1 24 3 https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/8d54ee0f4e4677ca003d3062dc541c59.pdf 8a8860e50bd30961fbfec4fa746edacd PDF Text Text Global Mission in a New Key Text: Isaiah 58:6, Acts 1:4-8 Richard A. Rhem Christ Community Church Spring Lake, Michigan July 11, 1993 Transcription of the spoken sermon “...to loose the bonds of injustice, ...to let the oppressed go free, and to break every yoke.” Isaiah 58:6 “...to the ends of the earth.” Acts 1:4-8 It would be difficult to challenge the statement that it is the intention of God that all God’s children live in freedom and human dignity. I don’t think anyone would want to challenge that. Certainly that is the biblical vision. We noted last week in the celebration of our own Declaration of Independence that God has blessed this nation. This political arrangement was founded on the conviction that God has created all people, all people, equal in God’s image. That to live in freedom is to realize the human potential with which God has endowed us, and to live in that freedom as we have for the last two hundred plus years, we’ve also found economic prosperity because there has been, along with political freedom, economic freedom. I suggested last week that perhaps, after some two hundred years living with a Declaration of Independence, it is time for us now to declare our Declaration of Interdependence because history doesn’t stand still. History moves on. While those thirteen colonies on the eastern seaboard were knit together by a common vision, they lived not in nearly the proximity to each other that we live with the whole globe today. Through the satellites that go through our sky we are in touch with the whole world, and we know what’s going on everywhere. We have become a global community. That global community calls us to a concern for the whole world, for the freedom and the dignity of all people everywhere. Certainly that is God’s intention. It was the prophetic vision the prophet was most often called to speak to the people of God, to remind them that God’s purposes transcended their own narrow interests. The prophet in Isaiah 65 of last week’s Old Testament lesson spoke of the “new heaven and the new earth,” in the time when people would build houses and dwell in them, plant gardens and eat their fruit, living with dignity without exploitation or coercion, where the world © Grand Valley State University   �Global Mission in a New Key Richard A. Rhem Page 2   eventually would become a place where the lion and the lamb could lie down together, and no one would hurt in all God’s holy mountain. The Old Testament lesson this morning from the 58th chapter of Isaiah says the same thing. The people of Judah having returned from the Exile carrying on their religious observances said, “Why doesn’t God heed? Why doesn’t God hear us?” And God says to the prophet, “Look, religious observances are not ends in themselves. If you want to be truly religious, then care one for another. Break off the thongs that bind people. Be done with injustice. Set the captive free. This is God’s intention for humankind, for all people everywhere.” With the globe becoming no larger than a grapefruit, and community becoming world community today, it is incumbent for us to think of global mission “in a new key.” Jesus stood in that prophetic tradition. Jesus sent his disciples into all the world, “to the ends of the earth,” he said. He proclaimed the Gospel, the good news. That good news – Jesus standing in the prophetic tradition – was that God is near. God is present. God is gracious. That God would include and would reconcile all people. Jesus said, “Go tell that good news.” And the Church has become a missionary church. We have noted in past weeks since Pentecost that it was unfortunate that there had to be that break between Judaism and the Jesus Movement, but even so God has used that division. The Christian Church has brought the God of Israel to the nations. But the history of the Christian Church now encompassing the globe is really a mixed affair. On the one hand you can write the story of the spread of the Christian Church in glowing terms. There have been many heroes and heroines in the faith. Christian Mission at its best has been concerned for medicine, and for education, and for agriculture, and for the whole human condition. There have been those who have given their all in order that the light of Christ might illumine the lives of people. But the Christian Movement has a shadow side too. If we would be honest we would have to admit that that movement into all the world to make the world Christian was a movement that was characterized at many periods with coercion. There were the enforced baptisms. There was the development of that anti-Semitism which came to its ugly climax in the Holocaust. There was the Inquisition - the enforcing of faith on people. There was too often a lack of sensitivity to native cultures and native mores. So the history of the Church has been a history of mission movement with a light and a shadow side. The modern missionary movement of the 19th century is the mission movement that most of us are aware of. It was a movement that arose out of a passion to bring all people to knowledge of Christ. What fired that mission was a conviction that outside of Christ there was no salvation. But as that modern missionary movement arose there was also the development of modern atheism. That whole development of atheism in the Western World said that religion is not anything that has any true counterpart here, but rather arises out of the human need itself, © Grand Valley State University �Global Mission in a New Key Richard A. Rhem Page 3   that human beings create religion. And then, encountering atheism, that most serious of all criticisms of religion, there was the counterclaim that human religion doesn’t start with us but starts with one who encounters us from beyond and draws response from us. That’s about where I was in Europe about a couple of decades ago, a quarter of a century ago, wrestling with that one. Recognizing that if human religion is response to the encounter of God from beyond us, which is really the vital claim that we must make, then it became more and more difficult to say of all the human responses in the respective religions, there is only one that is right, and that one is mine. I didn’t have to solve that when I came back here in the early 70s because some of us went out to California to the Institute for Successful Church Leadership, and we learned that you ought to bloom where you are planted and that mission is where you are. So we gave ourselves to creating here a loving community, a compassionate community. The last couple of decades are the story of creating here a Center for Creative Christianity. But time marches on. History moves. The world changes, and it’s time for us to make another move. It’s time for us to come to Global Awareness. I