1 24 12 https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/f194e37cf293c95758d9a0eed9b945c3.pdf 8a2657f06a87aca869a86efc53ba58f6 PDF Text Text R.C.A. Identity: A Call to Ecumenical Community Article by Richard A. Rhem Minister of Preaching and Theological Inquiry Christ Community Church Spring Lake, Michigan Published in New Brunswick Theological Seminary Newsletter Spring 1987, pp. 11-13 Since my mentor and very good friend, Hendrikus Berkhof, has suggested in an interview for Perspectives conducted by Paul Fries that “identity problems might be both a sign and fostering of spiritual decline,” I have reflected on this endeavor in the Reformed Church and recognized that the question of identity has been consciously or unconsciously with me for the past fifteen years in my pastoral ministry at Christ Community Church in Spring Lake, Michigan. Berkhof’s response to Paul Fries’ question about identity convinces me that he taught me well in the four years I spent with him, for it was immediately following those years during which I glimpsed the broad spectrum of Reformed thought, far broader and grander than my own Midwestern roots and training had led me to believe, that I returned to the local parish and led the congregation of the First Reformed Church of Spring Lake to change its name of 101 years to Christ Community Church. In 1971 identity was a major concern. Our name change was a deliberate and intentional decision to be an ecumenical community constituted by the blending of traditions and the moving away from parochialism and narrow denominationalism. We were very careful to emphasize that we were not a community church organized around a credal base which was the lowest common denominator of those assembled. We were seeking to become Christ's people, Christ's community and to define Christ we were shaped by our Reformed heritage and sought to be enriched in our understanding by the other great Christian traditions. We drew from the whole spectrum of Christian tradition. Paul said, “everything belongs to you!” and so we mined the gold of several traditions. Thus we honored the past but we determined to define ourselves by a new name which pointed not to the whence from which we had come, but the whither toward which we sensed the Spirit was leading us. Identity was a major concern. We used the new name to create a new sense of identity. That new identity prepared us as a congregation to be open and ready to receive all who came, © Grand Valley State University   �A Call To Ecumenical Community Richard A. Rhem Page 2   encouraged to come because the new name projected a new image into the larger community, an image of openness offering the healing grace of Jesus Christ. Identity Arises Out of Vision Identity as Christ's community, a genuinely ecumenical expression of the Body of Christ, was not arrived at through careful study and introspection, but rather arose spontaneously out of the vision of being an ecumenical community. That vision is true to our Reformed heritage at its best. Calvin was deeply concerned for the reunion of the Church. In his book The History and Character of Calvinism, J. T. McNeill writes: His warm response to Archbishop Cranmer's proposal for a consensus (1552) (He would cross ten seas if he could be of service), and his return to this project in a letter to Archbishop Parker (1560) suggesting the summoning of a meeting of Protestant clergy 'wherever dispersed', are among many proofs of his constant readiness to promote the consolidation of the Churches of the Reformation. Late in 1560 he proposed ‘a free and universal council’ to end the divisions and ‘reunite all Christianity!’ He even declared his willingness that the pope should preside in the Council on condition that he undertake to submit to its decisions. (p. 200) Over the years of our history we have not exhibited the same passion for unity as we find in Calvin, although, along with much parochialism and fearful defensiveness, there has always been an ecumenical impulse. On the basis of the past fifteen years at the local parish level I can say without qualification that a Reformed heritage can find true expression in the creation of a genuinely ecumenical community that embraces the whole spectrum of Christian tradition. We have become a truly ecumenical community. Diversity is the consistent hallmark of Christ Community. We have grown with persons from a wide diversity of traditions and confessional backgrounds. We have maintained a marked theological posture shaped by the Reformed tradition, the very personal nature of relationship to God out of our roots in Protestant pietism, the radicality of Grace of the Lutheran tradition, openness to the Spirit's manifestation from the Charismatic community, and the richness of liturgy and sacramental understanding of the Catholic and Episcopal traditions. Such diversity has been self-consciously embraced and cultivated. There is a little something to remind everyone of their roots and thus to be “at home.” Yet the central focus on grace and the real embodiment of grace — the possession of all the diverse traditions — is so dominant that diversity is transcended in a deeper sense of the unity that makes us one in Christ Jesus. The blending of traditions has made for a rich tapestry: we have become a “Christ Community!” It was that vision that captivated us in the beginning. The vision was the catalyst, the driving force. It has been realized through the breaking up of traditionalism, © Grand Valley State University �A Call To Ecumenical Community Richard A. Rhem Page 3   what Jeroslav Pelikan calls the dead faith of the living and the forging of a new tradition, what he calls the living faith of the dead. Vision Must Be Intentionally Implemented Forging a new tradition, bringing the Eternal Gospel to new expression is precisely the genius of the Reformed Faith at its best. It must be worked at selfconsciously and intentionally. In honest confrontation with the Scripture and in obedience to Christ, a church must determine what the Spirit is calling it to be and then work self-consciously to that end. Some years ago we attempted to articulate what we felt we were being called to be. This is how we perceived our identity: Christ Community is theologically self-conscious; it is catholic, evangelical and reformed. It is firmly rooted in the historic Christian tradition: catholic in that it seeks to express the one, holy, and apostolic faith symbolized in the Apostles Creed; evangelical in that it believes that God's supreme revelation of Himself and the Good News of His grace appeared in Jesus Christ — “Our message is that God was making friends of all persons through Christ”; reformed in that its articulation of the faith finds its authority in the Scriptures and is never finished, but rather needs constant reformation and new translation, that it may be understood afresh in every age. Believing in God's eternal purposes of love for the whole created order, ours is a theology of Grace. Grace is the heart of our theology, and the Church is that community of persons who have received God's grace in Christ and who extend that grace to one another in Jesus' name. In the proclamation of the Word in worship, the nurturing of the community in study, the life of the community in fellowship and the action of the community in mission, grace is the keynote, the needs of persons primary, and the healing and wholeness of persons realizing their full human potential to the glory of God, our goal. Believing in the Sovereignty of God in the totality of the created order, and in the Lordship of Christ in the full range of human existence, we are seeking to bring the whole of life under the aegis of God's gracious rule — fashioning here a center for creative Christian living, enabling a fully human existence.... We sought to envision our ministry as we entered the present decade. The following posture has informed us: Our world has become so small, the means of communication and data processing so sophisticated and effective and society so dynamic that it is very difficult to foresee very far into the future trends and movements which may develop. Thus, it is not fruitful to project with fine details the shape of the future ministry of the Church. In such a rapidly changing world it is imperative that a congregation have a clear sense of identity, knowing who it is, what it is seeking to become and the mission to which it is committed. Having set that forth in the previous section, we seek here to affirm that it is our intention to be sensitive to the shifting scenes of the © Grand Valley State University �A Call To Ecumenical Community Richard A. Rhem Page 4   religio-cultural spectrum and flexible in our structure and program, ready to engage the human situation at any point at which the Good News can be proclaimed and incarnated.... Believing that God is ahead of us and beckons us from the future, we will test the spirits of the age, open ourselves to the expanding horizons of knowledge and encourage the pursuit of truth along the whole spectrum of human endeavor. Faithful to Jesus Christ and true to ourselves, we will shape our structure and our program and execute our mission with openness, freedom and confidence in the coming Kingdom of God. Such a posture finds expression throughout the life of the congregation. Perhaps the most visible expression of what we have become takes place in corporate worship. Here we have sought to be true to our Reformed heritage while enriching it by reaching back into the Catholic tradition. We have made a self-conscious decision to move from the principle of catechetical preaching which is the rule of our Book of Church Order, to the celebration of the Christian Year. Rather than systematically treating the heads of doctrine contained in the Heidelberg Catechism once in four years, we celebrate the cycle of the Christian Year bringing us from Advent in December through Pentecost in June, focusing on the themes of Incarnation, life of Christ, passion, death, resurrection and ascension and the gift of the Spirit. Throughout the summer we deal with the Old Testament and in the fall celebrate our Reformation heritage. Adopting the Christian Year as the determinant for our worship, we have — again, self-consciously — combined the strength of the Reformation tradition with the strength of the Catholic tradition… In seriousness of preparation and care in execution we have sought to have the mark of excellence on all we offer to God in our worship, recognizing that worship is recognizing His “worth!” Our worship is theo-centric, reflective of our Reformed heritage. Emotional stirring, warm feeling, inspiration, comfort and encouragement are certainly important byproducts of worship, but they are byproducts of offering praise and adoration to God. It is in drawing the worshiper out of herself/himself into self-forgetfulness and into God-consciousness that the people of God are truly blessed — a joy and peace grounded in the truth of God’s being and His grace in Jesus Christ. If the glory of God is kept in focus, then the drama of redemption which we remember, re-enact, anticipate, will sweep the worshiper along and, becoming God-intoxicated, will find his/her life inspired, spirit renewed, hope restored, faith quickened. Then one will find new courage to go on again, new insight whereby to gain meaning, understanding. © Grand Valley State University �A Call To Ecumenical Community Richard A. Rhem Page 5   Identity and Context of Ministry Identity arises out of a vision and then the vision must be brought to expression deliberately and intentionally; and finally, the contours of the vision must continue to be adjusted in terms of the historical context of the Church. At times the tides of society may reinforce the vision and aid in its implementation. At other times the vision may have to be pursued against the tide. We have found the latter to be the case. In 1972, Dean Kelly's book, Why Conservative Churches Are Growing, painted the portrait of what kind of church could expect to grow in the present sociological climate. The portrait was diametrically opposite of the vision which we were seeking to realize. Kelly has proved to be a prophet. As the authors of Habits of the Heart declare: ...To the extent that privatization succeeded, religion was in danger of becoming, like the family, “a haven in a heartless world,” but one that did more to reinforce that world, by caring for its casualties, than to challenge its assumptions. (p. 224) In a recent national sampling of Catholic opinion, the two things most desired were “personal and accessible priests” and “warmer, more personal parishes!” The authors [of Habits of the Heart] comment, The salience of these needs for personal intimacy in American religious life suggests why the local Church like other voluntary communities, indeed like the contemporary family, is so fragile, requires so much energy to keep it going, and has so faint a hold on commitment when such needs are not met. (p. 232) RCA Identity? The search for identity in the Reformed Church in America must be an endeavor to discover who God is calling us to be that we may move toward renewed faithfulness in our witness to the Gospel of His grace. It must not be an attempt to shape a community of convenience for a people wanting to feel good in an association of warm hearted, like-thinking others. To cater to that impulse identified as increasingly prominent in our society by Bellah and the others in Habits of the Heart would be to prostitute the Church and deny her Lord. We ought never to live easily with the reality of denominationalism and the tension must be kept on us as we search for our identity as a denomination. In his recently published book, Foolishness to the Greeks, Lesslie Newbigin calls for a confrontation of Western Culture by the Gospel. In the final chapter, “What Must We Be? The Call To The Church,” Newbigin writes: © Grand Valley State University �A Call To Ecumenical Community Richard A. Rhem Page 6   The Church is the bearer to all nations of a gospel that announces the kingdom, the reign, and the sovereignty of God, and so to become corporately a sign, instrument, and foretaste of that sovereignty of the one true and living God over all nature, all nations, and all human lives. It is not meant to call men and women out of the world into a safe religious enclave but to call them out in order to send them back as agents of God's kingship. (p. 124) What does such a calling imply? Newbigin asks. Believing we are at a major transitional point in Western Culture not unlike the upheaval in the time of Augustine when he formulated for Christendom a vision based on the twin dogmas of Trinity and Incarnation in place of the classical vision that had lost its power, Newbigin lists seven essentials for the Church if it is to engage the culture with the Gospel. I cite only one essential — The necessity of a radical theological critique of the theory and practice of denominationalism. He writes: It is the common observation of sociologists of religion that denominationalism is the religious aspect of secularization. It is the form that religion takes in a culture controlled by the ideology of the Enlightenment. It is the social form in which the privatization of religion is expressed. The denomination provides a shelter for those who have made the same choice. It is thus in principle unable to confront the state and society as a whole with the claim with which Jesus confronted Pilate — the claim of the truth. It is not, in any biblical sense, the Church, (p. 145) Such a Church, either as a denomination or as several denominations joined in “reconciled diversity” cannot be the agents of a missionary confrontation with our culture, Newbigin claims, for the simple reason that they are themselves the outward and visible signs of an inward and spiritual surrender to the ideology of our culture. They cannot confront our culture with the witness of the truth since even for themselves they do not claim to be more than associations of individuals who share the same private opinions. (p. 145ff) What is needed? A genuinely ecumenical movement...a movement seeking to witness to the Lordship of Christ over the whole inhabited oikoumene cannot take the form of a federation of denominations. It must patiently seek again what the Reformers sought — “To restore the face of the Catholic Church!” (p. 146) That is precisely the genius of our heritage. Perhaps we will recover that sense of being the one holy catholic Church, demonstrating in our life an inclusiveness which embraces diversity and offering our life for the realization of the unity of © Grand Valley State University �A Call To Ecumenical Community Richard A. Rhem Page 7   the whole Church and the recovery of the true identity of the People of God in the world. References: Robert Bellah et al. Habits of the Heart: Individualism and Commitment in American Life. First published 1985; University of California Press, New Preface edition, 2007 Lesslie Newbigin. Foolishness to the Greeks: The Gospel and Western Culture. Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1986. © Grand Valley State University � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Richard A. Rhem Collection Description An account of the resource Text and sound recordings of the sermons, prayers, services, and articles of Richard Rhem, pastor emeritus of Christ Community Church in Spring Lake, Michigan, where he served for 37 years. Starting in the mid 1980's, Rhem began to question some of the traditional Christian dogma that he had been espousing from the pulpit. That questioning was a first step in a long and interesting spiritual journey, one that he openly shared with his congregation. His journey is important, in part because it is reflective of the questioning, the yearnings, and the gradual revision of beliefs that many persons in this part of the century have experienced and continue to experience. It is important also because of the affirming and inclusive way his questioning was done and his thinking evolved. His sermons and other written and spoken materials together document the steps in his journey as it took a turn in 1985, yet continued to revolve around the framework and liturgies of the Christian calendar. Subject The topic of the resource Clergy--Michigan Reformed Church in America Christ Community Church (Spring Lake, Mich.) Religion Interfaith worship Sermons Sound Recordings Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Rhem, Richard A. Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/514">Richard A. Rhem papers (KII-01)</a> Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives. Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Kaufman Interfaith Institute Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Language A language of the resource English Type The nature or genre of the resource Sound Text Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context KII-01 Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant 1981-2014 Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource audio/mp3 text/pdf Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. References Robert Bellah et al, Habits of the Heart, 1985, Lesslie Newbigin, Foolishness to the Greeks, 1986. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context RA-4-19870301 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1987-03-01 Type The nature or genre of the resource Text Title A name given to the resource R.C.A. Identity: A Call to Ecumenical Community Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available New Brunswick Theological Seminary Newsletter Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Richard A. Rhem Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Language A language of the resource eng Description An account of the resource Article created, delivered, or published by Richard A. Rhem (Dick) on March 1, 1987 entitled "R.C.A. Identity: A Call to Ecumenical Community", it appeared in New Brunswick Theological Seminary Newsletter, Vol 15, pp. 11-13. Tags: Ecumenical, Reformed Church, Diversity, Liturgical Year, Community of Grace. Scripture references: Robert Bellah et al, Habits of the Heart, 1985, Lesslie Newbigin, Foolishness to the Greeks, 1986. Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource application/pdf Community of Grace Diversity Ecumenical Liturgical Year Reformed Church https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/f6c9d7442b0329a1599ff0235ca04423.pdf 90d977968c1498f6521b610cfaa0cb70 PDF Text Text The Vision Must Not Die An Article Reviewing the Vision of Arie R. Brouwer As Shown in His Writings by Richard A. Rhem Minister of Preaching and Theological Inquiry Christ Community Church Spring Lake, Michigan Published in Perspectives A Journal of Reformed Thought March 1994, pp. 11-13 On October 7,1993, the Rev. Dr. Arie R. Brouwer died after a ten-month struggle against cancer. His death was noted in the New York Times, recognizing the worldwide dimensions of his ministry. A brief memorial piece appeared in this journal in the December 1993 issue. With his passing the church has lost a significant leader, one of the most significant leaders in the last half of the century. This is true for his own denomination and true as well for the world church as it has come together in the ecumenical movement. Arie has died but the vision by which he lived must not die, a vision for “the unity and renewal of the Christian community as sign, instrument, and foretaste of the unity and renewal of the community of humankind and the whole creation.” Ours was a long-time friendship going back to college days. Our paths continued to cross though we journeyed in divergent directions, he holding the top executive posts in the Reformed Church in America and the ecumenical councils; I remaining essentially in one congregation. But over the last four years of his life we were able to spend meaningful time together and be in frequent communication. In a most remarkable way, from divergent paths, we discovered to our mutual delight that we shared a common faith, understanding, and vision for the church. I know of no one who worked more faithfully and consistently to implement that vision than Arie Brouwer. I know of no one who articulated it with greater clarity or passion. As tribute to him, out of my profound respect for the ministry he carried out, I want to lift up some aspects of his vision. The aspects I have selected reflect the areas about which we reflected together and about which he has written. While making no claim to present the full spectrum of his vision and passion, I am certain what follows is faithful to that vision and passion at its heart. © Grand Valley State University   �The Vision Must Not Die Richard A. Rhem Page 2   That the Church Be One Arie’s commitment to the ecumenical movement was unwavering to the end. Even following his resignation from the office of General Secretary of the National Council of Churches of Christ he remained convinced that the only way into the future for the church lay in a movement toward unity. In an article that appeared in The Christian Century (Feb. 23, 1990) he raised the question Can the mainline find new life on the ecumenical way? He answered with a strong affirmative. He was well aware of the obstacles to a truly ecumenical Christian church. Indeed, he had faced them head-on, daring to confront entrenched power and vested interest that obstructed the way to renewal. In chapter 9 of his journal, dated June 11,1993, he entitled the entry “Unfinished Business—My Ecumenical Vocation.” He referred to some correspondence he had received that gave him occasion to speak positively of his own opportunity to use his positions of influence. He felt fortunate to be able to use that influence in order to empower the institutions he administered to serve their respective constituencies for the well being of the human community. He expressed the hope that “somewhere beyond the far horizon” there are church leaders in formation who will have “the will, wit and wisdom” to lead the church to the realization of the ecumenical vision. He recognized the present survival posture of the mainline denominations. Simply taking measures to survive, their leaders are distracted from the ecumenical vision, and the resources available to the councils are drained away. It is now widely recognized that the respective mainline denominations are in very serious trouble, their future in the present configuration in doubt. He wrote an appendix to that journal entry, cited above, which he entitled “A Few Notes on Ecumenical Immobility.” There he pointed to the fact that the ecumenical councils of churches, the main instruments of the ecumenical movement, are now almost completely captive to the churches. In The Christian Century, June 27July 4, 1990, Arie documented the resistance to restructuring he had encountered, listing the ecclesiological claims of the churches, the institutional interests of the denominations, economic control, and ideological alignments within the churches and the Council itself. Writing with the intimate knowledge of an insider, he contended: With the churches in control, it follows that most of the leading