1 24 16 https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/d5c28eba52bceac36e29db9b19525523.pdf 900c5a3c6c3e1f097be9678d0acbb26d PDF Text Text Solidarity in The Way, The Truth, and The Life Thanksgiving Day Text: John 14:6 Richard A. Rhem Christ Community Church Spring Lake, Michigan Advent I, November 28, 1999 Transcription of the spoken sermon Someone who has become a good friend, Rabbi David Hartman, who has been in Muskegon on three different occasions in that full-day dialogue sponsored by the West Shore Committee for Jewish-Christian Dialogue, has sent me his most recent book, an autographed copy, and the title is the title of his lecture here a year or two ago - A Heart of Many Rooms. It's a wonderful image; a heart of many rooms is a heart that can receive and accommodate diversity of opinion and various perspectives on the truth. As I was reading the introduction, I realized that it is really a statement of David Hartman's life and passion as he lives in Jerusalem, having moved there from this country in order to be a part of that emerging Israeli experience, the living community of Jews returned to Jerusalem. In the introduction, he mentions an experience that he had back in the 70s. The Six Day War was going on and David Hartman was terribly distressed and recognized that the nation, Israel, was in jeopardy, and he said, "Oh, Lord God, if we are to experience another Holocaust, I'll not be able to do it. How long," he says, "could we continue to be witnesses to the silent God of history?" Well, Israel won that war and feeling compelled to go there, he visited Israel and he found that, in the wake of the victory of the Six Day War, the Jews were dancing in the streets of Jerusalem. There was a mood of jubilation. He was a Rabbi in a congregation in the Bronx or Montreal at the time, and he returned home on the ninth of Ab. Ab is a Jewish month in the Jewish calendar, and the ninth day of the month Ab is the day that the Jews traditionally mourn the destruction of Jerusalem that occurred by the Roman legions back in 70 C.E. The ninth of Ab every year they gather and they mourn the destruction of Jerusalem. So, he leaves the jubilation of the streets of Jerusalem, the living Jewish community, and he comes to his own people in his own synagogue and they are in mourning for the destruction of Jerusalem. The incongruity of it struck him, and he writes that it seemed like a parent who prays for the recovery of a sick child and the child recovers, and the parent continues to pray for recovery because he or she has fallen in love with the prayer. He announced to his people © Grand Valley State University   �Solidarity in The Way, The Truth, and The Life Richard A. Rhem Page 2   who were in mourning in traditional fashion for what had happened nearly 2000 years ago, that the people of Jerusalem were dancing in the street! That's one of those deep human experiences that has a way of changing one's thinking or at least jarring one out of traditional patterns and thought. David Hartman, from that moment on, began to ask himself, "What does it mean to engage the God of history in the present? What does it mean to engage the God of history in a live community, here and now?" That became the passion and the mission of his life. Eventually, he moved his family to Jerusalem and formed the Shalom Hartman Institute for the study of peace, trying in that living community itself to live out a vital Jewish faith, not now waiting.for Messiah to come, but seeing in the concrete realization of that Israeli community the action of God in the midst of history, trying to interpret it and trying.to live into it. As he reflected on that, he realized that, as a traditional, observant Jew, he had been living between history remembered and history anticipated. In the meantime, it was a time of passive waiting, which, in the Jewish experience, was explained as the time of the silence of God. Where was God when six million Jews suffered death? Where was God through all the centuries of history and the struggle and the suffering of the Jewish people? As a Rabbi, David Hartman had celebrated the great Jewish festivals which celebrated God's past action, and one of those festivals, the Passover, had an eschatological (future) dimension. The liturgy for Passover ends with "next year in Jerusalem." Thus Hartman realized he had been living with a "symbolic history" which "remembered" and which “hoped,” but missing was the sense of the immediate presence of God acting here and now. God was "silent." That triggered lots of thoughts with me as I thought about the first Sunday in Advent, today, and coming to this table of our Lord for we, too, today have experienced again participation and ritual and the sacrament, and the sacrament has called us to remember and to hope. That same eschatological note is in the sacrament. Jesus says in Luke's gospel, after having shared that meal, "I will not do it again with you until the kingdom fully comes." Paul, in the institution in I Corinthians 11, says that, "As often as we eat this bread and drink this cup we proclaim the Lord's death until he comes." So the Christian experience, very much like the Jewish experience, is lived in the meantime, between the mighty act of God in Jesus Christ, and that mighty act of God in Jesus Christ in the coming again to judge the nations. So we have action past, action anticipated. We remember and we hope and, in the meantime, we don't really take very seriously the active engagement of God in our history. If you want to know what's going on, you go to Washington or Beijing or Moscow or Paris or London. If you want to know what's going on, check the Wall Street Stock Market. If you want to know what's going on, read the journals. But God is not really very vividly present in our thinking about history, our history, our day, our nationv our world. A kind of passivity comes over the Church. © Grand Valley State University �Solidarity in The Way, The Truth, and The Life Richard A. Rhem Page 3   Oh, we're very good at remembering what God has done; we're very clear about what God will do. Jesus comes for our salvation. Jesus comes again for our full redemption. That's the story, that's the biblical story, that's the traditional Christian faith. And here it is, the first Sunday in Advent, the first season of the Christian year that will bring us into the first season of a new millennium, and we're doing it again. Traditionally, I would say to you Advent is the time when we remember that the one who came is coming again. Of course, I can't do that anymore because last year I told you Jesus wasn't coming again, and of course, you always believe everything I say. But I don't really think Jesus is coming again. I think that that idea of a second coming permeated the air of the first century. It marked Jewish expectation and the emerging. Christian movement; they were expecting the imminent return of Jesus from heaven. Imminent. That means right now, very soon. We've noted here before that the first great crisis and perhaps the greatest crisis of Christian faith is the fact that Jesus didn't return. Nothing happened. Paul had to write his letter to the Thessalonians because they laid off work and were waiting for it to happen. The expectation runs through the whole of the New Testament, and it didn't happen. And of course, if you have an infallible, inerrant Bible that you have to defend, you're in real trouble, because what you have to do is say that it will still happen. It just hasn't happened yet. But, if you can hear that scripture witness as the testimony of those who were giving witness to their deepest faith and conviction in the only kind of terms that they could understand, the conceptuality of their own context and history, then you can simply say they got it wrong. What they were expecting didn't happen and, if it didn't happen, there is not any reason to think that they were simply wrong in terms of a couple of thousand years, but rather, their understanding of what God had done in Jesus Christ was wrong. Well, yes and no. They got the core of it right, for they saw in Jesus Christ the embodiment of God. They saw in Jesus Christ the word made flesh. They experienced the presence of God in Jesus Christ, or, as our good Bishop Spong said here, the God presence. That's what the scripture lesson is about in John 14. Jesus says to them, "You know where I'm going," and Phillip doesn't know. He said, "We don't know the way. We don't know where you're going; how can we know the way?" Jesus said to him, "I am the way, the truth, and the life." And, of course, he went on to say, "No one comes to the father but by me." At least that's what John wrote decades after the event because that was what John felt, being a leader of a small persecuted minority movement. John wasn't talking, about whether or not the truth of God is held exclusively in Jesus Christ or that the whole world has to become Christian in order to come into communion with God. That wasn't even in the purview of what the writer was saying; the writer was trying to give witness to that which was the deepest experience of his life. He said, "In Jesus, my God," and so, we have that sixth verse, "I am the way, the truth, © Grand Valley State University �Solidarity in The Way, The Truth, and The Life Richard A. Rhem Page 4   and the life." And rather than some final, dramatic, divine intervention to right all the wrongs, to bring all things to consummation, to damn the wicked and rescue the righteous, I wonder if that wasn't something put on Jesus, but that Jesus himself was simply living out the God life so that those who encountered him could say, as John writes in this gospel, "If you've seen me, you've seen the father. How much plainer can I make it? In my flesh, this is the embodiment of God; this is what God is; this is what God is about; this, my way, is the way. This, my truth, is the truth. This, my life, this is life." I wonder in this season of Advent if, rather than the passivity that has marked us – waiting for the final act, I wonder if we really took Jesus seriously we might start a contagious consciousness of what, after all, we are called to be, so that it wouldn't simply be for us coming to this table remembering and hoping, remembering what God had done, anticipating what God would do, but rather, coming to this table understanding ourselves becoming the companions of Jesus. Bishop Spong also said that word, companion. I looked it up; he's right. It comes from the Latin - com, with; panis, with bread. To be a companion literally is with bread. You break bread with your companion, with your friend. You have a meal with your friend. Human relationship and human community is built in the meal. Too bad we have to do it symbolically with a little piece of bread and a little dip in the chalice. Too bad we can't throw out banquet tables and have conviviality. And then, in the midst of the meal, a real meal, experiencing the communion. But, this is all we can do, so we give you just a hint of what it really would be about. But what if, coming to that table was our declaration to be in solidarity with Jesus. That is, solidarity with the way of Jesus, the truth of Jesus, the life of Jesus. What if we really believed that God was in that one, so that that one, in the midst of our history was the pointer for the only hope of history, which is not for some dramatic coming again, but for the likes of us to quit Lolly-gagging through history, and like a David Hartman, saying "I'm going to go and I'm going to live in Israel because I want to experience the God I remember from past action in the present." It might make a difference in our world and, God knows, the world needs transformation. I mentioned to you Thursday I have been going.through the video series of World War II, narrated by Walter Cronkite. I watch those videos of the rise of Hitler. You see the brutality and the violence of the brown shirts. The other night I watched the invasion of Norway and Denmark. I could cry. How can we do that to one another? I remember watching Schindler's List, and I thought we ought to get the whole world together and make everyone look at that film. I saw Private Ryan, and said if only we could get the whole world to sit down together and then to look at each other across the table and to say we can never, never do that to each other again. The horror of it! The brutality of it! The inhumanity of it! The violence and the destruction that is a denial of everything about the way, the truth, and the life that came into expression in Jesus Christ. © Grand Valley State University �Solidarity in The Way, The Truth, and The Life Richard A. Rhem Page 5   The Dalai Lama, recently in the Golan Heights at a World Interfaith Conference, spoke of the third millennium as the millennium of peace. God knows we need it, rather than our religions fueling the divisiveness and the barriers and the hostility between people. If the world religions, whose core values point to peace, could use all of our energy and all of our efforts and resources to raise the consciousness, the human consciousness of the world to say we've got to stop killing each other, we've got to stop excluding each other, we've got to stop dominating each other, we have to do away with this arrogance, this triumphalism, this tribalism that will tear the human fabric apart. Think of the marvelous picture of the peaceable kingdom and the prophets, the shalom. David Hartman says, "That's not a picture of some future time and place. That's the immediate critique of every moment of history and every structure, economic, social, political, religious. Every structure and every moment of history comes under the critique of that ideal of shalom, of that magnificent picture, that glorious vision when they will not hurt or destroy in all God's holy mountain." My God, people, there's something to do! This isn't about some comic strip finality at the end of time. This is about right here and right now, and it's about you and me, companions of Jesus, who is the way and the truth and the life. References: Rabbi David Hartman. A Heart of Many Rooms: Celebrating the Many Voices within Judaism. Jewish Lights Pub, 2001. © Grand Valley State University � https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/e6129620c9affdddd295fb8d7cdc496e.mp3 d7a35a08139ac0f6f7ae1945bd11c43e Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Richard A. Rhem Collection Description An account of the resource Text and sound recordings of the sermons, prayers, services, and articles of Richard Rhem, pastor emeritus of Christ Community Church in Spring Lake, Michigan, where he served for 37 years. Starting in the mid 1980's, Rhem began to question some of the traditional Christian dogma that he had been espousing from the pulpit. That questioning was a first step in a long and interesting spiritual journey, one that he openly shared with his congregation. His journey is important, in part because it is reflective of the questioning, the yearnings, and the gradual revision of beliefs that many persons in this part of the century have experienced and continue to experience. It is important also because of the affirming and inclusive way his questioning was done and his thinking evolved. His sermons and other written and spoken materials together document the steps in his journey as it took a turn in 1985, yet continued to revolve around the framework and liturgies of the Christian calendar. Subject The topic of the resource Clergy--Michigan Reformed Church in America Christ Community Church (Spring Lake, Mich.) Religion Interfaith worship Sermons Sound Recordings Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Rhem, Richard A. Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/514">Richard A. Rhem papers (KII-01)</a> Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives. Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Kaufman Interfaith Institute Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Language A language of the resource English Type The nature or genre of the resource Sound Text Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context KII-01 Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant 1981-2014 Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource audio/mp3 text/pdf Sound A resource primarily intended to be heard. Examples include a music playback file format, an audio compact disc, and recorded speech or sounds. Event Advent I Series Memory and Hope Scripture Text John 14:6 Location The location of the interview Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI References Rabbi David Hartman, A Heart of Many Rooms, 2001 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context KII-01_RA-0-19991128 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1999-11-28 Title A name given to the resource Solidarity in The Way, The Truth, and The Life 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 November 28, 1999 entitled "Solidarity in The Way, The Truth, and The Life", as part of the series "Memory and Hope", on the occasion of Advent I, at Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI. Scripture references: John 14:6. Historical Jesus Way of Jesus https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/bd0958e0b23468c1b0e06363637568d8.pdf 3858645f84883019c07fb74e25de0eb2 PDF Text Text If God Is…That Means…But… From the series: God in the Mirror of a Human Face Text: Luke 7:28; Luke 6:27; 35-36 Richard A. Rhem Christ Community Church Spring Lake, Michigan Lent, March 7, 1999 Transcription of the spoken sermon This is the second Lenten sermon and the second week in a row with a funny title. Last week, "That Means ... And That Can’t Be." and I filled that in for you by saying that if the message of John the Baptist was right, that means that God is a violent God and that can’t be. And this week, "If God Is ... Then ... But .." Now, it must be obvious where I’m going with that again. If God is, indeed, nonviolent, as we suggested last week, in contrast to John’s image of God, taking our cue from Jesus instead, that means that we must be nonviolent, too, but ... but I’m not ready for that kind of discipleship. I’m not capable of that kind of discipleship. That means that if God is a God of nonviolent justice, then we, God’s people, are called to be a people of nonviolent justice, but do you realize how radical that is? This is so very important because, as we said last week, the God that we worship will shape us. Over a lifetime the God that we image in our worship and devotion will determine the kind of people that we are. We’ll be killer children of a killer God, or we’ll be nonviolent children of a nonviolent God of justice, and I suggest to you that it is critical to get a proper fix on the historical Jesus because Jesus is the human face that mirrors to us God, and that which is mirrored in the face of Jesus will give us insight into the nature and character of God, and the nature and character of God will determine the kind of people we are. That’s why it’s so very important to get it right with Jesus in order to get it right with God in order to get it right in our own lives. This morning I want to try to establish the fact that my statement last week that Jesus, indeed, presents an alternative vision and program to that of John the Baptist, can be read out of the Gospels themselves. It’s like a good detective story, but as we have come more and more to understand what we have in Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, the finished Gospel products have layers within them and there are pressures and forces that get pressed into a certain final portrait which still reveals the lines of some of that conflict within. And if you read Matthew, Mark, Luke and John about John the Baptist and Jesus, you get the impression, you get what was being created as the proper perspective, namely that John the © Grand Valley State University   �If God Is…That Means Richard A. Rhem Page 2   Baptist was the forerunner of Jesus the Messiah, and that there was continuity between the ministry of John and the ministry of Jesus. I want to suggest to you that, when you probe beneath the layers a bit, you will see that that was a patching over of what was break and discontinuity, that, at some point in the ministry of Jesus, Jesus moved from being a disciple of John the Baptist to creating his own alternative vision and program over against John the Baptist. John was an eschatological person. Jesus was an eschatological person. An eschatological person believes there is something fundamentally flawed about the way the world is organized. John believed it; Jesus believed it. A world organized around power with structures that perpetuate injustice, inequality, that lack mercy and compassion, that is marked by violence, is a world that a person who is eschatological, who is concerned about the end, must reject and protest against. An eschatological person is a person who wants the world to end the way it is, not the space-time world, necessarily, but just the way the world is, almost the normal way the world is. John believed the way the world is was fundamentally flawed; Jesus believed the way the world is was fundamentally flawed. And such a person, John and Jesus, both believed that there was a divine mandate to right the wrong of the world and that it couldn’t come just through human tinkering or human engineering, human ingenuity or human creativity, but rather, it had to be the act of God. There was a third element in being an eschatological person and that is how one lives out that conviction, and there are at least three ways that that has been done. The first way was John the Baptist and the apocalyptic vision, the sense of the imminent in breaking of God, to damn the wicked and establish the righteous, the winepress of the wrath of God overflows with the blood up to the horse’s bridle in a river of blood 200 miles long. We saw it last week in that vision in Revelation. The apocalyptic vision is the vision of the God Who will come in dramatically, violently. The final solution to the righting of the wrong of the world involves violence which edges towards vengeance. That was the God of John the Baptist. There’s another possible response to a conviction that the world is fundamentally wrong. You can withdraw from the world. There were communities at the time of John and Jesus, the Essenes, for example, the Qumran community, the communities connected with the Dead Sea scrolls. They left Jerusalem and went out into the wilderness, forming their own communities of prayer and fasting and waited for the appearing of the Messiah. They gave up on the world; they withdrew from the world into monastic community. There’s a third possibility and that’s the way of Jesus, staying in the heat of the battle, but making a protest nonviolently, being full of grace and compassion, making the protest obvious but nonviolently. Dom Crossan calls that ethical eschatology, and it is my conviction, and I didn’t invent this, but it is my © Grand Valley State University �If God Is…That Means Richard A. Rhem Page 3   conviction, on the basis of the study of the Gospels going back to an essay of 1962 by the Anglican Bishop, John A. T. Robinson, confirmed in current historical Jesus scholarship by the likes of Dom Crossan, I am convinced that if you look at those Gospels in the layered view, you will find that Jesus began as a disciple of John the Baptist, identifying with John’s mission, being baptized by John, but at some point rejected the vision of John, separated himself, went into Galilee and began his own mission on the basis of another vision. That’s what I believe can be established from a study of the Gospels if you weave it all together. It’s only in the fourth Gospel that we know that Jesus had a period of ministry before the Galilean ministry, a ministry down south in Judea where John was baptizing, and if you read the third chapter of John’s Gospel, the fourth Gospel, verses 22-30, you will find that John is carrying on his ministry of baptism and Jesus and his disciples are carrying on their ministry, and I would say at that time that Jesus and his disciples must have been considered a part of the Baptist movement. And then in the fourth chapter of John, in the first verse, you will find Jesus leaving the area and going through Samaria to Galilee. Then in that first verse of the fourth chapter of the fourth Gospel you will find an indication that maybe there was some competition developing between John and Jesus. (I’m so glad that in the religious life of today’s world, competition doesn’t exist anymore.) Whatever the reason, that movement from Judea in the south to Galilee in the north marked geographically a fundamental change in the vision and the mission of Jesus, and the change was the rejection of Apocalypticism and the movement to ethical eschatology, which is simply a protest carried out nonviolently. Jesus began with John and I’m sure it might even have been assumed that he would pick up the reins from John. Early in his ministry, only in the fourth Gospel does Jesus go to the temple and "cleanse" the temple. You remember that dramatic scene - Mark, Matthew, Luke tell us that it happened during Holy Week, but in Matthew, Mark and Luke, Jesus only goes to Jerusalem one time, and so if he’s going to cleanse the temple, it has to be during Holy Week. Now, if it was during Holy Week or not, I don’t know, but the interesting thing is that in the Fourth Gospel he goes to the temple very early in his ministry and further, during Holy Week, according to Matthew, Mark and Luke, when he cleanses the temple and they ask him by what authority, he says "By what authority did John baptize?" In other words, Jesus’ response in Holy Week with John long dead, connects his cleansing of the temple with John the Baptist. I suspect that John, the Fourth Gospel, may be right at this point, that Jesus went very early to cleanse that temple. Jesus was under the spell of John the Baptist. Jesus was waiting for God to come in dramatically to intervene and to bring about the ultimate judgment that involved violence, and his address at the temple at the early part of his ministry, according to the Fourth Gospel, is indicative that he was growing in the mode of John the Baptist. There’s another interesting thing in the early part of the Gospel. The temptation narratives – where Jesus is struggling in the wilderness according to what kind of © Grand Valley State University �If God Is…That Means Richard A. Rhem Page 4   person he is, what kind of ministry he is to have, what his identity is to be – are early in Matthew, Mark and Luke. John A. T. Robinson suggests that maybe those temptation narratives were indicative of the fact that Jesus, beginning with John the Baptist in the mode of John the Baptist, comes to a point of personal crisis and struggles with who he is to be, and he comes out of the wilderness, out of the temptation narratives. Go to Luke’s Gospel, in the fourth chapter, where Jesus is now in Galilee giving his inaugural sermon. What does he do? He stands up to preach, quoting Isaiah 61, "The spirit of the Lord is upon me, he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor and to give sight to the blind...." and that quotation concludes, "to proclaim the favorable year of the Lord." Now, if you go the Isaiah passage from which he is quoting, you will find out that the prophet did not stop at "the favorable year of the Lord." The prophet said, "to proclaim the favorable year of the Lord, the day of God’s vengeance." That is deleted. Either Jesus deleted it or Luke interpreting Jesus deleted it, but in any case, there is a very, very clear clue that Jesus was not about vengeance, and Luke, when he writes this Gospel, knows Jesus was not about vengeance, even though the passage from which Jesus quotes to proclaim his program and his vision of healing concluded with “the day of the Lord’s vengeance.” Jesus didn’t say it because he was no longer about a God of violence that edged toward vengeance. Jesus was about healing; he was about grace; he was about the stuff we read in that passage from the Sermon on the Mount, which is in Luke the Sermon on the Plain. That impossible stuff about turning the other cheek, about lending and not expecting it to be returned. That impossible ethic that comes out of Jesus and that sermonic material that says love your enemies. Love your enemies! Love your enemies, in order to emulate God. Be ye therefore merciful as God is merciful, God who is good to the selfish and the ungrateful. Or, in Matthew’s version, who causes the sun to shine on the just and the unjust, and the rain to fall on the gardens of the good and the evil, the God who make no discrimination. Be children of God, be merciful as God is merciful. Be compassionate as God is compassionate. Well, even in the dungeon in Marchaerus where John the Baptist who had been arrested was mouldering away, they slipped in The New York Times and he read what Jesus was about. Pansy stuff: healing, forgiving, being gracious, soft stuff, stuff that seemed to lack discrimination. Where was the fire! Where was the sickle being ready to be thrust into the vineyard to reap the earth in order that the winepress of the wrath of God might overflow? John had a vision for Jesus. It was the vision of Elijah returned. It is the vision of Elijah which comes from Malachi that I read a moment ago, that messenger of the covenant that will come, who will prepare the way of the Lord, the great and terrible day of the Lord, who will be like a refiner’s fire, who will purify the righteous and damn the wicked. Elijah’s return was to prepare for the dramatic © Grand Valley State University �If God Is…That Means Richard A. Rhem Page 5   in-breaking of God. John the Baptist saw Jesus as Elijah. You may say, "No, no, no, John the Baptist was the forerunner of Jesus the Messiah." No. The first chapter of John’s Gospel records the question to John the Baptist, "Are you Elijah?" "No. No. I’m not Elijah. I’m a voice. I’m pointing to Elijah who is to come, who is to prepare the way of the Lord." Now, John is reading The New York Times about what’s going on in Galilee, all kinds of healing and nice things happening, gentle things happening, and he says, "What in the world is going on?" He sends two of his disciples to Jesus to say, "Are you the one? Or do we look for another? Did I get it wrong? Are you not the one I thought you were?" Years ago in the days of my youth I preached a marvelous sermon on that text. It was about John in the dungeon, almost losing his faith, full of doubt, sending his disciples to Jesus to say, "Is it going to be okay?" And Jesus says, "Sure, look what’s happening. Go tell John it’s going to be okay. I’m the one. Tell John to relax and die in peace." That was how to deal with religious doubt; it was a great sermon. And it was wrong. It’s not what this is all about at all. John is in prison. I think John was ready to die, that wasn’t the problem. But, John’s boy has it wrong! The program! Where’s the program? Where’s the fire? Where’s the judgment? Jesus, very indirectly and carefully, says to these disciples of John, "Go tell John what you see and hear. The blind are seeing, the lame are walking, the deaf are hearing, the poor have good news proclaimed to them." And then he says a strange thing. "Happy is the one who takes no offense in me." John took offense in Jesus. Jesus was a pansy. Jesus compromised the program. Jesus wasn’t preparing for the winepress of the wrath of God. He was talking about forgiveness and grace and compassion. So Jesus said, "Go tell him what you see," but actually, contrary to what I preached many, many years ago, that Jesus was saying, "Go tell John, Yes, it’s fine. Yes, I am, I am," Jesus was saying, "Go tell John No, I’m not the one. As a matter of fact, John, you are Elijah, the Elijah figure from the prophecy of Malachi is the projection of you, John. You are Elijah fulfilling that role. "Who am I, then, John? Well, in my own struggle, John, my mentor and my friend whom I respect, let me tell you there’s another part of the prophetic witness: Isaiah. There is the suffering servant, one who doesn’t snuff out the smoldering wick or crush the bruised reed. There’s the suffering servant who doesn’t lift up his voice. There’s the suffering servant who goes as a lamb to the slaughter. John, I am not the one you thought I was. I cannot fulfill the role of Elijah in Malachi. It’s Isaiah for me, because I’ve come to see, John, that your God is a God marked by violence, edging toward vengeance to effect the final © Grand Valley State University �If God Is…That Means Richard A. Rhem Page 6   solution and, John, I don’t believe that violence and vengeance can ever effect the final solution." The disciples left and Jesus began to talk about John. He said, "Whom did you go out to see? A reed? Someone dressed in gorgeous robes? Of course not. Did you go out to see a prophet? Yes, you did. Yes, and more than a prophet, let me tell you. Of all of those born of women there is none greater than John the Baptist." Great affirmation. Great respect. But then Jesus went on to say, "But I tell you the least in the kingdom of God (that is, the movement that I am leading), the least in the kingdom of God is greater than John the Baptist, because John the Baptist isn’t even in this ball game. This is a protest of nonviolent justice because I sense that God is that way." What triggered that move in Jesus? Well, of course, who knows? But I wonder if it was not simply the fact that Jesus could see that violence begets violence. Look at the generations and the centuries of the feud in Ireland and the Balkans and the Middle East. Blood feuds never die. Violence begets violence, and there is no transformation. Violence can coerce, violence can crush, violence can destroy, but violence cannot transform, and I suspect that Jesus came to see that and to see that the alternative was to face violence non-aggressively, nonviolently. Now, of course, when you do that, you make yourself vulnerable to death, and they killed him. They killed Gandhi, too. They killed Martin Luther King, too. One whose God is a nonviolent God is one who stands in nonviolent protest against the way things are and absorbs the darkness and receives the world’s verdict which is to die. If God is nonviolent, then those who see God through the lens of Jesus are called to nonviolence, but, but, but, ... I’m not ready for that. Are you? But, maybe, even the acknowledgment of that might be one moment of honesty and truth-telling in the midst of Lent. To be continued. © Grand Valley State University � https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/9d850bd6186524b8a3dc96a21c00694d.mp3 746ff15a96876ff54e98330b05f1a6f3 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 Lent III Series God In the Mirror of a Human Face Scripture Text Luke 7:28, 6:27, 35-36 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-0-19990307 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1999-03-07 Title A name given to the resource If God Is...That Means...But... 