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Religion: Has It a Future?
From the series: Meeting God Again For the First Time
Scripture: Romans 7:14-25; Mark 8:11-21
Dr. Duncan Littlefair
Christ Community Church
Spring Lake, Michigan
September 28, 1997
Transcription of the spoken sermon
(Mr. Rhem)
It is for me a very great pleasure and privilege to introduce to the congregation of
Christ Community and our friends visiting with us today the Rev. Dr. Duncan
Littlefair. My friendship with Dr. Littlefair goes back over a couple of years
through one of those wonderful providences when a friend of his became a friend
of mine, and we found ourselves on Tuesdays enjoying table fellowship and
absolutely wonderful conversation. We meet on Tuesdays religiously. During the
past couple of years in which we have been through some difficult waters, it has
been a source of great encouragement to me to come to know Dr. Littlefair. His
strength and his vision have steeled my purpose. As I said to the 8:30
congregation, when I reflected at the lunch table about the things we were dealing
with, Dr. Littlefair told me that they had handled that 100 years ago at Fountain
Street Church in Grand Rapids and, when I came with some brave new insight, I
found out that he had published it in a primer on religion 50 years ago. I don’t
know why some of us are so Johnny-come-lately, slow to learn, if not slow to
speak. As we gathered around that lunch table, it was obvious to me that there
was fire in the belly, there was a sermon brewing, ready to be delivered, and so I
broached the subject, asking Dr. Littlefair if he would be our guest at Christ
Community. He has been in our worship and warmly affirmed us, but he goes a
step further in giving us the gift this morning of his presence in this pulpit. I want
to say to you very sincerely that I am deeply moved and greatly appreciative of his
presence here this morning. Welcome, Dr. Duncan Littlefair.
(Dr. Littlefair)
You cannot be human without being religious. You may doubt that in the course
of my presentation to you this morning, but I want it to be in your mind. You
cannot be human without being religious.
Now, there are very many levels of humanity, and there are equally many levels of
religion. You can have a profound religion. You can have a trivial religion. You
© Grand Valley State University
�Religion: Has It a Future?
Richard A. Rhem
Page 2
can have an intellectual understanding religion. You can have an ignorant
religion. You can have a religion that is equal to the best of knowledge, or you can
have a religion that is full of superstition, but religious you must be if you’re going
to be human. Or, I like it better the other way, to be human means to be religious.
There has never, ever been a people anywhere in the history of this globe (and
that history goes back a long, long way now; we’ve extended it enormously),
never any people without a religion. Isn’t it, then, more than just a little absurd
that any one religion should claim that it is the only way? If you stop to think
about it, can you imagine anything more absurd than for one religious people to
proclaim that its way of reverencing and worshiping this Creative Source that
makes us is the only way? And Christians have done that all these centuries.
They’re still doing it! Criticizing this church because it moves out to the
possibility - that’s all you’re doing - move out to the possibility that there are
other ways. I cannot contain myself when I hear such stupidity and prejudice as
to assume that there is no other way but your own.
And as a result, Muslim faith grew out of Christianity and Judaism, you know. Of
course you know. And, Islam faith claims that it’s the only valid way and scorns
the Christian, or the Christian scorns the Muslim and the Buddhist. And I’ve been
prophesying for some ten years and I think that it will come to be that any crisis
that occurs in this world will be a crisis between these two faiths proclaiming
themselves to be absolute and the only way. And they are meeting. As Colette
made mention in her prayer, they are meeting across the world and they are
fighting each other. They will engage in mortal conflict. The tenth and eleventh
centuries all over again, and this is the twentieth, moving into the twenty-first. I
know of no institution in the world that is as riddled and ridden by superstition
as religion.
Now, I want to make the definition of religion. I have said that it was a universal
product, that there was never a person or a people without it, never a people, and
that’s historically true, archeologically, anthropologically true, but I’m going to
define religion for you and follow my definition in the course of my discussion
because it doesn’t run counter to what I’ve said, it’s a definition and a description
of it. Religion is to care. That’s all. To care.