participants in most council meetings are either ecclesiastical bureaucrats or hierarchs, who are mostly prisoners of their positions. Real movement toward unity would render most of their present positions redundant. ... Very few bureaucrats, church bureaucrats included, are willing to put their positions at risk—even in the face of open violation of truth or justice, much less for the sake of a vision only dimly perceived. (Journal, 47) © Grand Valley State University �The Vision Must Not Die Richard A. Rhem Page 3   Confronted by such a sobering realization, Arie yet remained hopeful; his vision did not waver. If the present institutional framework of the Councils offered no possibility of renewal, then another way must be found. That was part of his greatness. He recognized the historical imprisonment of church structures. He worked with a certain freedom as a church executive, freedom from the numbing paralysis that immobilizes lesser leaders who expend their energy shoring up outworn structures. In an article published in The Christian Century, he indicated that he was aware already a decade earlier that the dwindling away of national denominational program bureaucracies was inevitable and the trend irreversible. Not happy about it, he nevertheless neither went on the defensive nor threw up his hands in despair. Rather he plunged into the leadership of the conciliar movement with great energy and hope. The future he felt would lie in ecumenical relationship—the churches needed more than a new way of acting; they needed a new way of thinking, a new self-understanding. “Only thus,” he contended, “can they be set free from cultural captivity, ecclesiastical enchantment, institutional survivalism, traditional confessionalism and other ‘isms’ that bind them.” Arie gave this effort his best wisdom and strength of leadership but finally concluded renewal could not come as long as the present framework of the councils remained in place. Still he would not give up the vision; he sought yet another way. In the last months of his life he served as interim pastor of the Glen Rock Community Church in New Jersey. His excitement about returning to the parish, to preparation of liturgy and preaching was evident. Here he saw the arena for renewal for the whole church “from below.” The Ecumenical Congregation In his journal he spoke of his vision for an ecumenical congregation. He noted the number of congregations that have represented in their membership a plurality of diverse traditions and saw these concrete communities as an “interesting ecumenical opportunity.” If the diverse traditions could be consciously articulated in congregational life ... their particular contribution to the fullness of the Gospel (the tradition) recognized and affirmed and then integrated in a recognizable way into the life and worship, particularly the worship, of the congregation, then I believe we would create, yes create, congregations with a sturdiness and attractiveness that would give them a burst of new life, perhaps even ending the mainline malaise. (42) His focus turned to the local congregation, not as withdrawal from the ecumenical enterprise, but as the instrument through which to bring renewal to the whole church. He became convinced that the way forward in the ecumenical movement was to be found in a movement from below. He cites the example of the base communities of Latin America but sees it as a mistake simply to adopt © Grand Valley State University �The Vision Must Not Die Richard A. Rhem Page 4   that strategy. Rather, he contends, “we must create the forms for such movements from below appropriate to our own culture” (43). For the United States, he was convinced, the model was ecumenical congregations. He speaks of his first efforts at creating such a congregation, efforts cut short by his cancer. But his passion for the vision is evident as he writes, From such ecumenical congregations could, I believe, eventually grow a National Christian Council that could gradually transform the anachronistic and divisive denominational structures that are now stifling the ecumenical movement. Deprived of their determinative divisiveness, the denominations could serve a function in such a council much like that of the orders within the Roman Catholic Church. (43) In his recognition of the congregation as the instrument through which renewal would come to the whole church, Arie clung to his ecumenical vision but demonstrated again, as he had throughout his various executive leadership roles, his ability to let go of anachronistic structures and trust the Spirit to create new wineskins—and new wine. In his last work in a parish he was realizing a deep longing, “the longing to rearticulate my faith—not in an academic work of theology, but in song and sermon and liturgy—in precisely such an ecumenical congregation.” A Spirit-Seeking Tradition As he was gathering his writings and speeches from the decade of his ecumenical leadership, he found three themes recurring—elements of renewal that he stated thus in a speech he delivered at that time: A life-celebrating liturgy (worship and faith), A community-building structure (order and life and work), A Spirit-seeking tradition (theology, doctrine and dogma). When he was forced to lay down his work in the spring of 1993 he was deeply engaged in the first element, creating a life-celebrating liturgy. Much of his vocational life was given over to creating community-building structures, but that I must leave to others to record. Here let me lift up that third element of renewal —a Spirit-seeking tradition. Arie’s theological pilgrimage brought him to an ever-greater appreciation of the Spirit as the source of the living tradition of the church. His ecumenical encounter with orthodoxy impacted Arie deeply. In a lecture entitled “On Being Reformed in the Ecumenical Movement,” he quoted the Greek Orthodox theologian Georges Florovsky who claimed that © Grand Valley State University �The Vision Must Not Die Richard A. Rhem Page 5   loyalty to tradition means not only concord with the past, but in a certain sense freedom from the past.... Tradition is the constant abiding of the Spirit, and not only the memory of words. Tradition is a charismatic, not an historical principle. (Bible, Church, Tradition, vol. 1, 80.) Arie admits that following the Spirit is a risky journey, a risk Reformed scholasticism did its best to reduce. He writes, The scholastics defended the deposit of the tradition but did not sustain the dynamic of the tradition. They stressed the testament of the Spirit, but neglected the testimony of the Spirit. They followed past confessions but did not lead in present confessing; they preserved the Reformed faith but did not pursue reforming the faith. (Ecumenical Testimony, 310f.) The tradition congealed, he points out, at the Great Synod of Dort (1618-1619), and immediately thereafter the Dutch delegates, meeting in a separate session, “froze the tradition solid,” declaring that the creeds were “in all things conformable to the Word of God.” The die was cast – ongoing theological inquiry was ruled out of bounds from that time forward. Arie describes the disastrous affect this absolutizing of an historically conditioned credal formulation has had on the church. It will not do, he claims, simply to chip away at the frozen forms. Rather, If we want the tradition to flow freely and clearly as the water of life for a thirsty world, we will need to thaw it out. (311) The lecture, delivered at Western Theological Seminary, was printed in this journal (October 1990) and three persons were invited to respond to it, one a Christian Reformed pastor-theologian. Dr. Clarence Boomsma, for whom Arie had profound respect. Boomsma was very affirming of the lecture but claimed that the place and authority of the Bible needed to be firmly established and, further, he maintained that the role of Scripture was “muted and unclear” in the discussion of both our Reformed tradition and the ecumenical movement. In response to that critique, Arie wrote that the place and role of Scripture was indeed a difference between them. I have long struggled with what I have come to think of as the fundamental irony of the Reformed tradition: While insisting that the Word of God written has been given to us by the Spirit, we have often made the Spirit captive to that Word. And this in the face of the Scripture’s own clear testimony that the Spirit cannot be bound. We can transcend the irony if we affirm that even as the Canons of Dort cannot bind the Word of God, so the canons of Scripture cannot bind the Spirit of God — The church is reformed by the Spirit of God and according to the Word of God. (Perspectives, Oct. 1990, 13.) © Grand Valley State University �The Vision Must Not Die Richard A. Rhem Page 6   For Arie, the sense of the Spirit as the source of the living tradition of the church was a growing edge. In Ecumenical Testimony he published an article that had appeared in The Reformed Journal in the mid-seventies under the title, “Worship in the Reformed Church in America.” He retitled it “A Life-Embracing Liturgy,” and in his introductory comments noted that if he were to write the article in 1991 he would write one key paragraph differently. I would not say, “The Word of God renews the Church,” but rather the Spirit of God. According to the Word, to be sure, but in the power of the Spirit, who is “The Lord and Giver of Life.” Already then I mostly thought that, but apparently not yet firmly enough to challenge the safety devices of Reformed scholasticism that have so long subjected the Spirit to the Word—especially the Word written. That subjugation I believe to be the major impediment to the renewal of the tradition. (Ecumenical Testimony, 226) In the end it was the renewal of the whole church for which Arie longed, and it was his conviction that the Reformed community was strategically positioned to spearhead such renewal through openness to the Spirit. Precisely because we have understood ourselves at our best as a reform movement in the one Church of Christ—not as something separate and apart—we are committed at the core of our being to a church: one, holy, catholic and apostolic. Our calling to reform the tradition then can be accomplished only by engaging the whole tradition of the whole church in its mission to the whole world. (Ecumenical Testimony, 313L) The Vision Must Not Die In the Foreword to Ecumenical Testimony, which Arie invited me to write, I expressed my profound respect and admiration for the leadership he had given to the church, noting that his solid rootedness in his own particular tradition combined with the breadth of exposure he experienced in the world church resulted in a clear-eyed view of the promise and peril of tradition. Deep formation in his Dutch Calvinist pietism and mysticism combined with an historical sense and the dynamism of the Spirit to create newness made him a rare visionary leader. Only God’s Spirit, “The Lord and giver of life,” can renew the church. That, Arie Brouwer knew well. Yet his sturdy Calvinist spirit understood that not as a passive acquiescence to the inexorable drift of historical trends and circumstances from which he could not escape. Trusting the Spirit, Arie acted, led, sought the will of God. Of God’s will he wrote, We seek it; we search it out with a passion. As we discover the will of God, we strive to do the will of God in order that in our doing what we know, we may learn what we do not know. (Ecumenical Testimony, 317) © Grand Valley State University �The Vision Must Not Die Richard A. Rhem Page 7   To lose such a leader is a very great loss. Arie was my friend. I miss him. But my grief is greater when I think of what the church and world have lost. However, he has left us a legacy of writings and sermons in which the vision shines forth. His life was fruitful, indeed, but if we would return to his words and open ourselves to the Spirit that animated his vision, his life may prove even more fruitful in his death. He would not be the first for whom that is true. Arie has died; the vision must not die. References: Arie R. Brouwer. Ecumenical Testimony (Historical Series of the Reformed Church in America). Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1991. Arie R. Brouwer. Overcoming the Threat of Death: A Journal of One Christian’s Encounter With Cancer. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1994. © Grand Valley State University � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Richard A. Rhem Collection Description An account of the resource Text and sound recordings of the sermons, prayers, services, and articles of Richard Rhem, pastor emeritus of Christ Community Church in Spring Lake, Michigan, where he served for 37 years. Starting in the mid 1980's, Rhem began to question some of the traditional Christian dogma that he had been espousing from the pulpit. That questioning was a first step in a long and interesting spiritual journey, one that he openly shared with his congregation. His journey is important, in part because it is reflective of the questioning, the yearnings, and the gradual revision of beliefs that many persons in this part of the century have experienced and continue to experience. It is important also because of the affirming and inclusive way his questioning was done and his thinking evolved. His sermons and other written and spoken materials together document the steps in his journey as it took a turn in 1985, yet continued to revolve around the framework and liturgies of the Christian calendar. Subject The topic of the resource Clergy--Michigan Reformed Church in America Christ Community Church (Spring Lake, Mich.) Religion Interfaith worship Sermons Sound Recordings Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Rhem, Richard A. Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/514">Richard A. Rhem papers (KII-01)</a> Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives. Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Kaufman Interfaith Institute Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Language A language of the resource English Type The nature or genre of the resource Sound Text Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context KII-01 Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant 1981-2014 Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource audio/mp3 text/pdf Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. References Arie R. Brouwer, Ecumenical Testimony, 1991, Overcoming the Threat of Death, 1994 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context RA-4-19940301 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1994-03-01 Type The nature or genre of the resource Text Title A name given to the resource The Vision Must Not Die Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Perspectives: A Journal of Reformed Thought Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Richard A. Rhem Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Language A language of the resource eng Description An account of the resource Article created, delivered, or published by Richard A. Rhem (Dick) on March 1, 1994 entitled "The Vision Must Not Die", it appeared in Perspectives, pp. 11-13. Tags: Ecumenical, Church, Diversity, Liturgy, Spirit, Reformed Tradition, Nature of Scripture. Scripture references: Arie R. Brouwer, Ecumenical Testimony, 1991, Overcoming the Threat of Death, 1994. Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource application/pdf Church Diversity Ecumenical Liturgy Nature of Scripture Reformed Tradition Spirit https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/126ba9825c60dbc7351e7d14ab62377b.pdf fb19e087d6d022f041936c8bd7663b6c PDF Text Text   Diversity in Faith – Unity in Christ By Shirley C. Guthrie, Jr. (Philadelphia: Westminster Press, 1986) Book Review by Richard A. Rhem Minister of Preaching and Theological Inquiry Christ Community Church Spring Lake, Michigan Publication of Review Unknown This is a book addressed to the Church, to the Christian community. It is not an apologetic to instruct the inquirer in the content of Christian faith; rather, it is an explanation of the respective postures, attitudes and nuances of orthodoxy, liberalism and pietism. Guthrie's purpose is to enable self-understanding within each of these camps and thereby to create the possibility of understanding across the spectrum of the Church. Although a broad spectrum of the Christian community might agree on a basic definition of what it is to be a Christian, as soon as the discussion gets to specific theological, ethical and practical implications of Christian faith, division will be immediate - “Churches choose up sides, get red in the face, and either yell at each other or refuse to talk together at all.” To address the all too often rancorous divisions within the Christian community, indeed, within the same confessional family, denomination and local congregation, Guthrie suggests as a starting point the question: “Why is it that people who read the same Bible and talk about the same Christ, even when they belong to the same church, have so much trouble getting along with each other and committing themselves to a common Christian witness in the world?” His answer is that, before conversation begins, we all bring certain “conscious or unconscious presuppositions about the meaning of Christian faith and life that determine what we are able and willing - and unable and unwilling - to hear from scripture, from fellow Christians, or even from God!” Thus Guthrie sets for himself the task of identifying and clarifying the presuppositions operative and determinative of the respective postures of Orthodoxy, Liberalism and Pietism. Part I is divided into four sections (Liberalism being treated in two sections, Moralism and Social Activism). Each section is divided into a “In defense of ...” and “Criticism of ...” This first part is largely descriptive with Guthrie giving a fair and balanced analysis of the strengths and weaknesses of each position. Part II is Guthrie's positive contribution toward transcending the division “Beyond Orthodoxy, Liberalism, and Pietism.” He suggests as a key to getting © Grand Valley State University   �Guthrie, Diversity in Faith-Unity in Christ, Reviewed by Richard A. Rhem Page  2   beyond the three conflicting positions, the concept of “witness.” A Christian, he contends, is first and last simply a witness to Jesus Christ and to begin there, he claims, will enable one to avoid the weaknesses and combine the strengths of the three positions described in the first part of the book. The last three chapters discuss what it means to witness to Jesus Christ, to the suffering love of God, and to the liberating power of God. Guthrie's discussion is helpful and convincing. This book would make a fine text for an adult education class in which there was a serious purpose to deepen one’s own understanding of the faith and commitment to Christian service, while broadening one’s perspective on the essential unity of the faith that comes to expression with varying accents and nuances. A more gracious spirit within the Church and a more effective witness without would result from a study of this text. © Grand Valley State University � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Richard A. Rhem Collection Description An account of the resource Text and sound recordings of the sermons, prayers, services, and articles of Richard Rhem, pastor emeritus of Christ Community Church in Spring Lake, Michigan, where he served for 37 years. Starting in the mid 1980's, Rhem began to question some of the traditional Christian dogma that he had been espousing from the pulpit. That questioning was a first step in a long and interesting spiritual journey, one that he openly shared with his congregation. His journey is important, in part because it is reflective of the questioning, the yearnings, and the gradual revision of beliefs that many persons in this part of the century have experienced and continue to experience. It is important also because of the affirming and inclusive way his questioning was done and his thinking evolved. His sermons and other written and spoken materials together document the steps in his journey as it took a turn in 1985, yet continued to revolve around the framework and liturgies of the Christian calendar. Subject The topic of the resource Clergy--Michigan Reformed Church in America Christ Community Church (Spring Lake, Mich.) Religion Interfaith worship Sermons Sound Recordings Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Rhem, Richard A. Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/514">Richard A. Rhem papers (KII-01)</a> Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives. Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Kaufman Interfaith Institute Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Language A language of the resource English Type The nature or genre of the resource Sound Text Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context KII-01 Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant 1981-2014 Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource audio/mp3 text/pdf Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context RA-4-19870401 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1987-04-01 Type The nature or genre of the resource Text Title A name given to the resource Diversity in Faith - Unity in Christ Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Perspectives: A Journal of Reformed Thought Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Richard A. Rhem Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Language A language of the resource eng Description An account of the resource Book Review created, delivered, or published by Richard A. Rhem (Dick) on April 1, 1987 entitled "Diversity in Faith - Unity in Christ", on the book Diversity in Faith - Unity in Christ, written by Shirley C. Guthrie, it appeared in Perspectives, November 1987, p. 15. Tags: Diversity, Community of Faith. Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource application/pdf Community of Faith Diversity https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/399363ae2404cd7828c457618c3b4b22.mp3 21cdd946ab3ab078b9706cc54a6babb3 https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/c61e97f5ba0f734293f7fd82bbf26929.pdf fb6ed5a498c67bbe37fc3f0181c4b108 PDF Text Text Beyond Nation, Ethnicity and Creed Independence Day Weekend, Pentecost V Readings from our Past: Psalm 33:10-17; Matthew 5:38-48 Richard A. Rhem Christ Community Church Spring Lake, Michigan July 1, 2001 Transcription of the spoken sermon About eighteen months ago, at the turn of the millennium, I pointed to a book that had impressed me with its insight about our present human situation in terms of the international global situation. Samuel T. Huntington with a lot of experience in international affairs had written a book, The Clash of Civilizations, which concludes with this paragraph: In the 1950s, Lester Pearson warned that humans were moving into an age when different civilizations will have to learn to live side by side in peaceful interchange, learning from each other, studying each other's history and ideals and art and culture, mutually enriching each other's lives. The alternative in this over crowded little world is misunderstanding, tension, clash and catastrophe. The futures of both peace and civilization depend upon understanding and cooperation among the political, spiritual, and intellectual leaders of the world's major civilizations. In the clash of civilizations, Europe and America will hang together or hang separately. In the greater clash, the global real clash between civilization and barbarism, the world's great civilizations with their rich accomplishments in religion, art, literature, philosophy, science, technology, morality and compassion, will also hang together or hang separately. In the emerging era, clashes of civilizations are the greatest threat to world peace and an international order based on civilizations is the surest safeguard against world war. The human story is a fascinating story and, as in this week once again we celebrate the independence of our nation, I thought it might be well for us to think of our nation and our Western civilization in terms of its unique values which have come to us at great cost and great sacrifice. We have, I think, a growing awareness or raised consciousness of the sacrifice and the cost of that which we enjoy together and so easily take for granted. Nancy and I, two or three weeks ago, went to see the film, Pearl Harbor, which is justifiably criticized for making a big buck on a love story and perhaps trivializing © Grand Valley State University �Beyond Nation, Ethnicity and Creed Richard A. Rhem Page 2 the event itself, according to those who were there. It seems to me that is probably a justified criticism and yet, once again, that film calls to mind that Day of Infamy, and the terrible cost that has been paid even in the last century for the freedoms and the liberties that we enjoy. Perhaps the anchor of NBC, Tom Brokaw, in his book, The Greatest Generation, in his continuing effort to bring those voices forward, has also given us a certain new awareness of that which it has cost in the past in order to preserve and to protect that which we have as a people. And so it seems to me that it is good for us, on an occasion like this, to reflect on where we are in the world, who we are in the world, and that which is incumbent upon us in order to preserve and to perpetuate the values that have been so richly enjoyed by us as a people. In his book, The Clash of Civilizations. Huntington tells the story of the past century and those great wars that were waged. There was the First World War, for example, and President Wilson committed us to that war with a suggestion that it would be a war to end all wars, and, of course, it was not, but rather it birthed Fascism and Communism and the retreat of Democracy which had been gaining ground in the century past. And then there was the Second World War and, toward its close and the close of his life, Franklin Delano Roosevelt began to speak of the United Nations and the creation of an organization of peace loving nations that would come together in the universal organization, and that would ensure a structure of permanent peace. And, of course, after the euphoria died down, we recognized before long that we were engaged in a Cold War which for decades had us teetering on the edge of disaster in a balance of terror. I remember well the euphoria that came in the wake of the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989. There we thought finally we had won the battle. There was a State Department official, Francis Fukayama, who wrote a very widely discussed essay entitled, “The End of History," in which he suggested that the West had won, that the values of freedom and democracy and free enterprise and all of that which marks our life had finally been demonstrated to be superior and that it was just a matter of time before the whole world embraced those particular values and marks of Western civilization. Fukayama went so far as to suggest that the future of history would be boring. And we know what happened to the euphoria of the fall of the Berlin Wall, for it opened up ancient wounds, the Balkans, ethnic cleansing, that terrible slaughter and massacre that went on, brought to us once again with greater clarity through the turning over of Milosevic to the world court to be tried on crimes against humanity. In the last decade plus we have seen the rise of militant fundamentalisms and religion, creating violence and horror. We have seen massacres and racial genocide, and we have recognized that the global body politic is wounded, indeed. Then President Bush had spoken of a new world order, but it was not to be, and so here we are. © Grand Valley State University �Beyond Nation, Ethnicity and Creed Richard A. Rhem Page 3 Samuel Huntington suggests that it was a foolish optimism that ever believed that there could be a universal civilization, that what we are faced with and what we have to recognize is rather a diversity of civilizations, perhaps seven or eight civilizational groupings which are tied by blood and language and religion, which have a deep identity that transcends national boundaries, that represent ancient bonding of human families. It is Huntington's contention that the only way to security and to peace in this global world of ours is through the acceptance of that diversity, the recognition of it, even the celebration of it, simply to come to the realization that it will not be the West and the rest, or the West as the best, but rather, in the respective civilizational groupings, each having its own integrity, there will have to be a way of coming to understanding, of mutual respect, of the investigation of the history, the culture, the art, the philosophy, and the religious faith of the respective groups in order that there might be a living together in human community with that diversity acknowledged and recognized and celebrated. This seems to me to make a lot of sense and the other point that he makes (apropos for us on this week in which we celebrate our independence) is that we ought to renew those values that have made us what we are, that we ought to renew and recommit ourselves to that which is uniquely Western, that which was born in Europe and has been lived out and embodied here in such a fruitful way individual liberty, political democracy, human rights, the rule of law, that pluralism and that Christian rootage which has flowered in Western civilization. Certainly we don't want our civilization to be closed against others but, according to Huntington, there has been a naiveté about the possibility of multi-culturalism within a given civilization. Multi-culturalism within a civilization attempts to make that civilization the world, and it is not. Just as a mono-culturalism would attempt to make the whole world like one's own civilization, and that brings conflict, and that won't work, either. To recognize the diversity of civilization, but to recommit oneself to one's own values, to recognize anew that which has given us birth, that which is at the foundation of that freedom and liberty and humane existence, the civility that has marked our civilization at its best would seem to be the path of wisdom. As I think about the biblical story, we read Psalm 33 and its insight is that we will not live and survive by military might. That has been practiced and that has been our practice and, as the most powerful nation on earth, we have often been told that we must continue to be strong in order to preserve peace. There have been instances in the past where, thank God, we had the strength to turn away the aggressor and the tyrant. But we ought to recognize the wisdom of that Old Testament poet in that finally what we are all after, global security and peace, will not be secured by superior military might. A king is not saved by his armies, said the Psalmist, and the war horse is a vain hope for victory. Finally, you cannot arm yourself, you cannot have strength enough to repel every enemy and to remove every danger. We have to find it in some other way. Peace does not lie through military power, and if I move to that famous and disturbing Sermon on the © Grand Valley State University �Beyond Nation, Ethnicity and Creed Richard A. Rhem Page 4 Mount, I hear Jesus talking about the law of retaliation, an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth, and I recognize that there was a time when an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth was a code of justice. What it says is that the penalty ought to meet the crime. An eye for an eye, not a life for an eye. It's a tooth for a tooth, not a life for a tooth. That was a step forward in human understanding. But, Jesus goes beyond that. In the very, very disturbing moral imperative, Jesus suggests turning the other cheek, going the extra mile. And then, in the most radical of all suggestions, to love our enemies, for he says if you like the people who like you, big deal. If you love the people who love you, big deal. Everybody does that. It's natural to do that. It is human to do that. But, to love your enemies? That’s divine. For he points to the God whose sun shines on the just and the unjust and the God whose rain waters the gardens of the good and the evil. The God of Jesus was a God of non-discrimination and humanity, in Jesus' image of things, is rooted in God, so that there is a common ground of humanity. God is the eternal ground and source and, therefore, because of that common ground and source, there is a common humanity and, consequently, all humanity deserves to be treated humanely and it is incumbent upon human beings to be humane, one to another without discrimination and without exclusion. Well, I don't know what to do with Jesus' words. Some in the history of interpretation have said that's not for now, that's for when Jesus comes again and establishes a kingdom on earth. That’s a future ethic. Well, nice going, but it won't work. In all honesty, whether you want to take Jesus seriously or not, whether you think he was on to something or not, what we can't do is say he was talking about some future age in the Sermon on the Mount. That was immediate. That is here and now. Others have said that's fine on an individual basis, but you can't do it in the corporate. Well, maybe it won't work, but I think that's what Jesus intended. I think that is what he was saying. I don't quite know what to do with it. I think it would be helpful if, before we argued with it, we listened to it. If, before we reject it out of hand as some ridiculous kind of counsel, we let it seep into the pores of our being. We let that ethic simply be with us for a bit because, if it would saturate our being and seep into the pores of our nature, it would have to have some kind of effect on our spirit and on our attitude. And finally, the human problem is a problem of attitude and spirit, and Jesus was suggesting that there is a common humanity that demands a universal humaneness and acceptance. Positively, we have to accept the civilizational diversity and even celebrate it. We should renew our own values and recognize the roots from which they have sprung, and celebrate them and preserve them, as well. And then, we ought to find those areas where the civilizational groupings overlap in common values, common, shared human values for justice and for © Grand Valley State University �Beyond Nation, Ethnicity and Creed Richard A. Rhem Page 5 truth and compassion, rejecting murder, deceit, tyranny, torture and oppression, because if one takes those civilizational groupings at their best there is a shared value, there is a shared morality, a shared ethical sense which can be distilled and which each respective civilizational group committing itself to would make for the kind of security and peace and well-being that is necessary for our world that has come to a crossroads because of the tremendous power, because of the tremendous technological capacity, because of the fact that we have everything at hand to destroy the whole human experiment if we don't learn to live with justice and peace, one with another. Certainly, the Christian church has not been a good example. I was just rereading again the book that I'll be using in July by Richard Rubenstein, When Jesus Became God, the conflict in the 4th century in trying to establish the orthodox Christological formulation. After a century and more of bloody conflict, an edict of the Roman Empire established orthodox Nicene Christology and, when that was established, a group of Christians began to burn synagogues and pagan temples and massacre people, and the emperor as a responsible ruler demanded that they make restitution and that the leaders be punished, and the great and highly esteemed Bishop Ambrose of Milan said to the emperor, "Why should God's people be punished for destroying the heretics and the pagans? If you don't rescind your rule to punish, I will not serve you Holy Communion," and the emperor relented. I suppose I tell you that little story because I started out where Ambrose was – not quite so violent, thank God – but with that kind of exclusionary attitude that ignorantly and arrogantly said, "This is it and this is true and only this is true." And then, by the miracle of grace and the Holy Spirit, those blinders began to fall off and I began to see the light and the grace in others and, rather than closing myself off and rejecting, began to open up and embrace and found a vitality and a joy and a celebration of life such as I never knew in that cramped and crimped orthodoxy that was wringing all of the joy of life out of me. I suggest that has happened to this community, as well, where we have learned the broadness of God's mercy, we have learned the freedom of throwing open our arms and embracing all and excluding none, and we have learned that breaking down the barriers that divide is the way to humanity, to grace and joy and blessing. So I would suggest that, as a civilizational group, as a nation, there is possibility for us. There is possibility for the world. It may yet be a long way off. We'll have a good many battles yet to wage. But, finally, with an attitude and a spirit that has at least heard the word of Jesus, has recognized how it cuts against the grain of the human animal, but is indeed the voice of the Spirit, little by little we might move toward that day when we will not exclude the other, but rather, find ourselves celebrating that family of which we are a part, in harmony with the other families of the globe, and there would be peace on earth. © Grand Valley State University �Beyond Nation, Ethnicity and Creed Richard A. Rhem Page 6 References: Samuel P. Huntington. The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of World Order. Touchstone, 1997. Richard E. Rubenstein. When Jesus Became God: The Struggle to Define Christianity during the Last Days of Rome. Harcourt Inc., 1999. © 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 Independence Day Weekend, Pentecost V Scripture Text Psalm 33:10-17, Matthew 5:38-48 Location The location of the interview Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI References Samuel P. Huntington. The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of World Order. Touchstone, 1997. Richard E. Rubenstein. When Jesus Became God: The Struggle to Define Christianity during the Last Days of Rome. Harcourt,Inc., 1999. 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-0-20010701 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2001-07-01 Title A name given to the resource Beyond National, Ethnicity and Creed Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Richard A. Rhem Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> 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 July 1, 2001 entitled "Beyond National, Ethnicity and Creed", on the occasion of Independence Day Weekend, Pentecost V, at Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI. Scripture references: Psalm 33:10-17, Matthew 5:38-48. Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Lemmen Library and Archives Diversity Global Community Inclusivism Non-violence https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/e25a30db1b34a8a59a084b7009741285.mp3 21fb718bb048903228e441c9073d66bb https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/d23f80d9ecd499848f6bc44d6c990614.pdf 509431daf74c349553abf87ab170e42e PDF Text Text Freedom and Commitment in a Global Society Independence Day Weekend Text: Galatians 5:13 Richard A. Rhem Christ Community Church Spring Lake, Michigan Pentecost IV, July 2, 2000 Transcription of the spoken sermon Not in every worship would such a mellow tenor be able to sing "America" so beautifully. There are liturgical purists in the Church who feel that civil holidays have no place in the celebration and the worship of the people of God, and, of course, there is a point to guard the worship of the Church. It can get ridiculous, you know. I mean, a sermon on celebrating Girl Scout cookies would be stretching it a bit. But, after all, as the people of God, we are also people of a nation and you cannot divorce the experience of your religious existence from your existence as a citizen. We are a part of a nation and of a civilization and our religious vision has shaped that civilization and been shaped by it, as well, and I do believe there is a place, at least with some of the more important civil holidays, to bring a reflection into the experience of worship, to celebrate the blessings that have been ours as a nation. I think it is not at all out of place to recognize the heritage that is ours with gratitude and to place that heritage and that experience in the light of the word of God in order to see how we're doing with it and how responsibly we are exercising the privilege of it. And so, for just a few moments this morning, I want you to think with me about this nation, about our heritage. I want to do it with affirmation and with gratitude, for we do celebrate a very, very great national heritage and civilizational tradition. We are a people of the United States of America; we are people of the West, of western civilization, and we have a heritage that has been richly blessed of God. I don't have to say that certainly it is a flawed vision and we have failed often, not living up to our ideals in great measure and in many respects. Nonetheless, we are a fortunate people and it is good to celebrate that and to remember it. Civil holidays do sometimes stretch the ability of the preacher to find a relevant text because the texts of the scriptures really do not address the kinds of things that we will be reflecting on this morning, and yet I think, for example, in the Prophet Isaiah, the 58th chapter, we do have that which we can bring into our own experience. Before the verses which I read, the people are complaining to God. They're saying, "We're very religious. We do all of our liturgies and sacrifices and rituals and you don't seem to take note of us." And the scripture lesson began with that question, “Is this the fast that I desire, says the Lord?” In other words, © Grand Valley State University   �Freedom and Commitment in a Global Society Richard A. Rhem Page 2   do I want all kinds of religious rigamarole? Do I need the smoke of your incense, the fragrance of your sacrifices? Do I need your obeisance and your devotion? Show me your devotion in a life committed to justice and compassion. Unshackle the prisoner and feed the hungry and clothe the naked and give the homeless shelter. Then, then the light will rise upon you. Then you'll call and I'll answer. Then you will be a repairer of ancient foundations, standing in the breach, affecting renewal. Religion has an end in itself. It is not at all what God desires or intends. Religious devotion is to result in fair and compassionate action. Paul in the letter to the Galatians is dealing with what we might say is a theological matter, a matter of grace as over against the performance principle. Specifically in this case, the question of circumcision, the Jewish rite of initiation, but that's not so important. The important thing that Paul is dealing with is the fact that we are set free from that heavy obligation, that onerous task of religious duty, and we don't come to God through all of our clap trap of religious practice and observance, beautiful as it may be in some cases, boring as it is in many cases, but rather, we come to God by the grace of God. We are set free, but we are set free, Paul says, not for self-indulgence, but for commitment to the other, to love. Set free to love. Set free to love in very concrete fashion, to live a life of commitment out of the freedom with which Christ has set us free. So, I think in the biblical perspective, you do have what I want to say this morning about our responsibility as a nation who has been so richly blessed. I want to say that we are called in our freedom to commitment in a global society, a world so far different than the world into which this nation was born, and yet a world that needs so desperately the blessings that we have received and the insights and the understanding and the wisdom that have marked our Western tradition. So, I want to say just a few things about that, and I want to begin simply by affirmation of our Western tradition, of our heritage, our national heritage as the United States of America. What a wonderful tradition it is. What a wonderful heritage it is. What a treasure it is, and how fruitful it has become in our midst, and how richly blessed we are as a people. I think there is every reason for the people of God gathered in worship to give God thanks and to reflect upon and celebrate that tradition, that civilizational track in which we find ourselves having emerged. Human dignity, the rights of the individuals, of liberal capitalism which has given us economic prosperity, human rights, although certainly not spread far enough, broad enough, completely enough to enough of God's children. Nonetheless, we know better. We know the ideal. We have the rule of law, a society under the rule of law; the Elian Gonzalez case tested that. Emotions got in the way and a tragic fiasco resulted, but finally the rule of law. Apart from the rule of law, it's chaos. One can change the law, but one lives under the law. All of those aspects of a national experience have been for us a source of very rich blessing, indeed, and something for which certainly we thank God. We have a national heritage that is a part of the Western civilization that is rooted in Israel, that great prophetic tradition, a little taste of that this © Grand Valley State University �Freedom and Commitment in a Global Society Richard A. Rhem Page 3   morning from Isaiah, rooted in Greek philosophical thought, that rich, rich cultural flourishing in those centuries before Christ, and in Rome a model of governance and law. Israel, Greece, Rome flowing into Europe, experiencing the Renaissance, the coming to flower of the human being, the recognition of the human being, the throwing off of all authoritarianism, and the development therefore of critical rationality and the Enlightenment, and all of that opening up the possibility of modernity which has brought us where we are today, not only with our freedom, not only with our prosperity, but with the technological breakthroughs - the Genome Project, the mapping of human DNA, the possibilities that will break forth in the future, in the near future, which will boggle our mind, a globe tied together intimately through the Internet, a world that is absolutely amazing. It is so amazing that people get scared. It is so fast and rapidly changing with so much potential, that a lot of people will run into the shelter of fundamentalist religious trying to stave off tomorrow and turn back the clock. But it is a world that has absolutely flowered out of that Western tradition from Israel and Greece and Rome, through Europe, Renaissance, and the U.S. of A., and we stand today as the guardians and the guarantors of that precious heritage. It is no mean thing. It is a great gift. It has given us so much and it has ongoing potential for the wellbeing and the good of the world. But, having said that, I want to say that, while it is unique, it is not universal. By that I mean that in this global society that has become so small and intimately connected, it ought not occur to us to export our Western civilization globally. There are great civilizational groupings that make up the human family and half a dozen or so, all of them shaped initially, intimately by a religious vision. Again, ours informed by Christianity coming out of the womb of Judaism, Greek philosophy, Roman law, but so with the Asian civilizations, so with the Orthodox countries, the Muslim civilizations - these respective civilizations are so deeply rooted. They are deeply rooted in blood and ethnicity and it far transcends allegiance to an idea or an ideal; it far transcends a national border, a nation state. What we have to recognize today is that the West is not the best for the rest. It is ours, and we ought to celebrate it and we ought to seek its renewal and we ought to preserve it and enhance it in every way we can, but we live in a global situation where our civilization must be understood as unique and not universal. To claim it is universal is simply false. That can be documented. And it is immoral. If we were to export Western civilization globally, it would take military might. It would take enforcement in its institution and in its maintenance. It would take that old imperialism that marked the 19th century when Europe had hegemony over the rest of the globe, or in the 20th century in the dominance of our own particular nation. We could do it for a time through the imposition of power, but it is immoral and it would be dangerous because in the long run it wouldn't work, © Grand Valley State University �Freedom and Commitment in a Global Society Richard A. Rhem Page 4   because in the long run, coercion is overthrown by that which is more deeply rooted in the human spirit. And so, we are unique but we are not universal; we ought not to be. Therefore, what we need to do is reject mono-culturalism which would see the globe as marked by just one culture, and also multi-culturalism. Now, that may surprise you because you know me as a bleeding heart liberal, and I have to say that I have been inclined to multi-culturalism because, after all, one ought to respect diversity and respect differences. But one must recognize that our founding fathers saw diversity as a problem, and to meet that problem, they had the little Latin phrase, E pluribus unum, out of many, one. The typical old, classic symbol for that was the melting pot. A New Testament scholar whom I deeply respect, Krister Stendahl, who has been here with us, Bishop Stendahl says that in the melting pot, you have to recognize that the dominant culture wins. You sort of assimilate everything into the dominant culture, and that's true, and I think we have to be very sensitive about that. He suggests rather than a melting pot, we have a salad bowl, where you have the various ingredients maintaining their own identity. But, however you do it, what we have to recognize is that multi-culturalism will deny, and therefore destroy, the uniqueness of Western civilization, which