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A Declaration of Inter-dependence
Text: Psalm 33:16-17; Romans 12:21; Matthew 5:44
Richard A. Rhem
Christ Community Church
Spring Lake, Michigan
Independence Day Weekend, July 5, 1998
Transcription of the spoken sermon
We celebrate 222 years of existence as a nation, born as an experiment in human
freedom, a nation in which the government was of, for and by the people. The
ideal of our founders was a magnificent vision worthy to be celebrated in public
festivals and to be reflected on in Divine worship because, while the early framers
of our founding documents were not evangelical Christians as is loudly claimed in
some quarters today, their vision was grounded in the biblical vision of
humankind created by God, not only the ground of all reality but the source and
enlivening presence of all life, including human life - a Creator Who is the
guarantor of human dignity and freedom.
Our founding vision was a radical experiment, to be understood in the
background of the European origin of the nation, a background of Divine Right of
kings and nobility and human domination. The American experiment was an
attempt to limit government and vastly restrict its arena of operation. The early
documents resonate with lofty idealism and there is too little appreciation of the
greatness of that founding vision.
It was flawed from the beginning; it had its limitation of the radical nature of the
freedom it was espousing and has been in a process of development over the 222
years of our national existence. But we have been blessed to have entered into the
fruit of that vision, for which we give God thanks.
The Declaration of Independence, the claim of national sovereignty, was a bold
and daring act in the 18th century. As the 21st century dawns, an equally bold
and daring act is imperative; it is the declaration of inter-dependence with all
nations and peoples of the earth. Such a claim is not wild-eyed fantasy of a
hopelessly idealistic and impractical dreamer. Rather, it is a practical and
necessary response to the real situation of our world on the threshold of the Third
Millennium.
The most telling image of our situation as humankind on planet earth is the
astronaut’s picture of the earth taken from outer space - the earth, a beautiful
globe of blue and green hanging in the frozen darkness of space - obviously an
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inter-related, inter-connected whole. The picture gives vivid witness to the
commentary of the astronaut who says there are no real barriers or divisions; the
earth is one; a planetary unity.
What the picture of the earth as a whole points to is being realized in actual
human experience. The amazing accomplishments of technology have put the
world’s people into instant communication. Travel exposes us to the whole rich
diversity of the human community. What happens in one part of the world
impacts every part. We cannot wash our hands of the ongoing tensions in the
Middle East, not turn our backs on the anguish of the Balkan states.
The ecological concern for the well-being of the environment can only be
addressed from a global perspective and nuclear non-proliferation is essential for
the whole global family.
Speaking of the drive toward one world totally intertwined is not fantasizing
about what might be, but simply being responsible before what is; and the best
place to see it is in the actuality of a global economy. Multinational corporations
and international banking are a reality. The move to one currency in the
European community is only a symbol of the interlocked economics of the world.
We bail out Mexico, cajole and press Indonesia and support the Japanese yen not because we are an altruistic nation wanting to help those in distress, but
because we are invested literally around the globe and need a healthy global
economy to keep our own GNP in good shape.
As the Third Millennium approaches and the 21st century breaks upon us, it is
time for a declaration of inter-dependence.
It would be foolhardy to think that we, the USA, the world’s only present
superpower could insulate and isolate ourselves from the rest of the earth in the
ongoing development of the cosmic drama and the human story. These are not
far out ideas.
The Fourth of July in Flint was marked by picketers with American flags. We are
witnessing a serious social situation in our own state that is impacting not only
Michigan, but the nation. What is the underlying reality? It is not a simple
matter. One can fume at General Motors - giving the store away in the past. One
can fume at the UAW - bringing on what they claim they are trying to avoid. But,
General Motors cannot go on as is. And autoworkers in Flint are human beings
being disrupted and dislocated.
I mention this not to take sides or examine all the issues involved - and it is very
complex; rather, to show that this kind of crisis close to home has to do with
globalization.
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Some philosophers and theologians suggest that we must dismantle the global
networks of industry and economics, return to small regional communities of
production and consumption, nurturing local customs and ethnic diversity. They
rail against globalization as the loss of particular cultural identities and want to
stop the whole process toward one world.
I understand, but I don’t think that will happen. There is a tide, broad and
powerful, that is sweeping us toward one world, totally inter-related. It seems to
me what we must do is not throw up barriers against ongoing development, but
rather, seek ways to make the future humane, just and peaceful. We need a vision
of inter-dependence and then the will to make it happen.
What is needed is a transformation of consciousness. We simply must begin to
think differently. We need a prophet to annunciate the new and emerging reality
- the global reality of which we are a part. Rather than the reactionary rhetoric of
the religious Right that is attempting to re-invent yesterday, we need someone to
help us find a new orientation in a new cultural situation. Rather than a fearful,
defensive posture that is marked by a militant mind and hostile spirit, we need to
cultivate a global consciousness that thinks of how to make the future more
humane, more just, marked by planetary peace.
We are not without resources for such a vision. In 1848 Karl Marx and Friedrich
Engels published the Communist Manifesto. It was focused on economics, but it
was really a revolutionary social document. On the 150th anniversary of its
publication, a number of works are being published. In an article in The New
York Times, the present debate was set forth, but what seemed to be commonly
agreed on was that Marx did see the relentless power of capital to produce wealth
and he did see what we are currently experiencing globally. He failed to see how
Capitalism could pull the proletariat into the game and thus avoid what he
thought would be inevitable revolution.
Again, here my point is not to argue Marx pro or con, but to suggest that we need
such a powerful prophetic visionary in our day.
Where did Marx get his vision?
Communism has been called a biblical heresy. The founding story of Israel is the
freedom of a people from domination and ruthless exploitation, and the story is
shaped by the Hebrew prophets who envisioned a peaceable kingdom where the
lion and the lamb would lie down together. The vision, the passion for justice and
human well-being that found expression in a Karl Marx was in that biblical
tradition.
We have the biblical story as resource. Psalm 33 celebrates the sovereignty of
God who fills the earth with steadfast love. The image of God as Ruler out there in heaven - controlling the affairs of the nations is not in line with the experience
of cosmic movement and historical development, but I believe the Psalmist had
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true insight into the human situation - we did not create this world; we are not
sovereign, nor can we secure ourselves by human means. The King - the symbol
of human sovereignty - is not secured by horses and armies. Military might won’t
do it. Economic power won’t do it. No human reality is impregnable.
God is at the heart of things.
Love is at the heart of things.
Grace - modeled out in God, as we see it revealed in Jesus Christ, is the only way
to peace on earth.
Paul, responding to the encounter with the grace of God in Jesus Christ, appealed
to followers of Jesus in Rome - on the basis of the mercies of God, to present
themselves a sacrifice to God - living, holy, acceptable. This, Paul said, is only
logical - it makes sense.
Grace at the core of things, as he had so eloquently written as chapter 11 ends,
calls for a transformation of life, a new way of being, not conformed to the
structures and forms of this world, but transformed by the renewing of the mind.
A shift in consciousness - that is radical, thinking differently!
Paul, of course, was reflecting Jesus. The Sermon on the Mount is filled with
concrete, practical counsel on how to live. Paul said do not meet evil with evil, but
overcome evil with good and, obviously, he was trying to counsel a way of being
that emulated the way of Jesus who said "No!" to the old code of justice - an eye
for an eye and a tooth for a tooth. Rather, "If anyone strikes you on the right
cheek, turn the other also; and if anyone wants to sue you and take your coat, give
her your cloak, as well; and if anyone forces you to go one mile, go also the
second mile."
Again, radically, Jesus declares, Love your enemies.
In short, be God-like, the God who causes rain to fall on the righteous and the
unrighteous alike and causes the sun to rise on the good and the evil. That section
ends with "Be perfect as God is perfect," and the connotation of the word
translated perfect is "mature." In effect, we need to grow up.
Hans Küng brings this radical counsel of Jesus into the concrete circumstances of
our day. In his work, Judaism, he addresses the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Recognizing the delicacy of any non-Jew dealing with the issue, he nonetheless
points to the frequency with which the Likud party, particularly, uses the word
retaliation. One must be sensitive to the Israeli position, given the suffering and
loss that people has suffered over the centuries. Yet, he wonders if the word of the
Jew Jesus is not a better way to the future and peace - not retaliation, but the
voluntary renunciation of power and rights.
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Richard A. Rhem
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For many years I did not preach on the Sermon on the Mount. I was not content
to interpret it as a code of personal ethics irrelevant to the world of real politics.
Yet, it seemed so incredible, so impossible in the real world of international
relations. But, the longer I think about these things, the more I am convinced that
Jesus’ way is the only way there can ever be peace on earth, the realization of the
Creator’s intention for Shalom - the peaceable kingdom.
If Jesus’ way won’t work, there is no other way.
© 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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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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Pentecost V
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Independence Day Weekend
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Psalm 33:16-17, Romans 12:21, Matthew 5:44
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Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI
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1998-07-05
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A Declaration of Inter-dependence
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Richard A. Rhem
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Grand Valley State University
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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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Description
An account of the resource
A sermon given by Richard A. Rhem (Dick) on July 5, 1998 entitled "A Declaration of Inter-dependence", as part of the series "Independence Day Weekend", on the occasion of Pentecost V, at Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI. Scripture references: Psalm 33:16-17, Romans 12:21, Matthew 5:44.
Consciousness
Global Community
Inclusive
Justice
Peace
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To Bring Peace…
From the series: Waiting For Messiah To Come –
Text: Micah 4:3, Luke 1:79
Richard A. Rhem
Christ Community Church
Spring Lake, Michigan
December 15, 1996
Transcription of the spoken sermon
It's not easy to understand the prophets. One needs a lot of help. Of course, there
was the old Scottish lady who was asked what she thought about a commentary
and she said, "Well, the Bible throws a lot of light on it." Sometimes the help isn't
very helpful, but the prophets are not easy to understand because you get things
juxtaposed and it seems like you're moving from one world to another and that's
certainly the case in Micah.
The fourth chapter that we're going to read is a marvelous vision of world peace,
international peace, but just prior to that is this statement of the decimation of
Jerusalem. At the end of chapter three, Jerusalem is laid flat and then at the
beginning of chapter four, it's raised up high. Now, there weren't any chapters, of
course, in the original, no chapters or verses, but that juxtaposition is so
interesting, and the reason Jerusalem is to be laid low is because people like me
are most often unfaithful. For example, the heads of Jerusalem, the leadership,
give judgment for a bribe; its priests teach for hire; the prophets divine for
money. Yet they lean upon the Lord and say, "Is not the Lord in the midst of us?
