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This Quiet Dust
A Littlefair Legacy, 3
Ecclesiastes 3; II Corinthians 4:16-5:5
Richard A. Rhem
Christ Community Church
Spring Lake, Michigan
Ash Wednesday, February 25, 2004
Transcription of the spoken sermon
I don't know how many years ago it was that I first received the ashes on my
forehead with those somber words, "Dust thou art, to dust thou shalt return," a
good number of years ago now, but it happened here. It had never been a part of
my tradition growing up in the Reformed Church, which is liturgically challenged.
I would rather have thought about it as some hocus-pocos Catholic sacramental
act with which I would have no truck, being a good evangelical and reformed
minister. Then, I experienced it one day, experienced the momentous impact of
that honest moment, "Dust thou art, to dust thou shalt return," a moment of
honesty in a world of superficiality.
Perhaps it is that I have moved into the latter decades of my own life that I
appreciate it so much. I have come to value it and to treasure it as a pastoral
moment, as well, a moment of absolute honesty as I look into your eyes, place the
ashes on your head and say, "Dust thou art and to dust thou shalt return." We
acknowledge the reality of our humanity and our mortality. It is a beautiful
moment; this service is an oasis, a sanctuary. It is a quiet place away from a world
that is so bombastic with media blitzes, its constant barrage of commercials, its
excessive celebrations of Super Bowls and All-Star extravaganzas, of Emmys and
Golden Globes, Oscars, and all of the superficiality of those so-called celebrations
that mark our society. How different is a moment like this.
I don't know whether Dr. Littlefair would enjoy this service or not. He never
attended an Ash Wednesday service. And he had pretty much done away with the
sacramental and the ritualistic in the worshiping community at Fountain Street.
And yet, he loved to sit out there and even on the high holy days when we got out
all of the pageantry and all of the symbolism of the tradition, I know how much
he enjoyed that. We used to speak about the fact that he was fascinated that we
could have translated the understanding of the faith while maintaining those
accouterments that have been a part of the tradition down through the centuries.
So, I don't know whether he would like this service or not, but I do think he
would affirm the honesty and the reality of the moment of our facing each other
in the face of our mutual mortality.
© Grand Valley State University
�This Quiet Dust
Richard A. Rhem
Page 2
In preparation for the memorial service while I was in Florida, there were those
who very kindly sent me some pieces that were important to Duncan. Jo Earl, his
secretary, his friend and his caregiver of over fifty years, sent me some of his
favorite poems, and when I read "This Quiet Dust," which is on the cover of your
liturgy, I knew that I would be speaking about that this evening, having that be
the center of our reflection, although at that time I had not yet thought in terms
of a series of messages on A Littlefair Legacy. But, I knew tonight we'd be
centered around "This Quiet Dust." It was Duncan's favorite poem, because it
expressed so eloquently his faith and his understanding.
Before I knew Duncan, I knew of him only by reputation, which of course in
Western Michigan was not good. An enemy of the faith, to be sure, one who
denied and betrayed the great Christian tradition. I suppose that non-Fountain
Street folks got exposed to Duncan most often at funerals where there was a kind
of obligatory attendance, therefore the necessity of being submitted to whatever it
was that came forth from that pulpit, that infamous pulpit. I do remember, on
occasion, people who attended funerals at Fountain Street who would come away
saying, "That was awful. There was no comfort, there was no word of hope." I
didn't know any better until I came to know Duncan and to know him intimately
and to come to understand the nature of his religious faith and experience and
expression, and then, of course, I came to understand quite a different picture
than that which had been rumored about.
I got called this afternoon from an old and very dear friend of mine, John Richard
DeWitt. We were classmates together in college and seminary, and he called me
from South Carolina where he is now serving as a pastor. He had been in Grand
Rapids for a few years at the Seventh Reformed Church. The irony was that Dick
and I were just the best of friends, loving each other, and in constant contact and
communion over all these many years. He was anchoring the most conservative
Reformed Church in the nation and I was anchoring the most liberal. When he
came to Grand Rapids, Duncan's dear old friend Lester deKoster joined the
Seventh Reformed Church which created quite a stir because he is a person of no
mean estate in the Christian Reformed Church. Then he brought Duncan to the
Seventh Reformed Church to hear Dick preach because Dick is one of the great
preachers in the nation. Duncan loved to hear him preach. The people of Seventh
Reformed Church were so thrilled that there was Duncan Littlefair in worship
and they began to pray for his soul. Fortunately, he didn't get "saved." But, Lester
and Duncan, who had lunch together over all those many years, invited my friend
Dick to the table at Duba's, and then Dick invited me and that was the original
quartet in the corner of Duba's bar. Dick, a conservative, Reformed, erudite
scholar and a gentleman. Lester, a dear, crotchety Calvinist of unbending will.
Duncan, off the charts. And when I first came to the table, he said, "Now, tell me
who you are," and I said, "Well, I was where Dick still is." So this was the table.
I'm telling you this simply because today, unannounced, Dick called from
Carolina and, of course, we talked about Duncan. I told him how I concluded the
memorial message saying that I wanted to share a secret with you that Duncan
© Grand Valley State University
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Richard A. Rhem
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was a man who lived in constant God-consciousness, that he was a man drunk
with God. My friend Dick said, "You're right."
Now, that's quite remarkable, isn't it, when you think about it? Quite amazing,
really. Two people raised in a very conservative tradition, one remaining there,
faithful to that tradition, one having traversed the whole spectrum to quite
another position. But, nonetheless, both of us bearing witness to the Godconsciousness of Duncan Littlefair.
