801 24 26018 https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/9b841b9274ae7c4ca0f695d1cd2b62d8.pdf cbb23d9687b4a40a8c78b897a236e882 PDF Text Text The Integrity of Saying No From the series: Faces Around the Cross Text: Psalm 8:6; Luke 23:39 Richard A. Rhem Christ Community Church Spring Lake, Michigan February 23, 1997 Transcription of the spoken sermon As I was contemplating the portraits of the four evangelists, and looking at the faces around the cross, I was struck by the face of one who has perhaps found his way into many, many Christian sermons, but one who has gotten consistently bad press, that is, the criminal crucified with Jesus who continued to mock to the end. All four evangelists tell us that Jesus was crucified between two criminals. Mark tells us that both taunted him. But, only Luke carries on a conversation between the two crosses, and in Luke's account we have the one criminal continuing to mock and deride Jesus, even in his own hour of execution, whereas the other, recognizing his fate, pleads with Jesus for mercy and finds it. Obviously, in the portrait that Luke is painting, we have the picture of Jesus in the middle, and then the criminal on the right and the criminal on the left, two opposite responses. What the evangelist is trying to portray to us is that it is possible to rebel to the end and miss God's grace, or even at the last moment to surrender and find God's grace. Now, quite clearly, that is Luke's intention. But I, contemplating the scene, want to put a bit of a different spin on it this morning. I want to think about that rebellious criminal in a different light than he is usually understood in the Christian Church. It's so easy for us in the Church to write people off, to damn people to hell, to recognize their rebellion or their revolt, their sinfulness or their wickedness and be done with them. But, as I've been thinking about that scene of crucifixion, it has occurred to me that, far too often, for far too long in the history of the Church, what we have been concerned about is the individual salvation of our souls, even while, perhaps, the world is going to hell, unraveling, full of injustice and oppression. I want to suggest to you something this morning that may be a bit shocking, but which I hope before I am through, you will understand, and that is that there are some things in the world that are more important than one's individual salvation. There are some things that are more important than whether or not one has a cozy relationship with God, and there are some things to which we ought to be addressing ourselves which would get the focus off ourselves and our individualism and our egotism and our selfish concern for our © Grand Valley State University   �The Integrity of Saying No Richard A. Rhem Page 2   own salvation. I want to give the rebellious criminal some good press this morning. What kind of a criminal was he? Well, you can bet he wasn't some petty thief. The Romans didn't waste crucifixion on insignificant individuals. Maybe we get a hint of why he was hanging there from the story of Barabbas that the evangelists tell us about - Pilate wanted to release Jesus or Barabbas, hoping, according to the account, that he wouldn't have to condemn Jesus. The crowd would have nothing of it. But Mark tells us that Barabbas was in prison for insurrection and the more we know about the times of Jesus, that Palestinian society under Roman domination, the more we know that it was a brutal time. It was a land that was occupied by a foreign oppressor. The heel of Rome was heavy on the necks of the people. They were not only under the oppression of a foreign occupier, but under the oppressions, the manipulation, and the abuse of the local aristocracy in collaboration with the occupier. We know that people were being driven off their land; people were being driven into abject poverty. The Roman governors and tribunes had no qualms of conscience to release their legions to slaughter some rebellion here or there. It was a time that ran with blood; it was a time of terrible human suffering; it was a time when there were those who were rising up to say, "Enough." It's the kind of human response that we are not a stranger to in our own world, which is marked by terrorism. We who are so insulated from so much of the pain and darkness of the world read and hear about terrorism and we shake our heads and say, "What an awful thing," and certainly it is an awful thing because so often the innocent suffer while the terrorists seem to have no consideration for human life, not their own or that of others. We wonder what it is that can drive a human person into that kind of mode, that kind of behavior. We marvel that a human being can become so inhuman, so bestial. But, we know it's true. Down through history it has been true. There have been those who have seen oppression, have seen injustice and have risen up to face it. Robin Hood, romanticized, to be sure, but the one who robs the rich to feed the poor. We remember the story of the French queen who, when told that the people had no bread, said, "Well, then let them eat cake." Such insensitivity is not overdrawn. We know the decadence and the indulgence of Czarist Russia before the Revolution and, if we marvel at the atrocities of the Communist era, then we need to remember the background of that reign of terror in Czarist Russia with its royalty and its luxury and its insensitivity to people. My point is that that's the way that the world is. The world has always been marked by injustice, by inhumane conditions. There have been people who have suffered terribly and there have been those who have said, "Enough," and who have put their life on the line and who have acted boldly in order to change their world. I think Jesus was that way - of course, of quite another spirit than that criminal hanging with him, nonetheless, seeing that which was wrong and seeking to right it, to put his life on the line for the righting of the wrongs of the world. © Grand Valley State University �The Integrity of Saying No Richard A. Rhem Page 3   I like to think of the criminal crucified with Jesus who joined the derision to the end as one who had a vision of the way things ought to be, as one whose soul was so seared with the human situation and its brokenness and its pain, that he grew barnacles and callouses on his soul until he became a person who, in the face of his own horrible death, continued mocking to the end, refusing to cave, refusing to grovel, refusing to beg for mercy. I see something heroic in that. I see something attractive in that. As I said a moment ago, perhaps it's something of the rebel in me, but I like a person who is a rebel with a cause, who is willing to put his life there, and who is true to that to the end. Krister Stendahl, when he was here, made a statement that struck me, that it is a part of the dignity of the human person to be able to say "No" to God. Certainly in the biblical story, if the human person is taken seriously, created in the image of God, able to respond to God with the divine intention that that response be one of openness leading to the communion of Creator and creature, if God is serious and has done that seriously, then there is also the possibility, there must be the possibility of the human creature saying "No" to God. Krister Stendahl said it's a mark of the dignity of the human person that he or she can say "No" to God. I like to think of that criminal as having been so seared in his soul by the wretchedness and the injustice of all that was wrong in the world that to the end he was a rebel. When Jesus said, "Father, forgive them," he said, "I don't want them forgiven. I want them damned!" That was his spirit; that was his soul. Can you identify with someone like that? Is it possible that in a human situation we can be driven to that kind of rebellion, that kind of fierce purpose to the end, damning the consequences? I think that is a part of our story, and I think if we don't own that in Church, we're just playing games. We so easily write off that man damned by his own rebellion, damned by his own derision, "Good. Damn him." Mark Twain said one time, "If God did not want human beings to rebel, why did God create human beings in God's own image?" And in the Hebrew scriptures, there is enough ambiguity to make us wonder about that tree in the Garden of Eden - why did God put that tree of the knowledge of good and evil there? Certainly not for shade. He didn't need it for fruit. Well, traditionally, we've said the tree was put there so that God would test the human pair - would they follow the word of God and obey, or would they rebel? Well, there's another way to look at it. Might it be that the tree was there almost as an invitation to the human pair to take the initiative, to take responsibility for their lives and their world - to grow up, to mature into the knowledge of good and evil, to be like God? Ah, the divine-human relationship is so complex. The Psalmist begins to sing a song of praise - "O Lord, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth. When I consider the heavens, the work of your fingers, the sun, the stars, the moon which you have created, then I say, 'Who is the human person that you © Grand Valley State University �The Integrity of Saying No Richard A. Rhem Page 4   should be mindful of him or her?'" The humility before the vastness of the cosmic sky, a sign of the smallness with which we can understand ourselves over against the one who said, "Let there be..." But then he goes on to say, "You have made him lacking just a little of God." The King James Version was nervous about that because, you see, to put the human person that close to divinity can be a rather perilous thing, and so the King James Version, if you remember, says, "Thou hast made him a little lower than the angels." And the Jewish Publication Society in 1917 did the same thing. But then, the New English Bible moved it up a notch - "Thou hast made him a little less than god," with a small g, "A little less than a god." Finally, the Revised Standard Version and the Jewish Publication Society of 1985 put it in the way it really is in the Hebrew - "Thou hast made him to lack just a little of God." So, what is this divine-human relationship? In a fascinating book by Richard Friedman, he talks about the hidden face of God and how from the beginning God is active and present and speaking and doing things, and then, as the story progresses, God seems to withdraw, to be present less and less. Maybe you've read God, a Biography, by Jack Miles. That was written on the basis of some of Friedman's ideas, the withdrawal of God and the balance of God and human changing over the centuries, with God withdrawing and the human taking a greater role, incrementally taking responsibility for this world, for this universe. That really is in the story itself. God, as it were, says, "Here it is. You run with it. Grow up. You're responsible for it." It's like the parent-child relationship, the adolescent who needs separation, who needs individuation from parent and yet, who needs the parent and longs for the presence and the blessing and affirmation of the parent. That tension between the parent and the child, the tension between God and the human - God makes us so that we can aspire to the divine and yet calls us to a subordinate role, which rests uneasily on our shoulders. I think maybe the one who was dying, cursing still, was a mature human being, a rebel with a cause, and one who kept his integrity to the end. I like that. There is a certain integrity in saying "No," and there is a certain saccharine, sweet, sentimentality about a lot of Christian preaching and Christian piety, a lot of groveling, a lot of less than human, dehumanizing kind of groveling before an Almighty Something-or-Other, to which I wonder if God does not say, "Grow up and be my partner." I like the criminal who has probably never before gotten any good press in a Christian sermon. I like something about him, and I think maybe Jesus did, too. Jesus responded to the one who said, "Lord, remember me." And there's good place for that and we'll come there next week, but Jesus didn't respond to the taunts of the other. He said to the one, "Paradise tomorrow." And I would like to believe that the one who was taunting him on the other side was loved by Jesus just as much, because I like to think that Jesus knew how pained a human soul can be. I like to think that Jesus understands when one has been so hurt, so broken, that one simply will not, cannot yield and turn. I like to think that Jesus knows the depths of the possibility of the rebellion out of a broken © Grand Valley State University �The Integrity of Saying No Richard A. Rhem Page 5   human existence and lets it be, because he knows that on the morrow he'll meet that one, too. And he knows that when that one comes into encounter with the love and mercy of God, that one will become a rebel without a cause. © Grand Valley State University � https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/b951b69e77ee075429d27e5eb72fdfdf.mp3 1954f85a845239f3e493b5757f018b71 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Richard A. Rhem Collection Description An account of the resource Text and sound recordings of the sermons, prayers, services, and articles of Richard Rhem, pastor emeritus of Christ Community Church in Spring Lake, Michigan, where he served for 37 years. Starting in the mid 1980's, Rhem began to question some of the traditional Christian dogma that he had been espousing from the pulpit. That questioning was a first step in a long and interesting spiritual journey, one that he openly shared with his congregation. His journey is important, in part because it is reflective of the questioning, the yearnings, and the gradual revision of beliefs that many persons in this part of the century have experienced and continue to experience. It is important also because of the affirming and inclusive way his questioning was done and his thinking evolved. His sermons and other written and spoken materials together document the steps in his journey as it took a turn in 1985, yet continued to revolve around the framework and liturgies of the Christian calendar. Subject The topic of the resource Clergy--Michigan Reformed Church in America Christ Community Church (Spring Lake, Mich.) Religion Interfaith worship Sermons Sound Recordings Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Rhem, Richard A. Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/514">Richard A. Rhem papers (KII-01)</a> Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives. Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Kaufman Interfaith Institute Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Language A language of the resource English Type The nature or genre of the resource Sound Text Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context KII-01 Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant 1981-2014 Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource audio/mp3 text/pdf Sound A resource primarily intended to be heard. Examples include a music playback file format, an audio compact disc, and recorded speech or sounds. Event Lent II Series Faces Around the Cross Scripture Text Psalm 8:6, Luke 23:39 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-0-19970223 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1997-02-23 Title A name given to the resource The Integrity of Saying "No" 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 February 23, 1997 entitled "The Integrity of Saying 'No'", as part of the series "Faces Around the Cross", on the occasion of Lent II, at Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI. Scripture references: Psalm 8:6, Luke 23:39. Forgiveness Inclusive Grace Lent https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/d3928664aa0222aec5b15f3318019734.mp3 b27f7cb65a6030d76f4399ce20389e72 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 Midweek Lenten Service Scripture Text John 18:23-19:16 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-0-19970226 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1997-02-26 Title A name given to the resource Good Question, Pilate 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 Sound Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource audio/mp3 Description An account of the resource A sermon given by Richard A. Rhem (Dick) on February 26, 1997 entitled "Good Question, Pilate", on the occasion of Midweek Lenten Service, at Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI. Scripture references: John 18:23-19:16. https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/aeed2d00943d3a454a37a4c05b51127a.pdf 30886130ca3cac721b0cefc740f1abc1 PDF Text Text The Strength of Surrender From the series: Faces Around the Cross Text: Luke 23:42-43 Richard A. Rhem Christ Community Church Spring Lake, Michigan March 2, 1997 Transcription of the spoken sermon Luke paints a portrait for us of the crucifixion scene with the three crosses crowning the hill and the conversation between the crosses. Last week we considered the one criminal who died, still cursing, pouring derision on Jesus. I treated that particular person rather unconventionally for the Christian Church, and I did it intentionally because I believe it's so important for us to bring some imagination to the biblical text, to see if there are nuances, if there are deeper shadows that we've not glimpsed before, lest we be so familiar with the story that we come to church and we know how the sermon should end before we hear it. But, more than that, I said a good word for that dying criminal in order to address that which troubles me so often - the smugness of the Church. How easy it is for us to write off, to damn those who seem so alienated, so other than we are. And I even said a positive word about the fact that there is a certain integrity in saying "No," part of human dignity, God taking us that seriously that if our "Yes" is real, our "No" is possible. There is a certain integrity in that one who would not break. But, I hope I was clear that this was no ordinary criminal. I suspect that this was one of those insurrectionists who rose up at the injustice, the inhumanity, the brutal and cruel world of which he was a part, who saw in that unjust society a foreign oppressor and a domestic aristocracy that collaborated for their own advantage. He saw people driven off their land, into abject poverty. There was so much that was wrong with his world and he rose up and sought to do something about it. He was no ordinary criminal; Romans didn't crucify ordinary types. But, the hills outside of Jerusalem were set with crosses, thick with those who would dare question the coercive, violent life to which that people were subjected. And so, this one was one whose soul was so seared, who had been so crushed, finally rather than breaking before the threat to life, died, cursing the darkness. And I even suggested that such bitter cynicism and hatred that can grip the human soul could be broken only with an encounter with an unimaginable mercy and a love divine. That, I think, we can leave with the mercy of God, for I don't mean to say that it doesn't matter how we live. I don't think that anybody gets away with © Grand Valley State University   �The Strength of Surrender Richard A. Rhem Page 2   anything. But, it is the deepest confession of my life that there is a mercy and a love in God, the God Whom Paul says was in Christ, absorbing the pain of the world. There is a mercy and a love in God that is able even to absorb the venom of a human spirit which has been hardened, embittered, and dies cursing the darkness. That encounter, then, at death, would be the moment of truth for such a one. For, what is the encounter with God at death? Isn't it the moment when perhaps for the first time we see truly, when we can see through? Is it not that moment when we see our lives in God's light? Is it not, then, for the first time that we can see the designs of mercy and the configurations of grace and the abyss of love unfiltered by all of the static of the human situation? Can one still resist that light and love? C. S. Lewis, in his allegory, The Great Divorce – and it's only by way of allegory in myth and symbol that we can begin even to speak of these things – suggests that possibly one on the other side might linger in those gray, drab flatlands, refusing, resisting that bus ride into the center of light. Who knows? We ought not to know too much when it's beyond the limits of human knowing. I don't know. But this, again, I believe and this is at the center of my passion - if there is a final, absolute "No," it will not be God's "No." It will be a "No" that we utter in the full light of amazing grace and unconditional love, and to say "No" in the face of such love and grace - that I cannot imagine. Having said that, let me go on to say that to die cursing the darkness is a very great tragedy. To die with one's soul shriveled, encrusted is a human tragedy. There are those who move into that kind of experience and then, through time, move out and heal, thank God. There are some who live long in that embittered state. God be merciful to them. And there are some that have been so damaged and so hurt by Church or by society or by state or whatever, that, like the one on the cross, they die cursing the darkness. And that's a great tragedy, for such a person dies before they live, and as Luke portrays that crucifixion scene, as he paints his picture, he tells us that there is another possibility and it is the possibility that we see in the one on the other side of Jesus. What happened to him? How do things like that happen? What kind of a breakthrough was it that in his last hour transformed his life, enabling him to live before he died? Was it watching the one in the center and the one on the other side? Was it watching his partner in crime cursing the darkness to his last breath in contrast to the one on the center cross praying for those who were crucifying him? Did the prayer, "Father, forgive them for they know not what they do," somehow or other break through his defenses? Did he see in his brother, dying full of hate, the stark contrast with Jesus, dying full of grace? And did he see it all in a moment? What happens to one in such a moment? Well, we ought again not to try to do an anatomy, but I must say this - confronted with that cataclysmic contrast in spirit and attitude and ways of being and living and dying, this one on the other side was at a point of decision, for then it was for him to decide whether to stay the © Grand Valley State University �The Strength of Surrender Richard A. Rhem Page 3   course in the darkness or to surrender to the light that had broken upon him. If I would be faithful to this text and to my own human experience, I must say that if I affirm the belligerent one for the integrity of his "No," I must affirm the other for the strength of his surrender, for it takes courage to persist in the darkness and even more courage and strength to yield to the light, once it has been glimpsed, once it has dawned upon one. That is the critical moment which will determine whether one dies before one lives, or whether one lives before one dies. There is strength in surrender, and it takes courage and strength to face one's whole life project and to say, "I am wrong. My motivation was right, my concern was right, but my method was wrong, my spirit was wrong, my heart was wrong, my soul is dying within me! God be merciful to me! Jesus, remember me." There is an integrity in the "No" of the belligerent one. There is strength in the surrender of the yielding one, and don't fail to see it. It is a difference between heaven and hell. It is hell to die before one ever lives, lives in the wonder of the gift of life. It is hell to be imprisoned in the black hole of one's own bitterness, cynicism and hatred, even though God be merciful to such. I wish I sensed more compassion in the Church for those who have been so damaged that they cannot turn to the light. Oh, I see concern sometimes for the salvation of their soul, but what we ought really to be concerned about is the restoration of their humanity. God will take care of the rest. It is those two possibilities that Luke sets before us. There is a certain strength in surrender, and to surrender to grace is to begin to live before we die. © Grand Valley State University � https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/8e54c74e8ba5b45e5a18a7c3e88164ac.mp3 fcdab445cea78e1b551df9a8346f6183 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 III Series Faces Around the Cross Scripture Text Luke 23:42-43 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-0-19970302 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1997-03-02 Title A name given to the resource The Strength of Surrender 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 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 March 2, 1997 entitled "The Strength of Surrender", as part of the series "Faces Around the Cross", on the occasion of Lent III, at Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI. Scripture references: Luke 23:42-43. Forgiveness Inclusive Grace Lent Unconditional Love https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/798484f43902b2a3553c6d6a1fd93932.mp3 6be54b6c1f0aadba134be223020b7cde 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 Midweek Lenten Service 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-0-19970305 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1997-03-05 Title A name given to the resource Don't Cry For Me! 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 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 March 5, 1997 entitled "Don't Cry For Me!", on the occasion of Midweek Lenten Service, at Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI. 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/a9425f4594dfee88ff5b53a2deb1274f.mp3 79173865e24990985de15ef9881894d6 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 Midweek Lenten Service Scripture Text Luke 19:45-20:8, Jeremiah 7:1-7, Isaiah 42:1-4 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-0-19970312 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1997-03-12 Title A name given to the resource Soldiers at Play: The Human Shadow-side 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 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 March 12, 1997 entitled "Soldiers at Play: The Human Shadow-side", on the occasion of Midweek Lenten Service, at Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI. Scripture references: Luke 19:45-20:8, Jeremiah 7:1-7, Isaiah 42:1-4. https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/af11ba21627cab30a51a79d593049cf6.pdf f396adb112e81874a13138be6862e863 PDF Text Text Too Little, Too Late From the series: Faces Around the Cross Text: John 12:41-42; John 19:38-39 Richard A. Rhem Christ Community Church Spring Lake, Michigan Lent, March 16, 1997 Transcription of the spoken sermon On the Op Ed page of a recent New York Times, there were two commentaries, both of them discussing President Clinton, both of them by rather well-known columnists. The first one was by Gary Wills, who wrote about the campaign finance fiasco and the use of the Lincoln bedroom as a favor for the gaining of some financial support. He said, "You know what, really, is the big deal? The whole world runs on doing favors and it's not only in political office, but don't we all do favors for our friends? And is Chelsea the only one who can have guests at the White House?" Then he mentioned one of his favorite novel characters, Jimmy Flannery, who lived in the era of the old Mayor Richard Daley of Chicago when Chicago ran very well through the precinct bosses and favoritism and patronage, and he says, "As a matter of fact, I think a lot of people enjoyed that much more than the present faceless, bureaucratic regime. Now, if someone does a favor and it affects policy, then complain, but, otherwise, let's face it - don't we all do favors, one for another, and isn't that really the way the world works?" The other columnist was Anthony Lewis. His column was a very sharp critique of the President, for he, too, referred to the campaign finance matter, but he said, "I'm concerned about deeper substantive policy decisions in which the President has failed to stand for his principles." He referred to a recent article in the Atlantic Monthly about welfare reform, written by Peter Edelman, who was the Assistant Secretary for Health and Human Services. He resigned when Clinton signed the welfare bill because he believed that, although there was the need to reform the system and there was much good accomplished, there also was much that was simply mean-spirited and was the saving of dollars at the expense of the most vulnerable of society. Anthony Lewis, citing Edelman's article, goes on to say there are people who are mystified by the President, how he can betray principles that apparently he seems to affirm. But Anthony Lewis said it's not a mystery at all, for Bill Clinton will not stand for his principles if it puts him at a political disadvantage. That's a damning criticism and I am not here this morning to talk about campaign finance, welfare reform, or President Clinton. I use it as an illustration © Grand Valley State University   �Too Little, Too Late Richard A. Rhem Page 2   of that which confronts all of us every day of our life - the question as to whether or not we will stand up, speak up and act on our principles, or whether we will be silent, simply saying nothing in order to keep peace at any price. It's easy enough to take potshots at a sitting President. It is easy enough to ridicule the politician for the compromises that he or she must make, failing to remember that politics is the art of compromise in order to keep the system functioning. It is not that they alone face this dilemma; they are simply the most visible among us, for all of us, every day, get into situations and circumstances in which we have to decide Do I say something, or do I keep silent? Do I tell the truth in which I believe, or do I let it rest? At the office, at work, in our professions, in the school system, community, indeed, in the Church - that decision that confronts us time and again - will I stand up and speak up for my principles, or will I simply shove it under the rug and keep peace at any price? The Faces Around the Cross today are the faces of Joseph of Arimathaea and Nicodemus. The fourth Gospel tells us that Joseph of Arimathaea went to Pilate to ask for the body of Jesus, that he might bury it, and he was joined by Nicodemus. John is the only one that adds Nicodemus to the burial party, but all four Gospels point to Joseph of Arimathaea as the one who gave respect and dignity to the burial of Jesus. Matthew simply says that Joseph of Arimathaea was a disciple. Mark says that he was a disciple who was waiting expectantly for the Kingdom of God. Luke says he was a good and righteous man who, although a member of the Council, did not agree with their plan and action and was waiting expectantly for the Kingdom of God. John tells us he was a disciple but, he adds, "secretly for fear of the Jews." And it is not accidental that John couples with Joseph the secret disciple, Nicodemus, who, he tells us, "came to Jesus by night." In John's Gospel, he is affirming Joseph of Arimathaea and Nicodemus. He is indicating that, in both cases, there was something else operative and yet, at the point of Jesus' death, he affirms them for "coming out of the closet," so to speak, identifying with Jesus and Jesus' cause, and according Jesus that final dignity. For John really was writing to his own community, also at a time of crisis, in which he was saying to them, "Joseph and Nicodemus finally, belatedly, but nonetheless, actually identified with Jesus and his cause; they made public their faith. Go, thou, and do likewise." That, obviously, is John's purpose in painting these strokes into his picture of the crucifixion. I admittedly am going to walk around that scene and put a little different spin on it, because I believe that John himself gives us the clue within his own Gospel about the nature of the action of Joseph and Nicodemus. You will remember in January during the season of Epiphany, I suggested to you that the fact that the light is come is a wonderful, wonderful truth and a wonderful reality, but that it is not enough that the Light has come, that to our insight we must add courage and wed action in order that we may be agents of human transformation. Light is not enough. Light, then, calls us to responsible action, courageously, in light of the Light. And I used that paragraph from John 12. © Grand Valley State University �Too Little, Too Late Richard A. Rhem Page 3   After closing the first half of his Gospel, the Book of Signs, John says Jesus did all of these signs and still they did not believe on him. But then he says that there were those of the authorities that believed in Jesus, but for fear of the Pharisees, for fear of being put out of the synagogue, they did not confess their faith because they loved human glory more than the glory of God. That is as damning a criticism as Anthony Lewis' criticism of Clinton, and it happens to be the same kind of thing. Nicodemus was obviously one John had in mind, and Joseph of Arimathaea, as well. John rescued them at the end of the Gospel because they finally came out, belatedly, and confessed their faith and identified with Jesus. But I want to suggest to you, at least I want to raise the question - wasn't that too little, too late? That's not a simple question, because I don't know what eventually happened to Nicodemus and Joseph. We don't have, really, the historical data, and so I have to admit that I'm simply working with the clues that John gives us in the Gospel. But, might it not be that Joseph and Nicodemus themselves would have said, "Yes, it was too little, too late." They did believe, you see. All four Gospels call Joseph a disciple. Luke says, "good and righteous." Mark adds expecting the Kingdom of God. Joseph believed; he knew in his heart that Jesus was right, but never confessed it publicly for fear of his position. And Nicodemus came to Jesus by night and he said, "Teacher, I want to know what's going on here because you could not do the things that you do unless God were with you." And so, these were not two people on the periphery who were just waffling. These were two men who were convinced in their heart that Jesus was the prophet of God, sent of God, the Word in flesh. I wonder what would have happened if they had stepped up sooner rather than becoming partners in the burial scene - too little, too late. It's not an easy matter, because this was not a simple situation. Can't you imagine Joseph and Nicodemus meeting in the men's room? Catching each other's eye in the midst of a stormy session in the council room, nodding and meeting out there and saying, "What do we do? We both know the truth." And one saying, "Yes, but we have positions of influence and if at this point we should step up, we're going to lose those positions, sure as the world. And if we're not inside, we won't have the influence, we won't be able to direct events down the line." The other saying, "Well, that's true. But, on the other hand, what if things get out of hand and we're only the two of us. It may get such momentum that we won't be able to stop it." The other one says, "Yes, but on the other hand, isn't it better, perhaps, to have the fabric of society maintained? What if ...? You know, Jesus is calling for a radical transformation of society. He is right; he's digging deeply into our own traditions of Israel. What he's calling us to is right; what he's calling us to do © Grand Valley State University �Too Little, Too Late Richard A. Rhem Page 4   would be for the ultimate salvation and health and well-being of our people, but what if that radicality should take hold? What if the Romans should move in and destroy this place? Caiphas is right - maybe it's better if one die for the nation than that the whole nation perish." They must have struggled with those things, because they were good, honest, responsible leaders in their community, and the answer was not black and white; it was not simple, it was complex. And so, they didn't do anything. Well, that's not quite fair. At one point, in the midst of a controversy in the Council, Nicodemus did offer a word of moderation and, in chapter seven, verse two, they looked at him and said, "Are you from Galilee, too?" In other words, he just about let the cat out of the bag and, at that point, being identified with Jesus, he would have been out of the Council and out of the synagogue. So, it's not a question of whether or not they were aware or whether or not they struggled, it's just a question if, with 20/20 hindsight, they didn't do too little, too late. Does one tell the truth if it will disrupt and disturb? Does one speak one's truth if it puts a community or institution in jeopardy? Is it better to have social conformity, society limping along with truth being denied, even when it's believed and understood than it is to speak the truth and take the risk that it all might fall apart and chaos ensue? Questions that are pertinent not only to nations but to professional practices, corporate entities, communities of faith wherever you live. How