No evil shall come upon us." That's the temptation of a preacher, of course. Say,
"Peace, peace," where there is no peace. At least it keeps the salary coming, you
see? Keeps the people happy until disaster really happens. Therefore, because of
you, that is, the leadership of God's people, "Zion shall be ploughed as a field,
Jerusalem shall become a heap of ruins, and the temple hill a mound overgrown
with thickets." That, set now in contrast to the vision of chapter four:
It shall come to pass in the latter days that the mountain of the house of
the Lord shall be established as the highest of the mountains and shall be
raised up above the hills. And peoples shall flow to it and many nations
shall come and say, 'Come let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the
house of the God of Jacob, that he may teach us his ways and we may walk
in his paths.' For out of Zion shall go forth the law and the word of the
Lord from Jerusalem. He shall judge between many peoples and shall
decide for strong nations afar off, and they shall beat their swords into
ploughshares and their spears into pruning hooks. Nation shall not lift up
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sword against nation. Neither shall they learn war anymore. But they shall
sit everyone under his vine and under his fig tree and none shall make
them afraid, for the mouth of the Lord of hosts has spoken. For all the
peoples walk each in the name of its God, but we will walk in the name of
the Lord our God forever and ever.
The word of the Lord.
The question that I'm inviting you to think about with me this Advent season is
whether or not in observing the Advent theme, Waiting for Messiah to Come, we
might be abdicating our responsibility and our engagement with our own time
and our own moment of history. In waiting for Messiah to come we are projecting
to the end of history that Messianic vision that appears so eloquently in the
Hebrew prophets, that vision of Shalom, the Kingdom of God, the rule of God, the
peaceable kingdom, that picture of the situation of lion and lamb lying down
together, of not hurting in all God's holy mountain, and today in Micah's vision,
that total peace enveloping the whole human family and all nations. That vision
or that dream comes to beautiful expression here and there in the Hebrew
prophets. It is a dream that lies deep in the human heart, and it came to
expression particularly in Israel as it believed that God's intention for the world
was that kind of peaceable kingdom where God would be acknowledged and
worshiped, and God's Torah, the way of life, would be observed by all people. And
there would be this marvelous, peaceful harmony between God and humankind,
between humankind and nature. In the totality of things there would be peace.
Now, my question is this Have we taken that picture, that vision, and have we projected it to the end and
thus absolved ourselves of real engagement, passionate engagement with seeking
to bring about the reality of that vision in our own time?
It's understandable that we would do that because the world is always reeling
from one crisis to another and when one thinks of the global community, when
one thinks of the problems that are rife around the world, one can very easily
throw up one's hands, perhaps just out of weariness or dismay, just simply being
overwhelmed with it all. I hear it all the time. I think I hear myself saying it what can I do? What can one individual do? Or, sometimes one will hear it with a
bite of cynicism which says, in effect, promises, promises. I find that also in the
Church. It's a good thing we all don't know what everyone else believes or doesn't
believe in the pew behind us and before us and to our right and to our left. I'm
amazed sometimes when I say to somebody, "You really believe that?"
"No. Never did."
"Oh, really? It's in the Bible."
"Ah, don't believe that."
This Messianic vision - we've projected it to the end and maybe become rather
cynical about its realization within history. Or, this has also been a trick of
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religious people - withdrawal from the world, founding a little religious ghetto
and signing the world off, saying, "Oh well, it's under the Devil's sway anyway.
And so we just try to get our own little soul saved, survive, get through life until
finally we can breathe on the other side. You see, in doing all of that, which is
rather understandable, nonetheless, we are abdicating our responsibility for
passionate engagement with our world in order to affect the realization of the
dream which is not just a passing dream of an incidental Hebrew prophet, but I
do believe is reflective of the intention of God for the world.
I don't think the dream was ever intended to be some far point beyond history. I
believe the prophets. I believe Luke when he told the story of Jesus and prefaced
it with the birth of John the Baptist and the Song of Zachariah, speaking about
the light dawning upon us and leading our feet into the way of peace. I believe
that it was their intention to say to us, these biblical writers, that this peace is
meant for history, it is meant for our history. It is not some heavenly vision; it is
the way things ought to be in the world, here and now. And I think in waiting for
Messiah to come, we too easily absolve ourselves from the kind of active
engagement that the people of God are called to in order to be the agents of
reconciliation and that beacon of light to the world.
So, this Advent, that's the question. Have we copped out? Have we pushed to the
end what ought to be our present obsession? Think about it with me. This vision
as Micah portrays it is a marvelous vision. It is a vision of the exaltation of Mt.
Zion, of the raising of Jerusalem as the center of the world, not in order to give
great glory to Jerusalem, but Jerusalem as that place from which the law of God,
the Torah, the way of life, will go. There is a beautiful image here; it is of all the
nations flowing to the Mount of the Lord, flowing there in order to receive
instructions, saying let us go to the God of Jacob in order that we might learn his
ways and learn to walk in his paths. There the image is of all the people flowing to
Jerusalem for instruction in the ways of God.
And then there is the reverse - from Jerusalem flows out in mighty stream this
instruction that illumines and enlightens the world and the consequence of that
instruction in the Word of God, the Torah, the way of life, is that there is
judgment, justice among the nations. It's almost as though God holds court in
Jerusalem as a kind of divine Supreme Court, so that there is justice and equity
among all. And then the consequence of that justice is a world at peace. "They
shall beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks.
Nation shall not lift up sword against nation; neither shall they learn war
anymore. But they shall sit under their own vine and under their own fig tree and
no one shall make them afraid."
Now, isn't that a dream? There would be no more defense budgets, no more
armaments, all of the human resources could go for human well-being. There'd
have to be no more West Point or Annapolis. The world would be at peace and all
of our efforts could be used for human betterment and the building of human
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community. And a person could sit under his vine and under his fig tree and he
could contemplate his farm; he could have pride of possession; he could take
pride in the accomplishment of his honest toil and no one would make him
afraid. It's a great vision, isn't it? It's a dream. And what is usually done, I think,
in the preaching of the Church with a vision like this is to say, "Well, but you
know we'll never realize it in history because the human heart is so sinful and
human society is so in the grip of human perversity. And so, we just have to live
with wars and rumors of war and conflict and violence and all of the hell on earth
and, in the meantime, we pray, 'Even so, come Lord Jesus. O God, do something.
O Lord, how long? How long?'"
And my question is whether or not God might be saying to us, "O Church, how
long, how long?"
You see, to simply cop out of an active pursuit of the realization of this vision on
the basis of our human perversity is to fail to hear this word of God, which calls
the people of God to be about creating this kind of reality in the midst of their
own history. "For all the people walk each in the name of its god, but we will walk
in the name of the Lord our God forever and ever." There is a vision, not of Israel
or of Jerusalem being the center of an empire that is posited on power. No, not at
all. This is not the consequence of the end of a power struggle. This is the end of
power struggle! That's the vision. It is not as though Israel is now the center of a
world empire, all other nations having been humiliated and put down. It is not
even that Israel will convert all of the nations to Yahweh. All of the people will
walk each in the name of its god - there's no abandonment of national gods, but
there is a kind of loose federation, which is living under the word of God in justice
and in peace, the consequence of which is human well-being. So, I'm just not
satisfied one more Advent to paint this beautiful portrait and then to call you to
pray for the Lord to come and end the drama. I think that's a cop out. Micah was
talking about his own day, addressing his own day, talking about a future
unfolding but not a future 2700 years away and then some. And Zachariah, in the
birth of John, the forerunner of Jesus, was not talking about some far off, distant
future. He was talking about the implications for his own day. And so, I want to
suggest that we have to think about what is incumbent upon us to become the
active agents for the implementation of a dream.
Sounds like fool's talk, doesn't it? But, you see, the human situation will never be
transformed by the powerful intervention of God. All you would get then is what
we had for nearly half a century when the Soviet Union was dominating the
Eastern Bloc. And there was an impasse between East and West. It was an
impasse which was created by our nuclear arsenals and there was a mutual
standoff of terror. Do you remember it? And then it seemed like there were
convolutions within the human family and the Eastern people rose up and the
human spirit revived and prayers were offered and the Berlin Wall fell. I
remember, I think it was in 1989 in Advent, speaking about the falling of the
Berlin Wall as perhaps the Spirit of God moving across the face of the earth,
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actually doing something, enlivening the human spirit to rise up for peace. But,
you see what happened when the umbrella, the domination of the Soviet power
was taken away? Yugoslavia falls apart. Ethnic feuds develop. Ethnic cleansing in
its wake. Today is, what, the 27th day in Belgrade where hundreds of thousands
will be gathering protesting Milosevic, the tyrant who has usurped the results of a
free election? Well, that's a positive sign, isn't it? People are no longer just taking
it; they are coming together, they are rising up, they're protesting. There is some
ferment in the air.
Last week South Africa – a constitution was signed in Sharpville. Do you
remember Sharpville? Famous for the Sharpville massacres and the place where
the white dominant government imposed Apartheid in the first place.
Symbolically they signed a new constitution. South Africa, headed by Nelson
Mandela, a black man - we didn't know if we would see it in our day, but we've
seen it. In other words, history is so ambiguous, isn't it? Here there's a sign, there
a sign, and there an "Oh, no." A step forward, two steps backward.
In studying this text, I came across a statement by a commentator in 1932 who
talked about world disarmament and pointed to the League of Nations as a sign
of eventual world disarmament. 1932! Prior to Hitler, which shows the danger of
saying that historical event is that particular text of scripture. Another
commentator in 1942 said the problem with the League of Nations is that
obviously there was not a resolution in the human heart to change an old way for
a new way. And so we had World War II and all of its tragedy. And then the
United Nations was born. Well, the United Nations comes into terrible criticism.
This country is not very happy with the United Nations. Going down the highway
this week, I saw a big sign, "Get us out of the U.N.!" Sure, get us out of the U.N.
Let us be independent; we are strong; let's build Fortress America! At least if we
are powerful, we can perpetuate the peace - and I want to say, "THAT'S NOT
PEACE!" That's not biblical peace. Biblical peace is not the consequence of the
enforcement by power. It is the permeation of human society by quite another
spirit and we simply let ourselves off the hook if we say, "Well, that will come
down the line way over there. God, You do it, and in the meantime, let's keep our
powder dry."
