431 24 26018 https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/2e77299cfd9d97c25c0133fb43b0b169.pdf fb2dd89eada85e918d593461a9395bdd PDF Text Text   Jesus and the Other Names: Christian Mission and Global Responsibility By Paul F. Knitter (Orbis Books, 1996) Review By Richard A. Rhem Minister of Preaching and Theological Inquiry Christ Community Church Spring Lake, Michigan Publication of Review Unknown In his foreword to Jesus and the Other Names, Harvey Cox speaks of “two urgent movements” in Christian theology which “shook him to his roots”, requiring him to completely rethink his theology. The first, impacting him in the 60’s, was liberation theology. The second, a decade later, was the persistent question of a Christian response to other faiths. For too long he felt that those two movements were like two separate conversations. Those interested in the one concern, had little interest in the other. Paul Knitter, he suggests, has found a way to blend the two conversations – conversations concerning the religious other and the suffering other. Jesus and the Other Names focuses Christian theology on the issue of “globally responsible, correlational dialogue among religions”. His discussion bears the hall marks of the classic liberal persuasion, as do the discussions of John Hick in The Metaphor of God Incarnate and S. Wesley Ariarajah in The Bible and People of Other Faiths. And like them, he draws heavily upon his own human experience. This I believe has always been the strength of the liberal position. Paul Knitter knows the discussion of Christian mission in a pluralistic society from both ends of a spectrum. In the late 50’s after four years of Catholic seminary high school, he officially joined the ranks of the Divine Word Missionaries (“SVD” or Societas Vergi Divini). Those were the years of missionary “adaptation” and “accommodation” in Catholic circles. Missionaries on furlough were often invited to speak to the novitiates. Knitter was struck by the time spent in speaking appreciatively of the other faiths and other ways encountered on the mission field. Such appreciation and accommodation disturbed the ardent young Knitter. Yet by the time of his college graduation in 1962 it was becoming clearer, “that the old exclusivist model of Christianity as light and other religions as darkness didn’t fit the facts” (p. 5). What to do with that dawning realization became clearer to Knitter at the Pontifical Gregorian University. He arrived just two weeks before the opening of © Grand Valley State University   �Paul F. Knitter, Jesus and the Other Names, Review by Richard A. Rhem Page 2   the Second Vatican Council. There Knitter took a course from Catholic theologian Karl Rahner, who was a visiting professor at the time. He was deeply impressed by Rahner’s concept that even those individuals who did not know or profess Christ, even those followers of another religious persuasion, were nonetheless saved by Christ’s sacrificial death. Thus they were, without at times even being aware of it, “anonymous Christians”. Knitter chose to write his doctorate under Rahner on the theme of Catholic attitudes towards other religions. A year and a half later, to his “devastating surprise” he discovered that someone else had not only chosen the same dissertation topic, but had published it that year in Rome. It was this which prompted Knitter to apply to Marburg University (and was the first Roman Catholic ever admitted to the Protestant Marburg), in order to pursue the topic of a Protestant theology or religions. Though he must admit to a biased Rahnerian Catholic perspective, Knitter does not deny the validity of his conclusion: In their efforts to recognize the value of other religions, Protestant theologians, I claimed, were stymied by the Reformational insistence on “faith alone” through “Christ alone” (see Knitter 1975). Protestants such as Paul Althaus, Emil Brunner, and even Wolhart Pannenberg, could recognize “revelation” in other faiths, but never “salvation.” This was, I concluded, to go only halfway in their efforts to reach out to other religious believers (p. 7). This move towards an “inclusive” understanding would ultimately be but a bridge to “the other side” - where lay a more pluralistic understanding of world religions. To move across this bridge he found he must sublate a christocentric approach with one that was theocentric. Thus in his book No Other Name (1985) he would claim “the possibility (and nothing more) that other religions may have their own valid views of and responses to” (p. 9) the Divine Mystery we call Theos or God. Now in Jesus and the Other Names he attempts to correct some of his earlier conclusions (seeing a need to emphasize the soteriological issues rather than theocentric), as he continues to move in the direction of pluralism. In the midst of his wrestling with “the religious other”, Knitter, like Cox, was impacted by the issues of “the suffering other”. Becoming involved with the Sanctuary Movement, he entered into discussion with those for whom suffering takes precedence over doctrinal disputes. He found himself increasingly aware, along with friend and colleague Hans Küng, that as religious persons we bear responsibility for a global ethic. Inter-religious dialogue becomes not simply a question of how to discern God, but even more urgently the question of how to bring about God’s reign. ...the avalanche of dangers forming on the slopes of economic injustice, environmental devastation, and military build-up will not be stayed unless the nations of the world come together to formulate and endorse some kind of shared ethical convictions and guidelines. But such a task will not © Grand Valley State University �Paul F. Knitter, Jesus and the Other Names, Review by Richard A. Rhem Page 3   be accomplished unless the religions of the world, in dialogue, make their contribution. In other words, inter religious conversations must make their most pressing agenda the ethical issues behind the mounting suffering of humans and Earth (p. 12). Having described the autobiographical journey which led him to a pluralistic (he prefers the word correlational to pluralistic) perspective, Knitter turns to the theological underpinnings which support such a view. He suggests that all of our theological understandings must be defined and shaped both by human experience and Christian tradition. Human experience has some common aspects Knitter believes, at least in Western cultures. Whether interacting with co-workers, gathered socially around a dinner table, attending our children’s school programs, or sharing a marriage bed, we are becoming more intimately and acutely aware that there are others for whom another faith persuasion has enriched and transformed their lives. To suggest that ours is the only possibility for grasping religious truth is no longer possible. Pluralism, whether we advocate it or not, is a cognitive reality for most of the Western world. Thus awareness of “others” is one aspect of our human experience. A second is a historical consciousness that recognizes the limitations of knowledge. Says Knitter, “There is no such thing, we know today, as factual knowledge; it is always interpreted knowledge” (p. 29). He quotes Langdon Gilkey: ...in order to preserve their integrity, they must accept theologically what they have long accepted culturally. Given the context-conditioned, “theory-laden”, socially constructed interpretative limitations of every grasp and statement of truth, and given also the ever-changing, always confining flow of history, Christians (and all religious persons) have to admit honestly that, within our human condition, there can be no final word, no one way of knowing truth that is valid for all times and all peoples (pp. 29-30). George Lindbeck (The Nature of Doctrine, 1984) and David Tracy (The Analogical Imagination, 1981 and Plurality and Ambiguity, 1987) are also cited: (They) remind their fellow Christians that to think that they have a fixed source of truth, an unchanging criterion they can apply in all cultural situations in order to decide what is true or good, a foundation that transcends the process and pluralism of history, is to fly in the face of reality, to lust after the unreal. There is no fixed place of truth outside the fray of historical process and continuous dialogue...which means that Christianity is one of the many, limited religions of the world (p. 30). © Grand Valley State University �Paul F. Knitter, Jesus and the Other Names, Review by Richard A. Rhem Page 4   A third component which supports a pluralistic or correlational theology is the moral imperative. Knitter insists that we cannot know our own truth except in dialogue with others. To know only one religion is to risk that it will tend toward a “barbarous or self-indulgent abuse of our own truth” (p. 32). Humorously, Knitter suggests that, just as we need someone to tell us when we have bad breath (!), we need the dialogue partner, the other perspective, to open our eyes - to enable us to see not only how others see our “truth” and also how it affects them, which is perhaps even more important. And finally, human experience recognizes our responsibility for the welfare of the world. Knitter believes that we have a moral obligation, bequeathed to us by God, to participate in the coming of the reign of God. We are God’s physical hands and heart in this world and thus are obligated to aide in the Divine work of Shalom. Aspects of the Christian tradition which support a correlational dialogue are again four in Knitters listing. First, says Knitter, the traditional understanding of the nature of God requires such a pluralistic posture. God is beyond our comprehension. Hence, to say that we have a final or exclusive understanding of the Mystery that is Theos is idolatrous. Moreover, Knitter contends that our understanding of God as Trinitarian implies plurality. Christian ethical incentives provide a basis as well, he claims. Here he relies almost exclusively on the commandment which calls us to love our neighbor as God loves us. To exclude our neighbor from salvation seems to Knitter the epitome of inhospitableness and lack of love. Whenever we hold up a truth or a revelation and insist that according to the will of God it is the only or the absolutely final norm in which all others have to be included, then we cannot treat them as our brothers and sisters in God. Such a norm does enable us to confront them, as love sometimes requires, but it does not allow us to be confronted by them, as love also requires. Whenever we are not disposed to learn as much from our neighbors as they can from us, we cannot love them. We may help them, we may build hospitals and schools for them, we may lift them from their poverty - but we are not loving them (p. 39). Pastoral concerns must be honored in conjunction with supports of the Christian tradition. We do a disservice to those who struggle with these questions if we simply cite doctrine and creed as final answers. We must wrestle along with them in order to give satisfaction to their “cry from the heart”. And then there are the scriptural incentives for correlational dialogue. Along with Krister Stendhal and John Hick, Knitter suggests that we must understand much of the biblical language as metaphor. The grand and divine appellations are really “love talk” (Stendahl). And while he wants to honor and respect texts such as Acts 4:12 – “There is no other name given to human kind by which we can be saved than the name of Jesus Christ”, he begs we remember the context (these © Grand Valley State University �Paul F. Knitter, Jesus and the Other Names, Review by Richard A. Rhem Page 5   words for example are spoken in connection with a specific healing), as well as the polemic nature of other passages such as “I am the way the truth and the life...”. We must always distinguish between the universal and the particular, says Knitter, citing Schubert Ogden’s understanding that we must locate “the particularity of Jesus within the universality of God’s self-revelation, rather than locating God’s universality within the particularity of the historical Jesus”(p. 42). It is that understanding of universality that drives us towards correlational dialogue. Why the term “correlational”? Here Knitter honestly admits that inter-faith dialogue is not easy. He takes issue with those who suggest that we come together easily around issues of “common essence” or “common experience”. Such suggestions are “gossamer theories spun out by academicians who most likely have never felt the hard, obstructing reality of otherness” (p. 13). And yet, his actual inter-faith dialogue experience has convinced him that, despite what are often chasms of perspective, there remains a relatedness. This, he trusts, is a sign from God to persistently pursue areas of “correlation”, and those ways in which we can go forward together in the global work of peace and justice. In the face of his critics’ real and valid concerns ( 1 - that the ambiguity of pluralism jeopardizes a firm foundation of meaning and purpose, 2 - the difficulties of prophetically resisting evil in Christ’s name, 3 - the corrosion and possible destruction of missionary outreach), Knitter maintains that he is still able to conceive of Jesus as unique for Christians and for the world. Stressing ortho-praxis (doing as he did) rather than orthodoxy, Knitter claims that Jesus is truly & fully all that the Newer Testament witnesses profess that he was. Yet this does not require that he was the only one, who solely embodied the selfrevelation of God. Whatever it is that brings a person to be a Christian and follower of Jesus, by its very nature it must enable the person to say that Jesus is truly and effectively the vehicle of the Divine Presence in his or her life. For this person Jesus is truly the Son of God, the savior, mediator, word of God, messiah, the living one. Without the feeling - without an experiential awareness - that inspires the “truly,” one cannot be, one would not want to be, a Christian. But I don’t think that is true of “solely.” When one knows that Jesus is truly savior, one does not know that he is the only savior. One’s experience is limited and has not been able to take in the experiences and messages of all other so-called saviors or religious figures. But if Christians do not or cannot know that Jesus is the only savior neither do they have to know this in order to be committed to this Jesus. The experience of Jesus that has enabled them to say “truly” enables them © Grand Valley State University �Paul F. Knitter, Jesus and the Other Names, Review by Richard A. Rhem Page 6   to keep following him. That there may be others is not an impediment to faithful following. Discipleship requires “truly”; it does not seem to require “solely” (p. 73). With similar logic he concludes that Jesus need be neither fully definitive nor unsurpassable. Rather he proposes that Jesus is universal (not limited to one people), decisive (in that he challenges us) and indispensable (which flows naturally from acceptance that he is universal and decisive). Christians bring to the table the uniqueness of Jesus’ interest in inclusivity and relationship. In representing that Christ-like uniqueness they will share with others the Christian value of contemplatives in action, says Knitter. Prompted by love of neighbor (which is, according to the first commandment, the manifestation of their love for God), Christians believe in the value of “historical involvement”. Believing that the God whom Jesus served has a preference for the poor and oppressed, Christians are concerned for those who suffer due to injustice, engaging in work to alleviate that injustice as they are able. And to the dialogue Christians bring a deep and abiding hope, a hope that enables them to believe that the world can be saved. Says Knitter, a “distinguishing mark of the disciples of Jesus and co-workers in God’s reign is that they don’t give up” (p. 97). To enter into dialogue with other faiths does not require that we abandon our understanding of Jesus’ uniqueness, or abandon a conviction that his way is an ethically important way. Insofar as Christians proclaim the “pure, unbounded love of God” at work in the world and therefore do not insist that Jesus is God’s full, final, or unsurpassable Word, they expect that for the most part their relationships with sincere believers of other paths will indeed be complementary. But insofar as Christians also experience God’s presence in Jesus to include universal, decisive, and indispensable claims, they will also be ready to take strong stands, sometimes in opposition, to the claims of others. (p. 82). But what of missions? This is perhaps the most critical issue for those who fear the goals of correlational or pluralistic dialogue. Throughout the centuries the Christian church has been motivated and animated by a sense of having been “sent” with good news of salvation. It believed it had a necessary role to play in God’s unfolding drama. But if the content of that good news is not for all people in all times, then is the missionary focus of the church still necessary or vital? Knitter claims that it is. And he contends that a pluralistic or correlational posture is still able to beckon disciples who will be sent out to speak good news that they believe is for everyone. It will however require a revision of the missionary mandate. © Grand Valley State University �Paul F. Knitter, Jesus and the Other Names, Review by Richard A. Rhem Page 7   Knitter contends that pluralistic missionary disciples will still continue to affirm Jesus’ divinity. But by this he means (along with Karl Rahner, Paul Tillich, Edward Schillebeeckx, Hans Küng and Monika Hellwig) that To feel and proclaim that Jesus is divine is to encounter him as God’s sacrament, as the embodiment, the historical reality, the symbol, the story that makes God real and effective for me (p. 105). The message of salvation that they bring will encourage others to join in bringing about God’s reign (as opposed to desiring that they join the Christian church). The wellbeing of all creatures must be the mission’s foremost goal. More than Christological missiology, they will be concerned with pneumatological missiology which, Knitter believes, allows one to grasp the universality of God’s saving purpose, without dissolving the distinctive uniqueness of Jesus for Christians. Pneumatology allows for the moving of God’s spirit into realms and through mediums that doctrinal Christology disallows. Though it is a revisioned understanding of missions, Knitter believes that his missionary passion is as ardent today as it was in his earliest years of missionary work. The urgency of its goals can indeed beckon future generations to bear witness to the way of salvation and the good news that God is still engaged with us in saving work, albeit through a multiplicity of religious mediums. Missions as dialogue then, is Knitter’s image of missiology into the third millennium. Perhaps Knitter’s most intriguing and practical suggestion is his call for a dialogical model of theological education. Seminary students need opportunities to learn about traditions other than their own. In as much as dialogue with those of other faiths will become more and more the norm, there should be required courses in Islam, Asian religions and indigenous spiritualities. These courses should be taught not in an abstract informational way, but by professors and guest speakers who can present material experientially. Students must be called to enter “the other’s world of experience” (p. 162). There should be personal encounters fostered by “experimenting with the truth of - or at least observing the spiritual practices of other religions” (p. 162). Another way of engaging the “other’s” voice might be to engage certain issues from a variety of faith perspectives - “Courses on ‘Religions and Peace’ or ‘Buddhism, Christianity and Ecology’, or ‘Feminist Voices in Muslim- Christian Dialogue’ (p. 163). Such perspectives should be mainlined into all courses of Christian history, doctrinal, ethical and social issues. By this, Knitter means...that in teaching a standard course on evil or redemption or church or the question of God, teachers will inject into the discussions what other religious perspectives hold, how they sometimes radically differ, and how they provoke Christian tradition to further reflection. Naturally, given the expertise and general background of most theological faculties, such dreams of mainlining an interreligious conversation into the general curriculum cannot be realized overnight. But they will never be realized at all unless the ideal is affirmed (p. 163). © Grand Valley State University �Paul F. Knitter, Jesus and the Other Names, Review by Richard A. Rhem Page 8   To this end, he would propose that all seminaries should include one or more faculty members trained in a non-Christian tradition. And students should be encouraged or required to sub-specialize in the “history, beliefs, and spirituality of another non- Christian religious path” (pp. 163-164). Paul Knitter envisions a new world of missions, one where the ultimate goal is no longer salvation through Christ to eternal life. Rather, the focus is on the reign of God emerging in our here and now. “The Kingdom of God is among you,” Jesus is purported to have said. Paul Knitter is eager, as a Christian, to join hands with those of other faiths in order to realize that very possibility. © 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 Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. References Paul Knitter, Jesus and the Other Names, 1996 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 RA-4-19960101 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1996-01-01 Type The nature or genre of the resource Text Title A name given to the resource Jesus and the Other Names, Christian Mission and Global Responsibility 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> Language A language of the resource eng Description An account of the resource Book Review created, delivered, or published by Richard A. Rhem (Dick) on January 1, 1996 entitled "Jesus and the Other Names, Christian Mission and Global Responsibility", on the book Jesus and the Other Names, Christian Mission and Global Responsibility, written by Paul F. Knitter. Tags: Theology, Interfaith, Pluralism, Non-exclusive, Love, . Scripture references: Paul Knitter, Jesus and the Other Names, 1996. Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource application/pdf Interfaith Love Non-exclusive Pluralism Theology https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/1c96abb0b0fd273ed40a9f1cfc6367d8.mp3 e29a82a16276a0d19e084fd65d6290e0 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 Passion Sunday Series The Human Face of God Scripture Text Hebrews 2:14-17 Location The location of the interview Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context KII-01_RA-0-19870405 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1987-04-05 Title A name given to the resource Jesus Christ, Superstar: A Contemporary View 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 Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource audio/mp3 Description An account of the resource A sermon given by Richard A. Rhem (Dick) on April 5, 1987 entitled "Jesus Christ, Superstar: A Contemporary View", as part of the series "The Human Face of God", on the occasion of Passion Sunday, at Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI. Scripture references: Hebrews 2:14-17. Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Lemmen Library and Archives https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/b8ba316a3e59e9c5e07e2beae852fd77.pdf 8cba3711b3a419f340fba237aece4438 PDF Text Text Jesus Died Because of Our Sins, Not For Them From the series: The Faith Of Jesus: Trust in a Gracious God Richard A. Rhem Christ Community Church Spring Lake, Michigan Palm Sunday, April 4, 1993 Transcription of the spoken sermon Rejoice greatly, O Daughter of Zion! Shout, Daughter of Jerusalem! See your king comes to you, righteous and having salvation, gentle and riding on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey... Zechariah 9:9-10 … he sent two of his disciples, saying to them, “Go to the village ahead of you, and as you enter it, you will find a colt tied there, which no one has ever ridden. Untie it and bring it here. If anyone asks you, ‘Why are you untying it?’ tell him, ‘The Lord needs it.’” Luke 19:28-48 We have entered again into Holy Week. We come to that moment, that flash point, to that time when all of that that was in ferment in the life and ministry of Jesus comes to a head. This was no accidental trip to Jerusalem. Matthew, Mark and Luke have Jesus going to Jerusalem just once. John has Jesus making several trips to Jerusalem. Which is the case, we really don’t know, but it doesn’t really matter. The point is that this trip was to be a time when things would come to a head. There is pretty much a consensus about that, that this might be considered a prophetic action and a political statement. This was an intentional move on Jesus’ part to gather his whole life and ministry into one and challenge the very heart of that religious establishment and tradition of which he was a part. He knew what he was about. He knew what he was doing. It was one thing for him to have gone about the hills of Galilee proclaiming his message as a charismatic holy man and prophet, but he knew finally he would have to come to this central shrine - to this very heart of that tradition that had shaped him – all of that covenant faith down through the centuries centered here in Jerusalem in the courts of the temple. Jesus was coming now to make his point finally there, and to bring his ministry to a head, perhaps to see what God would do, or to give God an opportunity to move in vindication of the claims of this one who believed he was speaking and living in the flow and power and spirit of the power of God. Jesus came to Jerusalem. In these Lenten weeks we have been making the point that he died the way he died because he lived the way he lived. And he lived the way he lived because he believed the way he believed. How did he believe? What did he believe? What was the faith of Jesus? That is the question we’ve been trying to get at. We have noted some of the aspects of that faith and conviction. © Grand Valley State University   �Jesus Died Because of Our Sins, Not For Them Richard A. Rhem Page 2   That God would build all into a community. That there was no exclusiveness, but rather the inclusive love of God. That God never abandons or lets go. That God is near and full of grace. And in his table of fellowship, Jesus mediated the very presence of God. In doing that, he got into serious trouble. Those things seemed so positive and so good, who could object to them? Wouldn’t everyone agree? Was not that which Jesus believed something like the American flag, and apple pie? Wouldn’t everybody affirm those things: the nearness of God? The grace of God? The inclusive care of God? The fact that God won’t abandon? That God’s presence is available to all? Who would object to those things? Well, I’ll tell you who would object to those things. It was all of those guardians of society. For what Jesus did was to destabilize the order of his day, the social order of his day, the temple order of his day, the ecclesiastical order of his day, the political world, and the social world. Jesus was a destabilizer. Jesus undercut the conventional wisdom. Jesus challenged the things that everybody knew and everybody understood, and those ways and structures and forms by which everybody organized their lives. We all have conventional wisdom by which we live. That enables us to live without thinking every time we take a step or make a move. There are some things which we simply know. There are some things we simply take for granted. It’s like looking at the world through glasses. When I look at you through my glasses I see you out