If you were here on Sunday, you perhaps got at least a hint of the nature of that
God-consciousness as Duncan experienced it. It was a God-consciousness that
was experienced within the one reality of which we are a part. I understood a
liberal as one who recognized that the sciences were laying bare the mysteries of
the natural world, and the liberal religious scholar was one who finally gave up
trying to find knowledge of the world in the Bible, gave up this authoritative text
in terms of the knowledge of reality and nature, the universe, and instead listened
to what the scientist had to say about the nature of this reality and then sought to
find the way to live religiously within that reality.
That reality which was laid bare was a miracle, full of mystery, full of wonder. The
reality of which we are a part fills one with awe and no one lived with a greater
sense of the wonder and the awe, the miracle of life, than Duncan Littlefair. But,
as I said on Sunday, if you were a particular kind of liberal, a Chicago School
liberal, a modernist, then you didn't look for God in some other realm, you didn't
posit a dualism, a realm of nature and a realm of spirit, a realm of the natural and
a realm of the supernatural, but you experienced or looked for the Mystery, the
creative center of reality within the structures of nature itself. That was the core
and the key to the religious experience of Duncan Littlefair, that eloquent
spokesman of that Chicago School, that found the richness of life as the location
of the mystery of God, that creative center of things, that creative ground of
things, that unfolding miracle which we are all living together. It was that which
created wonder and awe and caused one to live with growing awareness and
appreciation, and consequently, with reverence and with gratitude.
When I read "This Quiet Dust," it was as if Duncan had written it himself.
Here in my curving hands I cup
This quiet dust; I lift it up,
Here is the mother of all thought;
Of this the shining heavens are wrought,
The laughing lips, the feet that rove,
The face, the body that you love;
Mere dust, no more, yet nothing less,
And this has suffered consciousness,
Passion and Terror, this again
Shall suffer passion, death and pain.
© Grand Valley State University
�This Quiet Dust
Richard A. Rhem
Page 4
For, as all flesh must die, so all,
Now dust, shall live. 'Tis natural;
Yet hardly do I understand –
Here in the hollow of my hand
A bit of God himself I keep,
Between two vigils fallen asleep.
I read that and I said, "Wow". Is that not a magnificent and profound
expression of a religious naturalism that understands the unitary nature of
reality? This cosmic process of which we are the unfolding part, the emerging
wonder, this 13.7 billion-year process in which that dust and matter, that material
has emerged into life and into conscious life, suffering consciousness, pain and
terror and death, this dust reflective, of course, of that creation story as the
Creator scoops a handful of the dust of the earth to create the creature, and
reflective, too, of that most profound insight of the Christian tradition, that
eternal word or intention of God becoming flesh. God becoming human. No one
has ever seen God, the one who dwells in love, dwells in God and God in that one.
This quiet dust with the potential of the divine in the human - Wow! That's
amazing.
The writer of Ecclesiastes was a thinker, a poet, a skeptic, sometimes almost a
cynic. It's really interesting that that Hebrew writing made the cut in the canon.
As I read, he was talking about the fact that animal breath and human breath are
the same, an insight way beyond his time of the unitary structure of reality. And
then raising the question, even his recognition of the animal nature of the human
and the continuity between the animal and the human, and then wondering what
happens to that breath or spirit, because in Hebrew it is the same word, Ruach.
What happens to that Ruach? Who knows, he says. Does the spirit of the human
go upward and the spirit of the mere animal go downward to the earth? He didn't
know.
The Christian tradition, of course, centered on the resurrection. Paul speaks
about something more. He talks about this earthly tabernacle being dissolved.
There again, "Dust thou art, to dust thou shalt return." But, of course, with his
encounter with that visionary experience he has of the risen Christ, he speaks of
being clothed upon. Well, he doesn't know what he's talking about, either. But,
he's wondering, and of course we wonder, don't we?
Duncan loved "This Quiet Dust" because it spoke so eloquently of the unitary
nature of reality that emanated in the miracle of life which was to be savored,
tasted, lived fully, celebrated to the miracle, wonder, glory and joy of life. Is that
enough? I think we who have been so conditioned by a very traditional Christian
understanding speak about something more and when we face death with one
another, the clichés trip off our tongues rather lightly, clichés about which I think
we don't often think deeply, and I'm not here this evening to tell you about your
© Grand Valley State University
�This Quiet Dust
Richard A. Rhem
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own hope of something more or confidence in something more, or to be honest
with you, perhaps your journey has been something like mine where I have come
to an awareness of the miracle of life and the living of that in all of its wonder,
more and more wondering myself, if this isn't enough, I really don't know. No one
knows. This quiet dust now between two vigils. "Dust thou art and to dust thou
shalt return," but will that dust return again to life and the miracle of it all? You
see, we wonder about things beyond our knowledge very naturally.
Duncan perhaps could have lived a while yet, but he bargained with his doctor to
let him go home, and his daughter told me when I called from Florida that when
they took him out of the ambulance on the gurney and brought him into his
home, he had the most serene smile on his face. He was home.
But, he was home because he was always home. Dear God, what a gift, his life,
this life.
A year ago, perhaps on All Saints Day, my sermon subject was "The Secret of
Dying Well Is Living Well." Duncan lived so well. He died so well, and when I see
that, then simply for me, it is enough.
References:
John Hall Wheelock (1886-1978), “This Quiet Dust.”
© Grand Valley State University
�
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Title
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Richard A. Rhem Collection
Description
An account of the resource
Text and sound recordings of the sermons, prayers, services, and articles of Richard Rhem, pastor emeritus of Christ Community Church in Spring Lake, Michigan, where he served for 37 years. Starting in the mid 1980's, Rhem began to question some of the traditional Christian dogma that he had been espousing from the pulpit. That questioning was a first step in a long and interesting spiritual journey, one that he openly shared with his congregation. His journey is important, in part because it is reflective of the questioning, the yearnings, and the gradual revision of beliefs that many persons in this part of the century have experienced and continue to experience. It is important also because of the affirming and inclusive way his questioning was done and his thinking evolved. His sermons and other written and spoken materials together document the steps in his journey as it took a turn in 1985, yet continued to revolve around the framework and liturgies of the Christian calendar.
