1 24 3 https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/c7167ed62bde5af35413b9f519fb285a.pdf cc4555b4275c53fe47b8147a0d7e245b PDF Text Text For the Salvation of the World From the series: The Human Face of God Text: Isaiah 53:5; Luke 22:42 Richard A. Rhem Christ Community Church Spring Lake, Michigan March 29, 1998 Transcription of the spoken sermon Kathleen Kern is a woman who was invited to write a piece in this Jewish magazine edited by Rabbi Michael Lerner, called Tikkun, a bi-monthly Jewish critique of politics, culture, and society, and this issue is given over to a celebration of the 50th anniversary of the nation Israel. Kathleen Kern was invited to write because she, as a Christian, had become convinced that the Christian church had for 2000 years terribly abused the Jewish people, and she felt a tremendous burden because of the anti-Semitism that has marked our past, when we made the Jewish people Christ-killers, the kind of thinking that led in its ultimate expression in the Holocaust. And so, Kathleen Kern, a Christian, went to Israel and became part of Christian Peacemakers Team, and she came for the purpose of bringing reconciliation between the Jew and the Palestinian. She felt she could do this because she felt, having empathized with the Jewish people, she had a sense of the responsibility of the church over against the Jewish people; she felt she must first listen to them before there was anything to be said about the state of Israel or Israel’s actions. And with that kind of posture, she felt she was in a position to hear the Jewish voice and to seek to bring reconciliation with the Palestinians. While the 50th anniversary of the nation Israel is cause for celebration for Israel, it marks 50 years of tragedy for the Palestinians. This is one of the most complicated and tragic episodes in human history. Kathleen Kern was asked to write in this issue, which celebrates the 50 years of Israel, and she wrote a piece to which the Rabbi Lerner responded, "It’s written with detachment; there’s not any passion in it." So, she wrote back to him, re-writing the piece, saying, So you want to know how I really feel about Israel after having worked for nearly seventeen months as a human rights activist in Hebron? You don’t want the version that I give in presentations to Mennonite Churches that emphasize our conflict resolution work? You don’t want the version I give Jewish friends to avoid seeing that veil of pain drop across their faces? You don’t want the version that I tell the children in my household so they won’t grow up thinking Israelis are bad people? © Grand Valley State University   �For the Salvation of the World Richard A. Rhem Page 2   Are you so sure you want to open those doors that my rage has strained against for the past two years? Are you? ... Israel makes me want to throw things at a wall until the plaster shatters and my arms are too sore to hurl anything else. Israel makes me wish that my theology permitted me a purgatory where folks like Ariel Sharon would have to experience every bit of the pain and terror they have inflicted on their victims over the last decades. ... I have expended enormous energy to subdue my passion so that I don’t repulse those who are only moderately interested in my work. She said, "When I think of what I have seen and what I have experienced of the horror visited upon the Palestinians at Hebron (that’s I have seen men picking up little bits of people stuck to asphalt, walls, and trees in Jerusalem. I have seen Israeli soldiers in Hebron beckon settlers to come over and spit on terrified young men they have detained at a checkpoint. I have seen the huge grin on the face of a man holding me up by the hair with his left hand as he drew the other hand back to punch me in the ear. From the ground I watched him run away with my camera held over his head like a football, surrounded by other settlers in white shirts and black pants. They laughed and cheered as though he had made a touch down. I have been called "Nazi"; I have been spit at times too numerous to mention. I have on occasion had Miriam Levinger cackle at me, "Don’t say I didn’t warn you." I have listened as countless soldiers and settlers who have never had a civil conversation with a Palestinian - let alone eaten with them, lived with them, babysat for them as I have - tell me all about what Arabs "are like." ... I have stood one too many times in front of tearful Palestinian women asking me "Laish? Why? Why? WHY are they doing this? What have we done?" as they nursed the bruises of their children who had been attacked by soldiers or settlers ... My bile, my tears, well up as I write. It is better to detach ... because otherwise I think my tears, my vomit, would drown the Fertile Crescent. Kathleen Kern is a Christian who wants to follow Jesus and went over to become a peacemaker between Israelis and Palestinians. She knows the tragedy of the Jew and she empathizes with them, and now she has experienced the tragedy of the Palestinian, and I was thinking about this when I reflected on the theme of the day, "The Salvation of the World." This magazine, Tikkun, the word Tikkun means "to heal, repair, and transform the world." It’s what Krister Stendahl spoke of when he spoke of the mending of creation. It is what Jesus was about, and as I was thinking about the salvation of the world, and Jesus in the Garden, and the suffering servant of Isaiah 53, I read the story of Kathleen Kern and her awful anguish and her disillusionment, coming there with all kinds of idealism, wanting to affect reconciliation, and seeing simply more of that terrible story of human violence and the inhumanity of one to another. © Grand Valley State University �For the Salvation of the World Richard A. Rhem Page 3   That’s the world into which Jesus came. That’s the world that Jesus would bring salvation to, and, as he was in the Garden, he knew they were going to kill him. At his baptism he sensed he was claimed and called; he struggled with the nature of that ministry and who he really was. He clarified his vision