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God, Humanity and Cosmos
From the sermon series on the Cosmos
Text: Psalm 8: 4-5
Richard A. Rhem
Christ Community Church
Spring Lake, Michigan
November 15, 1981
Transcription of the spoken sermon
What is man that thou art mindful of him, …dost care for him? Yet thou hast
made him a little less than God. Psalm 8: 4-5
Through a happy coincidence, this was an exciting week in the old U.S. of A. as
we once again accomplished a great triumph of science and technology, sending
into space again our Spaceship Columbia, watching it blast off with all of the
drama of those moments, and then, in order that we might report its safe return
this morning, the mission was shortened, and they came back yesterday. Exciting,
really, isn't it? And doesn't it boggle the mind to think about the human potential,
to think about what human intelligence is able to effect? Isn't it amazing, really,
when you contemplate the nature of such events? Truly it is thrilling. Yet we
become so easily accustomed to the dramatic and the sensational. If we were to
tell our forefathers that these things were happening, they wouldn't believe it.
They would say it was impossible. At best they might say, "Well, it's a miracle."
Well, it is a miracle, in a sense. But in another sense, it is simply that the human
mind has been able to probe the secrets of reality in order to accomplish a
mission like that and continue the exploration of the cosmos.
I kidded about them bringing the spacecraft home early so that we would know
this morning that they were successful, but, as a matter of fact, that decision was
made, though not for that reason. As I was thinking about Psalm 2 and the
psalmist's reflection upon the cosmos and then upon himself, who he was in
relationship to God, I thought that decision was a rather nice illustration of the
second Psalm, for a choice was made in favor of human life over the probing of
the cosmos. If the psalmist was impressed with the cosmos, then how much more
you and me? If he was impressed with what he could see, which was but an
infinitesimal fragment of what there is, if he was impressed with his smallness
over against the vastness of space and the eons of time, which are becoming more
and more clear to us, then how much more must we be impressed with our
smallness and our insignificance? And yet, when one of the three fuel cells of that
spacecraft failed, a decision had to be made as to whether to let the mission run
its course, or to bring it home early. Two fuel cells were enough to allow the
© Grand Valley State University
�God, Humanity and Cosmos
Richard A. Rhem
Page 2
mission to take its full run. But then, down to two, if one should fail, the mission
and human life would be in jeopardy. And so, at headquarters, discussion was
held and the decision was made. They came home early, even though involved
were scores and scores of people, and millions and millions of dollars and all of
that which is at stake. They brought that mission home early because in this
nation, standing in the biblical tradition, we know the value and the sanctity of
human life. And when it comes to taking a risk and succeeding with a few more
scientific experiments, but placing at the same time, human life in jeopardy, there
is really no question, because we know in the face of space's immensity and time's
ever-rolling stream, that there is still one thing that counts supremely, and that is
a human being.
Now that is really the same kind of conclusion that the psalmist came to. On the
one hand, he said,
Lord, when I consider the heavens, the moon and the stars which you
have ordained, what is man that you are mindful of him? And the son of
man, that you care for him?
He felt his smallness and his insignificance. He was overwhelmed by the
immensity of the heavens overhead, and he recognized that his days were but a
brief span of time. His littleness in the vastness of it all gave him such a sense of
insignificance and smallness.
As I said, if he felt small, how about us? We have to say that in our own day there
have been a lot of people who have been unable to move with the modern
conception of the universe and maintain a faith in God the Creator. The psalmist
had a correct intuition. I mean, who are we, really, when you think of it? Fifteen
to twenty billion years in the process, and now we are here, threescore years and
ten, perhaps. Why, our lifespan is a blink of the eye. And when you realize, as Carl
Sagan says in his book, Cosmos, that the earth is a speck of dust, circling a
humdrum star, our sun - just an average old humdrum star - you begin to realize
the vastness of the cosmos. We are on a speck of dust circling a humdrum star in
a corner of an insignificant galaxy; and if we are on but a speck of dust in the
vastness of space, so are our days but an instant in the eons of time. When you
really stop to think about it, I mean when you really stop to contemplate it, can
you still believe that in the beginning God created the heavens and the earth?
You see, there have been many of our contemporaries who have not been able to
make that move and that adjustment. We have opened up the mysteries of the
cosmos, and it is a most exciting day in which to be alive. But what has to happen
is not only that the cosmos expands before our eyes, but our conception of God
must grow commensurately. As J.B. Phillips wrote so many years ago, Your God
Is Too Small.
We have to admit, too, that in the Church we have not been very good at helping
people to make this adjustment.
© Grand Valley State University
�God, Humanity and Cosmos
Richard A. Rhem
Page 3
In the most recent issue of Science '81, an excellent magazine which was placed in
my hands, there is a centerfold on Creationism – Creationism as opposed to
Evolutionism, and all of the controversy that is being stirred up by the
fundamentalist wing of the Christian Church today. It recounts how several states
have gone to court to get equal time for the doctrine of Creation in their schools.
It is a very interesting development. This is a science magazine. And in this report
it was stated what we have been saying here over and over again, that all of the
scientific investigation of the cosmos, whether in biology or physics or geology or
in whatever field - all of these investigations really do not impinge upon whether
or not God created the heavens and the earth, and whether or not I can still
believe that this is my Father's world. That really isn't at issue. But the problem
with the fundamentalist wing of the Church that is stirring up all this controversy
is that it is creating, once again, that overagainstness with science, and that
mindset in much of the Christian Church that there is something destructive to
faith in all of this explosion of knowledge in the natural sciences. That is tragic.
We do ourselves a great disservice.
If you feel good when you see some television evangelist pounding the pulpit and
talking in terms of creation over against a godless, atheistic evolutionism, don't
clap, because he is not on your side, if you are on the side of God and Truth. That
is a false distinction, that is a false antithesis, and it is deadly. It is deadly because
it offends the best minds and the best spirits, and it creates the illusion that to be
a Christian you have to take off your head, shut down your mind and refuse to
survey the vast amount of data that is there for anyone with any common sense.
We can't play that game any longer. We have to admit that what the psalmist saw,
the immensity of the universe and the eons of time and all of this which has
become even more clear to us will necessitate an adjustment of our
understanding of God.
We simply cannot have this neat, secure little world, little planet Earth and our
few thousands of years and our literal, biblical account of things, because, you
see, the biblical writers were not writing physics, were not writing biology, were
not talking about geology. The writers of the Bible thought that this was a threestory universe, with heaven above and the waters under the earth. God didn't
whisper in their ears and give them some revelation of the mysteries of physics.
This is not a science textbook, and you cannot find out about the process of the
created order, you cannot find out about the stages which have brought us to this
present point by going to the scriptures. The only thing the scriptures will tell
you, and of course the only thing that really matters, is that in the beginning was
God, and that He will be in the end, and that He is with us in the meantime.
When the psalmist looked up and thought, "Oh my goodness, I'm not much,"
then how much more we, and we simply have to recognize that we need to do
some readjusting because, as a matter of fact, this old, cosmological, evolutionary
process has been going on for a long, long time. There is no doubt about that. And
it has been following a course of natural development which now is more and
© Grand Valley State University
�God, Humanity and Cosmos
Richard A. Rhem
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more understood, with many mysteries still to be unraveled, but which will be
unraveled. We live in a day which is right at the crest of a breakthrough that will
continue to explode and explode and explode all around us. The more we learn,
the more access we have to deeper mysteries, and when you saw Columbia come
in and land right on the second and right on the line, that is simply a sign and a
finger pointing beyond itself to the most fantastic dreams that are even now
welling up in human hearts and minds. Never say never! Because before you die,
it will have happened.
But the psalmist had another insight, and that is the critical insight, for he not
only experienced his smallness and his insignificance, but he went on to say,
"Thou hast created him a little less than God. Thou hast crowned him with glory
and honor. Thou hast given him dominion over the whole created order." That is
the biblical insight. That is the significant fact. That is the uniqueness of being
human. That is the religious issue, for it doesn't really matter how long it's been
going on, and it doesn't really matter how vast the immensity of space. The fact is
that we are here now at this point in the process, and we are human. The psalmist
recognized that there is something about being human which is nearly divine.
And if I were to put it in a sentence, I would say to you this morning that the
message is simply this - You are really something. That's the biblical message.
We may be impressed with distance, and we may be impressed with age, but what
we really ought to stand in awe before is the mystery of being human, the wonder
of what it is to be man and woman, created in the image of God, for what the
psalmist was saying here when he said, "Thou hast made him a little less than
God," was what the writer of the Genesis account was saying when he said, "God
created man and woman in His own image." God created a creature over against
himself and made him almost divine. He created a creature with selfconsciousness and with a measure of freedom and self-determination, and with
responsibility and the opportunity to fall in worship and adoring praise before the
Creator of it all.
You are really something! To be human is the greatest mystery reflecting the
deepest majesty of the whole cosmological process.
When I look at thy heavens, the work of thy fingers, the moon and the
stars which thou hast established: what is man that thou art mindful of
him, and the son of man that thou dost care for him? Yet thou hast made
him little less than God, and dost crown him with glory and honor. Thou
hast given him dominion over the works of thy hands… Psalm 8: 3-6
We are created to be the co-laborers with God, partners with God in this creative
process. We are endowed with gifts, with human potential, and we have the
powers and the ability to reflect the divine image. We can think His thoughts
after Him, and we can enter into His creative activity, and with the things that
have already been accomplished through the exercise of human intelligence, who
© Grand Valley State University
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Richard A. Rhem
Page 5
would dare say what the frontier finally would be? You are really something, and
good religion will affirm human personality.
Now, we need to hear that in the Church, too, don't we, because for too long we
have spoken disparagingly of human personality. Nothing I say this morning
would in any way detract from the fact which we have faced honestly that there is
something desperately wrong with us all and we fall short of the glory of God.
There is a meanness about us and a contrariness; someone, somewhere has
thrown a wrench in the works, and man's inhumanity to man is given eloquent
testimony from beginning to end. But in the Church, so often that is where we
have left it. We talk about our misery and fail to talk about our grandeur. We talk
about our fallenness and fail to take in the destiny to which we have been called.
God has dealt with our sin, and by His grace, calls us to realize our destiny and to
develop the full potential with which he has endowed us, and to reflect the divine
image. You are really somebody. You reflect God. You were created in His image,
a little less than Him, and He has created us in order to be in relationship with
Him, to live in communion, and to live not only in communion with Him, but in
communion one with another, and in interpersonal relationships where there is
love and care and forgiveness and grace. There is a little bit of heaven. God and
His creature, living in fellowship and communion, one with another and with
Him, define the ultimate miracle and the meaning of the whole process.
Now, that is terribly important to affirm and it ought to make you feel really good
about yourself, because you really are somebody. You have potential untapped,
you have gifts yet undreamed of, you have possibilities without limit. You are
almost divine, and God calls us to that upward way more and more to respond to
that destiny for which he has shaped us, to be prepared for the future that He has
for us.
Now, when you watch Carl Sagan on Cosmos, be enrapt with him in the
excitement of exploring the mysteries of the physical world. And I affirm that,
and I love it, and when you study it, as I have more and more, you are so
impressed with the simplicity on the other side of complexity. The complexity of
the cosmos and humankind seems so apparent. But once the smoke has cleared
there appears a simplicity in the created order. All of us and all matter is made up
of the same building blocks, the same atoms, the same fundamental elements,
whether here on planet Earth or the moon or Jupiter or the sun or your beating,
human heart. Everything, being composed of very simple and fundamental
elements, seems to reflect a divine intelligence which can hardly be conceived of.
But when you watch Carl Sagan and he begins to suggest that that process that
has moved through all of the eons of time and all of that evolutionary process to
the present moment is purposeless, the product of chance, when he begins to
suggest that you are the latest and highest expression, and that there is no one
beyond, then don't you believe him, for then he is no longer a scientist; then he is
in the sphere of religion. He suggests that maybe the universes are not the
© Grand Valley State University
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Richard A. Rhem
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dreams of God, but rather, that God may be the dream of man. He is saying that
we have come to this point and then we have simply projected out, beyond
ourselves the God that we wish were there.
When he begins to talk that way, he has lost me. Then he has said that I am
simply the consequence of all of that process of development having really no
freedom and no unique spiritual character, related to all that went before but
missing completely that relationship to Him Who is beyond and above. Then I
know that he has missed the ultimate truth. Nothing that he says about our
relationship to the cosmos is in any way in conflict to that relationship we have
with a God Who spoke and called it into being. But to deny that God and to end
up here is to leave me alone without a home and without meaning. Human
existence, then, is the chance result of spontaneous reactions along billions of
years. His explanation for the first development of life is that in a primeval soup
one cell got the ability to reproduce itself and then through billions of years,
organizing by perhaps a light ray striking a cell and causing a change, a mutation,
and finally organizing and gathering and getting more and more complex, until
finally one glob of cells woke up and said, "Well, here I am." Now, that takes faith
to believe.
When we contemplate what it is to be human, then we need not deny that whole
process. But to me, it makes far more sense to believe that in the beginning there
was an Intelligence that said, "Let there be..." with a purpose, and a purpose of
love that moved the process to a point at which one day there was someone who
looked into the face of God and experienced relationship, communion.
For finally, what is ultimate and what is important?
At NASA this week they made a decision, and a correct decision, for there is really
nothing in the whole cosmos, there is no experiment, there is no technological
breakthrough so important and so pressing that it would be worth placing in
jeopardy one human life, one human life that knows itself as free and in
relationship, able to love and to care.
A couple of weeks ago when Nancy and I were at Mayo's, we did a lot of sitting
and waiting for our names to be called. You watch a lot of people and a lot of
people in various states of difficulty and need. It's always obvious when, for
example, a son or a daughter has brought an aged parent, maybe in a wheelchair
or helping them along to the desk. You think a lot about people and you watch
them. Nancy was telling me about two old gentlemen, the one helping the other,
hobbling along, finally getting to the desk because his name had been called, and
the other who was helping said to the nurse, "Is it all right if I go in with him?
You know, he's my brother."
Well, you know, to me that's more impressive than a thousand billion galaxies.
Isn't it, really? What finally counts? We stand not in any conflict with any
scientific probe of the depths of reality. Half of the physicists are mystics, trying
© Grand Valley State University
�God, Humanity and Cosmos
Richard A. Rhem
Page 7
to determine the nature of what is. That is an exciting venture; it is a human
venture. But we do stand in the midst of the darkness of space and the eons of
time to say that, whatever else may be, this is ultimately important — we are, and
we know one another, and we have learned to love and to care because into our
lives, in our own flesh, has appeared Jesus. Jesus, in whose face we have seen the
light of the knowledge of the glory of God, and found Him to be gracious.
Ah, you are really something! You are really somebody. There are no limits to the
possibilities that await you and, as the writer to the Hebrews recognized, what we
see now is only a part. We see Jesus, not yet all things put into subjection to him,
but the whole tenor of that New Testament, in the wake of Jesus, tells us that
there is a future, the contours of which we have not yet begun to dream about.
For eye has not seen, and ear has not heard, nor has it entered into the heart of
man to conceive of the things that God has prepared for them that love Him.
See what love the Father has given us, that we should be called children
of God; and so we are. I John 3: 1f (RSV)
And what we shall be has not yet appeared, but we know that when He appears,
we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is. And throughout all Eternity
we will be brothers and sisters with our Lord, lost in wonder, love and praise of
the God Who spoke and called all things into being. Blessed be His holy name.
Amen.
© Grand Valley State University
�
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Richard A. Rhem Collection
Description
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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.
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Clergy--Michigan
Reformed Church in America
Christ Community Church (Spring Lake, Mich.)
Religion
Interfaith worship
Sermons
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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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1981-2014
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Scripture Text
Psalm 8, Hebrews 2:5-9
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Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI
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1981-11-15
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God, Humanity and Cosmos
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Richard A. Rhem
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<a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a>
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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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A sermon given by Richard A. Rhem (Dick) on November 15, 1981 entitled "God, Humanity and Cosmos", at Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI. Scripture references: Psalm 8, Hebrews 2:5-9.
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Community
Cosmic Evolution
Creation
Creator
Creature
Grace
Image of God
Love
Nature of God
Nature of the Human
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9cc3758d69dc66d8406053ed81a40908
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Text
The God Who Cares
From the sermon series: God, Our Ally
Text: I Peter 5: 7, 10
Richard A. Rhem
Christ Community Church
Spring Lake, Michigan
August 18, 1985
Transcription of the spoken sermon
Cast all your anxieties on him, for he cares about you. …The God of all Grace,
who has called you to his eternal glory in Christ, will himself restore, establish
and strengthen you. I Peter 5: 7, 10
God is our Ally; He is a God Who cares. He cares about you, a creature of His
making, a child of His love. He cares about all that pertains to your life and
touches your existence. He cares about you so much that that which affects you,
affects Him. He is not an impersonal determiner of your fate nor an impassive
observer of your pain or your pleasure. He cares about you.
He cares about the whole creation. He cares about the twists and turns of human
history. He cares about His Kingdom, His rule present and coming. God is
engaged with us; He is engaged with the movement of history. In that
engagement, He is for us, on our side, at our side.
This has been emphasized from various angles in this series of messages. The
focus today is on the personal dimension of God's relationship to us. The message
is a personal address to you. God cares for you. He enters into healing closeness
with His people. He is our Ally.
The text is from the first letter of Peter - a simple, concise imperative with a
beautiful promise Cast all your anxieties on him (the imperative);
For he cares about you (the promise).
Let us begin with the promise declared in the text: God cares about you.
That simple declaration contains a whole world and life view of things. It is a faith
statement. It affirms a total perspective on the cosmos, history and human
© Grand Valley State University
�The God Who Cares
Richard A. Rhem
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existence. It is a statement about the nature of God and the meaning of life. All of
that is embraced in the promise of our text that God cares about you.
Let me remind you of the place we left off in the last message - the watershed of
faith decision - There is No one, or There is Someone.
Both alternatives, as I indicated last week, are faith decisions. If you want to
study the question in depth, I would refer you to Hans Küng's great study on the
question of God in the thought of the last two centuries, Does God Exist? Küng
cites one of the leading logicians and epistemologists of our time, Wolfgang
Stegmuller, who asserts:
The academic expert, concentrated on his special field (mathematics,
history, natural science,) does not like to be told that basic assumptions of
his thinking are metaphysical in character; the metaphysician does not
like to be told that his mental activity rests en a prerational, premordial
decision; philosophers of all types - apart from skeptics - do not like to be
told that the kinds of skepticism that are to be taken seriously are
irrefutable; and skeptics themselves, of all shades, do not like to admit
that they cannot prove their standpoint. Such a complex assessment more
or less provokes the indignant protest: "This cannot possibly be your last
word. One way or another, there must be a solution of some kind." To
which I can only reply: "The solution is in your hands, at any time. Make
up your mind. Decide." (Metaphysik, Skepsis, Wissenschift, pp. 1-2)
Without belaboring this point, I do think it is important for us who have decided
to believe in God to know that one can also decide not to believe in God, but in
both cases it is a faith decision. We are the people who have decided to believe in
God. Thus we have Someone, not No one. That is a fundamental life decision.
But having made that fundamental decision, we still have to determine the nature
of the "Someone" to whom we look and before whom we bow.