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 March 7, 1999 entitled "If God Is...That Means...But...", as part of the series "God In the Mirror of a Human Face", on the occasion of Lent III, at Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI. Scripture references: Luke 7:28, 6:27, 35-36. Historical Jesus Lent Nature of God Non-violent Justice https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/f6eb2e1878eaa6372f26ab1c9ba57b88.pdf 2112a69ab7ef73991b5607c0da8f5967 PDF Text Text The Quest for the Historical Jesus From the series: Q & Q: The Religious Quest and Question Text: Mark 3:20-21; Luke 4:23 Richard A. Rhem Christ Community Church Spring Lake, Michigan January 24, 1999 Transcription of the spoken sermon The book, The Historical Jesus, by John Dominic Crossan, is rather thick, 500 pages, and it became a bestseller. In a conversation, Crossan said, "I never intended it to be a bestseller, for popular consumption. I was trying to get a discussion going in the scholarly world." But he said it became a bestseller, and he said, "I think all kinds of people didn’t really get it." So he wrote The Birth of Christianity to try to explain what he was trying to do in the last one. This has 640 pages. Since I won’t have an opportunity to speak with you prior to the weekend in which John Dominic Crossan is with us, the first weekend in Lent, February 1921, I want to take this opportunity to say a few words about him and about his work, and the importance of The Quest for The Historical Jesus, because we have a lecture series this year which really focuses there. Certainly, John Dominic Crossan is considered one of the, if not the preeminent historian and researcher in this quest. And a colleague of Crossan, Marcus Borg, is widely published in the quest. We have the Jewish scholar, Amy-Jill Levine, who will talk about the break between the Jesus Movement and Judaism, and, therefore, focus again in those early years of origination. Then, of course, Bishop Spong who will deal with the larger church and the larger theological issues in light of all the biblical research that is going on. We are very fortunate to have these people come to us, and I want to say a word about John Dominic Crossan this morning. Colette will follow up with that next week, as well, because I think it is important to set a context for someone like this. John Dominic Crossan is a preeminent scholar. He is brilliant. When I read his work, when I see the kind of material that he marshals, and how he handles it succinctly, communicating that breadth of study, I just cry and want to throw in the towel. I mean, he’s just one of those brilliant scholars. But he is also able to communicate with people in a very wonderful way, with a fine turn of phrase and memorable statements. Beyond that, John Dominic Crossan is a fine human being. I’ve only met him briefly, talked with him a couple of times, but others of you have been with him, and I want to say this to you as a congregation that, if © Grand Valley State University   �Quest for Historical Jesus Richard A. Rhem Page 2   you would expose yourself to this person, I am sure you will like him, because he’s not only brilliant, but he’s gentle. And he is a person of great integrity. That impresses me so much. In the scholarly debates, it can get rather heated at times. But Dom Crossan is a person of great integrity who seeks to set forth his presuppositions, put them on the table, set forth clearly the methods he’s following and then, on that basis, does his research so you know how he is going about what he does and, therefore, the conclusions that he reaches can be judged on that basis. He would not claim that his methods are infallible or that his conclusions are absolute. Those who work in the field of historical research know that there is always a degree of probability connected with it. We’ve known for a long time, and he is very quick to admit, that we will never get a photograph of the historical Jesus. From the documentation that we have in the New Testament, the canonical Gospels, and in the non-canonical materials that were written about that time, and other non-canonical gospels out there — from all of that study it is impossible to be absolutely certain that we have the exact contours of that mystical figure who stands behind it all. But, through that kind of research, it is at least possible to get a good feel for Jesus — that one of whom we confess, "the word made flesh," that one who, in the Christian story, is the concrete embodiment of God in our historical context, the Jesus who is our window to God, is the center of that story as a part of that Christian tradition for over 2000 years. John Dominic Crossan is, then, a brilliant scholar, a fine human being, and a person of great integrity who with great passion pursues his research of the birth of Christianity, a very important scholar, and we are very privileged that he would come into our midst. As he will share with us in greater extent, we are engaged at the present time in a very vital discussion and very vital research, seeking to find the contours of Jesus of Nazareth. A quest of the historical Jesus is going on with great passion and great intensity in our day, and it’s a very important engagement. The historical Jesus is that figure behind the Gospels, behind the Apostle Paul, behind the Christian communities, behind the Christian creedal tradition. Crossan and others have been criticized for engaging in this research by some who would say, "Well, you’ve got Matthew, Mark, Luke and John." There’s one writer who analyzes twenty such scholars and their research for the historical Jesus and says, "They’re all wrong." And they come to distorted conclusions because they never see the whole Jesus, they just look at parts, they fragment Jesus. Well to that, John Crossan would say, "The whole Jesus, which whole Jesus?" "The whole Jesus of Matthew, of Mark or Luke or John?" We know that those basic four canonical portraits differ considerably, not only in nuance; even within those Gospel records we know that Jesus makes some contradictory claims or contradictory claims are made about him. © Grand Valley State University �Quest for Historical Jesus Richard A. Rhem Page 3   You have heard me say before that, when I was going through college and studying Bible, we studied a course on the Harmony of the Gospels, and we meshed it all together. If there was a loose end dangling here, well, we had ways of getting rid of that, so we had one uniform portrait — the whole Jesus, so to speak. But when you really research the Gospels, you have varying portraits even within the Gospel. For example, within the same Gospel, Jesus will say, "The end is imminent," "This generation will not pass away before the son of man appears," and "The end is unknown, only the Father in heaven knows the time and season." Which did he mean? Did he say one thing one time, and one thing another time? Did he change his mind? Or did he say one thing and his interpreters say another thing? Those are the kinds of questions that are asked, but, as a matter of fact, you can’t just say, "Well, read Matthew or Mark or Luke or John and get the whole Jesus." You have to say, "Which whole Jesus?" So there’s work behind the scenes, because we recognize now that those Gospels are layered traditions, and each Gospel was written with a specific perspective to a concrete community in a concrete context in order to deal with certain things. What was needed to be said in John’s time, near the end of the first century, was not the same as what Mark needed to communicate around 70 A.D., all the Gospels being decades after the event itself, all the Gospels written reflecting a cumulative growing tradition, in various Christian locales, dealing with various challenges and crises. I don’t preach the same Jesus that I preached in 1960 when I came here the first time. And you can be happy about that! I don’t preach the same Jesus that I preached in New Jersey. I don’t preach the same Jesus I preached in 1971 when I came back. Part of that is my own growth and understanding, but part of that is the fact that you’re not the same, and the world is not the same. If preaching is to be in any sense relevant, the proclamation of the word of God to concrete people in the here and now, then it will be an evolving kind of message. It will be pertinent to the context, time and space, locale, community. The crises and challenges that any people face at any given time, that’s what draws preaching to its focus. And so it was with the Gospel writers, and so we have this canonical foursome that represent how that mystical figure back there was proclaimed in different places at respective times. But how do we get behind that? Well, that’s the purpose of this historical research. Why is it important? Because Jesus is our window to God, and the kind of Jesus we envision will impact the kind of God we worship, and the kind of God we worship will determine the kind of people we are. History has been replete with examples of what Crossan would say, "killer children of a killer God." If God is that way, then we are empowered and legitimized to be that way. So, it is a very critical thing. Those Gospels, when you consider them carefully and in a scholarly manner, will indicate those layers to those who are trained to do it. Colette didn’t read from Mark, but I have a text © Grand Valley State University �Quest for Historical Jesus Richard A. Rhem Page 4   printed in the liturgy from Mark 3, where the word is out that Jesus, in the blossoming of his Galilean ministry, is out of his mind, and his mother gets his brothers and they go to bring him home because he’s "gone over the edge," according to rumor. Well, that kind of material, those who research would say, "You know, that’s not really very complimentary." That must have been such a hard nugget in that tradition, that they couldn’t wipe it out, although Matthew softened Mark, and Luke doesn’t refer to it at all. Jesus’ mother going after him and saying, "Come home, boy. You’ve lost it." In the Gospel of Luke we have this wonderful inaugural sermon of Jesus in his home synagogue. There he reads from the prophet Isaiah. It was the reading of the day apparently, and he read those words of the prophet, which were read here from Isaiah 61, except he left out one phrase. He said, "To proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor." Isaiah said, as was read here, "To proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor, the day of vengeance of our God." Jesus was a teddy bear. He didn’t like to talk about God’s vengeance. That’s why he up and left John the Baptist. John the Baptist was talking about the day of vengeance, because the year of the Lord’s favor for the righteous was a year of God’s vengeance on the wicked. So Jesus left that out. (Selective, huh, Jesus?) Or did Jesus read it, but Luke left it out? We can’t really tell, can we? Somebody left it out. Isaiah said, "To proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor, the day of vengeance of our God." Either Jesus left it out because it was contrary to where he was going, splitting off John the Baptist, or when he was splitting off John the Baptist, impressed somebody enough so that in the growing tradition there was a sense that Jesus was not about vengeance. How do you tell? Well, you ask John Dominic Crossan. It’s difficult to tell. We probably can’t tell, but do you see what this is all about, trying to get back as best we can to that concrete historical figure in the misty flats behind those Gospels. But if the biblical text is a problem, even a bigger problem is the growing creedal tradition of the Christian movement. Dom Crossan will tell us that Jesus was one of the dispossessed and destitute persons of lower Galilee and that his movement gathered those who had lost everything. They didn’t have to give up everything to follow Jesus; they didn’t have anything. They were an itinerant group that went about to proclaim — and this was the amazing thing about Jesus, he was able to say to the destitute of the world, "You can be kings and queens, you can live fully human. If you lose your life you will gain it; grasping life, you lose it." Jesus had something about him that made people stand and walk tall, from the inside out. So, whatever started as a proclamation of good news to the poorest of the poor, it was a social movement; it had political and economic implications. Then three centuries go by and there is a Roman vying for imperial power, and his name is familiar to you all, Constantine. In 312, he said, "Give me victory, I give you the empire." He wins, and Christianity becomes the established religion of the Roman Empire. Absolutely amazing, isn’t it when you think about it? Three hundred years and a leap from a peasant movement by the dispossessed to © Grand Valley State University �Quest for Historical Jesus Richard A. Rhem Page 5   imperial power, the religious establishment of the Roman Empire. But there were strings attached. Constantine called a church council. This is the emperor, now, calling a church council in 325, the Council of Nicaea. And like with the MBA boys, Constantine locked up the bishops and said, "Come out with a uniform statement about the nature of this one in relationship with God," and the Council of Nicaea came out with a creed, the Nicene Creed. If you are from the Catholic tradition, it’s the creed recited at every Mass. On the 21st of February here, our choir will chant the Nicene Creed. It will give you goose bumps. "Light of Light, God of God, before all worlds." Now, to celebrate their victory by coming out with a creed, Constantine threw the bishops a supper. There is a marvelous statement from the Church historian, Eusebius, who shows how the bishops walk through the rows of armed soldiers, the legionnaires. They walk into the royal apartments, into the depths, into the dining room where they recline on couches and sup with the emperor. Well, that’s seductive! I mean, it would be for any of us. When Nancy and I were watching the movie version of that marvelous novel, Thornbirds, at the part where Father Ralph is all regaled in brilliant red robes and he prostrates himself on that shiny marble of St. Peter’s, with all of the gold and glitter. I said to Nancy, "You know, I was made for glory." I mean, it’s seductive. Here we are a bunch of nobodies, and somebody invites us to a royal banquet. Well, I could distort quite a few texts, as a gift in turn. The Church tradition from that point on continually elevated its Christological statements, because, if the emperor is going to bow a knee to Jesus, Jesus better be the Lord of the universe. So he became Pantocrator — the ruling, reigning Jesus Christ, Lord of the worlds. I can understand how that happened. If it hadn’t happened, where would we be today? I don’t know. Could a poor, peasant movement in lower Galilee have ever swept the world without achieving that escalation? I don’t know. But, can you see that you would lose something too? Wouldn’t establishment take the heart out of that movement? Seems just like common sense that that inevitably is going to happen. You see, you’ve got layers in the text. Now you’ve got creedal layers in the tradition. So, how are you going to get back there? Or, why should you? Well, let me suggest that it’s important because the triumphalism of an imperial established church isn’t going over so well in our world today. Don’t we have a suspicion that the Church is not going to be the triumphant institution of the world? Don’t we realize that the great religious traditions are vying to gain their own positions in the sun? Aren’t we recognizing the necessity, the importance, the enhancement and enrichment of the interfaith dialogue? Elsie and Hung Liang are back in town, having buried their dear daughter Priscilla, and Elsie called and told about how Priscilla, being Chinese, raised in America, then living in Singapore, was part of a network in an international community, and a young Indian was so upset with her death that he went off to Nepal for a month of prayer and fasting. Buddhist friends gathered their © Grand Valley State University �Quest for Historical Jesus Richard A. Rhem Page 6   community in prayers for Priscilla and for the rest of her soul. What would you say if your daughter was dying, or if your daughter had died and somebody from another tradition said, "We’re praying for you." Would you say, "Could I check your creed to see if it has any credence?" Of course, you wouldn’t. We know these things down here. We know that all of us in the great movements of religious faith throughout the world are reaching for rest in that ultimate mystery of things. So, we live in a time of dis-establishment. That’s what Douglas Hall said to us when he was here that weekend. The Constantinian era is over. We live in a global community, in a pluralistic situation where there is mutual interfacing between the great religious traditions and a triumphalistic church, and a triumphalistic Lord Jesus Christ isn’t going to do it in our world. But, Jesus still does. The great Albert Schweitzer, concert organist, brilliant biblical scholar, theologian, by the age of thirty years had written his classic Quest of the Historical Jesus, had written about Paul and the kingdom, had been a pupil of Francois-Marie Voltaire and studied with Franz Liszt, and was a leading pupil who could have played the organ around the world. He was an accomplished theologian and accomplished musician, and he goes to medical school at the age of thirty to learn to be a doctor to go to Africa, where he lived his life out in that humanitarian gift to those people. Why? In his Quest of the Historical Jesus, from which our hymn came, because it is his poetic words, "He comes to us as one unknown." He says that Jesus was wrong, dead wrong, he got it wrong. Jesus thought the end was near. Jesus thought he could get God to act. Jesus, in a desperate action, cast himself on the wheel of history and it didn’t budge . . . and then it began to move and it crushed him. Jesus, Albert Schweitzer said, was wrong. Dominic Crossan will tell that further research has said that probably Jesus did not expect an imminent end of the world, but that’s another story. For Schweitzer, Jesus was wrong . . . a marvelous martyr. But, did he leave Christianity? No! Instead, he emulated Jesus and went to Africa. He gave up promising careers in music and in theology and he became a doctor for people in Africa. Why? Because Jesus got to him, that Jesus who was the embodiment of God, by the Spirit of God, that same Spirit moving in a Schweitzer who says, "Jesus was wrong about that," therefore, certainly not this exulted creedal Christ. But, by God, he’s what being human is all about. It is what following God is all about. It is about using world communities, which is what Jesus was all about. Schweitzer followed Jesus, and I want to follow Jesus. And, I believe you want to follow Jesus. That’s why it’s so critical that we get the best take on it we can, because the closer we look, the better he looks. References: Albert Schweitzer. Quest of the Historical Jesus: A Critical Study of its Progress from Reimarus to Wrede. Dover Publications; Dover Ed Edition, 2005. © Grand Valley State University � https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/9707698d29a31212ad74d66c0b429689.mp3 6b8efa5c9e40c4959c8964f6c6ea3e12 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Richard A. Rhem Collection Description An account of the resource Text and sound recordings of the sermons, prayers, services, and articles of Richard Rhem, pastor emeritus of Christ Community Church in Spring Lake, Michigan, where he served for 37 years. Starting in the mid 1980's, Rhem began to question some of the traditional Christian dogma that he had been espousing from the pulpit. That questioning was a first step in a long and interesting spiritual journey, one that he openly shared with his congregation. His journey is important, in part because it is reflective of the questioning, the yearnings, and the gradual revision of beliefs that many persons in this part of the century have experienced and continue to experience. It is important also because of the affirming and inclusive way his questioning was done and his thinking evolved. His sermons and other written and spoken materials together document the steps in his journey as it took a turn in 1985, yet continued to revolve around the framework and liturgies of the Christian calendar. Subject The topic of the resource Clergy--Michigan Reformed Church in America Christ Community Church (Spring Lake, Mich.) Religion Interfaith worship Sermons Sound Recordings Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Rhem, Richard A. Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/514">Richard A. Rhem papers (KII-01)</a> Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives. Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Kaufman Interfaith Institute Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Language A language of the resource English Type The nature or genre of the resource Sound Text Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context KII-01 Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant 1981-2014 Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource audio/mp3 text/pdf Sound A resource primarily intended to be heard. Examples include a music playback file format, an audio compact disc, and recorded speech or sounds. Event Epiphany IV Series Q & Q: The Religious Quest and Question Scripture Text Mark 3:20-21, Luke 4:23 Location The location of the interview Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI References Albert Schweitzer, Quest of the Historical Jesus, 1906 2006 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-0-19990124 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1999-01-24 Title A name given to the resource The Quest for the Historical Jesus 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 24, 1999 entitled "The Quest for the Historical Jesus", as part of the series "Q & Q: The Religious Quest and Question", on the occasion of Epiphany IV, at Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI. Scripture references: Mark 3:20-21, Luke 4:23. Historical Jesus Nature of God https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/9b1e3b6bf92dc4352d3a2c9168d15c49.pdf 126f2cdbdc0934a36a55a28aec8fcf98 PDF Text Text Jesus Article by Richard A. Rhem Minister of Preaching and Theological Inquiry Christ Community Church Spring Lake, Michigan Published in Free Spirit A Quarterly Publication of Fountain Street Church Grand Rapids, Michigan May 1999 In a recent study, The Human Christ, Charlotte Allen writes, In 1909, the Modernist Catholic theologian George Tyrrell complained that the liberal German biblical scholars of his day had reconstructed a historical Jesus who was no more than "The reflection of a liberal Protestant face, seen at the bottom of a deep well." In other words, the liberal searchers had found a liberal Jesus. The same can be said of the Jesus-searchers of every era: The deists found a deist, the Romantics a Romantic, the existentialists an existentialist, and the liberationists a Jesus of class struggle. Supposedly equipped with the latest critical and historical tools, the "scientific" quest for the historical Jesus has nearly always devolved into theology, ideology, and even autobiography. (P. 5) This has been widely recognized as being the case and I readily acknowledge it to be operative in my own reflection on the identity, life and teaching of Jesus of Nazareth. This criticism has been met head on by a contemporary Jesus scholar recognized for both the breadth of his research into Christian origins, cross-cultural studies, and carefully articulated methodology. John Dominic Crossan, in his The Birth of Christianity (1998), cites a poem, "For Once, Then, Something," by Robert Frost, Others taunt me with having knelt at well-curbs Always wrong to the light, so never seeing Deeper down in the well than where the water Gives me back in a shining surface picture , Me myself in the summer heaven, godlike, Looking out of a wreath of fern and cloud puffs. Once, when trying with chin against a well-curb, I discerned, as I thought, beyond the picture, © Grand Valley State University   �Jesus Richard A. Rhem Page 2   Through the picture, a something white, uncertain, Something more of the depths - and then I lost it. Crossan comments, There is an oft-repeated and rather cheap gibe that historical Jesus researchers are simply looking down a deep well and seeing their own reflections from below. I call it cheap for three reasons. First, those who use it against others seldom apply it to themselves. Second, it is almost impossible to imagine a reconstruction that could not be dismissed by the assertion of that gibe. Your Jesus is an apocalyptic: You are bemused by the approaching millennium,... What could anyone ever say that would not fall under that ban? Third, those who repeat that taunt so readily must never have looked down a deep well or heeded Emily Dickinson's warning (3.970, no. 1400): What mystery pervades a well!... But nature is stranger yet; The ones that cite her most Have never passed her haunted house, Nor simplified her ghost. Crossan continues, Imagine two alternative and opposite modes of historical reconstruction, one an impossible delusion, the other a possible illusion. The possible illusion is narcissism. You think you are seeing the past or the other when all you see is your own reflected present. You see only what was there before you began. You imprint your own present on the past and call it history. Narcissism sees its own face, and, ignoring the water that shows it up, falls in love with itself. It is the first of the twin images in Frost's poem. It is when, …the water Gives me back in a shining surface picture Me myself in the summer heaven, godlike, Looking out of a wreath of fern and cloud puffs. The impossible delusion is positivism. It imagines that you can know the past without any interference from your own personal and social situation as answer. You can see, as it were, without your own eye being involved. You can discern the past once and for all forever and see it pure and uncontaminated by that discernment. Positivism is the delusion that we can see the water without our own face being mirrored in it. It thinks we can see the surface without simultaneously seeing our own eyes. It is the © Grand Valley State University �Jesus Richard A. Rhem Page 3   second of the twin images in Frost's poem. It is when, even if only once, uncertainly, possibly, and vaguely, I discerned, as I thought, beyond the picture, Through the picture, a something white, uncertain, Something more of the depths - and then I lost it. But, I would ask, if the poet's face is white, how did it see "through the picture" of itself “a something white” that was also "beyond the picture"? Maybe what it saw was its own face so strangely different that it did not recognize it. That introduces a third image not given but provoked by Frost's second image. There is, therefore, a third alternative, and I'll call it interactivism, which is, incidentally, the way I understand post-modernism. The past and present must interact with one another, each changing and challenging the other, and the ideal is an absolutely fair and equal reaction between one another. Back to the well: You cannot see the surface without simultaneously seeing, disturbing, and distorting your own face; you cannot see your own face without simultaneously seeing, disturbing, and distorting the surface. It is the third image begging to be recognized behind the two overt ones in Frost's poem. What the poet saw was his own face so strangely different that he did not recognize it as such. It was., indeed "something white" and "something more of the depths." But it was not "beyond the picture" or even "through the picture." It was the picture itself changed utterly. That is the dialectic of interactivism and, as distinct from either narcissism or positivism, it is both possible and necessary. (Pp. 40f.) After illustrating his claim, Crossan writes, Historical reconstruction is always interactive of present and past. Even our best theories and methods are still our best ones. They are all dated and doomed not just when they are wrong but even (and especially) when they are right. They need, when anything important is involved, to be done over and over again. That does not make history worthless. We ourselves are also dated and doomed, but that does not make life worthless. (P. 45) Crossan does not speak of "search" or "quest" of Christian origins. That he sees as positivistic. Rather, he attempts a reconstruction and that, he says, must be done over and over again in different times and different places by different groups and different communities. I cite Crossan and Allen to acknowledge that "my Jesus" is not "The Jesus" of history. That Jesus cannot be definitively recovered. Allen's comment about the well has been the easy way to write off the quest. Crossan knows the danger but I © Grand Valley State University �Jesus Richard A. Rhem Page 4   think has, through careful method, eliminated some of the naiveté of earlier efforts. Even before the critique of mentors Duncan and Lester, I was aware that I was replicating the 19th-century liberal Jesus in some respects, but I was also aware that I had to move through that stage. It is not quite accurate, however, to identify the Jesus I have been attempting to reconstruct with that "Jesus, meek and mild." Several issues are involved in my movement from the classical Christological creedal affirmations to Jesus as a human being as the incarnation or embodiment of God or Spirit. I have been working at dismantling the creedal Christ for some time. (Theological reflection is really my focus rather than historical research or even biblical research.) But to dismantle the Christological formulae leaves me with an historical figure and the need to give some content to this figure. Another piece of the traditional orthodox understanding that I have for some years now moved away from is the idea of Jesus' death as atoning, making salvation possible and available. If Jesus did not come into the world to die for human sin, that is, if he is not a salvific figure, what came to expression in his life and teaching and why was he executed? Here is where the work of Crossan and Borg has been helpful to me. By recognizing the Jewishness of Jesus, putting him in his historical context through reconstruction of first-century Judaism under Roman domination and crosscultural studies, there emerges a picture of Jesus as social prophet in the Hebrew tradition who, through non-violent protest, stands against the structural injustice and systemic evil of his society in the name of the God of Israel who is marked by the demand for justice and compassion. This is not the highly moral and gentle Jesus of the 19th century. This one dies the way he dies because he lived the way he lived. I will not go on to argue this, but I think it can be given good biblical support as well as being consistent with our best sense of his social/economic/political context. Why bother so strenuously with Jesus? It is claimed the idea, the meaning of the whole historical/legendary/mythological phenomenon could simply be "thought," conceived by one who contemplated the whole human-divine relationship. Perhaps so. It is claimed Newton's whole grand mechanical model of the universe was a product not of empirical experimentation but of pure thought. But, as a matter of fact, the whole Christian tradition (including its Jewish womb) emerged in history. The "story" is rooted in history and the liturgical and ritual practice represent history as shaped by the early (biblical) interpretations. And story and ritual are critical for creating community -meaning is conveyed in the © Grand Valley State University �Jesus Richard A. Rhem Page 5   telling and action. As Whitehead claimed, it takes centuries to form such tradition. Thus, it seems to me that it is valuable to re-tell the old story and through serious research I think we can uncover that which provides the data by which to reconstruct this historical person who can credibly be offered as an embodiment of the love, grace, compassion and justice of God. The canonical Jesus, however, is no longer believable to one for whom biblical authority in the sense of authoritarian claim is no longer valid. We know the Jesus of the Gospels is the post-Easter Jesus of the early communities. The Christological titles ascribed to him post-Easter are ascriptions of faith arising out of the experience of those early believers. This is where biblical criticism becomes crucial. To be sure, determining which words and deeds go back to Jesus and which are "history metaphorized" by the biblical writers is an inexact science and total agreement will never be achieved. And it is also true that here one's presuppositions - maybe one's intuition - will operate in the selection process. But the moment one decides that the biblical text is not the word of God given by whatever process to the writer, but rather, a human book reflecting the religious experience or revelatory encounter of the writer, one cannot avoid such a discriminating approach to the text. The reconstruction will be the result of the engagement with the text, interaction with the text and the best one can do is be aware of one's pre-understanding and endeavor as honestly as possible to hear the text. Now, in regard to the concatenation of texts gathered by Lester, I obviously hear the voice of the early communities. There is sharp debate as to whether Jesus held the apocalyptic view. I think he moved away from John the Baptist because he did not share that view. If he did think of himself as returning in clouds of heaven soon, of course he was simply wrong - as was Paul! In any case, I would argue that the Jesus of my reconstruction is not a candidate for Rotary. I have explained above why I do not simply shake loose of Jesus - he roots our story, concretizes the image of God. But, I think the Spirit has been embodied in others whose lives shine with revelatory luminosity. And further, I believe that which came to intense expression in him is the truth for all of us - if we have eyes to see it, and seeing it is salvation here and now, knowing the miracle, wonder and glory of being alive, and that's not bad for one without Christology, an authoritative scripture, doctrine of atonement, or ecclesiastical credential! References: Charlotte Allen. The Human Christ: The Search for the Historical Jesus. FreePress, 1998. © Grand Valley State University �Jesus Richard A. Rhem Page 6   John Dominic Crossan. The Birth of Christianity: Discovering What Happened in the Years Immediately After the Execution of Jesus. HarperOne, 1999. © Grand Valley State University � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Richard A. Rhem Collection Description An account of the resource Text and sound recordings of the sermons, prayers, services, and articles of Richard Rhem, pastor emeritus of Christ Community Church in Spring Lake, Michigan, where he served for 37 years. Starting in the mid 1980's, Rhem began to question some of the traditional Christian dogma that he had been espousing from the pulpit. That questioning was a first step in a long and interesting spiritual journey, one that he openly shared with his congregation. His journey is important, in part because it is reflective of the questioning, the yearnings, and the gradual revision of beliefs that many persons in this part of the century have experienced and continue to experience. It is important also because of the affirming and inclusive way his questioning was done and his thinking evolved. His sermons and other written and spoken materials together document the steps in his journey as it took a turn in 1985, yet continued to revolve around the framework and liturgies of the Christian calendar. Subject The topic of the resource Clergy--Michigan Reformed Church in America Christ Community Church (Spring Lake, Mich.) Religion Interfaith worship Sermons Sound Recordings Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Rhem, Richard A. Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/514">Richard A. Rhem papers (KII-01)</a> Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives. Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Kaufman Interfaith Institute Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Language A language of the resource English Type The nature or genre of the resource Sound Text Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context KII-01 Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant 1981-2014 Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource audio/mp3 text/pdf 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 Charlotte Allen, The Human Christ, 1998, John Dominic Crossan, The Birth of Christianity, 1999 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context RA-4-19990501 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1999-05-01 Type The nature or genre of the resource Text Title A name given to the resource Jesus Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available The Free Spirit 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 May 1, 1999 entitled "Jesus", it appeared in Free Spirit, Fountain Street Church. Tags: Historical Jesus, Reimagining the Faith, Critical Thinking, Postmodern, Justice. Scripture references: Charlotte Allen, The Human Christ, 1998, John Dominic Crossan, The Birth of Christianity, 1999. Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource application/pdf Critical Thinking Historical Jesus Justice PostModern Reimagining the Faith https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/4258e32ac42487d3f89d949f71c2ea32.pdf a7eddff54faf48f1e26febdc07ee419e PDF Text Text Interreligious Dialogue: What Is Required of Us? Article by Richard A. Rhem Minister of Preaching and Theological Inquiry Christ Community Church Spring Lake, Michigan Published in Perspectives A Journal of Reformed Thought May 1995, pp. 10-15 Pilate’s question, “Then what should I do with Jesus who is called the Messiah?” demands an answer as urgently today as two thousand years ago. By travel and the ubiquitous beams of communications satellites the world has shrunk to a neighborhood, and the devotees of the great religions of the world no longer live in isolation. Increasingly they practice their respective faith traditions in close proximity to each other. Not only the interweaving of the world’s religions within the fabric of the global community but the rise of militant fundamentalisms, fueling ethnic conflict and spawning terrorism, make it imperative that interreligious dialogue take place for the sake of the peace of the world. Political leaders and parties will always attempt to Co-opt the respective religious traditions for their own purposes, but at least the religions in their authentic expression need not condone such misuse, and, with genuine dialogue, a deeper understanding of other faith traditions would be a force for the creation of a more secure world—and a movement toward a reign of peace, surely the intention of the Creator God. For the Christian religion, interreligious dialogue calls for a serious engagement with Pilate’s question. Until we come to a new appraisal of the place of Jesus in the purpose of God and the revelation of that purpose, we will not be able to enter into real dialogue. Beginning with the absoluteness of Christianity based on the finality of God’s revelation in Jesus and a salvation constituted exclusively through his atoning death, we may enter discussion and evidence a civil tolerance but without the openness to new insight that alone makes for serious and honest dialogue. Tolerance may be present in people who are convinced that they possess the final truth but are unwilling to impose it on another. But such an attitude also precludes that such people will learn something from the other since they begin with the assumption that theirs is the exclusive truth. © Grand Valley State University   �Interreligious Dialogue Richard A. Rhem Page 2   Whatever revisioning interreligious dialogue may demand from other faith traditions, for the Christian tradition, a rethinking of its core creedal Christological formulations and their salvific implications is of first importance. The Quest of the Historical Jesus As I look across my desk at the shelf of books, the name of Jesus is prominent. Book after book published in the last few years seeks to uncover the mystery and meaning of this one who “comes to us as One unknown...,” to use Schweitzer’s familiar designation. Studies emanate from the Jesus Seminar people, as well as many beyond their ranks, such as the Catholic scholar Raymond Brown and the highly respected Jewish scholar E. P. Sanders. My eye catches the title of an older bundle of essays by Marinus de Jonge, Jesus: Inspiring and Disturbing Presence. Indeed. I move to the shelf and pull down the classic study by Albert Schweitzer, The Quest of the Historical Jesus. In his preface to the English translation, F. C. Burkitt refers to the sharp controversy that had been raging on the continent in the late nineteenth century over the attempt to discover the historical Jesus behind the Christ figure that appears in the writings, particularly of Paul. Such sharp battle, he notes, is somewhat foreign to the more genteel English, but even those whose lives of Jesus were “written with hate” have performed a great service in bringing to light an understanding “of the greatest historical problem in the history of our race.” The new understanding, Burkitt claims, makes clear that the object of attack was not the historical Jesus after all, but a temporary idea of Him, inadequate because it did not truly represent him or the world in which he lived, (vi) Schweitzer’s work brought the first quest to an end by pointing out the eschatological center of Jesus’ message in contrast to the portrait that portrayed Jesus as the ideal person of nineteenth-century, European society. With the rise of historical thinking, it was being recognized that historical research must seek to uncover the context of the first and second centuries if it would discover Jesus of Nazareth. Burkitt was confident that such an understanding would be taken for granted in the ongoing research into Christian origins. He cites a contemporary, Father Tyrrell, who claimed that Christianity was at a crossroads, but Burkitt little doubts that the church would come to terms with the results of historical research and bring the significance of Jesus Christ to fresh expression. That the eschatological prophet of Schweitzer’s description would need to be translated into another image if he were to be meaningfully appropriated in the twentieth century went without saying. The dawning historical consciousness was leading to the recognition, in Burkitt’s words, © Grand Valley State University �Interreligious Dialogue Richard A. Rhem Page 3   that absolute truth cannot be embodied in human thought and that its expression must always be clothed in symbols. It may be that we have to translate the hopes and fears of our spiritual ancestors into the language of our new world. (vii) That the Absolute can be expressed only in symbol, in metaphor, has been widely recognized through linguistic studies in the last half of the present century. Metaphor in its common understanding is a figure of speech in which there is a transfer of meaning—one term is illuminated by attaching to it some of the associations of another, so that metaphor is “that trope, or figure of speech, in which we speak of one thing in terms suggestive of another” (Soskice, 1985, 54). In this sense, all religious language and speech about God is metaphoric. That does not take away from the truthfulness of what is communicated; indeed, picture language often conveys a truth far better than a formula or abstract definition. It does, however, mean that the truth being conveyed and the linguistic form, the particular figure of speech, are not necessarily tied to each other. The same truth may be able to be conveyed by a different figure of speech, and in another culture or time a figure of speech that communicates the truth at issue may fail to bring that truth to expression with clarity. In other words, the symbols used to express the truth of the Absolute must not themselves be absolutized. The symbolic form of expression points beyond itself; one must “see through” the symbol to the reality symbolized. The form of expression, the specific figure of speech chosen to disclose the reality may be adequate or inadequate; it may disclose or it may mislead. Only those metaphoric forms that prove themselves in usage will last. But even those that prove valuable over the ages and generations must not be understood as identical with the truth or reality signified. There may arise in evolving cultural experience reason to cease using a metaphor or to modify its use if it becomes evident that it has conveyed not only aspects of truth but also misunderstanding that has proven detrimental – for example, the metaphor of God as Father in current feminist critique of patriarchy. When a metaphor for the Absolute is challenged, it must be recognized that it is not the Absolute that is challenged, but only the symbolic form used to disclose the truth of the Absolute. The Rise of Historical Thinking As he wrote the preface to Schweitzer’s The Quest of the Historical Jesus in 1910, Burkitt pointed to the growing recognition of the symbolic character of religious language in the wake of the rise of historical thinking in the nineteenth century. It was in that cultural context that the first quest of the historical Jesus took place, which Schweitzer showed to be naive. Further historical-critical research revealed the inadequacy of the historical methods employed and of the understanding of the nature of the biblical documents examined. Nevertheless, © Grand Valley State University �Interreligious Dialogue Richard A. Rhem Page 4   thinking historically is the mark of modernity and remains so in post-modernism which, in general, denies the possibility of formulating principles or doctrines identical with foundational reality, along with rejecting the Enlightenment claim that there are universal truths of reason. We can see the implications of this new way of thinking—thinking with historical consciousness—if we examine the work of Ernst Troeltsch. He is best identified as an exponent of historicism, a term used here to define the interpretation of the totality of cultural development (including the Christian tradition) as phenomena of the historical process. Troeltsch recognized that the advent of the historicalcritical method signified more than just a new means by which to gain knowledge of the past. Far more, it symbolized a revolution in the consciousness of the person of the West. He was convinced that the employment of this method was incompatible with the traditional Christian faith based on a supernaturalistic metaphysics. This clash was most evident, as we have noted above, in the area of biblical criticism. Troeltsch did not point to particular results of scholarly research that was troubling to believers; rather, he pointed to the method that yielded the disturbing data. The assumptions of the method, he claimed, were irreconcilable with the traditional dogmatic method. Traditional dogmatic formulation regarded the Scriptures as supernaturally inspired; the historian assumed they must be understood in terms of the historical context in which they arose, subject to the same principles of interpretation and criticism applied to any ancient literature. The historian, following this method, according to Troeltsch, could not assume events recorded in Scripture were supernatural interventions by God; rather, the historian must treat them in the causal nexus of their times. And rather than granting uniqueness to the central redemptive events to which the Bible pointed, the historian must treat them as analogous to all other historical events past and present. Further, the historian’s research can yield only probable results, an inadequate ground for faith. Troeltsch’s ability to recognize the revolutionary nature of the employment of the historical-critical method revealed to him what remained hidden for many theological thinkers, namely, that one has to make a choice to accept the method and its consequences or to reject the method as inappropriate. What could not be done was to use the method as long as the consequences were compatible with one’s theological presuppositions and reject it when they went counter to one’s prior belief. The church must choose, Troeltsch was certain, to employ the method and accept the consequences, letting burn what must burn and then building again a truer, if more humble, foundation. It was his conviction that historical thinking had penetrated the mind of the Western person so deeply that it was no longer possible to think in any other vein. Either the Christian tradition would © Grand Valley State University �Interreligious Dialogue Richard A. Rhem Page 5   accommodate itself to the spirit of the times or it would become a relic of the past. In his discussion of the significance of the historicity of Jesus for Christian faith, Troeltsch included Schleiermacher, Ritschl, and Herrmann in his criticism, for while the liberal Protestant tradition recognized the validity of the historicalcritical method for the investigation of Christian origins, it failed to recognize the relativity of all historical phenomena including Jesus of Nazareth. Consequently Troeltsch could but condemn their view that Jesus is the absolute Savior for all people of all times and places (cf. Die Bedeutung der Geschichtlichkeit Jesu für den Glauben p. 51). In Troeltsch’s view the very historical-critical approach to Christian origins, especially to Jesus himself, undercut any attempt to salvage from the uniformity of history a final and absolute revelation of God. Thus Troeltsch was convinced that the theology of the future would have to purge away the last vestiges of the old dogmatic approach and carry through more rigorously the requirements of the historical-critical method that draws all historical phenomena, Jesus of Nazareth not excepted, into the movement of historical process, allowing for no absolute uniqueness in the midst of the relative. Paradoxical as it may appear, Karl Barth quite agreed with Troeltsch—agreed, that is, that to subject Jesus to historical-critical research behind the witness of the New Testament is to level him down to one historical person among others, in whom there cannot possibly be found the final and definitive revelation of God. Of course, agreement with Troeltsch that having followed the path it did, there was no stopping halfway, does not imply that Barth advocates with Troeltsch that their successors should draw the logical conclusion as Troeltsch advocated. On the contrary, Barth discovers their fatal error in the course they chose to follow in the first place. It was not their decision to grant recognition to the use of the historical-critical method and then fail to draw the conclusions to which it led. Rather, it was their understanding of religion as an innate potential of the human spirit and their failure to see that, defined in such terms, the Christian faith was not being spoken of at all. If Christianity were a phenomenon of the religious capacity of the human person, then it would be one religion among others and could be understood only, as Troeltsch maintained, by a comparative historical study. In such an instance there could be no talk of an absolute and definitive revelatory significance or meaning in history. If one started where Troeltsch started, Barth maintained, one would end where Troeltsch ended. But then, according to Barth, we have to do not with the religion of revelation but with the revelation of religion (Church Dogmatics I, 2, 284), and the application of the historical-critical method will discover in Jesus no more than a man among other men and in Christianity no more than a religion among other religions. The History of Religions school is only the logical outcome of a theology that speaks of the believing person rather than of the revealing God. Theology that takes itself © Grand Valley State University �Interreligious Dialogue Richard A. Rhem Page 6   seriously can speak only from the revelation of God that has grasped it, paying homage to no worldview, be it ancient or modern, to no philosophical system, and to no anthropological analysis of the human religious capacity. Theology must speak from out of the revelation of God in Jesus Christ. Thus Barth completely repudiated the method of Troeltsch, and, to the dismay of the academic world, pursued the traditional dogmatic method, reducing historical-critical research to a secondary, helping role in the explication of the biblical witness to Jesus Christ. Barth’s repudiation of Troeltsch and the whole project of nineteenth-century liberalism prevailed. A whole generation of theologians was shaped by the theology of the Word that, while not a uniform movement, was at one in removing the truth of Christian faith from the results of historical investigation. But as the twentieth century nears its end, Troeltsch is being studied anew. Garrett E. Paul in a 1993 Christian Century article asks and answers in his title, “Why Troeltsch? Why Today? Theology for the 21st Century.” Dietrich Bonhoeffer had exposed the Achilles’ heel of Barth’s dogmatic method with his recognition of Barth’s “positivism of revelation.” Writing from prison to his friend Eberhard Bethge, Bonhoeffer pointed out that Barth was the first theologian to begin the criticism of religion but that he replaced it with a positivist doctrine of revelation that says in effect, “Take it or leave it.” In a later letter he affirmed Barth’s ethical observations as well as his dogmatic views, but went on to write: it was that he gave no concrete guidance, either in dogmatics or in ethics, on the non-religious interpretation of theological concepts. There lies his limitation, and because of it his theology of revelation becomes positivist, a “positivism of revelation,” as I put it. Bultmann, who joined Barth in the removal of Christian origins from historical investigation, claiming the necessity only of the “dass” of the historical Jesus for faith, also saw his disciples move away from this view as they engaged in “the new quest of the historical Jesus.” Presently the flood of studies being published, including the work of the Jesus Seminar scholars, indicates that the implications of historical thinking recognized and applied by Troeltsch will not go away. Karl Barth, arguably the greatest theological thinker of the century and among the greats of all time, was able by the power of his thought and the circumstances of his historical moment to stem the tide of historical thinking applied to theological formulation for a generation, but the kerygma sheltered in a safe haven denying investigation of historical foundations cannot finally be maintained no matter how brilliantly and powerfully proclaimed. Hans Küng in Great Christian Thinkers (1994) identifies Barth as one of a line of theologians—Paul, Origen, Augustine, Aquinas, Luther, and Schleiermacher— © Grand Valley State University �Interreligious Dialogue Richard A. Rhem Page 7   who effected a paradigm shift in theological understanding. But in his analysis of Barth, Küng claims that he initiated the paradigm shift to postmodernity but did not complete it. With great regard for Barth’s accomplishments, Küng nevertheless confirms Bonhoeffer’s claim made a half century ago. Recognizing that the later Barth was reevaluating the knowledge of God available from the world of creation, natural theology, and world religions, Kung maintains that in the end this dogmatic edifice conceived on such a large scale, stringently constructed and carefully built, had at least in principle (though most Barthians hardly noticed) been blown up! It is Küng’s contention that if Barth could start over, “he would attempt to work out a Christian theology in the context of the world religions and the world regions.” How would Barth go about this, according to Küng? He would have attempted to work out a responsible historical-critical dogmatics in the light of an exegesis with a historical-critical foundation, in order in this way co translate the original Christian message... for the future that had dawned in such a way that it was again understood as a liberating address from God. (120) And, Küng contends, the “historical Jesus,” apart from whom the “Christ of dogma” becomes a myth to be manipulated at will, might “again become of the utmost importance and urgency.” We have come, it would appear, full circle during the course of this century. The current reconsideration of Ernst Troeltsch stems from his early grasp of the implications of historical thinking for theological formulation. He was an interdisciplinary thinker at home in various realms of inquiry. He faced up to the demise of Eurocentricism and the relativity of all historical events and human knowledge – religious, philosophical, and scientific. Thus he acknowledged that Christian faith was relative to its largely Western orientation and environment. At the beginning of this century Troeltsch foresaw the global pluralism with which we are finally beginning to come to terms. In 1910, Burkitt was expressing the implication of a new way of thinking, thinking historically, thinking in terms of development, the evolving conception of truth. Such a way of thinking is widely accepted in our world, but it has been resisted in the conservative sectors of the church because it can lead to the morass of relativism and the denial of the Absolute and of absolute truth. But such a result is not the necessary consequence of historical thinking. Rather, it can simply lead to the recognition expressed by Burkitt—that every human attempt to express absolute truth is only a relative expression—relative to one’s cultural context—a partial grasp of the absolute that will always transcend any historically conditional expression. Further, that expression is possible only in symbolic form, by use of metaphor. © Grand Valley State University �Interreligious Dialogue Richard A. Rhem Page 8   My purpose in introducing the limits and possibilities of historical thinking is in order to point the way to authentic and fruitful interreligious dialogue. Such dialogue is imperative for our world. The frightening prospect of a world in the throes of religious conflict makes it incumbent upon us to find a way to effect communication and mutual respect among the world religions. That will not be possible unless we are willing to apply the insights of historical thinking to the core credal development of Christology, including the various theories of the atonement that have been formulated throughout the centuries. The Development of Doctrine Burkitt was too confident in 1910. The twentieth century has not seen a fresh expression of the meaning of Jesus Christ in the church. Rather there has been strenuous resistance to any revisioning of core Christological formulations. This resistance to revisioning has been pointed out by the Anglican priest John Bowden in Jesus: The Unanswered Questions (1988). He is troubled by the church’s refusal to engage in serious discussion of the unavoidable questions surrounding Jesus that have arisen as our knowledge of the cultural context of his life and the checkered history of credal development have become apparent. Bowden writes from the perspective of faith, from within the tradition of the Christian church, and for love of the faith and the church. But he raises the unanswered and disturbing questions that must be addressed if the church is to engage the spiritual quest of those for whom responsible, intelligent inquiry must accompany the commitment of faith. Thus, his purpose in writing is pastoral and positive. From a broad spectrum of research he has distilled the critical questions that demand a hearing. Reflecting on his own theological training, he finds it remarkable that, after a thorough immersion in the historical-critical study of Scripture, he found quite a different approach to the history of Christian doctrine up to the year 451, the year of the Council of Chalcedon and the formulation of the classical statement about the natures of Jesus Christ. The theological reasoning and philosophical argument of those early centuries used the Bible in quite another fashion than he had learned to use it in his biblical studies. While the different cultural patterns of the early centuries of Christian dogmatic formulation were recognized, the conclusions of the church fathers were not to be questioned after Chalcedon; they were a given. But, Bowden contends, the conclusions of those early centuries need to be questioned as seriously as the gospel record has been. Biblical criticism must be joined by doctrinal criticism that will examine the historical development in those early centuries that culminated in the classic credal definitions of Incarnation and Trinity, an historical development about which we have data enough to trace the interplay of cultural forces involving not only concern for the truth but political power plays and ecclesiastical intrigue. We really know the story. We © Grand Valley State University �Interreligious Dialogue Richard A. Rhem Page 9   have simply refused to draw out the implications for this core credal affirmation. But until we do, we will not be able to engage in honest interreligious discussion. Doctrinal formulation is a human enterprise. Human thought forms and human language are the tools of such formulation. To acknowledge that as fundamental for historical thinking is not a denial of absolute truth, as previously stated. It is only to recognize that any particular articulation of the truth cannot be absolutized and be raised to a status beyond further reflection and possible reformulation. It is simply to acknowledge that it is a given of our human historical condition that we are limited to relative apprehensions, partial understandings that need always to be adjusted in light of new information gathered from research and ongoing historical experience. John Hick is a Christian thinker who has utilized the distinction between the Absolute and the respective relative apprehensions of the Absolute in the great world religions. Being a Christian, he has applied that insight to the development of the Christological formulations of the early centuries in the interest of developing a Christology in a pluralistic age. Christology Revisited John Hick has a ready grasp of the development of the Christian theological tradition as well as a deep knowledge of other religious traditions. For him, the window to the Real, to God, is Jesus and the Christian tradition. But he believes that the Real is apprehended through other traditions as well. Thus he believes there is a pluralism of ways of salvation. He argues his case in The Metaphor of God Incarnate (1993), in which he contends that the necessary revision of Christological understanding that alone can make way for genuine interreligious dialogue will involve “liberation from the network of theories—about Incarnation, Trinity and Atonement….” Hick contends that divine incarnation in its standard Christian form, in which both genuine humanity and genuine deity are insisted upon, has never been given a satisfactory literal sense; but that on the other hand it makes excellent metaphorical sense….We see in Jesus a human being extraordinarily open to God’s influence and thus living to an extraordinary extent as God’s agent on earth, “incarnating” the divine purpose for human life. He thus embodied within the circumstances of his time and place the ideal of humanity living in openness and response to God, and in doing so he “incarnated” a love that reflects the divine love. (12) Hick, in a sense, is attempting to fulfill the task that in 1910 Burkitt foresaw as necessary if the church were going to face the consequences of the historical study of Christian origins and translate the figure of Jesus into an understanding meaningful to the twentieth century. © Grand Valley State University �Interreligious Dialogue Richard A. Rhem Page10   Yet, the work of translation does not proceed without resistance, as Bowden points out. In his opening chapter, Hick himself reviews the explosion that erupted following the publication in 1977 of The Myth of God Incarnate, a volume of essays by leading New Testament scholars and theologians, of which he was one. “Thundering sermons and clerical pronouncements,” along with articles in the British press called for the Anglicans among the authors to resign their orders, and publication of a flurry of conservative retorts erected a wall of opposition to the insights and implications as they were articulated in The Myth of God Incarnate. From the tenor of the responses, one would have thought nothing in the church’s understanding had been affected in spite of two hundred years of intensive research and discussion. While the results of the historicalcritical study of the Bible had gained some acceptance, there obviously remained a formidable barrier to the same kind of investigation of the historical process that transformed Jesus of Nazareth into the ontological Son of God, second person of the Trinity, in the credal development of the fourth and fifth centuries. Hick addresses the third element of the doctrinal triad he contends needs revisioning, the understanding of the death of Jesus as an atoning sacrifice. He traces the history of the development of the doctrine, pointing out the cultural contexts that influenced the respective theories over the centuries. Then he asks, as in the case with other doctrines, what was the original experience out of which atonement theory arose, for it is that same gracious, liberating experience that we seek in our day. Rejecting the idea of an objective justice requiring punishment for wrongdoing, a moral law that God can and must satisfy by punishing the innocent in place of the guilty, Hick searches for a way to express the idea of atonement in the broad sense, in the etymological meaning of at-one-ment becoming one with God—not ontologically but, rather, being in right relationship with God, being in a state of salvation. He points to Eastern Orthodoxy as a valuable source for understanding with its idea of restoration to the divine image, salvation as a process of transformation. In such a view, “Jesus’ death was a piece with his life, expressing a total integrity in his self-giving to God; and his cross continues to inspire and challenge on a level that does not involve the atonement theories developed by the Churches.” With such an understanding of the death of Jesus, Hick is able to find similar meanings of salvation in other religious faiths. Thus he contends, these different conceptions of salvation are specifications of what, in a generic formula, is the transformation of human existence from selfcenteredness to a new orientation centered in the divine Reality.... The great world religions, then, are ways of salvation. Each claims to constitute an effective context within which the transformation of human existence can and does take place from self-centeredness to Realitycenteredness. (136) © Grand Valley State University �Interreligious Dialogue Richard A. Rhem Page11   With such a perspective, genuine interreligious dialogue can begin. It will become an empirical process of seeking to discover the fruits of the respective religions in human life. The alternative to such a stance is to bring to the discussion an understanding of atonement that necessitates a Christian absolutism of the exclusivist variety—that outside of the knowledge of and faith in Jesus Christ, his death and resurrection, salvation is not possible, or, an inclusivist view that salvation is only through Christ but explicit knowledge and trust are not necessary to receive the benefits of his death and resurrection. The ranks of the exclusivists are thinning. Evangelicals are increasingly trying to find a broader arena for God’s saving embrace. Clark Pinnock’s A Wideness in God’s Mercy: The Finality of Jesus Christ in a World of Religions and John Sanders’s No Other Name: An Investigation into the Destiny of the Unevangelized attempt this, although they thread a tortuous way because they have not yet shed an earlier view of biblical authority nor questioned the core Christological formulation. Schubert Ogden suggests an alternative to Hick. In a 1993 address at the Divinity School in Chicago, he argued against the pluralists’ claim as well as rejecting the claims of exclusivists and inclusivists alike. But in his approach there is also a revisioning of the classical Christological formulations in which salvation is constituted through Jesus Christ alone. Rather than a constitutive Christology, Ogden argues for a representative Christology. In this view, the Christ event represents the claim that “salvation has always already been constituted by what Christians are wont to think and speak of as the primordial and everlasting love of God.” Whether and where that love of God might elsewhere be represented is to be determined in the discussion without prior commitment to exclusivism, inclusivism, or pluralism. One simply enters the dialogue open to the truth claim of the other. My intention is not to advocate Hick or Ogden or any other thinker who is addressing the matter of interreligious dialogue. Rather, I wish to point to the necessity of honestly drawing out the consequences of the recognition that human grasp of the truth develops, evolves, and needs ongoing assessment and adjustment—and sometimes conceptions need to be rejected. By use of historical imagination the originating experience that gave rise to a theological formulation needs to be recovered in order to express the same reality differently, in order to make the experience available in a totally different cultural context. Rather than seeing this as a burden, a cause for fear and defensiveness, it should be seen as an exciting challenge. Is not such a pursuit of the truth to love God with mind as well as heart? And is not the recognition that every biblical and theological expression is marked by the human and historical limitations that adhere to all human thought the reason there is need for continual reformation? To be Reformed is not to be in possession of a set of timeless and eternal truths but, rather, to refuse to absolutize any human arrangement or formulation. It is © Grand Valley State University �Interreligious Dialogue Richard A. Rhem Page12   not to be saddled with a set of truths that were once new, innovative, and destabilizing of the established order of the sixteenth century, or the first century. It is an approach, a spirit, a posture that is open to new knowledge, fresh insight, and cumulative human experience within historical development. The church has managed to spend the century in a state of schizophrenia, pursuing research in the academy and sharing the results in the lecture hall, while the liturgy, prayers, hymns, and sermons have given little evidence of the honest engagement with insights of the modern period. My mentor, Hendrikus Berkhof, claimed the only heresy was to make the gospel boring. I would add another—the heresy of orthodoxy, the evidence of a failure of nerve and lack of trust in the living God. It is the heresy of an inordinate lust for certitude that seeks premature closure, the shutting down of the quest for truth and growth of knowledge in the magnificent and mysterious cosmos by the creatures whom the Creator calls to consciousness and embraces in a grace that pervades the unfolding cosmic process. References: John Stephen Bowden. Jesus: The Unanswered Questions. Abingdon Press, 1989. F.C. Burkitt, Preface to The Quest of the Historical Jesus by Albert Schweitzer. Dover Publications, Dover Ed edition, 2005. John Hick. The Metaphor of God Incarnate: Christology in a Pluralistic Age (Second edition). Westminster John Knox Press, 2nd edition, 2006. Ernst Troeltsch. Die Bedeutung der Geschichtlichkeit Jesu für den Glauben. © Grand Valley State University � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Richard A. Rhem Collection Description An account of the resource Text and sound recordings of the sermons, prayers, services, and articles of Richard Rhem, pastor emeritus of Christ Community Church in Spring Lake, Michigan, where he served for 37 years. Starting in the mid 1980's, Rhem began to question some of the traditional Christian dogma that he had been espousing from the pulpit. That questioning was a first step in a long and interesting spiritual journey, one that he openly shared with his congregation. His journey is important, in part because it is reflective of the questioning, the yearnings, and the gradual revision of beliefs that many persons in this part of the century have experienced and continue to experience. It is important also because of the affirming and inclusive way his questioning was done and his thinking evolved. His sermons and other written and spoken materials together document the steps in his journey as it took a turn in 1985, yet continued to revolve around the framework and liturgies of the Christian calendar. Subject The topic of the resource Clergy--Michigan Reformed Church in America Christ Community Church (Spring Lake, Mich.) Religion Interfaith worship Sermons Sound Recordings Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Rhem, Richard A. Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/514">Richard A. Rhem papers (KII-01)</a> Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives. Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Kaufman Interfaith Institute Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Language A language of the resource English Type The nature or genre of the resource Sound Text Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context KII-01 Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant 1981-2014 Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource audio/mp3 text/pdf Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. References John S. Bowden, Jesus: The Unanswered Questions, 1989, John Hick, The Metaphor of God Incarnate, 2006, Albert Schweitzer, Quest of the Historical Jesus, 2005, Ernst Troeltsch, Die Bedeutung der Geschichtlichkeit Jesu fur den Glauben. 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-4-19950501 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1995-05-01 Type The nature or genre of the resource Text Title A name given to the resource Interreligious Dialogue: What is Required of Us? Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Perspectives: A Journal of Reformed Thought Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Richard A. Rhem Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Language A language of the resource eng Description An account of the resource Article created, delivered, or published by Richard A. Rhem (Dick) on May 1, 1995 entitled "Interreligious Dialogue: What is Required of Us?", it appeared in Perspectives, pp. 10-15. Tags: Global Community, Pluralism, Interfaith, Historical Jesus, Metaphor, Grace, Mystery, Incarnation. Scripture references: John S. Bowden, Jesus: The Unanswered Questions, 1989, John Hick, The Metaphor of God Incarnate, 2006, Albert Schweitzer, Quest of the Historical Jesus, 2005, Ernst Troeltsch, Die Bedeutung der Geschichtlichkeit Jesu fur den Glauben.. Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource application/pdf Global Community Grace Historical Jesus Incarnation Interfaith Metaphor Mystery Pluralism https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/fcca773596086c525f761def2de68823.mp3 b26127c725ac1fcc85bbc64b32362991 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 Lent I Series Remembering Jesus, Experiencing God Scripture Text Luke 22:14-23 Location The location of the interview Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context KII-01_RA-0-20040229 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2004-02-29 Title A name given to the resource Remembering The Way He Was Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Richard A. Rhem Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Subject The topic of the resource Clergy--Michigan Reformed Church in America Christ Community Church (Spring Lake, Mich.) Sermons Relation A related resource Richard A. Rhem - An Archive of Sermons, Prayers, Talks and Stories: http://richardrhem.org/ Language A language of the resource eng Type The nature or genre of the resource Sound Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource audio/mp3 Description An account of the resource A sermon given by Richard A. Rhem (Dick) on February 29, 2004 entitled "Remembering The Way He Was", as part of the series "Remembering Jesus, Experiencing God", on the occasion of Lent I, at Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI. Scripture references: Luke 22:14-23. Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Lemmen Library and Archives Historical Jesus Way of Jesus https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/6d42da0ec8f7c3c48242fbbbbf609915.mp3 64f61d63258d82e993ef3ea257990410 https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/0c05ccaa292e88b5959491c7c1806dd2.pdf b6ef9a756768be9a2d3125cc87716e60 PDF Text Text Harmless Religion: Loss of Soul From the series: The Human Face of God Text: Amos 5:21, 24; 7:13; John 11:48 Richard A. Rhem Christ Community Church Spring Lake, Michigan Lent V, April 9, 2000 Transcription of the spoken sermon The Lenten focus on the human face of God is a focus that intends for us to concentrate on the life of Jesus. Because of what has been done archeologically and in cross-cultural studies of peasant societies of the Roman Mediterranean basin, we know more about the historical circumstances and the social context of the life of Jesus than any generation since that time. The more we learn about the circumstances which Jesus addressed, the more it becomes evident that Jesus dealt in a very concrete way with the contemporary issues of his day and that the kingdom of God of which he spoke was a very down-to-earth kingdom, having to do with social relationships and economic matters and political concerns, that Jesus was in the tradition of the great Hebrew prophets, that Jesus addressed the power structures of his day, structures of religion and politics, and that, in that confrontation with established authority, he was publically executed because he was deemed to be a dangerous, prophetic figure. The fact that I concentrate on the life of Jesus in the Lenten season or anytime, you have to know, is a surprise to me, and I do it with a guilty conscience, because I was raised on the conventional wisdom that religion and politics don't mix. I do it with a guilty conscience because it was drilled into me that you don't drag politics into the pulpit. I do it with a bit of foreboding because I hear those voices of my past that say, "Don't read the newspaper to me; tell me about God." That's the way it was said. I believed it. And so, when I deal as I deal in the season of Lent with the life of Jesus, and when I am forced to conclude that he died the way he died because he lived the way he lived, then I am doing about a 180-degree turn from where I came into this business, and one doesn't do that without having the old tapes continue to play. I am telling you things that in an earlier time in my ministry I would have written off as the social gospel of the late 19th century and early 20th century, the social gospel against which I was warned as the gospel of the old liberalism that saw Jesus as a model and an example. I present to you today, according to the best understanding I have, Jesus' dying a martyr's death which, at one time, I would have scorned. He wasn't a martyr; he was, rather, the Lamb of God destined before the foundations of the world to die for the sin of the world. The music we have just heard sung by the choir is lovely, © Grand Valley State University   �Harmless Religion: Loss of Soul Richard A. Rhem Page 2   but the theology is poor, and that's where I was. To come to where I have come is quite a radical adjustment. But the adjustment is necessary if I would be honest with you and would be honest to God, because I believe with all my being that Jesus is a heroic, magnificent figure who was filled with the Spirit of God, who was the embodiment of God in human flesh, who incarnated that which was truest of the depths of the heart of God. Being that, he faced what was wrong with this world and, in the name of the God of justice, the God of Israel and on behalf of the people, he confronted the established powers in the hopes that there might be transformation. Jesus, as John before him and Paul after him, I believe, expected that God would intervene very soon, and would right what was wrong. But, in the meantime, he called his people to live as what they were - the children of God, with dignity and honor, even in their oppressed state, and he confronted the powers of religion and politics in the name of the people, in the name of God calling for justice. The adjustment that I have made is an adjustment that I can illustrate to you by pointing you to the most familiar of Christian creeds, the Apostles’ Creed. You remember it? "I believe in God, the Father Almighty, maker of heaven and earth, and in Jesus Christ his only Son our Lord, who was conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, dead, and buried..." Do you note anything? Do you realize, in the light of what I have been saying, that we jumped from his birth to his death? "Born of the virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate." The whole of the life of Jesus lies in that comma. The Church in its creedal tradition and in most of the centuries of its existence has made of Jesus a cultic salvation figure and has failed to face the truth of his life. The most familiar creed of the church dumps it all into one comma, without a word. I do believe that Jesus was in the tradition of the Hebrew prophets, the tradition of the writing prophets of the 8th century, those great Hebrew prophets, the first of whom was Amos. Date him around 750-760 B.C.E. in the Northern Kingdom of Israel. Jeroboam is king. The country has prospered and expanded; it is affluent and all is well. But there is no compassion for the poor, there is no justice in the structures of society, and Amos is that prophet in the name of God who confronts the establishment with the conditions of the people of God that betray what God is all about. Amos was the first example of that which was true of Israel and made it unique. Do you remember Israel is born on the Exodus; they are brought into the Promised Land; they live for a period of time under the Judges. When there is a crisis, the Spirit of God falls on someone, a Samson or a Gideon, and they rise up and lead the people of God through the crisis and to peace, and then they go back and farm again. God is the king. Israel, in that situation, has a theocracy. But, then the greatest Judge of them all, Samuel, is the minister of the day and the people say, "We're tired of being this way. We want to be like other nations. We © Grand Valley State University �Harmless Religion: Loss of Soul Richard A. Rhem Page 3   want a king." Samuel says, "If you get a king, the king will tax you, he will take your sons and daughters, there will be conscripted labor. Think twice before you do it." They say, "We want a king." Saul is anointed, followed by David, followed by Solomon, and, with the rise of the monarchy in Israel, there arose the prophetic voice. The unique thing about Israel, and I suspect the thing that has kept Israel alive through all these millennia, is the fact that established power was always addressed by a prophet in the name of God. Religion and politics could never get away with it in Israel without hearing the word of the Lord. Amos was the first of the writing prophets who confronted that Northern Kingdom in the time of its prosperity and its social disregard and said, "You are going to die." I don't think Amos knew in terms of some predicted prophesy what was going to happen in the next few decades, but, as a matter of fact, in 722 the Assyrian empire came in and removed the ten tribes of the Northern Kingdom, and we still speak today of the Ten Lost Tribes of Israel. They were removed from their land, never to return. Amos said to them it is because there is no justice in the land. He said, "You have religion a-plenty. But, I despise your feasts; I can't stand your music. Your religion stinks." Well, he didn't quite say that. He said, "Your religion is an offense in the nostrils of God." Amos was tough. Amos was passionate, and Amos confronted the royal court, only to have the royal high priest come out and confront him. So, in the 7th chapter we have that encounter between Amaziah the priest and Amos the prophet, and Amaziah appeals to the king and says, "This man is saying things that cannot be tolerated. This language is unacceptable in the royal court. This is the royal temple; go back to Judah and earn your bread there." Amos said, “Look, I'm not a prophet getting paid for this thing, a professional religionist. I'm no prophet; I'm no prophet's son, but when I was following the flock, the word of God came to me and said, 'You go prophesy to my people Israel. ‘Now, therefore, hear the word of the Lord.’” That was old Amos. We have some familiar phrases from Amos. "Woe to you who are at ease in Zion. Prepare to meet your God." And the text of the morning, "Let justice flow down as mighty waters and righteousness as a mighty stream. Enough of your religious feasts and festivals and all of your liturgical finery. Give me justice. Don't think you can worship me and at the same time be living in a situation of injustice and oppression." So, the priest says to Amos, "Go away." But, as always happens, royal power coopts religion and, even though the monarchy grew and over against it the prophetic voice, the monarchy knew it couldn't make it without the religious blessing, and so it cultivated the priesthood that would offer it sacrifices, would pray at its presidential inaugurations, would bless the beans at the PTA, the kind of harmless religion that is ceremonial, that functions in order to give a gloss to © Grand Valley State University �Harmless Religion: Loss of Soul Richard A. Rhem Page 4   everything and not allow any examination of what is really going on in a society. That kind of religion is paid for by the royal court, and Amaziah was happy to be in the service of the king. But, Amos said, "Hear the word of the Lord," and thus we have the classic confrontation between the prophet and the priest, between religion and politics. In the gospel story that we read a moment ago, Jesus had performed the miracle of the raising of Lazarus and, contrary to Matthew, Mark and Luke, who make the cleansing of the temple the catalytic event, for John it is the raising of Lazarus which causes the people to stand in awe and believe, so they call a council meeting and ask, "What in the world are we going to do? If this goes on, the whole world will follow him and then the Romans will come in and destroy our holy place and our nation." Caiphus, sophisticated, suave, wily, a man about town with a lot of experience, says, "You don't know anything at all. It's better that this one man die than that the nation perish." (And John, being High Priest that year, spoke as a prophet, pointing to Jesus' death as the means of bringing in all the scattered children of God.) But, where would you have been? What side of the table if you had been at that Sanhedrin meeting? I mean, it's not such a simple matter; these were not bad people. In the situation in which Jesus emerged, Roman imperial power held the trump card, but the Sadducee and priestly families were the authority that was the buffer between Rome and the people. They were the ones that could keep the natives quiet and, as far as Rome was concerned, Rome knew how to rule. They had the priestly establishment that would keep the natives quiet while they exploited the countryside. Wonderful. If you were a Sadducee in authority, you were a high priestly person and playing ball with Rome, you would get along pretty well in Jerusalem. Yet, their fears were not unfounded. What they feared actually happened four decades later, because some fanatical, hysterical prophet came to town and aroused the populace and there was some kind of demonstration that brought in, finally, the Roman legions that decimated the town and leveled the temple. And these were responsible people. What would you have done, for example, if you had sat on the Board of Elders at that Jerusalem Council meeting? Where would you have been? Might you have said, "Look, what he's saying is in the tradition of our greatest prophets." Would you have argued on Jesus' behalf that he was reaching back into that old covenant history? Would you have been supportive of him and say, "He's non-violent. He's appealing to the people, to their dignity, to their sense of being the children of God. He's in the line of the prophets. What he is talking about is what we ought to be concerned about as those who are in authority for this people." Is that how you would have argued? Or, would you have said, "Caiphas, the old fox. That's it. I don't like to do it. I think essentially the guy himself is rather harmless, but he's got to go." © Grand Valley State University �Harmless Religion: Loss of Soul Richard A. Rhem Page 5   It's not such an easy thing. If you bear responsibility for the well-being of society or church, government, community, if that's your responsibility, then you do have to be careful about any traveling salesman that comes to town who would cause a disruption, that would be bad for the body politic. It's not so easy. But, you see, practicality and expediency demanded that Jesus be publically executed. Why? Because he was a danger to civil life and public order. Because he dared confront the religious, political authority with the devastating condition of the people of his day, and just like Amos in the name of the God of justice, Jesus stood for all of that which reflected the intention of God. The beat goes on. This kind of thing doesn't stop. There is a video about the life of Dietrich Bonhoeffer which I saw a year or two ago, a video which had footage I had never seen before, the leaders of the German evangelical church giving the Heil Hitler salute, embracing Hitler, affirming Hitler and Hitler them. That's a familiar story to us, but it's rather shocking again when you actually see it happen. And to the credit of Karl Barth and Dietrich Bonhoeffer and Pastor Neimueller and others, they formed the Confessing Church that came out of the evangelical church and, of course, Dietrich Bonhoeffer died. He gave his life because that's what happens to people who confront religious, political cooptation. We've just gone through again the anniversary of the assassination of Martin Luther King. The assassin, James Earl Ray, has died, but finally through the King family's own pursuits we know now that, what we've suspected all along, there was government complicity, because we don't publically execute people today. We get them assassinated. We have our own way of doing it, and Martin Luther King was a disruptive prophet. It was in the Civil Rights of the 60s which King was leading which was the beginning of my own coming to consciousness of the fact that the church had to be about more than the salvation of souls. I didn't march; I wasn't that awake. But I should have. It was about that time, as well, that Martin Luther King began to speak out on the Vietnam War. There were many protestors, particularly the young. And there were some voices in the church. The church was beginning to see that the very real world needs to be addressed, in the name of God, in the name of Jesus Christ. Martin Luther King was slain, assassinated. I remember in the wake of the sixties where I was starting to come awake, and having gone to Europe, came back here in 1971 and a few of us went out to the Institute for Successful Church Leadership in Garden Grove, California. April of 1971. Part of that Institute was a conversation with Bob Schuler in his office, and there were some seminarians there and there was a young professor of New Testament that didn't have enough to know that you don't needle the host. So, now this is 1971, in the wake of all of this "stuff," and he was pushing Bob Schuler because Bob had made some statements about "No controversy in the pulpit." That was something that was a hallmark of Bob Schuler's ministry. He got a little © Grand Valley State University �Harmless Religion: Loss of Soul Richard A. Rhem Page 6   agitated and he condemned those preachers who got out of their pulpits and took up picket signs and walked the streets. I had a little bit of concern for the young professor, and I intervened and said to Bob, "Well, what about Jesus?" He said, after a long pause, "I'm only 44; I don't have all the answers." Word for word quote. It’s not easy to make decisions, draw lines, know when to speak, where to speak, when to stand up. It’s not easy to know how to balance social serenity with public protest. But, I have to tell you, Jesus died because of the way he lived, because he embodied and incarnated the justice of which Amos spoke. Don't you suspect that I would rather come here week after week and be your priest rather than, from time to time, being a prophetic voice? Don't you think it would be more comfortable for me to inspire, encourage, comfort? Don't you think that Jesus as a salvation figure is harmless in terms of any contemporary issue that you are facing in your business or political life? Isn't the fact that the church is swept along with this worship as entertainment which is so noisy and blaring - isn't that because it's reflecting the culture that is noisy and blaring? You can't even go to a ball game without the action stopping and the organ starting. You turn on the TV and the commercials blast you out of the room. You go to a movie, and the previews knock you out of the seat. The culture is noisy; there's no time to be silent and to think, to ponder. Music, worship as entertainment. It's harmless. Or, worship, religion as therapeutic, helping you to be well-adjusted so that survive the pressures and tensions that you face in the world or the community life, giving you wisdom by which to be well-adjusted, well-attuned, to get by without ruffling feathers and causing trouble. Don't you think it would easier for me to peddle here week after week harmless religion, to use Dom Crossan's phrase, Religion as Prozac? There's a lot of it around. It's a lot easier to be a priest, and it's easy for me to be a priest because I love you and I love to pray with you and I love to be there with you and feel your pain and share your darkness. That's very natural for me. It's very natural for all of the people on this team. But, sometimes it's also liberating and freeing to gain one's own soul and to be honest to God. © 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 Lent V Series The Human Face of God Scripture Text Amos 5:21, 24, 7:13, John 11:48 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-0-20000409 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2000-04-09 Title A name given to the resource Harmless Religion: Loss of Soul Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Richard A. Rhem Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Subject The topic of the resource Clergy--Michigan Reformed Church in America Christ Community Church (Spring Lake, Mich.) Sermons Relation A related resource Richard A. Rhem - An Archive of Sermons, Prayers, Talks and Stories: http://richardrhem.org/ Language A language of the resource eng Type The nature or genre of the resource Sound Text Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource audio/mp3 application/pdf Description An account of the resource A sermon given by Richard A. Rhem (Dick) on April 9, 2000 entitled "Harmless Religion: Loss of Soul", as part of the series "The Human Face of God", on the occasion of Lent V, at Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI. Scripture references: Amos 5:21, 24, 7:13, John 11:48. Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Lemmen Library and Archives Historical Jesus Prophetic Voice Transformation; Justice https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/693cd033e76448c469ebcd75733f25e6.mp3 fbae997aa6fe3ed67f64785e5cc83e17 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 Lent IV Series The Human Face of God Scripture Text Matthew 4:12, 17 Location The location of the interview Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI References Richard Horsley, Neil Silberman. The Message and the Kingdom: How Jesus and Paul Ignited a Revolution and Transformed the Ancient World, 1997. 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-0-20000402 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2000-04-02 Title A name given to the resource The Message of the Kingdom: An Alternative Society Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Richard A. Rhem Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Subject The topic of the resource Clergy--Michigan Reformed Church in America Christ Community Church (Spring Lake, Mich.) Sermons Relation A related resource Richard A. Rhem - An Archive of Sermons, Prayers, Talks and Stories: http://richardrhem.org/ Language A language of the resource eng Type The nature or genre of the resource Sound Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource audio/mp3 Description An account of the resource A sermon given by Richard A. Rhem (Dick) on April 2, 2000 entitled "The Message of the Kingdom: An Alternative Society", as part of the series "The Human Face of God", on the occasion of Lent IV, at Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI. Scripture references: Matthew 4:12, 17. Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Lemmen Library and Archives Historical Jesus Jesus Movement Justice https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/6896032617f5d3f12bb1874168e36bf5.pdf 4e8d687ea2557f4b2525e6b6e7145097 PDF Text Text A Dreamer’s Final Appeal From the Lenten sermon series: The Dream Text: Luke 19:41-42 Richard A. Rhem Christ Community Church Spring Lake, Michigan Lent V, April 2, 1995 Transcription of the spoken sermon Jesus was a dreamer, and it is dreams that shape the world. Dreamers die, but dreams don't die. Jesus, in his experience of God, was convinced that God was full of mercy and compassion, that God's love would reach out and embrace all sorts and conditions of humankind. After his wrestling with his calling in the wilderness, filled with the Holy Spirit, he declared his dream in his home synagogue, and in his teaching told stories which revealed his understanding of God, a God Who received the prodigal home without recrimination, simply embracing, weeping, loving, and restoring. The dream was embodied in his life, in what he taught, and in how he lived, and it was brought to supreme expression as he was being crucified and he looked at those who tormented him and he prayed, "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do." Such amazing love and grace, the epitome of the incarnation of the dream. He made one final appeal. After ministering throughout Galilee, after those months of his itinerary, he knew finally he must set his face toward Jerusalem, and he did. And in our lesson this morning which anticipates Palm Sunday next week, the Gospel reading tells of his final appeal to Jerusalem, his entrance into that city, and his endeavor one last time to effect a radical change, a revolution that would change the nature of that society and all human relationships. His final appeal for the embodiment of his dream in the life of the people of Israel. He went to Jerusalem because that was the center of it all. He went to Jerusalem because there was the temple and the cult and the priesthood and the temple establishment; there was the center of established power, and it was there that he must address his final appeal. My understanding of the nature of the Gospel and the ministry of Jesus has changed in recent years, and I am so keenly aware of that in the season of Lent when we are focused on his life and ministry. I have confessed to you before that I have never known what to do with the Sermon on the Mount, and if you would have a computer readout of all those texts that I've treated over all these years, you would find a great dearth of treatment of that central body of teaching of Jesus. That might seem a paradox, but it is true. And the dearth of treatment is © Grand Valley State University   �A Dreamer’s Final Appeal Richard A. Rhem Page 2   because I didn't know what to do with it. The Beatitudes - the counsel about going the extra mile, turning the other cheek, offering the second garment when one was requested, and of course, culminating in that call to love one's enemies and to pray for those who despitefully treat one. I never really knew what to do with that, to be very honest with you, because on the one hand, it is so impractical. I've been hesitant to simply say what it so obviously says, because it is so obviously contrary to our whole manner of life. It cuts against the grain of every survival instinct that we have; it's contrary to human nature as we know it in ourselves and in society. The Sermon on the Mount which was the central body in the teaching of Jesus, which was embodying that dream which motivated his life, was simply too foreign to everything I knew about myself and about all of us. I understand now why a certain biblical interpreter, Charles Scofield, interpreted the whole biblical story as he did. Maybe some of you possess a Scofield Bible, which I associate with the Bible School movement and more Bible type churches. The Scofield Bible is still being printed, as a matter of fact. Charles Scofield divided the biblical story into seven dispensations. It was his contention that we really don't even have to deal with the Sermon on the Mount. In fact, in the more radical expression of that whole school of thought, you don't even use the Lord's Prayer because the contention was that Jesus came to offer the Kingdom to Israel and, when he was rejected, then the Kingdom was postponed until a future date, and this interim period, the period of the Church Age, is a period in which that ethic of the Kingdom is not applicable. Well, I certainly don't think that Scofield has correctly interpreted the biblical story, but I do understand now what he was dealing with. He was facing the same problem that I have faced, and that is, what do you do with that ethic? Isn't it contrary to the way you live, to be honest? Don't we really know that if we follow Jesus literally as it would seem the text would call us to follow, don't we know we would come in last? Wouldn't we be gobbled up? Can you really live that way? Can you order a society that way? That was the problem he was trying to handle, I suppose. The way it’s been handled in my background and training is not that radical claim that it simply doesn't apply now, but we have been as effective in blunting Jesus' teaching by making it refer to a kind of spiritual attitude and posture of the heart, so that you don't literally turn the other cheek. You don't literally go the extra mile, but that sort of spirit washes over us a bit and does temper our human behavior. We spiritualize it. We take the sharp edge off it by saying that it is a spiritual matter and Jesus' Kingdom is a spiritual kingdom. The Kingdom of God refers to a spiritual kingdom, and haven't we honestly now been schizophrenic? Haven't we really spoken of a spiritual kingdom, those ideals, and then gone on to live our practical life, (could I even say our secular existence), in quite another fashion, if we would be honest? Well, one of the things that has changed my ministry in recent years has been the large amount of research that has surfaced about the times of Jesus, the social © Grand Valley State University �A Dreamer’s Final Appeal Richard A. Rhem Page 3   situation, the