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Following in His Steps
From the Lenten sermon series: The Human Face of God
Text: I Peter 2:21
Richard A. Rhem
Christ Community Church
Spring Lake, Michigan
Lent III, March 22, 1987
Transcription of the spoken sermon
Christ suffered on your behalf, and thereby left you an example; it is for
you to follow in His steps. I Peter 2:21
God was in Christ, reconciling the world to himself. That profound and
mysterious statement from the Apostle Paul sums up very much the focus of this
season, as we look at the human face of God by focusing on the face of Jesus
Christ. God was in Christ, reconciling the world to himself. That is the mystery of
our salvation. And we noted last week that it was Jesus' intention from the
beginning, from the dawning of his own consciousness, of his own calling fully to
follow the will of God. His was an intentional obedience. It was an intentional
obedience throughout the days of his life, and his death was simply the
consequence of the life that he lived.
And so, the life becomes a pattern for those who would follow him, for those who
would in our day become contemporary disciples. The shape of contemporary
discipleship is something that each of us must determine for his own life. The
shape of contemporary discipleship will not be the same for us all, for we are not
the clones of Jesus, but we are called to follow Jesus. We are called to follow
Jesus, living out the vision with which our own lives are stirred and fascinated,
and only when we're living out of our own vision will we have the inward strength
and the power to live truly according to those best insights and that highest
calling that we have sensed as our lives have been exposed to Jesus, who brings
us to God. And this morning the text from that first letter of Peter, the second
chapter in the 21st verse, where Peter tells us that Jesus had given us an example
He suffered for us, giving us an example that we should follow in his steps.
Following Jesus is our theme this morning. Following in his steps. That word
from Peter inspired a nineteenth-century preacher, Charles Sheldon, to write a
little book which has been published and republished and republished. It's called
In His Steps. Many of you have read it. If you haven't read it, you ought to read it,
even though it has all of the odors of the nineteenth century and is definitely a
© Grand Valley State University
�Following in His Steps
Richard A. Rhem
Page 2
time piece; nonetheless, the impact of its message continues to come through
very powerfully.
A rather sophisticated pastor in a rather sophisticated congregation on Saturday
was busily engaged in his sermon preparation for Sunday, when a poor,
malnourished beggar appeared at his door seeking help. And of course, the
pastor, having in mind all of his people on Sunday and his heavy responsibility,
was unable to respond to the need, and turned him away. And he preached about
following Jesus that next Sunday morning, when the man, at the conclusion of
the message, appeared in the sanctuary and raised the question, in his rags, in his
pitiable condition, "I wonder what it means to follow Jesus?"
And, of course, the pastor, not being totally lost, felt the impact and the guilt of
his own neglect and called for those who would join with him in a new adventure
of discipleship and a band of disciples in that congregation began a year's
experiment in which they determined in their work and in their play, in their
community life, in their family life, in the totality of their lives they would do
nothing, make no decision before they asked the question, "What would Jesus
do?" And the story narrated in the book is the story of a community transformed
by a band of people asking that question and responding as best they could
answer it.
A college president getting involved in municipal election, dealing with a blight in
the community; a corporate executive, discovering corruption in the corporation,
exposing it and resigning rather than being a part of it; the newspaper editor
changing the perspective with which news was reported. Great opposition was
engendered, obviously, but transformation happened, as well, because there was
a band of people who began to ask, in every situation of life, "What would Jesus
do?" And the inspiration for that, of course, was our text, “Christ has given you an
example that you should follow in his steps.”
Following Jesus. Ernie Campbell, a former pastor of Riverside Church in NYC,
wrote an article a few years ago based on a sermon that he had preached,
"Following Jesus or Believing in Christ," and he made an interesting point, that
when he was a young person in communicant's class, the question that was asked
by the Elders of the church was whether he believed in Christ. And when he
declared himself to be a candidate for ministry, the question was asked him, Do
you believe in Christ? And when he was ordained to the ministry, the question
was asked, Do you believe in Christ? And every time he was installed in another
congregation, the question was asked, Do you believe in Christ? And the answer
always was, Absolutely, yes, with all my heart. But he makes the point that in all
of those situations throughout the whole of his life, the question was never put to
him, Are you following Jesus?
It is possible to believe in Christ without following Jesus. So, what is it to follow
Jesus? To follow Jesus is not simply to imitate Jesus. Otherwise, we'd all have to
don bathrobes and sandals and become itinerate, wandering teachers. The point
© Grand Valley State University
�Following in His Steps
Richard A. Rhem
Page 3
is not to imitate Jesus in the 20th century because we don't want to simply
duplicate, nor would it be possible to duplicate the actions, the decisions of Jesus
out of the 1st century, transported wholesale into the 20th century. But to follow
Jesus must be to follow him in terms of his spirit, in terms of his attitude, in
terms of his response to God and his response to the human situation, to
determine in our context what Jesus would do, given what we know about him
from the Gospel portrait of him.
