alternating moods of our lives,
our corporate existence in the community of nations, our family life, our
individual lives. Living in hope of some desired event or resolution; living in fear
of some dread result.
The hopes and fears of all the years came to sharp focus in Bethlehem: The hope
that life has purpose and meaning, that it is going somewhere, that our toil and
tears, our suffering and sadness will not be to no avail, ending in emptiness or
nothingness. Fearing that we may not hold on, that our best efforts and worst
sins may end in a morass of meaninglessness.
Tracing the history of Western Civilization from the sixth and seventh centuries
to the present has been an interesting and helpful study. One cannot help but
sense the ebb and flow of historical tides; one cannot help but realize how shortsighted we are in our quick reaction to events of the immediate present. No doubt
© Grand Valley State University
�The Hopes and Fears of All the Years
Richard A. Rhem
Page 2
that is exaggerated in our day because of the instant news coverage of everything
that happens around the globe. There is such a bombardment of facts and
opinions fastened on the immediate that one gets a skewed sense of things. There
is little historical perspective and sober reflection on the larger patterns of
history.
We get a sense of the super importance of the present and we are overly
impressed with one moment on the canvas of history. We lose the sense of being
linked in the larger chain of beings and we lose perspective on that which
ultimately matters.
NBC may be the first to scoop the events breaking in Washington, but they were
not there in Bethlehem. If they had been, you can bet their camera would have
been at Herod's court or Jerusalem and Tom Brokaw would probably have
remained in Rome at the Imperial residence. Yet in the dark stillness of
Bethlehem streets the hopes and fears of all the years were focused.
It was not an easy world then. It was in quite as much turmoil then as now. That
part of the world has been an open wound on the earth's surface for centuries.
Rome was the occupying force. The period of history is part of the Pax Romana,
the Roman peace; it was, however, a peace enforced by Roman legions, an
enforced peace - certainly not the biblical shalom. Herod was the puppet ruler by
the grace of Rome and he was jealous for his power and the perpetuation of his
kingdom. Paranoia broke out with a vengeance following the visit of the Magi
who spoke of the appearance of a star which foretold the birth of royalty.
Male children two years and under were massacred by Herod's order just in case
it might be true that one had been born who would lay claim to Herod's throne.
Can you imagine the brutality of that world? Can you imagine the fears with
which a mother raised a child in that time?
Yet even in that brutal age with no press corps to keep a monarch honest, there
were serious, reflective spirits who yearned for something better - hopes were
present even in the world of pagan Rome. Hans Küng reports that
In the year 42 or 41 before Jesus' birth, at the beginning of the fifteenth
year of grievous civil war following on the murder of Caesar, the Roman
poet Virgil in his famous Fourth Eclogue announced the birth of a world
savior. Was this an expression of hope in Caesar's great nephew and
adopted son, Octavius and his house? In any case, when Octavius finally
returned to Rome in the year 29, as sole ruler, after the victory over
Antony and Cleopatra, his first official act was to close the temple of Janus,
the double-faced god of war.
And "Augustus divi Felius" – "son of the divine one" (of Caesar elevated
after his death to be a state god), translated in the Greek East as "Son of
God" – did everything possible to realize the hopes nourished by Virgil of
© Grand Valley State University
�The Hopes and Fears of All the Years
Richard A. Rhem
Page 3
the Utopia of an imminent reign of peace; Pax Romana, Pax Augusta,
sealed with the consecration of the gigantic Ara Paces Augustae, the
Augustan altar of peace, in the year 9 B.C.. In the same year (according to
the famous inscription found in 1890 in Priene in Asia Minor and later
elsewhere) the "gospel" (evangelion, "good news") of the birthday of the
"Saviour" and "God" who had now appeared - Caesar Augustus - was
proclaimed in the East to the whole world: the savior who had brought to
the broken world new life, happiness, peace, fulfillment of ancestral hopes,
salvation. (On Being a Christian, p. 438)
Was not that ancient world as weary as our own of the interminable conflict, war,
suffering and death that has been history's hallmark from the beginning?
In Isaiah's time it was little different than our own. The Old Testament lesson
reports the international crisis, the intrigue, the maneuvering for position that
occurred in the Eighth Century B.C.
The year was 734 B.C. On the world horizon, a great Empire was forming and its
massive power was becoming a threat to all its neighboring peoples. That empire
was Assyria, whose King was Tiglath-Pileser. The smaller neighboring peoples
began to confer together. If they united, perhaps they could resist the Assyrian
power.
There was Syria whose capital was Damascus and whose King was Rezin. There
was Israel, the Northern Kingdom, whose capital was Samaria and whose King
was Pekah.
They formed an alliance and urged their neighbor to the South, Judah, whose
King was Ahaz, to join with them. But Ahaz was not ready to join. He, too, knew
Assyria was growing in might and influence, but he feared that joining such an
alliance would provoke the Assyrians and goad them into an attack. Thus, he
rejected the offer of Israel and Syria who, in turn, felt they could ill afford to have
their southern flank exposed and decided, consequently, that they would move
forcibly against Judah and put a puppet king on the throne. They marched
against Jerusalem and King Ahaz and his people tumbled. Jerusalem was
besieged and Ahaz was terrified.
