921 24 26018 https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/7c7560aa5c68e8a7da55ce29df009faa.jpg f4dc3086a42725d42b4c01ca1d03b1eb Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Douglas R. Gilbert Photographs Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Gilbert, Douglas R., 1942-2023 Description An account of the resource Photographs scanned from negatives and transparencies from the Douglas R. Gilbert papers (RHC-183). Douglas R. Gilbert (b. 1942) is an American photographer from Michigan. He was born in Holland, Michigan and is the son of Russell W. and Carmen (Andree) Gilbert. Gilbert earned a B.A. in social sciences and art at Michigan State University in 1964, an M.S. in photography from the Institute of Design at Illinois Institute of Technology in 1972, and a M.S.W. from Salem State College in 1993. He is married to Barbara (McDonald) Gilbert, and has three daughters, Robyn, Rachel, and Anne. Gilbert took a serious interest in photography at the age of fourteen. In 1963 he joined the staff of Look magazine in New York as the second youngest photojournalist in the magazine's history. As a Look photographer from 1964 to 1966, he photographed folk musician Bob Dylan, the Newport Folk Festival, Simon and Garfunkel, the New York City Financial District, the children and facilities at the Manhattan School for Seriously Disturbed Children. From 1967 to 1969, Gilbert did several shoots, including that of folk singer Janis Ian for Life magazine. After moving to Chicago, Illinois in 1969 to attend the Illinois Institute of Technology, Gilbert conducted notable photo shoots of business and political figure Lenore Romney, and pursued more personal and artistic photography, focusing on urban and rural landscapes in Illinois and Michigan. He then joined the faculty of Wheaton College, where he taught from 1972 to 1982. In 1993, Gilbert graduated from Salem State College, Massachusetts, with a Masters in Social Work, and later pursued a second career as a psychotherapist. Douglas Gilbert died in June 2023. Throughout his photography career, he pursued both freelance commercial work as well as artistic work. His art photography is characterized by its classic black-and-white format, and features people, places and objects shot great attention and sensitivity. Gilbert's works are held in the permanent collections of the Art Institute of Chicago, the High Museum of Art in Atlanta, The Norton Simon Museum in Pasadena, and the Grand Valley State University Art Galleries, as well as in numerous private and institutional collections. Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1960-2011 Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="%E2%80%9Dhttps%3A//gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/783%E2%80%9D">Douglas R. Gilbert Papers (RHC-183)</a> Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource In Copyright Subject The topic of the resource Photographs Photography -- United States Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections and University Archives. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context RHC-183 Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource Image Type The nature or genre of the resource image/jpeg Language A language of the resource eng Still Image A static visual representation. Examples include paintings, drawings, graphic designs, plans and maps. Recommended best practice is to assign the type Text to images of textual materials. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context RHC-183_D193-0005 Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Gilbert, Douglas R. Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1963-07-08 Title A name given to the resource Subway in New York City, New York Description An account of the resource Black and white photograph of a man asleep while riding the subway in New York City, New York. Scanned from the negative. Subject The topic of the resource New York (N.Y.) Subways Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/783">Douglas R. Gilbert papers (RHC-183)</a> Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/">In Copyright</a> Type The nature or genre of the resource Image Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource image/jpeg Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant 1960s Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Lemmen Library and Archives https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/e058be5af67ed2e8deabd74baf426d0a.jpg d9352a6342f202b7d8233da44fb82ab2 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Douglas R. Gilbert Photographs Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Gilbert, Douglas R., 1942-2023 Description An account of the resource Photographs scanned from negatives and transparencies from the Douglas R. Gilbert papers (RHC-183). Douglas R. Gilbert (b. 1942) is an American photographer from Michigan. He was born in Holland, Michigan and is the son of Russell W. and Carmen (Andree) Gilbert. Gilbert earned a B.A. in social sciences and art at Michigan State University in 1964, an M.S. in photography from the Institute of Design at Illinois Institute of Technology in 1972, and a M.S.W. from Salem State College in 1993. He is married to Barbara (McDonald) Gilbert, and has three daughters, Robyn, Rachel, and Anne. Gilbert took a serious interest in photography at the age of fourteen. In 1963 he joined the staff of Look magazine in New York as the second youngest photojournalist in the magazine's history. As a Look photographer from 1964 to 1966, he photographed folk musician Bob Dylan, the Newport Folk Festival, Simon and Garfunkel, the New York City Financial District, the children and facilities at the Manhattan School for Seriously Disturbed Children. From 1967 to 1969, Gilbert did several shoots, including that of folk singer Janis Ian for Life magazine. After moving to Chicago, Illinois in 1969 to attend the Illinois Institute of Technology, Gilbert conducted notable photo shoots of business and political figure Lenore Romney, and pursued more personal and artistic photography, focusing on urban and rural landscapes in Illinois and Michigan. He then joined the faculty of Wheaton College, where he taught from 1972 to 1982. In 1993, Gilbert graduated from Salem State College, Massachusetts, with a Masters in Social Work, and later pursued a second career as a psychotherapist. Douglas Gilbert died in June 2023. Throughout his photography career, he pursued both freelance commercial work as well as artistic work. His art photography is characterized by its classic black-and-white format, and features people, places and objects shot great attention and sensitivity. Gilbert's works are held in the permanent collections of the Art Institute of Chicago, the High Museum of Art in Atlanta, The Norton Simon Museum in Pasadena, and the Grand Valley State University Art Galleries, as well as in numerous private and institutional collections. Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1960-2011 Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="%E2%80%9Dhttps%3A//gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/783%E2%80%9D">Douglas R. Gilbert Papers (RHC-183)</a> Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource In Copyright Subject The topic of the resource Photographs Photography -- United States Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections and University Archives. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context RHC-183 Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource Image Type The nature or genre of the resource image/jpeg Language A language of the resource eng Still Image A static visual representation. Examples include paintings, drawings, graphic designs, plans and maps. Recommended best practice is to assign the type Text to images of textual materials. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context RHC-183_D194-0042 Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Gilbert, Douglas R. Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1963-07-08 Title A name given to the resource Subway in New York City, New York Description An account of the resource Black and white photograph of a group of men standing up while riding a crowded subway in New York City, New York. Scanned from the negative. Subject The topic of the resource New York (N.Y.) Subways Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/783">Douglas R. Gilbert papers (RHC-183)</a> Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/">In Copyright</a> Type The nature or genre of the resource Image Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource image/jpeg Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant 1960s Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Lemmen Library and Archives https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/e6a111d63bf1a65fe41ac097c6160e58.m4v af6a736dc25f93b4b90c4eeeec24d2a3 https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/e86d7a6f3a97e69feb362a9410272d1a.pdf aaa40ca5589becb3d6f2a49fd503e292 PDF Text Text Grand Valley State University Veterans History Project Interview Robert Succop World War II Total Time: 48:28 Childhood and Pre-Enlistment (00:20)       Born August 6, 1920 in Petoskey, Michigan Father was a Lutheran minister His family moved to Big Rapids, Michigan and then to Grand Rapids, Michigan after his father died. He attended Central High School in Grand Rapids (02:10) He attended Michigan State College for 1 year, and then in the summer of 1941 he decided to work and try college when he felt more able. (02:50) He decided to enlist after the attacks on Pearl Harbor. He was told when he was there that they army was interested in teachers, so he enrolled and ended up in Chicago, Illinois the following month. Training (03:40)  He did some teaching in Chicago about the basics of electricity  (04:05) He then transferred into the Army as a T4 and was sent to Fort Monmouth, NJ where he took some training.  (05:50) He took Officer Candidate School while he was in Chicago, Illinois  (09:46) He chose the Army because of the Navy’s requirement that they [not?] take married men, otherwise he may have joined the Navy.  (10:47) He found it easier to train than to be trained. He also thinks that the training was inadequate, in that they were trained for combat, but not for the environment they were placed in.  (12:13) He spent most of his training in New Jersey. Active Duty (12:44)     In early 1943, they were sent to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvana and then to New Guinea and then to Hollandia [still in New Guinea] , Biak, the Philippines, and then home. (13:45) He was in the 989th Signal Company. They were in radio teams that used FM radio to communicate weather bulletins. Because of this, they were attached to the 5th Air Force. He was a First Lieutenant attached to one of the relay terminals. (16:55) They were able to do some experimental communications, including sending multiple teletyped messages at once. (17:28) FM had greater value because of the lack of distortion, which is why they were experimenting with it. �          (18:15) They were attacked by bombers on several occasions, but never saw ground combat. (19:55) Their unit had some problems with Dengue Fever. (21:15) They were attached to a MASH unit for mess. (23:25) His wife wrote every day and he tried to write her every day, however communication was difficult. For instance, he heard from his mother that his wife’s appendectomy went well before he knew she was even having one. (24:50) He remembers the food being ok. They had many of the normal things he had at home. (27:50) They had a First Sergeant from Tennessee who was experienced at making moonshine, so they were able to make some of that. They did also have beer, but he remembers it being absolutely terrible. (29:45) They were able to do a lot of fishing to supplement some of the meals. (32:03) They moved northward, and the need for their job was eliminated, so he transferred out of the 989th and to a division on Cebu Island in the Philippines, where they were preparing for an assault on Japan. They were told at the time to expect 100-110% casualties in the assault. (35:30) They did not get much leave in the South Pacific, however they did get to play some softball and they were able to see some USO shows. (40:55) He remembers he first day that he got orders to go home. He recalls becoming very frightened that he would not make it home after he got to the end, but he did make it home safely. He made it to Chicago, where he met his wife at the train station. Post Service (45:02)   He wanted to stay in the Army, he his wife did not want him to, so as a compromise he joined the Reserves. He eventually worked for MichBell in Jackson, Michigan. � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Veterans History Project Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Grand Valley State University. History Department Description An account of the resource The Library of Congress established the Veterans History Project in 2001 to collect memories, accounts, and documents of U.S. war veterans from World War II and the Korean War, Vietnam War, and conflicts in the Middle East and elsewhere, and to preserve these stories for future generations. The GVSU History Department interviews are part of this work-in-progress, and may contain videos and audio recordings, transcripts and interview outlines, and related documents and photographs. Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant 1914- 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 Afghan War, 2001--Personal narratives, American Iran Hostage Crisis, 1979-1981--Personal narratives, American Korean War, 1950-1953--Personal narratives, American Michigan--History, Military Oral history Persian Gulf War, 1991--Personal narratives, American United States--History, Military United States. Air Force United States. Army United States. Navy Veterans Video recordings Vietnam War, 1961-1975--Personal narratives, American World War, 1939-1945--Personal narratives, American 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 Smither, James Boring, Frank Relation A related resource Veterans History Project (U.S.) Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context RHC-27 Language A language of the resource eng Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/455">Veterans History Project interviews (RHC-27)</a> Oral History A resource containing historical information obtained in interviews with persons having firsthand knowledge. 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 SuccopR Title A name given to the resource Succop, Robert (Interview outline and video), 2004 Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Succop, Robert Description An account of the resource Robert Succop was born in Petoskey, Michigan and served in the Army during World War II. He joined the Army after Pearl Harbor, and worked for a short time in Chicago, Illinois teaching basic electricity before he was transferred to the 989th Company of the Signal Corps. He worked in New Guinea on FM radio weather reports, as well as the Philippines in preparation for an invasion of Japan. Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Fritz, David (Interviewer) Caledonia High School (Caledonia, Mich.) Subject The topic of the resource Oral history Veterans History Project (U.S.) United States--History, Military Michigan--History, Military Veterans Video recordings World War, 1939-1945--Personal narratives, American United States. Army Language A language of the resource eng Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Type The nature or genre of the resource Moving Image Text Relation A related resource Veterans History Project (U.S.) Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2004-12-06 Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/455">Veterans History Project Collection, (RHC-27)</a> Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource application/pdf video/mp4 Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Lemmen Library and Archives https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/bce96c2927951f2e57c5c443439605ab.mp4 a7567187732718e6f7da3ffa89f94a6e https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/59b9350a9fc7c12ae020f7eb6156bf18.pdf bbf05d04b8f299902ed682a3d5852b3a PDF Text Text Grand Valley State University Veterans History Project Tad Such (00:26:00) (00:05) Introduction • Born April 5th, 1961. • Remembers having a good childhood. • He grew up in Grand Haven, Michigan, very close to the lake. • His father was an elementary principle. • He played sports throughout middle school. • Fell in with the wrong crowd during high school and did not have a good high school experience. However, his family was very loving and supportive. • He did manage to graduate from high school. (10:20) Enlistment • Enlisted in the Air Force. • His mom and he went to Muskegon, Michigan. • Had his physical and sworn in Detroit, Michigan. • Went to Lackland Air Base in San Antonio, Texas. • Remembers unloading from the bus and having to line up and learning that you must do something as a group, not as an individual in the military. • Received haircuts and uniforms on the second day of training. • The men were housed in dormitories. • Was taught integrity and honesty while becoming a part of the military. • He was able to go home for Christmas after his basic training. (17:00) Holman Air Force Base • Was told he would be running as a heavy equipment operator. • Knows most of the history of his base. • He loved his time on the base in New Mexico. • The men would rent cars and camp or go to town for football games when on leave on the weekends. • He was part of a group of 13 men who had to learn the heavy equipment. • He took a job at a golf course. The course was on the flight line for the incoming planes. • He changed a 9 hole course to an 18 hole course while working their. • He was able to see the space shuttle come in from space. He had to clear a runway for the shuttle to land; it took 29 hours of straight working. • The men were invited to watch the shuttle land very close. • The runway he constructed was made of compacted sand. It was 3.5 miles long. (26:00) Discharge • He learned how to be a man while he was in the service. • He flew back home commercially when he was finished. �• • • • • • At one point while still on the base, they received about an inch of snow. There were a lot of accidents on the side of the road. No one could drive in the snow because they were not used to it. Worked for the Army corps of Engineers cutting grass once he returned home. Married a woman from his home town and had a daughter. Alcoholism is prevalent in his family. He became separated from his wife, and then went into recovery from his alcoholism. He worked at a transition facility once he recovered. � 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 Veterans History Project Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Grand Valley State University. History Department Description An account of the resource The Library of Congress established the Veterans History Project in 2001 to collect memories, accounts, and documents of U.S. war veterans from World War II and the Korean War, Vietnam War, and conflicts in the Middle East and elsewhere, and to preserve these stories for future generations. The GVSU History Department interviews are part of this work-in-progress, and may contain videos and audio recordings, transcripts and interview outlines, and related documents and photographs. Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant 1914- 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 Afghan War, 2001--Personal narratives, American Iran Hostage Crisis, 1979-1981--Personal narratives, American Korean War, 1950-1953--Personal narratives, American Michigan--History, Military Oral history Persian Gulf War, 1991--Personal narratives, American United States--History, Military United States. Air Force United States. Army United States. Navy Veterans Video recordings Vietnam War, 1961-1975--Personal narratives, American World War, 1939-1945--Personal narratives, American 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 Smither, James Boring, Frank Relation A related resource Veterans History Project (U.S.) Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context RHC-27 Language A language of the resource eng Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/455">Veterans History Project interviews (RHC-27)</a> Oral History A resource containing historical information obtained in interviews with persons having firsthand knowledge. 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 SuchT Title A name given to the resource Such, Tad (Interview outline and video), 2007 Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Such, Tad Description An account of the resource Tad Such served in the US Air Force between 1980 and 1983. He was stationed at Holman Air Force Base in New Mexico, where he worked as a heavy equipment operator. Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Collins Sr., Charles E. (Interviewer) Collins, Carol (Interviewer) Subject The topic of the resource Oral history Veterans History Project (U.S.) United States--History, Military Michigan--History, Military Veterans United States. Air Force Other veterans & civilians--Personal narratives, American Video recordings Language A language of the resource eng Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Type The nature or genre of the resource Moving Image Text Relation A related resource Veterans History Project (U.S.) Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2007-04-16 Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/455">Veterans History Project Collection, (RHC-27)</a> Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource application/pdf video/mp4 Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Lemmen Library and Archives https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/c4f583dde9c54a86cd406912b007ac79.pdf a7cd58b0ca5570f02e0e15a6c38210e9 PDF Text Text Living with PFAS Interviewee: Sue and Scott Mark Interviewer: Danielle DeVasto Date: September 30, 2021 Danielle DeVasto: I'm Dani DeVasto, and today, September 30, 2021, I have the pleasure of chatting with Sue and Scott Mark. Hi, Sue. Hi, Scott. Sue Mark: Hi, Dani. Scott Mark: Hi. Danielle DeVasto: Um, Sue and Scott, can you tell me about where you're from and where you currently live? Sue Mark: Um, I will start. Um, I was born and raised in Kalamazoo, but my husband and I now live in South Haven. We've lived here for 15 years [CLEARS THROAT], so we've been away from Kalamazoo for quite a while. But I used to work, um, the last job I had in Kalamazoo was at a doctor's office, at 1127 South Park Street, which is, um, by the Crosstown Ponds, and there were, the ponds were behind the office building. This building was built in 1986, and I started there in 1991. Um, I don't know if any of this is related to PFAS, but I'm going to share my story just in case it is. Um, when I started there, we would make coffee with tap water, and, um, we didn't get bottled water until probably, I would say, five to eight years after I started there. It was not something we had on a—early on when I was there. [CLEARS THROAT] I worked in the office for 15 years. We had two physicians that were employed there, and 14 ancillary staff, which really is not a very large office in today's terms. Um, there were a number of people that had cancer in that office. Um, I can tell you that there were four people with breast cancer. There was one person with lymphoma. There was one that had multiple myeloma. But, what I'm focusing on right now is the diagnosis that I have. Um, I was diagnosed last year with pancreatic cancer. And what's significant about this is the fact that I am the fourth person from that office with pancreatic cancer, and I am the only one still living. The last person that was diagnosed with it died this past March. So, there are four of us with that diagnosis, and I realize pancreatic cancer is out there, and there's a number of people with it, but my feeling as a nurse is that there is far more breast cancer than there is pancreatic cancer, and to have four of us in one office with pancreatic cancer, there's something suspicious about this. Um, the ponds would frequently overflow when there was heavy rain. Um, it was a lowland, and it would come up into the parking lot, and we'd have to walk through it sometimes to get into the building. Um, and there's a lot that ran off those roads. When you think about oil and rubber, or asbestos, uh, rustproofing, all that. And that would all drain into these ponds. In the time that I worked there, there were two vehicles removed from those ponds. Not at the same time, but somebody dumped the car in there even. Um, there were lots of goop and bird feces. Um, just all kinds of debris in there. I-I never even wanted to go near those ponds. But, to have four of us with pancreatic cancer threw up a red flag for me, and I honestly believe that that's where my diagnosis came from. It has something to do with that office. Um, I've been a very healthy person. I have not had to take hardly any medication. I just took vitamins and supplements. I was active. I exercised. I ate a very healthy diet, and I had a normal weight. Um, I've taken very good care of myself, so I'm rather surprised. I don't have a family history of cancer, except my father had leukemia, and he survived that for 18 years. So, I don't have a lot of family history. I was also tested in the Page 1 �very beginning of my diagnosis, um, for genetic testing, and they did, they tested 55 genes. Everyone was normal, and there were three of them that were from my pancreas, and those were normal, as well. So, it was not a