History is so ambiguous and, as David Hartman said in a piece which is printed
in your insert today, a piece I referred to last week, this Messianic dream, this
vision - it's not some fact at the end of history. It is the norm by which every
moment of history is judged. It is that intention of God reflected in that dream
and it is that intention and that dream to which we must be committed as God's
people in order to bring about its realization in the midst of history. You see, I
think what we do is we get drugged and we get complacent and we just take
business as usual as the only thing that could ever be. We grow cynical and we
grow weary; we don't believe anymore! We don't believe what God can do. I said
last week I wish some of the powerful of the earth would own this problem of
justice. And then I was chastised myself as I reflected on the fact that, when God
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made a major move 2000 years ago, it didn't happen in Jerusalem, it didn't
happen in Herod's court. It happened in Bethlehem and in a manger and with a
child. And so, who says God needs high-fliers like us? But, God knows God needs
someone to stand up and to say, "Enough of this war, raging conflict, power
struggle," and to believe that there is another way that is possible.
When I say that, I almost don't believe it. When I say that, I almost say to myself,
"Why do you say that?" Why do I harangue you with that? Well, at least I can
spoil your Christmas. At least let us be disabused of any self-righteousness or any
illusion that we are passionately engaged with the things that engaged the heart
of God. You see, it is such a massive thing and it seems so unreal, even to talk like
this. But, you say to me, "What can we do?"
Well, I admit we cannot do things in a very broad swath, but at least we can do
here what we have begun to do - we can live by our Mission Statement. We can
live before the Presence of the Mystery of God Whose inclusive grace moves us to
embrace all with unconditional love and gracious acceptance, irrespective of race,
gender, of economic status, of age, or sexual orientation. We can love the world as
God loves it, following the way of Jesus. And then we can find our window to God
in the face of Jesus and yet affirm the quest and insight of other faiths, opening
ourselves to dialogue and mutual enrichment in our pluralistic world. We can at
least, here, honestly seek to build a human community that will value each and
shun none, that will create the human oasis where we treat one another with
dignity, having laid down our arms so that our arms are available to embrace one
another.
Power structures are not only government structures, not only political
structures. The Church itself has been into the triumphalistic business seeking
power and glory. I mentioned the falling of the Berlin Wall. Prior to that, Poland
shook off the shackles of Communist domination because of a Polish Pope, and
those were moving episodes when Pope John Paul II went to Warsaw and had a
mass in that Communist country, when the country was ignited with hope, when
because of the power of the Vatican supporting Solidarity, they threw off that
ironclad oppression. But, the Chicago Tribune presently is running a series of
articles on the Roman Catholic Church, the last one on this whole Polish
situation: remembered all of that and the strategic role the Pope played, but then
said the Church has overplayed its hand with its heavy-handed tactics, with its
conservative social agenda, and just recently the Polish people voted against their
bishops, defeated Lech Walesa and put in another man, to vote for whom the
bishops said was a vote for the Devil. And the Polish Parliament just undid the
anti-abortion legislation. Poland! Why? Because the Church, the people of God
are at their best when they are weak and crippled, when they can depend only on
God. When they become powerful they are as mad and hungry as any politician
you want to name.
© Grand Valley State University
�To Bring Peace…
Richard A. Rhem
Page 7
The Church does not have to dominate. God never said Israel would be a
majority. God never said the Church would cover the earth. God called Israel and
called the Church simply to be that minority, that salt and that light in order that
there might be some place in the human wilderness where there was the
recognition of the kind of spirit that would bring peace and allow the human
spirit to flower and to blossom. Oh, we can't do everything. We can't do very
much. But, will we pledge one to another that in this place, at least, there will be
unconditional love, there will be the arms of total acceptance, there will be the
shunning of none, there will be no lust for power or domination, but simply by
living in the light and embodying the spirit of Jesus, we might be just a sign of
hope of the possibility of peace, if ever humankind would allow their deepest
longings to find expression.
"They shall learn war no more."
When? When? When will we say, "Enough"? When will we quit waiting for
Messiah to come and somehow or other stand up and say, "Enough! Enough!"
Peace be with you.
© 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
Sound Recordings
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Rhem, Richard A.
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<a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/514">Richard A. Rhem papers (KII-01)</a>
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Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives.
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Kaufman Interfaith Institute
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English
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KII-01
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1981-2014
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Event
Advent III
Series
Waiting for the Messiah to Come
Scripture Text
Micah 4:1-5, Luke 1:67-80
Location
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Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI
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KII-01_RA-0-19961215
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1996-12-15
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To Bring Peace
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Richard A. Rhem
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Grand Valley State University
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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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Description
An account of the resource
A sermon given by Richard A. Rhem (Dick) on December 15, 1996 entitled "To Bring Peace", as part of the series "Waiting for the Messiah to Come", on the occasion of Advent III, at Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI. Scripture references: Micah 4:1-5, Luke 1:67-80.
Advent
Divine Intention
Global Community
Inclusive
Peace
Shalom
-
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5cf0aa85d70012645b8362c29ecbde7b
PDF Text
Text
Peace Among the Churches
Editorial by
Richard A. Rhem
Minister of Preaching and Theological Inquiry
Christ Community Church
Spring Lake, Michigan
Published in
Perspectives
A Journal of Reformed Thought
October 1990, p. 3
As I write, the Middle East is at flash point. Saddam Hussein is calling the
Muslim masses to a holy war, even though he himself has been one of the most
secular of Arab leaders, allowing the fundamentalists no access to power in Iraq.
Television news again brings us scenes reminiscent of the Iranian hostage crisis
of some years ago. A Muslim cleric leads a huge congregation in prayers to Allah
and then leads them in a rhythmic chant, “Death to America.” Hussein calls up
images of the great Babylonian empire of ancient times and would appear to see
himself as the new Nebuchadnezzar, firing the passion and imagination of Arabic
masses with visions of a return to the greatness and glory of ancient time.
It is not difficult to discredit Hussein, to puncture the logic of his rhetoric. One
ought to be scandalized by his bald abuse of religion to incite people to hatred
and to war. And it is difficult not to feel hostility for Muslim masses chanting
“Death to America” and burning the American flag.
Still, before righteous indignation rises up within us and rage consumes us, we
must remember the tortured history of the region and especially the history of the
last decades. The tangled web of Middle East affairs knows no boundary between
the just and the unjust, the selfless and the selfish.
So it has been throughout history. It was a holy war that Joshua waged against
Canaan, the “Promised Land.” I wonder what it felt like to be a citizen of Jericho
when the walls came tumbling down.
But that is different, you say. God gave Israel the land. Canaan’s bloodbath was
God’s judgment on their wickedness. Simple. Maybe. Maybe too simple.
World history is history’s judgment, and certainly the biblical God is history’s
sovereign, staying with creation, engaged with history’s unfolding drama. God’s
prophets saw conquering pagan rulers as instruments of God’s judgment and
grace. The poet of Lamentations who prayed God to curse conquering Babylon,
© Grand Valley State University
�Peace Among the Churches
Richard A. Rhem
Page 2
sounding strangely like “Death to America” (3:64-66), also recognized Judah’s
sinful recalcitrance. Where such prophetic insight is present and where humble
acknowledgment of involvement in history’s tragic web of evil is confessed, there
is hope.
But such insight and confession have not always characterized religions,
including the Christian church. A heart inflamed with hatred is not a hallmark of
Islam; it is an ever-present potential of the human heart. And there is no more
devastating instrument for inciting hatred than religion. Hans Küng’s claim made
in the February 1990 issue of Perspectives is right: “There will be no peace among
the nations... without peace among the religions. There will be no world peace
without religious peace!” Muslim, Jew, and Christian have all had their turns at
calling on the same God to curse the other. Is it not time rather to bless in the
name of the one God?
If that be granted, then how urgent it is for us to recognize the ecumenical
vocation of the Reformed Church in America suggested by Arie Brouwer in this
issue.
In a piece appearing in the Christian Century recently, Brouwer cited Henry P.
VanDusen, who spoke of “the denominational heresy.” Brouwer went on:
Theologically, denominations are best understood as reform movements
within the one Church of Christ which are temporarily denominated, or
named, according to the reforms they embody until such time as those
reforms are received by, and themselves reformed within, the whole
Church, at which time the denominations lose their reason for being and
cease to exist as separate bodies. Thus understood, denominations are
themselves instruments of the ecumenical movement. They are members
of the body of Christ struggling to reform and reconnect the body so that it
may be whole. (The Christian Century, June 27-July 4, 1990, p. 632)
Brouwer’s claim reminded me of the first time such an idea really registered with
me. It occurred in an interview conducted by Paul Fries with Hendrikus Berkhof
in the first issue of Perspectives. The RCA was trying to discover its identity. Fries
asked whether a church can be both Reformed and relevant. Berkhof responded:
I am inclined to look at this question from the other side and ask if it can
be relevant and thus Reformed?... to focus on these identity problems
might be both a sign and fostering of spiritual decline. Witness to a Lord
who humbled himself and who was ready to lose his life for the sake of his
Father’s kingdom, and for humankind, means that a church should not
bother too much about its own identity, but concentrate on the identity of
its Lord and his cause.
Berkhof went on to explain that Reformed churches have less reason to be
concerned with identity than other bodies: “The name implies catholicity and
© Grand Valley State University
�Peace Among the Churches
Richard A. Rhem
Page 3
carries the call to constant reform so that the church can become more
Reformed.” Born at the crossroad “where traditional and modern in Europe
intersect, the Reformed tradition is rooted in the Catholic tradition and open to
the future sounding new calls and presenting new possibilities.”
Küng is right; there will be no world peace without peace among the religions.
But there will be no peace among the religions without peace among the
churches.
© 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
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>
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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>
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English
Type
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Sound
Text
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KII-01
Coverage
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1981-2014
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audio/mp3
text/pdf
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RA-4-19901001
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1990-10-01
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Text
Title
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Peace Among the Churches
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Perspectives: A Journal of Reformed Thought
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Richard A. Rhem
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eng
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An account of the resource
Editorial created, delivered, or published by Richard A. Rhem (Dick) on October 1, 1990 entitled "Peace Among the Churches", it appeared in Perspectives, October 1990, p. 3. Tags: Interfaith, Ecumenical, Peace.
Format
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Ecumenical
Interfaith
Peace
-
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PDF Text
Text
Two Births, Two Views, Two Empires:
Where Does Peace Lie?