and determined he was not a John the Baptist who was his mentor. It was not his vision to call down fire from heaven and judgment upon the earth. He said, "I have come to proclaim good news, liberation to the prisoners, sight to the blind." Jesus came with the message of grace, of the nearness of God, of the presence of the kingdom of God in the midst of the people here and now, and he knew finally he had to bring that message right to Jerusalem, and he set his face and he came, and he knew the collaboration of temple authority and imperial power would not tolerate his challenge. They would kill him. He didn’t want to die. In the Garden he said "If it would be possible, if there’s another way, take this cup from me. Nevertheless, not my will, but Thy will be done." And the silence from heaven was eloquent answer. There is no other way. He must have thought about the suffering servant of Isaiah 53. Maybe he even sensed that he would be that one who would die, that lamb who would go to the slaughter, that one who would bear the transgression of his people in order that his people might be healed. And so, he left the Garden to go to the cross, because he knew there was no other way for the salvation of the world, for the mending of creation, for healing and transformation than the way of love, the way of grace, the way of inclusion, the way of pointing to God full of grace Whose mercy embraces all. And they killed him. Two thousand years later, Kathleen Kern, an idealistic Christian, goes over to affect reconciliation between Israelis and Palestinians and she finds this horror going on, even to this moment. And really it’s as though nothing’s changed. She says she had written a book We Are the Pharisees. It was her testimony about the fact that we Christians have visited on the Jews all these centuries this terrible anti-Semitism, and as she reflects now, after seventeen months in Israel, she says, ... As I re-read my words today, I ask myself, "Do I still believe them? Do I still believe anything I believed before the Israeli-Palestinian conflict infected me?" I am able to rise above my rage long enough to realize that, yes, my words still hold true. Even given my experiences in Hebron, I don’t think there is much I would add or change. As a Christian white European American I want to take responsibility for the injustices in the Middle East. If I can take responsibility for what has happened, that gives me a small measure of control, right? The silence roils in my stomach. I will continue. I still believe I have an obligation to follow Jesus’ command that I love my enemies. Can I love Mr. Shektman, Miriam Levinger, and the anonymous Kachniks currently threatening the © Grand Valley State University �For the Salvation of the World Richard A. Rhem Page 4   lives of my friends in Hebron? Yes, I can love them. They were not born hateful. I know - no, I am certain - that God loves them. And so, she stays. Another lamb to the slaughter. USA TODAY tomorrow could have headlines, "Christian Woman Slain: Kathleen Kern Found Violated and Raped, Left for Dead Along a Ditch in the Road to Jerusalem." She would be one who would be slain because she sought to follow Jesus, the way Jesus was slain because he saw in the suffering servant the model by which salvation comes to the world. Salvation comes to the world through love that is willing to sacrifice itself. Salvation comes to the world by breaking the cycle of violence. Two thousand years and nothing has changed; it still hasn’t dawned on us. In Texas a few weeks ago we executed a woman whose life had been transformed, a woman who admitted her guilt and the horror of her crime, but who gave every evidence of the transformation of life. But we put her to death, nonetheless, because we want to keep the system intact; we want retributive justice. Finally, we want vengeance, because we don’t believe the world can exist by grace and love that forgives. Oh, it used to be so easy for me. I understood Isaiah 53 and I understood the Garden, the Lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world. As a good Lutheran theologian put it, "Jesus took the rap for me." Jesus took the rap for us. Jesus bore our sin. As Peter said, he bore our sin in his body on the tree, therefore, my sin is gone, I have a pass to heaven, and you can have one, too, if you’ll join me. Believe in Jesus and join my club. You’ll get to heaven, too. That’s what the salvation of the world is all about. And that kind of an understanding of the salvation of the world hasn’t changed a thing in 2000 years. Jesus was not about getting me to heaven. Jesus was about transforming the world. Jesus was about breaking the cycle of violence. Jesus was about dying rather than denying that the only way the world can be saved is when we learn to love instead of hate, to forgive rather than retaliate. The only way the salvation of the world will come is when we are willing for that conviction to be lambs taken to the slaughter without the exercise of pragmatic thought or rationalization, simply loving and forgiving and absorbing and taking and loving and forgiving and absorbing and taking it again, because, until that happens, we’ll continue to execute prisoners whose lives are transformed, Israelis and Palestinians will continue to blow each other up, and Americans will have to continue to build citadel fortress America, because the rest of the world is growing and it will not long tolerate our affluence leading to over-consumption, no matter how strong we are. We’ll either love, or we’ll die. Will there ever come salvation to the world? Only God knows. Only God knows. Father, forgive them, they know not what they do. © Grand Valley State University � https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/3a01f3c929350f9071c92be8f2fda7f4.mp3 622e3e5d2a29f6e135a9ab3e20dd1e76 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 Isaiah 53:5, Luke 22:42 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-0-19980329 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1998-03-29 Title A name given to the