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https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/2e31a4b702d0cb9f5551cf93fd77a735.pdf
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The Dream of Peace
Christmas Eve Service
Text: Micah 5:5; Luke 2:15
Richard A. Rhem
Christ Community Church
Spring Lake, Michigan
December 24, 1994
Transcription of the spoken sermon
"... and he shall be the one of peace." Micah 5:5
"... and on earth peace..." Luke 2:15
The Christmas Gospel seems to be such a warm and cozy message. But as a
matter of fact I think, if we really see it in its context, it was a strong political
statement. Luke pitted the Gospel of peace that came through Jesus over against
the peace of the Roman Empire—the Pax Romano, that two hundred year period
of relative peace in the ancient world that was made possible through the
government of imperial Rome.
Peace has been an ancient dream. I wonder how old it is? I suppose it goes back
to the very first folk who experienced violence and terror, and began to live with
insecurity. There must have always been something in the depths of the human
soul that yearned for peace. It is a very deep primal longing of the human heart—
the longing for peace. Personal peace surely, but wellbeing and peace in the
community of people, the nations. Israel's dreamers dreamed of peace in a world
that was very much like our world, the rise of one empire and the fall of another,
the smaller people squeezed between the paws of the great powers.
There were those poets and dreamers in Israel who had a vision of a different
kind of world. Micah was one such. In the fourth chapter of his prophecy we read,
"In the days to come the mountain of the Lord's house shall be established as the
highest of the mountains." And then he goes on to envision Mt. Zion as that
highest point of the world toward which all of the nations would flow and learn
the law and the truth of God. He goes on to say,"they will beat their swords into
plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks; and nations shall not lift up
swords against nation, neither shall they learn war any more." One of Israel's
poets, one of the ancient world's dreamers who looked about him and said, "You
know, there's a different kind of a world that is possible. There's a different kind
of a world that ought to be."
© Grand Valley State University
�The Dream of Peace
Richard A. Rhem
Page 2
It's interesting that it wasn't only Israel's dreamers and poets, but the great
Roman poet Virgil, in the year 41-42 BC in his fourth epilogue, announces the
birth of a World Savior. He announces in this poem the coming era of peace. It
comes through the birth of a child he says, and probably the child that he had in
mind was Octavian. Octavian was the great nephew of Julius Caesar. Julius
Caesar adopted Octavian as his own son, and when Virgil wrote this poem and
gave expression to this vision of a child being born into the world to save the
world and bring it peace, he very likely had Octavian in mind. But as he wrote,
Julius Caesar was assassinated. There ensued fifteen years of terrible civil war. It
was only in 29 BC when Octavian came back to Rome, the victor, having defeated
Anthony and Cleopatra, that he becomes ruler and Caesar. Whether or not
Octavian took the poem of Virgil as his destiny, I don't know. But his very first
official act in 29 BC was to close the temple of Janus, the double-faced God of
war. And he continued to strive to create peace. In the year 9 BC Octavian
Augustus, called Augustus Caesar now, dedicated the great Augustine Altar of
Peace and what ensued was what the historians call the Pax Romano, the Roman
peace.
In 1890, in Asia Minor, there was discovered an inscription, an inscription to
Augustus the Son of God. Julius Caesar had been elevated to the status of a state
god after his assassination and his adopted son Augustus, thus was Son of God.
This inscription that was discovered in 1890, and subsequently in other places as
well, proclaimed to the eastern world, peace through this Savior who would fulfill
the dreams of humankind. Ancestral hopes would be realized, and the broken
world would be mended and healed. If this proclamation came out of Asia Minor,
and if Caesar Augustus dedicated the Great Altar of Peace about 9 BC, we can be
fairly certain that Luke, who writes the story of Jesus was aware of it because,
when he tells us about the story of Jesus, he tells us that Caesar Augustus was in
power and Quirinius was the Roman Governor, and all the world was called to be
taxed.
Luke sets the birth of Jesus in the context of a Roman world, in the context of a
Roman peace, in the context of an ancient world in which had been proclaimed
the Saviorhood and the peace-bringing of one, Caesar Augustus. It was a
legitimate dream of peace. It was an expression of a universal, human yearning,
longing for a different kind of a world. But the peace of Caesar Augustus was a
different peace than the peace of Jesus. So I have to believe that Luke was making
a political statement. I think he was juxtaposing the peace of Jesus over against
the peace of Caesar Augustus, because the peace of Caesar Augustus was not the
peace of Micah, the prophet. The peace of Caesar Augustus was an enforced
peace; it was a peace that was a consequence of the heavy hand of Rome that
could enforce its edicts with its legions. It kept the world at bay. There was some
great benefit of that, to be sure, but it was not the peace that comes from human
community built on justice of the heart, of which the prophets dreamed. It was
not the peace in which swords are changed to plowshares and spears to pruning
hooks. It was not the world in which the nations learned war no more.
