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The Re-Visioning of a Dream
th
200 Anniversary of the Constitution of the United States of America
Text: Exodus 2:23-24
Richard A. Rhem
Christ Community Church
Spring Lake, Michigan
Independence Day Weekend, July 5, 1987
Transcription of the spoken sermon
As we celebrate our nation's independence and the foundation of her freedom on
the 200th anniversary of the Constitution, we must re-vision the dream that
came to birth, rooted in God's purpose for the whole human family.
To remember is to find the basis of hope, for in remembering our past, we
discover anew who we are and what we are destined to be. On this Independence
Day weekend, I would point you back, not only to 1776 and the Declaration of
Independence, but also back to 1787 and the signing of the Constitution which
has been the charter of the freedom we have enjoyed for two centuries. In doing
so, I am not simply observing a national holiday, suspending for one Sunday our
custom of listening to the biblical word. Rather, I am seeking to place what has
happened in the American experience within the larger context of the biblical
word, for I am convinced the measure of freedom, dignity and justice that has
been achieved in our nation's history is reflective of God's revealed will for all
God's children. My purpose then is not simply to celebrate the past, but to
remember the past in order to find the pattern and the inspiration to bring the
blessings we have enjoyed to an ever-wider circle of earth's children.
In May 1787, 55 delegates from twelve of the thirteen states gathered in
Philadelphia for a Constitutional Convention. The heady days of 1776 and newly
won independence had finally been ratified in the Peace of Paris in 1783, but that
newly won independence was by now severely strained. The new nation was a
confederacy of sovereign states - thirteen sovereign states - not altogether unlike
the present European Confederation bound together for purposes of trade. A
confederacy is a weak instrument and the respective state legislatures wanted it
to stay that way. States rights were the first concern, especially among the more
numerous small states that feared being swallowed up by the larger states of
Virginia, Massachusetts, New York and Pennsylvania. Each state was jealous of
its own sovereignty and, without a common enemy to fight, Americans seemed
incapable of preserving their union. “Lycurgus,” a pseudonymous writer in the
New Haven Gazette complained that the union under the Articles of
© Grand Valley State University
�The Re-Visioning of a Dream
Richard A. Rhem
Page 2
Confederation “is not a union of sentiment - it is not a union of interest; - it is not
a union to be seen - or felt - or in any manner perceived." Antifederalists believed
that the preservation of republican liberties won by the Revolution depended on
maintaining the sovereignty and independence of the States. John Francis
Mercer spoke for the Antifederalists when he declared that he was "persuaded
that the People of so large a Continent, so different in interests, so distinct in
habits," could not be adequately represented in a single legislature. Patrick
Henry, the great orator of the Revolution, would have nothing to do with a
central government; Virginia was doing just fine.
There were other voices, however, representing a larger vision. George
Washington came out of retirement to participate in the Convention, becoming
its chairman; James Madison clearly articulated the urgency and critical
importance of a strong federal government, warning that, without it, the 13 states
simply would not survive. Indeed, in Europe there was little confidence that the
fledgling nation would survive and Britain, France and Spain were simply waiting
in the wings to move in.
The initial years of independence were a sorry tale of weakness and incapacity to
govern. Only that authority freely given by the States to the Confederate
government could be exercised. There was no power to enact legislation or
impose taxes.
In the summer of 1786 farmers in Western Massachusetts determined to shut
down the courts that were threatening foreclosure on their lands due to unpaid
taxes. Shays' rebellion, as it was called, shocked the nation. The impossibility of
governing under the present structure was recognized and a Constitutional
Convention was called for May of 1787. One month before the Convention,
Madison said the hurdles confronting any reform (of the Articles of
Confederation) were so great that they ''would inspire despair in any case where
the alternative was less formidable."
The Convention was called for May 14; it actually began May 25 and serious
discussion got underway on May 29. With only one recess, the Convention met
for six days a week from 4 to 8 hours a day until September 17, when the
document was signed. It was a steamy, hot, humid summer in Philadelphia. One
breath followed another with difficulty. Windows had to be kept closed because of
the swarms of stinging flies.
