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Jesus: Episode or Epiphany?
From the series: Varieties of Religious Experience
Text: John 1:1, 14, 17; II Corinthians 4:6
Richard A. Rhem
Christ Community Church
Spring Lake, Michigan
April 11, 1999
Transcription of the spoken sermon
I find that it’s really wonderful to grow old; actually, every decade has been better
than the one before. But, there is a downside, too - one doesn’t necessarily go
right off into dreamland immediately, as sometimes one wakes up two or three
times during the night, for whatever reason. When I can’t get to sleep, I do a little
late night surfing. When Jay Leno’s having a bad night and when I’m really, really
desperate to sleep, I’ll tune into a TV preacher because preaching, you know, has
been defined as one man talking in another man’s sleep. Of course, I’m always
thinking about what’s coming up to preach and I just happened a couple nights
ago to see a rather well known TV preacher and he was preaching about the
resurrection of our bodies and, toward the end of the service, as these services
tend to go, there was the presentation of the Gospel, the invitation aspect where
one is invited to become a Christian, to believe in Jesus, and so forth, and the
ritual is pretty much the same. I’ve done it myself in years past. I know it pretty
well; I know all the Bible verses that go with it. We are sinners; we cannot help
ourselves; we stand under the condemnation of God; God sent Jesus, God’s son,
into the world to bear our sin as a penalty for our sin on the cross, and God raised
him up as indication that the sacrifice had been received and now there was
forgiveness and there was heaven for all who repent of their sins and believe in
Jesus. And that was all very familiar. I’m sure it’s very familiar to almost
everyone here. At one point the TV preacher got down on his knee, and he said,
"If you will say, ‘God, I believe Jesus was Your Son, I believe Jesus died for my
sin, I give myself to him, forgive me and make me Your child,’" and then he said,
"It’s done. If you do that, it’s done. You are a new creation and you are no longer
under condemnation and you have the promise of eternal life."
I tell you that story because I’ve been thinking about Jesus - whether or not Jesus
is an episode or an epiphany, and I thought to myself that that is the traditional
Gospel paradigm of evangelical, conservative Christianity really in all of its
aspects, all of its branches. Jesus is an episode.
Now, the word episode comes from the Greek language, and it refers to the
entrance of something in-between, such as in the Greek tragedies, with two great
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Richard A. Rhem
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choral pieces and an act, a part of the play between separating the two great
choral pieces, and so an episode is something complete in itself, but a part of a
larger picture. I thought to myself that is the traditional understanding of Jesus
Christ and what Jesus has done. Jesus is an episode in God’s grand creative
sweep of things. Jesus came in from outside because God is outside. Jesus
becomes the Divine Intruder; God sends Jesus who intervenes into our history
for a brief time in order to do something, in order to effect our salvation
primarily, supremely, in his death bearing our sins, taking our guilt, making a
sacrifice acceptable to God, making us, thereby, who believe in him, acceptable to
God. Jesus comes in, accomplishes that work, and departs. He’s in again, out
again. It’s an episode. That really is the way traditionally that the Gospel of Jesus
Christ has been presented. And like the TV preacher says, that was good news
because we are fallen, under condemnation, incapable, and therefore in need of
being saved.
Now, there’s nothing new in that. That’s just "old hat." You learned it first in
Kindergarten. But, what if the world is not fallen? What if creation is not fallen?
What if humankind is not totally depraved and totally incapable of salvaging
itself? What if there was not a moment of pristine perfection in paradise from
which everything fell to this present abysmal state? Then, how would one
understand what Jesus did? Then why would Jesus come? What if we are not
fallen from some pristine perfection but, rather, what if we are clawing our way
out of the jungle? What if we are slithering out of the slime? What if we, in our
animality and our bestiality, are trying to move by the nudging of God’s creative
Spirit toward the manifestation of Spirit? What if we are as humankind on a long
trajectory which began billions of years ago in an inanimate state, moving to
animate state, to life, to self-conscious life, to human life, to tribal existence?
And what if we do not so much need to be redeemed from a fallen state, but
continue to be beckoned to that intention of God for us? What if, in the midst of
our human darkness, we saw a face, we encountered a human being, and we saw
there something that was deep and true, and we said, "Oh, I see."
That, of course, would be an epiphany, wouldn’t it? For epiphany also comes
from the Greek language, and the epi begins it as episode, but that’s the prefix
which can be moved around a bit in terms of the context of the root word of the
intention of the statement. An epiphany is manifestation; it is that moment of
intuitive insight. It is that flash of insight. It is that "Aha" moment. It is that
which we speak of when we say, "It dawned upon me. Suddenly it dawned upon
me." We see something and we see deep down into the truth and the nature of
things.
What if Jesus was not sent from outside in to assume our human nature, but
what if Jesus, in the intention of God, became that moment in our history when
there was full-blown a human being whom to look upon would be to say, "My
God!" and whom to look upon would lead one to say, "And there, by the grace of
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God, I ought to be. I must be." What if such a manifestation were not coming into
the historical drama, but arising within the historical drama? (Even now that I
say that, I can hear Karl Barth rolling over in his grave, so intent to deny that
history could lead to the manifestation of anything divine. Nonetheless, down,
Karl, listen to me.) What if the historical, biological, evolutionary track on which
we find ourselves at that point, call it the fullness of time, if you will, but at that
point, emerged in the humanity of Jesus who, according to the intentions of God
and through the creative Spirit of God was that epiphany of what God is all about,
what God is and what God is about? Then Jesus would not be simply an episode,
sent, then, to do something, a grand transaction, leaving again, preparing for us a
kind of salvation that would spring us loose from this veil of tears, this realm of
darkness, promising to us peace with God and eventual home in heaven. But,
what if Jesus came into the midst of history according to the purpose of God in
order to show us what history was to be all about, what the intention of God was
for our history?
What if Jesus wasn’t just an episode? What if Jesus was that manifestation of
what is true everywhere at all time, what God has been about from the beginning
and what God will be about to the end? What if Jesus was the epiphany, a
realization, an incarnation of God’s eternal intention?
I think Paul and John were trying to say that, but let me be honest. Paul and John
were episodic. Jesus was an episode for Paul and for John and I don’t try to make
John and Paul into something else. Jesus came in from outside and left again,
and in the Gospel of John, the 14th chapter, Jesus says, "I came from the father
and I return to the father." John understood Jesus as an episode. Paul
understood Jesus as an episode. Paul understood Jesus as an episode coming in
to effect the salvation of the world which was going to end very soon. Now, I grant
you that. What if we read them and if we understand them better than they
understood themselves? What a presumptuous thing to say! But, what if we see
what was operative in them? What were they saying?
John starts his gospel by saying, "In the beginning was the word," in the
beginning obviously referring us to Genesis 1:1, "In the beginning God created the
heavens and the earth." John is talking about the one true and eternal God,
Creator of all. He is connecting the word, the intention, the idea of this Creator
God with, in the 14th verse, this word, idea, intention becoming flesh, and he says
we beheld him and behold, we saw in him the glory of God. He says no one has
ever seen God, that Ultimate Mystery of things, but the son has revealed God
from an eternal realm into the realm of our history, John episodic at that point,
nonetheless understanding that Ultimate Mystery of God landed in our history
and in our history became incarnate so that we could look upon the flesh of Jesus,
look into the face of Jesus, and we could see the nature of God.
In fact, this is what Paul says explicitly in the second letter to the Corinthians, the
fourth chapter, the sixth verse, where the God who said, "Let light shine out of
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darkness." Whose God is it? Of course, it’s the Creator God Who in the beginning
created the heavens and the earth and said, "Let there be light." The same God
John is talking about Paul is talking about. They want to be very clear. We’re not
talking about some little tribal deity over here; we’re talking about God! And this
God Who said, "Let light shine out of darkness," has shined into our hearts to
give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus. Fantastic
claim, but again both of them suggesting that in the midst of the trajectory of
history which has behind it that biological evolutionary development which has
behind it all of those eons of cosmic development. At this point there arose in this
process one whose very flesh became the incarnation of God and it is no wonder
that, when the Church for several hundred years struggled to understand who
Jesus was, what happened in Jesus, what in the world God was doing, the Church
came finally to make a contradictory statement in the Council of Chalcedon, 451,
but that’s where we get that famous phrase with which the Church has rested for
all these centuries, "Jesus Christ, true God, true human."
What they’re saying is, I see Jesus and I say, "Oh, God!" I see Jesus and I say,
"There’s the human in the midst of this historical, biological, evolutionary
continuum upon which we are traveling; there has been a moment in which there
was a face that shined the light of the eternal God into our hearts as we beheld
him." That, I think, is Jesus as epiphany who in his incarnation was telling us
what is true about God and what is true about humanity and what is true about
human history. In Jesus we get the clue as to the grain of the universe.
When I see a preacher do as admittedly I myself have done in earlier years, boil it
all down to a Jesus coming from outside in order to die for my sins in order that I
might have heaven, I want to say to myself that’s really not terribly important.
That’s awfully self-centered and frankly, simply irrelevant to what’s happening in
my world. I don’t think Jesus would even recognize himself, for was Jesus about
getting us to heaven, or was Jesus about changing the world? Was Jesus about
some future age, or was Jesus about the here and now, the rough and tumble of
history? Was not Jesus that non-violent resister of the world as it is in order to
bring it to the intention of God, the God of justice and mercy? And I am so struck
by it because our world is again in the convulsions of war.
A couple of weeks ago I said to you if you were meeting with the President this
morning, how would you vote - do we bomb or not? And last week it seemed as
though that bombing which was the decision was simply violence eliciting greater
violence. And now here we are on a third Lord’s Day and I really can’t gather you
in worship and speak to you of eternal things without constantly having before
my mind and putting before your mind what’s going on in the world because I
think that’s what the Gospel is about; I think that’s what God is about; I think
that’s what Jesus is about, and it would seem today, in spite of all the spin doctors
and all of the critique that we have to do with the filtered news that we get in
quotation marks, it would seem that there is a horror being perpetrated in our
world. It would seem that there are some resemblances, not in numbers, but
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nonetheless in intention and in consequence to the Holocaust of the Second
World War, and it would seem that in a world where we would follow Jesus who
stands for the God of justice non-violently, that our world has not yet come to a
point where non-violent protest will stop the slaughter, and so in this world
which is still so much in darkness, so marked by brokenness, we are having to use
violence on behalf of humanity.
I say to myself it’s Easter Sunday in Orthodox country, it’s Easter Sunday in
Serbia Yugoslavia, and I think about not only the orthodox church, but the
Roman Catholic Church and all brands of Protestant church and I think for 2000
years we have made Jesus Christ into a salvation figure; we have made Christian
faith into a salvation cult; we have made the Church into an institution of
salvation, and we have done precious little to effect the things that Jesus was
about. The darkness continues, and we are satisfied to have a Savior when that
one who was the epiphany, the manifestation of the intention of God in our
history was about the concrete stuff of history. We do our liturgy and we let our
incense flow heavenward and repeat our creeds and we have, in my opinion,
missed it so drastically that Easter can be celebrated in Serbia today with not
much connection with ethnic cleansing that is going on over there.
But, wasn’t Jesus simply the exemplification of the intention of God? Didn’t Jesus
say to his disciples, "As the father has sent me, so send I you. Receive the Holy
Spirit." Did Jesus ever say, "I am unique and have a monopoly on this?" Did not
Jesus rather say, "As I have been, you are to be. Go forth, do this as I have done.
Be what I have been."
We in the evangelical Church have been so concerned about the uniqueness of
Jesus. Tell me why. Why is it so important that Jesus be the only way? Why must
Jesus be unique? Of course, if he is a salvation figure, if he’s someone from
outside who came in to do this thing, I can see, I suppose, that you need to hedge
him around and make him unique. But for God’s sake, he didn’t want to be
unique. He wanted to be one of us in order that we might be one with him. I think
what Jesus was about was for all of us, more and more to manifest that spirit,
that fullness that dwelt in him in order that we might stand in solidarity with
him, in order that we might make our world a different place.
So, here we are in Europe again, in war. I was reminded of the book, A Man
Called Intrepid, I read several years ago by William Stevenson about Sir William
Stephenson, the Englishman who ran the secret war in the Second World War.
He writes about November 5 of 1940, shortly after Franklin Delano Roosevelt had
been elected to his third term, Roosevelt gathered with his neighbors in Hyde
Park. His opponent that year was Wendell Wilke who had said that electing
Roosevelt to a third term would mean, "dictatorship and war." Roosevelt had
said, "I will not send our boys to fight a foreign war." But Roosevelt saw more
than the American people. For two years he had been working with Churchill and
the English, and then the English were able to break the Nazi code and in order to
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make that a valuable accomplishment, they couldn’t let the Nazis know that they
had broken the code, and so now Hitler, irate, was ready to begin to bomb cities,
non-military targets. November 14, 1940, Churchill learned through the breaking
of the code, the decoding of the message that it was to be Coventry, England. If
you go there you will find a grand contemporary cathedral on the ruins of the old,
bombed out cathedral. Coventry was to be bombed. Did Churchill let them know
so they could evacuate the city? That would have tipped off the Nazis that they
had the code. And so, a sleepless night he tossed and turned and while Coventry
was bombed, he knowing that they would be bombed, not able to let them know,
lest they faltered in the larger picture. You see, this world of darkness where there
is all this ambiguity, and FDR said to Sir William Stephenson shortly after that,
"We are being forced more and more to play God."
And I would say, "Exactly, exactly. We are called to play God!" God is not the God
of the quick fix, dipping in here and there, fixing that, healing that, saving this
one. Damning that one. God of infinite patience has come to full expression in
humankind in a human face; we have looked into the face of Jesus and we have
seen the light of the knowledge of the glory of God and Jesus said, "As I am in this
world, you are to be." God is waiting for us to play God. We are making those
hard decisions with particular judgment and not enough knowledge, fallible and
flawed that we are, we are called to be that, the Church of Jesus Christ, the people
of God in the midst of this world to break that cycle of vengeance and retaliation
and hatred. What’s going on in the Balkans is the result of centuries of tribalism,
us against them, nursing old wounds, blood feuds. We have to stop it. We have to
address it. We have to deal with it gently, kindly, now firmly. But, we cannot sit
by and allow evil to happen. It has happened with the knowledge of the Holy
Father and the President of the United States during the Holocaust. And maybe,
eventually, maybe more and more will come to a dawning of the truth if they see
it, that which came to expression in Jesus, coming to expression in more and
more who are not nearly so concerned about heaven as earth, about the next life
as this life.
In last night’s news there was a note about millions being raised in Israel for
relief because they remember, you see. They remember when it was them. And
there was the flash of 75 Israeli doctors at the Macedonian border ministering to
Kosovars who are Muslims who, during the second World War, supported Hitler.
You see, that’s what has to happen. There has to be a forgiving; there has to be
resistance to violence; there has to be a refusal to do any harm; there has to be
where possible that manifestation, that epiphany, that grace that came to
expression in Jesus, and here and there, now and again when someone in
solidarity with Jesus decides to heal and forgive and to embrace in order that the
world may be changed.
Heaven can wait.
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Richard A. Rhem Collection
Description
An account of the resource
Text and sound recordings of the sermons, prayers, services, and articles of Richard Rhem, pastor emeritus of Christ Community Church in Spring Lake, Michigan, where he served for 37 years. Starting in the mid 1980's, Rhem began to question some of the traditional Christian dogma that he had been espousing from the pulpit. That questioning was a first step in a long and interesting spiritual journey, one that he openly shared with his congregation. His journey is important, in part because it is reflective of the questioning, the yearnings, and the gradual revision of beliefs that many persons in this part of the century have experienced and continue to experience. It is important also because of the affirming and inclusive way his questioning was done and his thinking evolved. His sermons and other written and spoken materials together document the steps in his journey as it took a turn in 1985, yet continued to revolve around the framework and liturgies of the Christian calendar.
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Clergy--Michigan
Reformed Church in America
Christ Community Church (Spring Lake, Mich.)
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Interfaith worship
Sermons
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Rhem, Richard A.
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<a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/514">Richard A. Rhem papers (KII-01)</a>
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Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives.
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Kaufman Interfaith Institute
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Event
Eastertide II
Series
Varieties of Religious Experience
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John 1:1, 14, 17, II Corinthians 4:6
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Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI
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1999-04-11
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Jesus: Episode or Epiphany?
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Richard A. Rhem
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Grand Valley State University
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Clergy--Michigan
Reformed Church in America
Christ Community Church (Spring Lake, Mich.)
Sermons
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Richard A. Rhem - An Archive of Sermons, Prayers, Talks and Stories: http://richardrhem.org/
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eng
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An account of the resource
A sermon given by Richard A. Rhem (Dick) on April 11, 1999 entitled "Jesus: Episode or Epiphany?", as part of the series "Varieties of Religious Experience", on the occasion of Eastertide II, at Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI. Scripture references: John 1:1, 14, 17, II Corinthians 4:6.
Cosmic Evolution
Divine Intention
Epiphany
Incarnation
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Text
The Quest
From the series: Q & Q: The Religious Quest and Question
Text: Micah 4:5; Matthew 2:1-2
Richard A. Rhem
Christ Community Church
Spring Lake, Michigan
Epiphany, January 10, 1999
Transcription of the spoken sermon
Since worship had to be canceled because of the weather last week, this is the first
time we gather in worship in 1999, and I wish you a Happy New Year. The
calendar is not all that important; we are on the threshold of the turn of the
century and of the millennium, but, that really is no big deal, if you really stop to
think about it, for the calendar is a rather parochial matter. It’s a human product;
we’ve produced it and it’s a western Christian calendar. If you were in China, I
suppose it would be the year 6000 or something. If you were in Jerusalem, last
year you would have celebrated the 3000th anniversary of the city and I think for
the Jewish people it’s the year 5,600 and something or other. I didn’t know where
to find all that information, but it’s close. The point is, the year 2000 is no big
deal. If it really were a big deal, it would have happened four years ago because
there is a mistake in the calendar from when it was first put together. Anyway,
what I’m saying to you is don’t get excited about going into the year 2000. Relax.
Have a party. And don’t believe any of the rubbish that’s around; just don’t
believe it. There are a few advanced human beings who I understand use
computers - they may have a problem for a while. But, outside of that technology,
there’s going to be no big deal at all.
But the calendar does have this advantage: it reminds us that our life is involved
in a movement and there’s nothing we can do about it. We can dig in our heels,
we can fret, we can try all sorts of things to freeze the moment and hold it back.
We can sing the song, "Stop the World and Let Me Off," but it won’t do any good,
because time marches on and our human story marches on. We are historical
people marked by the movement of time. Our days and weeks and months and
years go on and the calendar’s turning. The calendar on the wall is a sign of the
fact that time moves, we move, inevitably. And so, the calendar is an opportunity
for us at this time of the year to take stock and to look to the future. In the
Church, the 6th of January is the Feast of Epiphany which means the
manifestation, the celebration in the Church of its conviction that Light has come
into the world, that the child that was born who we believe was the Word made
flesh, whose name in the Gospel of Matthew was Emmanuel, a name hardly ever
used beyond that, and yet perhaps the finest name of all, that in the flesh of the
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child, Emmanuel, God with us, that is the heart of our faith and that’s the heart of
Christmas. On the Feast of Epiphany we celebrate the fact that in the child, God
became human flesh and we have Light in the world, Light in the world for our
ongoing journey. For that is the nature of our human existence - we are on a
journey. Within us, deep within us there is a quest. We don’t pause often enough
to acknowledge the quest. We probably don’t think about it very often, and then
those moments intrude themselves upon us when we ask the ultimate questions,
and we ask about the mystery of our existence before the face of the Ultimate
Mystery - Who are we? And Why are we here? From whence have we come;
whither are we going; and what in the world is God doing?
We are people who have within our depths a question and a quest. It is the very
nature of our humanity, and the quest that is endemic to our humanity is the
religious quest. The questions are religious questions; they’re questions about the
Ultimate, about meaning, about purpose, and there is that within our human
nature that senses that we are on the way, that we are not where we are going,
and that what we have yet experienced lacks completion and fulfillment. When
we stop to think about it, we know that that’s the very nature of being human,
that we are people on the way.
We have a past and today we are able to have a sense of that past as no
generations before us, recognizing that whole cosmic story of billions of years
that emerged into a story of life, and then life at some point emerging into selfconscious life, some creature in its animality, in a moment becoming aware of
itself and of the other, and at that moment, the universe became conscious, and
we, humankind, are the consciousness of the cosmos, and it is that which marks
us as humans that we ask those ultimate questions, that we are able to go back
and to trace that long, long progression, that we become aware of ourselves at
this moment and that we contemplate a future into which we are moving, a future
uncharted that has surprises that we have not yet dreamed of. That’s really the
nature of being human. To be human, I believe, is to be on a quest. And to be on a
quest is to be asking the religious questions. Something within us, some yearning,
some longing for some clue as to what this is all about, who we are, and what in
the world God is doing.