© Grand Valley State University
�The Dream of Peace
Richard A. Rhem
Page 3
No, Luke was writing of the birth of One, from the other end of the story, because
remember, Luke wrote about the birth after the death. Luke wrote of the birth
after the resurrection. Luke knew the hell that Jesus had gone through, but
Luke's gospel of Jesus, which speaks of peace in the beginning, is a peace that was
a peace to be secured only in the Way of Jesus. It was the Way of Jesus, as
opposed to the way of Rome. It was a peace based on the end of all human
domination. That, Luke was telling us in his gospel, was the peace that came
through Jesus Christ. It was not the peace enforced by the power of Rome, but
the peace that comes from God, to those who follow the Way of Jesus.
Two thousand years later the peace of which Luke spoke, peace that would come
through this Jesus, has not been realized. There may be relative peace in Bosnia
Hertsogovenia tonight, but it’s a very fragile thing. We all have been disturbed by
the anguish of those people suffering because of an ongoing war. Strife, violence,
killing. The earth is soaked with blood. A couple of months ago I visited the
shores of Normandy, the fiftieth anniversary of the scarred earth where that
horrendous battle was fought. A week ago, perhaps some of you saw as well the
special by David Brinkley on the Battle of the Bulge of fifty years ago. Did you
hear in that special a recording of the voice of President Franklin Delano
Roosevelt, who said fifty years ago at Christmas, "It is not easy to wish the nation
a Merry Christmas this year, nor to those who are standing for us around the
world." It was a world at war, and a terrible price was exacted. There are those
that suggest that maybe the past fifty years were better. But what was it? Just five
years ago? We were so euphoric at this time of year because the Berlin wall had
fallen and we thought that maybe the world was taking a significant step toward
peace? The collapsing of an impasse of terror that held the world at bay for fifty
years evaporated, allowing these ancient feuds to surge forth again.
So in 1994 at Christmas we speak of the peace of Jesus. But there is no peace. You
see, we think of peace in terms of the balance of power and of political
possibilities, but there is only one way to peace—it is the way of human
community. It is by the ending of all human domination.
Will that peace ever come? I really don't know. I am not so sure that we are
moving inevitably toward that universal Shalom. It doesn't seem that we are a lot
farther along than the ancient Roman world, the Pax Romano, peace by dent of
force. Will the prophet’s dream ever be realized? There is a song we sing
sometimes, "Let there be peace on earth," and then it says "and let it begin with
me." Maybe it has to begin in the chambers of the human heart of each one of us,
where we give ourselves unreservedly to the building of community and to
standing against all forces of human domination, standing against all of that that
robs any person of their humanity.
For Luke, the telling of the Christmas story from the perspective of Easter, from
the perspective of Good Friday and Easter, was telling of the Gospel, that peace is
© Grand Valley State University
�The Dream of Peace
Richard A. Rhem
Page 4
possible for those who were willing to die—to self, to all selfish pursuit, to all
domination of another, who will live in community. That is the only way to peace.
Isn't it interesting that as far back as we go, whether in biblical lore or in the
poetry of the rest of the world, there has been a dream, a longing dream of peace.
Why can't we make it happen?
Maybe we will never be able to do more than to make it happen within our own
lives and let it ripple out from there.
© Grand Valley State University
�
https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/99dedec21546006c5014a7c124655484.mp3
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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
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Clergy--Michigan
Reformed Church in America
Christ Community Church (Spring Lake, Mich.)
Religion
Interfaith worship
Sermons
Sound Recordings
Creator
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Rhem, Richard A.
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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
Christmas Eve
Scripture Text
Micah 5:5, Luke 2:14
Location
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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-0-19941224
Date
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1994-12-24
Title
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The Dream of Peace
Creator
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Richard A. Rhem
Publisher
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Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives
Rights
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<a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a>
Subject
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Clergy--Michigan
Reformed Church in America
Christ Community Church (Spring Lake, Mich.)
Sermons
Relation
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Richard A. Rhem - An Archive of Sermons, Prayers, Talks and Stories: http://richardrhem.org/
Language
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eng
Type
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Sound
Text
Format
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audio/mp3
application/pdf
Description
An account of the resource
A sermon given by Richard A. Rhem (Dick) on December 24, 1994 entitled "The Dream of Peace", on the occasion of Christmas Eve, at Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI. Scripture references: Micah 5:5, Luke 2:14.
Christmas Eve
Community
Justice
Peae
Prophetic Voice
Way of Jesus