there. I don’t think about these glasses, these spectacles. I see through them, and seeing through them I see what is out there. I see what is true. I see what is real. However, of course, these are reading glasses so they don’t work. I can’t see you at all. (Laughter) But, normally, spectacles give us a certain shape and form of things. We very seldom question the spectacles. I always know when I start singing more wrong words than right words that it is time for me to see John Leenhouts and check the spectacles, but that’s a very specific case. Most of the time, in the living or our lives, we don’t question our presuppositions, our biases, the dominant conventional wisdom of the day. We don’t do that. “My mind is made up, don’t bother me with the facts!” We get into certain well-worn ruts that are comfortable, that are like an old pair of shoes. Then you don’t have to think. You know about certain kinds of people, and you know about certain nations, and you know about certain colors, and you know about certain behaviors. There are things that you just plain know. You don’t have to go through that whole process of thinking again. Do you? But then some human experience comes along and challenges what we thought was all settled. Of course, most of us are able to crush that down. Sometimes it requires our anger to do that, however. We hope it will make it go away so that we don’t really have to go through the whole process of reorientation to a new understanding of reality. Dear friends, that’s why Jesus died. He called people up short. Good and decent folks like us. He destabilized the way one gets up in the morning and shaves and showers, and goes off to work. He called in question all of that that makes life © Grand Valley State University �Jesus Died Because of Our Sins, Not For Them Richard A. Rhem Page 3   able to be negotiated without too much stress, too much thinking. That’s why he died. Because in his prophetic call, living in the flow of God’s spirit, giving voice to his vision, he challenged the conventional wisdom, the social, political, ecclesiastical relationships and structures of his time. When he came to Jerusalem, he was bringing all that to a head. So as Luke tells us the story, he sets it in the context of a prophecy from Zechariah. In the ninth chapter of Zechariah, the first eight verses are kind of an oracle about God coming to deliver his people. Probably this prophecy was written in the fourth century B.C. when maybe Alexander the Great’s great army was moving south along the Mediterranean. Maybe the prophet even saw the legions of Alexander the Great moving toward Egypt, where he would subdue that empire. You see, the ancient world was a world also of shifting power arrangements. In Israel’s history there first was Israel, and then it split into the Northern Kingdom, and the Southern Kingdom, called Judah. Then the Assyrian Empire moved in and took over the Northern Kingdom. Some 400 years later the Babylonians overcame the Assyrians, and eventually they came and they carried the people of Judah into exile. Then the Persians overcame the Babylonians and let the Jews go back to Jerusalem. Eventually, Alexander the Great and the Greeks move across the landscape. Then, finally, there were the Romans who were in power when Jesus was there. With all of the stresses and strains, and the juggling for power at such a time, a prophet saw the armies move by and he envisioned God embracing and encompassing God’s house. He thought perhaps this incredible shifting of powers and empires would be a propitious time for God’s anointed one to come – that one who would be anointed with the Spirit of God and would bring justice and peace. Israel was always looking for that servant of the Lord, that one who would be full of the power of the Spirit of God, who would be able to mediate justice and bring Shalom. That messianic vision always beckoned them. They looked for a day when God would rule over all. When God’s justice would prevail. When there would be peace on earth. When the lion and the lamb would lie down together, and the wolf would graze. Ah! The vision! The vision of the one who comes as a peaceable king. He comes riding on a donkey. On a colt. Not a war-horse. Not a mighty charger. He comes and he brings the Northern Kingdom and the Southern Kingdom together. He removes the enmity. He heals the wounds of the divided Israel and he speaks peace to the nations. This is the picture that Luke gives us from the prophet Zechariah - the context in which we see Jesus coming to Jerusalem. You see Jesus on the crest of the Mount of Olives about to approach the city, riding on a donkey. Looking at Jerusalem, he weeps. Can’t you feel those hot salty tears, the pathos of his life? Oh, Jerusalem, Jerusalem, if only you knew the © Grand Valley State University �Jesus Died Because of Our Sins, Not For Them Richard A. Rhem Page 4   things that make for peace, but now they are hid from your eyes. And there will be this terrible devastation. This terrible destruction. Violence. Atrocity. Because, Jerusalem, you knew not the time of your visitation. Jesus believed to his dying moment that the eternal God was visiting Israel in him. That he was the mediated presence of God, the God whose presence is really an unbrokered presence in the world. Jesus said, “Oh, Jerusalem, Jerusalem.” And we know that within forty years it happened that way. The walls were torn down, the temple burned, the people slaughtered and massacred. Jesus weeps. He weeps for Jerusalem. He weeps for the folly of the human way that seems again and again and again to invite such awful devastation, such violence and death. And so he comes with tears knowing he will probably die. And he does die. He dies because of the sin of the world, not for the sin of the world as though, somehow or other, God was waiting to pour out God’s grace and speak God’s word of forgiveness through some sacrificial death. I know it says that here. I understand that. But that, in all honesty, doesn’t really connect with my world and what I see going on in the world, which seems to be such a duplicate of what was going on in Jesus’ day. I know the biblical writers are using Old Testament imagery, simile and metaphor. But they were on the other side of Easter looking back at that death. They were looking back at the cross and trying to figure out what in the world was going on. Why did he die? What did it mean that he died? Why did he have to die? What was the significance of that death? This was necessary. It was an attempt to understand in retrospect. It was an action of interpretation, of translation that goes on and will always go on. And St. Paul gave us the imagery of payment and atonement. But the Gospel writers were trying to tell us by telling us of the life of Jesus, and the events of Jesus, and the teachings of Jesus. Over these weeks, and even in Lenten series over the last few years, we have seen that the Gospel writers were showing us that the way he lived caused him to die. As I think about that, it seems to me that what he taught was not that God’s great problem was that God could not forgive. The Psalmist believed in God’s forgiveness. “Oh Lord, if thou should’st mark iniquity, who could stand?” But there is forgiveness with God. Forgiveness. Grace. It’s all in the Old Testament. Jesus believed in a God who forgives. The problem was not that God could not forgive. The problem was that God cannot get through. The problem was not that God would love to take away my sins and give me a personal relationship and a passport to heaven, but rather the problem is that God cannot change me! God cannot get through to me! Somehow or other there is no transformation here! I go on and I repeat again and again, and all of my brothers and sisters in history repeat again and again the same kind of foolish obstinate death and destruction over and over and over again! Jesus says, “If only you knew.” I suppose that it’s because of the World Trade Center bombing, but in the New York Times in the last two months there has been so much about the Middle East © Grand Valley State University �Jesus Died Because of Our Sins, Not For Them Richard A. Rhem Page 5   and the Muslim Fundamentalist Movement. I am sure you have been reading about it in whatever you read. Egypt, particularly, where the Muslim Brotherhood has rejected violence but has spawned into other groups because there are groups that absolutely insist on blowing up the world in order to make their point. The problem with the Muslim Fundamentalists is that, not only are they against Israel and against the United States for being with Israel, but they are against their own secular Arab leaders. And what they want to return their nation and their culture to is a religious state, so that their own leaders also need to go, so they have really nothing to lose. There is this worldwide conspiracy. An article a couple of days ago relates how they are pouncing on the ancient Christian church in Egypt, the Coptic Christians. The interconnections with the World Trade Center bombing means that this terrorism is being exported and the battles will be fought anywhere in the world because our world is interconnected. The point of the article is that a professor from some Florida university says that we will have a serious problem for a long time to come, and it’s not certain what can be done about it because our world presents so many opportunities for this kind of guerilla terrorism. There is now a group of people, militant of mind, absolutely dedicated, willing to die, full of purpose, full of fire, who are determined to effect this revolution in our world, take it one generation or ten generations. I was interested to read the last paragraph of a guest editorial, which had a huge drawing at the bottom with a sign like a road sign that gives warning of men working. But this one man had a bundle of dynamite and the fuse was lighted, and on one side was Egypt with a sphinx and a pyramid, and everything all in devastation. Then over here was the World Trade Center and all was devastation. Everything - civilization devastated. You see, as long as we had east and west, U.S. - U.S.S.R. we had this focus on the super powers and the super powers sort of helped everything like this. But now we live in a world where there is eruption all over the place. What’s going on? People who are angry. People who have nothing to lose. People who will say, “Burn, baby, burn.” This professor from a Florida university says that the Muslim rulers themselves are going to have to put down those fanatical groups, and perhaps brutally. I read it and I say, “That’s true. That’s true.” How can you have a world where you can have that kind of stuff going on? You have to put it down with force, don’t you? But what happens when you put it down with force? All you do is cause it to come out in another place. It seems to arise in another more militant form, another more deadly form. Do you ever deal with those ancient blood feuds, those great, great angers and hostilities between people? Do you ever really solve the problem that way? Of course not!! That’s the story of history. Jesus, 2000 years ago, saying “Jerusalem, Jerusalem.” Was not his point that there is only one way to deal with that which is so endemic to the human situation that spews violence and spawns response in violence? That is the way of © Grand Valley State University �Jesus Died Because of Our Sins, Not For Them Richard A. Rhem Page 6   sacrificial love. Turning the other cheek. Loving the enemy. Embracing the one who despitefully uses me. Of course, you can’t run a world that way. But my point is, you see, God’s problem is not that God cannot forgive me. God’s problem is that God doesn’t seem to be able to change me. Jesus didn’t die so that I could have the sentence removed and I could have a passport to heaven. I mean, wouldn’t that be wonderful. I could say, “Yes I believe. I’ll take that ticket. Thank you very much,” and remain unchanged. I couldn’t, of course. But that, as a matter of fact, is what has happened. We have this neat theological system of Christian doctrine where we have a problem, our sin; a solution, Jesus’ death. Sin removed. Guilt removed. Openness to God. All of that stuff and the world continues to be on the brink of exploding because in the human heart there is never any significant transformation. Not in my heart. And not in the hearts of Muslim fanatics, and Jewish Orthodox, and Christian Fundamentalists. The problem is not that God can’t forgive my sin. The problem is God can’t break through to me. I put my glasses on. Got it made up. Figured out. Don’t make me change. But, don’t you see, the word repentance comes from the Greek word metanoia , which means to change one’s thinking. The problem with the world is not that God can’t forgive the world of sin. The problem is that the world’s thinking will not change. And we egg each other on, and we escalate the violence, and we raise the stakes and nothing changes! Well, let me give you an image to close. Let’s imagine on the wall a beautiful Oriental rug. Since we are talking about things Middle East, let’s roll it up. Now it’s just a big roll up there. Now it’s like a movie screen. Let’s pull it down a little bit. You see it coming down a bit? You can begin to see the pattern? Now, of course, when it’s rolled up there it is complete. It is all woven. The design is done. We can pull it down as fast or as slowly as we want to, but when we get it all the way unrolled it will be a completed, finished product, but as it was already when it was rolled up, and that unrolling becomes a revelation. An unveiling. An unrolling of what is. That’s an old conception of God, of history, of creation. That’s the way former generations and former centuries used to think about God the King, omnipotent, in control, knowing the end from the beginning, controlling all things. But let me suggest another image which I think fits more with what we understand about the human person, about human willing and decision making, about the forces that are operative in history. Let’s image a huge loom on which there is a tapestry being woven. God is significantly involved in that weaving process, but we get involved as well. Punching in our threads. God moving and accommodating according to the threads we put in. You see, when you are operating on a loom with a tapestry that is in process, it is in process. It is in the process of being created. Its design is not yet finished, nor clear. And what happens over here will be somewhat dependent upon what happens over there, and about all of the input of all of the crazy people called human beings. God © Grand Valley State University �Jesus Died Because of Our Sins, Not For Them Richard A. Rhem Page 7   negotiating, maneuvering, operative, engaged, judging. blessing, but not pulling strings. God let Jesus die. God let Jesus hang there. We are not puppets on a string. Jesus is the visible sign of God’s presence in the void. God never letting go. Never giving up. Never abandoning. Weeping. Broken hearted, but never giving up. You see the cross is that human NO to all that Jesus lived for! And Easter is God’s far grander “I will not take ‘no.’” That’s at least the way I understand it - it is what helps me know what I am called to do. That’s to follow Jesus. © Grand Valley State University � https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/53592ecabdac6908165eb42a68498b32.mp3 d91aef8b0dee8131684d53a86d65075f Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Richard A. Rhem Collection Description An account of the resource Text and sound recordings of the sermons, prayers, services, and articles of Richard Rhem, pastor emeritus of Christ Community Church in Spring Lake, Michigan, where he served for 37 years. Starting in the mid 1980's, Rhem began to question some of the traditional Christian dogma that he had been espousing from the pulpit. That questioning was a first step in a long and interesting spiritual journey, one that he openly shared with his congregation. His journey is important, in part because it is reflective of the questioning, the yearnings, and the gradual revision of beliefs that many persons in this part of the century have experienced and continue to experience. It is important also because of the affirming and inclusive way his questioning was done and his thinking evolved. His sermons and other written and spoken materials together document the steps in his journey as it took a turn in 1985, yet continued to revolve around the framework and liturgies of the Christian calendar. Subject The topic of the resource Clergy--Michigan Reformed Church in America Christ Community Church (Spring Lake, Mich.) Religion Interfaith worship Sermons Sound Recordings Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Rhem, Richard A. Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/514">Richard A. Rhem papers (KII-01)</a> Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives. Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Kaufman Interfaith Institute Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Language A language of the resource English Type The nature or genre of the resource Sound Text Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context KII-01 Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant 1981-2014 Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource audio/mp3 text/pdf Sound A resource primarily intended to be heard. Examples include a music playback file format, an audio compact disc, and recorded speech or sounds. Event Palm Sunday Series The Faith of Jesus: Trust in a Gracious God Scripture Text Zechariah 9:9-10, Luke 19: 28-48 Location The location of the interview Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context KII-01_RA-0-19930404 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1993-04-04 Title A name given to the resource Jesus Died Because of Our Sins, Not For Them Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Richard A. Rhem Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Subject The topic of the resource Clergy--Michigan Reformed Church in America Christ Community Church (Spring Lake, Mich.) Sermons Relation A related resource Richard A. Rhem - An Archive of Sermons, Prayers, Talks and Stories: http://richardrhem.org/ Language A language of the resource eng Type The nature or genre of the resource Sound Text Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource audio/mp3 application/pdf Description An account of the resource A sermon given by Richard A. Rhem (Dick) on April 4, 1993 entitled "Jesus Died Because of Our Sins, Not For Them", as part of the series "The Faith of Jesus: Trust in a Gracious God", on the occasion of Palm Sunday, at Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI. Scripture references: Zechariah 9:9-10, Luke 19: 28-48. Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Lemmen Library and Archives Atonement Forgiveness Grace Inclusive Love Nature of God Presence of God https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/b60c18b4fd73062347a2b9b542453598.pdf 1261aae62c595ab5d4f02dae52eccc36 PDF Text Text Jesus in a Reverse Angle Lens From Credo: A Series For Eastertide Text: Acts 2:32, 36; Mark 10:18 Richard A. Rhem Christ Community Church Spring Lake, Michigan Eastertide, April 17, 1994 Transcription of the spoken sermon This Jesus, God raised up..." Acts 2:32 "... God has made him both Lord and Messiah, this Jesus whom you crucified." Acts 2:36 "Jesus said to him, 'Why do you call me good?' No one is good but God alone." Mark 10:18   "Credo," "I believe." It is a Latin word, which takes to itself its subject and gives expression to the experience of faith, faith not in a proposition or even a person, but rather faith as trust in someone. That is the nature of faith as it has come to expression in the Christian tradition, as it has been experienced in the Christian tradition, I believe. Last week I tried to distinguish between a set of beliefs, such as we have in a creedal formulation, and the experience of faith. I felt that many of you said, "yes" to what was said last week and felt that distinction was meaningful. While the content of our faith is not unimportant, for it is that upon which we reflect and it gives us that which we can teach and pass along, what we really long for is the experience of faith. This week I picked up a little volume by a New Testament scholar whom I have mentioned from time to time. His name is Marcus Borg. He is a part of the Jesus Seminar, which is getting so much publicity these days in news reports, magazines, and newspapers. Borg had written an earlier book, Jesus, A New Vision, which was very helpful to me and to some of our thinking a year or two ago during the Eastertide season or Lenten season. But in this more recent book entitled Meeting Jesus Again For The First Time, he tells his own spiritual autobiography. It is often easier to get our heads around a story than it is a series of propositions, and Marcus Borg tells about his own story growing up in the church in the Midwest, a good Lutheran boy. He speaks of the hymns, Sunday school, all of those things. Then adolescence, some doubts, college, and a little time off from church. But then seminary, and the critical studies of the gospel. In © Grand Valley State University   �Jesus in a Reverse Angle Lens Richard A. Rhem Page 2   those studies comes the recognition that the gospels did not simply give us a news journalist's account of Jesus. They didn't give us a photograph; rather they gave us a portrait, or in his word," a sketch," of Jesus. Borg came to see that the gospels were faith documents. They were theological documents, which not only remembered the historical Jesus but also reflected upon the transformation of the community's understanding of Jesus after Easter. That experience of the Christian community after Easter was the transforming experience where the crucified one was experienced as living. That experience of the crucified one living caused them to look back on the life they remembered, and the life they remembered became colored through the experience of Easter. His account of his own history is preferred when he was asked by an Episcopal men's Bible study group to talk to them about Jesus and the word was "make it personal". Sounds like what some of you might say to me when you say, preach to me and make it personal. Borg tells about making a little note to himself," me and Jesus". It causes him to reflect on his own pilgrimage. The thing he began to see is that there was a moment in his life when he moved out of faith, as it were. There was a time when he intellectually could not believe anymore even though he kept studying all the stuff. But then there was a time in his life when he came to a kind of spiritual experience, a mystical experience almost, a sense of awe, of wonder – the kind of spiritual experience that is described by not only Christian people, but Jewish people, and really crossculturally, and even across the generations. The kind of "aha" moment, when it is as though the heavens open and one is encountered by, well let us say, God. After that experience, that encounter, that kind of mystical experience, he returned to his study of the gospels and he began to see a new image of Jesus. What he had learned to that point in his critical studies of the gospels, the things that we talk about here all the time, the fact that there was a pre-Easter Jesus, that very human individual who lived and walked and ate with his disciples and talked to multitudes, and a very concrete, historical person, the Jesus that the church remembered the Jesus that is spoken about in the gospels. But he had come to see also that post-Easter Jesus or the Christ of faith, the Jesus who, after Easter, in the reflection of the community, took on more and more awesome character – a process after Easter that moved this Nazarine Jew, Jesus, through the lens of Easter into Jesus Christ. This Jesus, eventually in the fourth century, is spoken of as true God, true man, of one nature with God. This post-Easter process eventuated in the understanding of the Trinitarian God: God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit. Borg’s new image of Jesus was a man who was filled with the spirit, who was a bearer of the spirit, a mediator of the spirit, one of those persons who seems so transparent to God that his very being and presence seems to radiate God, God's Spirit. © Grand Valley State University �Jesus in a Reverse Angle Lens Richard A. Rhem Page 3   Marcus Borg, who had believed naively in the Jesus of, "Jesus loves me this I know for the Bible tells me so,” Marcus Borg, who had gone through the critical fires of examinations, scholarly study and had been impressed with Jesus as a social, political figure but who couldn't do anything with all of the Jesus/God talk, suddenly through his own spiritual experience came to see Jesus as a person who was a bearer of the spirit, a spirit person, as he says. And as he speaks about Jesus at this point in his scholarly and professional life, it's obvious that there's another layer. This man has also encountered Jesus as the One who is the bearer of the spirit of God and who points to God, God who is spirit. I tell you that story because it's rather interesting to me that last week we spoke about that distinction between having a set of beliefs, and the experience of belief; then I come across this Jesus Seminar scholar who likewise has all of the scholarly understanding of the critical study of the gospel, but now points also to an experience, an awakening, a new awareness, and sees Jesus as one of those people who was filled with God's spirit and mediated God's spirit, to those who followed him, and who continued to be present to them. And that, Borg says, is what Easter is all about. Easter is about the fact that the One who is crucified was found by his followers yet to be with them, still to be powerfully with them, or as Dominic Crossan says: (I don't know if this is true or not but it makes a lot of sense to me.) You know there were followers of the kingdom movement, followers of Jesus up in Galilee who didn't know what happened down in Jerusalem. I mean you take the transportation, the communications, and that kind of thing – it wasn't like you could tune into CNN and find out that at three o'clock in the afternoon Jesus of Nazarus was crucified outside of the city. Crossan said, No, these followers of the Jesus movement were talking about Jesus, and God, and doing the miracles, and the healings, and all of these things. The movement was still moving. And suddenly they realized when someone came up north and told them, "Jesus is dead." "Well, when did he die?" "A month ago." Oh, no, they respond. It can't be, because nothing happened on that day. We kept on moving. The movement kept moving. Jesus the power, the spirit, everything is the same. It didn't end. And Dominic Crossan said Easter, was simply the realization of Jesus' followers that he could not be dead but must somehow be present with them. Because the very same spiritual power and presence of God that he seemed to mediate in his life was still being mediated to them. They knew Jesus, they knew spirit, they knew God in the same way they had known and experienced God and Spirit when they were breaking bread with Jesus in the flesh. "So what!" you say to me. Well, I'll just tell you how it helps me, It helps me to make some sense of the gospels themselves. In the gospels, just take the gospel according to Mark for example, three specific times Jesus says to his disciples, he was going to go to Jerusalem, he was going to die, and was going to rise on the third day. I think there are three times in the gospel of Mark where it says that. © Grand Valley State University �Jesus in a Reverse Angle Lens Richard A. Rhem Page 4   Well you read that and you say, "Well, obviously Jesus was God, Jesus knew everything, Jesus knew what was going to happen." Now you come to Gethsemane, and there you have Jesus pleading with God to