Stoicism appeared in Greece in the Fourth Century B.C. and continued to find
expression into the Roman period into the Second Century A.D. At its center, it
was Pantheistic, believing that God was the principle of Reason that permeated
all reality. The Cosmos was a vast machine grinding on its way according to the
Divine Logos, the Divine Rationality. The individual found his peace in bowing to
his fate. At the heart of things was not a heart, but a principle of reason,
impersonal, unfeeling, untouched by the pain and pleasure of humankind. We
might call this view of things fatalistic because whatever will be, will be. The
world was not seen as capricious and arbitrary; it was moving rationally, but
without a Personal Center. Perhaps we could say there was Something, but not
Someone.
Stoicism produced strong persons. We still use the term "stoic" to describe
someone who bears unflinchingly life's adversity. A dash of stoicism would do us
© Grand Valley State University
�The God Who Cares
Richard A. Rhem
Page 3
all good. However, we must recognize here a world and life view which teaches
fortitude in the face of whatever happens because of a belief in a cosmic
determinism, a universe permeated by a divine principle but wholly indifferent to
the human cry, be it an anguished prayer or a joyful exclamation.
Sometimes we understand a teaching best by setting it in contrast to another. Our
text makes a great claim, which is quite different from the stoic view which says
that at the heart of things is not Someone, but Something – an impersonal
principle of Reason.
Our text claims that at the heart of things is not Something, but Someone - a
loving, gracious Presence. He cares about you.
Care is an interesting word. Henri Nouwen in his meditation, Out Of Solitude,
points out the ambivalence of the word. For example, if one says, "I will take care
of him!" it is probably the announcement of an impending attack rather than an
expression of tender compassion - but it could be either.
The word "care" has also come to be used as an expression of apathy and
indifference. "I don't care." Given various alternatives, one may simply shrug
one's shoulders and say, "I don't care." That may mean all alternatives are equally
satisfactory, but the "I don't care" usage has come to mean not infrequently "I'm
really not interested in any alternative - it doesn't matter to me."
But, as Nouwen points out, care in its original and deepest sense has nothing to
do with indifference and apathy and certainly not with belligerence. The root of
care is in the Gothic, Kara meaning “lament.” He writes:
The basic meaning of care is: to grieve, to experience sorrow, to cry out
with. (p. 340
Nouwen declares,
I am very much struck by this background of the word care because we
tend to look at caring as an attitude of the strong toward the weak, of the
powerful toward the powerless ... we feel quite uncomfortable with an
invitation to enter into someone's pain before doing something about it.
(p. 34)
Yet, he continues, who really helps us? What kinds of persons make a difference?
Is it not, Nouwen asks,
Those who, instead of giving much advice, solutions, cures, have chosen
rather to share our pain and touch our wounds with a gentle and tender
hand. The friend who can be silent with us in a moment of despair or
confusion, who can stay with us in an hour of grief and bereavement, who
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Richard A. Rhem
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can tolerate not-knowing, not-curing, not-healing and face with us the
reality of our powerlessness, that is the friend who cares. (Ibid.)
Thus the friend who cares is not the one with the ready solution, the quick fix, the
explanation for it all, but precisely the one who is present with us, present to us,
owning his own powerlessness and lack of simple answers. To be present with
another in their pain is often avoided and evaded by us. Nouwen is quite right
when he says,
Our tendency is to run away from the painful realities or to try to change
them as soon as possible. But cure without care makes us into rulers,
controllers, manipulators, and perverts a real community from taking
shape. (p. 36)
Nouwen is speaking about human community, human caring, but what he says of
the horizontal relationship, person-to-person, sheds great light on the care of
God for His people. Our text affirms, "He cares about you." That contains a
whole world and life view; that claims there is Someone; that Someone cares.
That care is the opposite of apathy and indifference. That care is not manipulative
and controlling. That care is a loving, gracious Presence with us in the pain and
pleasure of our human existence.
Many times we might wish that the God Who cares about us would show His
hand, intervene, demonstrably move things around to fix matters for us. We
would like God to be a manipulator, controlling things from His throne room
beyond the ambiguity of history's drama. A not infrequent cry of anguish is, "Why
don't you do something?"
The people to whom Peter wrote were enduring persecution and knew great
suffering and hardship. I am sure they would not have been offended at God's
moving in on their situation even if it did infringe on the arena of freedom He
carved out for the drama of history.
But just here the insight Nouwen shares on the nature of care illumines the care
of God for His people.
To cure without care is to do violence to the subject of the cure. That is not God's
mode of operation. He cares; that means He grieves, experiences sorrow, cries
out with. Speaking of Jesus who is the reflection of the heart of God, the writer to
the Hebrews says,
For we have not a high priest who cannot be touched with the feeling of
our infirmities… (4:15)
Stated positively: He is touched. He is affected by that which affects us.
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Richard A. Rhem
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Again, let me stress that our text contains a fundamental world and life view.
There is not No one, but Someone; not Something, but Someone; not a
manipulative controller, but a loving, gracious Presence.
M. Scott Peck is a psychiatrist. He wrote a book in 1978 entitled, The Road Less
Traveled. In that book he speaks of God and of Grace, although at the time he
was not consciously a Christian. The response to the book made him examine the
Christian Faith and he received baptism. He begins his book with the
straightforward statement,
Life is difficult.
He claims that most of us do not recognize this fact, but rather,
... moan more or less incessantly, noisily or subtly, about the enormity of
their problems, their burdens, and their difficulties as if life were generally
easy, as if life should be easy. (p. 15)
He writes about the disciplines by which the array of problems life presents can
be handled. He writes about Love and Growth and Religion and then, in the final
quarter of the book, he writes about Grace. His insights are so fascinating because
he came to them from long experience as a psychotherapist. From his experience
He came to believe in
a powerful force originating outside of human consciousness which
nurtures the spiritual growth of human beings. (p. 260)
The religious, he explains, ascribe the origins of this grace to God. He calls the
force love, but then asks where love comes from and his answer is from God.
To explain the miracles of grace and evolution, we hypothesize the
existence of a God who wants us to grow - a God who loves us. To many
this hypothesis seems too simple, too easy, too much like fantasy; childlike
and naive. But what else do we have? (p. 269)
I cannot develop here the extended argument of Peck and his purpose is different
from mine in this message. But his final word expresses vividly what I would
express from our text and I find it fascinating that the truth of the text coincides
with the data gathered by a contemporary psychiatrist prior to his conscious
Christian commitment. He writes,
The fact that there exists beyond ourselves and our conscious will a
powerful force that nurtures our growth and evolution is enough to turn
our notions of self-insignificance topsy-turvy. For the existence of this
force (once we perceive it) indicates with incontrovertible certainty that
our human spiritual growth is of the utmost to something greater than
ourselves. This something we call God. The existence of grace is prima
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Richard A. Rhem
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facie evidence not only of the reality of God but also of the reality that
God's will is devoted to the growth of the individual human spirit. What
once seemed to be a fairy tale turns out to be the reality. We live our lives
in the eye of God, and not at the periphery but at the center of His vision,
His concern. It is probably that the universe as we know it is but a simple
stepping-stone toward the entrance to the Kingdom of God. (p. 312)
Again, Peck's purposes are different in his book than mine in this message, but
his discovery of that positive, nurturing force from beyond ourselves – in a word,
his discovery of grace – is the heart of that reality to which the text points.
God cares about you. That means that Reality is benevolent. That means that in
the human experience with joy and sorrow, victory and defeat, agony and ecstasy,
there is a loving, gracious Presence that undergirds us, overshadows us, nurtures
and sustains us.
The text contains this promise: God cares about you.
The text contains an imperative: Cast your anxieties upon him.
We could translate this directive with the word "cares", thus achieving a beautiful
parallelism, Cast your cares ... He cares...
The words in the Greek language are not the same, however, just as their
meanings are not the same in English. The "cares" of the first part of the text are
anxieties, worries; it refers to anxious caring, the exercise in futility in which we
all engage when we worry about things beyond our control.
The Greek word Merimna comes from a verbal root which means "to divide."
Anxiety distracts and divides the mind so that there can be no peace of mind, no
wholeness. The instruction of the text then is to take those matters, which are
eating away at us like an acid dissolving our peace and serenity, and handle them
up and throw on God. The tense of the verb to cast is aorist in Greek, which
speaks of a single decisive action. Clearly, Peter is pointing to a conscious,
deliberate action. The problem with anxiety is that it is a vague dis-ease whose
cause (or causes) are not always readily apparent. Peter would counsel us to set
down and determine to the extent possible what it is that is jabbing away at our
peace of mind, what it is that is "eating away" at us. Once determined, "pitch it,"
turn it over to God.
Such an imperative is found elsewhere in Scripture. The Psalmist's word is
perhaps being cited here by Peter:
Cast your burden on the Lord, and he will sustain you. (Psalm 55:22)
Jesus, in the Sermon on the Mount, taught us,
© Grand Valley State University
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Richard A. Rhem
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... put away anxious thoughts ...
...do not be anxious about tomorrow ... (Matthew 6:25, 34)
St. Paul wrote,
…have no anxiety, but in everything make your requests known to God in
prayer and petition with thanksgiving. Then the peace of God, which is
beyond our utmost understanding will keep guard over your hearts and
your thoughts, in Christ Jesus. (Philippians 4: 6-7)
Of course, the fact that these biblical references can be lined up does not make
the accomplishment of the action any easier. Indeed, just the bold imperative,
"Stop worrying!" can increase anxiety and we must be sensitive when dealing
with others caught up in anxious care that we do not add to the load of their care,
guilt because they are worrying and not trusting.
But this message has as its aim to point to the possibility of peace of mind and a
restful heart not simply by offering the imperative, "Cast your anxiety on him,"
but by lifting up the promise that grounds the imperative, namely, "because He
cares about you."
The imperative calls for a conscious, deliberate action - a decision. But it is not an
act in isolation, but an action on the basis of a new vision of reality.
That is why I began with the promise rather than the imperative even though that
reverses the order of the text. If once the promise sinks into our minds and filters
down to our hearts, then we begin to see reality as it is; then we gain a
fundamental insight into the nature of God, of human existence, of the meaning
of the world and history. Then we begin to glimpse the Truth that we are
undergirded, overshadowed, loved and graced.
Then we can realize that life is difficult but precisely in the difficulties of life we
are being spiritually trained and disciplined, prepared for a fuller, richer
existence here and now and for fullness of life in the presence of the Eternal God.
The imperative then becomes a real possibility for all of us once we see the truth
of our situation. Then we can act on the text and turn our cares into prayers.
We are not alone. We are not shut up to our own resources and ingenuity. There
is Someone. That Someone cares about us. His is a loving, gracious Presence.
Communion is invited. Conversation is natural. Our cares become prayers and
the consequence of prayer is peace.
Prayer is not talking to one's self. It is conversation with Someone Who cares,
that is, Who is present to us, present with us, in tune, in touch, feeling what we
feel.
© Grand Valley State University
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Richard A. Rhem
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A Methodist Bishop of the last century, Bishop Quayle, tells of a time he sat up
into the night worrying about the Church. There were so many cares that weighed
down that he could not sleep, but simply sat there exhausted, full of anxiety. Then
he says it was as if a voice spoke, the voice of God, saying,
"You can go to bed now, Quayle, I'll sit up the rest of the night."
Have you ever known such a moment when the load of care was suddenly
lightened in the presence of God's loving, gracious presence? Such a moment can
change one's life forever.
We have heard the promise. We have heard the imperative.
Let me close with the prelude to both. Peter enjoins those to whom he wrote who
were in the heat of battle:
Humble yourselves…under God’s mighty hand, and he will lift you up in
due time. (I Peter 5: 6)
That is the key. Have you humbled yourself under God's mighty hand? That is
often where the battle lies. Life can be cruel and tragic and sometimes it is like
swimming through asphalt, but we think we have to do it on our own. With
Henley in his poem of defiant independence we may be "bloodied, but unbowed."
We make it so difficult for ourselves. We fret and grow frustrated, struggle and
complain and just when we think we have made it, the bottom falls out or it all
goes up in smoke.
Why do we fight the God Who is our Ally? Why do we flee that gracious Presence?
Why do we resist yielding to Him Whose service is perfect freedom, Whose
fellowship is perfect peace?
Dorothea Day took Henley's poem and wrote its counterpoint:
Out of the light that dazzles me,
Bright as the sun from pole to pole,
I thank the God I know to be
For Christ - the Conqueror of my soul.
Since His the sway of circumstance
I would not wince, nor cry aloud.
Under that rule which men call chance,
My head, with joy, is humbly bowed.
The outcome of such humbling of oneself beneath the mighty hand of God is a
sense of freedom and release, a sense of being undergirded, overshadowed. Then
one moves on taking life one day at a time, tending to those things that are within
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Richard A. Rhem
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one's competency and leaving to God the major issues which all the anxiety in the
world cannot alter or control anyway. And you approach life with confidence,
from a position of strength, knowing that the God of all grace, Who called you
into His eternal glory in Christ, will Himself, after your brief suffering, restore,
establish and strengthen you on a firm foundation.
Therefore - To Him be the dominion forever and ever. Amen.
Amen, indeed, so let it be. The Truth is simply this:
God is our Ally.
He cares about you!
Therefore, humble yourself.
Cast your anxieties on Him and rest in His loving, gracious Presence.
References:
Henri Nouwen. Out Of Solitude. Notre Dame: Ave Maria Press, 1974.
M. Scott Peck. The Road Less Traveled: A New Psychology of Love, Traditional
Values and Spiritual Growth. Touchstone, 1978.
© Grand Valley State University
�
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Richard A. Rhem Collection
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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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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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1981-2014
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Event
Pentecost XII
Series
God Our Ally
Scripture Text
I Peter 5:7, 10
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Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI
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Henri Nouwen, Out of Solitude, 1974
M. Scott Peck, The Road Less Traveled, 1978
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1985-08-18
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The God Who Cares
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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>
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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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A sermon given by Richard A. Rhem (Dick) on August 18, 1985 entitled "The God Who Cares", as part of the series "God Our Ally", on the occasion of Pentecost XII, at Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI. Scripture references: I Peter 5:7, 10.
Community of Grace
Faith
Love
Meaning
Nature of God
Peter
Presence of God
-
https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/6e4de325402d055e6ed77eff021b2c5a.mp3
4a14fb17f2ecbf7266b15654afd2f018
https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/2a2d8d04182d17b23768b45076643285.pdf
62e56675421ea4018ec860055476ac46
PDF Text
Text
The Worship of God: The Healing of Persons
Text: Psalm 73:16-17
Richard A. Rhem
Christ Community Church
Spring Lake, Michigan
June 19, 1988
Transcription of the spoken sermon
But when I thought how to understand this, it seemed to me a wearisome task,
until I went into the sanctuary of God; there I saw clearly... Psalm 73:16-17
We all love a good fairy tale, children and adults, as well. Perhaps that is because
fairy tales are true. The story comes out right: the good prosper, the wicked are
wasted. Maybe something in the depths of our being responds to that because
something in us knows that is the way it ought to be, should be - will be.
But, the fairy tale is true only if one takes the long-range view; only if God is God,
Sovereign, working God's eternal purposes out, purposes of love and grace and
salvation, bringing about finally a Kingdom in which dwells righteousness and
peace - Shalom.
In the short range, the fairy tale is just that - a fairy tale, meaning a fantasy world
quite out of sync with the real world. In the short range, things do not work out
right – everyone does not live happily ever after. In the short range, one cannot
find the working out of justice, fairness and equity. And if one’s peace of mind
and happiness and wellbeing are dependent upon life being fair and all things
working out in an equitable fashion, one will have slight chance of arriving at
inward peace and joy and rest of soul.
Life is not fair.
There is no justice within the span of a person's existence. No amount of research
on actual, concrete, human stories will demonstrate that things work out right
according to our human standards of what is fair and just. And that is a cause of
much human suffering and anguish. It leads to one of the most serious and
debilitating diseases of the human spirit - cynicism, bitterness, caused by envy
and self-pity.
A cynical and bitter spirit smoldering with jealousy and self-pity has a corrosive
effect on the human spirit; it is to have an acid eating away at one's soul; it is a
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Richard A. Rhem
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source of constant inward pain which is often assuaged by growing callouses on
the soul, hardening oneself against feelings -feelings of joy and sorrow, of
depression and exaltation.
Cynicism is the sneering attitude that denies the sincerity or goodness of human
motives. It is the tendency to criticize and find fault. It flows from one generally
embittered with life, disillusioned with the way things have turned out. Unless it
is checked, such bitterness will become a permanent hardness of heart resistant
to trust, to joy, to spontaneity in any form. It is a kind of spiritual deadness.
There is perhaps no more vivid portrayal of human experience struggling with
cynical loss of faith and embitterment of spirit than Psalm 73. The Psalmist sets
the record straight at the beginning.
Truly God is good to Israel, to those who are pure in heart.
That is both his conclusion and his premise. He can begin that way because he
has passed through the fires of doubt and struggle and has come to affirm his
trust in God, renewed only after great and painful wrestling with life experience.
Brueggemann comments:
Verse 1 sets the premise for the Psalm, which is also its conclusion. But it
is a different statement when it is conclusion than when it is premise.
When it is premise, it may be taken as pre-hurt, pre-doubt, pre-anguish. It
is then a buoyant statement of naiveté. But as a conclusion, the affirmation
is on the other side of hurt, doubt and anguish. While the words may be
the same, they now bear different freight. Now the unuttered words of
resentment have been uttered. Now the unthinkable thoughts of hostility
have been thought. ... Psalm 73 is an assault on any naive faith. It arrives
tortuously at a second, knowing naiveté. (The Message of the Psalms, p.
116)
Having stated his premise, which is also his conclusion, the Psalmist goes on
candidly to confess that he almost went over the brink, losing his grip on this
fundamental conviction of faith. He writes:
My feet had almost slipped, my foothold had all but given way.
He then goes on to detail his bitter experience of doubt, his dark night of the soul
as he questioned the moral structure of life and the knowledge and care of God.
He speaks vividly, in graphic terms of how everything appeared to him during his
time of intense struggle.
We must recognize immediately that in the midst of his personal torment his
vision is blurred and his judgment warped. He gives us a very distorted view of
things. According to him, the careless, the godless prosper, experience no pain,
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Richard A. Rhem
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no suffering, are strangers to trouble and trial. They grow wealthy, enjoy good
health. They are proud, violent and full of scorn.
Is the picture overdrawn? Probably.
The world is not really divided into two camps, one a camp of white hats, the
other a camp of black hats. To divide the world into the righteous and the wicked
is a bit too simple, too neat. Certainly it is too simplistic for a congregation that
prints on its bulletin week after week the statement of Hans Küng:
The front between the world and God's rule, between good and evil, runs
right through the church, right through the heart of the individual.
Evil is much more subtle and entwines itself in the lives of us all.
This is not to say that there is no difference in people. Certainly there are those
whose lives reflect a commitment to truth, righteousness, justice. There are those,
as well, who seek their own advantage at whatever human cost to another and
with total disregard for what is right and true.
Nonetheless, especially in the Church we need to resist the too simple division of
persons into categories of righteous and wicked. But for the purpose of the
Psalmist's story, it is not so important whether reality reflected what he perceived
or not. The fact is this is the way he felt. This is how it looked to him.
We are indebted to this singer of Israel for revealing his soul to us. He was deeply
hurting. He was angry at the world. He was angry at God. We have been there,
too. And it is helpful to know that this kind of experience is not foreign to God's
people.
The Old Testament is especially healthy in this regard. They stormed heaven with
their wounded spirits and called the Almighty to account. There was no pious
masking of their true feelings. The Psalmist is not the only Old Testament figure
that stormed the citadel of Heaven crying out to God, “How come?”
