1
12
2
-
https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/bfb1c800a9adfe0ec9458566769fceb5.pdf
345e4ec1d8472d3a9711ca08c8b67dda
PDF Text
Text
What Is Good News?
Article by
Richard A. Rhem
Minister of Preaching and Theological Inquiry
Christ Community Church
Spring Lake, Michigan
Published in
The Church Herald
The Magazine of the Reformed Church in America
February 1989, pp. 24-27
The goal of preaching is not to get something said, but to get something heard. So
contends Fred Craddock in his popular textbook, Preaching. That may sound
obvious, but it is not so at all, at least not from the perspective of the preacher.
Far too often, we who are called to the task of the weekly proclamation
concentrate exclusively on developing something to say and fail to recognize that
the problem is not to say Something, but rather...to be heard. We must never rest
content with delivering a message; we must exercise our best gifts and our
strenuous effort to get a message heard that forms in the consciousness of the
congregation and shapes God's people.
To make this claim is not to deny that whatever is effected through the preached
word is finally the work of the Spirit of God, the Spirit who caused the Word to be
written and who must make it in the moment of proclamation the living Word
that effects the purpose of God. Such a conviction, however, must not be used by
the preacher to evade the responsibility to work seriously at the task of preaching
so as to be effective.
Hans van der Geest studied the effects of preaching from a psychological
perspective. A supervisor in clinical pastoral education in a hospital in
Switzerland, van der Geest became interested in the personality of the preacher
and its impact on effectiveness in the pulpit. Presence in the Pulpit: The Impact
of Personality in Preaching reports his findings and presents a serious challenge
to the traditional emphasis in the training of preachers. Practicing preachers, too,
could profitably evaluate their own practices in the light of what van der Geest
has discovered.
Van der Geest was surprised to find that the most important quality in the
preaching event mentioned by those surveyed was the personal manner of the
preacher. This might well send shock waves through a church of the Reformed
tradition with its heavily intellectual bent. Yet van der Geest, himself steeped in
© Grand Valley State University
!
�What Is Good News?
Richard A. Rhem
Page 2!
the Dutch Reformed Church, found again and again that the content of what is
said is much less important for the process of engaging the listeners than most
textbooks on preaching allow.
The author raises the questions that immediately come to mind as one views the
results of this psychological perspective on preaching: Are we now going to judge
preaching's effectiveness by whether or not it satisfies people? Is it legitimate to
judge preaching by psychological effect?
Van der Geest contends that the listeners' statements of response as to what they
actually experienced have great value:
It's not just primitive or, for that matter, illegitimate wishes alive in them,
but also expectations wakened by worship services in the past and still
alive. At least in part these expectations are a reflection of what a worship
service and sermon intend to mean to a congregation.
Taking the needs of the congregation seriously as they present themselves at
worship is imperative. Van der Geest isolates three dimensions in the experience
of a worship service that must be present if the basic needs that people bring to
worship, and specifically to the sermon, are to be met effectively: the renewal and
restoration of basic trust; a hope for deliverance, a sense of release from the
everyday burdens and struggles of life; and a new perspective from which to gain
understanding in light of the gospel. Security, deliverance, understanding: apart
from these three dimensions, all of which must be present, a sermon will be less
than effective and people will leave without the feeling of having been personally
addressed.
These three dimensions can be delineated for the sake of analysis, but they
cannot be separated; they comprise a unity in the worship event. Van der Geest
writes:
There is admittedly a security without release, but it is an infantile security
addressing only immature people; and without understanding, it is naive.
Release without security is irrelevant; release without understanding is not
dependable. Understanding without security is impersonal; without
release it is sterile. The three dimensions are intimately related. They are
variations of the trio of love, hope and faith.
Security
People need to feel they are being addressed as individuals. In psychological
terms this need represents the necessity of having our basic trust renewed at
regular intervals. Psychologist Erik H. Erikson coined the expression primal
trust, the development in earliest infancy of the conviction that life in this world
is a good thing. Theologically, it is the fundamental conviction of being loved and
secured by God. While primal trust is formed in us through the earliest
© Grand Valley State University
�What Is Good News?