take the cup from him. And then you go to the cross and you have Jesus saying, "My God, My God, Why?" And you have the disciples full of fear, hightailing it for Galilee. Now I mean, they may have been dull, but can you tell me if this impressive teacher sat you down on three different occasions and said to you, "Look, we're going to Jerusalem. I'm going to die. I'm going to rise again the third day", would you have been acting as though what happened was devastating and made no sense to you? You see, those kinds of things cause those who really study in depth to say, "Something doesn't fit." Or for example, the text of the morning: A young ruler comes to Jesus and he says, "What must I do to have eternal life, good Master?" Jesus said, "Why do you call me good?" Now it might seem Jesus was calling him up short saying, "Come on, get off it, get real." But as a matter of fact Jesus is really saying "There's only one good and that is God." I hear that as saying Jesus distanced himself from God in his human nature and his human consciousness. I think it clearly means Jesus never presumed to be God. "Good Master, what must I do to inherit eternal life?" "Why do you call me good? There is only one good, that's God." How does such a saying still remain in Mark? Matthew's got a story, Mark a story, Luke a story, John a story, and sometimes there's some stuff that was so much a part of the tradition that it got into the written record even though it really seems to be at war with some other things that were in the written record. Now Mark is the earliest gospel written, we believe. And so he is probably recording close to the actual words just like it was there. Only one is good, that's God. But that created a real problem for Matthew. Matthew's dependent upon Mark's written record and he's got the same story. But listen to Matthew's version, written after Mark. In Matthew, someone came to Jesus and said, 'Teacher, what good deed must I do to have eternal life?" And he said to him, "Why do you ask me about what is good?" No problem in Matthew's gospel. The guy says, "What good thing must I do?" Jesus said, "Why do you ask me about what is good?" Now the original story in Mark is Jesus saying, "Why do you call me good, God is good." Matthew doesn't want to communicate that. Now here Matthew garbles Mark's story because Matthew knows that that little story is going to cause some confusion. Someone's going to say, "what do you mean?" Jesus, Son of God saying here only one is good, that is God. We have to face honestly what is happening here. © Grand Valley State University �Jesus in a Reverse Angle Lens Richard A. Rhem Page 5   When I really study these things, there is all kinds of stuff like that. So when I see someone like Borg working through, distinguishing between the pre-Easter Jesus and the post-Easter Jesus and acknowledging or understanding that through the event of Easter, the pre-Easter Jesus took on a different coloring, that helps me. Now I can understand. I can see the process. Example: In the book of Acts, on the day of Pentecost (that we read a moment ago), Peter's sermon concludes with the thirty-sixth verse: “Therefore, let the entire house of Israel know with certainty that God is made him both Lord and Messiah, this Jesus whom you crucified.” God has made this crucified Jesus Lord and Christ or Messiah. It would seem that through the crucifixion and the resurrection Jesus became by God's designation, Lord,(the honoristic title of the Hellenistic Greek world) and Christ, the one the Jews were looking for. But if you go to the next chapter, the New Testament scholar, J.AT. Robinson, points out that after the healing of the lame man at the temple, Peter's speech there seems to reflect a little different conception. In the third chapter, the nineteenth verse: “Repent, therefore, and turn to God so that your sins may be wiped out so that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord and that he may send the Messiah, appointed for you. That is Jesus, who must remain in heaven until the time of universal restoration that God announced long ago through the holy prophets.” Here it would seem that Jesus has been appointed by God to be the Messiah but he has not yet come as the Messiah. He cannot come as Messiah until Israel repents. And so the call, the appeal, here in this speech of Peter is repent. If you'll repent this Jesus whom God has appointed Christ will come and there will be the universal restoration of all things. There will be Shalom on earth. Well, why wouldn't that be a natural kind of understanding? That's probably reflective of what they sensed from Jesus himself. Jesus didn't go around spouting the fact that he was the Messiah. Jesus was preparing the way for the coming of the Kingdom of God, which he believed, along with all of his contemporaries, was just around the comer. Now I say it helps me to make sense of this stuff. I can see the process at work. I can see that they were struggling as much then as I struggle now to make sense of all this business. And so what I see as I approach the story of Jesus after Easter is that I have in the New Testament a memory of the historical Jesus, the Nazarene, the man reflected through the lens of Easter. I call the sermon, "Jesus In A Reverse Angle Lens." It's the wrong season. It should be pro-football season, particularly when they do the instant replay. I don't know the technology of a reverse angle lens but you know how it goes. The quarterback throws the ball and the tight end goes down, and he catches the ball, and his foot comes down. Is it on the line, or over the line? Are both feet in or only one? In the replay they're able to show the ball caught. And then you see the © Grand Valley State University �Jesus in a Reverse Angle Lens Richard A. Rhem Page 6   ball going back, eventually, to the quarterback whose arm starts here and eventually goes back here. And if you follow the reverse angle long enough you get to where he's taking the ball from the center. I don't understand that technology but it is looking at the end event and trying to understand it by going back and watching the process. Now that's what we have in the gospel records of Jesus. There is a memory of the historical Jesus plus the experience of the postEaster community of the presence of the risen Christ. Finally, what difference does that make? That enables me still to believe in Jesus. I can see him now as my brother who was filled with the Spirit of God, who was a bearer of the Spirit, who was so potently the bearer of the Spirit that those who met him experienced God. And following his death they continued to experience him alive as the bearer of God to them. Therefore, they began to speak of him with grand titles and to exalt him higher, and higher, and higher, into the whole creedal tradition of the church. As a matter of fact, he was God's man in whose face I see God and meet the Spirit. I was thinking about the day last Tuesday in Muskegon where Rabbi Hartman and Martin Marty dialogued for the day about "Religion That Heals, and Religion That Kills". If you are with David Hartman, the Jewish rabbi for long, you know you are with a man in whom the Spirit dwells. It struck me that when the rich young ruler came to Jesus to say, "What must I do to inherit eternal life?" what Jesus told him is exactly what Hartman would tell someone today, "Keep the Torah." Jesus was a good Jewish Rabbi, in whom God's spirit was so regnant that those who met him knew that they were in the presence of God. The whole creedal tradition of the church is trying to say precisely that, and if you dare come back one more week, I will approach that high Christology of John's gospel, which was John's attempt to say simply that in the human existence of this man God was present, and this man said the God that was present in him was available to us all. Jesus was a Spirit person and the New Testament is the consequence of those who encountered God as spirit in Jesus, giving witness to the fact that there was life in his name, that God is available to us as Spirit. Thank God for that. © Grand Valley State University � https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/ba9e0b525f9648e7edee115e66420a53.mp3 c5a1126020ddde8d21cec0d990163592 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Richard A. Rhem Collection Description An account of the resource Text and sound recordings of the sermons, prayers, services, and articles of Richard Rhem, pastor emeritus of Christ Community Church in Spring Lake, Michigan, where he served for 37 years. Starting in the mid 1980's, Rhem began to question some of the traditional Christian dogma that he had been espousing from the pulpit. That questioning was a first step in a long and interesting spiritual journey, one that he openly shared with his congregation. His journey is important, in part because it is reflective of the questioning, the yearnings, and the gradual revision of beliefs that many persons in this part of the century have experienced and continue to experience. It is important also because of the affirming and inclusive way his questioning was done and his thinking evolved. His sermons and other written and spoken materials together document the steps in his journey as it took a turn in 1985, yet continued to revolve around the framework and liturgies of the Christian calendar. Subject The topic of the resource Clergy--Michigan Reformed Church in America Christ Community Church (Spring Lake, Mich.) Religion Interfaith worship Sermons Sound Recordings Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Rhem, Richard A. Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/514">Richard A. Rhem papers (KII-01)</a> Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives. Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Kaufman Interfaith Institute Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Language A language of the resource English Type The nature or genre of the resource Sound Text Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context KII-01 Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant 1981-2014 Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource audio/mp3 text/pdf Sound A resource primarily intended to be heard. Examples include a music playback file format, an audio compact disc, and recorded speech or sounds. Event Eastertide III Series Credo: A Series For Eastertide Scripture Text Acts 2:32, 36, Mark 10: 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-0-19940417 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1994-04-17 Title A name given to the resource Jesus in A Reverse Angle Lens Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Richard A. Rhem Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Subject The topic of the resource Clergy--Michigan Reformed Church in America Christ Community Church (Spring Lake, Mich.) Sermons Relation A related resource Richard A. Rhem - An Archive of Sermons, Prayers, Talks and Stories: http://richardrhem.org/ Language A language of the resource eng Type The nature or genre of the resource Sound Text Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource audio/mp3 application/pdf Description An account of the resource A sermon given by Richard A. Rhem (Dick) on April 17, 1994 entitled "Jesus in A Reverse Angle Lens", as part of the series "Credo: A Series For Eastertide", on the occasion of Eastertide III, at Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI. Scripture references: Acts 2:32, 36, Mark 10: 18. Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Lemmen Library and Archives Eastertide Historical Jesus Presence of God Spirit Trinitarian Trust https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/314ce7b627a97edc846875b8190cac28.mp3 ae5989601a31d8dc049224e8d4e429df Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Richard A. Rhem Collection Description An account of the resource Text and sound recordings of the sermons, prayers, services, and articles of Richard Rhem, pastor emeritus of Christ Community Church in Spring Lake, Michigan, where he served for 37 years. Starting in the mid 1980's, Rhem began to question some of the traditional Christian dogma that he had been espousing from the pulpit. That questioning was a first step in a long and interesting spiritual journey, one that he openly shared with his congregation. His journey is important, in part because it is reflective of the questioning, the yearnings, and the gradual revision of beliefs that many persons in this part of the century have experienced and continue to experience. It is important also because of the affirming and inclusive way his questioning was done and his thinking evolved. His sermons and other written and spoken materials together document the steps in his journey as it took a turn in 1985, yet continued to revolve around the framework and liturgies of the Christian calendar. Subject The topic of the resource Clergy--Michigan Reformed Church in America Christ Community Church (Spring Lake, Mich.) Religion Interfaith worship Sermons Sound Recordings Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Rhem, Richard A. Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/514">Richard A. Rhem papers (KII-01)</a> Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives. Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Kaufman Interfaith Institute Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Language A language of the resource English Type The nature or genre of the resource Sound Text Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context KII-01 Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant 1981-2014 Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource audio/mp3 text/pdf Sound A resource primarily intended to be heard. Examples include a music playback file format, an audio compact disc, and recorded speech or sounds. Event Eastertide II Scripture Text Philippians 2:9-11 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-0-19870426 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1987-04-26 Title A name given to the resource Jesus is Lord 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 Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource audio/mp3 Description An account of the resource A sermon given by Richard A. Rhem (Dick) on April 26, 1987 entitled "Jesus is Lord ", on the occasion of Eastertide II, at Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI. Scripture references: Philippians 2:9-11. Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Lemmen Library and Archives https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/54a2d31e04f9e45db60d16f02023214e.mp3 a3f9abc2ba85394ca8fe6a6720056b04 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Richard A. Rhem Collection Description An account of the resource Text and sound recordings of the sermons, prayers, services, and articles of Richard Rhem, pastor emeritus of Christ Community Church in Spring Lake, Michigan, where he served for 37 years. Starting in the mid 1980's, Rhem began to question some of the traditional Christian dogma that he had been espousing from the pulpit. That questioning was a first step in a long and interesting spiritual journey, one that he openly shared with his congregation. His journey is important, in part because it is reflective of the questioning, the yearnings, and the gradual revision of beliefs that many persons in this part of the century have experienced and continue to experience. It is important also because of the affirming and inclusive way his questioning was done and his thinking evolved. His sermons and other written and spoken materials together document the steps in his journey as it took a turn in 1985, yet continued to revolve around the framework and liturgies of the Christian calendar. Subject The topic of the resource Clergy--Michigan Reformed Church in America Christ Community Church (Spring Lake, Mich.) Religion Interfaith worship Sermons Sound Recordings Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Rhem, Richard A. Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/514">Richard A. Rhem papers (KII-01)</a> Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives. Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Kaufman Interfaith Institute Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Language A language of the resource English Type The nature or genre of the resource Sound Text Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context KII-01 Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant 1981-2014 Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource audio/mp3 text/pdf Sound A resource primarily intended to be heard. Examples include a music playback file format, an audio compact disc, and recorded speech or sounds. Event Eastertide VI Scripture Text Isaiah 46:10-13, Phil. 1:6, 2:9, Revelation 4:6, 5:12, 13 Location The location of the interview Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context KII-01_RA-0-19880508 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1988-05-08 Title A name given to the resource Jesus is Lord 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 Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource audio/mp3 Description An account of the resource A sermon given by Richard A. Rhem (Dick) on May 8, 1988 entitled "Jesus is Lord", on the occasion of Eastertide VI, at Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI. Scripture references: Isaiah 46:10-13, Phil. 1:6, 2:9, Revelation 4:6, 5:12, 13. Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Lemmen Library and Archives https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/d4f69a1d9001e43a64581c48b9e8255e.jpg ccae3506f4f9a645f80a4b7a75b5b442 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 Douglas R. Gilbert Photographs Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Gilbert, Douglas R., 1942-2023 Description An account of the resource Photographs scanned from negatives and transparencies from the Douglas R. Gilbert papers (RHC-183). Douglas R. Gilbert (b. 1942) is an American photographer from Michigan. He was born in Holland, Michigan and is the son of Russell W. and Carmen (Andree) Gilbert. Gilbert earned a B.A. in social sciences and art at Michigan State University in 1964, an M.S. in photography from the Institute of Design at Illinois Institute of Technology in 1972, and a M.S.W. from Salem State College in 1993. He is married to Barbara (McDonald) Gilbert, and has three daughters, Robyn, Rachel, and Anne. Gilbert took a serious interest in photography at the age of fourteen. In 1963 he joined the staff of Look magazine in New York as the second youngest photojournalist in the magazine's history. As a Look photographer from 1964 to 1966, he photographed folk musician Bob Dylan, the Newport Folk Festival, Simon and Garfunkel, the New York City Financial District, the children and facilities at the Manhattan School for Seriously Disturbed Children. From 1967 to 1969, Gilbert did several shoots, including that of folk singer Janis Ian for Life magazine. After moving to Chicago, Illinois in 1969 to attend the Illinois Institute of Technology, Gilbert conducted notable photo shoots of business and political figure Lenore Romney, and pursued more personal and artistic photography, focusing on urban and rural landscapes in Illinois and Michigan. He then joined the faculty of Wheaton College, where he taught from 1972 to 1982. In 1993, Gilbert graduated from Salem State College, Massachusetts, with a Masters in Social Work, and later pursued a second career as a psychotherapist. Douglas Gilbert died in June 2023. Throughout his photography career, he pursued both freelance commercial work as well as artistic work. His art photography is characterized by its classic black-and-white format, and features people, places and objects shot great attention and sensitivity. Gilbert's works are held in the permanent collections of the Art Institute of Chicago, the High Museum of Art in Atlanta, The Norton Simon Museum in Pasadena, and the Grand Valley State University Art Galleries, as well as in numerous private and institutional collections. Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1960-2011 Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="%E2%80%9Dhttps%3A//gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/783%E2%80%9D">Douglas R. Gilbert Papers (RHC-183)</a> Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource In Copyright Subject The topic of the resource Photographs Photography -- United States Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections and University Archives. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context RHC-183 Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource Image Type The nature or genre of the resource image/jpeg Language A language of the resource eng Still Image A static visual representation. Examples include paintings, drawings, graphic designs, plans and maps. Recommended best practice is to assign the type Text to images of textual materials. 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 RHC-183_L124-0022 Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Gilbert, Douglas R. Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1971-07-18 Title A name given to the resource Jesus Rock Concert, West Chicago Description An account of the resource Black and white photograph of a Jesus rock concert held outdoors in West Chicago, Illinois. In the photograph, a group of parked cars are seen on a lawn with a Volkswagen Beetle featured in the foreground with a message written on the trunk that reads, "Honk! If You Love Jesus." Scanned from the negative. Subject The topic of the resource Volkswagen Beetle automobile Contemporary Christian music Concerts--Illinois--Chicago Black-and-white photography Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/783">Douglas R. Gilbert papers (RHC-183)</a> Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/">In Copyright</a> Type The nature or genre of the resource Image Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource image/jpeg Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant 1970s Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Lemmen Library and Archives https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/17182279147093985adc87cc1a1674c8.jpg a6ddac0fc1f4dfbbee7c2ef556462761 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 Douglas R. Gilbert Photographs Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Gilbert, Douglas R., 1942-2023 Description An account of the resource Photographs scanned from negatives and transparencies from the Douglas R. Gilbert papers (RHC-183). Douglas R. Gilbert (b. 1942) is an American photographer from Michigan. He was born in Holland, Michigan and is the son of Russell W. and Carmen (Andree) Gilbert. Gilbert earned a B.A. in social sciences and art at Michigan State University in 1964, an M.S. in photography from the Institute of Design at Illinois Institute of Technology in 1972, and a M.S.W. from Salem State College in 1993. He is married to Barbara (McDonald) Gilbert, and has three daughters, Robyn, Rachel, and Anne. Gilbert took a serious interest in photography at the age of fourteen. In 1963 he joined the staff of Look magazine in New York as the second youngest photojournalist in the magazine's history. As a Look photographer from 1964 to 1966, he photographed folk musician Bob Dylan, the Newport Folk Festival, Simon and Garfunkel, the New York City Financial District, the children and facilities at the Manhattan School for Seriously Disturbed Children. From 1967 to 1969, Gilbert did several shoots, including that of folk singer Janis Ian for Life magazine. After moving to Chicago, Illinois in 1969 to attend the Illinois Institute of Technology, Gilbert conducted notable photo shoots of business and political figure Lenore Romney, and pursued more personal and artistic photography, focusing on urban and rural landscapes in Illinois and Michigan. He then joined the faculty of Wheaton College, where he taught from 1972 to 1982. In 1993, Gilbert graduated from Salem State College, Massachusetts, with a Masters in Social Work, and later pursued a second career as a psychotherapist. Douglas Gilbert died in June 2023. Throughout his photography career, he pursued both freelance commercial work as well as artistic work. His art photography is characterized by its classic black-and-white format, and features people, places and objects shot great attention and sensitivity. Gilbert's works are held in the permanent collections of the Art Institute of Chicago, the High Museum of Art in Atlanta, The Norton Simon Museum in Pasadena, and the Grand Valley State University Art Galleries, as well as in numerous private and institutional collections. Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1960-2011 Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="%E2%80%9Dhttps%3A//gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/783%E2%80%9D">Douglas R. Gilbert Papers (RHC-183)</a> Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource In Copyright Subject The topic of the resource Photographs Photography -- United States Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections and University Archives. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context RHC-183 Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource Image Type The nature or genre of the resource image/jpeg Language A language of the resource eng Still Image A static visual representation. Examples include paintings, drawings, graphic designs, plans and maps. Recommended best practice is to assign the type Text to images of textual materials. 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 RHC-183_L124-0039 Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Gilbert, Douglas R. Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1971-07-18 Title A name given to the resource Jesus Rock Concert, West Chicago Description An account of the resource Black and white photograph of a musical group performing on stage during a Jesus rock concert held outdoors in West Chicago, Illinois. Scanned from the negative. Subject The topic of the resource Contemporary Christian music Concerts--Illinois--Chicago Black-and-white photography Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/783">Douglas R. Gilbert papers (RHC-183)</a> Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/">In Copyright</a> Type The nature or genre of the resource Image Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource image/jpeg Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant 1970s Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Lemmen Library and Archives https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/4749f84abd486bcb3d4adbe6fbfee810.jpg 4bdbd83eb1e5adeba84a4aee70735f35 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 Douglas R. Gilbert Photographs Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Gilbert, Douglas R., 1942-2023 Description An account of the resource Photographs scanned from negatives and transparencies from the Douglas R. Gilbert papers (RHC-183). Douglas R. Gilbert (b. 1942) is an American photographer from Michigan. He was born in Holland, Michigan and is the son of Russell W. and Carmen (Andree) Gilbert. Gilbert earned a B.A. in social sciences and art at Michigan State University in 1964, an M.S. in photography from the Institute of Design at Illinois Institute of Technology in 1972, and a M.S.W. from Salem State College in 1993. He is married to Barbara (McDonald) Gilbert, and has three daughters, Robyn, Rachel, and Anne. Gilbert took a serious interest in photography at the age of fourteen. In 1963 he joined the staff of Look magazine in New York as the second youngest photojournalist in the magazine's history. As a Look photographer from 1964 to 1966, he photographed folk musician Bob Dylan, the Newport Folk Festival, Simon and Garfunkel, the New York City Financial District, the children and facilities at the Manhattan School for Seriously Disturbed Children. From 1967 to 1969, Gilbert did several shoots, including that of folk singer Janis Ian for Life magazine. After moving to Chicago, Illinois in 1969 to attend the Illinois Institute of Technology, Gilbert conducted notable photo shoots of business and political figure Lenore Romney, and pursued more personal and artistic photography, focusing on urban and rural landscapes in Illinois and Michigan. He then joined the faculty of Wheaton College, where he taught from 1972 to 1982. In 1993, Gilbert graduated from Salem State College, Massachusetts, with a Masters in Social Work, and later pursued a second career as a psychotherapist. Douglas Gilbert died in June 2023. Throughout his photography career, he pursued both freelance commercial work as well as artistic work. His art photography is characterized by its classic black-and-white format, and features people, places and objects shot great attention and sensitivity. Gilbert's works are held in the permanent collections of the Art Institute of Chicago, the High Museum of Art in Atlanta, The Norton Simon Museum in Pasadena, and the Grand Valley State University Art Galleries, as well as in numerous private and institutional collections. Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1960-2011 Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="%E2%80%9Dhttps%3A//gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/783%E2%80%9D">Douglas R. Gilbert Papers (RHC-183)</a> Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource In Copyright Subject The topic of the resource Photographs Photography -- United States Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections and University Archives. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context RHC-183 Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource Image Type The nature or genre of the resource image/jpeg Language A language of the resource eng Still Image A static visual representation. Examples include paintings, drawings, graphic designs, plans and maps. Recommended best practice is to assign the type Text to images of textual materials. 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 RHC-183_L124-0044 Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Gilbert, Douglas R. Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1971-07-18 Title A name given to the resource Jesus Rock Concert, West Chicago Description An account of the resource Black and white photograph of a Jesus rock concert held outdoors in West Chicago, Illinois. In the photograph, a young woman is performing onstage in the background while a crowd of young people looks on while seated on the lawn, including a young man wearing a shirt that reads, "One Way Jesus." Scanned from the negative. Subject The topic of the resource Contemporary Christian music Concerts--Illinois--Chicago Black-and-white photography Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/783">Douglas R. Gilbert papers (RHC-183)</a> Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/">In Copyright</a> Type The nature or genre of the resource Image Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource image/jpeg Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant 1970s Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Lemmen Library and Archives https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/8cb6f6f36f82a2ff9163761b19b7cd01.jpg 1ada268e764fc9eb4d5df13e06011050 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 Douglas R. Gilbert Photographs Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Gilbert, Douglas R., 1942-2023 Description An account of the resource Photographs scanned from negatives and transparencies from the Douglas R. Gilbert papers (RHC-183). Douglas R. Gilbert (b. 1942) is an American photographer from Michigan. He was born in Holland, Michigan and is the son of Russell W. and Carmen (Andree) Gilbert. Gilbert earned a B.A. in social sciences and art at Michigan State University in 1964, an M.S. in photography from the Institute of Design at Illinois Institute of Technology in 1972, and a M.S.W. from Salem State College in 1993. He is married to Barbara (McDonald) Gilbert, and has three daughters, Robyn, Rachel, and Anne. Gilbert took a serious interest in photography at the age of fourteen. In 1963 he joined the staff of Look magazine in New York as the second youngest photojournalist in the magazine's history. As a Look photographer from 1964 to 1966, he photographed folk musician Bob Dylan, the Newport Folk Festival, Simon and Garfunkel, the New York City Financial District, the children and facilities at the Manhattan School for Seriously Disturbed Children. From 1967 to 1969, Gilbert did several shoots, including that of folk singer Janis Ian for Life magazine. After moving to Chicago, Illinois in 1969 to attend the Illinois Institute of Technology, Gilbert conducted notable photo shoots of business and political figure Lenore Romney, and pursued more personal and artistic photography, focusing on urban and rural landscapes in Illinois and Michigan. He then joined the faculty of Wheaton College, where he taught from 1972 to 1982. In 1993, Gilbert graduated from Salem State College, Massachusetts, with a Masters in Social Work, and later pursued a second career as a psychotherapist. Douglas Gilbert died in June 2023. Throughout his photography career, he pursued both freelance commercial work as well as artistic work. His art photography is characterized by its classic black-and-white format, and features people, places and objects shot great attention and sensitivity. Gilbert's works are held in the permanent collections of the Art Institute of Chicago, the High Museum of Art in Atlanta, The Norton Simon Museum in Pasadena, and the Grand Valley State University Art Galleries, as well as in numerous private and institutional collections. Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1960-2011 Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="%E2%80%9Dhttps%3A//gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/783%E2%80%9D">Douglas R. Gilbert Papers (RHC-183)</a> Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource In Copyright Subject The topic of the resource Photographs Photography -- United States Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections and University Archives. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context RHC-183 Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource Image Type The nature or genre of the resource image/jpeg Language A language of the resource eng Still Image A static visual representation. Examples include paintings, drawings, graphic designs, plans and maps. Recommended best practice is to assign the type Text to images of textual materials. 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 RHC-183_L124-0001 Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Gilbert, Douglas R. Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1971-07-18 Title A name given to the resource Jesus Rock Concert, West Chicago Description An account of the resource Black and white photograph of a musical group performing on stage during a Jesus rock concert held outdoors in West Chicago, Illinois. Scanned from the negative. Subject The topic of the resource Contemporary Christian music Concerts--Illinois--Chicago Black-and-white photography Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/783">Douglas R. Gilbert papers (RHC-183)</a> Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/">In Copyright</a> Type The nature or genre of the resource Image Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource image/jpeg Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant 1970s Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Lemmen Library and Archives https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/24422e7726981084e517381841c871dd.mp3 d32c7a5b2ed296c2853038ac0264d79a Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Richard A. Rhem Collection Description An account of the resource Text and sound recordings of the sermons, prayers, services, and articles of Richard Rhem, pastor emeritus of Christ Community Church in Spring Lake, Michigan, where he served for 37 years. Starting in the mid 1980's, Rhem began to question some of the traditional Christian dogma that he had been espousing from the pulpit. That questioning was a first step in a long and interesting spiritual journey, one that he openly shared with his congregation. His journey is important, in part because it is reflective of the questioning, the yearnings, and the gradual revision of beliefs that many persons in this part of the century have experienced and continue to experience. It is important also because of the affirming and inclusive way his questioning was done and his thinking evolved. His sermons and other written and spoken materials together document the steps in his journey as it took a turn in 1985, yet continued to revolve around the framework and liturgies of the Christian calendar. Subject The topic of the resource Clergy--Michigan Reformed Church in America Christ Community Church (Spring Lake, Mich.) Religion Interfaith worship Sermons Sound Recordings Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Rhem, Richard A. Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/514">Richard A. Rhem papers (KII-01)</a> Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives. Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Kaufman Interfaith Institute Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Language A language of the resource English Type The nature or genre of the resource Sound Text Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context KII-01 Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant 1981-2014 Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource audio/mp3 text/pdf Sound A resource primarily intended to be heard. Examples include a music playback file format, an audio compact disc, and recorded speech or sounds. Event Christmastide I Scripture Text Romans 8:3 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-0-19890101 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1989-01-01 Title A name given to the resource Jesus, Flesh of Our Flawed Flesh 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 Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource audio/mp3 Description An account of the resource A sermon given by Richard A. Rhem (Dick) on January 1, 1989 entitled "Jesus, Flesh of Our Flawed Flesh", on the occasion of Christmastide I, at Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI. Scripture references: Romans 8:3. Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Lemmen Library and Archives https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/762372bc29f22591476ae6f031ff5e43.mp3 81c6c0c2bfa0c896e4e2298e07e8b31b https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/f8cc95f7270dd837d47f9cc42680287a.pdf afd4071da2a36e9d510fdf431185c8ac PDF Text Text Jesus the Human Being: A Stunning Revelation of God From the series: Journeying With Jesus on the Road Less Traveled Text: Ezekiel 1:26; Luke 9:55-56 Richard A. Rhem Christ Community Church Spring Lake, Michigan February 24, 2002, Lent II Transcription of the spoken sermon The “Reading from the Present” is in your liturgy. You can take it home. Read it this afternoon about five times and then you may get some hint as to what I was trying to say this morning. It is a writing from Walter Wink, who has done a very interesting study and has published a book now entitled, The Human Being. As we journey on this road less traveled with Jesus in this Lenten season, the thing that I am hopeful will come through to us is what came through in Jesus. I'm hoping that we can see through Jesus to what came to expression in Jesus. I'm going to try to chip away this morning at an idea that I hope will continue to come through this Lenten season, so that you can look back at Lent 2002 and say, “That's when Dick hammered us over the head week after week with the idea that it was not Jesus per se, but what came through Jesus, what came to expression in Jesus." I make that critical distinction because you see, in the Church, in the tradition of the Church, we have come to worship Jesus as God, and that was the farthest thing from Jesus' mind, that he should have been ever considered anything but a human being. The elevation of Jesus to Godhead was the creation of the ancient Church, centuries two through five, in its creedal formulation which borrowed from the very technical, philosophical language of the Greek philosophical tradition. Jesus never said, "Worship me." Jesus said, "Follow me." We can understand how that happened. We speak of incarnation, the Christmas miracle. We speak of God being embodied in Jesus, and one of the things that that elevation of Jesus to the status of deity has done is it has preserved over the centuries the story itself. We can see, in retrospect, how that process took place. But, it's very important for us to realize that it was not Jesus' intention that he be worshiped, but that he be followed. Now, how do you give expression to what came to expression in Jesus? They said, "My God!" They said, "It was as though God were with us," and it was just a tiny step to go beyond to say, "Jesus is God." But what they were trying to say was that, in the experience of Jesus, they had the experience of the nearness of God, © Grand Valley State University �Jesus the Human Being: A Stunning Revelation of God Richard A. Rhem Page 2 of the grace of God, of the compassion of God, of the love of God. And so, beginning in the Gospel of John, the fourth Gospel, we have this very high doctrine of, teaching of, incarnation: famously, in John 1:14, 'The word became flesh and dwelt among us." Or, as John says in the 14th chapter, "Jesus said, 'If you have seen me, you have seen the father.'" Or, as Paul says in II Corinthians 4:6, "We have seen the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ." You've heard me say that over and over and over again. Jesus is our window to God. Now I want to make a subtle shift which is terribly important. What we have done traditionally is we have said that God became other than God is, assuming human nature, thereby revealing the nature of God. So, for God to become human was to move out of deity into humanity. Now, what if we just turned that around and said, as a matter of fact, what happened was that Jesus revealed, not the divinity of God, but the humanness of God? What if the stunning revelation is this - that God is human? What if Jesus, being a revelation of God, did not take Jesus becoming something other than God is, accepting, assuming another nature foreign and alien to God? What if the stunning revelation is that one looks at Jesus and says, "God is human." I can imagine all sorts of bells and whistles are going off in your minds, and all sorts of questions being raised, but just let's think about it for a moment. We think that we are human. But, we're not human. Now and again, here and there we act humanely. Now and again, here and there we manage to be fully human according to that ideal that we carry with us. But, for the most part, we are inhuman. We are people on the way. As Walter Wink says in the insert that you're going to read five times this afternoon, we are not yet human. We're mere promissory notes. We are mere intimations of what it would be to be human. Therefore, as another scholar has said, that famous missing link between the primate and the human that is always thrown up as an argument against evolution, that missing link isn't missing at all. It is we. We are still primates in so much of our life and human society. The stunning revelation is that God is human and calls us to be human in the fullness of the humanity as it was manifested in Jesus. Now, that's something to think about. Let me give you a little background. I read from the first chapter of Ezekiel. The phrase "son of man" in Ezekiel occurs 93 times. That is a lot. The phrase translated "son of man" is in the Hebrew, bin Adam. Remember Adam? He was the husband of Eve. But, that really wasn't his name. It was A-dam, a creature of the earth, a human made of humus. Bin Adam is “a son of the human.” Now, in Ezekiel's vision, it's a marvelous vision. If you read the insert five times this afternoon, read the first chapter of Ezekiel six times. It's the throne vision. It's that fun vision that is celebrated in the Negro spiritual, "The Wheel Within the Wheel." It's called the throne vision and in the opening paragraph of the first chapter, Ezekiel says, "I saw a vision of God." It's a vision, a vision. This vision of God comes down to the verses that we read, where © Grand Valley State University �Jesus the Human Being: A Stunning Revelation of God Richard A. Rhem Page 3 the prophet goes out of his way to say, "I don't really know how to describe what I'm trying to describe. It seems like this. It seems like, as it were. It had the appearance of..." Finally, he says, "It was as though this one who was revealing himself to the prophet was human." Now, let's go to the Gospels. What self-designation did Jesus use over and over and over again? Son of Man. He always called himself the son of man. He never called himself Messiah. He never called himself son of God. He called himself son of Man. Son of man translated is bin Adam, or the Greek translation of that Hebrew phrase. It is interesting that the early Church took all of the exalted titles possible and attributed them to Jesus, so that the whole creedal elevation of Jesus in the early Church was by use of titles that were exalted. The early Church never used son of man in its creedal formulation. Why? Well, the best translation of son of man is human being. Some translations would say mortal, or human one, but Walter Wink, and I think he has good basis for this, said, "I think the best translation for the phrase 'son of man' out of the Greek language would be Human Being." So, what Jesus is doing in the Gospel, whenever he refers to himself as the son of man, is referring to himself as a human being. Frankly, the Church was never very comfortable with that. The Church was never able to write any hymns or creeds that celebrated the human being, because, after all, weren't they trying to celebrate God in Christ? Surely they were. But what was missed was that the God in Christ was human. Far beyond the humanness that you and I have yet achieved, for we are people on the way and lagging all along the way, but the stunning revelation is that what came to expression in Jesus was the humanity of God. I don't have time this morning to try to go back in those Creation stories and the human being created in the image of God, but what I see in this is that our calling to be like God is a calling to be fully human. When Jesus has set his face to go to Jerusalem, and he goes through Samaria, the Samaritans aren't happy with him because there is a jealousy, a terrible racial violence between Jews and Samaritans, and so they are not happy at all that he is going through Samaria to Jerusalem. The disciples recognize the resistance that he is receiving and James and John are nicknamed in the Gospels the "sons of thunder," no doubt with a reference to Elijah, the great Hebrew prophet. They say to Jesus, "Let’s call down fire from heaven." Colloquially speaking, they said, "Let's blast the brothers." I don't know how they thought they could call down fire from heaven, but after all, Elijah did and consumed the prophets of Baal, so maybe it would work again. Let's show them who we are. In a good Bible with a footnote, a very well-attested reading adds Jesus' words, "You don't know what spirit you are of, for the human being (the son of man) has come not to destroy human life, but to heal it." Now, that, I believe, is pretty solid biblical basis for seeing Jesus in his full humanity as a revelation of God as human. Therefore, the call to us to be God-like is a call to be not something other than we are, alien to our nature, but to be fully human, and the calling to us as a © Grand Valley State University �Jesus the Human Being: A Stunning Revelation of God Richard A. Rhem Page 4 community is to be humane. That is not a bad place to leave it on the threshold of our annual meeting as we celebrate this community. I mentioned Wednesday night to the pilgrim band that comes for Eucharist during Lent, the irony that it is in the Bible Belt, that it is in the religious ghettos, that it is in the places of the high concentration of conservative Christian congregations that there is altogether a lack of humane existence, that there is fear and divisiveness and an excluding of people left and right. To me, that's an irony. It says to me that maybe the people who are left in the Church by and large, in a generalization which is always dangerous, are so fearful, fearful of being pulled into this full humane existence, fearful of that which is human, striving to be divine, as it were, not recognizing that to be divine is to be human, if the revelation of Jesus is the true revelation of God. It is an irony that we have the greatest difficulty in tight Christian communities to be open to the other, to that which breaks the mold. I am grateful for this community. As we go into this congregational meeting, I'm grateful for this community that inclusion here is more than a catchword, that we have learned the inclusivity of the grace of God and that we practice it. That we stand on our identity statement published every time we publish a liturgy, that this is a place that is open to all, regardless, that we are open to all manner and condition of humankind, because we celebrate God as creator who, in the creative initiative, has brought forth a magnificent prodigality of diversity. We have also learned here that Jesus is our window to God, but not the only window, so that we can be open to people of other faith traditions. For, what we have learned is that our religious formulation and structure is a human, creative, imaginative construct. We made it in response to a vision, in our case, a vision of Jesus who learned a vision from Ezekiel, and the whole Christian Church in all of its forms and structures is our response to that mystery of God that came unveiled in Jesus. We respect and honor great traditions who follow other windows into the mystery of God that will always remain a mystery. I am thankful that this community is open to all people, no matter where they are on their faith journey, and to those who cannot articulate any faith at all, but simply are seeking, and who need and desire a community of compassion that is humane. Tonight is the closing ceremony of the Olympic Games. It has been a wonderful 17 days, beginning with that magnificent opening ceremony. If you have watched over these past couple of weeks, you have seen humanity at its best. Have you seen the faces of the camera focused, and those faces so alive, so beautiful, on bodies so trained and taut? And then, the parade of the nations, a symbol of the global community more eloquent than any sermon I could preach. In the exhibition of skating last night, with the pressure off, Michelle Kwan, who was supposed to get the gold, skating gracefully and beautifully with her face wet © Grand Valley State University �Jesus the Human Being: A Stunning Revelation of God Richard A. Rhem Page 5 with tears for the gold that she missed, and the people loving her all the more. Or, the Canadian pair and the Russian pair whose skating brought out the supposed scandal of judging and therefore, a double gold this year, and there they were bound hand in hand, arm in arm, body to body, the four of them in a most magnificent display of reconciliation and peace. I'll tell you what - the human possibility is so magnificent. Where there is love, where there is grace, where there is humility, freedom, and openness, dear God, what we could become! What we could become is human, by God. That's a stunning revelation. References: Walter Wink. The Human Being: Jesus and the Enigma of the Son of the Man. Augsburg Fortress, 2002. © Grand Valley State University � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Richard A. Rhem Collection Description An account of the resource Text and sound recordings of the sermons, prayers, services, and articles of Richard Rhem, pastor emeritus of Christ Community Church in Spring Lake, Michigan, where he served for 37 years. Starting in the mid 1980's, Rhem began to question some of the traditional Christian dogma that he had been espousing from the pulpit. That questioning was a first step in a long and interesting spiritual journey, one that he openly shared with his congregation. His journey is important, in part because it is reflective of the questioning, the yearnings, and the gradual revision of beliefs that many persons in this part of the century have experienced and continue to experience. It is important also because of the affirming and inclusive way his questioning was done and his thinking evolved. His sermons and other written and spoken materials together document the steps in his journey as it took a turn in 1985, yet continued to revolve around the framework and liturgies of the Christian calendar. Subject The topic of the resource Clergy--Michigan Reformed Church in America Christ Community Church (Spring Lake, Mich.) Religion Interfaith worship Sermons Sound Recordings Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Rhem, Richard A. Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/514">Richard A. Rhem papers (KII-01)</a> Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives. Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Kaufman Interfaith Institute Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Language A language of the resource English Type The nature or genre of the resource Sound Text Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context KII-01 Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant 1981-2014 Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource audio/mp3 text/pdf Sound A resource primarily intended to be heard. Examples include a music playback file format, an audio compact disc, and recorded speech or sounds. Event Lent II Series Journeying With Jesus On the Road Less Traveled Scripture Text Ezekiel 1:26, Luke 9:55-56 Location The location of the interview Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI References Walter Wink. The Human Being: Jesus and the Enigma of the Son of the Man. Augsburg Fortress, 2002. 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-0-20020224 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2002-02-24 Title A name given to the resource Jesus, the Human Being - A Stunning Revelation of God 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 February 24, 2002 entitled "Jesus, the Human Being - A Stunning Revelation of God", as part of the series "Journeying With Jesus On the Road Less Traveled", on the occasion of Lent II, at Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI. Scripture references: Ezekiel 1:26, Luke 9:55-56. Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Lemmen Library and Archives Humanness of God Lent The Son of the Man https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/cefbf91ad5ffd23d62b1c0bf8fa772ea.mp3 94f7236c0f843c9b5e94e5f35fc5883e https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/c3662b5357657e3f7f13d9a683ece424.pdf 3f54a1a2eab731cc546d4539c8826732 PDF Text Text Jesus, the Truth of God From the series: Remembering Jesus, Experiencing God Text: John 14:1-14 Richard A. Rhem Christ Community Church Spring Lake, Michigan Lent, March 7, 2004 Transcription of the spoken sermon For a Lesson From the Present, I want to read a paragraph from Walter Wink’s book, The Human Being: Jesus and the Enigma of the Son of the Man, which is the book, the reason, why I wanted him here in our midst in the first place, a very, very interesting study. In the course of his discussion, he writes: If God is in some sense true humanness, then divinity inverts itself. Divinity is not a qualitatively different reality. Quite the reverse. Divinity is fully realized humanity. Well, that’s only about 180 degrees from anything you’ve ever heard in church. I’ll read it again. Quite the reverse. Divinity is fully realized humanity. Only God is, as it were, human. The goal of life, then, is not to become something we are not, divine, but to become what we truly are, human. We are not required to become divine, flawless, perfect, without blemish. We are invited simply to become human which means growing through our sins and mistakes, learning by trial and error, being redeemed over and over from compulsive behavior, becoming ourselves, scars and all,. It means embracing and transforming those elements in us that we find unacceptable. It means giving up pretending to be good and instead becoming real. Jesus incarnated God in his own person in order to show all of us how to incarnate God, and to incarnate God is what it means to be fully human. That, too, is the word of God. The season of Lent invites us to remember Jesus, because in remembering Jesus we experience God. That is our story. That’s what has been the mark of the Christian tradition. We find our window to God in Jesus, so our identity statement claims, and that has been the central thrust of our understanding and our community experience together. Probably almost every one of us was born into and nurtured in the Christian tradition. Almost the whole human family that © Grand Valley State University   �Jesus, the Truth of God Richard A. Rhem Page 2   is religious continues in that religious tradition into which they were born. And so, when we claim Jesus as our window to God we are not claiming an exclusivism. We are simply claiming that’s our story, and that’s the story that we celebrate together, and the Lenten season is an invitation to remember Jesus in order that we might again in a fresh way have the experience of that holy Mystery that we call God. And so, this Second Sunday in Lent, I am suggesting to you that Jesus is the truth of God. Not the truth of God in propositional terms, the kind of factual data like 2 + 2 ids 4, or that this congregation was founded in 1870 or anything like that, but rather, that Jesus is the truth of God in the sense that there in the embodiment, in that incarnation we say God. That that person, that consciousness, that human being is for us who continue in that flow of Christian tradition, that is the clue as to the Mystery of the Divine. I suppose that there is no text that has been quoted to me or quoted against me more than John 14:6, “Jesus says I am the way, the truth and the life.” And nobody quotes that to me or against me because he said that, it is what he said after that - “No one comes to the father but by me.” Therefore, the claim is that John, the Bible in general, is clearly a book that portrays an exclusive salvation through Jesus Christ alone. I’m not sure that Jesus said it anyway, but I wish that John hadn’t said he said it. It would have made things a lot easier. But, as a matter of fact, I’m not sure that John intended - I’m sure he did not intend – that that statement would be used in a battle of exclusivism over against a broader understanding of the grace of God. What he was intending is quite clear in the context, and certainly something that I would want to affirm. He was affirming that in Jesus there is the way of life, the truth of life, the way to God; this is that which is embodied in Jesus is the way and the truth and the life, and as a matter of fact, it would be impossible to know God or to experience God apart from that way that Jesus was embodying. I think that that broader interpretation of that particular statement is clarified in the subsequent discussion with Phillip. Jesus said “I am the way, the truth and the life. No one comes to the father but by me,” but now you know the father as you know me. You have seen the father, and so forth. Phillip says, “What? Show us the father and we will be satisfied. Come on, Jesus, just open up the abyss of the mystery of reality and we will be satisfied.” Jesus said, “You don’t get it, do you, Phillip?” “Well,. What do you mean I don’t get it?” “I’ve been with you so long and you still don’t get it. Look at me. You’re looking at God.” © Grand Valley State University �Jesus, the Truth of God Richard A. Rhem Page 3   Well, that doesn’t sound so radical to us because we know that’s true, don’t we? After all, this Jew Jesus who was running with Phillip and Thomas and Peter and James and John, gathering around campfires and getting their feet dusty in sandals, eating together and dialoguing together, and I hope joking together, this Jew Jesus, well, we know, don’t we? This is no ordinary human being. Why, this was the second person of the Trinity, the pre-existing one who came down from another realm, donned human garments, stood in our midst. So, of course, Phillip, how come you don’t get it? Jesus, God. We who stand 2000 years later who have had the blessing or the plague of all of those Christological creeds that have elevated Jesus from that Jewish, rather charismatic leader, an extraordinary human being, no doubt, but nonetheless, still a human being, we hear that statement to Phillip and it doesn’t shock us because we think, “Why couldn’t Phillip see,” because we know this was odd. Well, of course Phillip didn’t get it because Phillip didn’t know this was God. Phillip thought it was his Jewish brother leader, and if we could go back there and whisper in Phillip’s ear what we know about Jesus, he’d say “What? I’ve been with the guy.” And if we take Jesus aside and say, “You know what they’re saying about you?” he’d say, “About me?” Jesus would not recognize our exalted Son of God. And so, the radicality of what he said to Phillip comes back. Phillip is to look into the face of another human being, Jesus by name, who is saying to him, “Look at me and see me, you see God.” Now that was a radical claim. We say it theologically and philosophically, “the Word became flesh and dwelt among us,” “No one has ever seen God, the only begotten son in the bosom of the father, he has made God known.” The first epistle of John, the fourth chapter, “No one has ever seen God. The one who dwells in love dwells in God and God dwells in that one.” It’s all pretty simple. Except that the radicality of the claim was that the human being was saved. To look into my human visage is to look into the face of God, because, as a matter of fact, God has emerged in the human. That is what the Gospel claims. References: Walter Wink. The Human Being: Jesus and the Enigma of the Son of the Man. Augsburg Fortress, 2002. © Grand Valley State University � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Richard A. Rhem Collection Description An account of the resource Text and sound recordings of the sermons, prayers, services, and articles of Richard Rhem, pastor emeritus of Christ Community Church in Spring Lake, Michigan, where he served for 37 years. Starting in the mid 1980's, Rhem began to question some of the traditional Christian dogma that he had been espousing from the pulpit. That questioning was a first step in a long and interesting spiritual journey, one that he openly shared with his congregation. His journey is important, in part because it is reflective of the questioning, the yearnings, and the gradual revision of beliefs that many persons in this part of the century have experienced and continue to experience. It is important also because of the affirming and inclusive way his questioning was done and his thinking evolved. His sermons and other written and spoken materials together document the steps in his journey as it took a turn in 1985, yet continued to revolve around the framework and liturgies of the Christian calendar. Subject The topic of the resource Clergy--Michigan Reformed Church in America Christ Community Church (Spring Lake, Mich.) Religion Interfaith worship Sermons Sound Recordings Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Rhem, Richard A. Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/514">Richard A. Rhem papers (KII-01)</a> Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives. Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Kaufman Interfaith Institute Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Language A language of the resource English Type The nature or genre of the resource Sound Text Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context KII-01 Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant 1981-2014 Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource audio/mp3 text/pdf Sound A resource primarily intended to be heard. Examples include a music playback file format, an audio compact disc, and recorded speech or sounds. Event Lent II Series Remembering Jesus, Experiencing God Scripture Text John 14:1-14 Location The location of the interview Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI References Walter Wink: The Human Being: Jesus and the Enigma of the Son of the Man, 2002. 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-0-20040307 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2004-03-07 Title A name given to the resource Jesus, the Truth of God 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 March 7, 2004 entitled "Jesus, the Truth of God", as part of the series "Remembering Jesus, Experiencing God", on the occasion of Lent II, at Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI. Scripture references: John 14:1-14. Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Lemmen Library and Archives Human as Divine Non-exclusivism https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/efbe7c22dea14e702a994e50bb99fb83.mp3 823327da166234c0978b2522e5b6f9ca Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Richard A. Rhem Collection Description An account of the resource Text and sound recordings of the sermons, prayers, services, and articles of Richard Rhem, pastor emeritus of Christ Community Church in Spring Lake, Michigan, where he served for 37 years. Starting in the mid 1980's, Rhem began to question some of the traditional Christian dogma that he had been espousing from the pulpit. That questioning was a first step in a long and interesting spiritual journey, one that he openly shared with his congregation. His journey is important, in part because it is reflective of the questioning, the yearnings, and the gradual revision of beliefs that many persons in this part of the century have experienced and continue to experience. It is important also because of the affirming and inclusive way his questioning was done and his thinking evolved. His sermons and other written and spoken materials together document the steps in his journey as it took a turn in 1985, yet continued to revolve around the framework and liturgies of the Christian calendar. Subject The topic of the resource Clergy--Michigan Reformed Church in America Christ Community Church (Spring Lake, Mich.) Religion Interfaith worship Sermons Sound Recordings Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Rhem, Richard A. Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/514">Richard A. Rhem papers (KII-01)</a> Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives. Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Kaufman Interfaith Institute Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Language A language of the resource English Type The nature or genre of the resource Sound Text Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context KII-01 Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant 1981-2014 Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource audio/mp3 text/pdf Sound A resource primarily intended to be heard. Examples include a music playback file format, an audio compact disc, and recorded speech or sounds. Event Epiphany II Series New Testament Series Scripture Text II Corinthians 4:6, John 14:6, 9 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-0-19950115 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1995-01-15 Title A name given to the resource Jesus, the Way, the Truth and the Life 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 Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource audio/mp3 Description An account of the resource A sermon given by Richard A. Rhem (Dick) on January 15, 1995 entitled "Jesus, the Way, the Truth and the Life", as part of the series "New Testament Series", on the occasion of Epiphany II, at Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI. Scripture references: II Corinthians 4:6, John 14:6, 9. Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Lemmen Library and Archives https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/36f8d445c84874816fe81f8f38adbee1.mp3 d3dd9bb9c6dcbbe46fa3853a3692047e Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Richard A. Rhem Collection Description An account of the resource Text and sound recordings of the sermons, prayers, services, and articles of Richard Rhem, pastor emeritus of Christ Community Church in Spring Lake, Michigan, where he served for 37 years. Starting in the mid 1980's, Rhem began to question some of the traditional Christian dogma that he had been espousing from the pulpit. That questioning was a first step in a long and interesting spiritual journey, one that he openly shared with his congregation. His journey is important, in part because it is reflective of the questioning, the yearnings, and the gradual revision of beliefs that many persons in this part of the century have experienced and continue to experience. It is important also because of the affirming and inclusive way his questioning was done and his thinking evolved. His sermons and other written and spoken materials together document the steps in his journey as it took a turn in 1985, yet continued to revolve around the framework and liturgies of the Christian calendar. Subject The topic of the resource Clergy--Michigan Reformed Church in America Christ Community Church (Spring Lake, Mich.) Religion Interfaith worship Sermons Sound Recordings Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Rhem, Richard A. Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/514">Richard A. Rhem papers (KII-01)</a> Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives. Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Kaufman Interfaith Institute Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Language A language of the resource English Type The nature or genre of the resource Sound Text Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context KII-01 Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant 1981-2014 Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource audio/mp3 text/pdf Sound A resource primarily intended to be heard. Examples include a music playback file format, an audio compact disc, and recorded speech or sounds. Event Palm Sunday 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-0-19840415 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1984-04-15 Title A name given to the resource Jesus, You Are Really Something 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 Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource audio/mp3 Description An account of the resource A sermon given by Richard A. Rhem (Dick) on April 15, 1984 entitled "Jesus, You Are Really Something", on the occasion of Palm Sunday, at Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI. Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Lemmen Library and Archives https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/704dd72a3c8b59826df158d987e34105.mp3 14ed0863e3b4a8d4b28d578806269849 https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/6f44bafeb75978552f3dec09ae1c3f4b.pdf 56e6bcffb1e2bded072fa1dc2117c472 PDF Text Text Jesus: Episode or Epiphany? From the series: The Fundamentals a Century Later Genesis 1:26-27, 3:1-7; Luke 1:26-38 Richard A. Rhem Christ Community Church Spring Lake, Michigan August 3, 2003 Transcription of the spoken sermon In today's Reading From the Present, a great preacher of a former generation, Carlyle Marney has described the consequence of that biblical story of the Fall in which he describes human nature. Incidentally, this is a generation ago, so the language is not inclusive, but I wouldn't want any of you women to think you're not included in this description. "Man is the most dangerous and savage of the beasts: His bite is poisonous; his hand is a club; his foot is a weapon; knives, clubs, spears are projectiles to bear his hostility. Nothing in nature is so well equipped for hating or hurting. Confuse him and he may lash out at everything. Crowd him and he kills, robs, destroys, for his crime rate increases in proportion to his crowding. Deprive him and he retaliates. Impoverish him and he bums villas in the night. Enslave him and he revolts. Pamper him and he may poison you. Hire him and he may hate both you and the work. Love him too possessively and he is never weaned. Deny him too early and he never learns to love. Put him in cities and all his animal nature comes out with perversions of every good thing. For greed, acquisitiveness, violence were so long his tools for jungle survival, that it is only by the hardest [effort] that these can be laid aside as weapons of his continued survival." We continue this morning a summer series on The Fundamentals a Century Later. Between 1910 and 1915, there were a large number of essays written by conservative, evangelical Christian scholars who were writing to reaffirm the old faith tradition, to affirm its fundamentals. They used the term positively, these fundamental affirmations of faith that they believed constituted the essence of the Christian gospel. And they wrote these essays in a concerted effort to forestall or to react against the rising impact of the liberal theology that was becoming regnant in the country. They felt that the Christian faith was under attack and under threat, and therefore, they attempted to give expression in their finest way possible to that old faith, and in doing so, they did a serious and responsible job. © Grand Valley State University   �Jesus: Episode or Epiphany? Richard A. Rhem Page 2   They expressed the old faith in the old way from within a world view that was being discarded more and more with every succeeding year. Liberal theology had as its hallmark, according to Professor Gary Dorrien and I think correctly so, its rejection of an external authority, be that external authority a text or a tradition or an institution. It was the hallmark of the liberal theological tradition gaining ascendency that truth claims in theology, as in all other disciplines, must be measured by reason and experience, that there is no imposition from an external authority that can demand faith if it goes counter to the exercise of human reason in the light of human experience. And so, the liberal theological tradition grew as a way of doing theology. Schailer Mathews of the Chicago School in 1924 in his theological manifesto. The Faith of a Modernist, said "Liberal theology is not a creed, it is a method." He added that it is a method by which one thinks religiously, given the data. It is not the religious experience that provides the data for a world view, for a conception of reality. The movement of liberalism was willing to take the documentation of the scientist as to the nature of reality and then, being not a creed, but rather a way of thinking religiously, ask the question: Given reality as it is and as is coming to light more and more every day, given that reality, what does it mean to be religious? What does it mean to live with reverence and awe and gratitude and commitment and compassion? The fundamentals affirmed by the conservative scholars did not have the liberty of accepting the world as it was coming to light through the sciences, for they had a text, and this ancient text created the parameters within which they could think theology. For the conservative, traditional scholar has a deductive process whereby the givens are affirmed and the thinking happens within those given propositions. For the liberal theologian, theology moved from a deductive science which created dogmas out of the biblical text to an inductive process whereby the exercise of critical rationality in the light of human experience was taken into account and then the religious questions answered in light of that process. So, the real pivotal issue was a question of authority. Is there an external authority that defines the parameters of human possibility, of human thought? Or, is human thought free in the light of the data that is presented to it to discover how to be religious without any presuppositions up front? That was a watershed issue and the faith of a modernist was the faith of one who believed one could be Christian in the full light of all the data that was available from all the sciences over against those who came with an authoritarian scheme who had to try to express that old faith within that world view that was passing away. That really is my point this morning. A couple of weeks ago we dealt with that issue of authority, and this morning the point I want to make is that Christian faith or any religious faith needs always to be expressed within the framework of the reality that is understood generally in the culture of the time. That framework will continue to evolve and emerge, but © Grand Valley State University �Jesus: Episode or Epiphany? Richard A. Rhem Page 3   always that translation process has to go on within the framework that is the generally accepted understanding of the reality of which we are a part. The world view behind the fundamentals is a world view of two realms: the supernatural realm and the natural realm, of a God Creator of another realm who calls into being over against God's self, a realm of nature called creation. It is that particular world view that is the biblical world view which is the world view in terms of which those old fundamentals were being affirmed. That old biblical world view is familiar to all of us, the creation stories to which I referred this morning, the Creator calling into being the whole cosmic reality, calling into being the human being, and then the Hebrew thinker in the tradition of Israel looking at all of that and saying, "How come a good God could create such a mess?" I read Carlyle Marney's description of the human being. Not bad. We human beings are so fragile. We're so mean-spirited. We're so contrary. We're so cussed. We taint everything we touch. We twist and we destroy out of the misery of our creaturehood. The Hebrew writer said certainly God couldn't be responsible for that. God is good. In fact, that first story of creation in the first chapter of Genesis ends and is punctuated with, "And God saw that it was good, and God looked and said that it was very good." In the second chapter, which is another story of creation, another myth, we have the focus on the human pair and here we have the text. Now, this human pair is created, as is all of creation, in perfection. But that perfection needs to be confirmed, and so it is put on trial, and you know the story. The human pair fails the test and we have come commonly to call that biblical myth the Story of the Fall. Not only is the human creature fallen, but creation is fallen. The weeds in your garden are the consequence of the bite of apple that Eve gave to Adam. Mosquitoes, as well. Everything wrong with the world is the consequence of that initial human disobedience, that original sin, and that original sin was not a local matter, but was perpetuated down through the human generations in an unbroken link so that the human race is spoken of as a fallen race, and a fallen world. The biblical understanding of things is this is a God-damned world, and we are a God-damned race, for in that disobedience, there is the forfeiture of life. There is the coming, our alienation and estrangement and enmity, and there is a great gulf between the Creator and the creation, and there is no possibility from the side of the creature to span that gulf. We are hopeless and we are helpless. We are lost and we are damned. Couldn't God just lighten up? No. No, again it is the biblical conception of God, God's holiness, God's righteousness. One of the prophets says that God's eyes are too holy to behold sin, and so forth. So, the whole biblical tradition has the human dilemma, that of being lost and without the possibility of being redeemed or saved. So, it is over. Except that God won't give up, and so God has a problem, but God will do something about that problem. © Grand Valley State University �Jesus: Episode or Epiphany? Richard A. Rhem Page 4   Now, we have a world view which has a realm of super-nature and a realm of nature, and in the realm of super-nature, the creator God exists in eternal infinite bliss. In the realm of nature is a condemned race, a human race, whose disobedience has impacted nature itself. And so, if there is going to be a solution, if God is not going to give up, then God must do something. How about if God would come into, identify with, be a part of the human race? How will God get in? Well, the way everybody else gets in - by birth. But, if God would get in by human birth, will not God then in flesh be tainted by that same fallenness which is common, universal to the human family? So, that won't work. One of the five cardinal points of the fundamentals was the virgin birth of Jesus, born of the virgin Mary and that has found its way into the Apostles Creed. It is obviously the story that Luke tells at the beginning of his gospel. The virgin birth of Jesus, not an accidental matter, but a well thought out solution to the problem of getting God from that other realm into identification with the human in the natural realm. So the angel comes to Mary and says, "You will conceive in your womb through the movement of the Holy Spirit so that the child born of you will be holy." That is the intention of that story of the virgin birth. It is a story that is an attempt to explain how the infinite and eternal God of absolute holiness could become human, identifying with our race in this natural realm in order that this one, as our Christian story goes, could live righteously out of that sinless nature and then offer up that sinless being to God on behalf of the fallen race. Now, you see, I would have been willing to die for you, too, but God would have said, "No dice. You have to die for your own sin; you can't die for anybody else." But, if Jesus is without sin, then Jesus can make a sin offering of himself, a life for lives. Paul is the one who really put this together. We will treat that more in depth next week, but in Romans 5, for example, he calls Jesus the second Adam, as in: through Adam, the first head of the race, all fell into condemnation, so through the second Adam, through Jesus, through Jesus' righteousness who was the consequence of the grace of God, the second Adam is received because of the righteousness of this one who got into the act through the miracle of the virgin birth. That is the story, and it was a serious story to deal with what was perceived to be a serious problem in order to be able to offer good news, or a gospel of the grace of God for salvation. That was reaffirmed one hundred years ago. I would guess it still may be the scheme of a large majority of the Christian church, and I would suggest that, while I understand the profundity of the creation myths, and I understand the intention of the virgin birth story – incidentally the Christian story is not the only one with a virgin birth. There are others in ancient cultures with other virgin-born heroes or heroines – I understand the intention of using that story in order to point to the uniqueness of Jesus and Jesus' potential for being the savior of the race. But I would suggest that, one hundred years ago, it was unfortunate that those who were concerned to reaffirm the Christian faith © Grand Valley State University �Jesus: Episode or Epiphany? Richard A. Rhem Page 5   were so locked into a world view that was