I wonder what it was that was really rankling the Psalmist. Had he worked hard,
done his best, dealt honestly and lived with integrity, only to have the bottom fall
out of the economy and watch his life's work dribble away? Or had he risked
everything to help a friend, only to have the friend turn on him? Was he
disappointed in love? Did his children prove ungrateful? Had he just learned of a
terminal disease which would soon cut him off?
The particulars are unimportant. Life has more than enough trouble and
heartache to go around and the stuff of which the Psalmist's pain was made is
almost without limit because we can set it down as a fundamental truth of human
experience – Life is not fair.
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Richard A. Rhem
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Having admitted that, I want to make a point of application right here; granted,
life is not fair, but
Pain perverts perspective.
If we could learn that well, it would save us much angry bitterness. As we said
above, the Psalmist's view of things was warped, distorted, but this is what he was
feeling. Happy the person who before the crisis promises himself he will make no
world-encompassing generalizations in the midst of his anguish, because, again,
Pain perverts perspective.
Can we understand? Certainly. Have we been there? Most of us, at some time.
But, it can be helpful to recognize ahead of time that how we feel and how things
appear when we are hurting is not a true reflection of reality.
Pain perverts perspective.
When people are in crisis it does not help to try to correct their vision. It does
little good to assure them that “This, too, will pass.” When someone is pouring
out their grief and anguish, just let it come; absorb it; feel it with them. That is
not the time for a brilliant discourse or “a true perspective on Reality.”
However, we can help ourselves be prepared for crisis times if we come to realize
that
Pain perverts perspective.
The Psalmist has already given us his strong affirmation of faith and so obviously
something happened to turn him around. He tells us in verse 16. He had been
quite overcome with his completely negative perception of life. He says,
I set myself to think this out but found it too hard for me, until I went into
God's sacred courts; there I saw clearly what their end would be.
The Psalmist learned the secret of the sanctuary. There, in the presence of God, in
the posture of worship, he gained a new perspective. He found that
Worship is healing.
To make that statement calls for immediate clarification. I am not suggesting that
the primary purpose or focus of our worship is our personal healing. We worship
God. We celebrate the grace of God in response to God's revealing of an eternal
saving purpose, a plan for the establishing of a Kingdom in which dwells
righteousness and justice and peace.
© Grand Valley State University
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Richard A. Rhem
Page 5
But with that being granted, it is also important to understand the reflexive effect
of our worship - to see how the action of worship has a healing effect on the one
who worships.
The Psalmist says, “ Life was too painful for me; I tried to think it through and I
could not. Then I went into the sanctuary -then I understood.”
In fairness to the text, I should let the whole statement be heard:
... Then I saw clearly what their end would be.
One could hear this as a rather mean satisfaction that “the wicked” will get theirs
and maybe there is some of that operating here. It is a rare person that takes no
satisfaction in the fall of another, particularly if one has been infected with the
disease of bitterness and has wallowed in self-pity.
But even if that is true, there is the discovery here of a fundamental truth about
God and human destiny which is the bedrock of biblical faith. The perspective of
the sanctuary enabled the Psalmist to take the long view and to see that, although
there is no justice in the short run, there is certainly a coming round of all things
in the long run. Within the stream of history there is no possibility of seeing
things whole. It is only in the posture of worship, in the presence of God that one
is able to trust the process, trust the good and gracious and sovereign Lord of
History to effect the promised Kingdom and bring Shalom.
But, beyond the new insight, beyond a renewed vision of God's eternal purpose,
the Psalmist found a Presence. The Presence of God, the God of Abraham, Isaac
and Jacob, the God of Moses and the Exodus, the God of Covenant, the God of
grace and steadfast love, the faithful God. In the sanctuary, in worship, the
Psalmist experienced communion with God.
It is in the gaining of new insight and the experience of communion with God
that healing happens!
Look at the Psalmist's expression of where he was before he worshipped:
My heart was embittered.
I felt pangs of envy,
I would not understand, so brutish was I.
I was a mere beast in thy sight, O God.
Now there was insight - not only on human experience in time and space, but also
self-awareness, self-knowledge, understanding of the paralysis of spirit caused by
his envy, cynicism and bitterness.
The world did not change. Circumstances did not change. The one who
worshipped was changed.
© Grand Valley State University
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Richard A. Rhem
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I went into the sanctuary, there I saw clearly.
Thus we have a vivid statement of intense spiritual anguish and suffering and its
cure – going to church! Perhaps that sounds naive. But it is, of course, more than
going to church. It is the experience of worship. The effect of worship on the
worshipper is the healing of the person.
Do we approach the worship of God with such high expectation? Do we recognize
how crucial is the worship of God for the health of our being?
What a strange situation is Sunday morning! Karl Barth describes it vividly in one
of his early essays - the building, the appointments, the songs, the prayers, the
preaching - all of them “saying” more than they say; all of them pointing beyond
themselves to another; all of them crying out, “God is here!”
And we come, Barth says, only half conscious of why - some out of habit, some
out of need or hope - some believing, some not - some open and sensitive, some
hardened by much hard experience. But, we come. And consciously or
unconsciously we come with the burning question, “Is it true?” “Is God God?” “Is
it true?”
Is there reason to hope?
Is there life in the end?
Will grace and truth triumph?
Will there break a dawn which shall know no setting sun?
That's why we come.
And all we do here is in order to lift our lives into the presence of the One Whose
grace will touch us and Whose light will give us light and hope and heal us.
Come, then. Come prayerfully. Come with heart prepared, open, ready to be
encountered. Come and worship, for worship puts us in touch with God.
The wrenching questions are not answered, but there is a Presence.
Yet I am always with thee;
Thou holdest my right hand;
Thou dost guide me by thy counsel
and afterwards will receive me with glory.
Whom have I in heaven but thee?
And having thee, I desire nothing else on earth.
And then he makes this very beautiful expression of absolute trust.
My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and
my portion for ever.
© Grand Valley State University
�The Worship of God: The Healing of Persons
Richard A. Rhem
Page 7
The Psalmist learned to trust when faith came hard. He worshiped and worship
puts us in touch with God. In touch with God. As prayers are offered, hymns are
sung, the Word is proclaimed, trust replaces agonizing doubt, peace mantles my
heart, peace that passes understanding. That is, peace I cannot rationally explain,
but peace I experience.
In the sanctuary, in the posture of worship, the picture clarifies, my perverted
perspective gives way to new perspective; as I worship, I get in touch with God
Who has come close to us in the flesh of Jesus. Reality and truth break in on me. I
see beyond the chaos a larger screen, a heart and purpose of love, a thread of
meaning.
Surely in the awful tragedy and intense suffering that is the daily lot of so many it
must seem that God is dead or worse still, that He doesn't know; that He doesn't
care. But in His Presence, I know He knows, I know He cares.
Here I hear the story again of His own deep plunge into the depths of our
suffering, His own embracing of the worst of our darkness in Jesus, His Son. In
the sanctuary I see the cross and I am reminded that God suffers, too; that God
was crucified with Jesus on the cross; that the heart of the Eternal breaks with
the weight of human sin, rebellion and violence.
In touch with God, I sense that history with its terrible woes and awful suffering
is not all there is; that death and defeat will not have the final say; that the God
Who has joined us in our darkness will finally make some sense out of this
senseless suffering; will yet effect His purposes and cause love to prevail and
peace to be the final word.
In worship, in communing with God, I am healed. I see clearly. I trust. I rest in
the abyss of God's love. Now I can go on.
Amen.
© Grand Valley State University
�
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
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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
The topic of the resource
Clergy--Michigan
Reformed Church in America
Christ Community Church (Spring Lake, Mich.)
Religion
Interfaith worship
Sermons
Sound Recordings
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Rhem, Richard A.
Source
A related resource from which the described resource is derived
<a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/514">Richard A. Rhem papers (KII-01)</a>
Publisher
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Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives.
Contributor
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Kaufman Interfaith Institute
Rights
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<a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a>
Language
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English
Type
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Sound
Text
Identifier
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KII-01
Coverage
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1981-2014
Format
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audio/mp3
text/pdf
Sound
A resource primarily intended to be heard. Examples include a music playback file format, an audio compact disc, and recorded speech or sounds.
Event
Pentecost IV
Scripture Text
Psalm 73:17
Location
The location of the interview
Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Identifier
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KII-01_RA-0-19880619
Date
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1988-06-19
Title
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The Worship of God: The Healing of Persons
Creator
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Richard A. Rhem
Publisher
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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
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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
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audio/mp3
application/pdf
Description
An account of the resource
A sermon given by Richard A. Rhem (Dick) on June 19, 1988 entitled "The Worship of God: The Healing of Persons", on the occasion of Pentecost IV, at Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI. Scripture references: Psalm 73:17.
Love
Peace
Presence of God
Suffering
Trust
Worship
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PDF Text
Text
God’s Love: A ‘Yes’ That Conquers Our ‘No’
From the Lenten sermon series: Love Story
Text: Corinthians 15:21, 22, 28
Richard A. Rhem
Christ Community Church
Spring Lake, Michigan
Easter Sunday, April 15, 1990
Transcription of the spoken sermon
Has our Lenten experience convinced us that the universal human response to
God is “No”? Have we faced the issue squarely? Have we come to see that the
crucifixion of Jesus was not an aberration, an exception to the rule of the way of
human history? Have we come to see that there is more of Caiaphas and the
dignitaries of the Sanhedrin in us, in our religious institutional selves, than of
Jesus? Have we come to see that there is more of Pilate in us, in our national
identity as Americans, than of Jesus? Have we come to see the human situation is
hopeless?
I hope so.
That is not just pulpit talk intended to beat you down. It is an honest conclusion
reached on the basis of the whole tragic tale of human history. Power politics,
coercion, oppression, injustice resulting in human suffering, helplessness, fear,
despair, the violence of terrorism perpetrated by those who have nothing to lose.
That is the human story.
In the biblical narrative, Israel’s history is not just one history among others; it is
a special history because Israel was a specially chosen people living in the light of
God’s revelation - a representative people on behalf of all people. God’s purpose
in calling Abraham and Sarah and from them forming a special people, was not to
leave the rest in their alienation and darkness, but, rather, that Israel might be a
light to the nations and that all nations might come to Mount Zion to learn God’s
Law - the Torah - the way of life.
But it was not to be. The story of God’s special relationship with Israel – the
Covenant of Grace – was the story of a broken covenant and that history ended in
deadlock, impasse. It was obvious that Israel would not be the historical
demonstration of God’s Kingdom as God intended.
© Grand Valley State University
�God’s Love: A Yes That Conquers Our No
Richard A. Rhem
Page 2
During our Lenten biblical journey we have reviewed the one story of the Bible.
In Genesis 1-11, the first section of biblical narrative dealing with the great
universal themes of creation, humankind, judgment and grace, we saw at least
once that God brought judgment and started over.
Remember the story of Noah and the Flood? Did not God begin again with
righteous Noah? But it was to no avail.
And then, as I just mentioned, the call to Abraham was a new beginning, a new
strategy, through the one to win the many. But the result was dismal.
Finally, when it seemed hopeless, God loved the world so much that God gave a
Son - Jesus. John’s Gospel has given us our series’ theme - God loved the world
so much that God gave... From the first letter of John we heard those simple and
profound words,
“God is love. And God’s love was disclosed to us in this, that God sent his
only son into the world to bring us life.”
We followed the story of Jesus which reached its climax this week past. He
entered Jerusalem amid the clamor of the Passover pilgrim crowd, hoping he
would be the national liberator, and Friday we remembered his death by
crucifixion. He had come in God’s name; he had proclaimed God’s Kingdom; he
had fully followed the will of God as he understood it, even when it was leading
inevitably to his death. He did not swerve from the course, although he pursued it
with fear and trembling.
And he died.
Jesus, the revelation of God, the one righteous person ever to live, the disclosure
of God’s radical love, crucified. Love is vulnerable and crucified in history
because history is not about love; it is about power and coercion and oppression.
Jesus was crucified.
But, that death, rather than the tragic end to a noble vision, was perceived and
proclaimed as the supreme demonstration of God’s love and in that death God’s
love is seen in all its radicality. The death of Jesus has become the proclamation
of the most radical love possible - God’s love for the ungodly, for God’s enemies.
God demonstrated His love for us in that while we were yet sinners,
Christ died for us.
But, the death of Jesus as the supreme disclosure of God’s love redeeming the
world was not evident on Good Friday. Darkness covered the earth as Jesus died,
symbolic darkness – for the crucifixion of Jesus by Jerusalem and Rome, by
Caiaphas, the High Priest, and Pilate, the Roman official, representing the whole
© Grand Valley State University
�God’s Love: A Yes That Conquers Our No
Richard A. Rhem
Page 3
world, was the final human “No” to God, to God’s way, to God’s Kingdom, to
God’s love.
If Jesus had died and only died,
if the biblical story had ended in darkness on Golgotha amid the jeering
crowd, the heart-broken disciples and women,
the anguished groaning of the victims,
then the story would be simply one more episode in human history
of goodness rejected and righteousness crucified,
of a visionary tragically cut down.
But the story did not end on Friday. After an interlude of numbness during which
the disciples cowered in fear and the faithful women awaited opportunity to do
their final loving service, God, the Source and Grace of Life, raised Jesus the
crucified to life. To the resounding human “No” God gave an even more
resounding “Yes,” and the destiny of the world was changed from darkness to
light, from death to life.
Paul put it this way as he reflected on the life, death and resurrection of Jesus in
light of the whole biblical story:
It was through one man that sin entered the world, and through sin
death, and this death pervaded the whole human race... But God’s act of
grace is out of all proportion to Adam’s wrongdoing. For if the
wrongdoing of that one man brought death upon so many, its effect is
vastly exceeded by the grace of God and the gift that came to so many by
the grace of the one man, Jesus Christ (Romans 5:12-15)
Or, to bring it to the proclamation of the event we celebrate today, the
resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, we hear the words of St. Paul in our
text taken from the Epistle, reading,
... Christ was raised to life – the first fruits of the harvest of the dead. For
since it was a man who brought death into the world, a man also brought
resurrection of the dead. As in Adam all men die, so in Christ we will be
brought to life.
Then follows Paul’s vision of what is presently occurring, Jesus, the risen,
reigning Lord, putting down the enemies of God’s Kingdom. Finally Paul affirms
this triumphant faith:
God will be everything to everyone.
Paul’s discussion of the resurrection of Jesus in I Corinthians 15 is long and
involved and I will not attempt to give a detailed analysis of it, but rather simply
concentrate on this one brief paragraph. The 20th verse is the clear, unequivocal
statement.
© Grand Valley State University
�God’s Love: A Yes That Conquers Our No
Richard A. Rhem
Page 4
But, in fact, Christ has been raised from the dead.
This is the central affirmation of Christian faith. This is what makes Christian
faith gospel – good news. That God raised Jesus from the dead is the ground of
our hope. It is the ground of our hope for the redemption of the world – for a new
world, a new day free of all that saddens us, hinders us, defeats us. In a word,
the resurrection of Jesus gives us hope in our hopelessness.
Let me run the scenario past you one more time. Established political power and
institutional religions combined to crucify Jesus who lived out in concrete human
existence the love of God. And, as we have seen from week to week throughout
the season of Lent, what happened in Jerusalem on Good Friday has happened
over and over again in human history and it is happening still today.
What will be Lithuania’s fate?
We entered this season with Allan Boesak in this pulpit in the euphoria of
breakthroughs in South Africa. Will our hopes be realized? Will our prayers be
answered for justice and peace in that land?
Will Iraq threaten the Middle East with a new wave of terror with germ warfare?
As I raise this question, and they could be multiplied, is it not obvious that as
much as we pray for peace and justice and work for the humanization of this
world, our hope must be grounded in something or Someone beyond the roller
coaster of history, beyond the fickleness of popular movements, beyond the selfserving egotism of world leaders? Must we not trust something more substantial
than the present popularity of a world leader, the cleverness of human planning,
the good will and faith of nations to treaties, world organizations such as the
United Nations? Is it not obvious that any arrangement that rests alone on
human capacity or human decency is no solid ground for human hope?
If you have followed me through the Lenten Season, you might conclude that I
am a pessimist; that I do not belong to the positive thinkers’ club. And you would
be right. I have done my best honestly to mirror the human situation, the real
historical condition and I can only conclude that the human situation in and of
itself is hopeless.
But, I am not without hope. I am rather filled with hope. But only because my
hope is in God. And my hope is in God because God raised Jesus from the dead.
When we said our final “No” to God Who visited us in Jesus, we undercut any
possibility of hope in any purely human project. And precisely at the point of our
final “No”, God uttered a resounding and irreversible “Yes”.
© Grand Valley State University
�God’s Love: A Yes That Conquers Our No
Richard A. Rhem
Page 5
God’s “Yes” conquered our “No” because God raised to life the one our “No” had
crucified. And just as God conquered death in giving Jesus life from the dead, so
God’s “Yes” proves stronger than our “No.”
As in Adam all die, so in Christ shall all be made alive.
What of our world, then? What can we expect as the drama of history goes on its
perilous way? We cannot set any dates. We cannot predict the immediate
outcome of the tensions in South Africa, the Middle East, Latin America. We
cannot foresee the consequences of the democratization of Eastern Europe or the
apparent unraveling of the Soviet Union. We pray for wellbeing. We know that, as
quickly as barriers fall and walls are torn down, new crises could develop. But we
also know that outside Jerusalem when Church and State – representative of the
whole world – crucified Jesus, God raised him up as a sign that God will not give
up on this world. With the writer of Revelation, therefore, we look for and pray
for and hope for the day when
The Kingdom of this world will become the Kingdom of our God and of
His Christ and the angelic hosts sing in chorus,
“Hallelujah! The Lord God omnipotent reigns!”
We live that vision - in hope.
But, as we gather to celebrate the resurrection of Jesus, it is not only the broad
world scene, not only the matters of cosmic dimension that press upon us,
important as those are. As we gather, we are a people who all have a story that is
being written.
For some of us it is the pain of one we love that we carry in our hearts. A daughter
calls, crying convulsively because her heart has been broken, her love betrayed
and a parent’s heart is crushed wishing somehow that he could take that pain
from her and make it all right. In the abyss of hurt and brokenness, when there
are no words to assuage the pain, wherein does one find hope to go on?
The nation was inspired by the courage and grace of Ryan White who this week
died of the AIDS virus contracted through a blood transfusion. In his dying, the
nation was galvanized in grief. And what do we say? Was that life worth the
living? Certainly. Was that life fruitful in its impact? Surely, more so in his brief
life than most of us who will live to an old age. But, is that all? Is Ryan dead and
any remainder of his life will be through the remembrance of those on whose
lives he had an impact? Is that all there is?
The question is much more poignant for some of you, for since Easter last you
have stood by the casket of one dearly loved and sorely missed. Is there now only
the memory and the void? Is dead simply dead?
© Grand Valley State University
�God’s Love: A Yes That Conquers Our No
Richard A. Rhem
Page 6
Some of us have received a serious medical diagnosis since last we gathered in
Easter joy. All of us carry within our bodies cells potentially lethal, but for some
of us at this time they are latent; for some, they are ravaging. What does one say
when one’s mortality is not simply part of the general universal reality of all
humankind, but when one is faced with one’s own personal, lonely encounter
with death? Life is a precious gift and fiercely clung to. Is there some way to relax
one’s grip or, better, to grasp with hope something made of surer stuff?
