About

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    Welcome to the Richard A. Rhem Archive

    This Web site of sermons, talks, articles and stories from 1985 to the present is part of the Kaufman Interfaith Institute Collection at Grand Valley State University in Grand Rapids, Michigan. The entire Richard Rhem archive consists of source materials from 1971 to 2014, including audio tapes of church services and funerals, printed sermons, tapes of Perspective Hour discussions, tapes of meetings, letters, news reports and photo albums.

    Richard Rhem is the first recipient of the Sylvia Kaufman Interfaith Leadership Award.

    For access to the Richard A. Rhem Archive at GVSU, see: http://gvsu.cdmhost.com/cdm/landingpage/collection/p16015coll4

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    Copyright & Permissions

    All sermons, prayers and talks are © 2013 Grand Valley State University, University Libraries, Special Collections & University Archives and posted on this Web site with permission. No material on this site may be reproduced or copied in whole or in part in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, without permission in writing.

    For further information about copyright or permission, please contact:
    Grand Valley State University
    Special Collections & University Archives,
    Grand Valley State University
    1 Campus Drive
    Allendale, MI 49401
    collections[at]gvsu.edu
    (616) 331-3500

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    The Kaufman Interfaith Institute

    The Kaufman Interfaith Institute at Grand Valley State University is committed to facilitating mutual respect and greater interfaith understanding in West Michigan and beyond.

    Dr. P. Douglas Kindschi, Director
    Kaufman Interfaith Institute
    Grand Valley State University
    Cook-DeVos Center for Health Sciences
    301 Michigan St. NE
    Grand Rapids, MI 49503-3314

    See http://www.gvsu.edu/interfaith/

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    Who is Richard Rhem?

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    In His Own Words

    From a December 28, 2003 sermon “The Grace To Embrace The Future”:

    I Am A Bridge

          The Church is always in tension, moving between continuity and change. We know that journey. We have been on that journey together and we have experienced that passage together. We know from whence we have come and we know we are moving into a future that is uncharted. Yet we are confident, because the eternal God continues with us in the future as in the past.
           And so as I think about Christ Community, as I think about a story that will be written someday, I realize that I will have been a transition figure. I will have been a bridge person between the wonderful congregation that invited me back in 1971––a congregation quite traditional, conservative, evangelical. A blend of those people from the past to this present congregation have moved from traditional, conservative supernaturalism toward a religious naturalism. We have grown to see God coming to expression in the whole cosmic tapestry, particularly in the word made flesh, the infinite be- coming finite in the human. We have come to understand ourselves as the voice of God and the consciousness of God and the awareness of God––the awareness of that splendid, grand drama of 13.7 billion years.
          We’ve made a radical move. It has been gradual. It has been slow. It has been cautious. It has been persistent. We have moved a long way as a community.
          But, there is continuity in our passage. In that new understanding of reality as we have come to understand it, we continue to find the clue to the mystery of the cosmos in the face of Jesus Christ. We continue to find our road map in that life of Jesus. We continue with that Christian understanding of Jesus as the way and the truth and the life.
       But there is change, as well. We have quite a different conception of reality. We have been trying to find a way to say “God,” to re- imagine faith, to translate it into ways that resonate with our common human experience in the contemporary situation. It means that I am simply a bridge, a transition person.
          It also means we haven’t arrived. It means we continue on a journey and we move into uncharted seas. But we are unafraid be- cause we are confident, as Paul said, that “the one who has begun a good work in our midst will bring it to completion in the day of Jesus Christ.” Now we differ from Paul because he expected at any day the curtain of history would come down. I would say we are confident because we believe the one who is at work within us will continue to be at work within us, moving us into the ongoing, un- folding of this cosmic journey. We cannot begin yet to conceive of this unfolding, but with Paul, our confidence is in God.
          Grace is a word that we’ve used here over all these many years, thinking particularly of God’s disposition to all people, that disposition of favor and kindness and mercy to all. This congregation, having wallowed in grace, has learned the style of grace –– how to live it, how to wear it. I hope you will be conscious of it again and again and again –– at this juncture or that juncture. We must continue to move with a style of grace –– unafraid, confident, positive. May we never betray it; may we never deny it; may we always embody it.

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    Our Thanks To ...

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    Tax-Deductible Donations

    We gratefully accept donations to help pay the cost of collecting, organizing, cataloguing, digitizing, transcribing, editing and formatting the archive materials. Donations are tax-deductible and a receipt will be sent to donors by Grand Valley State University.

    Checks should be made payable to:
    GVSU-Kaufman Interfaith Institute.
    The check memo line should state:
    For the Richard A. Rhem Archive

    Address for sending the check:
    Dr. P. Douglas Kindschi, Director
    Kaufman Interfaith Institute
    Grand Valley State University
    Cook-DeVos Center for Health Sciences
    301 Michigan St. NE,
    Grand Rapids, MI 49503-3314

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    Contact Information