Madison arrived eleven days early, drafting the Virginia Plan which became the
Convention agenda. The smaller states were threatened and unyielding. On June
14, William Paterson of New Jersey submitted the New Jersey Plan as an
alternative to the Virginia Plan, more to the liking of the small states. The
Convention deadlocked. A committee was appointed to work out a compromise
which was offered on July 5, debated until July 14 and finally affirmed on July 16.
The compromise was approved by a five to four vote. From then on it was a
© Grand Valley State University
�The Re-Visioning of a Dream
Richard A. Rhem
Page 3
matter of working out the details. By September 17 our Constitution was signed,
ready to be ratified by the respective states.
Madison was disappointed. He felt he had lost on critical issues. It fell to Ben
Franklin, 81, the wise elder statesman, to present the document for signing. He
said,
When you assemble a number of men to have the advantage of their joint
wisdom, you inevitably assemble with those men, all their prejudice, their
passions, their errors of opinion, their local interests, and their selfish
views. From such an assembly, can a perfect production be expected? It
therefore astonishes me, Sir, to find this system approaching so near to
perfection as it does; and I think it will astonish our enemies, who are
waiting with confidence to hear that our councils are confounded like
those of the Builders of Babel ... Thus I consent, Sir, to this Constitution,
because I expect no better, and because I am not sure that it is not the
best.
Franklin had himself made compromise. He asked that "every member of the
Convention who may still have objections to it would, with me on this occasion,
doubt a little of his own infallibility."
The Constitution of the United States is an amazing document that has served us
well and has become a model for nations around the globe. Someone has said it is
our most important export. What this document, hammered out in the
oppressive heat of a Philadelphia Summer, has created and enabled is the highest
achievement of human government and for our priceless heritage we offer thanks
to the providence of Almighty God.
The freedom envisioned, the human dignity recognized, the imperative of justice
decreed is a reflection of the intention of the God we worship, our Creator and
our redeemer through Jesus Christ. To support that contention, I point you to the
Scripture lesson from the Old Testament, the Book of Exodus.
The story is familiar. Israel is in the bondage of slavery in Egypt. In the
oppressive situation of unbearable servitude, Israel cries to the Lord. In our text
we hear that God hears, God understands, God is aware and God responds to a
people in bondage and in darkness. God responds to that situation of His people
in bondage because He is a God Who wills the freedom and the dignity of all His
children. Consequently, He moves in a redemptive way to bring His people out of
Egypt, and we hear that clarion call "Set my people free!" God is a God of
freedom Who wills freedom for His people. God is the God of freedom Who wills
that there will be justice in human relationships. God is the God Who is on the
side of the marginalized against those who would oppress them, for God would
have all God's children free, living with dignity, with justice for all.
© Grand Valley State University
�The Re-Visioning of a Dream
Richard A. Rhem
Page 4
In the story of the Exodus, we have the God of Israel, the God of freedom, the
God of justice pitted against the Egyptian gods who were the gods of the empire.
Egypt was a mighty empire. It had its Pharaoh, and the Pharaoh had his gods.
Perhaps you've seen the old Cecil B. DeMille rendition of the Ten
Commandments, and remember that story dramatized by Hollywood. Pharaoh
had his gods, and the gods of Egypt, as the gods of all the great empires, are
captive to the empire. The gods of that kind of given natural system of things
conceive of a connection between the throne and the altar. The gods baptize the
status quo. Pharaoh co-opted his gods. Pharaoh used his gods to keep order. The
people of Egypt, under the tutelage of the gods of Egypt, became the compliant
servants of the order of Egypt. And Pharaoh wanted to keep it that way. Things
were going very well; the budget was being met and the bricks were being
produced. And then, as so often happens in human affairs, Pharaoh becomes
obsessed with the question of security and his greed demands greater
productivity. He looks at the Israelites and he begins to imagine a threat there.
