514 24 26018 https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/6c4b652e85547922559ea4b0d4e2716a.jpg 8118a9cb4c0217208fa19a91b1ca2bb9 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 Grand Valley State University Photographs Subject The topic of the resource Aerial photographs Universities and colleges Michigan Grand Rapids (Mich.) Allendale (Mich.) Building Facilities Dormitories Students Events 1960s 1970s 1980s 1990s 2000s Description An account of the resource People, places, and events of Grand Valley State University from its founding in 1960 as a 4-year college in western Michigan. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource News & Information Services. University Communications Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/41">News &amp; Information Services. University Photographs. (GV012-01)</a> Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives. Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2017-03-03 Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC-NC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright - Non-Commercial Use Permitted</a> Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource image/jpg Language A language of the resource eng Type The nature or genre of the resource image Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context GV012-01 Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant 1960s-2000s 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. Local Subject Subject headings specific to a particular image collection 1960s Source <a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/41">University photographs, GV012-01</a> 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 GV012-01_UAPhotos_000328 Title A name given to the resource Loutit Hall Description An account of the resource Loutit Hall of Science and greenhouse. Subject The topic of the resource Grand Valley State University Michigan Allendale (Mich.) Universities and colleges Facilities Language A language of the resource eng Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC-NC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright - Non-Commercial Use Permitted</a> Type The nature or genre of the resource Image Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource image/jpeg Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Lemmen Library and Archives black and white photo https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/929dfb4be7d98b140f0475cbb5de236f.jpg d58d5e117bffc2e8708cdbddeef0726d 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 Grand Valley State University Photographs Subject The topic of the resource Aerial photographs Universities and colleges Michigan Grand Rapids (Mich.) Allendale (Mich.) Building Facilities Dormitories Students Events 1960s 1970s 1980s 1990s 2000s Description An account of the resource People, places, and events of Grand Valley State University from its founding in 1960 as a 4-year college in western Michigan. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource News & Information Services. University Communications Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/41">News &amp; Information Services. University Photographs. (GV012-01)</a> Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives. Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2017-03-03 Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC-NC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright - Non-Commercial Use Permitted</a> Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource image/jpg Language A language of the resource eng Type The nature or genre of the resource image Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context GV012-01 Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant 1960s-2000s 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. Local Subject Subject headings specific to a particular image collection 1960s Source <a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/41">University photographs, GV012-01</a> 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 GV012-01_UAPhotos_000391 Title A name given to the resource Loutit Hall Description An account of the resource Loutit Hall Subject The topic of the resource Grand Valley State University Michigan Allendale (Mich.) Universities and colleges Facilities Language A language of the resource eng Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC-NC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright - Non-Commercial Use Permitted</a> Type The nature or genre of the resource Image Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource image/jpeg Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Lemmen Library and Archives black and white photo https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/b48094b203776e678954737333303039.jpg 7bdf7c900fdef49fb2d2f42e80e5038b 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 Grand Valley State University Photographs Subject The topic of the resource Aerial photographs Universities and colleges Michigan Grand Rapids (Mich.) Allendale (Mich.) Building Facilities Dormitories Students Events 1960s 1970s 1980s 1990s 2000s Description An account of the resource People, places, and events of Grand Valley State University from its founding in 1960 as a 4-year college in western Michigan. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource News & Information Services. University Communications Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/41">News &amp; Information Services. University Photographs. (GV012-01)</a> Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives. Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2017-03-03 Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC-NC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright - Non-Commercial Use Permitted</a> Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource image/jpg Language A language of the resource eng Type The nature or genre of the resource image Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context GV012-01 Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant 1960s-2000s 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. Local Subject Subject headings specific to a particular image collection 1970s Source <a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/41">University photographs, GV012-01</a> 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 GV012-01_UAPhotos_000760 Title A name given to the resource Loutit Hall and the Commons Description An account of the resource Aerial view of Loutit Hall and the Commons. Subject The topic of the resource Grand Valley State University Michigan Allendale (Mich.) Universities and colleges Facilities Language A language of the resource eng Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC-NC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright - Non-Commercial Use Permitted</a> Type The nature or genre of the resource Image Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource image/jpeg Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Lemmen Library and Archives color photo https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/b292d8ee0ab7fb23c6879ed720f67b49.jpg 8c78a0f244a3bf696d9e52d0cab82ba5 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 Grand Valley State University Photographs Subject The topic of the resource Aerial photographs Universities and colleges Michigan Grand Rapids (Mich.) Allendale (Mich.) Building Facilities Dormitories Students Events 1960s 1970s 1980s 1990s 2000s Description An account of the resource People, places, and events of Grand Valley State University from its founding in 1960 as a 4-year college in western Michigan. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource News & Information Services. University Communications Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/41">News &amp; Information Services. University Photographs. (GV012-01)</a> Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives. Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2017-03-03 Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC-NC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright - Non-Commercial Use Permitted</a> Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource image/jpg Language A language of the resource eng Type The nature or genre of the resource image Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context GV012-01 Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant 1960s-2000s 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. Local Subject Subject headings specific to a particular image collection 1970s Source <a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/41">University photographs, GV012-01</a> 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 GV012-01_UAPhotos_000765 Title A name given to the resource Loutit Hall and the Commons Description An account of the resource Aerial view of Loutit Hall and the Commons. Subject The topic of the resource Grand Valley State University Michigan Allendale (Mich.) Universities and colleges Facilities Language A language of the resource eng Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC-NC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright - Non-Commercial Use Permitted</a> Type The nature or genre of the resource Image Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource image/jpeg Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Lemmen Library and Archives black and white photo https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/35b7e515a93823134dda1821da606c59.jpg c3105a0bb4633c5089aec577abd9ef43 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 Grand Valley State University Photographs Subject The topic of the resource Aerial photographs Universities and colleges Michigan Grand Rapids (Mich.) Allendale (Mich.) Building Facilities Dormitories Students Events 1960s 1970s 1980s 1990s 2000s Description An account of the resource People, places, and events of Grand Valley State University from its founding in 1960 as a 4-year college in western Michigan. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource News & Information Services. University Communications Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/41">News &amp; Information Services. University Photographs. (GV012-01)</a> Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives. Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2017-03-03 Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC-NC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright - Non-Commercial Use Permitted</a> Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource image/jpg Language A language of the resource eng Type The nature or genre of the resource image Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context GV012-01 Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant 1960s-2000s 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. Local Subject Subject headings specific to a particular image collection 1960s Source <a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/41">University photographs, GV012-01</a> 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 GV012-01_UAPhotos_000754 Title A name given to the resource Loutit Hall greenhouse Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Nature Trends Description An account of the resource Loutit Hall greenhouse. Subject The topic of the resource Grand Valley State University Michigan Allendale (Mich.) Universities and colleges Facilities Language A language of the resource eng Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC-NC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright - Non-Commercial Use Permitted</a> Type The nature or genre of the resource Image Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource image/jpeg Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Lemmen Library and Archives black and white photo https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/1c91b9f06a60248cc982048c6b029f3b.jpg 94f70185f7adf71d32fa9780acdeec60 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 Grand Valley State University Photographs Subject The topic of the resource Aerial photographs Universities and colleges Michigan Grand Rapids (Mich.) Allendale (Mich.) Building Facilities Dormitories Students Events 1960s 1970s 1980s 1990s 2000s Description An account of the resource People, places, and events of Grand Valley State University from its founding in 1960 as a 4-year college in western Michigan. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource News & Information Services. University Communications Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/41">News &amp; Information Services. University Photographs. (GV012-01)</a> Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives. Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2017-03-03 Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC-NC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright - Non-Commercial Use Permitted</a> Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource image/jpg Language A language of the resource eng Type The nature or genre of the resource image Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context GV012-01 Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant 1960s-2000s 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. Local Subject Subject headings specific to a particular image collection 1960s Source <a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/41">University photographs, GV012-01</a> 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 GV012-01_UAPhotos_000764 Title A name given to the resource Loutit Hall greenhouse and Commons Description An account of the resource Loutit Hall and greenhouse and Commons. Subject The topic of the resource Grand Valley State University Michigan Allendale (Mich.) Universities and colleges Facilities Language A language of the resource eng Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC-NC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright - Non-Commercial Use Permitted</a> Type The nature or genre of the resource Image Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource image/jpeg Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Lemmen Library and Archives black and white photo https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/c7d6e9460365db1e8e45b027e0c7fdd5.jpg 3bbc6cf45231adc459a2e443ed9e0902 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 Grand Valley State University Photographs Subject The topic of the resource Aerial photographs Universities and colleges Michigan Grand Rapids (Mich.) Allendale (Mich.) Building Facilities Dormitories Students Events 1960s 1970s 1980s 1990s 2000s Description An account of the resource People, places, and events of Grand Valley State University from its founding in 1960 as a 4-year college in western Michigan. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource News & Information Services. University Communications Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/41">News &amp; Information Services. University Photographs. (GV012-01)</a> Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives. Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2017-03-03 Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC-NC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright - Non-Commercial Use Permitted</a> Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource image/jpg Language A language of the resource eng Type The nature or genre of the resource image Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context GV012-01 Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant 1960s-2000s 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. Local Subject Subject headings specific to a particular image collection Loutit Hall of Science Loutit Hall of Science 1960s Source <a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/41">University photographs, GV012-01</a> 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 GV012-01_UAPhotos_000052 Title A name given to the resource Loutit Hall of Science Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Korab, Balthazar Balthazar Korab Studios, Ltd. Description An account of the resource Loutit Hall of Science with greenhouse, 1966. Subject The topic of the resource Grand Valley State University Michigan Allendale (Mich.) Universities and colleges Facilities Language A language of the resource eng Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC-NC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright - Non-Commercial Use Permitted</a> Type The nature or genre of the resource Image Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource image/jpeg Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1966 Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Lemmen Library and Archives black and white photo https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/e8861ca1a72a9f56da70837fd7957201.jpg 7f250de5b9c5bc5c36c545fd24d55534 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 Grand Valley State University Photographs Subject The topic of the resource Aerial photographs Universities and colleges Michigan Grand Rapids (Mich.) Allendale (Mich.) Building Facilities Dormitories Students Events 1960s 1970s 1980s 1990s 2000s Description An account of the resource People, places, and events of Grand Valley State University from its founding in 1960 as a 4-year college in western Michigan. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource News & Information Services. University Communications Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/41">News &amp; Information Services. University Photographs. (GV012-01)</a> Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives. Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2017-03-03 Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC-NC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright - Non-Commercial Use Permitted</a> Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource image/jpg Language A language of the resource eng Type The nature or genre of the resource image Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context GV012-01 Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant 1960s-2000s 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. Local Subject Subject headings specific to a particular image collection Loutit Hall of Science 1970s Source <a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/41">University photographs, GV012-01</a> 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 GV012-01_UAPhotos_000058 Title A name given to the resource Loutit Hall of Science. Southwest exterior corner Description An account of the resource Southwest exterior corner of Loutit Hall of Science, ca. 1970. Subject The topic of the resource Grand Valley State University Michigan Allendale (Mich.) Universities and colleges Facilities Language A language of the resource eng Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC-NC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright - Non-Commercial Use Permitted</a> Type The nature or genre of the resource Image Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource image/jpeg Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1970 Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Lemmen Library and Archives black and white photo https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/8631ef5b931871ef8a5a349ffbf390fa.jpg 0d917928ae8d5f05d88d4e0667930627 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 Decorated Publishers' Bindings Subject The topic of the resource Book covers Covers (Illustration) Graphic arts Publishers and publishing Pictorial bindings Description An account of the resource From the early 1870s to roughly 1930, many publishers issued their commercial book covers with a remarkable variety of graphic designs and illustrations. This sixty-year period saw many artists and designers contributing to this art form. While some can be identified from their style or initials, others remain unknown. Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Seidman Rare Books Collection Michigan Novels Collection Regional Historical Collection Lincoln and the Civil War Collection Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2017-08-30 Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a>, <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/NoC-US/1.0/?language=en">No Copyright - United States</a> Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource image/jpg Language A language of the resource eng Type The nature or genre of the resource Image Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context DC-01 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. Source Seidman Rare Books. PR119.R4 1907 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-01_Bindings0322 Title A name given to the resource Love Affairs of Literary Men Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Margaret Armstrong (Designer) Description An account of the resource Binding of Love Affairs of Literary Men, by Myrtle Reed, published by The Knickerbocker Press, 1907. Subject The topic of the resource Book covers Covers (Illustration) Graphic arts Publishers and publishing Pictorial bindings Language A language of the resource eng Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/NoC-US/1.0/?language=en">No Copyright - United States</a> Type The nature or genre of the resource Image Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource image/jpeg Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1907 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/e9da8d2281b5ad8ac940326248bcd819.pdf 06bb24733b3f17c56c66a45d3836d9fa PDF Text Text Love at the Core: The Grain of the Universe Matthew 5: 1-14; 38-48; I John 4:7-8; 12, 16b Richard A. Rhem Lakeshore Interfaith Center, Ganges, Michigan July 17, 2011 –––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––– The theme for today’s reflection has been announced as: Love at the Core: The Grain of the Universe The first letter of John affirms, “God is Love.” Pitirim A. Sorokin concluded that, with the birth of the atomic age, humanity needed more than ever a quantum leap both in the scientific understanding of altruistic love and its implementation. By the late 1940s, he was especially interested in discovering how love for others is related to their felt participation in a presence that is higher than our own and that serves as a source of unlimited love across all divisions of tribal, religious, political and ethnic loyalties. Sorokin’s The Ways and Power of Love, published in 1954, is a careful scientific analysis of love with regard to its higher and lower forms, its causes and effects, its human and cosmic significance, and its core features. Combining Biblical insights and Sorokin’s analysis, I will claim love is the core of reality reflected in the grain of the universe. As you can well imagine, it is one thing to stake a claim; it is quite another to establish it. My intention here is to hear Sorokin’s contention and show how it aligns with New Testament teaching and especially the Way of Jesus as it comes to expression in the Sermon on the Mount. My endeavor is not the introduction of material foreign to Sorokin’s research. Indeed, he begins his Preface with a quotation from the Sermon on the Mount and goes on to relate his own personal experience that caused him to embark on his life’s work – the description of and advocacy for altruistic love. Sorokin begins, Blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the earth. Blessed are the merciful: for they shall obtain mercy. Blessed are the peacemakers: for they shall be called the children of God. In 1918 I was hunted from pillar to post by the Russian Communist Government. At last I was imprisoned and condemned to death. Daily, during six weeks, I expected to be shot, and witnessed the shooting of my friends and fellow prisoners. During the subsequent four years of my stay in Communist Russia I underwent other painful experiences and observed, to the heartbreaking point, endless horrors of human bestiality, death, and destruction. Exactly in these conditions I jotted down in my diary the �Love at the Core: The Grain of the Universe Richard A. Rhem July 17, 2011 following “observations of a cold intellect and plaintive murmurs of a saddened heart”: “Whatever may happen in the future, I know that I have learned three things which will remain forever convictions of my heart as well as my mind. Life, even the hardest life, is the most beautiful, wonderful, and miraculous treasure in the world. Fulfillment of duty is another marvelous thing making life happy. This is my second conviction. And my third is that cruelty, hatred, violence, and injustice never can and never will be able to create a mental, moral, or material millennium. The only way toward it is the royal road of all-giving creative love, not only preached but consistently practiced.” Some thirty-five years have passed since these lines were written. The tragic events of these years, as well as my scientific studies, immeasurably reinforced these beliefs, and led me even to the establishment of the Harvard Research Center in Creative Altruism. Now more than ever before I believe in the following truths, which are fully confirmed by our experimental studies: Hate begets hate, violence engenders violence, hypocrisy is answered by hypocrisy, war generates war, and love creates love. Unselfish love has enormous creative and therapeutic potentialities, far greater than most people think. Love is a life-giving force, necessary for physical, mental, and moral health. Altruistic persons live longer than egoistic individuals. Children deprived of love tend to become vitally, morally, and socially defective. Love is the most powerful antidote against criminal, morbid, and suicidal tendencies; against hate, fear, and psychoneuroses. It is an indispensable condition for deep and lasting happiness. It is goodness and freedom at their loftiest. It is the finest and most powerful force for the ennoblement of humanity. Finally, only the power of unbounded love practiced in regard to all human beings can defeat the forces of interhuman strife, and can prevent the pending extermination of man by man on this planet. Without love, no armament, no war, no diplomatic machinations, no coercive police force, no school education, no economic or political measures, not even hydrogen bombs can prevent the pending catastrophe. Only love can accomplish this miracle, providing, however, we know well the nature of love and the efficient ways of its production, accumulation, and use. But, unfortunately, Sorokin writes, we know less about the energy of love than about light, heat, electricity, and other forms of physical energy. He continues, citing A. H. Maslow: © Grand Valley State University �Love at the Core: The Grain of the Universe Richard A. Rhem July 17, 2011 “It is amazing how little the empirical sciences have to offer on the subject of love,” correctly says A. H. Maslow. “Particularly strange is the silence of the psychologists. Sometimes this is merely sad or irritating, as in the case of the textbooks of psychology and sociology, practically none of which treat the subject… More often the situation becomes completely ludicrous. [As a rule] the word ‘love’ is not even indexed [in psychological and sociological works].” (“Love in Happy People,” in Ashley Montagu, ed., The Meaning of Love, pp. 57-58) It is obvious from the Preface that Sorokin will offer no dry academic treatise on love. Much rather, what he offers is an existential quest to discern the nature of love, its creative source, its characteristics in real life and the fruitful practices by which Love is enacted and embodied. Before outlining the flow of the work, he expresses his sense of urgency about researching love’s nature and his commitment to adding to our understanding and practice of love. At the present juncture of human history an increase in our knowledge of the grace of love has become the paramount need of humanity, and an intensive research in this field should take precedence over almost all other studies and research. This present work, together with its companion volume, Forms and Techniques of Altruistic and Spiritual Growth: A Symposium, is my humble contribution to this great objective. Considering the immensity of the task, the contribution is very modest in comparison with the total sum of the necessary studies. Since, however, the better brains are busy