mutation in my genes. This is something that I contracted but I still, to this day, don't know exactly where. Um, my husband is older than me, and he lived in Kalamazoo, um, when I was there, And he has more knowledge of the paper mills and so forth in that area, and he can speak more to what his thoughts are on this-this, um, possible contamination. Danielle DeVasto: Okay. Scott Mark: Good morning. I'm Scott Mark, and I have lived in Kalamazoo since 1962. And for many years, I lived in the general area of the Crosstown Ponds, and passed by them frequently on my own way to work. Uh, in the, I know that in the 1970s, uh, there was some water contamination in the wells, in the wells, you know, and, uh, they were stripping, uh, those wells, uh, and the water was being pumped onto the roadway, and then drained into the Crosstown Ponds. Now, I know that Kalamazoo draws all their municipal water from, uh, fresh water aquifers, uh, and below the city. But there's a long history of paper mills, uh, in the Kalamazoo area, and the two that I will speak directly to were situated, uh, near Cork Street, which is approximately a mile from the, um, Crosstown Ponds. Um, the watershed would move towards those Crosstown Ponds, and, of course, the aquifers are all that general area. The paper mills had fire protection systems, and potentially could have used these, uh, uh, [CLEARS THROAT] for, uh, fire protection. Um, there's an area on Cork Street—which I have some pictures that I'll share—that, uh, has been contaminated for probably 40 years, and is still fenced off today, uh, with warning signs that it's a contaminated area, and it's a hazardous area. Uh, there is a, uh, seven-foot cyclone fence around it with barbed wire across the top, multiple signs around the property, and I would guess that there's probably somewhere in the area of 40 to 60 acres, uh, that go to the north toward the Crosstown Ponds. Now, I know that that the, uh, the, uh, city municipal water system draws from deep down in the, uh, aquifers, but the leaching of chemicals of many different kinds naturally goes down to the aquifers. And I know that there has been some acknowledgment of groundwater contamination in Kalamazoo. Uh, some of the research that I tried to do about the contamination around the Crosstown Ponds did not yield much because they indicate that any dredging of the Crosstown Ponds, uh, was for, uh, the purpose of reducing the flooding that would occur in the spring or when there were, uh, significant, uh, rainstorms. And, um, sometimes those streets beside the Crosstown Ponds would have to be closed because of high water. Um, the one thing that concerns me is that of all the dredging of the Crosstown Ponds they did, they never indicated that they did any testing to see if there were contaminants. But, anyone that lived in the Kalamazoo area acknowledged that those Crosstown Ponds were contaminated ponds that sat, in, uh, the valley just south of the main downtown area. Um, I will be happy to forward some things that I recently, um, some pictures that I recently took of that, uh, contaminated area. Uh, this is the first time that I noticed, yesterday was the first time that I noticed that any mitigation of hazardous material going on or any work being done in there, um, um, for many, many years. However, I am well aware that to the south of Cork Street, which is, you know, approximately a, approximately a mile away from Crosstown Page 2 �Ponds, there was a very significant amount of, uh, uh, reclamation that was done, uh, probably 10 years, 10 to 15 years ago, um, which would be, uh, would, which would be in that same, uh, watershed that moved toward the Crosstown Ponds and into those aquifers. Uh, I think that probably, uh, that's what I can contribute at this point in terms of what my thoughts are about any contamination to that general area. Sue Mark: Um, I will mention one other thing that [CLEARS THROAT] back in 2018, um, I had a relative that told me—that still lives in Kalamazoo—told me that these ponds were dredged, and that would be around Fourth Street and, um, South Park Street. So they were dredged, and they took out, um, a pile of sludge, and put it on a portion of Fourth Street that was approximately 100 feet long and 10 to 12 feet high, and it sat on this road for two years. To my knowledge, it was never tested, it was just left there. Um, I don't believe it was fenced off. I think it was just piled there. And my concern from that is that how many children, um, animals, pets, whatever might have gotten into that could just crawl on it and climb on it and play on it or whatever. And that sat there for two years, and this is what they dredged out of the bottom of these ponds. Um, there was no concern for anybody's safety or, um, what could happen to anyone that got near this. Just to leave it there for two years is totally wrong. Um, I did not see that. This is what my relative told me, but at this point all that has been removed. But to allow that pile to sit for two years is totally wrong. And that's-that's basically all I can think of at this point that I want to bring up. But, um, as an individual, I don't feel that I can go to the city or the state and get anywhere with them acknowledging that they've done anything wrong. I'm just one person. Um, and I'm focusing on my cancer diagnosis and getting myself better, so that's where I'm at today. Danielle DeVasto: Would either of you, would either of you be able to say anything about what the neighborhood around the Crosstown Ponds is like? Is this residential? Is it, um, how would you characterize the-the-the neighborhood around there? Sue Mark: It's a combination. There were businesses in there. There were, um, um, different offices, um, and there was a lot of low-income housing. That's the best way to put it. Um, I'm sure most of those people were transients. They probably rented. I don't think that there were very many that owned. Um, as far as contacting other businesses, um, my dentist office used to be across the pond from where I worked, and, um, they are not there. They moved their office to another area, and I had talked to my hygienist and just told her what's gone on. And I said, you were down there the same time I was, you better pay real close attention to your health because, you know, you don't know what's gonna come from this, and you were in that same area. But, um, there were a lot of low-income housing, and it's hard to say, you know, I, we never talked with any of those people so I, you know, they come and go. And it's, a lot of the businesses that were there back when I was, aren't there anymore. So, um, it was a combination of both. There were offices and-and homes in that area. Danielle DeVasto: Okay. Sue Mark: Do you have anything to say? Scott Mark: No, uh, that was what I was going to bring up is the neighborhood issue. Page 3 �Danielle DeVasto: Awesome. Do you, moving forward from this point, I know you don't live there anymore, but do you have any particular concerns about the contamination, um, PFAS or otherwise, whatever it might be? Are there any particular concerns that you have moving forward? Sue Mark: Um, I'm concerned for anybody that lives anywhere around that area at all, because I don't believe anything has been truly taken care of. Um, maybe they're working on this one spot on Cork Street, but if it sat there for 40 years, how many people have been affected by it? And the signs say hazardous material right on the sign. Some of the signs that are on that fence have been there so long that they're faded. You can't even read them. So, this has, this has been a problem for a long time, and, um, I see the city is just ignoring it, and I think that's a shame. Do you have anything to add? Scott Mark: I-I think it would be very hard to come up with, uh, finding people because of the time period, uh, say from the 1990s, uh, to present, that may have been in that area and may have had diagnoses. That would be an awesome, uh, undertaking. And, you know, the fact that the, uh, the people that rented, the businesses that were there—some of them were medical offices, some were, um, lawyers offices, there were, um, just many types of small offices there that came and went over the years—and you just didn't have the contact with those people to know what was happening medically with any of those people. So, for us it's a concern that we're bringing forward, and hoping that somewhere along the way, somebody might ask the question, and there might be some information somewhere that they can plug into a computer, and it'll spit out some information of some of the diagnosed people that lived in those areas over the years. Danielle DeVasto: Before we wrap up, is there anything else that you'd like to add that we haven't touched on today or anything you'd like to go back to and say more about? Sue Mark: I can't think of anything. Can you? Scott Mark: No, at the moment, I can't think of anything. Uh, Sue and I have discussed this over a period of time. Um, while she generally focused on the pond, um, my knowledge was focusing on the groundwater that, uh, and the well fields, that were in that immediate area, as well as the contaminated areas nearby that would contribute to any of the, uh, chemicals that may be in the groundwater, uh, that the general population of Kalamazoo might be, uh, drinking from. Danielle DeVasto: Yeah. Well, thank you so much, Sue and Scott, for taking the time to share your perspectives and your stories today. Sue Mark: Thank you. Page 4 �Scott Mark: And thank you for your interest, and I hope that you come up with some good solutions and good information that point you in a direction that will help everybody. Danielle DeVasto: I hope so, too. Page 5 �Page 6 �Page 7 � https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/2e0a38d78b4120bb9731016598d9a7f5.MP3 db8a52f6b1203126945f23ead0a6d646 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 Living with PFAS Interviews Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Devasto, Danielle Description An account of the resource Beginning in 2021, the Living with PFAS interviews were recorded to gather the personal stories of individuals impacted by PFAS contamination. PFAS, or per- and polyflourinated substances, are a large group of human-made chemicals used widely since the 1940s to make coatings and products resistant to heat, oil, stains, grease, and water. They can be found in countless household items, including food packaging, non-stick cookware, stain-resistant furniture, and water-resistant clothing. These chemicals are often called “forever chemicals” because they do not break down easily, can move through soils and contaminate drinking water sources, and build up in animals, plants, and people. PFAS have been linked to increased incidences of various cancers, increased cholesterol, decreased fertility, birth defects, kidney and liver disease, and immune system suppression, and thyroid dysfunction. It is estimated that PFAS are in the drinking water of more than 200 million Americans (Andrews & Naidenko, 2020). In Michigan alone, over 280 sites have PFAS contamination exceeding maximum contamination levels for groundwater (MPART, 2024). Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2021 Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Living with PFAS (project) Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource In copyright Subject The topic of the resource Oral history Personal narrative PFAs (Perfluorinated chemicals) Groundwater--Pollution Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context DC-11 Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource video/mp4 application/pdf audio/mp3 Type The nature or genre of the resource Motion Picture Text Sound Language A language of the resource eng Oral History A resource containing historical information obtained in interviews with persons having firsthand knowledge. 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 PFAS0017 Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Mark, Sue Mark, Scott Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2021-09-30 Title A name given to the resource Sue and Scott Mark, 2021 (Interview audio and transcript with images) Description An account of the resource Sue and Mark Scott lived in Kalamazoo, Michigan for many years before moving to South Haven, Michigan. In their interview, they discuss their knowledge of the groundwater contamination in Kalamazoo and its effects on their health and community. Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource DeVasto, Danielle (interviewer) Subject The topic of the resource Oral history Personal narrative PFAs (Perfluorinated chemicals) Groundwater--Pollution Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Living with PFAS (project) Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In copyright</a> Type The nature or genre of the resource Sound Text Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource audio/mp3 application/pdf Language A language of the resource eng Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Lemmen Library and Archives https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/b449f207249a2cc4a252cf4e502606e4.mp4 67d9d2780a425915e2cc692ef831e39e https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/271c73137bb38c4652709ce63d8f560d.pdf 2605d36c50dfae6657180f0536296252 PDF Text Text Living with PFAS Interviewee: Sue Borgeson Interviewer: Dani DeVasto Date: June 22nd, 2021 DD: I’m Dani DeVasto, and today, June 22nd, 2021, I have the pleasure of talking to Sue Borgersen. Hi Sue. SB: Hi Dani! DD: Sue can you tell me a little bit about where you’re from and where you currently live? SB: Well, it's a little difficult to tell you where I'm from because I was born and raised in the military, so I've lived all over the world all over the United States in the military and landed in Rockford Michigan. Thirty years ago, I met my husband, and he was from west Michigan, and you know the story of falling in love so here I am. So yep, I live in Rockford, and I absolutely love living here. DD: And you said you've been in Rockford for about 30 years? SB: Um well actually 20. We lived in Grand Rapids for about 10 years. DD: Great. Sue, can you tell me a story about your experience with PFAS or with PFAS in your community? SB: Actually, in my community my story with PFAS goes way back to the early 80s. Growing up in the military. My dad was in the Air Force, we lived in Oscoda, Michigan in a Wordsmith Air Force base. And we arrived in Oscoda from Austin Texas, and this was I believe our second time living in a military installation. Um so we arrived in Oscoda, happy, healthy um no concerns and within a short period of time um it seemed as if our whole family suddenly was getting really sick. And weird things would happen um weird ailments, it especially affected my mother, and we had no idea. She was experiencing extreme fatigue, excruciating migraines and it was suggested that it was her teeth, her back molars needing to be aligned. So, they went in and started grinding on her teeth and they said oh um maybe that's not it we think you have a TMJ problem. So she ended up down at Wright Patterson Air Force. They did temporal.. um had her mouth wired shut for probably a good three months. That did not help… um just it was really very awful. My mom… ended up going to a doctor down in the Saginaw area who started doing testing on her and ran blood analysis and hair analysis and came back and said you have high trace minerals in your hair but your blood, mercury is off just skyrocketing, sane with lead, arsenic and a few other things. And my mom's got black hair and the doctor said to her "If you're dying your hair chances are your probably getting poisoned by your hair dye. So I came home from school and she had shaved her head. So this woman had been put through hell and back and thought that the only way that she was going to feel better was to shave her head. And then in that time um my dad retired from the military, we stayed behind so I could graduate from uh High school with my class. And he headed to west Michigan here and we stayed behind but we �moved to um house in downtown Oscoda. Everyone had well water, um and the problems just kept getting worse and I had a sister um who was terribly ill, hospitalized, they told her she had toxic shock syndrome, mono um. But nothing was confirmed they could not say that this was definitive this was exactly what was happening, the same thing was happening with me. Um we moved to West Michigan and I left went to college and didn't come back till about thirty years ago when I met my husband, lived in Grand Rapids for a while and in that time just continued to be just a deathly sick person. Energetic and was athletic, and I liked to do things but was finding I wasn't able to function, so I started going through the same thing that my mom had gone through seeing doctors all over the Midwest all the way down to Cleveland clinic to check out, maybe what was wrong with me. Did I have MS, did I have chronic fatigue? Did I have fibromyalgia um I had carry malformation, grossest on my body in my body, right now I'm going to be hanging surgery here in the next couple months to have them removed but I've had cysts grow that nobody can explain while it just you know a freak thing. But things really seemed to come to a blow when my husband and I decided we were going to start a family. And in that, it was not happening we started seeing different specialists, but nobody could explain why we weren't able to conceive a child, we didn't want to go the fertility route, then we wondered about adoption, and it was like if we're not supposed to have them, we're not supposed to have them. And we're ok with it. We kind of moved on from that and um but I still was sick, and you know then they started telling me my cholesterol was high, my HGLS was all out of whack, just out of this world and extremely anemic on top of all of it. Um there was actually a point in time I was so sick that they were suggesting to me that I was anorexic, and I was doing it on purpose to be hospitalized. Um you know, I assure you, I am I’m not anorexic, not doing this intentionally that's the situation with the medical field, they can't figure it out or help you with it, they start telling you it’s in your head and they start coming up with alternate solutions or situations to say ok we think this is what it is. So, you go down that route for a while and discover indeed that is not it. And not only cause I was going on this route, did it make things worse. I still don't know what the heck is going on. So, about that time I started hearing stories, well I should say we moved to Rockford in that time, and we live in downtown Rockford not too far from Rogue River and that is how getting water, smelled funny. I didn't like drinking in Oscoda, on the air force base. To this day I have a hard time drinking water. Our water smelled bad, tasted bad, so I called the water department, they came to test it, the gentleman who came out said um you know usually when we go to people’s house because they say its smells. Usually, they have a lot of animals, animal waste, garbage, he said your house is immaculate. He said so we don't know what it is, but you know we'll get it fixed for you well that plant got decommissioned. They hooked us up to you know the whole area to this aquifer that's just outside town here. And you know things kind of seem to level off for a little bit and when you don't know what the heck is going on and you see these things and you like to try to put them together and it's just it's just frustrating. And so, we used to walk our dogs down by the river and walk along and in the fall when the river goes down you could see the tree roots exposed on the riverbank, and we would see these like these long-twisted things that were like shoved into the roots and they were all along the bank. And we get to a remote area, and we let our dogs off the leash, and they would run, and they would bring these things back to us and we had no idea what they were. And we kayak and canoed, there’s foam in the river we had no idea what it was and just to go back to Wordsmith again for a second Wordsmith is on a lake than at lake which is just outside the gate area, and they had their own private beach facility where all the military families could go and swim and they had docks and all kinds of cool stuff. And we was sit there and play �in this foam that would just come up on the beach and we would cover each other in this foam. It was just, we were thinking it was just this natural occurrence that came from lake nobody even had a clue. So I started hearing things coming out of Wordsmith about the water quality up there and the things that they found with regards to PFAS and it's to PFAA and then started hearing about the Wolverine factory, the PFAS, you know on packer and those drives that are just a West of Rockford. And started putting two and two together and discovered a group out of Wordsmith that was a community of people that had all the same symptoms, all the same ailments and they were coming together to talk about their issues yes, I can't have kids yes I've got high cholesterol yes I have thyroid problem multiple sclerosis just the whole gambit. And they were going to hire Erin Brokowich to represent them in a suit again the United States Air Force. So, I joined the group and having worked in engineering industry, friends that were environmental engineers, started asking them questions about things. I asked this group these questions and I got kicked out of the group because they thought, I was a mole. And I was like what? How come I can't be in your group? And they said nope, you're obviously a mole, and I said what makes you think I'm a mole? Well, you're asking questions nobody else would ask. Cause I work in this industry, you can go to my LinkedIn profile, it will tell you my work history. So, it didn't matter I still got kicked out anyways. Um but what they did for me was I said OK I don't need a group of people to figure what is wrong with me. I think this is what has happened to me and to my family. I'm gonna just investigate it myself and put 2 and 2 together and I went to my doctor, and I sat down with studies with studies and reports and articles, and you know she's got my high health of history, and I had all that. I had full on hysterectomy bout 5 years. And the doctor that did the hysterectomy said that there was no way on God's green earth that I was gonna get pregnant because my uterus and ovaries were nothing but one big lump of cysts, that had been growing for a bazillion years. And said that was never going to happen, um you have the strangers looking uterus we've ever seen you for. We stopped counting the number of cysts that were on your reproduction organs, anyway, so I sat down with her went through everything. And you know I think I would like for you to see a toxicologist. So, she scheduled an appointment to talk to a specialist at Devos children’s hospital because if there if somebody poisoned, it's usually a child. So, they have them at, the toxicologists are associated with the children's hospital. So, I go to meet, this doctor, explain my situation I’m concerned about my health going on in the future, are there tests for my blood, what's can we do here? And he told me he said, how long has it been since you lived in Oscoda? And I said oh about 35 years, and he said, well what happens when you take the pan off the fire, he said it cools down. He said there's no way you would still have any chemicals in your body from 35 years ago. So now um Pfas is considered the forever chemical, and um I don't know there's what 17 chemicals, 31 compounds in PFAS that settled within your tissue, in the organs in your body. Just the frustration with that, um to try to help yourself to figure things out um and to be told id you take the pain off the fire, it stops getting hot. The other thing that as military raised child, individual there's no way of tracking any of this health issues. Because once you turn 18, 21, 18 if you don't go to college, 21 if you do, you no longer afford military health care. So, they can't track you, so there are a ton of us out there that lived on these bases exposed to the chemicals. Going to my first class reunion ten years after I graduated because when you're in a military family, when your dad retired, everyone goes with ya. So, if you retire, wherever you and your family usually goes with ya. So, nobody is really essentially located there anymore. Going back to 10-year class reunion, nobody had kids. But some people were feeling kind of sick and getting diagnosed with things. Twenty-year class reunion, people are in wheelchairs, people �have died. My best friend across where my best friend who lived across the street from me, was a firefighter on base. Worked on those runways every day in that, passed away a number years ago of some bizarre liver cancer that they could not even identify how it may have even started she died of that same liver cancer her mother died of the same liver cancer so going back to my 20th class reunion and I said to my husband how am I gonna handle this when people start asking you about you know my kids cause this is where we're going to show pictures in what. said you know it's not a big deal to me to not have kids, but I don't want to stand there and have to explain to a 150 people why don't we have kids? And To my surprise a large majority of the people did not have children and if they did very difficult to conceive and/or that they had adopted so at adopt it so you know it's just if you start looking at the population then you're looking at all the different elements that people have that lived in that particular area there was something not right To