Care about what? I think anything. Anything. We start off with our children. We
encourage their caring on their level, whatever it is. Care for money? Fine. Then it
will be your religion. It is the religion of many people. Stupid. Trivial,
insubstantial, insufficient. But, it can be a religion. But, if we start out with
religion as caring, see, then you come to a place like this, this beautiful place, and
you join yourself together with other people like you, beautiful congregation in
this building. I’ve been here, I’ve seen you and felt you. You come to a place like
this, you see, to deepen your caring. To illumine your caring. Enlighten it. Make it
more profound. Make it more impressive and make a greater impact with it on
yourself, and let the chips fall where they may, because you have a society of
persons who care, you’ll have a caring society.
© Grand Valley State University
�Religion: Has It a Future?
Richard A. Rhem
Page 3
Now, I want to mention that I think we are in a cultural crisis in the world. A
cultural crisis is not something that occurs in a lifetime, not a few years or
months, you know. It’s a long, long thing. Our cultural crisis has been brewing for
350 years, maybe 400, we don’t argue about 50 or 100 years in this sort of thing.
It started with the beginning of the scientific approach to knowledge. Not until
the 1500s, Galileo the middle of the 16th century, 1500s, the beginning of the
scientific approach to the world, not to go on here say, not to go on folklore, not
to go on imagination, not to go on superstition, not to go on campfire ideas, but
to begin to probe the nature of the world to see what it’s like, what it’s truly like.
Not until the middle of the 16th century.
It wasn’t until the middle of it the 17th century, which Whitehead calls the century
of genius, that we even discovered the circulation of the blood. And that was the
same century that Newton discovered the nature of gravity. And since then we’ve
been growing so wonderfully in our ideas and appreciations so that now, after
350 years, it’s beginning to take account. It hasn’t taken hold yet. People feel it,
but intellectually it’s not clear. And even our leaders are not talking about it
enough because it’s a frightening thing and they don’t want to offend people.
They don’t want to frighten them, but they are frightened. The people of the
western hemisphere are frightened, and rightly so, because we’re discovering that
we live in a world that can brush us aside like any of the thousands of species that
have been brushed aside, failed and lost out in the past, that can happen to us,
too. We’re not that long established, you know.
I like to point out that the human life has been here maybe a million years and
the dinosaurs were here 100 million years. Now, if you understand the nature of
scientific progression of knowledge and facts, then that has to be significant to
you. And the cultural crisis is that we have to come to the conclusion that things
are in our hands. Oh, I know that I violate most of the ritual that goes on around,
even in this enlightened church, and some of the ritual that goes on in my church,
but we have to come to the conclusion that we are on our own in this world! I
don’t know how any intelligent person could avoid coming to that conclusion, I
just do not understand it. There is to be no divine intervention! There is no
miraculous intercession. Hasn’t been. Is not now, and never will be.
I like the little story in the New Testament, which is a very important book to me,
of Jesus in the midst of a circus, a parade. The man stood up in a tree so that he
could participate in it, and Jesus said, "Come on down. Come on down,
Zaccheaus, and get out of that tree. We’ve got things to do." We’ve got things to
do. Did you hear Colette’s prayer? I have difficulty hearing behind there, but I
heard it. We have to save our environment. We have to save the air. We have to
save the water and make it open and accessible for quality and human living. We
have to save our woods. We have to deal with our hatreds, with our tribal loyalties
and devotions. We have to deal with our selfishness. We have to deal with our
ignorance. We have to deal with our hatred, which leads people to fight against
each other, killing neighbors year after year. No matter what we do, we cannot
© Grand Valley State University
�Religion: Has It a Future?
Richard A. Rhem
Page 4
stop it. This is a cultural crisis and religion is so far showing its awareness of it by
its frantic, absolutely frantic retreat into what I call "warehouse religion,"
emotional binges without the slightest degree of interest in pursuing knowledge,
understanding, and wisdom. Just emotional expression.
Now I want to say, after having indicated that the cultural crisis is hinged on
knowledge, that this kind of knowledge has really nothing to do with religion. I
have a principle that I introduced to the men at lunch and I jokingly call it "The
Littlefair Principle." I thought I might as well, nobody else has said it.
To the degree that any religion depends upon the repudiation of
knowledge and truth and facts, it is to that degree of dependence
spiritually ignorant, illiterate, and unworthy.