Subject
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Clergy--Michigan
Reformed Church in America
Christ Community Church (Spring Lake, Mich.)
Religion
Interfaith worship
Sermons
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Creator
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Rhem, Richard A.
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<a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/514">Richard A. Rhem papers (KII-01)</a>
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Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives.
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Kaufman Interfaith Institute
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English
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KII-01
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1981-2014
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Event
Ash Wednesday
Series
A Littlefair Legacy
Scripture Text
Ecclesiastes 3, II Corinthians 4:16-5:5
Location
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Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI
References
John Hall Wheelock (1886-1978), "This Quiet Dust."
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KII-01_RA-0-20040225
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2004-02-25
Title
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This Quiet Dust
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Richard A. Rhem
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Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives
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<a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a>
Subject
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Clergy--Michigan
Reformed Church in America
Christ Community Church (Spring Lake, Mich.)
Sermons
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Richard A. Rhem - An Archive of Sermons, Prayers, Talks and Stories: http://richardrhem.org/
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eng
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Sound
Text
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audio/mp3
application/pdf
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An account of the resource
A sermon given by Richard A. Rhem (Dick) on February 25, 2004 entitled "This Quiet Dust", as part of the series "A Littlefair Legacy", on the occasion of Ash Wednesday, at Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI. Scripture references: Ecclesiastes 3, II Corinthians 4:16-5:5.
Littlefair
miracle of life
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By What Authority?
A Littlefair Legacy, 2
Mark 11:15-19, and a reading from Duncan E. Littlefair
Richard A. Rhem
Christ Community Church
Spring Lake, Michigan
February 15, 2004
Transcription of the spoken sermon
In The Reading From the Present, there are two citations from sermons of
Duncan Littlefair in the 70s. I will read only the last couple of paragraphs. In the
first, he had advocated the use of the mind and the intellect and the intelligence
in dealing with the problems that face us as a society, and then in the bottom
couple of paragraphs, he said:
We stand at the dawn of a bright new era in life, the era of individuality
and freedom, a time in which each person will be his own authority. We
will be our own hero. We will find our own way.
We will not count on and be dependent upon established authority from
outside and above. We will have the authority within ourselves.
We will be God in active form expressing the eternal and the infinite
through ourselves. We stand at the dawn of such an era.
Amen means may it be. I would say Amen to that.
As I mentioned last week, I didn’t think of much else except Duncan and his
legacy, once in Florida I learned of his death and the request that I do his
memorial service, and while I was trying to think about what to preach here, I
finally just gave up and thought why not preach here what I really want to say to
you anyway and do it in a reflection and a remembrance of the things that I
learned from Duncan. So, this week and next week and then on Ash Wednesday
we will be reflecting together on some of those core pillars of Duncan’s own vision
and faith which have been of such great impact to me and to the broader
community. The central core of it all centers around this question of authority.
I’d never met anyone who lived with such a sense of inner authority as Duncan
Littlefair. I have never encountered anyone who lived with such a sense of selfconfidence, a confidence, an inward strength that simply was not dented or
moved in any way in any encounter that I ever had with him or any experience of
© Grand Valley State University
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Richard A. Rhem
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him in any situation. He was a very strong, self-confident person who lived out of
his own center and was his own authority.
There were those on occasion who would accuse him of arrogance and he didn’t
even defend himself against that. I’ve heard him say, “Well, if you call that
arrogance, call it arrogance.” But, it wasn’t arrogance, for if you check the
dictionary, arrogance has to do with an unwarranted claim to power or authority,
and that was not the case with Duncan. There was no unwarranted assertion.
What he was, what he believed, his vision, his understanding would be stated
straightforwardly, no fudging, no fuzziness, set out there for you to hear, to agree
or disagree, to acquiesce or to confront, and he reveled in all of it.
If you check the word authority, you find it is the same root as author which is to
create or to cause to grow. Authority in the dictionary has a very interesting dual
definition. On the one hand, I suppose most commonly, authority connotes to us
that power to act and to enforce obedience. The police have authority to arrest us
if we are exceeding the speeding law and so forth. That may be the most common
sense in which we speak of authority. But, also in the dictionary, I read that
authority can be the influence of an idea or a person that has gained esteem and
respect. So, on the one hand authority is the imposition of power over another.
On the other hand, authority is that which is given or ascribed to one who has
earned the esteem and the respect of the other.
Of course, it was the second case with Duncan. He repudiated, he would rail
against any claim of power to enforce. It was detestable to him, particularly in the
Church or the religious life, that there would be one who would impose his or her
views or positions on another, or on a community at large, who would have that
kind of power to enforce conformity to a creedal affirmation or ecclesiastical
discipline. But, he could not help being seen as an authority even against his
protest simply because of the remarkable person he was whose leadership was an
intrinsic quality of his being and widely recognized. The authority ascribed to him
was the consequence of the respect and esteem with which he was held, to say
nothing of the brilliance of his mind and his thinking. It was the incarnation of
that vision and idea that caused people to see him as a figure of authority, but
never did he claim it. Never did he plead for it. Never did he assume it. He was
his own authority. He lived in about as complete and total a freedom as anyone I
have ever known, as straightforwardly, as clear-eyed as anyone I’ve ever known,
and it was his intention, I would say it perhaps was the center of his own
ministry, to enable others to come to that same point of self-confidence,
recognizing within themselves the source of authority for the way they lived, the
values they held, the vision with which they lived.
The long-time friendship of Lester deKoster and Duncan began with them being
debating partners. Lester, of course, was at the other end of the spectrum of
Duncan in terms of this issue of authority. There is a very wonderful video of the
Littlefair Years at Fountain Street, and Lester, on camera says, “I would say, as
© Grand Valley State University
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Richard A. Rhem
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espoused by Duncan, religious liberalism means that the person is his own
authority. So, now I’m saying, I think, the religious liberal wants to choose among
his authorities and it all ends up finally at himself.”