He said to his advisors, "Let's put them down. They're valuable to us. They could
become dangerous to us. If we are to maintain rule, authority and order in the
land, the Israelites must be oppressed."
Well, you know the story, one of the most familiar of all the scriptures. Pharaoh
didn't recognize that his state cult gods were no match for the God of Israel, the
God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, the God Who revealed Himself to Moses as the
God Who said, "I am Who I am," or "I will be Who I will be," or simply, "I will be
there!" The God of Israel, the Creator God, the Redeeming God, the God Who was
for human freedom, Who was the advocate of human justice and compassion,
overcame the gods of the Egyptians, and finally the mighty Pharaoh was brought
to his knees, and Israel was set free!
The early founding vision of our nation finds rootage in the God of the scriptures.
The dream that was born here 200 years ago is a dream that was inspired by the
God of the Bible. Don't hear me as saying that all of our founding fathers were
great Christian evangelical believers. But they were rooted in the biblical tradition
of the God Who creates and Who ensures human dignity and stands for human
freedom. And consequently, our founding reflected a dream nurtured in the
revelation of the biblical God.
Now, I suggest to you this morning that 200 years later it's time to re-vision the
dream. It's not enough to celebrate the past. It's not enough to give gratitude for
the great blessings we have received. It is time for us, as the people of God, within
this nation highly blessed, to recognize that we are called to be the gadflies in
society, to raise the prophetic voice in the midst of our own nation, to remind
Washington, the President, the Cabinet and the Congress that now the players
have reversed their roles. Now we, as citizens of this nation, represent the
established and entrenched power structure of the world. Now it is to us that the
God of freedom would say, "As your dream was born 200 years ago, a dream
nurtured in My Will for all My children, so now remember when you have come
© Grand Valley State University
�The Re-Visioning of a Dream
Richard A. Rhem
Page 5
of age and now that you are in power that I am as concerned for the freedoms, the
human dignity and the justice of the Black in South Africa and the Latino in
South America and Central America as ever I was for the slaves in America or the
patriots of the Revolution of 1776. Now, America, that you have climbed to the
place of power in the world, my challenge to you," says Almighty God, "is to use
your power for the humanization of all of society and the liberation of all My
children. It is for you, United States of America, on this your 200th anniversary
of that great document, to become the liberator, not the oppressor. To move for
the continuing change within society throughout the whole world, not the
maintenance of the status quo."
As I was reflecting on this, I thought about our Dutch Reformed cousins in South
Africa who believe in the Old Testament and the New Testament, and who must
wince when they read the story of the Exodus and they hear old Pharaoh say,
"Look, folks, those people are becoming more than we. If we don't hold them
down, one day they may rise up and take our place." And from pulpits in that
land the doctrine of Apartheid has been advocated, although maybe there's just a
little chink in the armor now. I think about those who are living in fear and
poverty and darkness in Latin America. As one thinks of people around the world
striving for freedom and human dignity, one realizes that we Christians in
America have forgotten that there is a higher claim upon us than to be
responsible citizens of a nation. There is a higher call, a prior claim; it is a claim
to be a people of God in the midst of a nation concerned for the wellbeing of the
whole world.
Martin Luther King said it, "I have a dream!" The prophets were those who had
dreams. Moses was one who could imagine something different. Do you think
that in Egypt the average Israelite could even imagine anything different? He
cried in his grief, but there was needed someone to speak the word of freedom
and human dignity, to speak in the name of the God of Abraham, Isaac and
Jacob, Who would set them free. The prophets were those who dreamed a dream,
who created a vision and who stirred people to respond to the compelling call of
the liberating God!