have to credit Peter Theune for bringing to us, as he came to the Christ Community team, a greater sensitivity to the larger world. The Task Force on Global Awareness in our midst has been a catalyst to get us to think outward. I think in the recent past, for the past two or three years, our whole world has exploded to such an extent that we know that we are part of a global community whether we want to be or not, and we have to decide whether we will put our resources and our efforts in trying to maintain things as they are - building walls and developing a fortress mentality, or whether we will cast ourselves on the side of the agents of change to bring about reconciliation, to remove the barriers and the divisions, and to bind the human family together, which it seems to me is reflective of the biblical vision of God’s intention. The God of all compassion who loves people, who would mediate grace to all, who would gather all in his bosom in order to build the family of God. Let me challenge this community of faith this morning to a new engagement with concrete mission. We’ve begun already. For a number of summers now some of you have gone to Staten Island, Project Hospitality, where The Rev. Terry Troia works with the alienated and the outcast of society. Your lives have been touched and changed by that encounter. We are sending today a group of young people to Chicago to an urban ministry to encounter the realities of the city. Later this summer we will send a group to Wales to be with Bob and Kris Kleinheksel in that urban ministry in the city of Cardiff. Concretely this morning you have before you Jeanne Farrer who will be going from us to be our presence in Africa, in Gambia, to teach, to serve, to be there as the presence of the love of God that she has come to know in Jesus Christ. Let me challenge all of us this morning to a new commitment to Global Mission. © Grand Valley State University �Global Mission in a New Key Richard A. Rhem Page 4   But that commitment to Global Mission needs to be in a new key. I hinted a moment ago that when I came back here in the 70s I could not rouse you to passionate action in order to bring Christ to the world as though that was the world’s only hope. That was the theological problem I was struggling with. Now let me simply say boldly, having not solved all those problems, this I know the world is a hurting, bleeding, wounded place. We cannot deny it any more. It comes into our living rooms and our kitchens and our dens day after day after day. The anguish on the faces of the adults who bury their dead, who look into the eyes of the starving children. The knowledge that in Zambia sixty cents per child per year goes for their education. The knowledge that our world is being torn apart most decisively by religious fundamentalisms. The knowledge that, with the umbrella of oppression that held the world at bay for some decades now evaporating, there is a new uprising of ethnic feuds and national pride and arrogance. Our world is bleeding. Our world is wounded. The God of biblical vision is a God who cares, a God full of compassion, a God who calls God’s people not to the exercise of religious observances - the fasts and the rituals, and the worship that ends there, but rather the God who calls God’s people to true religion which is to be concerned for the poor and the homeless and the naked. To break off all injustice and take away the yoke and set the captive free. Jesus in his inaugural sermon in his hometown quoted Isaiah 61 saying, “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me to proclaim liberty to the captive.” Jesus, standing in that prophetic tradition with all of the compassion of God moving through him, crying out to a world to break off the bonds and to set the prisoner free. Jesus would call us to his way; Jesus gave us the promise of Pentecost, which was not a commission to found a church and a religion, but to move into the era of the Spirit of God who transcends all human forms, the God of all mercy and compassion who calls us to love the world as God loves the world. A new commitment to Global Mission but in a new key. Not in order to found Christian churches all over the globe, but in the name of Jesus to love, to heal, to bind up the wounds, to teach, and to create a world in which it is possible for every person not to become Christian, but to become human - for God’s sake. To realize God’s purpose for human kind so that people might live in justice, peace - dancing before the God of creation who dances in our midst, whose light shines upon us when we catch the vision and allow our passion to be unleashed. To bring salvation, salve, healing to the world. That is our calling. That will be our joy. Together. We can’t do everything, but we can do something. © Grand Valley State University � https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/4ec061812bf32614060e0e536e0dc425.mp3 f80480ef2361f13cb33bfe6c91a22fc5 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Richard A. Rhem Collection Description An account of the resource Text and sound recordings of the sermons, prayers, services, and articles of Richard Rhem, pastor emeritus of Christ Community Church in Spring Lake, Michigan, where he served for 37 years. Starting in the mid 1980's, Rhem began to question some of the traditional Christian dogma that he had been espousing from the pulpit. That questioning was a first step in a long and interesting spiritual journey, one that he openly shared with his congregation. His journey is important, in part because it is reflective of the questioning, the yearnings, and the gradual revision of beliefs that many persons in this part of the century have experienced and continue to experience. It is important also because of the affirming and inclusive way his questioning was done and his thinking evolved. His sermons and other written and spoken materials together document the steps in his journey as it took a turn in 1985, yet continued to revolve around the framework and liturgies of the Christian calendar. Subject The topic of the resource Clergy--Michigan Reformed Church in America Christ Community Church (Spring Lake, Mich.) Religion Interfaith worship Sermons Sound Recordings Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Rhem, Richard A. Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/514">Richard A. Rhem papers (KII-01)</a> Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives. Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Kaufman Interfaith Institute Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Language A language of the resource English Type The nature or genre of the resource Sound Text Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context KII-01 Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant 1981-2014 Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource audio/mp3 text/pdf Sound A resource primarily intended to be heard. Examples include a music playback file format, an audio compact disc, and recorded speech or sounds. Event Pentecost VI Scripture Text Isaiah 58: 6, Acts 1:4-8 Location The location of the interview Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context KII-01_RA-0-19930711 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1993-07-11 Title A name given to the resource Global Mission In a New Key Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Richard A. Rhem Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Subject The topic of the resource Clergy--Michigan Reformed Church in America Christ Community Church (Spring Lake, Mich.) Sermons Relation A related resource Richard A. Rhem - An Archive of Sermons, Prayers, Talks and Stories: http://richardrhem.org/ Language A language of the resource eng Type The nature or genre of the resource Sound Text Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource audio/mp3 application/pdf Description An account of the resource A sermon given by Richard A. Rhem (Dick) on July 11, 1993 entitled "Global Mission In a New Key", on the occasion of Pentecost VI, at Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI. Scripture references: Isaiah 58: 6, Acts 1:4-8. Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Lemmen Library and Archives Divine Intention Global Community Inclusive Interdependence Shalom https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/646dd9182bc1493d439250ad2db9b4ad.pdf 007c57d2e02729a80c96d321d55514c1 PDF Text Text The Promise and Peril of a New Age Aborning Text: Isaiah 65:23, 25; Romans 11:32, 36 Richard A. Rhem Christ Community Church Spring Lake, Michigan Pentecost V, July 4, 1993 Transcription of the spoken sermon “They shall not labor in vain, or bear children for calamity.” Isaiah 65:23 “They shall not hurt or destroy in all my holy mansion,” says the Lord. Isaiah 65:25 “… that he may have mercy upon all.” Romans 11:32 “For from God and through God and to God are all things. To God be glory for ever.” Romans 11:36 This is a wonderful and exciting day in which to be alive in our fast-moving world. Since this Lord's Day is also the anniversary of this nation and our Declaration of Independence, I want to reflect just a little bit about the world in which we live and the movements of history of which we are a part, the tides of history that move back and forth. Sometimes in the midst of our own human experience we get so overwhelmed with the immediate and the present circumstance we fail to get that broader picture. At the beginning of this century, after World War I, the great English poet Yeats wrote, “Things fall apart, the center cannot hold, the best have no conviction, and the worst are full of passionate intensity.” Although that was written decades ago, it could be written as well today from some perspectives. The poets often see more deeply and see farther than most of us. But it is an interesting and fascinating time in which to be alive for, in the broader picture, we can see that we stand at the end of a long historical development. This nation was born at the dawn of the modern period. The periodization of history is somewhat arbitrary, I suppose, but most scholars would agree that the 18th century was the dawn—it had some beginnings before that during the Age of the Enlightenment—and in this 18th century, The Age of Reason. That whole period of the ascendancy of the human was the context in which this nation was born. The human spirit began to come to flower in the fifteenth century, and in the Italian Renaissance there was a great flowering of art, of sculpture, and of © Grand Valley State University   �Promise and Peril of a New Age Aborning Richard A. Rhem Page 2   architecture. It was like after that long period of medievalism when the Church was so dominant and so oppressive, when there was a linkage between throne and altar. And finally, in the fifteenth century there was this breaking out, this blossoming of the human spirit. I think perhaps the sixteenth century of which we are the children—children of the Reformation and the counter-reformation– the sixteenth century was perhaps a detour. Maybe for a time the authoritarian structures of society once again asserted themselves. But inevitably the human person was going to break out. Our nation was born in that context of history when all forms of authoritarianism were overthrown. There was the assertion of the human spirit. There was the conviction that there was dignity in every human person and that freedom and liberty were the God-given and God-intended virtues with which the human being and society was to live. So our nation was born at a point of newness. That's really the first thing that I want to say to you this morning: that in the midst of history there is development. There is newness. Sometimes we get so depressed by the present. It seems as though things don't go anywhere and we get all enmeshed, and in a situation of no movement, of gridlock. We throw up our hands and we wonder if there's any hope, and if anyone can make any difference, if anyone can change things, if anybody can get things moving again. What I want to say to you is “Yes. Yes. Yes, in the long run there is movement. There is development.” This nation was born at a point of newness. There was a new understanding of human government. There was a new understanding of the human person. There was an appreciation for the necessity of liberty and freedom in which the human individual could develop potential, God-given purpose. There was recognition that the finest form of human government was the government that governed least, that was a “government of the people, by the people, and for the people” in that definition that Lincoln gave to this form of government 100 years later in the crisis of the Civil War. Lincoln really redefined the revolution when he said that this nation was “dedicated to the proposition that all people are created equal,” and that the test of the Civil War was a test of whether of not this experiment indeed could come to fruition and realization of that high ideal of which it was initiated in the first place. There is newness. We were born in the conception of things and in the understanding of reality and the understanding of history, and understanding of the human person that recognized the necessity of freedom, liberty, and democracy for the full flowering of the human person. For two hundred years plus we have been blessed. We have lived in this grand tradition and we have flourished and prospered as no other people. We come into this 20th century. It has been a tumultuous century. Yeats did not overstate the case early on in the century when he said, “Things fall apart, the center cannot hold.” There was WWI, WWII, and the Cold War when we were locked in ideological conflict over © Grand Valley State University �Promise and Peril of a New Age Aborning Richard