Well, Lester, coming from his beloved crimped and cramped Calvinism, with his
continuing assertion of the absolute authority of the Bible as the Word of God,
was very sensitive to where the issue lies, and it does lie at that matter of
authority, and this was a point of discussion many times at Duba’s table because
it really doesn’t matter what topic you’re talking about, if you talk about it long
enough and keep probing at it long enough, it comes down to what is your
authority? On what basis do you make that claim or deny that claim? At the table
we were always very much aware of the fact that one was either speaking out of
an adherence and a loyalty to, in this case, an ancient text, or one was speaking
out of one’s own being, thinking, feeling, as a volitional creature. So, when I saw
that on camera recently reviewing again that video, I smiled at Lester putting his
finger on the core issue, the matter of authority. And it is the key issue in the
religious community as well as the larger community, and it has very practical
implications for the way we live and what’s happening in our society.
I generally begin Saturday morning reading The Grand Rapids Press religion
section. I usually get energized to preach about something or other, and yesterday
as I did that, thinking about this sermon, I went through and jotted down a
couple of items. The lead story was of the messianic synagogue, people who are
described as a small community locally with communities strung around the
world. Not a large group, but the question was are they Jewish or Christian?
There are people who believe that Jesus was the Messiah, but they continue in
Jewish observances, which quite rightly they claim Jesus would have kept
himself. As the article indicated, they are often criticized both by the Jewish
community and the Christian community. The Jewish community said “You can’t
really be authentically Jewish if you’re talking about a Christian Messiah, a
Messiah-Savior figure,” and the Christian community saying, “Why don’t you just
get with it and move on?” It looks like a wonderful community of people. It looks
like they have a wonderful spiritual experiences and emotional fulfillment
together, but the reason I noted it was that one of the teaching elders said, “It is
pretty clear in the Bible that God intends to reestablish the nation of Israel.”
It’s pretty clear in the Bible? Well, I guess maybe it is. Paul really did think that.
Of course, it is clear if you just take that ancient text, take that word that says
that. But, you might say Paul was also thinking Jesus was going to come back
right away and he was at the end of history and the curtain of history would soon
drop. Don’t you wonder, if he was wrong about that, he might have been wrong
about this?
There was a similar kind of a statement in the article on the Southern Baptists
who have now extended the ban on women as military chaplains. They’ve been
traveling at breakneck speed backwards lately, the Southern Baptists. They
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apparently have about twenty women in chaplaincies that this will not effect, but
they will not extend it anymore because they have determined that a chaplain in
the military do pastoral work, marry, bury, and so on, and actually if they do that,
then they are in a position of authority and that would contradict I Timothy 12
which says that no woman shall be in leadership or exercise authority over a man,
which I think is really a wonderful idea. But, I don’t think it’s going to work.
But, this is the point. These things have very practical implications. Take, for
example, the question of the reestablishment of the nation Israel. If you are an
orthodox Jew of a certain stripe, then you believe that, but you not only believe
that, you believe that there are certain borders, certain parameters in the
geography that have to be settled by Israel, have to be again Israel before Messiah
can come. In that critical, tragic, explosive, violent situation that seems so
hopeless in the Middle East today, the Palestinian-Israeli conflict is over borders,
and the settlement movement, the architect of which was Ariel Sharon. The
present Prime Minister cannot dismantle settlements without violence of his own
people because this is not for them a political question, this is a religious
question. If they don’t inhabit the land, Messiah cannot come. If you absolutize
an ancient text, take it out of its historical context, out of its socio-cultural setting,
you get that kind of thing. And so, the settlers who are living on those outlying
borders, will die rather than be moved because it’s a question of whether or not
God will be able to act and to establish the nation in the ancient borders and
bring in the Messianic Age.
Or, the Southern Baptist issue - how do you settle the question of the place of
women and the gender balance on the basis of the Bible, which comes out of a
particular culture? The Southern Baptist pastor who was quoted said, “Finally,
the Bible is our guide and not culture or what everybody’s thinking.” I want to
say, “You know what? There was a day when the Bible came out of a culture. A
culture shaped it and what it said pretty much everybody was thinking, and what
you have done is frozen a piece of history and perpetuated it down through the
centuries while life continues to develop. And so, finally you have an ancient text
that doesn’t resonate at all with where life is down here.”
It is a very tricky question and it has tremendous implications for the way we live
today. You cannot, with this text, solve the burning sociological issues of our
time. Look at how the nation is all upset now over this same-sex marriage thing.
States rushing to constitutional amendments, people bemoaning the fact that this
might challenge the sanctity of marriage. I want to say, “Why?” You can’t get it
out of this book, but it is this book that stimulates people and drives them to that
kind of emotional response which can very easily turn violent and, at worst,
divides the body politic and creates acrimony and accusation and condemnation.
I don’t often like it when Hollywood celebrities have a microphone in their face. I
wish they would do us all a favor and just be silent at such a moment, but once in
a while one says something pretty good and Tom Hanks said recently, “You know,
© Grand Valley State University
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Richard A. Rhem
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in any evening when two human beings stand up and look at each other and say,
‘I love you and I’ll be lovingly faithful to you forever,’ is a good evening.”