resource For the Salvation of the World 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 March 29, 1998 entitled "For the Salvation of the World", 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: Isaiah 53:5, Luke 22:42. Inclusive Non-violence Suffering Servant Transforming the World Way of Love https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/8ad813af0e75066eb0158d36c1ca86f2.mp3 422e413e8ea92181cd8e6197452ae78b https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/6c914f3278cc19be9a38d7cc720331fd.pdf 512b43fb964dc9e236b3a521cbb32679 PDF Text Text The Deeper Truth of Incarnation Text: I John 1: 1-4, 4: 7-8; John 1: 1-5, 14-18 Richard A. Rhem Christ Community Church Spring Lake, Michigan December 22, 2002 Transcription of the spoken sermon The title of the sermon this morning invites you to think with me about incarnation and the deeper understanding of it. It is not because I have discovered something about incarnation that is brand new. It is rather that I am recognizing more and more that the old familiar truth of incarnation has become so familiar to us that we fail to see, to understand its radicality and the revolutionary nature of the claim of incarnation. The eternal Word: “In the beginning was the Word,” John begins the gospel. Someone has translated that, “In the beginning was the Intention,” and I like that. The Divine Intention. There was something in the beginning, some intentionality in this whole creative process. So, in the beginning was the Divine Intention. In the fourteenth verse that Divine Intention becomes flesh, human nature. The radicality of that claim is amazing. Luke tells us the story in a beautiful fashion, describing the birth of the child, the mother, the angels, the shepherds and all. But John had a philosophical bent of mind, and he sets this event in a vast cosmic context, reflecting on it philosophically or theologically. (You will be well advised to stick with the storytellers. Theologians are boring, but such is my lot.) So, it is John this morning. “The Word became flesh.” That is a radical claim. All day long yesterday the house was filled with a marvelous aroma, and at suppertime Nancy served us bowls of chili con carne. We often speak about chili, but it is really chili con carne, and con carne comes from the Latin. Con is the preposition with, and carne is meat. We are, those of us who haven’t cleaned up our act and become vegetarians, carnivores, meat eaters, carnivorous. I love it. And I look like it. Carnival. You have never identified that word with chili con carne, but as a matter of fact, carnival is the carni-valle, farewell to red meat, farewell to meat. Carnival time is a time to let out all of the stops and get all that juice out of you because you are about to enter into a fast where you are going to be solemn and serious. And so Mardi Gras, a carnival, is a farewell to the flesh. The incarnation means that what we really have to deal with is God con carne. It’s a little crass, but you should never forget it. Christmas is God con carne. Christmas is God with flesh on, the central truth expressed so powerfully in © 2013 Kaufman Interfaith Institute and Grand Valley State University   �Deeper Truth of Incarnation Richard A. Rhem Page 2   John’s gospel and reiterated in the letters of John which emanated from that Johannine circle. How could you make it any more concrete than those opening sentences of that first letter? “We declare to you what was from the beginning, what we have heard, what we have seen from our eyes, what we have looked at and touched with our hands of the word of life.” John was intent on expressing the fact that God has come to expression in human nature, in humanity, that the human is the embodiment of God, the enfleshment of God. From time immemorial we have wanted some clue about God. Hasn’t there always been that question in the depths of the human spirit—who is God? Where is God? What is God? What is the ultimate? Why is there something rather than nothing? Certainly John knew that. In the fourteenth chapter we have that little conversation between Jesus and Phillip. Jesus has been talking about going to the father and Phillip says, “Well, Lord, just show us the father and we will be satisfied.” Jesus says to him, “Phillip, have I been with you so long and you still don’t get it? If you have seen me, you have seen the father.” Phillip, don’t you get it? Here I am, God in your midst, the embodiment, the enfleshment of God in your midst. Phillip, you want to see the father, you want to understand the father, you want to know the clue to the mystery of that which is ultimate? Touch me. Look in my face, for I am the only God you will ever know, because the amazing claim of our gospel is that the eternal intention has become enfleshed in a human being. In the eighteenth verse we read, “No one has ever seen God.” Once again, there it is. You see, no one has ever seen God. But the only son has made God known. As I have said before, someone has translated that in a rather marvelous fashion. The discipline we learn in seminary is the science of exegesis. You take a text and break it apart and open it up and try to explain it. You interpret it. That is what I am doing as we speak. Exegesis. It is an academic discipline which hopefully would prepare the preacher for opening the text for the people. That eighteenth verse—no one has seen God—has been translated by someone: The only son is the exegesis of the father. That is wonderful. The son breaks open the mystery that is God. So this is what Christmas is about. This is what the central act of Christmas is about—the embodiment, the enfleshment of God in the human. “Ah,” you say to me, “that is not a deeper understanding. That is the same old thing we have always heard.” That’s true. But let me remind you of what I have been circling around in these last weeks and last Advent season particularly. I cannot believe that I have lived all my life, Advent after Advent, and not recognized the contradiction—the conflict between the mirror of God in the incarnation and the