do you weigh, how do you weigh the way of wisdom and integrity and truth? It's the old Falstaff dilemma. William Shakespeare suggests to Falstaff that he flee away in order to be able to come and fight another day. But, sometimes, it's too little, too late. The first Broadway play I ever saw and maybe still the most powerful was Ralph Hochhuth, "The Deputy," which was a very sharp criticism of papal policy during the Nazi regime when the Holocaust was happening. That play was condemned by the Roman Catholic Church as unfair and untrue. The critique was that, in order to preserve the Church, the Pope was silent about the horror of the Holocaust and didn't do enough to alert the world to that massacre that was ensuing. Just recently, in a current journal, I read that issue still being debated, "The Deputy" still being talked about. Was it fair or wasn't it fair? Was the Pope right or was he wrong? Was his silence justified or was it criminal? Was it right to seek to preserve the institution under the domination of that Nazi regime, or is it ever right to preserve an institution at the cost of even a life, let alone six million lives? "Schindler's List" - Schindler was no saint; Schindler was a wild, money-spending cowboy! But he got caught up in that process, he began to see the bestiality, he began to see the demonic, he began to do what he could do to rescue Jewish people during that period of time, having saved 1000 or more through his own efforts, spending his own fortune. At the end of the film, and perhaps the most © Grand Valley State University �Too Little, Too Late Richard A. Rhem Page 5   moving scene, when the war is over and they are liberated, they take the gold out of their fillings and find it wherever they can and melt it down and mold a ring and present it to Schindler in appreciation for what he had done to save their lives, and he begins to weep, and he weeps uncontrollably because, he says, "Why didn't I do more? I did so little. I could have done so much more!" A wonderfully loved, beautiful, profoundly wise Christian leader died some time ago, and there were many beautiful things said in the eulogies that were offered. One eulogy said, "You were so wise. You saw so deeply. You saw so far into the distance. You understood so much. Why didn't you tell us more clearly?" Lewis Smedes grew up in Muskegon with deep roots in the Christian Reformed tradition, for the last 28 years taught at Fuller Seminary, lectured at Calvin Seminary and College last week, and was interviewed by the Grand Rapids Press' Religion Editor, Charles Honey. Not because of any probing on Honey's part, but because Lew Smedes, now retired, 75 years old but still with a passionate heart for compassion, said, "The Church is wrong on this question of sexual orientation! And it is misspent passion to fight as is going on." And then this really loving Christian leader said, "I don't want to disturb people, but people need to be disturbed." I don't know how Nicodemus and Joseph finally came to terms with this. I don't know what price they paid. I suspect, if they were given the gift of old age, they had come to terms with what they did, which was noble in itself. Perhaps they came to terms with what they had not done, even though, if they had stood up, spoken up, if they had been able to move events in a different direction, if they had been able to change the mind of the council to change the mind of the populace, Jerusalem might not have been destroyed forty years later, let alone the fact that Jesus might not have been crucified. Perhaps they came to see that to preserve any institution on a falsehood is futile. Well, I don't know how they came to terms with it, but I trust they did come to terms with it because, finally, if they were disciples of Jesus, as they were, they knew that in the end all is grace. But I wonder if, when they grabbed their grandkids and put them on their knee and spoke about their spiritual pilgrimage and their experience of life, they might not have stroked the hair of those little ones and said to them, "We did something, but it was too little, too late." And that's very sad. © Grand Valley State University � https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/b2236bcbb77742cbcf3aa5e65f875b53.mp3 1a4ef0bc86690e202795cc4cb8d0ae58 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Richard A. Rhem Collection Description An account of the resource Text and sound recordings of the sermons, prayers, services, and articles of Richard Rhem, pastor emeritus of Christ Community Church in Spring Lake, Michigan, where he served for 37 years. Starting in the mid 1980's, Rhem began to question some of the traditional Christian dogma that he had been espousing from the pulpit. That questioning was a first step in a long and interesting spiritual journey, one that he openly shared with his congregation. His journey is important, in part because it is reflective of the questioning, the yearnings, and the gradual revision of beliefs that many persons in this part of the century have experienced and continue to experience. It is important also because of the affirming and inclusive way his questioning was done and his thinking evolved. His sermons and other written and spoken materials together document the steps in his journey as it took a turn in 1985, yet continued to revolve around the framework and liturgies of the Christian calendar. Subject The topic of the resource Clergy--Michigan Reformed Church in America Christ Community Church (Spring Lake, Mich.) Religion Interfaith worship Sermons Sound Recordings Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Rhem, Richard A. Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/514">Richard A. Rhem papers (KII-01)</a> Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives. Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Kaufman Interfaith Institute Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Language A language of the resource English Type The nature or genre of the resource Sound Text Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context KII-01 Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant 1981-2014 Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource audio/mp3 text/pdf Sound A resource primarily intended to be heard. Examples include a music playback file format, an audio compact disc, and recorded speech or sounds. Event Lent V Series Faces Around the Cross Scripture Text John 12:41-42, John 19:38-39 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-0-19970316 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1997-03-16 Title A name given to the resource Too Little, Too Late 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 16, 1997 entitled "Too Little, Too Late", as part of the series "Faces Around the Cross", on the occasion of Lent V, at Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI. Scripture references: John 12:41-42, John 19:38-39. Followers of Jesus Sacrifice https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/41655169c6ae5cfbbaf238c779194c93.mp3 9cb80ed67861b308ba7b134f4deaf512 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 Midweek Lenten Service Scripture Text Luke 19:41-48 Location The location of the interview Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context KII-01_RA-0-19970319 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1997-03-19 Title A name given to the resource Anguish, Not Anger 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 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 March 19, 1997 entitled "Anguish, Not Anger", on the occasion of Midweek Lenten Service, at Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI. Scripture references: Luke 19:41-48. https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/18757b624cfc9a7131b8a65883554e6d.pdf 88b55107ca8783bb58991d0eb22cf5cf PDF Text Text Endless Love From the series: Faces Around the Cross Text: Matthew 27:55-56; Matthew 27:61 Richard A. Rhem Christ Community Church Spring Lake, Michigan Palm Sunday, March 23, 1997 Transcription of the spoken sermon The year was 1970, and the song by Tim Rice, "I Don't Know How to Love Him," with music by Andrew Lloyd Webber, was recorded. In 1971, Broadway was rocking with Jesus Christ Superstar, the rock opera whose centerpiece was perhaps that marvelous solo just sung so sensitively, "I Don't Know How to Love Him," ... "I want him so, I love him so, he scares me so." It was the year that I returned from Europe. In the year 1960, in this congregation, I was ordained. You remember the 60s? I don't remember the 60s because I was immune to them. I was inoculated against all that was happening in the social upheaval of the 60s, a period of time in which there were tremendous insights gained and great progress made in human transformation and the transformation of society, an era from which we have also reaped some bitter fruit. The 60s - that revolutionary time whose real impact will have to be sifted and sorted out for decades to come. But, I didn't live through the 60s; probably I was too old to be a flower child. But, had I even been the right age, I wouldn't have lived through it with any kind of depth or experience because I had been so traditioned in the piety of a Jesus who was a heavenly being and, at best, a divine intruder into this historical human scene. My Jesus, the Jesus of my nurture for which I will be eternally grateful, was, nonetheless, not a Jesus that I would have been able to recognize at all in the song of Mary Magdalene, for he was this heavenly being who dipped down into history, coming in order to die to bear the sin of the world, providing salvation only to return to the glory that was his with the Father before all time. That was my Jesus. And so, I would have been well insulated against the upheavals of the 60s and, as I returned here in 1971 and Broadway was rocking with "Jesus Christ Superstar," I was conscious of the criticism that was being fired at that rock opera, and yet in my own existential journey, having come from Europe where I was beginning to learn a Christology from below, I have to tell you, the words of that song got to me and I do believe that song was the catalyst for a long trek from that heavenly being who was a divine intruder to the flesh and blood Jesus who is my brother, one that I need © Grand Valley State University   �I Don’t Know How To Love Him Richard A. Rhem Page 2   not so much revere as one I could begin to love and honor, one before whom I could stand in awe. "I don't know how to love him," because, you see, there was that ethereal, eternal dimension, that transcendent reality, that presence of God that was in him so obviously, but he was my flesh and blood brother and I began to experience Lent and Holy Week and Good Friday as never before, as though I had never understood in the slightest what it was all about. Mary Magdalene knew. She is the face upon which we focus this morning, our final Face Around the Cross in this Lenten journey. Mary Magdalene, who really didn't know how to love him, who loved him so, wanted him so, and was so frightened at that which she was experiencing over against this one who was every bit human in her presence and yet, something more that she couldn't quite put together. Mary Magdalene is the most prominent woman in the New Testament. She is the most prominent person in the Gospel story of the life of Jesus. We read various references to her in the four Gospels. Luke tells us, in the eighth chapter, that she was a part of those women who joined the disciple band and was supportive of the disciples. Luke tells us that Jesus healed her, casting out seven demons, in the terminology of that day. We read that she was with the mother of Jesus at the cross. She was at a distance witnessing the burial, and she was the first one to the tomb on Easter Sunday. There was something about Mary Magdalene - the love and the devotion that comes to expression in the Gospel that causes me to think that she understood the reality of endless love, a deep, human, intimate love. It scared her so. She didn't know how to love him, but she loved him so. The story that we read in John's Gospel is the story of the anointing that happened in Bethany outside of Jerusalem in preparation, as it were, for Palm Sunday and the events of Holy Week that John would record in subsequent chapters. In the Gospels, if you read all four of them, there are basically two anointing stories. They may be reflections of one event, or there may be two events. The details of both events are mixed up in the four stories. That isn't important. We read in Luke 7 of another interesting anointing - a woman off the street, a prostitute who barges into the Pharisee's home during a dinner party, weeping over Jesus, her tears falling at his feet. She lets down the tresses of her hair and wipes his feet, drying her tears. Jesus speaks to her a word of forgiveness with those immortal words, "She has loved much, and the one who loves much is forgiven much." Luke doesn't say that was Mary Magdalene. In John's Gospel, the anointing before Holy Week, it's Mary, Martha and Lazarus' home, but it doesn't say Mary Magdalene. That Mary may be Mary Magdalene, she may not be - it doesn't really matter. This morning, I'm going to use Mary Magdalene because she was the preeminent feminine presence in the Gospel story, and in that act of anointing, she gave expression to the very central core of discipleship, according to the Gospel of John. That kind of loving devotion, that kind of action, that kind of extravagant expression of love gets the affirmation of John. He © Grand Valley State University �I Don’t Know How To Love Him Richard A. Rhem Page 3   doesn't use the words that Mark uses, talking about the same incident, when Mark says that Jesus said to the critics of Mary for this extravagance, "Leave her alone. And I tell you wherever this Gospel is preached, this story will be told in remembrance, in memorial of her." A strong affirmation of prodigal love, of an extravagant expression of love, of tangible, concrete love, of the love of one human being for another. Mary Magdalene - the most powerful feminine presence in the Gospels, gives us the supreme expression of discipleship in this act of extravagant love. As we reflect on it this morning, I want to suggest a couple of thoughts that come to me as I think about that scene, the anointing, that loving expression of Mary of Magdala. In the first place, I want to have us recognize how uneasy we are with that kind of wholesome expression of love. In the Church we do not handle well that deep and intimate expression of love, one human being for another, and when we find it even in the Gospel story, we hedge it in with all kinds of safeguards. The Church has done a great disservice to the world in our understanding of human love in its full expression. Jesus Christ Superstar was protested by the Church because, traditionally, we in the Church have been very, very tense about the possibility of bringing him down, making him flesh and blood like the rest of us. Even more recently, at the showing of the film based on the novel, The Last Temptation of Christ, by a Greek author, people picketed outside the theaters, saying it was blasphemous. In that scene in which the novelist, as an artist, tries to get into the head and the mind and the being of Jesus - Jesus who, if he was flesh of our flesh and bone of our bone, must have struggled with his vocation Jesus who, if he was really one of us, must have found his obedience only in the wrestling with his true humanity. In that film, Mary Magdalene again plays that role of a potential lover, maybe even wife or partner for life. In the Church we have not wanted to deal with Jesus, a real human being, and all of the implications of that human reality. The big word for love in the New Testament is agape. When I learned about agape in the seminary, it was a love that stems from the lover and flows out to the one loved, but the one loved has no loveliness at all. There is no reason in the one who is loved that he or she should be loved; it is simply the love that bubbles up within the lover. This is the love of God. This is the word used in the New Testament over and over again. I was so thankful this fall when Krister Stendahl was here, who is no mean New Testament scholar himself, who said we have misused and misunderstood agape. Agape love is love that esteems the other, that finds that which is valuable in the other and, therefore, it is not simply the outpouring of love from the lover falling upon one who has no reason at all to be loved, but it is the esteeming of the other. But, nonetheless, that is only one word in the Greek language for love. © Grand Valley State University �I Don’t Know How To Love Him Richard A. Rhem Page 4   Another word is the word Eros, and you won't find Eros dealt with in the Church. It is the Greek word from which we get the word erotic, and so you will understand that we can't talk about that in the pulpit. But, actually, the meaning of Eros is that yearning for the human person, it is that drive for union and that drive for union within the human heart and soul is no different in its longing after God than in its longing after the other. And there is no longing after God that does not find expression and concrete experience apart from the loving of the other. Ah, there are a few special souls down through the centuries, mystics, we call them, who got lost in some kind of ecstasy in contemplation of the divine in splendid isolation. But, it doesn't work for most of us. Most of us need another, another for whom the soul longs, whom the arms would embrace, the other body that is the embodiment of the other which, in the experience thereof, brings with it that dimension of the holy, the transcendent, so that in the horizontal realization of union there is the experience of that vertical dimension of the one who is in us and beyond us. We haven't done very well with that in the Church, even though the Gospel story makes Mary Magdalene the most flesh and blood woman in the Gospels, the preeminent feminine figure in the life of Jesus. If you read the writings that come from the early Church fathers (and they were fathers), you will be aghast, honestly. You will be aghast at the distortion of human sexuality. Marriage is a compromise to the weakness and the lust of the flesh. The brilliant Church Father, St. Augustine, even suggests that marriage is for procreation without passion. Incredible! But that strain of asceticism, that rejection of the body, that distortion of human sexuality has so permeated the life of the Church that, in all honesty, there is probably no group of human beings anywhere, in any other organization or society or institution who are more fouled up in the handling of human sexuality than the Christian Church. We are scared to death of it, and not without reason. It is so powerful. And in the 60s, when the flower children threw off the oppression and brought about the revolution, they also reaped the whirlwind and the tragedy that follows in the steps of the abuse of that marvelous gift. But we have to be honest. Mary Magdalene said, "I don't know how to love him. I want him so. I love him so. He scares me so." That is more honest than anything you will read in any Church Father for 2000 years, and probably more helpful in gaining an insight into Jesus Christ. That brings me to my second comment, and that is that, if Mary Magdalene in that intimate relationship, was moved off into the wings immediately in the Early Church we can understand why. Isn't it remarkable that the preeminent feminine presence is not heard of again? Instead, Mary, the mother of Jesus, is exalted to the place of preeminence. Mary, the mother of Jesus, is mentioned at the gathering on Pentecost. Mary, the mother of Jesus, becomes the feminine symbol for the Church, and, for those of you who have some feeling for the Virgin Mary, I don't mean to be disrespectful, but in all honesty, if it is a male-dominated clergy that is setting up the ideal of the feminine, is it at all surprising that Mary © Grand Valley State University �I Don’t Know How To Love Him Richard A. Rhem Page 5   Magdalene is removed out of the place she has in the Gospel and replaced by the Virgin Mary who is marked by submission, passivity and obedience? And in the Church still today the feminine is put down and there is injustice to a Mary Magdalene and there is the exultation of the Virgin Mary who, in the Gospels, gets an ambiguous press, who didn't really get it, who had to be distanced by her own son. The Virgin Mary, for all of the femininity she brings into the divine and into the godhead and all of that, all of the beauty of her intercession, her openness to sinners - all of that which has been used positively and is understandable - nonetheless, it is not the Mary of the Gospel. The Mary of the Gospel is Mary Magdalene. Mary Magdalene is the model of discipleship. She was the last at the cross; she was at the burial; she was there on Easter morning. It was Mary Magdalene who in her expression knew the secret of endless love, and it was because her life had been transformed and she loved him so, and she wanted him so, and he scared her so. And it was that love, that endless love, that has the affirmation of Jesus Christ. Maybe we are about to turn a corner where we'll see not the domination of the feminine, but the reciprocity and the mutuality of the masculine and the feminine and the honoring of both and the honoring of the Eros that is the yearning within us for union, in which union we experience something more - something more, indeed - the presence of the Endless Lover. © Grand Valley State University � https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/6745af0be2c4e814ad7ea8e20b431f61.mp3 2089b4e1a33ed36b99c00e168cf1c853 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Richard A. Rhem Collection Description An account of the resource Text and sound recordings of the sermons, prayers, services, and articles of Richard Rhem, pastor emeritus of Christ Community Church in Spring Lake, Michigan, where he served for 37 years. Starting in the mid 1980's, Rhem began to question some of the traditional Christian dogma that he had been espousing from the pulpit. That questioning was a first step in a long and interesting spiritual journey, one that he openly shared with his congregation. His journey is important, in part because it is reflective of the questioning, the yearnings, and the gradual revision of beliefs that many persons in this part of the century have experienced and continue to experience. It is important also because of the affirming and inclusive way his questioning was done and his thinking evolved. His sermons and other written and spoken materials together document the steps in his journey as it took a turn in 1985, yet continued to revolve around the framework and liturgies of the Christian calendar. Subject The topic of the resource Clergy--Michigan Reformed Church in America Christ Community Church (Spring Lake, Mich.) Religion Interfaith worship Sermons Sound Recordings Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Rhem, Richard A. Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/514">Richard A. Rhem papers (KII-01)</a> Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives. Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Kaufman Interfaith Institute Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Language A language of the resource English Type The nature or genre of the resource Sound Text Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context KII-01 Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant 1981-2014 Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource audio/mp3 text/pdf Sound A resource primarily intended to be heard. Examples include a music playback file format, an audio compact disc, and recorded speech or sounds. Event Palm Sunday Series Faces Around the Cross Scripture Text Matthew 27:55-56, Matthew 27:61 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-0-19970323 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1997-03-23 Title A name given to the resource Endless Love 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 23, 1997 entitled "Endless Love", as part of the series "Faces Around the Cross", on the occasion of Palm Sunday, at Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI. Scripture references: Matthew 27:55-56, Matthew 27:61. Palm Sunday Prodigal Love https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/e056a3f21a2a356bf978dbb8c3a56778.mp3 6f3c10e429a2bf12ca70fe77a54fcb4b 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 Maundy Thursday 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-0-19970327 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1997-03-27 Title A name given to the resource Were You There? 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 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 March 27, 1997 entitled "Were You There?", on the occasion of Maundy Thursday, at Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI. https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/fe64d97f43b710847ebdd052f6d1d362.pdf 3f0e0971dc365a40934d48443bf08740 PDF Text Text Disciples at Second Hand Easter Sunday Text: Luke 24:30-31 Richard A. Rhem Christ Community Church Spring Lake, Michigan March 30, 1997 Transcription of the spoken sermon Soren Kierkegaard, Danish theologian, philosopher and prophetic voice of the 19th century, speaks of disciples at second hand - those who live through an experience only through second hand information. They are not really there; they only hear about the moment, the wonder, the real thing. And who are these disciples? They are Peter and James and John, Andrew, Nathaniel, and the rest of the twelve - those who traveled with him, listened to him, ate with him and finally abandoned him. Well, you say, that is a strange twist. I would have thought they were the disciples at first hand who encountered him in the flesh and witnessed to their experience in order that subsequent generations, indeed we ourselves, reading their witness, might become disciples at second hand. And that, of course, is precisely the reaction Kierkegaard was hoping to elicit in order to make his fascinating assertion that being a disciple at first hand has nothing to do with historical or physical proximity, but rather with the insight of faith that is the gift of the Spirit of God - an insight that was more likely to be the experience of one who walked with him in the flesh in the first century than of one who experienced him through the Spirit's fire in the twentieth century. Let me ask you - if you could choose to have been present during the days of Jesus’ flesh as opposed to the experience of him here and now through the Spirit - which would you choose? Not, would you choose to live in the first century as opposed to the twentieth just whether you would choose to have been present, on the scene, when he was teaching and healing in the days of his human, historical existence, or to experience him in a moment of revealing - a spiritual encounter, a burning sensation of present grace and love and beauty. Which would you choose? Unless freed to think deeply about this, I suspect the immediate response would be for most of us that we would choose to have been there. And if so, it is not © Grand Valley State University   �Disciples at Second Hand Richard A. Rhem Page 2   surprising, for Christian piety has conditioned us thus. For example, take The Old Hymnbook, #460 - "I Think When I Read That Sweet Story of Old," a children's hymn, vs. 1: "I should like to have been with them then;" vs. 2, "I wish that His hands had been placed on my head;" That, however, is not possible; however..., vs. 3: "Yet still to His footstool in prayer I may go." That I can do now and, "If I now earnestly serve Him below, I shall see Him and serve Him above." Now do you see there are two golden ages, so to speak? The days of the flesh, now out of the question, and Heaven, still in the future. And in the meantime, this inbetween time, prayer is a present possibility, but something less than past reality of physical presence, or future reality in Heaven. My experience tells me that has been a rather persistent and consistent Christian perspective. To be a disciple at first hand requires either being present with Jesus in the days of his flesh, or some day, "Face to Face," but now the best we can be is Disciples at Second Hand, reliving the stories of the past - imagining the glory that will be - but stuck in history's ongoing development with prayer our only access. Now, let me say clearly that is to miss the reality of Easter. Easter is to be experienced here and now, ever anew in the community of faith that lives in the Presence of the Spirit of God, which is the spirit of the Living Christ. That is the message of the Easter Gospel Lesson - the story of the encounter with the risen Christ on the Emmaus Road. Luke alone tells this resurrection story. Two disciples are leaving Jerusalem on Easter afternoon. They are dejected, discouraged, disappointed. Their world has collapsed, their hopes crushed, their dreams dashed. As they walk along the road to their home village of Emmaus, the Risen One joins them, but to them, he seems a stranger. He sees that they are sad of heart and inquires as to the reason. They cannot believe anyone could be ignorant of what has just transpired. They tell him of the death of the one they had hoped would redeem Israel. The stranger chides them for their foolishness, their slowness of heart to believe the Scriptures concerning the destiny of the Messiah. They approach the village and the stranger appears to be going on, but they invite him to join them as it is eventide and the day is far spent. The stranger accepts, enters their home, joins them at table and then assumes the role of host. He took bread, blessed and broke it and gave it to them. Suddenly their eyes were opened and they recognized him; it was he, Jesus, alive and present. And just the moment they recognized him, he vanished from their sight. Then, on reflection they say to each other, did not our hearts burn within us while he was talking to us on the way! Evening or not, they left the evening meal which had become a Eucharistic Feast, and returned to Jerusalem with the exciting news. The Lord has risen indeed! He was made known to us in the breaking of the bread. This is a beautiful Easter story. Its meaning is that being a disciple at first hand has nothing to do with historical, physical proximity to Jesus - whether the Pre-Easter Jesus, or the © Grand Valley State University �Disciples at Second Hand Richard A. Rhem Page 3   Post-Easter Jesus. It has to do with recognition, with eyes opened by the Spirit, with the experience of a Presence that makes the heart burn. In a lecture at Oregon State University a year ago, the New Testament scholar, Marcus Borg, host of a conference entitled "Jesus at 2000," quoted his colleague, John Dominic Crossan, who claims "Emmaus never happened. Emmaus always happens." Borg writes, "Emmaus happens again and again. Or, to echo the title of one of my books, Emmaus is a story about meeting Jesus again for the first time. Easter is about the Living Lord who journeys with us whether we recognize him or not. But, there are moments when we become aware of a Presence. There are moments when we know he is with us. That he lives. That we, too, are gripped and grasped by life, the gift of the Living God who again and again shatters the darkness, breaks the chains of oppression, overcomes the worst that evil can do. The God Whose light broke forth on Easter morning and shines and will shine until all is well." The aisle down which you will walk to this table set with bread and cup is the Emmaus Road. This moment, as every moment, is potentially the moment of fire and recognition, of burning heart and sheer joy when suddenly we know, we know a gracious presence enveloping us. We entered this Holy Season around the Table that is at the center of the Christian worship experience. Table fellowship was the hallmark of Jesus' ministry - the ministry of the Pre-Easter Jesus. All were welcome. All sorts and conditions of persons came; open table fellowship was the sign of the unbrokered Presence of God - the God Who is accessible to all - in a sanctuary, or at the seaside, with or without a priest or rabbi. On the night in which he was betrayed, he gathered his intimate friends around the Table, took bread, blessed and broke it and gave it to them. We entered this Holy Season around our Lord's Table and I suggested, in spite of the architecture which does not lend itself to table fellowship, nevertheless, we look at the Faces Around the Table - into the faces of one another - brothers and sisters with whom we have joined in this pilgrimage of faith, in whose faces we see God's Presence and experience God's grace. I made the point then that the Kingdom of God is not "up above us" in some heavenly realm, nor "out ahead of us" in some future age, but here and now. God's Presence is present to us in present experience as we look into each other's faces. In the intimacy of table fellowship, in the intimate connection with the other, we experience God's Presence as the Other. Have we not had such moments ... Can you not remember immediately such a moment full of fire and the reality of recognition when you knew more deeply than concept could contain or words explain - that God is - that Grace is - that all will be well, all manner of things will be well - perhaps a sense of comfort in the midst of deep grief, of calm in the midst of great danger, of overwhelming love in © Grand Valley State University �Disciples at Second Hand Richard A. Rhem Page 4   the embrace of another, in a child's face, the peace of a craggy countenance of one breathing her last. Moments to remember because they are moments of recognition. Moments we would grasp and freeze and hold forever, but moments only, not once for all, but again and again, as grace breaks over us. That is Emmaus - that is Easter. They recognized him in the breaking of the bread - at a kitchen table in a Judean Village, and sad and faithless hearts leapt for joy in flames of deep knowing and trust . No weariness can contain them - they run to the city to proclaim, The Lord is risen! © Grand Valley State University � https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/2a11f18544ab9b3a9926938a24a0aff1.mp3 575f801bd74ca55e8c2f6b93172279ab 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 Sunday Scripture Text Luke 24:30-31 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-0-19970330 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1997-03-30 Title A name given to the resource Disciples at Second Hand 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 30, 1997 entitled "Disciples at Second Hand", on the occasion of Easter Sunday, at Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI. Scripture references: Luke 24:30-31. All Will Be Well Easter Grace Presence of Spirit of God https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/e44487514c6a36c8dd97cc8de23ea6a2.pdf 2867cd20f3a929ab0582891e44326fd1 PDF Text Text Good News of Cosmic Dimension Eastertide I Text: I Corinthians 15:22; Matthew 28:19 Richard A. Rhem Christ Community Church Spring Lake, Michigan April 6, 1997 Transcription of the spoken sermon Easter is focused on Jesus. That's quite understandable, because Jesus is the one who was raised from the dead, and so our liturgy, the music, the anthems - all of it is very much focused on the risen Lord. That's understandable. But, I want to say to you this morning that Easter is not so much a matter of Christology, that is, the doctrine of Christ, as it is theology, that which is about God and that which God has affected. Resurrection was God's mighty act. Resurrection was God's sign, a sign in the midst of history of cosmic significance and eternal dimension. Easter is good news. Good news for the cosmos about God's intention, God's "Yes" to life, God's "No" to death, God's "Yes" to love, God's "No" to hate, God's "Yes" to light, God's "No" to darkness. It is understandably a story that lifts up Jesus, but it is more profoundly a story about God. Jesus died. If you followed or participated in the drama of Holy Week, if you were here on Maundy Thursday when the sanctuary grew dark and the altar was stripped and we left in silence, if you were here in the meditative, somber mood of Good Friday, if you came to the Easter Vigil and saw the sanctuary engulfed in darkness, then you know that Christian faith acknowledges that Jesus died. Jesus died a human death. Jesus as a human person entered into the powerlessness of death. As far as Jesus was concerned, it was over, which is why the brightness of Easter Sunday is not because of something intrinsic in Jesus, but of something intrinsic in God, the Creator, the One Who will not allow death to reign. God's way is life. That is Easter. It is a theological affirmation. It tells us something about God and it is the good news that in the end, there is life ! Paul understood that. Paul was one who was absolutely gripped by that vision of the risen One whom he knew had been crucified but now knew to be still living, and who had called him to tell this good news, particularly to the Gentiles. After he founded the Church in Corinth, he kept in touch with