It seemed he had but two options — yield and join the alliance against Assyria, or
appeal directly to Tiglath-Pileser, the Assyrian King, which would make him a
vassal of Assyria.
A third option never occurred to him: to stand firm and trust God. That, however,
was precisely the counsel of the prophet Isaiah. God's word through the prophet
was:
Be on your guard, keep calm; do not be frightened or unmanned by these
two smoldering stumps of firewood… (Isaiah 7:4)
© Grand Valley State University
�The Hopes and Fears of All the Years
Richard A. Rhem
Page 4
Although they were determined to bring Jerusalem to its knees, the prophet's
word was clear:
This shall not happen now, and never shall…
Have firm faith, or you will not stand firm. (7:96).
Ahaz was a practical man. Talk of standing firm and trusting God was foreign to
him. He did not really want to hear Isaiah's word. And so God's word came a
second time. This time Isaiah went a step further, offering a sign if the King
desired.
Ask the Lord your God for a sign, from lowest scheol or from highest
heaven. (7:11)
And the world lives under a cloud of fear, driven to the brink of hopelessness, yet
always hoping, as well, that some conference or summit might yet produce peace
on earth.
Isaiah's word to Ahaz was trust God for, beyond Damascus and Samaria and
Assyria, beyond the kings and rulers of the earth, the Sovereign of history is
working His purposes out. And as a sign that that is indeed the case, a child will
be born and named Immanuel. That sign was not lost on Matthew reporting the
birth narrative of Jesus.
In Matthew's narrative of the birth of Jesus, he cites this Isaiah passage, seeing
the child Jesus as the ultimate expression of the truth that God is with us. After
telling of Joseph's dream in which he was told of Mary's child, Matthew writes:
All this happened in order to fulfill what the Lord declared through the
prophet: The virgin will conceive and bear a son, and he shall be called
Emmanuel, a name which means ‘God is with us.’
Isaiah's statement did not say anything about a virgin bearing a child. The
Hebrew word for virgin was not used and the word used refers to a young woman
of marriageable age. Matthew definitely uses the passage to support a virginal
birth, but he adds that. It is not in Isaiah. It is not our purpose in this message to
deal with the question of the Virgin Birth, but I only point out here that in the Old
Testament context there is no reference to a virgin birth. The sign is a child of
natural birth whose presence points to the presence of God; whose name says it:
Immanuel, God with us.
And this is important for Matthew, too. If you stop to think about it, Jesus was
named Jesus, not Immanuel. Jesus means Saviour. His name was sign-ificant.
But Matthew is not concerned that he was not specifically named Immanuel, but
only that he be understood as being a sign of God's presence.
© Grand Valley State University
�The Hopes and Fears of All the Years
Richard A. Rhem
Page 5
If a child born in Judah in the days of King Ahaz sign-ified God with us, then
Matthew says the final and fullest sign of that truth has occurred in the birth of
the child Jesus.
Matthew wrote a Gospel. That is, Matthew wrote Good News. The Good News is
that God is with his people. The Gospel is the story of God's action for his people
in Jesus.
The Gospel begins with his birth - Immanuel. The Gospel ends with Jesus' word,
"I am with you always, to the end of time."
That is no coincidence. Matthew brackets the good news with the fundamental
truth of God's presence with his people.
A child is born whose sign-ificance is "God is with us." The child grows, becomes
a man, proclaims the Kingdom, is crucified, resurrected and leaves our spacetime world with the words his name sign-ified, "I am with you always." (Matt.
28:20).
Ahaz was not interested. The fact was he did not believe in the preserving power
of God. But he did not want to admit that and so he covered up his unbelief with a
clever bit of false piety. He said,
No, I will not put the Lord to the test by asking for a sign. (7:12)
Isaiah was not fooled by this apparent piety about not putting God to the test.
Rather, he was exasperated. He set the record straight:
Listen, House of David, are you not content to wear out men’s patience?
Must you also wear out the patience of my God? Therefore the Lord
Himself shall give you a sign. (7: 13-14)
And herewith comes the familiar promise associated so indelibly in our minds
with the much later birth of Jesus.
A young woman is with child, and she will bear a son and will call him
Immanuel. (7:14b)
In Hebrew that name means "God with us." Who bore the child and who the child
was, we do not know. A Jewish tradition says the child was born to Ahaz's wife
and was Hezekiah, Ahaz's son, who succeeded him. That, however, is not
important. The point of the sign is simply this; a child would soon be born and
before that child was weaned or in a period of two to three years, the Syrian and
Israelite powers that were presently ringing Jerusalem would themselves be
decimated and destroyed. Because of his lack of faith, Ahaz would not enjoy
peace and prosperity, but at least at this juncture, Jerusalem and Judah would be
spared. The hostile nations would come to misfortune. They need not be feared.