A. Rhem Page 3   all those decades, using all of our resources for armament, escalating the arms race, bringing ourselves to the brink of disaster. Then 1989, that amazing year. The columnist, George Will, says that there has not been such a year since the 16th century; in fact, he says there has never been such a fascinating, interesting, potentially devastating consequential year in all of history as the year 1989, when more people and more societies were thrust into the vortex of change than at any time in previous history, even more than in the tumultuous 16th century. The images of our present world tumble through our minds. The Leipzig prayer meetings, the candle light in the streets, hundreds, thousands of people praying. The Berlin Wall falling. People dancing, singing, hugging each other, celebrating. The removal of that oppressive Iron Curtain, allowing them to breathe, to be, to be free. And, with the disintegrating of that Iron Curtain and that panoply of oppression, in the midst of our euphoria, we find the sparking of ancient feuds and ethnic cleansing. Our television screens are filled with old women in babushkas weeping over the bodies of wounded or dead soldiers: sons or grandsons. People destroying each other. Our world with all of its promise, yet so filled with peril. The fundamentalisms of the world, Judaism, Islam, Christian, the reactionary fearful tides that would turn the clock back, that would tear the world apart. Images of terrorism. The World Trade Center smoldering in the aftermath of the bomb. Time Magazine a week ago addressed the whole question of terrorism. Arrests in our major cities. Fear. A world that has such technology that small bands of committed people can hold the world hostage. Our today, so full of promise, so full of peril. Somalia children starving. South Africa, less than a year away from a popular vote. Latin America. Our cities. In 1989 the walls fell. We sang, we danced. And in the face of that promise we experience all of the peril. But there is newness. We were born in newness, during a major shift in the understanding of the human person and the nature of human government. In 1989 a State House Planner named Fukuyama wrote an essay entitled, “The End of History,” in which he said that western liberal democracy has been proven to be the only reasonable, rational government, and it will prevail. It has prevailed. Well, his essay stimulated counter essays, and there were those who said he was premature and he was far too optimistic. But it was his point that what we realized in 1989 was already signaled in 1806 when Napoleon's troops moved into the German city of Vienna and overcame the czars, the Prussian leader’s forces bringing to fruition the French Revolution slogan of liberty and equality and fraternity. The French Revolution, the American Revolution, all of that simmering and in ferment for a couple of centuries, finally eventuates to where one can look at it and say, “The end of history: This is the way it will be.” Well, whether you agree with that or not, we are in a period full of ferment, full of promise, and full of peril which is always the case in the human situation. Let me suggest that not only is there newness in human history, but I believe that we are © Grand Valley State University �Promise and Peril of a New Age Aborning Richard A. Rhem Page 4   on the threshold of a new age that holds tremendous promise for those who are not fainthearted. That newness must now not only be our national heritage, but it must be shared with a global community. It is not simply because I would have you be Christian or altruistic, if I appeal to you simply out of your own self-interest, out of our national self-interest. Then I would say that it is time now on this anniversary of our Declaration of Independence that we make a Declaration of Interdependence with the whole global community. Do you realize that the peoples of this entire globe are more closely knit today than the peoples of the thirteen colonies on the eastern seaboard in 1776? This is a smaller world. This is a global village and it is incumbent upon us to commit ourselves to the whole world and the whole human family. We cannot live in narrowly nationalistic purposes, looking out only for America, Number One. If we were no more than selfish, it is incumbent upon us today to have a world vision. But of course for us, the people of God, there is no choice, for we are a people of hope who are fired by a vision, who are shaped by a dream. It is a marvelous picture of the poet-prophet in Isaiah 65 of a new creation, a new heaven and a new earth, aligned with the purposes of the one eternal God, the creator of all. This God says, “Behold I create a new heaven and a new earth. I create Jerusalem anew, a joy. I will restore my people and I will bring my people into a period of peace and justice, such as they have never known. A kind of society where there will not be oppression, where there will not be exploitation, where a person can build a house and live in it, plant a garden and eat the fruit thereof, a society where children will not be raised to calamity, where people would live a long life, where they would call and the Lord would hear, where the wolf and the lamb would lie down together and the lion would eat straw like an ox. Where they would not hurt or destroy in all God's holy mountain. That's the biblical vision. There are those who say, “You have to be realistic. You have to be pragmatic. This is the real world. That's a dreamer. That's a poet.” I want to say, that dream, that vision is the only real possibility for a world to be renewed, characterized by justice and peace, and the integrity of creation. It is not in the assertion of power. It is not in the measurements of dominance. It is not in being Number One. It is in seeking justice, being committed to peace, and taking care of the environment that holds the only possibility for the human family. I believe that we may be on the threshold of a new age of which the present chaos is to be the prelude, the disorientation before the new configuration. You can look at it all and wish you could turn the clock back, you can look at it all and long for some golden age behind you, but I'll tell you, you can't go home. There is movement in history. There are hinge-points. This nation was born in newness and this nation stands today urgently in need of joining arms and hands with the peoples of the world in order to find Shalom, which is the purpose and the intention of God. Paul struggled with it. He couldn't figure out why his own © Grand Valley State University �Promise and Peril of a New Age Aborning Richard A. Rhem Page 5   people were not seeing in Jesus the Way. He tried to put it together and figure it out - what in the world was going on. I don't think he was very successful, but he knew that God had an intention for the world that included not only his people, but