them via letters, like the two epistles to the Corinthians. They were raising some questions, and so, in his letter, the one we call First Corinthians, he deals with this matter of resurrection. He cannot express its truth, its mystery. He stumbles and stammers around as he tries to give expression to it, but of this he is quite convinced - that the whole of © Grand Valley State University   �Good News of Cosmic Dimension Richard A. Rhem Page 2   the Christian Gospel, the "Good News" has to do with the fact that God raised Jesus from the dead. He tries to explain the magnitude of what has happened by borrowing from the Genesis story, the Creation Story, the story out of Israel's tradition where, through the disobedience of one man, Adam, death came upon all. He says, as it were, Jesus is the new Adam, the second Adam, and as death came to all through one man, so life comes to all through one man. As in Adam all died, so in Christ shall all be made alive. Notice that the Hebrew thinking was always corporate, always concerning the total community. So when he said, "in Adam all die," he meant all humankind die. There was a commonality of the human story, which was under the sentence of death. In the light of God's action, raising Jesus from the dead, Paul saw a sign, a sign that that sentence of death was not ultimate. Rather, the ultimate, final, last exciting word was life. As in Adam all die, so in Christ all shall be made alive. It is as inclusive on the one hand as it is on the other - and here is where we sense Paul's strain of universalism. For what he is saying is that God's action in Jesus has implications for the whole human family. This Good News, the raising of Jesus by the power of God was a sign, a light, an indicator, a marker, something that could be laid hold on and believed in and hoped in for all of us. Paul had had a particular revelation, but he understood it to have a universal application. A transformation of the whole of reality, which he understood to embrace the whole of humankind. Now Matthew had a similar understanding of the momentous transforming power of the resurrection. Matthew's Gospel is the only Gospel that sees Jesus' ministry, pre-crucifixion, as focused strictly on Israel. Did you know that? The reason we don't know that is that we don't study these Gospels as units having their own context and their own message. We throw them all into the blender and pour out a homogenized Gospel. We pick up a little of Matthew, a little of Mark, a pinch of Luke and a dash of John, and we get one blended picture. But, Matthew has Jesus, pre-Easter, interested only in Israel, the Jewish people. He only talks to two Gentiles in Matthew's Gospel. One is that Syro-Phoenician woman. I love the way Krister Stendahl talks about that story. He tells it as one of his students preached it one day. Jesus and his disciples needed a retreat, so they journeyed into the countryside, beyond the precincts of Israel. A woman approached them there, pleading with Jesus to heal her daughter. The disciples said, "Go away. We're on retreat. The master said if we don't do this once in a while, we'll burn out. Go away." Well, she was not going to take their "no" for an answer. They said to Jesus, "Do something about this woman." So he says, "Look, I am sent to none but the lost sheep of the house of Israel." Can you imagine Jesus, meek and mild, shunning this woman, saying, "Look, it's Israel, not you"? She said, "But I have a great need." He said, " I can't give the food on the table to the dogs." This is Jesus, now, referring to the woman and Gentiles as dogs. She was quick. She responds, "Look, under the family table there are crumbs which © Grand Valley State University �Good News of Cosmic Dimension Richard A. Rhem Page 3   the dogs may eat." Jesus is taken aback and replies, "Woman, that's some faith. I have never found such a faith even among my own." And he healed her daughter. There was one other exception he made, and that was for the servant of a Centurion who was ill. He healed that servant. That Centurion also demonstrated great faith. If you read in Matthew's Gospel, you will find the story, but you don't find the reason that Jesus responded to that Centurion. You have to go to Luke for that. But, it's obviously the same story. Luke says, when the Centurion came, the elders of the synagogue came over to Jesus and they whispered in his ear, "Help him out. He paid off our building debt." True. True story. Luke 7:1, you can read it yourself! Two times only he addressed Gentiles in the book according to Matthew. For the rest, the pre-Easter Jesus was interested solely in Israel. When he sent out the disciples on their missionary journey, he said, "Go through the cities of Israel. Do not go any place where there are Gentiles." He said, "You're going to have enough to do before the end comes. You won't get through all the cities of Israel." Yet it is this Gospel, Matthew, that concludes with what the Church always calls The Great Commission: "Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature, to the nations, to the Gentiles, teaching them, healing, baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost." That's the conclusion of Matthew's Gospel, post-Easter. Now remember, this book is written six decades down the line. There's already now a Christian Church, a Christian community. I think we have to admit that the resurrected Jesus did not gather with those disciples and say to them, "Go to all the world and teach the Gospel and baptize them in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit." If that had been done, if it had been that clear a few days after Easter, there wouldn't have been such a struggle in the early Church to find out who they were and what they were supposed to do. Obviously, Matthew is taking the whole story of Jesus and then he's giving a distillation of what now is his understanding of the resurrection, what the implications were. For Matthew, the implications of Resurrection were that this one who had been focused strictly on Israel had now, by the power of God, been raised up to create good news for a broader community. Now was the time to break out of Israel's particularity and to create a community universal and inclusive, of all the nations, of all people. This Good News had universal implications for the building of another community. Krister Stendahl likes to say that Israel was Laboratory One. God's Laboratory One. Israel understood itself as a particular community that was, in its life, to be a light to the nations. And now it was time for Laboratory Two; now it was time to break out of that narrow community and to have, well, Gentile time. It was a broadening, a building of a new kind of community that was inclusive, that was universal, that was for all. Stendahl also notes that the Jewish people believed itself to have a particular revelation of the one true God, and the truth that it understood was the truth that © Grand Valley State University �Good News of Cosmic Dimension Richard A. Rhem Page 4   impinged on all people, but what Israel never expected was that all people would become Jews. Israel was content to be Israel, to live in the light of its revelation, to witness to that revelation, and to let the positive effects of its witness wash off on the world, but not everybody was supposed to be a Jew. There was never a movement to make the whole world Jewish. They were a particular community with a particular revelation and a particular understanding of salvation, and they shared it far and wide, but people could receive that light and remain in their respective communities. Stendahl believes that Matthew had the same kind of an idea for the Christian movement. Once again, it had a message, a particular message, a particular revelation, and it had universal implications. It was for the broadening of that community of faith, but it was not as though now suddenly the whole world would have to become Christian. The whole world should be told the good news and the Good News was for the whole world – Good News, that is, that God, the Creator, is a God of life and not death, that God is for us, that God has an intention for the cosmos. And all of that was and is enough to make you dance and sing, because the news is so good. That in this world where death and decay are all about us, the ultimate word is life and light and love and community! So, go tell the world! With the Christian movement, that's very likely the way it began. Now, the news was brighter. Now there was an exuberance, there was an excitement, there was a joy, there was a confidence, so that, in the wake of the resurrection of Jesus, a movement developed. Have you ever been part of a movement? Movements are spontaneous. Movements are powerful. Movements are confident. Movements are passionate! And in the wake of the resurrection of Jesus, recognizing now that this good news is about God Who says "No" to death and "Yes" to life, this good news was to be spread everywhere. It was for everybody. It was for the whole world. For anybody who would hear it and heed it and become a part of it - it was an open community now. But, that movement was so powerful, so full of fire, it gained such ascendency that within two or three centuries it became a force to be reckoned with. And as it gained in dominance, it became domineering. Then, contrary to the model of Israel that shared its witness but didn't force everybody to become a Jew in order to have access to God, the Christian Church linked its particular revelation with a universal mandate to make everybody like we are. Eventually it gained great power in its association with the state, with the Roman Empire. And over the centuries, for 2000 years, it has grown, it has become powerful, and in its wake we have a tragic history that I think as a Church we've never fully owned up to the Crusades and its brutal intolerance; the Inquisition with its burning of heretics and forced baptisms; pogroms, anti-Semitism, creating the soil for the horror of the Holocaust. Why? Because a movement became dominant, powerful. It had this wonderful vision of God, the God of life; it had this vision to share with all, but rather than remaining a witnessing community, it became a domineering © Grand Valley State University �Good News of Cosmic Dimension Richard A. Rhem Page 5   community, coercively using its power to enforce conformity to its particularity as though that particularity was to be of universal application rather than simply a universal witness, an invitation. And now, after almost 2000 years, the Christian Church, which has been so dominant, is tired. The Church is sick at soul today. Its shrill rhetoric only betrays its lack of confidence. In those early centuries, it was a movement of joy, it had power, it was soulful, it was exuberant, it was strong, it was empowered, it was open, it was excited, it swept the world! But, it's not a movement anymore, not really. It's an institution. It still has a lot of resources, it still has a lot of wealth, it still has a lot of numbers, and it can linger perhaps for a long time. But, it's not a movement; it's not strong, it's not vibrant, it doesn't have soul, it doesn't have passion, it doesn't have joy unspeakable, full of glory! It is a skeleton of itself. Its life is a denial of its message and a betrayal of the one who is its founder, who reached out in compassionate embrace to all. But, I think we're on the threshold of something new that's breaking. I think there's going to be a groundswell in this old world of ours. It's breaking out because good news cannot, finally, be kept under. And the good news is that the dream is bigger, that the cosmos is one and that all people belong together. There is underfoot something that will transform the face of the earth. And God knows if it doesn't happen, we'll destroy each other. Witness our history of divisiveness, violence, war and devastation. But, we're learning. Here and there, there's a straw in the wind. Last Sunday evening we finally made ABC News. Perhaps you've heard. We were linked with Mohammed Ali, this noble human being who can no longer articulate for himself. But there he sat, his wife next to him, who said for him, "Muslim, Jew, Christian - they're all God's children." And then we came on, 9 ½ seconds! We, too, articulating that the eternal embrace is inclusive. That it is arrogance to proclaim otherwise. Then later in the evening I caught the last half of the film, "Gandhi," and I was deeply moved again as that man of India who was so impressed with Jesus said, "I am Hindu, I am Muslim, I am Christian." And single-handedly, through a spiritual power, changing the landscape of that nation with all of the chaos and all of the death that ensued, nonetheless, affecting a transformation through a kind of spiritual vision and methodology that he learned from Jesus, among others. And, of course, Gandhi influenced Martin Luther King and there was in this nation a significant address of the evil of racism. And, as the second millennium is coming to its end, after 2000 years, this dynamic movement of Jesus People which has become a tired institution, wondering if it can survive, will yield up its arrogant exclusivity and there will be a joining of heart and hand, of all people of good faith who believe in God the Creator of all, Whose intention for all is life and not death, love and not hate, light and not darkness. Now, there's good news! It is news of cosmic dimension and eternal significance. And when we catch it again, the passion will return, the © Grand Valley State University �Good News of Cosmic Dimension Richard A. Rhem Page 6   confidence will return, the joy will return, the power will return, and the world will be changed! Alleluia! © Grand Valley State University � https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/72d150ea76bf119172e7c096ee95f092.mp3 a9e6a71dcac5909f8b355f5377d5bf80 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Richard A. Rhem Collection Description An account of the resource Text and sound recordings of the sermons, prayers, services, and articles of Richard Rhem, pastor emeritus of Christ Community Church in Spring Lake, Michigan, where he served for 37 years. Starting in the mid 1980's, Rhem began to question some of the traditional Christian dogma that he had been espousing from the pulpit. That questioning was a first step in a long and interesting spiritual journey, one that he openly shared with his congregation. His journey is important, in part because it is reflective of the questioning, the yearnings, and the gradual revision of beliefs that many persons in this part of the century have experienced and continue to experience. It is important also because of the affirming and inclusive way his questioning was done and his thinking evolved. His sermons and other written and spoken materials together document the steps in his journey as it took a turn in 1985, yet continued to revolve around the framework and liturgies of the Christian calendar. Subject The topic of the resource Clergy--Michigan Reformed Church in America Christ Community Church (Spring Lake, Mich.) Religion Interfaith worship Sermons Sound Recordings Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Rhem, Richard A. Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/514">Richard A. Rhem papers (KII-01)</a> Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives. Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Kaufman Interfaith Institute Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Language A language of the resource English Type The nature or genre of the resource Sound Text Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context KII-01 Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant 1981-2014 Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource audio/mp3 text/pdf Sound A resource primarily intended to be heard. Examples include a music playback file format, an audio compact disc, and recorded speech or sounds. Event Eastertide II Scripture Text I Corinthians 15:22, Matthew 28:19 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-0-19970406 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1997-04-06 Title A name given to the resource Good News of Cosmic Dimension Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Richard A. Rhem Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Subject The topic of the resource Clergy--Michigan Reformed Church in America Christ Community Church (Spring Lake, Mich.) Sermons Relation A related resource Richard A. Rhem - An Archive of Sermons, Prayers, Talks and Stories: http://richardrhem.org/ Language A language of the resource eng Type The nature or genre of the resource Text Sound Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource audio/mp3 application/pdf Description An account of the resource A sermon given by Richard A. Rhem (Dick) on April 6, 1997 entitled "Good News of Cosmic Dimension", on the occasion of Eastertide II, at Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI. Scripture references: I Corinthians 15:22, Matthew 28:19. Eastertide Global Community Inclusive Universal Grace https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/341452f085bac8d63bb25d1dc74a70f6.pdf f0273bcd2c2c12ae6fed468f9e375d51 PDF Text Text That’s the Answer; What’s the Question? Eastertide Text: Acts 3:12, 16; Acts 4:12 Richard A. Rhem Christ Community Church Spring Lake, Michigan April 13, 1997 Transcription of the spoken sermon I suggested to you last week that, in the wake of the resurrection, the Jesus Movement was dynamic, alive, confident, joyful, vibrant, and on the move, spreading across the ancient world like a burning fire, and that the Jesus Movement had eventually become institutionalized and that we are, down the pike 2000 years, a part of the institutionalization of that spirit of fire that broke out in the wake of Jesus' resurrection. Spirit needs form. Movements always become institutions, and institutions initially flourish and then they flounder and fail. They have a period of youthful exuberance, of middle-aged mediocrity, and finally weariness and defensiveness. They become sick of soul. It can be traced in all sorts and conditions of human organization and institutional life, and we just happen to be at the tail end of what was a great story - the story of the Christian Church. Israel had its story, its day in the sun. The Christian Church has had a 2000-year run. There's something breaking and the future form isn't yet evident, but out of the ashes of the Church's present sickness of soul will arise the Phoenix that will have a luster and a glory far beyond anything of which we have yet dreamed. I announce it ahead of time. How else could I be a prophet? The authorities, the guardians of the tradition, the temple crowd thought that they had gained themselves some time and some peace. They weren't bad people and they weren't really into crucifixion but, if need be, they would let Jesus die in order that the status quo might be maintained. Like the High Priest, Caiphas, said, "Better that one man die for the people that the nation be spared." Spoken like a true pragmatist. The kind of thing that you would expect some wise, old head in the councils of power to say. Not really wanting anybody to bleed, but better that one bleed that the status quo might be maintained. Institutional leadership is a burden. You sort of carry the whole world on your shoulders. You're responsible to keep everything together, responsible to keep the natives from getting restless, that life can go on with a modicum of civility and decency and comfort. And so, sometimes you have to make tough decisions. © Grand Valley State University   �That’s the Answer; Question? Richard A. Rhem Page 2   "Jesus? Well, Jesus will have to die, and then we can get on and this uneasy tension with our occupying power, Rome, and particularly those of us who are in the clergy, high priesthood will be able to maintain our position and our privilege because the perks aren't what they used to be, but they still aren't bad." So, Jesus dies and then, lo and behold, that crowd is convinced that he's not dead at all. They experience his presence and they say to one another, "The Lord is risen!" And they begin to experience a new transformed understanding of life, reality - that God, the God of Israel, the God of Abraham and Isaac and Jacob, the God Whom their forefathers and mothers worshipped is a God, obviously, Who is not into death but into life, and will not tolerate the darkness but will affect the light, and the end, obviously is not death, but life, and power and joy. The presence of the living Christ transforms that dispirited band of defeated disciples into flaming evangelists filled with good news. Luke, who tells us the story of Jesus in the Gospel by his name, tells us that he has researched the sources. Writing now several decades later, when there is already the early institutional Christian Church, Luke writes volume II, the Book of Acts. After telling about the day of Pentecost and the outpouring of the power of the Spirit of God, the spirit of the Living Christ, he relates the incident that we read a moment ago - Peter and John approaching the temple, still practicing their Jewish prayers, three o'clock in the afternoon, a beggar at the door seeking alms, his only means of livelihood. He is a cripple from birth. Peter and John say to him, "Silver and gold have we none, but such as we have, we give to you." (I usually say that, too. Silver and gold have I none. such as I have I give unto you. Here's a sermon.) But, Peter and John say, "In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, rise up and walk!" They grab him by the arm just in case he didn't believe them, and he feels the strength come into his limbs. He walks, he begins to leap and to dance and to praise God, and, well, you would have been surprised this morning if you would have found a bag person out there with a hand out suddenly come down this middle aisle, dancing and praising God. I trust the ushers would be present to usher him out because we do things decently and in order here, we don't want too much frivolity or praise or dancing or leaping for joy. Right? But, all the people, obviously, are amazed, astounded. So, they come crowding around and Peter and John say, "Look, this is no big deal. What do you think? Do you think we did this? Do you think it's through our power or our piety that this man stands before you, healed? Not at all. It is the name of Jesus. The God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob has anointed his servant, Jesus. That is, Jesus is the Messiah, Jesus is God's anointed one, that connection between heaven and earth. He is the conduit of divine power. It is through Jesus, the name of Jesus that awakened faith in this man, that caused strength to seep into this man. This man stands before you well, healed, full of health in the name of Jesus, not us." © Grand Valley State University �That’s the Answer; Question? Richard A. Rhem Page 3   Peter never missed an opportunity to preach, so he gave his witness to the resurrection, and that, of course, was the sore point, so once again the authorities have to move in. They thought they had done away with this pest. They thought they had gotten rid of this threat to good order, mediocrity and boredom, but obviously, they still had to deal with the problem. So, they arrested Peter and John. What else do you do? When you're in authority you just throw them into the holding tank overnight, let them cool off and think about it. But in the morning, they arraign them, they bring them before the whole high priestly family. Now, you've got a lot of vested interest here, and they say once again, "By what name, what power, what's the secret?" How did you do it, in other words? Peter, not always known for a sense of humor, but I think this time with a little needle, (even Christians needle once in a while; they confess it the next morning), said, "Oh, so we are arrested for doing a good deed?" Someone gave me a lapel pin the other day that says, "I got caught doing something right." Well, Peter and John got caught doing something right, and the irony, of course, wouldn't be lost on those in authority and so, once again, at the drop of a hat they preach Jesus living, risen, powerful, healing, and they conclude with that old declaration that was the very heart and center of that Jesus Movement which was a movement of Jews who believed Jesus the Messiah. They said, "The name of Jesus. It was in the name of Jesus, for there is no other name under heaven given among humankind whereby you can be healed. In the name of Jesus, because Jesus is God's conduit to history. Because Jesus is God's anointed one. Jesus was that one conceived by the spirit of God, filled with the Spirit of God, living in the power of the Spirit, crucified and raised in the Spirit." This is post-Pentecost stuff, and Peter and John give testimony to the fact that the eternal God, the God that Israel knew, the God of Abraham and Isaac and Jacob - that God of power, that God Who creates and Who makes alive, that God, through Jesus, made that man well. And there's no other way to be made well, because there's no other God, and that God is the God of life and of wholeness and of living. The word for salvation is a word that also has out of its root, salve. It means healing or wholeness, and it is interesting in this context that we have this man spoken of as standing there full of health, in full health, and then in the 12th verse of the 4th chapter, the word salvation is used, because often in the New Testament salvation was used as a word that pointed to that total restoration of the human person - physical, emotional and spiritual. And so, Peter's testimony is that the eternal God Who is connected to us in the bridge person, Jesus, is the God of life and of healing, Who creates wholeness and there's no other way to get it. Not through Moses, not through David or Isaiah or Jeremiah or Peter or John. It is through Jesus' name, Jesus who is the historical embodiment of the eternal © Grand Valley State University �That’s the Answer; Question? Richard A. Rhem Page 4   God, that's the way of healing and wholeness and health and salvation, life. That's the answer. Now, what's the question? Well, obviously, the question is whether or not a Buddhist can be saved, isn't it? Wouldn't that be the logical question that would fit that answer? I read all the commentaries I could on the passage and it didn't say anything about Buddhism or Hinduism or Muslim faith or whether or not other world religions had any true knowledge of God or mediated any grace of God. There wasn't any reference to this "burning issue," this burning question. Commentaries, good scholarly commentaries, some liberal and far-out, some conservative and ignorant, the whole spectrum, is what I mean to say, wherever you want to look. No one addressed the burning issue - is there salvation in any other than Jesus Christ? This text spouted everywhere, as though once you've said Acts 4:12, you've solved the thing, there's nothing more to talk about, and the Bible commentaries don't even address it! I wonder what's wrong with them? Or, might it be that the Church in its soul-sickness is so mesmerized by a nonproblem that it missed the whole point of the passage? The answer is that Jesus Christ is the embodiment of God, the conduit of grace and healing, the one through whom life comes and life is transformed. What's the question? The question is - How can I find wholeness? How can I be healed? How can I be transformed? How is this world going to be transformed? How is creation going to be mended? That's the issue. In that early movement of Jesus people, if you had said to Peter, "Can a Buddhist be saved?" Peter would have said, "Who?" "What?" I mean, Peter makes this bold declaration in this conflict situation. Do you think everything being said between the Israeli negotiators and the Palestinian negotiators is right on the mark, measured carefully in these days? Netanyahu and Arafat make statements, they look at each other and they talk to the press, don't they? They're in a conflict situation. The future of Jerusalem is at stake. The future of Israel is at stake. The future of the Palestinian state is at stake. The whole complexion, the future of their lives is at stake. Why do you think we have to go back there time after time after time to broker the peace once again? Why do we have to go back again and again and throw them together? Why do we have to force them into a room and lock the door and make them talk? Because their whole life, their whole future is at stake! Do you think they're rationally sitting back and carefully calculating the whole dimension of reality? They are so focused on that issue which is like a pyramid set on its head, their whole life is determined by what happens in these days, and they are making statements and claims and counter-claims, and so was Peter and so was John and so was Caiaphas and so was Annas. They were in a life © Grand Valley State University �That’s the Answer; Question? Richard A. Rhem Page 5   and death conflict situation. They were talking to each other, making their boldest declarations. Two thousand years later, in the cool of the situation, we take that statement that was made with hot blood, rip it out of its context and make it an answer to a question that wasn't even being raised. Our old friend, Krister Stendahl, says the right answer to the wrong question is always wrong. And I even hesitate to deal with these biblical texts because, you know, I can prove anything to you from this book. There's enough stuff here on the one hand and on the other. So, it is not enough. It is a sign of a weak, defensive, dying institution that it goes crawling through these pages looking for a text to say, "Ah! You see? You see what it says?" Dear friends, we've got to use our heads, to think. Because if you want to use Acts 4:12 as an answer to the wrong question, then I'll use Acts 10:38 as the right answer to that question. Peter's now in the house of Cornelius. Cornelius is a Gentile. Peter comes into that house expecting lightning to strike him dead because he's not supposed to be in the house of a Gentile. He's not supposed to have a ham sandwich with this man. And suddenly, he says, "Oh, I see. God shows no partiality, but rather, everyone in whatever nation who fears the Lord is acceptable to Him." Well, in Acts 4:12, Peter, you said this. Acts 10:38, Peter, you said that. What are you, nuts? What are you, Luke, trying to confuse us? Luke would say, "Look, folks, use your head. Think. Think. For God's sake, think!" Jesus of Nazareth, God's reconciling presence in the midst of the world. Jesus of Nazareth, full of grace. Jesus of Nazareth who touched lepers and caused the blind to see and the lame to walk, Jesus of Nazareth who put his arms around the world - we've made him the one who draws circles that leave people out when he's the very one who drew the circle that brought people in. Question? What is the question? How will the world be transformed? How will the kingdom be mended? How will creation come to wholeness? How can I find peace with God? How can I find grace in my life? How can I have the forgiveness of my sins and the removal of anxiety and fear? How can I come to find meaning and purpose in my life? The answer is Jesus. Jesus of Nazareth, Jesus, who was the embodiment of the God of Abraham and Isaac and Jacob, the God of Israel, the only, only God Jesus, here, historically in our midst, becomes the beacon, the sign, the pointer. Jesus who calls us not to worship him, but to follow him in worshipping God, and following in ways of justice and compassion and with all others. The answer is Jesus. © Grand Valley State University �That’s the Answer; Question? Richard A. Rhem Page 6   I have no other answer for you. That isn't even an issue. For here and there, now and again, more often I'm meeting others who speak about that same God, that same sense of peace and grace and worship, devotion, and I say, "In what name?" They have some other name, because there was some other particular revelation of that One Universal experience of Grace. And then I say, "Well, you didn't come my way," and then they quote Jesus to me, who says, "Those who are not against us are for us who are also doing good things." Then I realize that it's so important, when I've experienced the answer that is Jesus, that I learn the question. © Grand Valley State University � https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/aa684086cf1d4b2412653378b07c51c8.mp3 560c975b467777cd820fe93cdd5226e2 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Richard A. Rhem Collection Description An account of the resource Text and sound recordings of the sermons, prayers, services, and articles of Richard Rhem, pastor emeritus of Christ Community Church in Spring Lake, Michigan, where he served for 37 years. Starting in the mid 1980's, Rhem began to question some of the traditional Christian dogma that he had been espousing from the pulpit. That questioning was a first step in a long and interesting spiritual journey, one that he openly shared with his congregation. His journey is important, in part because it is reflective of the questioning, the yearnings, and the gradual revision of beliefs that many persons in this part of the century have experienced and continue to experience. It is important also because of the affirming and inclusive way his questioning was done and his thinking evolved. His sermons and other written and spoken materials together document the steps in his journey as it took a turn in 1985, yet continued to revolve around the framework and liturgies of the Christian calendar. Subject The topic of the resource Clergy--Michigan Reformed Church in America Christ Community Church (Spring Lake, Mich.) Religion Interfaith worship Sermons Sound Recordings Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Rhem, Richard A. Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/514">Richard A. Rhem papers (KII-01)</a> Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives. Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Kaufman Interfaith Institute Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Language A language of the resource English Type The nature or genre of the resource Sound Text Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context KII-01 Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant 1981-2014 Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource audio/mp3 text/pdf Sound A resource primarily intended to be heard. Examples include a music playback file format, an audio compact disc, and recorded speech or sounds. Event Eastertide III Scripture Text Acts 3:12, 16, Acts 4:12 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-0-19970413 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1997-04-13 Title A name given to the resource That's the Answer; What's the Question? Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Richard A. Rhem Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Subject The topic of the resource Clergy--Michigan Reformed Church in America Christ Community Church (Spring Lake, Mich.) Sermons Relation A related resource Richard A. Rhem - An Archive of Sermons, Prayers, Talks and Stories: http://richardrhem.org/ Language A language of the resource eng Type The nature or genre of the resource Text Sound Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource audio/mp3 application/pdf Description An account of the resource A sermon given by Richard A. Rhem (Dick) on April 13, 1997 entitled "That's the Answer; What's the Question?", on the occasion of Eastertide III, at Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI. Scripture references: Acts 3:12, 16, Acts 4:12. Compassion Inclusive Grace Pluralism https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/160b3a6001c0c3ef05d5385b7a7f0bf1.pdf 32ed49bb092b96ae948b8121d3ada3a5 PDF Text Text Re-Tell Me the Old, Old Story Text: Acts 17:17; Mark 2:22 Richard A. Rhem Christ Community Church Spring Lake, Michigan May 4, 1997 Transcription of the spoken sermon Neil Postman, whose article I cite on your liturgy this morning, begins that article with these lines from the poet, Edna St. Vincent Millay, Upon this gifted age, in its dark hour, Rains from the sky a meteoric shower of facts ... they lie unquestioned, uncombined. Wisdom enough to leech us of our ill Is daily spun, but there exists no loom To weave it into fabric. What an image. What a characterization of our day. The Information Society which can distribute the meteoric shower of data that inundates us day after day. Knowledge, knowledge everywhere. And the poet says it lies "unquestioned, uncombined," enough of it to leech us of our every ill, spun every day. But there is no loom upon which to weave a fabric, a fabric that could bring meaning to our lives and give us a sense of the big picture. And so, Neil Postman suggests that we live in a special time. Our times are not like every time. He speaks of our times as a darkening moment when all is in change, and we know not yet how to find our way. And in such a world, Neil Postman suggests, we need a story, a story that will provide the loom upon which we can weave a fabric of meaning, creating understanding, giving us confidence and some word of hope for our world. We can no longer, says Neil Postman, tell the tales that arose from tribes and clans and nations in ancient times, but neither do we need to invent a new story. Rather, we need to re-tell the story, looking at it with new eyes, seeing it from a new perspective, finding its truth and its treasures and bringing them to fresh expression so that there might be good news and a word of hope in our world. This is a fascinating time in which to be alive. Challenging, exciting, and also a bit threatening, because we do not see clearly the way ahead. But, Postman suggests looking to our stories, basically two stories, an ancient one, the biblical story, and a more recent one, the story of science unfolding the awesomeness of the cosmic that has been in development and evolution for 15 billion years. In fascinating © Grand Valley State University   �Re-Tell Me the Old, Old Story Richard A. Rhem Page 2   fashion in our day, there is the possibility of weaving those two stories and retelling them in such a way that we can bring some hope and give some confidence to our world that is marked by insecurity and moral ambiguity and spiritual lack. Not a new story, but re-telling the old story, having seen it with new eyes in new light, and bringing it to fresh and passionate expression. This is what Jesus was about. In the second chapter of Mark's Gospel, we have those conflict stories, very typical of Jesus' encounter with the religious understanding of his day. He was a Jew, a true son of Israel. He never went outside the riches of that tradition. He stayed within his own scriptures, his own story. But, he re-told the story in such a way that it was obvious that he was saying something new, which is characteristically resisted by an established society in an old tradition – differences about observance, fasting, keeping the Sabbath - those kinds of matters of religious understanding and traditional observance and practice. Jesus was bold in his declarations of what was at the heart of that old tradition. It does take some courage to say, "It has been written, but I say unto you ..." That is a challenge. But, sometimes it is necessary to say it that boldly in order to get the attention of the people, and Jesus again was not inventing something new, but he was re-telling that story, calling it back to its heart and to its soul. He suggested in that familiar image that there need to be new wineskins to contain new wine, the annual harvest that must go through the fermenting process will burst the old containers, losing the wine and losing the containers. And so, he says, new skins for new wine. We're so familiar with that, that it hardly strikes us anymore, and yet, it ought to strike us, for it is the articulation from Jesus of a profound principle, namely that we in this historical arena, this human experience, have an ongoing, cumulative kind of experience that cannot always be captured in terms of the stories that were once told. It cannot be contained in the containers that once did service to bear it to the world. Jesus was annunciating that principle of contextuality, where every understanding arises in a concrete context, which will shape it, which will form it, which will become its container. But, as the context moves, as the years go by, as the periods of history move, the contents must be examined anew so that new treasures can be mined from them and brought to fresh expression, so that the new announcement can have all of the passion and all of the comfort and all of the challenge with which that initial word issued forth in the beginning. Paul didn't knew Jesus in the flesh, but Paul felt the impact of Jesus' life and teaching, and Paul was of that strict, serious, committed group of the Pharisaic party who were determined to stamp out the way of Jesus, until he was knocked to his knees by a burst of light from above, from the ascended, living Lord, turned around in his tracks, and captured, made captive to the mission of Jesus in the world. Paul became the great apostle to the Gentiles; he became the shaper of the Christian movement. Paul structured Christian theological understanding. He was never anything but a Jew. Neither was Peter, James, or John. But, Paul had © Grand Valley State University �Re-Tell Me the Old, Old Story Richard A. Rhem Page 3   seen something that took all that was familiar and put it into whole new understanding. To use the overused word, overused generally, I suppose, and certainly here, Paul affected a paradigm shift. Paul didn't invent something new; Paul mined the treasures of his own tradition, but in such a way to bring to new expression God's intention, that intention that had exploded into the world through Jesus Christ, and once Paul became a follower of Jesus, he saw everything with new eyes, in a new light, in a new perspective, and shared that with the whole world. He came one day to Athens, the university city, the intellectual center of the western world, and such was his passion and his conviction that God had done something of cosmic significance through Jesus Christ, that he went right to the heart of the intellectual establishment and preached Jesus and the resurrection, at the Areopagus, in the company of the philosophers who spent their days, according to Luke, doing nothing but playing with ideas. (You wonder how they supported themselves; I would enjoy that myself.) But, they were happy to hear from Paul. "Tell us, what do you have to tell us that's new and strange? What kind of alien deities are you bringing to our city?" Not that that would have been offensive to them. As a matter of fact, Paul was offended himself, because he saw in that grand city of Athens temples and statues and images and shrines, and with his passionate sense that God's truth had come to full expression in Jesus, he was distressed in his own soul and eager to bring his message right to Athens itself. But, being a person of some style and class, he began by relating himself very well to his audience. He began by affirming them, for he spoke of the very temples and shrines that distressed him, saying in a positive note, "I see that you are spiritually hungry. I see that you are, indeed, very religious. I see that you are on a quest. I even discovered a statue to an unknown god. That God I will proclaim to you." Then he went back to his own tradition. Now, he could have gone to Isaiah who talked about Israel being a light to the nations, explaining why Paul was on this Gentile mission. He could have gone to Abraham whose call included the fact that God would make Abraham a blessing to all nations. But, Paul didn't do that, because nobody in Athens cared about Israel. They didn't care about Abraham or Moses or David or Isaiah. They didn't know anything about them. But, Paul still had some stories in his pocket. He went back behind Abraham, back to Adam. He went back to the beginning, to the Creation. He went back to that to which they could relate. It is a great sermon Paul preached. He said, "From one ancestor, God made all nations to inhabit the whole earth, and he allotted the times of their existence and boundaries of the places where they would live so that they would search for God and perhaps grope for Him and find Him, though, indeed, He is not far from each one of us, for in God we live and move and have our being. All of you, all of you since © Grand Valley State University �Re-Tell Me the Old, Old Story Richard A. Rhem Page 4   Adam - that is that commonality of humanity coming from the breath of God. He gives breath to all and life to all, for in God we live and move and have our being and even some of your own poets have said, 'For we, too, are God's offspring.'" Marvelous, Paul. I'm impressed. You really got to these philosophers. You were able to meet them on your own turf. You were able to embrace them in this Godcreation, this God Who is the Source of all life and all reality, of the whole cosmos. Now you've got them. Now tell them about what this God has been about recently. Paul goes on to speak of Jesus and the Easter miracle, and, of course, some balked, but some believed. It was a great effort, I think. Paul had a wonderful vision. He had a wonderful dream. Paul, this son of Israel, this Hebrew of the Hebrews, this one who had these stories down pat, going back and looking at the stories again could retell the story in such a fashion that he could bring to expression what he was convinced was God's intention, that there not be a wall dividing people, Jews on one side, Gentiles on another. As he wrote to the Church at Ephesus that in Jesus Christ, that wall or partition, was taken down, and that in Jesus Christ there was the creation of one new humanity. Isn't that a dream? Isn't that a thrilling kind of insight? According to Paul, that's what God was about. That's what he began to see in what God had most recently done in Jesus Christ, removing that particularity in order that there might be a new universality, in order that the humanity that God created in the beginning could be united in one community. Well, it didn't happen. Why didn't it happen? Was it a dream dreamed before its time? Paul was never able, to his anguish, to get his fellow rabbinical, Pharisaical partners, compatriots of the past, to see it that way. And,by the end of the first century, with an ongoing Jewish community under the leadership of the Rabbinical Pharisaic party finding its own way to a new spirituality, Paul almost couldn't win the day with a Jesus Jewish Movement. He had his tension with James. He had his arguments with Peter. But, he did win the day there and, consequently, the Christian movement became a largely Gentile movement. Paul had a grand dream. It wasn't realized. Paul was wrong about the timetable that God was on. Paul thought he was living at the edge. Paul expected the return of the ascended One very soon for the universal judgment. It didn't happen, of course. We're here 2000 years later. But, Paul was right about God's intention the creation of one human community. Two thousand years later, how would Paul retell the story if he were here today? How will we retell the story so that, in this volatile world of ours, so awesome and so threatening, God's intention for human community will be realized? Neil Postman says it will not do simply to chant our tales louder or to silence those who are singing a different song. It won't do. © Grand Valley State University �Re-Tell Me the Old, Old Story Richard A. Rhem Page 5   I just completed Karen Armstrong's book, Jerusalem: One City, Three Faiths. If you want to almost give up on religion in general, read the book. One city, three faiths, and yet the irony is we're not talking about faiths east and west, Judaism and Buddhism, Christianity or Hinduism. We're talking about Islam, Judaism, Christianity. One city, three faiths, all professing faith in the same God, and, because they all claim Jerusalem as a holy city, we can see that as a microcosm of the world, and if you read the account by Karen Armstrong of Jerusalem, you will read of a city that for 2000 years has bled and died and been devastated. It is an incredible story of three religious faiths claiming one God, the same God, the God of Abraham, in this case, devastating each other. And there may have been a time in our world, horrible as it was, that it could happen without destroying the world. But, not in our world, because that earlier image of a global village has become a reality. Paul said God assigns certain people certain time periods and certain places and sets their boundaries. Well, I got to tell you, Paul, there aren't any boundaries anymore! Ask those who have circled this globe and see it as a unity, interrelated totally. No boundaries. No longer any island continents. The electronic media reaches into every home and hovel and village and valley and mountain peak of planet earth. We need to re-tell the story so that it again brings to expression God's ultimate concern for the creation of a human community in which the respective religious traditions bring their gifts to the altar, enriching one another and enhancing one another and complementing one another, alone, individually incomplete, but at the altar of God, embracing one another. Richard Elliot Friedman, in his book, The Hidden Face of God, says this is the remarkable time, sort of similar to what Postman says. Friedman says that, with the science story of this awesome cosmos, we are, ironically, on the brink of discovering the Divine Reality and, at the same time, we are on the threshold of planetary catastrophe. If we don't destroy ourselves, we might destroy our planet. It is a time when it is urgent that we move toward community through the retelling of the story that captures the old, old story of God's love and intention for one humanity. Friedman says we are in a race. We are in a race toward discovery or destruction. Christ Community will play to the tune of discovery, for in this time of the National Hockey League playoffs, with Danny Bylsma returned from the wars, no longer in pursuit of the Stanley Cup, I get reminded that once he played with the great Wayne Gretzky, who said, "One ought to skate where the puck is going, not where it's been." That text from Gretzky summarizes everything I want to say, with the closing image from the revelation, the story began in the Garden and is completed in a city where, from the throne of God, flows the River of the Water of Life, pure as crystal, on whose banks grows the tree of life whose leaves are for the healing of the nations. There's an image. There's a loom on which to weave a fabric of meaning, of wonder, and of hope, as we move into the future, not quite sure how to find our way. © Grand Valley State University � https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/0d97440c4a112c580b928aec2ce0a80a.mp3 b4b8eed4af98fcce050f2ef5c40187bb Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Richard A. Rhem Collection Description An account of the resource Text and sound recordings of the sermons, prayers, services, and articles of Richard Rhem, pastor emeritus of Christ Community Church in Spring Lake, Michigan, where he served for 37 years. Starting in the mid 1980's, Rhem began to question some of the traditional Christian dogma that he had been espousing from the pulpit. That questioning was a first step in a long and interesting spiritual journey, one that he openly shared with his congregation. His journey is important, in part because it is reflective of the questioning, the yearnings, and the gradual revision of beliefs that many persons in this part of the century have experienced and continue to experience. It is important also because of the affirming and inclusive way his questioning was done and his thinking evolved. His sermons and other written and spoken materials together document the steps in his journey as it took a turn in 1985, yet continued to revolve around the framework and liturgies of the Christian calendar. Subject The topic of the resource Clergy--Michigan Reformed Church in America Christ Community Church (Spring Lake, Mich.) Religion Interfaith worship Sermons Sound Recordings Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Rhem, Richard A. Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/514">Richard A. Rhem papers (KII-01)</a> Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives. Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Kaufman Interfaith Institute Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Language A language of the resource English Type The nature or genre of the resource Sound Text Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context KII-01 Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant 1981-2014 Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource audio/mp3 text/pdf Sound A resource primarily intended to be heard. Examples include a music playback file format, an audio compact disc, and recorded speech or sounds. Event Eastertide VI Scripture Text Acts 17:16-34, Mark 2:18-28 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-0-19970504 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1997-05-04 Title A name given to the resource Re-Tell Me the Old, Old Story 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 May 4, 1997 entitled "Re-Tell Me the Old, Old Story", on the occasion of Eastertide VI, at Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI. Scripture references: Acts 17:16-34, Mark 2:18-28. Divine Intention Global Community Meaning Re-imagining the Faith https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/eed1bf5fb949e9309459bf2173cc753c.pdf 382d7a647e539fd2b86fd7337555cb79 PDF Text Text What Defines A Family? Mother’s Day Text: Mark 3:35; Acts 1:14 Richard A. Rhem Christ Community Church Spring Lake, Michigan May 11, 1997 Transcription of the spoken sermon There's a piece from The Atlantic Monthly, having to do with families of which I'll read only a paragraph. It's "Household Principles Concerning Food and Drink." Laws Pertaining to Dessert: For we judge between the plate that is unclean and the plate that is clean, saying first, if the plate is clean, then you shall have dessert. But of the unclean plate, the laws are these: If you have eaten most of your meat and two bites of your peas with each bite consisting of not less than three peas each, or a total of six peas eaten where I can see and you have also eaten enough of your potatoes to fill two forks, both forkfuls eaten where I can see, then you shall have dessert. But, if you eat a lesser number of peas and yet you eat the potatoes, still you shall not have dessert. And if you eat the peas, yet leave the potatoes uneaten, you shall not have dessert. No, not even a small portion thereof. And if you try to deceive by moving the potatoes or peas around with a fork that it may appear you have eaten what you have not, you will fall into iniquity and I will know and you shall have no dessert. To the word of God that sometimes sounds similar to that, the Lesson from the Epistle, Acts 1:6: So, when they had come together they asked him, "Lord, will you at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?" And he said to them, "It is not for you to know times or seasons which the Father has fixed by His own authority, but you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you shall be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria and to the end of the earth." And when he had said this, as they were looking on, he was lifted up and a cloud took him out of their sight. And while they were gazing into heaven as he went, behold, two men stood by them in white robes and said, "Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking into heaven? This Jesus who was taken up from you into heaven will come in the same way as you saw him go into heaven." Then they returned to Jerusalem from the Mount called Olivet which is near Jerusalem, a © Grand Valley State University   �What Defines A Family? Richard A. Rhem Page 2   sabbath's day journey away. And when they had entered, they went into the upper room where they were staying. Peter and John and James and Andrew, Philip and Thomas, Bartholomew and Matthew, James son of Alphaeus and Simon the Zealot, and Judas the son of James. All these with one accord devoted themselves to prayer together with the women and Mary the mother of Jesus, and with his brothers. The Word of the Lord. Then reading from the Gospel, the third chapter of Mark and verse 19: Then he went home, that is Jesus went home, and the crowd came together again so that they could not even eat. And when his friends heard it, they went out to seize him, for they said, "He is beside himself." And the scribes who came down from Jerusalem said, "He is possessed by Beelzebub, and by the prince of demons, he casts out the demons." And Jesus called them to him and said to them in parables, "How can Satan cast out Satan? If a kingdom is divided against itself, that kingdom cannot stand. And if the house is divided against itself, that house will not be able to stand. And if Satan has risen up against himself and is divided, he cannot stand, but is coming to an end. But, no one can enter a strong man's house and plunder his goods unless he first binds the strong man. Then, indeed, he may plunder his house. Truly I say to you all sins will be forgiven the sons of men and whatever blasphemies they utter, but whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit never has forgiveness, but is guilty of an eternal sin." For they said, "He has an unclean spirit." And his mother and his brothers came and standing outside, they said to him and called him, and the crowd was sitting around him and they said to him, "Your mother and your brothers are outside asking for you," and he replied, "Who are my mother and my brothers?" And looking around on those who sat about him, he said, "Here are my mother and my brothers. Whoever does the will of God is my mother, my brother, my sister." The Gospel of the Lord. Well, it's Mother's Day, that High Holy Day on the liturgical calendar. Who could miss it? Seems like we've been bombarded for some time now holding out all kinds of wonderful things that we can do for our mothers. A couple weeks ago, Nancy and I were in that cavernous paradise of consumer lust, Marshall Fields, down in the Chicago Loop, and, usually in order that she may pursue and enjoy her buying without harassment, she says, "Could you meet me in about an hour?" and we identify some spot. Of course, I always fail to remember whether we came in on Randolph or State or Wabash or where, so I was looking a bit dismayed. One couldn't go up in the aisle without being accosted by some lady with some wonderful merchandise to offer, and I tried to avoid contact as much as I could, but one caught me squarely and she said, "How do you do, sir?" She said, "Are © Grand Valley State University �What Defines A Family? Richard A. Rhem Page 3   you looking for a wonderful gift for a woman?" I said, "No, I'm looking for a wonderful woman." And she said, "Oh, someone like you shouldn't have any problem," and I said, "So they say." Later, Nancy and I did find each other and I managed to get out of there without buying too many fragrances that day but, as I said, Mother's Day is a day that has conquered America. Better said, Mother's Day hasn't conquered America; Hallmark has conquered America through the brilliant strategy of Madison Avenue, and so here we are in divine worship, talking about Mother's Day. There are some purists who would not deviate from the liturgical calendar, no matter what's coming down, and therefore on a day like this, there would be no mention of mothers because this is the last Sunday of Eastertide and it's Ascension Sunday, since we don't celebrate Ascension Day on Ascension Day which was 40 days after Easter, which was Thursday. And those purists wouldn't deviate from that liturgical calendar and would probably bore you to tears today with stories about the Ascension, and I'm not a purist, obviously. I deviate whenever necessary, but it's nice when you've been around so long you can find those little passages of scripture that manage to have both Ascension and the mother in one paragraph, and that's what we have this morning. It is Ascension Day and Luke, particularly Luke, wants to make sure that there is a hiatus between the historical ministry of Jesus in the days of his flesh and the ministry of the Church in the power of the Spirit. Luke has that sense of the historical unfolding, the stages of redemption, and we have crucifixion and resurrection, and then Luke is the one who tells us that there was a period of 40 days in which Jesus manifested himself, so to speak, to say, "I'm really alive. It is really me." And then that period of various and sundry appearances seemed to come to an end, by and large, and Luke even makes the Ascension an event witnessed by the disciples, and it is an important movement into the next stage which we will celebrate next week on the Day of Pentecost and the baptism of the Spirit of God. But, Luke does something interesting that's not altogether unimportant for Mother's Day, and that is that he gets Mary the mother of Jesus and his brothers back into the family with Jesus. You know, Jesus and his mother had their tensions and their struggles. In fact, during this past Lent just a few weeks ago, I used that Mark passage that says that when Jesus inaugurated his ministry and was besieged by the crowds in that time of his popularity, that there were those who saw him as a threat and they said, "He's gone off the deep end. He's crazy." And he got into a confrontation with his critics and denied that what he was doing, he was doing under demonic influence. Rather, he was doing it under the Spirit of God. There was a sharp confrontation, but anyway, the word was out he's gone off the deep end, and Mary and his brothers, Mark tells us, came to where he was teaching in order to bring him home, because he was an embarrassment to them and I'm sure they were concerned about him. We can understand that. Haven't the newspapers and the media been full of accounts of families who have agonized over sons and daughters that committed the mass © Grand Valley State University �What Defines A Family? Richard A. Rhem Page 4   suicide, taking their cue from Hepplewhite, that the celestial sign of the HaleBopp Comet, said it's time to depart? And so, we've heard a lot of stories of alienation and estrangement, of sons and daughters that hadn't been in touch for years or perhaps some touch, and yet, the colliding and collision of ideology and of faith commitments, and so forth. During the season of Lent I preached on that text under the theme, "Love Hurts." Love does hurt. And Mary and her other sons went to bring Jesus home because they were concerned about him, because we do live under the pressure of community opinion, and there is a kind of conventional wisdom out there and an expected behavior, and when that's moved away from, we get very uneasy. Mary and her other sons couldn't get close to him, there were so many people, so they handed him a note: "Your mother and your brothers are here." Jesus' response was, "My mother and my brothers? Who are my mother and my brothers? The ones who do the will of God, those are my mother and my brothers and my sisters." I don't think that Jesus was meaning those that belong to my denomination. I don't think that was a narrowly religious kind of thing. I think that Jesus was saying that sometimes there is a vision of life, an understanding of its meaning and of its purpose. Sometimes there is that ultimate concern that moves one from the depths, and when that isn't shared, then it's difficult to bridge that fellowship. There is estrangement and there is alienation, and Jesus was saying there is a natural given family. But, he said, there is a deeper family, a community of ultimate concern and vision and commitment that transcends those natural ties of the family circle. That was a hard word for Mary. I linked it with the word from the cross in John's Gospel, where there is a hint that maybe that estrangement and alienation had been healed, because he says, "Woman, behold your son. Son, behold your mother." I must have made that point rather strongly on that Lenten service because, when I got home for dinner, Nancy said, "I don't like Jesus." Now, that really makes me break out into a sweat. Of course, why couldn't he have just said, "Mother," at the cross? It's not comfortable, is it? There's something we would desire more from this mother-son relationship. But in the passage in Acts we get something more, because there, not without reason, not just as an aside, but I think intentionally, very purposely, Luke says following the Ascension, following the instruction of Jesus to go to the city and to wait for the baptism of the Spirit, to be empowered to carry out that mission of the Gospel, the disciples gathered in the upper room and they were praying and there were with them the women who were a part of that intimate circle, and Mary the mother of Jesus, and his brothers. Luke was saying that that given family had eventuated or had emerged into that deeper dimension of human community of shared value and vision, of shared ultimate concern. It's the last notice we have of Mary the mother of Jesus. © Grand Valley State University �What Defines A Family? Richard A. Rhem Page 5   But, his brother James became the leader of the Jerusalem Church. His brother James was the ongoing observant Jew who followed Jesus as Messiah. That's not easy to do. But he became the leader of the Jerusalem community and the Jerusalem community was that conservative Jesus community that was in tension with Paul who was that apostle called to the Gentile world. It's interesting to speculate on whether Jesus' own brother James got it right or whether Paul saw through even more profoundly than James the difference between that Jerusalem Jesus Jewish community and that developing Gentile mission. But, it is good to know that Mary and the brothers of Jesus were able to move beyond the givenness of family in which there was so much tension and estrangement to that commonality of vision and value so that they could be a part of that new family that Jesus formed, a family bound together more profoundly than any given natural ties can do. So, what is a family? A family is, obviously, to begin with, that given circle of parents and children where children are cared for and where they are nurtured and they are formed. And there's a great deal of discussion about the family in our society today and there can be no argument about the fact that that basic social unit has come upon difficult days. The family, ideally, is a place for care, for nurture, for provision, for the formation into a humane existence, and it can take different shapes and forms, but that function needs to be fulfilled, or a society will be in trouble, as we well know. I want to take a moment this morning to congratulate you on your families. These children that jammed this chancel this morning are beautiful, aren't they? Shining faces, ribbons in their hair, bouncing and bowing and singing their hearts out - they are beautiful. You've done well. Your children are marvelous, and we are committed to their nurture, with you, committed to the support of the family. I don't know of a place where it's happening any better, from the Worship Center kids right on up through, where they are being grounded in the biblical story and being invited to sing and to dance, bringing it to expression, where they are invited to wonder and to stand in awe, to raise any question and to pursue any angle or experiment. Your children are wonderful and here they are being given a marvelous support in their growing faith formation. Last Monday night I participated in the Elders' Meeting with the Confirmands who will be received here next Sunday. Those young people are outstanding; they're bright; they're free, they are open, they raise questions, they feel at home here, and to hear their word is wonderful. Congratulations on the job you've done in your homes in the shaping and the forming of your young people. And once in a while there's one or two brave enough even to engage me in a one-to-one, maybe in an interview or a conversation, not intimidated by this old man. We sit across the table from one another and I am always so impressed with your sons and daughters. They are the best and the brightest, and when you see them all scrubbed up and clean and serious, my goodness, they are impressive. I like them © Grand Valley State University �What Defines A Family? Richard A. Rhem Page 6   one at a time. You know, you get two or three or four together with a baseball cap on backwards with the sweatshirt that defies the possibility that there could be a body inside, the sleeves hanging down to the kneecaps, dressed in jeans where the crotch meets the kneecaps, and the legs mop up the landscape as they move. Now, they scare me. But, they're wonderful, and so I want to say this morning you're doing a wonderful job with your children and, when we hear all the horror stories about the youth, I have to say I don't see it. I don't see it here. That given family is absolutely critical for the formation of children and young people that will go out and launch themselves, and that's the second thing I would say about a family, it is of limited function, not absolute. The family is to form and shape and prepare and support and launch, and that's the tricky part. That's where the tension came in between Jesus and his mother. And it's so understandable, because we do love them. We do care about them. We hurt for all the potential pitfalls that are lying out there for their destruction. And yet, what defines a family? Not only love that cares and gets them started, but the trust to let them fly, the letting go, the taking off of the controls. Oh, Good Lord, it's scary. But necessary. Jesus could not go home with Mary. In the Gnostic Gospels, a group of manuscripts that was discovered in 1945 in Egypt, made accessible to us by the likes of an Elaine Pagels, she lifts up one of her favorite passages. The Gospel of Thomas, the scholars feel, is early, maybe even earlier than Matthew, Mark , Luke and John. It is a Gnostic Gospel. It is that alternative interpretation and understanding of Jesus. It's one of those interpretations and understandings that fell on the cutting room floor but, like Elaine Pagels says, you know, the winners write the history, eh? Well, anyway, here's the Gospel of Thomas, a statement from Jesus that says, "If you bring forth what is within you, it will save you. But if you do not bring forth what is within you, what is within you will destroy you." That could be a sermon, too, couldn't it? If there is something in you that is intrinsically you, unless it comes to expression you will die, your soul will wither, and what does not come forth will destroy you. Jesus said if you bring forth what is within you, what you bring forth will save you. If you are being true to yourself (to thine own self be true), and allow that which is deepest in you, that passion, that vision - let it come forth. Risky? Life is risky. The family plays an absolutely critical role, but it has a limited function. There is a time for our sons and daughters to fly and for us to trust them and to love them, no matter whether the flight plan pleases us or not. What makes a family? Well, there's always that possibility of the tension dissolving and the alienation being bridged, and community established at a deeper level than ever. That's why I like the picture of Mary and Jesus' brothers praying in the upper room. Once again, not in a narrowly religious sense, but in a © Grand Valley State University �What Defines A Family? Richard A. Rhem Page 7   sense that they saw in Jesus that ultimate concern which they finally could come, as well, to embrace and to become a part of that new age, that new family, that new world. So, what defines a family? Good solid foundations given lovingly to nurture and form, to be sure. And a certain limited function, allowing the freedom to move out. But then always the openness to one another to listen, to change, to forgive, to heal and to move to an even deeper human community which is more than simply the given. They say that blood is thicker than water, and certainly it's borne out again and again. But, there is something thicker than blood. It is that shared community, that common, human community that binds us, soul to soul and spirit to spirit, into a family beyond anything that the given family can provide. This is family. This is a good place. © Grand Valley State University � https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/f6f1c38a3a9fe906f6943766df33cb75.mp3 66b130b61c3b4d173f93797913786447 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 Mother's Day, Ascension Sunday, Eastertide VII Scripture Text Mark 3:35, Acts 1:14 Location The location of the interview Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context KII-01_RA-0-19970511 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1997-05-11 Title A name given to the resource What Defines a Family? 