mirror of God in the second coming. In Advent we so easily say that the one who came is coming again. And then it struck me that the image © 2013 Kaufman Interfaith Institute and Grand Valley State University �Deeper Truth of Incarnation Richard A. Rhem Page 3   of God that we have revealed in the life of Jesus from the crib to the cross, that life of obscurity and poverty, of humility, of grace, of compassion, the vulnerability of the child, the vulnerability of the one who was crucified, is a picture of God and we have claimed it. But how do we put it together with the God revealed in that one who will come again? The one who came in poverty and humility will come again in power and great glory? What is mirrored in the first coming contrasts with the God mirrored in the second coming. It seems that the one who came in poverty and humility came from another realm into our realm, took temporary residence, took on flesh temporarily, and then left again, having accomplished redemption in order that we might be delivered from this realm into God’s realm. There are two realms, a dualism, and the God revealed in that child, that God as vulnerable is still apparently above the fray and still in control and still calling the shots. But the God revealed in the child, in the vulnerability of the child, has given up on control. That God embodied in the human is the God who creates us in freedom, beckoning us to love in turn. And that is precisely the risk of love. Love doesn’t have any guarantees. If you have a world where might makes right, you can coerce and have your own way. If God runs the universe that way, then God can have God’s way. But if God indeed emptied God’s self, and if the Infinite has become concrete in the finite so that you can touch and handle a word made flesh, then that kind of vulnerability brings no guarantee. Love can be defeated. Love can be crucified. And the image of that God is quite other than the God who will move from the wings into the main stage and call down the curtain on history and execute judgment on the living and the dead. That God never gave up control. That God in Jesus remained “God” very much. I am suggesting to you that the deeper understanding of incarnation may be that the God revealed in Bethlehem’s child is the real genius of the Christian understanding, but that the Church couldn’t live very long with a vulnerable God. What we want is a God who is strong and in control, the Lord God Almighty. Now just think about this with me, because I am plowing some new ground here and I am not at all sure. I am totally sure, however, that I do not have all the loose ends gathered up. But I am attempting to find a new way to think and speak about God as I see God revealed in Jesus and the incarnation and simply stop there, because I think a major distortion has occurred in the history of the church and it began very early. It began with that apocalyptic expectation in the immediate aftermath of Jesus, that apocalyptic vision that expected the heavens to open and God to come down and to wreak judgment on the world. I am suggesting to you a deeper understanding of the incarnation in that the original intention was to say, “O my god, God is like that!” I am suggesting that the intention of the incarnation in the heart of the Christian proclamation was to portray a God of vulnerability, because that God would create the likes of us in freedom, beckoning us to love. It seems to me that the mistake the Church made © 2013 Kaufman Interfaith Institute and Grand Valley State University �Deeper Truth of Incarnation Richard A. Rhem Page 4   was to say that what happened in Jesus happened once for all, one for all, when as a matter of fact, the initial encounter with him by those who touched him, who looked upon him, who listened to him was to say, “My God!” and to realize that God was in the human. We are in this cosmic process of billions of years, the Big Bang, stars exploding, elements cooling, and planets forming in a most amazing fashion beyond our ability to fathom. It seems to me that the deeper understanding of the incarnation is that after billions and billions and billions of years, perhaps about three million years ago, life happened. Then maybe a million years ago something similar to human life began to form, and eventually it comes to the likes of us on the edge of the third millennium where we can sit in an assembly like this and think about billions of years and cosmic reality and star explosions. Do you realize the amazing understanding that is ours, the privilege that is ours? We have come to a point where we are aware of that whole thing, aware of that whole process, learning more about it all the time, yet knowing very little about its deep mysteries except that we are the product of the process that has been underway. As we think about it, we human beings become the consciousness of the cosmos, we human beings become the awareness. The cosmos becomes aware in us. We human beings have a voice to praise and stand in wonder at the cosmos. That is an amazing thing! And it seems to me the deeper understanding of the incarnation would be that the process goes along for billions of years and one day some creature wakes up and becomes aware to the point that we say, “There is a human being.” And the awareness continues to grow. The understanding of the incarnation I am suggesting claims that the Infinite, that Creative Spirit, however you wish to speak of the Ultimate Mystery, becomes concrete in the finitude of the likes of us. Finitude, matter which has spirit, matter which thinks and knows and understands and becomes aware—that is the miracle of Christmas, the coming into flesh of God. That is the concretization of the Creative Spirit in a form that you can begin to grasp. The Church wanted to say all of that about Jesus, but only Jesus. And then the rest of us poor middling human beings trudge through this vale of tears waiting to be redeemed in order that we might be exited to another realm. Do you see the dualism of that traditional conception? God sends the Son, the Son