To follow Jesus in our day, we will have to learn who the enemies are that we are
called to love, and where the hungry are that we're called to feed, and where the
broken and the lost are that we're called to communicate and mediate the grace
of God. The shape of discipleship in our day will be a shape that must be
determined by every one of us, and we must all live out our own vision. We are
not the clones of Jesus, but we are the followers of Jesus, and in this Lenten
pilgrimage we are attempting this Spring to come face to face with the call of
Jesus Christ to follow him and to determine what the shape of contemporary
discipleship would be - for you and for me.
Jesus gave us an example, says Peter, and we are to follow in his steps. If you read
that word in its context, you will find that it's a rather foreign word to us, a rather
alien context to us. There' s a word about being subject to all human institutions
which is in the paragraph before I began to read, and that word was addressed to
a largely slave church, and the point of Peter's counsel there is that the slave was
to live out his life in the parameters of that servitude in a way that would give
honor to Jesus Christ. That was the specific counsel. Now, you can't translate that
literally into the 20th century where we become the disciples of Jesus, free people
in a democratic nation, the most powerful nation of the earth. Some translation
has to take place there, obviously. We know that there is a time when we cannot
simply blindly submit. There is a time when, for conscience' sake, in the cause of
justice and righteousness, because of the inspiration of Jesus Christ, we must
stand up and say no. But, Peter's counsel, in that context, was appealing to those
slaves (and there were 60 million slaves in the 1st century, in the Roman Empire)
– his counsel to people in that context was to win honor to God by their
honorable conduct and their nobility of spirit. He addresses the subject of slavery
and their attitude toward their masters.
And the Gospel has been criticized because it took nineteen centuries before the
question of slavery was finally settled. Once again, the institution of slavery was
undercut by the Gospel because masters and slaves were alike called to respond
to every human being as a human being. A slave in the early centuries was a
thing, not a person, and masters were given counsel as well as the slaves, but, to
be sure, the institution of slavery was not attacked. What the Gospel addressed
was that inner servitude of the human heart and soul, not the external condition.
That came later as an outworking of the implication of the Gospel. A little further
on, after we stopped reading, there is counsel to wives and to husbands, and I
didn't read that because I didn't want all the wives to walk out, mad this morning.
© Grand Valley State University
�Following in His Steps
Richard A. Rhem
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You can read it on your way home, but I would suggest that you don't pick it up
for Sunday dinner devotions. The model there is Sarah who called Abraham Lord,
and went wherever he went. Marvelous! Only it doesn't work anymore. The whole
context, the whole passage needs to be translated, because, again, it was a very
specific word addressed to a very specific people at a very specific time. But even
there we can get the drift, we can listen to the text long enough in order to
determine that the call to us out of that word is to follow Jesus in the 20th
century in our context, in our history, in our culture, in our society, in our
community, in our families. And the spirit of Jesus Christ, that spirit that comes
through throughout the New Testament, is a spirit to inform us and to inspire us
and to empower us, as we seek to be contemporary disciples of Jesus.
Peter says that Jesus is our example. When he was abused, he didn't retaliate.
When he suffered unjustly, he didn't respond in anger. When he was crucified, in
what must be the apex of human gracefulness, he said to the Father, "Forgive
them, for they know not what they do." In Jesus there was this masterful freedom
that we noted last week, this magnificent freedom, self-mastery, inward strength
which enabled him to be in command in every situation because he was totally
submissive to the will of the Father. Because he lived before the face of God, he
feared no human institution and could be coerced by no human pressure group.
Jesus, we noted last week, did not fit anywhere. There was no ideological group
that could co-opt him for their cause; there was no well-meaning group that
could, somehow or other, engage him and use him for their own ends. Jesus was
sold out to God and, consequently, he walked with a masterful freedom in
relationship to all human institutions and groups. Jesus was his own person
because he was God's person, and in his willingness to suffer and to die, he has
left an example to all who would follow him to adopt his spirit and mode of
behaviour, although the particular response in any given situation will have to be
determined by that vision that is dawned upon any individual human heart.