Each of us is writing her own storyline and few there be that escape the
interweaving of that tragic thread which is so ubiquitous in the human tapestry,
so dominant in the plot of our personal stories.
Wherein then lies the ground of hope? How can one escape cynicism, despair,
futility? How does one cope when faced with betrayal, brokenness, loss and the
last enemy, death itself?
For Christian faith, that ground of hope is in the God Who raised Jesus from the
dead. For Christian faith, the ground of hope is the God Who, in the text from St.
Paul,
will be everything to everyone,
because that God refuses to give up on this world; that God will never give up on
you. That God’s “Yes” was spoken on Easter morning in response to the final
human “No” spoken on Good Friday.
Who is this God?
This is the God Who loved the world so much that He gave His only son – not to
condemn the world, but that the world might be saved through him. This is the
God Who is love and Who disclosed the radical nature of that love in sending
Jesus who lived out that love so that in his life one sees into the very heart of God,
the God Who was in Christ reconciling the world to himself, going to the limit in
that while we were yet enemies, Jesus died for the ungodly, thus disclosing the
radical, unconquerable love of God.
God is love and God is writing a story, too; it is a love story, a story of an amazing
love that simply will not be turned away, a love that will never let up, a love that
will never let you go. Whoever you are, wherever you are coming from –
returned on Easter from a long dropout,
cynical in general, but find the music and flowers inviting,
despairing, almost going under,
hoping against hope,
seeking, longing to believe –
© Grand Valley State University
�God’s Love: A Yes That Conquers Our No
Richard A. Rhem
Page 7
God loves you and God would write you into the script of the love story He is
writing. God offers you life, having promised through Jesus Christ forgiveness,
peace, joy and the assurance that you will be kept by God’s power now and
forever.
God has spoken a “Yes” that conquers our “No.”
I invite you to say “Yes” to the God Who has said “Yes” to you through Jesus
Christ our Lord.
© 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
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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
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
Easter Sunday
Series
Love Story
Scripture Text
I Corinthians 15:21, 22, 28
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-0-19900415
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1990-04-15
Title
A name given to the resource
God's Love: A "Yes" That Conquers Our "No"
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Richard A. Rhem
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
<a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a>
Subject
The topic of the resource
Clergy--Michigan
Reformed Church in America
Christ Community Church (Spring Lake, Mich.)
Sermons
Relation
A related resource
Richard A. Rhem - An Archive of Sermons, Prayers, Talks and Stories: http://richardrhem.org/
Language
A language of the resource
eng
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Sound
Text
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
audio/mp3
application/pdf
Description
An account of the resource
A sermon given by Richard A. Rhem (Dick) on April 15, 1990 entitled "God's Love: A "Yes" That Conquers Our "No"", as part of the series "Love Story", on the occasion of Easter Sunday, at Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI. Scripture references: I Corinthians 15:21, 22, 28.
Easter Sunday
Forgiveness
Love
Resurrection
Transformation
Universal Grace
-
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0de8f44af70f1f599749585a5301089e
https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/993a0284743ca0a1602d753c2b69aca6.pdf
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PDF Text
Text
Observing Sabbath: Celebrating Grace and Freedom
From the series: The Sacramental Character of the Church
Text: Deuteronomy 5:15; Colossians 2:20
Richard A. Rhem
Christ Community Church
Spring Lake, Michigan
Pentecost VI, July 19, 1992
Transcription of the spoken sermon
Remember that you were a slave ... and the Lord your God brought you out ...
Deuteronomy 5:15
If with Christ you died ... why do you live as if you still belonged to the world?
Colossians 2:20
The call to Israel to observe the Sabbath is contained within what we call the Ten
Commandments: the Law. Sometimes the first five books of the Old Testament
are called the Law. But that translation, “Law,” is really inaccurate in terms of
conveying how Israel received that teaching. Torah was the word. The first five
books were the Torah. Torah means “a way of life,” and Israel received that word
as a gracious gift of God, an invitation to fullness of life, a way in which life could
be lived most richly, and human potential realized most fully. But because the call
to observe Sabbath is in what we call the Ten Commandments, the Law, there has
always been that tendency among us to legalize that command as though it had a
kind of compelling compulsion about it that forced us into a ritual of servants and
we often failed, I think, to sense the gracious gift that was the Sabbath.
The original Ten Commandments, is in the book of Exodus, the 20th chapter.
There, as we noted last week, Israel was called to observe Sabbath in order to
recall week by week the creative act of God, in order to be reminded one day in
seven, in order to have their being permeated with the realization that the whole
world was alive with the life of God, to understand that the whole reality was to
be viewed as a sacrament, as a source of knowledge and a cause for worship, that
the world, what we call nature, the cosmic expanse, was to be received as a means
of grace.
It is only in the last couple of hundred years, in the wake of the Enlightenment,
that we have spoken about nature as something over against us and as a kind of
self-contained reality that could exist on its own. The breakthroughs in scientific
understanding and technological advance have tended to reduce nature to a
realm out there, as though it had independent status and was a self-contained
© Grand Valley State University
�Observing Sabbath; Celebrating Grace Richard A. Rhem
Page 2
existence. How many hours haven’t we argued fruitlessly about whether or not
there is such a thing as a miracle? Have you ever been in a heated discussion
about whether or not “prayer changes things?” I think that those very questions
are the wrong questions. They propose a model in which there is the whole realm
of nature, with God out there somewhere, having to break in. We speak of
intervention, breaking in, as though all of this kind of exists on its own and now
and then, on occasion, here and there, God drops in but, if God would be
involved, would impact, would influence, God must come as permeating, as
breathing in, as the life of the cosmos being the consequence of the breath of God.
“You breathe and give them life,” said the psalmist.
The last couple of hundred years in modern culture we have lost that sense of the
world as Sacramental. Israel was called to pause at the end of every week, to stop,
to look, to listen and to delight in creation as the gracious work of the good and
gracious God; to rest, to let go, to cease their ceaseless striving and struggle, their
desire to control and to manipulate; to give them a sense that they were not after
all indispensable for the sustaining of all things. God is quite able to keep the
planet in motion and the stars in the sky. God is beyond us; God is in us, with us
and in all things so that all things must become a Sacrament that points us to
God. To stop on Sabbath and smell the roses and luxuriate in the prodigal
goodness of God who made the world, whose intention is for us to live in the
world as if it were a Garden of Eden, a place of delight - that is the call of Sabbath.
In a wonderful essay entitled “On Common Prayer,” Catherine Madsen makes the
point that there is a holiness there - there! It is a given. She makes the point that
holiness, that otherness, is in us intimately, permeating every atom of our body.
God can’t abandon us. God is with us, in us, permeating the whole of reality,
holding all things together. And then she goes on to make this wonderful
connection to that sense of God that haunts us whether we name God or not. That
presence of God that permeates us whether we are conscious or not is that which
gives rise to unrest and the dream of redemption.
She writes that “there is something that loves you in the world. ...there is
something that loves you in the world.” A voice that speaks to you within, in the
worst despair, is not different than the voice that called the world into being.
What makes your body give off heat? It is the same fire that sleeps in the rocks
and is changed from light into matter by the plants. The fire that lights the sun
and the other stars. Holiness is there and there is “something out there in the
world that loves you,” and the world is a means of grace if we would pause to take
it in, to give heed, to pay attention with a kind of regular, rhythmic discipline.
Observance of the Sabbath – resting, pausing long enough to dream another
dream, and to allow our imagination to connect us with that which is not simply
beyond us but is woven into the very fabric of our being.
But that raises a question for us. There is something that loves you out there in
the world - how would one name that love? God created the heavens and the
© Grand Valley State University
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earth, and so nature is not some independent existence but is in-breathed by the
breath of God. But God is not only the God of our space, but the God of our time.
Israel was called to observe Sabbath in Exodus 20 to be reminded of the spatial
dimension of its home in God. But in the second giving of the Law, in the book of
Deuteronomy in the 5th chapter, the verses we read a moment ago, Israel is
called to observe Sabbath - not to remember creation, but to remember its
liberation from Egyptian slavery. There God calls Israel to remember the
Sabbath, to observe the Sabbath in order to be reminded one day in seven that
they were slaves one time and God set them free. The God of creation is the God
of covenant faithfulness. The God of creation is the God of redemption. The
something that loves you out there in the world – that which is intrinsic in the
very fabric of reality – has a name and a face. It is a God who is for us, who would
always liberate and set us free, the God who is gracious and who is on the side of
God’s people.
And so Israel was called every seventh day to stop, to rest and to worship. And in
that pause, in that oasis at the end of the week, to have its perspective shaped
once again. To know that it lives in the environment, the spatial expanse brought
forth by the Word of God, and that it lived as a people graced by the God that
would set all humankind free.
The God of Creation. The God of Redemption. And we can see how Israel
annually in its Passover Feast celebrated that release from bondage, from the
slavery in Egypt – but not only annually in the Passover Feast, but every Sabbath.
Every week in the rhythm of labor and liturgy, in the rhythm of work and worship
it was called to remember and to hope. God is not only the God of creation, but
the God of history, the God of our time. So Israel was called always to remember
that the God of its past would be the God of its future, and Israel was the one who
gave to the world a whole sense of history - of movement.
The ancient Eastern cultures lived in the eternal cycle of the coming and return.
Israel gave to the world the idea of a beginning, and an end, and a meantime, and
in its festival celebrations, it remembered and it hoped. It had already received
and it had a promise of more to come, and it lived always in that remembering
and hoping. Christian worship is patterned obviously on that as well, for we are a
people who come together weekly. We celebrate one great central event, when
God raised Jesus Christ from the dead. We celebrate on the first day of the week
because on the first day of the week God raised Jesus from the dead. We call the
first day of the week the Lord’s Day. And we come together, not only on Easter
Sunday to celebrate the Resurrection, but we come together Sunday by Sunday by
Sunday, because every Sunday is a little Easter. Even the Sundays in the season of
Lent are not Lenten days, they are Sundays in Lent, because in the inside of the
church it was recognized that, after Easter, you cannot keep Lent on Sunday.
You know I see how difficult it is for churches to make changes, but twenty years
ago we changed our name to Christ Community Church. For twenty years pastors
© Grand Valley State University
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have contacted me to ask, “How in the world did you do that? We had a “Name
the Church contest and everybody got offended and we lost the whole thing.” I
don’t know how we did it, but we did. But most of the time churches can’t do
anything. Most of the time you can’t change anything in the church because it is
all absolutized and made sacred as though it is God’s way once it’s done. And it
seems the greatest blasphemy to violate the principle “we have always done it
that way.”
I would have liked to have been there in the early church when they moved the
Sabbath from Saturday to Sunday. Can you imagine the discussions around the
table as they were breaking bread and pouring the cup? For centuries, for
generations, it’s in the Bible, the seventh day.
When I was a kid there was an old man in the north end of Kalamazoo who had a
stake truck with big sides. It looked like that house over on Jackson in Grand
Haven, where it’s written all over you know - verses, and you can read the news
by going by the house. (Laughter) This truck was plastered with writing. I
remember as a little kid that he offered so much money to the person that could
prove that the church should move from the seventh day to the first day of
worship. I always wanted to take up that challenge, but the prize wasn’t enough
to validate the work. But I will never forget that, and I wondered about that as a
kid. But now I wonder about how they were ever able to do it. Can you imagine?
Moving from Saturday to Sunday? And, obviously in doing that, they were
moving to the first day of the week as the celebration of the resurrection of Jesus
Christ from the dead because they knew now that the center of their life was in
Christ. “Your life is hid with Christ in God, if then you will be raised with Christ.”
Their whole life was in Christ. The whole ball game was the new life, the new
creation in Jesus Christ.
And so they moved from that Sabbath observance to the observance of Sabbath
on the first day of the week, the Lord’s Day, Little Easter, in order, week by week,
by week, to remember. It wasn’t enough once in the springtime to come together
in a great press of people in the resurrection. Once every week, the first day of the
week. Every time we gather here it is because God raised Christ from the dead.
And because he lives, you too live! Every week we come here in order to have
confirmed again in the depths of our being “that there is someone out there that
loves us,” that the God that we serve is the God of grace and liberation and
freedom, who would break the shackles of every form of human bondage and
servitude. The God whom we worship is a God for us, the God who brings us joy
and springs forth from us - doxology and praise and hallelujah.
The whole worship of the Church is celebration of Easter, and that was so
overwhelming that they were able to break with that deeply imbedded tradition.
Something written in the Word of God to observe the seventh day - moved to the
first day, which shows that they were liberated. They were freed from religion.
© Grand Valley State University
�Observing Sabbath; Celebrating Grace Richard A. Rhem
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Oh, to be free from religion. Religion binds and cripples. Jesus was so angry at
the religious leaders who piled legalism upon legalism, regulation upon
regulation. He said, “You make these people seven times more the children of hell
than when you began with them.” Paul writes after the resurrection and after
Easter to those who were disturbing the Easter at Colossi. And he said to the
believers, “Don’t let anybody upset you and deceive you with philosophies about
don’t handle and don’t touch, and don’t taste. Don’t let anybody lay on you some
kind of ironclad rule that says you’ve got to do this on Sunday or Saturday or on
Monday or Tuesday. Are you not free? Have you not died with Christ and been
raised again? If then you be with Christ, set your mind on the things that are
above, while your life is hid in Christ with God. You are free by God’s grace, and
don’t forget it.” The only way not to forget it is to observe Sabbath, to pause in the
regular rhythm of one’s life. Instead of six and one it becomes one and six. And it
is the same principle. It is that we might never doubt that there is a great,
gracious life force permeating into the whole of reality and every molecule and
atom of our body that could never abandon us.
“Something out there loves you in the world,” and that love has a name and a
face, and it has appeared in our midst as Jesus Christ our Lord, who was raised
from the dead.
As I was thinking about this I realized how important it is. I confessed to you last
week and said that being raised as a kid amid the heavy legalism of Sabbath
observance, I was tempted to kick the habit. Going into this profession that was
difficult, but I did everything possible to convince myself that I wasn’t really still
bound in that kind of legalism. Then I began to see that the observance of
Sabbath was such a great gift and grace, and that the only way that the people of
God have continued through the generations is that they have been a people who
have never forgotten because they have always been called to remember.
And unless there is a discipline and a routine and a rhythm in our lives, we will
soon forget. It is easy to forget. God will not cease loving you, but you will cease
being conscious of it. And what is it to be loved and not be conscious of it. And so
we are called to take heed, to pay attention. So I grumble a bit about ugly
Sundays, but as a kid I did know that there was a special day, and as a kid I did
know who I was and to whom I belonged.
The only problem is, I think in the western tradition of the Christian church, we
somehow or other got our focus off Resurrection and Easter, and moved it to the
cross and Good Friday and our sin and our guilt. You say, “Well isn’t that what
the Bible says?” No. Not the only thing the Bible says. You say, “Well isn’t that
Christian?” No. It’s western, medieval, Catholic Christianity that permeates our
Reformed Protestantism as well. The focus of the Western Church – Roman,
medieval, filtering into Reformation, Protestant – has its center in the cross. Its
fascination is with sin and guilt as the major problem, and the atonement.
© Grand Valley State University
�Observing Sabbath; Celebrating Grace Richard A. Rhem
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Now if you were raised in the Eastern Orthodox Church in Istanbul, if you were a
child of the Eastern Rite, you wouldn’t know all about that cross and heavy sin
and guilt, and strong emphasis on atonement. You would come into this church
and it would be foggy. You could hardly see me - and that might be a means of
grace. (Laughter) But the reason that you wouldn’t be able to see me clearly is
because there would be these clouds of incense. If you went to San Sofia in
Istanbul in this marvelous, marvelous place you would see an old mosaic of the
victorious Pentocrater, the triumphant Christ. And from the altar there would be
billows of smoke going heavenward and there would be priests everywhere in all
kinds of flowing garb. There would be all of the warmth and sensuousness of that
which is human, poised and praising in Doxology the Creator who had raised
Jesus from the dead.
A totally different feel. A different focus. A different center. Which is right? Well,
you need a little of both. But I would have to vote with the Eastern Rite because and this is my basis for saying that – in the Eastern Orthodox Church, with its
focus on Easter, on Resurrection, on a risen Christ and Doxology as worship and
praise, you still experience the original intention of moving off Saturday to
Sunday, rather than moving off Saturday to Good Friday. Now I have never read
that anywhere and I can’t swear it is true, but I wonder. Isn’t that interesting? In
the instance of the infant Christian community, they did not make their sacred
day Friday, they made it Sunday because the central thing is not sin and our guilt
and the cross, it is the life-giving gracious God who raises Jesus from the dead
and permeates us with life, who promised “because I live, you too shall live.” So
Sunday is a celebration. It is a day for Doxology. It is a day for incense. It is a day
for pulling out all the stops. For dancing and singing. (From the congregation “Amen.”) All right - I have been waiting twenty-five years for that. (Laughter and
applause.) I’ll bet you I am right. I bet I’m right. And I’ll bet you church going
wouldn’t be just a heavy obligation, a legalistic demand, if it were such that one
came just one day in seven into this place and was lost in wonder, love and grace
and praise, knowing that the whole world is resplendent and shot through with
God’s life, that the something out there that loves one is the Creator and the
Liberator, the God revealed in the face of Jesus. Then Sabbath observance would
become the gift and the joy that I suspect that God always intended it to be.
Paul said, “Don’t let anybody lay a lot of legalistic clap-trap on you, but don’t
forget to remember.” As I said, I grumble a bit about all those ugly Sundays. They
nearly killed me as a kid. But I’ll tell you what, parents and grandparents. You
bring your kids here regularly Sunday after Sunday, bring them to the Eucharist
Sunday after Sunday, kneel with them. Let them hear you sing and watch you
pray, and they’ll be as hopelessly addicted as I am. The center of Christian
worship is Doxology, and the central act is Eucharist, which is a Greek word for
thanksgiving. And on Easter this past year I celebrated the bread and the wine as
Eucharist for the first time in my life - I took Holy Communion on Easter and
suddenly understood its true heart: the presence of the risen, living Lord. That that’s worship. That’s good, huh? I like it.
© 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
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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.
Contributor
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Kaufman Interfaith Institute
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<a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a>
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English
Type
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Sound
Text
Identifier
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KII-01
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1981-2014
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audio/mp3
text/pdf
Sound
A resource primarily intended to be heard. Examples include a music playback file format, an audio compact disc, and recorded speech or sounds.
Event
Pentecost VI
Series
The Sacramental Character of the Church
Scripture Text
Deuteronomy 5:15, Colossians 2:20
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/.
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KII-01_RA-0-19920719
Date
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1992-07-19
Title
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Observing Sabbath, Celebrating Grace and Freedom
Creator
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Richard A. Rhem
Publisher
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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
The topic of the resource
Clergy--Michigan
Reformed Church in America
Christ Community Church (Spring Lake, Mich.)
Sermons
Relation
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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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Sound
Text
Format
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audio/mp3
application/pdf
Description
An account of the resource
A sermon given by Richard A. Rhem (Dick) on July 19, 1992 entitled "Observing Sabbath, Celebrating Grace and Freedom", as part of the series "The Sacramental Character of the Church", on the occasion of Pentecost VI, at Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI. Scripture references: Deuteronomy 5:15, Colossians 2:20.
Creation
Easter
Immanence
Love
Sabbath
Sacrament
Worship
-
https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/b7be61b1d531e27356aa3566d19f3f01.mp3
694f590459d6f60d2cbec393f470ce50
https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/7fc9a1931c55f7ba5134056d3428ef95.pdf
3a6b67ccb6e39ca5ff2b463abb1870f1
PDF Text
Text
I Wish Someone Had Told Me That – Or, Did They?