politics and the economics of the life of his time, and what is becoming evident is that Jesus was not talking about some spiritual kingdom in heaven by and by. Jesus was addressing very concretely the life and society of his day. When he said these things, he meant them. He was serious. He was talking about quite another way to live out one's human existence, and quite another way for a society to be in community together. The cultural studies of that time will reveal that Jesus was taking the side of the poor and the disaffected and the alienated and the outcast over against an established official temple religion with a holiness code that managed the social arrangement of society, and which excluded large numbers of people. And what Jesus was interested in and concerned about was the concrete life of the people of his day, particularly the disenfranchised. Particularly the poor, the landless, the voiceless, and the powerless. Jesus was serious. Jesus was speaking about real people and real social relationships in the concrete history which he was living. Jesus was reaching back to an old tradition of his people. There really are two traditions in the Hebrew scriptures. You may perhaps remember last October when we were going through that survey of the history of Israel. When we came to that section in I Samuel, Israel had entered into Canaan. They were now in and settling the Promised Land. They were under the leadership of judges. That Hebrew biblical book by that name tells the story of various of those judges. These judges were the spiritual leaders, but they had no continuing authority. They had authority when the spirit of God came upon them; they were raised up by God to meet a crisis and, once the crisis was met, they went back home to the farm. You remember Samuel, the greatest of those spiritual leaders, how some came to him and said, "Samuel, this just isn't going to do. You have stature and authority, but your sons are not following in your steps. We need a king; we need to be like other nations." And you remember Samuel said, "You are rejecting God." However, in those chapters in Samuel 8 and 9, you have two traditions side by side, and one says let them have a king, and the other says to have a king is to reject God. There were two positions, two traditions; they were in tension with one another, one wanting to maintain that relationship with God directly, and the other wanting a human figurehead on the throne. And the one tradition, the Sinai tradition, coming from Moses, is the tradition that says let God be our king. Moses had led them out of Egypt. What was Egypt? Egypt was slavery. Egypt was empire. Egypt was a place of the royal throne, and that royal consciousness permeated Egypt and it oppressed people, and the Israelites were a part of that oppressed people. And God set them free. Moses led them out of bondage, into their own land. Here they were, free. Their own people. And then some came and said to Samuel, "We'd like a king." Samuel said, "You got such short memories? Don't you remember what kings do? Kings tax. Kings raise armies with your sons and daughters. Kings oppress. Are you crazy? Having been delivered from that, do you want now to go back to that?" And they said, "Yes," and they did. © Grand Valley State University �A Dreamer’s Final Appeal Richard A. Rhem Page 4   The second tradition is called the Zion tradition. The great king of Israel was David. We really love David because we think about David as a shepherd boy. David was one clever individual - very charismatic, very strategically smart, acute, and the first thing David did was conquer Jerusalem, which up to that point had not been conquered because it was a natural fortress. He established Jerusalem as Mount Zion, and he built his house there and made it the center of this new monarchy. He wanted to build a temple, too, because every throne needs the legitimacy of the temple. But God said, "No. You've been a man of war." So what did he do? He gathered the building fund, so that when Solomon and his son came, they could build the temple. Now you have the royal house and the temple on Mount Zion, and you have all kinds of references in the Hebrew story and Israel's history in the Old Testament of the exultation of Mount Zion. Don't hear me as saying one of these traditions is biblical and the other isn't - they are both there. The Sinai tradition, the wilderness tradition, the Mosaic tradition where God is king- and the Zion tradition where the House of David is supreme, and where the house of David which is the reigning family occupying the royal house is in collaboration with the temple of Zion, temple of our God. Now, you see, when Jesus came teaching, he talked about the Kingdom of God. So often in the church we have blunted what he was really saying because we have spoken of the kingdom of God or the kingdom of heaven as a spiritual reign above us, not connected with our concrete reality. But as a matter of fact, when Jesus spoke of the kingdom of God, Jesus was speaking about the rule of God, the rule of God in my life and in your life and in our life together. The kingdom of God was not some far off future ideal. It was that which Jesus was calling his people to, here and now. And when he came to Jerusalem, he was serious. He was making one final appeal. Jesus did not go there without hope. He didn't come there without expectation. He came there because he knew that, until he had entered Jerusalem, to the very temple court itself, and offered this alternative, he would not have fulfilled his mission. And so, he came, and in this final appeal, there were two dramatic acts. The one was simply the entrance itself on a donkey. He came on a donkey, not a war horse. It was a symbolic action. In Zechariah 9, you'll find that the man of peace comes riding on a donkey, and Jerusalem is rid of its war horses. Jesus came as a peace candidate. Don't we hate peace candidates? Aren't they pains in the neck? Peace candidates. Chairman of the Peace Party. Coming into the city, Jesus went right to the temple and, as we speak of it, he "cleansed" the temple. I'm believing that I've preached that one wrong all my life, too. I always thought that he came in to cleanse the temple because they were turning the Temple Court into a bazaar and overcharging the poor pilgrims. But, it wasn't that they were doing business in the temple court. Doing business in the temple court was a part of the whole temple structure. Those who were doing business in the temple court were simply serving the temple system, which was a holiness system. A holiness system determined who was in and who was out. Who was right and who was wrong. When you came to the temple, you had to pay your temple tax, but you © Grand Valley State University �A Dreamer’s Final Appeal Richard A. Rhem Page 5   didn't pay your temple tax with a coin that had an image of Caesar on it. So you had to turn your temple tax, your coin with Caesar on it, into the treasurer there and get a holy coin so that, in turn, you could take the holy coin to pay your temple tax. And in the meantime, the temple skimmed a little off. You know, maybe only 5%. (I'm thinking about instituting that.) And if you were a pilgrim from far away you cannot bring a ritually pure animal in for sacrifice, and so, wonder of wonders, they're available. It was part of the system. It was perfectly legitimate. And those who were doing it were doing it in the service of the whole temple structure. It was not that they were doing business or having commerce. What they were doing was they were reinforcing a system that said to the poor that had no coin at all, "You can't come in." What they were doing was reinforcing a system that said to the poor who had no bird, "You can't come in." What they were doing was keeping intact a system that said, "You're in; you're out." Jesus went to the very heart of the temple cult and he said, "Your separateness, your separating, your dividing, your choosing, your setting those outside, alienating, your determining who can and who cannot -this is wrong! It's contrary to what God would have. This temple is for all people." And he quoted from Isaiah 56:7. You read that chapter and in that chapter the prophet says as a mouthpiece for the Lord, "Do not say, you foreigner, that you are separated from my people. And you who are eunuchs who are supposed to be outside because of dysfunction, don't say you were outside. You come in, because my house will be for all people with joy." That’s what Jesus was after. That's why he went to the temple. He went to the temple because it was the very center of a society that excluded the broken and the bruised and the bloodied, that excluded the poor and the hopeless and the powerless and the voiceless. He went to the very temple and he said to those who were in authority there, "You are collaborating with the occupying power in order to maintain the status quo of a society that is on its way to death. And if you maintain this posture, you will lead this people to disaster." That’s why when he came to the city he wept over it as he saw it in all of its splendor and beauty. He wept for it because he loved it. He wept for it because, in solidarity with all who had no access to it, he felt their pain. He wept for it because those who were the very guardians and the custodians of the city were so blind as to what was the consequence of their course of action. He was full of anguish, not anger. Anger only elicits anger in return. But genuine anguish has the possibility of permeating through the shell of a heart. Jesus wept. And what he appealed for was so radical that they had to kill him, because in the Gospel reading this morning, it says that the people were hanging on his words because, with the people, what he was after rang true. And every regime, whether of church or of state, fears when the people hear another drumbeat and find resonance in their soul. But Jesus wasn't a victim. There was no self-pity, and there was no recrimination. Jesus was a dreamer, and he couldn't rest until he had brought his dream right to the heart and center of all of that that kept the dream from being realized. But © Grand Valley State University �A Dreamer’s Final Appeal Richard A. Rhem Page 6   making his appeal and being crucified, he was born again onto eternal life. He was a free man. He lived by a grand dream. He lived with power, with dignity, with integrity. He lived with joy because, when one is captivated by a dream and lives the dream faithfully with passion, then come what may, one is free. Then one knows joy. Next Sunday marks 50 years since the death of Dietrich Bonhoeffer. I like what he says about his own learning what it means to be a Christian. Later I discovered and am still discovering to this very moment that it is only by living completely in this world that one learns to believe. One must abandon every attempt to make something of oneself, whether it be a saint or a converted sinner, a churchman, the priestly type so called, a righteous or an unrighteous person, a sick man or a healthy one. This is what I mean by worldliness. Taking life in one's stride with all its duties and problems, its successes and failures, its experiences and helplessness. It is in such a life that we throw ourselves utterly into the arms of God and participate in his sufferings in the world and watch with Christ in Gethsemane. That is faith. That is metanoia, or repentance. And that is what makes one a Christian. A human being. And then these words, Can success make us arrogant? Or failure lead us astray when we participate in the sufferings of God by living in this world? No. No room for arrogance. No room for despair, but following the dream and being true carries its own reward, and that reward is freedom and it is joy. I still don't know what to do with the Sermon on the Mount. Don't test me by cuffing me on the cheek. But what you are doing, here and there, in small ways, and what we're trying to do together, to be a community of compassion, that's at least a small step on the way, trying to live out the dream of the one whom we say we follow. Jesus. Really something. Really somebody. What a way to go! © Grand Valley State University � https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/f938a7b64bb9e6420deb58093213e62f.mp3 d1bd095de738a46ba684b8354436da57 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 Lent V Series The Dream Scripture Text Luke 19:41-42 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-0-19950402 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1995-04-02 Title A name given to the resource A Dreamer's Final Appeal Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Richard A. Rhem Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Subject The topic of the resource Clergy--Michigan Reformed Church in America Christ Community Church (Spring Lake, Mich.) Sermons Relation A related resource Richard A. Rhem - An Archive of Sermons, Prayers, Talks and Stories: http://richardrhem.org/ Language A language of the resource eng Type The nature or genre of the resource Sound Text Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource audio/mp3 application/pdf Description An account of the resource A sermon given by Richard A. Rhem (Dick) on April 2, 1995 entitled "A Dreamer's Final Appeal", as part of the series "The Dream", on the occasion of Lent V, at Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI. Scripture references: Luke 19:41-42. Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Lemmen Library and Archives Forgiveness Historical Jesus Sermon on the Mount Way of Jesus https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/0c44f3ff4e643059ad1d617633841d41.pdf 2e7b1517d1db6030b57c4eb7fbf1bf18 PDF Text Text Retrieving a Dangerous Dream From the sermon series: The Dream Text: Luke 22:19 Richard A. Rhem Christ Community Church Spring Lake, Michigan Lent I, March 5, 1995 Transcription of the spoken sermon My life and ministry has been changed through the observance of Lent. It is in the observance of Lent that I began to focus rather intensely on the story of Jesus, and in the last few years that focus has been transforming. I grew up in the church and in a wonderful Christian home and was taught as a child to love Jesus, and I was taught the whole story of Jesus and identified Jesus as Son of God, the One Who came into this world to die for us. My piety was expressed in the old hymn, "Jesus paid it all, all to Him I owe. Sin had left a dreadful stain, He washed it white as snow." Then I began to realize that, while I should love Jesus and admire and trust and adore Jesus, as a matter of fact, there were people in the course of history who moved me more than Jesus. It's a strange thing to confess to you, but it's true. It began to bother me somewhat. Why is it that, for example, as a kid having to do a book review on a biography, I read a biography of Gandhi, and I was so impressed with that person? And then later, studying the while Civil War and recognizing the leadership of an Abraham Lincoln, I was really impressed. And in the 60's, with the Civil Rights struggle, Martin Luther King and the non-violent leadership patterned on Gandhi's methods -I was moved by this human person and began to realize that Jesus did not affect me the way some of these people affected me. And then it was such that in the study of the Gospels there was a development or movement that looked at Christology from below. You see, my Christology, my understanding of Jesus Christ, was from above, from God's point of view. That's the way you've learned it, too. I can remember struggling with that at some points. For example, at seminary one studies Christology. And I can remember studying that section in the Gospels about the temptation - you remember, Jesus was tempted in the Wilderness - and, according to our good Reformed theology, Jesus was really tempted, but Jesus could not have sinned. Now, maybe you didn't know that, but believe me, that's true. In our good theological systems, Jesus is tempted, but Jesus could not sin. Jesus was not only human, Jesus was divine. If Jesus Christ, human and divine, would have sinned, God would have sinned. That's impossible, so the temptation was real, but Jesus could not have © Grand Valley State University   �Retrieving a Dangerous Dream Richard A. Rhem Page 2   sinned. When it came to exam time, I had to write the answer to the question, "Could Jesus have sinned?" So, I wrote the right answer, because uppermost in my life was always to get all As. My father had taught me that. I wrote the right answer. But, then I wrote what I really felt. And I let the professor have it. I mean, the page smoked. I said it disgusts me, this kind of game we play, when you read the Gospel story and you've got Jesus in the wilderness in temptation, and then later we observe that and say he could not really have sinned. I really got rid of all my passion. I got my exam book back and the professor wrote across my answer, "Feel better?" And, indeed, I did feel better! So, there were those times that I struggled with the fact that my Jesus Christ was second person of the Trinity, Son of God come down to earth to live and to die, to take care of the atoning necessity and to go back to reign, and I treated Jesus Christ as a kind of divine interloper, one who dipped down here for a time. But, Jesus, for me, lacked something of that flesh and blood passion that I experienced in my own human experience. He was not really my brother. I was more impressed by Gandhi. To be sure, Jesus was pretty heroic. After all, he had a leg up on us. Then came to me that development of Christology from below, where there had to be some research into the real historical setting of Jesus and, as I began to reflect on that, I came to see that God certainly embodied Jesus, or Jesus was embodied with the Spirit of God, but Jesus was my brother. Jesus was flesh of my flesh and bone of my bone, and then I began to reflect on the whole Gospel story from that angle. On April 15, 1984, Palm Sunday, I preached a sermon entitled, "Jesus, You're Really Somebody." And that was a turning point for me. I was invited to come to Western Seminary to lead a Lenten preaching seminar and there were about 40-50 colleagues gathered there and I shared with them my excitement about how my preaching during the Lenten season had come alive with my understanding of Jesus as genuinely human. Well, it wasn't very well accepted, frankly. But, no matter. I continued to pursue that line, until in 1991 during Lent, I preached about The Way of Jesus, the Sign of the Cross. And then the next year the same thing, and the next year - The Way of Jesus, The Way of the Cross, the way of a human being fully open to God who proclaimed a different world and who died for the way he lived. And I come right back in 1995 and I want to say in these Lenten weeks, that Jesus had a dream. He had a dream of a new world, of a different way of being, and in dying he asked those who followed him to remember, to keep the dream alive. So, this morning we begin with the retrieval of a dangerous dream. Retrieval is a technical word. If you were in literary circles and engaged in the interpretation of literary documents of the past, which of course is very critical to interpretation of the Bible and very critical to the interpretation of the Constitution, but it's also done broadly in the literary field. Interpretation of documents of the past. How do you bridge the past and the present? The endeavor to do that is called the science of hermaneutics. Hermes was the messenger of the gods. Hermes was the god of communication. How do you take an ancient story and have it come alive © Grand Valley State University �Retrieving a Dangerous Dream Richard A. Rhem Page 3   so that it impacts us today, shaping our future? Well, in the study of literary documents in today's world, which is quite a broad endeavor being carried on by many, many people, there is what is called the hermaneutics of suspicion. You go to an ancient document and you don't just take it at face value, but consider, "What was going on in the society and the culture? What was the political situation? The economic situation? Why would this author put things this way?" An example of this in the New Testament is when the interpreter will go to the Gospel of John, where you have a whole controversy between Jesus and the Jews, and say, "At that time, when John was writing, there was real conflict between the Jesus movement and the ongoing Jewish community. There was real tension." And that tension will probably reveal itself in a document written at that time. Hermaneutics of suspicion doesn't just take it at face value, but asks what was going on behind there? But there's another hermaneutics, and that's what I really want to use in our Lenten discussions, and that is the hermaneutics of retrieval, where there is an honest effort made to retrieve, to bring back, to elicit from the past that meaning, that disclosure in order that it may become a disclosure experience for us today. The kind of thing when you read an ancient document out of another time and another place, a whole other world, and suddenly a light goes on and that which came to expression there, comes to expression again. That's retrieval. And what I hope we can do and where we want to begin this morning, is to try to retrieve that dream of Jesus. It's more possible to do it today than has ever been possible before, because there's been such intensive research into the Gospels and into the life of Jesus. One of the books that some of you have read and we've passed around is by Marcus Borg, Meeting Jesus Again For The First Time. Marcus Borg is a member of the Jesus Seminar that gets a little press once in a while, and he makes a very interesting and helpful distinction between the pre-Easter Jesus and the postEaster Jesus. They're not the same, you see. The pre-Easter Jesus is the Jesus that lived, ate, slept, sweat, taught, wept – the actual, historical Jesus. Pre-Easter Jesus. The post-Easter is that Jesus remembered after Easter, some decades down the line, in terms of the present experience of the risen, living Christ. Our Gospels are post-Easter Jesus remembrances. But, through research today, we have access more than ever before, to that preEaster Jesus. Studying his times. Studying his cultural situation. What were the politics of the day? What were the economics of the day? Does it matter, for example, that Jesus was at the lower end of the peasant scale, that Jesus' family had lost their property? Does it help us to understand Jesus if we understand in that day that life was organized according to a kind of holiness code, where you ate with some people and you didn't eat with other people. You followed certain practices in your diet and your ritual life. There were all sorts of ways in which life was structured then, just as there are now. But, what we're able to do now is © Grand Valley State University �Retrieving a Dangerous Dream Richard A. Rhem Page 4   to go back and paint some of that, to understand some of that which was going on. So, we're looking at the pre-Easter Jesus. But, to remember Jesus is to recover a dangerous dream, because Jesus is not just the pre-Easter Jesus of history, Jesus is the living Lord of the Church, and throughout all of these centuries here and there, now and again, someone or some movement has remembered, has been captivated by the memory of Jesus and that energized them and changed them and they have become transformative agents in the world. For example, in the Second World War, in France, when the Nazis overcame the French government, there was a French puppet government put in place that cooperated with the Nazis, specifically in rousing out the Jews and sending them off to the concentration camps. There was a French Reformed pastor named André Trocmé. His story is told in the book Lest Innocent Blood Be Shed. Trocmé struggled with what he as a Christian had to do in the face of his context in time in France - should he cooperate? He could not cooperate. But the thing that shaped Trocmé in his very concrete decisions in that very existential situation was his memory of Jesus. He writes, "If Jesus really walked upon the earth, why do we keep treating him as though he were a disembodied, impossible, idealistic, ethical theory?" You see, if Jesus is just some kind of impossible ideal, then Jesus can be admired, but not necessarily followed. Trocmé says, if he were a real man, then the Sermon on the Mount was made for people on this earth. And if he existed, God has shown us in flesh and blood what goodness is for flesh and blood people. What's dangerous about remembering Jesus that way? It put Trocmé in danger of his life. But it's dangerous in the deeper sense; it's dangerous to the collaborationist government. It's dangerous to the ruling regime. The memory of Jesus is subversive. When Jesus gets a hold of one, when one says, "Oh, I see. I see a different world. I see a new possibility. I see the contradiction of my life, I see the contradiction of my society, of my church," when one is energized by that dream, that memory, one can become a dangerous person. One becomes a destabilizing person then. One becomes as Jesus was, a thorn in the flesh of the status quo and the established structures of life. Jesus' memory is dangerous, but it is precisely in the Lenten season that we are called to remember, and how better to enter the season than around the Table, the Table of our Lord, the Last Supper. As I said at the Table, it was his custom to eat with all people. To eat with all people was a political statement. It was counter to the accepted ways, the conventional wisdom. It was radical and it was disruptive. People were offended by Jesus. Particularly the religious people were offended with Jesus. When he came to his last night, it was as natural as breathing for him to say to his disciples, "Join me at table." And knowing that he was going to die, he broke the bread and he said to them, "Remember me. Don't let the dream die." That's really what it was. It was really no more than that. The dream has so many applications and we can't begin even to scratch the surface © Grand Valley State University �Retrieving a Dangerous Dream Richard A. Rhem Page 5   this morning, but let me just give you a concrete illustration of what it would mean if we remembered Jesus at the Table. This Table, my friends, is here because Jesus gathered at table with all sorts of people. He scandalized the righteous because he would break bread with anybody. But this Table in congregations in churches all across the world, rather than being the Table of Jesus that invites all, has become one of the great divisions even within the Christian church. There are Christian churches that gather and I'm not allowed to come to the Table, because I don't believe just the way they believe, or believe and live just the way they believe and live, or recite just the right words. Isn't it ironic? Isn't it ironic that the Table, which for Jesus was the radical sign of inclusivity, could become a means of division even among Christian people? The Table was simply a sign of that broader inclusivity of Jesus who welcomed all, who ate with publicans and tax collectors, accepted the devotion of prostitutes, reached out and touched the leper. And yet the Church is a Church of walls and barriers. It is not simply the people who are hungry for grace and forgiveness. We have our walls up and our barriers erected. Isn't it ironic? If we really remembered the dream, it could be dangerous, couldn't it? For the Christian Church. For my life. That's what this season is all about. Remembering that Jesus died because he had a dream of something different. Remembering that world that he conceived of - a world of grace, of compassion, of inclusiveness, and seeking in this season to be transformed by the memory in order to keep the dream alive. Lent has changed my life and my ministry. I love Jesus. And it is the passion of my life to follow him. Will you join me? © Grand Valley State University � https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/bba37b8b7fd09140f674483e96a10446.mp3 f1403830e5d4d9483d93b18e1d3f124b 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 Lent I Series The Dream Scripture Text Luke 22:19 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-0-19950305 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1995-03-05 Title A name given to the resource Retrieving a Dangerous Dream Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Richard A. Rhem Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Subject The topic of the resource Clergy--Michigan Reformed Church in America Christ Community Church (Spring Lake, Mich.) Sermons Relation A related resource Richard A. Rhem - An Archive of Sermons, Prayers, Talks and Stories: http://richardrhem.org/ Language A language of the resource eng Type The nature or genre of the resource Sound Text Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource audio/mp3 application/pdf Description An account of the resource A sermon given by Richard A. Rhem (Dick) on March 5, 1995 entitled "Retrieving a Dangerous Dream", as part of the series "The Dream", on the occasion of Lent I, at Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI. Scripture references: Luke 22:19. Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Lemmen Library and Archives Historical Jesus Inclusive Justice Lent Way of Jesus https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/4272f840692e1d088f176a1b30d32d45.pdf 5514c588e131844ea296192885b43962 PDF Text Text A Charismatic and Open Future From the series: The People of the Way Text: Acts 1:8; 3:19-21; 10:34; 11:2, 4 Richard A. Rhem Christ Community Church Spring Lake, Michigan January 22, 1995 Transcription of the spoken sermon The Lesson from the Epistle is a reading from the Book of Acts, in fact several passages, in my attempt to give you a sense of how the Jesus Movement was founded and continued, and how the New Testament document was put together. We have spent a couple of weeks looking at the gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, the founding story. Those stories were written a long time after the event itself and they were not biographical in the sense of simply telling the story of Jesus. They were faith documents. They were written with a selective vision in order to create a portrait that would elicit faith in people. Those four Gospels come first in the New Testament, I suppose, because it would seem logical that the founding story would be there first. The other large piece of the New Testament are the letters, particularly the letter of Paul. Between the letter of Paul and those gospels you have the Book of Acts. Sometimes we call it the First Church History. Well, that’s as erroneous as to call the gospels the lives of Jesus. Just as the gospels were proclamations of faith in a narrative form, so the Book of Acts was a proclamation of faith in a narrative form. It does in a sense create a bridge, but it really is volume two of the Gospel of Luke. If you would read the opening verses of Luke and then the opening verses of Acts you would see that it’s the same hand, the same intention to set forth these things in orderly fashion. But, just as the gospel was the founding story in narrative form to tell about the life and ministry and resurrection of Jesus, so Acts was the continuing story to show how the Jesus Movement developed and spread. So, as I read, I want you to see that this Jesus Movement was the movement empowered by the Holy Spirit of God, and was thrust out into the world, not without conflict and resistance, but finally breaking the narrow bounds of Israel and going to all nations, or to the Gentiles. There are those who say this may be one of the earliest formulations of the conception of Jesus that the Church eventually came to. This was a very primitive © Grand Valley State University   �A Charismatic and Open Future Richard A. Rhem Page 2   understanding; this Jesus that they all knew, this Jesus, God has made Lord in Christ. There’s a dramatic healing at the temple and everyone wonders about it, and then Peter has another chance to preach. On that occasion he says, “Now, brothers and sisters, I know that you acted in ignorance as did your rules. But what God foretold by the mouth of all the prophets that Christ should suffer, he thus fulfilled. Repent, therefore, and turn again that your sins may be blotted out, that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord, and that God may send Christ (the Messiah) appointed for you. Jesus, whom heaven must receive until the time for establishing all that God spoke by the mouth of the holy prophets from of old.” It is as though Peter is saying, “Come now, turn. If you’d just turn, then God could get on with it, you see, and this Jesus could come, Messiah, Lord, and wrap everything up.” Well, it wasn’t to happen. The community continued to grow and to develop and it was very much a Jewish community. What Luke does is to give us some models, or some paradigms of how that movement developed and took shape. The Cornelius story, Peter and Cornelius, was certainly a classic paradigm of how this gospel broke the bounds of Israel and was brought to the non-Jew. It happened simply because Peter was given a vision that he couldn’t deny and an experience that simply overwhelmed him. So he has a vision, hears a knock at the door, there are men beckoning him from Cornelius who has had a vision, and he comes to Cornelius’s house and he says, “You know I shouldn’t be here. This is contrary to everything I’ve ever been taught, associating with the likes of you. What do you want?” They asked, “What’s God telling you? Tell us.” Peter opened his mouth and said, “Truly, I perceive that God shows no partiality.” [Pretty good for Peter.] “But in every nation, anyone who hears him and does what is right and acceptable to him. You know the word which he sent to Israel, preaching good news of peace by Jesus Christ. He is Lord of all. The word which was proclaimed throughout all Judea beginning from Galilee after the baptism which John preached, how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth of the Holy Spirit and with power. How he went about doing good and healing all that were oppressed by the devil, for God was with him. We are witnesses to all that he did, both in the country of the Jews and in Jerusalem. They put him to death by hanging him on a tree, but God raised him on the third day and made him manifest—not to all the people, but to us who were chosen by God, as witnesses. Who ate and drank with him after he rose from the dead, and he commanded us to preach to the people and to testify that he was the one ordained by God to be judge of the living and the dead. To him all the prophets bear witness and everyone who believes in him receives forgiveness of sins in his name.” © Grand