A beautiful statement written by C. S. Lewis entitled, “The Signature of the Soul,”
found in The Problem of Pain, says very well what I want to say about that mark
of our humanity as having a question embedded in its depths. C. S. Lewis writes,
There are times when I think we do not desire heaven, but more often I
find myself wondering whether in our hearts and our heart of hearts we
have ever desired anything else…Are not all lifelong friendships born at
the moment when at last you meet another human being who has some
inkling of that something which you were born desiring and which amid all
the flux of other desiring and passion, day and night, year after year, from
childhood to old age you have been looking for, watching for, listening for.
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You’ve never had it. All the things that have ever deeply possessed your
soul have been but hints of it, tantalizing glimpses of it, promises never
quite fulfilled. But, if it should ever really become manifest, if ever there
came an echo of it that did not fade away but grew louder and swelled into
the sound itself, you would know it. Beyond all doubt, you would say,
"Here it is. This is that for which I was made." We cannot tell each other
about it; it is the secret signature of the soul, the incommunicable,
unappeasable want, the thing desired before we made any conscious
choices which we shall still desire on our deathbeds. To lose this is to lose
all.
The signature of the soul is the quest for meaning, for completion, for fulfillment,
for some sense, some clue as to the mystery of our lives before the face of
Mystery. That’s the nature of our human existence, and maybe the turning of the
calendar, if it does nothing more, reminds us that we are a people on the way,
living always with that deep question, "What is it all about? Who am I? Whence
have I come? Whither am I going? And what in the world is God doing?"
Micah speaks of a vision of another world where they’ll turn their weapons into
farming implements and the nations will learn war no more, where Israel will
walk in the name of its God and the nations will walk in the name of their God,
and everyone will be unafraid, sitting under his or her vine and fig tree. That
peaceful, serene setting that must be at the depths of the longing within us when
we realize that what is cannot be all there is, that there must be something more,
some other world, some new age.
But, it was not only the Hebrew prophets who had such a longing, who had a
sense of quest, for it is the symbol of Epiphany that a star aroused Magi, those
mysterious astrologers from the East, to seek out the birth of one whom they felt
signaled in the stars was destined for royalty, and they made their way to
Jerusalem and then to Bethlehem and knelt before the child. The Church has,
somewhat triumphalistically said, "You see, it was the beginning of the coming of
all nations to the true God, to the true Light." Well, I would say rather, it is an
indication of the universality of the longing of the quest for God, for truth, for
reality. The journey of the Magi is simply symbolic in the way we tell the
Christmas story of our conviction that we are on a quest for the living God, and
the celebration of the fact that that God has caused the Light to dawn upon us,
not to end our quest, but to whet our appetite, to dig more deeply into that quest,
following the star, seeking to fill that hole in the soul that marks us as the restless
ones who are ever on the move.
On this first worshiping Sunday of the New Year, I’m really excited to announce
the establishment of a new ministry at Christ Community. It is an adjunct
ministry of The Center for Religion and Life. I have in my hands a brochure
which you’ll all have in your hands before long. The Center for Religion and Life,
which announces the coming in February and the first weekend of Lent, February
© Grand Valley State University
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Richard A. Rhem
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19-21, the presence of John Dominic Crossan, who is, I think I can say without
refutation, the world’s preeminent scholar in the research for the historical Jesus.
John Dominic Crossan will inaugurate a lecture series in 1999 under the auspices
of The Center for Religion and Life. He’ll be followed by Marcus Borg, the most
popular writer and author in this whole historical Jesus quest. In the fall, we’ll
have Amy-Jill Levine who is a Jewish scholar teaching New Testament at
Vanderbilt University, and then perhaps the most controversial churchman in
America today, Bishop John Shelby Spong coming to us, as the brochure says, to
help us re-imagine Christian faith for the third millennium.
This Center for Religion and Life has a logo, which is Q & Q, selected very
deliberately, because today popularly you will see, "Q & A." What’s the question?
This is the answer. And I think throughout the long history of the Church, Q & A
would fit appropriately. What’s the question? We have the answer. Christ
Community is going to inaugurate a Center for Religion and Life that will be
marked not by Q & A, but by Q & Q, by Quest and Question, for we come to
acknowledge, as I said a moment ago, that it is the very nature of our human
existence that we are in movement, on a journey, and that within our depths
there is a quest for meaning which is, I believe, the quest for God. We will honor
that quest, seeking to help people clarify the questions, for to be human, to be
honest is to live without absolute answers. Life is a mystery. Too often, for too
long in the Church, we have promised too much. We have made premature
closure on those Ultimate questions that drive our restlessness, and so we felt
that it was time for a congregation to establish a Center where the quest can be
honored and the questions sought to be clarified, the quest of our human
existence, the questions that impinge upon our human existence, a Center where,
as an adjunct to this total ministry, we can create a space, a forum, if you will,
where those questions can be honestly pursued.
Why? Because the Christian faith needs desperately to be translated in light of
the explosion of modern knowledge. I am not being critical; I am stating a fact
quite simply: The Church at large has never come to terms with the knowledge,
the explosion of knowledge in the modern world. Why do it? Because our story
comes out of an ancient world and an ancient framework which is not in any way
to denigrate the truth that came to expression, simply to recognize that the
structures within which the story was told are structures that have long since
been put to rest while a whole new world has exploded, a world that needs to
have the interpretation and the critique of the faith, but which also must critique
the faith drawing from it new answers and new understandings and insights in
order that faith and life may illumine each other.
Why do it? Because the Gospel is good news, and it does need to be presented in
such a fashion that it can connect with people of contemporary experience so that
the Church doesn’t become a museum piece, lauding yesterday’s answers to
today’s questions, but allowing the Gospel fresh expression through hard work,
© Grand Valley State University
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Richard A. Rhem
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theological reflection, biblical study in order that we may find a way to speak
good news into the future.
Why Christ Community? Well, because we’ve been doing it for a long time here.
You have been a wonderful congregation that has encouraged me to continue to
think the faith, and Christ Community is a rather rare situation. Not many people
with my passion and my interest go into the ministry or stay in the ministry. Not
in the pastoral ministry. There are all kinds of places to go where one can think
unfettered by the pastoral setting, but it has been who I am, but you have allowed
me in this setting to continue to think and to think out loud on this stool, and
we’ve always had a freedom here to think the faith, reflect on the faith, probe the
edges. Why Christ Community? Because this is a most rare place where over a
quarter of a century of theological reflection has been translated into preaching
that has developed a community that is the laboratory by which the theology can
be tested. You are the fruit of the theological reflection which has found
expression in preaching, and there aren’t a lot of situations like this.
But there’s another reason why Christ Community and that is that we have not
only that tradition of free inquiry combining evangelical passion with intellectual
integrity, but we also have a new burst of freedom and freshness. We, in our
independent status, have no ecclesiastical pressures or obligations. We are free to
think the faith as never before. I’ve had an interesting experience in the last year
and I’ve mentioned it to you, I’m sure, in conversation, if we’ve talked about it.
I’ve always felt I had a free pulpit here and you’ve been a wonderful congregation
to allow me to indulge my habit, but I have today a freedom that I didn’t know I
didn’t have, and that’s a fascinating experience. I have a freedom today I didn’t
know I didn’t have. And so, while this is nothing new, really, we’re going to do it
with a new intentionality and a new deliberateness and a new publicness. We’re
going to do our best to create here an oasis where every question is honored,
where there is no subject that is off limits, where in conversation, in community,
we can think together in the presence of the mystery that is God.
Why do it? It needs desperately to be done, and there aren’t many, either in
academy or congregation, that are doing it.
Why do it here? Because of the position of freedom that allows that kind of
honest inquiry.
Why do it now? I’m getting old. I don’t have long to go anymore. I have to get on
it. If we’re ever going to do it, we’ve got to do it. I mean, if you want to do it with
me, and I’d like to do it with you, so let’s do it together. Honoring the quest,
clarifying the questions; breaking new ground, unafraid, because we really
believe in the Good News, in the grace of God that has appeared in the Word
made flesh who is the Light of the world, who beckons wise ones.
© Grand Valley State University
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https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/37f08f1b5913669c88e7388e4ca19f47.mp3
f543154db5e7a11d12d3649f9b35eaed
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
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Richard A. Rhem Collection
Description
An account of the resource
Text and sound recordings of the sermons, prayers, services, and articles of Richard Rhem, pastor emeritus of Christ Community Church in Spring Lake, Michigan, where he served for 37 years. Starting in the mid 1980's, Rhem began to question some of the traditional Christian dogma that he had been espousing from the pulpit. That questioning was a first step in a long and interesting spiritual journey, one that he openly shared with his congregation. His journey is important, in part because it is reflective of the questioning, the yearnings, and the gradual revision of beliefs that many persons in this part of the century have experienced and continue to experience. It is important also because of the affirming and inclusive way his questioning was done and his thinking evolved. His sermons and other written and spoken materials together document the steps in his journey as it took a turn in 1985, yet continued to revolve around the framework and liturgies of the Christian calendar.
Subject
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Clergy--Michigan
Reformed Church in America
Christ Community Church (Spring Lake, Mich.)
Religion
Interfaith worship
Sermons
Sound Recordings
Creator
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Rhem, Richard A.
Source
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<a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/514">Richard A. Rhem papers (KII-01)</a>
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Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives.
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Kaufman Interfaith Institute
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English
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KII-01
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1981-2014
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audio/mp3
text/pdf
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Event
Epiphany II
Series
Q & Q: The Religious Quest and Question
Scripture Text
Micah 4:5, Matthew 2:1-2
Location
The location of the interview
Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI
References
Gordon Kaufman.In Face of Mystery: A Constructive Theology, 1995.
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KII-01_RA-0-19990110
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1999-01-10
Title
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The Quest
Creator
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Richard A. Rhem
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Grand Valley State University
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<a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a>
Subject
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Clergy--Michigan
Reformed Church in America
Christ Community Church (Spring Lake, Mich.)
Sermons
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Richard A. Rhem - An Archive of Sermons, Prayers, Talks and Stories: http://richardrhem.org/
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eng
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Text
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audio/mp3
application/pdf
Description
An account of the resource
A sermon given by Richard A. Rhem (Dick) on January 10, 1999 entitled "The Quest", as part of the series "Q & Q: The Religious Quest and Question", on the occasion of Epiphany II, at Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI. Scripture references: Micah 4:5, Matthew 2:1-2.
Epiphany
Meaning
Mystery of God
Religious Quest
-
https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/a022ac9792cba629241ab55b5e108b54.pdf
f9112dcfa9b5a612f716e3d8a842ad49
PDF Text
Text
Insight, Courage and World Transformation
Text: Acts 26:1-9; John 12:42
Richard A. Rhem
Christ Community Church
Spring Lake, Michigan
Season of Epiphany, January 26, 1997
Transcription of the spoken sermon
I have found in the season of Epiphany a theme that continues to circle around in
my head and what I am going to say to you this morning, I've said before. I am
going to reinforce that theme that in Epiphany we celebrate the fact that the Light
has come. It's a wonderful season, the season of the Star, of brightness, of
illumination. We celebrate the fact that God does not remain hidden, that God
unveils God's self and we have the knowledge of God. The gift of God is that
illumination of our minds and hearts so that we are not in darkness, but we live
in light.
The thing that has continued to get at me is that the Church always celebrates
these seasons of the year, we celebrate that the Light has come, but we fail to act
in light of the Light. The Light is not an end in itself. The Light has come in order
that people illumined, given insight, might become world changers, world
transformers. The thrust this season and of this message is that insight must be
wedded to courage in order that the world might be transformed.
It sounds like pulpit talk, grandiose, doesn't it? But, think about it for a moment.
Is that not what the whole biblical story is about - God calling a people, Israel, in
order to be light to the nations? Is not that what the Gospel is about - the light of
Jesus Christ, the one who said, "I am the Light of the world," calling us to follow,
to be light, to be salt to the world? Are we not called, we who follow in the way of
Jesus and in the tradition of Israel, to bear witness to the kingdom of God and to
be the concretization of that kingdom in the midst of history? We are called to be
agents of change. We are called to be world transformers.
Krister Stendahl used a phrase that I love: "We are called to be the menders of
Creation." Isn't that a nice phrase? To mend Creation. God is about the mending
of Creation, and God's people are called to be the agents in that process of
mending, the healing of Creation, specifically that society might be humanized,
that there might be more justice in the world, that there might be more
compassion in the world, that there might be more peace in the world. That's so
basic, very simple, isn't it? Fundamental. The people of God, as we have
understood ourselves, in the tradition of Israel and in the Christian tradition, are
© Grand Valley State University
�Insight, Courage, Transformation
Richard A. Rhem
Page 2
a people who are called to live in the Light, to walk in the Light, to be children of
Light in order that the world might become a better place. World transformation.
The Light hasn't come simply to give us information. The Light has come to give
us insight in order that, with courage, we might engage in the changing of the
world, the changing of society, the changing of human behavior, making the
world a better place. The mending of Creation.
My theme is this: That the insight must be wedded to courage in order that the
insight might be effective in the concrete world of which we are a part. And the
greatest hindrance to the coming of the kingdom of God is a failure of nerve. It is
fear.
I had noted that, last weekend at Fountain Street Church in Grand Rapids, Dr.
William Sloan Coffin would speak. Coffin has been an activist minister of the
Gospel for many, many years. He has been about many causes of social justice
and world peace, but yesterday's Press had a little clip from him in which,
typically, he called the Church to live in love and to live lovingly, but then this
caught my eye: He said, "The great enemy of love is fear, and fear is the
destructive force and it is the block to transformative action," and he said, "I'm
afraid of scared people."
The problem with the world is scared people. People who lack the courage to
stand for the insight that God has given. I think that is clear from the scriptures
and it is obvious in our own experience as a people in our own day.
Certainly it was clear in the biblical story, the story as Luke told Paul's story, and
as John told Jesus' story. Luke, in the Book of Acts, in those last chapters tells
about Paul's return, after all of his missionary activity and the founding of the
churches, to Jerusalem with that offering, and when he goes there, a very
significant moment in the 21st chapter, the 20th verse: James and the leaders of
the Christian Jesus Movement, the Jesus Jewish Christian Movement encounter
Paul and they welcome him, saying, "Paul, there are thousands of followers of the
Way here. There is a big population in Jerusalem of Jewish people following the
way of Jesus, but there are those among them who are saying that when you get
out in the hinterlands, you play fast and loose with Moses. You don't observe
Torah; you are not an observant Jew out there. And you encourage other Jews to
be lax in their observance. And so, Paul, can you straighten that out?"
Paul says, "Certainly."
Then they say, "Why don't you engage in the Rite of Purification? Go to the
Temple, it's a seven-day process, say your prayers and shave your head and all
that kind of thing."
Paul says, "I'll be glad to," because Paul never claimed to be anything else but an
observant Jew. And so, he does that but, while he's in the Temple, there's this
© Grand Valley State University
�Insight, Courage, Transformation
Richard A. Rhem
Page 3
group who is agitating. They stir up a mob and it doesn't take a mob long with a
mob psychology to get rabid. They're ready to pounce on him, to tear him limb
from limb. They want to kill him, and he's arrested by the Roman cohort there,
and the arrest actually becomes a rescue. So, he's put in prison to guard his own
life. But, before that, he speaks to the mob and he says, "Look, I am a faithful
follower of the tradition. It is for the hope of Israel that I stand here."
Well, they boo him down eventually, and then he speaks to the Roman tribune
and finds out he's a Roman citizen. Now he's in the Roman legal process; he gives
his defense to the first Governor, Felix, and then Festus and then finally we hear
him talking before the King, Agrippa, and it's the same in every case as he gives
his defense.
As we read a moment ago, he says, "Look, King, I was a persecutor of the People
of the Way. I was so diligent in my own Jewish faith that I imprisoned, I voted for
the death of the followers of the Way, I persecuted these people. Certainly these
accusations against me are false."
And then he tells the king about how, on his way to Damascus, the light shone
upon him, and he tells his conversion story and how he who persecuted the
followers of the Way became the proclaimer of Jesus, as indeed God's anointed
one. And then this phrase, one of my text this morning: "I was not disobedient to
the heavenly vision."
That's the point, dear friends. Paul was bathed in light; Paul had to undergo a
radical transformation in his thinking. Paul had to do a 180° turn. Paul was
absolutely broken, only to rise up and to go another way. He could say at the end
of his life, "I was not disobedient to the heavenly vision."
He had been warned not to go to Jerusalem but he had to go to Jerusalem. They
said, "They will bind you there," and he said, "I will go to Jerusalem even if I be
bound. I am ready to die for the name of Jesus Christ."
Paul wedded insight to courage, and he was not disobedient to that heavenly
vision. I'm sure he died disappointed because he had hoped that from Jew and
Gentile there would be created one new humanity. That's the phrase from his
Letter to the Ephesians. He spoke about how that middle wall or partition was
torn down and now there would be no barrier separating the human family. And
you know his frustration. It comes out in his Letter to the Romans, when his own
brothers and sisters in the faith did not see what he saw. He said, "I would myself
be accursed if only they could see this."
I think Paul dreamed of a day, not when the Jew would cease to be a Jew, but
when the Jew in his following of Torah would see in Jesus that full manifestation
of God and the day when the Gentile would not become a Jew, but would be
embraced by that same grace of God. Paul envisioned one new humanity,
embraced by God's grace, dwelling in the light, and he could see that it was not
© Grand Valley State University
�Insight, Courage, Transformation
Richard A. Rhem
Page 4
happening that way, and there was this terrible tension between his work out in
the Gentile mission field and the Jesus Jewish contingent at home base in
Jerusalem.
But, think of what might have happened if Paul's dream could have been realized,
for what ensued because it was not realized was the dominant Jewish party
persecuting the people of the Way until the people of the Way became the
dominant Christian establishment with tragically 2000 years of anti-semitic
persecution. Think of the horror that has been visited upon the human family
because there was not at that point created one new humanity.
Paul was not disobedient to the heavenly vision. Paul was ready to die for that
truth in which he believed, but it didn't happen. There were not enough who
would join him, not enough who caught the vision. And so, 2000 years later, does
thinking have its implications? My goodness, people, out of that what happened
2000 years later, the horror of the Holocaust! I read just recently in the paper
that the nation Germany is wrenched even now as they're trying to determine
how to establish a Holocaust memorial in Germany. Ten million dollars, but how
do you do it? How do you have a people live, constantly being reminded of that
horror?
You see, thinking has ramifications all down the line. If only there had been more
who would have heeded Paul and stood with him, not to put everybody in a
blender and have a homogenized humanity, but to have Jew and Gentile in Christ
linked arm in arm, according to God's intention, bringing light to all nations, the
light that is in Jesus Christ.
There weren't enough that had nerve enough to stand. There weren't enough who
wedded insight with courage in order to transform their world. Near the end of
the first century, the Rabbinic Jewish party has gained the ascendency. The
Jewish followers of Jesus are on the defensive now. Now in this Johannine
community, John sees in his congregation one and then another and another
leave; they're going out all over the place. The ascendent Rabbinic party is now
denying the possibility of someone being in the synagogue and saying that Jesus
is the Messiah. Now, you're up against it.
"Do you believe Jesus is the Messiah?"
"Oh, yes."
"Well, if you confess it, you're out of here."
Now you have to decide - will I openly confess it, or will I just be quiet and stay
here, for after all, this is my spiritual home.
That's the situation in which John tells the story of Jesus, and you always see
those two levels in John's Gospel. He's telling the story of what happened in
© Grand Valley State University
�Insight, Courage, Transformation
Richard A. Rhem
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Jesus' day to address what's happening in his day, and so after giving the Book of
Signs, the public ministry of Jesus comes to an end in the 12th chapter. The first
half of the Gospel is over and it's as though the curtain drops, and John comes
out in front of the curtain and speaks to the audience to say, "Now, let me explain
this dilemma. You wonder - all of these things that Jesus did that I've just
recorded and his own people have rejected him; they don't believe him. How can
that be?"
Well, John, out in front of the curtain now, with the audience, says, "On the one
hand, God's in that somehow." To explain how that can be, John goes to the
prophet Isaiah, the 6th chapter, in which Isaiah records his vision of God and his
call. The sixth chapter has a strange twist:
He said, Go and tell this people:
You may listen and listen, but you will not understand.
You may look and look again, but you will never know.
This people's wits are dulled, their ears are deafened and their eyes
blinded, so that they cannot see with their eyes
nor listen with their ears
nor understand with their wits,
so that they may turn and be healed.
Difficult words; how can we understand them? In any case, John is saying
something similar. He is trying to say to the people this is not happening apart
from God's overall operation in history. But then, lest it seem as though he is just
saying, well, it's God fault, he goes on to the next paragraph to say, "But even
many of the authorities believed but did not confess it for fear of the Pharisees,
lest they be put out of the synagogue."
Now, in Jesus' day, nobody was going to be put out of the synagogue, but in
John's day the issue was you confess Jesus as the Messiah, you'll be put out of the
synagogue. And what John is saying to his community of people was you must
make up your mind, you've got to decide, and it just may be down deep finally it
will be an issue of whether or not you have the courage of your conviction.