Now, the alternative:
To the degree that any religion is founded upon and dependent upon
knowledge of the world, it is to that degree, spiritually invalid.
I have not excluded religion, now, because religion is to care. But, if your caring
involves you repudiating the best and most established knowledge, it’s obviously
unworthy, too trivial for any people to adhere to. But, if you make a religion out
of the facts, you’re missing the whole point of a religion, which is to care.
Now, we do not allow the religionists to tell us what the facts are. That would be
ridiculous. They’re not trained to do it, obviously, are they? You want to know
about the earth, what it’s made of? You want to know its structure, you go to the
geologist, don’t you? They know. They have learned. They’ve applied the scientific
method. They have irrefutable facts, not some dream that arose around a
campfire about what the nature of the earth was. No way.
You want to know about the human body? You go to a biologist. And let me tell
you that I’ve heard from the biologists that if you don’t know the biology of the
last 20 years, you’re ignorant, biologically speaking, so great has been the
advance and growth and knowledge of the body. But, you don’t ask a religionist
about the nature of the body.
You want to know about the structure of things like this? And the rocks and some
trees? You don’t go to the geologist, you go to the physicist and the chemist. He’ll
tell you.
You want to know about the history of life on this planet? You go to the
anthropologist. They’re the ones who have been doing the studying on this thing,
and they know. They’re not guessing, they’re not hoping. They have facts, and
those facts are important for anybody trying to live the modern world so that you
can make your caring an intelligent thing.
© Grand Valley State University
�Religion: Has It a Future?
Richard A. Rhem
Page 5
One other point: We’re on the stage of the democratization of religion. I’ve been
wondering about this for some time and it suddenly occurred to me that what I’ve
been after all these years in my ministry is the democratization of religion. Isn’t it
amazing that we make God a monarch? Have you thought about that? We make
God a monarch. We don’t believe in monarchies! Goodness sakes, we abolished
them long, long ago! Even Japan. Certainly the monarchy in England, Britain, the
one outstanding one is just decorative, it’s not the essence of the British Republic.
We don’t talk about monarchs, but we make God to be sitting on a throne. We
have people supplicating Him, fawning over Him, flattering Him. Most of our
prayers are forms of flattery equivalent to a courtier and an emperor. God is not
Louis XIV. Surely that ought to be clear to us. Degradation. Can you see Jesus on
a throne? Can you really see that? You grew up thinking about it, having it given
to you, and maybe you’re hearing it as adults, too - can you see Jesus on a throne?
The man who put his arms, figuratively, around a prostitute and made her his
best friend - that’s an emperor?
My God and I walk through the fields together,
we laugh and talk as good friends should and do.
Our voices ring with laughter.
My God and I walk through the fields together.
You have your choice. Jesus talked about God as a father, and I assume the best
of fathers is like a friend that you laugh and talk with and walk through the fields
together.
Now, I want very briefly to go to describe something more about religion as
caring. I want to define Spirit for you, and I’ll be back next week, I trust, to talk
some more about it. But, I want to define the Spirit. It just doesn’t get defined. I
do a lot of philosophical reading and it just doesn’t get defined, and I’d like you to
take it home and think with it, about it, and put it together with my notion that
religion is to care. Spirit is to feel while you are aware. Now, listen to this - it’s
not a "thing," almost anyone surely knows with their fourth-grade mind that it’s
not a "thing." It’s not something that resides in the body and comes out. We’ve
thought that for centuries. It’s too late for that kind of thinking. We’ve got things
to do. The Spirit is a part of the body and so much it is a product of the body, and
is never found apart from the body. No Spirit apart from the body. And I gave it
the simple definition and I defy you to exhaust it. You or the geologist or biologist
or anthropologist or any physicist or chemist - it’s a feeling awareness. Doesn’t
sound like very much, but it’s the essence of being human.
We’re not very aware, you know. I challenge you to go back over your drive here
this morning to come to church - what do you remember of it? What were you
aware of when you were driving? Oh, if something happens, you’d see it, if a red
light came on or some child crossed the street, or somebody was driving - you’d
see that and react to that, I know. Squirrels do that. But, what do you feel? What
© Grand Valley State University
�Religion: Has It a Future?