Richard A. Rhem
Page 3!
experiences of infancy, it is in need of constant renewal. In the face of the deepest
and final questions of life, people need the confirmation of this basic trust in the
worship service.
The questions that play on most people, according to van der Geest, include Do I
have a future? Am I lost or supported? Do I have ground under my feet? Am I left
alone by myself, or is there help? Do I have to defend myself, brace myself, or
should I relax and be giving? Does it make sense to have courage, or should I be
resigned? Life is simple for only very few. Disturbances and dangers are the daily
bread of most. What are people at worship seeking? Here are some sample
responses: I want to forget day-to-day sufferings for a while. I am looking for
strength for the coming week. I would like to get out of the rat race and find a
little quietness. No more arguments. I want a little peace now. Someone has to
talk kindly to us once in a while, too, and give us courage.
Is worship simply a comforter? Is there not also a disturbing side of the gospel?
To be sure. But, as van der Geest points out, what he is advocating is not simply
an affirmation of the status quo. There is more to worship than the renewal of
primal trust, but for anything positive to result, it is essential that the people of
God come into contact with the living God, the God in whose love they rest.
How can this happen through preaching? Van der Geest's research reveals that
feelings of security are aroused only if love is expressed. "Whenever people go
into a worship service to find feelings of security, they are seeking love, clear
signs of love." This happens where the preacher is perceived to be sincere and
genuine in his or her concern for the congregation as individuals. The use of firstperson singular pronouns signals the preacher's personal commitment.
Body language is important, at least as important as the verbal language of
content. A cool, distant preacher signals a lack of emotional involvement.
Rhetorical skill is desirable, but it will never make up for authentic caring and
sincerity.
Colloquial language gives the congregation the sense of being addressed
personally. Pulpit language and any affectation of manner or tone build a wall
between pulpit and pew.
To achieve a renewal of basic trust, a sense of being loved of God, the
congregation's members must sense that they are taken seriously. Just as the
preacher must express personal commitment through the use of the first person
pronoun, so the people must be addressed as "you" and invited to participate in
the proclamation. The sense of participation is heightened by the avoidance of
heavy dependence on a manuscript or written notes, according to van der Geest.
There is much more at stake than those who support the writing down and
reading from notes believe. The personal style, the direct address
indispensable for awakening trust, is in general seriously impaired by
© Grand Valley State University
�What Is Good News?
Richard A. Rhem
Page 4!
reading from notes. This is the case because not only the content, but
precisely the presentation—including the visible—is essential for gaining
access to the realm of emotion. But what does such reading from notes
show us, no matter how sophisticated it's done? The sermon does not
emerge; it comes from yesterday. The preacher misses the "act of
restructuring during the moment of speaking."
The sermon should be as natural as conversation. This, of course, does not mean
less preparation, but more. Preaching personally is speaking in the name of God;
it is not delivering a treatise about God.
Finally, the preacher must communicate a clear expectation of the mystery of
God. From his research van der Geest concludes that "the real mystery of
encounter occurs for the experience of the congregation in the relationship
between the preacher and the listeners."
Deliverance
From the analysis of listener reaction, van der Geest found not only the need for
security but also for a sense of release, of deliverance from the anguish of the
human experience. Deliverance cannot come through a denial of the darkness. If
the dark side of life is not taken seriously, if life’s tragic dimension is rendered
harmless, the congregation will be disappointed and leave dissatisfied. Rather,
van der Geest argues:
The people in a worship service want to have light offered to them in the
darkness of their lives; they want to see the hopelessness of day-to-day life
surpassed by a perspective which can’t be found in that day-to-day life
itself. They yearn for a deliverance from the misfortune, oppression, and
the misery which are, after all, a part of life. In this dimension the key is
the encounter with that aspect of the message which awakens hope, the
words about the beyond. This is the message the worshipers are waiting
for, the language of release.