is not universal, which is not for everyone, but which has a heritage, a wisdom, and a fruitful tradition with which we ought not play fast and loose. No mono-culturalism, no multi-culturalism, but a recognition of the uniqueness among the diversities of civilization, and then a mining of that heritage and that tradition for its best. And then recognizing that those qualities and those virtues are biblically rooted in the Hebrew tradition, expressed in the Christian tradition, reinforced by Greece and Rome. We ought to know who we are; we ought to know the pit from which we've been hewn, and we ought to recognize its value and do everything we can to make it better and to make it a part, a gleaming part, one of the facets of the global reality. And then, I would say this, too - because of the position of power that we have, it is absolutely incumbent upon us to bear the burden for the rest of the world. It is incumbent upon us, the U.S. of A., to bear the burden and the cost of implementing a peaceful world. We need to do this by recognizing our uniqueness among the diversity, rejecting the mono-culturalism and the multiculturalism, and then doing what we can in a world such as we see before us to accommodate the respective civilizational groupings. We need to do this through the energy and the resources that are ours, recognizing that it will be incumbent upon us to take the lead, to yield, to compromise, and back down. It's always the responsibility of the one in power to yield and to give way, to be sensitive because in a position of dominance such as we have, if we don't do that, we will incite a backlash which can be read almost anywhere around the globe today. They love the golden arches of McDonald's, the world loves the economic prosperity, the world loves all of the gadgets and the toys and the affluence, but they don't want us dictating their civilizational ways, and we need to recognize that a world which © Grand Valley State University �Freedom and Commitment in a Global Society Richard A. Rhem Page 5   is diverse will always be diverse, and therefore needs accommodation, needs somebody who has the power who will give up the power here and there in order to make the whole thing work. Paul Schroeder, a retired history professor from the University of Illinois, says a peaceful world has resulted when there has been a dominant power that is benign, that is able to use its power in a positive fashion, and the problem of such a world comes when that dominant power is either unable or unwilling to pay the cost. In such a case, there is incited a backlash or the rising of competing ideologies that finally will undermine that status quo, that peace that has been achieved. I hear people grumble about all the billions of dollars that we ship overseas. Of course, we never stop to figure out that the beneficiary of all of that far beyond anyone else is ourselves. You hear Congressmen brag that they've hardly ever been out of this country. Someone of them said they didn't even own a passport. What kind of head-in-the-sand stupidity is that? You hear people thinking that you can turn the clock back, shut down movements like free trade and return to an isolationist kind of position. What kind of ignorance is that? And since we are in a position of such dominance and such power, it is incumbent upon us to be full of grace, full of integrity, to lead with generosity and with sensitivity. There is a good deal in this morning's scriptural passages about the pointing of the finger, the fighting and devouring of one another, added to the hostility and anger. Did you happen to catch the little piece in the news last night about taking down the Confederate flag over the capital of South Carolina, only to raise it on a flagpole in the yard somewhere? You can have whatever position you want on that, but when I saw on the television screen the hatred and the meanness and hostility, I saw the violence of the human animal. I thought to myself, "Dear God, I wish I was preaching this morning where my friend John Richard DeWitt is preaching, within sight of the capital, First Presbyterian, Columbia, South Carolina." I think I could get excited about preaching there this morning. But, you know, it's not a Carolinian problem; it's a human problem, and I have to say to you that, as citizens of the United States of America and as children of God who have been so richly blessed, who have such a marvelous tradition, the tradition of the West - we may not allow meanness, divisiveness, bigotry and hostility to mark us. Where is the Church? Where are the pulpits of America? How can we allow it to go on, when I have to say to you we are blessed, we are affluent, we are full of resources, we have limitless power, and it's time for us to take the lead and giving it away with gentleness and graciousness, not yielding up our power to lead, but yielding up our egotism and our self-indulgence. We are called in a global society in freedom to commitment and only thus will the Spirit of God be able to nudge this whole process along, that creative, enlivening Spirit of God that would move us animals onward toward Spirit in order that there might be peace on earth © 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 Pentecost IV Scripture Text Galatians 5:13 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-0-20000702 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2000-07-02 Title A name given to the resource Freedom and Commitment in a Global Society Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Richard A. Rhem Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> 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 July 2, 2000 entitled "Freedom and Commitment in a Global Society", on the occasion of Pentecost IV, at Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI. Scripture references: Galatians 5:13. Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Lemmen Library and Archives Compassion Diversity Global Community Inclusive https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/fb70ab5bc8cd906f939f9e541830e8da.mp3 d86112028b3f5677156ec5f8ea1e1400 https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/66e3feeb3a07b1e9634bb125bbc37c5a.pdf 85fa03a34f461f6a5851bea5f08d2a0b PDF Text Text Fire From Heaven Pentecost Sunday Scripture: Joel 2:28-32; Acts 19:1-7 Richard A. Rhem Christ Community Church Spring Lake, Michigan June 11, 2000 Transcription of the spoken sermon It was as the past century was about to dawn that there was a significant event in Chicago, just down the lake. On the shores of Lake Michigan, there was created the Columbian Exposition. I was not aware of the tremendous dimension of that event, the Chicago World's Fair, but on the shores of Lake Michigan in 1893 there was created what they called The White City. The great architects of the country vied for the right to design that city. This exposition covered some 644 acres and, as one came from the lake or along Lakeshore in Chicago, one was met by this gleaming, white city: resplendent buildings, a reflecting pool, the triumphal arch - all made sort of like out of material similar to plaster of Paris or papier-maché. There were steel ribbings for the shape, but it was not a lasting kind of creation. It was the sort of thing you do for a fair and exposition, a temporary display. But it was magnificent, it had the grandeur that was Greece and the glory that was Rome, and it was the celebration of the coming to this continent of Christopher Columbus. The Columbian Exposition was full of all of the daring and the boldness and the greatness and self-assurance of the American spirit at the end of a century looking forward to the 20th century which would be the American century in which the American spirit would dominate the world, obviously, in the providence of God. There was, to look at it in retrospect, a great deal of hubris, a great deal of human pride, but there was a great vision. The Cosmopolitan magazine of March 1893 had on the cover a bundle of sticks, called a fades, a Roman symbol for authority that the magistrates had paraded before them, a bundle of sticks bound with a cord and an axe, and on each one of the sticks was written the name of a denomination, obviously all being bound into one, and there was a ribbon that tied the bundle which said, "The fatherhood of God and the brotherhood of man," and there was an American eagle with his sharp eye guarding it all, which had in its beak a twisted ribbon on which was written, "Intolerance." The centerpiece of the Columbian Exposition was the first World Parliament of Religions, and the planners brought to Chicago religious leaders from all around the globe. There were Hindus and Shinto priests and Catholic priests and Baptist preachers and Buddhist monks - you name it. The ten great religious traditions of the world were represented in this first ever © Grand Valley State University   �Fire From Heaven Richard A. Rhem Page 2   Parliament of Religions which was dedicated not to the snuffing out of the respective religious, but rather, a banding together of all the religions against all irreligious. I don't have time to read to you some of the statements of the opening of that exposition, and particularly its centerpiece, the Parliament of Religions, but there are statements that are filled with idealism, filled with hope, filled with a vibrant spirit that humankind was on the very threshold of realizing the kingdom of God. That was at the beginning of the 20th century. The exposition closed in October. There was an economic downturn, and the condition of those who had served as waiters and cleaners and all kinds of personnel in this great exposition all summer found themselves without work. Many of them became homeless and found in this temporary exposition, now abandoned, a place to find shelter. This spectacular White City in January of 1894, because of those who were finding shelter there and making a fire to keep themselves warm, a fire which got out of control, the whole White City on one night was reduced to dust and ashes. It may have been an omen of what was to come, for all of the hopes and all of the dreams that were gathered together in that exposition and that Parliament of Religions, in a great closing ceremony at which was sung "America" and "The Hallelujah Chorus" by a 500-voice choir, the fusing together of the heavenly city and the earthly city - all of those hopes and all of those dreams which envisioned a future unlimited, were shortly brought to grief as the world entered into the first great World War and then the second great World War, and then the Holocaust and the horror in our own memory of that awful event. Those wonderful dreams of humanity, of oneness, of unity which, of course, were all under the auspices of the American spirit and a kind of benevolent, liberal, white Protestantism, nevertheless came to grief. The journal to which I still subscribe, The Christian Century, was named at this particular period The Christian Century because the 20th century was to be the Christian century, and then it all came to grief. There was a group of theologians in the 60's who became known as the "Death of God theologians," and Professor Harvey Cox from Harvard, who was here recently with us, wrote a book at that time which became a bestseller, The Secular City, asking how one finds God in a culture totally secular, a culture in which the leading scholarly opinion is that God is dead. From that exuberant hope and idealism at the end of the century before to the middle of this past century, the despair. Harvey Cox, who wrote The Secular City, has a more recent book just a couple of years out which he has entitled Fire From Heaven, which documents the great White City and the hopes of the Parliament of Religion, and he says at the same time there was in Los Angeles among the poor in a totally down-and-out district, in an abandoned warehouse, an outbreak of spiritual enthusiasm and power. 1906, among uneducated, many illiterate poor folk under the leadership of a black pastor, a movement that has become known as the Pentecostal movement, the stark contrast between the White City and the Parliament of Religions, the © Grand Valley State University �Fire From Heaven Richard A. Rhem Page 3   aspirations for a unity and oneness for all humankind, sort of under an American, Protestant, Christian banner brought to dust and ashes, and in a few decades coming to expression in the death of God, and this little movement no one noticed from people about whom no one ever heard, called the Pentecostal movement, which is alive and well today at the end of the 20th century and moving into our own present 21st century. Harvey Cox acknowledges that he took the analysis of the death of God theologians too seriously and that, while the hopes of those great leaders at the end of the 19th century have come to nothing, God was doing a work among an obscure people, beginning a movement that encircles the globe today. So, instead of the Secular City of the 69's, Harvey Cox’s latest book is entitled Fire From Heaven because, finally, the present and the future are not left to human ingenuity and human planning, but rather, we wait upon the Spirit of God. It is a fascinating historical retrospective and I would say only this - that it is very easy 100 years later to mock the planners of the World Parliament of Religions and the hopes and the dreams of the White City. It is easy enough at this point to recognize human pride, human naiveté. It is easy enough to put them down for what was, nonetheless, a magnificent dream. It was naive in that, in its speaking of Pentecost, the arrival again of Pentecost, this language in which they spoke, they were really seeing a blossoming of liberal Christianity, and they were naive to think that somehow or other we humankind can plan and shape and determine the landscape of the future. But, let's give them credit - it was a magnificent dream, and what the horrors through which we have passed in the 20th century have taught us is perhaps a touch of humility and then the recognition of a diversity which is not to be put into a blender and homogenized into some kind of bland human formula, but a diversity that is representative of the depth of the human spirit, that is, representative of the diversity of the human creature that is a reflection we would say today of the intention of the Creator. Oh, we can put down those dreamers of yesteryear, but they had a great dream, and what we have had to go through, the horror of war, of Holocaust, and the globalization of our human experience is the recognition of a grand menagerie of human creatures, of a grand rainbow of human personality and human beings. We have come, I think, today to celebrate and to rejoice in the diversity which is not an obstacle to be overcome, but a creative wonder in which to rejoice. As we recognize that diversity, we just may be in a better position to begin to realize the hopes and the dream, acknowledging all of its naiveté and all of its human pride. Nonetheless, the dream of a world that is one and a humanity that is living in peace, giving to each one dignity and acknowledging that God, that deep Mystery Who is the ground of our being and the Source of our life, that God Who is beyond each of our traditions but present in each through God's breathing, God's Spirit, we just may be on the threshold of a new, wonderful age for humankind who have come to give up their dreams of dominance and their fear of the other, © Grand Valley State University �Fire From Heaven Richard A. Rhem Page 4   ready to join hands with all of those who are other, whether through race, religion, ethnicity, education, economic status, sexual orientation, whatever it may be - to look at the other and not be afraid, but to embrace in an unconditional love that recognizes in each one the image of the God Who is beyond us, but on Pentecost came to dwell within us, and finally, to make us one. As you go through the narthex, pick up a little ribbon and wear it as a sign of your solidarity with all who are other, with whom we are one through the Spirit of God. References: Harvey Cox. Fire From Heaven: The Rise of Pentecostal Spirituality and the Reshaping of Religion in the 21st Century. Da Capo Press, 2001. © 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 Pentecost Scripture Text Joel 2:28-32, Acts 19:1-7 Location The location of the interview Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI References Harvey Cox. Fire From Heaven: The Rise of Pentecostal Spirituality and the Reshaping of Religion in the 21st Century, 2001. 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-0-20000611 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2000-06-11 Title A name given to the resource Fire From Heaven Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Richard A. Rhem Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> 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 June 11, 2000 entitled "Fire From Heaven", on the occasion of Pentecost, at Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI. Scripture references: Joel 2:28-32, Acts 19:1-7. Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Lemmen Library and Archives Diversity Inclusive Pentecost Spirit of God https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/b7be61b1d531e27356aa3566d19f3f01.mp3 694f590459d6f60d2cbec393f470ce50 https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/7fc9a1931c55f7ba5134056d3428ef95.pdf 3a6b67ccb6e39ca5ff2b463abb1870f1 PDF Text Text I Wish Someone Had Told Me That – Or, Did They? Baccalaureate Sunday Text: Romans 8:31,39 Richard A. Rhem Christ Community Church Spring Lake, Michigan Eastertide, June 4, 2000 Transcription of the spoken sermon This morning I want to speak to you graduates. These remarks are for you, but the congregation is invited to listen in because there may be a thing or two for them, as well. In this year 2000, when you get a diploma, I received a Medicare card, and that may qualify me as a sage. Having lived this long, I have acquired some wisdom, and I thought there were some things I would like to share with you. In fact, they are the things that I wish someone had told me - or, did they? There are some things that I wish that someone had told me as I was growing up, some things that could have saved me some anxiety and some mistakes, some things I wish I had known. I wish someone had told me that - or, did they? Maybe they did, because you don't always listen, nor did I, and sometimes the wisdom that flows just rolls off your back, and later on, maybe, this conversation will come into focus. I have no illusion that just another sermon is going to change your life, but I didn't really think you wanted another sermon, either, so I thought I'd just tell you some things that I wish somebody had told me, or if they did, I wish I had caught on to. At this commencement season, I am aware of the fact that these young people and countless others across the country receive all kinds of encouragement and challenge, in motivational speeches we'll hear from Presidents and Generals and significant people who will address all kinds of graduating classes and all phases of education in these days. We'll get little snippets on the television news and, by and large, they will be words of encouragement; they will be words of motivation to achieve, to pursue your goals, to pursue your dreams and to work hard and to accept the challenge of life, and that's good, because it is true that you will kind of slide through if you can, but you also do respond to challenge when it is significant and meaningful. So, I think all of that is good, but I also had the strong feeling as I contemplated Baccalaureate Sunday that we do put a lot of pressure on our graduates. As parents and as pastors and as teachers, we create a lot of pressure for them and we are not always totally honest with the way life really is. There are some things we don't tell you, and I thought that this morning I would © Grand Valley State University   �I Wish Someone Had Told Me That – Or Did They? Richard A. Rhem Page 2   like to tell you some things that I wish that I had understood. It's a little different from the voices you're going to hear at this time of graduation. I hope you get a lot of challenge, a lot of encouragement. I hope you are stirred and motivated, but this is going to be an alternative voice. First of all, what I wish someone had said to me is: Relax a little bit and take time to live, and don't let the pressure squeeze you into a mold, meeting everybody else's expectations, the expectations of all the people in your life who are important and society in general. Take some time to live. Have a bit of humor about your life. Relax a little bit; let up a little bit. I suppose there's not another church in the country that would ever print that poem on the front of its liturgy by Jenny Joseph about wearing purple, but the poet suggests that when she gets old, she's going to wear purple, she's going to do all kinds of outrageous things, all kinds of silly things, all kinds of foolish things. And the only reason that poem sells, the only reason we read it and we smile at it is because in all of us we spend an awful lot of time toeing the mark, living up to expectations, doing the thing that is wise and respectable and responsible and in all of us there's a little something that needs to break out of that once in a while. If the poet is going to wear purple and be outrageous when she's old, she does suggest that maybe she ought to start practicing so it wouldn't be such a shock when she got old, and it occurred to me that we're not always honest with our children and our youth. We push pretty hard and our society creates a lot of pressure on young people. I think they're working very hard. I'm very impressed with what our young people are doing these days and I think it even goes farther than that. There are probably a few Baby Boomer parents that need to hear what I'm going to say this morning, also, and that is that we can get into a mode of drivenness about achieving and succeeding. We are bombarded by the media with the fact that we ought to be consumers, we ought to purchase and possess and acquire, and there is a groundswell in our society, I sense, that it's not easy to live up to, not easy to meet the expectations, and we start with young people like this and we simply try to push them and not say to them, "Once in a while it's okay to wear purple and to dance in the rain and to do something foolish, just for the sake of it, because it's a part of living and, God knows, it's not easy and you're going to have to be responsible and work hard and do all of that which you have been encouraged to do by the many voices that you have heard." That is all good, but hear me this morning: Don't be driven. Learn to relax. Learn to live fully and let that whole beautiful person you are come to blossom. There is another thing I want to say I wish someone had told me: Don't expect that you are going to acquire Truth with a capital T. Don't ever expect that, in whatever field you enter or whatever kind of life you lead, you are going to have Truth, absolute Truth in your possession, because, being human, that is impossible, and I wish someone had told me that because I was trying to nail it down, to get it right, to have all the ducks in line. I thought that I could come to a possession of the Truth and stand in the Truth. I wish somebody had told me that © Grand Valley State University �I Wish Someone Had Told Me That – Or Did They? Richard A. Rhem Page 3   is not possible. It is not possible because of the nature of our human experience. We are people in process. We are a part of a cosmic process. We are a part of an evolving process with a new emerging reality all of the time and, for God's sake, it is 15 billion years already and who knows where it's going, and if we are creatures in process, if we are people on the way, as we certainly are, then we do not possess absolute Truth. That means that we ought to live with an open mind for expanding knowledge and humility before the things we don't know. Let me give you an example. I mentioned a couple of weeks ago that I was invited to be a part of the Diversity Day at Grand Haven High School, and it was a stellar event in which some of you were exposed to the diversity of race, culture, ethnicity, sexual orientation, religion. It was exactly the kind of thing that you should be exposed to because you are entering a world that is full of diversity and diversity comes closer to home all the time. I mention this as an illustration because in the local newspaper we're carrying on a battle of words about the fact that that should not have been done and, of course, the sticking point is the question of sexual orientation. Some are saying these young people should not be exposed to the fact that sexual orientation is a given of our human nature. The scientists are studying it and all the information is not in. It's certainly obvious to anybody who has an open mind at all that sexual orientation is a part of the constitution of the human being and it is as diverse as are people, and yet you would think by reading the newspaper that you could quote a Bible verse that seems to