Richard A. Rhem
Page 6
are you aware of? Most of us live in a sleep, really almost 100% sleep. You can
carry on business jobs just by being animal responsive. But, to be feelingly aware.
Do you see this beautiful hanging? Maybe you notice that it’s red or black or
white, but are you aware of it? Are you aware of that beautiful brick wall that you
have? It’s so fascinating to me. I’ve spent my ministry in a church with the most
magnificent stained glass windows in America. I find this wall just a total
fascination. I come in and I sit there and I look at it and I think about it. What are
you aware of? Are you aware of the grass? I’ve been aware this whole season long
of leaves. I can’t believe the wonder of a leaf. And then of the trees - they stagger
me! I cannot comprehend them. And I sit and look and I walk and look and I feel.
The grass - yes. Leaf? - yes. Tree? - yes. Anything. How about a person? Are you
aware of the person that you’re living with? Or is it like your awareness of driving
to church? Women are particularly alert to this. Do you see the face? Do you see
the concern? Do you see the agony? Do you see the depression?
"You have eyes," said Jesus, "and you don’t see." Mr. Rhem read that this
morning. It’s the most profound spiritual observation. "You have ears, but you
don’t hear. You have hearts and you don’t understand. Woe is the person." To
feel, to be aware of anything - anything!
This is God’s world. I hear Him pass in the rustling grass,
I see Him everywhere.
My listening ears all nature sings.
Feeling awareness. And then you treasure it. It’s no use bothering people about
Sunday religion, but, of course, true, it’s wonderful to have it, that kind of Sunday
following a custom, routine - it’s not enough! If you’re going to treasure your
spirit, you have to treasure it every day! Or you lose it. Very few people ever
arrive at the spiritual level, you know that. Jesus knew it. Every spiritual person
has known it. You have to treasure it. You have to pay attention to it as if it were
important, as important as the money you used to care for. Or the success, or the
arrogance, or the pride, or the power. You have to treasure it, because where your
treasure is, there your heart will be, and where your heart is, there your treasure
will be, and if you have a treasuring of the spirit, you have something that nothing
can take away - neither life nor death nor angels nor principalities nor powers nor
height nor depth nor any other creature. Nothing! You treasure it, and you’re
grateful for it.
You’ve got to be grateful, because you didn’t make it. If you want to get down to
the heart of religion, here’s another one of those fundamental things - you didn’t
make it! The thing that you treasure. You didn’t make the leaf, you didn’t make
the flower, you didn’t make the tree, you didn’t make yourself, you didn’t make
your mind, you didn’t make your body. It’s a gift. We call it the gift of God, don’t
we? So, you have to be grateful. No spiritual person swaggers with the qualities of
the Spirit. No. No swaggering with the Spirit. It’s just the utmost of gratitude.
© Grand Valley State University
�Religion: Has It a Future?
Richard A. Rhem
Page 7
And then you celebrate it. You celebrate it by - you come to church and you light
candles and you listen to that beautiful, beautiful music, and you have a birthday
party or you give a gift or you bake a cake and you gather your friends around and
you hold hands, and you say, isn’t it wonderful, the gifts that are ours? That’s a
celebration, and there’s no religion without it. You have to have the Spirit there to
make the celebration significant and real. Now, that’s a description of religion as
best as I can do for you.
What’s the language of religion? Just a word or two now and that’s all. What’s
the language of religion? I said of religion, not about religion, because the
investigation of religion or of anything falls into the realm of scientific categories.
You explore religion like you explore the structure of a city or of an institution or
of a piece of metal. Thus, we use technical language when you want to discuss the
nature of religion. But, what’s the language of religion? I keep trying and I’m a
preacher and I should know how to do it and I feel so helpless at it, and I want to
tell somebody what it means to be in rapture by that blossom that I saw out my
window. How do I do it? How do I tell somebody how much I love them? I don’t
know how to do it; you stagger and you stumble. We don’t do very well at it. Well,
the language of religion is story, it’s poetry. Poetry is the nature of religious
language, because you’re explaining. You see something and you just let go. I
keep thinking of David dancing before the ark of the Lord - just totally feeling. He
expressed it in dance, like you do here so frequently.