The congregation looks to the preacher to communicate a hope that is incredible
and that becomes believable only as the preacher manifests a personal wonder
that such a hope should be true. What is sought here are not simplistic solutions
to life's complexity. The reality of darkness must be acknowledged on the one side
and, on the other side, the preacher himself or herself must have sifted through
the results of the modern critical study of the biblical text. But finally the
preacher must take responsibility for the text as it appears relevant to him or her
and then proclaim the incredibly hopeful news of the gospel in the face of the real
anguish of the human situation.
The yearning for release or deliverance presupposes that there is nothing within
the framework of human possibility that can effect transformation. It is into such
a situation of human impossibility that the "nevertheless" of the gospel is spoken,
© Grand Valley State University
�What Is Good News?
Richard A. Rhem
Page 5!
thus arousing wonder. The preacher's own astonishment is fundamental. "For the
mediation of this improbable thing preachers must themselves be struck by the
miraculous."
When a preacher unconsciously ceases to feel the joy and freedom of the gospel
or, even worse, has never really personally experienced the grace of God,
preaching becomes legalistic and moralistic, burdening the congregation with the
tyranny of "we must," "we should," "we ought." Still, the obligation of the gospel
must be made clear, recognizing the reality of guilt and calling for commitment to
a higher standard.
Understanding
If in a sermon trust is awakened and the message of deliverance through the
gospel clearly proclaimed, there remains yet a decisive element. Listener
responses point to that missing element: He was too sure about God and the
beyond for my taste. It's too bad she turned away from the difficult things so
quickly. I don't really know what to do with this unquestionable faith. My
unbelief wasn't taken into consideration.
Listeners are not always ready or able to accept the message. The hymns and
prayers are easier to receive with trust; much greater demands are made of the
sermons. The analysis of listeners' responses reveals that the congregation both
challenges the sermon's claims and, at the same time, hopes to be convinced and
persuaded of its truth. The preacher must reckon with the rhythm of human
experience that is never static, but always moving between the poles of trust and
doubt. It looks like a game, but it is no malicious game; doubts are spread out and
the preacher is tested, but the listener does not want to win the game; he hopes in
fact to lose, to be overcome.
The listener wants to be convinced of the truth of the gospel, but the problem the
preacher faces is that persuasion is being required in an area of life in which
logical arguments have almost no value. Discursive reasoning does not suffice;
rather, it is the preacher's own deep, warm, and living faith that persuades. Says
van der Geest:
The truth sought again by the people in a worship service is not an
objective one, but is rather an existential truth precipitating engagement
and participation, not cool ascertainment...: in the act of persuasion itself
the emotional effect of the renewal of trust is inseparably connected with
cognitive understanding. That process of being persuaded is thus a total
experience, not just an intellectual comprehension.
Sermons must be planned with the temptation to doubt in mind, but the doubt
raised by the text, not the doubt raised by the great religious-existential questions
of life. These questions arising out of tragedy, pain, and human anguish are not
© Grand Valley State University
�What Is Good News?
Richard A. Rhem
Page 6!
helpfully addressed in preaching. The Christian proclamation does not solve life's
inscrutable mysteries but rather announces the reign of God.
The doubts aroused by the text and the resistance of the listener to the
proclamation of the gospel are not removed by logical, conceptual speech of
discursive reasoning. Rather, it is through story, image, and graphic speech that
persuasion is achieved. Narrative preaching is widely advocated today and
preaching as story is in vogue. Van der Geest's research would indicate that this is
more than a fad, the swing of the pendulum. He points out:
In contrast to the more conceptual approach, something graphic causes
the listeners themselves to become active. Concepts are finished products
which the listeners simply register. They need only to think, to think
abstractly. But if the preacher tells a story, the listeners themselves
construct the forms of the people, the appearances of the events. Now they
can experience something.
Images and stories are suited to the Christian proclamation; concepts are not.