condemn a same-sex union and that God has spoken and that's all there is to it! That really is not the case at all. The problem, you see, is that this Bible is used for some kind of absolute rulebook that has information in it rather than recognizing that this book is an ancient book, a marvelous book of the story of the spiritual experience of people, the people of Israel and the people who followed Jesus as a record of their experience, their encounter with God, their devotion to God. Instead of recognizing that, it becomes a kind of moral guidance book with rules in it. Now, the Bible says a lot about your sexuality. It says it to all of us, no matter what our orientation may be. It says be faithful and responsible in the exercise of this wonderful gift. But, the questions that we are aware of in our day about sexual orientation weren't even in the purview of this book. It doesn't address it at all! Of course, there were abusive sexual practices then and they were condemned and there is abuse of sexuality today and it should be condemned. That has nothing to do with whether a person is homosexual or heterosexual or somewhere inbetween, and to refuse to know that, to admit that, is simply to close your mind to what is obvious to all of us. So, one would live in ignorance, and one living in ignorance could become arrogant, and when ignorance and arrogance combine, the potential for violence is there. This is not a sermon about sexual orientation. Don't forget my point: You are never going to have absolute Truth with a capital T. I use the other only as an illustration of the disruption and the disharmony and the alienation and the violence that can occur when people think they have the absolute Truth spoken by God rather than recognizing that we are people on the © Grand Valley State University �I Wish Someone Had Told Me That – Or Did They? Richard A. Rhem Page 4   way, but that knowledge is expanding and we must be open to new knowledge, and then change our mind where necessary, but always be humble because the capital T Truth is God's, never the possession of the human. Dear God, I wish someone had told me that. There is another thing somewhat related and that is that life isn't neat. It is complex and full of ambiguity. It is not simple to find your way. It is not easy to be human. It is full of questions and if we're honest it is full of struggle and wrestling within, and I use as an example of this my hero, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, who was executed by the Nazis in 1945 just before the camp where he was incarcerated was liberated. Bonhoeffer was a pastor and a theologian and he was really in his heart a pacifist. He really believed that to follow Jesus was to be nonviolent. But, he was in that situation of the rise of Hitler and Nazism, and he recognized that if Nazism were to prevail, Western civilization would be lost, and so Bonhoeffer as a pacifist made a decision to join a conspiracy to kill Hitler. Now, do you see the conflict? I'm a pacifist; I don't believe in violence and now I join a conspiracy to kill the head of state, which is treason as well as murder. Can't you see the conflict? Can you not see that this man wrestled within himself and he has this strong conviction about being non-violent and yet he sees what he has to do. He has to act. In the human arena, you are going to have to act and you are not always going to know that it is exactly this or that; you are going to have to act with limited knowledge and limited insight and sometimes you are going to make a mistake and you are going to do something wrong, because life is difficult and life is complex and life is full of ambiguity, and you have to act without knowing everything, and you cannot know everything, but you have to follow your conscience and follow your heart and do what you think you have to do, knowing that it is a judgment call. Read Bonhoeffer's poem in the back of the liturgy, "Who Am I?" This brilliant, deeply spiritual person -was he cock-sure, self-righteous? Not at all. He said, "Who am I?" Those in the prison whose life he lighted up because he led them in prayers and worship, they admired him and respected him. He was a fragrant presence there, but he said, "They think of me that way, but who am I? Am I that, or am I what I feel inside me, with all the struggle and all the distress and all the turmoil in my soul. Am I a hypocrite? Am I one thing one day, one thing another day?" And finally, "Thou knowest, O God, I am Thine!" That statement came out of the cauldron, that came out of struggle, because life is not easy. The corners are not neat; loose ends are not all tied up and you are going to have to live with that. That brings me to a final word about God. I put some things in the liturgy, in the insert by St. Augustine, Thomas Merton, Elizabeth Barrett Browning. I wish somebody had told me that God was in everything and present to me in every moment, in every experience. Don't get me wrong - I had a deeply sensitive and devoted home and church and I am grateful for that, but what I am saying is the impression of God I had was like a super-policeman up there keeping records. © Grand Valley State University �I Wish Someone Had Told Me That – Or Did They? Richard A. Rhem Page 5   Even St. Paul said that we come into this world at enmity with God. I felt there was an adversarial relationship with God and that if I didn't keep in the tracks pretty well I would incur guilt and then I'd be alienated from God and it seemed to me that there was an awful lot of that in my nurture, my growing up. I don't know how to tell you something different, except that I don't know how important God is to you right now, but God will become important to you and when that moment comes, I want you to know that it's the God of Hosea, the Hebrew prophet who spoke about Israel and Israel's rebellion and disobedience and all of that, even though God had tenderly nurtured them and cared for them, and in this very human presentation of God, the prophet speaks of God as being angry with them. Then, however, the prophet has this deep, deep insight, for he puts these words in God's mouth: How can I give you up, 0 Israel? How can I give you up? I should give you up, but how should I give you up? I can't give you up because I love you. The cosmic lover. I'll never give you up. I can't give you up. I'll never abandon you. I don't care where your road takes you, what experiences you have, remember Hosea's God, because Hosea got it right in the midst of a lot of other stuff where he spoke of the God who is a lover who will never let you go and is as present to you as your breath is, in some burning bush or flaming sunset or in some human relationship in which you find yourself made whole. In all of that, God is. God is the God that Paul pictures in the 8th chapter of Romans who is for you. If God is for us, who can be against us? And then he gives us that picture which you hadn't ought to literalize, but the picture of Jesus who dies crucified, risen, ascended, and sitting at the throne of God and making intercession for us. In other words, you have an advocate at the throne of power of the universe. That's the picture; that's the image. But the idea of it is that there is something in the heart of things that is for you, for you, on your side, that will never let you go. Nothing can ever separate you from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. I don't care how ambiguous your situation, how poor your judgment, what wrong path you may take, how much you stand in confusion before all of the options that hit you in your life, God is with you, win be with you, will never let you go. I sort of knew that, but God wasn't so user-friendly for me, and I want you to know there is no adversarial relationship between you and the Creator of the heavens and the earth, and so relax a bit, open your mind to truth wherever you find it, act in your life according to your vision and your values, in the midst of the ambiguity in which you don't always know the answers, and love God, love God, because you are loved of God, and that will never change and that's the greatest thing in the world. God bless you. © 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 Baccalaureate Sunday, Eastertide VII Scripture Text Romans 8:31, 39 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-0-20000604 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2000-06-04 Title A name given to the resource I Wish Someone Had Told Me That - Or, Did They? Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Richard A. Rhem Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> 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 June 4, 2000 entitled "I Wish Someone Had Told Me That - Or, Did They?", on the occasion of Baccalaureate Sunday, Eastertide VII, at Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI. Scripture references: Romans 8:31, 39. Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Lemmen Library and Archives Diversity Immanence Inclusive Love https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/1e6f03fe89a3ae4265982d4550eb2125.mp3 f7b851e1b11ce73d0aecf8da111b8890 https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/1752ae2ab7ac76de21548984349c5796.pdf cbc9def3307f63343c085d65961ce107 PDF Text Text Rootedness and Belonging Eastertide; Mothers’ Day Philippians 3:8 Richard A. Rhem Christ Community Church Spring Lake, Michigan May 14, 2000 Transcription of the spoken sermon For Mother's Day and for our reflection on the family, I have a dilemma for you. Perhaps a better word would be paradox, and that is that it is in the family that we gain our rootedness which has the positive value of giving us a sense of identity as to who we are and who we are being called to be. It is also in the family that we can be so deeply rooted that we fail to have an appreciation for an openness to the wonderful diversity of creation. That is something of a paradox, and what I want to say to you today is that the family is so terribly important for giving to us a shaping and a formation that will enable us to move through life effectively, but it is such a perilous task because if we don't do it with great care, we can be shut down rather than opened up. A couple of weeks ago I was invited to Grand Haven High School for their Diversity Day. The Diversity Day was a morning in which they brought in someone from the outside, an actor, a psychologist-type, a very effective speaker who addressed half the student body while the other half went to their respective classes. And then they did a switcheroo, and I was one of a number of guests who were brought in to address or to be with the students in their respective classes while half of them were being addressed by the star of the morning. I, of course, represented the field of religion, and I was paired with Rabbi Alan Alpert, my good friend from Muskegon. Bob Kleinheksel was also one of those who engaged with the students. But, Alan Alpert and I, before we opened our mouths, were already a statement to the diversity that exists within the religious community and the fact that that diversity can be overcome with mutual respect and affection, as we were very good friends and we are able to share with the students about our own relationship and the relationship of our respective communities. As I began to address that situation, suddenly I recognized the fact that all of my nurture, all of my training, all of the influences of my home and my church, all of the efforts and the prayers of my parents and my pastors and my teachers were to the end that I might be narrowed down, not opened up. This simply struck me. Obviously it wasn't anything I didn't know all my life, but I never thought about it in this context. I realized before those students that a diversity day like that in old © Grand Valley State University   �Rootedness and Belonging Richard A. Rhem Page 2   Kalamazoo Central when I was a Maroon Giant would have threatened the pants off me, because I was traditioned, I was nurtured, I was shaped, I was formed, I had rigor mortis of the soul before I was graduated from high school, and it struck me so that all of that which was done for me was to give me tunnel vision, narrow me down, secure me in the truth, and, as I shared with the students, done by tender, loving, well-meaning parents and pastors and teachers with the best of intention and done so tenderly, but it is a fact that it was to close me down. Now I am so far from that today that I can hardly believe that it's still going on, and so, I said to the students, "That doesn't go on anymore, does it?" They said it does, and of course I really knew that it still goes on, because isn't that what home and family are for? Isn't that the function of parents? And then, thinking about it, I recognized how perilous it is to do that job of nurturing and shaping and forming. Now, the positive side of it is obvious. I was rooted, and rootedness is essential for a healthy human being. I knew who I was; I had a sense of identity, a strong sense of identity. I had a sense of God and family and faith and those fundamental values and issues of our human condition. But the peril is that nurture and formation end by creating walls around us, isolating us from the other, and insulating us from the rich diversity of the human experience. I had set aside an article that I came across sometime ago for this particular Sunday prior to my Diversity Day experience. It was written by a fellow named Pico Iyer in Civilization, the magazine of the Library of Congress, and the title of the article is "Citizen Nowhere," an excerpt from a book recently published. This particular author, who is a journalist, was reflecting on the fact that there is a new human being emerging, a human being with a global soul. He represents that group, which certainly is a first-world, affluent phenomenon, nonetheless a growing phenomenon in our world today and a kind of experience that many of us can somewhat identify with, although his situation was certainly in the extreme. He grew up in India and he never knew his father's native tongue nor his mother's native tongue, they all shared British English, and he was born into a home of Hindu faith, raised in Christian schools, and identifies mostly now with Buddhist communities. He spoke about the nature of this phenomenon which is becoming more and more the case in our world where one may not dwell on the continent where one works, or, in his case, have no relatives on the continent where he more or less lives. He told about the thousands and thousands of miles, air miles, that he clocks and said these kind of people are the people that still engage with the rituals of death, perhaps scattering a father's ashes 6000 miles from where one lives, or get up in the morning in Santa Barbara and in the evening be in the broken heart of Manila Or start out in the Big Apple and end up in the dusty streets of Haiti. A world in which we are thrown around and thrown together, exposed to all kinds of experiences, one upon another in rapid fire, ending up with a porous personality that doesn't really know who it is, a porous personality that can become whatever the particular situation and location calls © Grand Valley State University �Rootedness and Belonging Richard A. Rhem Page 3   for. People who grow up as he did in three different cultures and live somewhere in the cracks, people who are so informed about every facet of every issue and can see so many sides of every question that they have no basis for making a judgment or come to conviction or make any commitment. He talks about being unaffiliated. He says, "Oh, there's a blessing of being unaffiliated - one can continue to have new experiences that bring wonder and awe. But, unaffiliation can also cause lack of responsibility and accountability." And then he spoke about the threat of rootlessness and the fact that the human soul needs rooting, and that in this day, in this phenomenon which is becoming increasingly common, the threat is for a kind of amorphous being to evolve that has no sense of identity when no one else is around, who doesn't know really who one is or what the human condition is all about. So, if it is possible to be so deeply rooted that one is isolated from the diversity of creation, it is also possible to be so exposed to that diversity that one has no sense of who one is and what one is called to be. Interesting juxtaposition and on this day of the family, this Mother's Day, I thought it might be good for us to recognize the paradox of that need for nurture and shaping and formation and that need to so nurture and form that we will be able to transcend all of those givens of our lives, those givens over which we have nothing to say, the color of our skin, our race, our ethnic grouping, our national alignment, our religious tradition, our creedal grouping, our sexual orientation, those things that are simply given to us. Nurture that is positive must root in order to give a sense of identity, and nurture so that there is the ability to transcend all of those natural givens in order that we might find a community in which the other is no longer other, but is embraced in a larger grace and love and community. At the post-resurrection appearance of Jesus, there was a breakfast by the Sea of Tiberius, with those going back to Galilee. Peter had said, "I'm going fishing." They said, "We'll go with you." And, however they took up their lives, it was in the picking up of that life in Galilee that they experienced again the presence of the Lord, but they had come to the bonding of community. The classic example has to be Paul, who has gotten a lot of bad press and probably deserves most of it, but that amazing thing about Paul is the degree to which he was able to transcend the traditioning, the formation of his life. He talks about it in that third chapter of Philippians - circumcised the eighth day, born of the people of Israel, the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew born of Hebrews. As to the law, a Pharisee. As to zeal, persecuting the church. As far as the righteousness of the Law was concerned, blameless. All of that and what did he do for it? And this is the danger of effective nurture. It made him a violent person, because he was on the road to Damascus, issuing warrants of arrest to those who were of another Jewish sect, the followers of the Way. If nurture is not carefully given, it will imbue in one the idea that one has the truth and, whether taught explicitly or not, © Grand Valley State University �Rootedness and Belonging Richard A. Rhem Page 4   will imply that is the only truth. It will isolate one from the larger human community and, where things don't go well, it can issue in a violent personality. We see it in our world today which, as Piko Iyer has said, is becoming a global village. A global village sounds secure, but it's a global city and it's threatening, and the rising of nationalisms around the globe are full of peril and danger, and in the religious sphere the upsurge of fundamentalists is a consequence of fear and the insecurity of those who feel threatened in their little respective selves. If we are not careful in the nurturing of children and adults, we'll be creating persons who are threatened by the other and have a potential for violence. But Paul had an experience and it was an experience of Jesus Christ, and talk about transcending, he takes all of that bundle of credentials and says, "I consider it refuse." Another translation says rubbish. That's a little radical, but then Paul was never known for moderation. But he was so imbued with all of that tradition of his Jewish Pharisaical face, that for him to be able to tie it all in a bundle and let it go was nothing less than a miracle of grace. He saw something more. He was the one with some validity; he is credited as being the founder of Christianity. Not Jesus, but Paul, because Paul saw in the Jew Jesus, in the God of Jesus, the God of Israel who was a God of inclusivity - he saw the possibility of a grace of God that embraced the whole world. Paul was the universalizer, taking his cue from Jesus, and he was able to let go. That's a miracle. Do you know how tough that is? He let it all go and created a whole new community, and I want to say that the only reason for the church is to be a community which can give a sense of belonging and be a center for generating inspiration, emerging in conviction and commitment for the transformation of the world through the tearing down of all barriers that separate humankind, to tear down those barriers that separate us from the other who become so threatening because of color of skin, because of ethnic curiosity, because of sexual orientation. Suddenly we de-humanize, we denature, we demean and destroy. This community is a community of inclusion intentionally, respecting no boundaries or barriers that would divide. It's not easy. It is very easy to nurture, deeply rooting. Giving a narrow sense and a tunnel vision builds strong institutions, builds strong congregations. It's quite a risky thing to tell you that we don't possess all the truth. It's quite a risky thing to tell you that there are other places where the grace is just as free, quite a risky business to tell you that you don't have to be here any more than you have to be here in order to be fueled up to get out there and do the job you are called to do. I'm proud of this place; I'm proud that last night at "A Night of 100 Stars," honoring volunteers in this area, 20% or 25% of the volunteers in this Tri-Cities area came from this community. (Three of our people were very instrumental in putting on that event - Trudy Schultz, Kathy Bolthouse, and Gloria Klinger; there may have been some others involved.) I'm not surprised at all. Peter has been leading the charge into this community for a number of years now because the © Grand Valley State University �Rootedness and Belonging Richard A. Rhem Page 5   purpose of this place is not an end in itself; it's not that this place may exist. It is that this place may exist in order to send people out of here with a sense of breadth and grace and reconciling love that will tear down every barrier and bind together all the people of God, all of the children of God. It's a tricky business, but what a wonderful, freeing thing it is when the fear drops away. What a wonderful thing it is to be able to embrace the other as a brother or a sister, and what a beautiful community this is. We had an Elders' Meeting again this week and I said to the people who came, "I love this community. I'm so proud of it. I believe in it because of the kind of people who are continuing to come to it, all sorts and conditions of humankind. Wonderful." Now, how do you nurture so that you create enough rootedness through a sense of belonging in community that you can go forth, having transcended all peculiarities? That is the task and that is divine. © 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 Mother's Day, Eastertide IV Scripture Text Philippians 3:8 Location The location of the interview Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context KII-01_RA-0-20000514 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2000-05-14 Title A name given to the resource Rootedness and Belonging Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Richard A. Rhem Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> 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 May 14, 2000 entitled "Rootedness and Belonging", on the occasion of Mother's Day, Eastertide IV, at Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI. Scripture references: Philippians 3:8. Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Lemmen Library and Archives Community Diversity Inclusive Mother's Day https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/34f3161a574651367bd33a00cbdf3006.pdf 8667306d8f5594aebda32d40a40b3cd5 PDF Text Text Family Values: Jesus’ Style Mother’s Day Text: Mark 3:35; John 21:16-17 Richard A. Rhem Christ Community Church Spring Lake, Michigan Easter V, May 9, 1993 Transcription of the spoken sermon “Whoever does the will of God is my brother and sister and mother.” Mark 3:35 “Do you love me? …Tend my sheep…Feed my sheep.” John 21:16-17 The family is an endangered species. You hear about it all over the place. What ever has happened to the family? This statement for example: “Much of the very mechanism of our modern life is destructive of the family.” That statement is a quote from the National Congregational Council Report, 1892. They were saying it 100 years ago, and they are saying it today. There are prophets of doom all over the place who are telling us that society is unraveling, social relationships are full of brokenness and pain, and the family cannot possibly endure the pressure. Actually we are being barraged with bad news about the family, and in his book Culture Wars, James Davison Hunter says that, in those social issues that are tearing the fabric of American society apart, the family is the very central focus. The things that center around the politicization and the debate about the family are at the very center of those issues that seem to be at the core of what is causing so much ferment and so much disruption in the social order. The Congregational Report said, “the very mechanism of modern life is destructive of family,” 100 years ago. And so in our day there are incredible pressures and forces at work, creating new situations daily and with every passing decade. The pressures on the family are not to be gainsaid. Nonetheless I want to bring to you this morning a message of hope about my conviction for the potential that lies before us for creating in our day a more humane world and a greater sense of community which accords dignity and worth to every individual. All of the ruckus in our day about the destruction of the family is coming largely from the religious right. Now I don’t like labels. I know it’s too easy to lump people into a category and to label it and to do away with them. But I don’t know how else to say what I need to say this morning without saying some things rather clearly that will help you to get the context of my comments. We live in a day when (again, I have to use a labeling word) © Grand Valley State University   �Family Values: Jesus’ Style Richard A. Rhem Page 2   “conservative” means those who have become rigid in their righteous views. Now, I use this word narrowly. In its broader sense I am a conservative. Every enlightened and educated person needs to have a conservative edge to him or her because a conservative is one who would preserve the best values of the past. So I don’t like to give up the word conservative to a single definition. But it is used to describe what, in the Christian movement, in the Christian Church today, is a very vocal and a very militant right wing. Sometimes we speak of fundamentalists. Their approach to scripture is literal. Morality is very tight, reflecting a pattern of long ago. “Family Values” has become a code word for these people who have a very definite idea of what the family ought to be as ordained by God. But as James Hunter Davison says in this book Culture Wars, what is at stake is a certain idealized form of the nineteenth-century middle class family, a male-dominated nuclear family that both sentimentalized childhood and motherhood, and at the same time celebrated domestic life as a utopian retreat from the harsh realities of industrialized society. What the religious right is focused on is a model of the 19th century, that has certainly continued into this century, but which is in itself a relatively new (250 years or so old) view of a traditional family. In the culture wars phenomena of our day we have a great polarization in society, the polarization of those calling for new forms and shapes of human community, and those who would go back to the so called traditional or nuclear family. Researchers tell us today that in what many conceive of as the traditional family, where the father goes to work and there is a male dominated home and the mother stays home and cares for the children, and children experience the nurture of two parents, that that is the experience of only 4-7% of our population. Yet today we have a great cry and hand-wringing about the unraveling and disintegration of the family and the fabric of society. I want to say to you that I think a lot of the fear that sometimes borders on hysteria is the consequence of the excessive media saturation that we have, much of which is very right wing, particularly in the case of television, Christian broadcasting. I don’t spend much time with TV and I spend even less on Christian broadcasting. Some of you may be offended by this, but I have got to tell you I think that much of the appeal of these TV personalities draws fives and tens of dollars out of sincere humble and relatively poor people who are concerned about these issues. But just as disconcerting is the reality that they are also supported by the thousands and hundreds of thousands of dollars of some of the wealthy who would support them in order to reinforce the status quo of a day gone by. I don’t think this world is being made more humane through the efforts of Christian television. I think Christian broadcasting networks, Trinity Broadcasting, or whatever you want to call it, whatever you want to watch, is a source of divisiveness in society. I think that it creates hostility. It works on people’s negative emotions. It creates fear in the human heart, leading to despair, and is one of the great agents in the culture © Grand Valley State University �Family Values: Jesus’ Style Richard A. Rhem Page 3   wars that politicize society and create much of the tension that we have in our society today. (Amen spoken from audience.) I was delighted when I got to New York last week at my Perspectives meeting to find that the May issue, which I hadn’t received yet, has an opening article by David Meyers. David, a very respected social psychologist at Hope College was here a few weeks ago talking about his book, In Pursuit of Happiness. The title of his topic in Perspectives was “Let’s Focus on the Family.” Now you’ll probably catch that the code words “Focus on the Family” is the title of the program authored by James Dobson. Some years ago we showed a series of films with that title by James Dobson, here on Sunday evenings. They were very good. They had a lot of good stuff in them. But what has happened to the whole Focus on the Family movement, the Dobson movement, is that it has become, I think, a movement that has broadened out beyond the families to the whole cultural war agenda. Homosexuality, the abortion issue, I could give you the statistics from David Meyers to show that what has happened to “Focus on the Family” is that it is no longer a focus on the family. Meyers is pleading with the right and the left, now that the election is over, to begin to truly focus on the issues of family, because while I think that the hysteria and the hand-wringing is all out of proportion, there is no doubt that the family is critical to the well being of society and the family needs our deep concern and deep commitment. David Meyers states in this article, for example, these troubling facts: child abuse reports have soared from well under a million cases annually to nearly three million. The divorce rate has doubled. The happiness in surviving marriages has slightly declined. Teen sexual activity has doubled with accompanying increases in sexually transmitted diseases. The 5% of babies born to unwed mothers in 1960 has quintupled to more than 27%. Increasingly everywhere in America children are having children. In 1960 one in ten children did not live with two parents. Today nearly three in ten do not. Now that’s just a collage by David Meyers and we could get other statistics and other dimensions of this from many sources, so don’t hear me saying this morning that there is not a concern for the wellbeing of the family. Don’t hear me saying that we do not need to redouble our efforts for the nurture of the family and the support of the family as an institution. All of that is true, but I want to say to you as a Christian community that there is a kind of hysterical frenzied hand-wringing cry full of despair and hopelessness which I think is like acid undercutting the morale of the body politic, the social structure, rather than bringing to it a kind of positive nurture and insight that we as the family of God experience together and need to share with our world. There is such a division and such a polarization in our society, fueled by intensive fundamentalist media saturation, so that I think people fail to gain an historical perspective and sometimes lose their civility and their decency. And with that © Grand Valley State University �Family Values: Jesus’ Style Richard A. Rhem Page 4   they lose also then the creative positive power to make a difference and to effect human transformation, the kind of human transformation that’s going on in Griffith School with their “Circle of Friends,” where children are learning how to care for one another. No, dear friends, the family isn’t going to fail. People are going to learn to live in every new social situation in covenant and in faithfulness. People are going to continue to find ways to live in marriages, to raise and to nurture children, and to build human community. In a book that I picked up this week, What Ever Happened to the Family there is a discussion of 1930 to 1990, only 60 years, but in that survey of those 60 years, it is amazing that there are any of us that are still normal, and sometimes I question us as well. Think about it. 1930 to 1990. The great depression into the 40s with the Second World War and world convolution, into the 50s with the kind of euphoria following the war and that era of peace and well-being that was also an era of permissiveness and fear of parenting in many respects. The eruption of the 60s, the whole civil rights movement, moving into the narcissism and “me” generation of the 70s and into the 80s, and to the present. We have not only fewer traditional families, nuclear families, we have blended families and we have perpetual families. We have all kinds of new arrangements, new forms of family and community. And it is not surprising when you think about the tremendous ferment in the world in the last half century. Hear me. The form of the family will change. The form of the family has always changed. There is no static period in human history. Every time there is a social eruption there is resultant change. And in the meantime there has always been social evolution so that new forms have evolved and people have simply learned to live in new arrangements. Sometimes it’s been good, sometimes not so good. The pendulum swings back and forth. But don’t believe anybody that tells you that this is the worst of all possible times. There are also wonderful signs of new possibility in our day. We have the possibility in our world today with changing forms so obvious of using our creativity to build a more humane world. Goodness sakes, aren’t we aware, isn’t it impossible not to be aware in our world today of so many things that were hidden to our forbearers? Don’t we know today that we are called upon to treat every person with dignity and respect? Don’t we know today that the nineteenth century nuclear family that was male dominated was oppressive to women even when women didn’t know they were being oppressed? Don’t we know today that the whole issue of abortion is about human rights? Don’t we know today that sexism is as blatant a sin as racism, which continues even into our day? Don’t we know today that sexual orientation is not a choice and a preference, but a given and that such people need to be accorded human dignity and worth? Don’t we know today that the possibility for human relationship and human community is as multiple as there are types of people? Is not the diversity of the human family an indication of a God who loves diversity and loves with © Grand Valley State University �Family Values: Jesus’ Style Richard A. Rhem Page 5   prodigality? Don’t we know today that we could be on the threshold of a world that may be unraveling in order that it may be woven into a more beautiful pattern? I have a friend who loves to say, “It is necessary to let things chaoticize.” We don’t like things to chaoticize. We want things orderly and predictable and manageable, but as a matter of fact it is the chaoticization of those structures and forms that create the openings where the new light can come through. But we can find new arrangements and new possibilities where we are people of good will who will treat one another with dignity and with value. That is the possibility. The forms will change because they will give way to the accelerating pressures of our contemporary world. But you can’t go home, friends, you can never turn the clock back, and the Christian family has no right to wring its hands in despair and sit down in hopelessness and weep. It is for us to model out a new community, because while the form of the family changes the function of the family remains the same. It is the function of the family to create the space for human connectedness where we learn to love and where we are loved, where we are cared for and we learn to care, where we see modeled out compassion and become compassionate. The family must be the one place in this world where love is unconditional, enabling us to be released to love unconditionally. The form of the family will change. Let it go. The function of the family will always be the same: the creation of human connectedness where I know I belong, where I know I am loved, where I am accepted just because I am, where I am cared for, where I in turn learn to love, to care, to mend and to heal, to do unto others as has been done to me in the community, the form of the family that is mine. But beyond the biological family, the family of God. We here, in this Christian community, we can be the extended family. It was in the 50s with all our prosperity and our economic acceleration and the growth of corporations and the moving of people all over the country in that time of prosperity that we lost the extended family. And again, you never go home. But we have the possibility in the church to be family to one another, to experience community here, to know our connectedness, to be cared for and to care, to feel the compassionate love and support of another and to compassionately love and support. I don’t think Jesus probably ever celebrated Mother’s Day. You know mothers are wonderful and Jesus had a Jewish mother, which is really special, I guess. There was a day when he got out on a limb somewhere and they said to Mary, “Have you read the newspaper report?” She said, “Don’t tell me!” She said to Jesus’ brothers, “Go get him. Let’s bring him home.” Doesn’t every mother want her son or her daughter to be decent, somewhere down the middle, not too far to the right or to the left? I know that as long as my mother was alive I stayed pretty close to the middle. (Laughter) I mean, it’s just a matter of respect, you know? But Jesus © Grand Valley State University �Family Values: Jesus’ Style Richard A. Rhem Page 6   was out there turning the world upside down and Mary came to where he was preaching and she couldn’t even penetrate the crowd, so she sent him a message: “Dear Son, I have come for you. Your Mother.” Not “Hi Son, This is Mom.” This was signed “Your Mother.” It must have been hard for her to receive a note back: “Dear Mother, who is my mother? Who is my sister? Who is my brother? Those who do the will of God, those are family to me.” Not in any way to denigrate the ties that are biological, but in the Christian community we know of ties that bind us more firmly, with a greater bonding: the ties of the family of God – those who do the will of God, those who love and seek to create a loving community. I think that’s “Family Values: Jesus’ Style,” because what God is about, dear friends, is to make better lovers of us all. Thank God. © Grand Valley State University � https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/86cd07d8d50961092450bcdb1cc042c0.mp3 f7feec19bd2eec89238135a0fe994a5e 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 Mothers' Day, Eastertide V Scripture Text Mark 3:35, John 21: 16-17 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-0-19930509 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1993-05-09 Title A name given to the resource Family Values, Jesus' Style Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Richard A. Rhem Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> 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 May 9, 1993 entitled "Family Values, Jesus' Style", on the occasion of Mothers' Day, Eastertide V, at Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI. Scripture references: Mark 3:35, John 21: 16-17. Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Lemmen Library and Archives Community of Faith Diversity Transformation Unconditional Love https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/c877e42e85eff7f265195d7e0b8f1f1a.mp3 7623e3941c70e94716155f5d1056b6cc https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/04d29a08584579e627f2589f10dbd178.pdf 5469514484530f54eb536d28b697806b PDF Text Text Credo From the series: In the Threshold of the Third Millennium Text: Acts 17:27-28 Richard A. Rhem Christ Community Church Spring Lake, Michigan Epiphany IV, January 31, 1993 Transcription of the spoken sermon “... so that they would search for God and perhaps grope for God and find God though indeed God is not far from each one of us. For in God we live and move and have our being; as even some of your poets have said. For we too are God’s offspring.” Acts 17:27-28 “Credo.” That is a word that we have taken into our English language but it is really a Latin verb form from the Latin word credari, which means to trust or to put one’s faith in. And credo, the first person singular of the verb. In other languages other than English, oftentimes the form of the verb tells you the person and includes the pronoun. In this case credo means I believe. And this morning in the second of three messages on the edge of the third millennium, as we think together about our faith, about our community, and as we look to the future, I want us to move from last week and the whole question of our structure to the question of what we believe at this juncture in human history and at this point in our own lives. I entitled the message “Credo,” which means literally I believe, because I want to lift up the fact that in a certain sense, this is a personal profession of faith on my part. Every sermon ought to be the preacher’s personal profession of faith. It ought to be the confession of the preacher’s faith. The preacher ought not to proclaim what he or she does not passionately believe. It happens sometimes. Among my many faults I think that has not been one. I think I can say without fear of contradiction in your midst that what I have all these many years preached is that which I passionately believe. I have not preached to you what I do not believe. One can speak about what the Church teaches or what the Christian tradition is somewhat from a distance rather objectively without personal involvement or passion. One can speak of that. One can teach that way. But one cannot preach that way. At least, one ought not to preach that way. For to preach is to give © Grand Valley State University   �Credo Richard A. Rhem Page 2   expression to a compassionate, compelling conviction in order to persuade, in order to convince, in order to move a people. And so, I say Credo this morning because I want to lift up the fact that this I believe. And perhaps more importantly, this I believe passionately. But also because I want to say to you that you too ought to live with a passionate faith. And I want to raise the question: What do you believe - passionately? What do you really believe? What do you really believe? There is a difference between a nonchalant answer to a nonchalant question like that, and an answer that comes from really sitting back and saying, “What do I really believe?” Would you begin to tell me what the Church teaches? Would you begin to tell me what you learned in catechism? Would you begin to outline for me the Christian tradition as you have imbibed it? I would stop you at some point and I would say, “Now, come on. What do you believe?” In other words, what elicits from you passionate, compelling conviction? I have a suspicion that we live with a lot of rather foggy and vague ideas. And then something happens in our life and we are put on the spot or we have some critical juncture in our human experience and suddenly it becomes clear to us that “I believe this,” or “I do not believe that” in spite of the fact that those elements may or may not have been a part of the kind of generalized, vague faith structure that we carry around with us. I want to say this morning that I believe that Christ Community Church ought to be a place where faith is a matter of passion. Where we live out of a compelling conviction. Where it is more than - the Christian tradition holds . . . or the Church teaches . . . or the Bible says.... I would that we would be a community of people that were moved by passionate faith, where things were clear and were articulated in our experience, were things for which we are willing to live, and if need be, things for which we would be willing to die. Credo. What do you really believe? What would you write down in a paragraph of twenty-five or fifty words entitled “These Things I Believe”? Paul was a passionate believer - a person of passionate conviction. In the scripture lesson this morning Paul comes to Athens. I envy him that. In September I am going to take some folks to Athens, and we will be able to appreciate the grandeur of the ancient city, but only from the ruins of the present. It must have been some experience to come to Athens in the first century. Oh, to be sure, the Golden Age was five hundred years earlier, but Athens continued to be a great center, a great city, the university city of the western world, to be sure, where all of the great thoughts that have ever been thought were thought and discussed. Paul came there in the midst of his missionary journey and, while he was waiting for his companions to join him, he signed up for a city tour. I want to say, I would like us to be passionate believers like Paul, but I would hope that we might be able to be a bit more appreciative of human culture than Paul because after his city tour, Luke tells us that he was disgusted. He was disgusted because he saw all of the temples, and all of the idols, and apparently © Grand Valley State University �Credo Richard A. Rhem Page 3   he had this overwhelming sense of a spiritual quest that was coated over with darkness and it disturbed him. I don’t want to be too hard on Paul, for he was a man of compelling conviction with great passion, who was turning the world upside down because he was so convinced that the one true and eternal God had acted decisively in the event of Jesus Christ; that this was a cosmic event and so he went everywhere telling the Gospel. Thus, when he encountered Athens with its layers of religion representing humankind’s vague religious quest, it upset him. And I want to honor that. But I do also want to lift up a danger when our religious conviction can sometimes become so focused and so frantic and so fanatic that we miss the larger picture. I would have wished that Paul might at least have given us a line of appreciation for the wonder and marvels of Athens. There has never been a greater cultural explosion and expression of the human spirit than Athens. I wish he could have been more open to appreciating the goodness of that. But, I go astray a bit. Let me return to the story. Before long the citizens of Athens heard that Paul, the passionate missionary, was in town and they brought him right to the very supreme court, as it were, to give witness to his faith. He did so rather smartly I believe, connecting with his audience, making reference to the statue of the unknown God, and then saying, “I know that God. And that God I proclaim to you.” He moved to the broad canvas of creation, “This one who has created all things....” And then he narrowed down, finally focusing on Jesus and the resurrection and the coming accountability of all before the face of God through Jesus Christ. Paul was a passionate believer who with all of his heart believed that the one true and eternal God who spoke and brought all things into being had come to be manifest in this one Jesus Christ, and Jesus in his way and in his life was vindicated in his death and resurrection, and the end was near. And because Paul believed that the end of the world was near, he called all to account after the proclamation of this good news of what God had done in Jesus Christ. Not a bad sermon really. Not a bad technique of preaching. And with all the passion that was his person, he presented the resurrected Christ as the window into God before whom all peoples would be brought to account. That was nearly 2000 years ago. And now we stand on the edge of the Third Millennium. What do you really believe about the things of which Paul spoke? Is it now enough for us to continue to say the things that Paul said, or do we somehow or other have to take stock of a perspective of 2000 years, which separates us? All that separated Paul from the event of Jesus Christ was a couple of decades, and yet there were a couple of decades there. Paul had no personal first-hand experience of the events of Jesus. He experienced Jesus, he says, by revelation. And he experienced it also by discussion with the other apostles. But Paul’s primary conviction came out of that mystical experience when he was thrown on his face on the Damascus road - the encounter with the ascended Lord. Now for us, do we, as we approach the Third Millennium, do we simply continue to reiterate what Paul said, or must we judge what Paul said in the light of Paul’s © Grand Valley State University �Credo Richard A. Rhem Page 4   background that brought him to that point? And do we reiterate the 2000 years of Christian church doctrine that has come in the meantime? What I mean to say is, from Paul, primarily, stems Christian theology. One of the things that I shared with you last fall that has