I have an enduring memory of being out there last spring sometime and you had
all those children dancing down the aisles. And there was one child who caught
my imagination so that I didn’t want to lose myself in the panorama of it.
Interestingly enough, on the way home, the wife of the person I was driving with
said, "I know who you meant. I saw that, too." What was it? I don’t know. I
couldn’t describe it. But, that girl - she exemplified it to me, with all those
children she exemplified the Spirit, the miracle and wonder of being human. We
use myth and story, legend and song and dance and art. These are the language of
religion. Mr. Bryson plays that organ and has that choir sing so beautifully they’re singing of the Spirit, if you have ears to hear. How better could you
describe Paul’s dilemma, which is yours and mine - "I want to do good and I can’t
because the evil’s all around me. I want to do good and the evil takes over. I know
that in my heart reigns the law of God, but there is another law, the law of my
members entangling me in sin." How would you describe this?
Well, it’s never been better done than it was in our religious heritage. In the
beginning the world was wonderful, beautiful, and everything was there. And
then God made man and it was all right then, too, except that man ate of the fruit
of the tree of knowledge. The fruit of the tree of knowledge. And then he became
like one of us - gods, says the Bible. Knowing good and evil. And if you know good
and evil, you’ll never, ever be totally free! Because the evil is always there; it’s part
of being human. And that’s our biblical story.
© Grand Valley State University
�Religion: Has It a Future?
Richard A. Rhem
Page 8
You want to describe the miracle of life, the wonder of being human, the wonder
of a child which is where we see it most and should not confine ourselves there,
do you want to describe the miracle of the birth of a child - how would you do it?
Well, we’ve had a description, a poetic, beautiful description that has been a
cardinal part of my heart for all these years that I’ve been thinking about dreams.
There was a man and a woman, simple man and woman, carpenter and his wife they had to go to a distant city and she was with child. But, they had to go and it
was a difficult, long journey, and it came on wintertime and they were up in the
mountains and the time for her came, and they didn’t know what to do and there
was no place to go. There was a little village up in the mountain and every place
was filled because everyone else was going as they were going to this thing that
had been called by the emperor, and they had no place, no place in the inn or
anywhere. And the innkeeper gave them a place where the cattle were. Not much,
was it? Oh, no, but it was something. It was a gracious act and it was some
comfort and protection, and they were there with the animals, you see, and she
gave birth to her child and it was just a miracle. And there were three kings who
had been out on the road for a long time, looking for the glory of God. And they
had been told that they could find it, and there was a star that they had to follow.
And they followed that star for many days, many weeks, and finally the star came
and stood over a stable. Stood over a stable. And they knew that that was the end
of their search. They went in and found the child, and they brought their gifts as
tribute to the miracle of God in human life. And there were some shepherds out
in the fields, not just the kings, but some shepherds, ignorant shepherds. And all
of a sudden, when they were keeping watch over their flocks, the air was filled
with angels singing, "Glory to God in the highest, for unto you is born this night
in the city of David a Saviour." And the shepherds went off, left their flock and
went up into the stable to pay tribute to the glory of God and the child.
You have ears but you don’t hear. If we were to listen, if we were to listen,
anytime, we’d hear the angels singing.
© Grand Valley State University
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Richard A. Rhem Collection
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Text and sound recordings of the sermons, prayers, services, and articles of Richard Rhem, pastor emeritus of Christ Community Church in Spring Lake, Michigan, where he served for 37 years. Starting in the mid 1980's, Rhem began to question some of the traditional Christian dogma that he had been espousing from the pulpit. That questioning was a first step in a long and interesting spiritual journey, one that he openly shared with his congregation. His journey is important, in part because it is reflective of the questioning, the yearnings, and the gradual revision of beliefs that many persons in this part of the century have experienced and continue to experience. It is important also because of the affirming and inclusive way his questioning was done and his thinking evolved. His sermons and other written and spoken materials together document the steps in his journey as it took a turn in 1985, yet continued to revolve around the framework and liturgies of the Christian calendar.
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Clergy--Michigan
Reformed Church in America
Christ Community Church (Spring Lake, Mich.)