Because he says in Jesus' own day there were religious authorities that believed,
but for fear of the Pharisees they didn't confess it because they valued human
glory more than the glory of God. I would translate that a little differently in our
day. They valued their comfort and their security and their job, their position in
society more than the imperative to speak the truth according to their conscience.
John says to his community, "Will you, too, leave, through a failure of nerve? You
do believe it. Just like in Jesus' own day there were those who did believe it.
But the question is not what you believe in the depths of your heart. The question
is the degree to which that which you believe in the depths of your heart will find
expression in your life. It is the degree to which you will stand up and speak it,
say it, take a stand, be counted. Because, you see, insight is given not as an end in
© Grand Valley State University
�Insight, Courage, Transformation
Richard A. Rhem
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itself, to be contemplated in silence. Insight is given to be wedded with courage in
order that the end of it might be world transformation. We are to be about the
mending of Creation, the humanization of society, the changing of attitudes, the
changing of behavior, the changing of social structures.
It is so difficult to do it in the political process. Come in this next hour and ask
Sen. Stille how difficult it is in the political process. Politics is the art of
compromise, but there has to be a place in society where the truth will not be
compromised, and if it is not the Church, if it not the people of God, then where
will the truth be spoken? If we believe it, we must have the courage to say it. If we
believe it, we must have the courage to incarnate it. If we believe it, then we must
be the living concretization of it.
The light has come. Thank God! So, what? So that we may become agents of
transformation. So that we may act on our insight. So that we may follow our
conviction. So that we may be true to our faith, the thing that we really believe.
The great block to human transformation is fear - fear of consequence, fear of
cost, and it is costly. And the fear is not without justification. Finally each of us in
our own life and we as a people together, have moment by moment to make those
decisions. Because 2000 years ago there were those who knew it, but for fear
refused to confess it, a Holocaust happens and the world is still wrenched. We
have knowledge about the genders and the essential equality of the genders, and
yet there continues to be a battering away at the equality of women. We live in a
society where the armed forces at a school like Citadel, where there is still that
damnable resistance to what we really know is true and right. We live in a society
that will continue to experience gay-bashing and persecution, when we know and
we have information and we have an experience such that we know that there is
no shred of basis in reality for that kind of bigotry and prejudicial attitude. The
tragedy is that, while it is very difficult to speak the truth in the political arena
where one needs to be elected, in the Church there is a refusal to speak it, even an
undergirding of the bigotry and the prejudice that has ruled far too long.
My epiphany plea with you is that we will, before the face of God, think hard,
think seriously, think responsibly, reflect, contemplate, discuss, dialogue,
struggle and wrestle with humility and openness, but then have the courage to be
all of that that would reflect what we really believe and end the conspiracy of
silence and the compromise with all of that negativity that continues to lace the
human family with tragedy.
Dear friends, the Light has come. Be children of Light and let your light so shine
that all people may glorify the Eternal God Who calls us to be the menders of
Creation.
© Grand Valley State University
�
https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/5cc30be310adfa5a7ad01cfe70e22ab7.mp3
833c7ac89f9b1537585be2f544bb31b1
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The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
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Richard A. Rhem Collection
Description
An account of the resource
Text and sound recordings of the sermons, prayers, services, and articles of Richard Rhem, pastor emeritus of Christ Community Church in Spring Lake, Michigan, where he served for 37 years. Starting in the mid 1980's, Rhem began to question some of the traditional Christian dogma that he had been espousing from the pulpit. That questioning was a first step in a long and interesting spiritual journey, one that he openly shared with his congregation. His journey is important, in part because it is reflective of the questioning, the yearnings, and the gradual revision of beliefs that many persons in this part of the century have experienced and continue to experience. It is important also because of the affirming and inclusive way his questioning was done and his thinking evolved. His sermons and other written and spoken materials together document the steps in his journey as it took a turn in 1985, yet continued to revolve around the framework and liturgies of the Christian calendar.
Subject
The topic of the resource
Clergy--Michigan
Reformed Church in America
Christ Community Church (Spring Lake, Mich.)
Religion
Interfaith worship
Sermons
Sound Recordings
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An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Rhem, Richard A.
Source
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<a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/514">Richard A. Rhem papers (KII-01)</a>
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Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives.
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Kaufman Interfaith Institute
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<a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a>
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English
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Sound
Text
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KII-01
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1981-2014
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audio/mp3
text/pdf
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A resource primarily intended to be heard. Examples include a music playback file format, an audio compact disc, and recorded speech or sounds.
Event
Christian Unity Sunday, Epiphany IV
Scripture Text
Acts 26:1-9, John 12:42
Location
The location of the interview
Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI
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The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
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KII-01_RA-0-19970126
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1997-01-26
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Insight, Courage and World Transformation
Creator
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Richard A. Rhem
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Grand Valley State University
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<a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a>
Subject
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Clergy--Michigan
Reformed Church in America
Christ Community Church (Spring Lake, Mich.)
Sermons
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Richard A. Rhem - An Archive of Sermons, Prayers, Talks and Stories: http://richardrhem.org/
Language
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eng
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Text
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audio/mp3
application/pdf
Description
An account of the resource
A sermon given by Richard A. Rhem (Dick) on January 26, 1997 entitled "Insight, Courage and World Transformation", on the occasion of Christian Unity Sunday, Epiphany IV, at Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI. Scripture references: Acts 26:1-9, John 12:42.
Compassion
Epiphany
Justice
Transforming the World
-
https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/2b648f9c8b4d7e595089e58f24973425.pdf
33904c27e10276e6c462b647910c0670
PDF Text
Text
Beyond Reason: Discovery in Worship and Mission
Christian Unity Sunday
Text: Isaiah 49:6b; John 1:9
Richard A. Rhem
Christ Community Church
Spring Lake, Michigan
Epiphany, January 19, 1997
Transcription of the spoken sermon
(On this Christian Unity Sunday, the choirs of the two parishes, St. Mary's
Catholic Church and Christ Community Church, in Spring Lake, have joined
together in Antonio Vivaldi's "Gloria," during the 10:00 am worship hour. The
choirs have been singing together, on occasion, since 1973, and there exists a
special affection between the two parishes.)
(Scripture is read by Jim Penrice, a seminarian intern at St. Mary's, from
Mundelein Seminary.)
On behalf of our pastor and all of your sisters and brothers at St. Mary's parish, I
bring you warm greetings on this cold morning. Somewhere in the scripture it
says, "It is good to be here." And it certainly is good to be with you today to
worship together as sisters and brothers in Christ.
This is a reading from the book of the prophet Isaiah:
Listen to me, O coast lands, and hearken, you peoples from afar. The Lord
called me from the womb, from the body of my mother he named my
name. He made my mouth like a sharp sword. In the shadow of his hand,
he hid me. He made me a polished arrow. In his quiver he hid me away.
And he said to me, "You are my servant, Israel, in whom I will be
glorified." But I said, "I have labored in vain. I have spent my strength for
nothing and vanity, yet surely my right is with the Lord and my
recompense with my God." And now the Lord says, who formed me from
the womb to be his servant, to bring Jacob back to him and that Israel
might be gathered to him, for I am honored in the eyes of the Lord and my
God has become my strength. He says it is too light a thing that you should
be my servant, to raise up the tribes of Jacob and to restore the preserved
of Israel. I will give you as a light to the nations that my salvation may
reach to the end of the earth." Thus says the Lord, the redeemer of Israel
and his Holy One, to one deeply despised, abhorred by the nations, the
servant of rulers. Kings shall see and arise, princes, and they shall
© Grand Valley State University
�Beyond Reason: Worship
Richard A. Rhem
Page 2
prostrate themselves because of the Lord who is faithful, because of the
Holy One of Israel who has chosen you.
I invite you to please stand for the proclamation of the Gospel:
In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word
was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through
him and without him was not anything made that was made. In him was
life, and the life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness and
the darkness has not overcome it. There was a man sent from God whose
name was John. He came for testimony, to bear witness to the light that all
might believe through him. He was not the light, but came to bear witness
to the light. The true light that enlightens every man was coming into the
world.
This is a great experience for us; it is the Sunday designated by a large part of the
Church as Christian Unity Sunday. It's a time in which we acknowledge that
which is not true, but that which ought to be true. We acknowledge that we know
better than we do, and, over the past 25 years of my second term here in this
congregation, one of the great experiences for me has been the warm friendship
between our neighboring parishes, St. Mary's and Christ Community. We have
sung Christmas carols together; we have joined together in ecumenical services;
the choirs have made presentations as this morning; we've had good fellowship
together in our halls with hot chocolate and good things to eat - it's been
enriching for me to experience the unity and the community between these two
parishes, and I've heard the same thing from many of you. I've heard it also from
the people of St. Mary's when we've had these occasions because, prior to that, we
lived in the community together, perhaps we were neighbors, maybe we worked
together, but on Sunday morning there was this kind of "Iron Curtain" that
divided us and no one gave us permission to embrace one another as brothers
and sisters in the faith. And so, it has been a beautiful experience for two
neighboring parishes, one Roman Catholic, one Protestant, to recognize that the
things that divide us are superficial and the things that make us one are
fundamental, and this morning is another wonderful experience of that unity that
we have in Jesus Christ.
God knows that unity is imperative for our world. The Roman Catholic theologian
from whom I have learned so much, Hans Küng, has said that there will be no
peace among the nations until there is peace among the religions, and there will
be no peace among the religions until there is peace among the churches. That
says it succinctly and pointedly, and it is true. Wherever you look in the globe
today, wherever there is trouble, potential violence, living on the edge of war, you
will find at the root of the conflict religious fervor, or someone using religion to
fuel the fires of discord and alienation. It is imperative that as people of faith we
learn to live together and in order to live together, it is imperative that we come
to experience that oneness that is ours because we are all the children of the one
© Grand Valley State University
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Richard A. Rhem
Page 3
eternal God, who in the beginning brought all things into being and created
humankind in God's image with a heart that continues to yearn, to embrace all
God's children. I believe that's a biblical truth.
The passage from Isaiah is a very familiar passage; it's one of the servant songs in
that section of Isaiah 40-55, a servant poem in which, to begin with, the servant
seems to be Israel itself, and then moves to an individual who calls Israel to come
to itself and to realize its purpose, because the song indicates that Israel was to be
the place in which God was glorified on earth. God chose this people and in this
people God would show God's glory. And so, the servant is to call Jacob back to
God, to that prior claim to be that place where the light of God would dwell on
earth.
God chose Israel, not to the exclusion of the nations, but in order to bring light to
the nations, and in this poem after the servant hears the call to bring Jacob back
to God, the voice says, "But, that's not enough. That's too light a task. I will make
you a light to the nations in order that my salvation may be known to the end of
the earth."
I believe that Israel at its best, at its moments of most profound understanding,
saw itself to be the light of God to share with the nations in order that the world
might experience God's saving grace.
We in the Christian Church believe that that light came to sharp focus in Jesus. In
the prologue to his Gospel, John writes of the Word, the word that in the 14th
verse becomes flesh. In the meantime, that word speaks of a God Who is the
source of life and light for the world. The Gospel writer points to John the Baptist
and says John was not the light, but John came to bear witness to the light, and
that light that enlightens everyone was coming into the world. Christmas was the
coming in human flesh of that one who would say, "I am the light of the world."
Jesus was not, in himself, the source of light. Jesus was not the exclusive light
given to humankind. Jesus was the human flesh, was that supreme moment when
the light that flows from God, that enlightens everyone, was coming into sharp
focus. Jesus became the locus of the light, the light of God that enlightens all. I
believe that is biblically true.
But, if it's true, how can we realize it? How can we make it concrete in our world?
What I want to say to you this morning is that, beyond reason, the truth is
discovered in worship and mission. I say, beyond reason, because we will never
come to the experience and the realization of unity through rational discussion.
It is strange for me to say that, eh? I'm the incurable theologian. I am always
thinking, thinking, thinking. When I write with great persuasion, when I speak
with the tongues of angels, I think the whole world will understand. I can't figure
out why everybody doesn't see it! But, alas, I learned to my despair, that wellreasoned argument doesn't do it. It must be beyond reason; it must be
experienced. When it is experienced, it need not be discussed, debated or argued.
© Grand Valley State University
�Beyond Reason: Worship
Richard A. Rhem
Page 4
When it is experienced, it is known; it becomes a reality, and it is my claim this
morning that the experience comes not as I wish it would come, by some finely
fashioned sermon, some theological discussion, some erudite essay - no. It will
come when it comes in worship and in mission. It will come when "Gloria in
excelsis Deo" is sung magnificently by human voice, accompanied by instrument.
It will come when we as a people are lifted into the presence of the living God,
when we are lifted out of ourselves and there is that transcendent moment when
we know ourselves caught up in wonder, love and praise. It is in worship, those
moments of adoration, those experiences when we lose our head, when we open
our heart, when our whole being pulsates, when our goosebumps have
goosebumps, and we know beyond any argument when we see two choirs
gathered together from two parishes from two great traditions singing one voice
to the glory of the one God - don't we know in that moment that we are together
the children of God who delight in the worship of that combined chorus? It is in
worship, whether in corporate worship like this or in other moments when in
different gatherings we may suddenly experience ourselves together.
You know that Saturday nights are sacred. I seldom venture out of the house, but
we did last evening for a special occasion - the birthday of the husband of the cochair of the Jewish-Christian Dialogue Committee, Sylvia Kaufman, and it was
one of those decade-turning birthdays, a very festive evening, a wonderful party.
Because Sylvia and Dick Kaufman are Jewish, there were Jewish friends and
relatives. But because they have been in that community so long, there were
Gentiles, as well, and people of all stripes. And because Sylvia is Chair of the
Jewish-Christian Committee, there were members of the committee. There
happened to be four clergy persons there, and in spite of that, it wasn't a bad
evening! Sylvia said, "How about our resident clergy blessing the meal before we
partake?" And so, we did - a Presbyterian, a ... (what am I?), a Lutheran, and a
Jewish rabbi, and for a moment that assembly there gathered knew a
transcendence that deepened the evening and we knew that we were one before
the true God Who gives us bread.
It is in worship that the superficial things that divide us are dissolved and we
know ourselves truly to be one. And it is in mission, it is when we are not thinking
the faith, but doing the faith. It is when our Parlour on Thanksgiving is filled with
the aroma of roast turkey and there are people from various parishes around the
community gathered together to roll up their sleeves and serve those who need a
place on Thanksgiving, washing the dishes, making this a place of hospitality. It
doesn't really matter what your brand is. Together there is a servant community
of the people of Christ serving as an expression concretely of the compassion of
God for all of those who would come. It comes in mission.
This is the birthday of Martin Luther King. It was 29 years ago that he was cut
down by an assassin's bullet. He was a prophet in our midst. We liked him not a
little, not a lot. He did not, of course, receive the honor in his life which is typical
for prophets. But, he had a dream and in the rich cadences of that black preacher,
© Grand Valley State University
�Beyond Reason: Worship
Richard A. Rhem
Page 5
this nation was sensitized and we recognized the horror of the racism that was
encased in law, and his dream caught on and black and white together began to
make those moves to dismantle the structure of racism which is still far from
where it ought to be, but which has been moved immeasurably by one man who
had a dream of the day when people would be judged not by the color of their
skin, but by the character of their soul. The dream was caught by black and white
and young and old, and the landscape has changed, and we came together
because we were doing what was right and when we were doing what was right,
then we knew that there was a deeper unity that bound us together, that we were
all the children of God.
It is in worship and it is in mission that we come to experience the genuine unity
of the human family. I got a call three or four weeks ago from a man named David
or Daniel Fox. I had gotten a note to call this person. I didn't know who he was.
There were some notes scribbled about what he wanted, but they didn't make any
sense to me, and I've returned a few calls in the last few months that I wish I
hadn't, and so I wasn't too eager to dial up this number, but I did. I found out
that this was a gentleman who was a nephew of a chaplain in the Second World
War who had been one of the four chaplains who had gone down with a troop
ship. (Those of you who are older, like I am, will remember the story, perhaps.)
He knew that I was a minister in the Reformed Church of America at the time
and thought I might be able to give him some information about one of the
chaplains, Clark Poling, who was a minister in the RCA I pointed him to the
archives of the RCA and we chatted a bit about the story, which I did remember,
but he reminded me that it was early in the Second World War, the USS
Dorchester was torpedoed in the North Atlantic by a Nazi torpedo and they had
not enough life jackets on board.
There were four chaplains on board and those four chaplains took off their life
preservers and handed them to the troops. And, as the troops were scrambling
overside and into life boats, the chaplains stood on deck and they prayed for the
troops, for their survival and their safety. The ship was mortally wounded and as
it was slipping into that watery grave, the four chaplains stood on deck, linked
arm in arm, praying for their people. One was a Methodist. One was a pastor in
the Reformed Church. One was a Catholic priest, and one was a Jewish rabbi.
What a picture. What an image. As they slipped under those icy waters and came
into the presence of Light Eternal, do you suspect it mattered one whit that one
was Jewish, one was Catholic and two were Protestant? Of course, it didn't. You
know it didn't.
The reason I know that you know it didn't, is that about five years ago I had an
epiphany experience in this congregation. I was on my way to Brandeis
University to a think tank on congregational affiliation for Catholics, Protestants
and Jews. Do you remember? It happened to be Reformation Sunday and I told
you where I was going and for what reason and I suggested that perhaps I should
go to Brandeis and say to that group that what we really need to do, we who are
© Grand Valley State University
�Beyond Reason: Worship
Richard A. Rhem
Page 6
from Geneva, is go to Rome and pick up our brothers and sisters there and go to
Constantinople, picking up more brothers and sisters, moving to Mecca and then
to Jerusalem where we might all experience the truth - that we are all together
the children of God. And you know what you did? It had never happened before.
For the first time in my ministry, you applauded the sermon and you said to me "We've known it all along. When will you catch up with us?"
You, the people, knew it. When I articulated it, you affirmed it, because you knew
it. You knew it here and my confidence for the future lies in the fact that you
know it and increasingly the people of God of whatever stripe will be saying to
ecclesiastical leaders, church bureaucrats and bishops and all kinds of such
animals, you will be saying, "Get out of the way!" because we're coming together,
because in your heart, you know it's true.
© Grand Valley State University
�
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6f1888b33127356521eb6787d5dea25b
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
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Richard A. Rhem Collection
Description
An account of the resource
Text and sound recordings of the sermons, prayers, services, and articles of Richard Rhem, pastor emeritus of Christ Community Church in Spring Lake, Michigan, where he served for 37 years. Starting in the mid 1980's, Rhem began to question some of the traditional Christian dogma that he had been espousing from the pulpit. That questioning was a first step in a long and interesting spiritual journey, one that he openly shared with his congregation. His journey is important, in part because it is reflective of the questioning, the yearnings, and the gradual revision of beliefs that many persons in this part of the century have experienced and continue to experience. It is important also because of the affirming and inclusive way his questioning was done and his thinking evolved. His sermons and other written and spoken materials together document the steps in his journey as it took a turn in 1985, yet continued to revolve around the framework and liturgies of the Christian calendar.
Subject
The topic of the resource
Clergy--Michigan
Reformed Church in America
Christ Community Church (Spring Lake, Mich.)
Religion
Interfaith worship
Sermons
Sound Recordings
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Rhem, Richard A.
Source
A related resource from which the described resource is derived
<a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/514">Richard A. Rhem papers (KII-01)</a>
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives.
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
Kaufman Interfaith Institute
Rights
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
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KII-01
Coverage
The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant
1981-2014
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
audio/mp3
text/pdf
Sound
A resource primarily intended to be heard. Examples include a music playback file format, an audio compact disc, and recorded speech or sounds.
Event
Epiphany III
Scripture Text
Isaiah 49:6b, John 1:9
Location
The location of the interview
Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Identifier
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KII-01_RA-0-19970119
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1997-01-19
Title
A name given to the resource
Beyond Reason: Discovery in Worship and Mission
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Richard A. Rhem
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
Grand Valley State University
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
<a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a>
Subject
The topic of the resource
Clergy--Michigan
Reformed Church in America
Christ Community Church (Spring Lake, Mich.)
Sermons
Relation
A related resource
Richard A. Rhem - An Archive of Sermons, Prayers, Talks and Stories: http://richardrhem.org/
Language
A language of the resource
eng
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Text
Sound
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
audio/mp3
application/pdf
Description
An account of the resource
A sermon given by Richard A. Rhem (Dick) on January 19, 1997 entitled "Beyond Reason: Discovery in Worship and Mission", on the occasion of Epiphany III, at Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI. Scripture references: Isaiah 49:6b, John 1:9.