with other problems, including the invention of means of extermination of human beings; since educators are largely engrossed in cultivation of the intellect and tribal patriotism of their pupils, while many a religious leader is absorbed in the intertribal crusades against various enemies – under these conditions somebody, somehow, must devote himself to a study of the miracle of love, no matter how inadequate is his capacity to do the work well. Feci quod potui, faciant meliora potentes. This is my excuse for the innumerable infirmities of this contribution. (xii) The Introduction, “Pitirim Sorokin as Pioneer in the Scientific Study of Unlimited Love,” by Stephen G. Post, gives a portrait of Sorokin’s life which sets his passion and his work in historical context. First, however, he gives a concise summary of Sorokin’s analysis of love. He begins the Introduction with a reference to Sorokin’s life but quickly moves to the summary. A towering figure in twentieth-century sociology, Pitirim A. Sorokin (18891968) was born in Russia, and died near Boston. One might introduce his The Ways and Power of Love with a summary of the author’s life, which would indeed be fascinating. As a young man in Russia, for instance, he © Grand Valley State University �Love at the Core: The Grain of the Universe Richard A. Rhem July 17, 2011 was imprisoned first by the Czarists and then by the Bolsheviks, allowing him to conclude that Czarist prison was the more comfortable of the two. After immigrating to the United States in 1923 to teach at the University of Minnesota, he went on to become the founding chairman of the Department of Sociology at Harvard University in 1931 and later established the Harvard Research Center for Creative Altruism. It is best, however, to reflect on Sorokin’s life only after acquainting the reader with the essential features of his analysis of love. The scope and depth of his analysis, which can only be described as uniquely insightful, will naturally kindle the reader’s curiosity about the man behind these enriching ideas. (p. xv) The Ways and Power of Love was published in 1954 when Sorokin was leading the Harvard Research Center in Creative Altruism. In Mortimer J. Adler’s Concepts of Western Thought Series, the philosopher Robert G. Hazo wrote, Sorokin treats love as a separate subject in a treatise devoted exclusively to it. His elaborate discussion and analysis of love, its causes and effects, its human and universal significance, its higher and lower forms, and its implications for other subjects constitute one of the most extensive treatments to be found in the systematic literature about love. The Ways and Power of Love is an ambitious attempt to subject analytical schemes to a phenomenon that Sorokin claims has both a human and a cosmic dimension. (p. xvf) Post relates the rich background of Sorokin in the nineteenth-century Russian tradition. He was, “a creative and idealistic social thinker devoted to scientific observation but with too wide-ranging an intellect to rest content with a purely technical rationality.” The Russian movement sought “integral knowledge,” and included Feodor Dostoyevsky. A close friend of Dostoyevsky, Vladimir Solovyov, was a special influence on Sorokin. He synthesized philosophy and mysticism in his classic work entitled The Meaning of Love (1894). Solovyov wrote of love and its contrasts: The basic falsehood and evil of egoism lie not in this absolute selfconsciousness and self-evaluation of the subject, but in the fact that, ascribing to himself in all justice an absolute significance, he unjustly refuses to others this same significance. Recognizing himself as a center of life (which as a matter of fact he is), he relegates others to the circumference of his own being and leaves them only an external and relative value. Positively stated, Solovyov described the nature and value of love thus: The meaning and worth of love, as a feeling, is that it really forces us, with all our being to acknowledge for another the same absolute central significance which, because of the power of our egoism, we are conscious © Grand Valley State University �Love at the Core: The Grain of the Universe Richard A. Rhem July 17, 2011 of only in our own selves. Love is important not as one of our feelings, but as the transfer of all our interest in life from ourselves to another, as the shifting of the very center of our personal lives. Solovyov, like Sorokin, understood human love as a partial reflection of, and at its heights a participation in, divine love. (p. xvif) According to the Russian movement that sought “Integral Knowledge,” Sorokin analyzed love under seven aspects – the tenets of integral knowledge, which Post summarizes thus: The religious aspect of love identifies it with a Higher Presence, however variously symbolized in the great spiritual and religious traditions; the ethical aspect of love identifies love with goodness itself; the ontological aspect of love defines it as a “unifying, integrating, harmonizing, creative energy or power” that works in the physical, organic, and psychosocial worlds ( p. 6); the physical aspect of love is shown in “all the physical forces that unite, integrate, and maintain the whole inorganic cosmos in endless unities, beginning with the smallest unity of the atom and ending with the whole physical universe as one unified, orderly cosmos” (pp. 8-9); the biological aspect of love is evident in procreation and parental care. The sixth aspect of love is the psychological, and it is here that Sorokin defines love as follows: “In any genuine psychological experience of love, the ego or I of the loving individual tends to merge with and identify itself with the loved Thee. The greater the love, the greater the identification” (p. 10). He views love as a “life-giving force” because of studies showing that people who are altruists live longer than egoists do, although Sorokin does not elaborate. Love is also defined as “the loftiest form of freedom” (p. 11), for where there is love there is no coercion. Sorokin refers to the writings of St. Paul on this point, and was conversant with his Russian contemporary, the theologian Nicholas Berdyaev, who emphasized that love nailed upon a cross compels no one. On the psychological level, Sorokin also notes that love overcomes fear, as exemplified by the life of Gandhi, whom he much admired as a modern saint: “Love does not fear anything or anybody. It cuts off the very roots of fear” (pp. 11-12). In a manner that brings to mind the various spiritual-ethical writings of the contemporary Dali Lama, Sorokin associates love with “the highest peace of mind and happiness (p. 12).” Seventh is the social aspect of love: “on the social plane love is a meaningful interaction – or relationship – between two or more persons where the aspirations and aims of one person are shared and helped in their realization by other persons (p, 13).” (p. xviif) The depth and breadth of Sorokin’s analysis of love is demonstrated by his careful scientific description of love as lived out in human experience, but is not satisfied © Grand Valley State University �Love at the Core: The Grain of the Universe Richard A. Rhem July 17, 2011 with such a phenomenological approach. Rather he wrote, “Concentrating on these planes, however, we shall always keep in mind the manifoldness of love as a whole because, without its religious, ethical, and ontological aspects, we cannot truly understand a “visible” part of this cosmos, its psychological, empirical aspects” (p. 14), (p. xviii). Post comments, Methodologically committed to new scientific knowledge that can move our understanding of love forward, he was also attentive to a wider cosmic context and to the fullness of human experience and history. (p. xviii). While Sorokin’s analysis of love, its marks, dimensions, practice in varying groups and disciplines, is painfully thorough and expansive, it is not my intention to go into any depth or breadth of his remarkable analysis. That would be beyond the limits of time and beyond my capacity. What struck me about Sorokin is the combining of careful scientific study along with the realization that such love as he was analyzing and calling for, if the human family is to have a future, must be rooted beyond its surface manifestation that was observable. Here was a serious scientist, a truly great scholar, pointing beyond the limits of empirical research. Yet the love he was researching has been lived out from time to time by truly exceptional human beings. Post notes, Of special interest to Sorokin was the love of figures such as Jesus, Al Hallaj, Damien the Leper, and Gandhi. Persecuted and hated, and therefore without any apparent social source of love energy, they nevertheless were able to maintain a love at high levels in all five dimensions. Such love seems to transcend ordinary human limits; it seems to suggest, argued Sorokin, that some human beings do, through various spiritual and religious practices, participate in a love energy that defines God…. Sorokin was convinced that such perfect or unlimited love can best be explained by hypothesizing an inflow of love from some higher source of love energy that far exceeds that of human beings. One might ask why, after all, we human creatures should arrogantly think that our paltry manifestations of love represent love’s highest expression in the universe of being. Sorokin, following the Russian tradition of integral knowledge, was willing to hypothesize the existence of a higher source of love in the universe in which degrees of human participation are possible. He writes quite metaphysically of the exemplars of love at its fullest, many of whom were despised and had no psychosocial inflow of love to sustain them: The most probable hypothesis for them (and in a much slighter degree for a much larger group of smaller altruists and good neighbors) is that an inflow of love comes from an intangible, littlestudied, possibly supraempirical source called “God,” “the Godhead,” © Grand Valley State University �Love at the Core: The Grain of the Universe Richard A. Rhem July 17, 2011 “the Soul of the Universe,” the “heavenly Father,” “Truth,” and so on. (p. xxi). In a section entitled “Creative Personality and the Supraconscious,” Post states that “Sorokin openly asserted a view of human nature that included the supraconscious.” It is at the level of the supraconscious that genuinely creative love resides. Post continues, Of course, Sorokin was running against the grain of the social sciences, with their “materialistic and mechanistic metaphysics” (p. 98), and he therefore felt compelled to “lay down the very minimum of evidence” (p. 98) for the reality of the supraconscious. This evidence, as Sorokin offers it, includes the supraconscious intuition that informs so much of the highest human creativity (and the work of child prodigies) in virtually all fields from mathematics to ethics and religion (ch.6). The perfectly integrated creative genius achieves the highest level of creativity without strenuous effort. In ego-centered love, i.e., love “of low intensity, narrow extensivity, and short duration, impure and inadequate” (p. 125), no supraconscious is involved. However, “quite different seems to be the situation with the supreme forms of creative love – intense, extensive, durable, pure, and adequate. Like supreme creativity in the field of truth or beauty, supreme love can hardly be achieved without a direct participation of the supraconscious and without the ego-transcending techniques of its awakening” (p. 125), italics in original). Sorokin gathers empirical support for this statement from the testimony of “innumerable eminent apostles of love” who, across cultures and generations describe themselves as instruments of the supraconscious: “God, Heaven, Heavenly Father, Tao, the Great Reason, the Oversoul, Brahma, Jen, Chit, the Supre-Essence, the Divine Nothing, the Divine Madness, the Logos, the Sophia, the Supreme Wisdom, the Inner Light” (p. 127). One realizes immediately, reading Sorokin, that this is no ordinary scholarly pursuit; for Sorokin was dealing with the possibility of a human future. Relating something of Sorokin’s life, Post writes, In 1945, anxious over the human condition in the wake of World War II and Hiroshima, he determined to found a program on creative altruism. Here Sorokin’s autobiography, entitled A Long Journey (1963), becomes essential. Sorokin expresses pessimism abut potential political or other attempts to bring abut peace without the “notable altruization of persons, groups, institutions, and culture.” He is hardly sanguine about the role of extrinsic religion, because his own studies indicated that a “purely ideological belief in God or in the credo of any of the great religions” rarely results in more altruistic behavior. He became increasingly interested in investigating “scientifically this unknown or little known energy” of love: “The phenomena of altruistic love were thought to belong to religion and ethics rather than to science. They were considered good topics for © Grand Valley State University �Love at the Core: The Grain of the Universe Richard A. Rhem July 17, 2011 preaching but not for research and teaching.” He thought that research grants on the topic of creative, unselfish love would be uniformly rejected by peer reviewers. In a voice that has since been heard by the now rising positive psychology movement of the 1990s, Sorokin noted the tendency of scientists to focus research on the disease model: While may a modern sociologist and psychologist viewed the phenomena of hatred, crime, war, and mental disorders as legitimate objects for scientific study, they quite illogically stigmatized as theological preaching or non-scientific speculation any investigation of the phenomena of love, friendship, heroic deeds, and creative genius. This patently unscientific position of many of my colleagues is merely a manifestation of the prevalent concentration on the negative, pathological, and subhuman phenomena typical of the disintegrating phase of our sensate culture. (p. xxvi) Sorokin recognizes his concern, his passion, was “the stuff of preaching, of theological discourse,” but he had no confidence in religion in the form of institutions or in credal formulation that often not only unite a group but also divide the human family – “purely ideological belief in God” cannot effect the loving community as broad as humanity and finally anything less than that is inadequate to cast the mantle of creative love over humankind. Post points to Sorokin’s final chapter: The final part of the book, Tragedy and Transcendence of Tribal Altruism, consists of a single chapter 23, entitled From Tribal Egoism to Universal Altruism. This is the last and most pessimistic chapter. Sorokin asserts a general law: If unselfish love does not extend over the whole of mankind, if it is confined within one group – a given family, tribe, nation, race, religious denomination, political party, trade union, caste, social class or any part of humanity – such in-group altruism tends to generate an out-group antagonism. And the more intense and exclusive the ingroup solidarity of its members, the more unavoidable are the clashes between the group and the rest of humanity. Herein lies the tragedy of tribal altruism not extended over the whole of mankind or over everyone and all. An exclusive love of one’s own group makes its members indifferent or even aggressive towards other groups and outsiders (p. 459, italics in original) Sorokin’s concern with in-group insularity pervades his writings, especially in his many passages regarding the extent to which apostles of universal love have clashed with tribalists and been imprisoned, banished, tortured, and killed. But in addition to exemplars of unlimited love for all humanity, innumerable groups have themselves been destroyed by the collective egoism of group loyalty. As Sorokin writes, “Whether in the form © Grand Valley State University �Love at the Core: The Grain of the Universe Richard A. Rhem July 17, 2011 of a cold or a hot war, this intergroup warfare has gone on incessantly in human history, and has filled its annals with the most deadly, most bloody, and most shameful deeds of Homo sapiens” (p. 461). In-group exclusivism has “killed more human beings and destroyed more cities and villages than all the epidemics, hurricanes, storms, floods, earthquakes, and volcanic eruptions taken together. It has brought upon mankind more suffering than any other catastrophe” (p. 461). Religious, ethnic, tribal, caste, and class wars have thus far defined much of human history and experience. What is needed, argues Sorokin, is enhanced extensivity. His recommendation is that the power of hatred be focused on threats to the whole of mankind, such as disease, ignorance, and poverty. He also recommends that competitions be sponsored on the basis of new values: “Unselfish love and humility can successfully be one of the most important competitive values” (p. 468). Indeed, humility was a core value in Sorokin’s approach to a better human future. (pp. xxiiif). Sorokin writes about love but he is not a sentimentalist. He is painfully aware of the violence that has marked the human story. Neither is he naïve. He faces honestly the terrible blood-soaked history of humanity. He writes, “Imperialistic” encroachments of any selfish group are opposed, first of all by all persons whose love behavior extends over other groups and especially over the whole of humanity. They cannot approve aggressive misdeeds of an exclusive tribal loyalty. Their universal or more extensive love cannot help clashing with the narrow, tribal love of the group. Hence the conflict between such persons and the group. Hence the persecution of such individuals by the group. Hence the tragic martyrdom of the apostles of universal love, who have been condemned to death, imprisoned, banished, tortured, and variously persecuted by the partisans of tribal loyalty. Socrates, Jesus, St. Peter, St. Paul, Al Hallaj, Gandhi and some 37 per cent of the saintly Christian altruists are eminent examples of its victims. The total number of the martyrs of tribal patriotism of various political, ethnic, racial, religious, economic, occupational, and other collectivities with exclusive in-group solidarity has been enormous in human history. Jesus well understood this clash between the two types, and the persecution of the universal altruists by the tribal ones, when he said to his disciples: “And ye shall be hated of all men for my name’s sake….” “Think not that I am come to send peace on earth: I came not to send peace, but a sword. For I am come to set a man at variance against his father, and the daughter against her mother.” Almost any universal altruist is bound to become a “subversive enemy” to be persecuted by the “patriotic” tribal altruists. In this sense the eternal tragedy of the agnus Dei qui tollis peccata mundi continues in human history unabated. The tribal patriots of “the Athenian Committee on un-Athenian Activities” condemned to death Socrates; “the Jewish Committee on un-Jewish Activities” crucified Jesus; © Grand Valley State University �Love at the Core: The Grain of the Universe Richard A. Rhem July 17, 2011 “the Muslim Committee on un-Muslim Activities” quartered and burned Al Hallaj; the self-appointed guardians of Hindu Orthodoxy shot Gandhi for his “un-Orthodox” activities. The annals of history are sprinkled with the blood of altruistic “heretics and schismatics” put to death by the tribal “orthodox” religions; indeed, each page of these annals is soaked in the blood of altruistic “subversives” executed by the tribal state governments. Most of the political parties, racial occupational, national, and other groups have been guilty in persecution of their “disloyal” members whose “disloyalty” consisted exactly in extension of their love far beyond the boundaries of the respective organization. And so this drama is continued up to this day when a multitude of “patriotic governments” and “crusading committees” relentlessly persecute many a “disloyal” altruist in the name of Communist, Socialist, Liberal, Conservative, Fascist, Democratic, Capitalist, Labor, Atheist, Religious, and other tribal solidarities and lilliputian in-group patriotisms. And so far, no end of this tragedy is visible. (p. 459f) That was published in 1954 and the half-century since has only been an exclamation point to Sorokin’s sad portrait. But he will not yield to despair and hopelessness. The vast variety of human beings, of such different orientations, cultural differences, traditional formation, religious understanding – in a word, everything that uniquely marks individuals, groups, tribes, nations is not the cause of aggression, violence, warfare and bloodshed. Rather, Sorokin asserts, History exhibits to us thousands of dissimilar families and millions of heterogeneous persons who have at various periods peacefully lived side by side in mutual harmony. If dissimilarity were the cause of interpersonal and intergroup conflicts, such a peaceful coexistence of heterogeneous individuals and collectivities would have been impossible. If it has occurred many times, as it undoubtedly has, then the real cause of the warfare lies not in these differentiations, but in something else – namely, in the poison of tribal selfishness that infiltrated in the differentiated societies and their members. This poison consists exactly of the restricted extensity and exclusiveness of their tribal love or solidarity. If this hypothesis is correct, then the disease can be cured only by extension of solidarity or love to include everyone and all. This extension does not require elimination of all interpersonal and intergroup dissimilarities. It requires only a thorough cleaning of individuals and groups from the poison of exclusive selfishness. (p. 463) Perhaps now the reader will shake her head and write the author off as an impossible dreamer. But Sorokin will not falter before the seeming impossible dream. Rather, he continues, If this diagnosis is correct, can the prescription of the universal love be carried through? Can one indeed love equally every human being, the © Grand Valley State University �Love at the Core: The Grain of the Universe Richard A. Rhem July 17, 2011 strangers and the enemies as much as the members of his family and friends? Is not such love a biological and psychological impossibility? Taken literally, the prescription is impossible for the overwhelming majority of human beings; however, the extension of love over the whole of mankind neither means nor requires an equal distribution of love among all human beings. At its initial stage it means three things: first, that everyone loves the members of his family and the limited circle of his friends and acquaintances as his special part of humanity chosen by and entrusted to him for this purpose. If everyone does so, every member of the human race will find himself loving and loved by the members of his special groups. Under such conditions not a single person in the whole human population remains unloved and not loving. Second, universal love means that everyone must abstain from all actions harmful to any human being. Through this neminem laidere in the whole human race nobody remains hated, harmed, and seriously mistreated by other human beings. Third, it means that everyone, within his capacity, extends his loving hand beyond his special group to everybody who is in need of help and warm sympathy – first of all, in one’s immediate community and second, in the whole human universe. If everybody does so in regard to the persons in his own community, then every human being will find the needed loving help from his community. If each community does the same in regard to other communities in need of help, then the whole human population will be blessed by, at least, the minimum of love and vital help. Under these conditions in the whole mankind there will be found not a single person lonely, forsaken, unloved, or unhelped. This extension of love can be done privately and publicly, in individual and social forms. If now and then it requires sacrifice on the part of the individual and his group, such sacrifice is to be gladly given. If every person and group do so, these sacrifices will be repaid by other individuals and groups when the sacrificing persons and groups are in need of help. Viewed so, the sacrifices are but a form of a mutual insurance of all human beings against possible insecurity and misfortune. Such is the meaning of the universal love at its initial stage. It is easily seen that it does not contain anything utopian or impossible. At this stage it represents but a development of the existing “network of love,” and an increased inhibition of the interhuman aggression. Once established in this initial form, it will in the course of time and practice spontaneously develop into ever richer, nobler, and more perfect universal love. If wisely guided and earnestly executed, the initial phase of universal love can be achieved without serious difficulty and at a much cheaper cost in the terms of death, suffering, and destruction, than the price to be paid in this sort of “money” for continuation of tribal loyalties and tribal warfare. Within the life cycle of one or two generations this phase will bring mankind much closer to the ideal of security, brotherhood, and peace on the earth, than the leaders and followers of tribal patriotisms have been © Grand Valley State University �Love at the Core: The Grain of the Universe Richard A. Rhem July 17, 2011 able to do for millennia or can do in the future. Here are some of the practical prescriptions as to what the first steps of realization of the universal solidarity should consist in, and how they should be carried through, to bring mankind nearer to this objective. (pp. 463-464) Nothing utopian or impossible here, Sorokin claims and he is surely right. We have become so pessimistic, so despairing. So easily we simply throw up our hands and don’t even take seriously such an impossible dream. But might that not be because we are mired in our own present experience of a world at war, of violence and aggression, of the vast treasure spent on armaments, of terrorism and “the war on terror?” But what about the long view, the evolutionary drama that has seen the emergence of the human, of consciousness, of the recognition that at the core of the human is an empathy that is triggered by human suffering, human pathos, human tenderness, human beauty? The summer of 2010 I tackled Jeremy Rifkin’s The Empathic Civilization whose subtitle is “The Race to Global Consciousness in a World in Crisis.” I have been struck by how much Rifkin’s claim that empathy is at the core of the human reflects Sorokin’s belief that love is the core of the human because it is the core of reality – the supraconscious, however named, pouring out love’s energy in limitless supply. (I was also amazed that Sorokin’s name does not appear in the index nor The Ways and Power of Love in the bibliography!) Here is Rifkin: Historians, by and large, write about social conflict and wars, great heroes and evil wrongdoers, technological progress and the exercise of power, economic injustices and the redress of social grievances. When historians touch on philosophy, it is usually in relationship to the disposition of power. Rarely do we hear of the other side of the human experience that speaks to our deeply social nature and the evolution and extension of human affection and its impact on culture and society. The German philosopher Georg Wilhelm Fredrich Hegel once remarked that happiness is “the blank pages of history” because they are “periods of harmony.” Happy people generally live out their existence in the “microworld” of close familial relations and extended social affiliations. History, on the other hand, is more often than not made by the disgruntled and discontented, the angry and rebellious – those interested in exercising authority and exploiting others and their victims, interested in righting wrongs and restoring justice. By this reckoning, much of the history that is written is about the pathology of power. Perhaps that is why, when we come to think about human nature, we have such a bleak analysis. Our collective memory is measured in terms of crises and calamities, harrowing injustices, and terrifying episodes of © Grand Valley State University �Love at the Core: The Grain of the Universe Richard A. Rhem July 17, 2011 brutality