If we would do as Duncan had always pleaded, if we would use our intelligence, if
we would gather as much knowledge as we can, if with civility and dignity we
could speak together and converse together and probe together, we could move
together, we could take advantage of the light that has dawned upon us and
continued to cause our corporate, community life together to be more reflective,
rather than being pinched and cramped by an ancient text or an ancient
institution with an hierarchy that is ruled by the priest. The implications of it are
tremendous. The issue of authority is right at the core of the religious community,
the religious experience, and the broader community of humanity, as well. This,
of course, has always been the issue in the Church. That’s why when Jesus came
and did his thing in the Temple, whatever he did, it was a prophetic act and Israel
had been inured with prophetic acts throughout its history. It was marked by
that. The thing that made Israel unique was the prophetic voice, because every
religion has a priesthood and priests keep the machinery going and the prayers
being said and the rituals intact, and they are guardians of the tradition. They
keep it all going and it is a very valuable function. But, the prophet stands outside
on the steps of the Church and says, “Thus saith the Lord.” Whatever happened
in the Temple, Jesus was calling to a head his own challenge to that Temple
establishment and there are all kinds of reasons for that which have been
uncovered more and more in our day in fascinating studies of our time, social
cross-cultural studies of that time. But, Jesus, in a prophetic act, confronted the
established religious setup of the day and so the guardians of the traditions said,
“What are you going to do about it?” The problem was, you see, Jesus had what
Duncan had - when he spoke, people listened, because somehow or other, what
he was saying resonated with their human experience.
In another place in the Gospels it says, “He spoke as one who had authority, not
as the scribes and the Pharisees.” The irony is that the scribes and the Pharisees
had authority. They had the power to enforce. Jesus had that intrinsic authority
that was compelling because it resonated with that which was down deep in the
human soul.
They came and said, “By what authority did you do this?” In other words, “You
can’t just do what you want to do in this Temple because we have the authority to
grant that privilege or to withhold it.” Jesus knew this was not a sincere question
about “Really, Jesus, talk to us, tell us about what’s really going on with you. Who
are you? What are you saying?” No, they were trying to figure out a way to fence
him out and so he didn’t play their game. But, he was the example of that
prophetic voice.
Ah, you say, in the Hebrew scriptures, for Jesus, that was the word of God.
Really? But, it certainly was filtered through the human person, and we ascribe to
Isaiah and Jeremiah and Amos and Obadiah the word of God.
© Grand Valley State University
�By What Authority?
Richard A. Rhem
Page 6
I preached a sermon in Coopersville when I got out of seminary, the ordination
sermon for a friend of mine and I said to him in the sermon, “Jeremiah said,
‘Thus saith the Lord.’ You can never say that. You must say, ‘Thus hath the Lord
said.’” Get the difference? I took away from him the immediacy of the address of
the word of God. I was saying God has spoken and all you can do is say what God
said. I was wrong. I was wrong even according to my own tradition. I didn’t
understand it at the time, but I was wrong even according to good Calvinism. At
the table, Lester would have said to me, “It’s the Word of God incarnate, it’s the
Word of God written, it’s the Word of God preached and they’re all the Word of
God.” That’s presumptuous. I can’t say my sermon is the Word of God. Duncan
said, “Yes you can! Yes, you must!”
Oh, really?
“It is the Word of God according to you!”
That makes a difference. If I preach here and I assume that what I preach is
simply my own stuff and not a word of God, I will preach a bloodless, lifeless,
passionless, convictionless message that will move you not at all, and that’s what
Duncan would detest. “You have to preach with a conviction; it is the Word of
God!” But it is the Word of God as you understand it.
Lester would say, “It is the Word of God, period.”
To Lester, I had to say, “That’s arrogance and that’s dangerous.” Because if I can
claim that my word is the Word of God, period, then I can send you out in the
streets to do violence in God’s name, and it happens over and over again.
Oh, it’s tricky. It’s subtle, this matter of authority. To say that authority is coming
out of my own center is not to say that it is simply a human thing. It is to say that
the only manifestation of the Word of God is filtered through the human being
and the human soul. But, it is the human being and the human soul, finally, that
must take responsibility for that word, believing it to be a word beyond one’s self
and yet never able to absolutize it.
Lynne Deur is publishing a little book of my sermons, and I had to re-read some
of those sermons for her because she had edited a bit and one of them was from
2001, “Dropping the Salvation Fantasy,” a rather daring title for me. As I was
reading that sermon, I was reminded again that I wrote down in five minutes
eight points as to where I had come, from one place to another, and I took them
to Duba’s table. I wrote them on this little piece of paper and kept it in my Bible
ever since, because Duncan blessed it.
Just off the top of my head, I said, this is where I have moved:
© Grand Valley State University
�By What Authority?
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Richard A. Rhem
Page 7
from conservative orthodoxy to liberal openness,
from supernatural theism to religious naturalism,
from religion as verifiable truth to religion as experience of the sacred
dimension of reality,
from religion as dogma to religion as poetry,
from religion as institution to religion as community,
from religion as consisting of absolute truth to religion as emerging
experience,
from Christianity as exclusive to Christianity as one magnificent window
opening on the holy and the sacred,
from religion as salvation from damnation to religion as celebration of
life.
That was such an energizing, liberating experience to sit down and to write those
things and to affirm that is where I am. I’m not trying to reconcile it, fit it into
this book, or this institution. I value this. I love the Church. I know that without
2000 years of tradition and institution we wouldn’t be here this morning. But,
finally, this is where I’ve come. I know you couldn’t run the Roman Catholic
Church on this kind of thing. You can’t even run the Episcopal Church or the
Methodist or Presbyterian. But, you can run a local, independent community
where every one of you is charged to live out of your own center, to be the center
of your own authority, recognizing that as the emanation of that divine Spirit in
us all, so that in a sense, as we look into each other’s face, we look into the face of
God. Or, on Valentine’s Day weekend in that closing solo of Les Miserables,
realizing that to love another person is to see the face of God, knowing that to
know that and experience that is quite enough.
By what authority? That’s the Word of God as I understand it.