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 May 11, 1997 entitled "What Defines a Family?", on the occasion of Mother's Day, Ascension Sunday, Eastertide VII, at Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI. Scripture references: Mark 3:35, Acts 1:14. Community of Faith Mother's Day https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/bdbf8feb65f2ac2c464cfcf0c388e7c1.pdf 0fae8d580784c10584e0ad8b8e8d7e84 PDF Text Text Spirit, Spirit: A Cosmic Drama Pentecost Text: Genesis 1:2; John 3:6 Richard A. Rhem Christ Community Church Spring Lake, Michigan May 18, 1997 Transcription of the spoken sermon The consternation in the heart and mind of a Nicodemus brought him to Jesus, confused as to exactly what was going on in the life and ministry of this one, this respected teacher of Israel. And so, he came to him, saying, "Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher who has come from God; for no one can do these signs that you do apart from the presence of God." Jesus responds with the claim that one must be born again, from above. Nicodemus' confusion only deepens. He says, "How can this be?" And I suppose that all religion arises out of those deep existential questions, from whence have we come? Whither are we going? And what is the meaning of it all, the purpose, the intention? What is our life? With Nicodemus, I think, from time to time we all say, "What does this mean? How can this be?" We keep ourselves busy for much of our lives, frantically pursuing our penultimate goals, but there are those moments that dawn upon us, maybe when we take a candle as a young person, maybe as a parent holding an infant at a baptismal font, maybe some moment with the bread in our hand; or at a moment of great fear, tragedy or loss, or deep joy and delight. Sometime or another, we ask, "How can this be? Whence have we come? Whither are we going? What does it mean?" Because we are human, and after a cosmic drama of 15 billion years, the likes of us have emerged on planet earth, able to wonder about it all, becoming when, how, who knows but, at some moment, conscious, selfconscious, aware, aware of the other, finding voice, having language, able to express deep thoughts. And before the mystery of life, its wonders causing us awe, its terrors causing us dread, we ask, "What does it mean? Where are we going? And what is this human existence into which we've entered?" That is the source and the origin of the wide diversity of religions, belief and religious practice throughout the ages and around the world. That was no less the case with the Hebrew poets and prophets. Interestingly, the clear statement of God's creation in Genesis did not arise until that people had a national identity for centuries. The creation account in Genesis arose out of the situation of exile, when that people in their alienation and estrangement had lost their confidence in their Yahweh God, believing as did most ancient peoples, that God was the God of the winners, or that the winner's God was God. Then, in the midst of that © Grand Valley State University   �Spirit, Spirit: A Cosmic Drama Richard A. Rhem Page 2   rather despairing exilic community, there arose a voice, a poet, who stirred them to the depths, reminding them that the God of Abraham and Isaac and Jacob was none other than the Creator of the heavens and the earth, and he wrote that marvelous poem, "In the beginning, God ..." There was an earlier account, somewhat less sophisticated, that focused on the human person, the creation of humankind. In those stories we see a people orienting themselves and their lives around the sharp focus of a God Who spoke and called all things into being. Obviously, the conception of the natural world, the universe, the cosmology reflected in those Genesis accounts was representative of the understanding of the age in which the poet wrote. It was a three-storied universe, the heavens above, the waters beneath the earth, and God was the Great Mechanic, the Great Architect, the Great Designer, the Great Clockmaker, as it were. God was a being, a Superbeing. God was like us, personal, only bigger, more so. God was the Supreme Being Who, from beyond, out of the depths of eternity, decided to call into being that which was not, and did it like a designer, like a contractor, like one who constructs a model. There was a kind of naiveté about that account, as we look at it 25 or more centuries on. The world is not the world that was conceived of by the biblical writer. But, ancient people were not naive. Ancient people had all of the questions that we have. Those creation accounts are an attempt to give account of the reality of the universe and of the human experience. And there is a profundity there. The Spirit of God - in the Hebrew language, spirit, breath, wind are all translated by the same word, Ruach - brooded over the chaos. Over that soupy chaos, the poet tells us, the breath or the wind of God brooded or hovered, and out of the chaotic stew, through the brooding of the breath of God, came the cosmic miracle of which the ancient writer knew only a little. In the other account in the second chapter, you see the beautiful simplicity of this Creator God coming down to the earth that was created and scooping up a handful of mud, fashioning a body and breathing in life so that the man became a living soul. Such an insight saw the human person connected absolutely with the elements of the earth, but having something more, that spirit dimension that created the possibility of consciousness and awareness and attentiveness. Rooted to the earth but beckoned upward by the Spirit, the human person comes from the hand of the Creator God. The Psalmist sang about it, sang about it with delight and with joy. "Every living thing, the whole vast created order, all of it emerged at the behest of the Creator's Word Whose breath, whose Wind, whose Spirit enlivens it all. You remove your Spirit and we die. You bestow Your Spirit, and we live." The Psalmist sang about the God Who is life, the life of the world, the life of all that is. The Hebrew tradition out of which we have come is a tradition that is centered in that breath of God, Spirit of God, wind of God. Poets and prophets with vivid imagination envisioned a whole new world endowed with Spirit, looking for the © Grand Valley State University �Spirit, Spirit: A Cosmic Drama Richard A. Rhem Page 3   day when one would come, filled with the Spirit. The story goes on to the point at which one was conceived by the Holy Spirit, according to the Gospel, Jesus by name, in whose life and ministry there developed that movement from which we stem, a Christian Church, celebrating the birth of that movement on the day of Pentecost, according to Luke. For Luke would have us see that that which happened in the wake of Jesus was nothing more than the continuation of that activity of the breath of God, the breath and the wind of God that swept upon that early gathering of disciples, empowering them, enlivening them, firing them to go out and to tell the story, the Good News of what God had done in Jesus Christ. So, on Pentecost we recognize that we are preeminently a people of wind, the people of breath, the people of Spirit, that it is Spirit that marks us as humans, that causes us to wonder, to raise those deep questions and to seek after God. Nicodemus came to Jesus in his confusion and Jesus confused him even more. "You must be born again," or "You must be born from above," or "from beyond." That new birth, if we were to understand it today, would have to be translated from the understanding of Jesus, because Jesus didn't know our cosmology. Jesus saw a distinction between the flesh and the Spirit, and we certainly understand what he meant. All of us know and of some of us it is true that we are dead while we live. And certainly that was the reality to which Jesus was pointing, the possibility of living a human existence without being human, being a human automaton without spirit, without consciousness, without awareness, without attentiveness, without that spirit dimension, that depth dimension. But we would have to say today, in the light of what we know about this amazing cosmic drama into which we have been caught up, that there is no such thing as flesh and spirit, for there is only one cosmic river of energy. Fifteen billion years ago there was an explosion, the Big Bang, as the physicists speak of it today; 15 billion years ago, Jesus, would you believe it? They tell us it's not like an explosion of TNT, but rather, the explosion of a musical chord, perhaps the most famous chord in all the world, Beethoven's Fifth. You know how it begins. It's "Boom, boom, boom, boom." That's it, you see, the Big Bang. It is a chord that begins to reverberate outward, outward, outward, and as it goes, it does not fill space, it creates space; it does not take time, it creates time, so time and space are expanding in resonant circles outward, outward, outward, for 15 billion years. Here we are at this late point of development in a cosmic drama, and we understand that we have been created with spirit that has become aware of it all. Fifteen billion years until there emerged the likes of us, who could ask "from whence did we come," and "whither are we going," and "what is the meaning of it all?" We have discovered that we are not flesh and spirit, but we are enspirited flesh, for we know that energy and mass are interchangeable, and that our mass is but dammed up energy, coalesced for a time and then released in another form. We find ourselves little whirlpools of meaning in that cosmic river that has been © Grand Valley State University �Spirit, Spirit: A Cosmic Drama Richard A. Rhem Page 4   flowing for 15 billion years, and if we cannot discover the meaning of it, we have become those who can give meaning to it and create meaning for it. We create meaning in our lives in community with one another, trusting in that process that has been emerging, baffled by the mystery of its beginning, and being without a clue as to the manifestation of its culmination, but in the meantime, trusting God Who is spirit, Who enspirits, enlivens, fires the imagination and creates between us and among us human community. As you know, this past week Nancy and I spent a few days in New Jersey and we were privileged to hear the English scholar, Karen Armstrong, who spoke twice last Tuesday, in the morning on "The History of God." In 1993 she published her rather significant work, The History of God: 4000 years of the human understanding and conception of God. Then in the afternoon she spoke of "The Future of God," and she addressed, I thought, very profoundly the present state of the human family. We don't get a very good feel for that in Western Michigan, but the institutional Church is certainly in trouble, and the manifestation of the great religious traditions around the world that were once thought to be passé are experiencing a resurgence. There is confusion on every hand. Karen Armstrong is currently researching a book on Fundamentalism, which she sees as the desperate human attempt to resuscitate the God of the Bible, the God of that cosmology of the Genesis writer, that God "out there," that Clockmaker, Designer, King and Ruler. That conception was reflective of the understanding of the day but cannot carry the freight in our day. She said in all of the monotheisms, Islam, Judaism, Christianity, even in some of the Eastern religions, there is currently a fundamentalism which is a kind of a fanatical attempt to resuscitate an old conception of God, bringing that which is dead and to bring "Him" crashing back into history, the God that has long since been dead. Well, are we then in a period of atheism? Much of the world is, notwithstanding the resurgence of that fundamentalism manifest around the globe. In the long haul, where we are going is into the darkness of atheism. But then she said a most interesting thing, and I believe she's right. You don't have to worry about atheism, not even if you're making your Confirmation today, because atheism is not a rejection of God. It is simply a rejection of an inadequate conception of God. Years ago, J.B. Phillips, who paraphrased the New Testament, wrote a book whose title says it all: Your God Is Too Small. We are living in a period of time when the conception of God that has come with us out of the past is not adequate anymore to connect with our human experience. That conception makes no sense of this 15-billion-year river of energy that is flowing, God knows where. But, in the meantime, in the darkness it's as the poet Keats claimed: You don't just sit down and write a poem. You wait in the darkness. You wait in the darkness until the poem writes itself. And so, now, we don't know so much, and there are big questions afoot. But if we trust, if we have faith to believe, then we will not idolize those formulations and conceptions that have come to us. We will recognize where they are inadequate, where they can no longer connect with our © Grand Valley State University �Spirit, Spirit: A Cosmic Drama Richard A. Rhem Page 5   experience, no longer give orientation for our human life. We will wait, wait in the darkness, trusting, not knowing what will be, but knowing what can no longer be. And I want to say to you young people, those who tell you so clearly all about God, don't know, because we don't know; we trust that Mystery, and we have seen the reality of the Mystery revealed in the face of Jesus and we have experienced the breath of God in community. Thus we know all will be well. Let God be God and let us with confident trust move into the future unafraid, for you see, Pentecost keeps happening. Pentecost is simply the presence of the Spirit. In the words of the poet, There lives the dearest freshness deep down things; And though the last lights of the black West went Oh, morning, at the brown brink eastward, springs Because the Holy Ghost over the bent World broods with warm breast and with ah! bright wings Pentecost. Breath. Spirit. God. Wonder. Wonder! © Grand Valley State University � https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/85ed5a1f0f1ac0262770bd0b2686d8af.mp3 a9ab35106c27c01007166902efee6b55 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 Series A Cosmic Symphony Scripture Text Genesis 1:2, John 3:6 Location The location of the interview Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context KII-01_RA-0-19970518 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1997-05-18 Title A name given to the resource Spirit, Spirit: A Cosmic Drama 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 May 18, 1997 entitled "Spirit, Spirit: A Cosmic Drama", as part of the series "A Cosmic Symphony", on the occasion of Pentecost, at Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI. Scripture references: Genesis 1:2, John 3:6. Community Consciousness Cosmic Evolution Spirit of God Trust https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/6b9380d9f151674aab6496812d91858d.pdf cf5e0cee8926ae7ab201596357bb60a3 PDF Text Text Mystery’s Face and Flow Trinity Sunday Text: Job 23:3; 11 Corinthians 4:6; and, John 14:9 Richard A. Rhem Christ Community Church Spring Lake, Michigan May 25, 1997 Transcription of the spoken sermon It is Trinity Sunday; the Sunday after Pentecost, and it's the time when we focus on God. It is God Who brings us together week after week, and we have many things about which to think and speak together. On Trinity, however, we go right to the core, to God, and to focus on that conception of God which has been shaped by the Christian tradition and has, indeed, shaped the Christian tradition, that conception of a Triune God, God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit, One God blessed forever. God in the modern period has become a problem, and although high percentages of people affirm their faith in God, in the intellectual centers of reflection and deep thinking that eventually impact popular opinion, God has had hard times in the last two or three centuries. We no longer simply take for granted the existence of God, and the nature of God has been thought about a good deal. The religious quest will always be there. But, God has become a problem. That statement of the problem was probably set forth as profoundly and as critically as anywhere by the German philosopher Ludwig Feuerbach. You've heard me refer to Feuerbach, on occasion, over the years, because his critique of the idea of God goes to the heart of the matter. It is his idea that God is the projection of our human needs unto the screen of reality, after which we bow down and worship, that God is the consequence of human need and that God is a human construction or a projection. It is certainly true that when we ask about God, we are asking about ourselves. The questions about God are really questions about our own existence. Whence have we come? Whither are we going? And in the meantime, what is the meaning of it all? Is there any purpose? Is there any direction? The human situation is fraught with peril. We are threatened creatures; our human existence is perilous. At any moment we well know that we could be wiped out. We stand at the side of those we love, helplessly seeing them die. We, ourselves, are vulnerable to a medical diagnosis at any time that could be fatal. The human condition is one of contingency; it is a perilous life we lead, and the religious quest is quite a natural quest after some anchor, some place to stand, some place of comfort, some place to rest the soul. And so, when Feuerbach said © Grand Valley State University   �Mystery’s Face and Flow Richard A. Rhem Page 2   that God does not exist except as we have created God and objectified God and constructed God out of our own human needs, he was putting his finger on something that was true. He was roundly criticized, of course, and the Church rose up with great defensiveness at such a suggestion, that God is a human creation. Feuerbach, nonetheless, had looked at the human person and the human situation, had sensed the fearfulness and the anxiety and the fragility of human existence and detected within the human person a kind of weakness that longed for some strong source of support and comfort and strength. Feuerbach's mistake, which is a mistake all of us often make, was to absolutize his claim, that is, that God is nothing but... To say that God is nothing but the projection of human need is to say too much. But, his insight is telling and you must be aware, as I am, of that which goes on in your own soul and heart and you must observe as I do all about us those for whom God is a crutch, a safety blanket, a security measure. God, for many of us, is the God we need. But, that's not all there is to say. I point that out because we are downstream from that movement of modern atheism. From Feuerbach came Freud who said that religion is an illusion, Marx, who said that human life is nothing but economic determinism, Nietzsche, who said all is nothingness. The nihilism that is laced within contemporary society is the consequence of that conception of things that has ruled out God, that conception of a Feuerbach who saw so much of human need projected into God that he simply wiped God away. But, as Nietzsche said, God is dead, and everything is permissible. And I would say that the 20th century is probably a good example of the fact that, when God is dead, anything is permissible, and very soon the fabric of society begins to unravel. Karen Armstrong, in her lecture a couple of weeks ago, spoke of the future of God, and she alluded to the contemporary atheism that pervades the lives of so many, even though they might answer a Gallup Poll, "Oh, yes, I believe in God." But there exists a practical atheism, living without any engagement or any regard to God. Karen Armstrong, said we are in one of those periods of history when we are simply waiting in the darkness for some future image to arise. But atheism, she said, is not to be feared, for it is not a rejection of God, but it is a rejection of inadequate conceptions of God. And so, we are in this present darkness, waiting, confident that there will yet emerge that understanding of God that can call forth from us worship and commitment to the ways of love and of justice. We have had inadequate conceptions of God. We have archaic, naive and primitive ideas of God, which we have not updated with everything else that we know in our world. With all of the explosion of knowledge, we have not done much with our idea of God. Yesterday it was a nice day and I was beckoned out of the loft to contemplate God. I went out on the bluff to soak up a little sunshine, thinking that I could think there or not think at all there, and lo and behold, God got me there, too, for © Grand Valley State University �Mystery’s Face and Flow Richard A. Rhem Page 3   as I sat down there was a little table in front of me, one of those little, low tables. It was made of slats of wood and those slats of wood had little spaces between them, and as I contemplated the table, there was an ant. So, I will now tell you the story, "The Ant and I." The ant went all the way up one board to the corner, and then he made a left turn and went down the short side and got to another corner, came all the way down the long side, came to the corner, went up the short side. And I thought, "Now, what will you do? You've been all the way around the perimeter. Now, what will you do, little ant?" He did it all over again. Got to every crisis point, made his turn, in his case, always the left turn, and got back to the starting point. And then one time, as I was about to drift off, he came to the edge and he went down and he found the supporting board underneath which created a bridge for him to get to the next board. He came up on the next board and then he went all the way down on the board, across, all the way up, down, and he did that several times. And I thought, "You know, ant, you ought to give me some interesting plot to follow because I don't have time just to watch you continue to traverse all these boards." But, then I realized that God had placed me there in order to contemplate God, not the ant, for my contemplating the ant is that old image of God that we've grown up with that has come to us out of an ancient past where there was a heaven and an earth and the waters under the earth, the three-storied universe, where God was a being on the throne "out there," in heaven somewhere, and we were here, and God, although totally apart from us, would come down into our history and affect circumstances and then return back to heaven. I thought to myself, if I contemplate the ant, I am like that childhood idea of God which I had. Here I am, totally unengaged, just a spectator, observing. Now, I thought to myself, I could take a piece of dune grass and I could wiggle it in front of the ant, seeing whether or not I could influence the pattern of its peregrinations. But, I didn't do that. Then I thought to myself, I could crush that bugger! But, I didn't do that. And then I thought, I could help him. I could save him; I could redeem him from his dilemma. He is on the surface of a table and the poor dear really is trying to find the sand. He's trying to find the sand where there is sustenance, where there is community, where there is home. He's trying to find his brothers and sisters. I could actually pick him up and put him down on the sand. I didn't do that, either. When I left him, he had gone down into one of those deep valleys between the boards, he was down on that foundation piece which probably was a deep, dark valley of the shadow of death for him. I was half-tempted to pick him up and put him down, but I thought, "No, I think I'll just leave you there." Then I thought to myself, "I am like my old image of God, sovereign, absolute. I can do what I will with that ant. I can crush the ant. I could redeem the ant. I could observe the ant. I could get engaged with the ant. But, I'm totally apart from the ant, even though I have the prerogative of getting involved with it, but I live a separate existence far superior and beyond the ant." © Grand Valley State University �Mystery’s Face and Flow Richard A. Rhem Page 4   That's the God I learned in Sunday School. How about you? And then I thought to myself, "That isn't the God that makes sense of my universe at all today. That's not how I understand human existence, the world, the cosmos." Oh, I understand how that old system worked and if we wouldn't be literal about it all, it would still work for us because it tells us, according to Paul, of God Who said, "Let light shine out of darkness." In other words, the Creator God Who, in the fullness of time, shined into our hearts the light of the Gospel of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. And Paul, in his writing to the Corinthians, was talking about the fact how we even look at that mirror of Jesus mirroring God, and how we, as we contemplate that image, are changed into that image by the Spirit of God. So, I see what Paul meant. In the biblical material, I can understand that God, the incarnation of God, the Spirit of God shaping me into the image of that incarnate One according to the purposes of God. Or, as John witnessed, really quite simple. Jesus said, "I'm going to leave you." Thomas said, "We don't know the way." Jesus said, "I am the Way. I am the Truth. I am the Life. No one comes to the Father but by me." Phillip said, "Ah, I've been wanting to talk to you about that. Just show us the Father and we'll be satisfied." It's that deep longing. I don't sense that Phillip was in any particular crisis. Job was in a crisis! Job said, "Oh, that I knew where I might find him!" In the midst of his burning anguish, Job was in a crisis, with the problem of suffering and of tragedy in the world that has wrenched that cry out of the human heart down through the centuries. Phillip? Phillip's just, well, still longing, though. He said, "Just show us the Father. Oh, if I could just know, if I could just see." Jesus said, "Look, how long have I been with you, you still don't get it. You see me, you see the Father. There's no other access. There's no other map. There's no other possibility except as you behold God in my face." So, Paul saw God in the face of Jesus. John saw in his witness to Jesus, God in the face of Jesus. I can understand that. But then, as I was thinking about the inadequacy of my King of the Universe model over against the ant, I realized that that old model wouldn't work anymore, because that table is not just a thing. That table is dammed up energy, because we know that for 15 billion years it has been a cosmic river of energy expanding time and space as it moves, and we know that that table is simply energy, for a time coalesced, gathered into material, but that material can as well be transferred back into energy because energy and matter are interchangeable; they're all one reality. It is not as though I have a life other than that ant; the life of the ant is the life in me, as well. It is God's Spirit, God's breath that enables the ant to live and me to live, and I am just a cut above © Grand Valley State University �Mystery’s Face and Flow Richard A. Rhem Page 5   the ant in that I am conscious of the ant and the ant is not conscious of me, but consciousness is that uniquely human capacity. But, the human, although having that consciousness, that self-awareness, that ability to observe the process, is not apart from the process, for that table and that ant and my body are all one reality, and all of it alive because of God. Nothing exists except God's Spirit, God's breath, God's enlivening presence. So, I have to do away with that old King model of a God, "out there" ruling, some sovereign Absolute Who can dip down, Who can save or damn. I have to get God, somehow or other, into the reality of my world, to see that my world is because God's breath is or God's Spirit is, and behind and beyond that cosmic drama there is a mystery, a mystery that we cannot fathom, that totally Other, that wholly Other, totally transcendent, Ultimate Mystery that is the Source. I don't know how to say anything more. And even to say that is an article of faith. There's no empirical proof that there's any Source! But, I cannot believe the marvels and wonders of the cosmic drama, except I think of a fountain of creativity that continues to pour forth and that the cosmic drama itself continues to be laced with that creativity as that develops in all of its diversity in a thousand directions with possibilities unlimited. But then, I think to myself, "So I have an Ultimate Mystery. But, what is the nature of that Mystery other than a creativity. And I have a cosmos of tables and chairs and bricks and bodies and everything existent, and all of that diversity what does it mean? What is the nature of the Mystery? And what is the meaning of the manifold diversity of my reality? And then I see a face. I see the face of Jesus. And suddenly I'm back at an old Triune God. Suddenly I see the Trinity with new eyes. Suddenly I see the Ultimate Mystery totally hidden from us, but totally present in all that is, defined in a face, the face of Jesus. That enables me to have a sense of the nature of the Mystery, to sense that that Mystery which is creativity is driving things toward an order of love and justice, because if that face, that representation in history, that concretization, that incarnation - if that incarnation of Jesus is really a reflection or a mirror of the Mystery, and as I reflect on that reflection in the face of Jesus, if I am being thus shaped like Jesus, then perhaps it is the intention of that whole cosmic drama that there be those who be human who are thus shaped, who are joining in those currents that lead to justice and to love. Suddenly I have a three-pointed God again. I have the Ultimate Mystery, the Source of it all; I have the enlivening presence of God in all that is, and I have a definition, I have a specificity, I have an image, an icon, a concrete shape that calls me to meaningful living. The way of Jesus. The way of justice. The way of compassion, moving, moving, I trust and hope, to the Kingdom of God, Shalom, the Cosmic Harmony in perfect pitch. © Grand Valley State University �Mystery’s Face and Flow Richard A. Rhem Page 6   Now I have a sense of my whence, although I cannot penetrate the Mystery. I have a sense of my aliveness, thanks to that breath, wind, Spirit that's been flowing now for 15 billion years, and I have a marker, I have a way, I have a face, and it's because of that face that we gather here, lost in wonder, love and praise, before the Mystery, and go out of here to live a certain way. My economic decisions are not just economic decisions. They are economic decisions that I make in light of my call to follow Jesus. My political decisions are not just arbitrary political decisions; they are decisions that I make in the light of the face that I see. The total way that I am is not arbitrary. It is a way of commitment, following the one whose commitment led him to death and resurrection, by the Spirit, moving, moving toward that final Kingdom. In the light of all that we know about that cosmic river of energy that now and again is dammed up into material stuff like chairs and tables and bodies, I can't believe that, caught up in that process, I still need three points of light, or a Triune God, or a God creatively present, concretely representative of that life to which I am called. The Church is a place where we gather where all lobbying ceases, all selfish ambition comes to an end, all personal advantage ceases as we commit ourselves to the cause of the Ultimate Mystery Whose clue we've found in a face. It's just as simple as that. © Grand Valley State University � https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/f5ee153b1d90bcd0f4e5fe453500b75f.mp3 f8469e813eebb54263761fe5fcf98317 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 Trinity Sunday Series A Cosmic Symphony Scripture Text Job 23:3, II Corinthians 4:6, John 14:9 Location The location of the interview Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context KII-01_RA-0-19970525 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1997-05-25 Title A name given to the resource Mystery's Face and Flow 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 May 25, 1997 entitled "Mystery's Face and Flow", as part of the series "A Cosmic Symphony", on the occasion of Trinity Sunday, at Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI. Scripture references: Job 23:3, II Corinthians 4:6, John 14:9. Justice Love Mystery Nature of God Religious Quest 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/ee508445f3ec9c76c0dc8fc896362770.pdf 36e03de43a71ee64621553f7695f1916 PDF Text Text The End of Religion Text: Isaiah 58:6-7; Luke 10:25; Jeremiah 22:16 Richard A. Rhem and Ken Medema Christ Community Church Spring Lake, Michigan June 15, 1997 Transcription of the spoken sermon Ken, I'm going to rehearse for the people what we have been talking about these weeks so that you can come on board, and they might finally get it. It started off on Pentecost when we talked about the spirit of God and the breath of God or the wind of God that permeates the whole of reality - everything in existence exists because of the enlivening Spirit of God. And then, next week was Trinity Sunday, and we reflected together about God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit, and we recognized that that ancient symbol was struggling to point to a mystery, and mystery not in the sense of something that maybe eventually will be able to be solved or dissolved, but mystery in the sense of that which is beyond our ability to comprehend, mystery in the sense of God being incomprehensible, as the old theologian said, incomprehensible to human understanding. So, we have a mystery that we cannot grasp, and yet the presence of that mystery, that life-giving Breath is present to all that is. I came across a wonderful analogy in the Confessions of St. Augustine, which I had never seen before. Saint Augustine, in a beautiful poetic expression, a prayerlike expression to God, said, "O God, You are like a vast, limitless ocean." And then he said all of creation, all that is, all creatures great and small, tables and pianos and stools - all that is like a sponge, huge sponge, yet a sponge with limits. All of creation, that 15 billion year old river of energy and matter and space and time, all of that as a sponge is submerged in that infinite, limitless ocean. The ocean, of course, is without limits, is more than the sponge, but there is not a molecule or an atom of the sponge that is not saturated by the liquidity of that infinite ocean. It's a beautiful analogy, I think. God more than, but a part of; not one thing exists that is not permeated, shot through with the life, the breath, the spirit of God. But, the mystery, Ken, still remains undefined. What is its nature, its intention, its purpose? For us in the Christian tradition, we find that the mystery comes into focus in a face, in the face of Jesus. In the prologue to John's Gospel we have that wonderful poetic expression, "In the beginning was the word and the word was with God and the word was God, and all things were made by him and apart from © Grand Valley State University   �The End of Religion Richard A. Rhem Page 2   him was not anything made that was made, and that word was life to the world." And then a dramatic statement in the 14th verse - "The word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld a face." Thus, in the humanity of Jesus, the mystery is enfleshed. So now, the mystery which is beyond our comprehension but which is experienced as the breath that inspires and radiates through all that mystery now has definition and specificity. It is the face of Jesus that shows us the intention of the Eternal One. That face of Jesus, that life of Jesus points us to compassion as the end of our religion, the purpose of our religion. And I say this on the basis of that parable which we already looked at last week, the parable of the Good Samaritan. Certainly the question of the lawyer coming to Jesus was right at the heart of things. "What must I do to inherit eternal life?" Aren't we always wanting to secure ourselves? And so, Jesus pointed him to the Torah, love God, love neighbor, etc. And then the lawyer, wanting to make that somehow within some reasonable bounds, said, "Who is my neighbor?" and Jesus, unwilling to set any limits, says to him, in effect, you are the neighbor. You are to be neighbor to all of those who come your way. The story of the Good Samaritan concludes with the lawyer having to say the one who was neighborly was the one who showed mercy, and Jesus said, "Just do it." That's the way of Jesus. That is the intention of the mystery that is God. Compassion is the end of religion - end, in the sense of purpose. When Jesus said this, he was being true to his Jewish tradition. Recently, when I heard Karen Armstrong, the English scholar, lecture on "The History of God," she made the point so strongly that all of the great religious traditions point, finally, to compassion. Compassion is the point of religion; it is to be the consequence of our devotion. Certainly Jesus was reflecting what Isaiah said in chapter 58. There was religion a'plenty, but the question is raised, "Is this the kind of fast I want? Would I want you to go around looking all droopy-eyed with sackcloth and ashes, carrying on a fast, going through your religious devotions, all the time still centered on yourselves? No," the prophet says, "All of your religious devotion is to no avail except it lead to compassion. Is not this the fast that I require, that you loose the thongs of wickedness, that you release the oppressed, that you take the homeless poor into your home and feed the hungry and clothe the naked?" Jesus, in the Good Samaritan story, or in the parable of the sheep and the goats, "Inasmuch as you've done it unto the least of these, my brethren, you've done it unto me" - points to compassion as the end of religion. Jesus was simply being true to his Jewish roots. Ken, my point this morning is that religion's end, its purpose, is compassion. It is doing good. It is loving, healing, helping, and if it doesn't issue in that, it is empty, without meaning and without regard to God. Does that strike a chord with you? Ken: Yeah, about 50,000. How much time do you have? (Ken plays & sings) © Grand Valley State University �The End of Religion Richard A. Rhem Page 3   So, here's a great, vast ocean And all Creation like a sponge And when I look into the water, it's amazing what I see. First, I see the face of the One who came to make it clear, came to make it known for all the world to hear. Then I look again - I can see the face of my neighbor