inflicted on each other and our fellow creatures. But if these were the defining elements of human experience, we would have perished as a species long ago. All of which raises the question “Why have we come to think of life in such dire terms?” The answer is that tales of misdeeds and woe surprise us. They are unexpected and, therefore, trigger alarm and heighten our interest. That is because such events are novel and not the norm, but they are newsworthy and for that reason they are the stuff of history. Today, our twenty-four hour cable TV news shows become the chroniclers of the accounts of pathological behavior, bombarding us with tales of horror and woe. The everyday world is quite different. Although life as it’s lived on the ground, close to home, is peppered with suffering, stresses, injustices, and foul play, it is, for the most part, lived out in hundreds of small acts of kindness and generosity. Comfort and compassion between people creates goodwill, establishes the bonds of sociality, and gives joy to people’s lives. Much of our daily interaction with our fellow human beings is empathic because that is our core nature. Empathy is the very means by which we create social life and advance civilization. In short, it is the extraordinary evolution of empathic consciousness that is the quintessential underlying story of human history, even if it has not been given the serious attention it deserves by our historians. (The Empathic Civilization, p. 10) Rifkin criticized the historians for focusing on “crises and calamities, harrowing injustices and terrifying episodes of brutality inflicted on each other and our fellow creatures” while Sorokin makes a very similar criticism of the field of psychology. This is what he wrote over half a century ago: MAIN BLUNDERS OF THE PREVALENT THEORIES The ultimate task of these studies is to find out the efficient ways of making persons more creative and altruistic. In order that this purpose may be fruitfully advanced, one has to have an adequate theory of the mental structure of human personality and of the energies generated in and operating through the human organism. The prevalent theories in this field are grossly defective. The first of the blunders consists of merging into the category of the “unconscious” or “subconscious” (E. von Hartmann, P. Janet, S. Freud, and others) two radically different energies of man: the biologically unconscious that lies below the level of the conscious state of mind and the supraconscious (“genius,” “creative élan,” “divine inspiration,” etc.) that lies above the level of any conscious and rational thought or energy. The “depth psychology” of the prevalent theories of personality is in fact quite shallow. It either flattens the mental structure almost exclusively to the level of the unconscious or subconscious, with a sort of epiphenomenal and vague © Grand Valley State University �Love at the Core: The Grain of the Universe Richard A. Rhem July 17, 2011 “ego” and “superego,” or just depicts it as a “two-story building” – the unconscious (subconscious) and the conscious (rational). In harmony with the negativistic character of the disintegrating Sensate culture, the prevalent theories of personality also move mainly in the region of the “social sewers.” They see mainly the lowest form of man’s energies (the unconscious and subconscious) and are blind to man’s highest supraconscious genius. They emphasize man’s animal, sadistic, and masochistic tendencies and pass by man’s sublime, creative, and altruistic properties. They interpret the highest creative élan as a mere biological reflex or drive; the sublimest sacrifice as masochistic tendency; the noblest inspiration as this or that subnormal complex; the genius as an abnormal neurotic; and the saint as a doubtful “deviant.” ( p. 83) Anticipating Rifkin’s claim of empathy at the core of the human, Sorokin declared the power of creative love and took note of the widespread contrary views. In the atmosphere of our Sensate culture we are prone to believe in the power of the struggle for existence, selfish interests, egoistic competition, hate, the fighting instinct, sex drives, the instinct of death and destruction, all-powerful economic factors, rude coercion and other negativistic forces. Yet we are highly skeptical in regard to the power of creative love, disinterested service, unprofitable sacrifice, mutual aid, the call of pure duty and other positive forces. The prevalent theories of evolution and progress, of the dynamic forces of history, of the dominant factors of human behavior, of the “how” and “why” of social processes unanimously stress such negativistic factors as the above. They view them as the main determinants of historical events and of the individual life courses. Marxism and the economic interpretation of history; Freudianism and its libidinal-destructive explanation of human behavior; instinctivist, behaviorist, and physiosomatic theories of personality and culture; Darwinistic and biological theories of the struggle for existence as the main factor of biological, mental, and moral evolution; even the prevalent motto of the chambers of commerce that “rivalry and competition made America great” – these and similar theories dominate contemporary sociology, economics, psychology, psychiatry, biology, anthropology, philosophy of history, political science, and other social and humanistic disciplines. These ideologies have an enormous appeal to the prevalent Sensate mind, are eagerly believed by Sensate man, and are considered by him as “the last word in modern science.” In contrast to that, Sensate minds emphatically disbelieve the power of love, sacrifice, friendship, co-operation, the call of duty, unselfish search for truth, goodness, and beauty. These appear to us as something epiphenomenal and illusory. We call them “rationalizations,” “selfdeceptions,” “derivations,” “beautifying ideologies,” “opiates of the people’s mind,” “smoke screens,” “idealistic bosh,” “unscientific delusion,” © Grand Valley State University �Love at the Core: The Grain of the Universe Richard A. Rhem July 17, 2011 etc. We are biased against all theories that try to prove the power of love…. (p. 47) Rifkin very astutely prefaces his monumental study with a full account of December 24, 1914, on Flanders Field – Christmas Eve, the German and English troops in their trenches thirty to fifty yards from each other. The Germans lighted candles on Christmas trees brought to them and began to sing carols – “Stille Nacht”…from the British trenches arose a response – “Silent Night.” You have heard the story – by morning it is estimated up to 100,000 soldiers came out of their trenches, met in the middle between the lines, sharing Christmas greetings, showing photos of their families, sharing cigarettes and sweets, telling where their home was – a fully human moment. In the morning news of the event filtered back to the command centers, and the soldiers were ordered back to their trenches to take up again the awful conflict. I cannot read that account without a lump in my throat because it is such a beautiful human moment, redolent with the presence of God – on Christmas Eve, the Prince of Peace. Rifkin says it well: Yet what transpired in the battlefields of Flanders on Christmas Eve 1914 between tens of thousands of young men had nothing to do with original sin or productive labor. And the pleasure those men sought in each other’s company bore little resemblance to the superficial rendering of pleasure offered up by nineteenth-century utilitarians and even less to Freud’s rather pathological account of a human race preoccupied by the erotic impulse. The men at Flanders expressed a far deeper human sensibility – one that emanates from the very marrow of human existence and that transcends the portals of time and the exigencies of whatever contemporary orthodoxy happens to rule. We need only ask ourselves why we feel so heartened at what these men did. They chose to be human. And the central human quality they expressed was empathy for one another. Rifkin introduces his startling claim with the incident of Christmas Eve, 1914, because it is a powerful witness to his central thesis. Interestingly, Sorokin, as I have indicated, opens his Preface with three of Jesus’ Beatitudes: Blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the earth. Blessed are the merciful: for they shall obtain mercy. Blessed are the peacemakers; for they shall be called the children of God. In his discussion of the aspects of love, the final aspect is the social aspect. He defines it and then cites another section of the Sermon on the Mount. Finally, on the social plane love is a meaningful interaction – or relationship – between two or more persons where the aspirations and © Grand Valley State University �Love at the Core: The Grain of the Universe Richard A. Rhem July 17, 2011 aims of one person are shared and helped in their realization by other persons. A loving person not only does not hinder the realization of the wise aims of the loved person but positively helps it. So far as he helps, he does not cause pain or sorrow to the loved person, but increases his happiness. It is the joy of giving and the joy of receiving; it is fulfilling oneself in others and by others. The terms “solidarity,” “mutual aid,” “cooperation,” “unity of good neighbors,” “familistic relationship,” and the like denote various forms of love as social relationship. Its highest forms are magnificently defined in the Sermon on the Mount. Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you and persecute you. Agree with thine adversary quickly. First be reconciled to thy brother, and then come and offer thy gift [to the altar]. Ye have heard that it hath been said, An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth: But I say unto you, That ye resist not evil: but whosoever shall smite thee on thy right cheek, turn to him the other also. And if any man will sue thee at the law, and take away thy coat, let him have thy cloak also. And whosoever shall compel thee to go a mile, go with him twain. Give to him that asketh thee, and from him that would borrow of thee turn not thou away. These norms outline the social relationships of love at their highest and best. (p. 13) Sorokin quotes these verses because he is explaining the social aspect of love. But, to my mind, even more remarkable, indeed the epitome of what both Rifkin and Sorokin are pointing to, is expressed in the paragraph calling us to love for enemies. “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be children of your Father in heaven; for he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the righteous and on the unrighteous. For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Do not even the tax collectors do the same? And if you greet only your brothers and sisters, what more are you doing than others? Do not even the Gentiles do the same? Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect. As we have noted above, this is precisely what Sorokin calls for as the only cure for our human malady – …the disease can be cured only by “the extension of love to include everyone and all.” Jesus calls us to be God-like. Matthew uses the word teleios which is translated “perfect.” That is an accurate translation but I think a bit misleading. Are we not quick to declare, “Nobody’s perfect!” The Greek word © Grand Valley State University �Love at the Core: The Grain of the Universe Richard A. Rhem July 17, 2011 points to fulfilling one’s purpose, realizing one’s end. I prefer the word “mature.” Is that not what so often we fail to be? Our conception of God as perfect, yes, but being mature. Perfection tends to scare us I think; it has an edge. Whereas in the context of the Sermon on the Mount Jesus is saying, “Be mature.” One might even suggest Jesus say, “Grow up!” In Luke’s Gospel, the word oiktirmones is used, translated “compassionate,” which also works well but I prefer Matthew’s choice – be mature because maybe indeed that is what is happening to humankind over the aeons of time. The movement from the hunter tribes of early humans to herders and farmers has been underway for millenia. And we surely are dismayed by the ongoing mayhem we create in the human family. Ongoing militarism, brutal dictators holding their people with iron grip in fear of expressing their longing for freedom and a decent human existence, weapons of mass destruction at the ready, a flourishing arms industry, the perfecting of ever smarter more lethal weapons systems – drones that can kill half a world away. In light of all of that are Rifkin and Sorokin simple idle dreamers? An even more poignant question I would pose for you – was Jesus simply a good person who really didn’t get it? Wrestling with a major work such as Sorokin’s The Ways and Power of Love is no easy task. Trying to follow his intensive analysis of creative love and its application to the human situation is not summer reading lite, fit for a beach chair. But, as I struggled to get my head around his analysis and its implications and applications, there was another presence of which I was aware throughout and that was the presence of Jesus. If you have been with me for some time you have probably heard me confess that I did not know what to do with the Sermon on the Mount; not the Beatitudes, not the turning of the cheek, and certainly not the love of enemies. Rifling my old files I found once I did a series on the passage – probably 35 or 40 years ago. At that time I was locked into orthodox Reformed theology with a heavy dose of pietism. The center of my faith and my preaching was the atonement – Christ’s death in our place whereby our sin is forgiven and heaven’s gate is open. Then the Christian, thus “saved,” was called to a life of righteousness, of goodness and mercy; indeed, one was to love one’s neighbor and, because Jesus said so, love one’s enemy. But the broader context was a world unredeemed that would only be transformed at the coming again of Jesus Christ in glory to judge the world, claiming his own and giving their just reward to those who had not bowed their knee to Him. This was the scheme of world history moving toward the end, the damning of the wicked” and the establishment of God’s eternal kingdom. The Sermon on the Mount was a blueprint for the life of a Christian but we “knew” world history, human development would not emerge as the Kingdom of God about which Jesus spoke. © Grand Valley State University �Love at the Core: The Grain of the Universe Richard A. Rhem July 17, 2011 I will not burden you with the long journey that has brought me to where I am today. I also want to say the faith and piety of my early years produced generations of really good human beings, sincere, faithful, generous, compassionate. In no way do I denigrate the community in which I was shaped, formed and given a deep sense of God’s love and grace that is with me still. Neither will I attempt to portray the whole vision of faith by which I now live and how the old understanding has given way to the new. Only this I will say; moving from an atonement centered theology, I came to see Jesus as dying the way he died because he lived the way he lived. Speaking truth to power, he was killed through the collusion of church and state. I do not understand him calling people into the kingdom that was imminent, forsaking “the world,” awaiting his reappearing to bring history to its consummation. I see him rather calling people to a new way to live in order that the will of God would be done on earth as it is in heaven. In contrast to my questions about the Beatitudes, about turning the other cheek, about loving one’s enemies, I now see Jesus as dead serious. He was calling people to live a life of love, of compassion, of non-violence, of peacemaking – not until God’s last dramatic act to end history with all its darkness and bring in the Kingdom from beyond. This earth, this history, this human family are the subjects of Jesus’ calling to live here and now the life of the Kingdom of God. Jesus was serious; he meant it when he spoke of human behavior, human encounters, human beings under the imperative to love all and everyone. This is what Sorokin affirmed. It is what Rifkin sees emerging. And think of the lives that have been world-transforming – Jesus himself and in his steps the Hindu Gandhi and Martin Luther King, among others. Recently I read a marvelous book portraying the life and business of Warren Buffett. Related there is the time Buffett heard Martin Luther King speak. Finally King strode to the podium, dressed in his preacher’s robes. He had chosen the theme of “Remaining Awake During a Revolution,” and his resonant voice rang out with a quote from poet James Russell Lowell’s “The Present Crisis”, the anthem of the civil-rights movement. The Scaffold Sways the Future Truth forever on the scaffold, Wrong forever on the throne: Yet that scaffold sways the future, And behind the dim unknown, Standeth God within the shadow Keeping watch above His own. © Grand Valley State University �Love at the Core: The Grain of the Universe Richard A. Rhem July 17, 2011 He spoke of the meaning of suffering. Inspired to nonviolent resistance by Gandhi, King invoked the lessons of the Sermon on the Mount. Blessed are the persecuted, it said, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth. … Buffett had always responded to powerful, charismatic orators. Now he saw King standing before him: moral courage in the flesh, a man who had been beaten and imprisoned, put in shackles and sentenced to hard labor, stabbed and clubbed for his beliefs, a man who had carried a movement on the strength of his ideas for nearly a decade despite enraged opposition, violence, and limited success. King had once described the power of nonviolence, which “has a way of disarming the opponent. It exposes his moral defenses. It weakens his morale and at the same time it works on his conscience…. Even if he tries to kill you, you develop the inner conviction that some things are so precious, that there are some things so dear, some things so eternally worthful, that they are worth dying for. If an individual has not discovered something that he will die for, he isn’t fit to live. When one discovers this, there is power in this method.” (The Snowball, p. 304) Buffett was struck by a statement which King repeated often: “The laws are not to change the heart, but to restrain the heartless.” As I stated above, immersed in Sorokin, I was so conscious of the presence of Jesus, of the spirit of the one whose call to a way of love, nonviolence and peace I failed to grasp in my early ministry and only gradually, haltingly have come to see as the way to life. This is not the stuff of preaching. It is not something I can explain and advocate and you can hear and accept. Too often preaching pleads and people resist or preaching declares and the critical faculties are alerted to question. No, to find the way of Jesus compelling, to determine however poorly to follow, to commit oneself to the way of non-violence and peace – that is the stuff of witness. To that I witness and invite you to wonder about it. Love is at the core of reality, the creative center of the cosmos. The grain of the universe is Love. It is to love we are called everyday in every way to one and all. It is the Way of Jesus for me, a very concrete way to which I am called, which I betray and fail miserably to fulfill. Yet a way I will not deny or rationalize away; a way I will self-consciously cultivate because it compels me. I choose that way and will not give up in spite of falling so far short. Love is the answer to the world’s violence, to humanity’s disease and finally Love will prevail because there can be no doubt, Love wins. This I believe. © Grand Valley State University �Love at the Core: The Grain of the Universe Richard A. Rhem July 17, 2011 References: Jeremy Rifkin. The Empathic Civilization: The Race to Global Consciousness in a World in Crisis. Tarcher, 2009. Pitirim A. Sorokin. The Ways and Power of Love: Types, Factors, and Techniques of Moral Transformation. Originally published in 1954; Reprint: Templeton Foundation Press, 2002. © Grand Valley State University � https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/e584f4aa2c22868031d42cf069823306.m4v e90909d44f982b6176b9cbc65603d121 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 Lakeshore Interfaith Center Gathering Location The location of the interview Lakeshore Interfaith Center, Ganges References Jeremy Rifkin. The Empathic Civilization. Tarcher, 2009, Pitirim A. Sorokin. The Ways and Power of Love: Types, Factors, and Techniques of Moral Transformation. Orig. published, 1954, Reprint, Templeton Foundation Press, 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-0-20110717 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2011-07-17 Title A name given to the resource Love At the Core: The Grain of the Universe 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 Moving Image Text Description An account of the resource A sermon given by Richard A. Rhem (Dick) on July 17, 2011 entitled "Love At the Core: The Grain of the Universe", on the occasion of Lakeshore Interfaith Center Gathering, at Lakeshore Interfaith Center, Ganges. Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource video/x-m4v application/pdf Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Lemmen Library and Archives Sermon on the Mount Transforming Love https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/cb0784e2989fa582da5eae187cb16636.pdf 159865f3537a710b2a149f7d9f553b5b PDF Text Text Love Enfleshed Text: Hosea 11:8; I John 4:16; Luke 10:27 Richard A. Rhem Christ Community Church Spring Lake, Michigan June 8, 1997 Transcription of the spoken sermon Those of you who have been around a while with me know that I like to preach in series; it helps to focus my own thinking and reading and reflection, and it keeps you in a rut. But, there are those periods of time when I don't have a series and I just sort of spot things in, and then sometimes I find I am in an accidental series, and that's where I am right now. I am fascinated with God and I think that happened when I began to reflect on Pentecost and thinking about the Spirit of God, in terms of the cosmos of which we are all a part, the fact that the Spirit of God is the Breath of God, that Breath of God that hovered over the Chaos of Creation's dawn, maybe 15 billion years ago, that Spirit or Breath of God that permeates the whole of reality, enlivening all that is, nothing existing apart from that inspiring, in-breathing of God's Spirit, so that the birth of the Church, the Jesus Movement that emerged into the Christian Church which we celebrate on Pentecost, is really not something new. It's simply another stage, another development. It is simply the continuity with that which has been true throughout all - the enlivening, permeating presence of God's breath, God's Spirit. Then, we come to Trinity Sunday and we recognize that God is a Mystery, a mystery beyond our fathoming. The old theologian spoke about the incomprehensibility of God, that we cannot know God. On Pentecost, we experience that Mystery as an ever-present enlivening wind or breath, and so we have a Mystery and we have that permeating life-giving power force. But, how do we give some focus to it? Then we discover a face, and in the face of Jesus we believe we see into the heart of God, so that that Mystery beyond our fathoming takes on some definition; the nature of that Mystery becomes concrete in that human form of Jesus who shows us the way to be in communion with that Mystery that we cannot touch nor grasp. And so, we have a face and an enlivening breath throughout all, lifting us to a Mystery beyond us. © Grand Valley State University   �Love Enfleshed Richard A. Rhem Page 2   Yet, we are meaning-seeking animals and that may be all well and good, but what does it mean for my life? We have those deep questions, because, as we have noted, the deep questions about God are really deep questions about ourselves. Whence have we come? Whither are we going? And what is the meaning of it, in the meantime? What does it mean for my concrete living today, in the concrete context of my life, this Mystery that is God that is focused in the face of Jesus and experienced as life? Well, I think it just goes to show that there is something deep within us that wants to know, that needs to know about the meaning of it all. The current issue of Life magazine has in bold print, "Why we are looking for the meaning of our soul in the stars," and then in bolder print, "The Rising of Astrology," and there is a rather main-theme article in that picture magazine about current stargazing and we are told that there is more interest in astrology today than in the past 400 years. The last period of time when there was a lot of interest in stargazing, palm reading, finding the alignment of the planets, was during the period of the Renaissance. And today, at this Post-Enlightenment era, when we have moved through all of the scientific discoveries and scientific methods and all of the rationality of the Enlightenment, we have a world that is more interested in stargazing than in the past 400 years. Well, that art goes back over 3000 years to Babylon and it's been with us ever since, some periods rather lean, some periods of popularity as at present, but it's amazing to me. People all over the globe are asking to have their destiny read out from the heavenly planets. We can scoff at it and laugh at it and yet, there's a rather fascinating tiein with astrology and the concepts of modern physics. One of Einstein's protegés, David Bohm, an English physicist and no mean scientist, has been very interested in the connection between the two. He speaks about cosmic reality as an unbroken entity inflow, and he speaks about matter and energy and meaning as the three manifestations of this unbroken flow of reality, and then he suggests that maybe there is that constant tug to check the stars because, after all, we are star children, we are stardust. He speaks of an implicate order of reality, an order which enfolds, intertwines - Bohm's word for the total interconnection of the whole of reality. Bohm uses an analogy - if one takes two glass cylinders, one fitting into the other, with just a little space between them, filling that space with some high-viscosity liquid, some heavy oil, and then into the oil drop a drop of ink, one can see that drop of ink through the cylinder walls. If the cylinders are spun in opposite directions, what happens to the drop of ink? It begins to make a circle around that cylinder, and if continued to be spun at a high rate of speed, eventually that line becomes thinner and thinner until it disappears and is actually absorbed into the liquid. One can no longer identify that spot of ink which once was so clear. Now, what happens if the revolutions of the cylinders are reversed, spinning in the opposite direction? Will the ink be gathered again, until finally it becomes that spot at which it began? © Grand Valley State University �Love Enfleshed Richard A. Rhem Page 3   He illustrates that there is an implicate order of reality in which every spot of ink, every thing is connected with everything else in an implicate order beyond our fathoming. There is an explicate order that our senses can observe, and it is like observing the tip of the iceberg. With our senses, we have accessible to us the tip of the iceberg of reality. The rest is Mystery. But, it is one totality, one continuity, and it is manifested in energy and matter and meaning So, the human person is an animal that asks deep questions. But, when we do that, it's not just an intellectual exercise. It is not an academic game. We are not playing with riddles for fun. We are asking the deep questions of our lives. What, then, does it mean to be alive, to be conscious, to be aware? What does it mean to be in relationship? What does it mean to be in community? What does it mean to be this human person caught up in this totality of reality? What does it mean for my life? Those are the questions that the Bible addresses. The Bible is not a book of theology. The Bible is not about theological questions, about who can be saved and where heaven is and a multitude of other things that preachers talk about every Sunday. The Bible is a whole cumulative set of stories of concrete encounter with God. That's really what we want. We want to experience God. Knowledge is fine, but it is experience