This week as I was reflecting on this, I thought of Bonhoeffer. I always have to
pull my Bonhoeffer down during Lent. Dietrich Bonhoeffer was martyred in 1945
as a consequence of having joined in an assassination plot to do away with Hitler
during the Nazi terror. His Letters and Papers From Prison, you know, are
probably the favourite spiritual testament of my life, and so I always bring him
down and refresh myself again on the marvelous way in which he responded to
his call to discipleship in that very critical period in our own century. And I was
reading again in his biography that in 1939, when he had visited this country, he
wrestled for a month with the question of whether to return to Germany or not.
He was at Union Seminary in New York City. Reinhold Neibuhr had invited him
to come, and Hitler was right at the apex of his power and his ravishing at that
time. And friends of Bonhoeffer pleaded with him to remain in this country. He
was a brilliant theologian. He was a passionate Christian. He had this
tremendous potential, and they pled with him to stay here in order that he might
be spared and saved for a full life, a useful life for decades to come.
© Grand Valley State University
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Richard A. Rhem
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In 1939, he took the last boat for Europe, for he said, "I may not participate in the
upbuilding and restoration of my people after this terrible conflagration if I stay
here in security, while they are suffering. I must join in solidarity with my people
at this time, if I would participate in the new day that will dawn." And he said, "I
know not what choice others may make, but for me, I must will the downfall of
my own nation that Western civilization may prevail, for to will the success of my
nation is to will the devastation of civilization." A hard choice! You see, the
context of our text says, "Be subject to every human institution." But Bonhoeffer
said, "There is presently in Germany a governmental institution that is an
instrument of evil, and I must oppose it." His discipleship took a form in contrast
to the counsel of Peter in a different context of history, and yet, I believe, in
response to that very central appeal of our text to follow in the steps of Jesus. For
Jesus was not a kind of a passive, weak, simpering, non-entity. Jesus was strong,
and Jesus was free, and Jesus actively opposed what was wrong.
Last week I mentioned Andre Trocmé, the French Huguenot pastor, who in La
Chambon the French village in South France, created the village as a refuge for
Jewish refugees who defied the French Vichy government that was the
instrument of the Gestapo, who defied their order to turn over the Jews.
However, Trocmé, in 1939, when Bonhoeffer was going back to Europe, wrote in
his own diary, "Should I go and infiltrate the Nazi organization, that I might
assassinate Hitler?" Trocmé’s mother was German; he spoke German and French
with equal ease, he could just as well have slipped across the border. He was a
very dynamic, powerful person; he could very well have gotten himself into that
organization. In 1939 he actually put in his diary, "Should I go and do it, in order
to stop what must be this ravage of darkness that is encompassing the
continent?" He said, "No. That course is not open to me. To do so would be to
separate myself from Jesus."
In 1944, Bonhoeffer made the conscious decision to join a small group of
conspirators who determined that the only solution was the violent end of Hitler.
Now, it's so fascinating to me – here you have two theologians, two pastors, two
passionate men, two men of great loving heart, of great energy, of great intellect,
and both of them actively engaged, both of them proactive because of their
discipleship of Jesus Christ, who came to a different conclusion as to whether or
not to take an action of violence against Hitler. To be sure, five years separated
the decisions. I don't know what Trocmé might have done in Bonhoeffer's shoes
at that point; nonetheless, it's interesting to me that here were two very genuine,
engaged disciples of Jesus wrestling with the same question, one saying, "I
cannot do violence," the other saying, "I have no alternative but to do violence."
A couple of years ago, in Union Seminary in New York, there was the
commemoration of Bonhoeffer, and Edgar Bethke, the great biographer of
Bonhoeffer, was asked the question, "How could Bonhoeffer, as a Christian,
justify getting involved in a conspiracy in an assassination plot?" And Bethke’s
© Grand Valley State University
�Following in His Steps
Richard A. Rhem
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response was, "He saw no alternative." He said, "If there is someone going down
the streets of a village killing people, the question is not how you cannot attempt
to put an end to it, the question is how you can sit there and let it happen. You'd
have to stop it."
Phillip Hallie, who in 1979 wrote the book, Lest Innocent Blood Be Shed, about
Trocmé and Le Chambon, the village of the refugees, said he got a letter from
someone out East who wrote to him a very scorching letter, who said, "You have
set forth Trocmé and Le Chambon as a passivist village that did good and was
goodness incarnate, and you haven't even touched the issue. There could have
been Le Chambons and there could have been Pastor Trocmés all over the world,
but someone had to stop Hitler." And Hallie said, "That's true. I have to
acknowledge the truth of that criticism." The point is not that one is right or one
is wrong. The point is that here were two followers of Jesus who both were prolife, proactive, fully engaged, strong, caring, putting their life on the line, one
saying the only alternative is a violent response, the other saying violence is
always wrong for me.