From the series: The Vulnerability of God
Text: Isaiah 11:1-9; Luke 2:1-58
Richard A. Rhem
Christ Community Church
Spring Lake, Michigan
December 21, 2003
Transcription of the spoken sermon
I conclude this morning the series on “The Vulnerability of God,” which has been
our Advent series in which I have been once again trying to bring to your
consciousness and awareness the nature of God as reflected in the Christmas
story, particularly in the birth and the life and the death of Jesus.
As a Christian community, our claim is that Jesus is the word made flesh, that the
divine intention from eternity came to temporal expression in the humanity of
Jesus, and I would like to go on to say that it is in the emergence of humanity that
we find the presence of that infinite Mystery coming into concrete form and
being. If we believe that Jesus, in his birth, life and death, is, indeed, a mirror of
the nature of God, then that God is a vulnerable God, in contrast to the God that
the Church has set forth forever – and that we religious people have really wanted
to have be the case – that is, the Lord God Almighty, Omnipotent, Sovereign of
history, in control.
That is an interesting tension, as I have been saying over these weeks. I hope that,
whether or not you appreciate and enjoy the tension, you nonetheless sense that
it is not something that I have imagined or made up, but rather, something that is
intrinsically in our Christian faith.
The God mirrored in Jesus is a vulnerable God. The God that we prefer is
Almighty God, in control, able to secure us in our weakness, in our fear, and in
our vulnerability.
This morning, just one more attempt to make that clear, with the contrasting of
“Two Births, Two Visions, and Two Empires,” raising the question, “Where Does
Peace Lie?” Two births - the one birth, Caesar Augustus, the Roman Emperor
who was ruling at the time of the birth of Jesus. The other birth - Jesus.
© 2013 Kaufman Interfaith Institute and Grand Valley State University
�Where Does Peace Lie?
Richard A. Rhem
Page 2
In a poem written in 40 BCE, the Roman poet Virgil penned lines that express
the longing of an ancient people for peace. It is in the Fourth Eclogue, a rather
frequently mentioned poem of this great Roman poet. One stanza says,
“Now the virgin is returning,
a new human race is descending from the heights of heaven,
a birth of a child with whom the iron age of humanity will end
and the Golden Age begin.”
We just sang “It Came Upon a Midnight Clear,” about the circling years, the
coming ‘round of the age of gold, a reference to Virgil in the Fourth Eclogue.
There are those who want to claim Virgil as the prophet unconscious, a pagan
witness to the coming birth of Christ. But I don’t really think that’s necessary. It
is amazing, however, that there was this fine poet who was looking for the birth of
a child, and for the rebirth of the ages, one who was writing 40 years, give or take
a few years, ahead of the birth of Jesus, one who was writing in the wake of the
assassination of Julius Caesar.
We know more about Caesar from William Shakespeare than we do from ancient
Roman history. I was reading some of that history again in preparation for today.
It is fascinating history. There was the great Roman Republic with the Senate,
and that excellent form of government that had been created. But, now in the last
decades of the first century before the Common Era, there was violence, war,
conspiracy, civil strife, and the names of Cassius and Brutus, for example, who
assassinated Julius Caesar. Then Octavian, who was Caesar’s great-nephew and
adopted son and who was now moving toward the replacement of his uncle,
Julius Caesar, but not without having to fight his way to that position. His
opposition was the well-known Marc Antony, known perhaps better because of
Cleopatra. Someone said history would have been different, had there been a
different shape to Cleopatra’s nose. I don’t know whether that’s true or not but
there was continual civil war, vying for power. The poet Virgil wrote in 40 BCE of
this longing for peace in a Roman setting that was riven with strife. But, by 29
BCE, Octavian Caesar, or Augustus, as he became known, came into Rome, the
sole ruler. Interestingly, whether conscious of Virgil’s Fourth Eclogue, or whether
simply because this was who he was, his first official act was to close the temple
of Janus, the double-faced god of war.
Augustus was a very astute ruler. The old republic in Rome was crumbling, and
they were on the threshold of empire. They had created this sprawling expanse
which could be ruled, it was assumed, only by power. And so, Augustus is trying
to restructure something that would give some order and stability to society,
creating a form of government, the empire, which lasted for a couple of hundred
years. We talk about the Pax Romana, or the Pax Augusti, the two hundred years
of Roman peace. It was relative peace; it was not perfect peace. But, there was
order, security, civility and Augustus, in his ordering of that empire, yielded up
the powers that he had been able to accumulate to himself and those powers were
© 2013 Kaufman Interfaith Institute and Grand Valley State University
�Where Does Peace Lie?
Richard A. Rhem
Page 3
given back by the Senate. It was a positive kind of situation that Caesar Augustus
sought to install in that ancient world.
Was he aware of Virgil’s poem, or was he simply another human individual who
knew somehow or other, down deep, that there should be peace among
humankind? In the year 9 BCE, he dedicated the gigantic Augustan Altar of
Peace. In 1890 there was an excavation in Asia Minor in the town of Priene in
which an inscription was found, “To Augustan, Son of God, Divine One,” who was
announced in this inscription as Saviour and God, who brought well-being and
peace, and through whom would come this whole new order, this whole new age.
So, that was one birth and his vision was of peace. It was peace, however, at a
price. It was not the kind of peace of which Isaiah spoke that would be the case
when the one anointed with the Spirit of God came. It was not a peace in which
poetically, symbolically the lion and the lamb would lie down together. It was
empire, and the peace was an enforced peace. The Roman Legions, at the
outskirts of that empire, protected its borders and kept its internal affairs under
their thumb. So, there was a Roman peace, a peace through power that was the
vision.
It is interesting that it was into such a world that Jesus was born, and into a little
corner of that empire. We know something of that Roman peace and the
circumstance and condition of that time, because today there have been all kinds
of cross-cultural studies about the times of Jesus. Because Jesus was born in that
period and we have the Gospels, we get a picture of the underside, if you will, of
that empire which Augustus Caesar would have ruled in peace. We know it was a
time in which a province such as Judea, part of that great Roman Imperium, was
a province under domination and exploitation. We know that the landowners
were being forced off their land. We know that there was urbanization which
created all kinds of social dis-ease among the people.
Hans Küng suggests that it is no mistake that Luke in his Christmas stories, in
his Gospel, sets the context the way he does. For, what is Luke trying to say?
Remember those Gospels are written after Jesus is dead. Those Gospels are
written in retrospect, and Luke is telling the story of Jesus, believing that Jesus
was the one through whom peace and an alternative world would come. And so,
how does Luke tell us the story?
He tells us that Caesar Augustus was ruling in Rome and Quirinius was the ruler
in Syria, but he tells us that the birth of this Jesus was announced to a Jewish
maiden girl, and that the word never came to Herod’s court, the lackey of Rome,
but rather, to some spiritual astrologers from the East who were on a spiritual
journey. He tells us that the news of the birth was announced, not in Herod’s
court, but to shepherds in the field, the nameless ones, the poor ones, and he
introduces the Gospel story with the song of Zechariah, the Benedictus, and of the
song of Mary, the Magnificat.
© 2013 Kaufman Interfaith Institute and Grand Valley State University
�Where Does Peace Lie?
Richard A. Rhem
Page 4
It is not accidental that the story of Jesus, the life of Jesus, is introduced in the
context of an expectation and a hope and a vision for peace and well-being in the
world that involved the casting down of the mighty and the lifting up of the
nameless ones, not accidental that it is cast in terms of the poor being fed and the
rich being turned empty away. This is the story of an underdog people who, in the
birth of this one, believed that somehow or another an alternative world will be
effected. It is a vision, as a consequence of a birth, of a different kind of a social
order. It is a vision of peace through vulnerability.
Caesar is born and his birth is celebrated and he has a vision of peace through
power.
Jesus is born and his life is recorded and it is a life of vulnerability, a vision of
peace through powerlessness.
Hans Küng says that we haven’t lost the meaning of Christmas because of
excessive commercialization. We have lost the meaning of Christmas, primarily,
because we have made it a romantic idol, a song, a lovely story, a cozy narrative,
and who wants to be the Grinch that stole Christmas? Who wants to be old
Scrooge?
Well, just for five minutes or so, let me suggest that Christmas, as beautiful as it
is, as lovely as it is, I wouldn’t miss it - the beauty of the surroundings, the
change in human feeling, the set of the heart. The world becomes a softer place at
Christmas. So, I really don’t want to put down anything that Christmas is able to
do to humanize us and to soften us and to lead us into greater intimacy. Not at
all.
But, I do want you to see that the Gospels that we claim to believe are political
documents that tell the story of Jesus in a social-economic-political context
which is intentionally set over against the political-economic-social context of the
time of his birth. I do want you to see that Luke never really intended us to gather
in beautiful sanctuaries with poinsettias and to give each other gifts and hugs and
to cry a lot. Luke wanted to say, “I’m telling you the story of one who was born
into a social context that was marked by Roman imperial power that was a
system of domination and exploitation, and I want to tell you about the good
news, not of Caesar Augustus, who indeed had a vision of peace through power. I
want to tell you about the birth of Jesus who had a vision of peace through
vulnerability.”
They result in two kinds of empires - the Roman Empire, mighty Rome,
magnificent in so many ways, the source of so much that is wonderful in Western
civilization. But, Rome that ruled by power finally crumbled, finally overextended, finally became weary of securing itself, finally became weary of
defending itself, finally became vulnerable to decay from within because when
© 2013 Kaufman Interfaith Institute and Grand Valley State University
�Where Does Peace Lie?
Richard A. Rhem
Page 5
you have that pressure to domination, you have always to live with fear and
insecurity.
Over against that is the birth of Jesus, whom we claim to be a reflection of the
nature of God, whose vision of peace was a vision through powerlessness, whose
empire we call the realm of God.
On Christmas 2003 you don’t have to be a rocket scientist to know that I am
thinking about Rome and that ancient story in terms of my own day and age. You
don’t have to be particularly perceptive to know that I am saying to you that the
present superpower syndrome that has gripped this nation is a reiteration of
Rome and the repudiation of Jesus.
The real world is tough and brutal, and I really don’t purport to have answers as
to how to find that alternative world of which Isaiah dreamed, where the lion and
the lamb would dwell together and a child could play in safety. I don’t know how
we could move from this. When I say superpower syndrome, I am quoting a very
astute observer of the present, Robert Jay Lifton, who talks about our mind set,
that drive for dominance which has its own idealism about it, but which, in our
confrontation of the war on terror, has increased that war, that terror, has
expedited the recruitment of terrorists, and has not, contrary to all rhetoric, made
us more secure, but more afraid.