for which we hunger. The Bible tells about people who have shaped us in our tradition, who have had an experience of God and tell the story, and in telling the story, they draw us into the story and prepare us to experience similarly in our own stories, and at the heart of the biblical conviction is that confidence that God is love. The title of the message in the liturgy is "Love Enfleshed," but I really didn't mean to write "Love Enfleshed." I really meant to write "Mystery Enfleshed." That's the way it appeared in the newspaper ads, and that's correct, because what I want to say is the Mystery that we cannot touch, we cannot fathom, the Mystery enfleshed, can be experienced. But, as a matter of fact, if John is right, who says God is love, then it amounts to the same thing. My point to you this morning is simply this: To experience love is to experience God. Mystery enfleshed, Love enfleshed is the experience of God. Hosea, the Hebrew prophet, has no equal when it comes to talking about the passionate love of God. The first three chapters of his prophecy which were not read this morning are about Hosea's own personal experience with an unfaithful wife who he has to bring back out of her unfaithfulness to a loving relationship again. Out of his own personal experience Hosea experiences the anguish of the heart of God over a people that God has loved but a people who turn their back on God, and so Hosea speaks of the marriage relationship as an image of the relationship of God and God's people. But, in the passage that was read, the image is that of a parent and a child. © Grand Valley State University �Love Enfleshed Richard A. Rhem Page 4   When Israel was a child, I brought him out of Egypt. I picked him up, I held him in my arms, I brought him to my cheek. The intimate, beautiful image of a parent and child, that deep, binding, bonding love - that is the image that Hosea has for the relationship of God to God's people. The child turns away and deserves to be cut off. And then, in the midst of that statement of the child's unfaithfulness, we hear these words: How can I give you up, O Ephraim? My heart warms within me, my compassion roils within me. I cannot give you up! I will not give you up, because I am God, not human. It would be human, it would be expected, it would be normal and natural to have you cut off, but I am not human; I am God, I am Love, I am passionate Love, I will not let you go! And, of course, this is what John was talking about when he said God is love. But again, John wasn't talking about some speculative theological preposition that appears in a creed. John was talking about concrete human experience, for he says God is love, and the one who dwells in love, dwells in God. John says, the one who dwells in love, God abides in that one, and that one abides in God. If someone should say, "I love God," but doesn't love his brother or sister, that one is simply a liar, that one is not speaking truth, for John says you cannot love God whom you have not seen if you do not love the flesh around you, humankind that crosses your path. Jesus is the supreme storyteller. (Ah, I hate to say this with my son here, but in Jesus' day also there were lawyers.) Lawyers who would put him to the test, so Luke tells us. And so, the lawyer says, "What must I do to inherit eternal life?" But, Jesus is equal to the lawyer; he says, "Well, what does it say in the Torah?" The lawyer says, "Love the Lord your God with heart, soul, mind and strength and your neighbor as yourself." Jesus said, "Right answer. Go do it." Ah, but lawyers. He begins to think about all of his neighbors and of the exhausting imperative, and, wanting to carve out a little more manageable space for himself, he says, "Could you define neighbor?" Jesus tells the story of the Good Samaritan, the religious people on their way to General Synod who didn't have time, and the outcast Samaritan who met the need of the person. Of course, Jesus won't answer directly; he makes the lawyer answer his own question. Now, this is good. The lawyer asks, "Who is my neighbor?" © Grand Valley State University �Love Enfleshed Richard A. Rhem Page 5   Jesus says, "Who was neighbor to the one in need?" Nice twist, isn't it? I'm not going to go out there and tell you people who you ought to care for. I'm telling you that you are the person to care for any human need that crosses your path. It is in doing love that God is experienced. It is in the practice of the faith that the reality of God is known. It is in the action of love that the academic questions disappear and the reality of concrete human experience reveals God. As I was reflecting on this last evening, my contemplation was broken by a call from below; it was Nancy. She is the sports fan of the family, and she said, "Would you like to see history for a moment?" Knowing that her husband is sick, she is very patient with me, but she did call me down with a minute, 40 seconds left, and I was going to say, after that experience, the discovery of God, the experience of God is winning the Stanley Cup. I really did think about it. I didn't admit this to her, but I really was thinking about the sermon when I saw those thousands of people made as one, in communion, in community, in a moment of exhilaration, of pure joy! I saw them transcended out of themselves, pulled out of themselves. They didn't think about any problem they had, any ache or pain or anything that was going on in their lives. For a moment they were transported, they were transcended into one rejoicing, jubilant community, and I thought to myself, maybe the temples of the 21st century are the great sports palaces that now punctuate this land, and maybe it is in the sports arena that God will be found in the future. You laugh, but I'm serious. But, then I thought, the Red Wings, let alone the Flyers, after that ecstatic moment, this morning are reaching for the BenGay and those celebrating fans missed worship and are taking aspirin, because, you see, as really wonderful as that ecstasy is, as that moment of pure joy is, it fades. But, if you've ever held a child, if you ever loved a woman or a man, if you've ever been able to touch and heal someone in need, if you had a moment of love, you've had the experience of God, and it keeps getting richer. The Mystery is beyond us, but the experience is as close as the person at your side. © Grand Valley State University � https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/d94ace94adab39356577d8d8cf535acc.mp3 ca75db8011c61d71089b8c5c3f85cd63 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 III Series A Cosmic Symphony Scripture Text Hosea 11:8, I John 4:16, Luke 10:27 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-0-19970608 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1997-06-08 Title A name given to the resource Love Enfleshed 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 8, 1997 entitled "Love Enfleshed", as part of the series "A Cosmic Symphony", on the occasion of Pentecost III, at Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI. Scripture references: Hosea 11:8, I John 4:16, Luke 10:27. Mystery Nature of God Transforming Love https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/80de2e55416df2c385d7ae6ba3b89531.jpg 041526777af9cb22205ed16ee141e724 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 Decorated Publishers' Bindings Subject The topic of the resource Book covers Covers (Illustration) Graphic arts Publishers and publishing Pictorial bindings Description An account of the resource From the early 1870s to roughly 1930, many publishers issued their commercial book covers with a remarkable variety of graphic designs and illustrations. This sixty-year period saw many artists and designers contributing to this art form. While some can be identified from their style or initials, others remain unknown. Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Seidman Rare Books Collection Michigan Novels Collection Regional Historical Collection Lincoln and the Civil War Collection Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2017-08-30 Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a>, <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/NoC-US/1.0/?language=en">No Copyright - United States</a> Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource image/jpg Language A language of the resource eng Type The nature or genre of the resource Image Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context DC-01 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. Source Seidman Rare Books. PS1692 .L68 1904 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-01_Bindings0309 Title A name given to the resource Love Finds the Way Description An account of the resource Binding of Love Finds the Way, by Paul Leicester Ford, published by Dodd Mead & Co., 1904. Subject The topic of the resource Book covers Covers (Illustration) Graphic arts Publishers and publishing Pictorial bindings Language A language of the resource eng Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/NoC-US/1.0/?language=en">No Copyright - United States</a> Type The nature or genre of the resource Image Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource image/jpeg Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1904 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/ac5e8bee104eb69d76d938962b1a189b.pdf a9da4e545326bd44a21f262163e66cb6 PDF Text Text Love Hurts From the series: Faces Around the Cross Text: Luke 2:35; John 19:25-27 Richard A. Rhem Christ Community Church Spring Lake, Michigan Lent, March 9, 1997 Transcription of the spoken sermon Love hurts. God knows. To love is to suffer. There is no other way around it. Loving is suffering because loving is to invest in another and to set the other free. To love, investing in the other and setting them free, is to give up control and to refuse possessiveness. To love and invest in another in order to set them free is to be disappointed again and again and again. Yet, we continue to love, because to cease to love is to cease to be human and to realize the deepest experience of humanness. So, we are caught in a tension. We are caught in that circumstance in which love we must, but, loving, we hurt. As we focus on the faces around the cross, the focus falls on Mary, the mother of Jesus. I guess Mary could tell us a thing or two about loving and hurting, and in the Gospel story, several vignettes of which we read this morning, we can see that relationship fraught with tension, full of suffering which existed between Jesus and his mother. Traditionally you have heard this third word from the cross treated as an expression of filial devotion - a son at the point of his death making provision for his mother as a good and responsible son ought to do. That beautiful relationship, parent to child, expressed always with a bit of sentimentality, has warmed the heart of many a mother and caused many a son to squirm just a bit because it's been a long time since his last visit. But, as a matter of fact, to make this scene at the cross, the exchange between Jesus and his mother, an expression of filial devotion or domestic relationships is really to miss the depth of what this scene is all about, because if we have wandered around the Gospel of John very much, we know that it is a highly symbolic Gospel, and we know that John paints every scene with an intention. There must be more going on than simply a dying son providing for his mother, although that certainly is a noble thing to do. Here we have the committing of his mother into the hands of one who was not her son, the committing of his mother into the hands of the faithful disciple, the beloved disciple, the one that appears in the Gospel of John. © Grand Valley State University   �Love Hurts Richard A. Rhem Page 2   Traditionally, we think of John the disciple as writing the Gospel and speaking of himself in disguise as the beloved disciple, but that really isn't the case. We don't know who wrote this Gospel. It perhaps arose from a Johannine circle, perhaps around the area of Ephesus where tradition has it he spent his last years. If you visit Ephesus, they'll even show you the place where Mary spent her last days under John's care. But, we really don't know about all of that. That's tradition; maybe some of it has historical basis; it really doesn't matter. The point is that John, in portraying this scene, is not talking about a son taking care of his mother; he is talking about Jesus Christ, the Lord of the Church, creating a new family, a new community, a new family of God. He is saying to his natural mother, "Be the mother in the charge of this faithful disciple who is the model of faithfulness," because what Jesus is claiming according to this event is that out of his death and resurrection will arise a new community, a community of faith, a community that will transcend bloodlines, that will be something other than the natural family into which we are born and over which we have no control. This will be a family of faith; this will be a community of commitment and mutuality; this will be a community of mutual love and respect. Out of his death and resurrection, the Gospel writers say, will come the creation of this new reality, this new family that is something more than the natural family. The natural family is so terribly important in our society. It's getting a lot of press these days in rather silly and sentimental ways, as though we're coming to a time when family doesn't exist anymore and, frankly, I don't see that. But I'm always surprised and taken aback a bit when I reflect on the natural family relationships Jesus portrayed in the Gospels. The family is so important - it's where we are socialized, it's where we are nurtured, it's where we are loved and we learn to love, ideally. But, the family has its problems, too. The family is also the scene of subordination and domination and possessiveness and control, and relationships of power. The natural family is a great gift, but also can be a threat to the full development of one's humanity, of the following of one's passion, of one's vision. Families can be coercive and manipulative. Families can be destructive, and this is rather clearly set forth in the Gospels. Families are terribly important, with wonderful possibilities. But, in dysfunctional families, and I include us all there, there are also serious threats to the full growth and development of a human individual. The Gospels are quite interestingly frank about this. Let us just focus on Jesus and his mother. I read three passages, but let me cite a couple others. The first one, the words of old Simeon as he holds the infant in his arms and he looks at Mary and says, "A sword will pierce your soul." Luke likes to use foreshadowing as a literary technique in the writings of his Gospels. This is one of those moments. He is signaling to us already in the beginning in that beautiful scene in © Grand Valley State University �Love Hurts Richard A. Rhem Page 3   the temple that there is going to be something more than domestic tranquility in the future. Had I read on in that chapter, we would have found Jesus at age 12 with his family at the temple. They pack up and go for home and he's not with them. I can't quite believe this scene; I can't quite imagine it - a 12-year-old staying behind, not even being missed for a day? Back they come and there he is engaged in theological discourse. (I like that boy.) But, there's no apology. There's rather this distancing. Now, if you're a good mother, it sends a chill up your spine. He says, "I must be about my Father's business." Already a signal that he's going to need some space. And then, although the Gospels don't give us a chronology of the life of Jesus, if we go over to the Gospel of John, his first miracle, John tells us, was the making of water into wine at the wedding at Cana. The supply was running down. His mother comes and says, "Boy, take care of it." He says, "Woman, what concern is that to you or me? My hour is not come." If you had shivers before, you've got chills now. Because he is saying in the polite language of the evangelist, "Mother, get lost." And then, of course, the passage I read from Mark, in the time of his popularity in Galilee when the crowds were pressing in upon him and he was obviously becoming a threat to the social order. The authorities come down to check him out and they say he's got a demon. And so, he takes them on to explain that it's impossible that he could be demonic because if the demonic is against the demonic, its kingdom will fall. Rather, he is claiming that he is not of an unclean spirit, but of the Spirit of God. But the word got out - he has a demon. He is "beside himself." He is eccentric, literally. You know what it is to be eccentric? It's to be out of center. That is out of center with conventional wisdom, out of center with social custom. He is not conforming. His socialization, obviously, has fallen short at some point. He is an embarrassment to his mother and to his brothers, as well as being a threat to those in authority. And so, they say he is eccentric, he is out of himself. Eccentric, because, refusing to follow the center according to social expectation, he lived out of his own center, and anyone who lives out of his or her own center will be out of kilter with the environment around them. You can count on it. So, mother and brothers come to the place where he is; they want to pack him up and bring him home, but they can't get in because the place is crowded, so they send a message and he says, "My mother and my brothers are here? Who are my mother and my brothers? Those who do the will of God - you are my mother and my brothers and my sisters." Well, if you had a shiver before, and then chills, by now, you must be in a paroxysm of horror. This is Jesus, huh? The scene at the cross, finally, "Woman, behold your son. Son, behold your mother," which with the typical sentimentality that is so rife in the Christian Church, we claim that it's now made okay. But that's not what it's about. I do not © Grand Valley State University �Love Hurts Richard A. Rhem Page 4   mean to say there is any lack of filial devotion, any lack of care, any lack of love for his mother. But, according to the portrayal of the Evangelist, he is saying, "Woman, do you get it now? Do you see that I had to separate and distance myself in order to get your focus off that which is natural and given, the bloodlines, in order that you might transcend to something that is more spiritual, to a community of faith, a relationship that is beyond anything that is given by human possibility?" And so, we have that relationship between Jesus and his mother. It is a relationship that we don't sit very easily with because we don't often want to face the fact that real love invests in the other and sets them free. Real love seeks not to possess, control or dominate. Real love sets free and is disappointed again and again and again, but continues to love, nonetheless, always believing that this time love given will make whole. Love hurts. God knows. The family is so terribly important, and yet we need honestly to face the fact that it can also be an arena of such brokenness and dysfunction because of the pitfalls of loving... my fear of the loss of your love, and so, seeking to control, seeking to control because I love and I want to spare you. But I can't spare you because if I love you, I set you free with all the risk involved, simply standing by and waiting for the time when I'm needed again. Ah, love in the family has its pitfalls. We find it so difficult to trust and set free, because, well, you might embarrass me. Mary was embarrassed by Jesus. We can't fault her for that. The brothers were angry. We can identify with that. How often when our children have gotten into trouble has our first thought not been their pain, but our embarrassment? If my kid fouls up, it reflects on me. Therefore, kid, straighten up. Remember who I am in this community. And that's flawed love, instinctive though it be. And we love and make the other dependent. The jargon in the Social Sciences in the last decade or more, growing out of recovery groups and 12-Step programs, the jargon is all about co-dependency. Your misbehavior frustrates me, so I seek to try to control it, but I almost find my own reason for being in trying to control your misconduct. Our families and our human relationships stumble again and again into one or all of these pitfalls. We become conscious of it, we become aware, we step back, we get hold of ourselves. We gain perspective again. We take a deep breath, we plunge back in and before you know it, we're at it again, because it's that kind of instinctual response that we make in the crises of those we love. But, real love invests in the other and sets them free. God knows. That's how I understand the biblical teaching of the love of God. That's what the Creation is all about, giving the Creation elbow room, not dotting every i and crossing every t, © Grand Valley State University �Love Hurts Richard A. Rhem Page 5   pulling strings, but giving us the frightful freedom to fail, not then to forsake, but to begin again, always loving, trusting, setting free, not dominating or controlling or possessing or making dependent. We haven't done so well in the Church with that. Too many people in my position have made too many people in your position dependent. Loving, to be sure, but also needing to control and manipulate rather than setting you free, letting you hear of the God Who sets you free, Who affirms you on your way, Who calls you to grow up, to mature, to enter into that kind of reciprocal relationship of mutuality. God's love, seen best in the scriptures, is a suffering love. It is the suffering that is the inevitable counterpoint to loving and it is that loving in which alone we find the fullness of the human experience. We went to a movie this past week. It's not going to win any Academy Awards, I think, but if you want to have an hour and a half of pure family dysfunction, visit Marvin's Room. Two sisters with total brokenness - one marries, has a couple of kids; they're a mess; she's divorced. The other gives it all up and goes home to take care of an aged father and an aged aunt. Now, the one who goes home, having given her life to the care of these elderly family members, has a terminal disease which perhaps the estranged sister or her son can alleviate through a transplant. And so, we bring all of these disparate units together in all of their dysfunction, and you can cut the tension, it is such a picture of human brokenness, and nothing works out. The sister will die, but there is a redeeming moment in which the two sisters look at each other and the one who is to die, with tears in her eyes, says, "I've known such love in my life," and the other responds with some guilt for her own lack of concern or love, saying, "I know. I know. They love you so much." The dying sister says, "No, no. It's not their love for me; it is my love for them! I loved them so much. I'm so lucky!" You see, St. Francis was right - it is in loving that we are loved; it is in loving without quarter asked, without condition, without control or possession, without sentimentality or dependence - it is in loving and setting free that I find the center in myself and God's highest for my humanity. But, love hurts. God knows. © Grand Valley State University � https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/40051ea688a154b5d2249a8c01165f58.mp3 ec228ef47c81466129ce3a6a9c6a831d 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 IV Series Faces Around the Cross Scripture Text Luke 2:35, John 19:25-27 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-0-19970309 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1997-03-09 Title A name given to the resource Love Hurts Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Richard A. Rhem Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Subject The topic of the resource Clergy--Michigan Reformed Church in America Christ Community Church (Spring Lake, Mich.) Sermons Relation A related resource Richard A. Rhem - An Archive of Sermons, Prayers, Talks and Stories: http://richardrhem.org/ Language A language of the resource eng Type The nature or genre of the resource Text Sound Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource audio/mp3 application/pdf Description An account of the resource A sermon given by Richard A. Rhem (Dick) on March 9, 1997 entitled "Love Hurts", as part of the series "Faces Around the Cross", on the occasion of Lent IV, at Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI. Scripture references: Luke 2:35, John 19:25-27. Community of Faith Unconditional Love https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/960dce032fb7cbf734bd5ae7cd7f1566.jpg a0aef3c5e5a8fd2a28bc50d147ba9214 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 Decorated Publishers' Bindings Subject The topic of the resource Book covers Covers (Illustration) Graphic arts Publishers and publishing Pictorial bindings Description An account of the resource From the early 1870s to roughly 1930, many publishers issued their commercial book covers with a remarkable variety of graphic designs and illustrations. This sixty-year period saw many artists and designers contributing to this art form. While some can be identified from their style or initials, others remain unknown. Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Seidman Rare Books Collection Michigan Novels Collection Regional Historical Collection Lincoln and the Civil War Collection Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2017-08-30 Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a>, <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/NoC-US/1.0/?language=en">No Copyright - United States</a> Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource image/jpg Language A language of the resource eng Type The nature or genre of the resource Image Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context DC-01 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. Source Seidman Rare Books. PR4881 .L7 1901 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-01_Bindings0411 Title A name given to the resource Love Letters of the King, or, The Life Romantic Description An account of the resource Binding of Love Letters of the King, or, The Life Romantic, by Richard Le Gallienne, published by Little, Brown, and Company, 1901. Subject The topic of the resource Book covers Covers (Illustration) Graphic arts Publishers and publishing Pictorial bindings Language A language of the resource eng Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/NoC-US/1.0/?language=en">No Copyright - United States</a> Type The nature or genre of the resource Image Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource image/jpeg Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1901 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/aeecc18407706389379fff49fc7f1a9e.pdf 56fa8a030d919793a88aa60640caf68a PDF Text Text Love Never Ends Fred Meijer Memorial Service Meditation I Corinthians 13; Luke 10:25-37 Richard A. Rhem Sunshine Community Church Grand Rapids, Michigan November 30, 2011 Let me begin by saying what an honor it is to conduct the funeral of Fred Meijer. That must be obvious; what a man! I’m grateful to the family for inviting me to bring the funeral meditation. As I have been thinking about little else since receiving the call that Fred was stricken and then that he died, Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar came to mind. Caesar has been betrayed by his trusted friend Brutus; he is assassinated, Brutus pointing to Caesar’s ambition and the peril he presented to empire – and then Mark Antony is invited to speak. Remember those lines – “Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears.” With great irony he says, I come to bury Caesar, not to praise him. The evil that men do lives after them; The good is oft interred with their bones. I smiled as those lines came to my consciousness for I knew at this moment I would be reversing what Mark Antony claimed – I come not to bury Fred Meijer; I come to praise him! In other words, although my roots are Dutch Reformed, this will not be a Calvinist funeral sermon! With Fred, evil was non-existent; the good he has done will live on for generations. Has it not been amazing in the days following Fred’s death how Fred stories have been told, literally by thousands who had the good fortune to be encountered by him and upon whom he bestowed grace, love, compassion and generosity. This was no ordinary human being and I make that claim without fear of contradiction. Where would one begin the list of adjectives by which to describe him? His authenticity, his simplicity, his humility, his generosity, compassion, passion for © 2013 Kaufman Interfaith Institute and Grand Valley State University   �Fred Meijer Memorial Richard A. Rhem Page 2   justice, his brilliance, his courage, his business acumen…but we all know that and we marvel at him – the way he was. But rather than pointing to the amazing human being he was, let me share the dimension of Fred of which I am aware because of experience with him which goes back about a decade. In the 1990’s, serving the congregation of Christ Community in Spring Lake, I stirred up some theological controversy. One of my members was one of Fred’s skiing buddies and Fred would ask him how his preacher was doing. As in the whole spectrum of the human endeavor, so in religion and theology, Fred had an insatiable appetite. He was curious. He had his own very well-honed ideas and insights but he loved thoughtful probing and serious conversation. One day my member suggested lunch and thus began our friendship. What fun it was – he with his brilliant mind and well thought out insights loved to push and prod this preacher as you can imagine. He was delightful, not disrespectful nor rude but acute in pointing to so much in institutional religion and dogma that didn’t fare well before critical thought and common sense. Those were fun conversations and more often than not we were in agreement. A couple of times the lunch included Duncan Littlefair, famed long-time pastor of Fountain Street Church and notorious as the voice of the liberal in the bastion of Dutch Calvinism. I remember the twinkle in Fred’s eyes when he related his first meeting with Duncan. It was at an airport I think. And Fred said to Duncan, “I would come to your church if you weren’t so conservative!” I’m not sure Duncan quite knew how to respond but Fred had his fun. Well those lunches were feasts and I am not referring to the food. Can you imagine the fun and energy and deep probing that occurred! For about a decade I had had lunch every Tuesday with Duncan at Dubas. The whole theological spectrum was present but the communion transcended our differing perspectives and bonded us into a marvelous community. I relate this to you to explain why I am doing Fred’s funeral. In 2004 I conducted Duncan Littlefair’s funeral and Fred was present. We spoke following the service and, as son Hank said to me yesterday, “I think that is when dad decided he would like you to do his funeral.” I suppose he thought if I could get Duncan into heaven maybe I could assist him too. Well, as a matter of fact, I’ve never known anyone of a deeper spiritual life, who followed the Way of Jesus any more than Fred Meijer. I Corinthians 13 is sometimes called Paul’s Hymn of Love. It reads like a description of Fred. Love is patient; love is kind; love is not envious or boastful or arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it © 2013 Kaufman Interfaith Institute and Grand Valley State University �Fred Meijer Memorial Richard A. Rhem Page 3   does not rejoice in wrong doing, but rejoices in the truth. It bears all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never ends. Don’t you recognize Fred in that description of love? Jesus didn’t write letters as did St. Paul; he told stories, and finally it is in story that truth shines most brightly. You are not surprised, I’m sure, that for Fred’s funeral meditation I selected Jesus’ story of the Good Samaritan. The religious establishment was greatly threatened by Jesus because the common people heard him gladly and sensed he carried authority in contrast to the religious “authorities.” So they tried to trip him up. A lawyer put him on the spot with a question: “What must I do to inherit eternal life?” Jesus pointed to the law and asked, “What do you read?” The lawyer answered, “Love God, love your neighbor.” Jesus responded, “Do this and you will live.” But the lawyer wasn’t through. He asked, “And who is my neighbor?” It is in response to that question that Jesus tells the story of the Good Samaritan. The man who is robbed, beaten and left to die is passed by by a priest and a Levite. But the Samaritan – one of the despised ethnic groups – ministers to the wounded man, takes him to an inn and pays his way. In a word, he shows compassion. So Mr. Lawyer, which one was the neighbor? Obviously the one who showed mercy. The story is so simple, so clear; the meaning is so obvious: What do I do to inherit eternal life? Love God and your neighbor. Who is my neighbor? The one in need who crosses your path. Fred Meijer has been a Good Samaritan literally to thousands, has he not? I could wax eloquent at this point, taking the part of the lawyer in the story or the serious Calvinist community in which Fred lived and raise all sorts of theological questions and objections, but I won’t. I think you get my point: Paul’s portrait of love is a portrait of Fred; Jesus’ Good Samaritan who embodies the way to eternal life portrays the way Fred has lived his whole life. Fred didn’t bother much about heaven. When you live heaven on earth for nearly 92 years, why should you? Enough is enough! © 2013 Kaufman Interfaith Institute and Grand Valley State University �Fred Meijer Memorial Richard A. Rhem Page 4   But I wonder…I remember at one of our lunches Fred sat on my left. At one point he leaned forward, looked me in the eye with that irrepressible smile and asked, “How would you answer if someone asked you if they were going to heaven?” Well, I suppose I stumbled and stammered until Fred told me of the time when Lena’s mother, of strong Lutheran faith, failing in health, asked Fred if he thought she would go to heaven. Well, not really certain of pearly gates, yet ever kind and sensitive, he said, “Grandma, if anybody is going to heaven, you are!” Wonderful gracious ambiguity! Thinking about Fred, I hear Paul’s words, “Love never ends.” Paul goes on to acknowledge that now, in our present existence, we “see in a mirror dimly – there is so much we do not know, mysteries we’ve not yet probed. But St. Paul writes, Now we see in a mirror dimly But then face to face. Now I know in part; then I will know fully… Recently another most unusual human being died – Steve Jobs – universally recognized as a genius who has changed our world just as Fred changed retailing. Steve, of course, was no Fred Meijer in human relationships. Through much of his life he was a terror to those who worked for him and, in earlier years, very difficult for his family. But he did mellow and had time to contemplate his death. In her Eulogy, his sister told of his last moments. His family was around him. He looked at them and smiled and then looked beyond them as it were and said, “Oh wow! Oh wow! Oh wow! His last words. Paul writes, "Love never ends.” Fred lived the way to eternal life. He lived a Wow! for all his days. Had I been with him at the end and he popped grandma’s question – “Will I go to heaven?”, my response would have been instant: “If you won’t, I don’t want to!” © 2013 Kaufman Interfaith Institute and Grand Valley State University �Fred Meijer Memorial Richard A. Rhem Page 5   Who knows what mysteries lie before us? But this I do believe: love never ends, and our Good Samaritan who lived so fully, so richly – indeed, who lived a Wow! – is simply amazed by Grace beyond his wildest dream. © 2013 Kaufman Interfaith Institute and Grand Valley State University � https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/5c248425cc8a896f0d0947bd4e4c1c9c.m4v 1795d3261f933325257d9f3fef4c8930 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 Fred Meijer Memorial Service Meditation Scripture Text I Corinthians 13, Luke 10:25-37 Location The location of the interview Sunshine Community Church, Grand Rapids 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-0-20111130 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2011-11-30 Title A name given to the resource Love Never Ends 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 Moving Image Text Description An account of the resource A sermon given by Richard A. Rhem (Dick) on November 30, 2011 entitled "Love Never Ends", on the occasion of Fred Meijer Memorial Service Meditation, at Sunshine Community Church, Grand Rapids. Scripture references: I Corinthians 13, Luke 10:25-37. Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource video/x-m4v application/pdf Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Lemmen Library and Archives Community Good Samaritan https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/27ae9083dd4133e5d50c20d346fb6d20.mp3 6c1d92aece2b1b40a43e0da85c926a10 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 XXII Scripture Text I Corinthians 13:13 Location The location of the interview Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context KII-01_RA-0-20011104 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2001-10-04 Title A name given to the resource Love Now: Peace Then 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 October 4, 2001 entitled "Love Now: Peace Then", on the occasion of Pentecost XXII, at Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI. Scripture references: I Corinthians 13:13. 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/c78751a73b554c1b04fb9398099fecb7.pdf 94277ccdd1ebfac0bc158072333d9983 PDF Text Text Love Talk: A Tale of Two Cities and a Rumor of Angels Luke 2: 1-14; Micah 5: 2-5a Richard A. Rhem Spring Lake Country Club Spring Lake, Michigan Advent, December 20, 2009 Merry Christmas! It seems so natural to see you gathered before me with all the trimmings of the season, all the beautiful music, the evident warmth and joy of being with folks with whom there is such marvelous shared history and experience. Quite wonderful indeed! For me, preparing for such an event has its own familiar feel. I never fit the old preacher stereotype of moving every five or six years and turning over the sermon barrel. Remaining in one place has meant revisiting again and again the same high holy days, the same seasons of the Christian year and needing to find something fresh to say. I have operated all these years on the theory that a sermon was meant for a concrete community at a particular moment in their life and the historical context of that moment. Over the years people would say, “You should publish your sermons” or “Christ Community should go on television.” I was never tempted. It has always been my passion to form and shape, live with and experience life in one particular community – the community of which we were a part during those three and a half decades of our life together. Forgive an old man for a bit of nostalgia but, preparing for this worship experience, now that I’m retired gives me the luxury of going back and reviewing how the respective Festival Days were celebrated and it is those high points in the Christian year that provide a collage of the celebrations over all those years. I have enjoyed going back to file upon file – liturgies, prayers, sermons – to detect my own evolving understanding and the movement toward a full and rich liturgical worship experience which, together, we created. One interesting dimension of such a review is to determine what was happening in my own grasp and experience of “The Story” as it brought to expression the events of Jesus – birth, ministry, passion and death, resurrection and the gift of the Spirit. We can all tell the stories – Christmas, Holy Week, Easter, Pentecost – and the stories are rooted in a concrete historical life. Yet the story is woven of legend and myth, magic and miracle. How does one who lives in a PostEnlightenment world marked by critical thinking find the meaning of the Story woven in myth and miracle? © Grand Valley State University   �Love Talk: A Tale of Two Cities… Richard A. Rhem Page 2   That was a question we addressed years ago. You addressed it because I had to address it. I was nurtured and educated in a religious setting where the Story was taken literally – angels, stars, kings from the East, the manger, and shepherds keeping watch over their flocks by night. It took me years to understand the nature of story, of sign and symbol and many of you went on the journey with me. I smiled as I took up a sermon of 12-28-97. The title tells a lot – “The Fairy Tale is True.” Obviously by that time – actually years earlier – I had been freed from a deadening biblical literalism. But we did not all emerge into that heady freedom at the same time. And what made me smile was a sentence in the sermon which told why I was reflecting on the theme – “because of a few conversations I’ve had with some of you who have wondered how to receive the Christmas story – a story that begins, “And it came to pass…” and is laced with angelic announcements accompanied by a heavenly choir, magi from the East following a brilliant star that comes to rest over a stable wherein lies a newborn child born to a virgin.” I know exactly what was going on at Christmas, 1997; some of my people were struggling to hear the Story in a new way, fearing they would lose the heart warming sacred truth with which it was associated in their experience. We have all been there I think. Some emerge from the literalism of scriptural story more easily than others but that move to critical understanding is both necessary and a bit frightening. As I go back over the years I find it fascinating to be reminded of the sacred journey we have been on. If returning year after year to the same sacred celebrations brought its challenge to say something both significant and fresh, that possibility was aided by the fact that, although it was always the same Christmas or the same Easter, the moment of return was always in a new historical context. Current events often gave a contemporary relevance to the celebration. To cite just one example, on December 21, 1980, my sermon was “And It Came To Pass.” Those words traditionally introduce a story, perhaps one of our favorite traditional fairy tales. When you hear “And it came to pass,” you sit back and expect to hear a story. Already in 1980 I was suggesting that the Christmas story as told by St. Luke was such a story, introduced as it is in the King James Version with those words, “And it came to pass in those days…”. But something happened two weeks earlier – December 8, 1980 – John Lennon was shot dead as he was about to enter The Dakota, the building in which he lived, in New York City. And the Sunday a week before I preached the sermon on December 21, millions of people around the world gathered to mourn John Lennon and observe ten minutes of silence at the request of Lennon’s wife, Yoko Ono. Over 100,000 gathered in Central Park. And what has all that to do with Christmas? Well, this was the young poet-singer who spoke and sang of peace © Grand Valley State University �Love Talk: A Tale of Two Cities… Richard A. Rhem Page 3   and love, who taught a whole generation to sing “Give Peace a Chance” which was heard that day at the Lincoln Memorial. This was the poet-singer who penned the lines we received on a Christmas card and have been shared with you before: Imagine By John Lennon Imagine there’s no heaven It’s easy if you try. No hell below us, Above us only sky. Imagine all the people Living for today… Imagine there’s no countries. It isn’t hard to do. Nothing to kill or die for, No religion too. Imagine all the people Living life in peace… Imagine no possessions I wonder if you can. No need for greed or hunger, A brotherhood of man. Imagine all the people Sharing all the world… You may say I’m a dreamer, But I’m not the only one. I hope someday you’ll join us And the world will be as one. The tremendous outpouring of grief for John Lennon made me wonder at Christmas, 1980, why my message of the Prince of Peace seemed so ineffectual. Even more, it caused me to become aware of a deep human longing if only it could be tapped into. In that sermon I wrote: Could it be that within the human heart there is a huge void and emptiness that cries out to be filled with love, to be touched by grace? Thus, a current event shaped my experience and my preaching of the Christmas gospel in 1980 and, I would add, impacted my whole understanding of the human situation to which the Gospel was addressed. © Grand Valley State University �Love Talk: A Tale of Two Cities… Richard A. Rhem Page 4   And so, looking back over the years of our shared experience of Christmas, I came to a renewed awareness of how together we negotiated that passage from biblical literalism to a critical understanding of the Bible as the storybook of an ancient people in which were embedded the eternal questions of the human heart, and, secondly, how contemporary historical experience brings out ever fresh dimensions of the story. Over many Christmases past I entitled sermons in such a way that the nature of the Christmas Gospel as I understood it was reflected. For example, “The Fairy Tale Is True”, “Love Talk”, “A Rumor of Angels”, and “It Came To Pass…”. It is a beautiful story, as I indicated above, woven with miracle and myth, laced with legend and illumined by starlight, narrated by angels to fearful shepherds. And what we had come to see over many years was that the profound meaning embroidered with all the marks of story was the deepest truth of our human existence. The meaning that comes to expression in the Christmas Gospel is that the whole cosmic drama reflects a bias for life and the grain of the universe is Love. One Advent series leading up to the Christmas celebration was entitled “God in the Mirror of Christmas.” I remember that series as a breakthrough for me. No new discoveries about the Story as such; it was just that what our biblical tradition was saying about the nature of God struck me so powerfully – a child as the expression of God, God set forth in the vulnerability of a child, God revealed in a human face. And when we speak of God we are using a symbol for what is ultimate. Paul Tillich’s famous phrase – “The Ground of Being”– captures, to some degree, that to which we are pointing. The more we learn about this evolving cosmos and emerging reality the more we realize it is a whole continuing to come to ever fuller expression and we are the conscious products of that process, bringing to it awareness. So could we speak of God as the Generating Creative Center? Then the Christmas Gospel would be saying that at its Creative, Generative Center there is a bias for life, the vulnerability of love, the heart of compassion. That is an attempt to say something about the nature of reality. There is no scientific proof. We are speaking of a fundamental trust, a profound hope, a daring declaration concerning the nature of the cosmic process. No proof possible. Yet there is evidence everywhere that love and trust and compassion are the ingredients of a wonderful world where life flourishes and joy abounds. And the contrary is also easily documented: hate, mistrust and heartlessness drain the joy, destroy the peace and create fear and insecurity in the human heart. So this is where I come out from my nostalgic journey to Christmases past: We moved from biblical literalism in which we strained to document whether there was a decree sent out by Caesar Augustus when Quirinius was Governor of © Grand Valley State University �Love Talk: A Tale of Two Cities… Richard A. Rhem Page 5   Syria and whether there was actually some astronomical phenomenon that might have been the Star in the East and soon, to an appreciation of the genre of Story in which the miracle and myth beautifully expressed become the vehicle for the declaration of a profound understanding of cosmic reality and human wellbeing – a vision of the nature deep down in things and the secret of human flourishing in the presence of the sacred mystery who is the creative generating source of being. Further, we realize how, although every Christmas celebration is the same in its story and manner of expression – carols and trimmings, parties and pageants – what is happening in the world brings out fresh nuances of the Story. It is to this historical moment in our nation’s history that I now turn. I entitled my meditation “Love Talk: A Tale of Two Cities and a Rumor of Angels.” Let me move to the Tale of Two Cities – not Paris and London as in Charles Dickens’ famous novel but rather two cities that played a key role in the Christmas story – Rome and Bethlehem. I suspect you know me well enough to have a sense of what I want to say about those two cities that would address our contemporary situation in our nation and in the world this Christmas. Rome, of course, was the seat of the Roman Empire – the greatest ruling empire the world had ever known and still one of the greatest ever. I need not go into a thorough review of the greatness and the grandeur that was Rome. We are familiar with that history in its many dimensions – Roman law, Roman roads, Roman legions that pacified that ancient world at the time of Jesus’ birth. Luke uses the decree of Caesar Augustus that all the world should be registered to bring Joseph and the very pregnant Mary to Bethlehem in Judea from their home in Nazareth, so that the birth of Jesus would be in Bethlehem, the City of David, thus fulfilling the prophetic promise. The registration reflected good Roman government – registration creating the order on which Roman rule was exercised and taxes collected. I remember in college or seminary being referred to a book by David R. Breed, The Preparation of the World for Christ (1918), which moves through the history of Israel, Greek civilization and to the Roman unification of the world – Israel’s hope, Greek language, Roman roads over which traveled Roman legions effecting the Pax Romana – The Roman Peace. Breed’s point, of course, was that the development of the ancient world in its various stages was God’s providential preparation of the world for the birth of Jesus, the Messiah, whose gospel would be proclaimed by St. Paul traveling those Roman roads to the far-flung territories of the Empire. What was missing in this treatise was any acknowledgment that the Roman legions were the empire’s agent of power, of military might by which the ancient world was subdued by Imperial Rome. The Pax Romana was an enforced peace on subject peoples. In the case of Rome and I believe every world empire, military might was the requisite. © Grand Valley State University �Love Talk: A Tale of Two Cities… Richard A. Rhem Page 6   This is not to say that there was not positive virtue in Imperial Rome and, indeed, a desire for peace in that ancient world. In his great work, On Being a Christian (1974, English translation 1976), Hans Küng juxtaposes the peace of Rome and the peace Jesus incarnated: In the year 42 or 41 before Jesus’ birth, at the beginning of the fifteen years of grievous civil war following the murder of Julius Caesar, the Roman poet Virgil in his famous Fourth Ecologue announced the birth of a world saviour. Was this an expression of hope in Caesar’s great nephew and adopted son Octavius and his house? In any case, when Octavius finally returned to Rome in the year 29, as sole ruler, after the victory over Anthony and Cleopatra, his first official act was to close the temple of Janus, the double-faced god of war. And “Augustus Divi Filius”– “Son of the divine one” (Of Caesar elevated after his death to be a state god), translated in the Greek East as “Son of God” – did everything possible to realize the hopes nourished by Virgil of The Utopia of an imminent reign of peace: Pax Romana, Pax Augusta, sealed with the consecration of the gigantic Ara Pacis Augustae, the Augustan altar of peace, in the year 9 B.C. In the same year (according to the famous inscription found in Priene in Asia Minor and later elsewhere) the “gospel” (euangelion, “good news”) of the birthday of the “Saviour” and “God” who had now appeared – Caesar Augustus – was proclaimed in the East to the whole world: the saviour who had brought to the broken world new life, happiness, peace, fulfillment of ancestral hopes, salvation. (p. 438) There is no need to write off the noble aspirations of Caesar Augustus and his contemporaries. Has there not always been a dream of peace and wellbeing in the human heart, a longing for safety and security? Nonetheless, the peace Augustus desired and Rome for a long period of history provided is a different peace than that to which the way of Jesus leads. Küng is clear. It is in fact obvious that even the apparently idyllic Christmas story has very real social-critical (and, in the broadest sense, political) implications and consequences. This is a peace opposed to the political savior and the political theology of the Imperium Romanum which provided ideological support for the imperial peace policy: it is a true peace which cannot be expected where divine honors are paid to a human being and an autocrat… We need only compare Luke’s Christmas Gospel with the Gospel already mentioned of Augustus at Priene to see how the roles here are exchanged. The end of wars, worthwhile life, common happiness in a word, complete well-being, man’s “salvation” and the world’s – are expected no longer from the overpowerful Roman Caesars but from this powerless, harmless child. (p. 452f) © Grand Valley State University �Love Talk: A Tale of Two Cities… Richard A. Rhem Page 7   Obviously, I use Rome and Bethlehem as symbols of two contrasting kinds of peace, of two contrasting visions of the nature of a peaceful world – the one represented by the Roman Emperor however noble, however much desiring peace in the world, and Jesus or the Way of Jesus bringing peace of quite another kind. On Christmas Eve, 1994, I used the same texts as this evening – Micah 5:5, “…and he shall be the one of peace” and Luke 2:15, “…and on earth peace.” I cite the 1994 Christmas Eve meditation because I had pointed to the difference between the peace of empire and the peace of Jesus and made reference to what was happening on the global scene – the Balkan tragedy, the, at that time, fragile, relative peace in Bosnia after all the bloodshed. I went on to say, Luke was writing of the birth of One, from the other end of the story, because, remember, Luke wrote the birth after the death. Luke wrote of the birth after the resurrection. Luke knew the hell that Jesus had gone through, but Luke’s gospel of Jesus, which speaks of peace in the beginning, is a peace that was a peace to be secured only in the Way of Jesus. It was the Way of Jesus, as opposed to the way of Rome. It was a peace that was based on the end of all human domination. That, Luke was telling us in his gospel, was the peace that came through Jesus Christ. It was not the peace enforced by the power of Rome, but the peace that comes from God, to those who follow the Way of Jesus. I referred to the then current conflict, the human suffering, the terrible violence and killing and related the experience of a few of us who had toured Europe that fall and visited the Normandy beaches and the D-Day museum at Caen, France, where a film graphically depicted the terror of D-Day fifty years before. The day we visited the Beaches it was beautiful, so calm and peaceful. One could hardly imagine the horror of 1944. I said, A couple of months ago I visited the shores of Normandy, the fiftieth anniversary of the scarred earth where that horrendous battle was fought. A week ago, perhaps some of you saw as well the special by David Brinkley on the Battle of the Bulge, fifty years ago. Did you hear in that special a recording of the voice of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, who said fifty years ago at Christmas, “It is not easy to wish the nation a Merry Christmas this year, nor to those who are standing for us around the world.” It was a world at war, and a terrible price was exacted. There are those that suggest that maybe the past fifty years were better. But were they? Just five years ago we were so euphoric at this time of year because the Berlin wall had fallen and we thought that maybe the world was taking a significant step toward peace. The collapsing of an impasse of terror that held the world at bay for fifty years evaporating, allowed these ancient feuds to surge forth again. So in 1994 at Christmas we speak of the peace of Jesus. But there is no peace. You see, we think of peace in terms of the © Grand Valley