takes up temporary residence in our flesh, and after the incarnation there is an exincarnation. The purpose of the incarnation was not to enable us to be the bearers of divinity, but rather to deliver us from our fallen estate. But we have missed the glory of it! We have missed the wonder of it. We sit around here waiting. We wait for the next act of God. We wait for the clouds to open and for God to speak in dramatic fashion and to right the wrongs and bring history to consummation. But that is not going to happen. © 2013 Kaufman Interfaith Institute and Grand Valley State University �Deeper Truth of Incarnation Richard A. Rhem Page 5   God has acted. God has become human. The human is the bearer of God. The incarnation is a reality, an ongoing reality. We are the extension of the incarnation. We cry out, “How long, O Lord, how long?” I suppose God would resoundingly cry, “How long? How long, indeed! When will you get it? You are it!” I think the writer of that first letter had something like that in mind, for after the opening paragraphs of chapter one saying God is tangible in the flesh, in the fourth chapter he writes God is love. And he repeats that line from the gospel’s first chapter: “No one has ever seen God.” But then he adds content to it. He says that the one who dwells in love dwells in God and God dwells in that one. A few lines later, the one who abides in love abides in God and God in that one. In other words, humanity is the bearer of divinity. And it is the one who has learned to love who is the one in whom that divinity dwells in full expression. Well, I shouldn’t say “full expression.” Let’s say tentative expression, or inadequate expression, perhaps flawed expression. But nonetheless, there was something about Jesus, the flesh of Jesus, the person of Jesus which caused those who saw him, who walked with him, who had an encounter with him to say, “My God!” And that wasn’t the end. It was only the beginning. It wasn’t once for all and at one time and place, but true every place at all times. The whole process has been tending toward this. The whole cosmic process has been issuing in spirit, spirit marked by love, for God is love. The world lies in such darkness and there is such grief and pain, it is only in the midst of that darkness when the human embraces me that I can feel the embrace of God; when another looks into my eyes and says, “I care, I love.” Then I look into the face of God. All that sounds like naive preacher talk, the kind of silly sentimental stuff you would expect at Christmas. Well, it’s your fault. You came to church at Christmas time. Sometimes I question myself about harping on this all the time, because someone might say to me, “Don’t you know there is a real world out there? Don’t you know how dark it is? You are saying that the human animal is a God-bearer? You are saying that the only God accessible, visible, tangible is the God enfleshed in the human?” And I have to say, “Yes.” Because I believe that Jesus Christ is the way and the truth and the life and no one will ever experience the Ultimate Mystery except in the way of Jesus, which is the way of love, of self-emptying love. The deeper truth of the incarnation is the radicality of the divinity in humanity that is crying to come to expression. But we can’t live with that for very long. Then it’s in our hands, it is up to us. Then we have to change the world. Once in a while I just smile at myself ranting on like this in such naive fashion, except that the real naiveté is to think that the © 2013 Kaufman Interfaith Institute and Grand Valley State University �Deeper Truth of Incarnation Richard A. Rhem Page 6   kingdom will come in any other way, that it will come through power or might or glory, that it will come with the exercise of muscle, that we can establish once and for all freedom and justice. No. Fear controls and power coerces. Love transforms. Once in a while I get a fax on Sunday night. This one said, “Dick, following is a bit of verse that fits with your sermon this morning. I believe the original stimulus was one of your Wednesday evening Advent messages a year ago. You will also find a number of thoughts borrowed from your sermons.” What if we loved one another? What if we Christians, Muslims and Jews loved one another? What if we Christians, Hindus and Buddhists loved one another? What if we Christians, Confucians and agnostics loved one another? What if we evangelicals, fundamentalists, and liberals loved one another? What if God’s people of all faiths loved one another? Would we miss the illusion of superiority? Would we miss the exhilaration of judging others? Would we miss the view from higher moral ground? Would we miss the thrill of killing them with swords or words? What if we white and black loved one another? What if we black and yellow loved one another? What if we yellow, red and brown loved one another? What if we Europeans, Asians, Africans and Latinos loved one another? What if God’s children of every color and nation loved one another? Would we miss the illusion of superiority? Would we miss the exhilaration of judging others? Would we miss the view from the higher moral ground? Would we miss the thrill of killing them with swords or words? What if we old and young loved one another? What if we single or married loved one another? What if we without academic degrees loved one another? What if we straight and gay loved one another? What if we female and male loved one another? What if we blue collar and white collar loved one another? What if God’s daughters and sons of every label loved one another? Would we miss the illusion of superiority? Would we miss the exhilaration of judging others? Would we miss the view from the higher moral ground? © 2013 Kaufman Interfaith Institute and Grand Valley State University �Deeper Truth of Incarnation Richard A. Rhem Page 7   Would we miss the thrill of killing them with swords or words? September 11th showed us what love’s absence can do. The days after have shown us what happens when love is activated, superiority stifled by the quiet but