I can understand Virgil, can’t you, four decades before Jesus, in a Roman world
torn with strife, longing for something different? I can understand Luke thinking
now that he had seen the one of whom Isaiah spoke, because whether it is the
pagan Virgil or the prophet Isaiah or the evangelist Luke, or people of common
sense and good heart in every day and generation, don’t we know that there is
only one path to peace? It is not through power. It is not through might. It is not
through domination and exploitation. It is in the creation of another kind of
world marked by vulnerability which we say is like God. That is really what
Christmas is about.
Christmas is gutsy.
Christmas is real.
Christmas is demanding.
Christmas is condemning. Because Christmas is about the way God envisioned
the world. Some vision!
If nothing else in this Christmas season, I hope you will feel the dissonance, the
dissonance between the present rhetoric and the Gospel declaration.
© 2013 Kaufman Interfaith Institute and Grand Valley State University
�Where Does Peace Lie?
Richard A. Rhem
Page 6
In your pockets, if you have a dollar bill, there is the great seal and under the
pyramid it is Novus Ordo Seclorum. Do you know where that comes from? Virgil.
We sang about it in “It Came Upon a Midnight Clear,” the Golden Age. Old Virgil
four decades before Jesus talked about a Golden Age and hopes of the birth of
one who would bring about a change in the world. Luke hoped for the same thing.
It was Charles Thompson who created that great seal who put the date 1776
underneath the pyramid. Do you recognize that date? The birth of this nation,
with all the idealism of a New Age and a new beginning.
Dear God, I wish this Christmas that we in this wonderful nation of ours, so richly
blessed, could recapture that kind of idealism and could learn from Rome that
the mightiest power on earth that would continue to perpetuate its position and
privilege and power is going to live in fear and insecurity, under stress, every day
of its life. And I wish we, with our considerable power and possession, would find
a way to make Christmas come true.
© 2013 Kaufman Interfaith Institute and Grand Valley State University
�
Dublin Core
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Richard A. Rhem Collection
Description
An account of the resource
Text and sound recordings of the sermons, prayers, services, and articles of Richard Rhem, pastor emeritus of Christ Community Church in Spring Lake, Michigan, where he served for 37 years. Starting in the mid 1980's, Rhem began to question some of the traditional Christian dogma that he had been espousing from the pulpit. That questioning was a first step in a long and interesting spiritual journey, one that he openly shared with his congregation. His journey is important, in part because it is reflective of the questioning, the yearnings, and the gradual revision of beliefs that many persons in this part of the century have experienced and continue to experience. It is important also because of the affirming and inclusive way his questioning was done and his thinking evolved. His sermons and other written and spoken materials together document the steps in his journey as it took a turn in 1985, yet continued to revolve around the framework and liturgies of the Christian calendar.
Subject
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.
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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
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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
Advent IV
Series
The Vulnerability of God, Advent IV
Scripture Text
Isaiah 11:1-9, Luke 2:1-58
Location
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Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI
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KII-01_RA-0-20031221
Date
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2003-12-21
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Two Births, Two Views, Two Empires - Where Does Peace Lie?
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/
Language
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eng
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Sound
Text
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audio/mp3
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An account of the resource
A sermon given by Richard A. Rhem (Dick) on December 21, 2003 entitled "Two Births, Two Views, Two Empires - Where Does Peace Lie?", as part of the series "The Vulnerability of God, Advent IV", on the occasion of Advent IV, at Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI. Scripture references: Isaiah 11:1-9, Luke 2:1-58.
Advent
Nature of God
Peace
-
https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/a61655e05589b62254b4290cf91a4139.pdf
eb44f0ff840ad0ab3855729b323c9f12
PDF Text
Text
A Spirit and a World To Love
Baccalaureate Sunday
Text: Isaiah 58:12; Acts 1:8
Richard A. Rhem
Christ Community Church
Spring Lake, Michigan
June 5, 1994
Transcription of the spoken sermon
In the prophecy of Isaiah 58:12 we have this wonderful image, this picture of
those who would turn to their neighbor and love their neighbor, love their world
on behalf of God, for those that have said,
“Your ancient ruins shall be rebuilt; you shall raise up the foundation of
many generations, you shall be called the repairer of the breech, the
restorer of streets to live in.”
And on this weekend we are mindful again and again of that which happened fifty
years ago in our world. We remember the D-Day invasion and the invasion on the
Normandy beaches and that dark hour in world history when we and the allied
nations rose up on behalf of freedom and human dignity. We cannot help but
think of that text in terms of that mission that was executed by those who love
freedom—the democratic nations. It’s incredible to relive it again. I am amazed to
think that I am about as young as one can be and still have some personal
remembrance. I was just a little kid, but had a couple of brothers-in-law over in
the thick of it and remembered adult conversations about it, and felt some of the
anxiety and tension of those days. That was a noble hour.
I think in my earlier experience I tended to compartmentalize my religious or
spiritual experience from that which happened in the world. But I recognize more
clearly now that the Spirit of God, the breathing of God, is not restricted to what
happens in a setting like this, but also impacts what happens in the larger
landscape of the world. I believe that that noble effort to maintain the best of
Western Civilization and the freedom and the democracy of the world was a
response to the Spirit of God. There is a sense to which we were loving the world
in the power of the Spirit, in that we were engaged in an effort for human
freedom. [It calls forth] the image of the prophet in Isaiah:
“You will restore the ancient ruins and foundations, and you will be a
repairer of the breech. You will create cities and streets to dwell in.”
© Grand Valley State University
�A Spirit and a World to Love
Richard A. Rhem
Page 2
That image of the prophet is so characteristic of the Hebrew prophet who had
images of shalom, of that messianic age when Messiah would come, when there
would be harmony and peace in the world.
As I was reflecting on that text in the context of this weekend, I came across this
document written by Rabbi David Hartman who was in Muskegon a month or so
ago. It’s about the present Israeli/Palestinian peace process. Rabbi Hartman is
striking a blow here for openness, to let that process happen. But in the midst of
this document, he says this, “No period in history is immune to the forces of
regression.” Then he quotes in quotation marks, “It can never happen here. Here
tolerance, pluralism and decency are firmly established and secured.” And to that
he responds, “Against such expressions of naiveté and false complacency stands
the classical statement of Biblical realism. Behold I have put before you life and
death, blessing and curse. Choose life.”
As I was thinking about that, I thought I’ve heard veterans interviewed in the
documentaries that are on television these days, some who have said there will
never be another battle like it. There will never be another naval assault like it,
etc. All of those statements are true in the sense that the world and technology
that happened at that time has been so greatly overcome. You think about
sending coded messages across the channel. You think about the surprise
element that was able to be effected in that massive movement of armaments and
men and women. You realize today that our spy satellites circle the globe and
from outer space track the movement of armaments and armies so that there’s a
sense in which Normandy could never happen again. Then I read David Hartman
and I recognize how easy it could be to become complacent and to say that that
was the world’s hour of darkness and it could never happen again. That is not
true. Darkness and evil are lurking always in the wings of human experience. If
our technology has made it impossible ever to duplicate the Normandy invasion,
so our technology has enabled us in an instant to wipe our masses of population,
more than all who have died in all the wars of human history. If North Korea has
a bomb, and if it would loft it over the demilitarized zone, in an instant it could
wipe out more persons than in all of World War II.
So I read a little more from Rabbi Hartman who says those beautiful prophetic
images are not images of what will be at the end, but rather they are possibilities
of what needs yet to be realized within history. They are a statement of historical
inevitability. They are a statement of present possibility. The call of God to God’s
people is to join God’s Spirit in the creation of justice and righteousness and
Shalom. Those wonderful images of the prophet, “They shall not hurt nor destroy
in all my holy mountain. The lion and the lamb shall dwell together. They shall
beat their swords into plow shares and their spears into pruning hooks. They
shall learn war no more.” Those images from the Hebrew prophet are images that
are to call us up short, and to present us with an alternative reality, an alternative
possibility.
© Grand Valley State University
�A Spirit and a World to Love
Richard A. Rhem
Page 3
We are called as the people of God, not to sit by and wait for history to run its
course when Messiah will come and Shalom will cover the earth. We are called to
be the instruments and the ages of Shalom, of justice, of peace, of righteousness
right here and now. We are called to the power of the Spirit of God to love the
world. The God, whose heart was revealed in the face of Jesus Christ, and whom
the followers of Jesus experienced as still powerfully present with them, is the
God who continues to move through the landscape of history, and is a part of the
human scene and is calling us to join in the cause of justice and righteousness,
leading to peace. The one true and eternal God, the God of Israel shown to us in
Jesus, continues to breath through us, to empower us to be the instruments for
peace and the channels of grace in our day.
The people of Judah in exile had a complaint against God. They said, “Look, we’re
religious, we worship, we fast, we go through sacrifice and ritual, but you don’t
notice.” The answer through the prophet is: “That’s not a fast I choose. The fast I
choose is to set the prisoner free, to take off the yoke of oppression, to feed the
hungry, to take the homeless into your home. Then your life will break upon you.
Then you will call and I will answer, and I will say, ‘Here I am.’ ” In other words,
in this Old Testament understanding of things, the service of God is the service of
humankind, and the worship of God is the care and the love of a neighbor. Jesus
knew this passage. Someone has said that Matthew 25, the parable of the sheep
and the goats, must have been written right out of Isaiah 58. They said to him to
whom he had said, “Come into the kingdom.” They said, “When did we see you
hungry? When did we visit you in prison? When did we clothe you?” Jesus said,
“Inasmuch as you have done it to the least of these, you’ve done it to me.”
There’s always a tendency to compartmentalize religion into one little part of life
and then to get on with life in a kind of secular fashion as though God is divorced
from that. Not so. God says, “Do whatever rituals you need. Do whatever worship
you need. Go into the temple if you will, offer sacrifices if you will. Take bread
and cup if you will. Do what you need in order to be conscious of my presence.
But if you really, really want to know my presence and power, then take care of
your neighbor—the poor, the oppressed, the homeless. Then miraculously, in
your neighbor, you’ll find me. You cannot find me any other way.”
If you don’t believe that Jesus knew this prophet, then turn a couple of pages to
the 61st chapter of the same prophet, a couple of chapters later and you’ll find
there, “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me because the Lord has anointed me and
has sent me to bring good news to the oppressed, to bind up the brokenhearted,
to proclaim liberty to the captives and release to the prisoners.” If you go to the
4th chapter of Luke, verse 18, you’ll find in the inaugural sermon of Jesus in his
hometown of Nazareth the sermon that got his family and friends so upset with
him. He cited those words. The agenda of Jesus was to set the prisoner free, to
affect human dignity and human freedom. The mission of the Church, the calling
of the people of God, is to love the world for God’s sake. If we would follow the
way of Jesus, then we must take Jesus seriously. This is what Jesus was about.