Valley State University �A Charismatic and Open Future Richard A. Rhem Page 3   While Peter was still saying this, the Holy Spirit fell on all who heard and the believers from among the circumcised who came with Peter were amazed because the gift of the Holy Spirit had been poured out even on the Gentiles. They heard them speaking in tongues and extolling God, and Peter declared, “Can anyone forbid water for baptizing these people who have received the Holy Spirit just as we have?” He commanded them to be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ, and they asked him to remain for some days. Now the apostles and the brethren who were in Judea heard that the Gentiles had also received the word of God. So when Peter went up to Jerusalem the circumcision party criticized him, saying, “Why did you go to uncircumcized people and eat with them?” Peter began to explain to them step by step. About the same time, sometime between 70 and 100, the Gospels were written: the Book of Acts was written and the Gospels as well, the Gospel of John maybe toward the end of the century. But John, too, was trying to shape the future by understanding the present. So he tells the story of Jesus, and in the fourth chapter of the Gospel of John is the familiar story of the woman at the well in Samaria. She’s a woman. She’s a Samaritan. Jesus talks to her, already shattering the preconceptions of his day. Then he indicates to her that he knows a thing or two about her, and she thinks to herself, “This is getting too personal, let’s talk theology.” So the woman said to him, “Sir, I perceive that you are a prophet. Our fathers worshiped on this mountain and you say that in Jerusalem is the place where we ought to worship.” Jesus said to her, “Woman, believe me, the hour is coming when neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you worship the Father. You worship what you do not know. We worship what we know for salvation is from the Jews. The hour is coming and now is when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and in truth. For such the Father seeks to worship.” The problem with following the course is not that Jesus has failed us, but that we failed Jesus—over and over and over again. So there’s a Christian church instead of simply the blossoming of Israel into a great world religion with a message of light and salvation for the whole world. The Gospels tell the story of Jesus, but as I said, they’re faith documents trying to create faith in those to whom that story, that narrative form of that faith commitment is woven, and the Book of Acts as well. Often we see Acts as a bridge between the Gospels and Epistles, as I said at the scripture reading. As a matter of fact Acts is not a history, although it is in the shape of history. What the Gospel writers were doing and what the author of Acts was saying was the same as the Gospel of Luke, Volume II. What they were doing was telling the story not simply recording the past. You know, historians are sneaky people. You think they are sort of harmless because they just grub around in the past. But you know what historians are? They grub around in the past until they can understand the present so they can © Grand Valley State University �A Charismatic and Open Future Richard A. Rhem Page 4   determine the future. There’s not a historian alive who is an objective observer of what really happened, because most of the time we can’t really determine what really happened. So, there’s data back there. There’s a connection with concrete events, but the historian is one who weaves that data into a story. And that story becomes compelling. That story interprets the present and it shapes the future. This story was written sometime between 70 and 100. We are four decades, minimally, away from the event. The Jesus Movement has started with some considerable success already. It has permeated the ancient world, and it’s in crisis. The Church is always in crisis; it’s nothing new. The crisis is that the Jesus Movement starts out very understandably as a Jewish movement. Jesus was a Jew. Sorry to tell you, folks, Jesus wasn’t a Christian. I don’t think Jesus ever intended to be anything other than a Jew, a faithful son of Israel—the fulfillment and the blossoming and the culmination of all that marvelous tradition. So it is understandable, as well, that the first movement, the Jesus Movement, was a Jewish movement you could call People of the Way. In the story of Paul’s conversion, from Saul to Paul, in Acts 9:2, you’ll read that he went after the People of the Way. Acts 19:23: once again, when the talk in Ephesus was about some controversy, these are People of the Way. How do you characterize new movements? No one knows quite what to call them and so they were called People of the Way. So it’s a Jewish movement, those who believe that this Jesus of Nazareth was indeed God’s anointed one, God’s Messiah. It is a community in Jerusalem in which Jesus’ brother James becomes a dominant figure. But the intention, Luke tells us, was that this thing go in concentric circles out to the whole world and so it started in Jerusalem, a Jewish community, where it gets some opposition. There was a good solid Jew named Saul, who was on his way to persecute the People of the Way. Bingo, he receives a vision, a light from heaven, and he turns around—a dramatic conversation – and he becomes St. Paul, the apostle of Jesus Christ. Now, his vision entails a ministry beyond the limits of Israel. He begins to go out into the Roman Empire. He tells the story at the synagogue to the Jews first but, when he gets turned away there, he preaches in the marketplace to anybody who will listen. Before long there’s a community there: the cities in Galatia, Asia Minor, etc. Now there’s trouble brewing. This I think is what the Book of Acts is really about. It is not a bridge between the Gospels and Paul’s letters. It is attempting to be a bridge between the Apostle Paul, the apostle to the Gentiles or the nations, and James—the Lord Bishop of the First Reformed Church of Jerusalem. That’s the tension. You see, there were a limited number of Jews to evangelize in the world, but there was a whole world of Gentiles. And when the consistory met in Jerusalem at the First Jewish Christian Reformed Church, they said, “You know this fellow, Paul? If he keeps doing what he’s doing, saying that those Gentiles can be members © Grand Valley State University �A Charismatic and Open Future Richard A. Rhem Page 5   with us in the community of faith without first becoming Jews, the whole character of our church will be changed. It will no longer be like it has been. They don’t know our customs. They don’t know how to act. They don’t know the inside jokes of the family when they gather. They’ve got a lot of strange things about them. It doesn’t feel comfortable. How can we be a family when people are coming right out of all kinds of pagan practices and expecting to sit down at table with us?” Anybody with any insight could see that, if Paul was successful and the mission to the Gentiles should prosper, it was going to be a whole new ball game. There was sharp tension because the things that have been for us, the mediators of grace, the things that we have grown up with, the things that we feel in our depths without having to think intellectually about, those are precious to us. We don’t let those go easily and we don’t open ourselves up to that which might threaten that very easily. Well, poor Peter got caught in the crossfire between James and Paul. And what Luke does as an author, as a spinner of a literary tale, is to give us marvelous paradigms. The central paradigm, the hinge-point of the Book of Acts, is the story of Peter and Cornelius. We read it earlier together. Peter, kind of against his will, finds himself in a setting and doesn’t know what to do but to tell a story of Jesus—his ministry, his death, his resurrection. Bingo, the Spirit zaps these nonJewish listeners and Peter says, “I can’t believe this, but it would appear that God shows no favoritism, there’s no partiality with God.” So he says, “Go ahead, baptize them.” Well, it’s one thing to have a vision as Peter had, it’s one thing to have one’s concrete experience confirmed, the intuition, but it’s another thing to have to go back to headquarters. And he got it in the neck. They said, “We understand you had ham and eggs?” So Peter started to tell the story, step by step. Now folks, that isn’t just an interesting little tale. Today when I’m preaching the truth, which isn’t always the case, of course. (Laughter) But, preachers are like historians, they are also trying to understand the present in order to shape the future out of the facts of the past. That’s what was going on. So, this People of the Way, a Jewish movement, was developing a People of the Way, a Gentile movement. The People of the Way, Jewish movement, were able to be brought around to where they could see that this Way [involved more] than they first dreamed of. Unfortunately, not much of the leadership of the Jewish church at the time was able to do that 180-degree turn like Paul did, and like Peter did, and maybe the 110-degree turn that James did. James never quite came around, but he turned around enough to get in and stay in. But what happened is that a Jesus movement within Judaism began to get an identity and then it got connected to this Gentile movement of Jesus. Before long, even though these people were so close together, as history developed they separated because what happens in human groupings is that when there’s a lot at stake we need to © Grand Valley State University �A Charismatic and Open Future Richard A. Rhem Page 6   justify our separate existence. And we justify our separate existence over against the other. It works both ways. Before long the People of the Way were comprised of Jewish and Gentile people, but it becomes a separate movement from Israel, the womb that gave it birth. That Jesus movement was a charismatic movement, which means that it was a movement gifted by the Spirit. In the Christian church today we talk about certain charismatic churches. Well, I want to tell you the whole church is charismatic or it’s nothing. Now, in the whole church some groups come alive suddenly and they experience the power and presence of the Spirit, and they begin to sing and dance and stomp their feet. Then we say, “Oh, they are charismatics.” Well, so are we, although we’re kind of dull and boring. Because what was happening, what moved that Jesus Movement out, was the gust of the Spirit. As Luke tells the story in the Book of Acts, it is the risen Christ whose presence, not in flesh but in Spirit, whose power was still on—the power, the presence, everything that they had experienced with Jesus – was still there. It was within their community. It was a movement of the breath of God, the wind of God, the Spirit of God. © Grand Valley State University � https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/b3336e016660cf125f204f20b8ac97ec.mp3 5bf932278e3edd7385616bf57b0067cc Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Richard A. Rhem Collection Description An account of the resource Text and sound recordings of the sermons, prayers, services, and articles of Richard Rhem, pastor emeritus of Christ Community Church in Spring Lake, Michigan, where he served for 37 years. Starting in the mid 1980's, Rhem began to question some of the traditional Christian dogma that he had been espousing from the pulpit. That questioning was a first step in a long and interesting spiritual journey, one that he openly shared with his congregation. His journey is important, in part because it is reflective of the questioning, the yearnings, and the gradual revision of beliefs that many persons in this part of the century have experienced and continue to experience. It is important also because of the affirming and inclusive way his questioning was done and his thinking evolved. His sermons and other written and spoken materials together document the steps in his journey as it took a turn in 1985, yet continued to revolve around the framework and liturgies of the Christian calendar. Subject The topic of the resource Clergy--Michigan Reformed Church in America Christ Community Church (Spring Lake, Mich.) Religion Interfaith worship Sermons Sound Recordings Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Rhem, Richard A. Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/514">Richard A. Rhem papers (KII-01)</a> Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives. Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Kaufman Interfaith Institute Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Language A language of the resource English Type The nature or genre of the resource Sound Text Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context KII-01 Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant 1981-2014 Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource audio/mp3 text/pdf Sound A resource primarily intended to be heard. Examples include a music playback file format, an audio compact disc, and recorded speech or sounds. Event Epiphany III Series New Testament Series Scripture Text Acts 1:8, Acts 3:19, Acts 10:34, Acts 11 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-0-19950122 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1995-01-22 Title A name given to the resource The People of the Way: A Charismatic Community, An Open Future Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Richard A. Rhem Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Subject The topic of the resource Clergy--Michigan Reformed Church in America Christ Community Church (Spring Lake, Mich.) Sermons Relation A related resource Richard A. Rhem - An Archive of Sermons, Prayers, Talks and Stories: http://richardrhem.org/ Language A language of the resource eng Type The nature or genre of the resource Sound Text Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource audio/mp3 application/pdf Description An account of the resource A sermon given by Richard A. Rhem (Dick) on January 22, 1995 entitled "The People of the Way: A Charismatic Community, An Open Future", as part of the series "New Testament Series", on the occasion of Epiphany III, at Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI. Scripture references: Acts 1:8, Acts 3:19, Acts 10:34, Acts 11. Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Lemmen Library and Archives Followers of Jesus Historical Jesus Liturgical Calendar Spirit of God https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/b60c18b4fd73062347a2b9b542453598.pdf 1261aae62c595ab5d4f02dae52eccc36 PDF Text Text Jesus in a Reverse Angle Lens From Credo: A Series For Eastertide Text: Acts 2:32, 36; Mark 10:18 Richard A. Rhem Christ Community Church Spring Lake, Michigan Eastertide, April 17, 1994 Transcription of the spoken sermon This Jesus, God raised up..." Acts 2:32 "... God has made him both Lord and Messiah, this Jesus whom you crucified." Acts 2:36 "Jesus said to him, 'Why do you call me good?' No one is good but God alone." Mark 10:18   "Credo," "I believe." It is a Latin word, which takes to itself its subject and gives expression to the experience of faith, faith not in a proposition or even a person, but rather faith as trust in someone. That is the nature of faith as it has come to expression in the Christian tradition, as it has been experienced in the Christian tradition, I believe. Last week I tried to distinguish between a set of beliefs, such as we have in a creedal formulation, and the experience of faith. I felt that many of you said, "yes" to what was said last week and felt that distinction was meaningful. While the content of our faith is not unimportant, for it is that upon which we reflect and it gives us that which we can teach and pass along, what we really long for is the experience of faith. This week I picked up a little volume by a New Testament scholar whom I have mentioned from time to time. His name is Marcus Borg. He is a part of the Jesus Seminar, which is getting so much publicity these days in news reports, magazines, and newspapers. Borg had written an earlier book, Jesus, A New Vision, which was very helpful to me and to some of our thinking a year or two ago during the Eastertide season or Lenten season. But in this more recent book entitled Meeting Jesus Again For The First Time, he tells his own spiritual autobiography. It is often easier to get our heads around a story than it is a series of propositions, and Marcus Borg tells about his own story growing up in the church in the Midwest, a good Lutheran boy. He speaks of the hymns, Sunday school, all of those things. Then adolescence, some doubts, college, and a little time off from church. But then seminary, and the critical studies of the gospel. In © Grand Valley State University   �Jesus in a Reverse Angle Lens Richard A. Rhem Page 2   those studies comes the recognition that the gospels did not simply give us a news journalist's account of Jesus. They didn't give us a photograph; rather they gave us a portrait, or in his word," a sketch," of Jesus. Borg came to see that the gospels were faith documents. They were theological documents, which not only remembered the historical Jesus but also reflected upon the transformation of the community's understanding of Jesus after Easter. That experience of the Christian community after Easter was the transforming experience where the crucified one was experienced as living. That experience of the crucified one living caused them to look back on the life they remembered, and the life they remembered became colored through the experience of Easter. His account of his own history is preferred when he was asked by an Episcopal men's Bible study group to talk to them about Jesus and the word was "make it personal". Sounds like what some of you might say to me when you say, preach to me and make it personal. Borg tells about making a little note to himself," me and Jesus". It causes him to reflect on his own pilgrimage. The thing he began to see is that there was a moment in his life when he moved out of faith, as it were. There was a time when he intellectually could not believe anymore even though he kept studying all the stuff. But then there was a time in his life when he came to a kind of spiritual experience, a mystical experience almost, a sense of awe, of wonder – the kind of spiritual experience that is described by not only Christian people, but Jewish people, and really crossculturally, and even across the generations. The kind of "aha" moment, when it is as though the heavens open and one is encountered by, well let us say, God. After that experience, that encounter, that kind of mystical experience, he returned to his study of the gospels and he began to see a new image of Jesus. What he had learned to that point in his critical studies of the gospels, the things that we talk about here all the time, the fact that there was a pre-Easter Jesus, that very human individual who lived and walked and ate with his disciples and talked to multitudes, and a very concrete, historical person, the Jesus that the church remembered the Jesus that is spoken about in the gospels. But he had come to see also that post-Easter Jesus or the Christ of faith, the Jesus who, after Easter, in the reflection of the community, took on more and more awesome character – a process after Easter that moved this Nazarine Jew, Jesus, through the lens of Easter into Jesus Christ. This Jesus, eventually in the fourth century, is spoken of as true God, true man, of one nature with God. This post-Easter process eventuated in the understanding of the Trinitarian God: God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit. Borg’s new image of Jesus was a man who was filled with the spirit, who was a bearer of the spirit, a mediator of the spirit, one of those persons who seems so transparent to God that his very being and presence seems to radiate God, God's Spirit. © Grand Valley State University �Jesus in a Reverse Angle Lens Richard A. Rhem Page 3   Marcus Borg, who had believed naively in the Jesus of, "Jesus loves me this I know for the Bible tells me so,” Marcus Borg, who had gone through the critical fires of examinations, scholarly study and had been impressed with Jesus as a social, political figure but who couldn't do anything with all of the Jesus/God talk, suddenly through his own spiritual experience came to see Jesus as a person who was a bearer of the spirit, a spirit person, as he says. And as he speaks about Jesus at this point in his scholarly and professional life, it's obvious that there's another layer. This man has also encountered Jesus as the One who is the bearer of the spirit of God and who points to God, God who is spirit. I tell you that story because it's rather interesting to me that last week we spoke about that distinction between having a set of beliefs, and the experience of belief; then I come across this Jesus Seminar scholar who likewise has all of the scholarly understanding of the critical study of the gospel, but now points also to an experience, an awakening, a new awareness, and sees Jesus as one of those people who was filled with God's spirit and mediated God's spirit, to those who followed him, and who continued to be present to them. And that, Borg says, is what Easter is all about. Easter is about the fact that the One who is crucified was found by his followers yet to be with them, still to be powerfully with them, or as Dominic Crossan says: (I don't know if this is true or not but it makes a lot of sense to me.) You know there were followers of the kingdom movement, followers of Jesus up in Galilee who didn't know what happened down in Jerusalem. I mean you take the transportation, the communications, and that kind of thing – it wasn't like you could tune into CNN and find out that at three o'clock in the afternoon Jesus of Nazarus was crucified outside of the city. Crossan said, No, these followers of the Jesus movement were talking about Jesus, and God, and doing the miracles, and the healings, and all of these things. The movement was still moving. And suddenly they realized when someone came up north and told them, "Jesus is dead." "Well, when did he die?" "A month ago." Oh, no, they respond. It can't be, because nothing happened on that day. We kept on moving. The movement kept moving. Jesus the power, the spirit, everything is the same. It didn't end. And Dominic Crossan said Easter, was simply the realization of Jesus' followers that he could not be dead but must somehow be present with them. Because the very same spiritual power and presence of God that he seemed to mediate in his life was still being mediated to them. They knew Jesus, they knew spirit, they knew God in the same way they had known and experienced God and Spirit when they were breaking bread with Jesus in the flesh. "So what!" you say to me. Well, I'll just tell you how it helps me, It helps me to make some sense of the gospels themselves. In the gospels, just take the gospel according to Mark for example, three specific times Jesus says to his disciples, he was going to go to Jerusalem, he was going to die, and was going to rise on the third day. I think there are three times in the gospel of Mark where it says that. © Grand Valley State University �Jesus in a Reverse Angle Lens Richard A. Rhem Page 4   Well you read that and you say, "Well, obviously Jesus was God, Jesus knew everything, Jesus knew what was going to happen." Now you come to Gethsemane, and there you have Jesus pleading with God to take the cup from him. And then you go to the cross and you have Jesus saying, "My God, My God, Why?" And you have the disciples full of fear, hightailing it for Galilee. Now I mean, they may have been dull, but can you tell me if this impressive teacher sat you down on three different occasions and said to you, "Look, we're going to Jerusalem. I'm going to die. I'm going to rise again the third day", would you have been acting as though what happened was devastating and made no sense to you? You see, those kinds of things cause those who really study in depth to say, "Something doesn't fit." Or for example, the text of the morning: A young ruler comes to Jesus and he says, "What must I do to have eternal life, good Master?" Jesus said, "Why do you call me good?" Now it might seem Jesus was calling him up short saying, "Come on, get off it, get real." But as a matter of fact Jesus is really saying "There's only one good and that is God." I hear that as saying Jesus distanced himself from God in his human nature and his human consciousness. I think it clearly means Jesus never presumed to be God. "Good Master, what must I do to inherit eternal life?" "Why do you call me good? There is only one good, that's God." How does such a saying still remain in Mark? Matthew's got a story, Mark a story, Luke a story, John a story, and sometimes there's some stuff that was so much a part of the tradition that it got into the written record even though it really seems to be at war with some other things that were in the written record. Now Mark is the earliest gospel written, we believe. And so he is probably recording close to the actual words just like it was there. Only one is good, that's God. But that created a real problem for Matthew. Matthew's dependent upon Mark's written record and he's got the same story. But listen to Matthew's version, written after Mark. In Matthew, someone came to Jesus and said, 'Teacher, what good deed must I do to have eternal life?" And he said to him, "Why do you ask me about what is good?" No problem in Matthew's gospel. The guy says, "What good thing must I do?" Jesus said, "Why do you ask me about what is good?" Now the original story in Mark is Jesus saying, "Why do you call me good, God is good." Matthew doesn't want to communicate that. Now here Matthew garbles Mark's story because Matthew knows that that little story is going to cause some confusion. Someone's going to say, "what do you mean?" Jesus, Son of God saying here only one is good, that is God. We have to face honestly what is happening here. © Grand Valley State University �Jesus in a Reverse Angle Lens Richard A. Rhem Page 5   When I really study these things, there is all kinds of stuff like that. So when I see someone like Borg working through, distinguishing between the pre-Easter Jesus and the post-Easter Jesus and acknowledging or understanding that through the event of Easter, the pre-Easter Jesus took on a different coloring, that helps me. Now I can understand. I can see the process. Example: In the book of Acts, on the day of Pentecost (that we read a moment ago), Peter's sermon concludes with the thirty-sixth verse: “Therefore, let the entire house of Israel know with certainty that God is made him both Lord and Messiah, this Jesus whom you crucified.” God has made this crucified Jesus Lord and Christ or Messiah. It would seem that through the crucifixion and the resurrection Jesus became by God's designation, Lord,(the honoristic title of the Hellenistic Greek world) and Christ, the one the Jews were looking for. But if you go to the next chapter, the New Testament scholar, J.AT. Robinson, points out that after the healing of the lame man at the temple, Peter's speech there seems to reflect a little different conception. In the third chapter, the nineteenth verse: “Repent, therefore, and turn to God so that your sins may be wiped out so that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord and that he may send the Messiah, appointed for you. That is Jesus, who must remain in heaven until the time of universal restoration that God announced long ago through the holy prophets.” Here it would seem that Jesus has been appointed by God to be the Messiah but he has not yet come as the Messiah. He cannot come as Messiah until Israel repents. And so the call, the appeal, here in this speech of Peter is repent. If you'll repent this Jesus whom God has appointed Christ will come and there will be the universal restoration of all things. There will be Shalom on earth. Well, why wouldn't that be a natural kind of understanding? That's probably reflective of what they sensed from Jesus himself. Jesus didn't go around spouting the fact that he was the Messiah. Jesus was preparing the way for the coming of the Kingdom of God, which he believed, along with all of his contemporaries, was just around the comer. Now I say it helps me to make sense of this stuff. I can see the process at work. I can see that they were struggling as much then as I struggle now to make sense of all this business. And so what I see as I approach the story of Jesus after Easter is that I have in the New Testament a memory of the historical Jesus, the Nazarene, the man reflected through the lens of Easter. I call the sermon, "Jesus In A Reverse Angle Lens." It's the wrong season. It should be pro-football season, particularly when they do the instant replay. I don't know the technology of a reverse angle lens but you know how it goes. The quarterback throws the ball and the tight end goes down, and he catches the ball, and his foot comes down. Is it on the line, or over the line? Are both feet in or only one? In the replay they're able to show the ball caught. And then you see the © Grand Valley State University �Jesus in a Reverse Angle Lens Richard A. Rhem Page 6   ball going back, eventually, to the quarterback whose arm starts here and eventually goes back here. And if you follow the reverse angle long enough you get to where he's taking the ball from the center. I don't understand that technology but it is looking at the end event and trying to understand it by going back and watching the process. Now that's what we have in the gospel records of Jesus. There is a memory of the historical Jesus plus the experience of the postEaster community of the presence of the risen Christ. Finally, what difference does that make? That enables me still to believe in Jesus. I can see him now as my brother who was filled with the Spirit of God, who was a bearer of the Spirit, who was so potently the bearer of the Spirit that those who met him experienced God. And following his death they continued to experience him alive as the bearer of God to them. Therefore, they began to speak of him with grand titles and to exalt him higher, and higher, and higher, into the whole creedal tradition of the church. As a matter of fact, he was God's man in whose face I see God and meet the Spirit. I was thinking about the day last Tuesday in Muskegon where Rabbi Hartman and Martin Marty dialogued for the day about "Religion That Heals, and Religion That Kills". If you are with David Hartman, the Jewish rabbi for long, you know you are with a man in whom the Spirit dwells. It struck me that when the rich young ruler came to Jesus to say, "What must I do to inherit eternal life?" what Jesus told him is exactly what Hartman would tell someone today, "Keep the Torah." Jesus was a good Jewish Rabbi, in whom God's spirit was so regnant that those who met him knew that they were in the presence of God. The whole creedal tradition of the church is trying to say precisely that, and if you dare come back one more week, I will approach that high Christology of John's gospel, which was John's attempt to say simply that in the human existence of this man God was present, and this man said the God that was present in him was available to us all. Jesus was a Spirit person and the New Testament is the consequence of those who encountered God as spirit in Jesus, giving witness to the fact that there was life in his name, that God is available to us as Spirit. Thank God for that. © Grand Valley State University � https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/ba9e0b525f9648e7edee115e66420a53.mp3 c5a1126020ddde8d21cec0d990163592 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 III Series Credo: A Series For Eastertide Scripture Text Acts 2:32, 36, Mark 10: 18 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-0-19940417 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1994-04-17 Title A name given to the resource Jesus in A Reverse Angle Lens Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Richard A. Rhem Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Subject The topic of the resource Clergy--Michigan Reformed Church in America Christ Community Church (Spring Lake, Mich.) Sermons Relation A related resource Richard A. Rhem - An Archive of Sermons, Prayers, Talks and Stories: http://richardrhem.org/ Language A language of the resource eng Type The nature or genre of the resource Sound Text Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource audio/mp3 application/pdf Description An account of the resource A sermon given by Richard A. Rhem (Dick) on April 17, 1994 entitled "Jesus in A Reverse Angle Lens", as part of the series "Credo: A Series For Eastertide", on the occasion of Eastertide III, at Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI. Scripture references: Acts 2:32, 36, Mark 10: 18. Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Lemmen Library and Archives Eastertide Historical Jesus Presence of God Spirit Trinitarian Trust https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/7a196a23f5fbadeabfe99a1ff95c94c4.pdf fc78b0095bf17bdbfcfbf3a1d66e5753 PDF Text Text “Father, Into Thy Hands…” From the series: The Seven Last Words From the Cross Text: Luke 23:46 Richard A. Rhem Christ Community Church Spring Lake, Michigan Maundy Thursday, March 31, 1994 Transcription of the spoken sermon "Into Thy hands I commit my spirit," Jesus' final words as Luke paints the picture for us. This last word is a word of trust. For John, the last word was a word of completion; for Mark, followed closely by Matthew, the last word as they recorded it, a word of abandonment. For Luke, a word of trust. "Father, into Thy hands I commit or commend my spirit." The one who was conceived by the Spirit and baptized by the Spirit and ministered in the power of the Spirit now returns the spirit to God Who had given life in the beginning, and the cycle is complete. The last word in Luke's picture is a word of trust. You have perhaps sensed by now, as we come to the last of the seven words from the cross, that John's picture stands out by itself. Matthew, Mark and Luke are closer to each other. Mark, the earliest, is followed closely by Matthew. But there is some significant distance in Luke and the picture is different; it has a different feel. In Luke, the whole story is softened a bit. In the Garden, the observance of which we are here tonight to celebrate, Jesus prays the same prayer in Luke's account as in Matthew and in Mark, and then is ministered to by an angel who strengthens him. He prays more earnestly and sweats, as it were, great drops of blood. But there is missing, in Luke, that phrase about Jesus' soul being wrenched within him. For Luke, in the Garden there was no breaking of that constant communion with God, or that succor, supplied here by the angel of God. And then on the cross, Luke's Jesus gives us a most powerful witness to the good news of the Gospel. The three words of Luke, "Father, forgive them ...," "Today Paradise," and finally this word, a word of trust, "Father, into Thy hands I commend my spirit." That trust was not a cheap article. It was not the consequence of sunny skies and smooth seas, birds singing and all well. It was a word of trust that issued from one that was in the midst of Hell's darkness, without a scrap of evidence that everything that he had banked his life on was true. Jesus, to me, is believable, not because he was so full of confidence and went about with such great certainty, but because of the very vulnerability of his faith. His trust was not the trust of the religious fanatic who has no questions, only answers, sure and simple and © Grand Valley State University   �Father, Into Thy Hands… Richard A. Rhem Page 2   certain. No David Koresh here. No Jim Jones. No Bible-thumping, fingerpointing TV evangelist here. This one trusts in the darkness with fear and trembling. That's why I believe him. That's why I would follow him. That's why I would trust him, because he finally is able to still trust in the darkness. "Father, into Thy hands I commend my spirit." Luke is citing Psalm 31, verse 5, a different citation than the one Mark gives us, "My God, my God, why?" which comes from Psalm 22. Here in Luke's picture we have Luke's conviction that this one who found no scattering of his night and no alleviation of his pain and no answer to his question died in trust, nevertheless. And that is perhaps as powerful a witness, as powerful a statement of good news as I have to share with you any time. For this trust is a trust that is unmovable. It is a trust in spite of everything. It is a trust that will not let go. It is a trust that finally issued from one who had lived in trust and died in trust, with the mystery and the terrible suffering still intact. He died. There's an old Lenten hymn that says "Learn of Jesus Christ to Die," and well we might. Death is something that we face, all of us, as we lose those we love, or as we come to the point of our own terminus. Death, I learned over ten years ago, is a matter that presses for some answer, some primal need in the human breast, no matter how far one may be removed from religious practice and faith. I learned it in the fall of 1983 when I went to the University of Michigan where Hans Küng was lecturing and holding a seminar, and I saw that great secular university flock to the largest hall on campus to hear this man read a lecture for two hours on the subject of death and judgment and purgatory and heaven and hell and whether there was really eternal life. And I thought to myself, no matter how sophisticated we become, no matter how far we may be removed from childhood faith or religious tradition, finally we humankind must die, and we know it, and we wonder about it, and every once in a while it erupts upon us and we must face the fact that we will die. The hymn says, "Learn of Jesus Christ to Die," and well we might. Death was never a terribly fearsome reality for me personally, if I may tell you my story tonight. It was because, I suppose, of my father being an elder and I being a child that came along lately, some would stay a mistake, some would say a surprise, nonetheless when three sisters had been raised and gotten along with their lives, I was still there to be dealt with and so I was dragged around to everything that my parents went to. My father was an elder, and so I went to every funeral home in the city. It seems like every Sunday night we were at a funeral home. Somebody would die in that congregation, and my father always went. Death was so much a part of life. One Sunday night I remember going to a couple with whom my parents were very close. I called the lady Aunt Jenny. I didn't realize how ill she was but, while we were there, she died. I remember my father taking me by the hand, taking me into her bedroom, and there she lay on her bed, eyes wide open, breathing no more. The minister came, and the funeral director was called, and I was a little child in the midst of all of that. I remember another © Grand Valley State University �Father, Into Thy Hands… Richard A. Rhem Page 3   occasion, as a teenager, coming to my grandparents' home to pick up my parents. It was also a Sunday night it seems, and I came into the house and my grandfather had died. The clan was gathering. At some moment everyone gathered around, and my father led us all in prayer. Death was very much a part of life, but death was very much set in the context of a deep trust in God. As a young seminarian I preached one Sunday night on the air in Holland, Michigan, at a city-wide hymn sing. It was a service that was broadcast live. A good friend of mine had lost a little child to leukemia. It was a tragic loss and a great sorrow, but the child had died so beautifully with a vision of angels, and I told that story. And, as young preachers are wont to do, I generalized the experience and made as though it was a rather simple thing for everyone to die beautifully. The next morning one of the faculty members came to me and said, " I heard you on the radio last night," and I said, "Oh, how nice." And she said, “My father was a marvelous Christian man,” and I said, "Oh." She said, "He died a terrible death." And I said, "Oh." I knew what she was telling me. I learned that one ought to be very reticent about the way one speaks about departure from this life, and one ought to be very loath to generalize the way in which that will happen for others. Nonetheless, it didn't change my basic conviction that it is possible for us to "Learn of Jesus Christ to Die," and to deal with the reality of our mortality in a context of trust that will stand us well in the whelming flood. I loved the prayer as a child, "Now I lay me down to sleep, I pray Thee Lord, my soul to keep, If I should die before I wake, I pray Thee Lord my soul to take." I understand there's a Revised Standard Version of that now. I called my granddaughter Stephanie tonight and I said, "Steph, tell me your bedtime prayer," and she said, "Now I lay me down to sleep, I pray Thee Lord my soul to keep, If I should die before I wake, I pray Thee Lord my soul to take." I said, "Good. You pray it just like Bumpa prayed it." I am not a child psychologist, and I recognize that there may be certain appropriate stages of a child's development when it is more appropriate than at other stages to introduce certain concepts, but my experience would tell me that in childhood it is possible to wrap death in such fundamental trust that one will never forget it and will be able to carry that into one's final moments. I prayed every night, "Now I lay me down to sleep, I pray Thee Lord, my soul to keep, If I should die before I wake, I pray Thee Lord my soul to take," and I'm a bit embarrassed to tell you this next thing, but when I grew and, long after the time when I began to formulate my own prayers upon retiring, I always concluded with my childhood prayer. There was something about that word that spoke of the ultimate trust, a way through which to go in one's day, and a confidence with which to pillow one's head through the night. And I tell you that not simply to bare my soul to you tonight, but because Psalm 31:5, "Into Thy hands I commit my spirit," was the "Now I lay me down to sleep" of Jesus' day. It was the Hebrew child's bedtime prayer. In fact, it was the last petition of the evening prayers for the Hebrew people. So when Luke portrays for us the final word of Jesus, he gives us the prayer that Mary taught her son when © Grand Valley State University �Father, Into Thy Hands… Richard A. Rhem Page 4   he was a child when she tucked him into bed. The word he would have recited as he drifted off to sleep was, "Into Thy hands I commit my spirit." The only word that Luke adds to that prayer is that intimate word of address, "Father." "Father, into Thy hands I commit my spirit." And then he died. A final word of trust. If there is anything that we can take away from this I would think it would simply cause us to redouble our efforts and our commitment as parents and as grandparents and as a community of faith to recognize that it is those very earliest impressions imprinted upon the mind of the youngest child that travel with us through all our days. And if those impressions are impressions of trust, then even death, when wrapped in trust, loses its fearsomeness and becomes for us the possibility of movement from life through death to life, which is eternal. The hymn says "Learn of Jesus Christ to Die." Well might we learn that, to trust in the beginning is to be able to trust in the end, and then there is nothing, nothing, finally, that we need fear. © Grand Valley State University � https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/991c457e3e791c65d7e8fd895e03be5d.mp3 db895a440b55b509832939c114ecc036 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 Maundy Thursday Series The Seven Last Words of Christ Scripture Text Luke 23:46 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-0-19940331 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1994-03-31 Title A name given to the resource Father, into Thy Hands Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Richard A. Rhem Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Subject The topic of the resource Clergy--Michigan Reformed Church in America Christ Community Church (Spring Lake, Mich.) Sermons Relation A related resource Richard A. Rhem - An Archive of Sermons, Prayers, Talks and Stories: http://richardrhem.org/ Language A language of the resource eng Type The nature or genre of the resource Sound Text Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource audio/mp3 application/pdf Description An account of the resource A sermon given by Richard A. Rhem (Dick) on March 31, 1994 entitled "Father, into Thy Hands", as part of the series "The Seven Last Words of Christ", on the occasion of Maundy Thursday, at Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI. Scripture references: Luke 23:46. Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Lemmen Library and Archives Community of Faith Historical Jesus Maundy Thursday Trust https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/6860515fc67169272a5c339b7ab8aa85.pdf 0036cd5c6b0a7a441e19a5d847982bd3 PDF Text Text Seeing is Believing Text: Kings 6:17; John 14:9 Richard A. Rhem Christ Community Church Spring Lake, Michigan Epiphany II, January 16, 1994 Transcription of the spoken sermon “...O Lord, open his eyes and let him see.”    Kings  6:17   “If you have seen me, you have seen the Father.”    John  14:9     Popular folk wisdom says, "Seeing is believing." Is that your creed? Is that your philosophy? Well, I dare say it is. It's really the way all of us operate, almost inevitably. "Seeing is Believing." In other words, prove it to me, demonstrate it to me, give me verification. They say all of us operate that way because we are all the children of western civilization, of western culture. We are at the end of a couple of centuries of scientific investigation and research in which the scientific method has been perfected. It has yielded tremendous success, and given us understanding. It has given us insight into unraveling the technological mysteries of the universe. We are simply people, who through the very lens with which we see reality, live and act and breathe and think as empiricists (a school of philosophy named empiricism). Empiricism is simply a philosophy that says that knowledge, truth, is derived only from sensory experience - what I can touch, what I can taste, what I can hear, what I can see. Sensory experience is the access to truth and to knowledge. Everything that is not reducible to sensory experience is simply questionable. We are children of a philosophy that has trickled down to the average person and has become now our shared common wisdom. That is the way we operate. I don't want to deprecate that. Observe all the wonders of the modem world that we enjoy. Look at the technological advances. Look at how life has been transformed through the application of empirical research and that philosophy: "Seeing is Believing." There are those who observe the human scene who have said that we are at a hinge point in the human story. We are at the end of that modern age, which is characterized by the Enlightenment, by the Age of Reason. We are also at the end of this age characterized by the scientific method, and by all of the technological breakthroughs that we have witnessed in the last couple of centuries. We have entered a Post Modem Age. The signs of that are the spiritual questing, the evidence of the emptiness of soul and the yearning of the heart for something © Grand Valley State University   �Seeing is Believing Richard A. Rhem Page 2   more. The shadow side of the modem age, so splendid in its achievement, was the implication that truth and reality were measured by the human mind, and that human reason and human rationality decided the limits of what was true - and what was real. The great philosopher, the father of modem development of philosophy, Emanuel Kant, has a book entitled Religion Within the Limits of Human Reason. You cannot have religion within the limits of human reason. We know that now. We have come up empty and are hungry. Our souls are starved and whenever that happens there is a reaction. So we have New Age spirituality as it is called. Part of it is very serious, part of it bizarre. These are indications that there are people who are grasping at straws, groping for something beyond, something that breaks the paradigm of the human rational, verifiable reality. Two popular news magazines, Time Magazine and Newsweek Magazine, December 27,1993, both featured stories on angels. They featured stories about not only the historical and biblical conception of angels, but also how angels appear in Judaism and Christianity, Islam, Buddhism, and Hinduism. People are searching, and in both articles there are moving accounts of human encounters with angels. One article relates angelical healing. Another article simply relates how the appearance of one's guardian angel removed the fear of death, which still followed two days later. And there were stories of people encountering a light that sent heat, an energy, through their body that transformed them and gave them peace. People are hungry. In our present contemporary scene we see "angel" stores opening for business. Publishers Weekly reported five hundred million copies of books on angels sold in the recent past, and that five out of ten are on the Best Seller List. We now see, not only angel stores, but angel newsletters, angel clubs, angel seminars, etc. Perhaps you remember John Westerhoff, who was here two years ago on the first Sunday in Lent. John, a Christian educator and scholar, was interviewed by authors the of the Time article. They asked him, "Why do some people see angels, and some people don't?" He said, "It takes faith to perceive an angel. If you don't believe, you won't see." You may say, "Hey, John, you just turned that whole thing on its head! But it isn't "Seeing is Believing". Maybe there is a whole dimension of reality where believing is seeing. That, of course, is the connection with this season of the year, this Epiphany season. An expert on angels will be here during the next hour at the Perspectives Class. I'm not an expert on angels, but we see here a marvelous contemporary instance of how there has been a shift in human consciousness. We are beginning to see that the demand to see in order to believe is shipwrecked when it comes to our longing for an encounter with God. We are beginning to see experiences of transience, that sense of something or someone beyond us who touches us in grace. Not "seeing is believing," but "believing is seeing." Epiphany is the season © Grand Valley State University �Seeing is Believing Richard A. Rhem Page 3   of revelation. It is the season of the lifting of the curtain; the unveiling of manifestation, if only for a moment. Epiphany is the lighting up of the landscape of the mind in that moment in which one is transformed by the revelation; the revelation that we need eyes to see - Epiphany Eyes. Have you ever seen picture puzzles of lines and dots all over a page that look like somebody's doodle pad until you studied it long enough, or got it just at the right angle, when suddenly there is a human face or a tree, or a dog, or something else? There is a pattern there. It means something to you. You looked at it before and you saw nothing but lines and dots, and suddenly you look at it and you see an artistic pattern, a configuration of meaning. The difference is not in the page, the difference was in the perception. Epiphany Eyes enable you to see, - really see what is there. This season of the year we celebrate "The Word became flesh." This Word in flesh, whom we believe is Jesus, this One is the Light of the world. This One is the Light that enlightens. In the face of Jesus we see into the heart of God. But, for that to be so, we must know that in some cases "believing is seeing." Wasn't that an interesting Old Testament story? Did you remember it? The one about Elisha? Elisha, the prophet, was in trouble with the King of Syria because he continued to send intelligence reports to the King of Israel. He constantly kept the King of Israel out of the hands of the King of Syria, until the King of Syria wanted to do something about it. He sent his troops to apprehend Elisha. When Elisha's servant got up in the morning and saw the mountains surrounded with the enemy troops, he said, "My master, alas, what shall we do?" Elisha said, "Relax. Those who are for us are more than those who are against us." Then he prayed that marvelous Epiphany prayer. "O Lord, open thy servant’s eyes that he may see." The servant's eyes were opened and he saw the mountains ringed with chariots of fire. As in all of that Old Testament historical writing you have the historical core, richly embroidered with legendary material. What that story was saying was at the core of Israel's faith. This story makes clear that decisions are not made in Damascus or Babylon or in Persia, not even in Jerusalem. On that grand stage of world history there is an invisible player. Finally there are angels and spiritual powers, and there is a will of God and a purpose that is at work. Elisha was simply giving testimony to his conviction that the ultimate power does not lie in the hands of a Clinton or a Yeltsin, in Moscow or in Washington. In the corridors of power there is still an invisible presence of one who transcends all. There were chariots of fire surrounding God's people. What a beautiful image. This is what Jesus was explicating to Philip. Philip needed the Epiphany prayer. Philip just didn't get it. Philip was only the stooge for the rest of the disciples. If you read the Gospel of Mark, you will find that those disciples never got it. It is hard to find a bunch more dull than the disciples, particularly if you are reading Mark's account. They never got it. Philip says, "Oh, that would be nice, just show us the Father and we will be satisfied." Jesus said, "You just don't get it. I have been with you all this time and you still don't get it. If you have seen me, you've seen the Father." © Grand Valley State University �Seeing is Believing Richard A. Rhem Page 4   Reflecting on that, I was reminded of the distant past at Hope College while studying philosophy with G. Ivan Dykstra. For those of you Hope College lore, old D. Ivan used to pace up and down, giving these marvelous philosophical lectures. Once in a course on Kierkegaard, a Danish philosopher/theologian, we were reading a little book called Philosophical Fragments, which talked about "disciples at second hand." Do you know what disciples at second hand are? You might say, "They are folks like you and me." Disciples at first hand would be Peter and James and John, who could reach out and touch Jesus, ate with him, walked with him. They told us about it. We hear about it. We are disciples at second hand. Right? Wrong. Wrong. Dead wrong. Kierkegaard said that the disciples that rubbed shoulders with him were disciples at second hand. They had no advantage over you and me. Read the Gospels and you will see he was right. You didn't bump into Jesus and say, "Oh, my God." There are all kinds of people who bumped into Jesus and saw nothing. The two who walked all the way to Emmaus brought Jesus into their house, and it was not until the breaking of bread that their eyes were opened and they saw him. In other words, it was a gift. It was the insight of faith. It was grace. "You've been with me so long, and you still don't know. You haven't seen. You don't understand. You just don't get it." Kierkegaard said, "You could have walked all day and not seen anything." The disciples present were disciples at second hand until the disciple had an Epiphany experience, which is as available to you and me today as it was to them then. What happened to them then must happen to us today, and what happens to us today had to happen to them then. It is not seeing that is believing, but it is believing that is seeing. It is the opening of the eyes, the mystery that is always there, but which we cannot perceive except we be graced with the eyes to see. I am a child of my culture. I am a child of this age. I operate in the whole rest of my life where "Seeing is Believing." Suddenly I come to this juncture, and verification won't do it, proofs are not available, and I have to acknowledge that it is believing that gives sight. I have bought that philosophy all my life. I hate that about the Gospel. I would love to be able to take somebody by the nap of the neck and rub his nose in it. I'd like to be able to prove it, to demonstrate it, to verify it. I would like the facts! This is so dangerous. How can I distinguish my responsible faith and my commitment from some lollygagging person out in la-la land and some fantastic imagery? I can't. How can I prove my faith? I can't. And I resist that. Believing is the only channel open to that dimension of reality that transcends the space and time world for which we are so well fitted. You can't verify it, and if you are waiting to see it in order to believe it, you'll come to grief. If today you believe it because somebody has proven it to you, you are in for trouble. I deal with this subject because it is Epiphany, but also because in popular culture today it is being dealt with. I told you about the Time Magazine and Newsweek articles on angels. I have here the book, The Five Gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke, © Grand Valley State University �Seeing is Believing Richard A. Rhem Page 5   John and the Gospel of Thomas), which comes out of The Jesus Seminar. If you were in my Wednesday night classes you would know I had a big book by John Dominic Crossan, the Catholic scholar. Crossan has done research into the historical Jesus. I also told you that books are coming off the press a mile a minute on this subject. In this New Quest for the Historical Jesus, Crossan tried to get through all the tradition and all the church baggage, to get down to the historical core. The Jesus Seminar, of which Crossan was a part, attempted to do the same. It began back in 1985, with scholars and clergy taking a second look at the sayings of Jesus. Finally they have published this translation of the Gospel in four colors. If they are certain Jesus said it, it is written in red; if they think Jesus said it, it is written in pink. If they think he didn't say it, it is written in grey, and if they know he didn't say it, it is written in black. (Laughter) The passage I read this morning, that beautiful passage from John 14, (just in case you wondered) is in black. I show you this book because I say to you, if your faith rests upon the results of historical criticism, you're in deep trouble. If you only believe because someone has been able to prove it to you, you are in trouble. It seems as though when the methods of historical research are honed, the skills and competence increase, scholars learn from the errors of previous quests and they get down to the bare bones facts. I was studying peacefully in my loft when Nancy, my wife, came to me and plopped this magazine down on my desk and said, "What do you think of that?" The article, “Jesus Plain and Simple,” talks about three currently published books. In one book John Dominic Crossan takes the huge thick book of research, which I just showed you, and reduces it to a more popular, albeit revolutionary, biography of Jesus. Nancy said, "In these couple of pages in Time (“Jesus Plain and Simple”), you have a stripped down variety of Jesus. I don't like it." This reminded me of another love of my life, my granddaughter, Stephanie. Some of you were here on Christmas Eve, when I told you how Stephanie came to her mother, Lynn, and said, "Tell me the truth, Mommy. Is Santa Claus real?" Now that's a moment when you can't just say, "Oh sure, Honey." This was a little girl at the edge of awakening, saying "Mommy, tell me the truth." So her mother told her. Stephie got angry. She said, "Well, I'm going to believe it anyway!" Later that night after Nancy had thrown the magazine on my desk she said to me, 'That stuff doesn't bother you at all, does it?" I said, "No, it doesn't bother me at all. I have known for a long time that my faith cannot rest on the uncertain consequences of historical research. I do not see in order to believe. But I believe, and then I see." I deal with this issue because it seems to me that I am accountable to you. You ought to be able to look to me to talk about these things with you. The Five Gospels has attracted quite a bit of press lately. I have here articles from The Milwaukee Journal, The Detroit Free Press, and The Grand Rapids Press. I could do as three pastors did in The Detroit Free Press and say that the Jesus © Grand Valley State University �Seeing is Believing Richard A. Rhem Page 6   Seminar scholars are enemies of God, they are undercutting religion, but I won't. They may be right. They may be wrong. But the Jesus Seminar scholars are responsible and they are serious, and they are carrying out their research and their gift and offering it to God and to us. By and large I believe that is the case. Or I could just sidestep the subject and hope it goes away, but some of you said to me at the door last week, "Did you read Time Magazine? Help!" What I choose to do is use this as an occasion to say to you, "Put your faith where it belongs. Recognize it as the gift of God, the God who graces you with a spirit, who illumines you when you sing, 'Open our eyes Lord. We would see Jesus.'" I share this with you because it becomes a marvelous occasion in which to say to you, "Don't seek proof and verification. We have done that too long. We have spoken about the revelation of God as though somehow or other that happened way back there. Then it was inspired and spoken, and now we have this revelation. We don't have a revelation. There isn't a revelation, there is only a God who reveals, here and now and continuously. This book (the Bible) is the consequence of Epiphany experiences, when those who rubbed elbows with Jesus and saw nothing had their eyes opened to see everything, and were able to witness, as the gospel writer John witnessed Jesus - as the Way, the Truth, and the Life. This book is the consequence of those who had an Epiphany experience, and it was written down and told in order that it might become the occasion for you and me to have an Epiphany moment now. My faith rests not in the verifiable proof of historical research. It is the consequence of the illumination of my heart and mind through the Spirit of God in this present moment. That is where it rests. The scholars can continue to look at the foundations of the faith, and rightly they should, because we claim that the revelation has occurred in the midst of human history and in the arena of historical reality and, therefore, we will always have that with us. Responsible people ought always to be checking those things out. But when all is said and done, it is finally gift, grace, unveiling, here and now. Why do some see and others not see? I don't know. But I do know that there is a sure promise in the Word of God, "If with all your heart you truly seek me, you will also surely find me." And once I have been found, in the moment of finding I will know a rest that will enable me to be un-settled. I can be un-settled without losing ultimate trust and faith in the work that continues to go on because I know finally it is not only seeing - that it is believing. Believing has its own eyes to see a purpose and meaning that can give us the courage we need to seek God's way in our present moment. "Oh Lord, open thy servants’ eyes that they may see." © Grand Valley State University � https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/475b858a9601822da2ffd68eb21a0732.mp3 5368ef60a183733fe224279b5b3d8f09 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Richard A. Rhem Collection Description An account of the resource Text and sound recordings of the sermons, prayers, services, and articles of Richard Rhem, pastor emeritus of Christ Community Church in Spring Lake, Michigan, where he served for 37 years. Starting in the mid 1980's, Rhem began to question some of the traditional Christian dogma that he had been espousing from the pulpit. That questioning was a first step in a long and interesting spiritual journey, one that he openly shared with his congregation. His journey is important, in part because it is reflective of the questioning, the yearnings, and the gradual revision of beliefs that many persons in this part of the century have experienced and continue to experience. It is important also because of the affirming and inclusive way his questioning was done and his thinking evolved. His sermons and other written and spoken materials together document the steps in his journey as it took a turn in 1985, yet continued to revolve around the framework and liturgies of the Christian calendar. Subject The topic of the resource Clergy--Michigan Reformed Church in America Christ Community Church (Spring Lake, Mich.) Religion Interfaith worship Sermons Sound Recordings Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Rhem, Richard A. Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/514">Richard A. Rhem papers (KII-01)</a> Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives. Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Kaufman Interfaith Institute Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Language A language of the resource English Type The nature or genre of the resource Sound Text Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context KII-01 Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant 1981-2014 Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource audio/mp3 text/pdf Sound A resource primarily intended to be heard. Examples include a music playback file format, an audio compact disc, and recorded speech or sounds. Event Epiphany II Scripture Text II Kings 6:17, John 14:9 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-0-19940116 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1994-01-16 Title A name given to the resource Seeing is Believing Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Richard A. Rhem Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Subject The topic of the resource Clergy--Michigan Reformed Church in America Christ Community Church (Spring Lake, Mich.) Sermons Relation A related resource Richard A. Rhem - An Archive of Sermons, Prayers, Talks and Stories: http://richardrhem.org/ Language A language of the resource eng Type The nature or genre of the resource Sound Text Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource audio/mp3 application/pdf Description An account of the resource A sermon given by Richard A. Rhem (Dick) on January 16, 1994 entitled "Seeing is Believing", on the occasion of Epiphany II, at Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI. Scripture references: II Kings 6:17, John 14:9. Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Lemmen Library and Archives Critical Thinking Epiphany Grace Historical Jesus Spiritual Dimension Spiritual Quest https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/cd393b8d46efb0cc2a729a03ca44070b.mp3 2d77d3c99eeaae6eeb00609c281a89e1 https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/3dcf76817ae44278a9c7355c05f2d3f7.pdf b2c39a80e83c105da267078ab1f37d81 PDF Text Text I Don’t Know How to Love Him From the Lenten series: Following Jesus Text: Luke 8:2; Matthew 27:61 Richard A. Rhem and Colette Volkema De Nooyer Christ Community Church Spring Lake, Michigan Lent IV, March 29, 1992 Transcription of the spoken sermon Our worship theme this Lenten Season is “Following Jesus,” and to follow Jesus it is necessary to know something of the shape of Jesus’ life, the manner of his behavior, his spirit, his attitude. This was recognized early on and there were four Gospels written, Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. For centuries the Church read those Gospels as though they were accounts of the life of Jesus that could be taken quite literally, just as they were presented. As those Gospels were compared one with another there was a recognition that the chronology was rather difficult to put together and there seemed to be different emphases, etc. Nonetheless, there was assurance that these were pictures of the life of Jesus and one could read them and know something of the historical Jesus. When I was at Hope College, I think I even had to purchase “ A Harmony of the Gospels.” Do they still sell that book? I hope not, really. I have in my hand a book published in 1969 called “The Life of Christ in Stereo.” There was a gentleman who had studied for the ministry and then was wise enough to cop out at the last moment, but he did have good tools of Greek and Hebrew. Then in the midst of his life he was stricken with a disease that put him to bed. There he was. So he spent his time snipping the Gospels. I can imagine a whole pile of old Bibles that he might have had, you know, and he clipped this paragraph from Matthew and then slipped one in from Luke, then add one from John, and go back and pick up Mark so you could read from the beginning to the end. Here it is! The whole of the four Gospels put into one consecutive tale or narrative. Isn’t that wonderful! Not really, because it not only does not give us one Gospel, it distorts all four, because the four Gospels were written by four different evangelists to four different congregations, four different concrete communities with four different sets of needs, for four different purposes. Now they were written twenty, thirty, forty, fifty or sixty years after the event, so they had all of the oral tradition of the early Christian community, and they had all of the experience of being Christian to work with, so they had material from which to select. That’s what they did in order to do a specific thing, in order to make a certain point. John tells us that very clearly in his Gospel, in the twentieth chapter and the thirtieth verse he says, © Grand Valley State University   �I Don’t Know How to Love Him Richard A. Rhem Page 2   “There were indeed many other signs that Jesus performed in the presence of his disciples which are not recorded in this book.” In other words, “I have done a little selecting here, folks. I haven’t given you the whole picture. This isn’t a snapshot. This is a portrait I have painted.” Why? “These things I have written — my selection was in order that you might believe that Jesus, the one that lived, that very real human being – who when he ate garlic you smelled his breath, that very real Jesus who when he walked on the earth got his feet dusty like everybody else – that you might believe that that one is the Christ of God, and believing have life through his name.” Now this is very interesting – do you know what’s in the paragraph above? The story of Thomas, that disciple that Jesus found in Missouri—the one who said, “Dead people don’t rise, fellas. Unless I can touch the nail prints, I’ll not believe.” Jesus appears and Thomas says, “My God.” Jesus said, “That’s right.” Jesus said, “Happy are those who never saw me and yet believed,” because that was the problem for John in his day and his community. Those who never had the chance to rub elbows with that one, whom his contemporaries knew was as real and true, and flesh and blood as they were. So now, here we are and we’ve got Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. Now we’ve got the historical records, right? Wrong! We’ve got faith documents. We’ve got history seen through Pentecost, through Easter, through Good Friday. And the day-by-day life of Jesus as it was experienced by his contemporaries is very difficult to recover. Their problem was not that Jesus was truly human. The Gospel writers in the experience of Easter and Pentecost, in the experience of the Christian community said, as Thomas said, “This Jesus, my God.” They had to say, “This one was that one.” But all we have are documents that say, “That one was this one.” So we’ve got a kind of supernatural divine Saviour who started there and dipped down here and did his thing and went back there. We’ve got this exalted Christ for whom it is very difficult to get next to in terms of a human Jesus who might have been flesh and blood like us, who might have cared about this world, who might have had something to say about those who would follow him. It’s a lot easier to just let him be the Son of God who comes down, dies for our sin and goes back. Whew! I’m off the hook. My sins are forgiven. But what we’ve done to Jesus is reduce his life to a comma, as in the Apostles’ Creed: “Born of the Virgin Mary, (comma) suffered under Pontius Pilate.” Let’s leap from the virgin birth to the atoning death and not get all nervous about that concrete life of the one who said, “I give you an example, follow in my steps.” Well, there is Good News because today there seems to be new interest in the life of Jesus. There are all kinds of historical methods whereby the layers can be peeled off. This research is going on all the time and there are some very interesting studies that would peel off that faith crust in the Son of God in order to lay bare the flesh of the man from Nazareth. Wouldn’t it be interesting if we © Grand Valley State University �I Don’t Know How to Love Him Richard A. Rhem Page 3   could get out of time for a bit, have someone who actually followed him and tell us what it meant? I think I see such a one coming . . . (Colette Volkema DeNooyer speaking:) My name is Mary Magdalene, which means simply, Mary of Magdala. Magdala was the village where I was born and raised. My memories of Magdala are not particularly good ones because I spent most of my life there filled with what we called ‘evil spirits.’ I had heard of Jesus even before I first encountered him. He was healing and teaching around Capernaum near the Sea of Galilee, which was not too far from Magdala. His first disciples were from that place. Peter and his brother Andrew, the Zebedee, James and John—they were fishermen. But you probably know that already, don’t you? Because you have a great gift, the written word and the ability to read it. Most of us had only the words we could hear with our own ears, and the sights that we could see with our own eyes. You see a whole picture, don’t you? But for those of us who were in the midst of it, it was not at all clear at times, and yet we knew the man, we walked with him and we talked with him. We touched him, and we held his hand. We experienced the power of his spirit, of God’s Spirit in him. So perhaps ours is the greater gift, or at least as great a gift, for I fear that perhaps in your written words he is beginning to become imprisoned behind them. Words . . . you know words are such inadequate vessels. And they can grow rigid and cold with time. That’s why I have come, you see, to breathe some fire and life into those words, to bring you to his human passion and love. I owe him at least that because he gave me life when he banished the demons and filled my soul with truth strong enough to keep the evil spirits at bay. But how to do that? I thought perhaps if I remembered things about him that have stayed with me. What were my strongest impressions of him? Three short years was all his ministry was, you know. And I knew him for less than that, really. But the intensity of the experience, it changed lives; it changed my life. I have seen your artist’s rendition of Jesus and I think you misunderstand—he is so often pictured meek and mild. If you think that it was easy to be around Jesus of Nazareth you are mistaken. He was a relentless seeker and prophet of truth. He was always asking, “Why? And, why not?” He was challenging rules and laws that had become burdens for us. It wasn’t enough for Jesus for someone to answer, “But it’s always been done that way.” Or even simply to say, “The law requires it.” Jesus believed that they had lost sight of the purpose of the law and the purpose of tradition. “Why don’t you wash before you eat? It is written in the law,” they said to him. “Because it’s what comes out of one’s mouth and one’s heart that determines whether or not we are clean,” he said. “Why do you eat with tax collectors and sinners?” the Pharisees asked him. “Does a physician come to one who is well?” he asked. © Grand Valley State University �I Don’t Know How to Love Him Richard A. Rhem Page 4   And they were appalled at the way he kept or didn’t keep the Sabbath. They say the Pharisees invited him to dinner on the Sabbath once. When Jesus arrived the seats of honor were taken—the ones closest to the host. So, obviously, they had not invited him because of their great love and respect for him. Jesus said that when he entered the room he could feel their eyes watching him, and almost immediately there was a knock at the door, and then it was clear the invitation was a setup, for in the doorway stood a lame man and it was the Sabbath and, of course, it was unlawful to heal on the Sabbath. They say Jesus looked at the man and then turned and gazed at those seated around the table, pious and faithful keepers of the law each of them. And he asked, “If your cow fell into a well on the Sabbath, would you pull it out to save its life?” The question hung in the air. They didn’t need to answer. They knew they would. So, he turned — in strong truth he turned and healed the man on the Sabbath. For Jesus said, “The Sabbath is made for us, we are not made for the Sabbath.” It is God’s gift to us for wellbeing, so what better way to keep the Sabbath than to heal the broken and the lame? Have you ever known someone in your own life who, when they were near, it seemed somehow as if God were close? I mean, when you were with them, you believe in God and in yourself, in life and in the future. It was that way with him — the power of his presence. There are not words that can describe it, only its happening. In his presence people were healed; by his touch they were healed. They were made whole by his compassionate gaze. How? I don’t know, exactly. I only know that it happened. I saw a woman — she had had a flow of blood for twelve years and no one had been able to heal her. She managed to just reach out and touch the fringe of Jesus’ garment and she was healed. The crowd was large that day, and I’m sure she hoped no one would notice. I mean, it was a great risk she took, you know. It was unlawful for her to touch the Master’s garment in that condition. With her flow of blood she was unclean, and so untouchable. Can you imagine — untouchable for twelve years? She must have been desperate. She risked and she reached out, praying that something would happen, hoping that she would not be noticed. But she was. He noticed. Immediately he turned and said, “Someone has touched me. I felt the power going out from me.” She came forward, terrified, trembling. She fell at his feet weeping and told him why she had touched him, and told him that she had been healed. You should have seen him then. He lifted her so gently up until she was standing right next to him. Then he looked unflinchingly into her eyes and said, “Daughter, go in peace, your faith has made you whole.” Word would spread when someone had found healing. People would come bringing others who had needs. Then the crowds would swell even greater. But you need to know something. He never used his ability to heal or to discern when people were hurting to manipulate them. He never used their adulation to claim political power and authority. How often didn’t he heal and say to the one made whole, “Go and tell no one.” He didn’t heal to draw attention to himself. He © Grand Valley State University �I Don’t Know How to Love Him Richard A. Rhem Page 5   healed to draw attention to God through him, and to the way to God. You know, I don’t think Jesus even intended there should be a religion called Christianity. Oh, I think it was essential for the Gentiles and for the persecuted ones in the years that followed, but Jesus was a Jew. In that time of his ministry I think what he longed for most was that the Pharisees and others like them would see the error of their ways — to see that they were becoming an obstacle, a block to our way to God. What else? Perhaps this: His attentiveness to the overlooked, the disregarded, the shunned of humanity. It never ceased to amaze me or to delight me, his availability to lepers, to tax collectors, to sinners, to children, to women. I don’t know if you can understand, but there are times when men look at women, when they look at us it seems they are not seeing us, they are not touching us, but they are seeing objects to own or to use. It was not like that with Jesus. I wish you could have seen the way he looked at me when he banished the demons. I’ve thought about that moment often and I’ve come to believe he healed me with a look that accepted me just as I was — demons and all. He cast them out when he touched me, not with a touch of lust, but with a touch that showed he valued me. And for me that is still the greatest miracle. So, I tell you what I remember of him, the Jesus who for us was so real, so human, so down-to-earth. And who, for you, I fear is becoming so exalted, so majestic, maybe even so unbelievable. Let me say it again in another way. I know that Jesus was a man, because his humanness caused for me a particular dilemma, and I am not afraid or ashamed to tell you. I was in love with him. Why do you think I dragged myself to the foot of that cross? A thousand soldiers could not have pulled me away until I had seen him breathe his last. Why do you think I went Sunday morning in hopes that I might see him one last time? But, I didn’t know how to love him. He moved me so. And I longed to love him in the only ways I knew. I longed to cling to him in the way one would, to keep him with me. And yet I couldn’t. I had to let go because I sensed that he was called for something more, chosen for something more. Maybe he was even born for something more. I don’t know. But I think you have a dilemma too. The Gospel writers and the apostles that preached Jesus, they took for granted that he was a man. So they talked about that other something that we felt when we were with him, the way in which he was so filled full of God that there was a unique relationship there. And now centuries later you have read only of that. Are you able to cut through the doctrines and the creeds about him, cut through the black and white translations and the spoken pious clichés to feel the heart and the soul and the way and the truth of the man? Or do you cling too tightly to his Godliness? So, I have a dilemma and you have a dilemma. On the one hand his humanness that I knew, his fire and his passion. On the other, his Godliness and his glory. Perhaps that’s why the Church has so long confessed Jesus as truly God and truly man to honor us both. © Grand Valley State University �I Don’t Know How to Love Him Richard A. Rhem Page 6   But I wonder, if I may say so, I wonder if perhaps my perception of him is less confusing, does not distort things as much? You see, what I remember most is that he wanted to show us the Way, the Way to God and the Way to the Kingdom of God. In loving him, his human person, I saw the face of God and, to my deep delight and joy, I have discovered that, now, to love another person – even though I can’t reach out and touch him – when I love another person, it is as though Jesus is with me. Now I find that in them I see also the face of God. I experience that that one who dwells in love, dwells in God. Loving one another, it is the way to God. It is the only way I know to follow Jesus. © Grand Valley State University � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Richard A. Rhem Collection Description An account of the resource Text and sound recordings of the sermons, prayers, services, and articles of Richard Rhem, pastor emeritus of Christ Community Church in Spring Lake, Michigan, where he served for 37 years. Starting in the mid 1980's, Rhem began to question some of the traditional Christian dogma that he had been espousing from the pulpit. That questioning was a first step in a long and interesting spiritual journey, one that he openly shared with his congregation. His journey is important, in part because it is reflective of the questioning, the yearnings, and the gradual revision of beliefs that many persons in this part of the century have experienced and continue to experience. It is important also because of the affirming and inclusive way his questioning was done and his thinking evolved. His sermons and other written and spoken materials together document the steps in his journey as it took a turn in 1985, yet continued to revolve around the framework and liturgies of the Christian calendar. Subject The topic of the resource Clergy--Michigan Reformed Church in America Christ Community Church (Spring Lake, Mich.) Religion Interfaith worship Sermons Sound Recordings Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Rhem, Richard A. Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/514">Richard A. Rhem papers (KII-01)</a> Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives. Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Kaufman Interfaith Institute Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Language A language of the resource English Type The nature or genre of the resource Sound Text Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context KII-01 Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant 1981-2014 Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource audio/mp3 text/pdf Sound A resource primarily intended to be heard. Examples include a music playback file format, an audio compact disc, and recorded speech or sounds. Event Lent IV Series Following Jesus Scripture Text Luke 8:2, Matthew 27:61 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-0-19920329 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1992-03-29 Title A name given to the resource I Don't Know How To Love Him Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Richard A. Rhem Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Subject The topic of the resource Clergy--Michigan Reformed Church in America Christ Community Church (Spring Lake, Mich.) Sermons Relation A related resource Richard A. Rhem - An Archive of Sermons, Prayers, Talks and Stories: http://richardrhem.org/ Language A language of the resource eng Type The nature or genre of the resource Sound Text Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource audio/mp3 application/pdf Description An account of the resource A sermon given by Richard A. Rhem (Dick) on March 29, 1992 entitled "I Don't Know How To Love Him", as part of the series "Following Jesus", on the occasion of Lent IV, at Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI. Scripture references: Luke 8:2, Matthew 27:61. Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Lemmen Library and Archives Gospels Historical Jesus Nature of Scripture Transforming Love Way of Jesus https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/028dcb90bdff0763492017c604873082.mp3 53cd3c93f81ea9c60954fecc51ec2954 https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/e161fca48ae425b625c8065c9f2f2ce3.pdf 2df8cb18b1fdd2fe40de619d65c885a1 PDF Text Text Freedom’s Stumbling Blocks: Uncritical Traditionalism From the Lenten sermon series: Freedom: Costly and Conflicted Text: Mark 3:21, 32; Luke 7:19 Richard A. Rhem Christ Community Church Spring Lake, Michigan Lent IV, March 5, 1989 Transcription of the prepared text Jesus reveals God; in his face we see into the heart of God. But Jesus is a double revelation; he is also the model of a fully human being. Jesus is the human person according to which we are being shaped by the Spirit of God. Jesus thus reveals who God is and what as human persons we are called to be. In our Lenten reflections this year we are focusing on a central facet of Jesus’ person, the magnificent freedom with which he lived. He knew who he was and what God was calling him to do. As we saw in the first message in this series, Jesus had a sense of identity and vision. He was a truly free person. Jesus modeled out that freedom. Jesus calls us to grow into that freedom by the liberating power of God. Not freedom understood as autonomy; rather, freedom to live out of our own authentic being, freedom for God, freedom for others. Such freedom is not won without great cost; it is not won without conflict. Sometimes the stumbling blocks to authentic human freedom stem from those closest to us; sometimes from the very relationship and association we might suppose would seek to enable that freedom. Jesus encountered stumbling blocks to freedom – as uncritical traditionalism that was no longer open to the movement of God’s Spirit that creates freedom and calls persons to the transforming newness of the Kingdom. Jesus lived out of his own centered being – out of his sense of who he was and his vision for the ministry to which God was calling him. That sense of identity and vision came only after his own personal struggle. The Gospel writers make it very clear that Jesus’ ministry flowed out of his call and empowering by God’s Spirit experienced in connection with his baptism. The Gospels then record the wilderness temptations – a portrayal of Jesus’ personal wrestling who he was and what shape his ministry would take. We saw him last week as Luke portrayed him, inaugurating his ministry in his hometown using the text from Isaiah: The Spirit of the Lord is upon me because he has anointed me; he has sent me to announce good news to the poor, to proclaim release for prisoners © Grand Valley State University   �Freedom’s Stumbling Blocks: Uncritical Traditionalism Richard A. Rhem Page 2   and recovery of sight for the blind; to let the broken victims go free, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor. What at first seemed to be a successful sermon for this hometown boy turned out to be a near disaster when the home town folds realized that Jesus’ vision of a radical grace that reached far beyond the bounds of the Jewish people threatened their supposed special coziness with God. Jesus was undeterred. He carried on a ministry of healing and liberation. His teaching was full of grace and his deeds were gracious deeds restoring persons to health and wholeness. He announced the Good News of the Kingdom and offered forgiveness to all. The Galilean ministry caused quite a stir. The word was out: a great prophet was present. God’s care was being manifest for God’s people. That is what Luke reports in the verse preceding our lesson. It would seem that Jesus was well on his way. He had a great future. Wouldn’t everyone rejoice and celebrate such an obviously God-graced person? Well, we already know the answer to that question – no, everybody would not celebrate that gracious, liberating ministry. The ordinary folk rejoiced, praised God, and experienced the freeing words and deeds of Jesus. But it was soon clear that Jesus would be strongly opposed by various groups. How would he react? How would he respond? Would he be able to maintain the vision, living out of that center rooted in God’s call and empowering? In a word – would Jesus live out his freedom or would he be detoured by the stumbling blocks cast in his way? We have already noted in the first message of the series that John the Baptist was troubled by the reports of Jesus’ ministry. He sent two of his disciples to Jesus to ask, Are you the one who is to come or are we to expect some other? That must have been a tough question for Jesus. John had baptized Jesus. John had pointed to him as the mighty one who had been promised. The Fourth Gospel tells of an earlier Judean ministry of Jesus at the Jordan near where John’s ministry was carried out. It is reasonable to assume that John had been a model for Jesus and had impressed a model of ministry on Jesus – a model taken from the prophet Malachi: Look, I am sending my messenger who will clear a path before me. Suddenly the Lord whom you seek will come to his temple; the messenger of the covenant. …Who can endure the day of his coming? Who can stand firm when he appears? He is like a refiner’s fire….Malachi 3: 1-2 John was a serious preacher of righteousness who pronounced the judgment of God on the evil and darkness and unrighteousness of the world. John longed for © Grand Valley State University �Freedom’s Stumbling Blocks: Uncritical Traditionalism Richard A. Rhem Page 3   God to call history to a halt, to vindicate the righteous and damn the wicked. John hoped Jesus would bring the fire of God’s judgment on the earth. Instead, he heard of Jesus’ healings and grace. His question arose from the confusion he experienced when the program of God’s Kingdom did not fit his expectations. Jesus affirmed John. John was a true prophet of God and an honest preacher of righteousness. But John failed to sense the marvelous inbreaking of God’s grace because he was so certain that he knew what God’s next move must be. Jesus demonstrated his freedom in his response to John. He did not argue or debate. He respectfully announced, “Go tell John what you have seen and heard.” There was no breaking of relationship – at least on Jesus’ part. He distinguished his own ministry from John’s, his own understanding of what God was doing from John’s expectations. But he affirmed John. He honored John. Jesus demonstrated real strength. He remained true to his vision, to the shape of ministry he discovered – not in Malachi as John had suggested, but in Isaiah. I don’t suppose that was easy. If John were his mentor; if John, the elder prophet of God, was recognized by Jesus as a faithful servant of God, it must have been difficult to follow a line quite at odds with John’s viewpoint. Jesus demonstrated freedom and maturity – the ability to be his own person, to differentiate himself from his mentor but to maintain relationship. That was not easy, especially because of the high esteem in which he held John. I wonder if Jesus’ response caused John to review his conception of the tradition critically. I hope so. Otherwise he robbed himself of the very great comfort and joy he might have experienced. The lesson from Mark’s Gospel tells of the negative response of Jesus’ own religious leaders and his own family. Here too the rejection comes after Mark has recounted the powerful ministry of Jesus, healing, exorcising the demonic, and announcing forgiveness freely to all. The religious leaders representing the established religion of Israel decided he was demon-possessed. They claimed his power was of the evil one. Jesus refuted their accusation and warned them of the peril of refusing to acknowledge the power of God at work in his healing ministry of grace. Here he stands against the traditionalism of the Jewish religion. We need not demonstrate how he shattered the accepted practices and understandings of his day. He manifested a freedom from the bondage of religious customs, rituals and rules that had become a heavy burden binding the human spirit. His response to the religious establishment is not moderate and affirming as is the case of John. The religious leaders angered Jesus – not because they opposed © Grand Valley State University �Freedom’s Stumbling Blocks: Uncritical Traditionalism Richard A. Rhem Page 4   him, per se, but because he knew they had distorted the intention of God as revealed in the Scriptures and had bound the human spirit, crushed the soul of the people, making religion a burden to be borne rather than a power to liberate. Jesus had courage. It did not take the establishment log to sense that Jesus was a real threat to their institutions, their positions of power and prestige, their religious customs by which they controlled the people. And it certainly did not take Jesus long to recognize that he was in a serious conflict that could well end in his death. I wonder if he ever considered giving it up and going back to the family business. I wonder if the anger he felt, which manifested itself when, for example, he routed the money changers out of the Temple, sometimes alternated with honest fear, a sense of despair at the entrenched blindness of his own religious leaders. That he struggled to the very end we are told. Yet it would seem that he did not look back nor did he question the vision, his sense of identity and his sense of mission. It takes a deeply grounded freedom to set oneself over against one’s own tradition. Over the years most of you have come to Christ Community from somewhere. You have joined because you believed in the vision, the tone quality of grace, the ambience of freedom. But, for all who have come, there are folk who have been similarly drawn but, in the final analysis, could not break out of a deeply rooted tradition – even when they sensed something seriously distorted or missing. The promise to conform, to accommodate, to compromise with is very powerful indeed. Jesus took on his whole significant national, cultural, religious world and broke free of its uncritical traditionalism. I think it may have been more difficult to distance himself from John than from the Temple crowd. But I suspect that most difficult of all was the differentiation of himself from his own family. In Mark 3:21 we read that his family, hearing the reports of his ministry, “set out to take charge of him; for people were saying that he was out of his mind.” That is the NEB translation. The RSV has “his friends” but the NEB is correct here and we can see that if we go to verse 31: Then his mother and his brothers arrived, and remaining outside sent in a message asking him to come out to them. Do you get the picture? Do you sense the kind of pressure this must have put on Jesus? I suppose we will all feel this scene in terms of our own family relationships but, even for those whose families are quite “laid back,” it must be obvious that this was the crucial test of freedom. And if you happen to be fortunate enough to be part of a tight-knit family and extended family, can’t you sense a knotting in your stomach? © Grand Valley State University �Freedom’s Stumbling Blocks: Uncritical Traditionalism Richard A. Rhem Page 5   Stop to think about it: the whole mission of Jesus might have been derailed by a well-meaning mother. Can’t you just hear Mary saying to her other boys, “We’re just going to go over there and bring that boy home. He’s making a fool of himself and embarrassing the family.” The word in Greek to describe what they were saying about Jesus means “beside oneself,” “to stand outside of,” to be “eccentric”– that is, to be “off center” or as the word is translated “out of his mind.” And the word used to describe their intention means literally they set out to seize him. Mary was serious! She wanted her boy home! We read that he was told his mother and brothers were outside wanting to see him and his response was Who is my mother? Who are my brothers? His eyes sweeping the room, he must have gestured as he replied, Here are my mother and my brothers. Whoever does the will of God is my brother, my sister, my mother. To be able so to respond in that situation evidenced a freedom few of us will ever attain. Put yourself into the situation. Sit where May was sitting. What thoughts and feelings must have pulsated within her being! What do you suppose she said to her other sons? What would you have said? We have all been children growing up and outgrowing our parental home and many of us have been parents experiencing our children outgrow our oversight. It is not easy. It is often fraught with tension, not seldom laced with pain. Had you been Mary, would you have been able to let go, commit to God, return home without your son? Love, honor, respect: these are things required of a son or daughter. But finally every son and daughter must fine their own center of being, envision their own truth and respond to the call of God that comes to them. That is where we see again the freedom of Jesus. He differentiated himself from his family but never broke with the family, never broke relationship. In the Atlantic, September 1988, there is an extended essay introducing the family system theory, which, unlike psychoanalysis, sees human beings as persons in a situation of interlocking relationships rather than as autonomous psychological entities. The article is entitled “Chronic Anxiety and Defining a Self”– a title which speaks volumes and gives a clue to what is set forth, namely, that a failure adequately to differentiate oneself from the network of relationship given one in the family structure results in chronic anxiety. An unhealthy emotionality in family relationships results in chronic anxiety where the self is not well defined. The rebel, on the other hand, is a highly reactive person whose © Grand Valley State University �Freedom’s Stumbling Blocks: Uncritical Traditionalism Richard A. Rhem Page 6   self is also inadequately developed. He operates in opposition to parents and others. Jesus did not argue with John’s disciples as he responded to John’s question. Jesus confronted the distortion of the truth of God as he encountered it in the religious leadership of his day because of the damage it did not the people who should have been helped and healed. Over against his family he simply did not respond at the point of their total misunderstanding. Reason would not have worked anyway. Mary was afraid and defensive for her son over against the word being spread and she was embarrassed. I am happy one word of Jesus from the cross was an expression of care for his mother. It shows he never cut himself off from his family. But neither did he deny his own truth and vision simply to pacify them when they were caught in a traditionalism that blocked their coming into the spaciousness of God’s new movement. Isn’t it good to know that Mary was part of the post-Easter community praying for the Spirit and James, Jesus’ brother, became spiritual head of the Jerusalem church? Of course, James remained a rather conservative law/righteousness person. Yet it was he who was able to provide the compromise at the Jerusalem Council recorded in Acts 15 that bridged the gulf separating Paul and the Gentile mission and the strongly Jewish Christian contingent centered in Jerusalem. Jesus is a model of magnificent freedom He lived it out and in his life we can see the beauty of an authentic life lived out of its own identity and vision – out of its own center and truth. The secret lay in Jesus’ rootedness in God. Being rooted in God Jesus was free over against every form of human bondage. In the words of the hymn writer, Make me a captive, Lord; Then I shall be free. Only when one is free, in possession of one’s life because that life is anchored in God, does one have a life to give away. This is what concerns me about so much religious posture. So much of the religious establishment in all forms of religion bind people, imprison, weigh down, manipulate and thusly control. There is so much “group think” encouraged by religious leadership. Jesus established his being and vision over against the powerful pull of traditionalism and Jesus calls us to freedom as well. © 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 Lent IV Series Freedom: Costly and Conflicted Scripture Text Mark 3:21, 32, Luke 7: 19 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-0-19890305 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1989-03-05 Title A name given to the resource Freedom's Stumbling Blocks: Uncritical Traditionalism Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Richard A. Rhem Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Subject The topic of the resource Clergy--Michigan Reformed Church in America Christ Community Church (Spring Lake, Mich.) Sermons Relation A related resource Richard A. Rhem - An Archive of Sermons, Prayers, Talks and Stories: http://richardrhem.org/ Language A language of the resource eng Type The nature or genre of the resource Sound Text Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource audio/mp3 application/pdf Description An account of the resource A sermon given by Richard A. Rhem (Dick) on March 5, 1989 entitled "Freedom's Stumbling Blocks: Uncritical Traditionalism", as part of the series "Freedom: Costly and Conflicted", on the occasion of Lent IV, at Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI. Scripture references: Mark 3:21, 32, Luke 7: 19. Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Lemmen Library and Archives Critical Thinking Grace Historical Jesus Inclusive Lent Way of Jesus