also the nations. He knew that finally it was the covenant of grace with Abraham that this specially called people would be the blessing of God to all nations. Paul knew that just as all were disobedient, so God intended mercy for all. Therefore, the Christian who lives in the biblical vision is a dreamer. The biblical Christian is one who will leave no stone unturned to bring people together. Hans Küng said, “There will be no peace among the nations until there is peace among the religions. And there will be no peace among the religions until we can find peace among the churches.” So we sit and diddle and twiddle our thumbs while the world stands more in danger by religious power than any other power in the world. And we recognize that we cannot speak about the political and the economic, and then over here the spiritual. It is all one world. It is one God concerned about the totality of things, about a world in which there is not political oppression, a world in which there is not economic exploitation, and a world in which there is not adversarial relationships among those who are finally the children of one God. The choice is always before us. We can dig in our heels, set our jaw, clench our teeth and try to resurrect yesterday. Or we can be people of the dream. People of the vision casting themselves in with a spirit that would move toward newness, for it is possible also here in the pulse of this new day as the poet Maya Angelou said, “You may have the grace to look up and out and into your sister's eyes and into your brother's face, to your country and say simply, very simply, with hope, ‘Good morning. Good morning.’” © Grand Valley State University � https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/c716771bed7acae1f4cf2b42d7464b70.mp3 345c62470689d5141da840b1a82b0960 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Richard A. Rhem Collection Description An account of the resource Text and sound recordings of the sermons, prayers, services, and articles of Richard Rhem, pastor emeritus of Christ Community Church in Spring Lake, Michigan, where he served for 37 years. Starting in the mid 1980's, Rhem began to question some of the traditional Christian dogma that he had been espousing from the pulpit. That questioning was a first step in a long and interesting spiritual journey, one that he openly shared with his congregation. His journey is important, in part because it is reflective of the questioning, the yearnings, and the gradual revision of beliefs that many persons in this part of the century have experienced and continue to experience. It is important also because of the affirming and inclusive way his questioning was done and his thinking evolved. His sermons and other written and spoken materials together document the steps in his journey as it took a turn in 1985, yet continued to revolve around the framework and liturgies of the Christian calendar. Subject The topic of the resource Clergy--Michigan Reformed Church in America Christ Community Church (Spring Lake, Mich.) Religion Interfaith worship Sermons Sound Recordings Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Rhem, Richard A. Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/514">Richard A. Rhem papers (KII-01)</a> Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives. Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Kaufman Interfaith Institute Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Language A language of the resource English Type The nature or genre of the resource Sound Text Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context KII-01 Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant 1981-2014 Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource audio/mp3 text/pdf Sound A resource primarily intended to be heard. Examples include a music playback file format, an audio compact disc, and recorded speech or sounds. Event Pentecost V Scripture Text Isaiah 65: 23, 25, Romans 11: 32, 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-0-19930704 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1993-07-04 Title A name given to the resource The Promise and Peril of a New Age Aborning Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Richard A. Rhem Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Subject The topic of the resource Clergy--Michigan Reformed Church in America Christ Community Church (Spring Lake, Mich.) Sermons Relation A related resource Richard A. Rhem - An Archive of Sermons, Prayers, Talks and Stories: http://richardrhem.org/ Language A language of the resource eng Type The nature or genre of the resource Sound Text Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource audio/mp3 application/pdf Description An account of the resource A sermon given by Richard A. Rhem (Dick) on July 4, 1993 entitled "The Promise and Peril of a New Age Aborning", on the occasion of Pentecost V, at Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI. Scripture references: Isaiah 65: 23, 25, Romans 11: 32, 36. Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Lemmen Library and Archives Freedom Global Community Interdependence Shalom https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/2b64e91eafef94e8463a4f10944444ce.pdf bf110f6281861fdeea3180724759a9ef PDF Text Text World Convulsion and the Exciting Vision of Faith Independence Day Weekend Text: Psalm 33: 10-11; Revelation 15:3 Richard A. Rhem Christ Community Church Spring Lake, Michigan July 5, 1981 Transcription of the spoken sermon I have not lived on Lake Michigan long enough to grew accustomed to sunsets and I hope I never do. No matter how urgent the task at hand, Nancy and I stop and watch the setting of the sun every evening that we are home. It is a very special time - a time to savor the beauty and wonder of the created order; a time to stand in awe of the beauty of our Father's world. But in the year we have been there, I have learned that there are evenings when one can predict a beautiful sunset - when the day has been clear and there is no sign of a cloud in the western sky and the sun sinks toward the horizon with all of its golden radiance streaming forth without a filtering cloud. Such a sight is beautiful - the end of a perfect day. However, there is another kind of evening completely unpredictable as it moves toward the moment of sunset. Perhaps a storm has just passed through or a front is gathering in the West. Huge cloud formations in constantly changing configurations play across the sky with the sun breaking through a crevice here, gilding a foreboding looking cloud there. The interplay of sun and clouds is dramatic, fascinating. Sometimes in those few moments as the sun slips silently into the sea, a cloud covers it all and there is no sunset to be seen. But at other times the clouds break, and across the water pours a path of melted gold and all the lowering clouds are touched by the varying hues such that no