So today, as well. How easily we get co-opted into believing that the ultimate
questions are questions of national security or national preservation or national
aggrandizement, or being No. 1 in the world, and we forget that the call to us as a
people of God is to be responsible to Caesar and totally obedient to God Who is
interested in all His children, black or white, Gentile or Jew, Protestant or
Catholic, American or Russian; to know that we are called to be a people who
continue to dream the dream nurtured in the Scriptures that reveals the God of
freedom Who wills freedom for all His people.
There is a group in this country spreading across the states in a network of
concern called, "A World Beyond War." Can you even imagine it? If you had been
in that hot, humid, fly-infested, steamy Summer of Philadelphia in 1787, you
© Grand Valley State University
�The Re-Visioning of a Dream
Richard A. Rhem
Page 6
would have gone to that convention convinced that it was impossible. Again, even
James Madison said that the hurdles confronting any reform were so great that
they "would inspire despair in any case where the alternative was less
formidable." But, someone had a dream, and the dream became reality.
We get too used to thinking in traditional ways; we get buried in a rut; we can't
even dream anymore. But I tell you God calls us, as His people, to dream dreams
and to see visions. Can you imagine a world beyond war? Can you imagine a
world where all God's children could stand together in human dignity with justice
for all?
It's time, friends, to shed the posture of self-preservation, to stop worrying about
our security, to become once again a pilgrim people under the Lordship of the
Eternal God Who faithfully, as with Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and Moses and
our Lord Jesus Christ, would lead all His children to freedom. It's time to revision the dream, to dream it all over again in all its radical newness! Amen.
© Grand Valley State University
�
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Richard A. Rhem Collection
Description
An account of the resource
Text and sound recordings of the sermons, prayers, services, and articles of Richard Rhem, pastor emeritus of Christ Community Church in Spring Lake, Michigan, where he served for 37 years. Starting in the mid 1980's, Rhem began to question some of the traditional Christian dogma that he had been espousing from the pulpit. That questioning was a first step in a long and interesting spiritual journey, one that he openly shared with his congregation. His journey is important, in part because it is reflective of the questioning, the yearnings, and the gradual revision of beliefs that many persons in this part of the century have experienced and continue to experience. It is important also because of the affirming and inclusive way his questioning was done and his thinking evolved. His sermons and other written and spoken materials together document the steps in his journey as it took a turn in 1985, yet continued to revolve around the framework and liturgies of the Christian calendar.
Subject
The topic of the resource
Clergy--Michigan
Reformed Church in America
Christ Community Church (Spring Lake, Mich.)
Religion
Interfaith worship
Sermons
Sound Recordings
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Rhem, Richard A.
Source
A related resource from which the described resource is derived
<a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/514">Richard A. Rhem papers (KII-01)</a>
Publisher
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Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives.
Contributor
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Kaufman Interfaith Institute
Rights
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<a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a>
Language
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English
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Sound
Text
Identifier
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KII-01
Coverage
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1981-2014
Format
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audio/mp3
text/pdf
Sound
A resource primarily intended to be heard. Examples include a music playback file format, an audio compact disc, and recorded speech or sounds.
Event
Independence Day Sunday
Pentecost IV
Scripture Text
Exodus 2:23-24
Location
The location of the interview
Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Identifier
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KII-01_RA-0-19870705
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1987-07-05
Title
A name given to the resource
The Re-Visioning of a Dream
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Richard A. Rhem
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
<a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a>
Subject
The topic of the resource
Clergy--Michigan
Reformed Church in America
Christ Community Church (Spring Lake, Mich.)
Sermons
Relation
A related resource
Richard A. Rhem - An Archive of Sermons, Prayers, Talks and Stories: http://richardrhem.org/
Language
A language of the resource
eng
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Sound
Text
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
audio/mp3
application/pdf
Description
An account of the resource
A sermon given by Richard A. Rhem (Dick) on July 5, 1987 entitled "The Re-Visioning of a Dream", on the occasion of Independence Day Sunday, Pentecost IV, at Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI. Scripture references: Exodus 2:23-24.
Freedom
History of the Constitution
Independence Day
Re-vision
Vision