Community of Grace
Epiphany
Inclusive
Pluralism
-
https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/83ef58ff7fd401a2fcfd54c26e691194.pdf
a6c401321cd204b372ff1c1e460f533f
PDF Text
Text
Dare To Follow the Light
Text: Isaiah 60:6-7; Ephesians 3:9; Matthew 2:2
Richard A. Rhem
Christ Community Church
Spring Lake, Michigan
January 5, 1997
Transcription of the spoken sermon
Epiphany, the manifestation of Christ, the Light of which the prophet in Israel
spoke, that Light of God which was Israel's treasure in order that they might be a
beacon to the nations, Matthew now sees coming to manifestation in Jesus.
There, in the face of Jesus, we see into the heart of God. And Paul with his
experience, being knocked off his horse by that light from heaven, realizes that
the mystery of God hid for the ages, now manifest, is that there is grace for the
whole world. That really is the Epiphany story. We read it in Matthew's Gospel,
and not only there but in the prophet, in Paul's understanding, the Light has
come. "The Light has come; the Light has dawned upon you."
The light has dawned upon us but we recognize immediately in that story of Jesus
as Matthew tells it that, when the light comes, the darkness is threatened, and all
hell breaks loose. This is the story of Herod, threatened by the announcement of
this newborn king, who passes a decree that the innocents should be slaughtered
in order to wipe out any pretender to the throne. Matthew is telling us
immediately in this joyous announcement of the birth of Jesus that the world will
not take kindly to the light, and that has been the story down through 2000 years,
has it not? It has been the story forever. The Christian Gospel is the
announcement of the Light of God. It is seen in continuity with that light that
dawned on Israel, and now for 2000 years the Gospel has been proclaimed and
the light of God has shined throughout the whole world.
This morning I want to suggest to you that it is not a question of whether or not
the Light has dawned. The question always before the Church, and the question
before us this morning is whether or not we will dare to follow the Light. I want
to suggest to you that Paul was a courageous person who made a radical break
with that heavy, sturdy tradition in which he had been nurtured. When
confronted by the Light, he recognized the call of God to take the Light to the
nations. We take that for granted. We celebrate Epiphany as the dawning of the
Light that had shone on Israel, which was now being manifest to the whole world,
symbolized by the coming of the Magi. So, it's ho-hum; we take it for granted.
© Grand Valley State University
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Richard A. Rhem
Page 2
But, you couldn't have taken it for granted if you had lived at the time of the event
itself. For Paul to realize, to sense a calling of God, to take the good news of the
Gospel of Jesus Christ to the Gentiles involved Paul going contrary to all of that
that had been nurtured in him.
Paul had to be a person of daring to say that the Gentiles can be reconciled to God
by God's grace without first becoming Jews. Paul was a radical reformer, and
there was great tension in that early Church. It was a long time before the
question was settled as to whether or not there would be a separate Jesus
Christian Movement or whether Paul could prevail within the Jewish community
itself to see in Jesus this Light of God. But, Paul had the courage to act on his
conviction and that at great cost. As he writes in this third chapter to the
Ephesians, the secret, long hid with God, but now made manifest, is precisely that
- that the grace of God is for the Gentiles so that Jew and Gentile will form one
new humanity. In another place in this letter he speaks about that wall of
separation being torn down. Paul had cut his eyeteeth on the idea of Jewish
separation, that separation over against all others. But, Paul says no more wall,
no more partition, no more separation. Now what God has said in Jesus Christ is
that God is moved to embrace all. That took courage and Paul paid for it dearly,
as many of his writings will indicate. My Epiphany message 1997 is this: Do we
have the courage to follow the light?
Our problem is not a lack of knowledge. I think the prophets and apostles and
preachers for ages have recognized that the light has dawned. But there has been
a failure of nerve to live out the implications of the light. It seems to me that here
we are 2000 years down from the event of the gift of that one in whose face we've
seen the light of the glory of God. What are the issues before us in the light of that
light; what is God calling us to do and to be in our day in order to follow the light?
It's one thing to dance in the light. It's another thing to behave and to act in light
of the light. I want to suggest to you, because of the nature of our situation, that
the stand we have taken as a congregation is the only responsible and reasonable
way in which the Church of Jesus Christ can respond to the light and follow the
light.
Bill Moyers has been in the news a lot lately. His Genesis series is very, very
popular, and he's done a lot of other things. I knew he was a Southern Baptist
minister, but I was surprised that Southern Baptists invited him to address the
Texas Conference, because the Southern Baptist Convention has been taken over
in the last decade or decade and a half by very conservative, fundamentalist
forces. But, Moyers addressed the Texas Southern Baptist Convention and he said
to them in a little clip I found in the newspaper, that there is a "whole new
religious reality out there" and you have to change from militant anger over the
fact that the universe is not closed and life is not static. Well, it sounds like he
really gave them both barrels, and he probably won't be invited back, but what he
said is true and we all know it. There's a whole new religious reality out there and
most of the Church wants to put its head in the sand as though it doesn't exist.
© Grand Valley State University
�Dare to Follow the Light
Richard A. Rhem
Page 3
Isaiah thought the end was imminent and the light was dawning. Five hundred
years later, and Matthew thought the light had dawned and the end was
imminent. And now it's 2000 years later still. Do you suppose that God in heaven
is saying, "What in heaven's name are you people doing? Why don't you keep
following the light? Why don't you keep working out the implications of the
light?" Is it not evident to anybody with any sensitivity to our present global
situation that world evangelization that has been the impulse of the Church all
these years is an impulse that has hit a dead end? We do not see the
evangelization of the world according to the Gospel of Christ. We see the
resurgence of the great world religions.
We live in a global community that must increasingly become a community of
communities. We are able to communicate together in the world that has become
a neighborhood; we are learning the insights and the sensitivities and the light
that has dawned on others. Are we not being challenged to go into the arena and
share our insight and our light that has been God's gift through Jesus Christ with
others who share their gifts, as well? On the edge of the third millennium, should
we not be facing the reality of global consciousness and working out the
implications for our pluralistic world? Paul was confronted with a new situation a new door opened and Paul had the courage to go through that door. It is time
for someone to recognize that the mystery is even deeper, grander, and brighter
than even Paul understood, that God has a grander scheme, and that we have a
treasure in Jesus Christ to bring to the table in a world that sits down and
discusses the respective riches of the traditions, bringing together the Light that
God has given.
It's one thing to say the Light has dawned. It's another thing to have the courage
to live out its implications, and it does take courage. Such courage is exercised
only at considerable cost. That's the reason that the world is not transformed. It's
not a lack of light; it's a lack of courage.
I got a letter the other day from an old friend. Really a dear letter. Worried about
me, he says after a bit, "What if you've been wrong? What if the faith you once
held but have moved more and more away from is true?" He's a friend saying to
me, "What if you're wrong?" Well, he says I hear you say I'm willing to take that
chance. Finally, he says, "So, I invite you to take a fresh look, to ask again for
God's light." I say, "Fine. Don't think I don't."
I know that there is insight out there; there's a sense down deep in the core of
many people that the kind of things I have said publicly are what any reasonable
analysis would conclude, but it's costly and it takes courage to say it. That word
has appeared in letter after letter from around the world. "Thank you for your
courage." Do we have the courage to follow the light? How long will we bask in
the Light that has dawned without doing something about it because, without the
courage to act on the Light, the world will not be transformed.
© Grand Valley State University
�Dare to Follow the Light
Richard A. Rhem
Page 4
The issue that got us into controversy a year ago was the issue of sexual
orientation and my recognition because of the growing light, knowledge, and
experience, that sexual orientation is not a moral issue. I have in my hands a
book which is brilliant. It's called Virtually Normal, written by Andrew Sullivan,
who is the editor of "The New Republic." It is splendidly written and beautifully
argued, and Andrew Sullivan, dealing with the whole matter of sexual
orientation, himself being a gay man, speaks about various groups lined up on
this issue - the prohibitionists, the liberationists, the conservatives, the liberals he comes to the liberals, and one would think that he, being a gay person, would
affirm the liberal attempt to create space for the gay/lesbian community. He is
appreciative of the legislation that seeks to rule out discrimination and that kind
of thing, but he says finally the liberals who believe in freedom are denying their
own most fundamental principles because this issue is not something that can
finally be legislated and it cannot be fixed by law. Then speaking for himself, but I
think speaking out of a profound experience and a brilliant insight, he says that
the key to the healing and liberation of any person of homosexual orientation lies
within themselves. He points to the civil rights movement of the 60s and he says
perhaps the most enduring legacy of the civil rights movement was not its
panoply of complicated and cumbersome laws, but the memory of the simple
courage of those who stood up in the face of considerable danger for their dignity
and equality. "What one remembers, what will never be erased from human
consciousness was the gleam of integrity in the eyes of those who took it upon
themselves to change their world, expecting no protection and no applause for
doing so. It is courage that gets noticed and courage that changes the world."
The pain of the homosexual experience requires that kind of catharsis to be
healed. Nothing else can replace it. That is the case with Jerry Crane, the teacher
in Byron Center who declared who he was in his faithful covenant relationship
with another, who to be sure was hounded out of his teaching job and who had to
endure two and three and four times as much press as I have, but who
nevertheless as a dignified human being, as a man of class and culture, had the
gleam in his eye because he was who he was and he stood there exposed in his full
humanity. He died this week, but his courage will change the world.
I'll tell you there are all kinds of us crouching in the bushes, and I'm not talking
now about sexual orientation, I'm talking about the things, the core values by
which we live - there are all kinds of us who believe things deep down that we've
never had enough courage to stand up and speak for. And there's only one thing
that really liberates the human soul; there's only one thing that brings us into the
fullness of the human experience - it is when we are true to the light as it has
dawned upon us. When the light has dawned upon us and we are true to it, we
may find ourselves in Ramah, weeping for our children, not able to be comforted.
But we will have been true, and when we will have been true, that will be enough.
© Grand Valley State University
�
https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/482a107479c0f0dee2a4cc8fab1ca231.mp3
3c84ed5ea3e120e9c0c42966d8e7c48f
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Richard A. Rhem Collection
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Text and sound recordings of the sermons, prayers, services, and articles of Richard Rhem, pastor emeritus of Christ Community Church in Spring Lake, Michigan, where he served for 37 years. Starting in the mid 1980's, Rhem began to question some of the traditional Christian dogma that he had been espousing from the pulpit. That questioning was a first step in a long and interesting spiritual journey, one that he openly shared with his congregation. His journey is important, in part because it is reflective of the questioning, the yearnings, and the gradual revision of beliefs that many persons in this part of the century have experienced and continue to experience. It is important also because of the affirming and inclusive way his questioning was done and his thinking evolved. His sermons and other written and spoken materials together document the steps in his journey as it took a turn in 1985, yet continued to revolve around the framework and liturgies of the Christian calendar.
Subject
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Clergy--Michigan
Reformed Church in America
Christ Community Church (Spring Lake, Mich.)
Religion
Interfaith worship
Sermons
Sound Recordings
Creator
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Rhem, Richard A.
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<a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/514">Richard A. Rhem papers (KII-01)</a>
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Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives.
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Kaufman Interfaith Institute
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English
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KII-01
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1981-2014
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Epiphany I
Scripture Text
Isaiah 60:6-7, Ephesians 3:9, Matthew 2:2
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Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI
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KII-01_RA-0-19970105
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1997-01-05
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Dare to Follow the Light
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Richard A. Rhem
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Grand Valley State University
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Clergy--Michigan
Reformed Church in America
Christ Community Church (Spring Lake, Mich.)
Sermons
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Richard A. Rhem - An Archive of Sermons, Prayers, Talks and Stories: http://richardrhem.org/
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eng
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Description
An account of the resource
A sermon given by Richard A. Rhem (Dick) on January 5, 1997 entitled "Dare to Follow the Light", on the occasion of Epiphany I, at Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI. Scripture references: Isaiah 60:6-7, Ephesians 3:9, Matthew 2:2.
Epiphany
Light of God
Pluralism
Universal Grace
-
https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/704dd72a3c8b59826df158d987e34105.mp3
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https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/6f44bafeb75978552f3dec09ae1c3f4b.pdf
56e6bcffb1e2bded072fa1dc2117c472
PDF Text
Text
Jesus: Episode or Epiphany?
From the series: The Fundamentals a Century Later
Genesis 1:26-27, 3:1-7; Luke 1:26-38
Richard A. Rhem
Christ Community Church
Spring Lake, Michigan
August 3, 2003
Transcription of the spoken sermon
In today's Reading From the Present, a great preacher of a former generation,
Carlyle Marney has described the consequence of that biblical story of the Fall in
which he describes human nature. Incidentally, this is a generation ago, so the
language is not inclusive, but I wouldn't want any of you women to think you're
not included in this description.
"Man is the most dangerous and savage of the beasts: His bite is
poisonous; his hand is a club; his foot is a weapon; knives, clubs, spears
are projectiles to bear his hostility. Nothing in nature is so well equipped
for hating or hurting. Confuse him and he may lash out at everything.
Crowd him and he kills, robs, destroys, for his crime rate increases in
proportion to his crowding. Deprive him and he retaliates. Impoverish him
and he bums villas in the night. Enslave him and he revolts. Pamper him
and he may poison you. Hire him and he may hate both you and the work.
Love him too possessively and he is never weaned. Deny him too early and
he never learns to love. Put him in cities and all his animal nature comes
out with perversions of every good thing. For greed, acquisitiveness,
violence were so long his tools for jungle survival, that it is only by the
hardest [effort] that these can be laid aside as weapons of his continued
survival."
We continue this morning a summer series on The Fundamentals a Century
Later. Between 1910 and 1915, there were a large number of essays written by
conservative, evangelical Christian scholars who were writing to reaffirm the old
faith tradition, to affirm its fundamentals. They used the term positively, these
fundamental affirmations of faith that they believed constituted the essence of
the Christian gospel. And they wrote these essays in a concerted effort to forestall
or to react against the rising impact of the liberal theology that was becoming
regnant in the country. They felt that the Christian faith was under attack and
under threat, and therefore, they attempted to give expression in their finest way
possible to that old faith, and in doing so, they did a serious and responsible job.
© Grand Valley State University
�Jesus: Episode or Epiphany?
Richard A. Rhem
Page 2
They expressed the old faith in the old way from within a world view that was
being discarded more and more with every succeeding year.
Liberal theology had as its hallmark, according to Professor Gary Dorrien and I
think correctly so, its rejection of an external authority, be that external authority
a text or a tradition or an institution. It was the hallmark of the liberal theological
tradition gaining ascendency that truth claims in theology, as in all other
disciplines, must be measured by reason and experience, that there is no
imposition from an external authority that can demand faith if it goes counter to
the exercise of human reason in the light of human experience. And so, the liberal
theological tradition grew as a way of doing theology. Schailer Mathews of the
Chicago School in 1924 in his theological manifesto. The Faith of a Modernist,
said "Liberal theology is not a creed, it is a method." He added that it is a method
by which one thinks religiously, given the data. It is not the religious experience
that provides the data for a world view, for a conception of reality. The movement
of liberalism was willing to take the documentation of the scientist as to the
nature of reality and then, being not a creed, but rather a way of thinking
religiously, ask the question: Given reality as it is and as is coming to light more
and more every day, given that reality, what does it mean to be religious? What
does it mean to live with reverence and awe and gratitude and commitment and
compassion?
The fundamentals affirmed by the conservative scholars did not have the liberty
of accepting the world as it was coming to light through the sciences, for they had
a text, and this ancient text created the parameters within which they could think
theology. For the conservative, traditional scholar has a deductive process
whereby the givens are affirmed and the thinking happens within those given
propositions. For the liberal theologian, theology moved from a deductive science
which created dogmas out of the biblical text to an inductive process whereby the
exercise of critical rationality in the light of human experience was taken into
account and then the religious questions answered in light of that process. So, the
real pivotal issue was a question of authority. Is there an external authority that
defines the parameters of human possibility, of human thought? Or, is human
thought free in the light of the data that is presented to it to discover how to be
religious without any presuppositions up front?
That was a watershed issue and the faith of a modernist was the faith of one who
believed one could be Christian in the full light of all the data that was available
from all the sciences over against those who came with an authoritarian scheme
who had to try to express that old faith within that world view that was passing
away. That really is my point this morning.
A couple of weeks ago we dealt with that issue of authority, and this morning the
point I want to make is that Christian faith or any religious faith needs always to
be expressed within the framework of the reality that is understood generally in
the culture of the time. That framework will continue to evolve and emerge, but
© Grand Valley State University
�Jesus: Episode or Epiphany?
Richard A. Rhem
Page 3
always that translation process has to go on within the framework that is the
generally accepted understanding of the reality of which we are a part.
The world view behind the fundamentals is a world view of two realms: the
supernatural realm and the natural realm, of a God Creator of another realm who
calls into being over against God's self, a realm of nature called creation. It is that
particular world view that is the biblical world view which is the world view in
terms of which those old fundamentals were being affirmed. That old biblical
world view is familiar to all of us, the creation stories to which I referred this
morning, the Creator calling into being the whole cosmic reality, calling into
being the human being, and then the Hebrew thinker in the tradition of Israel
looking at all of that and saying, "How come a good God could create such a
mess?"
I read Carlyle Marney's description of the human being. Not bad. We human
beings are so fragile. We're so mean-spirited. We're so contrary. We're so cussed.
We taint everything we touch. We twist and we destroy out of the misery of our
creaturehood. The Hebrew writer said certainly God couldn't be responsible for
that. God is good. In fact, that first story of creation in the first chapter of Genesis
ends and is punctuated with, "And God saw that it was good, and God looked and
said that it was very good."
In the second chapter, which is another story of creation, another myth, we have
the focus on the human pair and here we have the text. Now, this human pair is
created, as is all of creation, in perfection. But that perfection needs to be
confirmed, and so it is put on trial, and you know the story. The human pair fails
the test and we have come commonly to call that biblical myth the Story of the
Fall. Not only is the human creature fallen, but creation is fallen. The weeds in
your garden are the consequence of the bite of apple that Eve gave to Adam.
Mosquitoes, as well. Everything wrong with the world is the consequence of that
initial human disobedience, that original sin, and that original sin was not a local
matter, but was perpetuated down through the human generations in an
unbroken link so that the human race is spoken of as a fallen race, and a fallen
world. The biblical understanding of things is this is a God-damned world, and
we are a God-damned race, for in that disobedience, there is the forfeiture of life.
There is the coming, our alienation and estrangement and enmity, and there is a
great gulf between the Creator and the creation, and there is no possibility from
the side of the creature to span that gulf. We are hopeless and we are helpless. We
are lost and we are damned.
Couldn't God just lighten up? No. No, again it is the biblical conception of God,
God's holiness, God's righteousness. One of the prophets says that God's eyes are
too holy to behold sin, and so forth. So, the whole biblical tradition has the
human dilemma, that of being lost and without the possibility of being redeemed
or saved. So, it is over. Except that God won't give up, and so God has a problem,
but God will do something about that problem.
© Grand Valley State University
�Jesus: Episode or Epiphany?
Richard A. Rhem
Page 4
Now, we have a world view which has a realm of super-nature and a realm of
nature, and in the realm of super-nature, the creator God exists in eternal infinite
bliss. In the realm of nature is a condemned race, a human race, whose
disobedience has impacted nature itself. And so, if there is going to be a solution,
if God is not going to give up, then God must do something. How about if God
would come into, identify with, be a part of the human race? How will God get in?
Well, the way everybody else gets in - by birth. But, if God would get in by human
birth, will not God then in flesh be tainted by that same fallenness which is
common, universal to the human family? So, that won't work.
One of the five cardinal points of the fundamentals was the virgin birth of Jesus,
born of the virgin Mary and that has found its way into the Apostles Creed. It is
obviously the story that Luke tells at the beginning of his gospel. The virgin birth
of Jesus, not an accidental matter, but a well thought out solution to the problem
of getting God from that other realm into identification with the human in the
natural realm. So the angel comes to Mary and says, "You will conceive in your
womb through the movement of the Holy Spirit so that the child born of you will
be holy."
That is the intention of that story of the virgin birth. It is a story that is an
attempt to explain how the infinite and eternal God of absolute holiness could
become human, identifying with our race in this natural realm in order that this
one, as our Christian story goes, could live righteously out of that sinless nature
and then offer up that sinless being to God on behalf of the fallen race. Now, you
see, I would have been willing to die for you, too, but God would have said, "No
dice. You have to die for your own sin; you can't die for anybody else." But, if
Jesus is without sin, then Jesus can make a sin offering of himself, a life for lives.
Paul is the one who really put this together. We will treat that more in depth next
week, but in Romans 5, for example, he calls Jesus the second Adam, as in:
through Adam, the first head of the race, all fell into condemnation, so through
the second Adam, through Jesus, through Jesus' righteousness who was the
consequence of the grace of God, the second Adam is received because of the
righteousness of this one who got into the act through the miracle of the virgin
birth.