being more and more discarded, that they had to express the faith in that old conceptuality, that old world view. This was the strength of a liberal movement that could say, "Well, what's our world view today? What do you tell us, physicists? What do you tell us, cosmologists? What kind of reality is this?" And of course, as this was coming to expression, and it would come to expression more voluminously in this twentieth century than anything they knew back in the 1920s. But, this magnificent cosmic process of 15 billion years, all the starry heavens and the planetary systems and things that amaze me and boggle my mind and I cannot begin to bring in, but which cause me to stand in awe and in wonder, this cosmos of which we are a part in our understanding today is all there is. There is not a beyond; there is not an above and a below; there is not a supernatural realm and a natural realm. There is this amazing, expanding universe, and it is in this amazing, expanding universe, whose trail goes back 15 billion years, that we live and move and have our being, and it is in that cosmic process that I would learn to be religious, I would learn how to think religiously and live religiously. How beautifully the story of Jesus can be translated into that cosmic process that has come to light which our scientists portray for us in all of the wonders of nature, of this one uniform realm of which we are a part. The infinite ground and source of being coming to expression, not in some other realm, some other place. Rather than creation in perfection, fall, damnation or salvation, why not creation as a process of emergence? Why not the reality of which we are a part understood in its amazing emergence with its vast array of manifestations, of emanations? So,fifteen billion years ago, a big bang or whatever, and then billions of years of the cooling and the organizing, and then what? A few million years ago life, and then a lesser time ago than that, conscious life, and then human being, all a part of one amazing unfolding. And then 2000 years ago, a life, a Jew, Jesus of Nazareth whose life was of such a nature that they looked at him and said, "My God!" I called the sermon "Jesus: Episode or Epiphany?" In the old scheme of things, Jesus is an episode. Jesus is a divine interloper. Jesus represents the intervention of God into the natural realm from another realm, and there is incarnation and embodiment and exit. There is the coming in and the going out. It is an episode in order to effect the salvation of the race by one who is not in essence of us coming to join us, but leaving again from us. It is episode. It is a wonderful story. It is a story told in terms of an old world view. But, how much more powerful to see Jesus, not as an episode, but as an epiphany? As a moment of illumination, whose revelatory illuminosity in human flesh is the founding vision of this whole grand Christian tradition? It is not the only one; there are other luminous personalities who somehow or other embodied that divinity that gave expression to ongoing communities, but our story, our Christian story, emanates from Jesus, this one who emerged in a cosmic process in full humanity, and in whose full humanity we glimpsed divinity. © Grand Valley State University �Jesus: Episode or Epiphany? Richard A. Rhem Page 6   Again, I think a major error along the way was to see this epiphany in Jesus and then to hedge Jesus in, to put a wall around him, to make him unique, once for all, rather than to see what was really happening. What was really happening was that there was that intuitive sense - there is God! God is in the human. The human is the finite location of the infinite mystery, the infinite mystery that is the source of all now has a face. The word became flesh and dwelt among us. No one has seen God. The only son, in the bosom of the father, he has made God known. The mystery of the infinite God manifest in the mystery of the finite human is the emerging cosmic story. Carlyle Marney says we're just fearful creatures still practicing our animal survival instincts; we twist and tear everything we touch, because we still live, we are still the prisoners, we are still in the shackles of a survival instinct that we learned in the slime pit and the jungle. Dear God, the process has emerged into the human. There has been an emanation. In Jesus there was a moment of epiphany and the likes of us said, "There it is. That's it." I understand what the story of the virgin birth was trying to say. It was trying to say precisely what I just said, that the divine has come into the human, and the divine can be seen in the human. But, it was in the mythical language of a world view that has been discarded, and I want to be able to believe in terms of the most profound understanding of this whole cosmic drama that is available to me, embracing the essence of that which is in that New Testament record: that the word became flesh, that the divine was embodied, that the divine intention was coming to expression in the human. Then I know that I need seek not a God beyond in some supernatural realm, for the only God available to me is the God I glimpse in your face. And if I see Jesus not as an episodic savior figure, but if I see him, indeed, as an exemplar of the embodiment of the divine intention, then I am called to live with that kind of grace, compassion, that kind of divinity. That is amazing, if only enough of us could catch it and begin the process of an alternative human possibility, well, who knows? Who knows? Who knows where it could go? If we don't kill ourselves first. References: The Fundamentals: A Testimony to the Truth, Volumes 1-12. Eds., A.C. Dixon, R.A. Torrey.The Bible Institute of Los Angeles, 1901-1915. © Grand Valley State University � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Richard A. Rhem Collection Description An account of the resource Text and sound recordings of the sermons, prayers, services, and articles of Richard Rhem, pastor emeritus of Christ Community Church in Spring Lake, Michigan, where he served for 37 years. Starting in the mid 1980's, Rhem began to question some of the traditional Christian dogma that he had been espousing from the pulpit. That questioning was a first step in a long and interesting spiritual journey, one that he openly shared with his congregation. His journey is important, in part because it is reflective of the questioning, the yearnings, and the gradual revision of beliefs that many persons in this part of the century have experienced and continue to experience. It is important also because of the affirming and inclusive way his questioning was done and his thinking evolved. His sermons and other written and spoken materials together document the steps in his journey as it took a turn in 1985, yet continued to revolve around the framework and liturgies of the Christian calendar. Subject The topic of the resource Clergy--Michigan Reformed Church in America Christ Community Church (Spring Lake, Mich.) Religion Interfaith worship Sermons Sound Recordings Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Rhem, Richard A. Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/514">Richard A. Rhem papers (KII-01)</a> Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives. Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Kaufman Interfaith Institute Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Language A language of the resource English Type The nature or genre of the resource Sound Text Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context KII-01 Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant 1981-2014 Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource audio/mp3 text/pdf Sound A resource primarily intended to be heard. Examples include a music playback file format, an audio compact disc, and recorded speech or sounds. Event Pentecost VIII Series The Fundamentals a Century Later Scripture Text John 1:1, 14, 17, II Corinthians 4:6 Location The location of the interview Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI References A. C. Dixon, R. Torrey, editors, The Fundamentals: A Testimony to the Truth,Vols. 1-12. The Bible Institute of Los Angeles,1910-1915. 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-0-20030803 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2003-08-03 Title A name given to the resource Jesus: Episode or Epiphany? 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 August 3, 2003 entitled "Jesus: Episode or Epiphany?", as part of the series "The Fundamentals a Century Later", on the occasion of Pentecost VIII, at Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI. Scripture references: John 1:1, 14, 17, II Corinthians 4:6. Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Lemmen Library and Archives Emergence Epiphany https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/16dd2ff5245dadf2f636d112ef2e7e02.pdf 9407e0b0c1ca8b8a6a0575953663d5d0 PDF Text Text Jesus: Episode or Epiphany? From the series: Varieties of Religious Experience Text: John 1:1, 14, 17; II Corinthians 4:6 Richard A. Rhem Christ Community Church Spring Lake, Michigan April 11, 1999 Transcription of the spoken sermon I find that it’s really wonderful to grow old; actually, every decade has been better than the one before. But, there is a downside, too - one doesn’t necessarily go right off into dreamland immediately, as sometimes one wakes up two or three times during the night, for whatever reason. When I can’t get to sleep, I do a little late night surfing. When Jay Leno’s having a bad night and when I’m really, really desperate to sleep, I’ll tune into a TV preacher because preaching, you know, has been defined as one man talking in another man’s sleep. Of course, I’m always thinking about what’s coming up to preach and I just happened a couple nights ago to see a rather well known TV preacher and he was preaching about the resurrection of our bodies and, toward the end of the service, as these services tend to go, there was the presentation of the Gospel, the invitation aspect where one is invited to become a Christian, to believe in Jesus, and so forth, and the ritual is pretty much the same. I’ve done it myself in years past. I know it pretty well; I know all the Bible verses that go with it. We are sinners; we cannot help ourselves; we stand under the condemnation of God; God sent Jesus, God’s son, into the world to bear our sin as a penalty for our sin on the cross, and God raised him up as indication that the sacrifice had been received and now there was forgiveness and there was heaven for all who repent of their sins and believe in Jesus. And that was all very familiar. I’m sure it’s very familiar to almost everyone here. At one point the TV preacher got down on his knee, and he said, "If you will say, ‘God, I believe Jesus was Your Son, I believe Jesus died for my sin, I give myself to him, forgive me and make me Your child,’" and then he said, "It’s done. If you do that, it’s done. You are a new creation and you are no longer under condemnation and you have the promise of eternal life." I tell you that story because I’ve been thinking about Jesus - whether or not Jesus is an episode or an epiphany, and I thought to myself that that is the traditional Gospel paradigm of evangelical, conservative Christianity really in all of its aspects, all of its branches. Jesus is an episode. Now, the word episode comes from the Greek language, and it refers to the entrance of something in-between, such as in the Greek tragedies, with two great © Grand Valley State University   �Jesus: Episode or Epiphany? Richard A. Rhem Page 2   choral pieces and an act, a part of the play between separating the two great choral pieces, and so an episode is something complete in itself, but a part of a larger picture. I thought to myself that is the traditional understanding of Jesus Christ and what Jesus has done. Jesus is an episode in God’s grand creative sweep of things. Jesus came in from outside because God is outside. Jesus becomes the Divine Intruder; God sends Jesus who intervenes into our history for a brief time in order to do something, in order to effect our salvation primarily, supremely, in his death bearing our sins, taking our guilt, making a sacrifice acceptable to God, making us, thereby, who believe in him, acceptable to God. Jesus comes in, accomplishes that work, and departs. He’s in again, out again. It’s an episode. That really is the way traditionally that the Gospel of Jesus Christ has been presented. And like the TV preacher says, that was good news because we are fallen, under condemnation, incapable, and therefore in need of being saved. Now, there’s nothing new in that. That’s just "old hat." You learned it first in Kindergarten. But, what if the world is not fallen? What if creation is not fallen? What if humankind is not totally depraved and totally incapable of salvaging itself? What if there was not a moment of pristine perfection in paradise from which everything fell to this present abysmal state? Then, how would one understand what Jesus did? Then why would Jesus come? What if we are not fallen from some pristine perfection but, rather, what if we are clawing our way out of the jungle? What if we are slithering out of the slime? What if we, in our animality and our bestiality, are trying to move by the nudging of God’s creative Spirit toward the manifestation of Spirit? What if we are as humankind on a long trajectory which began billions of years ago in an inanimate state, moving to animate state, to life, to self-conscious life, to human life, to tribal existence? And what if we do not so much need to be redeemed from a fallen state, but continue to be beckoned to that intention of God for us? What if, in the midst of our human darkness, we saw a face, we encountered a human being, and we saw there something that was deep and true, and we said, "Oh, I see." That, of course, would be an epiphany, wouldn’t it? For epiphany also comes from the Greek language, and the epi begins it as episode, but that’s the prefix which can be moved around a bit in terms of the context of the root word of the intention of the statement. An epiphany is manifestation; it is that moment of intuitive insight. It is that flash of insight. It is that "Aha" moment. It is that which we speak of when we say, "It dawned upon me. Suddenly it dawned upon me." We see something and we see deep down into the truth and the nature of things. What if Jesus was not sent from outside in to assume our human nature, but what if Jesus, in the intention of God, became that moment in our history when there was full-blown a human being whom to look upon would be to say, "My God!" and whom to look upon would lead one to say, "And there, by the grace of © Grand Valley State University �Jesus: Episode or Epiphany? Richard A. Rhem Page 3   God, I ought to be. I must be." What if such a manifestation were not coming into the historical drama, but arising within the historical drama? (Even now that I say that, I can hear Karl Barth rolling over in his grave, so intent to deny that history could lead to the manifestation of anything divine. Nonetheless, down, Karl, listen to me.) What if the historical, biological, evolutionary track on which we find ourselves at that point, call it the fullness of time, if you will, but at that point, emerged in the humanity of Jesus who, according to the intentions of God and through the creative Spirit of God was that epiphany of what God is all about, what God is and what God is about? Then Jesus would not be simply an episode, sent, then, to do something, a grand transaction, leaving again, preparing for us a kind of salvation that would spring us loose from this veil of tears, this realm of darkness, promising to us peace with God and eventual home in heaven. But, what if Jesus came into the midst of history according to the purpose of God in order to show us what history was to be all about, what the intention of God was for our history? What if Jesus wasn’t just an episode? What if Jesus was that manifestation of what is true everywhere at all time, what God has been about from the beginning and what God will be about to the end? What if Jesus was the epiphany, a realization, an incarnation of God’s eternal intention? I think Paul and John were trying to say that, but let me be honest. Paul and John were episodic. Jesus was an episode for Paul and for John and I don’t try to make John and Paul into something else. Jesus came in from outside and left again, and in the Gospel of John, the 14th chapter, Jesus says, "I came from the father and I return to the father." John understood Jesus as an episode. Paul understood Jesus as an episode. Paul understood Jesus as an episode coming in to effect the salvation of the world which was going to end very soon. Now, I grant you that. What if we read them and if we understand them better than they understood themselves? What a presumptuous thing to say! But, what if we see what was operative in them? What were they saying? John starts his gospel by saying, "In the beginning was the word," in the beginning obviously referring us to Genesis 1:1, "In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth." John is talking about the one true and eternal God, Creator of all. He is connecting the word, the intention, the idea of this Creator God with, in the 14th verse, this word, idea, intention becoming flesh, and he says we beheld him and behold, we saw in him the glory of God. He says no one has ever seen God, that Ultimate Mystery of things, but the son has revealed God from an eternal realm into the realm of our history, John episodic at that point, nonetheless understanding that Ultimate Mystery of God landed in our history and in our history became incarnate so that we could look upon the flesh of Jesus, look into the face of Jesus, and we could see the nature of God. In fact, this is what Paul says explicitly in the second letter to the Corinthians, the fourth chapter, the sixth verse, where the God who said, "Let light shine out of © Grand Valley State University �Jesus: Episode or Epiphany? Richard A. Rhem Page 4   darkness." Whose God is it? Of course, it’s the Creator God Who in the beginning created the heavens and the earth and said, "Let there be light." The same God John is talking about Paul is talking about. They want to be very clear. We’re not talking about some little tribal deity over here; we’re talking about God! And this God Who said, "Let light shine out of darkness," has shined into our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus. Fantastic claim, but again both of them suggesting that in the midst of the trajectory of history which has behind it that biological evolutionary development which has behind it all of those eons of cosmic development. At this point there arose in this process one whose very flesh became the incarnation of God and it is no wonder that, when the Church for several hundred years struggled to understand who Jesus was, what happened in Jesus, what in the world God was doing, the Church came finally to make a contradictory statement in the Council of Chalcedon, 451, but that’s where we get that famous phrase with which the Church has rested for all these centuries, "Jesus Christ, true God, true human." What they’re saying is, I see Jesus and I say, "Oh, God!" I see Jesus and I say, "There’s the human in the midst of this historical, biological, evolutionary continuum upon which we are traveling; there has been a moment in which there was a face that shined the light of the eternal God into our hearts as we beheld him." That, I think, is Jesus as epiphany who in his incarnation was telling us what is true about God and what is true about humanity and what is true about human history. In Jesus we get the clue as to the grain of the universe. When I see a preacher do as admittedly I myself have done in earlier years, boil it all down to a Jesus coming from outside in order to die for my sins in order that I might have heaven, I want to say to myself that’s really not terribly important. That’s awfully self-centered and frankly, simply irrelevant to what’s happening in my world. I don’t think Jesus would even recognize himself, for was Jesus about getting us to heaven, or was Jesus about changing the world? Was Jesus about some future age, or was Jesus about the here and now, the rough and tumble of history? Was not Jesus that non-violent resister of the world as it is in order to bring it to the intention of God, the God of justice and mercy? And I am so struck by it because our world is again in the convulsions of war. A couple of weeks ago I said to you if you were meeting with the President this morning, how would you vote - do we bomb or not? And last week it seemed as though that bombing which was the decision was simply violence eliciting greater violence. And now here we are on a third Lord’s Day and I really can’t gather you in worship and speak to you of eternal things without constantly having before my mind and putting before your mind what’s going on in the world because I think that’s what the Gospel is about; I think that’s what God is about; I think that’s what Jesus is about, and it would seem today, in spite of all the spin doctors and all of the critique that we have to do with the filtered news that we get in quotation marks, it would seem that there is a horror being perpetrated in our world. It would seem that there are some resemblances, not in numbers, but © Grand Valley State University �Jesus: Episode or Epiphany? Richard A. Rhem Page 5   nonetheless in intention and in consequence to the Holocaust of the Second World War, and it would seem that in a world where we would follow Jesus who stands for the God of justice non-violently, that our world has not yet come to a point where non-violent protest will stop the slaughter, and so in this world which is still so much in darkness, so marked by brokenness, we are having to use violence on behalf of humanity. I say to myself it’s Easter Sunday in Orthodox country, it’s Easter Sunday in Serbia Yugoslavia, and I think about not only the orthodox church, but the Roman Catholic Church and all brands of Protestant church and I think for 2000 years we have made Jesus Christ into a salvation figure; we have made Christian faith into a salvation cult; we have made the Church into an institution of salvation, and we have done precious little to effect the things that Jesus was about. The darkness continues, and we are satisfied to have a Savior when that one who was the epiphany, the manifestation of the intention of God in our history was about the concrete stuff of history. We do our liturgy and we let our incense flow heavenward and repeat our creeds and we have, in my opinion, missed it so drastically that Easter can be celebrated in Serbia today with not much connection with ethnic cleansing that is going on over there. But, wasn’t Jesus simply the exemplification of the intention of God? Didn’t Jesus say to his disciples, "As the father has sent me, so send I you. Receive the Holy Spirit." Did Jesus ever say, "I am unique and have a monopoly on this?" Did not Jesus rather say, "As I have been, you are to be. Go forth, do this as I have done. Be what I have been." We in the evangelical Church have been so concerned about the uniqueness of Jesus. Tell me why. Why is it so important that Jesus be the only way? Why must Jesus be unique? Of course, if he is a salvation figure, if he’s someone from outside who came in to do this thing, I can see, I suppose, that you need to hedge him around and make him unique. But for God’s sake, he didn’t want to be unique. He wanted to be one of us in order that we might be one with him. I think what Jesus was about was for all of us, more and more to manifest that spirit, that fullness that dwelt in him in order that we might stand in solidarity with him, in order that we might make our world a different place. So, here we are in Europe again, in war. I was reminded of the book, A Man Called Intrepid, I read several years ago by William Stevenson about Sir William Stephenson, the Englishman who ran the secret war in the Second World War. He writes about November 5 of 1940, shortly after Franklin Delano Roosevelt had been elected to his third term, Roosevelt gathered with his neighbors in Hyde Park. His opponent that year was Wendell Wilke who had said that electing Roosevelt to a third term would mean, "dictatorship and war." Roosevelt had said, "I will not send our boys to fight a foreign war." But Roosevelt saw more than the American people. For two years he had been working with Churchill and the English, and then the English were able to break the Nazi code and in order to © Grand Valley State University �Jesus: Episode or Epiphany? Richard A. Rhem Page 6   make that a valuable accomplishment, they couldn’t let the Nazis know that they had broken the code, and so now Hitler, irate, was ready to begin to bomb cities, non-military targets. November 14, 1940, Churchill learned through the breaking of the code, the decoding of the message that it was to be Coventry, England. If you go there you will find a grand contemporary cathedral on the ruins of the old, bombed out cathedral. Coventry was to be bombed. Did Churchill let them know so they could evacuate the city? That would have tipped off the Nazis that they had the code. And so, a sleepless night he tossed and turned and while Coventry was bombed, he knowing that they would be bombed, not able to let them know, lest they faltered in the larger picture. You see, this world of darkness where there is all this ambiguity, and FDR said to Sir William Stephenson shortly after that, "We are being forced more and more to play God." And I would say, "Exactly, exactly. We are called to play God!" God is not the God of the quick fix, dipping in here and there, fixing that, healing that, saving this one. Damning that one. God of infinite patience has come to full expression in humankind in a human face; we have looked into the face of Jesus and we have seen the light of the knowledge of the glory of God and Jesus said, "As I am in this world, you are to be." God is waiting for us to play God. We are making those hard decisions with particular judgment and not enough knowledge, fallible and flawed that we are, we are called to be that, the Church of Jesus Christ, the people of God in the midst of this world to break that cycle of vengeance and retaliation and hatred. What’s going on in the Balkans is the result of centuries of tribalism, us against them, nursing old wounds, blood feuds. We have to stop it. We have to address it. We have to deal with it gently, kindly, now firmly. But, we cannot sit by and allow evil to happen. It has happened with the knowledge of the Holy Father and the President of the United States during the Holocaust. And maybe, eventually, maybe more and more will come to a dawning of the truth if they see it, that which came to expression in Jesus, coming to expression in more and more who are not nearly so concerned about heaven as earth, about the next life as this life. In last night’s news there was a note about millions being raised in Israel for relief because they remember, you see. They remember when it was them. And there was the flash of 75 Israeli doctors at the Macedonian border ministering to Kosovars who are Muslims who, during the second World War, supported Hitler. You see, that’s what has to happen. There has to be a forgiving; there has to be resistance to violence; there has to be a refusal to do any harm; there has to be where possible that manifestation, that epiphany, that grace that came to expression in Jesus, and here and there, now and again when someone in solidarity with Jesus decides to heal and forgive and to embrace in order that the world may be changed. Heaven can wait. © Grand Valley State University � https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/64dc013092819ee8444e5cb6b8d53b4c.mp3 97738b02ec3ff25b16f6666788c8d2b9 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Richard A. Rhem Collection Description An account of the resource Text and sound recordings of the sermons, prayers, services, and articles of Richard Rhem, pastor emeritus of Christ Community Church in Spring Lake, Michigan, where he served for 37 years. Starting in the mid 1980's, Rhem began to question some of the traditional Christian dogma that he had been espousing from the pulpit. That questioning was a first step in a long and interesting spiritual journey, one that he openly shared with his congregation. His journey is important, in part because it is reflective of the questioning, the yearnings, and the gradual revision of beliefs that many persons in this part of the century have experienced and continue to experience. It is important also because of the affirming and inclusive way his questioning was done and his thinking evolved. His sermons and other written and spoken materials together document the steps in his journey as it took a turn in 1985, yet continued to revolve around the framework and liturgies of the Christian calendar. Subject The topic of the resource Clergy--Michigan Reformed Church in America Christ Community Church (Spring Lake, Mich.) Religion Interfaith worship Sermons Sound Recordings Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Rhem, Richard A. Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/514">Richard A. Rhem papers (KII-01)</a> Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives. Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Kaufman Interfaith Institute Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Language A language of the resource English Type The nature or genre of the resource Sound Text Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context KII-01 Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant 1981-2014 Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource audio/mp3 text/pdf Sound A resource primarily intended to be heard. Examples include a music playback file format, an audio compact disc, and recorded speech or sounds. Event Eastertide II Series Varieties of Religious Experience Scripture Text John 1:1, 14, 17, II Corinthians 4:6 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-0-19990411 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1999-04-11 Title A name given to the resource Jesus: Episode or Epiphany? 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 April 11, 1999 entitled "Jesus: Episode or Epiphany?", as part of the series "Varieties of Religious Experience", on the occasion of Eastertide II, at Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI. Scripture references: John 1:1, 14, 17, II Corinthians 4:6. Cosmic Evolution Divine Intention Epiphany Incarnation https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/d2c5e68faebbc85783cf72ae1cf1d71b.mp3 f2599236616ed5f594edf26503bb726b Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Richard A. Rhem Collection Description An account of the resource Text and sound recordings of the sermons, prayers, services, and articles of Richard Rhem, pastor emeritus of Christ Community Church in Spring Lake, Michigan, where he served for 37 years. Starting in the mid 1980's, Rhem began to question some of the traditional Christian dogma that he had been espousing from the pulpit. That questioning was a first step in a long and interesting spiritual journey, one that he openly shared with his congregation. His journey is important, in part because it is reflective of the questioning, the yearnings, and the gradual revision of beliefs that many persons in this part of the century have experienced and continue to experience. It is important also because of the affirming and inclusive way his questioning was done and his thinking evolved. His sermons and other written and spoken materials together document the steps in his journey as it took a turn in 1985, yet continued to revolve around the framework and liturgies of the Christian calendar. Subject The topic of the resource Clergy--Michigan Reformed Church in America Christ Community Church (Spring Lake, Mich.) Religion Interfaith worship Sermons Sound Recordings Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Rhem, Richard A. Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/514">Richard A. Rhem papers (KII-01)</a> Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives. Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Kaufman Interfaith Institute Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Language A language of the resource English Type The nature or genre of the resource Sound Text Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context KII-01 Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant 1981-2014 Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource audio/mp3 text/pdf Sound A resource primarily intended to be heard. Examples include a music playback file format, an audio compact disc, and recorded speech or sounds. Event Epiphany IV Scripture Text John 6:54-55 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-0-19870201 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1987-02-01 Title A name given to the resource Jesus: Our Life Support 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 Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource audio/mp3 Description An account of the resource A sermon given by Richard A. Rhem (Dick) on February 1, 1987 entitled "Jesus: Our Life Support", on the occasion of Epiphany IV, at Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI. Scripture references: John 6:54-55. Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Lemmen Library and Archives https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/d9397a8111f101b8047b544ba8948967.pdf 2383a35c056f5bbaf40e57dfd3ab26ea PDF Text Text Jesus: The Grain of the Universe From the series: Varieties of Religious Experience Text: Genesis 1:2, 15-19; John 1:14 Richard A. Rhem Christ Community Church Spring Lake, Michigan June 20, 1999 Transcription of the spoken sermon We talk a lot about Jesus here. We’ve given a lot of emphasis this year to the quest for the historical Jesus. We’ve had Jesus scholars, Dominic Crossan and Marcus Borg, here. We have focused a good deal on the historical Jesus to the extent that Jesus is recoverable through historical research, not only of the scriptures, but of the sociological context of his life, cross-cultural studies, and so forth, and we’ve done that because it is our claim here that, if we get Jesus right, we’ll get God right, because it is the claim of the Christian tradition that we see the heart of God in the face of Jesus. We see Jesus as the historical human embodiment of that which is true of God, deep down. We hear the fourth Gospel, that witness that says in words given to Jesus, "If you’ve seen me, you’ve seen the father." And so, we talk about that a lot here because if we would have a proper understanding of God, if we would have an accurate insight into the nature of God, and if that comes and is derived from our understanding of Jesus, then obviously it is important that we do the best we can to learn who Jesus was in his life, his teaching, his actions, in his death and resurrection. So, we put a lot of stress on Jesus because we find Jesus as the clue to God - God, that Ultimate Mystery, that Absolute Mystery, that God beyond our comprehension, that God Who is the Creative Source of all things in the beginning and throughout, and the ultimate goal of all things, that God hidden from our eyes beyond our ability to comprehend, that Mystery we claim has come to expression, embodied in Jesus. We spend a lot of time with Jesus, and I want to say in this message, which gathers some of those loose ends up, that in Jesus we see the grain of the universe. By the grain of the universe I mean the way it’s all moving. I mean the divine intention. I mean from its origin to its consummation, that which it is all about according to the purpose and the intention of God. The grain of the universe. Where things are tending, where they are going if they are going to realize what God is all about. That’s what I mean by the grain of the universe, and I want to say that in Jesus we in the Christian tradition find the grain of the universe. © Grand Valley State University   �Jesus the Grain of the Universe Richard A. Rhem Page 2   That’s the intention of God for its consummation. In Jesus, in the face of Jesus, we come to an understanding of what everything is all about according to the intention of God as we believe. Now, there’s no question that the New Testament points us to Jesus as the clue to the nature of God. John, in his Gospel, opens up with words that remind us of the Genesis account, which says, "In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth." John says, "In the beginning was the word; the word became flesh and dwelt among us." The law came through Moses in that historical revelation in Israel, but grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. No one has ever seen God, but Jesus has revealed God, and Paul, in his letter to the Colossians makes stupendous claims in that paragraph I read. He said Jesus is the image of the invisible God. The Greek word behind image is ikon; Jesus is the icon of God. He says that in Jesus, all of the fullness of the Godhead dwelt bodily. He says that in all things Jesus is to be preeminent. Paul believed that, but the way he expressed that in that cosmic terminology, in that cosmic context, was the consequence of those to whom he was writing because in that Colossians context they had ideas of God. They had ideas of deity; they had ideas of what the world was all about, and there obviously was a strong strain of Gnosticism there, and the gnostic from the Greek word gnosis, knowledge, had what they claimed was a secret, revealed knowledge, and for the initiated, this esoteric knowledge gave them insight into the secrets of the universe. Paul is bringing to them a counter claim. Paul is trying to use their terminology to say that all of the stuff that you claim about those various spiritual emanations, angels, dominions, powers, etc., all of that is wrapped up in Jesus Christ. Jesus is the icon of the invisible God, and all of the fullness of God. One doesn’t need all that "stuff" coming down from God and going back to God in order to get God moved far away from matter which is evil. Paul said that the eternal God who is light took flesh in Jesus, matter, the "stuff" of the world, the cosmos, and there this God was revealed. Paul makes stupendous claims for what came to expression in Jesus of Nazareth. I was reading a rather liberal, but somewhat old, commentary on this text and the commentator makes the point that the people to whom Paul was writing claimed they had a secret revealed knowledge, and Paul says to them, "Look, I’ve got the truth," and the commentator I don’t think really understood what he was saying, but he was saying, "... as though those people to whom Paul was writing claimed to have a secret knowledge of revelation and it didn’t matter what they observed in their human experience or what they reflected on, they had this secret revelation," and I thought to myself, "Commentator, what do you think Paul was saying?" Paul was doing the same thing as the Gnostics to whom he wrote. Paul said, "I have a revelation. I have a knowledge, and let me tell you that knowledge." This Christian biblical commentary says of course, this knowledge © Grand Valley State University �Jesus the Grain of the Universe Richard A. Rhem Page 3   that Paul had was revealed by God and it’s true and it scattered the darkness of those who said they also had a revelation. How does one discriminate? I don’t know. We are so arrogant, aren’t we? We take for granted that our knowledge is true and everybody else’s knowledge must be in error. But, be that as it may, what Paul was claiming is right central core Christian tradition. You want to know who God is? Look at Jesus. Jesus, the way of Jesus, is the clue to the nature of God. And my message this morning is that what we see in Jesus is the clue to the grain of the universe. The way everything is tending, the way everything is intended, Jesus standing for justice, non-violently, embodying love, grace, inclusiveness, marked by compassion, this Jesus in concrete humanity, the Christian tradition claims is an insight into the intention of God. There are those who would doubt that we can know anything about the intention of God. In the field of science, the natural sciences, there is a debate. Recently in April in the National Museum of Natural History in Washington D.C. there was a three-day conference on cosmic questions - was there a beginning? Is there any purpose? Are we alone? As a part of that conference which was sponsored by the Association for the Advancement of Scientific Studies and the Templeton Foundation, there was a debate arranged between John Polkinghorne, a physicist trained and who has taught at Cambridge who became an Anglican priest, and Stephen Wineberg, who is a Nobel Prize winning scientist-physicist, and the two of them debated these questions. Is there any evidence for God? Is there any evidence in the analysis of reality from what we can do? Is there any evidence for God’s purpose? Polkinghorne, of course, left the field of science for the ministry. Strange, but he did. Because he did see something that he wanted, obviously, to share. Stephen Wineberg says, "I don’t even think about religion enough to be called an atheist. I don’t see anything." But, there’s a very interesting discussion going on in the scientific field itself as to whether or not the universe was sort of planned and engineered so that there would eventually be 15 billion years down the line creatures like us who could be conscious of the fact and could talk about the fact that maybe the universe was planned and programmed with us in mind. The discussion is within science itself. Even within the Church, though, there are those who wonder whether or not we can be so cocksure about an ultimate purpose of things. An interesting discussion in the recent Christian Century by James Gustafson over against William Placher, James Gustafson saying, "You post-liberals, you think you’ve moved beyond liberalism, you’re just playing fast and loose with those terms. The old liberalism, for whatever it lacks, still uses critical rationality and asks the right questions and some of you are just brushing those questions aside." There’s discussion not only within the field of science, but within the field of theology about how much we can discern about an ultimate pattern, that ultimate purpose, an ultimate intention of all things. © Grand Valley State University �Jesus the Grain of the Universe Richard A. Rhem Page 4   Well, that’s my claim this morning, that Jesus is the clue to the grain of the universe. Now, that’s been the claim of the Christian tradition. But, I don’t do that simply because that’s what the tradition claims. I don’t do that, either, just because Paul thought so and the fourth Gospel says so, because there are a lot of things in the Bible I don’t believe. They are limited to their particular time and context and the Bible is not a divine book. The Bible is a human book, people struggling to give expression to that experience of God, and some of it is still compelling, and some of it doesn’t touch us anymore. So, I don’t say this this morning because the Bible says it. I say this morning to you as my message that Jesus is the reflection of the grain of the universe because I believe it, because as I learn what I can learn from all the sources that are available, to the extent that shadowy figure of the past takes on flesh and blood and form, to that extent, that Jesus is still a compelling figure. That Jesus moves me, motivates me, calls me, beckons me, and to the extent that I will follow Jesus, to that extent I do believe I will be in the flow of things, in the intention of God, running according to the grain of the universe, because what I see in Jesus is what makes humans humans, and what makes humanity humane. What I see in Jesus is that underscoring of compassion and mercy and grace and love and truth. What I see in Jesus is that one who is giving of himself for the sake of the other and the building of community on behalf of all those who have otherwise been excluded. I see that inclusive embrace which is embodying the embrace of God, that God Who includes all and excludes none, I see in Jesus that to which I say, "Yes, that’s true! Yes, that’s good! Yes, that’s the way it ought to be." Jesus compels me, motivates me, moves me. I do believe, to the extent that we would follow Jesus, we would be flowing with the cosmic flow of things. Fifteen billion years, starting with a big bang and an explosion of elemental matter, the cooling down, coalescing, coming to inanimate material to animate material to conscious life to self-consciousness, to human existence, to today. It only took 15 billion years in dimensions of space that I can’t even begin to comprehend, and then I am saying that in that Jew named Jesus from Nazareth, from his life, his actions, his words, from what was seen in him, confessed about him, believed about him, from that I get a clue into this 15 billion year unfolding, evolutionary, biological, historical trajectory into the future. That is a stupendous claim and it is a claim of faith and I do it, not because as I said it says so in the Bible, I do it because when I think about it and I reflect on my human experience and human community and world history, then I say that’s where it is - that one, that way, that would lead to a humane existence, a human community marked by justice, mercy, grace, love and peace. And then I would say that I believe that that creative source of all things and that creativity that moves through all and that spirit that enlivens all is that way. Can I verify that? Of course not. But it does make sense; it feels right. It’s consistent with my human experience; it resonates with my human experience; © Grand Valley State University �Jesus the Grain of the Universe Richard A. Rhem Page 5   that Jesus, that’s where it is, that’s where God wants things to be going, moving, coming more and more to expression, and finally, to consummation. And if that’s true, if Jesus is, indeed, the expression of the grain of the universe, no wonder the Gospel cuts against the grain, because everything in me that got me here, all my survival instincts, all of that self-centeredness, all of that self-concern, all of that lust for certainty and security, all of that that would make me all that I can be - all of that drive to be number one, to be on top, all of that which is so much a part of this being of mine that has come out of the slime and out of the jungle - all of that needs to die. When the time arrived and the Greeks wanted to see Jesus, Andrew and Philip came and said, "They want to see you," and all at once he went into a funk and he began to get philosophical and he said, "Except a grain of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abides alone." Trying to talk himself into it you see, trying to convince himself that it really was worthwhile going through with. If I hold on to my life, I’ll lose it, but if I give my life, I’ll bear fruit unto eternal life. Ah, Jesus is the grain of the universe. That’s the way God would intend things if I have any sense at all of what God might be about. But, it cuts against the grain of everything in me. No wonder Paul also said not only that in him all things hold together, but also that it was necessary to die with him. You see, Jesus is totally fascinating, more complex than we’ve yet begun to probe. Jesus, before whom it is better I should cease speaking, and the choir should begin singing. © Grand Valley State University � https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/ec33fbd2f2cbe0b60d1d6f5fed2ce657.mp3 4a945e3ba460956647ee3617b525c527 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Richard A. Rhem Collection Description An account of the resource Text and sound recordings of the sermons, prayers, services, and articles of Richard Rhem, pastor emeritus of Christ Community Church in Spring Lake, Michigan, where he served for 37 years. Starting in the mid 1980's, Rhem began to question some of the traditional Christian dogma that he had been espousing from the pulpit. That questioning was a first step in a long and interesting spiritual journey, one that he openly shared with his congregation. His journey is important, in part because it is reflective of the questioning, the yearnings, and the gradual revision of beliefs that many persons in this part of the century have experienced and continue to experience. It is important also because of the affirming and inclusive way his questioning was done and his thinking evolved. His sermons and other written and spoken materials together document the steps in his journey as it took a turn in 1985, yet continued to revolve around the framework and liturgies of the Christian calendar. Subject The topic of the resource Clergy--Michigan Reformed Church in America Christ Community Church (Spring Lake, Mich.) Religion Interfaith worship Sermons Sound Recordings Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Rhem, Richard A. Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/514">Richard A. Rhem papers (KII-01)</a> Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives. Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Kaufman Interfaith Institute Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Language A language of the resource English Type The nature or genre of the resource Sound Text Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context KII-01 Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant 1981-2014 Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource audio/mp3 text/pdf Sound A resource primarily intended to be heard. Examples include a music playback file format, an audio compact disc, and recorded speech or sounds. Event Pentecost V Series Varieties of Religious Experience Scripture Text Genesis 1:2, 15-19, John 1:14 Location The location of the interview Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context KII-01_RA-0-19990620 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1999-06-20 Title A name given to the resource Jesus: The Grain of the Universe 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 June 20, 1999 entitled "Jesus: The Grain of the Universe", as part of the series "Varieties of Religious Experience", on the occasion of Pentecost V, at Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI. Scripture references: Genesis 1:2, 15-19, John 1:14. Compassion Divine Intention Mystery Way of Jesus https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/6094876186f8d9f11a9e669cac5d5787.jpg 739522ccec267d9aa048dc16df9a71b7 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 Robert H. Merrill photographs Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Merrill, Robert H., 1881-1955 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1909/1950 Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Robert H. Merrill papers (RHC-222) Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource In Copyright Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context RHC-222 Description An account of the resource Photographs, negatives, and lantern slides digitized from the papers of engineer and archaeologist Robert H. Merrill. A Grand Rapids native, Merrill held an accomplished career as a civil engineer. He founded the company Spooner & Merrill, which held offices in Grand Rapids and Chicago. From 1919-1921, Merrill lived in China, working as Assistant Principal Engineer on a reconstruction of the Grand Canal - the oldest and longest canal system in the world. Merrill became fascinated by archaeology, and among other projects, he traveled to the Uxmal Pyramids in Yucatan, Mexico, with a research expedition from Tulane University. Merrill's photo collection includes images of his travels and projects, friends and family. Still Image A static visual representation. Examples include paintings, drawings, graphic designs, plans and maps. Recommended best practice is to assign the type Text to images of textual materials. 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 Merrill_ProcessFilm_P_196 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1939-08-27 Title A name given to the resource Jewel Geyser Description An account of the resource Black and white photograph of the active Jewel Geyser in front of a forest at Yellowstone National Park. Subject The topic of the resource Yellowstone National Park Wyoming Geysers Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Robert H. Merrill papers (RHC-222) Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource In Copyright Type The nature or genre of the resource Image Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource image/jpg Language A language of the resource eng Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Merrill, Robert H., 1881-1955 Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Lemmen Library and Archives https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/a7370f229baeaca7c7b89378f0aeddc4.jpg 5bb0bb897c09c157bee35a72463877f3 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 Robert H. Merrill photographs Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Merrill, Robert H., 1881-1955 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1909/1950 Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Robert H. Merrill papers (RHC-222) Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource In Copyright Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context RHC-222 Description An account of the resource Photographs, negatives, and lantern slides digitized from the papers of engineer and archaeologist Robert H. Merrill. A Grand Rapids native, Merrill held an accomplished career as a civil engineer. He founded the company Spooner & Merrill, which held offices in Grand Rapids and Chicago. From 1919-1921, Merrill lived in China, working as Assistant Principal Engineer on a reconstruction of the Grand Canal - the oldest and longest canal system in the world. Merrill became fascinated by archaeology, and among other projects, he traveled to the Uxmal Pyramids in Yucatan, Mexico, with a research expedition from Tulane University. Merrill's photo collection includes images of his travels and projects, friends and family. Still Image A static visual representation. Examples include paintings, drawings, graphic designs, plans and maps. Recommended best practice is to assign the type Text to images of textual materials. 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 Merrill_NE_57_1924_011 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1924-05-18 Title A name given to the resource Jewell Blue Cottage, Portage Lake Description An account of the resource Black and white photograph of a cottage built into the side of a hill in the woods. "Jewell Blue Cottage - Portage Lake" is written on the bottom of the image. Subject The topic of the resource Portage (Mich.) Cottages Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Robert H. Merrill papers (RHC-222) Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource In Copyright Type The nature or genre of the resource Image Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource image/jpg Language A language of the resource eng Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Merrill, Robert H., 1881-1955 Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Lemmen Library and Archives https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/d78e572e834b73aff3c20b760302c00e.jpg 021e82ca326ebff6d9dd13521994ae5e 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 Faces of Grand Valley Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Grand Valley State University Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource University Communications Description An account of the resource A non-comprehensive collection of photographs of Grand Valley faculty, staff, administrators, board members, friends, and alumni. Photos collected by University Communications for use in promotion and information sharing about Grand Valley with the wider community. Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1960s - 1990s Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived GV012-03. University Communications. Vita Files Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource In Copryight Subject The topic of the resource Grand Valley State University College administrators College teachers Colleges and universities -- Faculty Michigan Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. Special Collections and University Archives Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context GV012-03 Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource image/jpeg Type The nature or genre of the resource Image Language A language of the resource eng Still Image A static visual representation. Examples include paintings, drawings, graphic designs, plans and maps. Recommended best practice is to assign the type Text to images of textual materials. 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 JewellBob Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Grand Valley State University. University Communications Title A name given to the resource Jewell, Bob Description An account of the resource Bob Jewell Subject The topic of the resource Grand Valley State University – History Michigan Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived University Communications. Vita Files, 1968-2016 (GV012-03) Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. Special Collections and University Archives Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource In Copyright Type The nature or genre of the resource Image Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource image/jpeg Language A language of the resource eng https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/170375855ffe2c5e03841a2386a3249a.jpg fea646a9828c638193f7a77ee1148724 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 Faces of Grand Valley Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Grand Valley State University Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource University Communications Description An account of the resource A non-comprehensive collection of photographs of Grand Valley faculty, staff, administrators, board members, friends, and alumni. Photos collected by University Communications for use in promotion and information sharing about Grand Valley with the wider community. Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1960s - 1990s Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived GV012-03. University Communications. Vita Files Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource In Copryight Subject The topic of the resource Grand Valley State University College administrators College teachers Colleges and universities -- Faculty Michigan Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. Special Collections and University Archives Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context GV012-03 Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource image/jpeg Type The nature or genre of the resource Image Language A language of the resource eng Still Image A static visual representation. Examples include paintings, drawings, graphic designs, plans and maps. Recommended best practice is to assign the type Text to images of textual materials. 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 JewellGayla Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Grand Valley State University. University Communications Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1986 Title A name given to the resource Jewell, Gayla Description An account of the resource Gayla Jewell, Nursing Subject The topic of the resource Grand Valley State University – History College teachers Universities and colleges – Faculty Michigan Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived University Communications. Vita Files, 1968-2016 (GV012-03) Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. Special Collections and University Archives Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource In Copyright Type The nature or genre of the resource Image Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource image/jpeg Language A language of the resource eng 1986s https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/79b05b44d0ca072309838c05a13cb6a9.pdf 1b68a9c3d226ae032c6f351d9381dddc PDF Text Text Saturday, November 13, 194g The Muskegon Chronicle, Mu kegon, · Michigan Page Foul" Jewish Community Irivites Public to Share in Dedication Week at New Temple FormerChaplain, Jewish Temple Dedication Will Dedicate Author to Speak Ceremonies to Open Sunday Christ Temple Hope of Years Realized In Beauty of New Building By FRANK HALPIN . . , . Dedication next week ~f th~ Temple . B na1 Israel, on Fourth s~reet at Webster avenue, w~ll brmg to ~ climax years of hope, plannmg '.1nd work by th e Jewish commumty .of G~eat~r. Muskegon to establish a synago?ue _and center for the faithfuls spmtual, cultural, communal .and social life. -------------In a series of open h?1:1se prt?- Fred Stein, Joseph Strifling, Frangrams leading to the off1c1al dedi- cis August, Mrs. Jean Berman, cation of th~ Te1:1ple_ Sunday,_ Nov. Harry S. Berman, Ruben Berman, 21, the public will view the 11:ter- Mrs. Hortense Berman, Harry ior of the $195,000 two-story hme- Fisher, Mrs. Mari/m Fisher, Herstone building. . . . man Grossman, Mrs. Sadie GrossModern a1:d functional m arc~- man and Ely Smith. tectural ?~s~gn, the T~1;1ple pr~Officers of the Congregation vi des fac1llties for_ rellgwus, cu • B'nai Israel are: tural and educational _orga11;-za: Leo S Rosen resident· Paul tions - _the Congregation, B nl~i M Wie~er fir~t p vice-pr~sident· Israel, children's and adults re 1• S · d . .· 1 L' ' gious schools, the Sis~er~ood,, ~he d~~~Mr?s:~·u:ici:ws~~e-::ce:~= Brotherhood, the B nai B n th : R b B t ' . Abraham Ros~n lodge_ No. 8l~, tarJ',J ~ 'fl~rmap, a r~a~urer: Hadassah, United Jewis~ <;han- a1 · · ri mg, m ncia sec ties and the Mus_keg_on district of re ary. the Zionis~ orgaruzatmn. Trustees ~re Harry s. Berman,_ The mam chapel ~nd balco!3-Y Harry A. Fisher, J. K. Kaufman, have a combined seatri:g_ capacity Mr. Klayf, Harold Ros:n, Max of 300 persons. In addition there R~senberg: Harold _A. S1lvE:rman, is a choir loft, smaller chapel, Eh M. Smith and Milton Stemdler. lobby, lounge, study, class ~nd Advisory trustees are Abe _Ash_enkindergarten rooms, a recreation dorf, Max Ashendorf, Francis Fme, hall with a stage that can be pull- Maurice Golden, Mrs. Isaac Grossed from the wall like a drawer, a man, Dave Gudelsky, Samuel library, anteroom, and kitchen and Price, Fred Rodoff, Lyle Rogers, pantry facilities. Total floor space Mrs. Abe Shmookler, and Josiah is 5,000 square feet. Wiene~. Mrs. Harry s. Ber:man is a_ special trustee representmg the THE TEMPLE was begun m Sisterhood. October, 1946_ W~rk on the founda• ------t t d m May 1947 and tion was s ar e : , Ul the cornerstone placed m November the same year. The growing needs of the congregation for a temple and center . . . were recognized years ago but Accord10n pupils of Miss Anna the war forced postponement of Schuitema will present a sacred ronstruction. The congregation had con cert sponsored by the Women's worshippe on ast u egon GUJ of St. o n van e cal artd avenue near Pine street, but the Reformed church in the church building seated only 70 per~ons. auditorium at Pine street and A building program was consider- Diana aven~e. Sunday at 7:30 p. m. Rabbi Aaron Property Cohen was • offermg · after ed . on A free will w1·11 b e re2 1937 11 d M ~~!ta si~e orth~ ne~ temple was ceived. purchased in 1938. Officers elected for 1~49 are Mrs. When World War II broke out, Conrad DeWald, president; Mrs. the congregation invested $30,~00 Ralph Hile, vice-president; Mrs. in war Savings bonds. Following tto Mertz, secretary, , and Mrs, the cessation of hostilities, plans Charles Swineheart, treasurer. were drawn by the Chicago firm The Guild has sent to a Gerof Grunsfeld, . Yerkes, Licht.~an many orphanage the past year and Koenig with E. E. _Yalentme boxes of clothing, food, quilts and of Muskegon collaboratmg. The toys in addition to caring for two contract was let to the Strom war orphans. Construction company of Muskegon. St * * * . G Id Sponsors Sacred Concert . * * * CONGREGATION THE B'nai Israel-now numbering 150 families or 600 persons-is the outgrowth in the ~ong history of ~e Jewish community here, antedating 1880. Regarded as the father and founder of the congregation, Henry R.ubinsky obtained a charter formally recognizing the Congregation Sons of Israelite J.n May, 1911. Mr. Rubinsky, whose survivors are Mrs. Isaac Grossman and Isadore Rubinsky, was president of the congregation for 10 years. In the l920's Isaac Grossman and Samuel Gluck were presidents. Succeeding them were Milton Steindler, Samuel Lipman, Samuel G. l{layf, and the current president, Leo S. Rosen. Ruben Berman has been active treasurer since 1912. Rabbi. Samuel Umen of New York became the spiritual leader of the congregation in September. To be formally installed at a later date, Rabbi Umen succeeded Rabbi Louis Satlow who was leader from March, 1945, to November, 1947. Rabbi Aaron Cohen, installed in 1937, died May 22, 1944. His predecessor was Rabbi Samuel Cohen. Jacob Klitzner has been assistant rabbi for the past eight years. * * * TO Demonstrate Ore-an at Lakes1·de ~ Sunday Afternoon To Tell of v1·s1·t T Ne therIand Chorehto HOId Thanks D1·nner FREE METHODIST CHURCH w. Grand at Franklln - Muskegon Wesley Buhl, pastor Phone 24-9161 WAYSIDE BAPTIST CHURCH - 5th St. and Hackley Ave., Hts. Sunday School at 9:45 a. m. Young People's Meeting, 6:30 p. m. Junior Church at 9:45 a. m. Evenmg Serv.ice at 7:30 p. m. Morning worship at 10:45 a. m. Mid-Week Service, Wed., 7:30 p. m,• A WARM WELCOME TO ALL W. T. SCHROEDER, Pacstor 9:45 a. m.-Sunday School. 10:45 a. m.-Morning Worship, Rev, G. W. Bodine, guest. 3:00 p. m.-Sunday School at Phllllpa School, 1420 E. Broadway. 7:30 p. m.-Evenlng Service. 7:30 p. m.-Wednesday Prayer Meeting. r -- - - - THE FIRST BAPTIST CHURCH - SPIRITUALIST CHURCHES .. . 1 1 1 I I 7:30 p. m.-Thura.-Heallng and me,. !lRQ'P$1. 1 Rev. John r. Howell minister THE Clay at Second FRIENDLY HOUR 9:4!S--Church School. 10;45-Mornlng Worship: Anthem-"Onward Christian Soldiers,•• (Gould). Sennon-"TEN CENTS FOR ,\ DIAMOND." 6:00-Junlor High Fellowship at the Church House. 7:30-The Friendly Hour. Youth Vesper Communion Service. Welcome to New Members. "The Friendly Church With a Fundamental Message" Cor. Sanford and Hovey, Hts. Floyd W. Hardy, Pastor ?:kc CMgrcgatiPJtal Clturekes McCRACKEN ST. AT NORTON ''We Preach Christ Crucified, Risen, Corning,•• 10:00 a. m.-Sunday School. 11:00 a. m.-Mornlng Worship: Rev. Jacob Huizenga, guest speaker. 7 :00 p. m:-Evenlng Service. First Street and Clay Avenue 1im Kev. Samuel N. OUver, D. D. a. m. -Church School for all ages. 10:45 a. m.-Morning Worship Service: "SPIRITUAL PROFIT AND LOSS." Rev. Samuel N. Oliver, D. D. (Planned program for children. 2-9 years old, during worship hour.) 11:15-12:00-Radio Broadcast over WKBZ. 7:00 p. m.-Churcb of Youth. 9: 30 CHURCH OF THE NAZARENE Acorn St. and R. L. MAJOR, Pastor Forest Ave. Phone 2-5457 "THE FRIENDLY CHURCH" ,Mevrilft m.-Sunday• School. U:00 a. m.-Mornlna Worship. 6:30 p. m.-Youni? People'•· 7:30 p. m.-Evenlng Worship. 11:45 a. MEMORIAL ffacbo11 AVENUE Corner Jackson and Marshall Montgomery at McGraft 9:4S-Sunday School, 9:45-Sunday School. C. T. 11 :00-MornJng Worship. Miss Clara Mudgett, Superintendent. 11:00-Morning Worship. Kuizenga, guest speaker. Clarence D. Oberlin, Minister. Nursery care for children by May- 7:00 p. m., Thurs.-B!ble Study conflower Guild. ducted by Miss Clara Kulzenga. ~TTTTTTTTTTTTTT~TTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTT++++++++++++~ "Teach me Thy way, O Lord, and lead me In a plain path!" H THE CHURCH OF GOD ot Life"-Phil. 2:16 ''Holding forth the Word ~t.Jimd'• Jpisroµttl Grqurdt I I .,. The annual Temple Methodist church Women's society Thank O.ffer>ing service will be held in the church, Sunday, at the regular worship hour. Mrs. M. D. McKean of Sturgis, recording secretary of the North Central jurisdiction of the Methodist church in conference this week in Grand Rapids, will give the address. She is the wife of the Rev. M M K f t r. c ean, a ormer pas or at the Temple church. Mrs. Charles Redman is general chairman of the service. A special th ank offering will be received for · · f' Start Catholic Masses sunday at H . Cen ter ° Carlson, Anderson Authors of Volume For Y th P rograms I II To Hold Temple Th k Q ff • an ertng• Service Sunday ChorehSunday Dedicatory week for the Temple B'nai Israel, Nov. 14 to 21, unThe' Congre~<,nal Christian folds tomorrow with a public open house starting at 2:30_p. a. church and the Evangelical and At 3 :15 p. m., the library and school will be dedicated. Guest Th d d" . f h Reformed church agreed this week speaker will be Clifford Wightman, director of Hackley public library. .e e ication t ~ new Program chairman is Milton Steindler. assisted by Rabbi Samuel Umen, Christ Temple church_, 4.40 E. upon the procedure for merging Mrs. Jean Berman, school principal, Max Rosenberg, Zionist district Sherman bo~levard, w1;1 be. held OUStng under the name of the United president, and Mrs. Edward A. Krause, Hadassah program chairman. Su nd ay, at 3 .3o p.m., with Bishop The Most Rev. Francis J. Church of Christ, probably in On Tuesday, an open house for Greater Muskegon ministers and ~- N. Hamc?ck of Detr~nt pr~ach- ·Haas, Catholic bishop of Grand 1949. their wives from 3 to 5 p. m. will be sponsored by B'nai B'rith, Ed- mg th e dedicatory ser:vice. ~ishop Rapids, announced today that ward A. Krause, president, acting as chairman. In addition there will Harry Barnett of_ Niles will be starting Nov. 21, two masses The merger would affect four be a program at 8 p. m. master of ceremonies. will be said each Sunday at the churches in Greater, Muskegon Open house will be held again Friday from 2:30 to 4:30 p. m. Construction on the 40 by 50 Ruddiman Terrace community St. John's Evangelical and Ra. The pre-dedicatory service at 8:lii p. m, will honor the present foot, one-story building was begun building, on Hackley avenue, to formed church, and the First, the past presidents of the congregation. Dr. Duncan E. Littlefair, in April. The church is of con- serve residents of that area. Jackson Avenue, and McGraft Me• author and pastor of the Fountain Street Baptist church of Grand crete block with a brick front. The The masses, at 8 and 10 o'clock, morial Congregational churches. Rapids, will be the speaker. The B'nai B'rith Abraham Rosen Lodge, basement houses the Sunday will be said by the Rev. Joseph Some 50 members of the execu• No. 818, Jewish fraternal organization, will be host. Ministers and school, pastor's study and men's Cieslok. tive committees of the two de• their wives, as well as representatives of all the B'nai B'rith lodges and women's lounges. T)le sane- 1• - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - • 1 nominations met in Cleveland for of Michigan are invited. tuary, baptismal pool and dressing an all-day conference Wednesday, Sunday, Nov. 21, will climax the week-long program. The dedi- rooms on both sides of the rostrum Dr. Louis w. Goebel of Chicacation dinner will be held in the Ocddental hotel from 3 to 5 p m are upstairs. go, president of the Evangelical a reception at 2 p. m. preceding. . ., Elder w. M. Lee, pastor of the and Reformed church, said the A testimonial will be given to Leo S. Rosen as a prime mover Christ Temple cli.urch for near! 0 S sessions resulted in "a complete in advancing the planning and supervision of the Temple's construe- 10 years was chairman of th! meeting of minds and afford a tion. Paul Wiener is dinner chairman and Mr. Klayf toastmaster. building 'committee Mr Lee sueRink Bekkering, recently re- truly realistic procedure for comThe Rabbi Samuel Umen will h.:ad the dedication service in the ceeded Elder L Cla.renc~ Ball w.h.o turned from The Netherlands, will pleting this great union of Protes• temple at 8 p. m. Leading citizens of Greater Muskegon and mid- was pastor fro~ Ma 1935 to Jul be speaker at the Christian En- tant churches." western cities are expected to attend. h d' d Y, y, , :;;;=============:.. 1938 h The reception committee is comprised of Harry S. Berman, , w en e ie . . deavor Union meeting, to be held, 1 ST. JOHN'S EVANGELICAL Francis Fine, Fred Stein, Harold A. Silverman, Milton Steindler, Mr. Lee f_ormerly was as:'istant in the Covenant Reformed church, Joseph Strifling, Mr. and Mrs. Ted Neumer and Mr. and Mrs. Herman pas.tor of Bishop Hancock m De- Nov. 22 at 7:45 p.m. AND REFORMED CHURCH Ph.one 24-3400 Grossman. Decorations committee members are ll,Irs. Harry Fisher, trmt. . Special music will be by Jean Plne and Diana Sh. Mrs. Leo Rosen and Mrs. Samuel Lipman. The congregation, now number9:30 a. m. Morning WorshlJ)l - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - l i n g 75 persons, has held meetings Walwor th au d Harietta Baker, a nd Rev. John Humfrey&, D. D,, guest spe11ker. wnose name is perpetuated in the in the Christ Temple dining room, the Rev. William B. Miller, pastor McGraft church. adjacent to the present church of the host church, will give the 11:00 a. m.-Church School. '.l'he dinner arrangements com- building. invocation. m1~tee has _aske~ families to bring The Sunday school period will articles which will be converted to convene at 10 a.m. tomorrow. FIRST CHURCH OF CHRIST SCIENTIST p·.oceeds for the church building Elder Ross Paddock of KalamaMuskegon Ave. at Third St. Appropriate to the Thanksgiving fund. Committee members are Bert zoo will cow:iuct a series of reseason, parishioners of the Mc- Van Vulpen, Mrs. Earl Hubacker Sunday Service at 10:45 a. tn. and Mrs. Clarence Holmgren. The vival services at the church for a Graft Memorial Congregational R Cl week, beginning Monday at 7:30 Sunday School at 12 noon ev. arence D. Oberlin, pastor p.m. Subject: "MORTALS AND IMMORTALS," church will express thanks for re- will preside. ' cent church refurbishments at an IF=============;;;;,ll Testlmonlal meetings every Wedne1day evenlnit at I o'clock. Free public reading room and lending 11• appreciation dinner Tuesday at Only the male Katydids, crickets FIRST CHRISTIAN brary at Third •treet ent"1llce open dally U:00 a. m. 8.~d cicadas sing. The females are 6:30 p.m. to 5 p. m. Saturday to 9:00 p. m. A new chancel is being comple t- si.ent. CHURCH ALL !'.E COJIDL\ ?NV.ITEi) ed, t e pace of worsh p redecorat-1~-====;;;;;;=========;;;;ii-- - - - - i<t> ed and new carpeting laid, through SPIRITUAL FELLOWSHIP 187 E. Grand Ave. gifts of friends of the church. a E. Curch. minister. 1497 .nroch Rev. Wm. R. Aldred. D. D. Resolutions of thanks will be Telephone 24-3136 HILE SUNDAY SCHOOL AND CHURCH d ted and a spec1·a1 letter of ap 7 :30 p. m.-Evening Service ln charge a op of Dr. Aldred, Special workers from 10:00 a. m.-Blble School.. 4617 Grand Haven Rd., Norton Twp. ~aglnaw, f~llowed by Spirit greet• b~~~i:W~iJiC:! ~~ :::tf!tto:: Donald R. Stone, Pastor U:00 a. m.-Mornlng Worship: mgs and blindfold billet demonstra''CROWNS.•• a former resident here. Mrs. tion. 9 :45-BIBLE SCHOOL Wickham has contributed substan- Tues., 8:00 p. m.-Materlalization. '7:30 p. m.-Evening Service: 11:00-MORNING WORSHIP tially to the building of the church. Wed., 2:00 p. m.-Ladles' Aid at 129 Sound picture. Hamilton. She is the daughter of Newcomb 6:30-YOUNG PEOPLE'S MEETINGS Mid-Week Prayer Service, Wed., 7:SO. McGraft, philanthropic lumberman Thurs., 8:00 p. m.-Trumpet Circle. 7:30-EVENING SERVICE A Cordial Welcome to All Call 26• 7408 for reservations. and former mayor of Muskegon, An electric organ demonstration will be given in the Lakeside Methodist church Sunday at 4:30 p. m. Joseph L. Sullivan, organist in Grand Rapids, will play for the program. Mrs. Hazel B. Howard will direct the church choir in two num- The Church nf Jesus Christ of bers for the special program which the Latter Day Saints is open to the public. Corner Wood and Laketon Mr. Sullivan's program will inPresident Davtd Nelson elude "Sonatina from God's Time is 10:00 a. m.-Sunday School.B.est," Bach; "Prighiera," by RavU:30 a. m.-Sacrament Meetln,r. anello; "Toccatina Militaite," HarWELCOME TO ALL ris; and "Berceuse by Vierne. OU In the final group are "Sortie," The Zondervan Publishing House by DuBoise; "Largo," Handel; of Grand Rapids announced publi- "Salut d'Armour 0 by Elgar, and cation of a book "Ideas for Young the "Hallelujah Chorus," by HanPeople's Programs" by Maurice A. del. Carlson, director of the Greater IF=========:;::;==:;;;..11 Muskegon-Third at Clay Muskegon Youth for Christ, and REV. WlLLIAM T. REEVES, .TR., MARQUITTE CHAPEL Kenneth Anderson, Youth for Rector Christ International magazine ediINTERDENOMINATIONAL Sunday, November 14, 1948 tor. Two Blks East ot Getty on Marquette 8:00 a. m.-Holy Communion. The book is a compilation of Rev. Maurice E. Edlund, pastor 9:30 a. m.-Family Service, 10:00 a. m.-Sunday SchOQL ideas which may be used by young 11:00 a. m.-Mornlng Worship people's groups to improve their 10:00 a. m.-Church School. 6:30 p. m.-Young People's Service.· programs, and build membership. 11 :00 a. m.-Morning Service and 7:30 p. m.-Evenlng Worship. Of pocket book edition size, the Sermon. (Supervjsed Nursery Class, 11 to 12.) book is bound with 1aminated covWI'(!. P. M.-Prayer Service. er. It is on sale at religious book "Good Neighbor" broadcast over WKBZ 6:00 p. m,-Young People's meet• stores. Satur:da.y morning, 8:15-8:30. ing. MANY MEN and women of the 1 congregation may take pride in THE achieving the dedication of the temple, an historic step in the development of the Jewish community here. 1 Leo S. Rosen, who will be honWELCOME YOU ored at the Dedication dinner next week, was president of the Muskegon House of Jewish Worship orTemple of Spmtual light ganization which guided the ac409 E. Laketon Ave. tual planning and supervised conRev. Alfonso Esh. oastor struction of the Temple. Other. of- 3:00 o'clock Afternoon Service by Mrs. ficers were J. M K uf an viceJ. c. Rector <>f Grand Rapids, in president; Mrs. · amue! awson, c'liarge. J 4:00Message Circle. secretarJ:, '.1n d F re d .R od off , .t reas- S:l5-Potiuck Supper. urer. Bmldmg committee chaJrmen 7:00-Song and Healing Service. were Harold Rosen and Mr. Kauf- 7:30-Evening Service. Sermon by Mrs. man, assisted by Herbert Fisher, To~f~~h•s Turkey Supper at the Samuel G. Klayf and Paul M. church by the Ladies' Guild. Wiener. Trustees were Abe Ashendorf, Maurie~ Golden, Mr. Klayf, CharSpiritual Church of Truth les Locke, Samuel Price, Samuel 600 Jefferson st. Lipman, Harold Rosen, Harold Rev . .constance Betta Silverman, ,Soloman Silverman, E . s 17 :00 p. m.- venmg erv1ce. ~,..., Dr. David Otis Fuller, pastor of the Wealthy Street Baptist church, Grand Rapids, will speak on "Evangelical Christianity Faces a World Crisis •.. What Happened at Amsterdam?" at a special Sunday evenin~ service at ~KBZ auditorium under the auspices of the People's Tabernacle and Calvery Baptist church. The service starts at 7 p. m. Dr. Fuller, former Navy chaplain and graduate of Wheaton college of Princeton Theological seminary, is the author of many books. He editer such works as John Calvin's "Instruction in Christianity," "The Confessions of St. Augustine," and Spurgeon's "Treasury of David." _ His message will deal with problems facing Christians who still_ _believ~ in the Ortho~ox Christian faith and the confus10n existing in the Christian church throughout the world. ------- !Agree on Merger Procedure, Four Chµrches Here Affected ~ "THE CONFESSIONAL OF THE PRIESTHOOD i vs~ CHRIST BE(BN~tt!AL9tt~Bf Terrace St. at Delaware REV .. H. BULTEMA, Pa5tor REV. D. J. ANDERSON, Asst. Pastor • 9:15-Mornlng Worship. 10:40-Blble School. 1 :4!S--Holland Language Service, 7 :OD-Evening Assembly. ,ouR HIGH PRIEST" (The SUNDAY Dr. Carrara Preaching, m.-Sermon: "AN UNWANTEt) GUEST." Broadcast over Station WMUS. 7:30 p. m.: Sermon: "CAN SALVATION BE OBTAINED AFTlilR DEATH?" Dr. Carrara will preach every night this week, exfept Saturday, 8 p. m. 11 a. BEREAN BROADCASTS OVER WKBZ SUNDAY-Morning Worship, 9:30-10:30; Monday, . Wednesday and Frlday-10:30 to 10:45 ~~+++++++++++++++++++.Y.++~ MISSION COVENANT CHURCH Flrat Street and Muskegon Aven'WI Rev. Paul w. Message of a converted Catholic. )-Monday, 8 p, m. Anderson, pa.stOr LAKESIDE BAPTIST CHURCH HEAR Miss Winifred Larson, Gospel Singer Rev. Edwin A. Hallsten, Evangelist DR. CARRARA 9 :30 A. M.-BIBLE SCHOOL 10 :45 A. M.-"The Thing That Counts" 3·:oo P. M.-SWEDISH SERVICE 4:30 p. m.-Young People's Meeting 7:00 P. M.-"When Morning Breaks" Denmark at Miner Lester E. Thompson, Pastor CORDIALLY WELCOME YOU "Praise God In His Sanctuary" - Psalm 150:f BACK TO GOD HOUR-Sundays over WKBZ at 5:00 P. M. 10:00 a. m.-Bible School 6:00 p. m.-Young People 11:00 a. m.-"LOST-A VALUABLE POSSESSION" 7:00 p. m.-"THE ADVENTURES OF LOT" We Preach the Bible as It Is-'For Men as They Are CGhe ·£utheran 6hurches Welcome Terrace at Hartford . Bethany 10:00-Mornlng Worship: Rev. George Vanderhill, Guest "YOUR CONSCIENCE." U:30-Sunday School. 7:00-Evenlng Worship: "REVIVE US AGAIN." Organized 1903 Speake!', � 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 Temple B'nai Israel Collection Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Temple B'nai Israel (Muskegon, Mich.) Description An account of the resource Collection of photographs, scrapbooks, programs, minutes, and other records of the Temple B'nai Israel in Muskegon, Michigan. The collection was created as part of the L'dor V'dor project directed by Dr. Marilyn Preston, and was supported by grants from the Kutsche Office of Local History and Michigan Humanities Council. Original materials were digitized by the University Libraries and returned to the synagogue. Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Digital objects were contributed by Temple B'nai Israel as part of the L'dor V'dor project. Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/">In Copyright</a> Subject The topic of the resource Jews--United States Muskegon (Mich.) Scrapbooks Synagogues Women--Societies and clubs Minutes (Records) Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Allendale, Michigan Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Preston, Marilyn Grand Valley State University. Special Collections and University Archives Relation A related resource L'dor V'dor (project) Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context DC-08 Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource Image Text Type The nature or genre of the resource image/jpeg application/pdf Language A language of the resource eng Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource Circa 1920s-2018 Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. 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 DC-08_Muskegon-Chronicle-article_1949-11-13 Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Muskegon Chronicle Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1948-11-13 Title A name given to the resource Jewish Community Invites Public to Share in Dedication Week at New Temple Description An account of the resource Article from the Muskegon Chronicle by Frank Halpin. Subject The topic of the resource Jews--United States Muskegon (Mich.) Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Digital file contributed by the B'nai Israel Temple as part of the L'dor V'dor project. Relation A related resource L'dor V'dor (project) Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/">In Copyright</a> Type The nature or genre of the resource Text Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource application/pdf Language A language of the resource eng Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Lemmen Library and Archives