Baccalaureate Sunday
Text: Romans 8:31,39
Richard A. Rhem
Christ Community Church
Spring Lake, Michigan
Eastertide, June 4, 2000
Transcription of the spoken sermon
This morning I want to speak to you graduates. These remarks are for you, but
the congregation is invited to listen in because there may be a thing or two for
them, as well. In this year 2000, when you get a diploma, I received a Medicare
card, and that may qualify me as a sage. Having lived this long, I have acquired
some wisdom, and I thought there were some things I would like to share with
you. In fact, they are the things that I wish someone had told me - or, did they?
There are some things that I wish that someone had told me as I was growing up,
some things that could have saved me some anxiety and some mistakes, some
things I wish I had known.
I wish someone had told me that - or, did they? Maybe they did, because you
don't always listen, nor did I, and sometimes the wisdom that flows just rolls off
your back, and later on, maybe, this conversation will come into focus. I have no
illusion that just another sermon is going to change your life, but I didn't really
think you wanted another sermon, either, so I thought I'd just tell you some
things that I wish somebody had told me, or if they did, I wish I had caught on to.
At this commencement season, I am aware of the fact that these young people
and countless others across the country receive all kinds of encouragement and
challenge, in motivational speeches we'll hear from Presidents and Generals and
significant people who will address all kinds of graduating classes and all phases
of education in these days. We'll get little snippets on the television news and, by
and large, they will be words of encouragement; they will be words of motivation
to achieve, to pursue your goals, to pursue your dreams and to work hard and to
accept the challenge of life, and that's good, because it is true that you will kind of
slide through if you can, but you also do respond to challenge when it is
significant and meaningful. So, I think all of that is good, but I also had the strong
feeling as I contemplated Baccalaureate Sunday that we do put a lot of pressure
on our graduates. As parents and as pastors and as teachers, we create a lot of
pressure for them and we are not always totally honest with the way life really is.
There are some things we don't tell you, and I thought that this morning I would
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Richard A. Rhem
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like to tell you some things that I wish that I had understood. It's a little different
from the voices you're going to hear at this time of graduation. I hope you get a
lot of challenge, a lot of encouragement. I hope you are stirred and motivated, but
this is going to be an alternative voice.
First of all, what I wish someone had said to me is: Relax a little bit and take time
to live, and don't let the pressure squeeze you into a mold, meeting everybody
else's expectations, the expectations of all the people in your life who are
important and society in general. Take some time to live. Have a bit of humor
about your life. Relax a little bit; let up a little bit.
I suppose there's not another church in the country that would ever print that
poem on the front of its liturgy by Jenny Joseph about wearing purple, but the
poet suggests that when she gets old, she's going to wear purple, she's going to do
all kinds of outrageous things, all kinds of silly things, all kinds of foolish things.
And the only reason that poem sells, the only reason we read it and we smile at it
is because in all of us we spend an awful lot of time toeing the mark, living up to
expectations, doing the thing that is wise and respectable and responsible and in
all of us there's a little something that needs to break out of that once in a while.
If the poet is going to wear purple and be outrageous when she's old, she does
suggest that maybe she ought to start practicing so it wouldn't be such a shock
when she got old, and it occurred to me that we're not always honest with our
children and our youth. We push pretty hard and our society creates a lot of
pressure on young people. I think they're working very hard. I'm very impressed
with what our young people are doing these days and I think it even goes farther
than that. There are probably a few Baby Boomer parents that need to hear what
I'm going to say this morning, also, and that is that we can get into a mode of
drivenness about achieving and succeeding. We are bombarded by the media
with the fact that we ought to be consumers, we ought to purchase and possess
and acquire, and there is a groundswell in our society, I sense, that it's not easy to
live up to, not easy to meet the expectations, and we start with young people like
this and we simply try to push them and not say to them, "Once in a while it's
okay to wear purple and to dance in the rain and to do something foolish, just for
the sake of it, because it's a part of living and, God knows, it's not easy and you're
going to have to be responsible and work hard and do all of that which you have
been encouraged to do by the many voices that you have heard." That is all good,
but hear me this morning: Don't be driven. Learn to relax. Learn to live fully and
let that whole beautiful person you are come to blossom.
There is another thing I want to say I wish someone had told me: Don't expect
that you are going to acquire Truth with a capital T. Don't ever expect that, in
whatever field you enter or whatever kind of life you lead, you are going to have
Truth, absolute Truth in your possession, because, being human, that is
impossible, and I wish someone had told me that because I was trying to nail it
down, to get it right, to have all the ducks in line. I thought that I could come to a
possession of the Truth and stand in the Truth. I wish somebody had told me that
© Grand Valley State University
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Richard A. Rhem
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is not possible. It is not possible because of the nature of our human experience.
We are people in process. We are a part of a cosmic process. We are a part of an
evolving process with a new emerging reality all of the time and, for God's sake, it
is 15 billion years already and who knows where it's going, and if we are creatures
in process, if we are people on the way, as we certainly are, then we do not
possess absolute Truth. That means that we ought to live with an open mind for
expanding knowledge and humility before the things we don't know.
Let me give you an example. I mentioned a couple of weeks ago that I was invited
to be a part of the Diversity Day at Grand Haven High School, and it was a stellar
event in which some of you were exposed to the diversity of race, culture,
ethnicity, sexual orientation, religion. It was exactly the kind of thing that you
should be exposed to because you are entering a world that is full of diversity and
diversity comes closer to home all the time. I mention this as an illustration
because in the local newspaper we're carrying on a battle of words about the fact
that that should not have been done and, of course, the sticking point is the
question of sexual orientation. Some are saying these young people should not be
exposed to the fact that sexual orientation is a given of our human nature. The
scientists are studying it and all the information is not in. It's certainly obvious to
anybody who has an open mind at all that sexual orientation is a part of the
constitution of the human being and it is as diverse as are people, and yet you
would think by reading the newspaper that you could quote a Bible verse that
seems to condemn a same-sex union and that God has spoken and that's all there
is to it! That really is not the case at all.
The problem, you see, is that this Bible is used for some kind of absolute rulebook
that has information in it rather than recognizing that this book is an ancient
book, a marvelous book of the story of the spiritual experience of people, the
people of Israel and the people who followed Jesus as a record of their
experience, their encounter with God, their devotion to God. Instead of
recognizing that, it becomes a kind of moral guidance book with rules in it. Now,
the Bible says a lot about your sexuality. It says it to all of us, no matter what our
orientation may be. It says be faithful and responsible in the exercise of this
wonderful gift. But, the questions that we are aware of in our day about sexual
orientation weren't even in the purview of this book. It doesn't address it at all! Of
course, there were abusive sexual practices then and they were condemned and
there is abuse of sexuality today and it should be condemned. That has nothing to
do with whether a person is homosexual or heterosexual or somewhere inbetween, and to refuse to know that, to admit that, is simply to close your mind to
what is obvious to all of us. So, one would live in ignorance, and one living in
ignorance could become arrogant, and when ignorance and arrogance combine,
the potential for violence is there. This is not a sermon about sexual orientation.
Don't forget my point: You are never going to have absolute Truth with a capital
T. I use the other only as an illustration of the disruption and the disharmony and
the alienation and the violence that can occur when people think they have the
absolute Truth spoken by God rather than recognizing that we are people on the
© Grand Valley State University
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Richard A. Rhem
Page 4
way, but that knowledge is expanding and we must be open to new knowledge,
and then change our mind where necessary, but always be humble because the
capital T Truth is God's, never the possession of the human. Dear God, I wish
someone had told me that.
There is another thing somewhat related and that is that life isn't neat. It is
complex and full of ambiguity. It is not simple to find your way. It is not easy to
be human. It is full of questions and if we're honest it is full of struggle and
wrestling within, and I use as an example of this my hero, Dietrich Bonhoeffer,
who was executed by the Nazis in 1945 just before the camp where he was
incarcerated was liberated. Bonhoeffer was a pastor and a theologian and he was
really in his heart a pacifist. He really believed that to follow Jesus was to be nonviolent. But, he was in that situation of the rise of Hitler and Nazism, and he
recognized that if Nazism were to prevail, Western civilization would be lost, and
so Bonhoeffer as a pacifist made a decision to join a conspiracy to kill Hitler.
Now, do you see the conflict? I'm a pacifist; I don't believe in violence and now I
join a conspiracy to kill the head of state, which is treason as well as murder.
Can't you see the conflict? Can you not see that this man wrestled within himself
and he has this strong conviction about being non-violent and yet he sees what he
has to do. He has to act. In the human arena, you are going to have to act and you
are not always going to know that it is exactly this or that; you are going to have
to act with limited knowledge and limited insight and sometimes you are going to
make a mistake and you are going to do something wrong, because life is difficult
and life is complex and life is full of ambiguity, and you have to act without
knowing everything, and you cannot know everything, but you have to follow
your conscience and follow your heart and do what you think you have to do,
knowing that it is a judgment call. Read Bonhoeffer's poem in the back of the
liturgy, "Who Am I?" This brilliant, deeply spiritual person -was he cock-sure,
self-righteous? Not at all. He said, "Who am I?" Those in the prison whose life he
lighted up because he led them in prayers and worship, they admired him and
respected him. He was a fragrant presence there, but he said, "They think of me
that way, but who am I? Am I that, or am I what I feel inside me, with all the
struggle and all the distress and all the turmoil in my soul. Am I a hypocrite? Am
I one thing one day, one thing another day?" And finally, "Thou knowest, O God,
I am Thine!"
That statement came out of the cauldron, that came out of struggle, because life is
not easy. The corners are not neat; loose ends are not all tied up and you are
going to have to live with that.
That brings me to a final word about God. I put some things in the liturgy, in the
insert by St. Augustine, Thomas Merton, Elizabeth Barrett Browning. I wish
somebody had told me that God was in everything and present to me in every
moment, in every experience. Don't get me wrong - I had a deeply sensitive and
devoted home and church and I am grateful for that, but what I am saying is the
impression of God I had was like a super-policeman up there keeping records.
© Grand Valley State University
�I Wish Someone Had Told Me That – Or Did They?
Richard A. Rhem
Page 5
Even St. Paul said that we come into this world at enmity with God. I felt there
was an adversarial relationship with God and that if I didn't keep in the tracks
pretty well I would incur guilt and then I'd be alienated from God and it seemed
to me that there was an awful lot of that in my nurture, my growing up. I don't
know how to tell you something different, except that I don't know how
important God is to you right now, but God will become important to you and
when that moment comes, I want you to know that it's the God of Hosea, the
Hebrew prophet who spoke about Israel and Israel's rebellion and disobedience
and all of that, even though God had tenderly nurtured them and cared for them,
and in this very human presentation of God, the prophet speaks of God as being
angry with them. Then, however, the prophet has this deep, deep insight, for he
puts these words in God's mouth:
How can I give you up, 0 Israel? How can I give you up?
I should give you up, but how should I give you up?
I can't give you up because I love you.
The cosmic lover. I'll never give you up. I can't give you up. I'll never abandon
you. I don't care where your road takes you, what experiences you have,
remember Hosea's God, because Hosea got it right in the midst of a lot of other
stuff where he spoke of the God who is a lover who will never let you go and is as
present to you as your breath is, in some burning bush or flaming sunset or in
some human relationship in which you find yourself made whole. In all of that,
God is. God is the God that Paul pictures in the 8th chapter of Romans who is for
you. If God is for us, who can be against us? And then he gives us that picture
which you hadn't ought to literalize, but the picture of Jesus who dies crucified,
risen, ascended, and sitting at the throne of God and making intercession for us.
In other words, you have an advocate at the throne of power of the universe.
That's the picture; that's the image. But the idea of it is that there is something in
the heart of things that is for you, for you, on your side, that will never let you go.
Nothing can ever separate you from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. I
don't care how ambiguous your situation, how poor your judgment, what wrong
path you may take, how much you stand in confusion before all of the options
that hit you in your life, God is with you, win be with you, will never let you go.
I sort of knew that, but God wasn't so user-friendly for me, and I want you to
know there is no adversarial relationship between you and the Creator of the
heavens and the earth, and so relax a bit, open your mind to truth wherever you
find it, act in your life according to your vision and your values, in the midst of
the ambiguity in which you don't always know the answers, and love God, love
God, because you are loved of God, and that will never change and that's the
greatest thing in the world. God bless you.
© Grand Valley State University
�
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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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Sound
Text
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KII-01
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1981-2014
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audio/mp3
text/pdf
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A resource primarily intended to be heard. Examples include a music playback file format, an audio compact disc, and recorded speech or sounds.
Event
Baccalaureate Sunday, Eastertide VII
Scripture Text
Romans 8:31, 39
Location
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Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI
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KII-01_RA-0-20000604
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2000-06-04
Title
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I Wish Someone Had Told Me That - Or, Did They?
Creator
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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>
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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
Description
An account of the resource
A sermon given by Richard A. Rhem (Dick) on June 4, 2000 entitled "I Wish Someone Had Told Me That - Or, Did They?", on the occasion of Baccalaureate Sunday, Eastertide VII, at Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI. Scripture references: Romans 8:31, 39.
Diversity
Immanence
Inclusive
Love
-
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PDF Text
Text
An Invitation to Life
From the series: A Fresh Look at an Ancient Story
Scripture: Psalm 16:5-11; I Peter 1:3-9,19-29; John 5:1-9 Text: John 5:24
Richard A. Rhem
Christ Community Church
Spring Lake, Michigan
Easter Sunday, April 15, 2001
Transcription of the spoken sermon
There is a lot available to you today and tonight on Easter and Jesus - television
specials and programs, one dealing with the face of Christ. Apparently there is an
archeologist that has studied Jewish skulls going back through all the diggings, a
couple of thousand of them, and then a medical artist whose specialty is putting
flesh to bone, and now there is another head of Jesus to compete with Salman's
"Head of Christ," which is so famous in our experience.
Last year the National Catholic Reporter had a contest for the image of Jesus for
the Third Millennium, and the winner was a woman by the name of Janet
MacKenzie who painted an African American woman, and, of course, that caused
a little bit of stir among the faithful. But her point, of course, was Jesus as the
liberator in that image, and what was being conveyed was that there are still
those who need to be freed, liberated. So, there is going to be this long special
about images of Christ tonight.
There is another one, 'The Face of Christ in Art," and in all of these it is
interesting that we should be concerned about it, if we are, because as I reflected
on it in terms of Easter this morning, I was struck by the fact that the important
thing is not what Jesus looked like, but that he was, indeed, human. That is the
critical matter.
I say that in the light of our understanding of the reality of which we are a part. A
cosmic process that they tell us has been going on for some 15 billion years,
perhaps, and that that cosmic process with all of the complexity and all of the
fascination of that development should issue in creatures like us, human beings,
human beings who are conscious and aware, who give the universe a voice,
creatures who are able to reflect on that whole process, and to wonder at it, that
among those human beings there should have been one Jesus, the Christ. Now,
that is amazing. If you want to speak of miracle, that is a miracle, that this
process has eventuated in the human and that, among the humans, there should
have been one Jesus. That is the wonder of it all and that is the critical matter,
© Grand Valley State University
�An Invitation to Life
Richard A. Rhem
Page 2
not what he looked like, but that he was genuinely bone of our bone and flesh of
our flesh.
You might have already seen this weekend another television special that is
created by the Coral Ridge Ministries. I have made reference to it an earlier time
when I saw it, perhaps around the Christmas season, about who is this real Jesus.
This is produced by D. James Kennedy, and if you would catch that you will see
that the concern about what Jesus looked like is not evident at all. There is no
concern. But there is a concern and that is the factuality of the resurrection, that
Jesus who was crucified, as a matter of fact, walked out of the tomb. This word
“fact” comes through often. The point is, of course, in this evangelical
understanding of the Easter miracle, that it was Jesus who died as the sin-bearer
for the world, who was raised by God as an indication that that sin offering was
accepted, and, if you would watch that video, it will conclude with the Sinner's
Prayer where you will acknowledge that you are a sinner, that you believe that
Christ died for your sin, and that you ask for forgiveness and claim the promise,
then, of heaven. That, of course, is the old, traditional conception of the
crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus. So, you can see that tonight, too, and that
still speaks to millions and millions of people.
I was reminded of the fact that when I went to Europe in 1967 the resurrection
was the hot topic. There had been 100 years of European scholarship in which no
one hardly dared speak about the resurrection. There was still the impact of the
Enlightenment and miracle was not one of the possibilities, and so certainly no
one dared speak about the resurrection of Jesus. But, about the time I got there,
there was a whole class of students who were the students of the great Barth and
Bultmann, and they were beginning to think again and speak again about the
resurrection, and that the New Testament really could not be understood apart
from the resurrection, and their emphasis, what they had hold of, was not like the
Coral Ridge video– Jesus dying for sin and being raised again– but rather, Jesus
being raised in the midst of history as the illuminator of history, and I can
remember how powerful that was at the time. A theologian named Moltmann
spoke about the theology of hope, and there was this whole emphasis on the
resurrection of Jesus as the sign of the future consummation and all of the
promises of God would be realized, and the kingdom of God would come fully
into view. That was an important moment for me, frankly, personally, that
resurrection in the midst of history. In fact, I came back to this congregation in
1971 under false pretenses. They thought I was the same one that left in 1964 but,
anyway, the one thing that I did say to them early on was "Give me Jesus and the
resurrection, and the rest is negotiable."
As I have been thinking about Easter 2001 and this morning, I realize that my
conception of things continues to grow, my sense of God, my appreciation for
Jesus, and my sense of what the whole cosmic drama is about, so that it is not
that sin offering and it is not even the fact that in the midst of history there is a
sign of history's ultimate culmination. As I thought about it, the important thing
© Grand Valley State University
�An Invitation to Life
Richard A. Rhem
Page 3
for me is that life of Jesus, as I said a moment ago, that in the course of this
cosmic process, out of this tapestry of swirling energy there should have arisen,
not only a human being, but one like Jesus. And as I thought about it, I realized
that Easter at one time for me meant the solution to the problem of death, and
the resurrection of Jesus was to be celebrated because it signed the conquering of
death. But, that isn't nearly so important for me today. What is really important
is that life, that life that was lived in the midst of our history, that life that
confronted power with truth, that spoke truth to power, that spoke against all
systems of domination and oppression, that life that revealed the heart of God
full of mercy and compassion, that spoke for justice and equity. Jesus, that
magnificent life - that is the important thing: that he died trusting God, of course,
but that he lived out a vision, the vision of what he believed was the divine
intention. That is the amazing thing to me today.
And then, as I thought about that, the question came: "Well, then, what is
Easter?" Easter is what happened when his followers had the same experience I
did. After the disappointment of his death, the fear and their fading into the
woodwork, they began to come together again, and they said, "My God! He's still
with us. He's alive. He's alive with God, and he is present with us." What they
began to see was that what he was is what God is, and they knew that what he
was, which is what God is, can never finally be defeated, can never finally be
executed, can never finally be rubbed out. For one way or another, in one form or
another, what Jesus was was a reflection of the divine intention. It was a
reflection of that love and that mystery at the heart of things, and you can crucify
it, you can execute it, you can try to put it away, you can stamp it out only so long,
and it rises again. What he was is what God is, the divine Lover, the divine
Intention, the Sacred at the center of things that will not be defeated, that will not
finally be overcome.