gotten as much response as anything I have ever said as I was going out to Brandeis University for a discussion with Protestants, Catholics and Jews. I suggested to you that there have been a series of forks in the road along the line and that really it would not have been necessary for Christianity to develop separately from Judaism. It would not have been necessary for Islam to develop separately from Judaism and Christianity, and it would not have been necessary for the Christian Church to be divided into Orthodoxy and the West, and then the West into the Catholic tradition and the Protestant tradition. Those forks in the road need not have happened. There was no compelling truth that necessitated those splits. Those splits happened through human fogginess, though human misunderstanding, through human stubbornness and blindness, through human pride and arrogance. Somehow or other, when I said that, it seemed to ring a bell with a number of you. And now I am wondering, on the edge of the Third Millennium, whether or not we must not look at Paul and what happened in his formulation of the faith and, in dialogue with that, find our own way to bring to expression what is happening in our world today, in order to make an impact on our world for the one true and eternal God who was revealed in Jesus Christ. Paul, after all, thought he was at the end of the age! Paul had absolutely no sense at all that 2000 years later we would be here. Remember that Paul was jerked by God out of his tradition, uprooted as it were, turned upside down. Paul, so steeped in the faith of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, and then so convicted by Jesus Christ that he was able to be absolutely uprooted from his Jewishness. Yet he need not have thrown over the faith of his forbearers, for he says that the Jew had every advantage. He never said that the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob was not the true God or that Israel did not have true faith. He was simply trying to say to his Israel, “Look, the promised one is here.” But I wonder whether or not 2000 years later we don’t have to seriously consider what our message has to be for the Third Millennium. I read a very interesting book recently entitled, The Presbyterian Controversy, which was a study of the years 1922 to 1936 in the Presbyterian Church. That is the period of denominational crisis out of which arose Fundamentalism. It was a time where five fundamental doctrines were annunciated as absolutely essential for orthodox Christian faith. There was a deep division within the church as to how those events were to be understood and interpreted. In that book there is a statement by Henry Adams in his autobiography, published in 1918. He spoke about his birth, I suppose, in the year 1854, and he said, “A school boy in 1854 stood closer to the year one than to the year 1900.” Follow me? In 1854 years there was more continuity, more similarity, less challenge or disruptions to assumed understanding of reality than happened in the next forty-six years. And © Grand Valley State University �Credo Richard A. Rhem Page 5   that was written at the beginning of the 2oth century. What would he say if he stood now another 140 years later with the dramatic, radical, revolutionary developments in human understanding, our knowledge of the physical universe and our sense of the development of history? I think sometimes that those of us in the conservative Christian tradition have had to live a schizophrenic existence. We are modern people out there every day of the week. We live with business and industry and the exploding knowledge in all the professions. We operate with computer chips and we live in a world where we have landed a person on the moon and have a space vessel going out toward Mars, and all the other amazing things that are a part of this human scene of ours, and then we come into church and it is like another world and another age. It is hard to weave, between the religious realm and that secular realm, a relationship and a dialogue, a connection and an interlacing between their two realities. At the beginning of this century there was a great Christian optimism. We were going to evangelize the world in this generation: That’s what they said in 1910 at a great missionary conference. But it’s not happening is it? Do you foresee the time when the world will become Christian? Frankly, I don’t. Do you foresee the possibility that all of those world religions with their centuries of development and tradition will somehow or other be brought into the Christian Church? Do you really believe that? I’ll confess to you, I don’t really believe that. What then? What then must be our credo as we enter the third millennium? I wonder if God, through the processes of history, as God’s Spirit moves in the development of human experience, is bringing us at the edge of the third millennium and saying, “The thing you’ve got to do is, out of your experience of Israel and out of your experience of Jesus Christ and out of your Christian tradition, you’ve got to enter into dialogue with the richness of Judaism and the richness of Islam, and the richness of Buddhism and Hinduism. You’ve got to begin to talk about that insatiable religious quest in the human heart that is universal and forget the imperialism that would seek to bring everyone into the Christian Church and begin rather to share your knowledge and faith and trust in the God made available in Jesus. Bring that to the table. Our intention must be, in the decades ahead, it seems to me, not to bring everybody to Christian faith, but to bring the world to trust in the God whom Jesus revealed. Not the institutional imperialism and triumphalism that would make the whole world Christian, but rather in Jesus’ name to bring the world to the kind of human community that Jesus lived out. It’s really an exciting day in the Church. On the edge of the third millennium I want to invite you to join me into a continuing pilgrimage, probing the faith in order to understand what the Spirit is saying to the churches today. It is a day in which exciting things are happening. I brought some books with me this morning that I thought it might be fun for you to see. After all, I am at the threshold too, of © Grand Valley State University �Credo Richard A. Rhem Page 6   going on vacation, so I have begun to gather (retrieves books from pulpit) - take a look at this! For one thing, I am wondering if we don’t have to get back behind Paul and this is one of three or four recent publications - A Marginal Jew: Rethinking the Historical Jesus, 500 pages long It happens to be written by a Catholic. There are three or four others. Hans Küng, Christianity and the World Religions, Paths to Dialogue with Islam, Hinduism and Buddhism, 460 pages. Hans Küng, Judaism Between Yesterday and Tomorrow, 750 pages. And then this one: The Birth of the Modern, World Society 1815 to 1830. Fifteen years, 1100 pages. And you thought I was wordy! Now, dear friends, I just say to you that there is so much that is happening in the world of scholarship, in the Church and outside of the Church, which is trying to come to terms with modernity and an ancient faith. My calling as a theologian in the traditional understanding of that calling is simply to explicate what is given, and not to think beyond it. That is orthodoxy’s definition of paradigm theology. It is my conviction that such orthodoxy is idolatry. It is the great tool of those in power in the institutions to keep the institutions intact. “Don’t bother me with the fact, my mind’s made up.” But we cannot afford, on the edge of the third millennium, simply to continue to reiterate yesterday’s answers to yesterday’s questions. That’s fundamentalism repeating an answer that at one time throbbed with passion because it connected with life. It is our task to believe passionately, engaged with our contemporary experience and the experience of our world, and there is nothing in the experience of the contemporary world that need frighten us or threaten us. Paul’s message was still a relevant message, pointing to the one true and eternal God, the creator of all things, whose face we see, whose heart we see in the face of Jesus. The way of Jesus is a way of justice, and righteousness and peace. It is a way full of love, full of grace, working on behalf of others and our world in terms of Jesus’ mind and heart. Working toward the healing of persons and the humanization of society. I’ll tell you, that’s what I really believe. I believe it passionately. And to the extent that you are willing to join me, we are going to open a whole new page with a daring attempt to confess what we really believe in order that we might really make a difference in faithfulness to the God who is always before us beckoning us on. The God who, when we have discovered the final secret of the universe, will still be more. The God who gives us confidence and a foundation for a sure hope. The God who keeps the world from disintegrating and unraveling. The God who allows hope to arise in our hearts and healing to happen, who calls us to the full expression of our humanity and the humanness of our world. Ah, it is an exciting task! What do you really believe? What do you really believe? © 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 Epiphany IV Series On the Threshold of the Third Millennium Scripture Text Acts 17:27-28 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-0-19930131 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1993-01-31 Title A name given to the resource Credo Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Richard A. Rhem Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> 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 January 31, 1993 entitled "Credo", as part of the series "On the Threshold of the Third Millennium", on the occasion of Epiphany IV, at Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI. Scripture references: Acts 17:27-28. Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Lemmen Library and Archives Belief Diversity Inclusive Paul Spiritual Quest https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/be14a89ff0e966f80b8ed6225aac9c84.mp3 e11aab272432f7f4fcc4b620fe63382f https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/bb81980486f88dee6b44daf5652109b1.pdf 9d949e6e3ee157ce1df6f45c30bdb66c PDF Text Text Culture Wars – Does God Take Sides? From the series: Heroes in Clay: Samuel Text: I Samuel 8:19-20; Matthew 5:45 Richard A. Rhem Christ Community Church Spring Lake, Michigan November 15, 1992 Transcription of the spoken sermon … we are determined to have a king over us, so that we also may be like other nations… I Samuel 8:19-20 … God makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on righteous and on the unrighteous. Matthew 5:45 Last evening on the evening news there was a brief bit of the heavyweight championship fight of the night before and of Riddick Bowe who delivered the telling blow to Vander Holyfield. “I won,” said Bowe, “because God was on my side.” Now that’s really dumb! One guy beats up another, makes him bloody and says, “God’s on my side.” But it’s really only the extreme of what we all do at one time or another. We get in a conflict or a debate, or a discussion or we get into something that deeply divides and we do our best to make sure that God is on our side. We make the claim and Samuel made that claim too. Samuel believed that God was on his side - or maybe, in all fairness to Samuel, I should say that Samuel believed that he was on God’s side. Samuel was one of the great leaders of ancient Israel – a good man, a man of integrity and of spiritual depth. He had been one of the judges of Israel at the end of that historical period we call the time of the Judges. Israel was a tribal confederacy at the time following the conquest of Canaan under Joshua. It was that period of time in which Israel lived as a kind of loosely confederated group of tribes. They would, when a crisis arose, rise up together for a common defense. They believed that God would, at a decisive moment, raise up a charismatic leader who could rally the tribes together. Then, when the crisis had passed and the battle won, they would go back and do their farming again in their respective tribal territories. They were a tribal confederacy. We can understand that because we had thirteen colonies at one time or thirteen states that were in a confederacy. A confederacy is a kind of government where the independent units maintain a certain amount of autonomy, but they feel the need for a certain amount of centralizing and organizing power for such things as common defense, etc. If you remember your ninth grade civics class, at least a © Grand Valley State University   �Culture Wars –Does God Take Sides? Richard A. Rhem Page 2   hundred years ago it was called the United States Civics class, you learned there about how the Confederacy moved into a strong central government. Wasn’t it Alexander Hamilton who wrote the “Federalist Papers” and argued the case for the strong centralization of power? Well, that’s exactly what was going on in Israel at the time. Samuel had been an excellent judge and a great spiritual leader. As long as you have a towering figure, the old forms and structures survive somehow because such a figure as a Samuel commands such trust and respect. But we are told in the eighth chapter of I Samuel that Samuel is old and his sons are not following in his footsteps, and so the elders of Israel, (kind of the leading citizens, I suppose) come to Samuel. I hope they were a little more sensitive than the text says. It says, “You’re old.” It can be a difficult thing, you know, growing old. You don’t need somebody to remind you! Somebody comes up to Samuel and says, “You’re old. And your sons aren’t doing well. Give us a king.” Samuel was displeased. These people were about to fall into the same trap from which they had so long ago escaped in Egypt. The Hebrews had vowed they needed no king but God. So he prayed to the Lord, and the Lord said, “Yes, I understand you are displeased, but recognize they are not rejecting you. They are rejecting me and I am used to it. This has been going on since the very day I brought them out of Egypt. Listen to the people. Give them what they want.” However, Samuel warned them what they were in for. Then we come to the ninth chapter and it is as though we are reading a totally different account, because now we have Saul in the picture. God speaks to Samuel and he says, “Tomorrow there is a young man who is going to come. His name is Saul. I have appointed him to be a king and I want you to anoint him, etc.” And very interestingly, in the ninth chapter and the sixteenth verse, the Lord says, “Anoint him to be ruler over my people Israel. He shall save my people from the hands of the Philistines, for I have seen the affliction of my people because their outcry has come to me.” Now here in the ninth chapter you have another source. You have another perspective. You’ve got another understanding of things. Here, very much parallel to Moses, you have God coming to Samuel and saying, “This man is going to be my answer to meet the affliction and suffering of my people Israel. Anoint him. Appoint him. He will be my instrument in response to the cry of my people.” God said, “The cry of my people has risen to me and I am going to do something for them.” The words are very similar to the ones spoken to Moses at the burning bush. In the ninth chapter, after that rather discouraging beginning about the initiative for a king, it seems as though God is on the bandwagon now and it is God who is doing this thing. God is saying, “I am going to move this tribal confederacy into monarchy in order to meet the needs of the immediate situation.” Well, that whole section meanders between these two points of view. You have, we’ll call it, the Samuel source, the source that speaks for the old tradition, the covenantal community. And you have the Saul source, which reflects the view of those who want to move into something new, into some new social organization in order to meet the exigencies of the time. Both sides are sure © Grand Valley State University �Culture Wars –Does God Take Sides? Richard A. Rhem Page 3   that God is on their side. Neither side is pure. None of us is ever pure. No faith conviction of ours is without some measure of vested interest. You can count on that. Now I think Samuel was genuinely upset about the undercutting of that ancient covenant community where a people was gathered into a community, not through political alignment or economic philosophy or ethnic purity, but out of a common trust in God. But I also think he was hurt. He felt rejected. And those who were seeing where Israel had to go had a concern for the well being of Israel, but I think probably there were also the ones who had been able to accrue some considerable bank accounts here and there and they really wanted some kind of security system. They wanted to take the bull by the horns and make sure that the accumulated wealth and positions they had acquired would somehow or other be secure. They wanted to be like other nations where a king could help maintain an army and a measure of stability. So there is always that mixture. What’s going on here? Well, I suppose it’s a culture war. I don’t know who introduced the phrase “culture war,” but I do know that it came into prominence in this past political campaign. Pat Buchanan at the Republican Convention spoke about being at war for the soul of this nation. And out of the campaign has come an accentuation of that polarization of our society. If we look back to Israel we can see that polarization and culture divide wasn’t devised in the 1990s; it’s not a 20th-century phenomena. It has been going on forever. Then, there were two visions of what Israel was to be. There were two visions of what the identity and the mission and the nature of the community ought to be. They were at odds. They were at cultural war with each other. It’s really interesting that in the biblical account you don’t have one setup as the right way and the other way as the wrong way, but you have a weaving together of these two positions. Now in the old way that we used to read the Bible, and the old way I used to preach the Bible, frankly, I would have had to iron out those two undissolvable knots of material. I would have had to make one be subservient to the other. I would not have been able to recognize that a biblical writer might have left in there, intentionally, an unresolved tension. The biblical writer is no fool! He didn’t just cut and paste and put things together. It is intentional. As he looks back on Israel’s history, the tensions and conflicts and the movement that made them what they were and what they became, he is trying to see the way in which the uncanny presence of God moves in the unsettled, unstable, unpredictable human, historical situation. It is a marvelous study of how Israel became the nation that it was and the writer in retrospect portrays both sides of the issue for us so that we could see these tensions that existed within this ancient people of God. There have always been those who have clung to old values--What shall we call them? Shall we call them the orthodox? Or conservatives? There have always been those who have felt that new times demand new solutions. That growing explosion of knowledge and new © Grand Valley State University �Culture Wars –Does God Take Sides? Richard A. Rhem Page 4   understanding in insights call for new arrangements. What shall we call them? Progressives? Liberals, maybe? There have always been those who have looked to the past in order to secure the present and the future. And there have been those on the other hand who, looking to the future, have recognized the necessity of scuttling the past as a straightjacket. In which camp would you have been? Would you have put your arm around Samuel and said, “You’re right, old boy. Things are going to pot and there may not even be a future if those radicals have their way. Everything is going to pot. No more morality. No more spirituality. No more God. Secularism. Secular humanism, etc.” Or would you have been one of the lobbyists who were pushing for the king and would you have said, “Look, the future is here. And the new situation demands that we move out of this inherited confederacy that has served its time. It’s time for a new form and a new structure to carry out into the future in order that we can be all that God would have us be.” Where would you have been? Let’s have an election. Shall we have another election? You can cast your vote. Why is it even important to look at this? In this fascinating biblical narrative, seeing these tensions, we might get a word of enlightenment for the present situation in our own nation and society. For we are a nation deeply divided. We are a society that is polarized and poisoning each other, and everybody claims that God is on his or her side. There is a kind of conflict of moral vision about what this nation ought to be, and what kind of society God is calling us to be. And moral vision held with passion sometimes becomes violent. There is name-calling and acrimony, and there is division and adversarial spirit - a kind of polarization that fragments society and makes civil and rational discourse almost impossible. So I think that it may well be that in this narrative we have some help to understand how we should negotiate these times. When I was at Brandeis three weeks ago I met Professor James Davison Hunter. I didn’t know at the time that he had authored a book which was reviewed in the October Perspectives, entitled by the way, Culture Wars. I picked up a copy a couple of weeks ago in New York. His focus is the struggle to define America making sense of the battles over the family, art, education, law and politics. It is an excellent study. James Hunter is an evangelical Christian, and he is an excellent sociologist. So I find this a very intelligent survey of what’s going on in our nation - the things that are tearing our society apart. I would recommend it to you. Culture Wars. He uses the phrase, and he points out the perils in which our society stands: the potential fragmentation and the potential for the breakdown of all discourse, which of course, is so essential for a democratic society. As we look at the biblical account, might it not help us simply to recognize in the first place that these tensions are endemic to the human situation? So you’re orthodox. That’s good! But that’s not all. And so you are a wild-haired liberal. That’s great! But it’s not the whole picture. The one who clings to ancient values and the one who reaches for that which is new and untested need each other. In a © Grand Valley State University �Culture Wars –Does God Take Sides? Richard A. Rhem Page 5   healthy society there will be a creative tension with a strong enough center to hold people together. But I think it is simply important first of all to recognize, not despair, and not throw up our hands as though it is the end of the world. We didn’t invent this kind of polarization. Maybe the mass media, and the television, and the sound bite, maybe that accentuates, maybe that polarizes and divides us more than in earlier times. I think that is probably true. But, nonetheless, we have to learn to live with that and to work with that. If you are conservative and orthodox, you have every right to be thus. And it is your responsibility to hold to values that are tried and true, and to make sure that the treasures of the past are not lost. Yours is a good voice, but it’s not the only voice. And if you are always champing at the bit, and always on the growing edge trying to break through to something not yet jelling, then, bless you! Keep everything unsettled and unstable. Be a nudging discomforter, but recognize that there are perils out there. As old Samuel said, “You are going to get your king, and you are going to get yours.” What we need in a healthy society is an acceptance of the legitimate and authentic tension that rests within any community of people. I like the way God is portrayed in this whole narrative. I think that I would have to say that God is kind of a grudging progressive. That I say without bias. (Oh, come on. Where’s your humor!) [Laughter] He says to Samuel, “Samuel, you’re right. You’re right.” I think the narrative is saying, “You can’t give up traditional values without some significant loss, but the nature of the historical experience is such that you have to keep moving on. Yes, they’ve rejected me. But listen to the people. Warn them, but listen to them. Give them their king. No arguing. No pouting. No raging. No manipulation. No coercion.” God seems to be able to handle that which is threatening to so many of us. God seems to be confident about the future and God’s ability to cope with the future regardless of which alternatives are chosen. And then I love this in Samuel’s farewell speech in the 12th chapter. The people are rather humbled at this point, and they say, “Pray to God for us.” And Samuel could say this to them, “For the Lord will not cast away his people, for his great name sake, because it has pleased the Lord to make you a people for himself.” Don’t you love