The sermon must activate the listeners' imaginations. Existential truth is grasped
through metaphorical language. As the imagination is stimulated, a person's own
creativity is engaged. Such preaching becomes dialogue. The listeners find
themselves in the story and re-experience their own joy and pain, disappointment
and hope. They are able to identify with the story's situation and characters.
Graphic speech touches more than the cognitive level of our understanding; it
reaches to the subconscious level of inner vision where truth is grasped as a
whole.
In this kind of evidence precisely the apparently impossible happens: The
unseen becomes seen. This occurrence is always impressive and
precipitates intense surprise. People are encountering their life's truth.
Rational, objective truth does not require this kind of evidence; sense perception
and logical argumentation are sufficient. In the worship service and the sermon,
existential truth is being sought. The one who thus perceives is engaged, "struck
at the very roots, and his or her whole life is affected: feeling, thinking, inner
vision and will."
The goal of preaching is not to get something said, but to get something heard.
The experience of the worshiper is thus critical for the evaluation of preaching.
The people have cried out, this is who we are, and this is what we need. Effective
preaching will renew their basic trust, give them a sense of deliverance, and
provide a new perspective, a fresh insight to the understanding. Where these
three dimensions are present, the listener will feel spoken to by the preacher and
by God.
Reference:
© Grand Valley State University
�What Is Good News?
Richard A. Rhem
Hans Van der Geest. Presence in the Pulpit: The Impact of Personality in
Preaching. John Knox Press, 1st English edition, 1981.
© Grand Valley State University
Page 7!
�
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Richard A. Rhem Collection
Description
An account of the resource
Text and sound recordings of the sermons, prayers, services, and articles of Richard Rhem, pastor emeritus of Christ Community Church in Spring Lake, Michigan, where he served for 37 years. Starting in the mid 1980's, Rhem began to question some of the traditional Christian dogma that he had been espousing from the pulpit. That questioning was a first step in a long and interesting spiritual journey, one that he openly shared with his congregation. His journey is important, in part because it is reflective of the questioning, the yearnings, and the gradual revision of beliefs that many persons in this part of the century have experienced and continue to experience. It is important also because of the affirming and inclusive way his questioning was done and his thinking evolved. His sermons and other written and spoken materials together document the steps in his journey as it took a turn in 1985, yet continued to revolve around the framework and liturgies of the Christian calendar.
Subject
The topic of the resource
Clergy--Michigan
Reformed Church in America
Christ Community Church (Spring Lake, Mich.)
Religion
Interfaith worship
Sermons
Sound Recordings
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Rhem, Richard A.
Source
A related resource from which the described resource is derived
<a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/514">Richard A. Rhem papers (KII-01)</a>
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives.
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
Kaufman Interfaith Institute
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
<a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a>
Language
A language of the resource
English
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Sound
Text
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
KII-01
Coverage
The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant
1981-2014
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
audio/mp3
text/pdf
Text
A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text.
References
Hans Van der Geest, Presence in the Pulpit, 1981
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
RA-4-19890201
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1989-02-01
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Text
Title
A name given to the resource
What is Good News? Great sermons must embrace the 3 basic needs of those who listen
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
The Church School Herald Journal
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Richard A. Rhem
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
<a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a>
Language
A language of the resource
eng
Description
An account of the resource
Article created, delivered, or published by Richard A. Rhem (Dick) on February 1, 1989 entitled "What is Good News? Great sermons must embrace the 3 basic needs of those who listen", it appeared in The Church Herald, Feb. 1989, pp. 24-27. Tags: Preaching, Gospel, Trust, Love, Mystery, Hope, Sympathy. Scripture references: Hans Van der Geest, Presence in the Pulpit, 1981.