© Grand Valley State University
�A Spirit and a World to Love
Richard A. Rhem
Page 4
I must admit to you at first I entitled this message “The Spirit and World
Mission,” but I changed it because for me world mission spoke too much of my
past understanding where I would send this graduating class out into the world to
preach the Gospel in order to make the world Christian. But now I want to say to
you graduates, if you want to know God in power, in fresh experience, love the
world. Care. Be filled with compassion. Give your life away, and in giving your life
away, find your life in the presence of God. That’s the paradox, isn’t it? Jesus said,
“Go into all the world. Proclaim good news; the good news that Jesus proclaimed
that God is near, that God is full of grace, that God is for human dignity, for
human freedom, for the fullest realization of the human potential of all people.” It
is the calling of the Church not to convert the world, but to love the world and let
the consequences be in God’s hand and to allow the breath of God to flow through
us empowering us in an outpouring of ourselves in love for a world so desperate
for love and grace.
I once thought that finally the world would become Christian and then Messiah
would come. Now, now I don’t know so much about all of that, but this I
understand clearly: Messiah has come and the Spirit is moving, and I am invited
to follow in the Way of Jesus in loving the world and therein know the presence
and the power of God. A Messianic age is not an historical inevitability. It is an
ever present possibility if we dare to love the way Jesus loved. That’s why we’re in
Romania. That’s why we’re in Wales. That’s why we’re in Africa. That’s why the
world is our parish—to love the world for God’s sake.
© Grand Valley State University
�
https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/772fc780b1394b8e4f2c36776ade8d94.mp3
1963f8068cfb21c02358cffbac9264b5
Dublin Core
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Richard A. Rhem Collection
Description
An account of the resource
Text and sound recordings of the sermons, prayers, services, and articles of Richard Rhem, pastor emeritus of Christ Community Church in Spring Lake, Michigan, where he served for 37 years. Starting in the mid 1980's, Rhem began to question some of the traditional Christian dogma that he had been espousing from the pulpit. That questioning was a first step in a long and interesting spiritual journey, one that he openly shared with his congregation. His journey is important, in part because it is reflective of the questioning, the yearnings, and the gradual revision of beliefs that many persons in this part of the century have experienced and continue to experience. It is important also because of the affirming and inclusive way his questioning was done and his thinking evolved. His sermons and other written and spoken materials together document the steps in his journey as it took a turn in 1985, yet continued to revolve around the framework and liturgies of the Christian calendar.
Subject
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
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<a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a>
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English
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Sound
Text
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KII-01
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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
Baccalaureate Sunday, Pentecost II
Scripture Text
Isaiah 58:12, Acts 1:8
Location
The location of the interview
Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
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KII-01_RA-0-19940605
Date
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1994-06-05
Title
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The Spirit and a World to Love
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Richard A. Rhem
Publisher
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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 June 5, 1994 entitled "The Spirit and a World to Love", on the occasion of Baccalaureate Sunday, Pentecost II, at Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI. Scripture references: Isaiah 58:12, Acts 1:8.
Justice
Peace
Shalom
Transforming the World
Way of Jesus
-
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
© Grand Valley State University
�The Worship of God: The Healing of Persons
Richard A. Rhem
Page 2
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,
© Grand Valley State University
�The Worship of God: The Healing of Persons
Richard A. Rhem
Page 3
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.
© Grand Valley State University
�The Worship of God: The Healing of Persons
Richard A. Rhem
Page 4
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
�The Worship of God: The Healing of Persons
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
�The Worship of God: The Healing of Persons
Richard A. Rhem
Page 6
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
�
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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
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Rhem, Richard A.
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<a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/514">Richard A. Rhem papers (KII-01)</a>
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Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives.
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Kaufman Interfaith Institute
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English
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KII-01
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1981-2014
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audio/mp3
text/pdf
Sound
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Event
Pentecost IV
Scripture Text
Psalm 73:17
Location
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Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI
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KII-01_RA-0-19880619
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1988-06-19
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The Worship of God: The Healing of Persons
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>
Subject
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Clergy--Michigan
Reformed Church in America
Christ Community Church (Spring Lake, Mich.)
Sermons
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Richard A. Rhem - An Archive of Sermons, Prayers, Talks and Stories: http://richardrhem.org/
Language
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eng
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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 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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675a02ad24568f37286deb06886c338a
https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/d15f48b0bc53626dfa0850942b6726b6.pdf
b0cb1d9b1d84a8463bab80acd52611d4
PDF Text
Text
Crisis
From the Lenten sermon series: The Servant of the Lord
Text: Isaiah 53:12; Luke 19:42-44
Richard A. Rhem
Christ Community Church
Spring Lake, Michigan
Palm Sunday, March 27, 1988
Transcription of the spoken sermon
... he exposed himself to face death. Isaiah 53:12
If only you had known, on this great day, the way that leads to peace! But no; it
is hidden from your sight ... you did not recognize God’s moment when it came.
Luke. 19:42-44
“Crisis” is a word that strikes fear into our hearts. We do our best to avoid a crisis.
We speak of life in turmoil as “one crisis after another.” Crisis is a word that fills
the heart with anxiety and calls up images of fear – an accident scene, the
emergency room, the family waiting room next to the Intensive Care Unit of the
hospital, broken relationships, disaster, political upheaval – and the list goes on.
From crisis on a personal level to crisis of cosmic proportions, it seems our world
reels from crisis to crisis.
But on reflection, the real meaning of crisis is not synonymous with danger nor
need it be associated exclusively with feelings of dread. Our English word “crisis”
is derived from the Greek “Krisis” coming from the verb to decide. The crisis
point is the time of decision. In the case of a disease it is the turning point when a
change takes place - either for recovery or for death. In the case of any historical
progression or series of events, the crisis is the decisive moment when events will
take one direction or another, depending on the decision made, the response to
the moment.
My point is simply that crisis can be seen in a positive light just as well as in a
negative light. Crisis viewed only in terms of danger misses the equally true
presence of opportunity. Although I have not got the documentation, I remember
reading somewhere that in written Chinese, the character for danger and for
opportunity is the same. Thus, this insight is reflected in various languages
revealing the reality of our historical existence – at history's critical junctures, at
the critical junctures of a nation's history, an institution's existence, an
individual's life, decision is demanded and, depending on the decision made, the
consequence will be judgment or grace, peace or destruction, life or death.
© Grand Valley State University
�Crisis
Richard A. Rhem
Page 2
In this Lenten series, our focus is on Jesus, the Servant of the Lord. We began
with the declaration of John the Baptist, “Behold the Lamb of God who takes
away the sin of the world,” words recorded by John in his Gospel which recalled
the Suffering Servant of Isaiah 53, the innocent one who bore the sins of his
people.
We noted that John the Baptist hoped Jesus would destroy sin and wickedness,
bringing judgment on the world. John the Baptist hoped Jesus was the one who
was to come – the return of the fiery Elijah calling down the wrath of God from
heaven.
Jesus, however, found his identity rather in the Servant of Isaiah – the one who
brings salvation to earth's fartherest bounds, who is light to the nations, who does
not crush the broken reed or snuff out the smoldering wick. He set his face
steadfastly toward Jerusalem, just as the Servant in Isaiah 50:7 set his face “like a
flint.” His identity clear, he carried out his mission with deliberate intentionality.
If we go back to the second message in the series, the focus on Jesus' identity and
intentionality, we find in the text in Luke 9:15 Jesus setting his face resolutely
toward Jerusalem. Luke uses the framework of a journey toward Jerusalem to tell
a large part of the story of Jesus. He begins this long section with these words:
As the time approached when he was to be taken up to heaven, he set his
face resolutely toward Jerusalem.
We can trace references to Jerusalem throughout the subsequent chapters (13:22,
31-35; 17:11, 18:31, 19:11, 28, 41). The lesson for today, Palm Sunday, finds Jesus
entering the city amid the acclaim of his disciples and, as he catches sight of the
city from the heights of Olivet, Luke records that he wept and uttered a lament
filled with pathos:
If only you had known, on this great day, the way that leads to peace!
But no; it is hidden from your sight. ... you did not recognize God's
moment when it came.
This was God's moment for Jerusalem. God visited Jerusalem in the person and
the ministry of Jesus. Luke's account of Palm Sunday is carefully detailed to fit
his purpose in writing the Gospel. Jesus comes a King, but a King of peace.
Did you notice that there are no palms or branches in Luke's account? Palm
branches occur in John's Gospel. They were associated with nationalistic
celebrations and John is portraying this misconstrual of many who hailed Jesus
as a national deliverer. But Luke makes it clear that Jesus comes not as a political
Messiah.
In John's Gospel the acclamation is to “The King of Israel,” but Luke says only
“King”, omitting the reference to the Nation.
© Grand Valley State University
�Crisis
Richard A. Rhem
Page 3
This is a King with a difference; this is a peaceable King who comes humbly as the
Servant of the Lord, precipitating a crisis to be sure, but not a crisis of national
liberation, but rather a crisis of peace or destruction.
There is a great debate among New Testament scholars as to whether Jesus
understood himself as the Messiah or not. The Messianic consciousness of Jesus
has been argued back and forth for decades. I wonder if the answer does not lie in
the fact that Jesus avoided the Messianic designation because he knew that in the
mind of the people it was so heavily freighted with political and nationalistic
association that it was unusable for his purpose. He resisted all efforts to make
him a King - one who would supply bread (John 6) and overthrow the occupying
power.
Rather, he adopted the model of the Servant of the Lord who willingly bore the
transgressions of his people, thus bringing peace. The crisis for Jesus occurred
early in his ministry when he struggled in the wilderness. He chose the path of
obedience and suffering. He set his face resolutely, like a flint, toward Jerusalem
and now arriving there knows full well he will be rejected and being rejected will
die, but in the rejection Jerusalem will bring upon itself disaster.
For Jesus, the crisis faced, the decision of obedience and faithfulness resulted in
death – but finally in resurrection.
For Jerusalem, the crisis faced, the decision of rejection resulted in terrible
destruction.
Luke spoke of God's moment - literally the time of visitation. Time in the Greek is
Kairos - time understood in terms of its content - filled time, time filled with
significance. Not “Chronos” - the idea of time as duration, the succession of
moments.