my surprise a large majority of the people did not have children and if they did very difficult to conceive and/or that they had adopted so at adopt it. It's just if you start looking at the population then you're looking at all the different ailments that people have that lived in that particular area there was something not right. And the medical profession is not able to help us, maybe it's something cause it's a chemical, it sits in your body. Maybe its another cure or those sorts of things, but the direction I wanted to come from, On this was doctors need to be with the research community, new search community needs to be working with the technical scientists on not only getting rid of this chemical but also at the same time what is going to pop up out of this I mean are people going to be having you know Parkinson’s and ALS I mean I went to Chicago on Friday and it was a really kind of a taxing day the heat and the whole just a whole day while my Nero you're a lot of what is it neural muscular system just went on the blink and so I get fried and I'm not able to function so we ended up having come home because I was absolutely exhausted. And it’s taken me um since Saturday, and I was like oh please I hope I'm not too tired to do this on Tuesday because I have to say something about it. Um but you know I have um my sisters and brothers same sort of thing. Um and it's just, it's tragic to also live in a community where how the heck did, I end up here. After living wordsmith and Oscoda and living right smack dab in the middle of Rockford. And what is going to, what's going to pop up next with all of this? Um so that's kind of where that's kind of my story. Kind of rambled, that's kind of it in a big nutshell. My mom never did recover from of it. And when you have, you know healthcare professionals I'm drilling into your head that the pain that you feel on the tired that you feel is all in your head while it eventually ends up in your head and you know it's just at the time I want people invent these things they're really cool everybody's excited all this is you know the next greatest thing and then you know 10 15 20 years later we find out that you know what it's no dumb what it's doing too not only our world but you know what are the vitamins but people in health and You know I don't know what the solution to that is but you know but I feel like I needed to say something and health and spending some time investigating those kids of issues. DD: Yeah, thank you. SB: Sorry, that was a half an hour answer. �DD: It was great, it was a great story to tell and I'm so glad you told it. What concerns do you have with PFAS contamination moving forward? You might have hinted this a little bit, but can you speak to that question a little more? SB: Well, I do know that you know there's a full court press on trying to develop in our water in wastewater treatment plants filters to filter out PFAs to track it to see where it's going. My concerns with it it's not just in the water it's water it's in the soil so even though you may not be drinking water it's still in my backyard and still in the dirt. Um what is that going to mean for us, here's something I learned too, I was really surprised by. PFAs is on hamburger wrappers, you know when they're collecting water samples, to test for PFAs, you cannot have eaten a hamburger without washing your hands. They have this whole long list of things. It's still being used in products that are detrimental to the health and welfare of people of the world. I'm just you know, I'm glad in the industry that I'm in because it allows me to be a little more informed. And aware of what's transpiring with the world of PFAs and but I also know there's a whole of health issues that nobody is willing to say yes this is directly an impact from PFAs. Allot of liver cancers. You know H TAL's LDL is the Al's LD o's triglycerides cholesterol is cholesterol even when you take medication it does not lower those so just you know what does that mean for liver and pancreas and not just me but you know everybody that lives around here. DD: Well before we wrap up today, Sue, would you like to add anything we haven't touched on or anything you want to go back to and say more about? SB: Um, I think I pretty much said what I wanted to say about, but it's been 35 years almost 40 years, of being exposed to PFAs. Um I'm a pretty healthy girl, you know um I've endured a lot look great on the outside, I think. But on the inside, um not so much on certain days, I feel fortunate that I'm able to care through it where a lot of people have not been able to manage it. Because they don't know what’s going on with them, and they just continue they just continue to tread water and I'm excited about the ideas of people being able to come together and connect with one another over these issues maybe not me but generations behind me that have been exposed to this are they'll come up with something that can help people live better lives that have been exposed to PFAS. I think water is the war of the world in It's a precious resource that we have a tendency to take a pic take advantage of, but you don't know what you don't know so what's the next thing. DD: Yeah, very true, SB: So that's kind of my story in a nutshell, um I don't have anything seriously terminal to this particular point, but um sometimes you can live a long life and just be miserable every day. You know because of the things people have to deal with. And um as a result of this chemical, so I pray for those people, every day at least 3 or 4 times. So that's my story and I'm sticking to it. DD: Well, thank you so much Sue for taking the time to share your story today. �SB: Absolutely, thank you for your interest and spending the time with me today. . � 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 Living with PFAS Interviews Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Devasto, Danielle Description An account of the resource Beginning in 2021, the Living with PFAS interviews were recorded to gather the personal stories of individuals impacted by PFAS contamination. PFAS, or per- and polyflourinated substances, are a large group of human-made chemicals used widely since the 1940s to make coatings and products resistant to heat, oil, stains, grease, and water. They can be found in countless household items, including food packaging, non-stick cookware, stain-resistant furniture, and water-resistant clothing. These chemicals are often called “forever chemicals” because they do not break down easily, can move through soils and contaminate drinking water sources, and build up in animals, plants, and people. PFAS have been linked to increased incidences of various cancers, increased cholesterol, decreased fertility, birth defects, kidney and liver disease, and immune system suppression, and thyroid dysfunction. It is estimated that PFAS are in the drinking water of more than 200 million Americans (Andrews & Naidenko, 2020). In Michigan alone, over 280 sites have PFAS contamination exceeding maximum contamination levels for groundwater (MPART, 2024). Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2021 Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Living with PFAS (project) Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource In copyright Subject The topic of the resource Oral history Personal narrative PFAs (Perfluorinated chemicals) Groundwater--Pollution Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context DC-11 Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource video/mp4 application/pdf audio/mp3 Type The nature or genre of the resource Motion Picture Text Sound Language A language of the resource eng Oral History A resource containing historical information obtained in interviews with persons having firsthand knowledge. 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 PFAS0018 Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Borgeson, Sue Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2021-06-22 Title A name given to the resource Sue Borgeson, 2021 (Interview video and transcript) Description An account of the resource Sue Borgeson grew up in a military family and has lived all over the world and the United States, and currently resides in Rockford, Michigan. In her interview, Sue discusses the impact PFAS has had on the health of her family after being exposed on military bases and at her home in Michigan. Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource DeVasto, Danielle (interviewer) Subject The topic of the resource Oral history Personal narrative PFAs (Perfluorinated chemicals) Groundwater--Pollution Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Living with PFAS (project) Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In copyright</a> Type The nature or genre of the resource Moving Image Text Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource video/mp4 application/pdf Language A language of the resource eng Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Lemmen Library and Archives https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/673e96bb3456ee833c64ac256e353a04.pdf 49f8756330fbd916d2c6440727da8e68 PDF Text Text Suffering: Can It Be Vicarious? From the Midweek Lenten series: Job and Jesus: The Mystery of Human Suffering Text: Isaiah 53:1-11; Hebrews 12:1-2 Richard A. Rhem Christ Community Church Spring Lake, Michigan March 17, 1993 Transcription of the spoken sermon The question tonight is whether suffering can be vicarious, that is, on behalf of another or in the place of another. Or, perhaps, is suffering redemptive? Is it possible that there is a suffering in the world that works for the salvation of the world? Not thereby attempting to rationalize suffering or to take away anything that I have said in the last couple of weeks about suffering, but simply recognizing that suffering is a mystery in our human experience, and asking the question: beyond the fact that in so many cases we can simply give no reason for it, beyond the fact that we want to affirm that it is not punishment and there is not a causal connection between sin and suffering as we have seen in the Book of Job, nonetheless, is it possible that sometimes suffering has a positive, saving consequence? That’s really the question. In the Old Testament, as I said, obviously in that servant poem, there was the conviction that there would be one who would suffer and thereby bring salvation to many. Through this one, who bore the sin and the grief of the many, there would come salvation. “He will see the travail of his soul and be satisfied.” Interpreted by the Christian Church after Good Friday and Easter as a portrait of Jesus, it is very possible that Jesus fed his own soul on these servant songs. It is very possible that when Jesus moved away from John the Baptist with his calling down of the judgment of God on humankind and announcing the end world, that Jesus, moving away from that mentality of John, found his own identity and his own ministry in these servant poems: that he was not to be the Elijah who would come and bring down fire from heaven, but that he was to be the servant who in his exemplary life and in his suffering would effect salvation. It is difficult to say. We can’t really say that. We can say that the New Testament Church certainly understood the life and the death of Jesus in those terms. It seems as though there is something, not only in Israel’s state tradition, but really in a wide spectrum of religious systems, or a wide spectrum of religious expressions that there is some sense that something has to happen to deal with © Grand Valley State University   �Suffering: Can It Be Vicarious? Richard A. Rhem Page 2   what is wrong in the world in order to make it right. That something has to be paid. Or that someone has to pay. Now it has certainly been a part of Old Testament faith as well as some interpretations of the New Testament at the heart of things, but it’s not only biblical faith but also many other faiths as well have some kind of sacrificial system. It seems as though there is something very primal in the human person that believes that God must be appeased, that we are wrong and need to be put in the right, and that in order for that to be effected some offering has to be made. I say that’s not only in the biblical tradition; it seems to be in religion in general, and I wonder then if it is not something very primal in the human person. Is there hell to pay? For example, we read about genocide in Bosnia. Not just genocide or ethnic cleansing, but the methodical rape of Muslim women as a strategy of war in order to dehumanize, in order to impregnate with a generation of children over against whom there would be this equivocation. The systematic rape of women by an army of men as a military strategy. How does that make you feel? The last time the Balkans erupted there was a world conflagration, and then there arose a Hitler who