1 24 17 https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/a2e38fdb797723284428329263faf3ab.pdf 0e8b34c48b6c6670d8cc2489a6b38f98 PDF Text Text The Word That Wounds and Heals From the series: Moving On To Maturity Text: Hosea 10:12; 11:8; 14:4 Richard A. Rhem Christ Community Church Spring Lake, Michigan July 25, 1999 Transcription of the spoken sermon This spring I had several messages on the general theme, "The Varieties of Religious Experience," and, thinking about that, I was reminded again of the fact that that is precisely true, there is a variety of religious experience. The variety is determined somewhat by the way one is raised or nurtured, but on the other hand, there is a certain something in all of us that makes us more attuned to one approach than another. That is the impossibility of a congregation at worship because you have all kinds of people who respond differently to different stimuli and out of different backgrounds with different nurture, and then one tries to weave that all together. Some of you who have been with me for a long time know that some years ago it was a very telling moment for me when at a seminar at McCormick Seminary in Chicago, a Presbyterian school, they brought the venerable old Lutheran theologian Joseph Sittler in as a guest lecturer, and he was needling the Presbyterians there, thinking that they were all Presbyterians there, which I suppose most of them were, and he said, "You know, you Presbyterians always route it through the head, always approach through the mind, in an intellectualistic approach to faith, whereas the Catholic tradition is more of an intuitive approach using symbols, sacraments, incense." (We used incense here once but everyone started coughing; we have to get accustomed to incense before we can use it full-blown.) When I came home from that seminar, it was a moment of awareness for me to realize that there was actually more than one legitimate way to worship and some people can be approached more fruitfully in one way and some in another, and I thought to myself, "Why must one choose?" and from that moment on it has been our intention here to weave a tapestry of worship in such a way that there are those moments when various people can be approached, where the entré to different kinds of responses to religious stimuli can be honored, moments when the word is addressed, as now, which has been the characteristic of our tradition, but an enrichment of the rest of the service so there are those moments, even moments of silence. Marcus Borg, when he was here, thought we were a bit wordy, although he affirmed our worship, but he spoke, perhaps you will remember, even for a place of silence in worship. © Grand Valley State University   �Word That Wounds and Heals Richard A. Rhem Page 2   We have been a wordy people, and it has been the tradition that has shaped me, and consequently, the tradition that shapes this congregation probably most forcefully. I want to look at that this morning; I want you to think with me about the word that wounds and heals, and in so doing, I go to Hosea because the Hebrew prophets were the ones who majored in this idea of the word of God as a word of address. In fact, that is that which distinguished Israel from its neighbors at the time, and the conception of the word of God spoken through the human voice is a conception that formed and shaped the people of Israel. The eighth century prophets, particularly, were these marvelous expositors of a word of God in the midst of the concrete historical situation. The prophetic ministry of the Church, the address to the world in its time and in its context derives from that Hebrew prophetic tradition, Hosea, certainly one of the best. I love him because of the things that I read this morning, a selective reading. I could have gone anywhere in the prophetic corpus of the Hebrew scriptures, but I read Hosea because there is so clearly the wounding word and the healing word, and the word of God ought always to be understood to be wounding and healing, and wounding in order to heal. There is no purpose in a wounding word of God that does not bring, finally, the word of grace and healing. Hosea had to confront the northern kingdom in the last period of their existence before the Assyrian empire removed them in 722 B.C.E. Hosea prophesied in a time of public turmoil, social unrest, the exploitation of the poor and the vulnerable. In that sense, Hosea’s ministry was very much like most of the other Hebrew prophets. They called Israel to account for its failure to live faithfully in covenant with God and to have justice mark their social life. And so, he called Israel to repent. It’s time to break up the fallow ground. It’s time to sow righteousness and reap the steadfast love of the Lord, and in the 12th chapter there is a summary, as it were, Hosea being the spokesperson for God, who speaks about how tenderly God had nurtured Israel when Israel was in Egypt, "I called my son," and how he picked him up and how he fed him and how he cared for him and how he nurtured him, and then the statement, "But Israel continues to turn away." They turn away and so they’re going to go back into exile. Once again they are going to become the victims of Assyria; they are going to go back to Egypt. "I’m done with them," God says. Then those very tender words, "How can I give you up? How can I give you up? I can’t give you up. A human being would give you up, but I’m not human; I am God." The closing verses of the 14th chapter speak about Israel flowering as a garden with the dew of heaven falling upon it, the fragrance of Lebanon’s wines marking it, a picture of the healing. "I will heal you of your faithlessness." I use that only illustratively. It is characteristic of the prophetic word. It is a word that exposes. It is a word that tells the truth. It is a word that calls a spade a spade. It is a word that makes us uneasy, uncomfortable in our ambiguity and equivocation of our lives. It is a word that exposes our self-centeredness, our selfishness. It is a word that calls us to right living, to the practice of justice and to © Grand Valley State University �Word That Wounds and Heals Richard A. Rhem Page 3   the ministry of mercy. It is a word that addresses us in our humanness and tells us in the name of God to clean up our act, to get on with the work, to do the task, whatever it may be, in whatever concrete situation, wherever there is compromise, with our accountability to the faithful God. There the word of God in public address dresses us down, but only for our own good, only in order to say to us, "I’ll never let you go. The steadfast love of the Lord will never let you go." It is a word that wounds and heals, and it wounds, not taking any satisfaction in the wounding, but in order to awaken, in order to break through to the dullness of a heart of stone, in order to call us up short, in order that we might be consciously embraced, conscious of that unconditional love that will keep us forever. That is the prophetic task of the prophetic word of God in the midst of the people of God. I use Hosea, as I said, simply as an illustration of that which has shaped and marked our tradition, that which is a big part of our Sunday morning experience. I have in your liturgies a rather extended excerpt from an address of Karl Barth in 1922. Now, that is Karl Barth. When you look at the bibliographical reference, I want you to know that Karl is not Carl, but Karl. Karl Barth cannot be with a "C." And it is Barth, but there’s an "h" on the end, and we knock the h out of Karl Barth. In the European pronunciation, the h is silent, but when I looked at that, Carl Bart, I thought, "Oh, my gosh. I am embarrassed. I am humiliated. I don’t want one of those to go anywhere out of this church." I want you to take them home and read them several times, but I want you to change it to Karl Barth. I thought everybody knew about Karl Barth, but my mistake. I should have faxed it in. I did it on the telephone. It’s correct phonetically, but don’t let anybody know we did that. Anyway, Karl Barth was probably the greatest theologian of the 20th century, and where did his theology come from? Where does this huge production come from? It came from the task of preaching. Karl Barth, in the early part of this century, graduated from the finest European institutions of learning. He was deeply indebted to and steeped in the culture of Europe, and he went to a little Swiss village to preach. He got into the pulpit, this highly educated, highly cultured genius and brilliant man, and he had nothing to say, and he began to struggle with the word of God. His theology, the Bartian theology, was called the theology of the word because, in his experience of having to preach, he found he had nothing to say, and when you have nothing to say and you have to preach, you’re in deep trouble. So, Barth began to study and he studied the Epistle to the Romans and after ten years of preaching in this village and working with a good friend, seriously wrestling with the faith, he published The Epistle to the Romans. It started such a stir that he was asked to come and speak about his theology to a ministers’ conference. He was embarrassed by the very thought, and he said, "I don’t have a theology. I have a theology just like it came to me, nurtured through my teachers until I had to preach, and then I needed something to say, and I began to study and think biblically and theologically in order for the sermon on Sunday morning." © Grand Valley State University �Word That Wounds and Heals Richard A. Rhem Page 4   You see, there’s really nothing that is more important than this moment. Now, I said a moment ago that I recognize a variety of religious experience and more and more I have come to appreciate the aesthetic and the sacramental and the silence. That is so terribly important. Maybe God can even touch us more easily then, I don’t know. Maybe it would be better if I would shut up, but for better or for worse, this is the moment of the sermon, this is the moment of the address of the word of God and I want to say to you it is a terribly important moment. Karl Barth recognized that his people were coming and he needed to have something to say, and he came to realize that all theology ought to be nothing more than in service of the sermon in order at this moment we can have something to say. He speaks about Sunday morning, about the strange architecture of the place, the furniture, the appointments, and then the expectation. Oh, he recognizes that maybe someone came lazily, lollygagging in, not really expecting anything, and yet, he said, the whole situation speaks of expectation. Some event, some event in the past or perhaps in the future, some event, God is present. And then he says here is presumption, here is daring - one prays, someone begins to preach, and it’s done on the conviction that God is present. That is what this moment is about - that God is present. Barth says the people come with a question, and the question is, "Is it true?" He says that the preacher had better understand people better than the people understand themselves. The preacher better know that down in the depths of the human heart and soul there’s a question that says, "Is it true?" In other words, can I live with trust? Can I believe, somehow or other in the midst of the world that has gone crazy with all of the darkness, where in Kosovo 14 farmers baling hay are shot at close range, where there continues to be this vengeful cycle of revenge, the violence where it’s symptomatic of the human condition, where I look into the human soul, I look into my own heart and I see the darkness there, the compromise there. I see the ambiguity there. I see the self-centeredness there, I see all of that which keeps me from fulfilling that calling of God, that beckoning of the spirit. Is it true? Is anything true? Is God at all here? Is God present? Can God be trusted? Is God involved at all in the world, in history, in nature, in my life? Barth says that’s what Sunday morning is all about. That’s what this moment is all about. The people have come and even when they don’t realize it, even when they just come because it’s Sunday morning and haven’t even thought about it, even when they come with very little conscious expectation, down deep in their heart, he says, there’s a question - Is it true? Can God be trusted? Is God? Is it true? Karl Barth says Sunday morning is that moment in which all theology should be focused in order to give the preacher something to say and to be able to touch that deep place in the human heart where there’s doubt and fear and anxiety, deep questions, where there’s a cry, "Is it true?" That’s what Sunday morning is all about. © Grand Valley State University �Word That Wounds and Heals Richard A. Rhem Page 5   I came across this work of Barth when I was in Europe and if I had ever been tempted at all, following post-graduate study, to go into the academic community, I think it was this piece plus Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s Letters and Papers From Prison that convinced me that this is the most important place in the world and this is the most important hour of the week, this hour, preaching. My God, it’s important, people. Do you realize how important it is? Presumptuous. Daring. One flawed and failing human being trying to say a word that is the word of God. That’s what Calvin understood it to be, and Barth, in following Calvin, clarified very, very nicely the three forms of the word of God, the center of it all the word made flesh: the word made flesh, the word of God embodied, and all of Israel’s prophetic word, words of anticipation, and all of the apostolic witness following the word of recollection or remembrance. So, there’s the word in flesh and the word written, but then, here’s daring, the preached word, and the preached word is nothing more or less than the word of God updated for this place and this time and this people. Even when we read Hosea’s words, we’re reading an 8th century prophet into which have been layered some 6th century words because the 8th century prophet became the text for a 6th century preacher, and the text now that we have in 1999 is the text of the word of God written out of the 8th century Before the Common Era, and the 6th century Before the Common Era, and here it is 1999 and it becomes the occasion for the preaching of the word in this place at this time, because the word preached is the updating of the word written that is spoken on the word in flesh, because Barth understood so clearly that revelation is always an event. You don’t have revelation in a book; you don’t have revelation in an institution; you don’t have revelation in a confessional creed; the word of God speaks. God reveals God. Never at our disposal. Never to put in our pocket. Never for us to domesticate and have in a neat little box, packaged. The word of God will speak when God will speak, and when the human voice is speaking a word of address based on a written text pointing to the word in flesh, it just might happen. And it might not. It probably doesn’t happen more often than it happens. But, that’s why this is such an electric moment. That’s why this could potentially be a world turning upside down, transforming moment for someone, and who knows how it will happen, because the Spirit blows where it will. But when the word made flesh, witnessed to by the word written, becomes the text for a word of address, it just might happen. Even here and now someone might see a rift in the sky, someone whose burden is heavy might feel it lift, someone might see a light in the darkness, someone might feel themselves exposed, laid bare in all their selfishness compromised and all of the flawedness of their existence, someone might cry out, "God, be merciful to me, a sinner," someone might say, "I heard the voice today that said, ‘I will heal your faithlessness; I’ll never give you up.’" I don’t know how it happens, when it happens, but I know that it is absolutely serious and critical that it happens where we find an honest word today. Will you find it in the political arena? Why can we not pass campaign reform? Is it not © Grand Valley State University �Word That Wounds and Heals Richard A. Rhem Page 6   because our political system is for sale? Where has the word "spin doctor" come from? Do we believe anything we hear, or is it always something with a spin, or an ulterior motive satisfied by an ambition for human acquisition or aggrandizement, for the undercutting of something or other, for the setting up of a project or a person? Is there any truth in the land? There had better be truth here. Do I presume to be one without bias or prejudice? Of course not. That’s the presumption of preaching. But I had better not speak a word that I speak not consciously before the face of God. If there is to be truth to be told in the earth, then it must be told here, where there is nothing to gain, where there is no ulterior motive but the well-being of humankind and the glory of God and the mending of creation. The religious right has joined the political game. Recently Ed Dobson of Calvary Undenominational, and Cal Thomas, the journalist, wrote a book about Blinded By Power, because when the Church gets enmeshed in those structures, then it has another agenda, then it can’t tell the truth. Only the free pulpit and a free person who has nothing but the concern to speak a word from God is the salvation of the world. It is here that you can still hear a word of truth, in spite of the flawed nature of the voice, but the voice is tied to the text and points to the one, and your deep question, "Is it true?" can be answered from the written word that pointed to the word in flesh that lived out the fact, "Yes, it’s true. God is love. A fierce love that will expose you only in order, finally, to heal you." I don’t know of another stop along your way this week where you have a better chance of hearing the word of God than in this hour, and that’s why you come, and it’s that word in which you can trust, and by God, it’s tough. It’s presumptuous. It’s daring, and it doesn’t get any easier, because I take it so seriously, do you know that? God have mercy on us. © Grand Valley State University � https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/e91cb8e5f39953b6a135edf8cc9093c2.mp3 86f5b841026b1e528a430f6c561221cb Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Richard A. Rhem Collection Description An account of the resource Text and sound recordings of the sermons, prayers, services, and articles of Richard Rhem, pastor emeritus of Christ Community Church in Spring Lake, Michigan, where he served for 37 years. Starting in the mid 1980's, Rhem began to question some of the traditional Christian dogma that he had been espousing from the pulpit. That questioning was a first step in a long and interesting spiritual journey, one that he openly shared with his congregation. His journey is important, in part because it is reflective of the questioning, the yearnings, and the gradual revision of beliefs that many persons in this part of the century have experienced and continue to experience. It is important also because of the affirming and inclusive way his questioning was done and his thinking evolved. His sermons and other written and spoken materials together document the steps in his journey as it took a turn in 1985, yet continued to revolve around the framework and liturgies of the Christian calendar. Subject The topic of the resource Clergy--Michigan Reformed Church in America Christ Community Church (Spring Lake, Mich.) Religion Interfaith worship Sermons Sound Recordings Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Rhem, Richard A. Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/514">Richard A. Rhem papers (KII-01)</a> Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives. Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Kaufman Interfaith Institute Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Language A language of the resource English Type The nature or genre of the resource Sound Text Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context KII-01 Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant 1981-2014 Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource audio/mp3 text/pdf Sound A resource primarily intended to be heard. Examples include a music playback file format, an audio compact disc, and recorded speech or sounds. Event Pentecost X Series Moving On To Maturity Scripture Text Hosea 10:12, 11:8, 14:4 Location The location of the interview Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context KII-01_RA-0-19990725 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1999-07-25 Title A name given to the resource The Word That Wounds and Heals 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 Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Subject The topic of the resource Clergy--Michigan Reformed Church in America Christ Community Church (Spring Lake, Mich.) Sermons Relation A related resource Richard A. Rhem - An Archive of Sermons, Prayers, Talks and Stories: http://richardrhem.org/ Language A language of the resource eng Type The nature or genre of the resource Text Sound Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource audio/mp3 application/pdf Description An account of the resource A sermon given by Richard A. Rhem (Dick) on July 25, 1999 entitled "The Word That Wounds and Heals", as part of the series "Moving On To Maturity", on the occasion of Pentecost X, at Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI. Scripture references: Hosea 10:12, 11:8, 14:4. Justice Prophetic Voice https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/514721b9ec747b2102d2b4f7d658ce8f.pdf 14faa1fd3e31c82fbb7357de1b6367fc PDF Text Text The Church: Has It a Place in the Spiritual Life? From the series: The Church: Critical Questions Text: Mark 7:8; I Corinthians 12:7; 12:27; 13:13 Richard A. Rhem Christ Community Church Spring Lake, Michigan October 11, 1998 Transcription of the spoken sermon The question this morning in this month of October, when we are thinking together about the church, is whether or not the church has a place in the spiritual life. A rather strange question, isn’t it, because one would assume at least superficially that the church is precisely the place for the development and cultivation of the spiritual life. Of course, at its best, that’s exactly what it is, and yet, the question is not ridiculous at all for, if you stop to think for a moment, the church as an organization, as an institution that is ministered to and over by flawed human beings, that is full of structures and traditions and all sorts of diverse baggage - the church as an institution can be a detriment to the spiritual life. It can dampen devotion and undercut the freshness of faith. Christ Community over the years has been a place that has collected all sorts of birds with broken wings, wounded in the struggle of religion in its organizational and institutional forms. So I think probably it is perceived here immediately, that it is a legitimate question, the church can be a detriment to spiritual life. There are those who would say, "The church has no place in my spiritual life, and it was in finally shucking off the church that I found my spirit beginning to sing." Unfortunately, that has too often been the case. That is understandable because, whatever else the church is, as the mediator of the Spirit, as the arena in which God moves upon us by the Spirit, it is also a human organization and institution and, to that extent, it is a flawed body, and it can do damage. Religion has been the source of great nobility and marvelous movements on the part of the human spirit, and it has a shadow side which has been to be a participant in some of the horrific experiences in the human story. So, to ask whether the church has a place in the spiritual life is an effort to get us to think together about the distinction between the spiritual pursuit, the pursuit of God, the experience of God, and our life together in an organized, religious institution. Obviously, it is my hope and my intention that a community like this foster spirituality and not hinder it or become a barrier to it. That can never be taken for granted and I think that we ought always, anew, to ask the question, "Is this © Grand Valley State University   �Church’s Place in Spiritual Life Richard A. Rhem Page 2   community such that it enhances human beings and inspires people and brings them into the experience of God, or has the institution moved into a phase in which, rather, it drains and detracts from the Spirit of God?" That’s the question asked this morning. As one looks back over the history of the church, obviously there have been those times again and again when the church became, not an institution inspiring, but an organization dominating and exploiting. If we simply think about the rise of religion, think of our own biblical tradition, the Jewish-Christian tradition (someone hears a voice, Abraham and Sarah move out, knowing not where they’re going, and eventually out of that family comes a people enslaved in Egypt, and another one named Moses encounters a bush that burns but isn’t consumed and has a sense of divine mission and calling, brings that people out of slavery through the wilderness, into their own land), we see that it is a movement, dynamic, alive. But, before too long, in that land, organization happens and structures are developed. Eventually, there’s a king named David, a great politician, a savvy leader of the people, who organizes the nation. His son, Solomon, builds the magnificent temple, and before long this people who had heard the voice of God on Mount Sinai become a people who are domesticated, as it were, in the organized structures of religion with a priesthood and a temple and altar and sacrifices and all of the accouterments of organized and institutional religion, and all of that arising out of the founding vision, all of that a sort of natural and inevitable development and yet, a development which loses the spontaneity and the freshness of the first love, that driving vision that sweeps people along and lifts them up, and it becomes ordinary, it becomes pro forma, it becomes highly structured, routinized, and loses its soul. And through all of the experiences of that people here and there, now and again, a prophet’s voice is raised, raised about the dominance of this institution, raised about the lack of soul and the emptiness. The prophets are silenced because their message is not popular. One day on the banks of the Jordan River, a man named John stands up and becries the situation of his people, their religious life, the temple crowd, the collaboration with the Roman occupying power, and he points to another one by the name of Jesus and Jesus, with his own vision, his own particular fire and his own particular spirit, filled with the Spirit, challenges the institution, challenges the tradition of the elders to such an extent that they know they have to silence him, and in collaboration with the Roman authorities they put him to death because he had the audacity to stand up in the face of the whole temple establishment and say, "You’ve lost your heart; you’ve lost your soul; you’ve lost your way." The religious institution, with all of the vested interests of those who are a part of it and who eat out of the trough has every reason to keep the status quo, but that which begins with a fresh blush of the winds of the Spirit, that which is, first of all, the experience of a new love, the freshness, the spontaneous movement of the © Grand Valley State University �Church’s Place in Spiritual Life Richard A. Rhem Page 3   Spirit, that which is inspiring, liberating, and causes people to sing and to dance, becomes domesticated, ordinary, forgets the fact that it is a means to lift people heavenward and becomes an end in itself that uses people for its own ends, always justifying, of course, as being this divine institution, when all the time it is human, all too human, petty, mean-spirited, losing vision, becoming protective, defensive, perpetuating itself, when all of that about which it finds its life circling around is anachronistic, out of another day, refusing to move along with the wind of the Spirit. Jesus said, "You stick to human traditions rather than the commandment of God." We have to read those Gospel passages, understanding that when they were written several decades after Jesus, they were written with the brokenness between the Jesus movement and the Rabbinic Jewish movement. I don’t believe that Jesus himself in his own day would have had the sharpness of those discussions. But, there can be little doubt that Jesus challenged the temple establishment. There can be little doubt that the Synoptic Gospels, Matthew, Mark and Luke, are reflective of that confrontation of Jesus with the religious establishment of his day, which eventuated in his death. It has always been so. The little struggling Jesus movement, persecuted, hunted down, finally in the fourth century, with Emperor Constantine, becomes the established religion of the Empire. It becomes the dominant religious expression. Cathedrals are built and the religious leaders dominate the European continent. It becomes a lush institution. It becomes wealthy; it is corrupt. And in the 16th century there is a movement of Reformation and the church is re-formed according to the word of God, and reformed is a verb, an action verb. It’s a verb of movement; it is a movement of renewal. And then, once again, just as has happened in the time of Jesus, the institutional forms of the church get rigid, brace themselves, will not be renewed, will not acknowledge that they’ve lost their first love, brokenness, the tearing, the rending of the body of Christ. The essence of that Reformation movement of the 16th century was never to absolutize any ecclesiastical form or creedal statement. But, the renewal only lasts so long and before very long, the essence of that which was a spirit that it would reform and always be reformed by the word of God, the verb, becomes a noun. Now there is a reformed presence in the world and it becomes an adjective, so there is reformed worship and reformed evangelism and reformed theology. The verb degenerates into a noun, a static thing, another institution to be protected, to be defended, to be perpetuated, to resist the winds of the Spirit. And so, it goes. Over and over and over again. And the institution which ostensibly is organized in the human arena becomes a dominating, exploiting institution that uses people for its own end, its own aggrandizement, its own perpetuation. That’s why organized religion in our day, the mainstream out of which we stem, of which we are a part, is in a survival mode, defensive and protective. © Grand Valley State University �Church’s Place in Spiritual Life Richard A. Rhem Page 4   The Utne Reader is an interesting journal with commentary on the contemporary scene. There was an article this summer entitled “God With a Million Faces,” and it began with the story of Ann Marie, who said that organized religion was, for her, dis-empowering. She said it’s bogus. She took some of the trappings of her Christian upbringing, she added a pinch of Buddhism and a little bit of this and a little bit of that and she came up with a sect of one, the sect of Ann Marie. She is on her individual quest, her quest for spirituality, her own thirst and hunger for the experience of the living God which she couldn’t find in the institution. She is an example of a very large trend in our day. We hear a lot about the vocal rhetoric, the Religious Right. We hear stories, news articles, etc., of the megachurches that are growing by leaps and bounds, and we hear about the noisy part of religion which seems to be alive and well in the US of A. But, we don’t hear much about the Ann Maries, the thousands and millions who have been disenchanted with organized religion, who have left the institutions. We hear a bit about the New Age and some of it is very bizarre, and some of it is more responsible, but all of it points to a deep spiritual hunger. It is very easy to say, "Well, the world is growing less religious, less spiritual. People are pursuing their own ends and their own pleasures," but I don’t believe that for a moment. I believe that there is as much hunger and thirst in the human heart, in the human soul as ever there was. But, there are all kinds of people who have taken the warning that institutional religion can be bad for your spiritual life, and they’ve gone off on their own quest, because the institution can be an albatross on the human spirit, and I don’t know of any movement that has been able to avoid that movement into organization and institutionalization, except maybe A.A. We’re familiar with the Twelve Steps of A.A. in terms of that personal healing and recovery, but A.A. also has its traditions in regard to it as a movement which has historically positioned itself against the possibility of becoming an institution with lands, buildings, and wealth. Maybe in the Christian movement, the Quakers have avoided it with their little white frame buildings, coming together and sitting in a circle of silence. But you, what do you do? You hire a preacher. You build a building. You have to put a new roof on it. You have a Minister of Music and a large organ - all of the accouterments that make it such a pleasure to be a part of this community. And it can become a real drain and a drag. And it can ring the zest out of your spiritual life. In the Utne Reader, in this same article, there are comments in the margins by six or eight people of all kinds of religious spiritual movements and traditions. I’ve printed a couple of them in the liturgy for you. One, in particular, Gangaji, I don’t know who she is or what she’s a part of, but I like what she says and that is that if the rituals and the forms can be the instruments by which the Mystery becomes present, then wonderful, but, she distinguishes very, very carefully between the freedom of the spirit and that ritualism that so easily comes and entraps us. And she reminds us that the people we follow were the people who © Grand Valley State University �Church’s Place in Spiritual Life Richard A. Rhem Page 5   would not follow, that the ones that we have made our leaders, the Buddha, Jesus Christ, whomever, are the very ones who shattered the forms, who broke out of the tradition, who undercut the institution, who got back to the heart and the spirit of the matter. That’s the way it is, isn’t it? Someone sees a vision. Someone breaks through the crust, the barnacles, and then everyone says, "Ha, that’s it!" And before long, that one becomes the one who’s worshipped and followed and a whole new set of things are organized, institutionalized, absolutized, and before long you have to take an offering again. Ann Marie says, "The church didn’t do it for me. I’ve taken my tray and gone down the cafeteria line and borrowed a little of this and a little of that and I am a sect of one." But, there are voices in that same Utne Reader article that suggest the difficulty of being the sect of one, going it alone. We really do need community. It is possible for human community to enhance our individual lives and our walk and our quest for the reality of the Spirit. I think that’s what Paul was trying to point out. The congregation in Corinth was exuberant, full of all kinds of gifts, and he had to write to them to calm down a bit, to recognize one another’s gifts and to do things decently and in order. He reminded them that all spiritual diversity has one Source and that is the Spirit, and that all of the diverse gifts are to be used not for personal exaltation, but for the building up of the body. And so, he encourages those people in Corinth, in that community, to recognize the unity of their spiritual gift and their calling to be concerned for their brothers and sisters and the upbuilding of the body which is the image that he uses, the body of Christ. And then he says, "When you’ve discovered your gift, when you’ve brought your gift to the service of the rest, then let me show you an even more excellent way." And he breaks out into that beautiful hymn of love, the 13th chapter of I Corinthians, in which he reminds us, as he reminded the Corinthian congregation, that the most profound proclamation, the proper creedal posture, the exuberant offering of oneself, making even the supreme sacrifice, apart from love, is nothing. And then he goes on to describe what love is and what love is not. He comes back, then, to remind them that all of the things that seem so important are really provisional, temporary, passing away, that there is finally faith and hope and love and the greatest of these is love. You see, the church so easily becomes an end in itself. It takes so much to keep it going, to keep it on track, to keep it up, organize it, regulate it, supervise it, when what we really want, what we really need is the experience of God. So, let us be very certain that this organization called Christ Community never sacrifices the life and the spirit in order to be a little more stable, a little more solid in order to have a better future, in order to perpetuate itself. We don’t have to go into the future. We don’t have to become anything. In fact, to the extent that we are willing to let it all go, let it die, only then will we be free to allow the wind of the Spirit to blow where it will. Only if we can relativize this necessary organizational life, will we be set free to open ourselves to the Spirit, to love one another, to © Grand Valley State University �Church’s Place in Spiritual Life Richard A. Rhem Page 6   recognize that everything takes second place to that community of love. When we become willing to unclench the fist and open our mind and heart, we can be free of compulsion, fear, manipulation, and the need for exploitation, finally freed up to walk the way of spirituality, the way of Jesus, in a community of love where the Spirit blows free, and where we can leave after gathering with the brothers and sisters on a marvelous Lord’s Day like this and see a leaf or hear a child’s cry, experience a lump in the throat, a tear on the cheek, and say, "That’s why I believe." © Grand Valley State University � https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/6a0dbb4568ea302714a36b15485d8a65.mp3 0b0eda39afd6ce2e510d6f5c52c9008c Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Richard A. Rhem Collection Description An account of the resource Text and sound recordings of the sermons, prayers, services, and articles of Richard Rhem, pastor emeritus of Christ Community Church in Spring Lake, Michigan, where he served for 37 years. Starting in the mid 1980's, Rhem began to question some of the traditional Christian dogma that he had been espousing from the pulpit. That questioning was a first step in a long and interesting spiritual journey, one that he openly shared with his congregation. His journey is important, in part because it is reflective of the questioning, the yearnings, and the gradual revision of beliefs that many persons in this part of the century have experienced and continue to experience. It is important also because of the affirming and inclusive way his questioning was done and his thinking evolved. His sermons and other written and spoken materials together document the steps in his journey as it took a turn in 1985, yet continued to revolve around the framework and liturgies of the Christian calendar. Subject The topic of the resource Clergy--Michigan Reformed Church in America Christ Community Church (Spring Lake, Mich.) Religion Interfaith worship Sermons Sound Recordings Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Rhem, Richard A. Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/514">Richard A. Rhem papers (KII-01)</a> Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives. Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Kaufman Interfaith Institute Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Language A language of the resource English Type The nature or genre of the resource Sound Text Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context KII-01 Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant 1981-2014 Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource audio/mp3 text/pdf Sound A resource primarily intended to be heard. Examples include a music playback file format, an audio compact disc, and recorded speech or sounds. Event Pentecost XIX Series The Church: Critical Questions Scripture Text Mark 7:8, I Corinthians 12:7, 12:27, 13:13 Location The location of the interview Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context KII-01_RA-0-19981011 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1998-10-11 Title A name given to the resource The Church: Has It a Place in the Spiritual Life? Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Richard A. Rhem Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Subject The topic of the resource Clergy--Michigan Reformed Church in America Christ Community Church (Spring Lake, Mich.) Sermons Relation A related resource Richard A. Rhem - An Archive of Sermons, Prayers, Talks and Stories: http://richardrhem.org/ Language A language of the resource eng Type The nature or genre of the resource Text Sound 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 October 11, 1998 entitled "The Church: Has It a Place in the Spiritual Life?", as part of the series "The Church: Critical Questions", on the occasion of Pentecost XIX, at Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI. Scripture references: Mark 7:8, I Corinthians 12:7, 12:27, 13:13. Community of Faith Nature of Religion Prophetic Voice Spiritual Quest https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/dedef21f77bfe5535f425a703d987a4e.pdf 86ead1cdcb67145c08cba3516911538f PDF Text Text The Church: Has It a Future? From the series: The Church: Critical Questions Text: Matthew 7:4; 31:31; Matthew 23:37-38 Richard A. Rhem Christ Community Church Spring Lake, Michigan October 4, 1998 Transcription of the spoken sermon It is the month of October, and being the son of the Reformation, the month of October always makes me think about the church and I have often in the fall season reflected on the nature of the church, its mission, and its function. I want to do that again this year in October, raising critical questions about the church and, in November, talking about the nature of the community that is the church. I do so this year, perhaps particularly, because I am anxious that we should think together about the nature of the church, the church’s future, a future that cannot be taken for granted, ever, but certainly in this congregation as we go into a new church year with a status of independence, somewhat unusual because most of the time, most of the church is interconnected. Not that we are outside of the body of Christ. Nonetheless, we have a particular situation, a circumstance, I believe a particular opportunity, but we ought to be about it intentionally and thoughtfully. And so, if you would for a few weeks just think with me about the church and, this morning, The Church: Has It a Future? I think I can answer that immediately - of course it has a future, but I would also respond to that immediately by saying it will not be the nature of the church as it has been in the past, I believe, as we look into the future. There will be some significant transformations, I’m quite sure, and I do believe that we can be a part of that movement toward a creative newness, which I would hope we would find ourselves engaged with. Think with me, then, for a bit about the church and perhaps the future shape. Maybe that would be a better title. The kinds of things that will be true, increasingly, as we move together into the future. I cannot help but remember the couple of weeks that some of us traversed the European continent. Every place you go, there is another church or another cathedral. There are those who have accused me of leading ABC Tours - "another bloody church." But, we seldom miss one. When one is on the European continent, one is impressed with the fact that those spires that ascend heavenward all over that continent bespeak an age of faith. There was a time when the European culture ,which has become so thoroughly secular, was marked by faith, Christian faith, to be specific. Those magnificent sacred spaces, © Grand Valley State University   �Has the Church a Future? Richard A. Rhem Page 2   still awesome upon entrance, taking your breath away, making one realize the function of sacred space, of the aesthetic that is able to reach the depths of our being and draw out that attitude of worship, causing us for a moment simply to be still. In one such moment someone said to me, "Whatever else one can say, one would have to admit that was a day when somebody really believed in God." They say you can determine the nature of a culture by its architecture, and that certainly is true of that European scene as it reflects those centuries in which faith was dominant and great cathedrals were raised to the glory of God. I suppose our own day would be marked by the glass and steel skyscraper of the commercial world, the business world. Ours is a different age. But, there was a time when in every village, in the most prominent location, there stood the church as a symbol of that faith in God that was as solid as the rock on which the church was built. But one cannot traverse that continent today without the sense that, when one enters those magnificent spaces, one is in the environment of the museum. That is not to say that there are not still godly people gathering in worship, but one does have the feeling that many of those beautiful edifices are more now a place where tourists come and light candles and stay a moment to pray, rather than being the cutting edge of the society over which the spire dominates. And so, one recognizes the fact that with religion and with now specifically the church, there are periods of ebb and flow and that to raise the question about the future is significant, it is important. I read an article some time ago about some of these buildings in The Netherlands. When a building has served as a place of divine worship, there is a general recognition, even for those who have no affiliation or participation in that act, nonetheless some feeling that such a building, such a place ought to be used appropriately when its function is no longer needed in the community. There are a lot of such buildings in The Netherlands, for example. So, how do you find a use for an old church? How do you use a place with dignity that once was a house of worship but no longer functions in that way? What of the future of the church? What of the future of this congregation? As I was thinking about this a month or six weeks ago, and put together this present series, I received an issue of The Christian Century that had an excellent article in it by Peter Berger. Peter Berger is a Lutheran; he’s a sociologist; he’s been one of the most acute observers of the religious scene, and he writes an excellent article, which was precisely what I had been thinking about, entitled "Protestantism and the Quest for Certainty." He raises the question whether or not the church can survive and have a future if it must live with less than absolute certainty in matters of faith. His answer is "Yes," but not to be taken for granted. In his analysis of the present situation, he says in our world, which is marked by pluralism, there is the interfacing of cultures and religions such as formerly was not the case. Formerly, in previous generations, people could live pretty much isolated in their own communities. People were socialized pretty much the same © Grand Valley State University �Has the Church a Future? Richard A. Rhem Page 3   way and, where there is a stable community and a stable tradition and a relatively homogenous population, you have a lot of things that are very important about life that are simply taken for granted. Peter Berger plays on that phrase, "taken for grantedness." Much of life is taken for granted, and that’s not all bad. It simplifies life a bit. You don’t have to think about every action. You don’t have to make a decision every time you make a move. There are things one takes for granted. But, in the arena of religion, the pluralism of our times, the presence of the great religious traditions in our own communities means that, in terms of our religious faith, we can no longer take it for granted. We simply know that there are other options. There are other people who evidence the fruit of the Spirit who believe differently, who act differently than we do, and whenever that happens, when you come into a situation that is genuinely pluralistic, that taken-for-grantedness is obviously undermined. One has to begin to think about what one believes and how one behaves and how one values, etc. Peter Berger says that’s our situation. He quotes the philosopher John Dewey, who speaks about a quest for certainty, and recognizes that it is endemic in the human heart, in yours and mine, that we do seek certain certitudes, certain securities. I like to use the phrase, "lust for certitude." Some things we want to know absolutely. We want to be able to say, "Here I stand," and we don’t want to waffle all over the place. Religion and the church as the bearer of religion have fed into the human desire and quest. It’s simply quite normal, but I think the disservice that the church as a religious community has visited on its people is to give the impression that it’s possible to live with absolute certainties, failing to point out that it is the very nature of our human existence that absolutes are denied us. We are in the stream of history; our lives are marked by change, by development. The future is open, and it is impossible to freeze, absolutize church structures, liturgical forms, creedal formulations, and consequently, we live with a tension, a tension that stems from our quest for certainty and the reality of our human situation which denies us certitude. I happen to think that the church has played into that lust for certitude and promised what it really cannot promise honestly, and that what we ought to do, what we must do, rather, is help our people learn to live by faith where those absolutes are unavailable. But the question is, can such a church have a future? Can such a community face honestly the human situation and survive, refusing to play into that which has motivated so much religious activity, that quest for certainty and security which, once again, I must say I think is simply not available in our human situation? Well, Peter Berger in this very fine article says the very heart and center of the Protestant movement of the 16th century Reformation was the refusal to absolutize any human structure, be it the structure of the church, or be it the structure of the faith, or even be it the Bible as the infallible, inerrant word of © Grand Valley State University �Has the Church a Future? Richard A. Rhem Page 4   God. Anything that a human hand has touched is denied absoluteness. That was the insight of the 16th century. The nuance of the word Protestant is negative, like protest, as being against. But, as a matter of fact, in the 16th century the Protestants were protesting. Pro is for. Calling for something, so that out of that 16th century movement, at its heart, which was already denied by the 17th century, there was a recognition that there is always a danger to absolutize human forms and structures and institutions, and freeze against the future, and try to create a situation of taken for grantedness, and I have to tell you there’s no such place. My question is: Can a congregation survive where there is that kind of honesty up front that denies you the certainty for which your soul longs? But, in taking that position, I am being true to my heritage, because the essence of the 16th century was that the church was being reformed according to the word of God, and always being reformed, and there was no point, no creed, no structure that could ever finally be absolutized. That’s what the whole thing was about, because there was an explosion in the 16th century because churches do what churches do. It happened in Jeremiah’s day. They thought, as long as the temple was sitting in the midst of Jerusalem, everything was going to be hunkydory. And so, the prophet comes. How does God speak to Jeremiah? I don’t know. Middle of the night, or did he just overeat the night before and have indigestion? Anyway, he stands on the church steps on the high holy day and they’re coming to worship and he says, "Don’t trust these deceptive words, ‘The temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord is this.’ Do you think you can just go out and live any old way you want to live, denying the justice and the compassion that God requires, and everything will be just fine because the temple is standing? Not on your life." Oh, Jeremiah’s got a story. What a story. I can’t go into it, but they call him the weeping prophet no one ever heeded. Finally he lost his life, but he wasn’t alone. And Jesus, in his controversy with the religious leadership of his day, confronting them with the best in their own tradition, and yet recognizing that it would be true of him as it was true of Jeremiah. Jesus said to the religious leadership of his day, "You’ve always done it. You’re simply the children of your parents who have shed all that righteous blood down through the centuries. The prophet, the one who dares shake the foundations, the one who dares to tell the truth, the one who refuses to cotton to that lust for certitude where certitude cannot be found, that one who will give answers knowing more than one can know." Jesus says, "I would have gathered you as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you would not." So, Judah went into exile. The Jesus movement split off from the Jewish movement. The Reformation was a rending of the body of Christ because institutions will not live in the light of reality, which is a non-absolute posture in all of life. That’s the nature of human existence. I’m sorry to deny you the kind of security and certainty you would want, but if I would give you security and © Grand Valley State University �Has the Church a Future? Richard A. Rhem Page 5   certainty in this human pilgrimage, I would be giving you something that is not possible. You, rather, have to learn to live by faith. Sola Fidei; Luther, one of the cardinal planks - By faith! There’s no church that’s absolute; there’s no doctrine that’s absolute; there’s no book that’s absolute; there’s only God Who is absolute and God is Mystery and we trust by faith, we lay hold of God. Colette prays a moving prayer that touches us deeply and recognizes the infirmities and the fragility and the tragedy and pain of our human existence, and then the choir sings, "All will be well. All will be well; all manner of things will be well," quoting Julian of Norwich who is quoted here regularly and will continue to be quoted here. Eventually we’ll sing it, as well. All will be well. All will be well; all manner of things will be well. I believe that. I live in faith; I trust that, but in the meantime, I don’t know. I don’t know what tomorrow will bring. I don’t know about the next decade or the next century or the next millennium. I have to live, trusting, trusting. The Protestant Principle, said Paul Tillich, refuses to absolutize anything human - church, state, culture, social, whatever. We are pilgrims, we are on a journey, the future continues to open up, we move toward it, trusting, without that kind of certainty that we would so love to have. I’m thinking about all this, and then I’m reading this article and Berger says, "How can one build institutions on such a fragile base?" I said, "Peter, you tell me. How can you build institutions on such a fragile basis?" Don’t viable institutions require a strong foundation of taken for granted verities? Require representatives who exude self-assured certainty? Let us assume that over time it is difficult to fake this, and we must ask, if one constructs institutions on the basis of the sort of skepticism that the Protestant Principle implies, will these institutions not be extraordinarily weak, associations of individuals with no deep commitment? Can such institutions survive? I want to say, "Peter Berger, you’re reading my mind." Do you know what sells in Peoria? Do you know where the vitality and the strength and the resources are in the religious world? They are in places where there is absolute certainty, where there is promise without qualification. Where there is triumphalism. Where there is reveling in this victory and triumph of God that makes all things well. They’re flourishing, folks, and my question to you is not whether we will flourish, but simply whether we’ll survive. Can an institution that is deadly honest with the human situation, simply trusting God, survive? Peter Berger says, "Yes," but he said there will be a difference. You can believe a lot of the same things, but you hold them differently because you know there are other options, and you know that you have intentionally decided to be here, and that you have deliberately embraced a certain faith and posture, and that you are an association of voluntary members. There’s no coercion. Nobody forces you. No peer pressure. No community pressure. Just plain saying, "That’s what I believe, and I can live with that kind of uncertainty because underneath it is a deep trust © Grand Valley State University �Has the Church a Future? Richard A. Rhem Page 6   in God that will enable me, come triumph or tragedy, light or shadow, radiant sunshine or the dead of winter, to prevail. In 1972, a man who was working for the National Council of Churches named Dean Kelly, wrote a book, Why Conservative Churches are Growing. This was 1972. I had been back here about a year. Kelly was observing, as Peter Berger, sociologically, phenomenally, the church scene, and he asked why conservative churches were growing, that is, churches with a very rigid creed and a very rigid social code, (you do this and you don’t do that), and a series of demands, (you’re here on Sunday, Wednesday night, you tithe your income), etc., etc. Why, he said, are conservative churches marked that way growing? He said, "As a matter of fact, they are the churches that are growing," and he has been proven to be at least partially right. In 1972 I took that book into the pulpit in that little sanctuary over there and I held it up and I said, "Folks, if Dean Kelly is right, we are doomed, because I am trying to do something that is absolutely opposite, diametrically opposite from what he says works." So, if we’re in trouble, it was intentional, and it’s the only way, it’s the only way that I can be a part of any church in the future. An honesty, a trust, and that’s all there is. So, let’s keep thinking about it. © Grand Valley State University � https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/fd60ddece2cf83937ac2a19a0f9c8454.mp3 82144e330a9ba21a45ec16887bb490bb Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Richard A. Rhem Collection Description An account of the resource Text and sound recordings of the sermons, prayers, services, and articles of Richard Rhem, pastor emeritus of Christ Community Church in Spring Lake, Michigan, where he served for 37 years. Starting in the mid 1980's, Rhem began to question some of the traditional Christian dogma that he had been espousing from the pulpit. That questioning was a first step in a long and interesting spiritual journey, one that he openly shared with his congregation. His journey is important, in part because it is reflective of the questioning, the yearnings, and the gradual revision of beliefs that many persons in this part of the century have experienced and continue to experience. It is important also because of the affirming and inclusive way his questioning was done and his thinking evolved. His sermons and other written and spoken materials together document the steps in his journey as it took a turn in 1985, yet continued to revolve around the framework and liturgies of the Christian calendar. Subject The topic of the resource Clergy--Michigan Reformed Church in America Christ Community Church (Spring Lake, Mich.) Religion Interfaith worship Sermons Sound Recordings Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Rhem, Richard A. Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/514">Richard A. Rhem papers (KII-01)</a> Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives. Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Kaufman Interfaith Institute Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Language A language of the resource English Type The nature or genre of the resource Sound Text Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context KII-01 Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant 1981-2014 Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource audio/mp3 text/pdf Sound A resource primarily intended to be heard. Examples include a music playback file format, an audio compact disc, and recorded speech or sounds. Event Pentecost XVIII Series The Church: Critical Questions Scripture Text Jeremiah 7:4, 31:31, Matthew 23:37-38 Location The location of the interview Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context KII-01_RA-0-19981004 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1998-10-04 Title A name given to the resource The Church: Has It a Future? 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 Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Subject The topic of the resource Clergy--Michigan Reformed Church in America Christ Community Church (Spring Lake, Mich.) Sermons Relation A related resource Richard A. Rhem - An Archive of Sermons, Prayers, Talks and Stories: http://richardrhem.org/ Language A language of the resource eng Type The nature or genre of the resource Text Sound 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 October 4, 1998 entitled "The Church: Has It a Future?", as part of the series "The Church: Critical Questions", on the occasion of Pentecost XVIII, at Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI. Scripture references: Jeremiah 7:4, 31:31, Matthew 23:37-38. Nature of Religion Prophetic Voice Protestant Religious Quest https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/9df6f451074ee7c74ce0d0a28e86657d.pdf 3a75269830f92eb004f9b42beb1f3718 PDF Text Text Hope Scripture: Jeremiah 32:1-17; Romans 8:18-31; 35-39 Richard A. Rhem Christ Community Church Spring Lake, Michigan January 25, 1998 Transcription of the spoken sermon Hope is the certainty that God will make good the promise of life. Hope is an acorn dreaming its future. Hope is the inexplicable longing and expectation that resides in the depths of the human soul. Where there is life, there is hope. So goes the familiar proverb. But, one could turn that around, as well: Where there is hope, there is life. And one could add, Where hope is gone, life soon will be gone, as well. Yet, as someone has said, Hope and History never meet. That is, what our hope longs for always outruns the reality we live. The same preacher said, "Why do I go to church? It is longing - longing to see myself, you, this community and nation and world fulfilled ... My most insistent feeling is, ‘There must be something more.’" That is a true reflection of our human situation - the disparity between the longing of our hearts and the reality of our lives. Yet, hope is not quenched; it is an inexpungeable quality of the human being and it is imperative to human wellbeing that hope be fostered and nurtured. On what basis can we genuinely hope? Certainly not on the basis of human ingenuity, cleverness or dependability. Let me remind you of something I said last week when we considered "confidence" or "trust." I pointed to the fact that we trust not on the basis of experience, but in spite of experience, for our experience undercuts trust as often as it confirms it. Trust is brought to experience, not derived from it. So with hope: facing life with a positive, hopeful attitude full of expectation is what we bring to experience, not what we achieve on the basis of experience. When you think about it, it is quite remarkable that the human creature is marked by an indomitable hope. There certainly is enough evidence about that would seem to snuff it out. This is especially true in a society saturated with more media coverage than is helpful or healthy. © Grand Valley State University   �Hope Richard A. Rhem Page 2   The Pope makes an historic visit to Cuba and gets second billing to the feeding frenzy at the White House. The news media create a circus of all that devalues around the lowest exploits of public personalities, playing to and pimping for public prurience. And I am aware that what the public wants, the public gets, but I’m not ready to grant that that fulfills the public trust of those who mirror the happenings of our world. But, as long as money and profit is the sole aim of the media, that is what we will get. My point is that it is impossible to base the hope of the human soul on human experience. Human performance in its worst aspects is focused on and magnified incessantly and is cause for despair, not hope. Still, granting the presence of despair and even cynicism, not without good cause, we continue to be people marked by hope - and what a saving grace that is! What, then, is its ground? You will not be startled that I claim that hope is grounded in God. Grounded in God. It is easy enough to make that claim, but what does that mean? Certainly you know me well enough to know that I am making no naive claim that God simply fixes everything, that God will straighten what is crooked and right what is wrong. Finding hope in God does not mean a denial of the darkness, a refusal to acknowledge the hurt and pain of the human story, nor is it to see God as pulling the strings of human events making it all turn out right. Multitudes have left the church because their own experience put the lie to such Pollyanna thinking. Yet, is not that deep longing in our hearts reflective of some profound intuition that there is something more and we, with the whole cosmic drama, are in process, on the way? And is it not precisely the constant rebirth of hope that urges us on and calls us to work at world transformation? The French priestscientist, Teilhard de Chardin, said, "The world will belong tomorrow to those who brought it the greatest hope." Hope issues in desire, longing, the conviction that there is something more. And, I want to say - something more here and now! We have tended in Christianity to put off that something more to another age, another order. We have too often given up on this world, spiritualized the promises of God’s words, internalized the peace promised and abdicated our responsibility for Creation in all its fullness and history in all its potential. But that is not biblical hope. Let me tell you the story of Jeremiah as recorded in the morning lesson. Jeremiah is called the weeping prophet. His was a difficult task. He lived in the last days of Judah. He saw the decay of national life, the doom on the horizon for a society that was unjust and lacking in compassion. He saw, as well, mighty Babylon on the horizon and the inevitability of the coming © Grand Valley State University �Hope Richard A. Rhem Page 3   conflict. He was called a traitor, one who undercut the morale of the people with his dire predictions of imminent doom. But, here is the irony: while he spoke boldly of Judah’s imminent defeat, he was nonetheless a prophet of hope because he could see beyond the present tragedy that there was yet a future for this people because God would keep God’s promises. And this was not just wishful thinking. Chapter 32 tells of a relative coming to Jeremiah telling him as next of kin that he should buy a piece of land that had been part of the family heritage. Were Jeremiah a cynic, one without hope, he might well have said, "No way." Why should he pay good money for a piece of land that was part of a nation that would soon be overtaken by the enemy? What good would it be to hold title to land when chaos was around the corner? But, Jeremiah had hope for the eventual restoration of Judah. He bought the land, had the deed witnessed to publicly and instructed that the deed be buried in an earthen jar to be preserved for the future when he or his family could claim their inheritance. This was a parable - a concrete transaction involving economic reality as a sign of hope. Why Jeremiah? Because nothing bad will happen? Because maybe tragedy will be averted? No. Jeremiah believed in the future because he believed in God, he believed God intended a future for this people - in his words, because God was the creator of the earth, "Nothing is impossible for thee." That is hope. I’ve provided a paragraph in your liturgy from the theologian Paul Tillich: The name of this infinite and inexhaustible ground of history is God. That is what the word means, and it is that to which the words ‘Kingdom of God’ and ‘Divine Providence’ point. And if these words do not have much meaning for you, translate them, and speak of the depth of history, of the ground and aim of our social life, and of what you take seriously without reservation in your moral and political activities. Perhaps you should call this depth ‘hope,’ simply hope. For if you find hope in the ground of history, you are united with the great prophets who were able to look into the depth of their times, who tried to escape it, because they could not stand the horror of their vision, and who yet had the strength to look to an even deeper level and there to discover hope. As John A. T. Robinson, who quotes Tillich, remarks, © Grand Valley State University �Hope Richard A. Rhem Page 4   Hope is so near to the heart of the meaning of God that, like love, it can stand for it. I find this same sense of hope as God’s presence with and life-sustaining intention operative in the whole creation in St. Paul. Paul says we are saved by hope. From the context, I think Paul means our humanity is saved, rescued, preserved by the hope that is rooted in the conviction that God is engaged in lifecreating action in the whole cosmos. Paul operates with the biblical paradigm of Creation-Fall-Redemption. Thus, he sees Creation, the so-called natural realm, as under a curse due to human sin. Frankly, I’ve always wondered about that. Did weeds spring up in Eve’s garden because she ate the apple in disobedience to the divine command? Do animals and we ourselves die because of sin? I don’t really think so. But, what if we find another paradigm or model with which to understand the cosmic drama and the human story? What if for Creation-Fall, we think of emergent evolution? What if we translate Paul’s hope into such an understanding of cosmic reality as it appears in the best science of our day? Then is it not possible to see God as the source, creative energy, enlivening Presence in the whole scheme of things? A second reference in your liturgy is from the writer Nikos Kazantazkis from his Report to Greco. Here is the poet with creative imagination portraying the cosmic scheme of things. Blowing through heaven and earth, and in our hearts and the heart of every living thing, is a gigantic breath—a great Cry—which we call God. Plant life wished to continue its motionless sleep next to stagnant waters, but the Cry leaped up within it and violently shook its roots: ‘Away, let go of the earth, walk!’ Had the tree been able to think and judge, it would have cried, ‘I don’t want to. What are you urging me to do! You are demanding the impossible!’ But the Cry, without pity, kept shaking its roots and shouting, ‘Away, let go of the earth, walk!’ It shouted in this way for thousands of eons; and lo! as a result of desire and struggle, life escaped the motionless tree and was liberated. Animals appeared—worms—making themselves at home in water and mud. ‘We’re just fine,’ they said. ‘We have peace and security; we’re not budging!’ But the terrible Cry hammered itself pitilessly into their loins. ‘Leave the mud, stand up, give birth to your betters!’ ‘We don’t want to! We can’t!’ © Grand Valley State University �Hope Richard A. Rhem Page 5   ‘You can’t, but I can. Stand up!’ And lo! After thousands of eons, man emerged, trembling on his still unsolid legs. The human being is a centaur; his equine hoofs are planted in the ground, but his body from breast to head is worked on and tormented by the merciless Cry. He has been fighting, again for thousands of eons, to draw himself, like a sword, out of his animalistic scabbard. He is also fighting this is his new struggle - to draw himself out of his human scabbard. Man calls in despair. ‘Where can I go? I have reached the pinnacle, beyond is the abyss.’ And the Cry answers, ‘I am beyond.’ All things are centaurs. If this were not the case, the world would rot into inertness and sterility. Does not that give you goose bumps! I love Robinson’s comment: The Cry - it links with what the Bible speaks of as "the call" of God, that evocative, purposive love, which not only summons men to leave the securities and satisfactions of life about them, but "calls generations from the beginning" (Isaiah 41:4) ... But it links also with the cry of creation itself, the yearning sigh of all being for its goal ... There you have it; that is what I meant in the beginning when I said hope is grounded in God. That is the explanation of the mystery as to why it is, how it is, that the human being keeps on hoping. It is "The Cry," the relentless cry to transcend all we have yet been and known. And we are driven on by this creative, purposeful, enlivening life source. I can see no other explanation for the presence of indomitable hope. Thus we hope in spite of the news - Will the President be vindicated or will he resign? Will Saddam Hussein back down, or will we go once more to war? Will we acknowledge our arrogance and bully nature and open up to Cuba, or not? Will the stock market steady or plunge? The list goes on; nothing is certain, all is fragile and perilous. But hope will not be crushed nor defeated because God will not abandon Creation and God’s purposeful love is for life. I purchased an old book newly re-issued. I like the author; I like the subject matter, but to be honest, I bought the book for the title. It is The Lure of Divine Love. Is that not beautiful? Will you simply take that away with you from this sermon? Let it seep into the pores of your being, because that is the deepest truth of Christian faith - the lure of Divine love, pushing, pushing all things to life. Hope is justified because it is hope in God, by God. © Grand Valley State University � https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/3d8d33e2f6519d77ee6fa916d172dcad.mp3 d7f4de03179a1ad8efa7634505669d29 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Richard A. Rhem Collection Description An account of the resource Text and sound recordings of the sermons, prayers, services, and articles of Richard Rhem, pastor emeritus of Christ Community Church in Spring Lake, Michigan, where he served for 37 years. Starting in the mid 1980's, Rhem began to question some of the traditional Christian dogma that he had been espousing from the pulpit. That questioning was a first step in a long and interesting spiritual journey, one that he openly shared with his congregation. His journey is important, in part because it is reflective of the questioning, the yearnings, and the gradual revision of beliefs that many persons in this part of the century have experienced and continue to experience. It is important also because of the affirming and inclusive way his questioning was done and his thinking evolved. His sermons and other written and spoken materials together document the steps in his journey as it took a turn in 1985, yet continued to revolve around the framework and liturgies of the Christian calendar. Subject The topic of the resource Clergy--Michigan Reformed Church in America Christ Community Church (Spring Lake, Mich.) Religion Interfaith worship Sermons Sound Recordings Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Rhem, Richard A. Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/514">Richard A. Rhem papers (KII-01)</a> Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives. Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Kaufman Interfaith Institute Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Language A language of the resource English Type The nature or genre of the resource Sound Text Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context KII-01 Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant 1981-2014 Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource audio/mp3 text/pdf Sound A resource primarily intended to be heard. Examples include a music playback file format, an audio compact disc, and recorded speech or sounds. Event Epiphany III Scripture Text Jeremiah 32: 1-17, Romans 8: 18-31, 35-39 Location The location of the interview Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context KII-01_RA-0-19980125 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1998-01-25 Title A name given to the resource Hope 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 Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Subject The topic of the resource Clergy--Michigan Reformed Church in America Christ Community Church (Spring Lake, Mich.) Sermons Relation A related resource Richard A. Rhem - An Archive of Sermons, Prayers, Talks and Stories: http://richardrhem.org/ Language A language of the resource eng Type The nature or genre of the resource Text Sound 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 January 25, 1998 entitled "Hope", on the occasion of Epiphany III, at Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI. Scripture references: Jeremiah 32: 1-17, Romans 8: 18-31, 35-39. Divine Intention Emergent Evolution Hope Prophetic Voice https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/952fee991d048fc5986f6deefdd34eb7.pdf 4cc183ab883e432ebcde2bd52a3c4f43 PDF Text Text When Hope Is Almost Gone From the Advent series: Songs Of Liberation Text: Malachi 3:1; 4:2; Luke 1:78-79 Richard A. Rhem Christ Community Church Spring Lake, Michigan Advent II, December 14, 1997 Transcription of the spoken sermon Well, did you do your assignment? The one I gave you last week? The assignment was to reflect on my question: How it is that we who are top dogs can sing the songs of liberation of the underdogs? We established last week that the songs of liberation with which Luke introduces his Gospel are, indeed, the songs of liberation of those who are living in darkness, who are longing to be delivered by the mighty hand of God, and that the famous songs that have played such a critical part in Christian liturgy, the Benedictus today, Zachariah’s song, the Nunc Dimitis, old Simeon’s song, and next week, the song of Mary, the Magnificat, that those are, indeed, songs of liberation in which a people are crying out to God to make good God’s promises to establish justice on the earth and to bring peace to all humankind. The songs of liberation are described very well by a recent author, Richard Horsley, in his book entitled, The Liberation of Christmas, in which he points out, I believe, beyond reputation, that the Christmas story is, indeed, a story of liberation which is a story told by those who are underdogs as they hope in the coming of this one to have justice established and peace brought to earth, the transformation of human society, indeed, the transformation of the world. The songs of liberation are the songs of underdogs. We who claim them today are top dogs. And, if we really understood what we were singing, we would realize that we are calling for the total transformation of the world and that what is being imagined in those songs of liberation is another way for the world to be, which would involve a radical transformation in our own experience in human society. And so, in order that we might keep Advent with integrity and celebrate Christmas honestly, I’ve asked you in this season to reflect on that fact - that we who are top dogs sing the songs of underdogs, and I think we seldom realize it. The people of Israel were always a minor pawn in the power brokerage of imperial affairs. They knew a moment of glory with David and grandeur with © Grand Valley State University   �When Hope Is Almost Gone Richard A. Rhem Page 2   Solomon but, outside of that, Israel never amounted to much in terms of an earthly power. They were caught between the great world empires, and yet they had a sense that they were chosen by God to be God’s instrument for the effecting of God’s will on earth. And as we saw last week, they had ancient dreamers who dreamed of a marvelous world, the Messianic Age. There would be a sprout out of the stump of Jesse, and he would change things. He would affect justice in the land, he would have compassion for the poor, he would bring about a world that was reconciled in all of nature so that the lion and the lamb would lie down together and they wouldn’t hurt or destroy in all God’s holy mountain, because the earth would be covered with the knowledge of God as the waters cover the sea. A beautiful picture, and Israel’s dreamers dreamed of such a picture, and it was a dream that lodged in the hearts of the people. They believed that, somehow or other, history was moving in a way which eventually would bring about that kind of a reality. But, it didn’t come. There are those beautiful words of Second Isaiah in the 40th chapter of the book by that name, "Comfort ye, comfort ye, my people," and the prophet calls out to the cities of Judah, "Behold, your God." There was all of this marvelous expectation as the exiles were going home from Babylon. They believed that this was the time. But it didn’t come, and, as it didn’t come and didn’t come, prophecy moved into the genre of apocalyptic which was a rather despairing understanding of history, believing that history no longer had the potential of realizing their dream. They prayed for the dramatic intervention of God that would damn the wicked and establish the righteous and would bring in the new age of God’s righteousness and peace. Malachi was such a voice. He is around 450, 475 years before the birth of Jesus. The exiles have returned from Babylon. Rather than Mount Zion being established as the top mountain of all the earth with all the nations flowing to it for instruction, they were a poverty-stricken, destitute people. They were still under the dominion of the Persian empire, and their city was lying in ruins, their walls were not built. This was a time that Ezra came to teach them the law again and Nehemiah came to build the walls, and they built a temple. Herod built the second temple. But the community was poor. It was a far cry from the glorious picture of Second Isaiah, and Malachi, speaking to that destitution, that human hopelessness, says, "But, my messenger is going to come." In fact, Malachi probably isn’t the name of a prophet. Malachi means literally, in Hebrew, my messenger. So this anonymous prophet is saying into a situation of despair and darkness, "In the name of God, my messenger will come. And it will be a time of judging and refining and purgation, and this will be preparation of the people of God for that great and terrible day of the Lord, a day of darkness and judgment when the wickedness of the earth will be thrown down and righteousness will be established." © Grand Valley State University �When Hope Is Almost Gone Richard A. Rhem Page 3   Well, we know from our Gospels that the early Jesus movement understood John the Baptist as fulfilling that role of the messenger who is portrayed by Malachi in terms of an Elijah returned. Jesus said John was fulfilling the role of Elijah. And so, this story of the nativity of John and Jesus is woven by Luke into a beautiful tapestry laced with these songs of liberation to give expression to that which was the deep conviction of that early Jewish Jesus movement that now God was present in human form, was moving things toward that culminating act when judgment would fall and light would shine for the people of God, and the purposes of God would be realized. The early Jewish Jesus movement was convinced that, in this one God was present, God was embodied, God was moving, and the kingdom of God would be effected, and the song that Zachariah sang, the Benedictus, celebrates this movement of God in the establishing of the horn of salvation, the one that will bring about salvation, and then he addresses his little child, John, and says that, "You, child, will go before this one to prepare the people who, in the tender mercy of God, will see the sun of righteousness dawn upon them. They who live in darkness in the shadow of death will finally, finally receive this gift of God." Well, that was the eschatology. That is, that was the understanding of the times, the last times of that community, of that world into which Jesus was born, and when the angel announced the birth of Jesus, "To you this day in the city of David is born a Savior," that Savior we automatically with our Christian ears think of as one who saves us from our sins in order to make us acceptable to God and bring us to heaven. But, in the understanding of that Jewish Jesus community that believed that God was present in Jesus, moving things toward the culmination, that community that believed that it was living on the edge of the end, for them the Savior was one who would salvage them, save them from their enemies, their occupying power, those who taxed them, took their land, abused and exploited them. Salvation in that community’s idea had social, political and economic implications. Israel always knew that God forgave their sins. The Psalmist said, "Lord, if you should mark iniquity, who could stand? But, with You there is forgiveness." Read David’s marvelous Psalm of confession, Psalm 51, where he acknowledges his sin and says to God, "But a broken and a contrite heart Thou wilt not despise, O God." It is not Jesus that brought grace. It is not Jesus that brought forgiveness. Israel lived in the reality of a gracious God Who forgave them. But, Israel was also a people that believed that God was to be experienced here and now, in this life, and that God was concerned about their society, about their economics, about their politics. That God was a God Who loved justice and righteousness, Who spoke out through the prophets against all exploitation of people in all systems of domination. This was the thrust of those songs of liberation that came to expression through the Gospel writers as they tried to say what they understood was happening in the appearance of Jesus and, before that, of John. Those songs of liberation were the expressions of a people who longed to have the yoke and © Grand Valley State University �When Hope Is Almost Gone Richard A. Rhem Page 4   the burden and the oppression of the human situation lifted off their shoulders, who were still dreaming the dream of the ancient dreamer, who said "That day is coming when there will be justice, mercy, peace, equity in all of God’s creation." Well, that’s what Jesus was about. Jesus addressed the concrete social situation of his day. He announced that God Who in grace is near to people. He especially embraced those who had been excluded. He made it clear through his table fellowship to those with whom he broke bread, that the embrace of God was as broad as the world and all humankind. No one, the voiceless ones, the marginalized, the excluded - none of them would be left out of the grace of the kingdom of God. And for that he was crucified, because the kind of social vision that Jesus had, with its political and economic implications, is the kind of vision that those who have vested interest in the status quo will not long tolerate, because it will transform human society and, rather than exploitation and domination, there will be community, justice and peace. Jesus was crucified for his vision, for that which he incarnated and embodied, and they experienced his presence and fully thought that he would return at any moment. That’s obvious from a study of the New Testament. They believed that this one who had come, who was crucified, whose living presence they experienced would return and all things would come to their consummation. But, they didn’t, did they? It’s been now 2000 years, and we don’t really look into the sky every morning to see whether or not this may be the day of his appearing. Although, if you travel I-96, there is a billboard where Jesus is in the rump seat of a plane predicting to come out of the blue soon. I can’t believe that kind of ignorance, frankly. It is such a terrible distortion of the Gospel. It is the perpetuation of an eschatology, an idea of the last things, which history itself has clearly indicated was the wrong conception, and what it has enabled us to do is to turn the Gospel of Jesus into a salvation cult by which we receive the forgiveness of sins and peace of God and preparation for heaven. We have taken the Gospel of Jesus Christ that was a world-transforming movement, domesticated it into a religious cult by which we find our personal peace while we go on with our lives politically, economically, socially, as though we never heard the songs of liberation. We have been able to take the Gospel with its Christmas story and subvert it into a marvelously beautiful, moving pageant that lacks totally what it really is about, which is about changing the world to reflect the intention of God. So, we still say, "When is the day of his appearing? When that comes out there some way, then it’ll all be fixed." As a matter of fact, it would seem to me we ought to go back and listen again to see whether or not it may be erroneous to be waiting for some future act of God to make it right. Possibly, possibly what God intends is for top dogs not just to sing absentmindedly the songs of underdogs, but to begin to use their power and resource to implement, to make real, the longing of the heart of the underdog that comes to © Grand Valley State University �When Hope Is Almost Gone Richard A. Rhem Page 5   expression in those songs that plead for the dawning of light, for the rising of the sun of righteousness, for the establishment of justice and the bringing of peace. Maybe, maybe we who are top dogs are called upon to be the agents to effect the cry of God’s heart that comes to expression through the underdogs. I wonder if God has anybody doing anything today. You know, Messiah means anointed, anointed with the Spirit, and Christ is the Greek word for Messiah. I wonder if God has any Christs in the world today, any people anointed with the Spirit who are seeking to effect the intention of God in a world that still lies, so much of it, in darkness, with so many people still living in the shadow of death. Let me make a suggestion; it will probably blow your mind and you will laugh me off the stool. Let me suggest another Jew - Steven Spielberg. You see, I wonder. It seems to me that, to the extent that the church has become a ghetto of salvation when we come together for our own personal spiritual renewal and our own eternal security, where we get our emotional fix through our religious devotion, maybe having become a ghetto and made the Gospel a salvation cult, God says, "Well, if you want to be off in that backwater, okay. Okay. ‘Cause it’s not bad to pray and sing hymns and worship. In fact, you really ought to be doing that, because that’s where you get the vision and the strength to go out and change the world. But, if you’re not going to do anything about the world, if you’re just going to enjoy this little pipeline you have to me, then I’m going to have to find some people in the strangest places. I’m going to have to find some people, for example, in show biz." Perhaps a Steven Spielberg, who a couple of seasons ago, two or three, gave us "Schindler’s List," who showed us a flamboyant playboy who got gripped in the midst of the Holocaust with the mass murder of the Jewish people and who used his industry and his fortune in order to rescue a couple of thousand of them. If you don’t like Holocaust stuff, then don’t watch "Schindler’s List." But, I wonder if Schindler was not a Christ, doing what top dogs ought to do. Another film by Spielberg is coming out: "Amistad." Amistad was the name of a slave ship that was bringing slaves from Africa around 1839, and they mutinied, these slaves. They killed the captain and several of the crew, and they impressed the navigators and told them to turn them around and take them back to Africa, but the navigators fooled them and they found themselves sailing into Long Island Sound where they were captured by a U.S. Navy ship and the mutineers, the blacks from Africa, were thrown in the brig and brought to trial. But, in one of the shining moments of the Christian Church, in this case, the Congregational Church, which is one of the merging bodies that forms the United Church of Christ, the church people began to lobby on behalf of these blacks. The faculty and the students of Yale University went to bat for them. Former President John Quincy Adams became their defense attorney. And in one of the better moments of American history, in American church history, these blacks were vindicated, their mutiny declared justified, and they were sent back to Africa, and I just © Grand Valley State University �When Hope Is Almost Gone Richard A. Rhem Page 6   wonder if someone like Steven Spielberg who can bring us those kinds of stories might not be someone upon whom the Spirit of God is dwelling in order to shake us loose, break us out, help us to understand that we have no business singing songs of liberation if they are simply the caressing of our own satisfied souls, that we who are the rich and the powerful, if not famous, are the ones upon whom it is incumbent to effect in human society the longing of the songs of liberation. It is that task to which I believe we are called. It is in contemplating that task that we will keep Advent. It is in welcoming that kind of a Savior that we will be honest with Christmas, and it is to that end that I believe Christ Community must be committed, for who knows but what some of you have come to the kingdom for such a time as this? Not only to sing songs of liberation, but to bring liberty to those who are oppressed, that the sun of righteousness may dawn upon us with healing in its wings. Ah, wouldn’t that be something? References: Richard Horsley. The Liberation of Christmas: The Infancy Narratives in Social Context. Wipf & Stock Publishers, reprint edition, 2006. © Grand Valley State University � https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/da6968a5ff20b4135698991f62a37e91.mp3 8b53d4a06dfd99c2e15523006b2814d1 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Richard A. Rhem Collection Description An account of the resource Text and sound recordings of the sermons, prayers, services, and articles of Richard Rhem, pastor emeritus of Christ Community Church in Spring Lake, Michigan, where he served for 37 years. Starting in the mid 1980's, Rhem began to question some of the traditional Christian dogma that he had been espousing from the pulpit. That questioning was a first step in a long and interesting spiritual journey, one that he openly shared with his congregation. His journey is important, in part because it is reflective of the questioning, the yearnings, and the gradual revision of beliefs that many persons in this part of the century have experienced and continue to experience. It is important also because of the affirming and inclusive way his questioning was done and his thinking evolved. His sermons and other written and spoken materials together document the steps in his journey as it took a turn in 1985, yet continued to revolve around the framework and liturgies of the Christian calendar. Subject The topic of the resource Clergy--Michigan Reformed Church in America Christ Community Church (Spring Lake, Mich.) Religion Interfaith worship Sermons Sound Recordings Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Rhem, Richard A. Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/514">Richard A. Rhem papers (KII-01)</a> Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives. Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Kaufman Interfaith Institute Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Language A language of the resource English Type The nature or genre of the resource Sound Text Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context KII-01 Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant 1981-2014 Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource audio/mp3 text/pdf Sound A resource primarily intended to be heard. Examples include a music playback file format, an audio compact disc, and recorded speech or sounds. Event Advent III Series Songs of Liberation Scripture Text Malachi 3:1, 4:2, Luke 1:78-79 Location The location of the interview Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI References Richard Horsley, The Liberation of Christmas: The Infancy Narratives in Social Context, 2006 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context KII-01_RA-0-19971214 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1997-12-14 Title A name given to the resource When Hope is Almost Gone 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 Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Subject The topic of the resource Clergy--Michigan Reformed Church in America Christ Community Church (Spring Lake, Mich.) Sermons Relation A related resource Richard A. Rhem - An Archive of Sermons, Prayers, Talks and Stories: http://richardrhem.org/ Language A language of the resource eng Type The nature or genre of the resource Text Sound 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 December 14, 1997 entitled "When Hope is Almost Gone", as part of the series "Songs of Liberation", on the occasion of Advent III, at Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI. Scripture references: Malachi 3:1, 4:2, Luke 1:78-79. Divine Intention Inclusive Grace Justice Prophetic Voice https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/c6ec17856214fb526f69c794dc3bf5c4.pdf 475c255234237542a6c033556bf696fc PDF Text Text An Ancient Dreamer From the Advent series: Songs of Liberation Text: Isaiah 11:9; John 1:14 Richard A. Rhem Christ Community Church Spring Lake, Michigan Advent I, December 7, 1997 Transcription of the spoken sermon It is Advent again and so we march out those same familiar passages of scripture. They are wonderful passages; we celebrate the Christian Year thus annually. We come around the cycle and the themes surface once again, and there is a familiarity about those prophetic scriptures and gospel lessons. In this Advent season, we’re going to be looking at the Songs of Liberation. Subsequently, we will be taking another look at Mary’s marvelous "Magnificat," Zachariah’s song of delight at the birth of John the Baptist, but today, "The Ancient Dreamer," the prophet Isaiah, who is representative of that prophetic vision that dreamed of a world other than it is, of a different human condition, of a transformed human society, of the kingdom of God, of Shalom on earth, of a totally transformed human situation. We hear the prophetic words, "From the stump of Jesse," seemingly just a dead stump, comes a sprout, and that sprout blossoms forth and becomes the king anointed with Spirit or a Christ, a Messiah, one who judges, not according to appearance or what people are saying, but according to truth, who advocates for justice, who has a concern for the poor. And not only is the whole social situation transformed, but nature itself is transformed. The wolf and the lamb lie down together and all of the nature red in tooth and claw is domesticated and docile in a beautiful, harmonious totality - the Shalom of God. The Ancient Dreamer paints the picture and, representative as he was of that poor and oppressed people, it was the longing and the yearning for things to be different than they were. We’re going to look at the Songs of Liberation once again this Advent season, but this morning I’m going to dump in your laps a problem. I want you to think about it with me in this Advent season. I’ll indicate, perhaps, the direction in which I’m thinking, but what I really hope to accomplish this morning is the rather modest task of confronting you, making you aware, bringing to your consciousness a very serious problem, and it is this - the Songs of Liberation that fill the prophetic scriptures of the Hebrew tradition and the ballads of liberation that fill the Gospel, telling the story of the arrival of Jesus, those songs of liberation are the songs of an underdog people. That must be obvious. People in dire straits, people under oppression, people under systems of domination, people in poverty, disease, hopelessness are still human. There’s © Grand Valley State University   �An Ancient Dreamer Richard A. Rhem Page 2   something in the human heart that cries out against that. There’s that cry of the Old Testament, "How long, O Lord, how long?" And so, it’s quite to be expected, and we would find emanating from Israel, a minor people, marginalized, just a pawn in the game of international power brokerage – it is rather obvious that that people in the situation of poverty and destitution into which Jesus was born, it was quite understandable that such a people should be marked by songs of liberation. They were underdogs. Now, here’s the problem for Advent. How do the Songs of Liberation emanating from underdogs get appropriated by top dogs? We love this season. It’s beautiful. We come into the sanctuary and there’s something that touches us deeply - the music, the ritual, and so much about the celebration of the Advent-Christmas season is very dear to us. We read the scriptures. They are the prescribed ones, but fortunately, we don’t really hear them, lest they ruin our celebration. Now, isn’t it true that we sort of take Advent in our stride? We hear these songs of liberation, but we don’t really want them to be realized, do we? Because if the songs of liberation, the ancient dreamer’s dream, Mary’s Magnificat, Zachariah’s paeon of praise - if they were to be realized, our world would be turned upside down. There would be such a radical transformation of the human scene, that everything about our lives would be changed. It’s one thing to sing that way when you’re an underdog, but it would be foolhardy to sing that way when you’re the top dog. Do you hear me? That’s easy enough, isn’t it? How does a top dog connect his or her life to the yearning of the underdog? Well, we’ve got a solution. We’ve pushed the dream out into the future, into the world beyond, and we, in the meantime, read these stories, these ballads, sing these songs, offer our prayers, and trust that nothing radical will happen until the end when God will fix it all. Because I think we’re not really against God fixing it right, just not right away. Eventually, eventually, let’s get everything straightened out, the Golden Age of the future. That way, we can read the passages, say our prayers, but carry on life pretty much business as usual. But you see what’s happening? The biblical story isn’t connecting with the reality of our lives. The biblical story has become a piece of our compartment labeled "Religion." But it is not in touch with the everyday reality of our life and profession and business, public life, society in general. And so we have a "Religious" compartment and it is not in connection with where we really live. So, maybe we have to look at those songs once again and revisit the scripture and see how it is that top dogs should respond to the longing of underdogs. Last September we had a Jewish-Christian Dialogue when Rabbi Hartman came back to town, and the theme of his discussion with Father Richard John Neuhaus was carefully selected - "The Word of God and Interpretive Communities." That means that the Word of God always comes filtered through an interpretive community. That means that there is no bare naked Word of God out there in the © Grand Valley State University �An Ancient Dreamer Richard A. Rhem Page 3   world. The only Word of God out in the world is the Word of God filtered through the human receiver. And then, underneath that title, "Possibilities for SelfCorrection." That biblical tradition, that Word of God as it has come down to us through interpretive communities - what are the possibilities for self-correction? Well, David Hartman gave the experience of the Jewish people which I think is very helpful. He said in the scriptures we have a couple of paradigms or models of the relationship of God to the people. The Exodus, the founding experience of Israel, was an experience where Israel was in bondage; they cried to God; God moved for deliverance, and they passively received the redemption of God: God’s unilateral movement to redeem a people. That was the Exodus model, which was the shaper of the founding of the people Israel. But, a little later, Moses led that people to the foot of Mount Sinai and they got the law of God and the covenant of God, and now we hear a little different tone. Now it’s not just God acting unilaterally, but now God invites them into responsible covenant relationship: "I have borne you on eagles’ wings and brought you to myself. Now, therefore, if you will hear my voice and obey my command...." And that Sinai covenant is summarized in the Book of Deuteronomy where we have Moses’ farewell sermons as he summarizes the experience, and what does he say in a climactic passage in the Book of Deuteronomy? "Look, I have set before you life and death, blessing and curse. Choose life, that you may live." Israel is confronted with a responsibility to respond to God, so there came that whole tradition in Israel of the responsibility of the leadership of the people, the rabbis, to implement the moral law of God, the active implementation of the moral law. When that was not implemented, when that moral law was not followed, the prophets rose up and condemned Israel and said, "You will be judged for this." But, David Hartman said there was another stage. It happened in the centuries right around Jesus, Second Temple Judaism, the Talmudic period. Then the Jews made another move. Not only did they take responsibility for the implementation of the law as it was written, but they became the interpreters of the law. Why did they have to interpret the law? Well, the situation had changed. History moved on. There were new situations, new conditions. They had to obey God, follow God, worship God in a whole new context, and so they developed the method of interpretation that not only said what the law said, but now they interpreted what the law meant. That was a significant move in the life of the Jewish people, whereas, David Hartman said, the rabbis, the biblical scholars became, as it were, the creators of the Word of God, never starting out with something brand new but, always working with that tradition, saying, "Now © Grand Valley State University �An Ancient Dreamer Richard A. Rhem Page 4   in this new situation, this is what the Word means, thereby becoming an interpretive community. But, the Jewish people still considered themselves to be in exile and the predominant, at least orthodox, opinion among the Jewish people was that they were scattered in exile waiting for the Messiah to come. We say that Jesus was the Messiah. But they say that Jesus was not the Messiah. Jesus could not be the Messiah, because, when Messiah comes, the world will be made right. And the world is still filled with war and violence and all the rest of it. Obviously, then, the Messiah has not come. Well, we said the Messiah came, but he came in a little different way than we expected and he’s going to come again and fix it up. Now, we have the Jewish people and the Christian church both looking for the Messiah to come - we looking for a return, they looking for the first time, because the predominant Jewish mood was, if history is going to be changed, God is going to have to change it through God’s anointed one, the sprout out of the stump of Jesse. In the 19th century there were some secular Jews, not observant anymore, who said, "You know, we’ve really had enough of prayer and fasting. We’ve really had enough of waiting on God. Let’s do something," and the Zionist movement was born. The Zionist movement was an innovative movement within Judaism in which the secular Jews for the first time took responsibility for history. They began to say it is not enough to pray and to say, "How long, O Lord, how long?" Let us roll up our sleeves and let us make it happen. The Zionist movement of the 19th century issued in the establishment of the Jewish homeland in the 20th century and there is Israel today, a reality. Now, my question to you this Advent season is whether or not that secular Zionist movement within Judaism did not perhaps get it right, and that maybe the Christian church ought to take a lesson and begin to implement the kingdom of God here and now? Maybe we ought to be done with that "golden age" out in the future which God will make happen. Maybe we ought to begin to say, "Where in the world is the Spirit of God moving now, and how can we get in the flow of that Spirit to realize more and more the kingdom of God, here and now, right here and now, in this world, in this place?" Maybe in Advent we ought to catch ourselves up short and not say, "How long, O Lord, how long?" And, "O Lord, when will be the day of his appearing?" But maybe we ought to hear, for example, Micah in the text of a couple weeks ago, "The Lord has showed you what is required of you and what does the Lord require of you, but to do justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God." Maybe we ought to take seriously what we profess when we say the Word became flesh. Maybe we ought to get serious about the fact that God has embodied in human flesh the eternal intention of God - "In the beginning was the word and © Grand Valley State University �An Ancient Dreamer Richard A. Rhem Page 5   the word was with God and the word became flesh and dwelt among us," and in the flesh of Jesus we have the embodiment of the intention of God. Maybe God is saying, when we say, "How long, O Lord," maybe God is saying, "That’s my line! Why are you crying to me? Haven’t I made it clear? Is it a problem that you don’t understand? Is it a problem that the way is not there? What do you want further from me? Why aren’t you doing something about it?" My problem with celebrating Advent unreflectively, according to custom, delightful though it is, is that we endanger ourselves in becoming very hypocritical, because, you see, it seems to me that Advent prayers in the sanctuary or the chapel ought to be not, "O God, bring in the day of your kingdom," but rather, "O God, give me wisdom, discernment and courage to affect your kingdom here and now." Perhaps our prayer and our worship ought to be a time of waiting on the Lord to give us that inward strength and courage and boldness to begin to act according to the way that clearly God has called us to act. And what would happen if songs of liberation began to be sung, not only by the underdogs, but by the top dogs? And is it possible that in our Western tradition we have already all kinds of things going for us that ought not to be seen as some secular developments, but perhaps as the beginning germination of the kingdom of God within the course of history? We could name a lot of things. How about the feminist movement, where a woman says, "Could you treat me as a human being, fully human? Could I be treated equally?" What about our growing understanding, as we have here, that sexual orientation is not a choice, but is a part of the vast diversity of God’s creation? What would happen if you took into your arms one who had felt the sting of rejection and felt her salty tears as she knew for the first time she was included? Wouldn’t it be the beginning of the kingdom of God? What about the dignity of the human person that we’ve come to appreciate in the West? What about the democratic process, what about the opportunity to worship God according to our conscience? Those values are not just human values arrived at through secular speculation, but I believe they are the consequence of the impetus of the Spirit of God in the course of history. What if we got serious about taking those things seriously and making them applicable in ever-widening circles? What if we got concerned as top dogs to begin to implement the yearning of the underdogs of the world? Wouldn’t that be something? We don’t have to throw our world away. We don’t have to throw our freedoms away. We don’t have to throw the economic miracle away; we don’t have to throw our medical miracles away; we don’t have to undo what we have done. What we have to do is to see that all that has been done has been done by grace and ought to be implemented more and more for more and more, and then, I believe the kingdom would be coming and then we would be less concerned about some golden age and less imperiling our soul with hypocrisy by praying, "Lord, when is © Grand Valley State University �An Ancient Dreamer Richard A. Rhem Page 6   the day of Your appearing?" and we would start making something happen here and now, and maybe for the first time be honest at Advent. There have been secular writers who have described political reality in marvelous terms that are somewhat comparable to the ancient dreamer, and people write them off. They call them Utopian. And when anyone comes up with a different idea of another world and the way it could be, they could easily be written off as Utopian. "Aaah, it’s Utopia! Why don’t you get in the real world? Get real!" You know what Utopia means from the Greek? Literally, no place. Utopia is no place, and the Messianic Age is no age. The Messianic Age and the ideal of Utopia is that critique of every moment of history and by God’s grace and by God’s Spirit, we are the people who have the resources and the power and the vision to make it happen. When will we begin to take responsibility for our world? There have been some interesting things written about the sextuplets as God’s miracle. That’s not God’s miracle, that’s a medical miracle and it has questionable qualities about it; it’s a question of medical ethics, it’s something that human beings ought to think about, wrestle with. God isn’t going to answer that problem. We need to stay out of the chapel and off our knees asking God to do what God asks us to do when He says, "Why don’t you do what you ought to be doing, have enough knowledge to be doing, enough wisdom to be doing, if you would do it humbly, walking with your God, conscious that life is gift and you are charged with responsibility, but have access to the Spirit so that you could change your world?" That is what I’d like you to think about this week. © Grand Valley State University � https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/4b4824d8aef5ba3fc0d0d31e19d90b0f.mp3 0337713fce117840ceb0a68d511a22ce Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Richard A. Rhem Collection Description An account of the resource Text and sound recordings of the sermons, prayers, services, and articles of Richard Rhem, pastor emeritus of Christ Community Church in Spring Lake, Michigan, where he served for 37 years. Starting in the mid 1980's, Rhem began to question some of the traditional Christian dogma that he had been espousing from the pulpit. That questioning was a first step in a long and interesting spiritual journey, one that he openly shared with his congregation. His journey is important, in part because it is reflective of the questioning, the yearnings, and the gradual revision of beliefs that many persons in this part of the century have experienced and continue to experience. It is important also because of the affirming and inclusive way his questioning was done and his thinking evolved. His sermons and other written and spoken materials together document the steps in his journey as it took a turn in 1985, yet continued to revolve around the framework and liturgies of the Christian calendar. Subject The topic of the resource Clergy--Michigan Reformed Church in America Christ Community Church (Spring Lake, Mich.) Religion Interfaith worship Sermons Sound Recordings Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Rhem, Richard A. Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/514">Richard A. Rhem papers (KII-01)</a> Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives. Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Kaufman Interfaith Institute Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Language A language of the resource English Type The nature or genre of the resource Sound Text Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context KII-01 Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant 1981-2014 Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource audio/mp3 text/pdf Sound A resource primarily intended to be heard. Examples include a music playback file format, an audio compact disc, and recorded speech or sounds. Event Advent II Series Songs of Liberation Scripture Text Isaiah 1:9, John 1:1-14 Location The location of the interview Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context KII-01_RA-0-19971207 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1997-12-07 Title A name given to the resource An Ancient Dreamer 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 Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Subject The topic of the resource Clergy--Michigan Reformed Church in America Christ Community Church (Spring Lake, Mich.) Sermons Relation A related resource Richard A. Rhem - An Archive of Sermons, Prayers, Talks and Stories: http://richardrhem.org/ Language A language of the resource eng Type The nature or genre of the resource Text Sound 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 December 7, 1997 entitled "An Ancient Dreamer", as part of the series "Songs of Liberation", on the occasion of Advent II, at Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI. Scripture references: Isaiah 1:9, John 1:1-14. Prophetic Voice Shalom Transformation Way of Jesus https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/b9f08d479468c8f1d31fac7ff41f5f95.pdf 648844b3872966b310cab47d13bf6d19 PDF Text Text Living Before the Face of God: The Social Dimension From the series: Meeting God Again For the First Time Text: Micah 6:8; Matthew 6:10 Richard A. Rhem Christ Community Church Spring Lake, Michigan November 16, 1997 Transcription of the spoken sermon I pulled a book from my shelves this week. It had been there for a long time. I always knew it was there, but I had never read it. I purchased it in the early 70's. It was published in 1970. To show you how ancient it is, it cost me $1.25. I pulled it down now because of its title, its title which I thought might have something of interest to say to the theme of this morning’s message, which is, "Living Before the Face of God: The Social Dimension." The title of that book is The Politics of God, and I smiled to myself as I realized that, from the time I came into the ministry until the present, I’ve done a 180° turn. When I came into the ministry, I was strictly warned not to bring politics into the pulpit. In fact, we all know that in polite conversation one is not to speak of religion or politics. In preaching it’s a little difficult not to speak about religion, although some do it successfully. But, politics – derived from the Greek word, polis, which means city – I’ve come to see, has everything to do with the biblical tradition on which we stand. The faith of Israel, which came to expression in Jesus, is from beginning to end very political in terms of its concerns for the polis, the city, or, extended, for the human community. The wellbeing of the human community is of extreme concern to the God of Israel, to the God Who comes to expression in Jesus Christ. One cannot be faithful to the biblical tradition without taking seriously the social dimension. It is there from beginning to end. While we ought never to neglect the personal dimension, as we said last week, it is the social dimension that is by far the major theme of the biblical tradition, and it is interesting to me that I could have missed that in all of my years of training and the early years of my ministry. But there are two ways to avoid that social dimension. I pursued the first way in the early years of my ministry. That is the way that is represented in the question – listen to the question, see if you recognize the question – "Where will you spend eternity?" Now, for one thing, that’s a question addressed to an individual and, secondly, it’s a question that takes the focus off the present and this world and focuses it on the world to come. I was very good at that. Most of you are happy you never knew me. I would have been trying to get you saved. Not so much to make your life © Grand Valley State University   �Living Before the Face of God: The Social Dimension Richard A. Rhem Page 2   good here now, but to get you secured for eternal life in heaven. That was my focus. I didn’t understand anything else. I thought that’s what it was all about. In the more recent decades, the social dimension of the biblical tradition has been avoided by an equally individualistic approach, but this time, the approach of self-fulfillment or peace of mind. It’s a focus on me and my comfortable adjustment in life. There was a very acute sociological analysis of American society published in 1985 called Habits of the Heart and, in that analysis of American society, American society was characterized by the phrase, "The therapeutic society." Not therapy in the sense of the clinical technique that deals with emotional or psychic disorder, but therapy in the sense of enabling us to be adjusted in our environment, in our situations. Now, there’s nothing really wrong with that, except to reduce the function of religion to be an agent for my personal adjustment is hardly worthy of the religious traditions that have marked the human family down through the centuries. But, in either case – whether the focus is on the individual to bring that person to personal salvation for eternal security in heaven, or whether it is on the individual to create peace of mind and self-realization here and now - what is missed is that social dimension which is in the scriptures from the beginning. Israel was born in a liberation movement. The founding event of Israel was the Exodus, and in those opening chapters of Exodus, you remember that the God of Israel was one who was understood to hear the cries of the people. It is stated in those opening chapters: the cries of my people have come to me, and God calls Moses to lead those slaves out of Egyptian bondage. Walter Brueggemann speaks about the royal consciousness of Egypt that had a totalitarian grip on the people who were held in oppressive economic exploitation. And that regime was legitimated by the royal priesthood. Israel moved out of that situation of slavery and into its own land and, for a couple of hundred years, lived under what we could describe as a theocracy. God was king. No more of that human monarch on the throne that led to oppression. But memory is short, and before long there was that debate within Israel. There were those voices saying we want to be like other nations. We need a king. And Samuel warned Israel about the implications of establishing a monarchy. But, nonetheless, it was established. And it went not so poorly with Saul and quite well with David, but you remember Solomon whose oppressive public works projects threw the people into servitude again, with economic exploitation and political oppression. It was a domination system all over again. But there was one thing that saved Israel from being just like all the other nations, because, with the rise of monarchy, came the voice of prophecy. If I were to name what gift Israel has given to the world, it would be that prophetic voice, that prophetic voice endowed with the spirit of God that had the courage to speak truth to power. That is the prophetic function and, in Israel’s history, that which © Grand Valley State University �Living Before the Face of God: The Social Dimension Richard A. Rhem Page 3   shaped it, made it unique was that prophetic voice that was always addressed to those who abused the people. I could have chosen most any prophet. I could have chosen passage after passage to illustrate what I am trying to say this morning, but I felt that Micah’s language was so descriptive as he addresses the leaders of Israel, addressing those who are responsible for the political and religious leadership of the nation. "You hate good and love evil. You tear the skin off my people and the flesh off their bones. You eat the flesh of my people, flay their skin off them, break their bones in pieces, chop them up like meat in a kettle, like flesh in a cauldron." He goes on to excoriate the prophets who play for pay, who have a word of peace for those who can pay, but no word at all for those who don’t put something in their mouth. He criticizes the priesthood which carries on an empty ritual, legitimizing a regime that is full of injustice, lacking all compassion. And then in his conclusion, he says, "Because of this terrible oppression of the vast majority of the people, Zion will be like a plowed field and Jerusalem shall become a heap of ruins." Well, there are those who say, "Well, what should we do? Would the Lord like 1,000 calves, 10,000 rivers of oil? Shall I give my firstborn, the fruit of my body? Would this please the Lord?" To which the prophet says, "Look, you know what the Lord requires - to do justice, to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God. It isn’t that difficult." This was the prophetic description for a society marked by justice and compassion. That prophetic voice came to expression again in Jesus. Over against that politics of exclusion through temple rites and holiness and being the right kind of people, Jesus countered with a politic of compassion. We sang together the Lord’s Prayer in which Jesus was teaching his disciples to pray and in which we have the words,"Thy kingdom come." In other words, your rule prevail. Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. The focus is here and now. Thy will be done, here and now, as it is in heaven. The Sermon on the Mount, in which the Lord’s Prayer appears, also has the Golden Rule, which wasn’t original with Jesus and has come to expression in several different forms. But, as a matter of fact, it still is very much at the heart of the social concern, albeit in that more personal relationship: Do unto others, as you would have them do unto you. And the very statement is in marked contrast to the rather flippant attitude of so much of contemporary society symbolized in a bumper sticker I saw recently which said, in Old English print, "Do Unto Others and Split." Jesus, in the tradition of the Hebrew prophets, called for a politics of compassion and embodied in his ministry, in his table fellowship, in his openness to all, that access to the grace of God and that embrace by God of all people. And it was in his challenge to that © Grand Valley State University �Living Before the Face of God: The Social Dimension Richard A. Rhem Page 4   established authority, reflecting very much the established authority of Micah’s day although without a reigning monarch, that Jesus was crucified. Someone has said that there were three times when the justice and compassion which God wills for society had been rejected - one time in the Hebrew monarchy, a second time in the ministry of Jesus, and then a third time when the emperor Constantine established the Christian faith. That establishment of the Christian faith by Constantine has often been characterized as the conquering of the empire by the Gospel, but has turned out in all truth to be the co-opting of the Gospel by the empire, because from 313 on, with the legitimization of the Christian faith, throne and altar once again came together. The throne created space for the altar and the altar legitimated the throne. Just as the kings of Israel had their retinue of prophets and priests who were paid to speak the party line and to speak no other line, just so the temptation of the church has been to baptize the regime rather than to stand over against it, in the name of the God of Israel, in the name of Jesus, and to say human community is to be structured other than the way it is. Well, what are we to do about it? It is such a massive problem. Are you aware that our world, our society, our global society and even particularly our American society are in a state of crisis, and that the crisis is not really a crisis of abortion or sexual orientation or crime on the streets? The crisis is rather the structures and the systems by which our societies are shaped and formed, the way in which they function. We are coming to see rather lately that the problem with the failure of human community is a systemic problem. It is not that there are not a lot of people of good will. It is not that there are not a lot of people who are trying to do good things. It is that the very way in which our systems, political and economic, are structured continue to exacerbate the problem rather than move us toward world community. In our own country, just to cite one facet of the crisis, there is a growing gulf between the rich and the poor. Let me give you some statistics, just to help you take that in. During the 1980s, 90% of the total increase in income went to the wealthiest 20% of the population. The remaining 10% of the increase was spread over 90% of the people. Obviously, that has to lead to the growing gulf between the rich and the poor. In 1963, the ratio of CEO salaries to average worker salaries in the same company was 41 to 1. Now, being the local CEO, I think that’s fair. 41 to 1. That was 1963. You know what it is now? 225 to 1. You know what it is in Germany right now? 20 to 1. In 1963, the wealthiest one percent of families owned 23% of the wealth in terms of homes and cars and stocks and savings. The wealthiest one percent owned 23%. In 1994, the wealthiest one percent owned 44%. In the U.S., the ratio of annual income received by the top 10% of the population compared to the bottom 10% is 6 to 1. For comparison purposes, in Finland it’s just over 2 to 1, in France, 2 ½ to 1, in Germany and the United Kingdom, 3 to 1. These statistics simply point to an inevitable growth in the gap between those who possess and those who lack. It is a trend. That’s the direction in which it’s moving. But those © Grand Valley State University �Living Before the Face of God: The Social Dimension Richard A. Rhem Page 5   particular statistics are only signs of something that can be seen in the social structures. Education, for example, is lacking severely in poor areas of urban blight, but is doing well in fortunate areas like ours. And yet, even here one doesn’t have to scratch too hard to find a begrudging of that which is the future of society. In those areas where wealth abounds, there are growing gated communities. Now, I like gated communities. I like to feel safe and secure behind those walls, to know that there is a guardhouse and a guard. And one can understand the growth in gated communities among the wealthy because there is so much crime and violence in society, and crime seems everywhere and out of control, and the need to build more prisons and to gain more prison beds is in the news all the time. Might we ask, might we ask why? Are American people simply more prone to crime? Or is there something in the social situation of our own country and our own time that is exacerbating that move to crime and violence? Are we so inured with the American dream? Are we so shaped by a consumerism culture that, failing to realize it, we turn violent? And is it possible that there can be human community where there is more crime on the street and more gated communities? We will not be able to survive that way. There is no human community that way. If you take God out of the equation, if you take human decency out of the equation, it is simply this, that any world that has people who have nothing to lose is a dangerous world. It cannot be a world of human community. It is simply a practical matter, of wisdom, even apart from God, even apart from the God of Israel, even apart from the way of Jesus, even apart from just plain human decency as we have been shaped by the biblical tradition. It is not an easy matter to address. I am not an economist. I am not a sociologist, and you must be tired of blustering rhetoric from the pulpit that would lay a layer of guilt in order to execute better performance. That’s not what this is about. It is extremely complex. It is a global problem. But, do you sense that it is a very real crisis in our world, and would anyone refute the fact that it is a central biblical concern and therefore that about which we must be concerned? Is it not true, as the followers of Jesus in the tradition of the God of Israel, that domination systems, economic exploitation and political oppression, poverty, hunger, people living below a subsistence level where there is nothing but hopelessness and despair - is that not something about which our souls should be wrenched? I was criticized after the first sermon because all I tried to do was raise the consciousness, whereas it was claimed I should have a passionate appeal to do something. Well, I’m not sure that it’s my responsibility to solve the problem. Why is it any more my responsibility to put the new system together than yours? Aren’t we in this together? There are those of you with greater expertise than me. And together, in community, if we are concerned about it, then ought we not to be putting our creative heads together and our creative caring, passionate souls together to say, "How in the world can we make this a more humane world?" © Grand Valley State University �Living Before the Face of God: The Social Dimension Richard A. Rhem Page 6   What would happen if we took our PAC money, Political Action Committee money, and pooled it and stormed Lansing and Washington and buttonholed our legislators and even greased their campaign fund a little and said to them, "What are you doing for the least of these, my brothers and sisters?" Rather than make sure you vote correctly on that amendment that will create a tax loophole so I can give more to Christ Community? You see, you don’t need a guilt-inflicting sermon from a preacher without expertise as to how to solve the thing. Hear me. Hear me. There is a social dimension to our faith and together we must address those structural, systemic problems that make for multitudes of humankind a human existence less than fully human. God cares, and we must care, too. © Grand Valley State University � https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/2c12c6f0dcec875c0e2de9196996ba51.mp3 09d5104dee4b9dc88eca42b11bade194 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Richard A. Rhem Collection Description An account of the resource Text and sound recordings of the sermons, prayers, services, and articles of Richard Rhem, pastor emeritus of Christ Community Church in Spring Lake, Michigan, where he served for 37 years. Starting in the mid 1980's, Rhem began to question some of the traditional Christian dogma that he had been espousing from the pulpit. That questioning was a first step in a long and interesting spiritual journey, one that he openly shared with his congregation. His journey is important, in part because it is reflective of the questioning, the yearnings, and the gradual revision of beliefs that many persons in this part of the century have experienced and continue to experience. It is important also because of the affirming and inclusive way his questioning was done and his thinking evolved. His sermons and other written and spoken materials together document the steps in his journey as it took a turn in 1985, yet continued to revolve around the framework and liturgies of the Christian calendar. Subject The topic of the resource Clergy--Michigan Reformed Church in America Christ Community Church (Spring Lake, Mich.) Religion Interfaith worship Sermons Sound Recordings Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Rhem, Richard A. Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/514">Richard A. Rhem papers (KII-01)</a> Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives. Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Kaufman Interfaith Institute Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Language A language of the resource English Type The nature or genre of the resource Sound Text Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context KII-01 Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant 1981-2014 Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource audio/mp3 text/pdf Sound A resource primarily intended to be heard. Examples include a music playback file format, an audio compact disc, and recorded speech or sounds. Event Pentecost XXVI Series Meeting God Again for the First Time Scripture Text Micah 6:8, Matthew 6:10 Location The location of the interview Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context KII-01_RA-0-19971116 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1997-11-16 Title A name given to the resource Living Before the Face of God: The Social Dimension 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 Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Subject The topic of the resource Clergy--Michigan Reformed Church in America Christ Community Church (Spring Lake, Mich.) Sermons Relation A related resource Richard A. Rhem - An Archive of Sermons, Prayers, Talks and Stories: http://richardrhem.org/ Language A language of the resource eng Type The nature or genre of the resource Text Sound 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 November 16, 1997 entitled "Living Before the Face of God: The Social Dimension", as part of the series "Meeting God Again for the First Time", on the occasion of Pentecost XXVI, at Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI. Scripture references: Micah 6:8, Matthew 6:10. Compassion Inclusive Nature of Religion Prophetic Voice https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/f8d9dffd16d55d2e46a79eedfdb6b8b5.pdf a43783504610be0e3930aae802a82ee6 PDF Text Text The God Who Never Gives Up On Us From the series: If God Be For Us… Text: Hosea 11:8-9; Romans 11:32 Richard A. Rhem Christ Community Church Spring Lake, Michigan August 4, 1996 Transcription of the spoken sermon Hosea was a prophet who learned in personal experience the nature of the love of God, for Hosea loved a woman and married her, only to find her eventually falling into prostitution and unfaithfulness. And yet, he loved her. And then he heard the Word of God that said, "Keep on loving her. Reclaim her. Redeem her and take her to yourself." Out of that experience of personal love, he understood the love of God for an erring Israel, a love that would not give up. The great Jewish thinker, Martin Buber, comments on Hosea's experience in these words: That a particular person should be bound to love another particular person in utter concreteness - is there such a thing as this? The word can only be spoken to one who already loves. He loves. He still loves the faithless one. He cannot suppress this love, but he does not want it, for he feels himself degraded by it.... Into this state of soul, God's word descends: Continue loving. Thou art allowed to love her. Thou must love her. Even so do I love Israel. The lesson from the 11th chapter: When Israel was a child I loved him, and out of Egypt I called my son. The more I called them, the more they went from me. They kept sacrificing to the Baals and burning incense to idols. Yet, it was I who taught Ephraim to walk. I took them up in my arms, but they did not know that I healed them. I led them with cords of compassion, with the bands of love. And I became to them as one who eases the yoke on their jaws. And I bent down to them and fed them. They shall return to the land of Egypt and the Assyrians shall be their king because they have refused to return to me. The sword shall rage against their cities, consume the bars of their gates and devour them in their fortresses. My people are bent on turning away from me, so they are appointed to the yoke and none shall remove it. How can I give you up, O Ephraim? How can I hand you over, O Israel? How © Grand Valley State University   �God Who Never Gives Up On Us Richard A. Rhem Page 2   can I make you like Admah? How can I treat you like Zeboiim? My heart recoils within me, my compassion grows warm and tender. I will not execute my fierce anger. I will not again destroy Ephraim, for I am God and not man, the Holy One in your midst. And I will not come to destroy. The Word of the Lord. The Epistle Lesson, Romans 11, commencing to read with verse 25: Lest you be wise in your own conceits, I want you to understand this mystery, brothers and sisters. A hardening has come upon part of Israel until the full number of the Gentiles come in. And so all Israel will be saved. As it is written, "The deliverer will come from Zion; he will banish ungodliness from Jacob. And this will be my covenant with them when I take away their sins. As regards the Gospel, they're enemies of God, for your sake. But as regards election, they are beloved for the sake of their forefathers. For the gifts and the call of God are irrevocable. Just as you were once disobedient to God but now have received mercy because of their disobedience, so they have now been disobedient in order that by the mercy shown to you, they also may receive mercy. For God has consigned all to disobedience that God may have mercy upon all. Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God. How unsearchable are God's judgments, and how inscrutable God's ways. For who has known the mind of the Lord or who has been God's counselor? Or who has given the gift to God that he might be repaid? From God and through God and to God are all things. To God be glory forever, Amen. The Word of the Lord. We conclude this morning the series, If God Be For Us..., taken from the 8th chapter of Paul's letter to the Romans and the 31st verse, which is a paragraph between all that Paul had said about the grace of God that appeared in Jesus Christ and that terrible struggle that Paul had with the Jewish people, his brothers and sisters according to the flesh, and their rejection of the grace of God in Christ. If you had asked me about the outline of the Epistle to the Romans, I would have most all of my life told you that, as far as I was concerned, it could have stopped at the end of the 8th chapter. There is no more profound or beautiful statement of the love of God than Paul pens in those words. And I had always assumed that that's where he came to a grand climax. Chapters 9 through 11? Well, that struggle between the Jews, Israel and the Church and Christ - I've never made much of that. Paul's argument is labored, torturous, tedious as he struggles with the mystery of his own people not seeing Jesus as he saw Jesus. And then, of course, there's some good ethical stuff in chapters 12 through 16. But, I wouldn't have minded too much if we lost the last half as long as we had the first eight © Grand Valley State University �God Who Never Gives Up On Us Richard A. Rhem Page 3   chapters. Give me the eight chapters and give me that final paragraph and that letter comes to a magnificent climax, I had always thought. Then I came across a little book by Krister Stendahl, the New Testament scholar, who will be with us in October. Krister Stendahl has a little, thin book called Paul Among the Jews and the Gentiles, and as I was reading, I came to his assertion that the heart of the Letter to the Romans is chapters 9 through 11, that Paul's struggle with Israel's failure to see Jesus as the Messiah was what that letter is really all about. And therefore, that my grand climax at the end of chapter 8 is rather a critical prelude to the real heart of that Letter to the Romans, for Paul was so distressed by the fact that his brothers and sisters in the flesh did not come to faith in Jesus and see there displayed magnificently the grace of God. I reflected on that and I had to conclude that Krister Stendahl is right; that really is what the letter is all about. And what that last paragraph of the 8th chapter is about is a summation of God's grace in Jesus Christ and the foundation for Paul's confident faith that, in spite of the fact that at the present moment Israel was blind to Jesus, nonetheless God was not done with Israel, that the promises to the fathers and mothers of the faith, that covenant of grace that had bound Israel to God's self, was not to be revoked. That God was of such a nature that God could never give up on Israel. Israel in its present disobedience, Paul says, is beloved for the sake of her forebears. Out of covenant faithfulness to Abraham and Sarah and Isaac and Jacob and all of those who had gone before, God will not now give up God's people. It was the foundation of the love of God, which is expressed so beautifully in that last paragraph of chapter 8. "If God be for us, who can be against us?" As we have noted, it's not really "if", it is an assertion - "Since God is for us," or, as the New English Bible translates it, "Since God is on our side." Not on our side as over against those who are against us. Since God is on the human side, since God is for people, since God is for people as is demonstrated in all that God has done in Jesus Christ, therefore, since God is for us, who can be against us? And then, he goes on to say, who can lay any charge to God's chosen ones? He recites the events of Jesus' life and death and resurrection and enthronement and Jesus' intercession for us, and he says, what then can separate us from the love of Christ? Can all of the things that can go wrong in the world: famine and peril and nakedness and sword - all of the disasters that are possible in the human scene? Can any of that alter that foundational reality of the love of God in Christ? No, he says. No, not anything in our present experience, not anything in the past, not anything in the future, not anything in the heights, not anything in the depths - nothing in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. That I thought was climax. That I find, is prelude, foundation for what he is going to finally conclude in the 11th chapter and the 32nd verse, which is that Jews and Gentiles alike are all consigned to disobedience in order that God may have mercy on all. © Grand Valley State University �God Who Never Gives Up On Us Richard A. Rhem Page 4   Those chapters are tedious and strained and they are worked out under the supposition that very soon Jesus will come and the end of the age will be brought to pass. Nonetheless, what was deepest down in Paul was the conviction that God would never give up on God's people. He admitted his bafflement that his own people did not see Jesus as Messiah, as he had experienced Jesus. He acknowledged the fact that now they were blind to the Gospel; they were in a state of disobedience. But, was it all over for Israel? Not on your life. I don't think that Paul had figured it out accurately, but he was struggling with it. He didn't really know what God was doing, but of this he was certain - God would not let go of that people. God would not abandon that people. And so, he says, well, maybe it's this way. Maybe the disobedience of the Jewish people has given entree to the grace of God to the Gentiles, and he really speaks to Gentiles here. He warns against arrogance. He reminds them that, in the analogy of an olive tree, if Israel is the natural branch ripped off in a state of disobedience, the Gentile believers are grafted on, but they're grafted on to the pre-existing tree whose roots are Israel. And he reminds them, also, to have a proper humility because, he says, if grace has reached you, then Israel's return will be life from the dead. All Israel will be saved. He had recognized the universal human situation. Earlier in the letter he had said all have sinned and come short of the glory of God, which is another way of saying if anything good is going to happen to people, it will be by the pure grace of God. And now in chapter 11 in verse 32, he sees Jew and Gentile alike, consigned to disobedience in order, he says, that God may have mercy on all. That's the way Paul struggled through in order to make some sense of what to him made no sense at all; that he who saw in the face of Jesus the heart of God, that he who saw in the face of Jesus the revelation of the glory of God, when he presented that story to his own people, they saw it not at all. Could he conclude, therefore, that somehow or other that covenant of grace with the forebears, that long history of God nurturing that people, had come to an end? Paul said, "I can't believe that. I can't believe that God ever gives up on us. I don't know exactly how, and I don't know when, but I believe that, just as all are disobedient, so all will experience the mercy of God." Where did Paul get that kind of an idea? Well, Paul was a Jewish scholar. Paul had sat at the feet of Gamaliel. Paul knew the Hebrew scriptures, and I could go most any place in that old book in order to demonstrate that what Paul was holding forth here for Jew and Gentile was rooted in that Hebrew conception of the love of God. But, let me take you to what may be my favorite story, my favorite prophet, Hosea, whom I said had that poignant experience of loving a woman who proved faithless, and of having the sense of the Word of God coming to him saying, "Love her still; bring her back; claim her for your own. Love her into faithfulness." © Grand Valley State University �God Who Never Gives Up On Us Richard A. Rhem Page 5   Hosea was an 8th century prophet speaking to the Northern Kingdom in those years before the Assyrian empire came in, conquered Israel and dispersed the ten northern tribes. He was an authentic prophet in the best sense of Hebrew prophecy. Hosea was no pansy. Hosea was a prickly prophet, as are all prophets. He accused Israel of faithlessness, of forgetting the God Who had brought them out of Egypt and through the wilderness and into the Promised Land, Who had healed them and fed them and nurtured them. In tenderest phrases he describes the relationship of God with Israel. "I picked them up. I held them to my cheek. I bound them with bonds of love. But they have forsaken me. They are bent on turning away from me." And he pointed out all that was wrong with the society of those ten northern tribes that would eventuate in the judgment of God, for the Hebrew prophets saw historical events as the movement of the God Who judged and graced, and so he spoke quite directly to that society of which he was a part. If he had been in the United States of America this past week, I think he probably would have taken a jet to Washington. He probably would have stood on the steps of the White House and held a press conference and then moved to the Capitol building and held another press conference, and CNN would have been there. And he would have said, "Nice going, Mr. President. Nice going, members of Congress. You have ended welfare as we have known it. Congratulations. You have dealt with a problem that measures 1% of our national budget. You have done it under the cloak of not wanting people to be spoiled by welfare, and thereby, you have saved enough dollars to build one wing of a Stealth bomber. Congratulations, Mr. President. Congratulations, members of Congress, for you are hailing a new day. You have dealt with the little problems. Now when will you deal with political action committees and the pandering to favored classes and election practices and all of that that is so deleterious to our democratic processes?" And, of course, he would not have taken a jet back to Michigan to run in Ottawa County for anything. (And don't expect me at the door following worship. I'm slipping out the side.) But that's the kind of stuff the prophets did. That's why most of them ended up slain; not many of them died in bed. So, Hosea was no sweet, simpering voice laced with sentimentality. There was none of this kind of superficial love, you know, chirpy "God loves you and I love you, too." There was sweat and blood and tears in Hosea! And he spoke to his people the Word of God, he addressed them in their concrete reality, and, as he was portraying all of their sin and as he reflected what must have been rising in the heart of God, he said, "They'll go back to Egypt; Assyria will be their king; they are bent on turning away from me." And what would be the logical next phrase? "I will give them up!" But, what is the Word of God that the prophet hears? How can I give you up? How can I give you up, O Ephraim? How can I make you like the cities of Abmah and Zobeiim, the cities of the plain that perished with Sodom and Gomorrah? My heart churns within me. My © Grand Valley State University �God Who Never Gives Up On Us Richard A. Rhem Page 6   heart grows tender. My compassion warms. I will not give you up, for I am God and not human. In his own experience of a compelling love that he could not deny in spite of the faithlessness of the one loved, Hosea gained a window into the heart of God Who will never give up on us, in spite of the fact that the exercise of justice and even good judgment would simply cut us off. That is Hosea's conception of the unrequited, unconditional, unrelenting love of God that will never give up, never give up on us. Paul, steeped in that tradition, when he struggled with the fact that his own people were blind to the grace that he saw, could nonetheless not bring himself even to begin to think that that blindness would result in a final rejection. And so, I've learned that his statement at the end of the 8th chapter of Romans, "since God is for us," was the prelude to his tortured, labored, tedious argument on behalf of his own people because he did not believe, disobedient that they were, that God would give up on them. For Hosea, it was Israel. For Paul, it was Jews and Gentiles. And Paul thought the end of the age would be very soon, when Israel en masse would move into the grace of Jesus Christ. And that, of course, didn't happen. Paul, along with the whole New Testament, was wrong in that expectation of an imminent end. So, what are we to do? It's 2000 years later, now. Would we see the love of God differently than Hosea and Paul, and would we claim at this point in history that the 30% of the global population that is Christian is the exclusive focus of the love of God? Has God changed? Has God narrowed focus? Has God now crimped God's love to become very particular in the life of the vast human family? If Paul were here today, 2000 years later, he would struggle not only with Israel's immediate rejection of Jesus as Messiah, but with what in the world the Spirit is doing in the world today. He would struggle with the fact that 70% of the world's population does not see the glory of God in the face of Jesus. And yet I suspect that the same kind of fundamental consideration would move him to find a way to suspect that the Spirit of God was blowing in ways that we've not yet dreamed of, for as Jesus said, the Spirit blows where it wills and we know not its whence nor its whither. But we can be sure that the Spirit of God is the Spirit of God whose unquenchable, relentless love Hosea experienced in his own personal experience and applied to Israel, that Paul experienced in regard to Israel and the Gentiles, and it wouldn't be a great feat for him simply to embrace this whole globe and say, "I don't know how. I don't know when, but I believe that God's love is such that God will never give up on anyone." On my way here this morning I saw the billboard of a church. The sermon title was, "Heaven's Gates and Hell's Flames." I suspect the message was a bit different from the one you've just heard. But, let me ask you - Where is the © Grand Valley State University �God Who Never Gives Up On Us Richard A. Rhem Page 7   powerful, persuasive, compelling news? Is it to make you inside feel secure that you are loved and lucky, that you are not outside where the flames of Hell lick? Or, might it better be for us who have experienced the love of God, to go out of here with a body language that is set free by that love and to embrace our brothers and sisters everywhere? And even in their unbelief, to have a spirit over against them such as Paul had over against his own brothers and sisters? Would not the most powerful, compelling evangelistic effort in the world be to let the world in on the magnificence of the Love of God? Is it any wonder that when Paul was all through with his contorted reasoning and strained thinking - is it any wonder that he could not but break out into doxology? Who has searched the mind of God? Source, Guide and Goal of all there is - to God alone be glory!" Worship, lost in wonder, love and praise, in the light of such love. Can we help but respond, "O God, we love you?" © Grand Valley State University � https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/e552d7e8d0422bc870dd37721d597f6f.mp3 6009d26561288660e4c9bb25391d4c97 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Richard A. Rhem Collection Description An account of the resource Text and sound recordings of the sermons, prayers, services, and articles of Richard Rhem, pastor emeritus of Christ Community Church in Spring Lake, Michigan, where he served for 37 years. Starting in the mid 1980's, Rhem began to question some of the traditional Christian dogma that he had been espousing from the pulpit. That questioning was a first step in a long and interesting spiritual journey, one that he openly shared with his congregation. His journey is important, in part because it is reflective of the questioning, the yearnings, and the gradual revision of beliefs that many persons in this part of the century have experienced and continue to experience. It is important also because of the affirming and inclusive way his questioning was done and his thinking evolved. His sermons and other written and spoken materials together document the steps in his journey as it took a turn in 1985, yet continued to revolve around the framework and liturgies of the Christian calendar. Subject The topic of the resource Clergy--Michigan Reformed Church in America Christ Community Church (Spring Lake, Mich.) Religion Interfaith worship Sermons Sound Recordings Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Rhem, Richard A. Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/514">Richard A. Rhem papers (KII-01)</a> Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives. Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Kaufman Interfaith Institute Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Language A language of the resource English Type The nature or genre of the resource Sound Text Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context KII-01 Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant 1981-2014 Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource audio/mp3 text/pdf Sound A resource primarily intended to be heard. Examples include a music playback file format, an audio compact disc, and recorded speech or sounds. Event Pentecost X Series If God Be For Us Scripture Text Hosea 11:8-9, Romans 11:32 Location The location of the interview Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context KII-01_RA-0-19960804 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1996-08-04 Title A name given to the resource The God Who Never Gives Up On Us Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Richard A. Rhem Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Subject The topic of the resource Clergy--Michigan Reformed Church in America Christ Community Church (Spring Lake, Mich.) Sermons Relation A related resource Richard A. Rhem - An Archive of Sermons, Prayers, Talks and Stories: http://richardrhem.org/ Language A language of the resource eng Type The nature or genre of the resource Text Sound 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 August 4, 1996 entitled "The God Who Never Gives Up On Us", as part of the series "If God Be For Us", on the occasion of Pentecost X, at Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI. Scripture references: Hosea 11:8-9, Romans 11:32. Inclusive Grace Love Nature of God Prophetic Voice https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/57e3660acefce76ec5188e3e273277ba.pdf 59eef9d0972dbeaf21a3e363c68d0d6a PDF Text Text The God We Forsake From the series: If God Be For Us… Text: Jeremiah 2:13 Richard A. Rhem Christ Community Church Spring Lake, Michigan July 28, 1996 Transcription of the spoken sermon The word of God comes not only from those of ancient time whose words are recorded in the canon of the scriptures; there are contemporary voices, as well, that can set that ancient word in a context. These words, for example, by the wellknown psychoanalyst, Carl Jüng: Among all my patients in the second half of life, that is to say over thirtyfive, there has not been one whose problem in the last resort was not that of finding a religious outlook on life. It is safe to say that every one of these fell ill because he had lost what the religions of every age have given their followers and none of them has really been healed who did not regain his religious outlook. This, of course, has nothing to do with a particular creed or membership of a church. In 1953, Rollo May, a psychotherapist in his book Man's Search for Himself, wrote, The chief problem of people in the middle decade of the 20th century is emptiness. The human being cannot live in the condition of emptiness for very long. If he is not growing toward something, he does not merely stagnate. The pent-up potentialities turn into morbidity and despair and eventually into destructive activities. The experience of emptiness generally comes from people feeling that they are powerless to do anything effective about their lives or the world they live in. Finally, these words from Hans Küng: The whole development, including the problem of addiction, particularly of educated young people for quasi-religious ideologies up to the point of terrorist anarchy is connected in no small degree with a breakdown of religious beliefs and the abandonment of religious rites. And from Jeremiah: © Grand Valley State University   �The God We Forsake Richard A. Rhem Page 2   The word of the Lord came to me saying, "Go and proclaim in the hearing of Jerusalem, 'Thus says the Lord, I remember the devotion of your youth, your love as a bride, how you followed me in the wilderness in the land not sown. Israel was holy to the Lord, the first fruits of his harvest. All who ate of it became guilty. Evil came upon them, says the Lord. Hear the word of the Lord, O House of Jacob and all the families in the House of Israel. Thus says the Lord.' What wrong did your fathers find in me that they went far from me, and went at their worthlessness and became worthless? They did not say, 'Where is the Lord who brought us up from the land of Egypt, who led us in the wilderness, in a land of deserts and pits, in a land of drought and deep darkness, in a land that none passes through, where no one dwells?' And I brought you into a plentiful land to enjoy its fruits and its good things, but when you came in, you defiled my land and made my heritage an abomination. The priest did not say, 'Where is the Lord?' Those who handle the Law did not know me. The rulers transgressed against me. The prophets prophesied by Baal and went after things that do not profit. Therefore, I still contend with you," says the Lord, "and with your children's children I will contend, for cross to the coast of Cyprus and see your sin to Kedar and examine with care: see if there has been such a thing: Has a nation changed its gods, even though they are no gods? But my people have changed their Glory for that which does not profit. Be appalled, O heavens, at this. Be shocked. Be utterly desolate," says the Lord, "for my people have committed two evils: They have forsaken me, the fountain of living waters, and hewed out cisterns for themselves, broken cisterns that can hold no water." The word of the Lord. In a week in which we have continued to witness the salvaging of the horror of TWA Flight 800, and a week which sees the Olympic Games disrupted by a pipe bomb, we are faced as a people with the recognition that we no longer live in fortressed America, separated from all of the disaster that has stalked the world through the ages, from which we have been mercifully spared for so long. We recognize that our world is changing drastically and there is no safe place, and we can rail about it and we can speak negatively about it, we can throw up our hands in despair about it, we can condemn the perpetrators of it, but we will do well to take a moment to ask, "What in the world is going on?" And, "What time is it?" I'm struck with the parallel between our present situation and the time of Jeremiah the Prophet. Walter Brueggemann, in his comments on Jeremiah, says that just as Jeremiah, in 587 BCE, the time when Babylon removed Judah from Jerusalem into exile and Babylon, had been announcing the End of things as they © Grand Valley State University �The God We Forsake Richard A. Rhem Page 3   had always been - the end of the Temple, the end of the dynasty, the return of Creation to chaos - and every one of these a symbol for a whole complex of social structures and meaning, and Jeremiah was the spokesperson to announce the end. He was saying, in effect, "Folks, it's over." And he was saying, further, that all of the frantic energy that you are expending to shore up these structures, to find some security, and to perpetuate, to preserve that which you've always known, that is not only futile, it is disobedient, because God is in this thing, and we happen to be at a time of dismantling. The prophet of Israel, at its best, was a destabilizer, destabilizing the status quo, announcing the end of things, and the emerging of something on the horizon that was new but could not yet be fully conceived. The prophets were not popular. Jeremiah is spoken of as the weeping prophet, and one time he cursed the day that his mother gave him birth. At another time, he said, "The word of God I will no more speak," only to find that the word of God was like a fire in his bones that he could not contain. And so, he had to announce to a people not so unlike us that their whole religious structure, their whole social arrangement, indeed, the monarchy that had held them together - all of that was coming to an end. And that God was in this thing, and therefore, they should recognize not all of the surface symptoms, but the deep, underlying cause of it all. Chapter two of Jeremiah documents how God had graciously brought them into the Promised Land and established them only to find the people having priests who knew not God, prophets who prophesied not the word of God, people who handled the law who knew not God. God said, "What have I done to you? Has it ever been such? Be appalled, O earth. My people have committed two sins: They have forsaken the fountain of living waters and hewed out for themselves cisterns, broken cisterns that can hold no water." What a vivid image. With all of the lakes around here, we can't begin to appreciate the image in its original context where water signified life so dramatically, and God being offered as the fountain of living water, the very source of life. And the people being seen as forsaking that living water scurrying about with great energy to hew out cisterns, cisterns that were broken and could hold no water. A fatal forsaking, a futile pursuit, a double folly. Jeremiah says to the people of his day, "The problem is we have forsaken God, and all of the rest of the chaos on the present horizon are but symptoms of that deeper, deeper loss." As I was contemplating that, I thought about the contemporary prophets that speak in our day. I read the words of Carl Jüng, who said that all of those who came in with deep neuroses were those who had finally lost the sense of meaning that their religious traditions had mediated to them, that sense of the transcendent. Not talking about a creed, not even talking about a particular religion, but recognizing that there is a spiritual dimension to life, that to which all of the religions would point us, that to which we must be plugged in if we would be fully human and know some measure of human wellbeing. And then, © Grand Valley State University �The God We Forsake Richard A. Rhem Page 4   thinking about our present situation, where in the words of Hans Küng, commenting on that statement of May, where he says that what we see, particularly among the educated young, is the seeking after pseudo, quasireligious ideologies, but it ending in all kinds of addiction and finally terrorist anarchy. And we think about our world where the danger is not simply from without, but growing from within, and those who have studied the contemporary situation and the human person recognizing there a deep spiritual malady which probably can be expressed no more eloquently than in the words of Jeremiah: "Forsaking the fountain of living waters". Another commentator in the same area spoke about how, when he was used to setting forth all of the problems that he saw, whether it be the gridlock in Congress or potholes in the highways or the infrastructure of society, or the tax system or the welfare system, or the miserable way that we go about electing our politicians - and you could name your own litany of horrors of our contemporary society - and incidentally, these are all the things that the Hebrew prophets addressed – but this particular person said, "When I was naming off those problems that I would see, I was always stopped short when somebody would look at me and say, 'Well, what's your solution?' And he said, I sort of felt deflated and walked away, until I came to realize that it was not my responsibility to find a solution, a new arrangement for every particular problem that I saw about me. But it was enough right now to expose the emptiness, to at least say there is a problem, something is desperately wrong." And then he said to his friend, "We are like those who are singing under the balcony. We are the precursors of a day not yet arrived, but we see that something is happening. We are announcing the end of things," which is precisely what Jeremiah was doing, which is precisely what folks really don't like to hear, which causes us to get into that frantic activity to try to patch it up and hold it together, holding on with a kind of white-knuckled intensity, hoping that the world will stay together long enough at least for us to get through it. I had always hoped that I could get through life without ever turning on a computer, but it's all going so fast now, I don't think that I'm going to be able to make it! But, it's a very normal response for us to say if we can just keep the present structures intact long enough, if I can just get through with my retirement without Social Security going bankrupt, if I can only get through my life without Medicare going to pot, if only we can hold on - you see, it's always that kind of reactive, that sort of fearful response to the fact that things are being chipped away, things are unraveling. Nothing is the same anymore; there's no solidity, there's no security. We live in a world that is blowing up! And those who have observed, not simply just Jeremiah in 587 BCE, but those who have written in the last half of this century, have identified the human problem as a problem of meaninglessness and as one of them has said, ultimately the question of meaning is a question of God. Not a particular creed, not a © Grand Valley State University �The God We Forsake Richard A. Rhem Page 5   particular religion, but a particular spiritual dimension apart from which the human person is not whole, apart from which the human person becomes neurotic, apart from which human society becomes desperately ill. And so, the image of Jeremiah is not only apropos for that day in Judah's past, but I think very apropos for our day, too, for we can see the symptoms all about us, and the sense of powerlessness, the sense of victimhood. And then the dimensions of the problem and the feeling of helplessness to do anything about it, to make any difference, any dent in it - all of that is characteristic of our day and of many of us. I went to the New York Times Book Review section of last Sunday and found out that the longest running bestsellers have to do with the spiritual dimension. The Road Less Traveled by Scott Peck - 662 weeks. In fiction, that kind of "New Agey", interesting story, The Celestine Prophecy - 125 weeks. Embraced By the Light - 96 weeks. And Thomas Moore's Care of the Soul - 131 weeks. Dear God, folks! Our contemporary society is starving, hungry and thirsty and, if we could move back in time about 36 years and I was preaching to you on this text, I would now begin to beat you over the head with it. I would begin to say, "That's your problem. Your life is empty. You have forsaken God." And I would have two or three simple answers for you, all of which would be rather self-serving for myself in this congregation. But, it's very interesting to me that a Marxist, atheist commentator, sociologist, dead a few decades – (Modern atheism is the great critique of religion. If we don't hear the modern atheistic critique of the Church and of religion in general, we will miss the most profound insight into the problem of religion and the Church) – this particular man said, in his latter years, "The problem with the Church is that it has failed in its representation of God to present God as the all-bountiful Creator. It has failed to sense the yearning in the modern person's heart for the holy Other, and rather than presenting God as the all-bountiful Creator, it has rather used its dominance, it has been marked by an exploitation by the darker instincts of the human person to inflict cruelties, crusades, witch hunts, and all of that darker side of institutional religion." This atheist says the problem with us is that, in the face of the hunger of the human heart, we have failed to mediate this all-bountiful Creator, and so I recognize that I, in the past, have been part of that problem, too. Beating people on Sunday, that poor, struggling remnant that still come, decrying their godlessness, rather than all of us recognizing together that that which the world is hungry for, that which our brothers and sisters on the contemporary scene are longing for, whether consciously or unconsciously, is some sense that maybe there is an all-bountiful Creator. © Grand Valley State University �The God We Forsake Richard A. Rhem Page 6   This is the thing that Paul was so convinced of. That's why I speak of this series about God as, "If God Be With Us," or better translated "Since God is With Us." You see, everything is falling apart and there are lives everywhere that are meaningless, that are empty, and those most profound commentators of the human situation are telling us that that's what it is. That's not from a biblical text; that's from a contemporary analysis - meaninglessness, emptiness. And what do we offer? Well, I hear it all the time in the Church - Let's go back to the good old days. Let's go back home when it was safe. Let's turn back. Folks - you can't turn back. You can't go home. It's only the future we'll be entering into. It is the future uncharted. It is a future that is unfolding with a drama and with a rapidity and with a profound change never yet experienced in the human story! Now, how will you enter the future? Will you enter the future with hope in your heart, deeply trusting the God of the past, knowing that the future will not outrun the God Who beckons us from the future? Ironically, Jeremiah the prophet, who was the destabilizer and the dismantler, was also the great prophet of hope, because Jeremiah the prophet believed in God! Jeremiah believed in the God Who created and Who redeemed and Who sustained and Who would finally bring to consummation. Therefore, Jeremiah could say to the people of his day, "Will you let it go? Will you let the Temple go? Will you let the dynasty go? Will you let the whole social arrangement that's given you security go, and will you find your security the only place it can be, that is in the living God? If you will quench your thirst at the fountain of living waters, you will find, drinking deeply there, that you will be able to deal with all the symptoms out here." That's the task of the Church. The Care of the Soul is not pop psychology and it's not fluff, and Thomas More cannot believe that it has sold so broadly and has hung on so long, because he says to people, there is no quick fix, but would you pause long enough to experience your own depths? Would you listen to what your body is saying? Would you listen to your heart? Would you take time out, take a step back and find out what time it is? And then rest in God? Trust Creation, dare to move with hope into the future?" The God we forsake is not angry with us. The God we forsake pleads with us, "Drink deeply. You are a people with whom I contend, and I will contend with your children's children; I will be there for you; I will never abandon you; I will never give up on you. Return to me in your frantic chase, hewing out cisterns that can hold no water, leading to addictions and to emptiness and weariness in boredom. Come unto me and find rest for your soul. That's the all-bountiful Creator. You may have forsaken the fountain of living waters, but God has not turned the fountain off, and He invites us to embrace our neighbors, as well, and together to drink deeply of living waters and find peace, even in the midst of a world that's © Grand Valley State University �The God We Forsake Richard A. Rhem Page 7   blowing apart, trusting that there is something out there that is emerging, and it will be good, because God would have it so. © Grand Valley State University � https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/0b274fcc250d6e225cb436f8e13fbdf2.mp3 187c12f7d7a512a7b3b799f9ab268900 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Richard A. Rhem Collection Description An account of the resource Text and sound recordings of the sermons, prayers, services, and articles of Richard Rhem, pastor emeritus of Christ Community Church in Spring Lake, Michigan, where he served for 37 years. Starting in the mid 1980's, Rhem began to question some of the traditional Christian dogma that he had been espousing from the pulpit. That questioning was a first step in a long and interesting spiritual journey, one that he openly shared with his congregation. His journey is important, in part because it is reflective of the questioning, the yearnings, and the gradual revision of beliefs that many persons in this part of the century have experienced and continue to experience. It is important also because of the affirming and inclusive way his questioning was done and his thinking evolved. His sermons and other written and spoken materials together document the steps in his journey as it took a turn in 1985, yet continued to revolve around the framework and liturgies of the Christian calendar. Subject The topic of the resource Clergy--Michigan Reformed Church in America Christ Community Church (Spring Lake, Mich.) Religion Interfaith worship Sermons Sound Recordings Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Rhem, Richard A. Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/514">Richard A. Rhem papers (KII-01)</a> Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives. Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Kaufman Interfaith Institute Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Language A language of the resource English Type The nature or genre of the resource Sound Text Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context KII-01 Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant 1981-2014 Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource audio/mp3 text/pdf Sound A resource primarily intended to be heard. Examples include a music playback file format, an audio compact disc, and recorded speech or sounds. Event Pentecost IX Series If God Be For Us Scripture Text Jeremiah 2:13 Location The location of the interview Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context KII-01_RA-0-19960728 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1996-07-28 Title A name given to the resource The God We Forsake 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 Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Subject The topic of the resource Clergy--Michigan Reformed Church in America Christ Community Church (Spring Lake, Mich.) Sermons Relation A related resource Richard A. Rhem - An Archive of Sermons, Prayers, Talks and Stories: http://richardrhem.org/ Language A language of the resource eng Type The nature or genre of the resource Text Sound Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource audio/mp3 application/pdf Description An account of the resource A sermon given by Richard A. Rhem (Dick) on July 28, 1996 entitled "The God We Forsake", as part of the series "If God Be For Us", on the occasion of Pentecost IX, at Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI. Scripture references: Jeremiah 2:13. Hope Meaning Nature of God Prophetic Voice Spiritual Quest Trust https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/ef15f719614c57aae3ddfffe196e7a17.pdf 6afd88b5d8505c24ee27a7b109a4c5c1 PDF Text Text The Holy Catholic Church From the series: I Do Believe Text: Mark 11:28; Ephesians 4:4 Richard A. Rhem Christ Community Church Spring Lake, Michigan May 19, 1996 Transcription of the spoken sermon Today we celebrated the sacrament of Baptism in the name of the Triune God: The Father - God as ground and source of all that is; Jesus Christ - the human face of God in which we have seen love and grace; The Spirit - the operative presence of the Living God here and now, with us. Baptized in the name of the Living God - signed by water as belonging to the people of God, the community of the Covenant of Grace. There is no mention of the Reformed Church in America, no mention of Christ Community Church. No, Baptism is the sacrament of belonging to the People of God, not an institution nor any organizational arrangement of those people. Baptized in the name of the Living God - not in the name of the servant of Word and sacrament - not in my name. The Church is not a personality cult. The celebrant is but a servant of God, of God's Word of grace, of the signs and seals of grace. This morning's baptisms give me occasion to say that but, had there been no sacrament this morning, I would have made this point in any case, because today this congregation will gather, not only in this setting of worship, but also, later, in its organizational form as a congregation. And this is as critical a moment as this congregation has faced in its 126 years, for it will have to decide who it is and what it will be. On the threshold of that decision, I want to be very clear: what is at stake is our sense of what shape God's grace takes in this world. What is at stake is our understanding of the Gospel of God's grace, the interpretation of the scriptures and the translation of the Gospel in our historical context so that it makes a connection between the revelation of God and present human experience. © Grand Valley State University   �The Holy Catholic Church Richard A. Rhem Page 2   At issue is our understanding of how our present human situation is addressed by the Word of the Living God. In making that point, I am challenging two possible bases for how you might decide to cast your vote First of all, you ought not to vote No because you attribute too much importance to the Reformed Church in America, as though the RCA is synonymous with the Holy Catholic Church. The RCA is an organization, a human structure. To say that is not to denigrate the RCA; it is simply to recognize that denominations are human organizational structures and, to be honest, they are more a witness to the sinfulness of the Church than to the spirituality of the Church. Most of them have ethnic roots or they have arisen out of doctrinal conflict. The proliferation that resulted from the rending of the Roman Catholic Church in the 16th century has been a tragic witness to human cussedness. Yet, the Spirit works in and through them nonetheless. There are affectional family ties and long-time relationships that draw one. I recognize that and I do not belittle that. But, acknowledging that, I must say that what is at stake today transcends those human, positive, emotional bonds. Secondly, you ought not to vote Yes simply to support me, your pastor. The Church of Jesus Christ is not a personality cult. You must not vote on the basis of a human leader. Let me be clear; the literally hundreds of letters, cards, and phone calls, your personal words of love and support, have moved me greatly and touched me deeply. Without that strong sense of your affection and affirmation I do not know how I could have gotten through these past months. Your decision today, however, must not be to follow a human leader. Your decision must be based on your understanding of the grace of God and the concrete form of that grace in human community. In the negotiation meetings between the Classis of Muskegon and our negotiating team, there was, I believe, a defining moment. I was not present; I have not been a part of that process; it is not my place. But I was told that, at the second meeting, one of our people made a statement that put the issue in its true perspective. The person was John Van Eenenaam. John and Marianne and family have been with us for twenty-five years. Before that, they were in Reformed congregations - in fact, their baptisms occurred in these respective Reformed congregations. And John's name - is there a more difficult Dutch name to master, either in its spelling or its pronunciation? Further, John stems from Zeeland! Those are true Dutch Reformed roots, or should I say, bulbs! John said to the Classis people, "If something happened to Dick Rhem, we would look for someone to replace him who is like him, who would lead us into the realization of our Mission Statement." © Grand Valley State University �The Holy Catholic Church Richard A. Rhem Page 3   When I heard that, my heart leaped. That made it clear to all who had ears to hear that what is at issue here is not Dick Rhem. Rather, what is at issue is that message that I have proclaimed and the incarnation of that message in this concrete community. Not the Reformed Church as an organization; not Dick Rhem as a human leader; rather, the message that has shaped us and formed us as the community that we are. Having said that, I do not deny that Spirit needs form and the Church will always take on some concrete form. And the Spirit does call, anoint, and equip human leaders. The organized churches and the human leaders - that is all we have, warts and all. But, we must never confuse a form of organization nor a human leader with the thing in itself - the Holy Catholic Church which is the People of God living in covenant with the God of all mercy. I do believe the Holy Catholic Church. That is, that God's Spirit gathers a community of persons who experience God's grace revealed in Jesus Christ. In all of its ups and downs, its finest moments and its terrible betrayals, there is an ongoing community of people indwelt by God's Spirit, forgiven by God's grace and called to worship and to witness to the God Who is Creator of all and Lover of all, Whose Spirit is moving all things toward the consummation of God's eternal purposes. In the history of that people there have been critical junctures. Certainly we believe such was the case when the Word became flesh. In the traditional role of prophet, Jesus called the People of God to be faithful to their own tradition. That meant radical revision, repentance and renewal and that does not happen without sharp resistance. In Mark's Gospel, Jesus comes but once to Jerusalem. He will take his message of the Kingdom to the religious center of the nation, there to challenge the religious authorities with his call to renewal. His radical action in the temple, driving out the moneychangers as our text has it, was a symbolic prophetic action that called in question the whole Temple system which Marcus Borg describes as "The politics of holiness" in contrast to that quite different understanding of Jesus which Borg calls "The politics of compassion." I read this Gospel lesson, however, not to reflect on the meaning of Jesus' action, but rather to show how such prophetic action raises the question of authority. And they said, ‘By what authority are you doing these things? Who gave you this authority to do them?’ (Mark 11:28) Here we meet the same two factors to which I referred earlier - the organizational structure and the human leaders. © Grand Valley State University �The Holy Catholic Church Richard A. Rhem Page 4   The organizational structure is the form the Spirit takes in concrete human society - political structures, economic structures, religious structures. Over and over again in the respective arenas of human culture, movements are born and gather momentum and experience dynamic growth. Then they level off; they seek a form by which the movement's insights or policy or beliefs can be perpetuated and regularized. Usually the movement begins with the vision of a person or small group but, once the vision becomes institutionalized, caretakers take over - guardians of the system. And then the originating vision is lost in the routine of the system and the caretakers try to find ways to keep the institution going and even try to convince themselves and the people that there is still fire burning somewhere. Enter the prophetic voice uncovering the hollowness of the institutional forms and calling for re-visioning and renewal. But that is threatening to the caretakers; they have a vested interest in maintaining the forms and structures in place. And so, they take on the visionary. The question is quite in order - By what authority? And that is where the battle rages again and again in all dimensions of human society: the organizational personnel charged to keep the institution alive and growing and the prophetic visionary who sees the tradition has hardened and lost its connection to human experience as that continues to develop, and calls for revision and renewal. The organizational people have a responsibility to preserve and perpetuate institutional forms; the prophetic visionary loves that which the forms were created to embody and pass along - the original fire, the burning truth which gets domesticated and calcified with the movement of time, and thus he challenges the forms in order to set free the Spirit. The Temple authorities ask, "Who gives you authority to do these things?" It is the classic clash of institutional form and visionary prophetic challenge and the question is: By what authority? Jesus responded by putting a question to his interrogators: "John's baptism; was it from God or of human origin?" You see, Jesus was not the first to be challenged for making a prophetic protest. John the Baptist had preached fire and judgment on the banks of the Jordan and Jerusalem had streamed out to hear him. There was a Baptist movement parallel to Jesus' early movement. So, Jesus put the question of authority back in the lap of the religious leaders because the question was the same, but it took the focus © Grand Valley State University �The Holy Catholic Church Richard A. Rhem Page 5   off Jesus and put it on John and that created a quandary for the Temple authorities because, if they said John's message was from God, Jesus would ask, "Why then did you not believe his message?," but if they said John's message was of human origin, they feared the people because the people had felt the power of God in John's prophetic preaching. Human society in all aspects of its culture must again and again decide between the established structure and organization and the prophetic voice challenging and calling to new vision. It is seldom simple, never black and white. But the human story is one of Spirit finding form, form conveying Spirit, form growing rigid, imprisoning Spirit and Spirit breaking the form to find new freedom - in the arena of politics, of education, of religion. And the people have to choose - the organizational form or the new vision created by a human leader. The choice should not be made because one absolutizes an institution, nor because one idolizes a person. I do believe the Holy Catholic Church. I do not believe in the Church; I believe the Church - that is, that reality of a gathered people of God called by the Spirit, embraced by grace to worship and to serve the Living God. Over the centuries it has had many forms and experienced many prophetic challenges. It has been terribly corrupt and marvelously renewed. And the people must choose - they ask, "By what authority?" The answer lies in another question - Is this of God, or of human origin? Let me put the question to the Muskegon Classis - Is God's grace evident here in the lives of people transformed, of people touched by grace, healed and experiencing new life? Is there evidence here of worship full of wonder, of devotion to God expressed through commitment to people and compassionate care one of another? Are children nurtured in God's love and youth challenged to follow the way of Jesus? If the answer is Yes, then is this of God or of human origin? If of God, then, I ask, why are we being troubled? If the answer is of human origin, then they must answer to you - as fine and beautiful a community of people as one is likely to find anywhere. I rest my case with you, my people. If what I see in you is not an authentic expression of God's grace effecting human transformation, then I've got it all wrong. But if an honest examination of this community does bear out that this is a community of God's people, then I have nothing more to say. They ask me, "By what authority?" or "Is your theology right?", or however the question is phrased. © Grand Valley State University �The Holy Catholic Church Richard A. Rhem Page 6   I respond, "Is this Christ Community of God or of human origin? You tell me." I believe the Holy Catholic Church - not in, rather, I believe the Church; I believe God will have as God has had, a people, transformed by Grace, constituting a concrete community of compassion. Always, at all times, in all places. I do believe that. I do believe the Church is here in this place. I believe the Church here is and will be: catholic - that is, really one, universal; evangelical - that is, a community of Good News, of Grace; reformed - that is, being always in process, always reforming. I do believe - the Holy Catholic Church, and I believe it comes to concrete expression here. We are the Church! © Grand Valley State University � https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/d3435d1e8e6e2d6c4ccf1d4487e86de7.mp3 f7c55143d4c5cc6b69c015d4ab1ea058 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Richard A. Rhem Collection Description An account of the resource Text and sound recordings of the sermons, prayers, services, and articles of Richard Rhem, pastor emeritus of Christ Community Church in Spring Lake, Michigan, where he served for 37 years. Starting in the mid 1980's, Rhem began to question some of the traditional Christian dogma that he had been espousing from the pulpit. That questioning was a first step in a long and interesting spiritual journey, one that he openly shared with his congregation. His journey is important, in part because it is reflective of the questioning, the yearnings, and the gradual revision of beliefs that many persons in this part of the century have experienced and continue to experience. It is important also because of the affirming and inclusive way his questioning was done and his thinking evolved. His sermons and other written and spoken materials together document the steps in his journey as it took a turn in 1985, yet continued to revolve around the framework and liturgies of the Christian calendar. Subject The topic of the resource Clergy--Michigan Reformed Church in America Christ Community Church (Spring Lake, Mich.) Religion Interfaith worship Sermons Sound Recordings Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Rhem, Richard A. Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/514">Richard A. Rhem papers (KII-01)</a> Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives. Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Kaufman Interfaith Institute Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Language A language of the resource English Type The nature or genre of the resource Sound Text Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context KII-01 Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant 1981-2014 Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource audio/mp3 text/pdf Sound A resource primarily intended to be heard. Examples include a music playback file format, an audio compact disc, and recorded speech or sounds. Event Eastertide VII Series I Do Believe Scripture Text Mark 11:28, Ephesians 4:4 Location The location of the interview Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context KII-01_RA-0-19960519 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1996-05-19 Title A name given to the resource The Holy Catholic Church 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 Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Subject The topic of the resource Clergy--Michigan Reformed Church in America Christ Community Church (Spring Lake, Mich.) Sermons Relation A related resource Richard A. Rhem - An Archive of Sermons, Prayers, Talks and Stories: http://richardrhem.org/ Language A language of the resource eng Type The nature or genre of the resource Text Sound 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 May 19, 1996 entitled "The Holy Catholic Church", as part of the series "I Do Believe", on the occasion of Eastertide VII, at Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI. Scripture references: Mark 11:28, Ephesians 4:4. Authority Community of Faith Grace of God Nature of God Prophetic Voice https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/1c155aaa8d890d9a6817607e21b41c44.mp3 658ee61c17ebb2c448e3358b4b4e24ff https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/f610b1ac70b6cfe782af390c475c6183.pdf 98ce364b301be4768e09d7f365e00dc5 PDF Text Text My Country, Right or Wrong… Independence Day Weekend I Kings 22:1 Richard A. Rhem Christ Community Church Spring Lake, Michigan July 6, 2003 Transcription of the spoken sermon The title of my Independence Day sermon is "My Country, Right or Wrong..." and I suppose there are some of you wondering whether or not I have had a conversion in the middle of the night that I should suddenly be an advocate of that statement, "My country, right or wrong," becoming perhaps a chauvinist overnight. Nicholas Chauvin was a French soldier attached to Napoleon I who in 1815 was so fanatical and unreasonable and irrational about the lost cause of the Napoleonic Empire that he gained notoriety through his bellicose proclamations and ever since he has given to us the word chauvinism, which means to be fanatical and unreasonable about one's nation or the opposite sex or whatever. Well, I do want to say to you I have not become chauvinist. "My country, right or wrong," is a phrase which is often quoted and quoted as though it can stand alone. But the title of this sermon as it is printed has three dots after it, and the sermon is about those three dots. Forrest Church, in a very fine book entitled The American Creed, which he wrote post-9/11, tells about a day when he was rummaging through the attic of his grandparents and he came across a very attractive wooden plaque that had a picture of a World War I soldier in his broad-brimmed helmet, and on burnished brass on the front of the helmet were embossed those words, "My country, right or wrong." Obviously, coming across that in his grandparents' attic, Forrest Church must have had his curiosity piqued because he did some research to find out that "My country, right or wrong," is a phrase lifted from a larger statement that was made in 1899 by a Senator from Missouri, Charles Schurz, and the complete statement is "My country, right or wrong. If right, keep it right. If wrong, set it right." Now, I cannot imagine how you could take five words out of context and make them say entirely the opposite of the original intention, how you could do it any more successfully than was done with that little phrase. It had nothing to do with the kind of chauvinistic attitude, "My country, right or wrong." Indeed, it was saying the opposite; it was saying if you are committed to your nation, if you love it dearly and deeply, then you will do what is necessary to love it when it is strong © Grand Valley State University   �My Country Right or Wrong… Richard A. Rhem Page 2   and to confront it when it is wrong. Those who truly love their nation will not stand idly by while it goes in any number of directions, but will continue to judge its course in terms of the founding principles that have given it life and liberty and the marvelous national experience that we have had. My country, right or wrong? No. My country affirmed in its rightness, critiqued in its wrongness, judged by its own creed, a creed which is summed up no more concisely than in that marvelous Preamble to the Declaration of Independence, that Preamble finding echoes down through the centuries as our commitment to democracy, to freedom, to liberty, to justice for all. It is the person who truly loves his or her nation who will be thoughtful, mindful, aware, and engaged in the affairs of that nation, concerned about its course and its direction, holding it always to its highest and noblest vision. That has always been the task of a free press and also of the pulpit. Whether by the pen of the journalist or the word of the pulpit, there has been a tradition of self-criticism that has marked us at our best. We have just gone through a period when it has been a very dangerous and delicate matter to call in question the direction and the policies of this nation. That is nothing new. It always happens. Those who are in power do not appreciate the critique of those who would hold them accountable to their noblest principles and vision. That is what the scripture lesson was about. Israel was born as a tribal confederacy and they were well aware of the fact that God was king. In our terminology, Israel was a theocracy, and in those early days of inhabiting the Promised Land, there would be a crisis on occasion, and a leader would be lifted up who would lead the nation again through the crisis. One of the greatest of those charismatic leaders was Samuel, called a judge. During the ministry of Samuel, there was a call on the part of the people for a king so that they could be like other nations. Samuel resisted and reminded Israel that God was their king. Still they persisted. They wanted to be like other nations round about them. Samuel said, "You will pay taxes, you will have to give your sons and daughters to the army, the king will oppress you, dominate you." Nonetheless, they wanted a king, so eventually they got a king. Samuel anointed Saul, but in the very anointing of Saul, it was a symbolic action which said to the king, "You are a king under the aegis of God. You are not autonomous or absolute, for you are accountable for your reign before the face of God." With the rise of the monarchy in Israel's history came the office of the prophet, and the prophet was the one who spoke the word of God to power. The prophet spoke truth to power. The thing that made Israel unique in the context of its own history was the fact that, contrary to those nations 'round about where the king was absolute, in Israel when the prophet spoke, the King trembled. There was respect for the prophet as the spokesperson for God. And so, we have the story this morning of King Ahab, infamous king of the Northern Kingdom, who is