State University �Love Talk: A Tale of Two Cities… Richard A. Rhem Page 8   balance of power and of political possibilities, but there is only one way to peace – it is the way of human community. It is by the ending of all human domination. I have pointed out in this meditation that each returning Christmas, while replete with all the accoutrements that we so much love, nevertheless has its own special and unique aspect determined by what was happening in the world at that time. This meditation takes its cue not from some global happening at present but rather from my own personal experience of reflection on the gospel of peace and the history of our own nation in the century past to the present time. This is not something new. As I have indicated, it has been my practice over the decades of ministry at Christ Community to relate the gospel to world happenings. But recently reading a book authored by James Carroll entitled House of War has made a deep impact on me. The subtitle is “The Pentagon and the Disastrous Rise of American Power.” James Carroll is the author of Constantine’s Sword, a history of the Roman Catholic Church and the Jewish people and I used it for a Wednesday evening class a few years ago. It is an excellent historical study. House of War even exceeds Constantine’s Sword in my opinion. I have seldom been more engrossed in a book or more impacted. I suspect that is because Carroll narrates the history through which I’ve lived – events I remember from the time, people in government and on the world scene with whom I am familiar, crisis points, breakthroughs that were celebrated. He is eight years younger than I am but what he recounts really begins with World War II and continues to the first years of George W. Bush’s administration, which means to 9/11, Afghanistan and Iraq. Carroll’s review of that history has a unique perspective in that his father was a FBI agent working for J. Edgar Hoover, and then was appointed to be the first Director of the Defense Intelligence Agency, made an Army General and located in the Pentagon. The Carrolls were a strong Irish Catholic family and James, growing up in the shadow of the Pentagon, decided to enter the Roman Catholic priesthood, which delighted his father. It was during his seminary years that the popular revolt against the Vietnam War arose. He identified with that protest, being greatly influenced by the Catholic protest movement led by the Berrigan brothers. Carroll’s identification with the anti-war movement led to a serious break with his Brigadier General father, recounted in an earlier book, An American Requiem: God, My Father and the War That Came Between Us. I cannot here do more than attempt to identify what so deeply impacted me reading House of War. As the history of the past six decades was recounted, I came to see how we have come to our present state of global empire. Earlier I spoke of a certain idealism and hope for peace that marked the Roman Empire. © Grand Valley State University �Love Talk: A Tale of Two Cities… Richard A. Rhem Page 9   In the case of our own nation, that is certainly true as well. There have always been generations of good and decent persons leading our nation, genuinely wanting peace. And it is true as well, as our President said in his Oslo speech as he received the Nobel Peace Prize, America has carried the heavy burden of liberating people and ensuring peace in the world. But that is only one side of the story. And this is where James Carroll’s documentation of the disastrous rise of American power is so powerful, illuminating and distressing. Through historical circumstances we evolved into a powerful nation with a military that has become the shaping force of American policy. We are a military state upon which depend our economy, our industry, even our great research universities. Let me refer to just two critical moments in the history through which we have lived. The first moment was what to do with the newly discovered nuclear power. Secretary of War Henry Stimson wrote a memorandum to President Truman. Carroll writes: It was another of those events dated September 11, each one the center of a world in collision with other worlds. The impact of such collisions is our subject. On September 11, 1945, four years to the day after the groundbreaking of the Pentagon, fifty-six years to the day before the Al Qaeda attack on the Pentagon, less than a month after Japan’s surrender, and just over a month after the detonation of the Nagasaki bomb, Stimson composed an urgent “Memorandum for the President,” which began, “Subject: Proposed Action for Control of Atomic Bombs.” First Stimson told the president what the dawning of the nuclear age meant: If the atomic bomb were merely another though more devastating military weapon to be assimilated into our pattern of international relations, it would be one thing. We could then follow the old custom of secrecy and nationalistic military superiority relying on international caution to prescribe [sic] future use of the weapon as we did with gas. But I think the bomb instead constitutes merely a first step in a new control by man over the forces of nature too revolutionary and dangerous to fit into the old concepts. I think it really caps the climax of the race between man’s growing technical power for destructiveness and his psychological power of self-control and group-control – his moral power. If so, our method of approach to the Russians is a question of the most vital importance in the evolution of human progress… The crux of the problem is Russia. Carroll comments further: “To put the matter concisely,” Stimson wrote, he proposed that the United States take immediate steps to “enter into an arrangement with the © Grand Valley State University �Love Talk: A Tale of Two Cities… Richard A. Rhem Page10   Russians, the general purpose of which would be to control and limit the use of the atomic bomb.” He suggested that by bringing the Soviets into our confidence, they would have reason to believe it when Americans said that “we would stop work on any further improvement in, or manufacture of, the bomb as a military weapon, provided the Russians and the British would do likewise.” This meant, and Stimson proposed it, that Washington would “impound what bombs we now have in the United States provided the Russians and the British would agree with us that in no event will they or we use a bomb as an instrument of war unless all three governments agree to that use.” Give up the secret. Give up the monopoly. Give up sovereignty over use. Give up control of existing bombs. Stimson, in the cover letter that accompanied this memo, summed up his proposal by using the word “share” twice. (p. 113 f) Carroll relates how Stimson’s grasp of the situation with Russia in light of the atomic bomb was countered by Secretary of State James Byrnes. Carroll’s account is so fascinating because he gives us a glimpse behind the scenes from the perspective of history as to the tensions and arguments that raged at the time. Writing of Stimson, Carroll relates, So now he warned that relations with Moscow “may be perhaps irretrievably embittered by the way in which we approach the solution of the bomb with Russia. For if we fail to approach them now and merely continue to negotiate with them, having this weapon rather ostentatiously on our hip, their suspicion and their distrust of our purposes and motives will increase.” This reference to the atomic bomb “ostentatiously on our hip” is a tip off that this memo was essentially an argument against fiercely anti-Soviet positions then being taken by Secretary of State Byrnes, who had already proven to be something of a nemesis. Stimson had, the week before, criticized the way Byrnes was preparing for an upcoming meeting of the Council of Foreign Ministers in London: “Byrnes [is] very much against any attempt to cooperate with Stalin. His mind is full of the problems with the coming meeting of the foreign ministers and he looks to having the presence of the bomb in his pocket, so to speak, as a great weapon to get through the thing he has.” Very much against Byrnes, in one of the most remarkable statements ever made by an American statesman, Stimson presumed to assert in his September 11 letter to Truman, “The chief lesson I have learned in a long life is that the only way you can make a man trustworthy is to trust him; and the surest way to make him untrustworthy is to distrust him and show him your distrust. I conclude the first critical moment by underscoring these last lines – the matter of trust. Trust or fear leading to mistrust; fear that often blooms into paranoia and a world community market by paranoia is a dangerous place. © Grand Valley State University �Love Talk: A Tale of Two Cities… Richard A. Rhem Page11   Do you sense that the whole disastrous tragedy of the Cold War could have been avoided? Do you sense that at that critical moment in the history of the twentieth century trust could have changed the impasse of terror through which we lived on the brink of disaster? One more critical moment – the breaking down of the Berlin Wall and the end of the Cold War. We remember it well – the euphoria, the relief, the high hopes for a world at peace. From James Carroll filling in the background of the Reagan/Gorbachev encounters. I was struck by the stature of the Russian leader. It was he, not Mr. Reagan that created the possibility and effected the reality of the end of the Cold War. But this I point to because for the United States it was another missed opportunity – a missed opportunity to disarm the nuclear weapons that both sides stockpiled because of that earlier missed opportunity when we could have averted that arms race before it began. Russia wanted to disarm; we did not. Why trouble you with this history and the rise of American power at Christmas? Simply because it is Rome and Bethlehem all over again. I have been critical of American imperial designs for some time, especially since the rise to power and prominence of the neo-conservative movement that advocated the unipolar world, the United States, the one world superpower doing whatever was necessary to maintain its preeminence. But I’ve never seen before so clearly the creeping militarism that has led to our present state. It is Rome all over again; the peace ensured by force of arms. Multitudes of good people, well-meaning people become captives of the drive towards empire maintaining “peace” by “military might.” That to which I point involves such a complex of philosophical, political reasoning and argument. I suspect we could get into a good free-for-all if I allowed an open mike; but I am not interested in argument or debate. I am not interested in scoring points or winning an argument. I have the privilege by your good grace of bearing witness in the beauty of this Christmas season to my deepest intuition, my highest aspiration. It is this: peace on earth will not be finally accomplished by political strategy or military power. Peace on earth will come only in the Way of Jesus, a way of non-violence – not pacifism, a passive response to one’s world – but non-violent resistance to evil and darkness, and positive offering of trust, of grace, of love, of compassion, of being willing to die rather than be untrue to those virtues. The vulnerability of a child as a mirror of the heart of God – a child in obscure Bethlehem a sign of a Love which Imperial Rome and the great Caesar Augustus could never vanquish. Only such love incarnate in earth’s multitude holds the possibility of Peace on Earth – indeed of a human future. © Grand Valley State University �Love Talk: A Tale of Two Cities… Richard A. Rhem Page12   Will I have another Christmas in which to bear my witness? Perhaps not. Let then this be my last witness and plea: the Way of Jesus is the only way to peace, freedom from fear, freedom to live in love and grace. References: James Carroll. House of War: The Pentagon and the Disastrous Rise of American Power. Houghton Miflin Harcourt, 2006. Hans Küng. On Being a Christian. Published in 1974; English translation, 1976. © Grand Valley State University � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Richard A. Rhem Collection Description An account of the resource Text and sound recordings of the sermons, prayers, services, and articles of Richard Rhem, pastor emeritus of Christ Community Church in Spring Lake, Michigan, where he served for 37 years. Starting in the mid 1980's, Rhem began to question some of the traditional Christian dogma that he had been espousing from the pulpit. That questioning was a first step in a long and interesting spiritual journey, one that he openly shared with his congregation. His journey is important, in part because it is reflective of the questioning, the yearnings, and the gradual revision of beliefs that many persons in this part of the century have experienced and continue to experience. It is important also because of the affirming and inclusive way his questioning was done and his thinking evolved. His sermons and other written and spoken materials together document the steps in his journey as it took a turn in 1985, yet continued to revolve around the framework and liturgies of the Christian calendar. Subject The topic of the resource Clergy--Michigan Reformed Church in America Christ Community Church (Spring Lake, Mich.) Religion Interfaith worship Sermons Sound Recordings Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Rhem, Richard A. Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/514">Richard A. Rhem papers (KII-01)</a> Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives. Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Kaufman Interfaith Institute Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Language A language of the resource English Type The nature or genre of the resource Sound Text Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context KII-01 Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant 1981-2014 Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource audio/mp3 text/pdf Sound A resource primarily intended to be heard. Examples include a music playback file format, an audio compact disc, and recorded speech or sounds. Event Advent Scripture Text Luke 2:1-14, Micah 5:2-5a Location The location of the interview Spring Lake Country Club References James Carroll. House of War, 2006. Hans K 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-0-20091220 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2009-12-20 Title A name given to the resource Love Talk: A Tale of Two Cities and a Rumor of Angels 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 Text Description An account of the resource A sermon given by Richard A. Rhem (Dick) on December 20, 2009 entitled "Love Talk: A Tale of Two Cities and a Rumor of Angels", on the occasion of Advent, at Spring Lake Country Club. Scripture references: Luke 2:1-14, Micah 5:2-5a. Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource application/pdf 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/60ae0bd1ae1c2ecd69dac1069f501518.pdf 46980a4d275f01e595c50b262aecad75 PDF Text Text Love That Just Won’t Give Up Easter Sunday Luke 24:13-17, 28-35; I John 1:1-4; 4:7-8; 12, 16 Richard A. Rhem Christ Community Church Spring Lake, Michigan March 27, 2005 Easter 2005. Who would have dreamed I would be the preacher! Ian called a couple of weeks ago and asked if I would be willing to be the preacher for Easter, and I responded that I would be happy to be. He honors me thus and demonstrates his trust in me; I am grateful for that. Reflecting back over the year, I went to my file of liturgies, as well as my daily calendar. If my notes are correct, the Lawtons arrived on March 22 a year ago. On March 28, which last year was the Fifth Sunday in Lent, I read a note of greeting and gratitude from Ian, promising to be present the next week which was Palm Sunday, April 4. And on Easter, April 11, Ian preached his first sermon here. This invitation to preach at the end of Ian’s first year with us provides an occasion to look back over that year – not that that was Ian’s intention; nor do I intend to use the Easter sermon as a backward glance. Resurrection opens the future and I intend to get to that. But, I cannot pass up this opportunity to make a comment or two. Many ask how I like retirement. My answer: I recommend it! I am delighted to be at this time in my life. The time was right; you created such a beautiful closure. I’m so content and, honestly, proud of the community I, with the team and lay leadership, was able to create, that I have no regrets. And I have let go. Some doubted I could. I knew I could and would and I have. The transition has happened. Transitions are not for the faint-hearted. Nobody said it would be easy. We had it so good for so long – 33 years! – and we were so comfortable. But I knew it was time to catch the next wave and move this community to the next stage. This was the challenge we laid before Ian and I cannot imagine anyone coming in and doing it with greater courage and confidence, intelligence and passion than Ian has. One realizes in such a transition there will be change but, of course, to know that intellectually is one thing; to feel it emotionally is another. Faced with the emotional shock, one must choose between trying to exercise power to hold on, hold back, resist the new movement and control the development, or, recognizing © Grand Valley State University   �Love That Just Won’t Give Up Richard A. Rhem Page 2   the inevitability of change, and indeed the necessity of it, open one’s being to the creative interchange that is occurring and trust the process in community to effect creative transformation. I sense most of us are following the second option and that is hopeful. Last Sunday, Nancy and I remained for the Sermon Talk-back and many expressions were offered which reminded me of similar settings we experienced over the years and similar comments – for example: “I can bring my family and friends here and know they will not be embarrassed;” and, “This is the first church I have been able to feel at home in.” There were expressions, too, of love for and emotional attachment to the tradition; beloved symbols and rituals which move the heart and reach the depths of our beings. I saw Ian listening, taking it in, and I’m sure desiring to continue to bridge past to future with sensitivity and care. And it is happening. Lent has been for me once more a meaningful journey. The preaching has been strong and full of integrity. I am so thankful that there continues to be in this place honest and intelligent preaching that engages me. I know there are some of you for whom the transition has not been comfortable, causing dis-ease and discontent. But, I must say honestly to you I believe that is the result more of style, not substance. I’ll probably never forgive Ian for that metal bed frame hanging over my head, messing up the aesthetics of my sacred space! But, so what? That doesn’t matter. While in Florida, Nancy and I spent our annual evening with the VanHoeven clan: Gord and Dorothy, Doc and Shirley and Gord’s brother Jim and his wife, Mary. After a fabulous fish fry which Doc prepared, we watched a bit of the Christmas Sunday service at which Ian’s father preached, which they had on a DVD. I was really impressed; it was professionally produced and well done and I suspect one of these days folks around the globe will be able to experience the Sunday service from Christ Community – and, God knows, such an alternative the world desperately needs. The title of my sermon is “Love That Just Won’t Give Up.” Ian listed that to be his sermon title before he asked me to preach and I assured him I would stay with that. After all my years of preaching, I am able to twist any text or title to say what I want to say. © Grand Valley State University �Love That Just Won’t Give Up Richard A. Rhem Page 3   And that title affords me a bridge to my Easter message. Love that just will not give up is a claim that reveals the grain of the universe, that points to the Ultimate Mystery of Reality – and that is what I want to say this morning – Love is the Originating Mystery of the Cosmos and that Love will never give up. The Gospels give us a variety of snapshots of the Easter story – snapshots, incidentally, that cannot be reconciled into a coherent picture. The Easter Gospel this morning from Luke 24, the narrative of the encounter of the risen one with two followers on the Emmaus Road, is my favorite, I suspect because I love the manner in which the revelation of the Easter miracle unfolds. Unrecognized, Jesus joins the disciples and joins their conversation. They are leaving Jerusalem in despair with sadness of heart in the wake of the crucifixion of Jesus. This one unknown reminds them of their scriptures and then, arriving at their home, they invite the stranger in who, though the guest, becomes the host at table and in the blessing and breaking of bread, is revealed as the Living One whose death they had been grieving. Their eyes were opened even as he vanished from their sight and with amazement, they speak of how their sad hearts had become burning hearts and their grief transformed to joy, for they knew Jesus was alive and very much present to them. They rushed to tell their good news to the disciples, exclaiming he was made known to them in the breaking of the bread. Sadness to joy;Despair to hope, and the deep assurance that the love embodied in their Jesus could not be put to death, the realization that Love just won’t give up. I love Dom Crossan’s comment on the Emmaus story: Emmaus never happened. Emmaus always happens. The Church has struggled so strenuously with the Easter Event – insisting on its historicity – that Jesus did, indeed, rise bodily from the tomb. And in the traditional interpretation of Jesus’ death as an atonement for the sin of the world, I understand that need to insist that he arose from the grave, because that was the sign of sin removed and heaven opened to all who trusted him. The bodily resurrection was God’s sign that salvation had been accomplished for us by him. But, that has not been our understanding of Jesus’ death for a long time. It must have been a dozen years ago that I suggested that Easter was not about the resuscitation of a corpse. And I raised a few eyebrows and, here and there, a fever arose. (You forgive an old man and forget that his radical moves in the past caused you discomfort and confusion.) © Grand Valley State University �Love That Just Won’t Give Up Richard A. Rhem Page 4   It was Palm Sunday, 1993, when I preached “Jesus Died Because of our Sins, Not For Them.” For years there has been no atoning death preached here – my concise summary statement each Lent has been, “He died the way he died because he lived the way he lived.” And Ian has been preaching that eloquently. Jesus spoke Truth to Power in the best tradition of the Hebrew prophets. He challenged the power of the established Church and State. He came preaching the Kingdom of God, crying, “Repent, for the Kingdom of God is here.” Repent is the English translation of the Greek word Metanoia, Meta the prefix meaning change, and Noia from Nous, for mind. Change your mind! Change your thinking! Etymologically, Metanoia is the opposite of Paranoia, from which we have paranoia, irrational fear, delusional suspicion. Jesus’ message was, Change your thinking! The old order of domination, oppression and human exploitation is doomed! All too soon the Christian Church domesticated Jesus’ radical social/political claim and turned repentance into a moralistic call to turn from personal sins and peccadilloes. But, Jesus was talking about a different kind of sin – the institutionalized sin of imperial domination that oppressed the people. Believe me, the authorities would have applauded him, not crucified him if he had preached “Keep your nose clean; obey the commandments and piously follow the tradition.” They would have subsidized him, popular as he was – he could sell family values, tax cuts for the wealthy, and the shredding of the social safety net so the poor might be stimulated to move to self-sufficiency. No, Jesus proclaimed an alternative world marked by justice and fairness and compassion. He was judged a menace to established order and marked for death, the death of a social/political subversive. But, that is where the Miracle occurred – On many Emmaus Roads over days and weeks, over months and years, gathered in community, sharing a meal, blessing and breaking bread, his followers sensed his presence and they knew all that had come to expression in him was true – and that truth could not be killed. The love he embodied just would not give up, because it was the reflection of the heart of the Originating Mystery of Being. That was Easter Faith – You can’t prove that, except by living its truth and that was the Easter Miracle: A shift in perception – and it is a shift in perception that transforms. © Grand Valley State University �Love That Just Won’t Give Up Richard A. Rhem Page 5   Such a shift in perception is the result of a moment of revelatory luminosity; a moment of unveiling of what is always everywhere the case. But, in a moment of disclosure, we see and, seeing, we come to a conscious awareness of a new possibility and we are transformed. And what constitutes that transformation? What are the contours of the transformation effected by the shift in perception Easter brings about? Would it not be a transformation into the likeness of Jesus? Wouldn’t one so transformed take on the mind of Jesus? The heart of Jesus? The agenda of Jesus? Wouldn’t that agenda, now translated into the great issues of Century 21, have some strong words about corporate corruption, about the unconscionable increase in CEO salaries when wages of the average worker have decreased? Have something to say about the Imperial Designs of this nation, even though woven with idealism? Raise questions about the dismantling of the social safety net and the re-distribution of wealth upward? Wonder about health care and education and the cities that face massive deficits? The historical Jesus and the early Jesus Movement were too soon co-opted by the powers that be. Jesus was made into a Savior figure. The Cross, instead of being a sign of the death that results from speaking truth to power, was made into a symbol of salvation from sin and damnation and the Christian Church became a salvation cult. All of this is old news here. But, with each returning Lent I wonder anew if we can really follow Jesus or are so locked into a social structure so at odds with his agenda that it would take a revolution to give the way of Jesus a chance. I’ve been out of step all my life. I kid about it, but I am serious. Growing up in a wonderful home with all the love and security one could ask for, it was a very conservative religious and political environment – totally authentic and sincere. Religiously, as a child, I thought salvation would be limited to a narrow range of Christians – which certainly did not include Roman Catholics. You get the picture. The liberal Methodists in my little village were also out of luck, or beyond the pale. There was no “luck” involved. Politically, the only option for a Christian was to be Republican. My first awareness of the political scene was the Presidential election of 1944. As a child of nine, I sensed FDR was the wrong choice. I imbibed real negativity toward him, knowing nothing, of course, and many years later having to recognize how twisted and warped was my estimate of one considered to be one of the greatest presidents this country has ever had. In all of this – my home village, my religious affiliation, my political affiliation, such as it was, I felt in a minority, different, out of step with where the world was going. That only intensified my youthful commitments – didn’t the Gospel quote © Grand Valley State University �Love That Just Won’t Give Up Richard A. Rhem Page 6   Jesus claiming, The gate is narrow and the road is hard that leads to Life and there are few who find it! Steered from the womb to the ministry, I studied and studied and studied. You know that – I tried so hard to support intellectually the nurture and conditioning of my childhood and youth and then the orthodoxy of the Church. I need not belabor this, but I remind you of the path I’ve traveled because I am Exhibit A of one who has undergone a dramatic shift in perception, for me a long process rather than a sudden awakening, but total, nonetheless. And that shift in perception was for me a miracle, a miracle of resurrection and it has been transforming, And it has made me out of step again as surely as I was as a child and youth. The shift came from meeting Jesus again for the first time, as Marcus Borg would say. It was a Palm Sunday, April 15, 1984, when I preached a sermon entitled “Jesus, You Are Really Something!” It was the beginning of an encounter with the humanity of Jesus, disentangling him from the high Christological doctrines that the Church created in those early centuries as they lost the real human being – a loss which turned him into a savior figure, removing from him the prophetic edge that threatened Imperial Rome and got him crucified. As has been characteristic of my journey, the progress was slow, but with each returning Lent I felt more sharply the disparity between the way of Jesus and the way we follow him. Slowly but surely, I knew to follow him would put me out of step again because as I was being sensitized to the practical implications for Christian faith and political commitment, religion and politics in this nation were moving to the right and the contrast with the agenda of Jesus as I have come to understand it grows ever more sharp. And, frankly, it is painful. So much about the political agenda of the nation troubles me; so much about most of the Church embarrasses me. And it is because the shift in perception caused by encountering Jesus in his humanity transformed me, changed me – it was a miracle of resurrection because, you see, the really critical miracle is not some past event, but present transformation through a shift in perception. That is the Easter miracle. Emmaus never happened. Emmaus always happens. Jesus arose in the conscious awareness of those who had been his community. In the love he embodied they met the Ultimate Mystery, the Sacred Mystery which is the final truth in whom we live and move and have our being. © Grand Valley State University �Love That Just Won’t Give Up Richard A. Rhem Page 7   And that means Love is the Final Truth, Love by which every religious institution, every political agenda, every social program is to be judged, because Love expresses the Grain of the Universe, the Cosmic intention. And Love just will not give up. Love – not sentimental sweetness, but tough, strong, marked by integrity, committed to the well-being of the other, refusing to respond in violence, taking the consequences. Let me be clear; the Love of which I speak, the Love embodied in the flesh of Jesus, in his concrete behavior, is not some sentimental sweetness. It was Love that stood up against injustice, that protested human exploitation by religiopolitical systems and structures, that broke down social-religious barriers that excluded. It was non-violent Love, but not passive; Jesus’ protest was concrete resistance which provoked and elicited reaction. And then, most amazing, a Love that received into itself the lethal consequences without hostile response; indeed, purveying grace and forgiveness to the end. It was such Love concretely lived out that put its stamp on the Jesus community. From one of the early Christian communities we get the Fourth Gospel and the Letters of John. It was the Gospel that told the story of Jesus as “The Word became flesh” (John 1:14) – the central Christian affirmation of Incarnation, Jesus, the human as the embodiment of God. In the First Letter of John that theme is picked up. Listen to the concreteness of the experience: We declare to you what was from the beginning, what we have heard, what we have seen with our eyes, what we have looked at and touched with our hands concerning the word of life. In chapter 4, the writer says it straight out: God is love. And later he writes, No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God lives in us, and God’s love is perfected in us.