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
application/pdf
Gospel
Hope
Love
Mystery
Preaching
Sympathy
Trust
-
https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/bd9b5344140ce02c53bde00522ae6fbd.pdf
407342191b63529483b83bed3b9df3b6
PDF Text
Text
Good News
From the series: Faith in Jesus: Trust in God
Text: Luke 1:1-14; Luke 24:13-17, 28-35
Richard A. Rhem
Christ Community Church
Spring Lake, Michigan
Eastertide II, April 18, 1993
Transcription of the spoken sermon
Many have undertaken to draw up an account of the things that have been fulfilled among us,
just as they were handed down to us by those who from the first were eyewitnesses and servants
of the word. Luke 1:1-14
… As they talked and discussed these things with each other, Jesus himself came up and walked
among with them; but they were kept from recognizing him. Luke 24:13-17
Then the two told what had happened on the way, and how Jesus was recognized by them when
he broke the bread. Luke 24: 28-35
We made a move last week. Easter was the hinge. We are making a shift from our
Lenten pilgrimage in which we focused on the faith of Jesus, an examination of
those things that Jesus believed—the deep convictions of Jesus’ life that shaped
the way he lived, and the message he proclaimed, and the ministry he performed.
We saw that Easter, when the crucified one is brought to life by God, was an
affirmation, was a confirmation of that way of Jesus—the resurrection of Jesus by
the power of God. And the Christian movement understood this resurrection as
God’s ‘yes’ to Jesus—as the seal of God’s approval on the way Jesus lived and
what Jesus taught.
Now in the season of Eastertide, I want us to see how the Christian movement,
coming out of the womb of Judaism as it did and drawing its vision from Jesus
the Jew, came to define itself as having faith in Jesus. The difference is in the
preposition. The immediate community around Jesus experienced that
resurrection as “Good News,” as wonderful “Good News.” That “Good News”
would eventually trigger a new genre into the literary world. The Gospels are
really a literary genre of writing all their own. They are not biographies, not
chronicles of the days of Jesus’ life. They are faith documents, proclamations of
faith from a particular theological understanding. It is the life of Jesus seen
through the lens of Easter, and it is a celebration full of joy in that triumph of the
resurrection.
© Grand Valley State University
�Good News
Richard A. Rhem
Page 2
When those first witnesses encountered Jesus, they reached for a way to express
what they sensed, felt. How were they to explain it? What was their experience?
What do you think? How might you have described it? Here was one who had
been crucified, and with the shattering of faith and all of the disappointment that
surrounded the darkest of all days, this one who had been crucified was present.
There was a presence, and there was a power, and it was personal, and it was
Jesus. It was the one who had been crucified who they sensed was with them.
How were they to explain it? They spoke of resurrection.
The idea of resurrection did not arise with Jesus’ resurrection. The idea of
resurrection had been in Jewish faith, at least in Pharisaic thought, for a couple of
centuries. There was a growing conviction in Judaism in those centuries that God
would raise the righteous, who were suffering under the heel of the oppressor.
The Jewish people believed they were God’s elect and chosen people, and that in
their terrible sufferings God would not leave them destitute, but God would raise
the righteous. In Daniel there is a statement to that effect. So the idea of
resurrection was not introduced with the experience of Jesus risen from the dead.
I think often in the Christian Church we have stressed in the Easter event the
empty tomb, the objectivity, the factual nature of it. Actually, to be honest, it was
not that historically objective. It wasn’t the kind of thing that you could
demonstrate and prove. Luke starts out his Gospel by saying, “I have been aware
of these things from the beginning. I have studied them very carefully, and I am
going to give you an orderly account of these things. I think that we have a
document whose historicity, whose reliability we can count on. Nonetheless, it is
a document of faith.” And as a matter of fact the appearance of Jesus was not the
resuscitation of a corpse, so that you go down the street and you see somebody
you haven’t seen for a while. You shake hands and you say, “How nice to see you
again. Hi, Jesus. Gee, I thought it was all over. How are you?” No, it wasn’t that.
There was something strange about it. It wasn’t the resuscitation of a corpse.
I used the prophecy in Ezekiel 37 in the Easter message last week. In the valley of
dry bones the Spirit of God, or the wind of God, blows across those dry bones and
they begin to come together. They get sinews and flesh, and they stand up like a
living army. The point of that is that it is the Breath of God. It is the Spirit of God
that enlivens. It is not the fact that the dry bones actually become living again.