Trocmé was imprisoned in a concentration camp for his activities for a period of
time, but it was touch and go in those days, and so they called him out in a month
or two and they said, "You may be released if you will sign this statement
pledging your allegiance and your complete obedience to the French leader of the
Vichy government." All he had to do was write his name and walk out free. He
said, "I can't sign that. My conscience is bound to the will of God. I cannot sign
that." So they said, "You'll rot in prison." He said, "I'll rot in prison," and they led
him back to his cell.
Now, you see, we're not talking about a simpering kind of saccharine weakness
that goes around the world trying to keep out of trouble, trying to be secure and
find a measure of success and just keep out of any danger. That's not the issue.
And the issue is not that we are all called to be clones of a certain kind. But the
issue is this – we are all called to follow Jesus and to live out a vision that dawns
upon our own hearts and lives as the consequence of the impact that Jesus has
made upon us. We are called to follow in his steps.
That's an exciting call. As I reflect on Jesus and the reverberations of Jesus that
trickle down the centuries, finding expression in an André Trocmé and a Dietrich
Bonhoeffer, I find that such a person is God-obsessed. There is a conscious
certainty of the reality of the good and gracious God. And one is willing and able
to commit one's cause to God. Isn't part of the problem of our human existence
with its meaninglessness the fact that we're not sure that God is, and therefore
that there is One to whom we may commit our cause? Jesus committed his cause
to God. And Trocmé committed his cause to God. Bonhoeffer committed his
cause to God. And then I find also that such a life is a life that is proactive, it is a
life that is engaged. Not trying to survive, not trying to just get by, but living –
living positively, with attention. Annie Dillard says that prayer is attention,
© Grand Valley State University
�Following in His Steps
Richard A. Rhem
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plugged in, tuned in, aware. Aware of one's world, one's community, one's
neighbor, one's family, one's life. Living with attention. And I find that such a life,
as I've mentioned before, is a life of wonderful freedom.
Jesus didn't fit anywhere. Trocmé was a free man. Even the French Reformed
Church couldn’t bring him into line, his conscience captive to the will of God.
Bonhoeffer – what freedom he had. The marvelous poem that I've shared with
you many times, "Who Am I?" They tell me I'm like one accustomed to live like
one who is in charge," yet he's in prison. He says, "I feel like a bird in a cage." But
he struggles with that inward feeling, and yet, to all outward appearances, he was
one who was alive and in charge, even in prison. He says, in the concluding lines,
"What am I, Lord? Am I this or am I that? Whatever I am, Thou knowest, 0 Lord,
I am thine." Marvelous freedom!
And then, paradoxically, joy. Joy. Trocmé was like a two-ton truck of love, rolling
through the world. There was joy! Bonhoeffer brought joy to the prison camp to
the cellmates. It was contagious. And Jesus, with the joy that was set before him,
endured the cross.
Freedom, joy, pro-life, obsessed with God. That's living, Maybe I set Jesus before
you and a couple of his followers, maybe you want to slink off to the sides and
say, "Wow. Who am I?" And our discipleship looks rather shoddy and shabby, I
am sure. But I don't want to conclude with that strong call to discipleship without
putting it in the context of grace, to say that those of us who have moved the
farthest down the line have only just begun. And those of us who haven't yet
begun aren't far behind. And the call is from the good and gracious God who says,
"I love you. Not on the basis of your performance, but because I love you. Now,
come and follow your elder Brother, Jesus Christ, our Lord."
Thanks be to God, in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy
Spirit, 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
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<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>
Language
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English
Type
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Sound
Text
Identifier
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KII-01
Coverage
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1981-2014
Format
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audio/mp3
text/pdf
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
Lent III
Series
The Human Face of God
Scripture Text
I Peter 2:21
Location
The location of the interview
Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Identifier
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KII-01_RA-0-19870322
Date
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1987-03-22
Title
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Following in His Steps
Creator
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Richard A. Rhem
Publisher
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Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives
Rights
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<a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a>
Subject
The topic of the resource
Clergy--Michigan
Reformed Church in America
Christ Community Church (Spring Lake, Mich.)
Sermons
Relation
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Richard A. Rhem - An Archive of Sermons, Prayers, Talks and Stories: http://richardrhem.org/
Language
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eng
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Sound
Text
Format
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audio/mp3
application/pdf
Description
An account of the resource
A sermon given by Richard A. Rhem (Dick) on March 22, 1987 entitled "Following in His Steps", as part of the series "The Human Face of God", on the occasion of Lent III, at Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI. Scripture references: I Peter 2:21.
Bonhoeffer
Followers of Jesus
Grace
Lent
Way of Jesus