artist could do them justice. That is a sunset! This is a parable of world history and, in microcosm, a parable of our personal lives, as well. My theme on this Independence Day weekend is that the Eternal God, the Sovereign of the Nations, works His purposes out in the midst of world convulsion, and His movement in History can be detected by the eye of faith. If we live by the vision of faith we can see the effecting of God's purposes in world convulsion. The dictionary defines the word "convulsion" as, "the action of wrenching or condition of being wrenched... violent social, political or physical disturbance...to shake violently, to agitate or disturb," and convulsion is a fit word to describe our © Grand Valley State University   �World Convulsion and the Exciting Vision of Faith Richard A. Rhem Page 2   world. It is a world in ferment -so much more than 205 years ago when those shots were fired that were heard 'round the world. As a matter of fact, those shots were not heard 'round the world. Much rather, what was happening was a rebellion in a British colony, the implication of which could hardly be foreseen at that time. The world went on its plodding way then, but at that time one could hardly speak of world convulsion. What happened then has had far reaching consequences. We have had now 205 years of national existence - an experiment in freedom - a nation shaped and formed deliberately to create the greatest possible freedom for its people. That freedom has brought unprecedented blessing and prosperity and we cannot treasure it too highly nor guard it too carefully. That freedom is a precious gift which is constantly in peril from within and from without. After 205 years we who enjoy it are still a small minority of people, for the vast multitude of humankind live under totalitarian regimes, live regimented lives, live in grinding poverty, despair and hopelessness. What is the proper celebration of our national independence? Where have we come in these two centuries? Where do we stand today and what ought to be the posture of the Church over against our world in ferment? Are we threatened by world convulsion? Should we use our mighty power in the world to repress the cry for human freedom or ought we to be working to break the stalemate of terror that characterizes our world today? God works His purposes out in history. He, the Sovereign of History, effects His purposes in the midst of world convulsion and world convulsion is pregnant with new possibilities for the realization of God's intention that all people and nations should live a fully human existence in peace and well-being. It is not always a simple matter to detect the invisible hand of God in the midst of the uproar and dust of history's unrest, but biblical faith has always been characterized by a confidence that God makes the wrath of men to praise him and that out of the chaos created by the pride of nations and the lust for power and glory, God affects His purposes of love. And so, this morning, on this Independence Day weekend, I want us to think about world convulsion as the opportunity for the working out of the Divine Purpose and understand that world convulsion in terms of the exciting perspective of our faith in the God of History. The commitment that was made and the risk that was involved two hundred years ago, which has proved to be so meaningful in the lives of us all, that commitment which has issued in this great nation with our experience of liberty and freedom, a nation deliberately designed to enhance human freedom – that commitment must be made again. And it needs to be made again not only for ourselves, but for all peoples. For it seems to me appropriate on this, our Independence Day weekend, that we make another declaration and a new declaration, this time not a declaration of independence, but of interdependence with all the people of the earth. For if there were no higher motivation driving us © Grand Valley State University �World Convulsion and the Exciting Vision of Faith Richard A. Rhem Page 3   on than self-interest, then we could say, in all honesty, in the self-interest of this nation and its people it is incumbent upon us to recognize that in this world which has grown so small - grapefruit size - it is impossible for us to pursue narrow, nationalistic purposes. Rather, we must become citizens of the world and embrace within our purview all people and nations. And to the extent that we are true to our own principles and honest with our own past, we must lend our power and our resources to every movement of human freedom, being sensitive to every cry for human liberation and the deliverance from bondage, wherever we find it. If we would be true to our past, we must be as committed to the freedom and liberty of all peoples as we have been to our own. I do not have a program, a one, two, three-step approach that you can go out of here with. Rather it is my intention to seek to raise your consciousness of the issue that is before us - the necessity of our nation to be committed to the freedom and the liberty of nations all over. Because, you see, we have moved to the other side of the issue. We are now in the position of the crown of England 200 years ago. We now are in the preeminent position. It is now in our selfinterest, if we are shortsighted, to maintain the status quo. We live in a world that is teetering on the brink of disaster with a balance of terror between the East and the West. We live in a world that is on the threshold of blowing itself up and destroying itself, and we are the persons of power. We are the persons of resource. We now pull the strings. We, now, have the ability to impact the world, either for peace or for destruction, and if we hear the word of God, then we will not be fearful of world convulsion, but we will see it as the opportunity to nudge and move the world toward a more humane society worldwide. The shot that was heard ‘round the world 200 years ago wasn't really heard around the world. This was a backwoods part of the world - who ever heard of America, and who knew what was here and what possibilities there might be? I am sure that Europe looked down its nose at this backwoods operation. The American Revolution was really just a pimple on the surface at the time - who would know what would issue from those apparently parochial events? But such is not the case today because events of far less significance impact us. Through the instant news coverage of the mass media incidents half a world away send their reverberating shocks around the globe. We are bound together in a bundle of life today like never before, and it is high time that we in the United States of America and in the Christian Church in America recognize our worldwide responsibility and recognize that it is not enough to pursue our own national interests and our national purposes. Even intelligent self-interest demands that we take the world