Too many of us like to hang on to that empty tomb as if to say, “doesn’t that prove
it?” Too many of us cling to the empty tomb as though Jesus was laid in that
tomb and three days later his corpse came to life and he walked out. Perhaps that
imagery is almost inevitable. We tend to think in concrete images. And that can
be misleading.
The old funeral committal liturgy – we have a new one now with which I am more
comfortable – but you’ve probably heard these words at a grave side: “To
Almighty God we commend this God’s servant, looking for the general
resurrection in the last day, through the Lord Jesus Christ, who’s coming in
© Grand Valley State University
�Good News
Richard A. Rhem
Page 3
glorious majesty to judge the world…” And then this, “The earth and the sea will
give up their dead.” Now if you take that literally, over here in Spring Lake in the
cemetery, all of a sudden, Whoosh! There they go! Or, say you are out on a
Caribbean cruise and suddenly the sea at the Bermuda Triangle just kind of
erupts with bodies. Is that how we must take that image, so concretely, so
physically, of the resuscitation of corpses?
We do need concrete imagery. It helps us. It is really all we know. But listen to the
rest of the concrete, physical descriptions in the Gospel accounts. In the Gospel,
Luke for example has Jesus at one point sitting down at table and eating fish, but
that probably was in order to say, “Look this wasn’t a fantasy. It wasn’t a
phantom, a ghost.” We are talking about real personal presence. On the night of
Easter the disciples are behind a closed door and suddenly Jesus is there. I mean
he “appears” - doors and windows are barred. How does he do this? No
explanations are given. Then there is the story of the two guys walking on the
Road to Emmaus and somebody joins them. They don’t recognize him at first.
Now please, they don’t recognize Jesus? When he agrees to sit down at table with
them, when he blesses the bread and breaks it and gives to them, then, says the
author, “their eyes are opened.” But once they recognize him in the breaking of
bread – whoosh, he’s gone!
The body the Gospel writers speak of is able to do things no resuscitated body
could do. Whatever Luke has to say about him having a filet of halibut, he didn’t
need fish to sustain that spiritual body. A spiritual body. It seems a contradiction
in terms and it can be confusing. The New Testament witnesses - how were they
to express it? This one whom they knew to have been crucified, dead, buried, was
experienced as alive, powerful, present personally. So they struggled to give
witness to their conviction.
That experience finds stammering expression in the Bible, using various images
and metaphors, but it breaks down when we try to use language because it is an
inexpressible experience. What was their Easter faith?
It was Good News to them because it said to them that the God of Israel had said
‘yes’ to the Way of Jesus. They were following Jesus. They had listened. They had
heard. They had heeded. They were followers of Jesus. They had come to love
Jesus. Then on Good Friday it all ended in the darkness of Golgotha, and now
this one who had been crucified was alive and it was Good News to them because
it was a sign and seal to them that the Way of Jesus was the Way of God. It was a
sign that Jesus was right, that God was like Jesus said God was. That Jesus was
right over against the established religious authorities and the whole temple
authority structure. Their experience of a resurrected Jesus confirmed what Jesus
had promised, that God was a God of the abandoned, a God full of compassion, a
God of inclusive love, the embracing of the whole world, a God who would touch
and heal, a God who forgives. Not a God who was waiting for some kind of
sacrifice to be made in order that God might forgive, but a God like the Old
© Grand Valley State University
�Good News
Richard A. Rhem
Page 4
Testament Psalmist said, “Lord, if you should mark iniquity who could stand?
But there is forgiveness with you.” Jesus was right and the fact that the crucified
one was raised confirmed in the hearts of his followers that Jesus was right. That
was good news to them.