visited by Jehoshaphat, the king of the Southern Kingdom. Very likely, the stronger Ahab had summoned Jehoshaphat who said, "You know, Ramothgilead, over on the Transjordan is in the hands of Aram and it really belongs to us © Grand Valley State University �My Country Right or Wrong… Richard A. Rhem Page 3   and we simply haven't done anything about it. Will you join us in going on a military venture in order to reclaim Ramoth-gilead?" Jehoshaphat said, "Look, King, my people are as your people, my horses are as your horses, let's go. But wait, first of all, let us engage in that which was characteristic of Israel both in the north and in the south. Let us hear the word of the Lord from the prophet." So, Ahab set up their thrones, they got their robes on, they had a public place, they had the whole thing choreographed, probably as marvelous as many of the Fourth of July celebrations in the past week, and there they sat. Ahab summoned 400 prophets, and 400 prophets came with their ecstatic utterance, and Ahab raised the question, "Shall we go to war or shall we refrain?" The word from the 400 was like a chorus, "Go up to Ramoth-gilead and triumph." Well, Jehoshaphat was really a pretty good king and a rather pious man and he must have sensed that this whole scenario was staged somehow. He said, "Isn't there anybody else?" Ahab said, "Yes, there is one other guy. I hate him. He never says anything favorable, always speaks about disaster for me." Jehoshaphat said, "Don't talk that way." So, Ahab summoned an officer to go and get Micaiah and the officer came to Micaiah and said, 'The king has summoned you and, incidentally, 400-strong the prophets are in one accord. They have given the counsel to the king to go up and triumph, so watch your script." When Micaiah came, Ahab said, "Shall we go up or shall we refrain?" Micaiah said, "Go up and triumph," to which Ahab replied, "How many times do I have to tell you, tell me nothing but the truth of the word of God?" Micaiah said, "It's going to be disaster." Ahab looked at Jehoshaphat and said, "See what I told you? He never says anything but disaster." Ahab summoned his officer again and said, "Take Micaiah home and tell the governor to throw him in prison. Give him rations of bread and water, reduced, until I come in peace." Micaiah said, "Return in peace? Then the Lord has not spoken through me." Some of you have chuckled a little bit to hear the story because there is wonderful humor there. What is a poor prophet to do? He is sternly charged to speak the word of God as that word has come to him, and when he does, he is thrown in jail. I could, of course, go almost anywhere in the Hebrew scriptures, Jeremiah, © Grand Valley State University �My Country Right or Wrong… Richard A. Rhem Page 4   for example, having been accused of being a traitor because he saw the imminent invasion of Babylon, accused of undermining the morale of the people, having been put in prison, but the king once again scared to death sneaks to Jeremiah at night and says, "Is there any word from the Lord?" Jeremiah says, "Yeah, it's not good," and he ended up in the slime pit. Or, there was Amos, moved by God to address the royal house of Israel. He had the audacity to suggest that God has a plumb line and that that plumb line was going to measure the degree to which Israel conformed to that straightness. The royal priest, the chaplain, once again on the king's payroll, came out and said, "Amos, don't ever do that again. This is the king's court. Go prophesy and earn your bread some other place." As I said, it is all over the Hebrew scriptures. This was the great tradition of Israel. What Israel gave to the world was this sense of the prophetic voice that addressed, that spoke truth to power, always a dangerous and delicate and lonely task, but nonetheless, a task which reflected the greatness of the founding vision of that people, always calling Israel back to that justice and that righteousness and that compassion which was in its founding documents in the Mosaic covenant. All of that legislation in the book of Leviticus and Exodus that you go over when you are reading through the scriptures, all of that boring legislation, all of those prescriptions, all of those things concerned with the poor and the widow and the orphan, about the doing of justice and the loving of mercy - all of that was the fodder of the prophets as they addressed the respective monarchies in the history of Israel and Judah. An important task, a task which if any nation loses, the nation loses. You know in the 20th century my great spiritual hero was Dietrich Bonhoeffer. There is a film out on Bonhoeffer now which I am anxious to see, but I have already seen, as some of you have with me, a video of Bonhoeffer's life, and on that video where there is actual tape of some of those Nazi rallies where the bishops of the church were literally co-opted into the Nazi cause, it is chilling when you see the degree to which the church had been co-opted by the cause of a demonic regime. In 1939 when Bonhoeffer was given a study grant at Union Seminary in New York City, arranged by Reinhold Neibuhr and John Bennett and some of those greats, he came to this country and he found himself restless because things were heating up in Europe, and in spite of the fact that he had this marvelous opportunity, that he had safety and security and he could pursue his studies and he was a brilliant student, a brilliant theologian; nonetheless, he turned his back on it all and got on the last possible ship for Europe. When others asked him, "Why?" he said, "Because I cannot be in peace and safety here while there is turmoil in my nation." He was so German, German to the core of his being and he loved his nation so greatly, and he said, "I must go back there and be with my people now if I am going to have any part in their future." And then he said, "I must will the defeat of © Grand Valley State University �My Country Right or Wrong… Richard A. Rhem Page 5   my own nation in order to preserve western civilization. Should I will the success of my nation, it would be the ruination of western civilization." It was a wrenching and painful decision that he had to make. He who was a pacifist in his own heart, nonetheless, saw the darkness in such stark terms that he joined a conspiracy to assassinate Hitler, joining himself to a violent response, going against everything that was in him, but recognizing how high the stakes were. It is that kind of a prophetic witness, Bonhoeffer and Karl Barth coming out of that state church, forming the confessing church whose creed, the Barman Confession, begins by saying, "God alone, the word of God alone rules. "No political entity, no potentate or king, nothing can take allegiance over that loyalty to God who transcends, of course, every nation and every civilization. The country that loses that prophetic witness is on a road to disaster. One of the great things about this nation is that we have an American creed with its principles that created a structure which allows for, demands, self-criticism, self-critique, and the interchange of diverse opinions and ideas, and the free exchange that can only result in a healthy body politic. We are at a critical point in our nation today when we have to judge the direction in which we are being taken. It is interesting that the social gospel of which I spoke last week was made up of those liberal, Protestant leaders who saw a vision of this whole nation becoming the land of the free, and then looked beyond the nation to the globe, and they started that World Missionary Movement and were thinking about world evangelization, and some of the greatest voices envisioned the whole globe evangelized with the gospel and with this marvelous democratic spirit that we had discovered and were living. Then, in the 20th century, all of those grand schemes were dashed on the rocks of the violence of that last century - World War I, World War II, the Cold War, the nuclear standoff, and there continued to be those who advocated an internationalist approach. Coming out of the ashes of the Second World War, the United Nations was founded, largely at the impetus of our own nation. Franklin Delano Roosevelt, a leader in that movement, an internationalism that believed that security could be found only through collective agreements, alliances, and a willingness of all states not to do anything they could do, but to comply with international law. It hasn't worked very well. There were realists in the wake of all of the violence of last century, and the realist position was to keep the competing powers in a kind of balance. That was our experience during the Cold War. It was a balance of terror. It was the possibility of mutual total annihilation. The realist looks at the human situation and says the only thing that can keep some kind of peace is by competing powers being more or less level. But, today, there is no level playing field. Today it is the unipolar world. A few months ago when I suggested the idea of an American empire, there were those of you who said, "Well, why haven't we ever heard of it?" Now everybody's © Grand Valley State University �My Country Right or Wrong… Richard A. Rhem Page 6   heard of it. Now it is a given. Now it is a cliché, that we are it. The question is how are we going to respond in this situation? I hope there will always be from pen and pulpit those voices that will call the nation to its highest and its best. What we tend to be moving toward now is a kind of nationalism back up by militarism. There is a fascinating article in the July/August Atlantic Monthly by Robert Kaplan, where he suggests that we simply ought to take "the stealth approach to supremacy." I think of the idealism of our past and I am unwilling to give up that vision that was present at our founding and has been echoed through the centuries. In an address to Congress, Franklin Delano Roosevelt gave his famous Four Freedoms speech, the freedom of speech or the press, freedom to worship God according to the dictates of one's own conscience, freedom from want that involved economic structures, and freedom from fear which involved the reduction of armaments world-wide. And in the final draft of that speech, he added a phrase after each one of his freedoms, freedom of speech everywhere in the world, freedom to worship everywhere in the world, freedom from want everywhere in the world, and freedom from fear everywhere in the world. He invited his advisors to take a look at his speech, and one of his principal advisors, Harry Hopkins, said to him, "Mr. President, “everywhere in the world”that's a lot of territory. I don't know if the American people care that much about Java," to which FDR replied, "I think, Harry, that the globe is getting so small that we will have to be concerned about Java, because they are becoming our neighbors." A prophetic insight into the way the world was going, and we are there. And we are the lone superpower of the world, and who will rule? The realists with a smidgen of cynicism, or the mushy-headed, simple- hearted idealists in which I would still like to believe? Judge Learned Hand, a rather well-known figure of our recent history, defined the spirit of liberty this way: The spirit of liberty. I cannot define it. I can only tell you my own faith. The spirit of liberty is the spirit which is not too sure that it is right. The spirit of liberty is the spirit which seeks to understand the minds of other men and women. The spirit of liberty is the spirit which weighs their interest alongside its own without bias. The spirit of liberty remembers that not even a sparrow falls to earth unheeded. The spirit of liberty is the spirit of him who, near 2000 years ago, taught mankind that lesson it has never learned, but has never quite forgotten, that there may be a kingdom where the least shall be heard and considered, side-by-side with the greatest. I believe it is my task to keep that vision alive, and I would consider this sermon a success, not if you agreed with me, but if you agreed that I am doing what I ought to be doing. My country, right or wrong. If right, then keep it right. If wrong, set it right. © Grand Valley State University � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Richard A. Rhem Collection Description An account of the resource Text and sound recordings of the sermons, prayers, services, and articles of Richard Rhem, pastor emeritus of Christ Community Church in Spring Lake, Michigan, where he served for 37 years. Starting in the mid 1980's, Rhem began to question some of the traditional Christian dogma that he had been espousing from the pulpit. That questioning was a first step in a long and interesting spiritual journey, one that he openly shared with his congregation. His journey is important, in part because it is reflective of the questioning, the yearnings, and the gradual revision of beliefs that many persons in this part of the century have experienced and continue to experience. It is important also because of the affirming and inclusive way his questioning was done and his thinking evolved. His sermons and other written and spoken materials together document the steps in his journey as it took a turn in 1985, yet continued to revolve around the framework and liturgies of the Christian calendar. Subject The topic of the resource Clergy--Michigan Reformed Church in America Christ Community Church (Spring Lake, Mich.) Religion Interfaith worship Sermons Sound Recordings Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Rhem, Richard A. Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/514">Richard A. Rhem papers (KII-01)</a> Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives. Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Kaufman Interfaith Institute Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Language A language of the resource English Type The nature or genre of the resource Sound Text Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context KII-01 Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant 1981-2014 Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource audio/mp3 text/pdf Sound A resource primarily intended to be heard. Examples include a music playback file format, an audio compact disc, and recorded speech or sounds. Event Pentecost IV Scripture Text I Kings 22:1-28 Location The location of the interview Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context KII-01_RA-0-20030706 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2003-07-06 Title A name given to the resource My Country, Right or Wrong... Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Richard A. Rhem Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Subject The topic of the resource Clergy--Michigan Reformed Church in America Christ Community Church (Spring Lake, Mich.) Sermons Relation A related resource Richard A. Rhem - An Archive of Sermons, Prayers, Talks and Stories: http://richardrhem.org/ Language A language of the resource eng Type The nature or genre of the resource Sound Text Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource audio/mp3 application/pdf Description An account of the resource A sermon given by Richard A. Rhem (Dick) on July 6, 2003 entitled "My Country, Right or Wrong...", on the occasion of Pentecost IV, at Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI. Scripture references: I Kings 22:1-28. Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Lemmen Library and Archives Global Community Prophetic Voice https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/def162161fe27a1dc681145cc8dafb92.mp3 cde503a930ecf9232eba43d0bd7408c1 https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/971a257de3fb3c1912de448ea945dd5a.pdf b0ece7d82e0d947660870ee98501eb3f PDF Text Text Will We Ever Learn? From the series: A Fresh Look At An Ancient Story Text: Zechariah 9:9-10; Psalm 33:10-22; Luke 19:28-48 Richard A. Rhem Christ Community Church Spring Lake, Michigan Palm Sunday, April 8, 2001 Transcription of the spoken sermon This is my thirty-first consecutive Palm Sunday in this pulpit. It has been interesting to leaf through my past Palm Sunday sermon themes and texts. Luke 19, beginning with verse 41, has been my favorite. It occurred to me that you could trace my own evolution, my own emerging understanding of Jesus simply by tracing the Palm Sunday themes and texts over the years. Starting out in the early 1970s, there was the emphasis on Palm Sunday of the parade and the party. There was a subject, for example, “The Exhilaration of Celebration.” There was the emphasis on Jesus as the king, the rightful king coming to his rightful place, the agonizing king, the king who came in judgment, wet with tears. I remember that there was also just a little bit of “Schuleresque” in those early Palm Sundays, where we had learned that worship is celebration, that Palm Sunday was a great day to pull out all the stops, and it was fun. Looking back I also saw where that began to change for me in the early 1980s. I began to see Jesus more in terms of his humanity, more in terms of his prophetic role. I began to appreciate the magnificence of the life and the ministry of Jesus as he spoke truth to power, as he addressed the political, social, and economic movers and shakers on behalf of the poor and the marginalized ones. I began to see how strong, how true he was. Then I preached in 1984 “Jesus, You’re Really Somebody.” I continued to probe the theme of grace, the breadth of God’s grace, and I began to see that the idea of the atoning death of Jesus was not something that I could really adhere to any longer. If Jesus came from outer space into our space to die for our sin and to open up heaven for us, then Jesus, indeed, was the only way for salvation. But as I began to see that God’s revealing and God’s grace was of greater extent than just the Christian family, then I began to wonder about that centrality of the atonement. I knew that the atonement necessitated an exclusive gospel. But, if not a savior who died for our sins to make us suitable for heaven, what was Jesus about? I really had to find a whole new paradigm in which to understand him. © Grand Valley State University   �Will We Ever Learn? Richard A. Rhem Page 2   It wasn’t until 1993 that I braved the elements and expressed myself clearly: Jesus did not die for our sins, but because of our sins. It was the established, entrenched, worldly powers in all of their forms that conspired to bring him to death violently. And it has been that way ever since as we have continued to probe Jesus in his full humanity. He spoke truth to power, bringing upon himself the wrath of the best and the brightest, the establishment of church and state bringing him to death violently. As a little side note, it is also true that during those days of Palm Sunday celebration in the 1970s, our growth was going off the charts. When I began to sober up a bit and to see some of the superficiality of that and some of the other dimensions of Jesus, our growth leveled off. And when I began to see Jesus as I see him today, everything went downhill. I suspect if you give me another decade I could preach this place empty. But here we are again, another Palm Sunday, another entrance into Holy Week, another serious engagement with Jesus. We have one more time to remember, to reflect and to try to understand what it means to follow Jesus and what he was about, what brought him to death. I found myself over the years often addressing the current events of the day—the Balkan War, the Gulf War, one or another political, international crisis. It always seemed there was something for Palm Sunday that made Jesus’ life and ministry relevant to the current situation. I find it the same today. Let’s just for a few moments imagine Jesus parading into Washington, D.C. Let’s just imagine that Jesus comes up Pennsylvania Avenue, stops at the White House before going on to Congress. What do you think Jesus would have to say today? After all, to celebrate Palm Sunday is to remember the past, but only in order that it may impact the present, in order that we might be more faithful disciples of the one whose name we bear. And so, let’s just imagine for a little bit: Jesus in Washington D.C. All week long I could not help but think about Jesus and the United States and China in their standoff. What would Jesus say? What would Jesus counsel about how to end that standoff and to bring the people home and to move on? What do you think? Well, as I was conscious of this all week, I have been conscious of my reactions. I was conscious of every television newscast, because the media shapes our opinions and whether it is our media or their media, let us not be naive here. I am not talking about Americans or Chinese; I am talking about human beings. And media does shape what we think. I began to consider that international problem in terms of Hung and Elsie Liang, who are here this morning. I think if there was a vote on the loveliest, most gracious, loving, beautiful people in our community, Elsie and Hung Liang would © Grand Valley State University �Will We Ever Learn? Richard A. Rhem Page 3   win, hands down. They’re Chinese. Now I know they left China before the Red Plague, but they’re Chinese. So I began to think about this international problem in terms of two concrete people, trying to personalize it rather than allowing the media to demonize the other side. Why would we fear this nation if it has people in it like Hung and Elsie? What do they really think over there, anyway? I went to Samuel Huntington’s The Clash of Civilizations. He is a Harvard expert in international affairs, and this book is highly respected. I remembered that he was saying that in the future, in our global situation, the conflict will be between civilizational groups; the West, the Orthodox, the Chinese, the Muslims, and so on. He has about nine of them. So I went back and I picked up the book again and looked at the little discussion on China. I found that in the late 1980s and 1990s, the relationship between the U.S. and China deteriorated. An inter-governmental document, a Chinese document, said, “We should point out that since becoming the sole superpower, the U.S. has been grasping wildly for a new hegemonism and power politics, and also that its strength is in relative decline and that there are limits to what it can do.” In 1995 the president of China spoke about Western hostility. “Western hostile forces have not for a moment abandoned their plot to westernize and to divide our country.” Also in 1995 there was a broad consensus among Chinese scholars and leaders that the U.S. was trying to divide China territorially, subvert it politically, contain it strategically, and frustrate it economically. Samuel Huntington says, “... and there is good evidence for all of those claims.” So, might decent Chinese people in leadership be scared to death, or irritated at surveillance flights? Have they not a right to be concerned about our supposed negotiations with Taiwan about advanced weaponry? This is an international game and it is a dangerous game, and we’re one of the players. In fact, I saw the young Chinese who were interviewed on the street, and who I think really are very open to America. So many of them want to come here and do come here. But they said the U.S. is such a bully; it throws its weight around. Another said, “Why can’t the United States see us as a friend instead of a competitor? Why the hostility?” I know the situation is complex. I know there are good people doing their best to end this standoff. I know I am naive and uninformed, but I also know that I am a human being with a moral intuitive sense, and some common sense, and I want to know why such a standoff has to be marked by such diplomatic duplicity on both sides, the demonizing of the other side. Is it so difficult to say, “This whole world of which we are a part has a shadow side to it, and we play into it, and we are strategically trying to contain you because we’re number one and any time you are number one, you are threatened to death about who is going to come on your tail”? © Grand Valley State University �Will We Ever Learn? Richard A. Rhem Page 4   You can live in a gated community and you can get your security forces out, but when you are on top of the heap, you don’t sleep well. Would it be so difficult to say to the Chinese, “We’re in this thing together and it’s not good, and we’re sorry”? I suppose that is naive, but it is just a suggestion from a simple preacher, and I think the thing could be over. Jesus in Washington. He might stop by the White House and he might say to President Bush, “Why did you just scrap the Kyoto Treaty?” A special in Time magazine dated April 9 says, “Except for nuclear war or a collision with an asteroid, no force has more potential to damage our planet’s web of life than global warming. It’s a serious issue, the White House admits, but nonetheless, George W. Bush has decided to abandon the 1997 Kyoto Treaty to combat climate change, an agreement the U.S. signed but the new President believes is fatally flawed. His dismissal last week of almost nine years of international negotiations sparked protests around the world and a face-to-face disagreement with German Chancellor Schroeder.” This special Time report studies this whole issue, and in the course of the discussion about global warming, says ten years ago the data was fuzzy. We had no hard proof of global warming. But at the present time, the data is pretty certain that there is such a phenomenon as global warming and that it will have deleterious effects unless it is curbed. Why isn’t anything done about it? This paragraph reveals the reasons: Members of both major political parties recognize that global warming is a longterm problem that carries little short-term political risk. In other words, if in the year 2050, disaster strikes, it’s not going to impact anybody presently in Congress. By the time their inaction causes big trouble, many decades from now, they will be long gone. But, if they foul up the economy, they will be sent home next election day. When it comes to the environment in general, the president must answer charges that his campaign sales pitch was little more than bait and switch. Almost immediately upon taking office, the soothing candidate who made it a point to sound so many green themes on the stump began to govern much more like the oil patch president Conservatives hoped he would be.” That is from Time magazine. In the same issue, the Congress is detailed. Campaign financing: will it work, will it make any difference, will it do any good? The question is this: if the bill becomes law, will it truly disinfect our politics? The end of Clinton’s presidency and the launch of Bush’s were a parable for reformers, between the pardons for Democratic fat cats and the environmental policy clout of big business. But like a virus, political money has a way of mutating so that it spreads in any environment. © Grand Valley State University �Will We Ever Learn? Richard A. Rhem Page 5   If Jesus came to Washington today, I suppose he might have something to say about this planet, this creation, and the fact that we are playing fast and loose and political people are bowing to the pressure of power and wealth and entrenched, established corporate leadership. Corporate leadership. What would Jesus say about that? Michael Harrington is kind of a gadfly, prophetic type, and he is a bit on the left, and yet he got attacked from the left. Now if you’re attacked from the right and the left, you must be doing something right. He was worried about the growing collectivism of our economic systems. The Communist system, of course, is state planned collectivism, but it’s not only the state that can plan the economy. He suggests that the trend under modern capitalism was toward a top-down command model, bureaucratic collectivism in which huge oligopolies administered prices, controlled the politics of investment, bought off the political system, and defined cultural taste and values while obtaining protection and support from the state. Harrington says it is not a good thing that under modern capitalism, effective control over investment, credit, and social planning is increasingly vested in the hands of un-elected elites who hold their own class interest and who valorize their own class-determined notions of the public good. Then there is this Catholic nun—you always have to doubt Catholic nuns. They’re usually bleeding heart liberals and they’re very, very idealistic and of no practical good, really. But Joan Chittister is a rather thoughtful one who talks about the 25 largest multi-national corporations that have annual GNPs that exceed the annual GNP of the United States and Western Europe combined. She asks, concerned about the environment, “What is good for the company? What promotes profit? What enhances technology? Stirs us? Drives us, blinds us? Whatever it takes to double the dollar—the squalor of the people, the loss of the rainforest, the weight of the smog, the clogging of waterways and the appropriation of resources—we leave to the generations to follow with never even a grace to blush. It is patriarchy waged in mortal battle for power, profit, and personal supremacy. It is a global male game of ruthless proportions called having dominion and survival of the fittest.” Well, that’s what you’d expect from such a source. If Jesus came to Washington, or if he came to Wall Street, or if he came to the Church in Greece, an Orthodox country where one of the Greek clerics says there will be bloodshed if the pope comes to visit, don’t you think Jesus might have something to say? So Church, corporate America, Congress, the presidency—I have enough in this sermon to offend everybody. If I didn’t get your favorite, just stay tuned. My point is this, dear friends. It was addressing these kinds of things that brought Jesus to violent death. If Jesus had died as a savior of the world for the © Grand Valley State University �Will We Ever Learn? Richard A. Rhem Page 6   forgiveness of our sins and we could have pursued that in a personal piety, no one would care. If Jesus had simply said, “Look, I’m dying as a savior figure for sin, and Jerusalem, you can stay just as you are. Rome stay just as you are,” he would not have been killed. He would have died in his bed. But you see, on Palm Sunday he entered the city and confronted power with truth, prophetic truth, because he knew what we know, and that is that society becomes structured, develops structures. It needs them. We cannot live without social structures. We need political structures and economic structures; we need institutional forms. That is the only way we can operate with one another. A society needs order, it needs law, it needs custom. But what happens is that a society is organized like a pyramid, and over time, power comes to the top and that power is usually in terms of wealth. Wealth controls the political leaders, and what is bought and paid for is the maintenance of the status quo, which is good for business and which keeps everything on an even keel. It was true in Jesus’ day. Imperial Rome was an occupying power. The leaders of the Jewish people were collaborating for their own prestige and position and also trying to protect their holy place. Let us not fail to see that there was some genuine concern on the part of Caiaphas. But the system was wrong. There were people, masses of people who were being cast off their land, who didn’t have enough to eat, who were poor and suffering. It was a domination system and Jesus knew that it was contrary to that covenant understanding from the Hebrew scriptures, the tradition that was his. He spoke in the name of that tradition. He spoke where it made a difference. And they killed him. But the situation was not unique. That is the way it always is. It is true today. It is a pyramid, and our political system is bought and paid for. Campaign finance? My goodness, there are all kinds of senators who voted for it who really didn’t want it, because how does it operate other than through money? Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, in his cynicism, tried to get an amendment passed which would make it unconstitutional so the courts could throw it away, and it is still not passed. It has to go to the House where it may be killed so it never comes to the floor, because our politicians don’t want campaign finance, because that is the way they have gotten where they are. That is the system. Would Jesus have anything to say about that? He’d have something to say about how we’re dealing with the poor and the disenfranchised. He would have something to say about health care and he would have something to say about the fact that an inheritance tax is not a death tax, and probably if you have that much money, you don’t have to keep it anyway. Jesus would follow the money and he would speak a word, and it is the way society always is organized. Sometimes a poet comes along and sees it and sings it, but you can ignore poets. You can ignore Joan Chittister; she’s just a Catholic nun, a kind of a rebel. And then a prophet sees it and a prophet declares it and finds the problem. So you kill the prophet. © Grand Valley State University �Will We Ever Learn? Richard A. Rhem Page 7   Do you think that Jesus didn’t know what he was up against? This isn’t a bad Palm Sunday text, either: Woe you Pharisees, scribes, hypocrites, you leaders of the people, for you build tombs to the prophets and decorate the graves of the righteous and you say, “If we had lived in the days of our ancestors, we would not have taken part with them in the shedding of the blood of the prophets.” Thus you testify against yourself that you are descendants of those who murdered the prophets. Fill up, then, the measure of your ancestors. You snakes, you brood of vipers, how can you escape being sentenced to hell? Therefore, I send you prophets, sages and scribes, some of whom you will kill and crucify, some of whom you will flog in your synagogues and pursue from town to town so that upon you may come all the righteous bloodshed from Abel to the blood of Zechariah, Son of Berachiah, whom you murdered between the sanctuary and the altar. Truly I tell you all this will come upon this generation. Jerusalem, Jerusalem, city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it, how often have I desired to gather your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you would not, and your house is left to you desolate. I don’t know who it would be, but somebody in Washington would see that this prophet, and this poet, would be done away with. It might be the Pentagon. Maybe the National Security Office. Maybe the Congress itself. It could be a conspiracy cooked up in Wall Street. Who knows. But somebody would do away with him in our world today. Because nothing has changed. There is still a concentration of wealth and power, prestige and position. The only difficulty with that is, when you get there, you really have to build gates high and engage security forces, because you are going to be looking over your shoulder, because you are not at ease. You cannot rest. It is like the U.S. seeing China coming on its tail. I think that Jesus, when he said those words in Matthew which I just quoted, was angry. But ultimately, Jesus was not angry. It was anguish, because he was a son of Israel and he knew the Psalmist who said the war-horse is a vain hope for victory. The king is not saved by his army. Power finally will not do it. He knew Zechariah. He knew the vision of the prophets about the day that a peaceable king would come and do away with all the weapons of war. And if he had come into Washington today, he would have known one of the great crises of our world today, of the whole globe, is a question of global warming, and he would know about the concentration of wealth and power, and he would have to say something about it. He would probably say something about the pyramid shape of our society, and he would be worried about those lower layers. Jesus wept. Anger begets anger. Hostility begets hostility. But compassion and anguish sometimes call people up short. Dear God, what a Palm Sunday it would © Grand Valley State University �Will We Ever Learn? Richard A. Rhem Page 8   be if some of you movers and shakers, you who are the elite of the earth, would say, “What in the world can we do to follow Jesus?” I began Lent by saying, “What’s the matter with us?” I followed up with the question, “Do we need God to be good?” There is a little twist that is different this Palm Sunday, because in the light of where I have been moving, I thought one time that somehow or other that messianic dream of shalom would be affected by God coming in and making it all right. The more I think about it, the more I think God has said, “It’s in your hands. What are you going to do about it? I have sent you my son. You have a paradigm; you have a model. You know. You know.” Jesus weeps while we procrastinate and our world is in jeopardy. That is really what Palm Sunday is all about. A people wanted a parade. Parades are good. Celebrations are exhilarating. But if Jesus walked into Washington today, he wouldn’t have much more than a week to live. So, my question is: Will we ever learn? © Grand Valley State University � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Richard A. Rhem Collection Description An account of the resource Text and sound recordings of the sermons, prayers, services, and articles of Richard Rhem, pastor emeritus of Christ Community Church in Spring Lake, Michigan, where he served for 37 years. Starting in the mid 1980's, Rhem began to question some of the traditional Christian dogma that he had been espousing from the pulpit. That questioning was a first step in a long and interesting spiritual journey, one that he openly shared with his congregation. His journey is important, in part because it is reflective of the questioning, the yearnings, and the gradual revision of beliefs that many persons in this part of the century have experienced and continue to experience. It is important also because of the affirming and inclusive way his questioning was done and his thinking evolved. His sermons and other written and spoken materials together document the steps in his journey as it took a turn in 1985, yet continued to revolve around the framework and liturgies of the Christian calendar. Subject The topic of the resource Clergy--Michigan Reformed Church in America Christ Community Church (Spring Lake, Mich.) Religion Interfaith worship Sermons Sound Recordings Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Rhem, Richard A. Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/514">Richard A. Rhem papers (KII-01)</a> Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives. Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Kaufman Interfaith Institute Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Language A language of the resource English Type The nature or genre of the resource Sound Text Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context KII-01 Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant 1981-2014 Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource audio/mp3 text/pdf Sound A resource primarily intended to be heard. Examples include a music playback file format, an audio compact disc, and recorded speech or sounds. Event Palm Sunday Series A Fresh Look At an Ancient Story, Scripture Text Zechariah 9:9-10, Psalm 33:10-22, Luke 19:28-48 Location The location of the interview Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context KII-01_RA-0-20010408 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2001-04-08 Title A name given to the resource Will We Ever Learn? Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Richard A. Rhem Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Subject The topic of the resource Clergy--Michigan Reformed Church in America Christ Community Church (Spring Lake, Mich.) Sermons Relation A related resource Richard A. Rhem - An Archive of Sermons, Prayers, Talks and Stories: http://richardrhem.org/ Language A language of the resource eng Type The nature or genre of the resource Sound Text Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource audio/mp3 application/pdf Description An account of the resource A sermon given by Richard A. Rhem (Dick) on April 8, 2001 entitled "Will We Ever Learn?", as part of the series "A Fresh Look At an Ancient Story,", on the occasion of Palm Sunday, at Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI. Scripture references: Zechariah 9:9-10, Psalm 33:10-22, Luke 19:28-48. Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Lemmen Library and Archives Non-violence Prophetic Voice Way of Jesus https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/6d42da0ec8f7c3c48242fbbbbf609915.mp3 64f61d63258d82e993ef3ea257990410 https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/0c05ccaa292e88b5959491c7c1806dd2.pdf b6ef9a756768be9a2d3125cc87716e60 PDF Text Text Harmless Religion: Loss of Soul From the series: The Human Face of God Text: Amos 5:21, 24; 7:13; John 11:48 Richard A. Rhem Christ Community Church Spring Lake, Michigan Lent V, April 9, 2000 Transcription of the spoken sermon The Lenten focus on the human face of God is a focus that intends for us to concentrate on the life of Jesus. Because of what has been done archeologically and in cross-cultural studies of peasant societies of the Roman Mediterranean basin, we know more about the historical circumstances and the social context of the life of Jesus than any generation since that time. The more we learn about the circumstances which Jesus addressed, the more it becomes evident that Jesus dealt in a very concrete way with the contemporary issues of his day and that the kingdom of God of which he spoke was a very down-to-earth kingdom, having to do with social relationships and economic matters and political concerns, that Jesus was in the tradition of the great Hebrew prophets, that Jesus addressed the power structures of his day, structures of religion and politics, and that, in that confrontation with established authority, he was publically executed because he was deemed to be a dangerous, prophetic figure. The fact that I concentrate on the life of Jesus in the Lenten season or anytime, you have to know, is a surprise to me, and I do it with a guilty conscience, because I was raised on the conventional wisdom that religion and politics don't mix. I do it with a guilty conscience because it was drilled into me that you don't drag politics into the pulpit. I do it with a bit of foreboding because I hear those voices of my past that say, "Don't read the newspaper to me; tell me about God." That's the way it was said. I believed it. And so, when I deal as I deal in the season of Lent with the life of Jesus, and when I am forced to conclude that he died the way he died because he lived the way he lived, then I am doing about a 180-degree turn from where I came into this business, and one doesn't do that without having the old tapes continue to play. I am telling you things that in an earlier time in my ministry I would have written off as the social gospel of the late 19th century and early 20th century, the social gospel against which I was warned as the gospel of the old liberalism that saw Jesus as a model and an example. I present to you today, according to the best understanding I have, Jesus' dying a martyr's death which, at one time, I would have scorned. He wasn't a martyr; he was, rather, the Lamb of God destined before the foundations of the world to die for the sin of the world. The music we have just heard sung by the choir is lovely, © Grand Valley State University   �Harmless Religion: Loss of Soul Richard A. Rhem Page 2   but the theology is poor, and that's where I was. To come to where I have come is quite a radical adjustment. But the adjustment is necessary if I would be honest with you and would be honest to God, because I believe with all my being that Jesus is a heroic, magnificent figure who was filled with the Spirit of God, who was the embodiment of God in human flesh, who incarnated that which was truest of the depths of the heart of God. Being that, he faced what was wrong with this world and, in the name of the God of justice, the God of Israel and on behalf of the people, he confronted the established powers in the hopes that there might be transformation. Jesus, as John before him and Paul after him, I believe, expected that God would intervene very soon, and would right what was wrong. But, in the meantime, he called his people to live as what they were - the children of God, with dignity and honor, even in their oppressed state, and he confronted the powers of religion and politics in the name of the people, in the name of God calling for justice. The adjustment that I have made is an adjustment that I can illustrate to you by pointing you to the most familiar of Christian creeds, the Apostles’ Creed. You remember it? "I believe in God, the Father Almighty, maker of heaven and earth, and in Jesus Christ his only Son our Lord, who was conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, dead, and buried..." Do you note anything? Do you realize, in the light of what I have been saying, that we jumped from his birth to his death? "Born of the virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate." The whole of the life of Jesus lies in that comma. The Church in its creedal tradition and in most of the centuries of its existence has made of Jesus a cultic salvation figure and has failed to face the truth of his life. The most familiar creed of the church dumps it all into one comma, without a word. I do believe that Jesus was in the tradition of the Hebrew prophets, the tradition of the writing prophets of the 8th century, those great Hebrew prophets, the first of whom was Amos. Date him around 750-760 B.C.E. in the Northern Kingdom of Israel. Jeroboam is king. The country has prospered and expanded; it is affluent and all is well. But there is no compassion for the poor, there is no justice in the structures of society, and Amos is that prophet in the name of God who confronts the establishment with the conditions of the people of God that betray what God is all about. Amos was the first example of that which was true of Israel and made it unique. Do you remember Israel is born on the Exodus; they are brought into the Promised Land; they live for a period of time under the Judges. When there is a crisis, the Spirit of God falls on someone, a Samson or a Gideon, and they rise up and lead the people of God through the crisis and to peace, and then they go back and farm again. God is the king. Israel, in that situation, has a theocracy. But, then the greatest Judge of them all, Samuel, is the minister of the day and the people say, "We're tired of being this way. We want to be like other nations. We © Grand Valley State University �Harmless Religion: Loss of Soul Richard A. Rhem Page 3   want a king." Samuel says, "If you get a king, the king will tax you, he will take your sons and daughters, there will be conscripted labor. Think twice before you do it." They say, "We want a king." Saul is anointed, followed by David, followed by Solomon, and, with the rise of the monarchy in Israel, there arose the prophetic voice. The unique thing about Israel, and I suspect the thing that has kept Israel alive through all these millennia, is the fact that established power was always addressed by a prophet in the name of God. Religion and politics could never get away with it in Israel without hearing the word of the Lord. Amos was the first of the writing prophets who confronted that Northern Kingdom in the time of its prosperity and its social disregard and said, "You are going to die." I don't think Amos knew in terms of some predicted prophesy what was going to happen in the next few decades, but, as a matter of fact, in 722 the Assyrian empire came in and removed the ten tribes of the Northern Kingdom, and we still speak today of the Ten Lost Tribes of Israel. They were removed from their land, never to return. Amos said to them it is because there is no justice in the land. He said, "You have religion a-plenty. But, I despise your feasts; I can't stand your music. Your religion stinks." Well, he didn't quite say that. He said, "Your religion is an offense in the nostrils of God." Amos was tough. Amos was passionate, and Amos confronted the royal court, only to have the royal high priest come out and confront him. So, in the 7th chapter we have that encounter between Amaziah the priest and Amos the prophet, and Amaziah appeals to the king and says, "This man is saying things that cannot be tolerated. This language is unacceptable in the royal court. This is the royal temple; go back to Judah and earn your bread there." Amos said, “Look, I'm not a prophet getting paid for this thing, a professional religionist. I'm no prophet; I'm no prophet's son, but when I was following the flock, the word of God came to me and said, 'You go prophesy to my people Israel. ‘Now, therefore, hear the word of the Lord.’” That was old Amos. We have some familiar phrases from Amos. "Woe to you who are at ease in Zion. Prepare to meet your God." And the text of the morning, "Let justice flow down as mighty waters and righteousness as a mighty stream. Enough of your religious feasts and festivals and all of your liturgical finery. Give me justice. Don't think you can worship me and at the same time be living in a situation of injustice and oppression." So, the priest says to Amos, "Go away." But, as always happens, royal power coopts religion and, even though the monarchy grew and over against it the prophetic voice, the monarchy knew it couldn't make it without the religious blessing, and so it cultivated the priesthood that would offer it sacrifices, would pray at its presidential inaugurations, would bless the beans at the PTA, the kind of harmless religion that is ceremonial, that functions in order to give a gloss to © Grand Valley State University �Harmless Religion: Loss of Soul Richard A. Rhem Page 4   everything and not allow any examination of what is really going on in a society. That kind of religion is paid for by the royal court, and Amaziah was happy to be in the service of the king. But, Amos said, "Hear the word of the Lord," and thus we have the classic confrontation between the prophet and the priest, between religion and politics. In the gospel story that we read a moment ago, Jesus had performed the miracle of the raising of Lazarus and, contrary to Matthew, Mark and Luke, who make the cleansing of the temple the catalytic event, for John it is the raising of Lazarus which causes the people to stand in awe and believe, so they call a council meeting and ask, "What in the world are we going to do? If this goes on, the whole world will follow him and then the Romans will come in and destroy our holy place and our nation." Caiphus, sophisticated, suave, wily, a man about town with a lot of experience, says, "You don't know anything at all. It's better that this one man die than that the nation perish." (And John, being High Priest that year, spoke as a prophet, pointing to Jesus' death as the means of bringing in all the scattered children of God.) But, where would you have been? What side of the table if you had been at that Sanhedrin meeting? I mean, it's not such a simple matter; these were not bad people. In the situation in which Jesus emerged, Roman imperial power held the trump card, but the Sadducee and priestly families were the authority that was the buffer between Rome and the people. They were the ones that could keep the natives quiet and, as far as Rome was concerned, Rome knew how to rule. They had the priestly establishment that would keep the natives quiet while they exploited the countryside. Wonderful. If you were a Sadducee in authority, you were a high priestly person and playing ball with Rome, you would get along pretty well in Jerusalem. Yet, their fears were not unfounded. What they feared actually happened four decades later, because some fanatical, hysterical prophet came to town and aroused the populace and there was some kind of demonstration that brought in, finally, the Roman legions that decimated the town and leveled the temple. And these were responsible people. What would you have done, for example, if you had sat on the Board of Elders at that Jerusalem Council meeting? Where would you have been? Might you have said, "Look, what he's saying is in the tradition of our greatest prophets." Would you have argued on Jesus' behalf that he was reaching back into that old covenant history? Would you have been supportive of him and say, "He's non-violent. He's appealing to the people, to their dignity, to their sense of being the children of God. He's in the line of the prophets. What he is talking about is what we ought to be concerned about as those who are in authority for this people." Is that how you would have argued? Or, would you have said, "Caiphas, the old fox. That's it. I don't like to do it. I think essentially the guy himself is rather harmless, but he's got to go." © Grand Valley State University �Harmless Religion: Loss of Soul Richard A. Rhem Page 5   It's not such an easy thing. If you bear responsibility for the well-being of society or church, government, community, if that's your responsibility, then you do have to be careful about any traveling salesman that comes to town who would cause a disruption, that would be bad for the body politic. It's not so easy. But, you see, practicality and expediency demanded that Jesus be publically executed. Why? Because he was a danger to civil life and public order. Because he dared confront the religious, political authority with the devastating condition of the people of his day, and just like Amos in the name of the God of justice, Jesus stood for all of that which reflected the intention of God. The beat goes on. This kind of thing doesn't stop. There is a video about the life of Dietrich Bonhoeffer which I saw a year or two ago, a video which had footage I had never seen before, the leaders of the German evangelical church giving the Heil Hitler salute, embracing Hitler, affirming Hitler and Hitler them. That's a familiar story to us, but it's rather shocking again when you actually see it happen. And to the credit of Karl Barth and Dietrich Bonhoeffer and Pastor Neimueller and others, they formed the Confessing Church that came out of the evangelical church and, of course, Dietrich Bonhoeffer died. He gave his life because that's what happens to people who confront religious, political cooptation. We've just gone through again the anniversary of the assassination of Martin Luther King. The assassin, James Earl Ray, has died, but finally through the King family's own pursuits we know now that, what we've suspected all along, there was government complicity, because we don't publically execute people today. We get them assassinated. We have our own way of doing it, and Martin Luther King was a disruptive prophet. It was in the Civil Rights of the 60s which King was leading which was the beginning of my own coming to consciousness of the fact that the church had to be about more than the salvation of souls. I didn't march; I wasn't that awake. But I should have. It was about that time, as well, that Martin Luther King began to speak out on the Vietnam War. There were many protestors, particularly the young. And there were some voices in the church. The church was beginning to see that the very real world needs to be addressed, in the name of God, in the name of Jesus Christ. Martin Luther King was slain, assassinated. I remember in the wake of the sixties where I was starting to come awake, and having gone to Europe, came back here in 1971 and a few of us went out to the Institute for Successful Church Leadership in Garden Grove, California. April of 1971. Part of that Institute was a conversation with Bob Schuler in his office, and there were some seminarians there and there was a young professor of New Testament that didn't have enough to know that you don't needle the host. So, now this is 1971, in the wake of all of this "stuff," and he was pushing Bob Schuler because Bob had made some statements about "No controversy in the pulpit." That was something that was a hallmark of Bob Schuler's ministry. He got a little © Grand Valley State University �Harmless Religion: Loss of Soul Richard A. Rhem Page 6   agitated and he condemned those preachers who got out of their pulpits and took up picket signs and walked the streets. I had a little bit of concern for the young professor, and I intervened and said to Bob, "Well, what about Jesus?" He said, after a long pause, "I'm only 44; I don't have all the answers." Word for word quote. It’s not easy to make decisions, draw lines, know when to speak, where to speak, when to stand up. It’s not easy to know how to balance social serenity with public protest. But, I have to tell you, Jesus died because of the way he lived, because he embodied and incarnated the justice of which Amos spoke. Don't you suspect that I would rather come here week after week and be your priest rather than, from time to time, being a prophetic voice? Don't you think it would be more comfortable for me to inspire, encourage, comfort? Don't you think that Jesus as a salvation figure is harmless in terms of any contemporary issue that you are facing in your business or political life? Isn't the fact that the church is swept along with this worship as entertainment which is so noisy and blaring - isn't that because it's reflecting the culture that is noisy and blaring? You can't even go to a ball game without the action stopping and the organ starting. You turn on the TV and the commercials blast you out of the room. You go to a movie, and the previews knock you out of the seat. The culture is noisy; there's no time to be silent and to think, to ponder. Music, worship as entertainment. It's harmless. Or, worship, religion as therapeutic, helping you to be well-adjusted so that survive the pressures and tensions that you face in the world or the community life, giving you wisdom by which to be well-adjusted, well-attuned, to get by without ruffling feathers and causing trouble. Don't you think it would easier for me to peddle here week after week harmless religion, to use Dom Crossan's phrase, Religion as Prozac? There's a lot of it around. It's a lot easier to be a priest, and it's easy for me to be a priest because I love you and I love to pray with you and I love to be there with you and feel your pain and share your darkness. That's very natural for me. It's very natural for all of the people on this team. But, sometimes it's also liberating and freeing to gain one's own soul and to be honest to God. © Grand Valley State University � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Richard A. Rhem Collection Description An account of the resource Text and sound recordings of the sermons, prayers, services, and articles of Richard Rhem, pastor emeritus of Christ Community Church in Spring Lake, Michigan, where he served for 37 years. Starting in the mid 1980's, Rhem began to question some of the traditional Christian dogma that he had been espousing from the pulpit. That questioning was a first step in a long and interesting spiritual journey, one that he openly shared with his congregation. His journey is important, in part because it is reflective of the questioning, the yearnings, and the gradual revision of beliefs that many persons in this part of the century have experienced and continue to experience. It is important also because of the affirming and inclusive way his questioning was done and his thinking evolved. His sermons and other written and spoken materials together document the steps in his journey as it took a turn in 1985, yet continued to revolve around the framework and liturgies of the Christian calendar. Subject The topic of the resource Clergy--Michigan Reformed Church in America Christ Community Church (Spring Lake, Mich.) Religion Interfaith worship Sermons Sound Recordings Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Rhem, Richard A. Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/514">Richard A. Rhem papers (KII-01)</a> Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives. Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Kaufman Interfaith Institute Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Language A language of the resource English Type The nature or genre of the resource Sound Text Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context KII-01 Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant 1981-2014 Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource audio/mp3 text/pdf Sound A resource primarily intended to be heard. Examples include a music playback file format, an audio compact disc, and recorded speech or sounds. Event Lent V Series The Human Face of God Scripture Text Amos 5:21, 24, 7:13, John 11:48 Location The location of the interview Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context KII-01_RA-0-20000409 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2000-04-09 Title A name given to the resource Harmless Religion: Loss of Soul Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Richard A. Rhem Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Subject The topic of the resource Clergy--Michigan Reformed Church in America Christ Community Church (Spring Lake, Mich.) Sermons Relation A related resource Richard A. Rhem - An Archive of Sermons, Prayers, Talks and Stories: http://richardrhem.org/ Language A language of the resource eng Type The nature or genre of the resource Sound Text Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource audio/mp3 application/pdf Description An account of the resource A sermon given by Richard A. Rhem (Dick) on April 9, 2000 entitled "Harmless Religion: Loss of Soul", as part of the series "The Human Face of God", on the occasion of Lent V, at Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI. Scripture references: Amos 5:21, 24, 7:13, John 11:48. Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Lemmen Library and Archives Historical Jesus Prophetic Voice Transformation; Justice https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/2e31a4b702d0cb9f5551cf93fd77a735.pdf 2e4e68e4d92dc1970b084ad89b322a27 PDF Text Text 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 0f9de7633fea45038484decf9947bd01 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Richard A. Rhem Collection Description An account of the resource Text and sound recordings of the sermons, prayers, services, and articles of Richard Rhem, pastor emeritus of Christ Community Church in Spring Lake, Michigan, where he served for 37 years. Starting in the mid 1980's, Rhem began to question some of the traditional Christian dogma that he had been espousing from the pulpit. That questioning was a first step in a long and interesting spiritual journey, one that he openly shared with his congregation. His journey is important, in part because it is reflective of the questioning, the yearnings, and the gradual revision of beliefs that many persons in this part of the century have experienced and continue to experience. It is important also because of the affirming and inclusive way his questioning was done and his thinking evolved. His sermons and other written and spoken materials together document the steps in his journey as it took a turn in 1985, yet continued to revolve around the framework and liturgies of the Christian calendar. Subject The topic of the resource Clergy--Michigan Reformed Church in America Christ Community Church (Spring Lake, Mich.) Religion Interfaith worship Sermons Sound Recordings Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Rhem, Richard A. Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/514">Richard A. Rhem papers (KII-01)</a> Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives. Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Kaufman Interfaith Institute Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Language A language of the resource English Type The nature or genre of the resource Sound Text Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context KII-01 Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant 1981-2014 Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource audio/mp3 text/pdf Sound A resource primarily intended to be heard. Examples include a music playback file format, an audio compact disc, and recorded speech or sounds. Event Christmas Eve Scripture Text Micah 5:5, Luke 2:14 Location The location of the interview Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context KII-01_RA-0-19941224 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1994-12-24 Title A name given to the resource The Dream of Peace Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Richard A. Rhem Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Subject The topic of the resource Clergy--Michigan Reformed Church in America Christ Community Church (Spring Lake, Mich.) Sermons Relation A related resource Richard A. Rhem - An Archive of Sermons, Prayers, Talks and Stories: http://richardrhem.org/ Language A language of the resource eng Type The nature or genre of the resource Sound Text Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource audio/mp3 application/pdf Description An account of the resource A sermon given by Richard A. Rhem (Dick) on 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. Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Lemmen Library and Archives Christmas Eve Community Justice Peae Prophetic Voice Way of Jesus https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/9884fed57d10a2d2cdd3d81bb4c64745.pdf 0a13e1061f5df9798816819d2b65c765 PDF Text Text Going Home From the Advent Series on “Home” Text: Isaiah 40:1, 11; I Thessalonians 4:17 Richard A. Rhem Christ Community Church Spring Lake, Michigan Advent III, December 11, 1994 Transcription of the spoken sermon I have chosen the texts and the themes for this season in the light of the course that we have followed through the fall in surveying the Biblical story of Israel. We left Israel in exile in Babylon, and I did that purposely because I knew Advent was coming. It’s a marvelous time to pick up the prophetic promises and themes that were addressed to that people in exile. Israel, Judah, in exile was in despair and in the midst of their despair where they were weeping on the banks of the rivers of Babylon, where they could not sing the Lord’s song, in the midst of that despair they received a surprising word of hope. The prophet Jeremiah sent them a letter in which he said to them, in effect, get on with your life and know that the Presence of God is not a matter of geography, but the location of God’s Presence is the heart. “And if with all your heart you truly seek me, you will surely find me,” find the Presence of God even in that situation of exile. Now, after some decades in which indeed they had settled in, there was another word from another prophet. We don’t know who he was, but his work is in Isaiah 40 to 55. This prophet’s word broke the silence and pierced the despair of this people who had given up on the covenant of grace and the promises of God, this people who had finally considered Babylon to be their home, this people who had really forgotten Jerusalem even though they had vowed never to do so. This prophet arose and spoke these words, “Comfort ye, comfort ye my people. You are going home.” This prophet who was a part of that exilic community observed the shifting of the balance of power on the international scene. This was characteristic of Hebrew prophets, for you will remember that it was Habakkuk who saw in the rise of Babylon the instrument through which judgment on Judah, God’s own people, would be brought. Now this prophet sees in the rise of another world power an instrument, not of judgment, but of grace, an instrument of liberation. Indeed, if we would go over just a few more chapters, to the 45th chapter, this is how God addresses the king of Persia, whose name is Cyrus. “Thus says the Lord to his anointed,” to Cyrus. Anointed. God’s anointed. God’s messiah. This king. © Grand Valley State University   �Going Home Richard A. Rhem Page 2   “Thus says the Lord to his anointed,” to Cyrus, “whose right hand I have grasped to subdue nations before him.” Why will God anoint a Cyrus in Persia in order to subdue nations? Well, the fourth verse says, “For the sake of my servant Jacob and Israel my chosen, I call you by your name. I name you though you do not know me.” You see, it was the conviction of the prophets in Israel’s tradition that God was a major player on the scene of history. It was the conviction of these prophets that the decisions were not made in smoke-filled cloakrooms, but rather that God was the invisible player, a major player of the dreams of history. So now we have a prophet bringing comfort, announcing liberation, saying to Judah, “You’re going to go home.” He didn’t immediately respond to the message. As a matter of fact, he resisted the message. He heard a voice that said, “Cry,” or as Martin Luther has translated it perhaps more effectively, he heard a voice that said, “Preach.” And he said, “Preach, why should I preach? The grass withers. The flower fades. Why should I preach?” The word comes back, “Preach. For it is true the grass withers and the flower fades, but the word of our God stands forever.” So this prophet in the dialogue heard the call and was confirmed in his conviction that the word of God after all was a liberating, saving word, and he announced that word in the midst of his people in exile. He said to them in effect, “Be comforted. You are forgiven. You are going home. Announce to the cities of Judah, behold your God.” They went home. They went home and the prophet’s word was confirmed. But it never lived up to the glorious image that he had set. They went home, a remnant. Oh, there was another temple, but it lacked the glory of the former temple. They rebuilt the walls, but that community was nothing more than a worshiping, waiting community in poverty and often in sorry straits. Yet, they went home. The prophet believed that God would bring God’s people home. His vision, his dream was a dream of a fulfillment and the consummation of the whole historical drama that would issue in that messianic kingdom, that kingdom of shalom where lion and lamb would lie down together, and where they would not hurt in all God’s holy mountain. It was a prophetic conviction that God is a major player in history. Do you believe that? For some nineteen hundred years the Jews in dispersion after 70 AD celebrated their Passover wherever they were and in the liturgy there were the words, “Next year in Jerusalem.” Rabbi David Hartman of Jerusalem says that, after nineteen hundred years, today they celebrate Passover in Jerusalem. Do you think that that has anything to do with God’s involvement in the drama of history? Did Habakkuk see behind Babylon’s rise the judgment of God? Did the prophet of this morning’s lessons see, behind the rise of Cyrus, God’s engagement? I suppose we © Grand Valley State University �Going Home Richard A. Rhem Page 3   could talk about that all day and not solve it, but that really is not the question of this Advent Sunday. The question that I would rather focus you on is this. Is it possible within history to be at home? Is it possible in the midst of our human experience, in the stream of history, is it possible to be home? Maybe Israel’s best gift to the world is the possibility of being home in history. If you read the Hebrew Scriptures there’s not much about anything beyond. There’s not anything about heaven. There’s not any discussion of life after death. Maybe Israel’s best gift to the world was the call to celebrate here and now. Israel delights in life—celebrates life. I think that it has a real gift to give us in calling us not to miss this life, to enjoy God in the land of the living. The Christian emphasis, in contrast, that has put the focus on heaven, that has been somewhat other worldly, has often removed from us the valuing of this life, and not enabled us to celebrate this life, I think, as perhaps God the creator of all would have us celebrate it. Israel celebrates God in this present life. History within history. Yet, I wonder if it’s enough? Bertrand Russell the English philosopher and avowed atheist writes this, “Brief and powerless is man’s life. On him and all his race the slow, sure doom sinks pitiless and dark, blind to good and evil. Omnipotent matter rolls on its relentless way, for man condemned today to lose his dearest, tomorrow himself to pass through the gates of darkness. It remains only to cherish ere yet the blow falls the lofty thoughts that ennoble his little day.” Sounds almost like the pessimism of the prophet who said, “All flesh is grass. The grass withers, the flower fades.” Bertrand Russell says, I may lose the love of my life unless for me the bell tolls first. That being the reality of our human situation, is it enough? Can one be home within history? It wasn’t enough for the people in Thessalonica. Paul had gone there preaching the Gospel. He preached a crucified, risen, ascended, reigning, coming Lord. And he preached it with such urgency and he pointed to the imminence of that return with such power that the people in Thessalonica began to expect that any moment the heavens would open and the clouds would be illumined and the Lord of Glory would appear. Then someone lost the love of her life. Then someone received the death sentence and they began to wonder, if I should die before the clouds sparkle with the appearing Lord, will I miss out on it all? Paul wrote to them to say, “No. We who are alive at the coming of the Lord won’t have an advantage over those who have died. For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, so those who fall asleep in Jesus, God will bring with him. So I write these things to you that you sorrow not as those who have no hope. I write these things to you; comfort one another with these words.” Paul’s pastoral concern for this people was to assure them that the entrance of death before the advent of the end did not mean that one would miss the party. He went on to describe the scenario of the end. Archangels, trumpets, clouds. And it didn’t happen. © Grand Valley State University �Going Home Richard A. Rhem Page 4   The messianic kingdom hasn’t come either. As I observe our history in our day it doesn’t seem that we are any closer to seeing the lion and the lamb lying down together than when the prophet dreamed the dream. And when I read Paul’s dramatic presentation of the end event and realize that it’s two thousand years later, frankly, I’m not going to hold my breath. Interesting, isn’t it, that both the prophet and the apostle had this intuitive sense of some kind of completion? But the images in which they set it forth, the symbols with which they presented it, the pictures that they painted in both cases—they haven’t come to be. They may still, and yet I wonder if perhaps the prophet’s dream and the apostle’s vision are not rather pictures of an intuitive conviction and truth that within history no one can finally be home. Oh, to be sure, the prophet’s dream had the culmination within history. The apostle, who was nurtured on that dream, had a vision of a culmination beyond history’s end. But, never mind. Both of them had to believe. In the case of the Hebrew prophet, the end could not be the chaos of history, but rather its resolution. And in the case of the apostle, the end could not be a gaping grave, but a meeting with God the Lord, the presence of God’s people with God everlastingly. Both the prophet and the apostle were simply wrong in the portrait that they drew or painted. So what? How would you have drawn it? They were stumbling, stammering humans trying to give some expression to something that was deep within them, that the end could not be history’s chaos nor the cold and open grave, but rather that there was yet something, something more. You see it seems to me that both the prophet and the apostle had that deep sense that yes. . . yes, the grass withers and the flower fades, yes . . . human life ends with history still in chaos and those who have loved experiencing loss, but there must be something more. I think both the prophet and the apostle, and I think probably you and I as well, know that God has made us such that we will always, always break down those end points. We will not be satisfied. There is something insatiable within the human mind and within the human heart. Within the human being there’s something that will not be satisfied until finally there is an expansiveness that we have not yet dreamed of. There is something in us that says there are places I have not yet gone, there are words I have not spoken, there are loves I have not yet expressed. There is not the possibility in the brief span of this historical existence to satisfy all of that that is within me. I’ll never, never, never rest with the contingency of history’s whirlpool. I will believe, I will hope that beyond somewhere, someway, sometime all of this that is in me that yearns for expression, for expansiveness, for eternity will be satisfied. Probably not with lions and lambs lying down together. Probably not as the issue of some flaming deity from heaven. But there must be something more. For down deep within us, when surrounded with the blackness of the darkest night, Oh how lonely death can be. At the end of this long tunnel there shines a light where death is swallowed up in victory. Can you imagine stepping on shore and finding it heaven? Of touching a hand and finding it God’s? Of breathing new air and finding it celestial? Of waking up in glory and finding you’re home . . . finally home? © Grand Valley State University � https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/f5dd3e967c8f36104f7ce83aa4a2cc68.mp3 4be04070436fd41993994f6c0dc26761 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Richard A. Rhem Collection Description An account of the resource Text and sound recordings of the sermons, prayers, services, and articles of Richard Rhem, pastor emeritus of Christ Community Church in Spring Lake, Michigan, where he served for 37 years. Starting in the mid 1980's, Rhem began to question some of the traditional Christian dogma that he had been espousing from the pulpit. That questioning was a first step in a long and interesting spiritual journey, one that he openly shared with his congregation. His journey is important, in part because it is reflective of the questioning, the yearnings, and the gradual revision of beliefs that many persons in this part of the century have experienced and continue to experience. It is important also because of the affirming and inclusive way his questioning was done and his thinking evolved. His sermons and other written and spoken materials together document the steps in his journey as it took a turn in 1985, yet continued to revolve around the framework and liturgies of the Christian calendar. Subject The topic of the resource Clergy--Michigan Reformed Church in America Christ Community Church (Spring Lake, Mich.) Religion Interfaith worship Sermons Sound Recordings Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Rhem, Richard A. Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/514">Richard A. Rhem papers (KII-01)</a> Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives. Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Kaufman Interfaith Institute Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Language A language of the resource English Type The nature or genre of the resource Sound Text Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context KII-01 Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant 1981-2014 Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource audio/mp3 text/pdf Sound A resource primarily intended to be heard. Examples include a music playback file format, an audio compact disc, and recorded speech or sounds. Event Advent III Scripture Text Isaiah 40:1, 11, I Thessalonians 4:17 Location The location of the interview Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context KII-01_RA-0-19941211 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1994-12-11 Title A name given to the resource Going Home Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Richard A. Rhem Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Subject The topic of the resource Clergy--Michigan Reformed Church in America Christ Community Church (Spring Lake, Mich.) Sermons Relation A related resource Richard A. Rhem - An Archive of Sermons, Prayers, Talks and Stories: http://richardrhem.org/ Language A language of the resource eng Type The nature or genre of the resource Sound Text Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource audio/mp3 application/pdf Description An account of the resource A sermon given by Richard A. Rhem (Dick) on December 11, 1994 entitled "Going Home", on the occasion of Advent III, at Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI. Scripture references: Isaiah 40:1, 11, I Thessalonians 4:17. Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Lemmen Library and Archives Advent Grace Hope Liberation Prophetic Voice Shalom https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/4e9f60a375d2f729ab7d8dc79453a6b1.pdf f513cd5db928d66dccd187ffcbc1cd6c PDF Text Text Speaking Truth to Power Pentecost XXV Text: Amos 7:15-16 Richard A. Rhem Christ Community Church Spring Lake, Michigan November 13, 1994 Transcription of the spoken sermon "… and the Lord took me . . . and the Lord said to me, 'Go, prophesy to my people Israel. Now therefore hear the word of the Lord." Amos 7:15-16 In our survey of the story of Israel, the Hebrew Scriptures, we came two weeks ago to Israel having moved into its Promised Land, into Canaan. It was after a century of more of existence in that land as the tribal confederacy where the tribes lived pretty much independently, but came together annually to renew the covenant, at a time of crisis, and where God would then raise up a leader for the occasion. After that period of time of settling in, there were voices being raised that they wanted a king – they would be like other nations. The great spiritual leader, Samuel, prophet, priest and judge, gave them a stern warning. He reminded them that they were a people who had been born in the exodus, set free by God from the oppression of tyranny, and he warned them that to put a king on a throne would be to put themselves in peril of returning to that same kind of tyrannical rule. The king would tax them, take their sons and daughters, conscript an army. They would come under the heavy hand of a ruling power. But nonetheless, the people said, "Give us a king." So the tribal confederacy moved into a monarchy and Israel began to reflect the same kind of life as the nations around it, but with this exception. With the rise of the monarchy there arose in Israel a voice of the prophet. The thing that made Israel's history unique was the fact that there was a prophet to speak the Word of God into the social context, into the political arena. The prophet was not a predictor of the future. The prophet was a preacher who addressed the contemporary situation in the name of God. So Israel was spared that which was true of nations around where the king considered himself sovereign, accountable to no one. The prophet never failed to remind the king that he was king according to the grace of God, and that he was accountable to God. So the prophet arose in Israel to keep alive the Word of God in this new situation. The prophet was one who was not interested in power, who had no political agenda, but rather was consumed by the Spirit of God. © Grand Valley State University   �Speaking Truth to Power Richard A. Rhem Page 2   We speak of the inspiration of the prophets. The word itself, inspiration, means to be inspirited, to breathe in. We often speak of the Spirit of God, knowing that it is the same word in Hebrew as the "breath of God" or the "wind of God." The wind of God rippled the sails of the prophet. And often times the prophet would rather not have opened his mouth, but as Jeremiah said, "The word of God was like a fire in my bones." The prophet was consumed with the word that had to come to expression. It was a risky business and a costly business. Think of one who followed in the steps of those Old Testament prophets, Jesus himself, who died the way he died because he lived the way he lived. In our own century, think of a Dietrich Bonhoeffer, who dared to stand up against national socialism in that Nazi regime, and paid for his prophetic ministry with his life. The role of the prophets and martyrs goes on and on. The prophet that arose in Israel with the rise of monarchy was Israel's greatest gift to the world, shaping Israel's tradition more than any other institution and, I believe, shaping western culture, western civilization probably more than any other institution I can think of. The prophetic word that reminded all arrangements of power that they were provisional, that they were transitory, and that they were not ultimate, that ultimately every arrangement of power on the right or on the left was accountable to Almighty God, who alone is sovereign Lord in the arena of history. The prophet believed that God observed. The prophet believed that God cared. The prophet believed that God was concerned. The prophet believed that God had structured reality such that wrong action would bring dire consequences, and therefore, the prophet stood in the arena, the marketplace of his day and proclaimed a Word of God to whomever was in power. The example that I use this morning to show the rise of this office in the history of Israel was Amos. We could go almost anywhere in those prophetic books, but Amos was particularly classic in the clash between the prophet and the king. Amos began his ministry in the north, probably around 760 B.C.E.. Jeroboam II was on the throne of Israel. The great world empires were engaged with their own affairs and it gave breathing room to Israel. Israel, the northern tribes now, prospered, expanded, grew affluent, and the social structure began to rot. The words of Amos were directed at a social condition in Israel that did not reflect God's requirement of justice and righteousness and mercy in the land. Amos was a preacher. And, he had rather good technique. If you would read the book of Amos, you would find that Amos begins his prophetic preaching, "Thus says the Lord: 'For three transgressions of Damascus, and for four I will not revoke the punishment.' " And the crowd began to gather. Then he went on, "For three transgressions of Gaza, and for four, I will not revoke the punishment." The people began to feel the energy flow. He moves to Tyre and to Edom, and to the Ammonites, and finally he moves to Moab. The people at this point were already to break out in a standing ovation. "Give it to 'em Amos. Give them the Word of the Lord." But then he gets close to home. He said, "For three © Grand Valley State University �Speaking Truth to Power Richard A. Rhem Page 3   transgressions of Judah, and for four, I will not revoke the punishment." Those of the north nodded their heads, "That's right. That southern kingdom. Give it to 'em, Amos." Then, he paused a dramatic pause and said, "For three transgressions of Israel, and for four, I will not revoke the punishment." It is at that point that the congregation says to the preacher, "You just stopped preaching, and you started meddling." Now he was beginning to touch a raw nerve. But it was really always Israel that was the object of Amos's ministry. The Word of God that came to Amos was for Israel. All the rest was simply periphery. Now he was dealing with his target audience, and as he preached he said, "I hate, I despise your festivals. And I take no delight in your solemn assemblies. Even though you offer me burnt offerings and grain offerings, I will not accept them. The offerings of wellbeing, of your fatted animals, I will not look upon them. Take away from me the noise of your songs. I will not listen to the melody of your harps. But let justice roll down like water and righteousness like an overflowing stream." He documented the sins of the society of his day. Finally word got to the royal court itself, for Amos didn't stop at the villages of the northern kingdom, he went right to Bethel, right there to the royal court with the temple as the accoutrement of its power and glory. Now every king has his own people on the dole, even religious flunkies. The king, Jeroboam II, had his core of priests who offered sacrifices for the prosperity of the policies of the northern kingdom. Amaziah was among them. He heard Amos preach and hurried back to the court and told the king, "This preaching has got to stop. He is saying that you will die by the sword, and that we will be exiled from our land returning no doubt with a mandate." He said to Amos, "Oh seer, go flee away to the land of Judah and earn your bread there. Prophesy there. But never again prophesy in Bethel, for it is the king's sanctuary. It is the temple of the kingdom." Well, Amos answered, "I am no prophet, nor prophet’s son. I am a herdsman and dresser of sycamore trees, but the Lord came to me and said, 'Go prophesy to my people Israel. Therefore, hear the Word of the Lord.' " Risky business that, daring to speak truth to power. But that was the function of the prophet, of the prophetic voice that arose along with the monarchy in order that the king of Israel and all of Israel's people would never fail to remember that God was still king, and that God still cared, and what happened to society was of great concern to God, because God cares about people, because God had set this people free, because God demands in the human community justice and righteousness and mercy. Wherever those are violated, there are dire consequences to follow. The prophet was a preacher. He often spoke of judgment because he was convinced that the world was so structured by the Creator of heaven and earth that wrong would be visited with wrath, not as an end in itself, but in order finally to effect the purposes of God. Amos was a prophet, and the prophets dared to speak truth to power. © Grand Valley State University �Speaking Truth to Power Richard A. Rhem Page 4   Last Sunday I was in Amsterdam on an absolutely beautiful Lord's Day, where I worshipped in the great Westerkerk. If there is a national church of The Netherlands, perhaps that's it, where the queen is crowned and so forth. The pastor is Nico TerLinde, who two years ago visited Christ Community on a Wednesday night and spoke to us. The church was filled for this powerful preacher, who has a great work going in that secular city of Amsterdam. When he was with us he told us the story of his early pastorate in north Holland, where they invited him to come into the public school to tell Bible stories to the children. Now, if you can believe, in Holland with all of its Christian heritage, there is now a generation that doesn't even know the Bible stories. So in the public school they were inviting a pastor in, not to evangelize, not to present the Gospel so to speak, but simply to tell the stories so that the stories stay alive, as works of literature. He decided to begin with the story of Abraham. He said, "And God said to Abraham," and a little nine year old raised his hand and he said, "Does God still say something?" TerLinde said, "That's a profound question." Well, what do you think? Does God still say something? Was prophecy an institution of ancient Israel, or is the office of the prophet still alive and well in our present experience? From the New York Times of October 29, I have the picture of one who looks every bit the part of a prophet — long beard, hand over forehead, eyes closed. Of course, it’s Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, and the report is of his address to the Russian Parliament in October. Having visited so much of the Russian people, he stood before the Parliament to tell them the people are discouraged, they have lost hope, they have no faith in the government, and they don't believe the reforms are serious. The people are in despair. He pleaded with the leaders of Parliament to be genuine about the reforms. He said, "This is not a democracy, it’s an oligarchy, the rule of a few." There was a little applause, but mostly there was silence. There was some muttering, and visible exits by politicians going out for a smoke. He went on to make his plea and, although he is Russia's finest historian who has put his own life on the line and has dared speak truth to power at the jeopardy of his own life, nonetheless, when he closed with a call for speedier advance toward real democracy there was a smattering of applause, but no more. I would say that Solzhenitsyn is a prophet in our time. I would say that most often you'll look outside the institutional church for the prophetic voice. It is so often the case that the Word of God sounds from other arenas because the institutional church itself gets co-opted into the whole cultural process. No, prophecy was not simply a phenomenon of ancient Israel. It is a desperately needed office to be exercised in our day. I can understand the rise of prophecy in Israel. After all, they had been a theocracy. They had understood that God was their king. So the rise of the prophet in that tradition can be somewhat understandable. But what about our own nation? What about today? We have to remember that as a nation we were founded in a reaction. We were founded in a reaction to the European scene, the old medieval structures, the feudal structures, the often © Grand Valley State University �Speaking Truth to Power Richard A. Rhem Page 5   collusion of throne and altar. This nation's founding documents intentionally and deliberately separate church and state. That was a reaction. It was an experiment. And it has borne fruit. In the intention of our founding documents there is the preservation of the guarantee of the free exercise of religion. There is to be no domination of religion in the political arena where there are many interested parties who are all vying for their rights and their privileges, where the political situation demands accommodation and compromise and rational discussion. That has all been a positive experience in our national experience. But in the last few decades that whole separation of church and state has come under criticism. We don't really understand how to handle it today. There have been judicial decisions that have been detrimental, I believe, to the moral fabric of the country. And there have been decisions that have not only separated church and state, but have trivialized religious devotion. Stephen Carter, the brilliant black law professor at Yale University, a couple of years ago published a book The Culture of Disbelief, in which he pointed out case after case of judicial decisions that not only honored the separation of church and state, but were actually prejudicial to religious commitment. Well, you say, "Maybe that's why we have the anger in the body politic today." And, I suppose it is. Maybe you are thinking now that the Christian Coalition, the organization of the religious right has taken upon itself the mantle of a prophet. I suspect that that's what would be claimed. But I deny that that's the case. I do not deny the right of the religious right or any group to organize and to make its claims. I do not question the sincerity of these people, nor fail to understand the reason for their frustration. But I want to say to you that the technique that is being pursued by the religious right is wrong, and it is contrary to the Biblical, prophetic tradition. The prophet was disinterested. The prophet did not have a political agenda. The prophet was not seeking power. The prophet spoke truth to power. The prophet stood over against the power, whatever the organization may be. It doesn't matter whether it is right or left, whether it is socialist or free enterprise. It doesn't matter what the governmental structure may be. It doesn't matter what the economic system may be. The prophet stood for justice and righteousness and mercy and compassion in the midst of the market place, speaking to king or priest or prophet, never co-opted by the king, or the people in general. The prophet was a lonely voice, disinterested, seeking no power. My argument with the Christian Coalition, with the religious right, is that, in order to address the wrongs that it sees, it is seeking power, and if it should gain power it will lose the possibility of being prophetic. A society that does not have a prophetic voice that is disinterested and stands over against all arrangements of power is a society in peril. History is replete with examples of religion in power, and there is no more perilous place for power than in the religious establishment. A secular ruler may be careless, may be godless. But a religious ruler with a sense of a mandate from God is absolutist like no secular ruler would ever dare be. A society will be in © Grand Valley State University �Speaking Truth to Power Richard A. Rhem Page 6   trouble when there is a collusion of throne and altar. It will be in serious trouble when the altar becomes the throne. If you ever elect a prophet, you'll take away his power and he will lose his soul. The prophet stands over against every human arrangement — right or left and says, "Hear the Word of the Lord." No amount of religious observance will substitute for justice and righteousness and compassion. The prophet called people and king to love mercy and to do justly, and to walk humbly with God. Don't empower the prophet. But let the prophet continue to speak truth to power. © Grand Valley State University � https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/a1461b8863d2067aaf3ea50f75e9ea01.mp3 8a3fb9831572eb7e5fb127c230a7fec7 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Richard A. Rhem Collection Description An account of the resource Text and sound recordings of the sermons, prayers, services, and articles of Richard Rhem, pastor emeritus of Christ Community Church in Spring Lake, Michigan, where he served for 37 years. Starting in the mid 1980's, Rhem began to question some of the traditional Christian dogma that he had been espousing from the pulpit. That questioning was a first step in a long and interesting spiritual journey, one that he openly shared with his congregation. His journey is important, in part because it is reflective of the questioning, the yearnings, and the gradual revision of beliefs that many persons in this part of the century have experienced and continue to experience. It is important also because of the affirming and inclusive way his questioning was done and his thinking evolved. His sermons and other written and spoken materials together document the steps in his journey as it took a turn in 1985, yet continued to revolve around the framework and liturgies of the Christian calendar. Subject The topic of the resource Clergy--Michigan Reformed Church in America Christ Community Church (Spring Lake, Mich.) Religion Interfaith worship Sermons Sound Recordings Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Rhem, Richard A. Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/514">Richard A. Rhem papers (KII-01)</a> Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives. Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Kaufman Interfaith Institute Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Language A language of the resource English Type The nature or genre of the resource Sound Text Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context KII-01 Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant 1981-2014 Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource audio/mp3 text/pdf Sound A resource primarily intended to be heard. Examples include a music playback file format, an audio compact disc, and recorded speech or sounds. Event Pentecost XXV Series The First Testament Scripture Text Amos 7: 15-16 Location The location of the interview Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context KII-01_RA-0-19941113 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1994-11-13 Title A name given to the resource Speaking Truth to Power Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Richard A. Rhem Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Subject The topic of the resource Clergy--Michigan Reformed Church in America Christ Community Church (Spring Lake, Mich.) Sermons Relation A related resource Richard A. Rhem - An Archive of Sermons, Prayers, Talks and Stories: http://richardrhem.org/ Language A language of the resource eng Type The nature or genre of the resource Sound Text Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource audio/mp3 application/pdf Description An account of the resource A sermon given by Richard A. Rhem (Dick) on November 13, 1994 entitled "Speaking Truth to Power", as part of the series "The First Testament", on the occasion of Pentecost XXV, at Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI. Scripture references: Amos 7: 15-16. Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Lemmen Library and Archives Hebrew Scriptures History of Israel Justice Prophetic Voice https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/115831b290012fc260d978e1407e23e4.pdf 6d2a050495d3a48293ee62f21e4f8ec3 PDF Text Text The Grace to Recognize the Future Text: Luke 2:32 Richard A. Rhem Christ Community Church Spring Lake, Michigan Christmastide II, January 2, 1994 Transcription of the spoken sermon "…A light that will be a revelation to the nations and glory to thy people Israel.” It is the first Lord's Day of a new year, and the new year is a time for prognosticating - projecting the future. We have come through the old year and have taken inventory, and now it's the problem of trying to secure our future by strategizing and planning and figuring out what we want to do with our investments, with our business, with our profession, with our lives. As a community of God's people, this second Sunday in Christmastide allows us to return once more to the Christmas story, and on the first Lord's Day of a new year to ask ourselves what that story calls us to be as a people of God. I would like to suggest that we need grace. We need grace to recognize the future. The future is upon us whether we recognize it or not but, if God would give us grace, we might recognize and receive that future and become more closely identified with the purposes of God for the world and for us, God's people. We are a people who live by a vision. Stemming from the prophets, the whole Western World is a world that thinks in terms of a beginning and a consummation, in contrast to Eastern spirituality that lives in a kind of cyclical eternal return. We think more in terms of that linear movement, the drama of history. History had a beginning when God said, "Let there be," and that history will have a consummation when God says, "Time shall be no more." We have just celebrated and are celebrating the Good News that, in the meantime, in this historical drama of which we are a part, God is with us. God had visited God's people, and the "Word was made flesh and dwelt among us." So, we in Christmastide are a people who celebrate the presence of God with us as we move toward the future. We are a biblical people who live by that kind of vision. It is important for us to understand the contours of the future to the extent that is possible - to the extent that we can discern that from the word of God and the drama of salvation that is being played out in our midst. I call you this morning to seek the grace to recognize the future in order that we might be what God might have us be. In order to do that, it is always necessary to hear again the Gospel in a new way in terms of that concrete context in which we live, on the first Sunday of © Grand Valley State University   �Grace to Recognize the Future Richard A. Rhem Page 2   a new year, as we think about the future before us, set our goals and make our plans. In this concrete context, as those who would live by the Gospel, how ought we to fashion our lives and set our goals and make our plans? Simeon was a beautiful old man, and one of our favorite biblical characters, I suppose. Simeon was one who had the grace to recognize the future. Joseph and Mary brought the child to the temple to fulfill the legal requirements according to the Law of Moses for the child and for Mary. The Holy Spirit nudged old Simeon and said, "Go and look upon that child." He took that child in his arms and had the sense that now the future had been opened - that for which he had been watching and waiting was now present in this child. He had the grace to recognize the future as an old man who had lived righteously and devoutly; that is, he had lived with integrity in all his human relationships and he had been devout in that he worshipped God and trusted God. He is characterized as one of those who was watching and waiting, and trusting and hoping, and praying - and in the child he saw the fulfillment of his hopes, the realization that God was moving now in a significant way to effect God's purposes. So he sang a song. He sang a Psalm, "Lord, now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace, according to thy word; for mine eyes have seen thy salvation which thou hast prepared in the presence of all peoples, a light for the nations, and a glory for thy people Israel." The Song of Simeon, Nunc dimittis, coming from the first two words in Latin of a translation of a Psalm. Luke begins the story of Jesus with singers. He laces into the nativity narrative the song of Zechariah, the song of Mary, and the song of Simeon. Those songs are at the beginning of the story of Jesus for a very good reason. We have beautiful old Simeon, having lived well, ready now to die in peace. That would really be a wonderful way in which simply to close the Christmas season. In fact, I would suggest that if I had my "druthers" I would quit now, we would take the offering and go home. For after all, it is a wonderful story. The child in the arms of an old man, an old man who had lived righteously, worshiped faithfully, lived with hope and trust and found the realization of his dream, and would die in peace. That is a wonderful story! It would be worth the price of admission this morning. We could go home how. But that's not all Simeon had to say. So, if I would be faithful to the Gospel, I have to go on to tell you what more Simeon said about this child. He said, "This child will be for the fall and rising of many in Israel. He will be a sign spoken against." Then he looked at Mary and he said, "And a sword will pierce your heart." I suppose I could have entitled this message "The Shadow Side of Christmas," because Simeon was not only a beautiful model of living well and dying peacefully, he is also one who had the grace to recognize the future and to see in Jesus a future that would call people into the crisis of decision because Simeon recognized that the future of God was a future that pointed to the transformation of human society, the transformation of the human condition. © Grand Valley State University �Grace to Recognize the Future Richard A. Rhem Page 3   The song of Simeon like the songs of Zechariah and Mary is a song of revolution. These are revolutionary ballads. Luke puts them intentionally at the beginning of his gospel in order to say that God intends to do something in this old world through this child, and that this child will set in motion what God intends, that the world be changed, that the human condition be transformed. That means that this child will not simply be sweet little Jesus boy, but one who will face us with the crisis of decision and call us to follow in a way that will result in the transformation of human society. It will be a sign spoken against. He will not be taken lightly, not perceived readily. Mary will bury her child for the way he will go. For in this child was the beginning of a guerilla warfare on this world, whose end is the kingdom of God, the Shalom of the messianic age. Maybe for just a few moments we ought to think about Jesus and the implications of Christmas for our lives as individuals and as a community. We have been looking at a mission statement or an identity statement in which we have recognized the grace of God that embraces all and excludes none. I believe that is the intention of the gospel. We have failed, I think, to recognize the revolutionary ferment that the gospel of Jesus Christ injects into the human situation. As I said, the song of Zechariah, and the song of Mary, and the song of Simeon were songs that might be compared to a Joan Baez in the 60s. These were the ballads of the underside of society. These were the people of no account who saw in Jesus the possibility of the transformation of the human situation. What was the human situation? Well, the human situation was set forth by Luke when he says that Caesar Augustus made a decree that all the world should be taxed. Governments tax people. That's what they are about. In Imperial Rome, they were not asking what was just or fair, or good for the provinces. They were asking, "How much revenue do we need in order to support the apparatus of the Imperial government?" So the decree went out and Joseph could load his very pregnant wife onto a mule and head for Bethlehem whether it was convenient or not. There were masses of peasant people who were displaced and dispossessed. It was a society in which the masses were marginalized and living at a subsistence level. The country priests, of whom Zechariah was a model, sang the Benedictus, saying now God finally has redeemed and visited God's people. Mary was just an ordinary girl, just a peasant girl, and she sang the Magnificat, in which she spoke about how the mighty were thrown down and the lowly were lifted up. Simeon said, "This one will be a sign spoken of again because he will be for the fall and rise of many in Israel." These were the revolutionary ballads of a people who were oppressed and exploited, dispossessed and dominated. The world was in the control of a Caesar in Rome, who had his Herod in Jerusalem, who had his Caiaphas in the Church. And in that collusion of government power and ecclesiastical power— the poor, the masses, were dispossessed, exploited, abused, and their lot was a sorry one. The story of Jesus is called Gospel, which means literally good news. But was it good news for Caesar Augustus? You had better believe it wasn't. Was it good © Grand Valley State University �Grace to Recognize the Future Richard A. Rhem Page 4   news for Herod? Not at all! Herod was so "antsy" at the announcement of the possibility of the birth of royalty that he had all the innocents slaughtered: all male children, two years and under, were put to the sword lest there be any pretender to his throne and to his power. Those who are in power will do everything possible for the perpetuation of that power, for the insuring and the securing of a position of power and influence. The world is no different today than it was then. It was no different then than it is today. The gospel was good news - not to those who were in charge, but to those who were underdogs. The shadow side of Christmas is a shadow side to the rich and the powerful. It is good news to the poor. Richard Horsley has a book published this past year called The Liberation of Christmas, and when I saw the title I thought perhaps it was another one of those spiritual harangues about how we have commercialized and sentimentalized Christmas. But when I got to reading it, I found it is one of those intense New Testament studies which is going on so much in our day, where the gospel and the story of Jesus is being rooted in its concrete historical, social, political and economic context. Richard Horsley, in order to help the likes of us to understand the nature of the gospel, gives us an analogy out of our own day and our own situation in this nation (North America) over against Latin America. He tells the story about what has gone on over the last thirty or forty years in Guatemala and Nicaragua. I am embarrassed to tell you I know very little about it. I think from the hints I get that you and I would be horrified at the atrocities that have been perpetuated south of our border. We have our hands clean, but like Caesar we have had our Herods. We have buttressed the strong men with their secret police forces. The news has leaked out to us. We learn, for example, when Oscar Romero, the Archbishop in El Salvador, is gunned down at the altar in 1980 because he had gone to the side of the peasant and the poor. We hear about it in our newspapers when six nuns are gunned down by the secret police. We hear about it when the oppressor gets out of bounds and the situation becomes so atrocious that the world finally sits up and takes notice. But until such time, what we really care about is not someone who is in power, who is concerned about peace and justice. What we really care about and in a matter of national policy is that someone who is in control will keep the natives from being too restless, and who will, for God's sake, keep the communist threat from invading our hemisphere. That was the story for the last forty years. When Horsley gives the analogy of our involvement in the poverty and destitution and hopelessness of the masses of Latin America, he tells also of how in these base communities, little household groups are springing up all over the place down there. He tells how these poor folk begin to read these stories and they read those songs at the beginning of Luke's gospel and they say, "God cares about us. God is into liberation." It is not accidental that liberation theology has arisen in South America and Latin America, and that the model, the paradigm in the biblical © Grand Valley State University �Grace to Recognize the Future Richard A. Rhem Page 5   story that they have latched onto is the Exodus -when God with a mighty hand delivered a band of slaves out of Pharaoh's power. Now, the Christmas story is a story of radical revolution. In order not to hear it, we have successfully spiritualized it. For most of my ministry, and most of your experience, the message would have been stopped ten minutes ago with Simeon, an old man, hoping watching, praying, living well - dying in peace. Period! And to the likes of us, that's good news, and it doesn't reach into the dark corners of our community and national and ecclesiastical situations at all. It's comfortable. In fact, it's inspiring, and it's true. But it is not the whole story. With every returning Christmas it gets more difficult for me to figure out how in the world the likes of us can speak of Christmas as the Good News. It wasn't good news in Rome, it wasn't good news in Jerusalem, and it isn't really good news in the church. There is a guy I don't like very well. I am glad that it seems as though his sun is setting. His name is Jesse Jackson. But, I don't like him very well. In a presidential election or two ago when Jesse was running, he made a speech before the Democratic convention and there was one statement that struck me and has stayed with me. He was talking about his Rainbow Coalition. He was talking about race, poverty and the ghettos of the city, etc. Then he said, "Someone said to me, ‘Why do you meddle in these unpopular issues?'" (I suppose it's like someone saying to me, "Preacher, why don't you be user friendly?") "I deal with these issues," he said," because they are moral issues, and if they are moral issues, they will become political issues." I heard that and had to admit he was right. Do you want an example? South Africa (ten years ago, fifteen to twenty years ago). Didn't we wonder whether it would end in an explosion and a blood bath? Then events move along to a point at which someone like de Klerk comes along to see the inevitability of a sharing of power and, against great resistance, exercises leadership and moves it to a place where today there is the possibility of the first universal election and democratically elected government in their history. Chief Buthelezi, the black chieftain who wants to maintain his own power may yet undercut it. The white supremacists who want to maintain their own power and prestige and position may yet torpedo it. But, maybe it will happen. Sometimes it is easier to see the dynamics half a world away. All the dynamics were there - the same dynamics that operated with Caesar and Herod and Caiaphas when this child was born. Those in power would do everything possible to perpetuate power, even to the use of police force intimidation whatever it took. When you are in power, and when you have the wealth and the authority of the organization, you can hold the lid on for a long time. But - if it's a moral issue, it will become a political issue. You know why? Is it just because people finally will rise up? No, I will tell you why. Do you know why people will finally rise up? Because God loves people, and God is on the side of the poor and the oppressed and the exploited and the dominated, and the Good News of the Gospel was not about God sending a Savior into the world that I might be forgiven and go to © Grand Valley State University �Grace to Recognize the Future Richard A. Rhem Page 6   heaven. My goodness, haven't we domesticated the Gospel? Is that what it's about? Or is it about changing the world? Is it about changing society? Is it about facing up to the moral issues and using every bit of power we have in order to be on the side of justice and righteousness, leading toward peace? Will we have the grace to recognize the future? That's where the future is. Isaiah knew it. Micah knew it. Jesus knew it. Old Simeon knew it. And, therefore, they joined God's guerilla corps for the casting down of the mighty who held rule by intimidation, coercion and oppression, and joined the side of those who were looking for a humane existence. You know, even if we didn't believe in God, even if we didn't believe in the future that God intends, even if we didn't feel the call of the Gospel to be involved with God's spirit in the world. If we were just smart, we would try to wipe out every situation where there is inhumanity, where people live with less than human dignity, where they might come to the conclusion finally that "burn baby, burn, I've got nothing to lose anyway"—where there is violence in our streets, where people gun down people because, if my life doesn't mean anything to me, your life doesn't mean anything either because human existence has degenerated to that point. If we were nothing but smart, shrewd, clever we would recognize that we ought to be about the humanization of the human lot of every human being. But why not do it with God—with grace, with God's grace—recognizing that that is where God would have us go. If I had quit twenty minutes ago, it would have been one more wonderful Christmas at Christ Community—live well, die in peace. All of that is true, friends, but it is only half of the story. It is actually a distortion of the real story. Frankly, I would rather not preach this sermon, but I can't help it—it is true. Merry Christmas. © Grand Valley State University � https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/2392bbcbda31bdaa55f7ebc75ae7434b.mp3 7eecca40329aab002645d2cb8f8ac740 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Richard A. Rhem Collection Description An account of the resource Text and sound recordings of the sermons, prayers, services, and articles of Richard Rhem, pastor emeritus of Christ Community Church in Spring Lake, Michigan, where he served for 37 years. Starting in the mid 1980's, Rhem began to question some of the traditional Christian dogma that he had been espousing from the pulpit. That questioning was a first step in a long and interesting spiritual journey, one that he openly shared with his congregation. His journey is important, in part because it is reflective of the questioning, the yearnings, and the gradual revision of beliefs that many persons in this part of the century have experienced and continue to experience. It is important also because of the affirming and inclusive way his questioning was done and his thinking evolved. His sermons and other written and spoken materials together document the steps in his journey as it took a turn in 1985, yet continued to revolve around the framework and liturgies of the Christian calendar. Subject The topic of the resource Clergy--Michigan Reformed Church in America Christ Community Church (Spring Lake, Mich.) Religion Interfaith worship Sermons Sound Recordings Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Rhem, Richard A. Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/514">Richard A. Rhem papers (KII-01)</a> Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives. Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Kaufman Interfaith Institute Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Language A language of the resource English Type The nature or genre of the resource Sound Text Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context KII-01 Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant 1981-2014 Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource audio/mp3 text/pdf Sound A resource primarily intended to be heard. Examples include a music playback file format, an audio compact disc, and recorded speech or sounds. Event Christmastide II Scripture Text Luke 2:32 Location The location of the interview Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context KII-01_RA-0-19940102 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1994-01-02 Title A name given to the resource The Grace To Recognize the Future Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Richard A. Rhem Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Subject The topic of the resource Clergy--Michigan Reformed Church in America Christ Community Church (Spring Lake, Mich.) Sermons Relation A related resource Richard A. Rhem - An Archive of Sermons, Prayers, Talks and Stories: http://richardrhem.org/ Language A language of the resource eng Type The nature or genre of the resource Sound Text Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource audio/mp3 application/pdf Description An account of the resource A sermon given by Richard A. Rhem (Dick) on January 2, 1994 entitled "The Grace To Recognize the Future", on the occasion of Christmastide II, at Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI. Scripture references: Luke 2:32. Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Lemmen Library and Archives Grace Justice Liberation Theology Presence of God Prophetic Voice Transformation of the World