Religion
Interfaith worship
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Rhem, Richard A.
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<a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/514">Richard A. Rhem papers (KII-01)</a>
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Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives.
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Kaufman Interfaith Institute
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Pentecost XIX
Series
Meeting God Again for the First Time
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Jeremiah 7: 1-7,, 11-15, Mark 13:1-2
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Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI
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1997-09-28
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Religion: Has It a Future?
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Richard A. Rhem
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Grand Valley State University
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Clergy--Michigan
Reformed Church in America
Christ Community Church (Spring Lake, Mich.)
Sermons
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Richard A. Rhem - An Archive of Sermons, Prayers, Talks and Stories: http://richardrhem.org/
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eng
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An account of the resource
A sermon given by Richard A. Rhem (Dick) on September 28, 1997 entitled "Religion: Has It a Future?", as part of the series "Meeting God Again for the First Time", on the occasion of Pentecost XIX, at Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI. Scripture references: Jeremiah 7: 1-7,, 11-15, Mark 13:1-2.
Awareness
Compassion
Nature of Religion
Story
Wonder
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Text
The Fairy Tale Is True
Text: Luke 2:7; Revelation 12:5
Richard A. Rhem
Christ Community Church
Spring Lake, Michigan
Christmastide, December 28, 1997
Transcription of the spoken sermon
Children love fairy tales.
I remember a fairy tale feast when I was a child of preschool age. I was ill with
scarlet fever. The family was moved out into the garage, the house put under
quarantine. But, of course, my mother couldn’t leave me. The shades were pulled
and I was kept in bed. There was nothing to do but read to me - the same stories
over and over, Jack and the Beanstalk, The Gingerbread Man, Goldilocks and the
Three Bears. Mother read until she was tired of it. On occasion she turned two
pages at once, hoping to abbreviate her task, but I always caught her at it; I knew
the stories by heart.
But it made no difference; each time it was like a first time adventure.
This Christmas the family gathered to watch a video produced by David with all
the children as his research assistants - 25 years of this family growing up and
then each with their own families. There were several photos of me holding one of
the grandchildren on my lap - reading to them. That was usually a Sunday after
dinner pleasure, although I remember well getting very sleepy after a big dinner
and wanting very much to get to a serious nap when the little one would say
"Read it one more time, Bumpa."
Why do you suppose children love fairy tales so much? Of course, they are great
stories, but I think there is something more They turn out right; just as they begin with the classic phrase, "Once upon a time
..." so they end with, "... and they lived happily ever after." When you think about
some of the most familiar fairy tales, they are not all sweetness and light - there is
high adventure, danger, darkness and evil woven into the plot. A good fairy tale
has moments of high tension; they can be scary which is part of their attraction.
But, in the end, good prevails, right emerges on top and nobility and truth are
vindicated.
In that sense, the fairy tale is reflective of a whole philosophy of life and reality
and, in turn, it is a teaching tool for the shaping of one’s perspective on life.
© Grand Valley State University
�The Fairy Tale Is True
Richard A. Rhem
Page 2
Stories not only entertain, they form a philosophy of life. And the classic fairy tale
reflects the conviction that the good and true will triumph in the end.
Later on when the child develops the capacity for abstract thinking, one can
discuss values, right and wrong, truth and falsehood and their implications, but a
sense of ultimate value has already been richly laid in the child’s being by the
tapestry of stories heard and lived.
I was thinking about this because of a few conversations I’ve had with some of
you who have wondered how to receive the Christmas story - a story that begins,
"And it came to pass ...", and is laced with angelic announcements accompanied
by a heavenly choir, Magi from the East following a brilliant star that comes to
rest over a stable wherein lies a newborn child born to a virgin.
Although scholarly research has investigated the whole of the biblical tradition
for two hundred years, that research has only somewhat recently seeped into the
church. But in our day, such research makes the feature articles of popular news
magazines at Christmas and Easter, at least. So, how does one deal with the
growing recognition that the Gospels are storied accounts of something that
happened in the past?