That is the story, and it was a serious story to deal with what was perceived to be
a serious problem in order to be able to offer good news, or a gospel of the grace
of God for salvation. That was reaffirmed one hundred years ago. I would guess it
still may be the scheme of a large majority of the Christian church, and I would
suggest that, while I understand the profundity of the creation myths, and I
understand the intention of the virgin birth story – incidentally the Christian
story is not the only one with a virgin birth. There are others in ancient cultures
with other virgin-born heroes or heroines – I understand the intention of using
that story in order to point to the uniqueness of Jesus and Jesus' potential for
being the savior of the race. But I would suggest that, one hundred years ago, it
was unfortunate that those who were concerned to reaffirm the Christian faith
© Grand Valley State University
�Jesus: Episode or Epiphany?
Richard A. Rhem
Page 5
were so locked into a world view that was being more and more discarded, that
they had to express the faith in that old conceptuality, that old world view.
This was the strength of a liberal movement that could say, "Well, what's our
world view today? What do you tell us, physicists? What do you tell us,
cosmologists? What kind of reality is this?" And of course, as this was coming to
expression, and it would come to expression more voluminously in this twentieth
century than anything they knew back in the 1920s. But, this magnificent cosmic
process of 15 billion years, all the starry heavens and the planetary systems and
things that amaze me and boggle my mind and I cannot begin to bring in, but
which cause me to stand in awe and in wonder, this cosmos of which we are a
part in our understanding today is all there is. There is not a beyond; there is not
an above and a below; there is not a supernatural realm and a natural realm.
There is this amazing, expanding universe, and it is in this amazing, expanding
universe, whose trail goes back 15 billion years, that we live and move and have
our being, and it is in that cosmic process that I would learn to be religious, I
would learn how to think religiously and live religiously.
How beautifully the story of Jesus can be translated into that cosmic process that
has come to light which our scientists portray for us in all of the wonders of
nature, of this one uniform realm of which we are a part. The infinite ground and
source of being coming to expression, not in some other realm, some other place.
Rather than creation in perfection, fall, damnation or salvation, why not creation
as a process of emergence? Why not the reality of which we are a part understood
in its amazing emergence with its vast array of manifestations, of emanations?
So,fifteen billion years ago, a big bang or whatever, and then billions of years of
the cooling and the organizing, and then what? A few million years ago life, and
then a lesser time ago than that, conscious life, and then human being, all a part
of one amazing unfolding. And then 2000 years ago, a life, a Jew, Jesus of
Nazareth whose life was of such a nature that they looked at him and said, "My
God!"
I called the sermon "Jesus: Episode or Epiphany?" In the old scheme of things,
Jesus is an episode. Jesus is a divine interloper. Jesus represents the intervention
of God into the natural realm from another realm, and there is incarnation and
embodiment and exit. There is the coming in and the going out. It is an episode in
order to effect the salvation of the race by one who is not in essence of us coming
to join us, but leaving again from us. It is episode. It is a wonderful story. It is a
story told in terms of an old world view. But, how much more powerful to see
Jesus, not as an episode, but as an epiphany? As a moment of illumination,
whose revelatory illuminosity in human flesh is the founding vision of this whole
grand Christian tradition? It is not the only one; there are other luminous
personalities who somehow or other embodied that divinity that gave expression
to ongoing communities, but our story, our Christian story, emanates from Jesus,
this one who emerged in a cosmic process in full humanity, and in whose full
humanity we glimpsed divinity.
© Grand Valley State University
�Jesus: Episode or Epiphany?
Richard A. Rhem
Page 6
Again, I think a major error along the way was to see this epiphany in Jesus and
then to hedge Jesus in, to put a wall around him, to make him unique, once for
all, rather than to see what was really happening. What was really happening was
that there was that intuitive sense - there is God! God is in the human. The
human is the finite location of the infinite mystery, the infinite mystery that is the
source of all now has a face. The word became flesh and dwelt among us. No one
has seen God. The only son, in the bosom of the father, he has made God known.
The mystery of the infinite God manifest in the mystery of the finite human is the
emerging cosmic story.
Carlyle Marney says we're just fearful creatures still practicing our animal
survival instincts; we twist and tear everything we touch, because we still live, we
are still the prisoners, we are still in the shackles of a survival instinct that we
learned in the slime pit and the jungle. Dear God, the process has emerged into
the human. There has been an emanation. In Jesus there was a moment of
epiphany and the likes of us said, "There it is. That's it."
I understand what the story of the virgin birth was trying to say. It was trying to
say precisely what I just said, that the divine has come into the human, and the
divine can be seen in the human. But, it was in the mythical language of a world
view that has been discarded, and I want to be able to believe in terms of the most
profound understanding of this whole cosmic drama that is available to me,
embracing the essence of that which is in that New Testament record: that the
word became flesh, that the divine was embodied, that the divine intention was
coming to expression in the human. Then I know that I need seek not a God
beyond in some supernatural realm, for the only God available to me is the God I
glimpse in your face.
And if I see Jesus not as an episodic savior figure, but if I see him, indeed, as an
exemplar of the embodiment of the divine intention, then I am called to live with
that kind of grace, compassion, that kind of divinity. That is amazing, if only
enough of us could catch it and begin the process of an alternative human
possibility, well, who knows? Who knows? Who knows where it could go? If we
don't kill ourselves first.
References:
The Fundamentals: A Testimony to the Truth, Volumes 1-12. Eds., A.C. Dixon,
R.A. Torrey.The Bible Institute of Los Angeles, 1901-1915.
© 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 VIII
Series
The Fundamentals a Century Later
Scripture Text
John 1:1, 14, 17, II Corinthians 4:6
Location
The location of the interview
Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI
References
A. C. Dixon, R. Torrey, editors, The Fundamentals: A Testimony to the Truth,Vols. 1-12. The Bible Institute of Los Angeles,1910-1915.
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
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KII-01_RA-0-20030803
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2003-08-03
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Jesus: Episode or Epiphany?
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Richard A. Rhem
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Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives
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Clergy--Michigan
Reformed Church in America
Christ Community Church (Spring Lake, Mich.)
Sermons
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Richard A. Rhem - An Archive of Sermons, Prayers, Talks and Stories: http://richardrhem.org/
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eng
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audio/mp3
application/pdf
Description
An account of the resource
A sermon given by Richard A. Rhem (Dick) on August 3, 2003 entitled "Jesus: Episode or Epiphany?", as part of the series "The Fundamentals a Century Later", on the occasion of Pentecost VIII, at Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI. Scripture references: John 1:1, 14, 17, II Corinthians 4:6.
Emergence
Epiphany
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https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/e135833ad88e1f62206874f07b80aaf9.mp3
894f7a71026c8ff47282e675fa4ee6a6
https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/2c01c39fd02c38e6204cade9dce08527.pdf
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PDF Text
Text
From Feast to Fast: Honoring the Human
Epiphany V
Scripture: Psalm 103:1-18; Matthew 11:2-19 Text: Psalm 103:14
Richard A. Rhem
Christ Community Church
Spring Lake, Michigan
February 10, 2002
Transcription of the spoken sermon
Last week I, as I suppose many of you, watched the Super Bowl taking place in
New Orleans. Because of 9-11, the game was moved back a week, consequently
right into the center of Mardi Gras. And, as we have come to expect with
television these days, it is a string of commercials interrupted occasionally by
football. And then, even less frequently, there may be an interview of some
interest, and with Mardi Gras being on in New Orleans, the capitol, and all of
that in the midst of the Super Bowl celebration, one of the television journalists
interviewed a local New Orleans person who talked about the celebration of
Mardi Gras as he had experienced it growing up as a second or third or fourth
generation New Orleans person. He made the point that it was a wonderful
festival, a wonderful family time, that it was really a time for family and friends to
enjoy each other and to celebrate together and he made the point that what the
media camera catches about Mardi Gras is not really what it's all about. It is not,
after all, he said, one big orgy. It is just a good, decent family celebration, and I'm
sure that he is right, and I'm equally sure that the cameras will try to find
whatever is at its naughtiest to bring us from New Orleans and the Mardi Gras
celebration.
But, as the interview was going on, I thought to myself, "Native of New Orleans
who celebrated many Mardi Gras, I wonder if you really know the deep
background of Mardi Gras." He gave no indication of knowing that place out of
which it arose, or the reason for it arising, which is the fact that, in the wisdom of
the ancient Church, there was a recognition that it is necessary to have a certain
rhythm and balance in life, and so the Christian Year is structured such that one
moves from feast to fast to feast to fast. (C. S. Lewis, in his Screwtape Letters, has
the old Devil commiserating about God's wisdom and giving people that rhythm,
feast to fast to feast to fast, where it is always the same, yet always new.) In the
interview, I didn't see any acknowledgment of that background, really, in the
ancient Church where, on the threshold for example of moving into the solemn
and sobering period of Lent of forty days, license was given to have a grand party,
to pull out all the stops and to celebrate.
© Grand Valley State University
�From Feast to Fast: Honoring the Human
Richard A. Rhem
Page 2
This morning we have a taste of it with some foot-tapping music and there are
Paczkis, and you're invited to indulge to your heart's content, but in the real
celebration of Mardi Gras, there is this full release of all that is a part of the
human person, the human animal, the recognition that to honor the human is to
give opportunity for the expression of the full gamut of that which constitutes us
as human beings.
So, Mardi Gras was a party that started out as an opportunity to let go and to
release and to get it all out of your system as you moved into the somber time of
Lent which was marked in the tradition of the Church by self denial, which we
have come to mark more in terms of the cultivation of some added dimension of
our spiritual experience, not necessarily repression or self-denial, but spiritual
enrichment. Nonetheless, in the ancient practice of the Church, there was this
emphasis on self-denial and prior to it, on the threshold of it, a grand party, and
there was wisdom in that, because we are, after all, creatures who are composed
of body and soul, soul and spirit, material ,physicality, sensuality, spirituality - all
dwelling within our skin. But, of course, the Church has always also recognized
the risk and has been squeamish about the expression of our humanity in such a
fashion.
I was reminded of this in a book I read while I was gone, Constantine's Sword, by
James Carroll. You'll probably be hearing me quote this thing a time or two every
week for the next ten weeks or so. It has to be one of the ten best books I've ever
read.
James Carroll was raised a very observant Roman Catholic. In his childhood and
his adolescence, he had a very devout mother who led him on pilgrimages and
exposed him to the finest and the richest of spiritual experience in the Catholic
tradition, to the extent that he eventually became an ordained priest and even a
member of the Jesuit Order. Eventually, James Carroll came to his own personal
conviction that that was not what he was cut out for. He left the order. He is a
writer, a journalist, married, with a son and a daughter. He continues, according
to his own description of himself, as a faithful, if critical, Roman Catholic. The
point of my story is this: the Church has always been squeamish about the
expression of the human, particularly in its sensuality, its physicality, in its bodily
expression, and James Carroll, wanting to bring his wife and his two children on
a pilgrimage to Europe where he had grown up, where his father had been in the
upper echelons of the military in Germany after the Second World War. They
came eventually to St. Peter's itself, in Rome and, as they approached, the Vatican
guard stopped them and would not let them enter because his little daughter, just
a child, had her knees exposed, because she had a little mini-skirt on.
James Carroll, who was raised in the very heart and center of the Church, deeply
traditioned, priest and Jesuit, and all the rest, says in this book that he saw his
little daughter humiliated at the doors of St. Peter's. Suddenly it rushed over him
– everything of which he had experienced a failure of the Catholic Church, that
© Grand Valley State University
�From Feast to Fast: Honoring the Human
Richard A. Rhem
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failure being the denial of the human, that squeamishness before the full
humanity and its expression.
I could identify a little bit with him because I had been turned down at St. Peter's
myself for wearing Bermuda shorts and, taking many people there over the years,
I always warned them to bring a scarf and have their shoulders covered, and fully
covered kneecaps. Nonetheless, what he experienced was a moment of insight.
He credited his non-Catholic wife with being more adept at dealing with
situations like this than himself. The wife took the little girl off to the side and
kind of skinnied her little skirt down until it covered her knees, and then took her
sweater and covered her bare midriff and they went through with flying colors.
The story, of course, simply points to that which has marked so much of the
Church, its moralism, its inability to deal with the flesh. Now, I started out by
saying the Mardi Gras was particularly that opportunity to do that. But, on the
other side of the coin, the Church has been so crimped and so cramped in the full
expression of human being.
When I read Carroll's narration, I was reminded of a story of my own which
happened over thirty years ago down in Williamsburg, Virginia, looking at some
of those old Colonial buildings and taking a tour of Williamsburg. We came to
this building, a lovely building, an upstairs hall, lots of windows, nice wooden
floor, and over in the corner there were some wine vats and then some chairs
stacked up. The tour guide said, just matter-of-factly, that in this hall on Saturday
evenings the community would gather for a dance and enjoy a glass of wine
together in this space. And then, on Sunday morning, the chairs would be set up
and the community would return for divine worship.
As I heard that, there was an experience, a moment for me precisely like the
moment for James Carroll at the door of St. Peter's. For at that advanced age of
my life, wine had never touched my lips, nor had I ever danced one step or the
two-step, or whatever they danced when I was growing up, out of religious and
moral scruples. It wasn't just that I am clumsy, which I am, but I could not dance.
It was one of the things I could not do. As I stood there that bright, summer
morning in this hall flooded with light with its wine vats and its dance floor and
the chairs that on Sunday were filled with worshipers, I had one of those "Aha"
moments, one of those Epiphany moments when I realize that I was living a
truncated existence, that there was a whole spectrum of life of which I was not a
part, which was civil and decent and lovely and grand, and I had been so crimped
that there was no balance in my life, no balance between Saturday night spent in
an enjoyable fashion and Sunday morning spent in religious devotion. I didn't
know those things could go together. And so, for me, it was also a moment of
insight and I realized that there was something lacking in my own traditional
experience and nurture, and frankly, in my ministry.
This morning, I tell these stories simply to make the point, as we are on the
threshold of another Lent, that it is in the honoring of the full spectrum of our
© Grand Valley State University
�From Feast to Fast: Honoring the Human
Richard A. Rhem
Page 4
humanity that we best honor God and best find our own human fulfillment, for
we have in the Church not done a very good job of honoring that full spectrum.
The Psalmist speaks so profoundly in this regard when he speaks of the love of
God. Certainly there is sin and transgression, but he says, as the heavens are high
above the earth, so great is God's love for those who fear him, and as far as the
east is from the west, so far has God removed our transgressions from us. And
then he goes on in what I think is just so profound: "For God knows our frame;
God remembers we are dust." And, of course, it is a reference to the Creation
story where the Creator in the midst of a garden of delight, Eden, a garden of
blessing, forms the human being out of the mud, the stuff, the earth, and then
breathes in the breath of life so that that mud becomes a living being or a living
soul. What the Jewish people have known and maintained in terms of balance so
much better than we in the Christian Church is that the whole human being is
made up of that physicality and spirituality, and that both must be honored and
allowed to come to expression.
What happened in the New Testament, and you can take a line from Paul to
Augustine to John Calvin, and you have a terrible distortion of the human being.
Paul hinting at original sin. It was Augustine who formulated the doctrine of
original sin, and of course, it was trumped by Calvin, as well, in the Reformation
period. But, to take the Creation story which in its Jewish format is a story about
the Creator creating a creature who has physicality and spirituality, who is put to
a test, who fails the test, but who is tested again and fails again and tested again
and fails again. There are about four falls in those early chapters of Genesis.
There is not a "Fall," as though there was an original couple that ate an ancient
apple that marked forever the rest of the human race. To do that to the story is to
miss the story and all of its profundity. But, that's what happened in the Christian
Church so that, to be human became synonymous with being sinner, and so to be
human was not something to be trumpeted, but rather almost something to be
ashamed of, something that needed to be screwed down and restricted and
repressed and, consequently, many of us have lived with a bad conscience about
that shadow side, to use Jung's term, and have lived with the denial of much of
our humanity that is simply a part of being a human being with physicality and
spirituality.
Mardi Gras at its best was the attempt to allow people to kick over the traces and
have a ball, to be just a little bit naughty, if you will, but to enjoy themselves fully,
fully cognizant of the fact that they were entering into a period when they were
called to more sober reflection and the pursuit of spirituality. If we would honor
the image of God within us, if we would allow humanity in its wholesomeness and
healthy fullness to come to expression, then we'd have to recognize that rhythm
from feast to fast, from party and celebration to serious intention and disciplined
spiritual experience, and to do this is to allow the fully human to come to
expression.
© Grand Valley State University
�From Feast to Fast: Honoring the Human
Richard A. Rhem
Page 5
It isn't easy. I think the Psalmist, as I said, expressed it as well as it could be
expressed. God made us human. Why would God condemn what God created in
the human that is physical and spiritual?
Jesus ran into it. John, good old John, fire and brimstone preacher looking for
the end, all torn up by all of the degeneracy around him, John who had
introduced Jesus now has questions. There was too much joy in Galilee for
John's liking. There were stories about too much joy connected with Jesus'
ministry for John's liking. He sent his disciples to ask, "Are you the one, or was I
mistaken? Aren't you the real item?" And Jesus gave him a very ambiguous
response. He didn't defend himself, just didn't define himself except by his deeds.
He said, "Go tell John what you see - the blind see, the deaf hear, the lame are
walking, the prisoners are released." And then he said a very interesting thing,
"Happy is the one who is not offended in me."
There have been a lot of very sincere, devout, religious people who have been
offended in other religious people who have had too much fun, who have enjoyed
life to the fullest. And Jesus couldn't have affirmed John more than he did, but he
said, "You know what, the one who is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater
than great old John." And then he said to the people, acknowledging the fact that
this is not an easy thing, "I don't know what to do with you, because it is like
children in the marketplace saying, 'Hey, we wanted to play weddings and you
didn't want to play weddings. You didn't want to be happy. So, we said, 'Well let's
play funerals,' and you said, "We don't want to be sad, either.'" He said, "I don't
know what to do with you. John comes neither eating or drinking and you say he
has a demon. I come eating and drinking and I'm possessed." It is not easy.
Happy is the person who is not offended in another person's joy and expression
of their spirituality in a celebration.
It is ironic that this morning between services one of my dear old friends came up
to me and said, "I got a letter from a friend of mine telling me how awful is Christ
Community and how terrible are you. You wouldn't believe it." I said, "Oh, yes, I
would."
Happy is the person who is not offended in the joy and the celebration as we seek
to give expression to the fullness of our human nature, after all, in the image of
God.
Lent is coming, but in the meantime, have another Paczki.
References:
James Carroll. Constantine’s Sword: The Church and the Jews: A History. New
York: Houghton Miflin Company, 2001.
© Grand Valley State University
�
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Richard A. Rhem Collection
Description
An account of the resource
Text and sound recordings of the sermons, prayers, services, and articles of Richard Rhem, pastor emeritus of Christ Community Church in Spring Lake, Michigan, where he served for 37 years. Starting in the mid 1980's, Rhem began to question some of the traditional Christian dogma that he had been espousing from the pulpit. That questioning was a first step in a long and interesting spiritual journey, one that he openly shared with his congregation. His journey is important, in part because it is reflective of the questioning, the yearnings, and the gradual revision of beliefs that many persons in this part of the century have experienced and continue to experience. It is important also because of the affirming and inclusive way his questioning was done and his thinking evolved. His sermons and other written and spoken materials together document the steps in his journey as it took a turn in 1985, yet continued to revolve around the framework and liturgies of the Christian calendar.
Subject
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Clergy--Michigan
Reformed Church in America
Christ Community Church (Spring Lake, Mich.)
Religion
Interfaith worship
Sermons
Sound Recordings
Creator
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Rhem, Richard A.
Source
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<a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/514">Richard A. Rhem papers (KII-01)</a>
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Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives.
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Kaufman Interfaith Institute
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<a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a>
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English
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Sound
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KII-01
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1981-2014
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audio/mp3
text/pdf
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Event
Epiphany VI
Scripture Text
Psalm 103:14
Location
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Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI
References
James Carroll. Constantine's Sword: The Church and the Jews: A History. Houghton Mifflin Company, 2001.
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KII-01_RA-0-20020210
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2002-02-10
Title
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From Feast to Fast: Honoring the Human
Creator
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Richard A. Rhem
Publisher
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Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives
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<a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a>
Subject
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Clergy--Michigan
Reformed Church in America
Christ Community Church (Spring Lake, Mich.)
Sermons
Relation
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Richard A. Rhem - An Archive of Sermons, Prayers, Talks and Stories: http://richardrhem.org/
Language
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eng
Type
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Sound
Text
Format
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audio/mp3
application/pdf
Description
An account of the resource
A sermon given by Richard A. Rhem (Dick) on February 10, 2002 entitled "From Feast to Fast: Honoring the Human", on the occasion of Epiphany VI, at Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI. Scripture references: Psalm 103:14.
Celebration of Life
Epiphany
-
https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/b8f93deeb6c4a2e9f61e3a498a5f9a0b.mp3
b254c42ba391c7e2ece0d476d67fb48e
https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/3180fc8932f33414f0e739203d9fa66a.pdf
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PDF Text
Text
The Best Is Yet To Be
Epiphany Sunday
Scripture: Isaiah 60:1-7; Revelation 21:1-4, 22-27; Matthew 2:1-12
Richard A. Rhem
Christ Community Church
Spring Lake, Michigan
January 6, 2002
Transcription of the spoken sermon
On this Epiphany Sunday, I want to make a bold declaration that the best is yet to
be, the best is yet to be in terms of the cosmic journey and the human story.