You know there was nothing in the faith in the risen Jesus of those early Jewish
followers, those disciples that would have necessitated the breaking off of the
Christian Church. In the Eastern origins of the Christian movement there was no
need that it be separated from the womb of Judaism because they were in line
with that strain of Phariseeism that was looking for resurrection. Jesus was a
righteous one. God raised Jesus. If Peter and James had first met Jesus they
would have been dumbstruck, of course. But on reflection they would have said,
“Hallelujah, God raised the Kingdom. It’s true. Jesus said the Kingdom was
among us. The Kingdom is here.” Now, to be sure, they didn’t expect that one
would be raised; they were looking for a general resurrection. So Paul, a Jew,
writing that Letter to the Corinthians says, “Jesus raised as the first fruits, but the
first fruits are the first fruits of a harvest that is to follow very soon.” Obviously
those Jewish believers experiencing the crucified one living, named it
“resurrection” and expected the whole thing to explode very quickly. Well, it’s
been 2000 years, and it didn’t happen that way. But that doesn’t take away from
what their experience was of Jesus’ living presence. It was a confirmation of
Jesus’ Way, and they put their faith in Jesus. Again, not faith in Jesus in place of
faith in the God of Israel. It’s not as though now Jesus is God. It is that they had
faith in Jesus because of the God to whom Jesus pointed them. It was simply a
confirmation of the God of Israel who takes the side of the righteous, which was
their deepest conviction. It was Good News for them!
But it was more than that. It also, as I concluded last week, gave them hope. It
gave them hope that the world was not finally a Good Friday world, but an Easter
world. As I said last week, “I would follow Jesus if Good Friday were the last
chapter. I would follow Jesus if the cross were the end. I believe in Jesus’ way of
being human in this world. But if that were the end, there would be no hope.” In
our world especially with the media available to us, where into our living rooms
and into our dens and our kitchens, pour all of the images of the anguish of the
world, if I had no hope in God I would still want to follow Jesus. But I wonder if I
wouldn’t run out of gas and if that would not be to live with a terrible sense of
futility in the face of all that’s wrong in the world.
What’s going on in Bosnia, again this week – it seems like it is as bad as it can get,
but then it gets worse. The continuing drama around the world of Palestine and
Israel, and you name it, to say nothing of Los Angeles, of racism, of sexism, of
homophobia, of the divisions that tear people, of the moral vigilantes that would
blow up the world for the sake of their idea of God and truth. In a world of almost
unrelieved tragedy, if I did not believe in Easter, I think it would be almost
overwhelming when you look into the faces of the poor, of the refugee, of the
© Grand Valley State University
�Good News
Richard A. Rhem
Page 5
starving child, of the old woman with a babushka with marks of suffering on her
visage. It would be almost too much if it were a Good Friday world, period.
The Gospel means literally Good News because God didn’t leave Jesus dead; God
not only said ‘yes’ to Jesus’ Way, which I want to follow, but God also said,
“Righteousness will not always be crucified. Love will not always and forever be
defeated. Justice will not always be absent from the land.” I don’t know how. I
don’t know when. The images in the Bible, in the New Testament, in the Easter
community are rich pictures of a day when there is a city, a new Jerusalem, and
through the city there is a river of crystal and on the banks of the river are trees
whose leaves are for the healing of the nations. Images of a day when God will
make all things new and tears will be wiped away and there will be no more pain
and no more sorrow, no more death and crying. Images of an age that is ending
and a new age that is being born. They are all images. They are all stammering
attempts to say, “I believe in God. I believe in a God who is creator, whose breath
calls the dead to life, who vindicated the way of Jesus and one day, some way, will
make all things new.”
That’s Good News. That’s the Gospel.
© Grand Valley State University
�
https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/705d4e85a806c9319831cb2a3f839df1.mp3
090bf057ce6a0b7800a96e70c0ae10ce
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
Series
Faith in Jesus: Trust in God
Scripture Text
Luke 1:1-14, 24:13-17, 28-35
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-0-19930418
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1993-04-18
Title
A name given to the resource
Good News
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 18, 1993 entitled "Good News", as part of the series "Faith in Jesus: Trust in God", on the occasion of Eastertide II, at Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI. Scripture references: Luke 1:1-14, 24:13-17, 28-35.
Christian Community
Gospel
Nature of God
Resurrection
Way of Jesus