The question is not so simple. For one thing, we are dealing with something that
happened; we are dealing with the story of an actual birth event, not of a makebelieve character, but of one whose historical existence is almost universally
acknowledged. On the other hand, the story is a story laced with the supernatural
- angels and stars and kings and a miraculous conception - aspects one finds
surrounding the birth of other ancient heroic figures. Consequently, the stories
have been scrutinized intensively in an attempt to ascertain facts from fantasy.
I suspect this is inevitable. We make a faith claim that is entangled with concrete
historical reality - the word became flesh and dwelt among us. There is no way
that claim will not be tested.
Nonetheless, such scholarly scrutiny of the historical event is the ruination of the
story because the truth of the story is not in the narrative details, but in the
meaning of the story - that which is "coming to pass" in the event - which is that
God visits God’s people to rescue them from darkness and death and secure them
in light and life.
The story is the vehicle of the truth about reality, about the nature of things,
about the meaning and end of life.
Do you remember our Advent question - How can we who are top dogs sing the
songs of liberation of underdogs? Well, I am not going to repeat that, only to say
once again that the songs Luke includes in the birth story are songs of liberation
sung by people who have borne the heavy load of oppression and domination and
© Grand Valley State University
�The Fairy Tale Is True
Richard A. Rhem
Page 3
they celebrate God’s visitation in this child through whom God will reverse the
fortunes of the oppressed and their oppressors.
The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light. Those dwelling in the
shadow of death have had the sun of righteousness dawn upon them with healing
in his wings.
I stressed during Advent the very concrete nature of the salvation referred to - its
social, political and economic dimension -This was good news of a different kind
of world for the poor and the marginalized. But now let me suggest that there is
another dimension spoken to, as well - the anxiety of being human. It is not easy
to be human and that is universally true for rich and poor, powerful and
powerless.
We are all afraid, insecure - We are subject to disaster, catastrophe, disease - and
we die and those we love die. Human existence is precarious, perilous, awesome,
wonderful, and fragile. Not only in our individual experience, but also globally.
The holocaust happened in the lifetime of many of us. Tyrants like Saddam
Hussein hold our world hostage.
In the ancient world of the birth story of Jesus, it was taken for granted that there
were powers behind the actors on history’s stage, Herod and Caesar and Pilate –
that the struggles on earth were reflective of cosmic conflict between the God of
light and life and the Prince of Darkness.
As you know, that time was an age of the expectation of the end of the age and the
literature that pointed to the end was called apocalyptic - a word meaning
"unveiling."
The curtain was drawn back and one was given a glimpse of the transcendent
world - the behind-the-scenes view of the powers of evil at work in the present and the sovereign God with whom the powers of darkness were in conflict.
The Revelation of Jesus Christ to John is such a work. John was given a vision of
what was going on in the cosmic drama. He was in exile for his testimony to
Jesus. The Christian community for which he wrote the vision was experiencing
severe persecution. Some were giving up their faith, returning to the imperial
cult. John writes to encourage them to be faithful, to hold on.
Chapters 12-14 are the center of the Revelation. A woman is pregnant. A dragon is
poised to consume the child. The woman gives birth and the child is snatched up
to heaven. There is war in heaven and Michael, God’s Angel Warrior, with the
heavenly hosts defeats the dragon who is thrown down to earth. Although the
victory is won in heaven there remains the mopping up on earth where the
defeated dragon is causing all the hell he can. The saints suffer greatly; yet they
sing of triumph because they know the ultimate victory is theirs because God has
© Grand Valley State University
�The Fairy Tale Is True
Richard A. Rhem
Page 4
conquered - for 1250 days, 42 months, they suffer the ravages of the dragon, but
this is a brief period.
If you go to the Hebrew Scriptures, Numbers 33, you will find that Israel made 42
moves on the way to the Promised Land. Thus, the writer says -Hold fast; this
journey so full of suffering will end in the security of God’s Kingdom.
A story, a vision. It borrows images from the Hebrew Scriptures – the Exodus,
the wilderness wandering; the woman, Eve, Genesis 3:15, the seed of the woman
will bruise the head of the serpent; the woman - Mary, pregnant with child; the
child snatched up to heaven - but through death and resurrection by which
victory is achieved, the dragon falls.