into our view. The American Revolution eventuated in this great nation, and we can say that the commitment to liberty and freedom at that time has been vindicated. The experiment of that time and these past two centuries has not been an accident of history, for our founding fathers recognized that liberty and human dignity must be grounded in the Eternal God and our founding documents witness to that fact. © Grand Valley State University �World Convulsion and the Exciting Vision of Faith Richard A. Rhem Page 4   But if we would be true to that heritage, then we must recognize that that which we will for ourselves we must will for all peoples. And it is incumbent upon us to recognize our world responsibility, and to declare our interdependence. That isn't popular. As a matter of fact, it goes against the grain. It is much easier to exploit the fears of people and it is much easier to beat the drums and whip up a nationalistic feeling and a fervent patriotism. Throughout the history of mankind there have been those who have set up straw men and scapegoats and we see it happening on our evening news in Iran today where the Islamic revolutionary fires need to be fed constantly by hatred of America, justified or unjustified. History has always been filled with demagogues who would manipulate people for their own purpose and we see a narrow nationalism espoused by the very vocal religious Right in our day. But it is up to you and to me who are Christians as well as Americans to recognize that history is His Story, and that He embraces all people and has good will and purposes of love for all of humankind. Therefore, it is not enough for us to make a kneejerk, nationalistic and patriotic reaction to events in the world, but rather to take a step back and recognize our responsibility to be the instruments of God for the furthering of peace and the enhancement of the human condition everywhere, on both sides of the curtain, in the East and the West, in the North and the South, in the First World and the Second World, the Third and the Fourth, in developed nations and in developing nations - to recognize in our small world, that has shrunk to such miniscule size, that whatever happens anywhere in this world will impact our life and our existence as well. Whenever one gets into this area, one is in the area not of black and white, but of many shades of gray. The international situation is so highly complex that there is really only one thing we know for sure, and that is that those who have easy, simple solutions do not understand. Beware of the simplistic solution to problems whose complexity we can hardly probe. However, we cannot be silent until we have all the facts in. And so, in the midst of our struggle to determine the posture of America in this world of ours, in the 20th century, we recognize the inadequacy of our understanding and the complexity of the problem. Yet, act we must. For example, let us take the instance of El Salvador, which I have mentioned before here. How ought we to react as a nation? Bishop Romero was murdered there a little over a year ago. He was the Archbishop of San Salvador and in his high, ecclesiastical office he had identified with the situation of the poor. In identifying with the case of the poor, there are those who would write him off by simply saying he fomented the unrest among the peasants. Well, I imagine that he did that. As a Christian who knows that God will not have people live in grinding poverty and futility, standing with the poor in a country that has been characterized by repression and oppression, what is a Christian leader to do? He wrote to President Carter back in 1980 and in that letter he said, © Grand Valley State University �World Convulsion and the Exciting Vision of Faith Richard A. Rhem Page 5   It disturbs me deeply that the U.S. government is leaning toward an arms race in sending military equipment and advisors to "train three Salvadorian battalions in logistics, communications, and intelligence." In the event that this news is accurate, your government, instead of favoring greater peace and justice in El Salvador, will undoubtedly aggravate the repression and injustice against the organized people who have been struggling because of their fundamental respect for human rights. (…from an address by Prof. Jose Jorge Siman, Former President, Commission of Justice and Peace of the Archdiocese, Catholic Church of El Salvador, given from the pulpit of Riverside Church, New York City, on Peace Sabbath, April 26, 1981.) Nonetheless, our government did not heed the Archbishop. We did send aid and military advisors. And this present administration has done the same. Choosing El Salvador in their early days in office as the point at which they would draw the line, they blew it all out of proportion, and then tried to dampen it down again. Obviously, that little nation was to be a testing ground - those poor people, those suffering peasants, the playground of the major ideologies of the day. In April, on Peace Sabbath, Bill Coffin had in his Riverside pulpit a professor from El Salvador who spoke about the situation and pleaded with American Christians to send human aid, not weapons. And following his comments, Coffin said, ... If it is true that Communism has never come to a nation that took care of its poor, its aged, its youth, its sick, and its handicapped, then why can't we say to the Junta in San Salvador, "We'll help you take care of your poor, your aged, your youth, your sick, and your handicapped, but we will not help you find a military solution to what is not a military problem?" In Nicaragua, where Catholic priests are in the ruling cabinet, where Jesuits manage the nationwide literacy campaign and are nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize by more than one hundred members of the British Parliament, why shouldn't we help the Sandinistas in the same way we helped Somoza for forty years without blinking an eyelash?... In Cuba, why shouldn't we lift the blockade of twenty years, and instead of sending Marines to Guantanamo Bay, let businessmen wade ashore in Havana? That's what Castro wants, that's the way to counteract Soviet influence, and that's the way to practice peace. The cure is caring, not killing; serving people, not power. Caring for others is the practice of peace.... Peace does not come through strength; strength comes through peace. The Psalmist in the lesson we read this morning said the Lord brings the plans of nations to nothing. He frustrates the counsels of the peoples. But the Lord's own © Grand Valley State University �World Convulsion and the Exciting Vision of Faith Richard A. Rhem Page 6   plans stand forever. And then the Psalmist went on to say what this world has never learned - and our nation does not understand, as well. A king is not saved by his great army; a warrior is not delivered by his great strength. The war horse is a vain hope