© Grand Valley State University
�The Hopes and Fears of All the Years
Richard A. Rhem
Page 6
And every time Ahaz looked on the child he would be reminded that the God Who
is for His people is the God Who is with His people.
That is the Gospel; that is good news.
Ahaz rejected the sign. He followed his own judgment, which was disastrous. He
appealed to Tiglath-Pileser and the Assyrian King happily responded, moved in
and reduced Judah to a vassal state. Isaiah denounced the action and predicted
that Ahaz had opened the floodgates to an Assyrian takeover, which, indeed, he
had.
Such is the historical context in which Isaiah's word about the sign of a child
whose name was Immanuel was spoken.
We could change the names of the nations and the leaders and we might be
reading the history of the late twentieth century. The Iranian Arms Deal has filled
our news for a month now. Only short years after the devastation worked by the
fundamentalist revolution in Iran, we are negotiating with Khomeini. Israel,
whose existence is not granted by the Arab powers, becomes the middle man in a
game of international intrigue that siphons off the profits of arms sale to an
adversary to support a revolution in Central America. Our administration argues
the necessity of such negotiation because Iran is so crucial in the larger chess
game between the super powers whose nuclear arsenals are aimed at each other.
We celebrate another Advent. We live in a world with good cause for fear - more
cause than Ahaz or even Phillips Brooks dreamed of; we live in a world whose
technology has been perfected to a point where we can explode this planet.
Yet we are a people of hope. Our world has been the recipient of a sign, the sign of
a child whose sign-ificance is "God with us." We live in hope because we trust in
God. In God, not in Washington, or Moscow, or Geneva.
We do not despise the efforts of world leaders; we rather encourage their efforts
and pray for their success. Yet, we know the world has not changed much. Still
pride of nation, lust for power, drivenness of ego despoils the world. No human
solution will save us; we need the intervention of God.
In the sign of a child we have the assurance of his presence with us. He has come
to us; He will come to us in history's consummation; He is with us.
How we wish God would mount a bulldozer and flatten every obstacle and
remove every obstruction to his Kingdom purposes. But that is not his way. He
comes with all the force of a hint, with rumor of angels, with the vulnerability of a
child.
© Grand Valley State University
�The Hopes and Fears of All the Years
Richard A. Rhem
Page 7
It is Advent again. It is not easy to believe. Yet the choice confronts us: Will we
live in hope, keeping the vision, or, in bleak despair? Will we give in to fear, to
bitterness and cynicism?
Advent is a season to lift up our eyes, to await with expectation the coming of the
God Who came to us in a child and promises a day when every knee will bow and
every tongue confess that the child has become the Lord, the Sovereign of
Nations, the Prince of Peace.
Emmanuel – God with us – the promise of God coming to us, the promise of a
day when the Kingdom of this world will become the Kingdom of our God and of
his Christ.
Even so, come, Lord Jesus!
© Grand Valley State University
�
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Richard A. Rhem Collection
Description
An account of the resource
Text and sound recordings of the sermons, prayers, services, and articles of Richard Rhem, pastor emeritus of Christ Community Church in Spring Lake, Michigan, where he served for 37 years. Starting in the mid 1980's, Rhem began to question some of the traditional Christian dogma that he had been espousing from the pulpit. That questioning was a first step in a long and interesting spiritual journey, one that he openly shared with his congregation. His journey is important, in part because it is reflective of the questioning, the yearnings, and the gradual revision of beliefs that many persons in this part of the century have experienced and continue to experience. It is important also because of the affirming and inclusive way his questioning was done and his thinking evolved. His sermons and other written and spoken materials together document the steps in his journey as it took a turn in 1985, yet continued to revolve around the framework and liturgies of the Christian calendar.
Subject
The topic of the resource
Clergy--Michigan
Reformed Church in America
Christ Community Church (Spring Lake, Mich.)
Religion
Interfaith worship
Sermons
Sound Recordings
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Rhem, Richard A.
Source
A related resource from which the described resource is derived
<a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/514">Richard A. Rhem papers (KII-01)</a>
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives.
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
Kaufman Interfaith Institute
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
<a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a>
Language
A language of the resource
English
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Sound
Text
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
KII-01
Coverage
The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant
1981-2014
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
audio/mp3
text/pdf
Sound
A resource primarily intended to be heard. Examples include a music playback file format, an audio compact disc, and recorded speech or sounds.
Event
Advent III
Scripture Text
Isaiah 7: 14, Matthew 1:23
Location
The location of the interview
Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
KII-01_RA-0-19861214
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1986-12-14
Title
A name given to the resource
The Hopes and Fears of All the Years
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 14, 1986 entitled "The Hopes and Fears of All the Years", on the occasion of Advent III, at Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI. Scripture references: Isaiah 7: 14, Matthew 1:23.
Advent
Birth of Jesus
History of Israel
Hope
Meaning
Presence of God
Prophet
War