conceived of the final solution using the Jewish people as scapegoats. Ripping families apart. The Holocaust. Six million Jews in the gas ovens. How does that make you feel? There is a report by the United Nations that has just come out which I think will probably (It’s always a little risky to call these things at this point.) reveal the complicity of the United States government, the Reagan and Bush administrations, in the financing of the El Salvadorian conflict. They supported the army over against the guerilla groups that perhaps had as much atrocity on their side. Though there were voices raised about the fact that it needed to be a political solution, nonetheless, we continued to pour in guns and tanks and helicopters, and military advisors, supplying a regime that murdered the Catholic nuns. We were part of the configuration that gunned down Archbishop Romero who had taken the side of the poor in El Salvador. We the superpower, in order to make sure that Communism did not get an inroad into Central America, we are all tied up in the atrocities, the massacres of the people in El Salvador. That report will reveal more than we will want to know. I could not help but feel repulsion, revulsion, as I saw Alexander Haig, at a Senate committee testifying about the fact that perhaps the nuns were gunned down because they tried to run a blockade! How cynical can we be? I just got a little tail end of a clip of a movie that’s being produced. James Garner is going to be in it. I don’t know what it is going to be called. It’s about the sale of the R.J. Reynolds Company and the breaking up of all its subsidiaries in a move which turned that business into a cash cow, weakened the industry, split up the conglomerate, had absolutely no concern about the future of the companies or the economy of this nation, but was a bold and blatant grasp for immediate money, capital. Apparently they are making a movie about it now. I don’t know what will happen, but it will be interesting to see. It is a story that happened two or three years ago. I had 100 shares of R.J. Reynolds, and a member of this congregation called me, my broker, who said, “It just went up 20 points. Do you © Grand Valley State University �Suffering: Can It Be Vicarious? Richard A. Rhem Page 3   want to sell?” And I said, “Yes.” If I had waited another week it would have gone up another 20 points. But Gordon Van Hoeven said, “You can be a bull but you hadn’t ought to be a hog.” (Laughter) So I sold and made $2,000. Somehow or other I am also in complicity with this move in corporate America that was a blatant grasp for immediate cash. Perhaps the problem with our economy is the fact that there has been so much greedy grasping for the short term, a refusal to pour the resources into research and development, or to look at the long term and the good of the nation. Who would look for the long term good of the nation? Well, obviously there are those of you here present who could speak to these financial questions with much greater erudition. I mean simply to be thinking about our world, and I am asking you: Is there anything wrong with the world? Are there things that are so obscene, so unspeakably awful that it would be obscene to say that God can simply say, “Well, I forgive you”? Is it possible, given what I have set forth as admittedly extreme instances, but which nonetheless are part of a fabric of wrongdoing – is it possible that the only thing that needs to be done is for God to say, “You are forgiven”? I wonder if that primal thing in the gut of humankind has resulted in religions coming up with sacrifices and offerings. In Israel it became the conception of Isaiah 2, the innocent suffering on behalf of the others, the one bearing the guilt of the many. In the Christian Church, Jesus is seen as the “Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.” I think that’s perhaps all of a piece, and it is all that kind of primal sense we have that it would not be decent for God to say, “It doesn’t matter. I forgive you.” Now the problem that I have is that I don’t believe that God is a God of retribution. I don’t believe that God is going to line us up against the wall and say, “tit for tat.” It seems to me that that system would fall right back into the trap of the thing that we saw in Job, where God rewards the righteous and punishes the wicked. The Book of Job said, “No, that’s not so.” And what I see in Jesus also says, “No, that’s not so.” So, how does a God who would be gracious deal with that which is so terribly wrong in our world without just making light of it and pushing it aside as though it wasn’t there? How does God deal with that awful evil and still grace us and redeem us? That I think is all tied up in the Mystery of Jesus’ life and Jesus’ death. Certainly Jesus died because he lived the way he lived. And living the way he lived he ran into the Hitlers and the Bosnias, the El Salvadors and the R.J. Reynolds of this world, which means he ran into all of us. And so in that sense he did die because of the sin of the world. But I wonder, in all of the biblical metaphors that are used in trying to get a handle on this Mystery, I wonder if somehow or other in identifying with Jesus who felt abandoned, God was absorbing into God’s self all of the pain and darkness and evil and wrong. I don’t know. I just wonder if the Mystery of the cross, symbolized in the darkness and the cry of God’s forsakenness, was the identification of God with Jesus, soaking up like a sponge all of the acid and © Grand Valley State University �Suffering: Can It Be Vicarious? Richard A. Rhem Page 4   venom and bloodshed of human existence in order that God could say to all of us, “You are forgiven.” Not cheaply because it doesn’t really matter, but in a costly fashion because somehow or other God swallowed the poison, God’s self in our brother Jesus, who drank the cup to the dregs. Somehow or other in the Christian Church there has been an understanding of Jesus as bearing our sin, as suffering in our place. I suppose the power of the Christian Gospel stems from the fact that it speaks to that primal sense within us that somehow or other all of the hell that has been suffered in this world cannot simply be shoved aside, but needs to be absorbed, which is maybe the hell of Calvary and the desolation that Jesus experienced. If that is true, then maybe we can see Jesus in the history of Israel as in his life, living out what Israel was called to be: the servant of the Lord, and it is life living it out. Living it out as that one exemplar on behalf of us all, and being faithful even unto death, thereby fulfilling what we are called to be and calling us to follow in his footsteps. Then he gathers us into himself, absorbs all of our wrongs, and all of our pain, and all of our suffering, suffering for us and not without the fruit of salvation. For God raised Him up. God said, “It is enough.” And now to the whole world and the whole human race is the glad announcement that there is forgiveness. There is grace through Jesus Christ our Lord. I don’t know, but it seems to me sometimes one can suffer on behalf of another and bring salvation. © Grand Valley State University � https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/ce5a28b2a8769b0bfa047a14a870d6be.mp3 e16a2b8460ccc4f9ae1acc9f1d02e05f 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. 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Event Midweek Lent Series Job and Jesus: The Mystery of Human Suffering, Midweek Lent Scripture Text Isaiah 53:1-11, Hebrews 12:1-2 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-0-19930317 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1993-03-17 Title A name given to the resource Suffering: Can It Be Vicarious? Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Richard A. Rhem Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Subject The topic of the resource Clergy--Michigan Reformed Church in America Christ Community Church (Spring Lake, Mich.) Sermons Relation A related resource Richard A. Rhem - An Archive of Sermons, Prayers, Talks and Stories: http://richardrhem.org/ Language A language of the resource eng Type The nature or genre of the resource Sound Text Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource audio/mp3 application/pdf Description An account of the resource A sermon given by Richard A. Rhem (Dick) on March 17, 1993 entitled "Suffering: Can It Be Vicarious?", as part of the series "Job and Jesus: The Mystery of Human Suffering, Midweek Lent", on the occasion of Midweek Lent, at Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI. Scripture references: Isaiah 53:1-11, Hebrews 12:1-2. Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Lemmen Library and Archives Forgiveness Grace Hebrew Servant Poems Nature of God https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/b68c40c3a6d092a43a7f4a6fd26fa2f9.mp3 9858126fbadf0754e18a2d570676c452 https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/d584cb5944a406c0aaa5a5e948f9c3f0.pdf 979fd549b9b8f8a08e0e6af3d610b65f PDF Text Text Suffering: Is It Punishment? From the Midweek Lenten series: Job and Jesus: The Mystery of Human Suffering Job: 8:1-16; 21:7-27; 22:1-5; 23:1-10; 42:7-9 Richard A. Rhem Christ Community Church Spring Lake, Michigan March 10, 1993 Transcription of the spoken sermon The lesson from the scripture tonight is a collation of passages from the Book of Job. I am going to suggest that you take the bulletin home and read the entire text from your Bibles at home. But tonight, I invite you to listen as I read from a translation by Stephen Mitchell. His book, entitled The Book of Job, has an introduction and then a translation of the dialogues found in Job. It's very well done, and I hope to weave together these readings to make some things clearer. As we said last week the Book of Job has a prologue and an epilogue. The prologue and the epilogue, if they were put together, would make their own story. That story is a very ancient story from the region of Mesopotamia that dealt with a righteous sufferer who experienced terrible calamity and yet who was very patient, blessed God, and then had his fortunes restored. That old story, which would have been readily recognized by those who first heard or read the book of Job, became the occasion for the biblical writer to address the question of suffering. The author has inserted something new between the prologue and the epilogue – a Job much less compliant in the face of suffering. The main body of the biblical story consists of Job's complaint; the responses by his three friends, Bildad, Eliphaz, and Zophar, and then a young man, Elihu; then finally, the whirlwind, the voice of God, the vision of God, and the resolution. The Job of the dialogues is not patient, but impatient, a rebel against heaven who cries against God, who calls God to account, who would bring God into court, who says, "You are unjust," and who maintains his integrity and his innocence throughout. I've selected some readings from Stephen Mitchell so that you get the flavor of these dialogues. It is impossible within the compass of a brief service like this to do justice to this book. But at least perhaps you will get the idea of what is going on in this drama. The dialogue is in three cycles. In the first cycle in the 8th chapter, Job’s second friend Bildad says, "…punishment means that wickedness has been done." Now that's the traditional way to understand suffering. That's orthodox religion. If © Grand Valley State University   �Suffering: Is It Punishment? Richard A. Rhem Page 2   there is suffering it is because there has been sin. Suffering just doesn't happen "willy-nilly." It's punishment for what has been done wrong. Bildad says, How long will you go on ranting, filling our ears with trash? Does God make straightness crooked? Or turn truth upside down? Your children must have been evil. He punished them for their crimes. But if you are pure and righteous and pray to God for mercy, surely he will answer your prayers and will fill your greatest desires. Your past will seem like a trifle. So blessed will your future be. You have to think of those words of wisdom as being addressed to a man in intense suffering - on the garbage heap. That's why Job's friends have come to be called "miserable comforters." Then in the 21st chapter Job retorts, Your doctrines can't be right. If your doctrine were right the innocent would be blessed and the wicked would suffer. But as a matter of fact, when I look out on human society, it doesn't work that way. The wicked sometimes prosper." Here's the point of Job's speech: Why do the wicked prosper and live to a ripe old age? Their children stand beside them. Their grandchildren sit on their laps. Their houses are safe from dangers, secure from the wrath of God. Not one of their bulls is impotent. Not one of their cows miscarries. Their grandchildren run out to play, skipping about like