That is why we live with an indomitable hope. That is why we have this annual
celebration, this affirmation of faith that all the wonder and the beauty and the
truth, the integrity and the magnificence of that one life can never be overcome,
never be defeated, never finally be put out, for the light will shine in the darkness
and continue to shine, and finally, no matter how dark the abyss, life will return
and Jesus is an invitation to life. You can get all of the images in the scripture,
you can get the Coral Ridge image, you can get the Hope and History image, and
even in John's gospel there is that paragraph back to back, the word of Jesus that
gives life to the dead, some of them the living dead. And in the next paragraph,
the dead in the tomb. It is all there, all of the images are there, all of the scenarios
are there. But, for me, on this Easter, I celebrate Easter because of the life of
Jesus and what he was is what God is, and that is why I follow him. Not because
he died, but because he lived, and when I come to this table, I take bread and cup
in order that I may be in solidarity with him and, taking bread and cup, I receive
that promise that, to the end of the age, he will be with me. The lure of love at the
heart of things came to expression in one Jesus. Now, there's a life and an
invitation to true living.
© 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
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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
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
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Kaufman Interfaith Institute
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<a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a>
Language
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English
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Sound
Text
Identifier
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KII-01
Coverage
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
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audio/mp3
text/pdf
Sound
A resource primarily intended to be heard. Examples include a music playback file format, an audio compact disc, and recorded speech or sounds.
Event
Easter Sunday
Series
A Fresh Look At an Ancient Story,
Scripture Text
John 5:24
Location
The location of the interview
Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI
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The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Identifier
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KII-01_RA-0-20010415
Date
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2001-04-15
Title
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An Invitation to Life
Creator
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Richard A. Rhem
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
<a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a>
Subject
The topic of the resource
Clergy--Michigan
Reformed Church in America
Christ Community Church (Spring Lake, Mich.)
Sermons
Relation
A related resource
Richard A. Rhem - An Archive of Sermons, Prayers, Talks and Stories: http://richardrhem.org/
Language
A language of the resource
eng
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Sound
Text
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
audio/mp3
application/pdf
Description
An account of the resource
A sermon given by Richard A. Rhem (Dick) on April 15, 2001 entitled "An Invitation to Life", as part of the series "A Fresh Look At an Ancient Story, ", on the occasion of Easter Sunday, at Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI. Scripture references: John 5:24.
Divine Intention
Love
Resurrection
Sacred
-
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PDF Text
Text
A Tale of Three Cities
From the Advent Series: God in the Mirror of Christmas
Micah 5:2-5a; Revelation 19:1-6; Matthew 2: 1-6, 16-18
Richard A. Rhem
Christ Community Church
Spring Lake, Michigan
Advent II, December 9, 2001
Transcription of the spoken sermon
Advent 2001 would be similar in some respects to Advent 1941, for we celebrated
on Friday sixty years of the attack on Pearl Harbor, which would have been the
crisis of the world at the time that Advent was celebrated in ‘41, and once again,
our world is in crisis in this 2001 Advent season. It is a season in which we are
particularly thoughtful about history, about the calendar of God, about where
things are and whether or not there is something going on which is more than
meets the eye.
I remember a story told me by Bruce Thielman, who is a pastor of the First
Presbyterian Church of Pittsburgh, a great pulpit historically, who had a great
preacher of a former generation, Clarence McCartney. Bruce Thielman said he
was rummaging around in the attic of old First Presbyterian, Pittsburgh, one day
and he came across some sermons, including the sermon that McCartney
preached on the 14th of December in 1941 and he said from reading the sermon
there would have been not the slightest hint that the world was in crisis, which
perhaps is a symbol of the oftentimes irrelevancy of the pulpit.
Certainly in Advent we cannot escape contemplating the meaning of the events
that have pressed in upon us because it is the theme of this season of the year
when we particularly wonder about the course of human history and the
engagement of God in that history. The Christian faith inherited that concern
about history from the womb of Judaism from which it emerged, for the Hebrew
prophets are credited with causing the world to think historically, to think in
terms of beginning and process and consummation.
The prophets lived by a dream. I don’t know what it was, call it the inspiration of
the Spirit of God, call it the intuition of a particularly blessed people who were
living as a very small and beleaguered people through most of their existence, but
in any case, the Hebrew prophets had a magnificent dream of an alternative
world. You remember that dream - of a world of human wellbeing, when the lion
© Grand Valley State University
�A Tale of Three Cities
Richard A. Rhem
Page 2
and the lamb would lie down together and they would not hurt or destroy in all
God’s holy mountain, that dream of shalom.
The early Jesus Jewish movement, of course, were the children of that dream,
that dream which was so powerful in its provision of hope for a people who had
suffered so much and so long, and there were those in the early movement, the
Jesus movement, who said certainly this one, Jesus, was the designate of God. He
must be the anointed one of whom the prophets spoke. The Hebrew word for
anointed is messiah, of course, and so they were saying this Jesus is the messiah.
That so characterized, so marked Jesus, that he became known as Jesus Christ,
but Christ is simply the Greek word for anointed. Jesus, the anointed, Jesus the
messiah, Jesus the Christ - what the early Church was saying was that that one
the prophets foresaw, that one who would come and bring justice and
righteousness and peace to the earth, that one was none other than Jesus. And so,
the Christian Church came into its future expectation honestly, out of the womb
of its Hebrew mother.
Then, of course, there was a surprise, for that anointed one was crucified. Who
could have thought it? Who could have dreamed it? And yet, the crucified one
they experienced alive in their midst, and they spoke of resurrection. And
certainly, then, this time of Jesus’ absence from them would be a brief interim in
which the good news could be proclaimed, and then certainly, soon, he would
come again. The Book of Revelation from which I read a moment ago ends with,
“Come quickly, Lord Jesus,” and he says, “Behold, I come quickly.” So, the early
Church lived in that expectation of the imminent return of the one who had
come. And the Church’s celebration of Advent historically has been a celebration
of that expectation of the one who came, coming again, and Advent has been
particularly the season in which we have thought about the movement of history
and history’s culmination and history’s end events. And here we have
reinterpreted that coming again, that second coming, so to speak, for we have
come to acknowledge that an imminent return after 2000 years can hardly be
compelling. Certainly that early interpretation of where the world was in the
timeline of God erred, although understandably so.
David Hartman, the rabbi from Jerusalem, has re-interpreted the prophets’
dream, as well, so that that shalom on earth, David Hartman says, is not
necessarily some future time and place, but rather, the critique of every
movement of history. Every human arrangement, every historical arrangement,
every age, every epic, every moment comes under the judgment of that dream of
shalom, and every human arrangement is shown to be inadequate compared to
the intention of God according to the dream of the prophet.
But, here we are in another Advent season, making our way toward Christmas.
What I’d like to do today and for the next couple of weeks is to have us think
about Christmas as a mirror that reflects the nature of God. What kind of a God is
reflected in the mirror of Christmas? From what we know about the event, what
© Grand Valley State University
�A Tale of Three Cities
Richard A. Rhem
Page 3
kind of a God is revealed from the Christmas mystery? Think with me this
morning about A Tale of Three Cities as we reflect on world history, its course,
and perhaps its culmination.
Three Cities: Rome, obviously, the seat of imperial power, a city still today
magnificent as evidenced by its ruins. Rome, who ruled the world as the ancient
world had never been ruled before, ruled by the most powerful empire that the
world had known. The Roman Empire. The Roman Emperor. Imperial Rome, on
top of the world, its empire stretched far and wide, and it held peoples and tribes
in subjection. It was the occupying power at the time of the birth of Jesus.
Luke tells us the story of Jesus in reference to Caesar Augustus, for it was Caesar
Augustus who proclaimed an edict that all the world should be taxed, and that
was the way by which Luke brought Mary and Joseph to Bethlehem for the birth
of Jesus. But, here in this far out province, the lives of people are implicated by
the decree of an imperial ruler who lives in Rome.
Roman law, Roman order - it was a great civilization. There was much to
commend it. It was, perhaps, the finest human arrangement in terms of
government and rule and the ordering of society. Rome, famous for its law,
famous for the magnificent civilization that arose under its aegis. Rome was an
empire not without its own dreams and ideals. After Julius Caesar was
assassinated, there ensued a fifteen-year civil war, a civil war which was bloody,
indeed, but which culminated finally with Octavian coming to Rome in 29 before
Christ as the sole ruler. Before that, the Roman poet, Virgil, had written in his
Fourth Eclogue a tribute to Augustus, Caesar Augustus, who was one declared, on
his birth, as a savior, as a son of God. In 1890, in Asia Minor in a little village,
there was an inscription found, “To Augustus as the Son of God, the Savior of the
World.” Virgil had dreamed about the birth of one who would bring the world
peace, and the Roman world began its new year, subsequently, on the 23th of
September, which was the birth of Octavian who became Caesar Augustus. So,
the Roman calendar was gathered around the birth of this one who was
purported to be son of God. He was the great nephew of Julius Caesar. Julius
Caesar had been elevated to deity. This one was understood as son of God, and
the word savior was applied to him. And so, in 29 before Christ, there is one on
the seat of authority in the Roman empire, one who is understood as son of God,
Savior, a bringer of peace and wholeness to the brokenness of the world.
As I say, Rome, this gigantic empire, was not without its integrity, it was not
without its idealism, it was not without its dream, and yet, it was the super power
of the day and it was committed, above all, to the perpetuation of its preeminence
and power. And so, when it came down to it, it may have a man of peace on the
throne and, incidentally, the first official act of Caesar Augustus was to close the
Temple of Janus, the double-faced god of war, and he dedicated a gigantic altar to
peace, the Augustan Altar of Peace. So, again, it is not as though this people was
without its ideal, its hope and its dream. It is not as though the Roman hierarchy
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did not understand that which was good for humankind. But, when push came to
shove, it was the Roman legions that ruled, and by military might and the power
of the sword, Rome enforced the Roman peace, the Pax Romana. That’s the irony,
isn’t it? This powerful, powerful human institution with high ideals enforced by
the power of the legion and the sword.
I suppose you’re already suspecting that I might suggest that Rome’s situation in
that ancient world 2000 years ago was not so different than our situation in our
world in 2001. We, too, are the world’s one great super power, and we, too, are a
people of a high idealism. There’s a kind of moralistic strain, even in our foreign
policy. We are a people who engage in a military action and are more concerned,
really, about humanitarian aid. All of the ambiguity of our present situation, eh?
A mighty power with high ideals and humane concerns and yet, of course, if we
would be honest, we, too, are a people like Rome whose hands are dirty, with
alliances and coalitions with regimes who are oppressive of their own people, but
good for our own preservation of power and preeminence.
Oh, the world is a messy place, and the human story is full of such ambiguity.
Here we are, the world’s great power, so reflective of Rome in the days of its
glory, struggling, I suppose, with that tension between idealism and real politic,
the rough and tumble of national, international affairs. Ah, 2001 - not so different
than year one.
And there was Jerusalem, of course, a bit of a different situation and yet, also so
reflective of the human situation. There a man named Herod who was both
Jewish and Edomite, so he had Jacob and Esau in his veins – there Herod got
himself into the good graces of Rome and was appointed governor in 47 before
Christ and in 40 before Christ became king, King Herod the Great. And he was
great. We’re told the story of Herod having melted down his own personal gold in
order to buy corn to feed people in time of famine. Another time of crisis, he
remitted the taxes of the people. He was a builder; people came from the ancient
world to examine the glories of Jerusalem, the building projects of Herod the
Great. And Jerusalem was ruled well.
There was the other side of Herod, though. He was a paranoid individual,
ruthless and brutal. Herod had his wife Alexandra and her mother put to death.
When he came to power in 40, when he was crowned king, he had the Sanhedrin
slaughtered just to remove the old guard, so to speak. Another time, 300 court
officials were slaughtered at one fell swoop. He had his own eldest son murdered,
and two others of his sons were murdered. Caesar August said it would be better
to be Herod’s pig than his son. And after his long, long rule, knowing that he had
not endeared himself to the people, he retired to Jericho, knowing he was about
to die, and he had the finest of Jerusalem arrested and imprisoned so that when
he died, they could be put to death, because he said, “When Herod dies, no one
will cry. But, when Herod dies, tears will flow.” There’s a nice fellow for you. That
was Herod the Great.
© Grand Valley State University
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Richard A. Rhem
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Jerusalem. And Herod is so representative of those who are in power, who worry
about keeping power, for when the magi came, inquiring about the birth of a king
because they had seen his star, Matthew tells us that Herod was greatly troubled,
and all Jerusalem was frightened with him. You see, when you have an
established order and when you are on top, you have always to worry about
maintaining that order and preserving your position and your pre-eminence. So,
Herod, this brutal, paranoid ruler, when he realized that the magi had gone home
another way, simply had all the children two years and under slaughtered. We
call it the “Slaughter of the Innocents.” A brutal act for the preservation of power
and the removal of any possible threat to his authority.
And, of course, Jerusalem wasn’t only marked by that kind of civil king, but also
entwined in the ruling establishment of Jerusalem was the Sadducean party, the
high priestly party, and we know from the story of Jesus that when this prophet
made his way and made his point, and proclaimed in the center of Jerusalem that
which he believed to be reflective of the will of God for this people of God, it was
the collaboration of the Herodian party and the Roman government, Pontius
Pilate, that Jesus was killed. So, Jerusalem was that city, too, that knew in all of
its dimensions that vying for earthly power, the political games that people play,
the vying for position and the preserving of preeminence - that was Jerusalem in
the days of the one who was born on Christmas.
I read from the Revelation to give a sense of the biblical story, the outcome of that
kind of power play, for the 19th chapter of Revelation is that from which comes
the Hallelujah Chorus. But, when you read the 19th chapter, you have to be
shaken just a bit because there is such vengeance in that chapter, and what is
being celebrated? Well, it is the devastation and the ending of Rome, called
Babylon, the great harlot, the great whore. Babylon, standing for Rome,
represents in the biblical perspective that whole gamut of human arrangement
that is set on power, and the enforcement of rule by force and military might,
economic domination, all sorts of domination systems, and in the 19th chapter of
Revelation, she is overthrown and the smoke rises and there is this hallelujah
celebration. And there is this great affirmation, “The Lord God Almighty reigns.”
You can understand, perhaps, the vengeance, because this people has suffered. It
has suffered terribly at the hands of imperial power, and so they rejoice in the
dream of that ultimate overthrow because the revelation of John is again in that
biblical tradition that believes finally Almighty God will bring it out right.
It is rather amazing to me, when I realize that that picture is in tension with the
Christmas miracle, because that picture in Revelation is the kind of expression
for that human desire for vengeance, and that human desire for God Almighty to
take charge and to damn the darkness and to establish the righteous. And yet
that’s not at all what I see in the Christmas miracle, because there is a third city –
Bethlehem.
© Grand Valley State University
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Richard A. Rhem
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Micah speaks of Bethlehem, “Least of the tribes of Judah.” Little Bethlehem, from
you will come a ruler and he will be a shepherd to his people, be a man of peace.
Now, you can feel it coming. This is the typical sermon cant. This is the naive
preacher’s talk, because Rome will be overthrown and Jerusalem will be
devastated, but the one who comes out of the poverty and the obscurity of
Bethlehem will be established as the Lord of Lords and the King of Kings. And
yet, that Christmas miracle reveals a God who comes out of the most unexpected
place, and in the most unexpected way, a God who is embodied and reflected in a
human face and, for God’s sake, as a child.
But, do you see what I am trying to put before you? The paradox of the God
reflected in the mirror of Christmas? The God reflected in the mirror of
Christmas is not the God of Revelation’s almighty triumph. The God reflected in
the Christmas mirror is a God of vulnerability, born as a child, become a man,
crucified for God’s sake, crucified violently by the power structures, the human
power structures of this world. The Christmas mirror reflects a God who is
vulnerable, whose supreme revelation is in a human face and in the form of a
child, because the revelation of Christmas at its heart is that human, historical
arrangements will not finally prevail. They will prevail and prevail and persist
and persist, but finally, they all come to nothing. And so, I talk naive preacher
talk this morning, because we all know that finally, it is a power game. Finally,
you can have humanitarian concerns, but the bottom line is still military might
enforcing our will, preserving our position, and yet - Christmas is about a God
who can be crucified, God embodied in a child. And you see, I am aware of how
naive is this talk.
But, remember – Rome fell. Because no matter how strong you are, no matter
how many legions, no matter how many swords, there comes a point in the
human story when you tire of trying to preserve a position of preeminence. There
comes a time in the human story when people worry, weary of protecting
themselves and projecting themselves. There comes a time when every great
power finally fades, sometimes in devastating fashion. And in the meantime,
people have been consumed with the power game, with the preservation of
preeminence and the perpetuation of position. And so, dear friends, 2001. We
have fought the totalitarianism of Fascism under Hitler’s regime and prevailed,
we have outlasted the Communist experiment under the USSR and we have
prevailed, and we are engaged now in a war which will not be won by military
might. We know that, don’t we? And we are a people who are at the top of our
game and we know no people has ever stayed there. And from that third city,
Bethlehem, came one who was like a shepherd, who was a man of peace, and that
really is what Christmas reveals about the nature of God. God is love. Love can be
crucified. Love is vulnerable. Love is patient and kind. And love never fails. Every
other strategy finally will fail. Christmas reveals the God who will prevail –
because love never fails – but who is the opposite of all of our human domination
systems.
© Grand Valley State University
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Richard A. Rhem
Page 7
I’d like to have sent you out with a cozy little Christmas message this morning.
Forgive me for that. But, there is enough for you to think about here to disrupt
your whole Advent season.
© Grand Valley State University
�
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Richard A. Rhem Collection
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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.
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Clergy--Michigan
Reformed Church in America
Christ Community Church (Spring Lake, Mich.)
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Interfaith worship
Sermons
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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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Event
Advent II
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God in the Mirror of Christmas
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Micah 5:2,3, Matthew 2:3, Revelation 19:2
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Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI
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2001-12-09
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A Tale of Three Cities
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Richard A. Rhem
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Reformed Church in America
Christ Community Church (Spring Lake, Mich.)
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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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A sermon given by Richard A. Rhem (Dick) on December 9, 2001 entitled "A Tale of Three Cities", as part of the series "God in the Mirror of Christmas", on the occasion of Advent II, at Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI. Scripture references: Micah 5:2,3, Matthew 2:3, Revelation 19:2.
Advent
Followers of Jesus
Hebrew Prophets
Love
Nature of God
Shalom
-
https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/8d677ab1ded5702351d97beae55ce77c.mp3
a273e9f4020bed7df0189d71d4909407
https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/3ca8d2a0a63184ec621ad4238c674c05.pdf
ab90f74705eb3386e2c9789184db3818
PDF Text
Text
A Shift in Perception
From the series: Resurrection
Acts 7:54-8:1; I Corinthians 13:1-8; John 20:19-23
Richard A. Rhem
Christ Community Church
Spring Lake, Michigan
April 18, 2004, Lent II
Transcription of the spoken sermon
It is a marvelous way to celebrate Eastertide with a Dance of Creation. It was a
goddess of fertility named Oster who gave us the name Easter and the ancient
people prior to the Axial Period, 800 to 600 B.C.E., celebrated their religious
observances according to the rhythms of nature, the cycles of the year. And so,
what a beautiful way for us to celebrate the coming alive of the earth on a
beautiful day like this with the flowers budding and the buds bursting, to
celebrate the goodness of God in the wonders of creation.