Obviously, that is an affirmation of faith which is beyond verification, and yet, it
is an expression of the trust that we have as a people of faith, as the people of
God.
It is possible in any given present moment to be paralyzed by the darkness. It is
possible in this present situation in which we find ourselves as a nation to be
paralyzed by the shock of September 11. In your insert I had printed a piece from
The New York Times of October by David Kennedy, which, when I read it, I
thought was good to give me perspective, and I thought it might give all of us
perspective. It is a piece that I will not read, but simply refer to, for he makes the
point that the nation was very jittery, very uncertain, full of fear and trepidation
in the wake of that shock. And then he goes on to remind us that we have been
there before, that the darkness has been there before, that the fear and the
uncertainty have been there before.
He points, first of all, to Pearl Harbor to remind us of those days, and yet, as I
thought about that, I realized that one really has to be on Social Security in order
to remember that. So, there are a couple of generations who would not be able to
refer back to the anxiety, the angst of those days. But to be reminded that in those
days there were German U-2 boats off our Atlantic coast sinking our shipping,
that provocateurs were landed in Florida and New York, that on the West Coast
they were so fearful of a Japanese invasion that they cut off radio signals, they
moved the Rose Bowl from Pasadena to the Carolinas, and, with one of the dark
blotches on our history, Japanese-Americans were incarcerated out of fear and
suspicion. And then he goes on to remind us of those Civil War days and
Revolutionary days, and the fact that there has been darkness before. There has
been fear and uncertainty before, and he concludes with a positive statement
about the resilience and the creativity of the people of this nation, and I thought
on the first Sunday of a New Year, on Epiphany Sunday, it might be good to be
reminded that the darkness has always been with us, but that the Epiphany
© Grand Valley State University
�The Best Is Yet To Be
Richard A. Rhem
Page 2
theme, the light has dawned upon you, the light has visited you, is a word that we
might well meditate on and contemplate as we try to put our present experience
in perspective; for there has been darkness and the announcement of the light is
not a denial of the darkness, not a denial of the harshness, brutality, the violence
and so much horror that has marked the human story. No, the announcement of
the light is a statement in face of all of that, in spite of all of that. It is a statement
of faith. It is an expression of hope, it is grounded in a deep trust.
In John's Gospel, as he tells the Christmas story, we have those famous words of
the word becoming flesh, and in that context he says the light shines in the
darkness and the darkness has never overcome it And so, this morning, I want to
weave a little biblical thread, a little biblical tapestry for you which is witness to
that constant confidence of the people of God in the light that has shined and will
never be extinguished.
In the Advent series I did not use the words of Isaiah 9:2, but we did read them in
the late service on Christmas Eve and you will recognize them immediately: "The
people who walked in darkness have seen a great light." That was the eighth
century Isaiah. He is also the one in the eleventh chapter who spoke about the
shoot from the branch of David who would come to judge with justice and equity
and who would bring about that state of things where the lion and the lamb
would lie down together.
And there was second Isaiah who picked up those themes. He is now in the exile
situation in Babylon where the people of Judah had lost their faith and had
tended to move toward the gods of the Babylonians, after all they were the
victors. And that prophet began with the words made famous by Handel,
"Comfort ye, comfort ye, my people,” says your God. “Say to the cities of Judah,
'Behold your God."' And he is the one who spoke about the return in all of the
glory and brilliance and brightness of those passages.
The people did return, but it wasn't all so bright and glorious, and so, third
Isaiah, in the context of those first waves of refugees returned, had to encourage
them again. He said, "Arise, shine, for your light has come. The glory of the Lord
has shone upon you." He makes reference then to the nations coming to
Jerusalem, the wealth of the nations being brought into the city, and the kings of
the nations bringing their gifts, from which, of course, Matthew borrowed the
picture in order to tell the story of Jesus, for after third Isaiah and his
encouraging words, there was a period of drought and darkness, frankly.
And then, Jesus is born and the impact of Jesus causes Gospels to be written and
Matthew, in telling his story, goes back to Isaiah and uses that name from Isaiah,
Emmanuel, God with us, and he borrows the picture of the kings bringing the
wealth of the nations and he tells about the Magi who followed the star who came
to adore and to offer their gifts.
© Grand Valley State University
�The Best Is Yet To Be
Richard A. Rhem
Page 3
That was written, you have to understand, after Good Friday. So, he was aware of
the fact that the darkness had come on with its unnerving power in that darkest
of all afternoons when the son of God was crucified. But it was post-Easter, you
see, when those gospels were written, and the post-Easter church was convinced
that the one who was crucified was not dead at all, for they experienced his
presence and his power and his life throbbing within their life, and so, when they
told his story, they told the story of the kings coming with their gifts and the star
bright with light because they believed in that vision which they borrowed from
third Isaiah and second Isaiah and first Isaiah - that hope of Israel that had come
to expression in many ways and forms through many prophetic voices.
Then, of course, the persecution set in and in that little Jewish Jesus movement,
there was one John, who was exiled for his faith to the Isle of Patmos, and on the
Lord's Day, in the Spirit, he received a vision, a vision of the new Jerusalem, and
once again, speaking about Emmanuel, God with us, God with God's people, and
borrowing from Isaiah 60, he speaks about the Holy City glorified, and the gates
of the city always open, and the temple there, and no night there, for the Lord
God was the light of the city, and the kings of the earth brought their wealth. So,
you have a whole tapestry, a biblical tapestry from the Hebrew scriptures through
the Gospels through that picture of the consummation of all things and, running
through it all, is that wonderful assurance that the light has dawned and the
darkness would never overcome the light.
What do you think? Is it just wishful thinking? Every time a historical epic was
entered into with hope and light was announced, it seemed to come to nothing.
Oh, those prophetic voices gave hope to God's people, and that’s no little thing.
People of God were encouraged and they were lifted in their spirit and they did go
on. As a matter of fact, the dream never died, and that is not without its
significance. But, I wonder - is it just wishful thinking? Is it what it ought to be,
what the best of the human imagination wishes and imagines it could be, but
finally the old world just keeps grinding on its way by power and might, greedily
acquiring wealth and seeking preeminence?
It is interesting, isn't it, that the dream was always dreamed by an insignificant ragtag remnant of people. Can you imagine the chutzpah, the audacity of that dream as
it came to expression from Isaiah? Who were these people, anyway? They saw
themselves as living in the navel of the earth. Goodness sakes, all of the nations
were going to come, they were going to flow into Jerusalem. There's a prophetic
theme we speak of as the exultation of Mt. Zion. Mt. Zion would be lifted up and all
the nations would flow to her, and she would teach Torah. She would teach God's
law and God's truth. And in that prophetic vision, as beautiful as it is, there is talk of
righteousness and of justice and of peace. There is a portrait of human well-being,
human community. But, it's always dreamed by those who have not a prayer of
effecting it or implementing it, and old Isaiah in the 8th century was wrong. Second
Isaiah was simply wrong. Third Isaiah was wrong, and Matthew was wrong, and the
Revelation of John was wrong in terms of history having entered into some ultimate
© Grand Valley State University
�The Best Is Yet To Be
Richard A. Rhem
Page 4
point where the light would flood and scatter the darkness. We're two millennia
beyond that. So, the dream has been alive for nearly three millennia, and it's always
been dreamed by a rag-tag remnant of folk who may well be right, but have not the
power to make it right.
How could they keep dreaming it? Well, they believed in God. They believed in a
God beyond the stars who at some point would intervene and would effect what
had been promised. They believed in a sovereign Lord of history that would bring
all things to its consummation. And, if I were to preach to you this morning the
way I preached for many, many years, and the way I suppose these passages are
preached in 99 and 44/100% of the Christian pulpits of the world, then what I
would say to you is, "Wait. Hold on. Keep on hoping. Keep on praying for, though
the times move on and the reality never comes to realization, nonetheless, trust
God. It will be so. Let us pray."
I can't do that anymore. I don't want to be just one more voice saying one more
time all of those same old things and send you forth saying it was good to be
there. Nice sermon. Because, you see, I don't believe that some God beyond the
stars is going to come in and fix it for us.
Is it just wishful thinking? Is there really nothing to it, then? No, I want to say to
you this morning that I believe in the message of Epiphany more than ever I have
in my life. I believe that Jesus is the light of the world more strongly than ever I
have in my life. I've preached all these things in traditional fashion and believed
them, but I never believed them strongly enough, because I never felt
existentially gripped by the fact that, my God, Jesus is the light of the world. The
difference now is that I come to see that, the light having dawned upon us, it is
incumbent upon us to make the light come to its realization in human well-being.
I realize now how true it is that the light has dawned upon us. We have seen the
heart of God in the face of Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ has mirrored God. Jesus
Christ has mirrored a God crucified. Jesus Christ has mirrored a God who wins
by losing. Jesus Christ has shown us the way.
But, we have not followed him. We do not need more light. We really know, and
one of the blessings of the tradition of which we are a part – rooted in the Hebrew
prophets and the Greek philosophers and Roman law, Western civilization – one
of the great blessings of this grand tradition is that we have come to see that
which allows the human spirit to flower and to flourish, and we know that which
constitutes human well-being. But the problem is that those who have dreamed
the dream have never been able to implement it, because they've been the rag-tag
remnant of humanity, the minority report always, a voice crying in the
wilderness. How could the dream possibly keep alive? Well, as I said, they
believed in God. But, more than that, the dream is true! It touches the deepest
reaches of the human soul. It's true! We know it's true. The New Creation where
there's not a child that will die in infancy and an old person die without the
fulfillment of years, where people will plant gardens and eat the produce thereof
© Grand Valley State University
�The Best Is Yet To Be
Richard A. Rhem
Page 5
and build houses and be able to dwell in them, a land where they will not hurt or
destroy in all my holy mountain. We know that is true.
If only a super power, if only a super power believed the dream. A super power,
for example, that had amassed power and was willing to yield it up, had amassed
immense military might and was willing to lay down its arms, had amassed vast
economic resources and would use those to turn the earth into a garden. Then
that dream would not be so fantastic. Then that dream would not be so
unrealistic. Then it might be possible to effect the dream and to implement the
vision.
You see, the dream is true. The dream didn't tumble out of heaven somewhere.
The dream was placed by the Creator Spirit in the depths of the human heart. The
dream has lived on through all the darkness because, finally, that dream will
never be defeated. Finally, that dream will continue to obtrude itself upon human
consciousness, until finally somewhere, sometime, some people make it happen.
And, in the meantime, to live in the light of that dream, in the meantime to have
our own behavior affected by that dream, in the meantime to be the earners of
that light and that life.
Ah, one could grow cynical. One could despair. Suddenly the war on terror takes
second place to the war on the economy, for the son learns from his father that it
is the economy, stupid. And so, all of the engines of power will be turned on in
order to regenerate this monster that we have created which is not our servant,
but of which we are slaves. One could wonder if it can ever be. And yet, the dream
won't die, and there have always been a minority of people who have believed
that the best is yet to be. A people who have kept the dream alive, who refuse to
quit, have refused to be silent. Maybe in the long run, if we really want to take the
long-range view, maybe a million years from now, they will look back on us and
say, "You know what? That was the childhood of our species." Maybe it takes
millennia but, whatever it takes, we dare not deny the dream, for the light has
dawned upon us and we are people of the light and to live in the light is to live
even in the darkness humanely and to know the mantle of God's grace.
Is it just wishful thinking? Or, is it time for us to do something about it?
© Grand Valley State University
�
Dublin Core
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Richard A. Rhem Collection
Description
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Text and sound recordings of the sermons, prayers, services, and articles of Richard Rhem, pastor emeritus of Christ Community Church in Spring Lake, Michigan, where he served for 37 years. Starting in the mid 1980's, Rhem began to question some of the traditional Christian dogma that he had been espousing from the pulpit. That questioning was a first step in a long and interesting spiritual journey, one that he openly shared with his congregation. His journey is important, in part because it is reflective of the questioning, the yearnings, and the gradual revision of beliefs that many persons in this part of the century have experienced and continue to experience. It is important also because of the affirming and inclusive way his questioning was done and his thinking evolved. His sermons and other written and spoken materials together document the steps in his journey as it took a turn in 1985, yet continued to revolve around the framework and liturgies of the Christian calendar.
Subject
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Clergy--Michigan
Reformed Church in America
Christ Community Church (Spring Lake, Mich.)
Religion
Interfaith worship
Sermons
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Rhem, Richard A.
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<a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/514">Richard A. Rhem papers (KII-01)</a>
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Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives.
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Kaufman Interfaith Institute
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English
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KII-01
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1981-2014
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audio/mp3
text/pdf
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Event
Epiphany Sunday
Scripture Text
Matthew 2:9, Revelation 21:24
Location
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Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI
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2002-01-06
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The Best Is Yet To Be
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Richard A. Rhem
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Clergy--Michigan
Reformed Church in America
Christ Community Church (Spring Lake, Mich.)
Sermons
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Richard A. Rhem - An Archive of Sermons, Prayers, Talks and Stories: http://richardrhem.org/
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eng
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Text
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Description
An account of the resource
A sermon given by Richard A. Rhem (Dick) on January 6, 2002 entitled "The Best Is Yet To Be", on the occasion of Epiphany Sunday, at Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI. Scripture references: Matthew 2:9, Revelation 21:24.
Epiphany
Jesus
Light of the World
-
https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/3677632459837cde67b6aec68e4af13f.mp3
72cfe66f9e79d468659c45c320523d88
https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/544fc4d429c74315a24e5147864d471b.pdf
ab516aea6965835a714cee54383358b8
PDF Text
Text
Still the Light Shines Giving New Vision
Epiphany I
Scripture: Acts 26:19-32; Matthew 2:1-12 Text: Acts 26:19; Matthew 2:9
Richard A. Rhem
Christ Community Church
Spring Lake, Michigan
January 7, 2001
Transcription of the spoken sermon
It is the season of Epiphany and it has become a favorite time of mine. Epiphany
is not really a season, although we have often spoken of it as a season here.
Epiphany is a festival day, January 6, which of course, was yesterday. In the
ancient Church tradition, we are now in that time which is not really a season in
the church year. This is the first Sunday after Epiphany and next week will be the
second Sunday after Epiphany, and if you want to be technically correct, on the
Church calendar, we are in Ordinary days. But, for me, the Festival of Epiphany
has become one of my favorite celebrations, I think because of the focus and the
theme.
The symbol, of course, is the star; the central idea is that of light, the light that
has dawned upon us. The doctrinal or theological emphasis is on revelation. I like
the word manifestation - God manifest in our midst, God present to us so that we
become aware of that presence in the midst of our lives, in the midst of our world.
Epiphany is from the Greek language and it means, literally, manifestation, and,
of course, it reflects back on that season which is just concluded, the twelve days
of Christmas and the celebration of Christmas itself, which is the celebration of
the Incarnation, the embodiment of God in the midst of our human history, in
the human flesh of Jesus.
There is great wisdom in the celebration of the Christian Year. Over the years I
have come to appreciate it more and more because it takes me back every year in
that annual cycle beginning in the Advent waiting and then the celebration of the
birth which is the embodiment of God in our midst. Then we move into those
weeks between Epiphany and Lent in which the focus of the Church is on the life
and the ministry of Jesus. If I followed the lectionary readings, which large
portions of the Church use, every Sunday having assigned scripture passages,
today's passage would be the baptism of Jesus, Jesus now on the threshold of his
ministry. In these weeks between the celebration of Epiphany and the beginning
of Lent, the focus is on Jesus and his life and his teaching and that which came to
expression in him, what was experienced in his human journey in the midst of
© Grand Valley State University
�Still the Light Shines Giving New Vision Richard A. Rhem
Page 2
our human history. So, it is a good season because it focuses our attention on that
which is the center of our faith understanding, that which came to expression in
Jesus, the manifestation of God in the life of Jesus Christ.
In the older, traditional conception of things, the tradition of the Church, the
orthodoxies of the Catholic Church and the Protestant Church, this idea of
revelation is very much a past reference. Now, the Church, at its best, knew
better, but for all practical purposes, if you have grown up in the Church, if you've
listened to sermons world without end, then you know that the emphasis has
been on that revelation of God that appeared in Israel and in Jesus, that is told in
the words of scripture, so that revelation becomes in our minds, popularly,
something that happened in the past of which we have a record, to which we
continue to return.
Now, the Church, at its best, for example, John Calvin at the time of the
Reformation, understood that God continues to reveal God's self, and Karl Barth,
in our own century, reached back to Calvin to speak of the three forms of the
word: the word in flesh, Jesus, the center; the word in scripture, the word written
which in Israel anticipated him and in the New Testament reflected back on him;
and then, a third form of the word was the word preached. The Church at its best
understood that there was an ongoing revealing of God, an ongoing manifestation
of God's truth and light, even as the word was preached in the present, the very
dynamic conception of preaching, the very high estimate of preaching.
But, for all practical purposes once again, if you have just grown up in an
ordinary way in an ordinary church, an ordinary Christian experience, you have
probably tended to think about revelation as something that happened in the
past. In fact, in the old conception of things, God sent God's son like the divine
intruder from another world, another realm into our world, there to be
experienced, only then to leave again and return to that place from which he
came. That is an old cosmology. That is an old conception of the structure of
reality.
Let me give you another image. Try this out. I can remember as a kid my mother
used to bake bread and I can remember taking the yeast and kneading it into that
dough and putting it in a bowl, and putting a towel over it and then setting it on a
chair in front of the register so, with the heat, the yeast could do its work and the
dough would rise. Let me suggest to you what for me has become a fascinating
and exciting new conception of God's manifestation, of God's revealing. Rather
than seeing God as dipping into our history, coming in and leaving again, it
seems to me what we know about the nature of reality, the nature of the whole
cosmic process, the nature of the unfolding of history, that one might better see
the manifestation of God as the working of the yeast in the dough, not a light
from another realm, but that light that enlightens the totality of things, not from
outside, but from within itself, so that manifestation is simply the coming to
luminosity of that which is always present within, but here and there comes to
© Grand Valley State University
�Still the Light Shines Giving New Vision Richard A. Rhem
Page 3
striking, startling manifestation, so that we look and we say, "Ah! I see! I See!"
That is an epiphany experience. It is the sudden grasping or the calm, quiet
coming to realization of that which is true, that which is true about the nature of
reality, about the nature of God, about the nature of human existence.
Epiphany is the celebration of the manifestation of God, and I want to suggest,
not a God "out there" somewhere, but a God present with us. The incarnation, the
experience of Christmas, the truth of Christmas,is the embodiment of God in the
human. It is the presence of God with us, and, for Epiphany 2001, let me suggest
to you that we open our eyes to the light that still shines. The word still in the title
of the message has the message in one word - still, the light shines. Still, God is
manifest, being manifest, present, progressive tense. That's my Epiphany
message to you today, and that, for me, is a critical and crucial movement from
where once I was and where most of the Church, frankly, still remains and, if
there is one thing that I wish I could send you out of here with today, it is that
new and fresh awareness of the still shining light and the ongoing manifestation
of God in the midst of our human experience, in the midst of our world history, in
the midst of the unfolding, cosmic drama of which we are a part of billions and
billions of years, an amazing evolving and emerging.
Still, the light shines. Still, God is being manifest to those who have eyes to see
and ears to hear. Still, the Spirit illumines and gives us fresh insight and helps us
to bring into perspective the explosion of knowledge all about us in the modern
world, so that we live as people on the way, as people on a journey, with the
confidence that as we move into the future, the light will shine as it shines now
and has shined in our past.
You see, that is the very nature of human existence. That is what it means to be
people who are caught up in the stream of history. It is not that in the scripture
we do not have ancient truth and insight. The scripture is a record of the witness
of those who have said, "Aha! I see!" and they recorded that, and it continues to
be instructive and informative to us. We still read the Hebrew prophets of the
eighth century before the Common Era with great profit. We still go back to the
Greek philosophers who address the ultimate questions of life with profundity.
Someone has said that the whole of Western philosophy is nothing but a series of
footnotes to Plato and Aristotle. We still go back to the Gospels and we study the
life of Jesus and the teaching of Jesus, and we gain insight and understanding,
wisdom. But, the eighth-century prophets of the Hebrews or even Jesus in the
time of Caesar Augustus, or Augustine in the fifth century, or Thomas Aquinas in
the 13th century, or John Calvin in the 16th century, or the orthodox formulations
of Reformed faith, for example, in the 17th century, simply could not give to us
what we need today in order to live with understanding, with freedom and with
joy because, within the movement of history, there are no absolutes. That is
heresy in the Christian Church! Did you hear me? Within the stream of history,
there are no absolutes. The Church has claimed all through the centuries that
© Grand Valley State University
�Still the Light Shines Giving New Vision Richard A. Rhem
Page 4
this is absolute truth, that absolute truth dawned in Jesus, and I am saying to
you, "No! The wonder of Epiphany is that, in the movement of history that defies
absolutes and final answers, the light still shines!" It is not that we are without
insight. It is not that we are without revelation. It is simply that, in the very
nature of historical reality, it is absolutely essential that the light still shines so
that our new circumstances are illumined by that same light that came to
expression in special luminosity in Jesus, that same light that informed the
Hebrew prophets and the Apostles. It is a present experience of the manifestation
of God, or it is nothing. That is the nature of our human, historical existence.