and my enemy who lives here in this place, the people I've rejected, the people I've ignored, the people I've been closing out and setting outside the door. And in this water I can see them, crying in their tears, and I see them looking now at me and I know why I am here! And I see these faces reflected in the water of incomprehensible, mysterious space and love. And I know beyond the vastness of the Mystery, the great white sea. Everywhere I look I see the reflection of the faces of the people close and far and in my neighborhood who need my good. And I'm thrown on mercy once again and mercy I'm called to show again. And that's the end. That's the way. That's what it's all about. I think that's real close, and in my head I think I always knew that, but in the transformation of my own religious experience, Ken, I have come to see how, in my growing up and in my early ministry and in my preaching, I made salvation into a kind of cult. I made it into a kind of a cult that majored in personal salvation, the kind of "Me and Jesus." I wanted to be sure I was safe and secure and bound for heaven, and frankly, this life was something to be endured in order that we might really enter into life and light eternal. I suppose the greatest transformation in my own experience is to recognize that eternal life is now and here and God is now and here, and this life is the life to be lived. I can trust God for whatever else there is, but even though in my head I knew compassion was an obligation of the Gospel, I didn't take it all that © Grand Valley State University �The End of Religion Richard A. Rhem Page 4   seriously until I began to look at my own selfish, self-centered, egocentric, arrogant salvation lust. Not only did I make it a salvation cult but, in the organization and institutional forms of religion (and I've been a part of it all my life), I begin to see not much more than Trivial Pursuit. This is a time of the assemblies of the churches, and the newspaper is full of articles, great debates on such critical issues as whether to call God He or She, whether anyone else is going to get to heaven but those of us who know the formula, whether persons of different sexual orientation can be ordained to ministry, etc., etc. The media is full of articles about the fact that denominations are coming apart at the seams, and the more I look at it from the outside, the more I see how far we've missed the mark. How much we are concerned about things that are of trivial importance, and we fail to do the one thing needful, which is the whole end of religion. I believe that self-centered, arrogant religion is coming to an end. There's a great thrashing about now, the fundamentalist reaction is the last gasp of a dying movement. We were guests of Bishop Spong a couple of weeks ago. As we left St. Peter's parish in Morristown, New Jersey, a beautiful church, all that stone and stained glass, he said to me, "This is quite an institution. But down the street is another Episcopal parish. That's a different place." He said, "There, when a stuffy Episcopalian comes in, the rector says, 'You know, I think you'd like the parish down the block,'" because that parish is filled with all kinds of marginal people, black and white and Hispanic, straight and gay and all sorts in between, all shades of humankind. They run soup kitchens and they have diversity seminars and they are involved in the community and the city. He said, You know, as Bishop I have to go once a year and I take in members, I lay hands on members, and there are always some who go through the Episcopal rigamarole, and if Episcopalians are anything, they are really strict about their liturgy and their forms - so here's the Bishop taking them through their forms and lays his hands on them. And then the Senior Warden stands up and he says, "Now, are there any others of you who believe in this ministry and want to commit yourself to it?" And then a whole raft, another group, of people stand up who believe in the ministry. They don't really care about all of the rigamarole of the Episcopal liturgy and all of its ritual and all of its forms and the institutional form of the Church and the membership of the Church and the paper games that we play. But there are people out there who, when they see something authentic, when they sense there's ministry going on, when the compassion of Jesus Christ is flowing, they say, "Yes! I want to be a part of that." Ken, the old forms are dying, but there's something new emerging, and it's going to be a whole community of people of all stripes and sizes and shapes who are going to band together and say, "Enough church games. Enough theological niceties. Enough of all of that selfish, egotistic concern about one's own little soul, © Grand Valley State University �The End of Religion Richard A. Rhem Page 5   and let's begin to love the cosmos that God loves, and let compassion flow." How does that hit you? Ken: Holy Mackerel! Ah, Baby, we built ourselves this little boat 'cause we were frightened of the sea, built ourselves this little boat to put back the smokin' mystery. Went ashore where the waves were, so we put off this little sail, What you gonna do when your little boat starts to fail? We thought the boat would last forever, we thought we were so damn secure, And now we feel it tremblin' and there's water comin' in, Ah, now the dissolution does begin. So, we're gonna jump into the water. The boat will be gone. We'll have to jump into the water, like a sponge, swimmin' on and on, And we'll little by little we'll see the pieces of driftwood just floatin' away, As we jump into the water on a fine, fine summer's day, As we jump into the water as that old boat gets washed away. © Grand Valley State University � https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/69e01d45914f9846f122f9c4736784b7.mp3 d71dc9751c370b48fab162d17a8498f1 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 IV Series With Ken Medema: A Cosmic Symphony Scripture Text Isaiah 58:6-7, Luke 10:25, Jeremiah 22:16 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-0-19970615 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1997-06-15 Title A name given to the resource The End of Religion 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 15, 1997 entitled "The End of Religion ", as part of the series "With Ken Medema: A Cosmic Symphony", on the occasion of Pentecost IV, at Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI. Scripture references: Isaiah 58:6-7, Luke 10:25, Jeremiah 22:16. Compassion Nature of Religion https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/083622944449da30898952d110778a3f.pdf dc1a770e5ec617765f48f8230f72f035 PDF Text Text Divine Improvisation – Human Wonder From the series: Cosmic Symphony Scripture: Genesis 1:1-5; Psalm 9; John 1:1-14 Richard A. Rhem Christ Community Church Spring Lake, Michigan June 22, 1997 Transcription of the spoken sermon Sometimes when I reflect on what I try to communicate to you by way of writing or preaching, I question myself. I realize that I am on a fascinating quest that never quits. Always, always I am trying to understand, understand the Mystery of God, the mystery of the human being, and then it strikes me that that is really the same quest. Do I not try to understand God, the nature of Reality, because I am trying to understand myself, my human nature, the meaning of human being? Sometimes I question myself for dragging you along on my quest. I cannot help myself - these questions stalk my every waking moment and obtrude from my unconscious at times during sleep. But, certainly not everyone is dogged with that drivenness to search the mysteries of life. When I doubt myself in the execution of my preaching/teaching ministry, I hear voices from the congregation say, "We really only want to know that God loves us and that in the end all will be well." And then I am struck by the realization that that is precisely why I carry on my quest - am driven by the need to probe, to discover. It is because, more than anything else, I want to be able to say with honesty and conviction, God loves you; all will be well. For that reason, I keep thinking and letting you in on my own reflections. We have inherited a faith tradition - the biblical story, Israel and Jesus, 2000 years of interpretive tradition - the Christian theological tradition. But all of it, the biblical story and the interpretive tradition, was shaped in terms of a conception of the world-creation and of God that we know is other than what is being discovered in our day. Our knowledge of the cosmos is exploding, it is awesome; it places the most brilliant scientists before Mystery. That knowledge, gained through the sciences, is always tentative, open-ended, constantly being confirmed or corrected, and that knowledge will not provide for us either proof or disproof of God and the mode of God's engagement with cosmic reality. But, what we learn from the sciences will make evident the conceptions of God and God's © Grand Valley State University   �Divine Improvisation Richard A. Rhem Page 2   working derived from pre-scientific ages that no longer speak to us, because they were based on an understanding of the world and its origin that has been rejected. The conception of the cosmic reality, which our best knowledge provides, does not give a proof either of God's existence or non-existence, but it is the context of understanding within which we must finally understand our experience of God. Images of God and God's working which do not accord with our knowledge of reality will not be convincing or adequate. Therefore, faith's understanding needs new language, new concepts, and new analogies. That is the task that drives me and, to the extent that you continue to tolerate me and even encourage me, I believe it is the gift we can bring to our world as a faith community. A biblical scholar, John Knox, wrote something that struck me when first I read it and continues to keep me at the difficult and risky task in which I am engaged. He wrote, For our hearts cannot finally find true what our minds find false. If they could, we should be hopelessly divided and any firm grasp of reality would be impossible. What we mean by "the heart" in this connection is not something alien or counter to the mind, but is the mind itself quickened and extended. The wisdom the heart has found, if it be wisdom and not fantasy, is the same wisdom the mind all the while has been feeling after, if haply it might find it. It is a wisdom which, far from bypassing the understanding, enters through the doors of it, fills and stretches the space of it, and only then breaks through and soars above it. The Humanity and Divinity of Christ, p. 1 Perhaps another way of saying this is that the "heart" cannot find rest in a story or a symbol which our reason shows to be out of sync with our experience and knowledge of reality - not in accord with the reality we know from observation and rational reflection, or, again, we will not "rest" in that which our common sense rejects. Given the fact that our knowledge of the physical universe, of the human being, of global human society, and of historical development in a global perspective has revolutionized our understanding of ourselves and the reality of which we are a part, our faith formulations must be translated into new language and conceptuality if they would continue to be compelling, convincing, meaningful and awe-inspiring into the Third Millennium. If you are of my generation, you can perhaps live and die with inherited stories, symbols, and faith understanding. However, it is not just for ourselves, but for © Grand Valley State University �Divine Improvisation Richard A. Rhem Page 3   our children and grandchildren that we must re-think the faith in order that they, too, might live in the assurance that God loves them and that all will be well. Finding new language, a new translation of biblical faith does not mean that the tradition in which we have been nurtured did not point us to and connect us with reality, with God, that it did not provide a meaningful framework for understanding our human experience. It did that for the Christian community for all these centuries and still does so for millions. But the truth, the Reality to which our faith formulations point, is beyond those formulations and increasingly in the last three centuries those formulations have been shown to be inadequate; they no longer image reality as we are coming to know it through observation and scientific investigation. In this situation a serious error has been committed by both the Academy and the Church: both tend to identify the symbols, the interpretive story, with the Reality itself. Thus as Science images a cosmos that is contradictory to the biblical story and symbol, Science tends toward atheism or the denial of God, while Religion grows defensive and engages in a futile effort to disprove the findings of Science. Both efforts are wrong because both mistake the story/symbol for the reality itself. It is not the Reality – In this case, God - that is disproved, but simply the inadequacy of the interpretive story, the symbolic imaging, that no longer connects what we know from scientific investigation with what we experience of a transcendent reality as human beings. How many years ago was it that the Mackinaw Bridge was built? I vaguely remember that, soon after it was opened, a car pulling a mobile home was overturned by a gust of wind while crossing the bridge. The occupants of the car said they feared the bridge was collapsing. But, the bridge was just fine. The storm overturned car and trailer on the bridge. But one can identify with the initial fear of those folks - thinking bridge and themselves were plunging into the sea. So it is with our theological theories and explanations. New information shows them up as picturing the world or God or the human person in a manner not in accord with the reality discovered. But, that does not touch the reality of world or God or person. It simply calls for re-thinking, revising our conceptions, re-telling the old, old story. In the re-telling, the tradition will be mined for stories and nuances forgotten or overlooked. Certain language heavy with sacred association will be retained but given new meaning in a new framework. The dismantling of old conceptuality is not to destroy, to leave barren, but to find a more adequate expression that will be resonant with a fresh authenticity. Such an enterprise has always been going on and must ever continue. A reactionary defensiveness on the part of the Church always proves futile and © Grand Valley State University �Divine Improvisation Richard A. Rhem Page 4   dangerous as religious leaders have not often trusted the people with full knowledge of the best information available, thinking that, by shielding them from advancing human knowledge, they will preserve them in the faith. But to do so is dishonest and a disservice. James Fowler, the religious educator who defined the stages of faith development points out that often the Church itself is responsible for arrested spiritual development, keeping people stuck at the adolescent stage rather than calling people to maturity in Christ. To keep the people of God from maturity leaves them vulnerable to a David Koresh, a Jim Jones, to militant, violent fundamentalism. And if we do not continually re-think our faith formulations in light of ongoing knowledge available to us, when we are confronted with such knowledge, there is often anger, the rage of having one's core beliefs disrupted and perhaps rage and rejection of the institution that misled, that failed to pass on an honest faith interpretation in light of the best knowledge available. Let me add one more thought: Our traditional story has hints that point to the universality of God's grace, but we must honestly acknowledge that, in the wake of Jesus' crucifixion and resurrection, that early movement reflected in the New Testament documents shaped a religious tradition - Christianity - which has for the most part been exclusivistic. Once again parts of the Church will declare even now - Salvation by grace, but through Jesus Christ alone. But today in our global society, where we have come to know other traditions and the people who worship God in those traditions, we simply must recognize that tribal conceptions of God and narrow religious traditions can no longer be pitted against each other. Not only does a rigid exclusivism no longer make sense, it is downright dangerous. Our world is too small, too inter-connected, too interdependent to allow the volatility of religion to fuel tribal, ethnic and national conflict. If in the foregoing I give the rationale for my struggle to re-tell the story, I must move on now and attempt to speak of God in new imagery. I have been endeavoring to do that in these weeks since Pentecost, finding myself, as I've said, in an accidental series. In light of the fascinating story of the origin and evolution of our universe, how can we speak of God? On Trinity Sunday I confessed my surprise at finding myself imaging God in the threeness of the Trinity symbol: God is a Mystery beyond our comprehension, yet present to the Cosmos, which flows out of that infinite well of creativity as Energy, Matter, Time, and Space. All that is given existence by the Breath or Spirit of God. I borrowed an analogy from St. Augustine who imaged God as an infinite ocean, limitless, beyond knowing, and this whole universe, the whole creation as a © Grand Valley State University �Divine Improvisation Richard A. Rhem Page 5   sponge submerged in that infinite ocean. The sponge has limits, is finite, though vast and there is not a molecule or atom of the sponge that is not saturated with the ocean's watery reality. So, argues Augustine, God is infinite, beyond knowing - more than the whole of Reality, yet present totally to, in and with the cosmos, giving it existence and life. Interestingly, that image from the Fourth Century vividly expresses our best sense of the relationship of God to the cosmos - more than (Transcendent); God is more than the creation, yet present in (Immanent); God is intimately present in all that is. We have then gone on to claim that the nature of the Mystery, the Mystery's meaning, intention, and purpose is defined in a Face - Jesus is the human face of God; in his face we see the light of the knowledge of God; God gains definition as the Word becomes flesh. From Jesus' life and teaching we discover that devotion to God is the doing of compassion - creating a humane community, where justice is done, compassion is practiced, the hungry are fed, the oppressed set free, the homeless given shelter. That is the end of religion, the purpose for joining in a faith community. In that community we worship, being lifted beyond ourselves through liturgy, symbol, music and artistic expression, recite the story, nurture, and join in the action of compassion, following the way of Jesus. Can we do that honestly, with authenticity in light of what we have learned of this awesome cosmic drama of which we are a part and the experience of God in the biblical faith tradition, as well as that attested to in other religious traditions? I do believe we can. Not only do I believe we can re-imagine God in light of all we know and experience of our world, but I believe the wonder of that Mystery is more than our forbears could have dreamed of. Let me suggest an image of God and God's relation to the cosmos and to humankind that I find fascinating and profound. I take it from the British Biologist/Theologian, Arthur Peacocke, whom I quote in the back pages of your liturgy from his Theology for a Scientific Age. The image of God is that of a composer, indeed, of a jazz improvisor. The chapter title where this image appears is "God's Interaction With the World," and the subsection is "Models of God's Activity as Creator." Peacocke points out two classic ways of speaking of the activity of divine creation - the model of "making," and the model of "emanation." The maker model speaks of God as the craftsman, the mechanic. This is the most common biblical manner of speaking. However, the emanation model also finds expression - God from God's own being goes out to be actively involved in giving and sustaining the being of all that is. © Grand Valley State University �Divine Improvisation Richard A. Rhem Page 6   The "Maker" model lends itself to the idea of God's transcendence - God beyond the world. The "Emanation" model points to God's immanence in Creation God's presence in and with all that exists. In light of our knowledge of cosmic reality from the sciences and our reflection on God in the biblical tradition, Peacocke suggests the model of artistic creation as best imaging God's creative action and interaction with the world. It is in such a context that he writes the section that appears in the pages of your liturgy. I find the image of Jazz Improvisor fascinating and exciting - highly illuminating of the manner in which God might interact with the cosmic reality. I am woefully lacking in knowledge of music, music theory, tonality and all related matters. But I can follow Arthur Peacocke's argument - that the composer forms "cosmos" out of "chaos." I can create chaos on a keyboard; the result is noise. The artist uses the same instrument to create music, melody, harmony. And I can also sense that the execution of a musical score unfolds - the immediate moment following on what has preceded and flowing into what follows. It also makes sense to me that both chance and necessity are operative in a jazz improvisation. I spoke with the master of improvisation last Sunday - Ken Medema. I told him what I was going to attempt to do today. I said to him, " You are all over the keyboard with creative freedom; yet you know some things will work and some will not." He agreed. And I said further, "You are not sure just where you will end up nor how you will get there." Again, he agreed. That is the fascination of improvisation - the future is full of surprise; yet there are certain limits, parameters within which the creative artist must work. It also makes sense to me that creation is endowed with infinite potentiality which might be actualized in this manner or in that. I can see then that, if on the scene of an evolutionary unfolding of billions of years there emerges a creature like humankind with self-consciousness, awareness, being the vehicle of spirit, such a creature plays a very real role in the future of cosmic development. If the Creator took the risk of creating a creature in the image and likeness of the Creator, self-conscious, creative, free, then a whole new dimension has emerged in the cosmic drama. Now there is a whole multitude of composers determining scores of infinite variety raising the complexity of the whole to unimaginable heights. It makes sense to me, further, that the emergence of creatures of consciousness, able to become observers of the cosmic symphony and players in that symphony, would be the intention of the Creator Who delights in the cosmic play and delights in the delight of those who come to share that delight, to wonder, to stand in awe of it all. And then I love the manner in which God as Jazz Improvisor illumines the idea of the Creator's transcendence over the cosmos, but is at the same time immanent © Grand Valley State University �Divine Improvisation Richard A. Rhem Page 7   in its unfolding as the composer is in her music, so that in the playing of the score musicians are experiencing the very being of the composer. So, to be engaged in creative living in this cosmic drama is to know in intimate communion the Creator Whose Spirit gives life to all. The human creature, self-conscious, aware, attentive becomes the discerner of God's amazing creative work in its infinite variety and depth and also the actualizer of God's intention and purpose. And that actualization follows no rigid, ironclad form. Actualization will take place in a great variety of ways through the multiplicity of possible configurations. That is to say - now the creature becomes herself a jazz improvisor, bringing new patterns and forms to expression out of the infinite potentiality with which the Creator has endowed the cosmos. That points to the incredible responsibility and exhilarating challenge of being "co-creators" with God. In awe before the Mystery, creative fount of all that is, in adoration before the wonder of grace as revealed in the face of Jesus, in openness to the enlivening Spirit that breathes through our being, we worship full of wonder. The ancient Hebrew poet captured, beyond what he could have known, the paradox O Lord, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth! When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers, The moon and the stars that you have established, What are human beings that you are mindful of them, mortals that you care for them? Yet you have made them a little lower than God, and crown them with glory and honor. In a cosmic symphony of such dimension, who are we - fragile, vulnerable, indeed, small. Yet it is we who have become conscious, aware, who are able to wonder, to worship and, with the Mystery Creator at the center, become cocreators moving the musical score toward humane community, spirituality, and compassion, actualizing the Eternal Purpose of God for cosmic harmony - a Divine Oratorio whose theme is "God loves you; all will be well!" References: John Knox. The Humanity and Divinity of Christ: A Study of Pattern in Christology. Cambridge University Press, 1967. Arthur Peacocke. Theology for a Scientific Age: Being and Becoming – Natural, Divine and Human. Augsburg Fortress Publishers, 1993. © Grand Valley State University � https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/fd29781c32366d18e4cd4362e87e72fb.mp3 8f526b892d7d774d54518eab995f2bc4 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Richard A. Rhem Collection Description An account of the resource Text and sound recordings of the sermons, prayers, services, and articles of Richard Rhem, pastor emeritus of Christ Community Church in Spring Lake, Michigan, where he served for 37 years. Starting in the mid 1980's, Rhem began to question some of the traditional Christian dogma that he had been espousing from the pulpit. That questioning was a first step in a long and interesting spiritual journey, one that he openly shared with his congregation. His journey is important, in part because it is reflective of the questioning, the yearnings, and the gradual revision of beliefs that many persons in this part of the century have experienced and continue to experience. It is important also because of the affirming and inclusive way his questioning was done and his thinking evolved. His sermons and other written and spoken materials together document the steps in his journey as it took a turn in 1985, yet continued to revolve around the framework and liturgies of the Christian calendar. Subject The topic of the resource Clergy--Michigan Reformed Church in America Christ Community Church (Spring Lake, Mich.) Religion Interfaith worship Sermons Sound Recordings Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Rhem, Richard A. Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/514">Richard A. Rhem papers (KII-01)</a> Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives. Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Kaufman Interfaith Institute Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Language A language of the resource English Type The nature or genre of the resource Sound Text Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context KII-01 Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant 1981-2014 Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource audio/mp3 text/pdf Sound A resource primarily intended to be heard. Examples include a music playback file format, an audio compact disc, and recorded speech or sounds. Event Pentecost V Series A Cosmic Symphony Scripture Text Genesis 1:1-5, Psalm 8, John 1:1-14 Location The location of the interview Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI References John Knox, The Humanity and Divinity of Christ, 1967 Arthur Peacocke, Theology for a Scientific Age: Being and Becoming-Natural, Divine and Human, 1993 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-0-19970622 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1997-06-22 Title A name given to the resource Divine Improvisation - Human Wonder 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 22, 1997 entitled "Divine Improvisation - Human Wonder", as part of the series "A Cosmic Symphony", on the occasion of Pentecost V, at Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI. Scripture references: Genesis 1:1-5, Psalm 8, John 1:1-14. Compassion Nature of God Re-imagining the Faith https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/b8d39b67042d470cabfd05debbdc3b33.pdf 903807a576789eda8603b8e2135b1928 PDF Text Text The Providence of God: Is It Wishful Thinking? From the series: Tough Questions: No Easy Answers Text: Genesis 50:15-21; Romans 8:28-39 Richard A. Rhem Christ Community Church Spring Lake, Michigan July 13, 1997 Transcription of the spoken sermon The title of this sermon, “The Providence of God: Is It Wishful Thinking?” raises a tough question for which there is no easy answer. And that is what I have named the sermon series I begin today. Tough Questions. By that, I mean questions that matter, that impact my life and society; questions that raise critical issues for ourselves and our world. These are questions for which there is no easy answer, no answer that can be checked by a scientific experiment or calculated by computer technology. So much hangs on the answer, but the answer will finally involve a commitment of faith because the nature of the question defies a clear and simple answer. We will open ourselves to some critical questions that most of us wrestle with some time or other, but often leave unspoken in conversation because we are not always ready to admit to the question or to face the possibility that some tried and true formulas of faith may need revising, which is scary. But a healthy faith, a positive spiritual life can hardly be possessed if there are questions that now and then surface but are pushed down and denied. And so, let’s raise some tough questions these weeks, seeking not easy answers, but honest engagement with the questions and hopefully a place to stand that provides freedom and confidence for our lives. That we have questions about some of the “answers” that our traditional biblical faith has supplied is not surprising. How could it be otherwise? The whole biblical story arose from 2000 to 4000 years ago. The human experience of God was portrayed in narrative, saga, myth, allegory and parable, which conceived of the physical universe and of God within the framework of an ancient picture which was believed to be the way things were, but not at all in terms of our present understanding of the universe, humankind, society, or historical development as we know it. © Grand Valley State University   �The Providence of God: Is It Wishful Thinking? Richard A. Rhem Page 2   The ancients wrestled with fundamental human questions as we do - Where have we come from? Where are we going? Is there some purpose unfolding? Does it all mean something? Those questions are addressed in all the world’s religions. And the stories, myths, and teaching of all religions are attempts to find some clue to the meaning of Reality we encounter as humankind. The Bible is the cumulative religious understanding of Israel, culminating in the event of Jesus Christ, and the belief about God, the world, nature and history formed the framework within which the biblical answers to ultimate questions were articulated. But that framework no longer reflects the reality of the universe or humanity or God’s interaction with the world. I don’t think I have to belabor that fact; it must be obvious to any reasonable reflection on the ancient worldview. But then, if our whole understanding of the nature of the universe and humankind has undergone radical re-conception, is it still possible to believe the ancient answers to life’s tough questions? For example: The Providence of God: Is it wishful thinking? To engage that question, let’s look at the model or the paradigm from Scripture within which the providence of God was declared and proclaimed. But, first, let’s see what Providence has been understood to consist in. I had the Questions and Answers of the Heidelberg Catechism printed in your liturgy. These questions come in the second part of the Reformation Catechism out of the 16th century - the discussion of the Apostles’ Creed, the opening statement of which declares, I believe in God, the Father Almighty, maker of heaven and earth. QUESTION 26: What dost thou believe when thou sayest: I believe in God the Father Almighty, Maker of Heaven and Earth? ANSWER: That the eternal Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who of nothing made heaven and earth, with all that in them is, who likewise upholds and governs the same by his eternal counsel and providence, is for the sake of Christ his Son my God and my Father, in whom I so trust as to have no doubt that he will provide me with all things necessary for body and soul; and further, that whatever evil he sends upon me in this vale of tears, he will turn to my good; for he is able to do it, being Almighty God, and willing also, being a faithful Father. QUESTION 27: What dost thou understand by the Providence of God? ANSWER: The almighty and everywhere present power of God, whereby, as it were by his hand, he still upholds heaven and earth, with all creatures, and so governs them that herbs and grass, rain and drought, fruitful and barren years, meat and drink, health and sickness, riches and poverty, yea, all things, come not by chance, but by his fatherly hand. © Grand Valley State University �The Providence of God: Is It Wishful Thinking? Richard A. Rhem Page 3   QUESTION 28: What does it profit us to know that God has created, and by his providence still upholds all things? ANSWER: That we may be patient in adversity, thankful in prosperity, and for what is future have good confidence in our faithful God and Father that no creature shall separate us from his love, since all creatures are so in his hand that without his will they can not so much as move. In the Catechism’s statement, the Providence of God is rooted in the biblical teaching of creation. The God Who creates, likewise upholds and governs. In consequence, “all things come not by chance, but by his fatherly hand.” In order to picture this biblical model of God’s interaction with the creation, I drew a diagram which still needs some work, but I think will make the point THE BIBLICAL MODEL - A THEISTIC SALVATION MODEL God is predominantly transcendent/omnipotent. God intervenes in nature/history. The biblical story is largely a redemption story centering in God’s saving action to redeem the human creature and effect God’s Kingdom. Creation is largely a stage area for the drama of salvation. This model does not deny God’s presence or immanence in Creation; the Spirit is present in Creation and Jesus is God’s presence in flesh. However, God’s transcendence predominates; God is “above,” other than that which God calls © Grand Valley State University �The Providence of God: Is It Wishful Thinking? Richard A. Rhem Page 4   into being by God’s Word. And what God creates is perfect, harmonious, “very good.” The Genesis story in the succeeding chapters through chapter 11 then recounts human rebellion, disobedience and the consequent corruption of the perfect paradisical state. The human creatures’ disobedience is spoken of in subsequent Christian teaching as the Fall and the human family is marked by that original disobedience, which moral failure is the root cause of all that goes wrong in Creation. The biblical story beginning with Genesis 12, the calling of Abraham and Sarah and the covenant of Grace constituted with them, marks the turn from the Creation theme to the salvation or redemption theme - the long movement toward the End of history with paradise regained - the Holy City, the new Jerusalem and the dwelling of God with humankind. In this scheme, which is the traditional biblical model or paradigm, the focus is the Divine-Human relationship; the stress is on salvation and the physical universe is simply the stage on which the redemptive drama is played out. God is outside but intervenes and really controls what happens, because God is Fatherlike, God can be trusted to turn even evil to good purpose, but all things good and evil, come from God’s “fatherly hand.” That is the picture, the framework, the model within which God’s Providence is affirmed in Scripture and has been taught in the Christian faith tradition. This understanding is held not only by folk in the churches, but finds expression again and again in popular conversation. This idea has permeated the consciousness of Western culture - “God has a purpose in it.” Over and over one hears it in the face of tragedy and suffering of every sort. It is not a reasoned conclusion on the basis of evidence; it reflects a deep, deep, uncritical response to life’s experiences. It must reflect a deep longing in the human heart that it be so. That’s why I raise the tough question - Is it wishful thinking? Is it something within us that craves such a