There are those moments within the succession of moments, the flow of time
which are critical, crisis moments - filled with danger and opportunity. How we
respond, how we decide at such moments determines our destiny.
History is a tale of judgment and grace because it is a flow of moments
punctuated by Kairos times - moments of crisis. God's purposes will be fulfilled,
but the part we play is determined by the response we make. We are always
caught in the tension between the way of the world and the way of Jesus.
The way of the world seems so real.
The way of Jesus seems so futile - indeed, it leads to crucifixion.
But the paradox is that the apparent conquest of worldly ways ends in death and
destruction and the way of Jesus leads through death to resurrection.
© Grand Valley State University
�Crisis
Richard A. Rhem
Page 4
Today we remember Jerusalem's crisis. Today we know that we, too, stand in
crisis:
To preserve our life,
or to lose it for the sake of the Gospel.
To play it safe, to secure ourselves, to operate with worldly wisdom,
or to trust God and follow Jesus in the ways of peace.
Our world is full of crises: The Israeli-Palestinian conflict reminds us so starkly of
Jesus' words and weeping. Northern Ireland, South Africa, Central America.
Christ Community - called anew to total commitment to the ministry of grace,
healing and care.
And each of us - to find our peace in Jesus.
© Grand Valley State University
�
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
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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
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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
Palm Sunday
Series
The Servant of the Lord
Scripture Text
Luke 19:42,44
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-0-19880327
Date
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1988-03-27
Title
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Crisis
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
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
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audio/mp3
application/pdf
Description
An account of the resource
A sermon given by Richard A. Rhem (Dick) on March 27, 1988 entitled "Crisis", as part of the series "The Servant of the Lord", on the occasion of Palm Sunday, at Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI. Scripture references: Luke 19:42,44.
Palm Sunday
Peace
Servant of the Lord
Way of Jesus
-
https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/2b64e91eafef94e8463a4f10944444ce.pdf
bf110f6281861fdeea3180724759a9ef
PDF Text
Text
World Convulsion and the Exciting Vision of Faith
Independence Day Weekend
Text: Psalm 33: 10-11; Revelation 15:3
Richard A. Rhem
Christ Community Church
Spring Lake, Michigan
July 5, 1981
Transcription of the spoken sermon
I have not lived on Lake Michigan long enough to grew accustomed to sunsets and I hope I never do. No matter how urgent the task at hand, Nancy and I stop
and watch the setting of the sun every evening that we are home. It is a very
special time - a time to savor the beauty and wonder of the created order; a time
to stand in awe of the beauty of our Father's world. But in the year we have been
there, I have learned that there are evenings when one can predict a beautiful
sunset - when the day has been clear and there is no sign of a cloud in the western
sky and the sun sinks toward the horizon with all of its golden radiance streaming
forth without a filtering cloud. Such a sight is beautiful - the end of a perfect day.
However, there is another kind of evening completely unpredictable as it moves
toward the moment of sunset. Perhaps a storm has just passed through or a front
is gathering in the West. Huge cloud formations in constantly changing
configurations play across the sky with the sun breaking through a crevice here,
gilding a foreboding looking cloud there. The interplay of sun and clouds is
dramatic, fascinating. Sometimes in those few moments as the sun slips silently
into the sea, a cloud covers it all and there is no sunset to be seen. But at other
times the clouds break, and across the water pours a path of melted gold and all
the lowering clouds are touched by the varying hues such that no artist could do
them justice. That is a sunset!
This is a parable of world history and, in microcosm, a parable of our personal
lives, as well. My theme on this Independence Day weekend is that the Eternal
God, the Sovereign of the Nations, works His purposes out in the midst of world
convulsion, and His movement in History can be detected by the eye of faith. If
we live by the vision of faith we can see the effecting of God's purposes in world
convulsion.
The dictionary defines the word "convulsion" as, "the action of wrenching or
condition of being wrenched... violent social, political or physical disturbance...to
shake violently, to agitate or disturb," and convulsion is a fit word to describe our
© Grand Valley State University
�World Convulsion and the Exciting Vision of Faith
Richard A. Rhem
Page 2
world. It is a world in ferment -so much more than 205 years ago when those
shots were fired that were heard 'round the world. As a matter of fact, those shots
were not heard 'round the world. Much rather, what was happening was a
rebellion in a British colony, the implication of which could hardly be foreseen at
that time. The world went on its plodding way then, but at that time one could
hardly speak of world convulsion. What happened then has had far reaching consequences. We have had now 205 years of national existence - an experiment in
freedom - a nation shaped and formed deliberately to create the greatest possible
freedom for its people.
That freedom has brought unprecedented blessing and prosperity and we cannot
treasure it too highly nor guard it too carefully. That freedom is a precious gift
which is constantly in peril from within and from without. After 205 years we
who enjoy it are still a small minority of people, for the vast multitude of
humankind live under totalitarian regimes, live regimented lives, live in grinding
poverty, despair and hopelessness.
What is the proper celebration of our national independence? Where have we
come in these two centuries? Where do we stand today and what ought to be the
posture of the Church over against our world in ferment? Are we threatened by
world convulsion? Should we use our mighty power in the world to repress the
cry for human freedom or ought we to be working to break the stalemate of terror
that characterizes our world today?
God works His purposes out in history. He, the Sovereign of History, effects His
purposes in the midst of world convulsion and world convulsion is pregnant with
new possibilities for the realization of God's intention that all people and nations
should live a fully human existence in peace and well-being.
It is not always a simple matter to detect the invisible hand of God in the midst of
the uproar and dust of history's unrest, but biblical faith has always been
characterized by a confidence that God makes the wrath of men to praise him and
that out of the chaos created by the pride of nations and the lust for power and
glory, God affects His purposes of love. And so, this morning, on this
Independence Day weekend, I want us to think about world convulsion as the
opportunity for the working out of the Divine Purpose and understand that world
convulsion in terms of the exciting perspective of our faith in the God of History.
The commitment that was made and the risk that was involved two hundred
years ago, which has proved to be so meaningful in the lives of us all, that
commitment which has issued in this great nation with our experience of liberty
and freedom, a nation deliberately designed to enhance human freedom – that
commitment must be made again. And it needs to be made again not only for
ourselves, but for all peoples. For it seems to me appropriate on this, our
Independence Day weekend, that we make another declaration and a new
declaration, this time not a declaration of independence, but of interdependence
with all the people of the earth. For if there were no higher motivation driving us
© Grand Valley State University
�World Convulsion and the Exciting Vision of Faith
Richard A. Rhem
Page 3
on than self-interest, then we could say, in all honesty, in the self-interest of this
nation and its people it is incumbent upon us to recognize that in this world
which has grown so small - grapefruit size - it is impossible for us to pursue
narrow, nationalistic purposes. Rather, we must become citizens of the world and
embrace within our purview all people and nations. And to the extent that we are
true to our own principles and honest with our own past, we must lend our power
and our resources to every movement of human freedom, being sensitive to every
cry for human liberation and the deliverance from bondage, wherever we find it.
If we would be true to our past, we must be as committed to the freedom and
liberty of all peoples as we have been to our own.
I do not have a program, a one, two, three-step approach that you can go out of
here with. Rather it is my intention to seek to raise your consciousness of the
issue that is before us - the necessity of our nation to be committed to the
freedom and the liberty of nations all over. Because, you see, we have moved to
the other side of the issue. We are now in the position of the crown of England
200 years ago. We now are in the preeminent position. It is now in our selfinterest, if we are shortsighted, to maintain the status quo. We live in a world that
is teetering on the brink of disaster with a balance of terror between the East and
the West. We live in a world that is on the threshold of blowing itself up and
destroying itself, and we are the persons of power. We are the persons of
resource. We now pull the strings. We, now, have the ability to impact the world,
either for peace or for destruction, and if we hear the word of God, then we will
not be fearful of world convulsion, but we will see it as the opportunity to nudge
and move the world toward a more humane society worldwide.
The shot that was heard ‘round the world 200 years ago wasn't really heard
around the world. This was a backwoods part of the world - who ever heard of
America, and who knew what was here and what possibilities there might be? I
am sure that Europe looked down its nose at this backwoods operation. The
American Revolution was really just a pimple on the surface at the time - who
would know what would issue from those apparently parochial events? But such
is not the case today because events of far less significance impact us. Through
the instant news coverage of the mass media incidents half a world away send
their reverberating shocks around the globe. We are bound together in a bundle
of life today like never before, and it is high time that we in the United States of
America and in the Christian Church in America recognize our worldwide
responsibility and recognize that it is not enough to pursue our own national
interests and our national purposes. Even intelligent self-interest demands that
we take the world into our view.
The American Revolution eventuated in this great nation, and we can say that the
commitment to liberty and freedom at that time has been vindicated. The
experiment of that time and these past two centuries has not been an accident of
history, for our founding fathers recognized that liberty and human dignity must
be grounded in the Eternal God and our founding documents witness to that fact.
© Grand Valley State University
�World Convulsion and the Exciting Vision of Faith
Richard A. Rhem
Page 4
But if we would be true to that heritage, then we must recognize that that which
we will for ourselves we must will for all peoples. And it is incumbent upon us to
recognize our world responsibility, and to declare our interdependence.
That isn't popular. As a matter of fact, it goes against the grain. It is much easier
to exploit the fears of people and it is much easier to beat the drums and whip up
a nationalistic feeling and a fervent patriotism. Throughout the history of
mankind there have been those who have set up straw men and scapegoats and
we see it happening on our evening news in Iran today where the Islamic
revolutionary fires need to be fed constantly by hatred of America, justified or
unjustified. History has always been filled with demagogues who would
manipulate people for their own purpose and we see a narrow nationalism
espoused by the very vocal religious Right in our day. But it is up to you and to
me who are Christians as well as Americans to recognize that history is His Story,
and that He embraces all people and has good will and purposes of love for all of
humankind. Therefore, it is not enough for us to make a kneejerk, nationalistic
and patriotic reaction to events in the world, but rather to take a step back and
recognize our responsibility to be the instruments of God for the furthering of
peace and the enhancement of the human condition everywhere, on both sides of
the curtain, in the East and the West, in the North and the South, in the First
World and the Second World, the Third and the Fourth, in developed nations and
in developing nations - to recognize in our small world, that has shrunk to such
miniscule size, that whatever happens anywhere in this world will impact our life
and our existence as well.