…God is love, and those who abide in love abide in God, and God abides in them. To see that is a shift in perception; it is the Easter miracle; it is transforming. The natural sciences probe the vast expanse of outer space and the amazing mysteries of sub-atomic particles. Cosmology seeks to unravel the secrets of the expanding universe and quantum physics the nature of energy fields in which that universe swims – a Reality marked by chance and necessity, randomness © Grand Valley State University �Love That Just Won’t Give Up Richard A. Rhem Page 8   and order. But, whatever its future unfolding in all its awesome splendor, the Cosmic Process has issued in the likes of us who know in our deepest core that Love is the Grain of the Universe, and that love lived out concretely brings to fullest, richest expression our humanity reaching toward Global Community. Out of step, on the edge of despair at the present abuse of power and failure to protect the weakest members of the human community, I come to Easter; I experience again the Miracle of Resurrection; I know the Ultimate Movement of the Creative Spirit is toward the Light and the concretion of Love – and I believe again. This present darkness will overreach and implode – because Love just won’t give up! A shift in perception – Resurrection, the Easter Miracle – Change your minds! Don’t yield to the darkness; Light will dawn; Love will prevail. That is true as broadly as the cosmos. It is true for the global community. It is true for this community – But I cannot conclude without acknowledging that for some, perhaps for many, the darkness and pain is more personal – where you live with those you love, or those you have lost. Your own hurt is so deep you cannot begin to worry about the global community or the nation or even this community in transition. Perhaps Easter is just too bright; your pain just too deep. Although you cannot take it in, let me nonetheless affirm that the cloud will lift, the darkness dissipate, and healing will ensue because Love just won’t give up. Let this Easter morning be a reassurance for you – Love will never give up. And we will make that love as tangible as this community in its embrace of you. In these moments, open your heart to the new being Love creates, a shift in perception; the Easter Miracle which is transforming. And finally, know that All will be well, All will be well All manner of things will be well. © 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 Easter Scripture Text Luke 24:13-17, 28-35, I John 1:1-4, 4:7-8, 12, 16 Location The location of the interview Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context KII-01_RA-0-20050327 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2005-03-27 Title A name given to the resource Love That Just Won't Give Up 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 Text Description An account of the resource A sermon given by Richard A. Rhem (Dick) on March 27, 2005 entitled "Love That Just Won't Give Up", on the occasion of Easter, at Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI. Scripture references: Luke 24:13-17, 28-35, I John 1:1-4, 4:7-8, 12, 16. Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource application/pdf Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Lemmen Library and Archives Easter Transforming Love https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/acaa4444137c5609f10cc5295954d3c9.pdf 1c004d35dc58cf552853a85a5bd69844 PDF Text Text Love That Puts You Out of Control The Nature of the Love of God Micah 7:19; Luke 15:20 Richard A. Rhem Christ Community Church Spring Lake, Michigan September 1, 1996 Transcription of the spoken sermon The religious people were grumbling at the life and the action of Jesus. They were grumbling because his attitude and his behavior were breaking down the lines that they had drawn that indicated who was "in" and who was "out." His behavior and his attitude embracing all, as the text says, receiving tax collectors and sinners, was distressing to the religious establishment, because they had set up a purity code so that everyone was clear on the rules. Those who were" in" knew they were "in" and those who were "out" knew that they were "out." Those who were "in," even if perhaps with some protestation of great humility, nonetheless were effected with an almost inevitable self-righteous satisfaction, while those who were "out" also received that message and considered themselves "out," unworthy. In the arrangement of that day in which the lines were clear, Jesus' manner of receiving all sorts and conditions of humankind was terribly confusing, and those who were in authority were afraid that there might be those who were "out" who might attempt to come in. And so, in response to this criticism, Jesus told three stories, and in telling these three stories, he was seeking to create a window through which could be seen the amazing love of God. These three stories have as their central thrust the nature of the love of God. Now, as I have said often enough, we have failed to focus on the central thrust of this parable as is indicated by the very name by which it is known - The Parable of The Prodigal Son. It's not a parable about a prodigal son. It is a parable about the love of God. It is a parable in which Jesus portrays a love divine, a love that stands in sharp contrast to all human loves, a love that dumbfounds us and confounds us because it is so strikingly in contrast to the love that we manifest in family and in larger community. It is a love that causes us to catch our breath and wonder if it can be true, and if indeed it is true, a love that certainly makes our human society impossible. Jesus, in this parable, was responding to his critics in order to justify his behavior on the basis of his understanding of God, of the love of God, which, if I understand the story correctly, was his understanding of the nature of reality that at the very heart of things, deep down at the core of things, there is a love © Grand Valley State University   �Love That Puts You Out of Control Richard A. Rhem Page 2   such that it continues to cause us to stand in amazement. It is a love, I would suggest, that puts us out of control. In saying that, what I mean is that it is a love that causes us to loose our grip on the reins. It is a love that finally dissolves that frantic grip on the reins of our life, because if there is anything that threatens us as human beings, it is to be out of control. I don't care if you are wild and wicked like the young one, or stiff and righteous like the older son, there is a commonality that binds them together and, indeed, I believe, is a thread woven through the fabric of the lives of all of us, and that is a desire to be in control. "Don't surprise me." Now, we have not only misnamed that parable, thereby missing the central focus of Jesus' story, the love of the Father, but we have also, in its preaching, focused where Jesus' focus was not. We have focused on that younger son and we have (I'm talking about we preachers. I have been guilty of it in the past and I have heard it preached this way often enough.), we have taken this marvelous story of Jesus about the love of God, and made it a story about this younger son who went off into the far country. Then we made some moralistic applications appealing to youth not to kick over the traces, not to leave home, showing the dangers thereof and the decadence that's at the end of that road. But, then, we come in with our evangelistic appeal saying that the conversion point of the young son is when he came to his senses. Have you ever heard it preached this way? He was in the far country, he came to a deep misery, but thank God he came to himself, he came to his senses. Well, I want to suggest to you that's not a critical point at all, for that young rascal was just as much in control in the far country, in the pigpen as he had been any moment of his life. That young boy woke up to the fact that, while things were boring back home, at least there was a bunkhouse with a bunk and three squares a day, and he analyzed this situation in an ongoing, calculating human fashion and said to himself, "You know, it may be boring there, but I'm very hungry here." And so, simply adding up the pros and cons, coming to take account of things, what does he do? He just sits down and says, "You know, I think it's better at home." So, he goes home. He writes himself a speech, he memorizes it, he rehearses it, and all the time he's still in control, still writing the script, throwing in a little regret and remorse for effect. But, as a matter of fact, in coming to himself, that's precisely what he came to - he came to himself and his ongoing desire to survive and to make it with the reins still well intact in his own hands. The young rascal was still in charge. And it was true of the elder brother, as well. He may have been seething with anger throughout all of the years of his responsible, faithful, diligent service to the father. He may have done it all without joy. He may have grumbled and been resentful underneath, but there's one thing about it - it was safe. He was in control. He was his own person, miserable person that he was. I think that's so characteristic of all of us, isn't it? Isn't maybe our greatest fear that we'll spin off into free fall, that we'll lose control, that we'll lose our grip? Wouldn't we be © Grand Valley State University �Love That Puts You Out of Control Richard A. Rhem Page 3   willing to do almost anything, go almost anywhere, bear almost any burden if at least we could say we are in control? Isn't there something deep in the human person that longs for that kind of autonomy? And again, it doesn't matter where on the spectrum of human personality you fall. I find it in all of us. "Don't surprise me. Let me write the script." Some risk a bit and pay the price. Some play it safe and never play at all. But, depending on the personality type, the commonality is the desire to be in control. I'm suggesting that Jesus confronts us with the love of God that is the only thing that can finally dissolve that tight rein with which we hold our lives in tow. It is love that puts us out of control, and it is love that brings us into an arena of vulnerability where we can relax and rest in the abyss of divine love. Love is the only transforming agent in the world. Threat can keep us in line for a bit. Fear can keep us somewhere down the straight and narrow. There are control mechanisms by which we control one another, our families. The Church has been heavily into control, thereby justifying everything that Freud has ever said about the anger over against the father, the father complex, because the Church has played the role of the stern parent. Control. That's the name of the game. We try to control and we try to stay in control. That word is so common that I wondered where it came from, so I took my big, fat dictionary and looked it up. It comes from the French language, made up of two French words, neither of which I can pronounce. But, it means against the role. And then I was reminded that when I travel through Europe, Germany for example, go across the border or go into a bank or something, one sees this word, Kontrol. And what that means is that you are checked against the role. Guard the borders. Make sure nobody slips through. Check against the role. And we spend so much of our time making sure we measure up against the role that there will be no surprises for us, either. Control, that my life is checked off on the list. Jesus gives us a picture of the love of God that absolutely decimates control, dissolves that frantic effort to hold on that tight grip, allowing us for the first time in our lives, once we taste it, to let go and to rest in the love of God. That's what his critics didn't understand. They had made it very clear who was "in" and who was "out," and those who were "out," as I said, considered themselves "out" and had given up on themselves. And those who were "in" considered themselves "in," never understanding the fact that they could be totally alienated within, homeless at home. Jesus was painting the picture of the love of God, which dissolves those distinctions and transforms. The young rascal came to himself, to his senses in the far country. But, that was not the point of his conversion. It was the beginning of his movement toward home, but he wasn't transformed until he allowed himself to be embraced by the father, whose arms had never been anything but outstretched. © Grand Valley State University �Love That Puts You Out of Control Richard A. Rhem Page 4   Threat can control us. Fear can control us. Reason, less successfully, can control us; but love alone can transform us. That's the love of God, and that is the deepest reality of the cosmos, and that's what Jesus was trying to say as he explained his action of welcoming all comers. It's a powerful story, isn't it? Vivid story. The only drawback is that it's so powerful and so vivid that we begin to think about God as the Divine Parent and we forget that this is a parable and that the father figure is a symbol. God is person but God is more than person. The father symbol must be seen through to the larger reality. Jesus is not talking just about God as a Super-Parent; he's not talking about God as one more person, be that person bigger than life. He is not pointing to God as the CEO of the Universe. Jesus uses the symbol of the person of the father in order that we may see through that symbol to the vast background of reality, to that ground of all being. Jesus is trying to say, "Look! This is the way things really are at the core." What Jesus was trying to convey is the fact that in this brief life that we live, our three-score years and ten, or four-score years, or less or more, in this brief human experience of ours, what we are struggling to learn is what is true all the time - that we have come from love and that we move toward love and that we are, in the meantime, embraced by love. We have come from God and we will move to God and it is to God that we belong. I think what Jesus was trying to say was that what the younger son was seeking "out there" and the elder son missed at home was true for both of them all the time. It was demonstrated in the non-accusing, non-condemning, nonquestioning, warm embrace of the father of the younger. It was expressed by the father to the elder in the words, "My child, you are always with me. All I have is yours." Jesus was saying to the religious leaders of his day, the guardians of institutional religion, "My manner of life, what I am seeking to embody, is a picture of the nature of reality, of the heart of God. And it is true for all, all the time, always, for we have been created by love and we will move into the abyss of love, and, in the meantime, we are loved, because that's the deepest truth, and it's the only truth that can do for us the only thing that God really wants to do for us and that is to transform us into those who catch a glimpse of being loved and love in return. I mentioned last week Henri Nouwen's marvelous meditation on Rembrandt's painting of "The Return of the Prodigal," and how he had, at a point of his life feeling so burned out, longing for home and yearning for the embrace of the father, identified with the younger son, until a friend said to him, "Henri, you are really the elder brother," and he had to say, "I am the elder brother, having done it all right, all my life, and being a little resentful of it." And then sometime later another friend said to him, as he was speaking about that painting that had become such a part of his life, "All your life you've been one of the sons, whether the younger or the elder. Don't you think it's time you moved into the role of the father? All of your life you've been seeking recognition and friends and accomplishments and proper performance - all of your life, Henri, all of your life © Grand Valley State University �Love That Puts You Out of Control Richard A. Rhem Page 5   you have been on a quest. Isn't it time that you simply accept the fact that you are deeply loved in order that you may ask no quarter, but simply love in kind?" We never love supremely, obviously; always partially, often half-heartedly. But, isn't that really what God is about with us? If ever we could sense that the deep underground is nothing but love, and from that we have arisen, and to that we will return, and in that we can rest in the present. Ah! If we could taste it, I do believe we could share it. And if we could taste it, we would be home, we could create home. So, the deepest word of the Gospel is, "My children, come home." © Grand Valley State University � https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/9ec3172efd9725fe222fdea7c7d2c4d1.mp3 be0f115168b26c07092fd9572e268c37 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 XIV Series Prodigal Son Parable Scripture Text Micah 7:19, Luke 15:20 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-0-19960901 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1996-09-01 Title A name given to the resource Love That Puts You Out of Control 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 September 1, 1996 entitled "Love That Puts You Out of Control", as part of the series "Prodigal Son Parable", on the occasion of Pentecost XIV, at Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI. Scripture references: Micah 7:19, Luke 15:20. Love at the core of reality Nature of God Prodigal Love Transforming Love https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/2a1fcab94d43c43fc920e33fe4becc98.jpg 7d9e598cd15559b4e8b4c274a7535eb8 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 Decorated Publishers' Bindings Subject The topic of the resource Book covers Covers (Illustration) Graphic arts Publishers and publishing Pictorial bindings Description An account of the resource From the early 1870s to roughly 1930, many publishers issued their commercial book covers with a remarkable variety of graphic designs and illustrations. This sixty-year period saw many artists and designers contributing to this art form. While some can be identified from their style or initials, others remain unknown. Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Seidman Rare Books Collection Michigan Novels Collection Regional Historical Collection Lincoln and the Civil War Collection Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2017-08-30 Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a>, <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/NoC-US/1.0/?language=en">No Copyright - United States</a> Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource image/jpg Language A language of the resource eng Type The nature or genre of the resource Image Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context DC-01 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. Source Michigan Novels Collection. PS3505.R948 L68 1903 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-01_Bindings0017 Title A name given to the resource Love Thrives in War: A Romance of the Frontier in 1812 Description An account of the resource Binding of Love Thrives in War: A Romance of the Frontier in 1812, by Mary Catherine Crowley, published by Little, Brown, and Company, 1903. Subject The topic of the resource Book covers Covers (Illustration) Graphic arts Publishers and publishing Pictorial bindings Language A language of the resource eng Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/NoC-US/1.0/?language=en">No Copyright - United States</a> Type The nature or genre of the resource Image Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource image/jpeg Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1903 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/46ebcf2fb4f61c1208735c100920ad35.pdf 263fe14e5c1e55c165e4ab30b110d279 PDF Text 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/. Title A name given to the resource GVSU Sexuality and Gender Flyers Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource The Rainbow Resource Center Women and Gender Studies Department Women's Commission Gayle R. Davis Center for Women and Gender Equity Description An account of the resource Digitized posters, flyers, event notices, and other materials relating to gender expression and sexuality at Grand Valley State University, with materials spanning from 1974 to 2019. Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1974/2019 Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Digitized from collections at the Rainbow Resource Center (formerly the Milton E. Ford LGBT Resource Center), Women and Gender Studies Department, Women's Commission, and Gayle R. Davis Center for Women and Gender Equity. Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource In Copyright Subject The topic of the resource Gender identity Gender expression Sexual orientation Women's studies Queer theory 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 DC-09 Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource application/pdf Type The nature or genre of the resource Text Language A language of the resource eng 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-09_SGF_WGS_2012_LoveYourBodyWeek.pdf Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Women's Center Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2012-02-25/2012-02-28 Title A name given to the resource Love Your Body Week Description An account of the resource Poster of the events with the locations, times and dates of each one. Subject The topic of the resource Community centers Body image Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Gayle R. Davis Center for Women and Gender Equity Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Department 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 https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/2cc681074a449040f89482829b9fa1f1.pdf 46906496104378bcca3987185f098787 PDF Text Text Love, Not Fear Text: I John 4:18; Luke 7:47 Richard A. Rhem Christ Community Church Spring Lake, Michigan October 24, 1999 Transcription of the spoken sermon I caught an article in The New York Times about six weeks ago which said that The Rev. Dr. Mel White was going to be invited to dinner by Jerry Falwell of the Thomas Road Baptist Church in that marvelously named city, Lynchburg. I had more or less forgotten about it, and then last night I caught just a little glimpse of a newscast and there was Jerry Falwell and Mel White on the television screen together. Yesterday was the day of the dinner. I didn't get enough of the newscast to give you accurate details; I know that what was proposed was that Mel White was to bring about 200 gay-lesbian people to Lynchburg to have dinner with 200 of Jerry Falwell’s people. The reason this came about was that Mel White had been sending open letters to Jerry Falwell on the Internet, I understand. Mel heads up an organization called Soulforce. In fact, when he was here a couple of years ago, he led a seminar on Saturday morning in which some of you participated. It is a seminar on non-violence and he borrows from Gandhi and from Martin Luther King, who borrowed from Gandhi, in the use of non-violent protest in order to gain civil rights, human dignity, to change government structures, and so forth. You may remember that Mel White was a part of the inner core of what has come to be known as the Religious Right in this country. He was a ghostwriter for the biographies of Jerry Falwell, Pat Robertson, Billy Graham, and others, and he was very intimately connected with the leaders of that whole movement. Then he declared himself to be gay after years of anguish and struggle. He had been married, had children, had gone through therapy, including all kinds of torturous attempts to prove to himself that he was not a gay person, and finally declared himself and lives openly now and is an advocate for gay rights, and particularly for his conviction that God loves all people, gay and straight and all the rest. So, the dinner apparently took place. I did hear Jerry Falwell say, "I stand where I have always stood, the biblical position on the practice of any homosexual engagement is it’s wrong, contrary to scripture." Mel White simply, on the other side of that issue, said, "I sit here with my brother in Christ and the reason for the coming together is Mel White's attempt to get leaders of the very conservative, evangelical movement to lower the decibels of their rhetoric, the kind of rhetoric © Grand Valley State University   �Love, Not Fear Richard A. Rhem Page 2   against the homosexual community which certainly has to be an element in the gay-bashing and the violence that has so tragically been experienced in the last months and years.” At the end of the first service, someone came running up to me who had already seen the morning paper and said that Jerry Falwell is in trouble and is now the victim himself of protest, being called a hypocrite by some of his religious colleagues for what they call a compromise of sitting down with Mel White, and so the story goes on. I thought of that in the context of the dinner at Simon's house. There are not a lot of parallels with that account in Luke's Gospel, but there is a sense in which what happened between Jerry Falwell and Mel White was something like what was happening between Jesus and Simon. Now, it has nothing to do with being a Jew. It really has nothing to do with him being a Pharisee. It has everything to do with Simon being a serious, responsible religious person who was very much committed to a tradition, a tradition that is very control-oriented in terms of being well structured, with all the rules in place, everyone knowing what one is to do and what one is not to do. Simon simply is a representative of the guardians of the moral, theological, the biblical tradition. A good person. I think he invited Jesus, according to Luke, because he was interested. Who is this man? And he also was not only interested, he was somewhat threatened by Jesus because it was Jesus' manner of life and ministry that was very threatening to a person like Simon. Jesus suggested that the marginalized were loved by God and had access to God. Jesus had table fellowship with all sorts and conditions of humankind. Jesus didn't play by conventional wisdom. All of this is old hat for us, I know, but nonetheless, this is what was going on. Jesus was a threat to a very traditional and tight religious system that knew who was in and who was out, that knew who was right and what was wrong. I couldn't help thinking about that story, being reminded about this encounter between Jerry Falwell and Mel White, if there were, indeed, 200 on either side of the table from each contingent, I'd like to imagine Jesus there. What if Jesus would come into the room? What do you think? What if seeing Jesus there, after all he's been through, Mel White just got overwhelmed. I've seen him cry. I can imagine him throwing himself at Jesus' feet, weeping. I think Jesus would have been very comfortable with it. I suspect that Jerry Falwell may have squirmed a little, because when you think that concretely, where would Jesus' sympathies lie? Can there be any question about that, in light of the nature of Jesus' ministry, his posture, his attitude, his spirit? I hope some good comes out of it, and I respect Jerry Falwell, no matter how much pressure was put on him, he apparently sat down with the enemy, and there's conversation, and good can come of that, and he'll probably suffer for doing it. But, I see it as a positive sign. Some of you read the newspaper with me in mind. Someone sent me an editorial, another person called me about it. It appeared in The Grand Rapids Press, © Grand Valley State University �Love, Not Fear Richard A. Rhem Page 3   written by Richard Cohen, and it referred to that leading statesman of our day, Jesse Ventura. Jesse Ventura did a body slam on religion, and a colleague of Richard Cohen wrote an article chastising Jesse Ventura for doing that, saying, "Jesse Ventura, you forgot all the sterling names of Christian leaders who have made a difference," and he named Mother Teresa and Reinhold Neibuhr, Martin Luther King, and so forth. Richard Cohen says, "Ah, but I have to say to my colleague -they're all dead. All the heroes are dead, and the celebrities today have taken quite a different tack. There was a time when the Reinhold Neibuhrs had the ear of power and could speak a word for grace and for inclusion and for integrity, but today the names that are bandied about and making news are names that are on the other side of the issue, time and again." Mr. Cohen refers to Eugene Carson Blake, a fine Presbyterian leader of the World Council of Churches back in the 60s, a time when some of you can remember the mainline church had to decide what it would do on the race question and finally, belatedly, stood up, took a stand and moved, and the nation moved, as well, and the Civil Rights Act of 1964 was a consequence, not a little consequence of the fact that the mainline church finally said, "This is right." Cohen points out the fact that those heroes that his colleague mentioned in the column were the people who called us to be better than we are, to be done with prejudice and bigotry, to inclusion and embrace, and he contrasts that with what is going on in our own day. So, he says, maybe Jesse Ventura wasn't altogether out of line, but he points out the fact that the current crop of religious leaders don't ask us to accept homosexuality and they refuse to deal with the consequences of their rhetoric which leads to the gay-bashing, and he says what is necessary is to do what was done, for example, in the church at large recognizing that its traditional antiSemitism fed into the Holocaust. He says they also do not ask us to accept and understand modernity. They reject it almost in its entirety. For instance, in the matter of science and religion. They simply reject science and believe religion which is currently the case in Kansas, to which he points. There was a piece within the last two or three weeks about a couple in Kansas, again, very good and sincere people, who with their pastor are quoted saying if we lose Creation, we lose everything. The woman was a public school teacher who couldn't teach in good conscience anymore in the public school and so now she's in the Christian school whose library has a book with an orange sticker saying, "Warning: This book contains statements about evolution," and a book on great scientists that has the chapter on Darwin ripped out! Well, what's going on, friends? What's going on? Let me suggest that fear is going on, that all of this raucousness is consciously or unconsciously rooted in fear. If I were to read another lesson this morning, I would have read the lesson from Genesis, the third chapter, about our forbears, Mr. Adam and Mrs. Eve, who bit the apple, felt their guilt, hid in the bushes because they were afraid. And that profound myth recognizes fear as something endemic in the human person. Maybe the fear even precedes the breaking of the commandment. Maybe the fear © Grand Valley State University �Love, Not Fear Richard A. Rhem Page 4   comes from that anxiety of splashing down the birth canal into a cold, wide-open world, bright and cold. Whatever it is, there's fear in the human heart. And if I were to rewrite the Genesis myth (now, there's presumption for you), that profound story, if it were to be written today, we wouldn't have Mr. Adam and Mrs. Eve in their blissful perfection and innocence, frolicking in the garden. We would have an animal with a dawning conscience, and then a consciousness of another. We would have a story of two animals becoming human, and in that becoming human, in consciousness, self-consciousness, and consciousness of the other, we would have the first glimmerings of the possibility of relationship and community and, in the further development, we would have the first glimmerings of the possibility of love, of love in relationship, and we would understand even as far down the line as we are at this point in that evolutionary process of which we are a part, that there is a fear in the core of our being because we carry with us that whole genetic code, we carry with us that whole collective unconscious of the animal that survived because there was fear as a defense mechanism and alertness to every threat, a suspicion of every movement. Who survived? Those who had the savvy to fear and that fear, that threat to my person had to be dealt with, and consequently, in spite of the fact that we have come to the point where we have learned to love and understand Spirit and have left that primitive stage far behind, we are still people who very quickly become afraid, and what happens to an animal that gets cornered? And what happens to us when we come under threat? I do believe that we are seeing it all over the map in our time, so much threat, consequently so much fear, consequently so much violence, because, you see, what we tend to do as religious people, and religion really is a defense mechanism against the insecurities of the abyss of life, what we tend to do is structure something that is very clear, very solid, and very sure. We want it secure; we want a place to stand. We want to know who we are, why we are, whence we've come, whither we're going. We want answers. Life is full of mystery. Life is marked by tragedy. Life participates in awful suffering. How do you figure it out? How do you exist? It's scary business, and so, one of the places we go for security, for certainty, for shelter and refuge is religion, and the more certain, the better. Give me a divine revelation, gjve me an inerrant Bible, give me an infallible Pope so that in the midst of this stream of history that is ever moving, ever opening up into broader vistas, I have a rock upon which to stand. When that rock moves, I become afraid, and when I become afraid, I can't love because love and fear do not dwell together. This is what John was saying in the fourth chapter of his first letter, perhaps the most profound statement of the scriptures, perhaps the one we would take if we could have only one - God is love. Think of the implications of that statement. God is love. Think of the light that that casts on the whole human story and the whole of reality - God is love. But, you see, if John simply said that and stopped, it would be one more propositional statement; it would be one more creedal © Grand Valley State University �Love, Not Fear Richard A. Rhem Page 5   affirmation, and it would be part of that belief system that we might cling to for security, and oh, how we want that belief system to be true and how we want that belief system to be believed by everyone else, and how we want every other belief system not to be true. Isn't that true? There was an article yesterday in the religious section of The Press that said that just down here south of us in some meeting of Deacons came the idea for a Millennial Campaign, entitled, "What If It's True?" The first proposition is, "What if it's true that Jesus is the only way to God?" Gosh, we want that to be true. Why do we want that to be true? We want to be true; we want to be right: we want to be right alone. The article said that we, Christ Community, could join in. They're gathering congregations now. Do you want to be a part of it? Buttons, flyers, posters, billboards. They're going to spend $243,000 at the turn of the millennium to suggest to under-churched and religiously deprived Western Michigan that it might be true, and I asked myself couldn't we better take that effort and live out something concretely with our neighbors? Because that's what John says. He doesn't leave it with, "God is love." That is a creedal affirmation. Creedal affirmations aren't true because we believe them. You can't believe them into truth. You can't find security and certainty and peace in any intellectual formulation. It's in the experience of love, dear friends. That's what John was saying. God is love, and the one who loves dwells in God and God dwells in that one. God is love, and the one who dwells in love abides in God and God abides in that one. God is love and when that is experienced, that becomes an existential, experiential reality that puts my heart at rest when I experience concretely love. John says, don't sit in splendid isolation contemplating God and fall in love with God. Well, there have been a few mystics throughout the centuries who were able to do that, but not according to John. John says no one has seen God, but you can see one another, and when you love one another, you are experiencing the love of God and the reality of God. He goes on, then, to say there's no fear in love. Perfect love casts out fear. It seems really simple to me and I don't know what I'm missing. Honestly, I don't know what I'm missing. I want to keep saying, "What are we afraid of? Why do we fear?" Because it is true - fear and love don't co-exist. There is hostility bristling across the table; there is tension in the room; there is over-againstness, adversarial spirit, mutual condemnation, threat, and down deep we're scared to death of each other. Then somebody moves in and loves, becomes the concretization of love, the embodiment of love, the word made flesh dwelling among us. In this we know the love of God, that God sent the Son, this concrete experience of incarnation, the embodiment of God in Jesus. That's where it started. It was in that person-toperson encounter. That's where love was experienced, and where love is experienced, somehow or other the questions dissolve and the fear is scattered. © Grand Valley State University �Love, Not Fear Richard A. Rhem Page 6   Where love prevails, there God is. John is so blunt. He says, "Don't tell me you love God when you hate your brother. If you can't love your brother whom you can see, who is flesh and blood, don't talk to me about loving God." So, this is my word this morning - Let us love one another and be agents of love out there, in every situation, every conflict situation, and every place where someone is being put down or marginalized or oppressed or taken advantage of or abused, because we have seen what love is, we have seen what God is because we have seen what love is, because we have seen love embodied and we have experienced it, haven't we? Isn't love that alone which transforms? It certainly is my story. The experience of unconditional grace, the experience of being embraced rather than shunned, the experience of being healed and helped and lifted, rather than left and discarded - that is transforming. All of the rigidity and all of the sincerity and all of the responsible religious structure cannot change one human heart. It can give guidance, it can coerce, it can control, but only love can transform, and where love is, fear will not be. And where there is not fear, there will not be violence and the destruction of one another. God is love. Those who abide in love, abide in God. There is no fear in love. Perfect love casts out fear. Jesus said to the woman, "Go in peace. You have a lot of love." © Grand Valley State University � https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/85d354e868444d829a6a1c1af37a95dc.mp3 237a50383fec4ba71171a03ea6227e6f 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 XXIII Scripture Text I John 4:18, Luke 7:47 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-0-19991024 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1999-10-24 Title A name given to the resource Love, Not Fear Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Richard A. Rhem Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Subject The topic of the resource Clergy--Michigan Reformed Church in America Christ Community Church (Spring Lake, Mich.) Sermons Relation A related resource Richard A. Rhem - An Archive of Sermons, Prayers, Talks and Stories: http://richardrhem.org/ Language A language of the resource eng Type The nature or genre of the resource Text Sound Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource audio/mp3 application/pdf Description An account of the resource A sermon given by Richard A. Rhem (Dick) on October 24, 1999 entitled "Love, Not Fear", on the occasion of Pentecost XXIII, at Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI. Scripture references: I John 4:18, Luke 7:47. Community of Grace God is Love https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/a7517f7d56361154254e3731116e878b.pdf 011490e9050e0e06df7e39e1ac9a70d9 PDF Text Text Love, the Bridge between Now and Then A Service of Worship in Celebration of the Life of Mary June Packer, June 11, 1933 – January 5, 2015 Text: I Corinthians 13: 4-13, I John 4: 7-8, 12, 16 Richard A. Rhem The Lee Chapel, Sytsema Funeral Homes, Norton Shores, Michigan Monday, January 12, 2015 I have expressed to Bob and the family my deep sadness and shock at June’s sudden passing. I have been with them before in a time of tragic loss, felt bonded to them walking through the death of Mark less than thirteen months ago – and now, with no time to prepare to the extent that is possible – June’s death. From the moment I learned of her death I began to think of this moment, which is always the case with me. How can I bring her life to expression in the context of our Christian faith in which she was deeply nurtured? There was a time, perhaps two decades ago, when the Packers began to make a pilgrimage to Spring Lake on Sundays. That was quite a dynamic period for us at Christ Community Church. Without going into that whole experience, I suspect Bob and June were attracted by the ambience of grace and love that marked our community. There were open hearts and open arms to embrace any and all who longed for the smile of God’s favor as it came to expression in our midst. I may or may not be totally correct in my surmise, but what causes me to think thus is the person I came to know as June. She had a grace about her. She loved easily, deeply, broadly and, of course, Bob her willing accomplice. That is the context out of which my meditation arises as we celebrate her life. Love, the Bridge between Now and Then In the decade of my retirement I have continued to wrestle with the God Question, our whence and whither and the meaning of our being in the meantime. As I grow older, I suppose I grow more open to life’s deep questions – the ultimate questions. A few weeks ago one of Grand Rapids’ fine churches invited me to lead a discussion on heaven in an adult forum. I was to be the third of three guests. As © Grand Valley State University �Love, the Bridge between Now and Then Richard A. Rhem Page 2 the time drew near I received an email that told me how the session was being announced: The Rev. Richard A. Rhem will facilitate a discussion on faith, life, heaven and human experience. We will talk about classical interpretations of Scripture, the progressive perspective, and whatever else comes to mind. Well, needless to say, I knew that was way beyond my capacity. But, since the initial invitation mentioned heaven, following the first two presentations on books recording near death experiences, I focused on heaven or, more accurately – Is this all there is or is there more to come? Of course, no one knows; this is not a mystery that human rationality can solve with more intense research. Finally it is a matter of trust – fundamental trust – and, being within the Christian tradition, we hear the biblical witness. The more I ponder our human existence before the face of the ultimate Mystery, the more I am convinced that Love is the Source, Ground and Goal of Being and, thus, of our being. In the Scripture I read from I John 4, we have the claim that God is Love. This is a fascinating paragraph for, after that statement, the writer goes on to acknowledge that no one has ever seen God but, he continues, If we love one another, God lives in us, and his love is perfected in us. And later he declares, God is love, and those who abide in love abide in God, and God abides in them. This is a profound insight into Ultimate Being and our sharing in that ultimate reality to the extent that we love and are loved. Such human love is described nowhere more fully than in St. Paul’s Hymn of Love in I Corinthians 13. Verses 4 to 7 are a portrait of one who loves and, frankly, I suspect you will, with me, see in that description a portrait of June. But it is the next paragraph to which I would point for there we see referenced the fact that human being is immersed in mystery we cannot dissolve. Without explaining the context to which St. Paul addresses his claim, I would only say he acknowledges that in our present existence we live with questions and a dull and dim view of life’s mystery. …now we see in a mirror dimly. Questions plague us – all the whys, all the seemingly senseless suffering and tragedy. But that is not the last word – to the “now” there is a “then.” © Grand Valley State University �Love, the Bridge between Now and Then Richard A. Rhem Page 3 For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then we will see face to face. Now I know only in part; then I will know fully, even as I have been fully known. Love never ends. Loving here we gain a glimpse of something more. Losing those we love, we have a deep assurance that they have moved from love’s “now” to love’s “then,” lost in wonder, love and praise. I offer this hope and comfort to you, not because the Bible says so, but out of an ever-deepening experience, a human experience – of love now which the fundamental trust of my life assures me of love then – the perfection, completion, fullness of our deepest loves and fondest hopes. Our loves now are yet beset by pain, loss, deep grief. There is no denial of that – only the denial that that is the last word. Love is now saturated with tears; Love is then in fullness in the Sacred Presence who is Love. Now, Love – heaven’s foretaste; Then, Love – heaven’s fullness. With us, June knew the now; before us, she knows the then, which for her is the Eternal Now. Could we say, Heaven is here; Heaven is now; and the best is yet to be! Let us pray. O God, we would be still and know that You are God – Source of all being, Mysterious Mover of the ongoing cosmic drama, creatively breathing fresh surprises into the tapestry of our history, graciously present to us in those moments of awareness when we come to ourselves, when for at least a brief time, light dawns upon us and we are saturated with wonder – at the sight of setting sun or starry sky, or landscape bathed in brilliant winter sun glistening on newly fallen snow. Then in silence and solitude we know what is beyond knowing – © Grand Valley State University �Love, the Bridge between Now and Then Richard A. Rhem then a serenity sweeps over our souls and we know all is gift, for we did not create ourselves nor our world – not sun or moon, not the air we breathe, not the restless surf locked under miles of ice, unable to caress the sandy beach. Then we know we are part of something so much larger than the narrow parameters of our daily experience and limited understanding. Before the wonder of it all, we sense we are embraced, caught up in something the dimensions of which we cannot begin to take in – that Mystery that has addressed us, eliciting from us in turn the response of address, when from our depths we utter, “O God.” Then, knowing beyond knowing, we know we have been found by our Source and in turn have found our resting place. Source and resting place, present to us in mysterious and gracious Presence – it is enough. Only gratitude fills our being. O God, in moments of awareness when we are attentive, present to the awesome gift of life, the beauty, the marvel of it all, the potential of the human creature, whose consciousness is the consciousness of the cosmos, whose voice is the speech of Being, we are lost in wonder, love and praise. June lived with such deep awareness and wonder. June was one of those rare persons, embracing the world, feeling deep passion and able to bring truth and beauty to expression through her gift of artistry. And her love of bird and flower and earth’s grandeur brought to expression in her art was a faint sign of her deep love of those in her intimate circle of family and beyond. © Grand Valley State University Page 4 �Love, the Bridge between Now and Then Richard A. Rhem Deep lover she was, whose embrace gave assurance that all would be well and the best was yet to be. The grace and dignity with which she responded to tragedy and deep hurt evidenced one of great soul – and enabled those who lived in the ambience of her grace to move on without bitterness, with love and hope. All of this was the fruit of her deep rootedness in Your Love, O God. You uphold us with everlasting arms. You overshadow us with a gracious Presence. You bear us up on eagle’s wings; beneath your sheltering wings we find refuge and peace. Sacred Mystery of all being, of our being, consciously aware of our lives in your light, we worship. We know that all will be well, all will be well. All manner of things will be well. Now, while our hearts are open, our spirits tender, mantle us with Your gentle grace. Assuage deep grief. Heal us, O God; heal us now. And now, as Jesus taught us, we pray, Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be Thy name. Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen. © Grand Valley State University Page 5 � 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 Funeral Service for Mary June Packer Scripture Text I Corinthians 13: 4-13, I John 4: 7-8, 12, 16 Location The location of the interview Grand Haven, Michigan 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-0-20150112 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2015-01-12 Title A name given to the resource Love, the Bridge between Now and Then 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 Text Description An account of the resource A sermon given by Richard A. Rhem (Dick) on January 12, 2015 entitled "Love, the Bridge between Now and Then", on the occasion of Funeral Service for Mary June Packer, at Grand Haven, Michigan. Scripture references: I Corinthians 13: 4-13, I John 4: 7-8, 12, 16. Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource application/pdf 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/9dbcb451b96ff9e3cb83742e85208cb1.mp3 30b2370b9982755087c121bd854771ef Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Richard A. Rhem Collection Description An account of the resource Text and sound recordings of the sermons, prayers, services, and articles of Richard Rhem, pastor emeritus of Christ Community Church in Spring Lake, Michigan, where he served for 37 years. Starting in the mid 1980's, Rhem began to question some of the traditional Christian dogma that he had been espousing from the pulpit. That questioning was a first step in a long and interesting spiritual journey, one that he openly shared with his congregation. His journey is important, in part because it is reflective of the questioning, the yearnings, and the gradual revision of beliefs that many persons in this part of the century have experienced and continue to experience. It is important also because of the affirming and inclusive way his questioning was done and his thinking evolved. His sermons and other written and spoken materials together document the steps in his journey as it took a turn in 1985, yet continued to revolve around the framework and liturgies of the Christian calendar. Subject The topic of the resource Clergy--Michigan Reformed Church in America Christ Community Church (Spring Lake, Mich.) Religion Interfaith worship Sermons Sound Recordings Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Rhem, Richard A. Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/514">Richard A. Rhem papers (KII-01)</a> Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives. Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Kaufman Interfaith Institute Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Language A language of the resource English Type The nature or genre of the resource Sound Text Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context KII-01 Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant 1981-2014 Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource audio/mp3 text/pdf Sound A resource primarily intended to be heard. Examples include a music playback file format, an audio compact disc, and recorded speech or sounds. Event Eastertide VII Series On Being an Easter People Scripture Text I Corinthians 12: 31, 13:13 Location The location of the interview Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context KII-01_RA-0-19900527 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1990-05-27 Title A name given to the resource Love: The Spirit's Highest Gift 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 27, 1990 entitled "Love: The Spirit's Highest Gift", as part of the series "On Being an Easter People", on the occasion of Eastertide VII, at Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI. Scripture references: I Corinthians 12: 31, 13:13. Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Lemmen Library and Archives