tireless power of humility, judgment overruled by the celebration of diversity that enriches us. Higher ground was held only by those tired, dusty heroes who emptied themselves in service, blood-red battlefields transformed into green meadows of mercy and healing. What if we loved one another? What if we started with simple respect? What if we humans become what we are intended to be? Would God’s people of all faith languages worship in unison? Would God’s children of every color compose one picture? Would God’s daughters and sons of every label celebrate as siblings? Would we then finally understand the meaning of incarnation? Of God with us? Of God in us? Of human divinity? © 2013 Kaufman Interfaith Institute and 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 Advent IV Scripture Text I John 1:1-4, 4:7-8, John 1:1-5, 14-18 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-0-20021222 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2002-12-22 Title A name given to the resource The Deeper Truth of Incarnation 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 22, 2002 entitled "The Deeper Truth of Incarnation", on the occasion of Advent IV, at Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI. Scripture references: I John 1:1-4, 4:7-8, John 1:1-5, 14-18. Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Lemmen Library and Archives Divine Intention Incarnation Way of Love https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/2f61cf151f6752fb9db1eb01b736d70d.mp3 a1b65eb3db5e1f0fcaa935263d3561ef https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/7147b2d0da366895a0c04cf4e789749b.pdf f9987aec993f794a81fd7f3958c1724b PDF Text Text What Are You Afraid Of? Text: John 4:18; Luke 1:30 Richard A. Rhem Christ Community Church Spring Lake, Michigan Advent IV, December 20, 1992 Transcription of the spoken sermon There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear; for fear has to do with punishment and whoever fears has not reached perfection in love. I John 4:18 Do not be afraid, Mary... Luke 1:30 In Advent, 1992, we’re asking significant questions that have to do with our human existence and our relationship to God: Do you really think that he will come - this one who came? Will he come again? Do you expect that? Is there life after life? Hell? In these weeks, although we have answered those questions in less than traditional ways, we have affirmed again our Christian faith. We have affirmed that the God of our beginning is the God of our end, and the God of our meantime, that God is with us and that the last word is Grace. And if that is the case, then, “What Are You Afraid of?” What are the fears that dog your steps? What are the fears that haunt the inner sanctum of your heart? Fear, Henri Nouwen says, is so characteristic of our lives today that one could speak of our living in “a house of fear.” Fears that are very personal. Fears that are connected with those we love. Fears connected with the situation of the world and the destiny of the cosmos. Category after category of fearful thoughts that often take possession of us. We live in “a house of fear.” Nouwen, in his little book Lifesigns, invites us to move from “a house of fear” into a house of love - the house constituted by Jesus Christ, our Lord, the one who came at Christmas and whose Advent we celebrate again, and whose birth we will remember this week. To move from the house of fear to the house of love is the invitation of the Christmas Gospel. Easier said than done perhaps, but let’s for just a bit of time think about the perspective of the writer of this first letter of John, for he tells us that fear and love cannot coexist. Oh well, I suppose that’s too strong a statement. As a matter of fact they do coexist in the hearts of us all. But to the extent that there is love, there will be an absence of fear. And to the extent that there is fear, there will be an absence of love. If we did a little word association, if I gave you a word and you were to come up with the opposite… if I said, “high,” I suppose you would say, “low.” And if I said, © Grand Valley State University   �What Are You Afraid Of? Richard A. Rhem Page 2   “black” you would say, “white.” If I said, “hot” you would say, “cold.” If I said, “love,” what would you say? Hate? I think there was a time when I would have said that hate is the opposite of love, but I don’t think so any more. I think, according to John in this letter, the opposite of love is fear. Perfect love, he says, “casts out fear.” Love and fear are at enmity with one another. It’s like light and darkness. To the extent that the light is there, the darkness is absent. To extent that it is dark, the light is absent. To the extent that the heart is filled with love, fear is absent. To the extent that fear controls the heart, love is absent. The opposite of love is fear. Fear is the root of all that destructive behavior, of evil and darkness. Destructive behavior, born of fear, impinges upon our selves and reaches out to all of those whose lives we touch. When we are afraid we are destructive. When we are afraid we cannot love, and we cannot live lovingly. So John in a very interesting association suggests that love casts out fear. He says, “God is love. And those who abide in love abide in God, and God abides in them.” Love has been perfected among us in this that we may have boldness in the Day of Judgment, because as He is so are we in this world. There is no fear in love. Perfect love casts out fear. In this Advent season when we have been talking about the last things - the last events - that final encounter - judgment - Hell? -I find it rather interesting that John associates love as the absence of fear, fear particularly related to the Day of Judgment. Now you say to me, “Well, fear of the day of judgment. There isn’t a lot of that around today. Most people have kicked that habit. We don’t have to fear eternal punishment or damnation or hell - we talked about that last week!” Most moderns, our neighbors, have put that idea to rest. It isn’t that terrifying threat that it