for victory, and by its great might it cannot save. Psalm 33: 16, 17 (RSV) The world teeters on the brink of disaster, and what have we to say? I don't like radicals. I get sick and tired of radicals. I wish they would go away. I get tired of the media putting them before us all the time. One such radical is Daniel Berrigan, the Catholic priest who has been in and out of jail the last decade and a half. Most recently he and a few others went into the G.E. plant in King of Prussia, Pennsylvania, which produces equipment for nuclear missiles. They destroyed what they could before they were arrested. They were just tried and convicted. In an interview, Daniel Berrigan had some things to say which, in spite of the fact that I don't like radicals, spoke to me. He said... The Jesuit order accepted me as a member. The Catholic Church ordained me as a priest. I took all that with great seriousness. I still do, with all my heart. And then Vietnam came along, and then the nukes came along. And I had to continue to ask myself at prayer, with my friends, with my family, with all kinds of people, with my own soul, "Do you have anything to say today?" I mean, beyond a lot of prattling religious talk. Do you have anything to say about life today, about the lives of people today? Do you have a word, a word of hope to offer, a Christian word? That's a very important question for anyone who takes being a priest, being a Christian, being a human being seriously, "Do you have anything to offer human life today?" Sojourners, June 1981, p. 23. Well, do you have anything to say today? Do I have anything to say today? The last issue of TIME magazine has a two-page essay on “The Bomb.” It says, in effect, since Hiroshima in 1945 the world has refused to look at the bomb. We have refused to look at the seriousness of the bomb. And we continue with nuclear proliferation and arming ourselves to the teeth with more warheads than would be necessary to blow up the entire globe, and still the song goes on. Israel makes a preemptive strike on the reactor in Iraq and justifies its action as necessary for its own safety and the safety of the world. In the wake of that, an Arab spokesman said, "We need the bomb!" In a world where six countries have the bomb, probably two more, and by the end of the 80's the possibility of 40 nations having the bomb, what has the Church to say? TIME magazine deals with it; I suppose we ought to, too. The war horse is a vain hope for victory… If the Psalmist were writing today he might say an antiballistic missile, or a nuclear submarine is a vain hope. © Grand Valley State University �World Convulsion and the Exciting Vision of Faith Richard A. Rhem Page 7   A king is not saved by his great army. … The Lord brings the counsel of the nations to naught; he frustrates the plans of the peoples. The counsel of the Lord stands for ever, the thoughts of his heart to all generations. Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord, the people whom he has chosen as his heritage! What do we do? Well, we don't make knee jerk reactions to every announcement from the White House or the State Department that would rile up our patriotic blood and make us feel like good guys over against the bad guys. We realize that we are in this bundle of life, bound up with all nations and people, and it is not a case of black and white or good and evil, of one side or the other. It is high time that we are true to the principles on which we were founded and that we seek to aid and abet every movement for human freedom and liberation anywhere in the world; that we pray for peace and begin to take steps and action, concrete action, that will further peace; that we come face to face with the horrible reality, the insanity of a world that lives under the shadow of nuclear armaments and that we recognize that our welfare rests with the welfare of the whole human family. A Declaration of Independence 200 years ago – in the providence of God, a magnificent move toward the enhancement of the human condition. 1981, high time for a Declaration of Interdependence for a world that would be made safe for children and for the generations yet unborn. Trust in arms? “The war horse is a vain hope for victory.” When will we learn it? As I was thinking about all these things this morning, I did what I always do on Sunday mornings, in the stillness, when the family is trying to sleep. I put on Bach's Mass in B Minor - a powerful piece. It begins with the Kyrie, "Lord, have mercy upon us. Christ, have mercy upon us. Lord, have mercy upon us." And then it moves into that great, strong, "Glory to God in the Highest and on earth peace among men," then it moves on through the affirmation of faith, the Nicene Creed, and eventuates in the great chorus of Alleluia and praise with the closing cry, "Grant us Thy peace." And as I heard that stirring music, the music itself communicating as much as the words, and I thought about the world in convulsion, I thought to myself - the world in convulsion seems to be so real, so close, so tangible, and the Glory to God in the Highest and Peace on Earth among men of good will seems to be so remote, and yet the music, the music convinced me that that is the Ultimate Truth, and in a world in convulsion we will not despair or give up in hopelessness, paralyzed by fear because we believe that, in the midst of world convulsion, God is working His purposes out. The exciting vision of faith keeps us going and we know that history is not an accident going to happen, but rather throughout all of its chaos is woven that meaningful thread of the purposes of God that will culminate with that great cry, "The Lord God Omnipotent reigns!" But He does not work in a vacuum, rather through His people who, like those 200 years ago, are willing to die for a heavenly cause and sacrifice life itself if need be that there might be peace on earth. Amen. © Grand Valley State University �World Convulsion and the Exciting Vision of Faith Richard A. Rhem © Grand Valley State University Page 8   � 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. Scripture Text Psalm 33:1-5, 10-22, Revelation 15:1-4 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-0-19810705 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1981-07-05 Title A name given to the resource World Convulsion and the Exciting Vision of Faith 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 Text Description An account of the resource A sermon given by Richard A. Rhem (Dick) on July 5, 1981 entitled "World Convulsion and the Exciting Vision of Faith", at Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI. Scripture references: Psalm 33:1-5, 10-22, Revelation 15:1-4. Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource application/pdf Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Lemmen Library and Archives Divine Intention Faith Freedom Global Community Interdependence Liberation Peace