That is scary. Scary, because we so much want certitude. It is scary because life is
frail and fragile, perilous and pocked with pitfalls, and it is so deeply human to
want a final solution, an absolute truth, an unalterable prescription for life. And
the Church has been happy to accommodate. The Church has exploited the fears
of people. It has promised absolute truth and the final answer, but it is a false
promise that cannot deliver. For all of the light that has shined through the ages
and all of the light that has been concentrated in the face of Jesus Christ, history
continues to evolve and new situations call for new application of that truth. You
cannot go into the scripture and find the ending or the proposed ending of
slavery, for example. It took centuries of the ferment of the Gospel to bring
people finally to the conviction that a human being was an end in him or herself,
not to be used, enslaved.
Oh, the Church has struggled with the Bible, claiming it to be inerrant and
infallible, and it is not. And how can it be, for example, when the Church
struggles with the position of women in leadership? You can't solve that biblically
because it is an ancient book out of an ancient culture with all kinds of different
sensitivities and understanding. How can you settle the question of the
ordination of women in the Church, for example, by reference to the Bible?
Sexual orientation? Why, it's not even in the purview of the scripture. And yet,
you hear time and again claims, biblical claims, about sexual orientation, about
which the Bible knew nothing. All it knew about was actual sexual practice which
could be destructive and abusive. How can you settle that issue by reference to
the Bible? You can't. And, unfortunately, the Church has not faced up to that and
been honest with the fact that light still shines, that knowledge still breaks forth,
that history is movement, that new times demand new answers and new
understandings and broader perspectives as the horizon spreads out before us.
Scary. Because we'd like to have it clear, simple, and over with, not having to
think about it anymore. It is scary.
But, it is also liberating. Now, if I can once get that monkey off my back of one
final, absolute revelation in the past, then I can engage in my historical journey
with confidence and with joy. I can lean into the future knowing that, still, the
light shines, that new knowledge brings new information and new perspective,
and that the manifestation of God in the midst of this marvelous, fascinating,
© Grand Valley State University
�Still the Light Shines Giving New Vision Richard A. Rhem
Page 5
mysterious cosmic journey of which we're a part continues to dawn upon us, and
that is really my Epiphany message today. Still, the light shines. That is
wonderful, good news.
We just went through a beautiful Christmas season here. We have the remnants
of it, so to speak, and someone was here on the 24th at all three services, in the
morning that marvelous cantata and pageant, the thrilling music and the
Christmas story, the quieter candlelight Eucharist service at 9:00 in the evening,
and then the traditional Lessons and Carols, the late service. This person, one of
the core volunteers of this place then came here on Wednesday (the church had
been closed on Monday, Christmas Day and the day following), and this place
which had been so regal in its splendor and had reverberated with marvelous
music and the mystery of the celebration, now lay in shambles, candlewax all over
the pews and the carpets, poinsettia leaves scattered throughout, shepherds’
costumes draped here and there, used candles lying every place, and she came
into the office to say, "You know, I was at all three services on Sunday. What a
place this is! Each one of the services so different; each one of them so moving, so
beautifully executed, seemingly without effort and without a hitch. Then I come
in and I see the shambles afterwards and I realize what it takes to do that.
Nobody knows how many people put forth how much effort to make that
possible," and I said, "Well, that's true. There are a few people that know,
however."
A few people also said to me, "What are you going to do next year," realizing that
this is the last Christmas of John Gregory Bryson, who is so integral to all of that,
and with stiff upper lip, I said, "Well, we're going to retire his number and then
we're going to do just fine." We're going to do just fine, just as we are after I
preach my last Epiphany service. This place is going to be just fine, because we
live in the conviction that still the light shines and we don't come to an absolute
place, a final word, a resting place that is frozen forever, but we are a people in
movement and the thing about this place is that we have learned that, and we are
free, and we believe that the best is yet to be, because still the light shines, giving
new vision.
I ran into my old compatriot, Gord VanHoeven, in Bill's Barber Shop this week,
and the two of us got to reminiscing a bit. It's a sign of our age, I think, two old
men talking about the past, getting almost sentimental if not senile, and we
talked about Gord's 18 years here that he shared with me. We spoke about what a
good place this is and has been.
A year ago this month the Team gathered with a counselor to think about the
transitions that are underway here. This congregation is in transition and it
doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure that out. One look at the hoary head and
visage of your preacher is enough to indicate that there is going to be a change
one of these days. As we gathered with the Team a year ago, we started to look at
the whole pattern, and within the next three or four months everything unraveled
© Grand Valley State University
�Still the Light Shines Giving New Vision Richard A. Rhem
Page 6
and changed. Ron Zoet couldn't get blood out of a turnip, so he thought he'd go
after living blood with the American Red Cross. We all began to be pressed about
what our timeline was. Peter discovered he was a year younger than he thought
he was, found out the year he was really born. Colette decided it was better for
her to concentrate on Worship Center and preaching and teaching, and Bob is, of
course, in the midst of his internship for a Master's of Social Work, and how will
that all work out? And Mr. Bryson, recognizing the many years of service,
wanting to have a little more freedom, tells of his imminent departure. Well, in
the midst of it all this summer, realizing how much continuity we had, what
gifted and dedicated and loyal people we've had, recognizing that we are in this
period of transition, one day I looked at Peter and Cynthia Moll with whom I have
been working for The Center of Religion and Life, and I said, "Why don't you two
come and run the church?" And in September they began and I realize in
retrospect that was really the first step of transition, and the governance boards
have stepped forward and have owned that process.
On Friday of this week the Board of Trustees will go to the Center for Innovation.
Don't you love that name? The Center for Innovation where there is a consultant
for business and corporations who is going to sit with them and who has agreed
as a gift to us to lead us through a discussion of the future. On the 10th of
February, all the governance groups will meet with him in an all-day retreat as we
look at the whole pattern and the whole picture. I tell you this because you ought
to know what's going on in this congregation, the fact that we are in a period of
transition. You want to ask me for a date, I'll say two years, five years, seven
years, ten years. I don't know. I have no date set. I am determined I am going to
make this bear dance one more time, whatever it takes. But, I share this with you
because I can do it in an Epiphany celebration in the realization that, still, the
light shines and that the future of this place is better than anything we have ever
dreamed of, and it is because we have paid a price and struggled and wrestled
and have emerged with a kind of freedom and joy that enables us, having faced
up to so much that ties traditional Christianity in knots, freeing us to move into
the future in creative ways of which we have not even conceived.
You see, still the light shines, and we will shape the future rather than just
lollygagging along, being shaped by what comes our way. Montgomery Wards is
out of business. They tried to reorganize over the last couple of years, the CEO
came on the television to say the soft retail market made it impossible. They have
to close. I say, "Soft retail market! What you're telling me, sir, is that you were
unable to negotiate a world of Wal-Marts and Lowe's and all the rest." The
Church is no different. If we're all tied up with some absolute word that happened
in the past, nailing us to the mores, insights, sensitivities and knowledge of an
ancient culture, we are in trouble, indeed. But, if we have learned that still the
light shines, giving vision, then we can believe that the future holds for us
wonders, mysteries, and celebrations that we've not yet dreamed of.
© Grand Valley State University
�Still the Light Shines Giving New Vision Richard A. Rhem
Page 7
This is no ordinary place. There are ordinary congregations all over the country.
This is no ordinary place. You are here because you choose to be here. You are
here because of what this place stands for, requires and affirms, and this remnant
people, liberated and set free, has the conviction that the future is unfolding in
marvelous ways. I can say with Paul, I was not disobedient to the heavenly vision.
In his defense before a Roman governor and a Jewish king, he gave the account of
his own story. Don't you realize that Paul saw a light that knocked him off his
horse and turned him around 180 degrees? Don't you realize that Paul had to
look at everything for which his life's passion was beating and say, "My God! I
was wrong!" Don't you see that the quest of the Magi is the symbolic story of that
yearning of the human heart for God, that yearning of the human heart for light
and for truth, and in that beautiful Christmas story of those wise ones we have
the symbol of that which lies deep within us, but we have come to realize that it is
not a matter of getting some absolute word or light that dawned in the past, but it
is the coming to ourselves of an inward conviction, a deep, deep human intuition
so that I can say, "I believe!" That is what is different about this place, and that is
why the future is good.
Ah! What a place! What a future! What a possibility! God's final word has yet to
be spoken. Still, the light shines. Plaster it on your refrigerator. Write it on your
cupboards. Sing your children to sleep with it nights. Still, the light shines giving new vision! That's Epiphany and you can say, "Ah, I see! I See!”
© 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>
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Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives.
Contributor
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Kaufman Interfaith Institute
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<a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a>
Language
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English
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Sound
Text
Identifier
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KII-01
Coverage
The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant
1981-2014
Format
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audio/mp3
text/pdf
Sound
A resource primarily intended to be heard. Examples include a music playback file format, an audio compact disc, and recorded speech or sounds.
Event
Epiphany I
Scripture Text
Acts 26:19, Matthew 2:9
Location
The location of the interview
Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Identifier
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KII-01_RA-0-20010107
Date
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2001-01-07
Title
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Still the Light Shines Giving New Vision
Creator
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Richard A. Rhem
Publisher
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Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives
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<a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a>
Subject
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Clergy--Michigan
Reformed Church in America
Christ Community Church (Spring Lake, Mich.)
Sermons
Relation
A related resource
Richard A. Rhem - An Archive of Sermons, Prayers, Talks and Stories: http://richardrhem.org/
Language
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eng
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Sound
Text
Format
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audio/mp3
application/pdf
Description
An account of the resource
A sermon given by Richard A. Rhem (Dick) on January 7, 2001 entitled "Still the Light Shines Giving New Vision", on the occasion of Epiphany I, at Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI. Scripture references: Acts 26:19, Matthew 2:9.
Epiphany
Immanence
Revelation of the Divine
-
https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/eb14e20af6a8cef7711e973074ba94bf.mp3
670b2213112097061098e1ba9c53560a
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5330b9961fc0aa05797382c44f9986a2
PDF Text
Text
The Root of Good Religion
Text: Psalm 116:17
Richard A. Rhem
Christ Community Church
Spring Lake, Michigan
November 19, 2000
Transcription of the spoken sermon
I suppose you can tell by the title of this message, “The Root of Good Religion,”
that there must also be bad religion in the world, and when I determined to speak
on the root of good religion and selected this wonderful Psalm 116, I wasn’t really
thinking about the bad religion, but in my more specific preparations, The Grand
Rapids Press came with the Religion Section in the Saturday Press, and the lead
story was about a free thinkers group, a big colored picture accompanying it. This
group, the Free Thinkers Association, has been meeting in Grand Rapids for
about three years, and I found it a very interesting story. The Free Thought
Association is affiliated with a group out of Madison, Wisconsin, from which all
kinds of liberal diatribe arises. They say they are a community of agnostics,
atheists, humanists, rationalists, and they discuss topics which interest them,
intellectual questions, burning social issues, and so on. They meet a couple of
times a month.
That which binds them together in community, ironically, is their mutual flight
from religion, and the thing that has marked them, has made them have
something so important in common that they would become a community is the
fact that they’ve all been wounded by religion in its institutional form, in its
establishment forms. There are a number of people cited in this article, devout
Catholic people in their background, a former Fundamentalist Baptist, a very
devout Christian Reformed young man, a lapsed Episcopalian, and a Methodist,
and so on. It’s a conglomeration and it pretty much covers the spectrum of
established religion and they have come together because, in one way or another,
all of them at some point in their life began to have questions for which their
particular tradition had no answers. They began to receive some of the teaching
of their respective traditions and it didn’t make sense to them and they
determined that they didn’t believe it. Then, contrary to most of us, they had the
audacity to verbalize their doubts and their questions and doing so, they found
themselves really shunned, excluded, cut out, isolated because they had become a
thorn in the flesh of their respective communities. They had become a threat, and
they were not appreciated at all, and so there was alienation between them and
their families and their faith communities.
© Grand Valley State University
�The Root of Good Religion
Richard A. Rhem
Page 2
Well, that’s not so hard to figure out, and if you think about it for a moment, you
can understand it because religion which is as universal as humankind arose
very, very early in the dawning of human consciousness; for what is religion, after
all, but that intuitive sense that there is something more, something that grounds
our lives, that there is a source and a ground and a guide and goal of all that is.
We live in the face of mystery and that mystery must have appeared very, very
early in the human story. One becomes aware of one’s self, thereby one becomes
human. One becomes aware of the other, of the human relationship. One
experiences the miracle of birth and the mystery of death, and one simply,
naturally begins to ask those ultimate questions - why is there something rather
than nothing? From whence has it all come? Whither is it all tending? And what
is the meaning and the purpose of it all? Those questions are as fundamental as
human existence itself.
And then someone has an epiphany experience. Someone sees something.
Someone tells a story, a story of a revelation and around it grows the ritual and
the cult and the sacred stories and the tradition. Very early in primitive stages
there were tribal religions, that which was the tribe’s solution to the mystery, that
which gave a sense of coherency to life, a statement of its purpose and its
meaning, that to which one could cling for enlightenment, for security. And then,
someone had another idea or someone’s experience didn’t connect with that
explanation. That one becomes a threat to the tribal unity and sense of meaning,
because that religious story and practice was rooted frequently, most often, in
fear, not illegitimate fear, genuine fear, because life is perilous.
We are vulnerable. We do live in the face of mystery and most of the major issues
that impinge upon us are beyond our control and so one of the functions of
religion has been to create that sense of security and community, giving meaning
and purpose and cohesion to placate whatever gods may be, to put one in the
right, to curry the favor of the mystery, whatever the mystery may be. And then,
when one questions that solution, one becomes very threatening and the tribe or
the tight knit community will bind together and will exclude, will condemn, will
reject that one who has become a source of irritation, opening up those things
that had long been settled.
As I read the stories of some of these people, I could identify with that. But, when
I read their definitions of reality - “only that which can be perceived with the
natural senses or indirectly through the proper use of reason” - denying the
possibility of revelation or faith, I knew that was too narrow - simple
reductionism. I went to the computer and to their Website and read a recent
lecture on quantum physics which was fascinating, but didn’t have a lot to say
about the wonder of birth, of the mystery of death, or the existential reality of
getting through every day. I didn’t look up an earlier lecture on the voucher
question, but what I sensed about these people is they are serious and they have
inquiring minds and they want to know and understand, but they have been
© 2013 Kaufman Interfaith Institute and Grand Valley State University
�The Root of Good Religion
Richard A. Rhem
Page 3
wounded deeply by the whole enterprise of religion and so they have fled religion,
becoming skeptics, rationalists.
Of course, reading that in the wake of a Huston Smith visit where he was so
eloquent about the necessity of getting beyond that adversarial relationship of
those two great enterprises, science and religion, I thought to myself, “How sad
that these people, having been so wounded, have now such a thinned gruel, a 2%
milk kind of thing, almost water, a diet that cannot really satisfy the deepest
instincts, nor do justice to those most profound intuitions of the human spirit.” I
should invite them here, I think, because they could pursue their questions with
no quarter asked, but we could share with them something more, for there is
good religion.
Good religion is rooted in the experience of grace and it issues in gratitude. I
don’t know just what the Psalmist’s experience was, but he was in some kind of
crisis and he says to the Lord, “You saved my soul from death, my eyes from
tears, my feet from falling. I will take the cup of salvations.” In the Hebrew, the
word is plural - the cup of salvations. I will take hold of the whole of life, as it
were, the whole of life in which I have experienced the salving, the mending of my
life in the midst of it all. I will take the cup of salvation and name the name of the
Lord. I will embrace life, which certainly is not just one bowl of cherries, not one
rainbow after another, life in all of its complexity.
The Psalmist spoke of a deep crisis in his life and certainly, if we are honest with
it, it is like the Apostle Paul in the eighth chapter of Romans who speaks of
famine and nakedness and peril and sword, an ancient listing, but we could list
our own, the vulnerabilities, the perils that jeopardize our existence every
moment - all of that to which we are vulnerable. The diseases that stalk our steps
and the sudden crisis that can wipe us out - all of that is part of life. If we were to
deny any of that, then we would simply have our heads stuck in the sand. That’s
an unrealistic kind of idea that will only be shattered on the rocks of human
experience eventually because, finally, we all live fully life with all of its light and
all of its shadow. But, somehow or other, the Psalmist had come in a concrete
experience to feel that just intuitively now, I suppose, that that mystery that
surrounds life is the mystery of grace, that it is a healing mystery.
I love the illustration of Huston Smith of light and darkness. If you had two cubes
divided by a wall, in one there was light, the other pitch dark, if you took the wall
down, the light would invade the darkness. The darkness would not overcome the
light. It is only an image, it is a symbol, it is a story, but it makes a beautiful point.
The Psalmist somehow or other believed it; Paul believed it, and Paul said, “Since
God is for us, who can be against us? Nothing will separate us from the love of
God in Christ Jesus our Lord.” The Psalmist said, “I will take the cup of salvation
and praise the name of the Lord. I will offer a sacrifice of thanksgiving in the
presence of all God’s people.”
© 2013 Kaufman Interfaith Institute and Grand Valley State University
�The Root of Good Religion
Richard A. Rhem
Page 4
Good religion comes out of an experience of grace and it issues in gratitude. It
goes way beyond that initial fear that might hold us prisoner for a while, it comes
to a point of sensing, as Scott Peck said in The Road Less Traveled, that there is a
grace beyond us that continues to come to us, and out of the experience of grace
there is that within us deep down that will out, that will come to expression, that
simply must be spoken or sung or the heart will burst.
The Psalm begins so marvelously, “I love the Lord because ...” Let me suggest at
the head of Thanksgiving week that you go home and in some moments of quiet,
write those words, “I love the Lord because ...,” and then simply reflect on your
life. The old hymn says “Count your many blessings, name them one by one and it
will surprise you what the Lord has done.” If you would take a moment to do that,
I think you would also begin to say, “This, yes, this is what is really central to my
life. This is what is important to me. I love the Lord because ...” And out of that
experience of grace, the issue is thanksgiving that simply must come to
expression, because love needs a song, love needs an anthem, love needs to
dance, or the soul would explode.
The root of good religion is the taste of grace issuing in praise irrepressible.
© 2013 Kaufman Interfaith Institute and Grand Valley State University
�
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The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
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Richard A. Rhem Collection
Description
An account of the resource
Text and sound recordings of the sermons, prayers, services, and articles of Richard Rhem, pastor emeritus of Christ Community Church in Spring Lake, Michigan, where he served for 37 years. Starting in the mid 1980's, Rhem began to question some of the traditional Christian dogma that he had been espousing from the pulpit. That questioning was a first step in a long and interesting spiritual journey, one that he openly shared with his congregation. His journey is important, in part because it is reflective of the questioning, the yearnings, and the gradual revision of beliefs that many persons in this part of the century have experienced and continue to experience. It is important also because of the affirming and inclusive way his questioning was done and his thinking evolved. His sermons and other written and spoken materials together document the steps in his journey as it took a turn in 1985, yet continued to revolve around the framework and liturgies of the Christian calendar.
Subject
The topic of the resource
Clergy--Michigan
Reformed Church in America
Christ Community Church (Spring Lake, Mich.)
Religion
Interfaith worship
Sermons
Sound Recordings
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Rhem, Richard A.
Source
A related resource from which the described resource is derived
<a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/514">Richard A. Rhem papers (KII-01)</a>
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Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives.
Contributor
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Kaufman Interfaith Institute
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<a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a>
Language
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English
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Sound
Text
Identifier
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KII-01
Coverage
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1981-2014
Format
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audio/mp3
text/pdf
Sound
A resource primarily intended to be heard. Examples include a music playback file format, an audio compact disc, and recorded speech or sounds.
Event
Pentecost XXIV
Scripture Text
Psalm 116:17
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/.
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KII-01_RA-0-20001119
Date
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2000-11-19
Title
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The Root of Good Religion
Creator
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Richard A. Rhem
Publisher
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Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives
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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 19, 2000 entitled "The Root of Good Religion", on the occasion of Pentecost XXIV, at Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI. Scripture references: Psalm 116:17.
Consciousness
Epiphany
Grace
Nature of Religion
-
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PDF Text
Text
Humility That Opens to Wonder
Text: Exodus 4:13; I Corinthians 15:9
Richard A. Rhem
Christ Community Church
Spring Lake, Michigan
November 12, 2000
Transcription of the spoken sermon
Well, I imagine that all week long you had conversations about the election which
even six days later has failed to deliver for us in any certainty the President elect.