once was, and yet John says that fear has to do with the experience of punishment and the fear of punishment. He says that love comes in in order that we might have confidence and boldness in the Day of Judgment. John seems to relate our present possibility of living in love without fear in relationship to the end event. I just wonder - I wonder if he might be right. I wonder if there is something about us as human beings that would on a willed, conscious level rid ourselves of the idea of punishment and judgment, but that fear of it simply goes underground and in a kind of gorilla warfare disables us, so that much of our action that we would not directly relate to a fear of judgment and punishment is nonetheless precisely that. Whether consciously or unconsciously, we know that we are people who will be held accountable, that there will be a time of reckoning, that there will be that final encounter. Maybe down in the depths of our being we know that, so that it doesn’t matter to what extent we may pooh-pooh that final encounter, that day of judgment; nonetheless, there is something perhaps in the very fact that we are human that causes us consciously or unconsciously to feel a bit of disease and thus produce in us fear – fear, whose root we don’t understand, but whose consequences are felt in all of our relationships and all of our doings. Could that be? John says, “God is love. The one who abides in love, abides in God, and this love is what gives us confidence in the Day of Judgment because there is © Grand Valley State University �What Are You Afraid Of? Richard A. Rhem Page 3   no fear in love.” Hm-m-m. Rather interesting association of ideas isn’t it? I wonder if there could be something to that? Harold Ellens, the psychiatrist, theologian and pastor, has spoken about the human condition as a condition of anxiety. I mentioned this a few weeks ago, I forget in what connection, but that human anxiety is not the consequence of our sin, it is the consequence of our being human. He speaks of a kind of generic anxiety which is the consequence of spending nine months all safe and secure in the darkness and warmth of the womb, only to come splashing and bouncing down the birth canal into the bright lights of the delivery room to respond to a whap on the bottom side with a wail! We come into this world wailing. Scared to death. Fragile. That’s anxiety producing. And then he goes to the Genesis stories and shows that even in that setting, the human couple there is anxious - there is an anxiety producing set of circumstances, so that to be human is to be anxious. Then he goes on to say, and I think quite rightly, that the greatest anxiety reducing mechanism in the world is religion. Religion is a universal phenomenon. Stamp it out here and it will pop up there. You can’t seem to get rid of it. Any place you go in any age, any people, there is some kind of religious ritual, some form of religious practice. We who are simply a little farther along on the human story and a little more sophisticated in our religious experience, nonetheless, crave the basics - a kind of cultic practice. That is, a ritual. The prayers we offer. The gestures we make, and a certain mode or code of behavior that we follow, certain creeds that we assent to. They all constitute cult for worship. A creed to lead, a moral code to follow - those are the ingredients of religion, whatever the religion may be. And religion, by and large, is a universal phenomenon which has been a great anxiety reducing mechanism. It is how we anxious people try to come to terms with our anxiety. It is a way we come to curry favor with God, to appease God. There is something endemic in us that knows that we write with crooked lines. And, accountable people that we are, because we are human, we feel a need for some kind of buffer against that final moment, that examination, that judgment day, when God might hold us accountable. So our life is fraught with anxiety. And Ellens says that we try to devise means by which we can buffer ourselves against that anxiety, a way by which we may find ourselves acceptable to that all examining eye of the Eternal God - and so we turn to religion. That is the story of most religion. That is very much what most religion has been about. But the problem with most religion is that it becomes the tyranny of the should and the ought and the must. It becomes a prescription to follow. It becomes a matter of performance - of doing things, of gaining favor through ritual acts, creedal belief, and moral behavior. And any time you are in the business of gaining peace through performance you never make it. We can never satisfy the demands, the infinite demands. We will always fall short. We will always come up wanting. We will always be weighed in the balance and found © Grand Valley State University �What Are You Afraid Of? Richard A. Rhem Page 4   wanting and we know it. There is no peace! Rather, that anxiety reducing mechanism that we call religion becomes an exacerbation of the anxiety with which we came into this world, and our religion all too often binds us and makes us seven-fold more the child of hell than when we began. Religion is too often binding, controlling, coercive, manipulative. It is not too often good news, but bad news. And the threat of hell and of judgment, and of damnation and of condemnation broadly used in the religions of the world, do not reduce anxiety, but increase it. But, of course, the people cowering in fear are manageable at least. John has quite a different thing to say. What he says isn’t the Bible’s only message, but if we could only hear this. Do you hear it with me? “God is love.” He has said it before. He doesn’t say “God loves,” he said, “God is love.” That is whatever God is, whatever God does, God does it in a loving fashion because God is love, and, “Those who abide in love, abide in God and God abides in them. Love has been perfected among us in this that we may have boldness in the day of judgment.” It would seem that what John is trying to say is that if you could get a glimpse of the love