that? Isn’t that the kind of God that you could worship? Samuel can say, “Look, this isn’t some petulant, petty, capricious deity. This is Almighty God. This is the Creator of the heavens and earth. This is the One who has created us in his image, who will not let any of his children go. This God will not abandon you. This God will not forsake you. Stop quivering in your boots. Trust God. God forbid that I should cease to pray for you. And I will continue to instruct you in the way you should go.” And then if you follow the story on, there is also this - that as there is this normal, inevitable kind of movement, the values of the old tend to get incorporated into the vision of the new. Samuel anointed Saul king, and the new was here. But Samuel said, “Saul, buddy, don’t think you’re a sovereign, an absolute like all © Grand Valley State University �Culture Wars –Does God Take Sides? Richard A. Rhem Page 6   those puppet kings around you. Saul, you’re just another citizen before the eternal, sovereign God.” And you know the thing that made Israel unique? Even when it became a monarchy, it was the fact that its king always trembled before the prophet - that its king knew that he was accountable and that he had no absolute sway, but must always regard the ways of righteousness and justice, and seek the ways of peace. The old values - the community and tribal confederacy in covenant with God – that somehow or other got laced into the monarchy, so that when we reach Chapter 16 we have David. We have the ideal king and it would seem for all the world that God always intended that there would be such a kingdom and there would be such a king - the Golden Age. Samuel wouldn’t have dreamed that it could be so good. I read from the Sermon on the Mount this morning because it seems to me that as God’s people we are called to that kind of posture and spirit and attitude. I think one of the great problems in our present social unrest is the fact that we have politicized things that cannot be politicized. You cannot legislate morality. You cannot legislate spirituality. The things that tear us apart - abortion, homosexuality, a National Endowment for the Arts, family values - those trigger words set off emotions and generate a lot of heat and very little light. They are not things that the government really can handle. Those are the things for us the people of God to deal with. We, as the people of God, are called to live an alternative community. Jesus said, “You are the light of the world. You are the salt of the earth. Light illumines. Salt preserves.” And we are called to be Godlike. The God who causes the sun to shine on the just and the unjust, and causes the fields of the righteous and the unrighteous alike to be watered with rain and snow. Jesus final word is “So, be like God.” The word perfect in the RSV is not a good translation. The word is kellos in Greek, which is the end or the purpose. Realize that for which God created you. God created you in God’s image. Be God-like, with a kind of universal benevolence, with a kind of love and a compassion, a justice and a seeking of love and fairness, and finally, peace in society. You be different. Don’t let the sound bites polarize you. When you feel your anger begin to rise, recognize that God is not on your side. Or rather, God is on your side - and on the side of your adversary. Have a moral passion, but lace it with humility and express it with compassion. Simply be God-like. God knows. God can handle this alternative, that alternative, and another alternative, but if somebody tells you, “This is God’s way,” don’t you believe him. God is bigger than that, bigger than my vision and your vision. A vision that embraces us all and calls us all to be civil and committed, agents of the kingdom that will surely come. Sorry folks, God doesn’t take sides. © 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 Pentecost XXIII Series Heroes in Clay Scripture Text I Samuel 8: 19-20, Matthew 5:45 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-0-19921115 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1992-11-15 Title A name given to the resource Samuel: Culture Wars - Does God Take Sides? Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Richard A. Rhem Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> 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 November 15, 1992 entitled "Samuel: Culture Wars - Does God Take Sides?", as part of the series "Heroes in Clay", on the occasion of Pentecost XXIII, at Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI. Scripture references: I Samuel 8: 19-20, Matthew 5:45. Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Lemmen Library and Archives Community Diversity History of Israel Justice Samuel https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/d8e341fd76fc684ae79d6c82f1255ca7.mp3 dc83c9615afec788a9f7b34a206998e7 https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/61a14a14b5538f6715a57794144dd3a6.pdf a923405b3cbf333d68ff8a5b06f2bb1e PDF Text Text Christ Community: A People Who Belong Text: I Corinthians 3: 21-23 Richard A. Rhem Christ Community Church Spring Lake, Michigan June 15, 1986 Transcription of the spoken sermon ... everything belongs to you ... yet you belong to Christ, and Christ to God. I Cor. 3:21-23 Last evening the Parlour was filled with people for a media event sponsored by the Reformed Church in America, and it was a very interesting evening very well done: a teleconference which linked up Chicago, New York and California. The General Synod of the Reformed Church in America is convening at the Crystal Cathedral in Garden Grove, California, and the program largely emanated from the Crystal Cathedral, but within seconds there was a switch to New York and to Chicago and back again. One of the marvels of the modern world is the technology that can bind people together across the nation, across the continent. Of course, this was small compared with the world-embracing media events that we have experienced in recent months. Nonetheless, it was quite significant and for me, at least, quite a thrill and I think we all enjoyed it. It's part of an attempt by the Reformed Church in America, of which we are a part, to discover its identity in this last part of the 20th century - to discover our identity in order not necessarily to know what we have been but, in the light of what we have been and what God is calling us to be, what posture we should assume as we look forward to Century Twenty-One. What is God's will for this church? What is God's will for the whole Church? What is God calling His people to be in this world of which we are a part? Perhaps you saw on the Church Page in the Tribune last evening an article about a book that has come out, a study of the world evangelization and world class cities, which documents what we really have known for a long time and that is that the Christian effort to witness to Jesus Christ is not keeping up with world growth and world population, and that the major cities of the world in the 21st century will be cities which will not only not be Christian in predominant culture, but may even be hostile to Christian faith. We simply live in Western Michigan in a kind of cocoon that does not face us with the reality of the world, a world which is not only not being conquered for Jesus Christ (I don't like to use that militaristic term and yet it's been one that has been a part of the Church vocabulary for a © Grand Valley State University   �Christ Community: A People Who Belong Richard A. Rhem Page 2   long time), we're not only not winning the world for Christ, we are not keeping up with population growth, and we will face down the line, and our children and our children's children increasingly will face, a Western culture which will not be able to take for granted the things that Western culture takes for granted today, even though Western culture today is not meaningfully and significantly rooted in the Gospel of Christ anymore. There can be no argument about the fact that what we became in Western civilization has arisen very largely out of the biblical vision of things. The Judeo-Christian tradition has shaped the values that we think perhaps are part and parcel of the American way of life, and yet, if we go back, if we study the history of ideas and the development of culture, then it becomes obvious that the things that we value so highly and take for granted are things that come out of a commitment to a biblical vision. And the day will not go on forever. I suppose that someday we will wake up with a shock at that reality. The RCA is simply one denomination that is saying, in the light of today's world, in the light of the imperative of the Gospel, what is God calling us to be? And so the event last night was one event in a series of events in a three-year period in which we are asking that question. It's a good question to ask. The whole Church should be asking that question in light of the world situation that we face. Recently, at the Commencement of New Brunswick Theological Seminary, I with several others delivered a paper on the idea of RCA identity, and in working over that paper, I discovered that the genius of Reformed Faith is that it refused to admit to being a new faith or another faith, and the intention of the Reformers of the 16th century was not to start another church, not to start a competing institution. That actually did happen and once that happens, the splintering continues, but the name Reformed was really used almost in the sense of a verb. It's always better to use a verb than a noun. A noun states a condition, a state of being. A verb bespeaks action. And what was in mind in the 16th century was not to begin a new church, but to rediscover the one, holy, apostolic catholic church, to find that biblical faith once for all delivered to the saints, and to reshape the institution in order that that Gospel might be released in all of its pristine clarity. And so, to be Reformed was not really to be a member of a competing church organization. It was the claim to be the Church re-formed according to the Word of God. Or to be a Church, The Church reforming. That was the insight. That was the genius of that branch of the faith that emanated out of Switzerland particularly, took root in Germany and in the Low Countries: to be the Christian Church, the catholic Church, reforming, always needing to be reforming. Because the Church takes shape in history, and the Church is peopled by people who tend to absolutize the relative and to make ultimate that which is only transitory and partial, to take a partial insight and baptize it as though it were the whole Truth. And so, in that 16th century when they were so sensitized to the corruptibility of all human institutions and the partiality of all human insights, the Reformers of the Reformed branch of the faith called themselves the Church Re-Formed according to the Word of God. © Grand Valley State University �Christ Community: A People Who Belong Richard A. Rhem Page 3   As I worked on that paper, I realized that John Calvin had a great passion for the unity of the Church. John Calvin was in favor of calling pastors together from the whole continent in order to discuss how that unity could come to expression. John Calvin was ready to have a church council called which had been the custom of the Church in the early centuries - to call a Council of the whole Church over which he was willing to have the Pope preside, on the condition that the Pope himself would abide by the decisions of the Council. And so, it was in the early expression of the Church re-formed according to the Word of God that there was only one church, that there could be only one church, and that there must be constant intentionality to discovering and expressing the unity of the Church of Jesus Christ. And at New Brunswick, in the paper that I shared, I used our experience to say that the local community of God's people could be a genuinely ecumenical community. I used that opportunity to say that in 15 years we have experienced the possibility of becoming a body of Christian people from a diversity of backgrounds and traditions, finding our unity in Jesus. It is hardly possible on the level of the large Church structure. Frankly, there are too many popes, cardinals, bishops, executive secretaries and all other kinds of officialdom with too much vested interest who piously say, "We are concerned about the Church and the Truth," but who are really concerned about their positions, so it is almost impossible on that giant Church level ever to affect unity. Structural unity will probably for a long time to come evade the grasp of the Church because people really don't want it. I mean, if I have position, power and prestige in the RCA, why should I want that merged into one great body in which I would become just, you know – I mean, if I'm a Chinook swimming in Lake Michigan, why do I want to become a perch in the ocean? Right? And down deep, that's what keeps the Church in its separate compartments. But when I came back here 15 years ago, I had had an experience of the possibility of genuine ecumenicity in a local fellowship. The four years that I was in the Netherlands, I worshiped sometimes in the Dutch Church, sometimes in the American Protestant Church of the Hague. In the APC, at that time, well in The Hague at that time, there were 4,000 Americans back in the late 60s. There were many of them who were oil people prospecting off in the North Sea. A lot of them came out of Oklahoma and Louisiana and Mississippi. They brought great, large, red Bibles to church, floppy Bibles. Southern Baptist folk. And then, there were also a few High Church Episcopalians, and there were all assorted kinds of Methodists and Baptists and Presbyterians. When you were an alien in a foreign land, you seek out a community of people with whom you can fellowship. Then theological distinctions are not quite so important. And I found that in that American Protestant Church in The Hague, there was a conglomeration of people of every stripe and every background who found something being together, united in Jesus Christ. And it was simply impossible for me to come back here and to squeeze back into the narrow © Grand Valley State University �Christ Community: A People Who Belong Richard A. Rhem Page 4   confines of a church with a specific confessional background and a specific ethnic caste. And as I was reflecting on this, I suppose that it was that experience that was the background for the experience of going out to the Institute of Church Growth and Leadership in California, which some of us attended in ' 71 where we recognized the possibilities for the church and came back and within a very short time we had changed the name of this church. It was May 3, 1971 when I preached on the text of this morning, suggesting it was reasonable and responsible to change the name of this church. And after 101 years of history, the First Reformed Church of Spring Lake became Christ Community Church. The vote on a rather warm, weekday evening at a special congregational meeting was 120 yes and 4 no. We also that night called Gordon VanHoeven. The vote was 117 yes to 7 no. He searched out those 7 and dealt with them. All kinds of people have written to me since that time to say, "How in the world did you ever effect the name change?" because people seem so glued to that which is traditional and familiar. And I have to say I don't know, but there was a momentum that was generated which we really believe was attributable to the Spirit of God, and that name signaled to us all a radical departure, a movement out of a narrow, confessional track, a movement out of a narrow ethnic background, and an intention of becoming a genuinely ecumenical community. And at this point, Christ Community has become as diverse as the American Protestant Church of the Hague. Now, how do you find your identity with all of that diversity? How do you find unity amid all of that pluralism? Well, it's very simple, because thank God that, in the inception of the Reformed Faith, the intention was not to begin another Church, but simply to be the one, holy, catholic Church, and simply to let it be reformed by the Spirit of God through the Word of God. Add, in so doing, the reformers were recognizing the essential unity of the Church. In our denominational structures we give witness to the unity of the Church, but our practice denies it. What we have done in this local community is simply not waited for the huge Church structures to move at their snail's pace, but we have become here genuinely Christ's Community; we have become the holy, catholic Church. Now, this movement toward unity reflects the biblical imperative and at its very inception the Church had to wrestle with the question of divisiveness. We read it this morning. Paul founded the Church at Corinth. He spent some time there, and within a little time, people came to him from the congregation and said, "We've got divisions. We've got jealousy and strife. We've got a party that meets out in the parking lot and they claim to be the people of Cephas or Peter. We've got people that meet in the Parlour. They claim to be people of Apollos. The First Apollos Christian Church. We've got people that even claim your name, Paul. And then we have that special group that meets around the altar. They say,' We're Christ's people.'" © Grand Valley State University �Christ Community: A People Who Belong Richard A. Rhem Page 5   Paul said, "Is Christ divided? Were you baptized in the name of Paul? " And then he goes on to deal with Jesus and the cross and so forth, and he comes back and says, "You know, I would really like you people to move on and to get into spiritual depth, but I can't even deal with the things that are really important. The world needs to hear about Jesus, and you're arguing about whether it's Paul or Apollos or Cephas. I'd like to feed you meat and all you are really ready for is milk!" And then he goes on at the end of that chapter to say, "Look - Apollos is yours, Peter is yours, I am yours. All things are yours. Everything belongs to you. The world. Life. Death. The past. The future - all is yours. But you are Christ's, and Christ is God's." And on the basis of that text, this congregation didn't dare vote to continue to be calling itself the First Reformed Church. How could we? How could we disobey the Word of God? How could the Church with all its self-righteous pronouncements and its pious affirmations continue in its division when there can only be one holy, catholic Church? Now, it was true already in Corinth. No wonder that we've got a Lutheran Church. No wonder we've got Calvinists rallying around the banner. No wonder we've got Wesleyans all over the place. And how can you be Roman Catholic? That's like being a particular universal. It's a contradiction in terms. You're either Roman or you're Catholic. You can't be Roman Catholic. We don't hear the Word of God, and we perpetuate our divisions and our selfrighteous assurance that we have a corner on the truth. Friends, there is no form of church government that is biblical as opposed to others. It doesn't really matter if we're Congregational or Presbyterian or Episcopal in our government. There are glimmerings of all of those in the Scripture, but there's not any scriptural justification for being separate churches because of the way we organize ourselves. There is no correct liturgy over against some other form of ritual. All of them arose in historical circumstances ministering to specific needs in concrete situations. There is no final confession of faith that has said it all. The Apostles Creed is probably the most unifying symbol in the Christian Faith, largely because it avoids theological definition and simply points to the historic life of Jesus. But even the Apostles Creed doesn't say it all. It, too, has a history, a context. The problem with the Church throughout all its life is its absolutizing of that which is relative, its claim for ultimacy for that which is transient and partial. Because there's something in us all that wants to say, "My church has got it. Every i dotted, every t crossed. We say it better than you do. We do it better than you do. And we're closer to the Scriptures and to the will of God and all of that." And it is simply not true. So, what we have tried to do on a local level is be simply Christ's, belonging to God. What we have tried to become here is a community of people who recognize that we are brothers and sisters of one another because Jesus Christ is our Elder © Grand Valley State University �Christ Community: A People Who Belong Richard A. Rhem Page 6   Brother, and God is our Father, and so we're members of the family together. What we've tried to bear witness to here is the one holy, catholic faith, that faith in Jesus Christ which has taken various historical forms and various institutional forms and had its faith come to expression this way at one time, and this way at another time, all of which is for us to learn from, to appreciate, to give thanks for, and all of us together, simply, to attempt to be Christ's who is God's. So, this community has only a relative grasp of the Truth, and we're open to continue to learn what God has to say to us. This church happens to be Presbyterian in government, but if they could ever get the whole thing together, I'd be willing to give that up if there were a way in which the whole Church could be united in a form of government that would get us together. We have certain ritual forms. If we could just stick with the biblical forms everything else is negotiable. We haven't got it all together. We're pilgrim people, of limited insight, of partial vision. We're just a pilgrim people on the way. We belong to Jesus, through whom we belong to God, and because we do, we belong to each other. Maybe the calling of the Reformed Church in America in the century before us is to give up its life, for the whole Church to become truly catholic again. Maybe the calling of Christ Community Church is to be a catalyst in the midst of the Reformed Church in America that the RCA may be to the larger Church what we have become. Maybe God is calling us in deep humility and deep commitment simply to model out that it is possible for people of diversity to became one in Jesus. I love ethnic festivals. I love mostly the food. I have roots. You have roots. Some of us share the same roots, some of us have other roots, but I love to enter into the roots of others. I was in New York a few weeks ago and we worked late on this theological journal and we went out to eat and then someone said, "There is an Irish tavern where they sing Irish music," and so we all went. In the back room, filled with people, all these Irishmen. I didn't say I was Dutch; I just sort of slipped into a booth. They bring their piccolos and their flutes and their drums and their fiddles, and they sing and they make music and drink beer, and sing and make music and drink more beer. The Irish are marvelous people. Their country's blowing up, and they sing. I love shish kabobs from the Greeks, and Hungarian goulash, and the beer halls of Munich. I love the English and I love my old wooden shoes. The Church of Jesus Christ doesn't have to be some bland, lowest common denominator. It can have all of the richness of a diverse community of people who say with many tongues and many tunes, through many expressions, "Jesus Christ is Lord." And out of all of the richness of that diversity which we can celebrate together, we can recognize that all of that diversity is relative to the only thing that matters – that we are Christ's and Christ is God's. Thank God that we belong. Maybe we can become that catalyst because our most famous, most meaningful confessional statement has no confessional or ethnic bias. It begins with this question, "What is your only comfort in life and in © Grand Valley State University �Christ Community: A People Who Belong Richard A. Rhem Page 7   death?" And the answer is, "That I, body and soul, in life and in death, am not my own, but belong to my faithful Saviour, Jesus Christ." Why, if you can say that, you are my brother, you are my sister. We're one in Jesus Christ. So, what else matters? So, what's the big deal? So, why don't we get smart and love each other in Jesus' name, to the glory of God? Let us pray. Thank you, Father, for forming us into Your family. Enable us to live in love, 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 Pentecost IV Scripture Text I Corinthians 3:21-23 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-0-19860615 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1986-06-15 Title A name given to the resource Christ Community: A People Who Belong Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Richard A. Rhem Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> 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 June 15, 1986 entitled "Christ Community: A People Who Belong", on the occasion of Pentecost IV, at Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI. Scripture references: I Corinthians 3:21-23. Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Lemmen Library and Archives Community of Faith Diversity Ecumenical Pluralism Reformed Church