Resurrection, as an experience of life after death, was really a conception that
came to the fore shortly before the birth of Christ. There isn’t much in the
Hebrew Scriptures about any life after death. They don’t even worry about it. The
goodness of God in the land of the living was the blessing of God for the people of
Israel. But, in those couple of centuries before the birth of Christ, there was
increasing persecution, and in the books we call the Apocryphal books, that were
filled with apocalyptic expectations, the intervention of God at the end of history,
we find resurrection as an idea coming to the fore, and the reason that
resurrection came into the consciousness of people was the fact that there were
righteous, God-fearing people who were witnessing to their faith in God who
were being killed. They were called the righteous martyrs. As the community
considered the fact that these people were being killed for their refusal to deny
their faith in God, they looked at one another and said, “Must not God in justice
vindicate these righteous ones who have died for their faith and their honor of
God?” And so, resurrection came to be an idea, a hope, an expectation that
somehow or another, in the end, those who had died for their faith would be
vindicated by resurrection, by God.
When the community of Jesus’ followers, following his crucifixion, experienced
him as with them still, when they experienced still after his crucifixion the grace
that he conveyed, the love that he embodied, the freedom that he offered, they
said, “He is not dead, he’s living.” And from their depression and their fears and
their crushed hopes, they had a shift in perception and resurrection is what they
called it. Resurrection is a shift in perception. It is a miracle; it is a miracle of
© Grand Valley State University
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Richard A. Rhem
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love. It is an experience of an insight, the gaining of an understanding that is lifechanging, that is life-transforming. Resurrection is a shift in perception.
Now, of course, we say today perception is everything and there is something to
that, but that’s not what I mean. What that means is that the empirical reality out
there isn’t the issue, it is our perception of that empirical reality. I do know the
physicists among us would tell us that the observer affects the observed and I’m
not going to get into all that philosophical stuff. This is just simply a
straightforward claim this morning that a shift in perception, a change in
understanding is resurrection, and it is life-changing. It is wonderful.
The prison of our tombs, the stones are rolled away, the shackles fall off, the
scales fall from our eyes and suddenly we get it, we see it. I think that’s what
happened in the experience of those followers of Jesus in the wake of the
crucifixion. Although in Luke and in John there certainly are resurrection stories
that seem to intentionally want to emphasize a physical, bodily presence, that is
not the majority of the resurrection accounts at all. The stories vary widely in the
New Testament, as you might expect in the wake of an experience like this. But
most of them are appearances, visions, and that’s why I take the stories of Paul
this morning.
Paul had a shift in perception. We saw him first at the stoning of Stephen. There
he is consenting to Stephen’s death, this violent death which is the consequence
of a religious absolutism and dogmatism that is threatened by any other
understanding that believes somehow or other God is served by that kind of
violent reaction. I suppose if it was the 21st century and if it was a part of the
already boring and disgusting presidential campaign into which we find
ourselves, it might have been Paul standing up and saying, ‘I, Paul of Tarsus,
approve of this martyrdom or this killing.” That’s what he was doing. They laid
their cloaks at his feet, the story said.
And then he is on his way to Damascus, still breathing out threats, ready to
murder, ready to haul people into court, to bring them to Jerusalem bound, men
and women, those who were followers of the Way, because Paul, this absolutist,
this dogmatist, was an angry religious man (There is no anger like religious
anger, there is no more obsessive-compulsive behavior than stems from bad
religion, and Paul was the epitome of it.). And then there is the light and there is
the voice. What’s going on with Paul, how do we know? We could psychologize it
all day long. Maybe there was something already simmering in his soul as he
watched Stephen die. Maybe there was something in him, some decency in him
that would betray the violence of his actions. But, in any case, he’s a broken man
and he’s blinded, but then he sees. And after years of assimilation he becomes the
Great Apostle who, in the midst of the Corinthian congregation of which he was
the founder, in the midst of their own alienation and disturbances and divisions,
could write to them of the indispensability of love, describing love in a beautiful
fashion such that we call it the hymn of love and read it still with great profit.
© Grand Valley State University
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Richard A. Rhem
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Paul experienced a vision. For him, it was resurrection, and a shift in perception
created for him a whole new life. That’s what resurrection is. It is that movement
from being all bound up to freedom. It is that movement from defensiveness and
stinginess to graciousness and openness. It is the loosening up of all of that which
binds us up inside and makes us less than we really want to be. That’s
resurrection. It is a shift in perception and it is a miracle.
I received an envelope full of goodies from my friend Jim Dykehouse through his
mother, Nancy, this week and she said, “Jim gives you these things for you to
throw away.” Well, Jim always gives me packages of goodies which he clips down
in Chicago, knowing that we live here in the boonies and we don’t get much of
that good stuff, so I always look forward to what Jim gives me. One thing I didn’t
throw away was a piece from the Chicago Tribune, entitled “The Enlightenment
of an Old-School Pol,” and written by Carol Marin. It is the story of Richard Mell.
Richard Mell is an Alderman in Chicago; he was an old ward boss. Some of you
are too young to remember the days when Chicago was crime-free because it was
so corrupt at the top, when Richard J. Daley ruled and the old ward bosses kept
everything in tight rein. Richard Mell was one of those. In the 80s he was rather
notorious. His picture appeared with him standing on his desk, waving his arms.
In 1987, there was an ordinance that was before the Cook County Commissioners
asking for the protection of people of homosexual orientation from
discrimination. The article reports,
...It was soundly defeated, 30-18. Mell was one of those who voted no. In
response, gays in the packed gallery began singing “We Shall Overcome.”
You can hear the regret in Mell’s voice as he remembers turning to a
colleague and saying, “What in the hell did we just do? This is the worst
vote I’ve ever cast and I’ll never do it again.”
That vote took place on the eve of Deborah’s 18th birthday and, though
Dick Mell didn’t know she was gay, he suspected it. Attractive and
sensitive, he says, “she wasn’t interested in boys.” It would take two more
years before she could tell him she was a lesbian.
In the 90s, Deborah moved to San Francisco where it was easier to be an
openly gay person than at home in Chicago. She was gone nine years.
Though there were family visits back and forth, Dick Mell talks about “the
time we lost with each other - dinners, birthdays, little things.”
She moved back home three years ago. You get the sense in talking to the
alderman that, now that his daughter is back, he’s not going to let her go or
let her down....What Dick Mell has learned is what so many of us have
figured out over time. It’s that homosexuality has a name and face....On
this point, Dick Mell knows that ordinary people are way ahead of most
politicians. And he has his daughter to thank for that, something he did
© Grand Valley State University
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Richard A. Rhem
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last Thursday when he arrived at the police lockup where she was being
held.
“I was worried he might be angry,” said Deborah. Far from it. “He had a
huge smile on his face and hugged me. I started to cry. I think he started to
cry. And he told me what a good daughter I am.”
A shift in perception is a miracle of love, and it frees us, and that’s resurrection. It
doesn’t happen necessarily. One of the, in my estimation, most infamous leaders
of the so-called Christian Right is Randall Terry. He’s the head of Operation
Rescue which aims at Planned Parenthood, and his inflammatory rhetoric has
been responsible for the killings of abortion doctors in clinics. You perhaps have
seen him on television. Most inflammatory rhetoric conceivable. In the May issue
of Out magazine, coming to the newsstands this week, his son Jameel, 18 years
old, writes an article in which he acknowledges that he is gay. Aaron Brown on
CNN, one night last week, interviewed Randall Terry who expresses his grief and
his pain, but who continues to spout that same hard line of the immorality of
homosexuality and of the devastating judgment that will follow its acting out, and
so on. At the end of the interview in his own inimitable style, Aaron Brown said,
“Mr. Terry, this must be very difficult for you, but let me ask you just one
question. In the light of this revelation from your son and his obvious pain, do
you at all question some of the rhetoric and the tactics that you have used in the
past?” And Randall Terry’s answer in so many words was, “No.” Because Randall
Terry would rather be right than loving and peaceful. So, it doesn’t happen
automatically. One has to be open to a miracle.
As I thought about that, I thought about my own experience. I remember, it must
be 30 years ago now, getting a letter from a young man, a letter with pain such as
I had never read on paper before, whose spirit was crushed, bruised, because a
pastor had rejected him in his homosexuality. And I remember the next most
painful letter I ever received, maybe a dozen years ago or so, same thing, only this
time the rejection, like Randall Terry, was from a father. And I thought about my
own experience, I thought about how fortunate I have been to meet people
concretely in their humanity and to come to experience in that diversity, and to
come to love them just as they are.
I thought about 14-15 years ago, when Rabbi David Hartman came to Muskegon
and the Jewish-Christian Dialogue, and this man so full of the love of God, so
overflowing with warmth, said, “Do you have to deny my truth to have your
truth? Do you have to deny my joy to have your joy?”
That was the day he dialogued all day long with Krister Stendahl and those two
beautiful human beings, one of the most brilliant and wonderful rabbis in the
world and one of the most beautiful New Testament scholars in the world, and I
saw them loving each other. Dear God, that’s resurrection, that’s a miracle of
love, that’s a shift in perception which has enabled me then to move fully into
that arena with joy, with freedom.
© Grand Valley State University
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Richard A. Rhem
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Thanks to Boyd Wilson, our resident professor of World Religions at Hope
College, who brought Diana Eck to Hope this past Tuesday. She gave a marvelous
lecture. Nancy and I had dinner with her, so we know her, but it wasn’t just that
personal relationship. It was just this marvelous lecture in which she painted for
us our world as it is. She was not saying our world ought to be this way or that
way. She was saying this is the reality with which we live, this pluralistic reality,
pluralism in religion, pluralism in peoples of all kinds mixing up in this great
global community of which we are a part, like it or not, with all of its implications
in every dimension of our life. As I sat there, I listened to her portraying in such a
positive way the possibilities of the acceptance of the other and the diversity, not
trying to wipe out all differences, but embracing one another and celebrating one
another in our respective diversity, I felt so light and I felt so free and I felt so
thankful to be able to say “Yes, yes!”
Then in the question and answer period, a young man stood up, well-spoken,
respectful, who said, “I am an exclusivist.” He made his witness very competently
and very respectfully, and I looked at him and I loved him, because I saw in him
myself when I was a student at Hope College who would have been threatened to
death by this marvelous lecturer, this wonderful woman, wonderful scholar. I
knew him, even though he doesn’t know of himself what I know of him, and I
project myself onto him, to be sure, but in doing so, I know that there’s a knot in
the pit of his stomach. I know that there is a defensiveness that rises within him. I
know that there is an anxiety. There is a fear, a fear that has to be raised by the
wonder of the stories that were told by this articulate scholar Diana Eck, and I
thought of myself and thanked God for the kind of experiences that effect this
shift in perception that have been, for me, resurrection.
This message is not about pluralism and religion in government, it is not about
homosexual orientation or same-sex marriage, it is about a shift in perception,
about that thing that puts a knot in your stomach and causes your face to flush
and your blood pressure to rise. It’s about those issues, whose button being
pushed, you feel yourself uneasy, unsure, causing some of you, perhaps, to strike
out vociferously, and others of you simply to slink into the shadows full of unease.
This sermon is about you and those things that are unresolved in your heart and
your soul. God knows in our world today, polarized as we are about everything,
we need to disband our egos long enough to allow the possibility of a shift in
perception that can lead us from being bound up to freedom, from anger to
peace, from violence to embrace in this global community which is so small that
we have to learn how to celebrate one another in all of the diversity. This sermon
is an invitation to you to be honest about the things that knot your stomach and
mar your spirit and trouble your soul, an invitation to open yourself to a shift in
perception which is a miracle of love which could be the first day of the rest of
your life. I, Richard Rhem, recommend it.
© Grand Valley State University
�
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Richard A. Rhem Collection
Description
An account of the resource
Text and sound recordings of the sermons, prayers, services, and articles of Richard Rhem, pastor emeritus of Christ Community Church in Spring Lake, Michigan, where he served for 37 years. Starting in the mid 1980's, Rhem began to question some of the traditional Christian dogma that he had been espousing from the pulpit. That questioning was a first step in a long and interesting spiritual journey, one that he openly shared with his congregation. His journey is important, in part because it is reflective of the questioning, the yearnings, and the gradual revision of beliefs that many persons in this part of the century have experienced and continue to experience. It is important also because of the affirming and inclusive way his questioning was done and his thinking evolved. His sermons and other written and spoken materials together document the steps in his journey as it took a turn in 1985, yet continued to revolve around the framework and liturgies of the Christian calendar.
Subject
The topic of the resource
Clergy--Michigan
Reformed Church in America
Christ Community Church (Spring Lake, Mich.)
Religion
Interfaith worship
Sermons
Sound Recordings
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Rhem, Richard A.
Source
A related resource from which the described resource is derived
<a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/514">Richard A. Rhem papers (KII-01)</a>
Publisher
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Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives.
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
Kaufman Interfaith Institute
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
<a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a>
Language
A language of the resource
English
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Sound
Text
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
KII-01
Coverage
The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant
1981-2014
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
audio/mp3
text/pdf
Sound
A resource primarily intended to be heard. Examples include a music playback file format, an audio compact disc, and recorded speech or sounds.
Event
Eastertide II
Series
Remembering Jesus, Experiencing God
Scripture Text
Acts 7:54-8:1,I Corinthians 13:1-8, John 20:19-23
Location
The location of the interview
Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
KII-01_RA-0-20040418
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2004-04-18
Title
A name given to the resource
Resurrection: A Shift in Perception
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Richard A. Rhem
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
<a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a>
Subject
The topic of the resource
Clergy--Michigan
Reformed Church in America
Christ Community Church (Spring Lake, Mich.)
Sermons
Relation
A related resource
Richard A. Rhem - An Archive of Sermons, Prayers, Talks and Stories: http://richardrhem.org/
Language
A language of the resource
eng
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Sound
Text
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
audio/mp3
application/pdf
Description
An account of the resource
A sermon given by Richard A. Rhem (Dick) on April 18, 2004 entitled "Resurrection: A Shift in Perception", as part of the series "Remembering Jesus, Experiencing God", on the occasion of Eastertide II, at Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI. Scripture references: Acts 7:54-8:1,I Corinthians 13:1-8, John 20:19-23.
Love
Resurrection
-
https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/d7f159f9bc772149c653ef1c5f165beb.pdf
2e3554de0ca536024d8ae79b39df19ff
PDF Text
Text
Rock Solid – Soft Center
Meditation for Marvin Bottema
Text: Psalm 16: 8; Romans 8: 31, 35-39
Richard A. Rhem
Spring Lake, Michigan
March 2, 2013
Prepared text of the meditation
I suspect, to the extent that you know Marv Bottema well, you will understand
why I have entitled my meditation “Rock Solid – Soft Center.” Does that not
describe him? Was he not solid as a rock – settled, secure, unmovable when it
came to his trust, his values, his commitments? He was the rock solid center of
his family and, throughout his life, responsible, dependable faithful. Of course, it
was in his genes. Son of Gerrit and Johanna could be no less. But it was more
than that; his life was deeply rooted in God, the God of the Psalmist, the God
revealed in Jesus Christ.
As always, I chose the Scripture lessons that were reflected in his life. They
happen to be among my favorite passages as well, but they were chosen because
they were lived out concretely in Marvin’s life.
Psalm 16:8 – I keep the Lord always before me; because he is at my right
hand, I shall not be moved.
The English translation misses the image of the Hebrew text which is, literally,
“before my face” –
I keep the Lord always before my face.
What do you suppose the Psalmist is saying? God fully in his consciousness 24/7?
Probably not. I don’t even know what that would be, what that would entail. This
is poetry and don’t you suppose the poet is trying to bring to expression the fact
that his whole being is shaped by his awareness at deep moments that, aware or
not, he lives in a “God-shaped” reality? God is the source, ground and goal of all
being. The poet believes that, trusts that.
Paul on one occasion speaks of God in whom “we live and move and have our
being.” God, the unspoken Presence, the backdrop, the foundation that gives us
our being so that there is no secular and sacred. And we don’t have to signal in
every situation, every conversation, that God fills our mind and heart.
© Grand Valley State University
�Rock Solid – Soft Center
Richard A. Rhem
Page 2
In fact, I’m a bit allergic to those pious ones whose language is replete with God’s
latest miracle in their lives. This was not my friend, Marvin. No, his deep-seated
spiritual grounding did not need to be expressed; it was simply the constant
center of his being. It informed the total experience of his life in labor and leisure,
in the family or at Burger King.
He got a head start; he chose his parents well. His traditioning, his spiritual
formation, was deep; it started early. And, when it is deep and authentic, one
never gets away from it. One doesn’t put it on like a Sunday suit (although
Sunday suits are not put on so much either anymore!)
I am perhaps belaboring the point but, as I too grow older and can see the end, I
become acutely aware of the critical importance of early formation, being
nurtured through a lifetime of worship in the community of God’s people.
That was Marv’s story. A life of faith in family and church and community – in
Sunday school, consistory, and keeping the spotlight on the church Bell Tower.
He loved the church. He hung in there a long time. On day I was in Grand Haven
and received a call on my cell phone. The Cross was coming down. Since I was
close I drove over and parked at the edge of the parking lot as the bucket truck
was getting into position. I thought of Marv whose scrapbooks were filled with
local history of community and church. I called him – 842 2958 – one of the
numbers in my mental file. In hardly any time his pickup drove up. He moved
with more quickness than I had seen him move for some time. His camera at the
ready, he documented the event – for him a cause for great sadness. In Marvin I
saw how much so many had invested their lives in the church community. I saw
how much he and so many cared. I felt his loss.
This is just one vignette illustrative of the deep spiritual rootedness, commitment
and devotion of this one whose life we celebrate today. I will think of him on
Good Friday when I hear the cross will be placed again on the Bell Tower. He will
be pleased – maybe even joining the angel choir for an anthem – Lift High the
Cross!
I have set the Lord always before me…
Thus sang the poet; Marv’s life said an Amen to that.
Rock solid he was, immersed as he was in a God-consciousness that needed not
to be spoken about because it showed all over.
And the story gets even better: He had a soft center. Was there anything he
wouldn’t do for his children or grandchildren? Many the times I stopped by and
one of you was borrowing or bringing back the pickup or the Pontiac. Or maybe
buying a new washer and dryer for the farmhouse. And those are just a couple of
© Grand Valley State University
�Rock Solid – Soft Center
Richard A. Rhem
Page 3
instances I can remember, but it was a way of life. He never ceased caring,
providing, aiding in any way he could because he was soft at the center – a
pushover as it were – and that was no accident. By “Soft at the Center,” I mean
there was Love at the Center.
The Epistle lesson, Romans 8:31, 35-39, expresses beautifully exactly what we
have been talking about from Psalm 16. For the Psalmist – The Lord always
before my face – was described by St. Paul as the God who is “for us.” And
further:
Who will separate us from the love of Christ?
And then he lists the possible assaults on our human condition and concludes,
No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who
loved us.
And then one of the most beautiful acclamations from the apostle:
For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers,
nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor
depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from
the love of God in Jesus Christ our Lord.
Marvin was soft at the center for his whole universe was soft at the center. The
center is Love; the last word is love. Love is the final reality – as the writer of the
first letter of John affirmed – God is Love. And nothing will separate us from that
love – nothing in life, nothing in death.
With God always before one’s face, the God who is love, one grows rock solid in
all life’s circumstances, while being soft at the center, emulating the God who
keeps us in all life’s experience secure in Love Divine.