Providence to be operative because we are aware of the fragile nature of our lives, how vulnerable we are to a hundred or a thousand perils beyond our knowledge and control? But if such “comfort” is posited on a conception of God and cosmos and human reality that we can no longer really believe, then are we only fooling ourselves? Simply believing something does not make it true. Well, how do we understand our reality? If not the biblical model of Creation in Perfection/Fall/Redemption, then what model might be more reflective of what has been discovered about our universe and our human reality? How might we conceive of God and God’s inter-action with the world? © Grand Valley State University �The Providence of God: Is It Wishful Thinking? Richard A. Rhem Page 5   An Alternative Creation Model: If you eliminated God as Mystery and the immanent Divine Spirit permeating the movement from Big Bang toward Shalom, I think those scientists who deal in cosmological thought, astrophysics, sub-atomic biology and the related fields would agree that this diagram reflects our knowledge of the physical universe and our total reality. All that was present in the Big Bang has been unfolding, developing from that micro-second to the present. Some scientists sense the presence of a Mystery; some deny any possibility of positing purpose and goal. But, the phenomenon of religion is a human response to some ultimate Creative Source or Force from which all reality derives, some purpose or intention - a movement toward a Goal. We have reflected on God as Mystery whose creative life-giving “Breath” or spirit permeates all that is, whose nature is given definition by the Word/Spirit in flesh in Jesus from whose life we see the nature of the Mystery as gracious. This is the claim of faith; it is not verifiable as are the echoes of radio waves from the Big Bang of 15 billion years ago. Such a claim is not provable by any means derived from the sciences. But, the question arises: Is such a claim consistent with a conception of the universe, our experience of God and our experience of being human? It is my contention that it is. Further, I would contend that the old model of Creation/Fall no longer convincingly explains our experience of ourselves, of God, of cosmos. © Grand Valley State University �The Providence of God: Is It Wishful Thinking? Richard A. Rhem Page 6   The Creation model posits by faith the Mystery that is God as the Creative Fount of all that is, claiming that that which sparked the whole cosmic drama of fifteen billion years was endowed with the whole potential that is being actualized; all that is was there “in the beginning.” The operative term for this model is Emergence, the continuous unfolding of the potential that was contained in the originating Creative explosion. Over 15 billion years the inorganic moved to the organic and there was life. Organic life emerged into consciousness, selfconsciousness, the pre-human, the human. And the human moves toward the level of spirit. And where will spirit lead? Will there be a level of spiritual community beyond anything our human community has yet known in its warring, despoiling, rapacious madness? Let me be clear; the model might suggest that it is ever upward and onward, but that is not necessarily so. Why? Because at the level of the human, the creature becomes co-creator, able to respond to the beckoning of the Spirit or to be dragged down by the pull of the lower from which he/she has derived. This is where the claim of the Providence of God must be re-thought. The old Creation/Fall model posited a God Almighty and all controlling, a transcendent/wholly other Being whose “life” was not really immanent within the cosmic process. That God, spoken of as male, existed apart from the cosmic drama, but rather directly governed, controlled all that transpired. Thus, the Heidelberg Catechism claims, “all things come not by chance, but by his fatherly hand.” The nurturing parental conception of God softens this claim and the positive value of such a faith is that one becomes patient in adversity, thankful in prosperity, with good confidence for the future. But there are problems here. All things from God’s hand? The Holocaust? There are serious voices that claim we can never think the same about God after the Holocaust - 6 million of God’s special people? Or, what of the beautiful child living in close proximity to this church in a life/death struggle with cancer? And the instances that we encounter again and again are beyond number. Is it a comfort to believe all things come from God’s fatherly hand? And then, too, such a claim is contrary to the emerging, unfolding, developing, evolving reality of which we are a part. There seems to be no tinkering with the amazing universe about which we have learned so much. Further, such a view of God’s interaction with the world and our lives runs contrary to our own concrete experience. We do determine the course of history and of the cosmos in a very real sense. We can destroy the planet or we can nurture it. We can work for peace or create conflict, violence and death. We can © Grand Valley State University �The Providence of God: Is It Wishful Thinking? Richard A. Rhem Page 7   work for dialogue and mutual understanding among religious traditions or use religion as the fuel to warfare. We may wish it were not in our hands, but it is. So, then, is the answer to our question, “Yes?” Is trust in the Providence of God just wishful thinking? My answer is not an easy answer. It is not a simple “Yes” or a simple “No.” I do believe one can yet believe in the providence of God within the cosmic drama of which we are a part, but it will undergo a significant revision. The classic biblical story of God’s Providence is the Joseph story in Genesis. I cannot here re-tell that story. You can read it in Genesis 37-50. It is a story of human arrogance, meanness, grief and deep pathos. The family of Jacob is human, all too human. The brothers hate Joseph, their father’s favorite who himself is not wise in relating his dreams of superiority. In the end, Joseph becomes a powerful ruler in Egypt. Jacob sends his remaining sons to Egypt to buy grain because of a famine in Canaan. They are recognized by Joseph who puts them through tests and great stress. Finally, he reveals himself to them. They fear for their lives. But Joseph spares them. Do not be afraid! Am I in the place of God? Even though you intended to do harm to me, God intended it for good... Joseph had a choice. He could have wiped them out in an act of vengeance. Rather, he forgave them, breaking the cycle of violence. In so doing, I believe Joseph was responding to the Spirit that beckons toward shalom rather than yielding to the impulse from below that would have satisfied the desire for vengeance and retaliation. Joseph discerned in the milieu of human conflict a way of peace that led to reconciliation; Joseph acted with grace. Paul is probably as responsible as anyone for the traditional conception of Providence. The 8th chapter of Romans is a statement of his conviction that all things are directly determined by “God’s fatherly hand” as the catechism claims. We know that all things work together for good for those who love God, who are called according to his purpose. Paul believed God had pre-destined that we be conformed to the image of Jesus. He goes on to make an absolutely marvelous claim that whatever befalls us in no way can separate us from God’s love in Jesus Christ. Can we translate Paul’s confidence in terms that reflect our understanding of our world, our experience? I think we can, but not as straightforwardly and simply as Paul claimed. The biblical model of God in direct control of all that happens so that nothing happens but that which “comes from the Fatherly hand” collided with the model of the universe that arose in the modern period - we speak of the Newtonian model - the great machine that grinds on its way according to ironclad laws of cause and effect leaving room only for a Creator at the beginning to get things © Grand Valley State University �The Providence of God: Is It Wishful Thinking? Richard A. Rhem Page 8   started and then from outside the system becoming an observer, perhaps on rare occasion intervening, tinkering with the system. This is a Deist conception - God the Supreme Clockmaker who creates, winds it up and lets it run on its own. This model left little room for God’s intimate involvement in the universe or in our lives. It collided head-on with the idea of Providence as conceived in Scripture and catechism. This understanding of the universe has dominated the last three hundred years and created the tragic gulf between religious faith and scientific understanding of the world. The conflict has been costly to both science and religion and is the cause of large-scale defection from religious faith by the intellectual leadership of the world. But, there are leading thinkers today in both science and religion who see in the more recent understanding of the universe the manner in which God’s continuous immanent creativity is operative in the unfolding drama influencing the course of cosmic development toward a goal according to a gracious purpose. As my thinking - the I that I am - influences the whole of my being, even to the most elemental physical processes, analogously so a God transcendent - more than the totality of all that is but not apart from any aspect of it – might influence the course of its development in ways that are life enhancing, creative, and increasing in complexity, moving the whole to higher levels of development. Computers remain a mystery to me, but I do know there is hardware and software. The hardware is mechanical; it functions according to physical law. But, the “machine” is useless without a program that determines how its myriad circuitry operates. The program is determined by a human mind with a purpose in mind. The program is encoded on a disk and inserted in the hardware equipment so that the desired result is achieved. Might God be the author of the software of the cosmos? And if God as Mystery is revealed to be mirrored in Jesus, then could we not trust in the creative, gracious intention written into the universe’s program of development? Finally, when we speak of God, we speak of mystery and when we think deeply about our own being, we run up against mystery, as well. All analogies break down; we come to the end of rational discourse. Yet, I believe there are resources in our faith tradition and in the amazing unveiling of the wonders of the cosmos that point to a God much larger than the old, biblical stories portrayed, but a God, nonetheless, full of grace with a purpose far grander than we’ve yet conceived of. The old conceptions gave confidence for the future and comfort for the present. Comfort is “com-fortes” - that is, enabling one to live with strength. I do believe that is possible, to an even greater degree, given what we are learning about the nature of our world. But there is this critical difference: in the model I am suggesting, we are called to be co-creators with God. We can thwart the Creator’s © Grand Valley State University �The Providence of God: Is It Wishful Thinking? Richard A. Rhem Page 9   purpose or join in its realization. The dice of the universe is loaded, biased toward life and creative movement toward spirit and community, toward Shalom. But, it will not happen unless or until the human species catches the dream and forsakes its warring madness. The Providence of God - is it wishful thinking? If we see ourselves passively being played upon, waiting for God to unilaterally create heaven on earth, sparing us all harm and suffering -Yes. But, if we understand that providence as God’s continuous top-down influence nudging, beckoning, urging toward humane community - No. When we learn to react to our life situation as did Joseph, with humility and grace, then I believe we will experience the reality of what Paul expressed If God is for us, who can be against us? What can separate us from the love of Christ?... nothing in all creation can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. Living thus, open, free, confident, I will see how God works all things together for good and, yielded to that overarching Divine persuasion, I will find my life being conformed to the image of Jesus Christ, whose highest expression of human selfhood was the integrity of offering his life for the Divine Dream that drove him, praying, Thy will be done. © Grand Valley State University � https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/063cf23767e2bedba7d37632acae5caa.mp3 5a72b8bd702c0a8ed24e2eb1cfa0f89b Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Richard A. Rhem Collection Description An account of the resource Text and sound recordings of the sermons, prayers, services, and articles of Richard Rhem, pastor emeritus of Christ Community Church in Spring Lake, Michigan, where he served for 37 years. Starting in the mid 1980's, Rhem began to question some of the traditional Christian dogma that he had been espousing from the pulpit. That questioning was a first step in a long and interesting spiritual journey, one that he openly shared with his congregation. His journey is important, in part because it is reflective of the questioning, the yearnings, and the gradual revision of beliefs that many persons in this part of the century have experienced and continue to experience. It is important also because of the affirming and inclusive way his questioning was done and his thinking evolved. His sermons and other written and spoken materials together document the steps in his journey as it took a turn in 1985, yet continued to revolve around the framework and liturgies of the Christian calendar. Subject The topic of the resource Clergy--Michigan Reformed Church in America Christ Community Church (Spring Lake, Mich.) Religion Interfaith worship Sermons Sound Recordings Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Rhem, Richard A. Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/514">Richard A. Rhem papers (KII-01)</a> Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives. Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Kaufman Interfaith Institute Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Language A language of the resource English Type The nature or genre of the resource Sound Text Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context KII-01 Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant 1981-2014 Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource audio/mp3 text/pdf Sound A resource primarily intended to be heard. Examples include a music playback file format, an audio compact disc, and recorded speech or sounds. Event Pentecost VIII Series Tough Questions: No Easy Answers Scripture Text Genesis 50:15-21, Romans 8:28-39 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-0-19970713 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1997-07-13 Title A name given to the resource The Providence of God: Is It Wishful Thinking? 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 July 13, 1997 entitled "The Providence of God: Is It Wishful Thinking?", as part of the series "Tough Questions: No Easy Answers", on the occasion of Pentecost VIII, at Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI. Scripture references: Genesis 50:15-21, Romans 8:28-39. Mystery Nature of God Nature of Religion Shalom https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/0d518af25b919590d26babfaeaa06f29.pdf cbd1f85381ae05377cc8a54241bc8a69 PDF Text Text What Lies Beyond Death’s Veil? From the series: Tough Questions: No Easy Answers Scripture: Romans 8:19; Luke 20:38 Richard A. Rhem Christ Community Church Spring Lake, Michigan July 20, 1997 Transcription of the spoken sermon What lies beyond death’s veil? That is a tough question and there is no easy answer because the experience beyond death is beyond the limit of human experience. Ah, you say, but there is one who returned to demonstrate that there is life beyond life - Jesus, the resurrected Christ. And I must respond that that is the witness of the Christian faith, the conviction, the experience that was the catalyst to launch what has become the Christian religion. But, it is an affirmation of faith beyond the kind of verification that settles the matter. And in this series of messages I am simply setting forth what Christian faith proclaims. I am attempting to engage the core questions of human existence in light of a contemporary knowledge of the universe, the human being and society and the historical development of which we are aware. Religion is a universal phenomenon. In the last century when anthropologists gained access to all peoples of the earth, from the most highly developed societies to the most remote and primitive tribes, this was the discovery. The human being is a religious animal. And why should religion be a universal human phenomenon? Is it not because when that stage of the unfolding development of the universe was reached in which consciousness, self-consciousness, awareness first manifested itself, the human creature who could now get out of his skin and reflect back on himself came to recognize the fact that he was mortal? Members of his clan died. He would die. The human creature, that is, came to the consciousness of his own death. When I married Nancy I inherited a Siamese cat that I never really accepted, three kids whom I love and a standard poodle named Topaz. I loved Topaz, too, but he developed kidney problems and euthanasia was called for. Then there was Midnight, a black standard poodle whom we loved even though he was emotionally retarded. He, too, died and was given proper burial in a sand dune. © Grand Valley State University   �What Lies Beyond Death’s Veil? Richard A. Rhem Page 2   Now there is Hershey, a chocolate brown poodle who is growing older but still acts like an incorrigible puppy. Topaz, Midnight and Hershey were (are) lovable, affectionate, manifest intelligence - all of that – but do not possess consciousness, self awareness. Consequently, they possess the life instinct, survival instinct, but not awareness of the transitory nature of their canine existence. Hershey never focuses his big brown eyes on me and says, "Pastor, someday I will die and I wonder why." I go into this at length to help you see that it is our consciousness, our selfawareness that raises the questions at the core of our being: Where did I come from? Why am I here? What is the meaning/purpose of my life? Is this all there is? What happens at my death? Nothingness? Existence in another dimension? It is the attempt to address and answer such core questions that gives rise to religion. It is the common focus and purpose of all religions, not just Christianity. We tend to forget this. Religion becomes an end in itself: its doctrine something to believe, its cultic forms providing ritual/worship, its moral teaching the way to live in light of its understanding of reality, God, human existence. Religion, then, continues to provide answers to the core questions, but at a step removed from where we live and wrestle with the questions. Religious doctrine tends to move from an existential answer full of passion to an intellectual discussion filled with arguments and rational discourse. And then I hear the physician’s diagnosis: "You are terminally ill; you have at most six months." Or the love of my life dies, or some other instance that creates shock, trauma, and blackness. Now, I am not satisfied with rational discourse or ancient dogma. Now I really need to know and I plunge into anxious struggle with the reality facing me. It is out of such angst, struggle, and fear that religion arises. It gets regularized, formalized, sterile. But then I face the darkness and the religious quest becomes intense. Now I seek some light, some meaning and understanding. Now religion comes alive in my experience; now it becomes very real. It is at the level of existential intensity that I raise the question, "What lies beyond death’s veil?" My purpose is not to give you an easy answer; there aren’t © Grand Valley State University �What Lies Beyond Death’s Veil? Richard A. Rhem Page 3   any. Nor is it simply to affirm Easter faith in the resurrection. I’ve done that here for thirty Easters. Rather, I want you to come to understand the question in order to find your way into a place of faith that is your own. If we don’t really understand the questions that drive the religious quest, we may have all the classic orthodox answers but we may be devoid of a deeply personal faith that really brings us inner peace and confidence. So, to the question: "What Lies Beyond Death’s Veil?" As I stated above, there are two basic options: Nothing, or Something More. The option, "Something More", was the nearly universal conviction of all peoples and religion until the 19th century. Even Buddhism and Hinduism, that speak of Nirvana as "Nothingness," view that not as negation of Being. But it is not my intention to attempt to describe such subtleties. Rather, I want to point out that the crisis of belief in some kind of ongoing existence after death is a relatively modern phenomenon and our own 20th century has been shaped by what can be called modern atheism, which can be traced back to the German philosopher/theologian Ludwig Feuerbach. Feuerbach viewed religion as the result of human projection. God does not exist. God is a human invention created to meet human needs, fears and suffering, and then projected into another realm called heaven. For Feuerbach, religion is projection. Building uncritically on that assumption, we have the development of modern atheism. Karl Marx, following Feuerbach, claimed religion was the opium of the people, drugging the human race so it endured injustice and suffering in the hope of a better existence beyond in heaven. Marx thus turned from heaven and afterlife to the transformation of earth and this life, calling for the end of human exploitation by the powerful who oppressed the masses. Sigmund Freud took Feuerbach’s projection idea and claimed religion was illusion. No objective reality corresponded to human religions constructions - no God, no heaven, nothing beyond the veil. The German philosopher, Friedrich Nietzsche, brought this train of thinking to its ultimate logical conclusion, to Nihilism: nothingness - no God, no meaning, no right or wrong. Nietzsche was not happy about such a state of affairs. This is the philosopher who cried out in Thus Spake Zarathustra, “God is dead; we have killed him,” and who, on the threshold of the 20th century, declared, "Nothing is true, all is permitted." His insight drove him mad. He spent the last twelve years of his life in an institution for the insane. In his work, The Hidden Face of God, Richard Elliott Friedman in a chapter dealing with Nietzsche entitled, "The ‘Death’ of God," writes, © Grand Valley State University �What Lies Beyond Death’s Veil? Richard A. Rhem Page 4   Nietzsche’s breakdown, and the elements that it reflected, really does fit as symbolically expressing a culture’s breakdown, or at least its arrival at a critical turning point. And at the summit of that culture was its God. This state of things had been in the making for centuries in that culture. The invention of the printing press made it possible for everyone - not just the priests and the wealthy - to have a Bible, and thus an opportunity to have informed doubts. Copernicus, Galileo, Darwin, new knowledge of the age of the earth, the triumph of science in general, all provided potent grounds for doubts. The development of the state as a challenge to the Church for worldly authority also impinged on the authority of the Church and ultimately God.... Open challenges to the claims of religion by respectable intellectuals of all backgrounds became possible (Hobbes, Spinoza, Thomas Paine, Mark Twain, Tolstoy, etc., etc.) Hegel could write of the death of God. Marx could call religion opium of the masses. Even with the Church, modern biblical criticism became acceptable and, in the formulations of Julius Wellhausen, the father of modern biblical scholarship, it became famous; it was the culmination of a process leading to a new feeling about the Bible, religion, and God. Philosophical, political, scientific, technological, and social forces all were challenging traditional religion and religious establishments in essential ways. (p. 195F) The spiritual crisis of culture in the West that Nietzsche brought to expression as the 19th century ended came to full bloom in the shaking of the foundations in our century. And if religion’s origins lie in the struggle to answer life’s core questions and the core questions about death and what if anything lies beyond its veil, then, given the crisis of Christian faith in this century, it is no wonder the traditional hope provided by the Christian tradition should be clouded with doubt and loss. As is so often true, the Church in its various forms and institutional structures, fought a rear guard action, affirming faith in life after life but failing to do so while taking the modern critiques seriously. Dogmatic declaration of faith’s content without wrestling with the enlightenment created by new knowledge and a revolutionary understanding of reality is a futile endeavor. Rather, the faith that can still connect with human experience must be shaped in light of a new conception of the universe, of the human being, and the inter-action of God with the world. Such an approach is taken by Hans Küng in his lectures entitled Eternal Life? He writes, The turning point to the modern age, the deepest inversion in the time after the birth of Christ, the dual Copernican turning point - from earth to the sun and at the same time from God to the human being - has to be taken seriously. That is to say, we are raising the question of eternal life at a time when a completely new scientific world vision has come to prevail and the blue outer wall of the heavenly halls as the scene of eternal life has begun © Grand Valley State University �What Lies Beyond Death’s Veil? Richard A. Rhem Page 5   literally to dissolve into the air; when the postulate of the Enlightenment has penetrated everywhere and there is no longer any eternal truth that can evade the critical judgment of reason by an appeal merely to the authority of Bible, tradition or Church, while belief in eternity can no longer be imposed by authority or taken for granted as part of an ideology; when ideological criticism has laid bare the sociological misuse of belief in eternity, so that the latter can never again be made to serve as an empty promise of a hereafter or as a means of stabilizing unjust, inhuman conditions; when the political-cultural predominance of Christianity has ceased, with the result that the denial of an eternal life no longer involves mortal danger and the all-embracing secularization process has produced a shift of consciousness from the hereafter to the here and now, from life after death to life before death, from yearning for heaven to fidelity to earth. (p. 6) This is the context of our age; it is in this context that we must raise the tough question: What lies beyond death’s veil? Is there nothing? Is there something more? Can the "something more" be affirmed with intellectual integrity as well as the passion of faith? Let us acknowledge that such a conviction was, as indicated above, universally held until the 19th century and the spiritual crisis brought on by the modern scientific understanding of the world. But, let us acknowledge as well that much Christian teaching and preaching did point to the afterlife as consolation and compensation for the suffering and injustice of this life. We must recognize further that such a view did too often lead to passivity toward the wrongs of this world and to the failure fully to live and celebrate this world and our present human experience. We recognize also that confidence that there was "something more" beyond death’s veil is clearly a central proclamation of Christian faith. It was held by the Pharisaic party of the Jewish people during Jesus’ time and he shared that belief. We see this in his discussion with the Sadducees in Luke 20. They denied the idea of resurrection and put to Jesus the question about the woman with multiple husbands. In the resurrection life, whose wife would she be? Jesus claimed the question was nonsensical since what lies beyond is not simply the projection of our present human experience. He then went on to affirm his belief in resurrection reality with an interesting reference to the Hebrew Scriptures - At the burning bush, Moses spoke of God as the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. Jesus’ point is that Moses spoke of God as the © Grand Valley State University �What Lies Beyond Death’s Veil? Richard A. Rhem Page 6   God of those ancient Patriarchs in the present tense - as he spoke. Thus, Jesus argues, Now he is God not of the dead, but of the living; for to God all of them are alive. I find that an interesting insight, an interesting use of scripture. Paul was a Pharisee and so he believed in resurrection but, even more vividly, he had been encountered by the risen Lord in a vision. Thus, in his letter to the Romans he speaks not only of the resurrection of Jesus by God’s spirit or breath, but of a future transformation of the whole creation. For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the children of God; for the creation was subjected to futility, not of its own will but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to decay and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God. He speaks of Creation as groaning in labor pains until now - waiting, as it were, to burst forth into the fulfillment of God’s intention. Now, let me be clear; I do not think either Jesus or Paul had some divinely revealed understanding of our present scientific understanding of the universe. However, it is possible to make some sense of the hope, the claim they made in light of what we understand about the nature of humankind and the cosmos. Paul saw continuity between the universe and human destiny. To be sure, his was the old model of Fall and Redemption. In Paul’s view of things, it was human disobedience that cast the cosmos into bondage. Moral fault led to the disruption and decay of the physical universe. I have suggested that biblical model no longer gives an adequate reflection of the reality of the universe or of ourselves. Instead, I suggested last week a Creation model with the idea of Emergence taking the place of Fall/Redemption. But, it is interesting that Paul did see the intimate connection of cosmic destiny and human destiny. Paul expected the full consummation of the physical universe at the point of the redemption of humanity and he expected it all quite soon. But, of course, in that Paul and Jesus and the whole apocalyptic movement, Jewish and Christian were mistaken. However, in the model I scratched out in your liturgy last week I set forth in an ascending movement the cosmic reality that has been unfolding all these billions of years -The inorganic level; The organic level; The level of human consciousness; The level of Spirit: Energy coalescing in matter through duration of time, expansion of space moves from the inorganic toward the Spirit. © Grand Valley State University �What Lies Beyond Death’s Veil? Richard A. Rhem Page 7   There are not really four "realities - inorganic/organic/consciousness/spirit, but one continuous reality that moves from one level to the next, not leaving the earlier level but enfolding it in the next. Where is it going? Jesus claimed the ancients were present to God. “... for to God all are alive.” If God as Mystery is the creative Source of all that is, might God as Mystery as well be the End point or Goal of all that is? Is this amazing cosmic drama, that has come to the point of producing human creatures of Spirit who have a sense of the good, the true, and the beautiful, simply arriving at a "dead end" in the death of the creature so wonderfully endowed? Hans Küng believes otherwise. After his analysis of the critique of modern atheism and his wrestling with the biblical tradition, it is his conviction that we die, not into Nothingness, but into God. I appreciate his modest claim as he faces the question, "What lies beyond death’s veil?" Putting it in terms of present human existence, he claims, "Not less, but more." That I believe is a reasonable claim in full light of present knowledge, but it is a faith claim. Thus, my answer to the question is not “Nothing” but “Something more” and I affirm Küng’s confidence, "not less, but more." Let me conclude with two comments. First, the Church has erred in stressing the afterlife at the expense of this life, heaven at the expense of earth, the future at the expense of the present. The time to live fully and celebrate this amazing human experience is now. And it is now that we are invited to live in the Spirit. Jesus said, "This is eternal life, that they might know you, the only true God ..." Eternal life is not a future condition, but a present reality. If one is living now with the consciousness of God present in one’s experience, then death is but a transition point, not a radical rupture. Secondly, understand that while we need always to be thinking our faith and setting our faith in an honest intellectual light, the "answer" to these tough questions lies not in our ability to reason ourselves to intellectual certainty. Faith lays hold of a reality beyond reason’s grasp. Finally, one must trust one’s heart. I see that so clearly when I walk through the experience of grief with people. There is a comfort of the Spirit, a blessed assurance that is more than any reasonable argument can provide. There are intimations of eternity that only the heart knows as it lives in the spirit in loving awareness, not in contrast to what is reasonable, but beyond reason’s limits. References: © Grand Valley State University �What Lies Beyond Death’s Veil? Richard A. Rhem Page 8   Richard Elliott Friedman. The Hidden Face of God. HarperCollins Publishers, 1995. Hans Küng. Eternal Life?: Life After Death as a Medical, Philosophical, and Theological Problem. Wipf & Stock Publishers, 2003. © Grand Valley State University � https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/672743906949f760b7d75541cc343281.mp3 7f4af35069e174df10fcb582591114d9 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 IX Series Tough Questions: No Easy Answers Scripture Text Romans 8:19, Luke 20:38 Location The location of the interview Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI References Richard Elliott Friedman, The Hidden Face of God, 1995 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-0-19970720 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1997-07-20 Title A name given to the resource What Lies Beyond Death's Veil? 