© Grand Valley State University
�
Dublin Core
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Richard A. Rhem Collection
Description
An account of the resource
Text and sound recordings of the sermons, prayers, services, and articles of Richard Rhem, pastor emeritus of Christ Community Church in Spring Lake, Michigan, where he served for 37 years. Starting in the mid 1980's, Rhem began to question some of the traditional Christian dogma that he had been espousing from the pulpit. That questioning was a first step in a long and interesting spiritual journey, one that he openly shared with his congregation. His journey is important, in part because it is reflective of the questioning, the yearnings, and the gradual revision of beliefs that many persons in this part of the century have experienced and continue to experience. It is important also because of the affirming and inclusive way his questioning was done and his thinking evolved. His sermons and other written and spoken materials together document the steps in his journey as it took a turn in 1985, yet continued to revolve around the framework and liturgies of the Christian calendar.
Subject
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Clergy--Michigan
Reformed Church in America
Christ Community Church (Spring Lake, Mich.)
Religion
Interfaith worship
Sermons
Sound Recordings
Creator
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Rhem, Richard A.
Source
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<a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/514">Richard A. Rhem papers (KII-01)</a>
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Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives.
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Kaufman Interfaith Institute
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English
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KII-01
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1981-2014
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audio/mp3
text/pdf
Sound
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Event
Epiphany VI
Series
A Littlefair Legacy
Scripture Text
Mark 11:15-19,
Location
The location of the interview
Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI
References
Readings from Duncan E. Littlefair
Dublin Core
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KII-01_RA-0-20040215
Date
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2004-02-15
Title
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By What Authority?
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Richard A. Rhem
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Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives
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Subject
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Clergy--Michigan
Reformed Church in America
Christ Community Church (Spring Lake, Mich.)
Sermons
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Richard A. Rhem - An Archive of Sermons, Prayers, Talks and Stories: http://richardrhem.org/
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eng
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Text
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application/pdf
Description
An account of the resource
A sermon given by Richard A. Rhem (Dick) on February 15, 2004 entitled "By What Authority?", as part of the series "A Littlefair Legacy", on the occasion of Epiphany VI, at Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI. Scripture references: Mark 11:15-19.
Authority of Scripture
Littlefair
-
https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/4e160bc402a601ad9289ff0f71a275d5.pdf
482aa4bcc501230ca1cd0017ee582715
PDF Text
Text
To the Wonder, Glory, Miracle, and Joy of Life!
A Littlefair Legacy, 1
Ecclesiastes 3; Philippians 4
Richard A. Rhem
Christ Community Church
Spring Lake, Michigan
February 8, 2004
Transcription of the spoken sermon
It is good to be back home. Not to say that Nancy and I were sorry to miss this
wonderful January winter you had, and not to say that we were unable to make
do with this extended period away with nothing to do, but it is so good to be back.
In all honesty, it is so good to be back because of the place to which we come.
Yesterday morning the sun caught the ice floes on the lake and it was so beautiful.
Ordinarily I would have called Duncan Littlefair to say, “Dunc, you should see
what I see,” and he would have said, “Ahh, it’s beautiful.” I thought to myself it
may be cold, but it is pretty. And then to be able to come home to my wonderful
family - we’re going to gather in a little bit. It’s so wonderful to have such a great
family and such a wonderful community, to come back to you. Nancy tells me
that I was more relaxed this time away than ever before, and I did take as many
books, but I didn’t get them all read, and I think I was relaxed because of how I
feel about this community. I feel so good about the fact that we are in such
positive territory, feeling so good about the excellent leadership we have, a
wonderful pastoral/program team in place that keeps things going and even
getting better when I’m gone, Ian and Meg Lawton on their way, feeling so
positive about that. I am eagerly anticipating this time of transition and then the
next stage of the journey. So, blessed, indeed, I am delighted to be back here in
your midst.
As you know, while I was gone, I received word of the death of my dear friend
Duncan Littlefair. I think the first week or ten days of our vacation we sort of
crashed and didn’t do much of anything, but then we got the call that Saturday
night that Duncan had died. You know what he meant to me and so many of you
have given expression to that, and I do appreciate that. The request was that I
should do his memorial service. It was his request that I do that for family and a
circle of friends, but we all know that the whole community had, somehow or
other, to find some closure with this one who had been larger than life in our
midst, and so on Friday I did lead that service at Fountain Street, and I suppose
you can imagine that after getting that call and knowing that that was my
assignment, my mind could not register on much else. I think I preached about a
hundred funeral sermons from 3:30 to 5:00 in the morning every night, it
© Grand Valley State University
�To the Wonder…Joy of Life!
Richard A. Rhem
Page 2
seemed. I had not submitted my preaching for my return. We had left somewhat
early and I thought I would have time down there to worry about that, as often I
do. But, I just couldn’t determine what to do. I was so filled with thinking about
Duncan and the whole impact of his life on my life and the larger community.
Finally, I said to Nancy, “I think I’m simply going to do three sermons on Sunday
mornings, ‘A Littlefair Legacy,’ and then on Ash Wednesday night concluding
that series,” because it’s really all I could be thinking about. Thinking about last
Friday, I couldn’t possibly somehow or other turn around the furniture in my
mind and come up with something new this morning.
Some of you were there for that service on Friday and I have to apologize to you
because you will hear some of the same things, but not entirely so, because there
was a special relationship that Duncan had to this community. He loved this
community very much. He loved to worship here. I would bring him a tape every
Tuesday of the service and the next Tuesday I would pay for it. He could really get
after me when he saw me slipping back into the slough of orthodoxy. But, he
cared a great deal for this community and he saw here hope for his religious
vision to be perpetuated. So, I thought, not only will it be good for me, but I hope
it will be good for you as a community, as well, to reflect for these weeks on A
Littlefair Legacy, to reflect on the impact of this most remarkable human being
whom it was my rare pleasure to come to know intimately and to love and respect
very deeply. I want to begin this morning where I began on Friday and that is
simply to share with you what he taught me, and the heart of what he taught me
was to live fully and richly, to enjoy life and to enter it with zest, to live with
wonder and awe, with awareness and appreciation, with reverence and
thanksgiving. I have to say to you honestly, it was that which impacted me and
has changed my life over this past decade.