of God, if you could get a grasp of the love of God, then that intrinsic human guilt and cowering before that final moment of judgment would dissolve. Because John says that, “there is no fear in love. God is love.” And, love has been perfected among us in this, that we may have boldness in the day of judgment because as he is so are we in the world.” As Christ is. How is Christ? Christ is one with God. Christ is in the presence of God - crucified, resurrected, received in the presence of God. “As he is so are we in this world.” Earlier he has said, “Beloved, behold what manner of love the Father has bestowed upon us that we should be called the children of God, and such we are now. And it doth not yet appear what we shall be, but when He appears we shall be like him for we shall see him as he is. Beloved, what matter of love, we are now, children of God.” If we could only believe it. If we could only lay hold of it. If we could only know that there is no record that stands against us. If we could only know that the love of God somehow or other has embraced us so that the record has been expunged and we are embraced in an everlasting love, so that there is no need for fear in judgment. I think that’s what John is talking about. Do you sense that’s about one hundred eighty degrees from where most religion would take you? From the place of the tyranny of the ought and the should and the must. People have challenged me about my promiscuous offer of grace, about the prodigality of God’s love, about the unconditional love of God that embraces us. Is that not dangerous? they ask. Will not people exploit that? Will not people take advantage of that? If that is true - if we are loved already, if we are embraced already, if judgment is passed already - then why worship? Then why live in praise and wonder? © Grand Valley State University �What Are You Afraid Of? Richard A. Rhem Page 5   Why? Precisely because of that! Precisely because of a love so amazing, so divine that it demands my life, my soul, my all! There is no fear in love. Most of the time the Church has not dared preach it. Too radical. The people cannot handle it. They will take advantage of it. Nonsense! Preach fear to the people and you bind them in fear. Preach fear and you increase resentment. Preach fear and you exacerbate anger - hostility. Dare to preach love - and you transform. God is love. And love is perfected in this - that we have boldness before the thought of judgment. There is no fear in love. Perfect love casts out fear. The one who fears is not perfected in love. Most of the time the Church would keep you afraid. It’s safer that way - for the masses. Nonsense. Dear, serious, sincere, religious people have been forced to cower before the demands of an angry God rather than hearing the word of the Christmas Gospel. The covenant of grace instituted with Abraham began when God came to Abraham and said, “Do not be afraid.” Old Zacharias was in the temple doing his thing and the angel came and said, “Do not be afraid.” Mary, a young Hebrew maiden doing her cross-stitching was encountered by an angel who began, “Don’t be afraid.” And Joseph, concerned about this situation that confronted him, heard from the angel saying, “Fear not.” The Christmas Gospel is Good News pure and simple. You don’t have to be afraid. God is love. And love casts out fear and so that endemic human sense of accountability that causes you to cower has been dissolved by the chemistry of God’s eternal love. Preaching on this text one day, Martin Luther King Jr. spoke about the time of the Montgomery, Alabama bus protest. After one particularly horrendous week in which he had been arrested and he had received phone calls threatening his life, and everything seemed impossible, he had to speak to a mass rally. When he was done speaking he came down from the podium and old Mother Pollard came forward. She was an old, black woman, uneducated and wise, who marched and marched, and marched in many protests. She came up to him after he had finished speaking and said, “Son, come here.” He went to her and gave her a hug and she said, “What’s wrong with you tonight?” He said, “Nothing, I’m fine.” She said, “You don’t talk strong tonight. Something’s wrong. Is it that we ain’t followin’ you enough? Or is it them white folk?” And then she looked at him and said, “Son, whether we follow you or not, God’s gonna take care of you.” And Martin Luther King said that from that day, because of the words of old Mother Pollard, he was able to live without fear. You say, “Well, that’s just fine. He said it that way at 8:30 but if you remember he died by an assassin’s bullet.” He was killed after all. Yes, that’s true. The Christmas Gospel does not say that life is not perilous, that human existence is not fragile, that there is not tragedy and suffering. Bullets cut us down. Cancer cuts us down. There is brokenness and pain enough to go around. But Martin Luther King lived the rest of his days without fear. That is to say, he lived until he died. But when fear enwraps our hearts we never live before we die. We will all die one way or another. And we will meet the Lord face to face. The question is whether we will have truly lived before we die - lived without fear. © Grand Valley State University �What Are You Afraid Of? Richard A. Rhem Page 6   So what are you afraid of? What are you afraid of? Name it. Speak it before the face of God - and let it go. Just let it go. © 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 Advent IV Scripture Text I John 4:18, Luke 1:30 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-0-19921220 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1992-12-20 Title A name given to the resource What Are You Afraid Of? 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 20, 1992 entitled "What Are You Afraid Of?", on the occasion of Advent IV, at Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI. Scripture references: I John 4:18, Luke 1:30. Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Lemmen Library and Archives Fear Judgment Trust Way of Love