Well, I cannot give you a full account of the rich imagery of this vision, but I think
you can see how the vision weaves together images from Israel’s history and the
event of Jesus’ birth, life, death and resurrection.
Out of historical happenings whose details we can never recover, a story is told to
convey a deeply held conviction that in the end God will reign, the God of life and
light having conquered the forces of darkness that threaten human existence and
bring death.
Now here is an interesting fact - In Greek mythology, Zeus was the chief god. His
consort, Leto, was with child. The dragon Python was determined to kill the child.
Leto fled to the island of Delos where Apollo was born in safety. Eventually
Apollo returned to the mainland and at the great shrine, Delphi, Apollo slew the
dragon.
When John, on the island of Patmos, not far from the island of Delos, told his
story in vision form, he borrowed not only from the Hebrew tradition, but also
from Greek mythology to convey the message - that the God of life and light will
finally overcome the forces of evil and darkness.
The biblical story as a whole is rooted in the conviction that finally God will
subdue the darkness. It is the same conviction that underlays the beloved fairy
tales of our childhood.
That is faith’s conviction. That is hope’s ground - God is love.
Love triumphs.
Truth triumphs.
Therefore, trust.
Now, that’s the story; that’s what we celebrate. Just to tell you that straight out
may get us into an intellectual discussion and you might say, "Well, the data is
© Grand Valley State University
�The Fairy Tale Is True
Richard A. Rhem
Page 5
ambiguous." You might end up not trusting; maybe you would become a cynic.
But, let me tell you a story - deeper than reason can probe. You might then feel it
and know it beyond knowing.
Don’t you see it - the baby a sign of hope, of a future, of life?
Don’t you hear the angels sing?
Haven’t you seen a special star?
Don’t you hold absolutely to much that you cannot rationally describe or defend?
If you have eyes to see, ears to hear ...You know it’s true. The fairy tale is true Trust
Hope
Be of good cheer,
All will be well.
© Grand Valley State University
�
https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/e7f38e808835dfc95e1c04cfcf536539.mp3
42babc195984ed26cb1f9067f3f65645
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Richard A. Rhem Collection
Description
An account of the resource
Text and sound recordings of the sermons, prayers, services, and articles of Richard Rhem, pastor emeritus of Christ Community Church in Spring Lake, Michigan, where he served for 37 years. Starting in the mid 1980's, Rhem began to question some of the traditional Christian dogma that he had been espousing from the pulpit. That questioning was a first step in a long and interesting spiritual journey, one that he openly shared with his congregation. His journey is important, in part because it is reflective of the questioning, the yearnings, and the gradual revision of beliefs that many persons in this part of the century have experienced and continue to experience. It is important also because of the affirming and inclusive way his questioning was done and his thinking evolved. His sermons and other written and spoken materials together document the steps in his journey as it took a turn in 1985, yet continued to revolve around the framework and liturgies of the Christian calendar.
Subject
The topic of the resource
Clergy--Michigan
Reformed Church in America
Christ Community Church (Spring Lake, Mich.)
Religion
Interfaith worship
Sermons
Sound Recordings
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Rhem, Richard A.
Source
A related resource from which the described resource is derived
<a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/514">Richard A. Rhem papers (KII-01)</a>
Publisher
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Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives.
Contributor
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Kaufman Interfaith Institute
Rights
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<a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a>
Language
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English
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Sound
Text
Identifier
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KII-01
Coverage
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1981-2014
Format
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audio/mp3
text/pdf
Sound
A resource primarily intended to be heard. Examples include a music playback file format, an audio compact disc, and recorded speech or sounds.
Event
Christmastide I
Series
Songs of Liberation
Scripture Text
Luke 2:7, Revelation 12:5
Location
The location of the interview
Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Identifier
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KII-01_RA-0-19971228
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1997-12-28
Title
A name given to the resource
The Fairy Tale Is True
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
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audio/mp3
application/pdf
Description
An account of the resource
A sermon given by Richard A. Rhem (Dick) on December 28, 1997 entitled "The Fairy Tale Is True", as part of the series "Songs of Liberation", on the occasion of Christmastide I, at Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI. Scripture references: Luke 2:7, Revelation 12:5.
All Will Be Well
Apocalyptic
Story
Trust