You know because of my frequent references that Tuesday was “Tuesday’s at
Duba’s” and you know that those were sacred times and we kept that religiously
and as we gathered, we spoke often of the fact that when we would awaken on
Tuesday morning, those few individuals that were so blessed to be there, we
would say, “Ah! It’s Tuesday,” and with every passing hour our anticipation grew
until, all of us at our places, Duncan would lift his glass and say, “To the Wonder,
Glory, Miracle and Joy of Life!” The glasses would clink and it was a holy
moment. It was good, it was just very good. And then that serious conversation
would begin, and it was serious conversation. But, the thing that happened in the
clinking of the glasses was that the radical diversity of that table became a
community, and a community in all of our diversity in which we came to love one
another and care for one another in a most remarkable way.
As I came to know Duncan, I came to realize that that toast was the theme of his
life. It was the very essence of his being. That man lived with a constant sense of
wonder every day and throughout the whole day, in all of the varied
circumstances and situations into which I ever saw him, he was one who lived
with wonder, with awareness, with appreciation, with a sense of reverence and of
© Grand Valley State University
�To the Wonder…Joy of Life!
Richard A. Rhem
Page 3
deep gratitude. Duncan never had a bad day. He was the most unusual person I
have ever met. The fact of the constancy, the consistency of that sense of living as
a miracle, was contagious. You couldn’t be around him without feeling your own
spirit rise and your own sensitivity heightened. And I began to see things that
were always there but had never seen before. I began to live with a kind of
awareness and appreciation that I’d simply never experienced before. It was
because, in being with him often enough, long enough, in so many different
situations, I saw him notice everything - a rosebud on a table set, the chorus of
birds on his feeder outside his kitchen window which he delighted to watch, a
sunset, a starry heaven, the lawn laid with newly fallen snow, a rainy day when he
could pull up his rocker to his fireplace and to the crackling of the fire have a
good book on his lap, enjoying and savoring the grayness of the clouds. If you
would ever have called him in January to complain of a Michigan winter, he
would have said, “It’s Wonderful! I love it!” Every day, he had no bad days; he
had no desolate seasons. He was totally unimpacted by the external situation of
his life because he lived out of an internal miracle that was always going on, of
which he was always aware, and which he continued to bring to expression.
One of his favorite poems, by poet Grace Crowell, has these lines:
This day will bring some lovely thing,
I say it over each new morn
Some gay adventurous thing to hold
Against my heart when it is gone.
And so I rise and go to meet
The day with wings upon my feet.
I come upon it unaware,
Some hidden beauty without name,
A snatch of song, a breath of pine,
A poem lit with golden flame,
High tangled bird notes keenly thinned
Like flying color on the wind.
No day has ever failed me quite.
Before the grayest day is done
I come upon some misty bloom
Or a late line of crimson sun.
Each night I pause remembering
some gay adventurous lovely thing.
That is exactly how he lived more consistently than anyone I’ve ever known. As I
came to know him and to experience him more and more, I found my own
awareness and appreciation of life growing. He changed my life.
© Grand Valley State University
�To the Wonder…Joy of Life!
Richard A. Rhem
Page 4
In Florida I did take down Gary Dorrien’s second volume of The Making of
American Theology, and I went back over some things I had read before about
the Chicago School. Duncan graduated from the University of Chicago, did his
doctoral work there, getting out around 1939-1940, somewhere in there. The
Chicago School was a famous school of theology at the time. It was really the
center of theological ferment in the country, a pioneer in the movement they
called Theological Modernism, and I was re-reading again the story of that. There
was a theologian-scholar there named George Burman Foster, and I identify with
Foster, because Foster, coming out of a very pious and orthodox Baptist
experience, moved across the whole spectrum of religious experience to a
naturalist-humanist kind of understanding, and yet he wrestled through it all. As
I was reading Gary Dorrien’s account, I read of Foster, who said the content of
revelation is in holy personalities. When I read that, I thought, “Dear God, that’s
true.” He went on to say ideas are important, but we are not saved by ideas. We
are saved by persons, by personalities who embody the ideas. He said as fire
kindles fire, and not some theory about the flame, so people save people. I
thought, “It’s true.” And then I thought of my own life.
While I was in Florida a week after Duncan died, another great friend of mine,
Dr. Eugene Osterhaven, died at age 88. Dr. Osterhaven was a professor at
Western Seminary for many, many years, he was a great friend of this
congregation, he was a dear friend of mine, he married Nancy and me in 1972,
and we have been in contact ever since. He prayed for me every day. In the
opening years he prayed thanking God for me, in latter years he prayed
petitioning God to save me. But, he was one of my dear, old friends who never
forsook me, even though he couldn’t believe that I was really as bad as rumor had
it. So, I thought of Gene Osterhaven. He was teaching an adult class here in 1960
and was the one that engineered my call here in 1960. And then he was teaching
again in 1970 when you were without a pastor, and once again he was an
instrument to bring me back here. So, Gene Osterhaven played a big part in my
life, and I loved him. He was a beautiful, beautiful human being. He was an
orthodox Reformed theologian. I learned my Reformed theology from Gene
Osterhaven. I put my mind on his desk and asked him to shape it and to form it. I
was totally brainwashed, at my request. That’s where I came from.
Then, after about seven years of pastoral work, there began to be some cracks in
the armor and I began to have more questions than I had answers, which was a
relief to my people, because when I came out of seminary I had all the answers
and didn’t even know what the questions were. It was my privilege then to go to
the Netherlands and there I had this good fortune of another Professor,
Hendrikus Berkhof, whom I have quoted here again and again, again what a
beautiful human being he was. He also was a Reformed theologian, but a
Reformed theologian who had brought a critical view to the faith and fresh
insights and new formulations, and he led me into the place where I could do my
own theological thinking.