It’s a very interesting period of time through which to live. The positive side of it,
I suppose, is that we are talking about it together and one can also see some
positive significance in the fact that maybe we are learning how important is the
single vote, and perhaps we also are taking a look at the whole process,
wondering about the Electoral College, for example. And certainly we can see a
positive thing in the fact that, although we are at an impasse and stalemate and
we don’t know just what is going to develop in the next few days, nonetheless,
there isn’t any panic around. We have a confidence in that long tradition of
Constitutional rule and the judicial process and, although however it comes out
may not please everyone, nonetheless, I think basically we all believe that
somehow or other decently and in order this matter will be resolved. But it also
gives us added lengthened opportunity to reflect on the whole elective process,
the political campaign that seems to get longer every time. It also gives us
occasion to wonder about that point at which we find ourselves when the parties
are bought and paid for, when the debate is reduced to sound bites, when the
multitude of television ads becomes more shrill and frenzied, asserting an agenda
bought and paid for and denigrating the other. Language fouled and conversation
polluted.
As a people we wonder, don’t we, if there isn’t a better way? You may think that
Bruce and I consulted about his remarks this morning, but I assure you that we
didn’t at all. I’m glad that he called us to revisit two weeks ago when Huston
Smith was here. Last week being the beautiful All Saints Service, I didn’t really
have occasion to do it, but I want to revisit that, along with what he said this
morning, because I sensed such a sharp contrast in what we experienced in
Huston Smith’s presence in our midst as over against the shrill frenzy of political
rhetoric whose decibels go higher and higher. Here was a gentleman, a scholar, a
man of great knowledge, great wisdom, and great grace who was with us in
significant conversation, leading us in reflection on matters that are of deep
importance to the well-being of society, the well-being of our lives and our future,
and in his sermon, “Beholding the Glory,” suggesting to us the glimpses, the
© Grand Valley State University
�Humility That Opens to Wonder
Richard A. Rhem
Page 2
intimation of transcendence that come to us in those thin places in our lives if we
are able to see them.
A friend knew that I was going to preach on humility this morning and called me
with a quote from Huston Smith to the effect that humility is not low self-esteem,
but it is, rather, the coming to recognize and distance oneself from one’s own
separate ego, to be able to step back and recognize that one counts as one, but not
more than one, and that in charity the other counts as one, as well. And in that
humility that we saw embodied in him, we were able to think with him and see
with him the glory, for I believe that humility opens to the possibility of wonder.
Following the worship service, I had the wonderful privilege of sitting here
between Huston Smith and his friend of many years and a relationship many
years ago, Duncan Littlefair, and we experienced conversation between these two
men, conversation that was lively, encountering, engaging, with different
personalities, Duncan in his powerful determination to make distinctions that
lead to clarity, Huston in marvelous candor, admitting that he always has a hard
time choosing between dichotomies and his words “mealy-mouthed Huston.” I
hope you didn’t miss the rarity of that encounter, a conversation between two
prophetic figures with decades of experience, knowledge, and wisdom, differing
personalities but engaging one another with civility and with candor and with
grace and affection, to the end that truth might be glimpsed, not to make a point,
not to win an argument, not to establish some absolute claim to the truth, but in
the cause of truth in order that understanding might be furthered, conversation
sacred, its holy, honest exchange where there is the loss of ego, the dissolving of
self and the focus on truth to the end of understanding. My, that was a marvelous
and all too rare experience, and we had just heard Huston pointing us to the way
to behold the glory, pointing to those places where the layered reality becomes
luminous in nature, in art, human relationship, and in the wisdom traditions. The
advantage I had over you is that I had also just recently listened to a funeral
meditation that Duncan had shared with me in which the transcendent one, the
holy, the sacred could be glimpsed if only there are eyes to see it, in a blade of
grass or a blossom or a bird or a leaf, or a sunset or a human relationship, and the
wonder which is a consequence of the pointers of both of them being exactly the
same.
Huston said, “I use the word God.” Duncan said, “You don’t need to use God, but
it’s okay if you do. It’s a philosophical concept.” It is a means of explaining, but
the means of explaining is not the important thing. It is the reality, that reality to
which it all points. Whatever we call it, whatever language we use, if there has
been an emptying of the self, if there has been that vision of something beyond,
then that awareness that brings wholeness and holiness to our being, however it
is spoken of or expressed as we try to give expression to it, it seems to me that in
both cases, the secret is humility. It is not an accident that the word human and
humility and humor have a common root, the root of humus. You know what
humus is - the little residue that worms leave after moving through the soil, it’s
© 2013 Kaufman Interfaith Institute and Grand Valley State University
�Humility That Opens to Wonder
Richard A. Rhem
Page 3
vegetative decay; it’s that brown-blackish, rather unpleasant stuff. It is no
accident that we are named human, for we are of the humus, we are of the soil,
we are earthy and therefore, the most appropriate manifestation of the human is
humility, and in order to come to an appreciation of the human, humor, because
we are rooted in the soil, we are earthly, but we are more than that, as well.
Because we know that we are earthly, we know that we are so rooted, so
grounded, we know, as well, that we are more. We know that we are beckoned by
the spirit to the experience of spirit, to the life of the spirit. Here we are, these
ridiculous animals who know, who experience, who feel, who intuit, who have
that sense of transcendence that calls them even while being rooted in the soil.
They are anchored solidly. Humus. Human. Humility. And humor, one of the
best antidotes to the egoism that shuts us off from wonder, being so filled with
self, so self-assertive, so self-securing, so self-aggrandizing that we have no eyes
to see nor ears to hear and our life is devoid of wonder and of joy, of grace and of
peace.
How do you come to it? Ah, that’s where preaching is stumped, for what does one
say next? How does one come to it?
Moses came to it, but was given a revelation an epiphany, a manifestation of the
sacred and the holy that made his life holy, set apart to a great task because of a
great vision that came after the brooding wilderness experience. Someone said in
the scriptures it speaks of Moses 120 years old at his death, twenty years in Egypt
as a prince learning to be somebody, forty years in the wilderness learning to be
nobody, forty years learning what God could do with someone who had learned
both lessons. No lack of self-esteem, but a brokenness, an honesty, an awareness,
the simplicity of seeing truthfully and then acting in light of the wonder of the
vision that comes when we’ve been emptied of the self. The Bible says that Moses
was the meekest man on the face of the earth, but he had a vision, a revelation.
Paul, frenzied, passionate, defensive, threatened by this new movement with the
name of Jesus, going about to destroy, to obstruct, to hold down, to stamp out, in
a moment’s revelation, a vision, a light.
How does it happen? I don’t know. It’s a grace; it’s a given. It’s not at our
disposal, but it happens if we are serious, if we are engaged, if we can come to
some honest estimate of ourselves, if we can let go. Moses had to let go of Egypt.
Paul had to let go of all that which was sacred and holy to him that structured his
whole life. Those security systems that we have built tightly around us - if only for
a moment we could let go, if we could see through, there might be a bush that
would burn or a light that would shine.
It reminds me of the political campaign - noisy assertion, frenzied activity,
absolutist claims, dogmatic assertions, control and manipulation. There is so
little honest conversation that seeks not to make a point, but to open the truth
more clearly. It is humility, it is that dying to myself, it is that recognition that I
© 2013 Kaufman Interfaith Institute and Grand Valley State University
�Humility That Opens to Wonder
Richard A. Rhem
Page 4
am not God, that life has been given and is gift and if only for a moment I can
step outside this frenzied drivenness of contemporary life, I can just pause long
enough to look at the face of a child or a flower or a sunset and know that I am
embraced in something marvelous and wonderful beyond my imagining - then
my life will be bathed in wonder and there will be joy and peace.
© 2013 Kaufman Interfaith Institute and Grand Valley State University
�
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Richard A. Rhem Collection
Description
An account of the resource
Text and sound recordings of the sermons, prayers, services, and articles of Richard Rhem, pastor emeritus of Christ Community Church in Spring Lake, Michigan, where he served for 37 years. Starting in the mid 1980's, Rhem began to question some of the traditional Christian dogma that he had been espousing from the pulpit. That questioning was a first step in a long and interesting spiritual journey, one that he openly shared with his congregation. His journey is important, in part because it is reflective of the questioning, the yearnings, and the gradual revision of beliefs that many persons in this part of the century have experienced and continue to experience. It is important also because of the affirming and inclusive way his questioning was done and his thinking evolved. His sermons and other written and spoken materials together document the steps in his journey as it took a turn in 1985, yet continued to revolve around the framework and liturgies of the Christian calendar.
Subject
The topic of the resource
Clergy--Michigan
Reformed Church in America
Christ Community Church (Spring Lake, Mich.)
Religion
Interfaith worship
Sermons
Sound Recordings
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Rhem, Richard A.
Source
A related resource from which the described resource is derived
<a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/514">Richard A. Rhem papers (KII-01)</a>
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives.
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
Kaufman Interfaith Institute
Rights
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
Scripture Text
Exodus 4:13, I Corinthians 15:9
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-0-20001112
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2000-11-12
Title
A name given to the resource
Humility That Opens to Wonder
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Richard A. Rhem
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
<a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a>
Subject
The topic of the resource
Clergy--Michigan
Reformed Church in America
Christ Community Church (Spring Lake, Mich.)
Sermons
Relation
A related resource
Richard A. Rhem - An Archive of Sermons, Prayers, Talks and Stories: http://richardrhem.org/
Language
A language of the resource
eng
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Sound
Text
Format
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audio/mp3
application/pdf
Description
An account of the resource
A sermon given by Richard A. Rhem (Dick) on November 12, 2000 entitled "Humility That Opens to Wonder", on the occasion of Pentecost XXIII, at Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI. Scripture references: Exodus 4:13, I Corinthians 15:9.
Epiphany
Humility
Transcendence
-
https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/4cbaa1aa74bb0e10e45f309d4d993b60.mp3
8157d684f729cc063b4a7fa133a7ab2d
https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/0cbbe6a3d86b44e18868513cedbeb6c8.pdf
0094c72fee3e0a90dc260c1c9870cdcc
PDF Text
Text
Emmaus: Now You See Him; Now You Don’t
Eastertide
Luke 24:13-35 Text: Luke 24:31
Richard A. Rhem
Christ Community Church
Spring Lake, Michigan
April 30, 2000
Transcription of the spoken sermon
My name is Cleopas, not that it matters a great deal, because I didn't have
anything particularly outstanding about me or any reason to be noticed in the
Gospel narrative of the appearance story that was read a moment ago, but I was
chosen as the example, I suppose, of that which was the experience of so many. I
went to the Passover celebration; I was a part of that larger movement that was
following Jesus and hoped that something would happen in Jerusalem, hoping
that, somehow or other, we didn't know how, but somehow or other, God would
move upon that city, would move through that man in whom we had come to
trust, believe, and in whom our hopes were placed. I was there when he entered
the city with acclamation. I was there when he made his bold statement in the
Temple. I was proud of him, the courage, the unflinching courage with which he
made his claim and pointed us to the eternal God, the God of Abraham, Isaac,
and Jacob. I was there when they crucified my Lord.
The next day, Saturday, was the Jewish Sabbath, of course, but the day after any
kind of a trauma becomes a rather formal affair. One just sort of goes through the
motions. Thank God there was that ordinary Sabbath day to be observed,
something one could just simply plod through without thinking, without feeling,
just to get through.
But, Sunday dawned like your Monday, and I was beside myself. It's as though
the whole world came crashing in around my ears. Oh, there were some rumors.
Some women said they'd been to the tomb and that it was empty and they had
seen the vision of angels, but no one gave it much credence. Around noon, I said
to a friend of mine, "You know, I have to get out of here. I'm going to burst open
if I don't get away from Jerusalem and all of the memories and all of the crushed
hopes and dreams. I can't stand it; I have to get out of here. Let's go to Emmaus."
He said, "Fine. I'll join you."
Well, you know how it is; you think you can escape; you think you can get away,
leave it all behind you, but you can't, and so we found ourselves on the road,
© Grand Valley State University
�Emmaus: Now You See Him; Now You Don’t
Richard A. Rhem
Page 2
taking apart every aspect of the week, trying to figure out what went wrong,
wondering where was God and questioning our own understanding. How could
we have gotten so mixed up about who this was and what might have happened
through him? It was strange as we – obviously, as deeply in depression as we
were as we left the city limits – sensed a presence with us, and sure enough, a
stranger came up alongside us and said, "What is this conversation you're
having?" Well, I couldn't believe anybody didn't know what had just happened in
Jerusalem. But, he said, "No, what things?"
And so, I told him, "Jesus of Nazareth, a man mighty with God, a prophet whom
we hoped would set Israel free, they killed him. He's dead. And it's over. And
frankly, we're just running away."
And then, you know, the strangest thing happened. The stranger began to give us
a Bible lesson like I've never had in my life. Oh, all the things he mentioned were
familiar; I knew them from a child, all those scripture passages to which he
referred. But, the case he was making is that we had totally mis-read our own
scriptures, that what had just happened, after all, was something that we might
have known would happen inevitably if we had understood our own scriptures.
He took us into the Torah of Moses and through the Psalms and the prophets, all
very familiar to me, but I was hearing it again as for the first time. It was all very
familiar to me, but I never understood it before; I never put it together before; I
never had a clue before. I knew the Psalmist's cry, “My God, my God, why hast
Thou forsaken me?” I knew the suffering servant's story of Isaiah 53, the Lamb
led to the slaughter. I knew the one who without violence does not lift up his
voice in the street, but who with gentleness will never break a bruised reed or
snuff out a smoldering wick. I knew all of that, but I never put it together. I guess,
as a matter of fact, I was more turned on by, for example, the fiery prophet Elijah.
My own expectation, I suppose, was shaped by Malachi who was looking for one
to come to judge, to bring fire from heaven. And all of that other stuff in there, it's
all there, but somehow or other I never identified it with Jesus. I guess I'd have to
say I never recognized who he was at all. It was probably my own agenda I was
projecting on to him, thinking about sitting on thrones and judging Israel and
being in the top spot for the new regime. It was a Bible lesson like I'll never
forget. In retrospect, my friend and I talking about it later realized that while it
was going on, our hearts were burning, our hearts were palpitating. There was a
blood rushing through our system; something amazing was happening to us.
We approached the village and the stranger was going to go on, but we
encouraged him to stay with us and we came to the evening meal, and again, a
rather strange thing happened - he who was our guest became our host. He took
bread, blessed it and broke it and gave it to us, and we knew it was he. Our eyes
were opened; we recognized him. It was Jesus. He was with us. He was alive! Just
the moment we began to feel the excitement rise and the joy break over, he was
gone. Vanished from our sight. Disappeared. No trace of him.
© Grand Valley State University
�Emmaus: Now You See Him; Now You Don’t
Richard A. Rhem
Page 3
Well, you can imagine we couldn't put all that together, but one thing was certain
- even though the day was far spent, we headed right back to Jerusalem and you
know what we found there? Well, he'd also appeared to Simon and so there was
already a party underway and they were celebrating and we said to one another,
"The Lord is risen. The Lord is risen, indeed."
And then, there he was again! Strange.
Well, that's my story. But, you understand, the version of it that you have in the
evangelist's Luke's Gospel is a version of my story some fifty years later, wellhoned. If you read Luke or, for that matter, Matthew or Mark, you'd think it was
all settled on Easter Sunday afternoon. Of course, that wasn't the way it was. It
was my experience, but it was my experience condensed. It was my experience as
example of the experience of that numberless crowd that had put their hopes on
Jesus and found their dreams smashed and who eventually came, as I came, to
experience him once again alive. Because what the evangelist wanted to do was,
in concise a manner as possible, tell the good news, and so, it's all in there, but it's
sort of squashed together, that disappointment, that disillusionment, that
sadness of heart.
Oh, my God, it was awful and it didn't evaporate in a day or a week or a month or,
frankly, for a year. We pretty much scattered after that traumatic crucifixion,
back to Galilee, into the Judean countryside, sad of heart, with crushed hopes and
broken dreams, wondering if there was any meaning to anything, wondering if
one could believe anything anymore, wondering if one ever could put one's trust
in someone or something, wondering if the noblest ideas and ideals of the human
family would amount to anything, ideals of freedom and love and justice, whether
grace and mercy, whether any of that would make any difference in the long run.
Of course, you don't have an experience as we had with Jesus, even through the
trauma of the crucifixion, without continuing to reflect on it, to think about it,
and that Bible lesson that he gave us, of course, points to the fact that that is
exactly what we did. We went back to our scriptures and we scoured them for
some clue as to what in the world we had just experienced, and we did find the
Psalm, "My God, my God, why has Thou forsaken me?" we did find the Lamb led
to the slaughter, we did find all of those pointers that represent the graciousness
of God in humility. As we did, we began to share with one another, and as we
came together, we told Jesus stories and as we told Jesus stories and as we
remembered, now and again, here and there, it was like he was really there. And,
of course, for him in the days of his flesh, when he was with us, the meal was
always the high point and everybody was welcome and he would take the bread
and bless it and break it and give it to us. I remember the first time I gathered
with a few friends as we had been talking about our hopes, our dreams, our
disillusionments, and our sadness, and someone took the bread, it was like Jesus
was there. It was as though his presence was as tangible as the presence of the
© Grand Valley State University
�Emmaus: Now You See Him; Now You Don’t
Richard A. Rhem
Page 4
one next to me, and we knew, in that community, breaking bread together, that
he was alive.
And so, as we began to understand with new eyes, as we looked at old, familiar
scriptures and suddenly saw something we'd never seen before, hope began to
rise in us and we began more and more to experience the wonder of that presence
that was full of grace. And then, we came to the most amazing discovery of all and
it was simply this - that Jesus wasn't about Jesus at all. Jesus was about God.
That's why he never pointed to himself. That's why he never put himself forward.
That's why he was marked by such humility, such gracefulness. That's why he was
like one who refused to be the broker of the grace of God but, rather, said God is
accessible to you all and grace is for you all. That's why he never set up shop and
hung up his shingle because he wasn't about himself. He was about God. He was
a God-presence. God was embodied somehow or other in that one, and when we
were with him, we sensed the presence of God, and now the amazing thing was
that he was dead and we experienced him alive, really just as before. We couldn't
reach out and touch him as once we did, but he was there.
Was it his spirit? Was it God's Spirit? I don't know. But, this I know - this we
came to discover, that Jesus wasn't about Jesus. Jesus was about God and the fact
that Jesus was no longer in the flesh was not at all any handicap for our
experience of God as we experienced it when he was in the flesh.
Can you sense what I am trying to say? I don't know how to say it any differently
than that. If s like he wasn't there, but he was there. But, not being there,
whatever we experienced when he was there, was the same, just as real. When we
looked one another in the eye, when we held the one we loved, when we gathered
in community, breaking bread, our eyes would be opened and we would know the
presence of God.
So, you see, I guess what I want to say to you is, maybe if you could, you would
have liked to have been there. But, to have been there then in the days of his flesh
would be no advantage to where you are now, because, as a matter of fact, he was
the mediator of that mystery of life, that ultimate ground of all being, that
creative spirit, that source of all, that guide of all, that goal of all. He simply was
the presence of that One living God, whom death can never destroy, and he
embodied forgiveness and love and justice and peace which all of the cruelty and
violence and ignorance in the world can never put to death.
So, you see, that's what the evangelists were trying to tell you when they honed
the experience of the whole community over decades. They called it my story,
Cleopas, and it was my story, but it wasn't really my story as though it happened
just like that. Oh, there was real history there. That's why 2000 years later you're
still struggling with it, but I have to admit that I am amazed and somewhat
amused at how much you struggle to figure out what really happened. I want to
tell you - we couldn't figure out what really happened. But, it was the presence. It
was the God-presence. It was the embodiment of grace and community. It was
© Grand Valley State University
�Emmaus: Now You See Him; Now You Don’t
Richard A. Rhem
Page 5
the deep assurance that when the powers of darkness had done their worst, light
burst forth and the last word was not sadness, but joy, not a broken heart, but a
burning heart, not death, but life.
© 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
Eastertide II
Scripture Text
Luke 24:31
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-0-20000430
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2000-04-30
Title
A name given to the resource
Emmaus: Now You See Him, Now You Don't
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Richard A. Rhem
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
<a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a>
Subject
The topic of the resource
Clergy--Michigan
Reformed Church in America
Christ Community Church (Spring Lake, Mich.)
Sermons
Relation
A related resource
Richard A. Rhem - An Archive of Sermons, Prayers, Talks and Stories: http://richardrhem.org/
Language
A language of the resource
eng
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Sound
Text
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
audio/mp3
application/pdf
Description
An account of the resource
A sermon given by Richard A. Rhem (Dick) on April 30, 2000 entitled "Emmaus: Now You See Him, Now You Don't", on the occasion of Eastertide II, at Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI. Scripture references: Luke 24:31.
Epiphany
Humility
Jesus
Presence of God