Whenever one gets into this area, one is in the area not of black and white, but of
many shades of gray. The international situation is so highly complex that there
is really only one thing we know for sure, and that is that those who have easy,
simple solutions do not understand. Beware of the simplistic solution to
problems whose complexity we can hardly probe.
However, we cannot be silent until we have all the facts in. And so, in the midst of
our struggle to determine the posture of America in this world of ours, in the
20th century, we recognize the inadequacy of our understanding and the
complexity of the problem. Yet, act we must.
For example, let us take the instance of El Salvador, which I have mentioned
before here. How ought we to react as a nation? Bishop Romero was murdered
there a little over a year ago. He was the Archbishop of San Salvador and in his
high, ecclesiastical office he had identified with the situation of the poor. In
identifying with the case of the poor, there are those who would write him off by
simply saying he fomented the unrest among the peasants. Well, I imagine that
he did that. As a Christian who knows that God will not have people live in
grinding poverty and futility, standing with the poor in a country that has been
characterized by repression and oppression, what is a Christian leader to do? He
wrote to President Carter back in 1980 and in that letter he said,
© Grand Valley State University
�World Convulsion and the Exciting Vision of Faith
Richard A. Rhem
Page 5
It disturbs me deeply that the U.S. government is leaning toward an arms
race in sending military equipment and advisors to "train three
Salvadorian battalions in logistics, communications, and intelligence." In
the event that this news is accurate, your government, instead of favoring
greater peace and justice in El Salvador, will undoubtedly aggravate the
repression and injustice against the organized people who have been
struggling because of their fundamental respect for human rights.
(…from an address by Prof. Jose Jorge Siman, Former President,
Commission of Justice and Peace of the Archdiocese, Catholic Church of El
Salvador, given from the pulpit of Riverside Church, New York City, on
Peace Sabbath, April 26, 1981.)
Nonetheless, our government did not heed the Archbishop. We did send aid and
military advisors. And this present administration has done the same. Choosing
El Salvador in their early days in office as the point at which they would draw the
line, they blew it all out of proportion, and then tried to dampen it down again.
Obviously, that little nation was to be a testing ground - those poor people, those
suffering peasants, the playground of the major ideologies of the day.
In April, on Peace Sabbath, Bill Coffin had in his Riverside pulpit a professor
from El Salvador who spoke about the situation and pleaded with American
Christians to send human aid, not weapons. And following his comments, Coffin
said,
... If it is true that Communism has never come to a nation that took care
of its poor, its aged, its youth, its sick, and its handicapped, then why can't
we say to the Junta in San Salvador, "We'll help you take care of your poor,
your aged, your youth, your sick, and your handicapped, but we will not
help you find a military solution to what is not a military problem?"
In Nicaragua, where Catholic priests are in the ruling cabinet, where
Jesuits manage the nationwide literacy campaign and are nominated for
the Nobel Peace Prize by more than one hundred members of the British
Parliament, why shouldn't we help the Sandinistas in the same way we
helped Somoza for forty years without blinking an eyelash?...
In Cuba, why shouldn't we lift the blockade of twenty years, and instead of
sending Marines to Guantanamo Bay, let businessmen wade ashore in
Havana? That's what Castro wants, that's the way to counteract Soviet
influence, and that's the way to practice peace. The cure is caring, not
killing; serving people, not power. Caring for others is the practice of
peace.... Peace does not come through strength; strength comes through
peace.
The Psalmist in the lesson we read this morning said the Lord brings the plans of
nations to nothing. He frustrates the counsels of the peoples. But the Lord's own
© Grand Valley State University
�World Convulsion and the Exciting Vision of Faith
Richard A. Rhem
Page 6
plans stand forever. And then the Psalmist went on to say what this world has
never learned - and our nation does not understand, as well.
A king is not saved by his great army; a warrior is not delivered by his
great strength. The war horse is a vain hope for victory, and by its great
might it cannot save. Psalm 33: 16, 17 (RSV)
The world teeters on the brink of disaster, and what have we to say? I don't like
radicals. I get sick and tired of radicals. I wish they would go away. I get tired of
the media putting them before us all the time. One such radical is Daniel
Berrigan, the Catholic priest who has been in and out of jail the last decade and a
half. Most recently he and a few others went into the G.E. plant in King of
Prussia, Pennsylvania, which produces equipment for nuclear missiles. They
destroyed what they could before they were arrested. They were just tried and
convicted. In an interview, Daniel Berrigan had some things to say which, in spite
of the fact that I don't like radicals, spoke to me. He said...
The Jesuit order accepted me as a member. The Catholic Church ordained
me as a priest. I took all that with great seriousness. I still do, with all my
heart. And then Vietnam came along, and then the nukes came along. And
I had to continue to ask myself at prayer, with my friends, with my family,
with all kinds of people, with my own soul, "Do you have anything to say
today?" I mean, beyond a lot of prattling religious talk.
Do you have anything to say about life today, about the lives of people
today? Do you have a word, a word of hope to offer, a Christian word?
That's a very important question for anyone who takes being a priest,
being a Christian, being a human being seriously, "Do you have anything
to offer human life today?" Sojourners, June 1981, p. 23.
Well, do you have anything to say today? Do I have anything to say today? The
last issue of TIME magazine has a two-page essay on “The Bomb.” It says, in
effect, since Hiroshima in 1945 the world has refused to look at the bomb. We
have refused to look at the seriousness of the bomb. And we continue with
nuclear proliferation and arming ourselves to the teeth with more warheads than
would be necessary to blow up the entire globe, and still the song goes on. Israel
makes a preemptive strike on the reactor in Iraq and justifies its action as
necessary for its own safety and the safety of the world. In the wake of that, an
Arab spokesman said, "We need the bomb!" In a world where six countries have
the bomb, probably two more, and by the end of the 80's the possibility of 40
nations having the bomb, what has the Church to say? TIME magazine deals with
it; I suppose we ought to, too.
The war horse is a vain hope for victory…
If the Psalmist were writing today he might say an antiballistic missile, or a
nuclear submarine is a vain hope.
© Grand Valley State University
�World Convulsion and the Exciting Vision of Faith
Richard A. Rhem
Page 7
A king is not saved by his great army. … The Lord brings the counsel of
the nations to naught; he frustrates the plans of the peoples. The counsel
of the Lord stands for ever, the thoughts of his heart to all generations.
Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord, the people whom he has
chosen as his heritage!
What do we do? Well, we don't make knee jerk reactions to every announcement
from the White House or the State Department that would rile up our patriotic
blood and make us feel like good guys over against the bad guys. We realize that
we are in this bundle of life, bound up with all nations and people, and it is not a
case of black and white or good and evil, of one side or the other. It is high time
that we are true to the principles on which we were founded and that we seek to
aid and abet every movement for human freedom and liberation anywhere in the
world; that we pray for peace and begin to take steps and action, concrete action,
that will further peace; that we come face to face with the horrible reality, the
insanity of a world that lives under the shadow of nuclear armaments and that we
recognize that our welfare rests with the welfare of the whole human family.
A Declaration of Independence 200 years ago – in the providence of God,
a magnificent move toward the enhancement of the human condition.
1981, high time for a Declaration of Interdependence for a world that
would be made safe for children and for the generations yet unborn.
Trust in arms? “The war horse is a vain hope for victory.” When will we learn it?
As I was thinking about all these things this morning, I did what I always do on
Sunday mornings, in the stillness, when the family is trying to sleep. I put on
Bach's Mass in B Minor - a powerful piece. It begins with the Kyrie, "Lord, have
mercy upon us. Christ, have mercy upon us. Lord, have mercy upon us." And then
it moves into that great, strong, "Glory to God in the Highest and on earth peace
among men," then it moves on through the affirmation of faith, the Nicene Creed,
and eventuates in the great chorus of Alleluia and praise with the closing cry,
"Grant us Thy peace." And as I heard that stirring music, the music itself
communicating as much as the words, and I thought about the world in
convulsion, I thought to myself - the world in convulsion seems to be so real, so
close, so tangible, and the Glory to God in the Highest and Peace on Earth among
men of good will seems to be so remote, and yet the music, the music convinced
me that that is the Ultimate Truth, and in a world in convulsion we will not
despair or give up in hopelessness, paralyzed by fear because we believe that, in
the midst of world convulsion, God is working His purposes out. The exciting
vision of faith keeps us going and we know that history is not an accident going to
happen, but rather throughout all of its chaos is woven that meaningful thread of
the purposes of God that will culminate with that great cry, "The Lord God
Omnipotent reigns!" But He does not work in a vacuum, rather through His
people who, like those 200 years ago, are willing to die for a heavenly cause and
sacrifice life itself if need be that there might be peace on earth. Amen.
© Grand Valley State University
�World Convulsion and the Exciting Vision of Faith
Richard A. Rhem
© Grand Valley State University
Page 8
�
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Richard A. Rhem Collection
Description
An account of the resource
Text and sound recordings of the sermons, prayers, services, and articles of Richard Rhem, pastor emeritus of Christ Community Church in Spring Lake, Michigan, where he served for 37 years. Starting in the mid 1980's, Rhem began to question some of the traditional Christian dogma that he had been espousing from the pulpit. That questioning was a first step in a long and interesting spiritual journey, one that he openly shared with his congregation. His journey is important, in part because it is reflective of the questioning, the yearnings, and the gradual revision of beliefs that many persons in this part of the century have experienced and continue to experience. It is important also because of the affirming and inclusive way his questioning was done and his thinking evolved. His sermons and other written and spoken materials together document the steps in his journey as it took a turn in 1985, yet continued to revolve around the framework and liturgies of the Christian calendar.
Subject
The topic of the resource
Clergy--Michigan
Reformed Church in America
Christ Community Church (Spring Lake, Mich.)
Religion
Interfaith worship
Sermons
Sound Recordings
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Rhem, Richard A.
Source
A related resource from which the described resource is derived
<a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/514">Richard A. Rhem papers (KII-01)</a>
Publisher
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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.
Scripture Text
Psalm 33:1-5, 10-22, Revelation 15:1-4
Location
The location of the interview
Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Identifier
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KII-01_RA-0-19810705
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1981-07-05
Title
A name given to the resource
World Convulsion and the Exciting Vision of Faith
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Richard A. Rhem
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
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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 July 5, 1981 entitled "World Convulsion and the Exciting Vision of Faith", at Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI. Scripture references: Psalm 33:1-5, 10-22, Revelation 15:1-4.
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
application/pdf
Divine Intention
Faith
Freedom
Global Community
Interdependence
Liberation
Peace