© Grand Valley State University
�To the Wonder…Joy of Life!
Richard A. Rhem
Page 5
Maybe you remember that just a few years ago before he died, he was 80 years
old and the University of Leiden celebrated him. They had a big day arranged
with a panel of scholars, and I was the only foreign student to be invited back,
and I got to say a few words. I didn’t talk about him in terms of his theology, I
talked about him in terms of his personhood. I talked about the fact that in the
crisis of my own life, Henk Berkhof was a pastor and was full of care and
compassion, and I concluded my remarks with “Thank God for the man!” And the
Dutch paper the next day, in telling the story of that event, used that phrase in
the headline - “Thank God for the Man!”
He was brought to the occasion from a nursing home where he was at that time,
and I knew as I was with him, it would be the last time I was with him. I spent
two hours with him and I wrung every bit of wisdom and insight I could out of
him. Then I said to him, “You know, Henk, when I was studying here in the 60s,
you were looking in this direction, and now as we talk, I sense that you are
looking in that direction.” He said, “Say that again.”
I said, “Well, you were talking much more about Karl Barth now than you are
about Kuitert and I just sense that there has been some shift as you have come to
the end - have you moved?”
“Ah,” he said.
I said, “You know, I feel so close to you it’s like if you drew a circle, we would be
in the circle, but I feel like you’re looking in one direction and I’m looking in
another.”
He said, “Yah, and that’s the way it should be, for a student must go beyond his
teacher.”
Now, there’s a teacher for you. There’s grace for you. He gave me permission to
go on and I did go on, and this last decade, having encountered Duncan Littlefair,
it was a transformation, the next step, moving from orthodoxy to critical
Reformed reflection to religion that is natural and human, for I saw in Duncan
that his life was the fruit of his theological religious understanding. He was
deeply rooted theologically, philosophically. He never talked about it. He didn’t
preach about it. He didn’t burden his people like I have burdened you. He
celebrated life with them, but when I probed because that’s who I am, I kept
probing to say, “Okay, tell me. How does this blossom form?” And I realized it
was because he wasn’t looking for God outside of the world, some kind of
supernatural being in control, now and then intervening. He saw the mystery of
the holy and the sacred as the unfolding of this cosmic drama of which we are a
part. Religion for him was totally natural and wholly human, and it was the
appreciation and the awareness and the wonder of this cosmic miracle into which
our lives are woven and we, as that emerging consciousness of this whole drama.
© Grand Valley State University
�To the Wonder…Joy of Life!
Richard A. Rhem
Page 6
And so, little by little, I began to see that that beautiful life was the consequence
of a consistent vision.
Sometimes on Tuesdays all hell had broken loose somewhere in the world, evil
had been perpetrated on other human beings, and we would raise our glass in the
somberness of whatever event might have been, and then Dunc would say, “Even
in the darkness ...” because he accepted life, not as he wanted it to be, but as it is,
and even in the darkness it could not cloud the joy or remove the miracle. So, I
read Ecclesiastes 3. He could have written it, all of the diversity of human
experience. I owe to Don Hoekstra that translation. If you read it in your
scriptures, it says there is a time to do this and a time to do that. I always winced
a bit when it came to “There is a time to kill and a time to make war.” Don’s
translation helps me to see that what that poet was saying is not there’s a time to
do this, as though it ought to be done, but as a matter of fact, that’s what we do.
This is the way life is. This is the human condition, and it is this that Duncan was
able to embrace. His religious vision enabled him to transcend that darkness and
to live in the constant light of the unfolding miracle.
The Apostle Paul wasn’t too bad, either. He said, “Rejoice. Again, I say rejoice.
And don’t worry about anything, but by everything with prayer and supplication
with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God. And the peace of
God that passes human understanding will guard your hearts and your minds in
Christ.” And then he went on to thank them for the gift they had given them, the
Philippian congregation, and he said to them, “But, don’t think I need your gift.”
(That reminds me of Duncan. He lived with such detachment.) “But, thanks for
the gift. It was good of you. I didn’t really need it. I know how to be abased and I
know how to abound. I know how to be full and I know how to be empty.”
Some think they get a hint of stoicism in Paul. I think Duncan was even better
than Paul, because I never got the sense of stoicism, not like “I’ll grit my teeth
and get through this day.” Rather,
“So, this is the day. This is the day that the Lord has made and I will
rejoice in it and be very glad. So, it’s raining or snowing or hailing, so it is
winter or summer or spring or fall. I will live in the wonder, the miracle,
and the glory and joy of life.”
Wow! That’s a life.
References:
Grace Crowel (1877-1969), “The Day,” 1926.
Gary Dorrien. The Making of American Liberal Theology: Idealism, Realism,
and Modernity, 1900-1950. Westminster John Knox Press, 2003.
© 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
Epiphany V
Series
A Littlefair Legacy
Scripture Text
Ecclesiastes 3, Philippians 4
Location
The location of the interview
Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI
References
Gary Dorrien. Making of American Liberal Theology, Vol. 2: Idealism, Realism, and Modernity, 1900-1950. Westminister John Knox Press, 2003.
Dublin Core
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Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
KII-01_RA-0-20040208
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2004-02-08
Title
A name given to the resource
To the Wonder, Glory, Miracle and Joy of 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. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives
Rights
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<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
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eng
Type
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Text
Description
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A sermon given by Richard A. Rhem (Dick) on February 8, 2004 entitled "To the Wonder, Glory, Miracle and Joy of Life!", as part of the series "A Littlefair Legacy", on the occasion of Epiphany V, at Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI. Scripture references: Ecclesiastes 3, Philippians 4.
Format
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application/pdf
Littlefair
miracle of life
Natural religion
Wonder