One more thing:
I must say to you – sons and daughters, grandchildren – you are a very
beautiful family. When I would say to Marv, “You have wonderful kids,” he
would say, “That was Thelma’s doing.” And I would suggest he was
probably a little bit responsible as well. But my point is you have returned
the love and care that you learned from your parents. It always warmed
my heart to witness it.
I will miss him and I will miss you. We have had some beautiful moments
– around the kitchen table, on the deck, in the yard celebrating the
sacraments of Baptism and The Lord’s Supper. You are a wonderful
© Grand Valley State University
�Rock Solid – Soft Center
Richard A. Rhem
Page 4
family. Stay close. Keep alive those meaningful traditions and celebrations
we have shared. I have come to love you very much.
And so we say farewell, good and faithful servant – Rock Solid/Soft Center. He
has entered into light eternal, into the joy of the Lord, together again with all he
loved and lost awhile.
Thanks be to God who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.
© 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
Meditation for Marvin
Bottema
Scripture Text
Psalm 16:8, Romans 8:31, 35-39
Location
The location of the interview
Spring Lake, Michigan
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-0-20130302
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2013-03-02
Title
A name given to the resource
Rock Solid - Soft Center
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Richard A. Rhem
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
<a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a>
Subject
The topic of the resource
Clergy--Michigan
Reformed Church in America
Christ Community Church (Spring Lake, Mich.)
Sermons
Relation
A related resource
Richard A. Rhem - An Archive of Sermons, Prayers, Talks and Stories: http://richardrhem.org/
Language
A language of the resource
eng
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Text
Description
An account of the resource
A sermon given by Richard A. Rhem (Dick) on March 2, 2013 entitled "Rock Solid - Soft Center", on the occasion of Meditation for Marvin Bottema, at Spring Lake, Michigan. Scripture references: Psalm 16:8, Romans 8:31, 35-39.
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
application/pdf
Community
Faith
Love
-
https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/a6bf36b4538b54149b42fd49f4298ad3.pdf
4d732d4dd1660be98b9df3fdcc22b20b
PDF Text
Text
LOVE That Loves Us
Margaret Feldmann Kruizenga Memorial
Ecclesiastes 3: 1-8, 11, 13; I John 4: 7-8, 12, 16, 19; John 1:1-5, 14, 18
Richard A. Rhem
Freedom Village, Holland, Michigan
May 25, 2013
It is an honor and my privilege to conduct this service of worship and celebration
of the life of Margaret Feldmann Kruizenga. I do so as family as much as pastor.
When Margaret married Richard she married into a family of Mulders and
Kruizengas who were, with a couple of other families, the core of the First
Reformed Church of Spring Lake, Michigan. Dick’s parents were baptized on the
same day in the First Reformed Church of Spring Lake and, I’m told, Dick’s father
winked at his mother across the baptismal font and said, “She’s for me!” The
tradition was also Margaret’s, coming, as she did, from Long Island and a
Reformed congregation there which steered her to Hope College where she met
her husband to be, a marriage of over 60 years.
I mention my presence as family because, graduating from Western Seminary in
1960, I was extended a call to the Spring Lake congregation. In the first
congregational meeting I ever conducted in the fall of 1960, Dick’s father,
Richard J. Kruizenga, was elected once again an elder and proved an early
formative influence on me. After a hiatus of seven years, having left for New
Jersey and then Europe for post-graduate work, I returned for a visit with a very
painful divorce ahead. Dick’s father, with consummate skill, succeeded in leading
the congregation to extend a call to me even in the tenuous circumstances of my
life at that time. In 1971 I began again in Spring Lake and from that time Dick’s
father became a surrogate father to me.
And in that almost impossible situation of assuming the pastorate of that fine
congregation, divorcing with children 7, 9 and 11 for whom to care, it was
primarily Dick’s sister Dorothy and her husband Gordon who “adopted” us and
made it all possible. (Gordon is present with us; Dorothy died on the past New
Year’s Day.)
I relate this history because I want you to sense the personal meaning of this
celebration to me. Over many years, Dick and Margaret would return to Spring
Lake. I met them but didn’t really know them well until, in retirement, they were
summer residents of Spring Lake and Grand Haven. Over these last years we
have shared many happy occasions with them and were privileged to come to
know their family.
© Grand Valley State University
�LOVE That Loves Us
Richard A. Rhem
Page 2
From that history it is obvious that I did not know the Margaret Dick fell in love
with, married and eventually traveled the world with. Even in retirement
Margaret’s strength (She was no shrinking flower!), intelligence and acute
engagement with current events were clear. She held strong opinions and was not
reticent about expressing them. A time or two she straightened me out!
But one comment in the Funeral Home Obituary Internet Site caught my eye and
I determined I would share it with you because in brief, concise fashion I suspect
Margaret could not receive a finer portrait. Her friend Nancy wrote:
Margaret was a dear friend for many, many years – and remained so from
all corners of the world. I met her when I was just out of college and she
was a sophisticated New York wife, mother and world traveler. I always
admired and looked up to her for her great taste, wit, intelligence and
generosity. My love and thoughts are with her wonderful husband Dick
and with Meg, Derek and families. Margaret will always have a special
place in my heart.
That is the one whose life we celebrate today – and yesterday – at the Ground
Breaking for the Kruizenga Art Museum on Hope’s campus.
My first serious encounter with Dick and Margaret was many years ago at the
Spring Lake cemetery – a graveside service for their child Dwight, a special needs
child. In her determined fashion, Margaret sought every possible means to give
Dwight a normal childhood but ran into a wall; nothing in science, medicine or
technology could bring her child to wholeness. I think it was at that critical
juncture that she found in Christian Science spiritual resources that enabled her
to cope with human impotence in face of deep human need.
Her spiritual quest became her lifelong pursuit. She was serious, engaged and
generous in her support of the Church of Christ, Scientist where she found a
spiritual community. Through her leadership and support, the church in Irving,
Texas, was transformed into a beautiful sacred space and she was very supportive
of the church in Grand Haven as well.
Margaret was seriously engaged in the spiritual quest for meaning, indeed, for
the Sacred Mystery we call God. In the teaching of Christian Science she was
pointed to God as Spirit, Mind, Love and the critical importance of prayer and
meditation.
The Scripture Lessons were chosen in light of Margaret’s spiritual quest. The
familiar poetry of Ecclesiastes 3 moves to
God has made everything suitable for its time; moreover he has put a
sense of past and future into their minds, yet they cannot find out what
God has done from the beginning to the end.
© Grand Valley State University
�LOVE That Loves Us
Richard A. Rhem
Page 3
One whose knowledge of Hebrew far surpasses mine has rendered those lines
thus:
God has made everything beautiful in its own time and has put an eternal
yearning in our hearts even as we live before the face of Mystery.
An eternal yearning before the face of Mystery – my sense is that that might fit
Margaret well. It is my sense that in her spiritual pursuit she came to rest in the
God of Love – a central biblical teaching underscored in Christian Science –
Divine Love come to expression in the life of Jesus.
“No one has ever seen God,” declares the writer of the Fourth Gospel in his
prologue to his story of Jesus decades after the event itself. But the eternal Word,
Creation’s Agent, assumed flesh – humanity – and in that human face, the writer
claims, God is revealed. Out of that Johannine Circle, also near the end of the
first century as the early Christian community was trying to give expression to the
Gospel, the writer of the First Letter of John picked up that statement from the
Gospel – “No one has seen God.” For him as for the Gospel writer, the Mystery of
God was revealed in Jesus. He opens his letter:
We declare to you what was from the beginning, what we have heard, what we
have seen with our eyes, what we have looked at and touched with our hands,
concerning the word of life.
But then later in the letter he calls the community to love one another for “God is
love.” He then repeats the acknowledgement of the Gospel – No one has ever
seen God.” But he goes on to make a startling claim –
If we love one another, God lives in us, and his love is perfected in us.
He moves beyond the Gospel’s claim that God is revealed in Jesus – the Word
made flesh – to the amazing claim that God is revealed in our love one for
another.
If we love one another, God lives in us, and his love is perfected in us.
God is love, and those who abide in love abide in God, and God abides in
them.
God is Love, Love known and experienced in our human love. The Hebrew poet
sensed an eternal yearning as he lived before the face of Mystery. The writer of
the First Letter of John read off the story of Jesus that God is Love. But not only
that; God/LOVE is known/experienced in the concreteness of human love – as
we love one another.
© Grand Valley State University
�LOVE That Loves Us
Richard A. Rhem
Page 4
The human quest for meaning, for some understanding of the mystery of being
human, our whence, our whither, and what it means in the meantime is both
ancient and contemporary.
One of the greatest film directors of our time is Terrence Malick. He produced
The Thin Red Line and more recently a film entitled The Tree of Life – a deeply
spiritual film starring Brad Pitt and Jessica Chastain. But last month To the
Wonder came out, a film in which Malick reveals the deep human hunger and
quest for what ultimately grounds us, forms us, calls us to communion. A
reviewer writes,
Ultimately, for Malick, the experience of falling in love grants us a glimpse of the
divine – of a ‘LOVE that loves us.’
Humanity was made for God. And He is present all around us – in the
transfiguring, wondrous joy of romantic love, in self-giving sacrifice, in our
suffering and the suffering of others, in the charity we offer to those in pain, in
the resplendent beauty of the natural world – if only we open our eyes to see
Him. That, it seems, is Terrence Malick’s scandalous message….an ecstatic
tribute to God. (Damon Linker)
The film’s title says it all – “To the Wonder.” I find it fascinating that one of our
contemporary film directors should with such artistry cause us to wonder –
wonder about the Wonder that is God.
In a three-way e-mail conversation in which I engage and, in this instance, about
Malick’s “To the Wonder,” one wrote:
In this context it makes a lot of sense to me that in wanting to speak redemptively
about what grounds us in all that we are Malick wrestles with love as Love. In
being Loved I know God and in loving I walk with God (Hendrick Hart)
I entitled my meditation the LOVE that Loves Us – loves us into being,
undergirds, overshadows ‘til finally we move through death to Eternal Light
dwelling in the LOVE that loved us into being!
God is love, and those who abide in love abide in God, and God abides in them.
Margaret believed that. In her final barely conscious moments she was bathed in
it. I stood vigil with Dick. I witnessed his deep love in a final embrace and “I love
you,” as well as the heavy grief he felt. Dick violated the Kruizenga canon against
showing emotion! It was quite beautiful, moving. God is Love. LOVE loved her
into being.
Margaret believed that.
Now she knows.
© 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
Meditation for Margaret Feldmann Kruizenga
Scripture Text
Ecclesiastes 3:1-8, 11, 13, I John 4:7-8, 12, 16, 19, John 1:1-5, 14 & 18
Location
The location of the interview
Freedom Village, Holland, Michigan
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-0-20130525
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2013-05-25
Title
A name given to the resource
The LOVE That Loves Us
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Richard A. Rhem
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
<a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a>
Subject
The topic of the resource
Clergy--Michigan
Reformed Church in America
Christ Community Church (Spring Lake, Mich.)
Sermons
Relation
A related resource
Richard A. Rhem - An Archive of Sermons, Prayers, Talks and Stories: http://richardrhem.org/
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eng
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Text
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A sermon given by Richard A. Rhem (Dick) on May 25, 2013 entitled "The LOVE That Loves Us", on the occasion of Meditation for Margaret Feldmann Kruizenga, at Freedom Village, Holland, Michigan. Scripture references: Ecclesiastes 3:1-8, 11, 13, I John 4:7-8, 12, 16, 19, John 1:1-5, 14 & 18.
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application/pdf
Family
Funeral
Love
Sacred Mystery
Spiritual Quest
-
https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/d0bc9ca59dd2adf2dfa6fbadaeb752d9.pdf
ea4c24f74cc086cfe9e800b20bc42720
PDF Text
Text
Face To Face, Now and Then
A Service of Worship
In Celebration of the Life of Norman J. Campbell
(October 7, 1937 to January 20, 2014)
Psalm 16: 5-8, 11; I Corinthians 13: 4-13
Richard A. Rhem
First Congregational Church
Muskegon, Michigan
January 24, 2014
Transcription of the written sermon
Let me begin by expressing my appreciation to First Congregational Church for
giving the honor and privilege of sharing in this celebration of the life of Norman
J. Campbell and to Pastor Tim Vander Haan for graciously allowing me to share
in this service with him. It means a great deal to me to be able to be part of
Norm’s funeral service; he was such a dear friend and for many years one of my
faithful parishioners at Christ Community Church, with Maureen and their
daughters.
Over the past year we were in touch, hoping to go out to lunch. We even had a
date but as the time came had to cancel; Norm’s health continued to deteriorate
and treatments did not have a positive outcome. I think it was December 9 I sat
with him and Maureen and Wendy. He had received the dreaded news – his body
could not tolerate the only measure that might save him. It was a sober moment.
For the first time we spoke of plans for where we are today – celebrating his life,
he having gone on before us.
Shortly before Christmas Nancy and I stopped in. In the course of our
conversation, Maureen said, “Are you going to Florida?” I said, “Yes, only a short
get-away, January 4 to 19.” Then I looked at Norm and said, “and you behave
yourself!” That’s the way it was with us; even pointing to his end we shared a bit
of humor. He was so easy to be with.
Well, we went to Florida and returned last Sunday evening. At 8:00 am Monday,
Maureen called. Norm had breathed his last at 4:52 am. Maureen said, “He knew
you had returned and he could let go.” I found it remarkable. The last week was
very difficult but he held on until he knew all would be in order, thinking not of
himself but his loved ones.
© Grand Valley State University
�Face to Face Now & Then
Richard A. Rhem
Page 2
Your presence here attests to what I think would be universally agreed on – This
was a beautiful human being. Being human, he must have had an imperfection or
two but I never detected it. I admired and respected Norm and held him in deep
affection. He was so easy to be with, his wry sense of humor and lightness of
being. And he was always the same – easy, comfortable, natural – even speaking
of what he desired for this service.
From the moment I hear of a death and know I will be bringing the funeral
meditation, I begin to think of the person and the Scriptures. That’s probably a
peculiar preacher’s thing, but I always desire to paint a portrait of the person in
the framework of the biblical story that has shaped us. With someone like Norm
one could go in many directions but finally one must choose the contours of the
character one would paint.
I have chosen two scriptural passages from which to reflect with you on the life of
this one we loved and have lost awhile.
From the Psalms, Psalm 16: 5-8, 11. Psalm 16 is one of my favorites. Beginning
with verse 5, the Psalmist expresses a sense of deep wellbeing.
The boundary lines have fallen to me in pleasant places;
I have a goodly heritage.
He is full of gratitude for his human situation – referring to Israel’s coming into
the land of Israel when the tribes divided the land by casting lots. The Psalmist is
pleased with his human situation. But his wellbeing is rooted in something
deeper.
I keep the Lord always before me; because he is at my right hand
I shall not be moved.
In the Hebrew “before me” is literally “before my face.” That being so, he is
steadfast whatever human experience brings him.
His heart is glad;
His soul rejoices.
So confident is he that he cannot conceive of being given up to Sheol – the realm
of the dead. One commentator writes:
It can be read as the general prayer of the faithful who, without any
doctrine of resurrection or eternal life to explain just how, nonetheless
trust the Lord to keep them with such total confidence that they cannot
imagine a future apart from life in God’s presence. (James L. Mays,
Interpretation: Psalms, p. 88)
Again the Psalmist exclaims,
© Grand Valley State University
�Face to Face Now & Then
Richard A. Rhem
Page 3
You show me the path of life.
In Your presence there is fullness of joy;
in Your right hand are pleasures forevermore.
Were we to read this poem in the original Hebrew we would see a beautiful
juxtaposition. In verse 8, as noted above, “before me” is literally “before my face.”
In verse 11, “in Your presence” is literally “before Your face.”
God before my face;
I before God’s face.
Further, God at my right hand keeps me secure. At God’s right hand are pleasures
forevermore.
The Psalmist lived with a vivid sense of God’s presence. That awareness kept him
steady in all the vicissitudes of life. That sense of trust was so strong even the fear
of death, of loss, was transcended. He lived with fullness of joy. He was present to
the presence of God.
You must sense why I would select such a scripture when thinking of Norm – He
lived with God before his face – with a God-consciousness woven into his being
from a child, and it made him steady, strong and confident.
Like the Psalmist, God-consciousness made him a rock, gave him a place to stand
and not be moved.
My second text is Paul’s Letter to the Corinthians, chapter 13, verses 4-13. Often
called Paul’s Hymn of Love, it is familiar and beloved. Verses 4 to 7 give love’s
marks, its aspects –
Kind, not envious or boastful or arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its
own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice in wrongdoing,
but rejoices in the truth. It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all
things, endures all things.
Comment is hardly needed; Love’s portrait is Norm’s portrait, is it not? That is
simply who he was – Love embodied.
But the passage goes on –
Love never ends.
And then St. Paul speaks of our human situation. What called forth this beautiful
portrait of Love was the situation in the Corinthian congregation. There seemed
to be a game going on regarding who possessed the greatest spiritual gifts. And
Paul does not put those gifts down even though they are causing division in the
congregation. Instead he says,
© Grand Valley State University
�Face to Face Now & Then
Richard A. Rhem
Page 4
…I will show you a still more excellent way.
And that way is the way of Love, a way he contrasts with the various spiritual gifts
that were competing with each other in Corinth. Paul writes, “Love never ends.”
But that is not so for the other gifts – prophetic gifts, the gift of speaking in
tongues, knowledge, prophecy – they are limited and will come to an end.
But not Love.
Paul compares the present state of the congregation at Corinth to that of
childhood, using himself as an example.
When I was a child, I spoke like a child,
I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child;
when I became an adult, I put an end to childish ways.
And then he comes to the point I want to make in regard to our beloved Norm.
For now we see in a mirror dimly
but then we will see face to face.
Now I know only in part; then I will know fully,
even as I have been fully known.
There you have it – Face to Face Now and Then.
Norm knew the Psalmist’s secret – The Lord before my face, rock solid,
unmovable, steady, deep assurance. He knew as well that all he knew and
experienced were partial, in process, a dim glimpse of the Ultimate Mystery.
But for him all he glimpsed dimly has come into sharp focus – now he sees fully,
clearly, for he sees “face to face.”
Face to face – for us who grieve, in trust we see but only dimly – our “now” sees
in faith. We long for the “Then” of full vision but, in the meantime, we are
confident that our beloved Norm sees clearly and is lost in wonder, love and
grace.
Face to face in the Presence in fullness of joy.
Well done, good and faithful servant!
© Grand Valley State University
�
Dublin Core
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Richard A. Rhem Collection
Description
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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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<a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a>
Language
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English
Type
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Sound
Text
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KII-01
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1981-2014
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audio/mp3
text/pdf
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Event
Funeral Service for Norman Campbell
Scripture Text
Psalm 16: 5-8, 11, I Corinthians 13: 4-13
Location
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First Congregational Church, Muskegon, Michigan
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Identifier
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KII-01_RA-0-20140124
Date
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2014-01-24
Title
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Face to Face, Now and Then
Creator
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Richard A. Rhem
Publisher
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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
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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
An account of the resource
A sermon given by Richard A. Rhem (Dick) on January 24, 2014 entitled "Face to Face, Now and Then", on the occasion of Funeral Service for Norman Campbell, at First Congregational Church, Muskegon, Michigan. Scripture references: Psalm 16: 5-8, 11, I Corinthians 13: 4-13.
Format
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application/pdf
Funeral
Love
Presence of God
Trust