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 July 20, 1997 entitled "What Lies Beyond Death's Veil?", as part of the series "Tough Questions: No Easy Answers", on the occasion of Pentecost IX, at Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI. Scripture references: Romans 8:19, Luke 20:38. Consciousness Emergence Nature of Religion https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/09bc57f989035914c584330e132eafc6.pdf 8098a707555493ff3e2f258bafd53c2f PDF Text Text Is Religion Really Escape From Life? From the series: Tough Questions: No Easy Answers Scripture: Jeremiah 45:5; John 12:20-28 Richard A. Rhem Christ Community Church Spring Lake, Michigan July 27, 1997 Transcription of the spoken sermon A question I often ask myself as a pastor, a teacher of this religious community, is whether I am an agent of human wholeness or of human weakness. Do I enable my people better to face life and cope with reality as I understand it, or, do I shield and shelter you from life and reality, perpetuating beliefs and ideas that are really at odds with what I believe to be true about the universe, the human experience and the nature of religion? We are considering tough questions for which there are no easy answers and in this sermon I raise the question whether religion is really an escape from life. By that, I mean whether our religious belief and practice may be an expression of human fear and weakness in the face of the reality of our human experience and, further, whether perhaps religion’s focus on another world and a hereafter becomes a detriment to the full engagement with and celebration of this world and this life. As we saw last week, religion is a universal human phenomenon; the study of the human species from the most highly developed societies to the most remote and primitive, manifests religious belief and practice of one sort or another. That is because religion’s origin lies in the core questions that reside in the human consciousness. At some point in the cosmic evolutionary development of billions of years, the energy of the Big Bang coalesced into inorganic matter that, over the stretch of billions of years, evolved into organic or living matter. The development eventuated in living matter, in the case of animal life, coming to consciousness. Self-consciousness, awareness of oneself and of the other. With selfconsciousness dawned the realization that death is universal; the human creature recognized the fact of mortality and the presence of suffering, anguish, questions that cannot be repressed finally, questions about the meaning of existence. It is out of such deep questions that religions arise in the multi forms of their manifestations. © Grand Valley State University   �Religion Escape from Life? Richard A. Rhem Page 2   Our focus last week was on the question at the core - What Lies Beyond Death’s Veil? I suggested that perhaps that was the core question of the core questions about human existence. There is, however, an equally anguishing question – the more human existence came under thoughtful scrutiny, and cumulative human experience became available for reflection – and that is the question of human suffering. Let me make it concrete; we need no long treatise on the mystery of suffering and how suffering defies meaning and reduces us to numb silence. Late Friday evening I was called and responded by making a midnight run to Grand Rapids, Butterworth Hospital, The Children’s Unit. Five-year-old Lydia Hatton had been brought in in order to try to bring excruciating pain under control. For 16 months she and her parents, Brett and Carla, have carried on a fierce battle against the killer cancer that refuses to be stymied and defeated. The child is beautiful, brilliant, adorable. And the child’s body is racked with pain. And the child is dying. A child. Wide awake at midnight, she counted to 100 for me. No stone has been left unturned to find a cure and health for Lydia. The suffering increases as the end approaches. What does one say to Brett and Carla? One best not say anything; I told them I have nothing to say. I was there simply to hug them and hold them as we wept together. Certainly, death consciously confronted raised the questions that gave rise to religion. And, perhaps, even more for us, who have become aware of the full scope of the human drama, suffering drives us to the questions of meaning and meaninglessness. Religion has been throughout human history the means by which, through which, people have responded to the reality of death and the painful aspects of life. Religion has provided a teaching, a cultic form for worship, and a way to live, or a moral code. Until the 18th century, God’s existence was taken for granted, however God might have been conceived. Worship, through cultic action, sacrifice, penance and prayer, was the means to gain favor, be in harmony with, appease or cajole the deity, thereby preserving life and securing blessing. Thus, fear, suffering, a sense of vulnerability and weakness before powers and forces beyond a person’s control were the origin of ritual, sacrifice and prayer - the ingredients of religion. Ludwig Feuerbach, to whom I referred last week as the source of the projection theory that led to the whole development of modern atheism, saw God as a human invention. This is what he meant by projection. Feuerbach claimed that religion is fundamentally a product of human instinct for self-preservation, of human egoism. The person projects an objective Being as real beyond him or herself and that Being possesses the powers, desires and wishes in ideological © Grand Valley State University �Religion Escape from Life? Richard A. Rhem Page 3   form which the human being finds in him or herself. The person then worships this transcendent Being, which is only one’s own idealized self. In weakness, the person depends on this supernatural being of their own construction. Feuerbach claimed, "What man wishes to be, he makes his God." Consequently, the idea of God is nothing but human fantasy born out of desire for this perfect being to exist in order to be leaned on in the midst of life’s trials, suffering and uncertainties. This, Feuerbach claimed, cultivated weakness in humankind. Rather than celebrating humanity in its infinite spirit, we worship a perfect being "out there" and miss the grandeur of this world. He saw it as his task, a task given even more radical expression by Karl Marx, to turn the attention of the human species from God to the human, from heaven to earth, from the hereafter to the here and now. In his critique of Feuerbach, Hans Küng in Does God Exist?, begins by recognizing much truth in Feuerbach’s description of religion and the role it plays in human experience. The evidence of religion as a human security blanket, as a buffer against the darkness, the pain and the suffering of human experience is too obvious to question. In the wake of the emergence of modern atheism, scholars from various fields have expressed the implication of a heaven devoid of God and an earth devoid of heaven. Eric Fromm in Man for Himself, has written, There is only one solution to his problem: to face the truth, to acknowledge his fundamental aloneness in a universe indifferent to his fate, to recognize that there is no power transcending him which can solve his problem for him. The biologist Jacques Monod, in his Nobel prize winning work, Chance and Necessity, declares, If he accepts this (negative) message in its full significance, man must at last wake out of his millenary dream and discover his total solitude, his fundamental isolation. He must realize that, like a gypsy, he lives on the boundary of an alien world; a world that is deaf to his music, and as indifferent to his hopes as it is to his sufferings or his crimes. (p. 160) Such expression of the consequence of the development of modern atheism has a chilling effect, but it does point out a major function that religion has performed in the human story. Fearful of being alone, of being powerless, a pawn of arbitrary and capricious cosmic forces, the creature come to consciousness devises a means by which to tame the powers, to appease an offended deity, to gain favor and blessing. No one surveying the human story and aware of the function of religion can deny that there is much truth in such an analysis. Before we rise up in protest and accuse those who have come to such a conclusion of godlessness and wickedness, we would do better to take seriously the critique, to recognize the validity of this description of religion’s role in the history of the race. © Grand Valley State University �Religion Escape from Life? Richard A. Rhem Page 4   Having done that with as much candor as we can summon, we might then go on to inquire whether, having analyzed religion thus, that is all there is to say, or might there be something more? That religion can be used to deny the darkness and escape life’s harsh edge, to project to the future what is longed for and missed in the present, cannot be denied. To the question, "Is Religion really an escape from life," one can only answer - all too often. That religion as a human structure in its wide variety of forms is a coping mechanism for conscious creatures quaking before threat and loss is too obvious to deny. I have no argument with Feuerbach or Marx or Freud or Nietzsche on that score. To the degree that religion has, consequently, debased the person and dehumanized people, causing them to remain in infancy and adolescence rather than growing to maturity, taking responsibility for their lives and their world, working at transformation and the movement toward Spirit and shalom, I, too, would criticize it and distance myself from it. But, this I would claim against those who say Religion is nothing more than escape - might religion be universal not simply because of the universality of human death and suffering that has spawned its presence, but because of a response to an encounter from beyond or from the depths? Might not the human creature in his or her consciousness be aware of an inner dialogue with "Something" or "Someone," a dialogue in which the first word issues from the other side? And is there not evidence that religion has been not only a coping structure to keep the darkness at bay, but also a divine imperative to speak some word, to act out some conviction no matter what the price? Has not religion also been a force for transformation of society, challenging established orders that have become demonic and oppressive. I think of Dietrich Bonhoeffer, certainly one of the great human spirits of this century who was martyred 52 years ago as the Second World War was ending - a victim of the darkness spread by Hitler and the Nazi regime. He saw the underside of religion. He saw how religion appealed to human weakness. He saw how its institutional forms could be coopted by political power and how the religious institution sought to perpetuate itself by addressing the human being at his or her weakest point. I’ve included in the liturgy some citations from his Letters and Papers from Prison. But, one cannot read that spiritual testament without recognizing that it was precisely his spiritual center that enabled him to throw himself into the conflict, to risk and finally offer up his life in the cause of humanity which is, he believed, the cause of God. It was from Bonhoeffer that I learned of Jeremiah 45. In his thin volume there are over a hundred scripture citations, but five times he refers to Jeremiah 45. Obviously, it became for him a key life text. © Grand Valley State University �Religion Escape from Life? Richard A. Rhem Page 5   Jeremiah’s secretary, Baruch, who recorded Jeremiah’s words, was in despair. When Babylon carried off the exiles, they left some Jews in the land, among them Jeremiah and Baruch. But now those who remained were going to flee to Egypt for protection. Jeremiah spoke against it, but was forced, nonetheless, to go along and it was true also for Baruch. In chapter 45, Baruch cries out in weariness and despair. God’s word comes to him through the prophet You sought great things for yourself. Seek not your advantage. Be true to your risky faith; ask no more. But, there is a promise I will give you your life. You will survive. Or, at least that for which you stand, that for which you have stood up - that vision, that truth - that will survive. Jeremiah’s life was taken in Egypt. Bonhoeffer’s life was taken by the Nazis. But, they lived, true to their vision. That is to live. And what shall we say of Jesus? As the crisis broke upon him, in the phrase of John’s gospel, "The hour," he said, What should I say? Father, save me from this hour? No, it is for this reason that I have come to this hour. Father, glorify your name. Is religion really escape from life? Much religion much of the time is just that. But, that is not its truest, highest function. It can also be response to a word, a call from beyond, from the depths to commit oneself to an alternative vision. Sometimes, like Jesus and Jeremiah and Bonhoeffer, we are caught in the dismantling phase - to tear down and pluck up, to use Jeremiah’s call; sometimes we may die in the darkness with the exhaustion of Baruch, the dereliction of Jesus, "My God, why ..." But, if some truth has grasped us, some vision possessed us, then to be true to that vision, that word is to find life by losing life. Such religious passion is not escape; it is rather the catalyst to engagement with life - and that is the only life worth living. © Grand Valley State University � https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/ea7c5d5d927d588cb1c6ffc2439821b9.mp3 1207256c35e74632d0902a333b131287 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 X Series Tough Questions: No Easy Answers Scripture Text Jeremiah 45:5, John 12:20-28 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-0-19970727 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1997-07-27 Title A name given to the resource Is Religion Really Escape from Life? 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 July 27, 1997 entitled "Is Religion Really Escape from Life?", as part of the series "Tough Questions: No Easy Answers", on the occasion of Pentecost X, at Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI. Scripture references: Jeremiah 45:5, John 12:20-28. Nature of Religion Suffering Transformative Love https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/84fc3432cd7d686c979dc969e11969e9.pdf b2788abe144731cd1a0d154ef2074586 PDF Text Text Why Is There So Much Anger in Religion? From the series: Tough Questions; No Easy Answers Scripture: Jonah 3, 4; James 1:17-27; Luke 15:25-32 Richard A. Rhem Christ Community Church Spring Lake, Michigan August 3, 1997 Transcription of the spoken sermon One of the fascinating aspects of preaching for me is the way questions, insights, and reflections that lead me to a sermon series that I create, sometimes lead me to deeper levels of reflection and to the analysis of a subject that I had not anticipated. Such is the case in this current series, "Tough Questions: No Easy Answers." On the surface, the tough questions are simply questions that arise as I reflect on the phenomenon of religious experience. But, I am finding myself with each successive question moving to a deeper level, thinking about religious experience itself or religion itself, its origins, its function in society, its potential for negativity leading to human bondage and oppression as well as its possibilities for human fulfillment and growth. Take the question raised in this message, "Why is there so much anger in religion?" That is an easily observable fact: anger seethes beneath the surface in the respective religions and in many religious folk. Once again this past week, terror struck in Jerusalem, bringing death and injury as suicide bombers blew themselves up in a crowded market, assured that such martyrdom would bring them immediately to paradise. In Brooklyn, a bombing plot was preempted by arrest before another tragedy was perpetuated. What is at work here is not simply religious fanaticism. Religion is often coopted by political opportunists, and cultural humiliation fuels terrorism. Nonetheless, religion is intertwined, often providing legitimation for such acts and, of course, rewards. In the three great Western religious traditions linked to the Bible, Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, there are powerful fundamentalist movements that are marked by violent means justified by the ends in view - the establishment of the righteous empire and the destruction of those viewed as the enemy of true belief and practice. © Grand Valley State University   �Why So Much Anger in Religion? Richard A. Rhem Page 2   But, we need not go to the radical fringes of religious belief and practice to encounter anger which results in broken community, the erecting of barriers between people - even within families - and the exclusion of anyone who fails to pass whatever litmus test might be established for group identity. We see it all around us. Why? That is the question. Attempting to find an answer drives us once again to reflect on the phenomenon of religion itself. We typically think of religion as the mediator of meaning, of salvation or healing, of peace and comfort. Are we not taken aback when we realize religion is also a source of anger in its practitioners? We have become aware in this series of reflections that religion is a human creation arising out of the experience of death. The cosmic drama evolves to a point billions of years along where a creature we call human develops the capacity for consciousness, self-awareness and, thereby, the ability to "get out of his skin," to reflect back on himself, becoming aware that "all flesh is mortal." He will die. Those he values in his intimate circle will die. He develops with awareness the capacity to suffer; he encounters the tragic dimension of existence. He asks "Why? What does it mean?” In the wrestling with such ultimate existential questions with, we might say, life’s boundary situations, the human creature, human society, develops structures of meaning which become the means of coping with the mystery of life, of death, of tragedy, of joy. Existence is threatening; life is fragile; the human experience is perilous. Religion arises as a means of negotiating life’s passages. This was articulated powerfully in the 19th century, as we have seen, by the German philosopher/theologian, Ludwig Feuerbach, who was followed by Marx who sought resolution of history’s suffering by history’s transformation through class warfare; by Freud who saw religion as illusion and salvation by psychotherapy dissolving the power of the distortion within the unconscious and early childhood experience; by Nietzsche who proclaimed "God is dead" and who celebrated "the superman" and the will to power. Quite naturally, the religious world fought these thinkers who opened up the avenue of modern atheism and denied the truth of their claims. But, their claims made too much sense, had too much the ring of truth. The Church, to speak only of the Christian tradition, went into a defensive posture, simply denying the insight of the modern analysis of religion, failing to recognize that there was really only one issue that demanded denial if religion was to continue to be intelligently practiced; namely, that human religion had its source, not in the human creature, but in the Question placed in his experience from beyond, from his depths - that religions are human creations but created in response to an address from outside, beyond, the depths. Such a claim is grounded on the conviction that there is a Mystery, creative Source of all, that confronts, encounters, puts in question the human creature. © Grand Valley State University �Why So Much Anger in Religion? Richard A. Rhem Page 3   We might speak of it as simply the experience of God, of the Infinite One from whom all flows and to whom all returns. If we have such a conviction, then we can recognize the respective religions as the result of some founding vision which resulted in a teaching, a cultic practice, and a code of behavior. The teaching flows out of the particular vision or epiphany; the cultic practice directs the manner of worship and devotion; the code of behavior gives directions for living in a way congruent with the teaching, or conception of deity. Thus we have come to see Religion as a human creation, as response to an encounter with God performing a critical function: It provides Something to believe, A manner of worship, A way to live. Such a function is mediatory; Religion provides the means by which a person opens him or herself to the experience of the transcendent Mystery, the experience of God. Religious belief, devotion or practice is never an end in itself. It is rather the agency through which one comes into the presence of God that issues in the experience of love, of grace, of freedom. Religion functioning thus fulfills an extremely critical and positive purpose for the human creature for, as we have seen, there is a universal human yearning for some meaning in the face of life’s perplexity, some hope and comfort in the presence of human suffering and death. But, if this is the case, why is there so much anger in religion, or, why is so much anger present in religious communities? That is a tough question and I have no easy answer, but let’s think about it together. One of the most acute analyses of Religion of which I am aware is Charles Davis’ forward in his Temptations of Religion. Acknowledging the need of structures and institutions to bring some order to our human experience, Davis points to the fatal tendency of all such social structures and institutions to absolutize themselves, becoming ends in themselves rather than understanding themselves as merely means to a greater end - the experience of community or of the transcendent. Rather than understanding themselves as means to a greater end, as provisional, as relative, they become ends in themselves. They harden, grow rigid, inflexible; unable to allow new, more effective structures or institutions to replace them. In his own words, Davis claims, © Grand Valley State University �Why So Much Anger in Religion? Richard A. Rhem Page 4   I would stress the importance in human living of that consolidating function. Men cannot live without the imposition of some social, institutional order upon the flux of their experience. Nevertheless, all such orders and their components are relative. In themselves they cannot claim an absolute value or a universal necessity. To speak of a particular order as relative does not mean that it is the product of individual or group caprice. A good social order will be the result of creative intelligence and freedom, and designed both to increase the quality of human living and to release and foster the drive toward transcendence. But none of this makes the order with its prescriptions an unchanging absolute. This brings me to one of the most persistent and perhaps deadliest of the temptations of religion, the temptation I am calling the anger of morality. By this I mean the insistence upon an established pattern of behavior and thought for its own sake, so that it loses its mediatory quality and becomes a closed order as an end in itself. I call it anger, because psychologically the attitude I am describing would seem to be a hostile reaction that chokes love, a bitter rejection of what is free and does not conform, the sharp repulsion of anything that disturbs or threatens an enclosed self. Since the established pattern that may be angrily insisted upon is threefold, namely, ritual, ethical, and doctrinal, we find three similar forms of distortion. These are familiar to us as ritualism (in a pejorative sense), legalism, and dogmatism. All three manifest the same fundamental failing, that is, a restrictive insistence upon a particular institutional order, so that instead of facilitating the movement of men toward selftranscendence, it becomes a rigid framework that imprisons them. Here, however, I want to direct my attention to the working of this temptation in the area of moral values and conduct. Hence I have called it the anger of morality. But there should be no difficulty in applying my remarks to the other two areas. The anger of morality is more than the periodic inertia that defends an obsolete system and resists change. An underlying factor is the human fear of freedom, of love, and of self-transcendence. That fear can turn with hatred as well as anger upon those who manifest an openness one is afraid to allow oneself. It is the personal repression of self-transcendence that leads people to seize upon an institutional order as an instrument for suppressing the feared drive in others. Law and order becomes the cry of the repressed against the free. Rosemary Haughton, in her book Love, shows in some detail how the organization of human life so often suppresses love, a word she uses in the sense of the self-giving form of the drive for self-transcendence. In writing © Grand Valley State University �Why So Much Anger in Religion? Richard A. Rhem Page 5   of child-rearing, which after all is the process of socialization and thus shows the working of the social order, she says: "In fact the study of child care, both in the past and present, is largely a study of the restriction or suppression of love." Men fear the openness, the self-transcendence, the self-giving of love, and this fear often cripples the mediatory function of their institutions and of the code of behavior these demand. The anger of morality is a temptation for every social order and institution, even those making no explicit appeal to religion. It appears as the failure to recognize the inadequacy of any particular institutional order in relation to reality and human experience as a whole. Man is taken as made for the law, instead of the law as being made for man. Any movement that cannot be contained within the established order is feared and suppressed. But distinctively religious institutions are subject to more virulent forms of the temptation. Because of their direct concern with the transcendent absolute, when they turn in upon themselves, lose their openness and mediatory capacity and become closed institutions, they fall into a selfidolatry and claim an absolute value for themselves. They do so in effect if not in words. The consolidating function of the religious system in sustaining a stable, meaningful order is no longer complemented by its function of promoting the human drive beyond every limited order to reality and truth as transcendent. Why? Because the religious system cannot bear to be itself surpassed and relativized. Hence the order ceases to mediate and becomes so much dead weight. Temptations of Religion, Charles Davis, p. 79F. Charles Davis points out how religion in its respective forms claims finality, absoluteness. The institutional leadership makes the claim and shapes the mind set of the people forming in them a sense of the ultimacy of the respective religious traditions in their doctrine, their forms of worship and their moral code. Institutional strength and solidarity is sought by claiming absolute truth and absolute practice in devotion and life. Conformity to belief and practice is not left to persuasion and freely offered response; means of enforcement are developed and, where the system is challenged or appears vulnerable, coercion is applied. A movement that begins in spiritual explosion resulting from fresh vision and is marked by confidence, freedom, and joy moves toward normality and then sterility, and at each stage the demand for conformity increases and coercion comes into play. That’s a view from the institutional perspective. But, why do so many passively conform for so long? In other words, why do people put up with institutional coercion? © Grand Valley State University �Why So Much Anger in Religion? Richard A. Rhem Page 6   Is it because we prefer order and predictability in our lives that are chaotic enough without too much freedom and openness in our lives? I think this is particularly true in the area of our concern - in our religious experience. I think it is safe to say that in no other area of life has the human creature been so passive, so conforming as in religious belief and practice. The institutional leadership has cultivated in the people an unthinking passivity and the people have traded a vital personal faith perspective for the ease and comfort of certainty. The problem is, of course, that such absolute certainty is a false certainty, for it is the very essence of human historical existence that absolute truth and absolute certainty are denied us. There is no possibility of anything more than a relative apprehension, always provisional, always tentative, always open to revision, of the Absolute, of the transcendent Mystery. But, that is not what we have been told. Rather, the respective religious traditions - some at least and ours certainly - have claimed absoluteness and played to the human lust for certitude. In these messages I have been repeating again and again my understanding of religion as a human construction. It is response to genuine encounter, but the response is a human creation, which means precisely that it is not to be identified with absoluteness that is to turn it into idolatry. Someone sent me a copy of an article that appeared recently in a hyper-Calvinist publication showing that my "heresy" stems from my failure to take the Bible, in the words of the Belgic Confession, as being "most perfect and complete in all respects." The author went on to claim "that the Bible is the infallible and complete written record of God’s revelation in Christ to His people." The article was appropriately entitled "God’s Way ... Or No Way." There was not enough selfawareness or humility to acknowledge that "God’s Way" is not the same as our limited human groping after truth that will always fall short in our attempts to reduce it to our little systems. Karen Armstrong’s in-depth study of 4000 years of the history of God provides a much broader perspective. She recognizes the creative role of human imagination in the forming of images of God, symbolic language that points beyond itself to the Mystery. And she views the present time as a time of transition when old metaphors have lost their power and new symbols are trying to emerge. She pointed to the English poet John Keats who spoke of the poet’s waiting in the darkness for the poem to write itself. This capacity to wait while the image was forming he called "negative capability ... [being] capable of being in uncertainties, mysteries, doubts without any irritable reaching after fact and reason." © Grand Valley State University �Why So Much Anger in Religion? Richard A. Rhem Page 7   According to Karen Armstrong, that is where we are in the present cultural milieu - waiting, but not anxious, as though we had to protect God or preserve a religious system. Newness will emerge; in the meantime, we trust. I was delighted to find in Kathleen Norris’ recent book, The Cloister Walk, a chapter entitled "Exile, Homeland, and Negative Capability." The citation above about negative capability was at the head of the chapter. In this chapter, she speaks of going into elementary classrooms to read poetry and to stimulate the children to write. Interestingly, she noted that the good students did not generally do well with this endeavor in creative writing, but often the traditionally poorer students who did not function well in the ordered disciplines showed great creativity and entered more happily into the exercise. Norris writes, Metaphor has been so degraded in our culture that it may be difficult for people to conceive of worship as a "metaphoric exchange." But as a poet, I am willing to explore the implications. How would it change our understanding of worship if, from the time they were small, children were taught to value and explore the possibilities of Keat’s "negative capability" in themselves? They might better understand faith as a process and church tradition as not only relevant but strikingly alive. It is worship, she contends, that gives rise to theological reflection, and not the other way around, and if this is understood, then on the analogy of writing a poem, we would see "that one might grow into faith much as one writes a poem. It takes time, patience, discipline, a listening heart. There is precious little certainty, and often great struggling, but also joy in our discoveries." Again, analogous to birthing a poem, one must not settle for a false certitude but embrace ambiguity and mystery. If the Church had had more of such an understanding - God as mystery, the ambiguity of human experience, the struggle for insight, the walls of faith as a process, the people would have been shaped with a different mind and heart, would have developed patience in the quest for God and compassion with their fellow pilgrims on journey to the Holy City. Instead, the religious institutions have been marked by arrogant claims to absoluteness, oppressive methods of requiring conformity, coercive means to eliminate spontaneity and freedom, and, consequently ,utterly failed to create space for the freedom of the Spirit’s brooding ministry. Pressure to conform, coercion used against the one who fails to comply - all of this creates rather a spirit of fear, suspicion, and anger. Within the biblical witness there are protests against the angry spirit that battles against an inclusive and compassionate spirit. © Grand Valley State University �Why So Much Anger in Religion? Richard A. Rhem Page 8   In the Hebrew scriptures, Jonah is the classic text condemning a narrow exclusionary spirit and calling for compassion. The story is in the form of parable - Jonah is called by God to go to the great ancient city of Nineveh, a center of wickedness, according to the story. Jonah is to preach repentance lest God visit the city with judgment. Jonah wants nothing of such an assignment. He cares not whether Nineveh is scorched; in fact, he would rather have it that way. Should he preach and bring repentance, he senses God would spare them and, in all honesty, he would rather they be damned. So he boards a boat sailing on the opposite direction. Well, you know the story; a storm arises. The ancient thinking said God must be angry because of someone on board. Jonah acknowledges it is he; he is fleeing God’s command. So, overboard he goes; the storm ceases; the boat and crew are safe. But, what of Jonah? A watery grave? No. He is swallowed by a great fish and survives being there for three days and three nights after which the fish spews Jonah on to dry land: Nineveh after all. He goes. He preaches God’s word. Nineveh heeds, repents, and is spared. Ah, just as he thought - God’s compassion will spare this alien people when everything in Jonah was saying - "God, damn them!" God changed his mind about the calamity that he had said he would bring upon them; and he did not do it. Can you celebrate that, Jonah? Your preaching made a difference. The people are turning to God and God is full of mercy. No, not so. We read, rather, "But this was very displeasing to Jonah, and he became angry." He badgers the Lord. See! This is just what I expected! That’s why I fled to Tarshish in the first place because, "I knew that you are a gracious God and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love ..." Jonah was so depressed by the wideness of God’s mercy that he wanted to die. But, God is not done with this prophet for this story is not about Nineveh, but about Jonah and the spirit Jonah represented - a narrow exclusionary spirit that resented the mercy of God flowing beyond the narrow limits of Israel. So, God queries, "Is it right for you to be angry?" No answer. Jonah heads for the hills to watch the drama unfold. He sat under a leafy booth he made to protect him from the burning sun. Waiting in the shade, there grew © Grand Valley State University �Why So Much Anger in Religion? Richard A. Rhem Page 9   above him a marvelous bush that provided even better cover. Jonah was pleased very comfortable. But, the next day the Lord sent a worm that killed the bush as quickly as it had grown. And, you guessed it - Jonah was angry. Once again, he wanted to die. Now it was time for the lesson - God asks, "Is it right for you to be angry about the bush?" Yes! But, Jonah, you didn’t have anything to do with the growth or development of the bush, which was here today and gone tomorrow; yet you grieve its loss. How should I feel about this great city of Nineveh - all the people and the animals? The parable makes its point - about as poignantly as the one Jesus told of a father with two sons - I need not rehearse the parable - only to say that when the prodigal returns from his fling in the far country, he is received graciously by the Father who throws a party. The elder brother reflects precisely the bitter spirit we just saw in Jonah. Jesus says, " ... he became angry and refused to go in." Think about it: Jonah, a parable in the Hebrew scripture that reveals the ugliness of an exclusive spirit that really does not want God’s mercy to be experienced by all, that is really angry that others who are different - in race, culture, ethnicity, creedal commitment or whatever are also loved by God. The parable Jesus told exposing the naked face of resentment that God’s grace is not a matter of performance, of merit, but offered to any open to receive it. What is operative here? Is it not perhaps a religion of obligation grudgingly practiced for fear that failing to do so would hold negative consequences now and eternally? Anger is seen to arise when the absolute certainty of one’s creed and practice is relativized; Anger is present when one views his religious obligation as an onerous task which he resents - and then sees some other one invited to the party while never having "put in his time." Lust for certitude that is not possible. Resentment at a grace that is offered apart from performance. There may be more operative in the anger present in much religion but these two causes are quite obviously major factors. What a pity. How many good people, sincere and well meaning, have not been crippled by an angry spirit because they were never told honestly that their religious system is relatively effective, not the one and only absolute way. They’ve been told their beliefs and practices "fall out of heaven" unmediated by human imagination and construction. © Grand Valley State University �Why So Much Anger in Religion? Richard A. Rhem Page10   Further, they have never been allowed a glimpse of the wideness of God’s mercy that will never be denied, never exposed to a grace irresistible that will never give up on the human family, all of whom are sisters and brothers because all the children of the God Who is Mystery, Who is Love. References: Charles Davis. Temptations of Religion. Harper & Row, 1974. © Grand Valley State University � https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/b1ee50b60fb460ecfd496ca1911745fb.mp3 068a35a3e159c8753aa3a3b794c650c9 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 XI Series Tough Questions: No Easy Answers Scripture Text Jonah 3,4, James 1:17-27, Luke 15:25-32 Location The location of the interview Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI References Charles Davis, Temptations of Religions, 1974 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-0-19970803 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1997-08-03 Title A name given to the resource Why Is There So Much Anger in Religion? 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 August 3, 1997 entitled "Why Is There So Much Anger in Religion?", as part of the series "Tough Questions: No Easy Answers", on the occasion of Pentecost XI, at Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI. Scripture references: Jonah 3,4, James 1:17-27, Luke 15:25-32. Inclusive Meaning Nature of Religion Transforming Love