lambs. Singing to drum and lyre. Dancing to the sound of the flute. They end their lives in prosperity and go to the grave in peace. Yet they tell God, 'Leave us alone. We can't be bothered about you. Why should we pray to God? What good will it do to serve you?' Is the lamp of the sinner snuffed out? Does misfortune knock at his door? Is he really driven like chafe, blown like straw in the wind? Is calamity saved for his children? Let him have his punishment now. Let his own eyes see disaster. Let him choke on the wrath of God. For what does he care about others when his own life comes to an end? One man dies serenely wrapped in safety and comfort, his thighs bulging with fat, the marrow moist in his bones. Another dies in despair, his life bitter on his tongue. Both men rot in the ground and maggots chew on them both. So says Job. Job's righteous and orthodox friends can hardly let him get away with that. And so Eliphaz, the Temanite, said, What use can man be to God? Even the wisest of men? Does God profit from your goodness or gain by your perfect conduct? Would he sentence you for your piety? Or punish you for your faith? Your guilt must be great indeed. Your crimes must be inconceivable. © Grand Valley State University �Suffering: Is It Punishment? Richard A. Rhem Page 3   Job responds in an eloquent passage. If only, he cries, he could bring his case before God: Still my condition is desperate. His fist still beats on my skull. If only I knew where to meet Him, or could find my way to his court. I would argue my case before Him. Words would flow from my mouth. I would counter all his arguments and disprove his accusations. Would he try to overpower me? Or refuse to hear my defense? Surely he would listen to reason. I would surely win my case. For he knows that I am innocent. If he sifts me I will shine like gold. My feet have walked on his way and never strayed from his path. I have kept all of his commandments treasuring his words in my heart. And then the dialogues are over and we come to the epilogue. Here it is obvious that the purpose of this whole drama was to demonstrate that Job was right; that there isn't a connection between sin, punishment, and suffering. To bear that out I read simply this paragraph from the 42nd chapter: After he had spoken to Job, the Lord said to Eliphaz, the Temanite: 'I am very angry at you and your two friends because you have not spoken the truth about me as my servant Job has. So take seven bowls and seven rams and go to my servant Job and offer a sacrifice for yourselves. My servant Job will pray for you and for his sake I will overlook your sin. For you have not spoken the truth about me as my servant Job has.' So Eliphaz, the Temanite, Bildad the Shuhite, and Zophar, the Naamathite went and did what God had commanded. And the Lord accepted Job's prayer. Our focus in these Lenten evenings is the mystery of human suffering. As we said last week there is some suffering that obviously is the result of our carelessness or the irresponsibility of some other, but there is a mystery of darkness and human suffering which has no explanation, and it has been a stumbling block for so many in terms of faith in God. That is the suffering of the innocent. Those who have a fundamental integrity of life, but yet it seems that life continues to dump on them. The greatest minds over the centuries have struggled with this problem and we know that there has never been a satisfactory, rational explanation. Surely we are not going to find one either. But my purpose in these Lenten evenings is a kind of preventive therapy so that if we are in the darkness we might find help. And if we are not in it, pray God, then preventive therapy so that, if we enter into it we might in the darkness find God to be our friend and not our enemy. I have been a pastor long enough to know that it is precisely in the darkness when one comes into intense suffering that one tends to accuse one’s self and condemn one’s self, to be filled with self-doubt. We are vulnerable to that kind of thing because none of us do it right all the time, and no one is as hard on us as we are on ourselves. There is seemingly something © Grand Valley State University �Suffering: Is It Punishment? Richard A. Rhem Page 4   endemic in human nature and broadcast in human society that seems to connect suffering with a punishment for sin. The stories of Job and Jesus I think will indicate that that is not a legitimate connection. Job cried out, "Unjust. Unfair!" in the midst of his pain. Jesus in darkness said, "My God, my God, why?" Thank God for those who in the darkness have uttered these expressions, which give us permission as well when we have no other word to say. Job's curses and blasphemies were the expressions of such intense pain that he could not hold it back. And so with us, there are those times when there seems to be absolutely no light, and no hope, and no future, and no reason, no rationale, just pain. At such times, as well, we may take the words of Job or Jesus to our lips and know that we are at least not isolated, but have company with those who have gone before us. To find God as our friend in suffering is so critically important, rather than to see God as the adversary. "Why is God doing this to me?" I am trying to approach the subject in this season by raising the honest questions that haunt us. Last week, "Suffering: Is There A Reason For It?" I said, "No." The kind of suffering we are taking about - that intense darkness – is such that there is no reason. The clichés trip off our tongues in reference to ourselves and sometimes painfully in reference to another when we say, "God has a reason for it." Don't ever say it! Don't ever say it! The Book of Job took on the whole orthodox understanding of things, the whole Old Testament tradition and said, "No. No. God doesn't have a reason for it." If God has a reason for it, it's not anything that you or I are ever going to be able to figure out. Tonight, just shifting the focus a little bit: "Is It Punishment?" All that I have already said would indicate that I give another firm "No." It is not punishment. God does not punish us like a parent who punishes a naughty child. I make the statement boldly. I hope it runs square in the face of everything you've ever believed in order to shake you up a little bit, and allow you to hear me. Allow me to say something to you tonight that may get you off from that if you would tend to fall into that so-typical human pattern. "Suffering: Is It Punishment?" "No." The three friends of Job said, "Yes." They sat with Job for seven days and didn't say a word. That's the best thing they did. But when Job said, "I am innocent. Why is this happening? God, you are unjust," they rushed to God's defense. They could sit in silence and identify with his darkness and his pain until he opened his mouth. But when he challenged the system of ideas, the doctrine, the insight that was traditional, that was orthodox. (Orthodox means the received opinion, the true, correct doctrine.) When Job in his pain blasphemed God and challenged that one-on-one relationship, that causal connection between sin and suffering, they had to rush to God's defense. Do you ever rush to God's defense? I used to rush to God's defense, when I was young, when I was growing up, when I was studying theology, when I was uptight and upright. When I was young I would rush to God's defense. I can remember a © Grand Valley State University �Suffering: Is It Punishment? Richard A. Rhem Page 5   time in my own life’s spiritual maturation when I realized that I didn't have to defend God, that God could take care of God's self quite well. But I used to do it. If you would make a statement that was contrary to correct doctrine, I would fault you. I would argue with you. I would defend the received tradition. If there was some piece of human experience that didn't fit into the biblical mold, I would deny the experience rather than check the mold. I was a defender of God. I remember it so clearly. I know now in retrospect (Thank God you didn't suggest it at the time, had you known me.) it was not that God needed to be defended, but that I needed to defend my little structure of things. I was defensive. I thought I was defending the honor of God. I thought I was defending the Word of God. Like Job's friends, that made them totally unable to enter into his pain. They couldn't even hear him. They couldn't allow his pain to penetrate into their depths, because his pain and his cries and his near blasphemy was so threatening to what they believed in their little box that they had to turn their back on the sufferer in order to preserve their structure. I said Sunday at the conclusion something that several of you have spoken about since then. One of you here even wrote me a beautiful card about it. The fact that we ought never to let our doctrine or our moral principles stand in the way of leading with our heart, of letting compassion flow through us. It’s not a bad insight actually. It was worth the price of the service - the entrance fee. The more I think about it, that's what happened to religion. Religion starts as an experience. It becomes solidified in a doctrine, and it becomes codified in a moral code. Then we lose the experience. We become disciples at second or third hand. We experience over here; now it’s a creed and a code. And the creed and the code shape us and make us prisoners, so that we can no longer identify with the experience. Job's friends had their doctrine right. God is not capricious. God is not unjust. If you are good, things will go well for you. If you are wicked, you will suffer. Job, you are suffering: Job, you are wicked. Job said, "No." They said, "Yes." As those three cycles took off they became more strident because when you are threatening a person’s doctrinal box or moral code, you are dealing very near the core of that person. We get very nervous when somebody is jangling our religious cage. They were defenders of God. I used to defend God, too. It was one of the great liberating moments of my life, it was like a burden rolled off my back when I woke up to the realization one day that God could take care of God's self. So, Job will not be silenced. They cannot confute him. He says to them, "I am innocent." He goes to the extreme at the tail end of his dialogue to take an oath, to call down terrible curses upon himself if he is not being true. And then also, in the one passage that I read, he says, "Your doctrine simply does not hold true in what you observe in human experience." Now he may overstate the prosperity of the wicked a little bit. Even the wicked don't get off as good as he described, but the Psalmist in Psalm 73 said the same thing. "Surely God is good to Israel, but as for me my feet had almost slipped when I observed the prosperity of the wicked." Some people seem careless, carefree. "Life is just a bowl of cherries," and they don't seem to have a care about God or anybody else. And they get by just fine, © Grand Valley State University �Suffering: Is It Punishment? Richard A. Rhem Page 6   thank you. It’s true. If we are honest there is no relationship between one’s outward circumstances and one’s piety or morality. Some bad people get it in the neck. And some good people get it in the neck. Job said, "Just look around you. If you could get your focus off your doctrine and moral code, and your concern to preserve all your little structures - if you would just open your eyes." That's what an orthodox person cannot do: cannot open his or her eyes. It’s too threatening. The system will be shattered by the unevenness of human experience. Well, the Book of Job was written in order to take on that whole traditional connection between sin and punishment and suffering. After the speeches are all over, there is this overpowering vision of God. Job has been saying, "God, you are unjust." And the vision shows Job how powerful God is. Job's issue is never addressed. There is simply this revelation. It is as though the God of the cosmos is saying, "Do you know anything at all about who I am and what I am about? Do you think I am tinkering around with those little petty things that concern you? Well, my goodness, I've got this whole cosmos in my hands. Where were you when creation first dawned? Where were you when I bound the creatures with chaos? And on and on. It’s marvelous poetry. It doesn't even address Job's question. Job never questioned the omnipotence of God. He was questioning the justice and mercy of God. God doesn't even address, doesn't even acknowledge his question because God is God after all. Job saw the revelation. You see, God did take Job seriously. God did get pushed into showing God's self and the experience of that revelation was so overpowering that Job said, "I repent in dust and ashes." But note this, he never said, "I repent and acknowledge that I indeed am lacking in innocence and integrity." No, no. He repented and recanted only to this extent: He said, "Well, you're right. How could I know the greatness and the grandeur that is God?" In the epilogue there is the vindication of Job. Not an answer. But God says to those "miserable comforters" with their orthodox doctrine and their legalistic morals, "You didn't speak truly of me as did my servant Job." Job spoke truly. Job spoke honestly. "You are all caught up in your little structures. You have pat answers. Clichés trip off your tongues. And you spoke falsely. My servant Job spoke truly. Take some oxen and some rams and go make a sacrifice and ask Job to pray for you." The point of the book is thus powerfully made that that old traditional connection that suffering is the punishment for sin is not true. Why is there suffering? It is not answered. But God is, and God unveiled God's self and vindicated the truthfulness of his servant Job. "The Mystery of Human Suffering: Is It Punishment?" No. And, therefore, we may never look at another and judge another and claim that their suffering is the punishment of God. One more thing we may never do. You'll do it. You'll do it in spite of this eloquent plea. You'll do it because it is second nature to do it. In all these three decades of pastoral ministry how many times haven't you said it to me? But, you may not say it! "Say what?" Say this: "Why is God doing this to © Grand Valley State University �Suffering: Is It Punishment? Richard A. Rhem Page 7   me?" Don't say it. God is not doing it to you. God is not your adversary. God is not your enemy in the darkness. God would be your friend. As we move from Job to Jesus we will see that trusting in the darkness is finally the last word. Reference: Stephen Mitchell. The Book of Job. New York: HarperCollins Publishers, Inc., Revised edition, 1987. © Grand Valley State University � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Richard A. Rhem Collection Description An account of the resource Text and sound recordings of the sermons, prayers, services, and articles of Richard Rhem, pastor emeritus of Christ Community Church in Spring Lake, Michigan, where he served for 37 years. Starting in the mid 1980's, Rhem began to question some of the traditional Christian dogma that he had been espousing from the pulpit. That questioning was a first step in a long and interesting spiritual journey, one that he openly shared with his congregation. His journey is important, in part because it is reflective of the questioning, the yearnings, and the gradual revision of beliefs that many persons in this part of the century have experienced and continue to experience. It is important also because of the affirming and inclusive way his questioning was done and his thinking evolved. His sermons and other written and spoken materials together document the steps in his journey as it took a turn in 1985, yet continued to revolve around the framework and liturgies of the Christian calendar. Subject The topic of the resource Clergy--Michigan Reformed Church in America Christ Community Church (Spring Lake, Mich.) Religion Interfaith worship Sermons Sound Recordings Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Rhem, Richard A. Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/514">Richard A. Rhem papers (KII-01)</a> Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives. Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Kaufman Interfaith Institute Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Language A language of the resource English Type The nature or genre of the resource Sound Text Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context KII-01 Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant 1981-2014 Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource audio/mp3 text/pdf Sound A resource primarily intended to be heard. Examples include a music playback file format, an audio compact disc, and recorded speech or sounds. Event Midweek Lent Series Job and Jesus: The Mystery of Human Suffering Scripture Text Job 8:1-6, 21:7-26, 22:1-5, 23:1-10, 42,7-9 Location The location of the interview Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI References Stephen Mitchell, The Book of Job, 1987 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-0-19930310 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1993-03-10 Title A name given to the resource Suffering: Is It Punishment? Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Richard A. Rhem Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Subject The topic of the resource Clergy--Michigan Reformed Church in America Christ Community Church (Spring Lake, Mich.) Sermons Relation A related resource Richard A. Rhem - An Archive of Sermons, Prayers, Talks and Stories: http://richardrhem.org/ Language A language of the resource eng Type The nature or genre of the resource Sound Text Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource audio/mp3 application/pdf Description An account of the resource A sermon given by Richard A. Rhem (Dick) on March 10, 1993 entitled "Suffering: Is It Punishment?", as part of the series "Job and Jesus: The Mystery of Human Suffering", on the occasion of Midweek Lent, at Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI. Scripture references: Job 8:1-6, 21:7-26, 22:1-5, 23:1-10, 42,7-9. Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Lemmen Library and Archives Nature of God Orthodox Belief Sin Suffering https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/ae562377967707e6b4d9b0bfcef548d9.pdf 6e011328b4f64cbbbd186b77ac5dc186 PDF Text Text Suffering: Is One Abandoned? From the Midweek Lenten series: Job and Jesus: The Mystery of Human Suffering Job 23:3; Mark 15:34 Richard A. Rhem Christ Community Church Spring Lake, Michigan March 24, 1993 Transcription of the spoken sermon As we have moved through this Lenten journey, we come to the very heart of it this evening. Actually in these meditations I am reversing the events of the narrative itself. We go to Calvary this evening, and then back again to Gethsemane next week. I do that because I want to treat as honestly as I can the sense of abandonment that Jesus experienced. But I don’t want to leave the study there. I want rather to leave it with a final word of trust. So I am going to move to Calvary and back to Gethsemane, contrary to the record itself. The whole question of God and suffering which has been our focus defies rational explanation. Human suffering puts a limit to human reasoning. Inevitably, down through the centuries people have tried to reconcile the almightiness of God and the anguish of human suffering, and there have been all kinds of schemes proposed. The technical term is theodicy: the justification of God in light of the reality of human suffering. There have been some grand schemes proposed, but finally there simply is no rational explanation that can remove the sense of darkness and despair, which is so very real a part of our human experience. Someone has said that all of the attempts at rational explanation and understanding are like a lecture on nutrition to a starving person. For when one is in the anguish and in the darkness, there is no satisfactory explanation. There is only the darkness and that fragile connectedness that is the consequence of the experience of the absence of the presence. That’s a rather complicated thought, isn’t it? The sense of the absence of presence points to that other one that one has known, whose presence one has known. Only as one has known that presence does one become conscious of the absence. So, ironically, it is the sense of the absence that points to the presence and becomes that tenuous link between the darkness and the Living Lord. In Job and in Jesus we see the depth of human suffering. We see it in their cry of abandonment. What an eloquent word in that Old Testament story. Can’t you feel the pathos of Job’s cry, “Oh that I knew where I might find him. I go forward and © Grand Valley State University   �Suffering: Is One Abandoned? Richard A. Rhem Page 2   he is not there. I go backward and I cannot reach him. I go to the right hand and I cannot behold him, and to the left hand and he is not there. Oh that I knew where I might find him.” And Jesus. The words from Mark’s Gospel, the cry from the cross, borrowed from Psalm 22, “My God, my God, why hast Thou forsaken me?” In the case of Job the purpose of that Old Testament book was to break the link between sin and suffering, that traditional conception of things that if one is suffering one must have sinned because God rewards the righteous and punishes the wicked. So the “miserable comforters” who come to be with Job, being prisoners of that scheme of things, cannot fully enter into Job’s suffering because their scheme disallows their total identity with him. They cannot hear him. His anguish is that he is suffering and he cannot figure it out because he has lived with integrity. So he knows in his present human experience that the scheme of things that is traditionally accepted, the conventional wisdom, simply doesn’t hold. That’s part of the anguish, when our human experience doesn’t fit the mold. Some of us know what that is to get in circumstances that simply don’t fit. They don’t fit the conception of things that we had always taken for granted, that we had always assumed, that had been taught us from our childhood up. In Job’s case he suffers alone, because there is no one who will grant him that, just perhaps, there is a mystery of human suffering that shatters the conventional wisdom and the commonly accepted scheme of things. The Old Testament book is an eloquent denial of that conventional wisdom that God, the rewarder of the righteous and the punisher of the wicked, makes everything finally come out right. And that, if one is suffering, one has sinned. A denial of the conventional wisdom that suffering is the punishment for wrongdoing. No causal relationship. No necessary proportion between those two, says the Book of Job. We have in the book itself, finally, this overpowering revelation, which doesn’t answer the existential question of why, but is a revelation of God, so that Job out of his darkness and anguish is encountered by God. Then, picking up that old tale which is at the beginning and the end of the dialogues, we have the restoration of Job in this life. So for Job there is the awful anguish and the revelation, and the restoration. But it is not so for Jesus. For Jesus we have the cry of abandonment, the darkness and death. The cry of abandonment of Jesus reaches to a brassy heaven that makes no move in reply. There is no scattering of the darkness. There is no alleviation of the pain. Jesus hangs abandoned to the public gaze. Job’s problem was difficult enough: the suffering of the innocent. One living with integrity, yet crushed. But it didn’t begin to address the anguish of Jesus. For with Jesus the absence of God at the moment of his terrible need begged the question of the whole project of his life. This is the one who had proclaimed the nearness of God, the presence of God, the grace of God. This was the one who had announced the presence of the Kingdom of God in the midst of the people. Consequently, it was not simply that he was suffering. It was the fact that everything he had staked his life on hung in the © Grand Valley State University �Suffering: Is One Abandoned? Richard A. Rhem Page 3   balance. That was the depth of the anguish of Jesus. Who can begin to imagine, to conceive of the physical agony of Jesus? But I suspect he hardly was conscious of the physical suffering in light of the mental and spiritual anguish that he was undergoing. I asked you on Sunday morning whether in your understanding of Jesus there is any room for self-doubt. I believe that that must have been the great temptation of Jesus. The temptation to lose faith. To stop trusting in the midst of that darkness when his whole life’s project was on the line and the heavens were silent. Might he have been wrong? He had set himself against the whole institutionalization of religion, that whole structure – the temple and the priests, and the sacrifices – not denying the efficacy, not denying the fact that they were a part of this covenant people of God and not denying that they had been and still could be the mediators of the grace of God, and the presence of God, but relativizing all of that and announcing the presence of God for all. The inclusive concern of God. God of the abandoned. God of the outcast. God of the godless. All of that was at stake as Jesus hung there, for it was Roman power and Jewish religion collaborating to put the lie to everything for which he had lived, and for all the claims that he had made; therefore, far beyond anything that Job suffered, Jesus saw everything go up in smoke. There are different opinions as to the citation of Psalm 22. Mark, giving us that opening cry, “My God, my God, why hast Thou forsaken me?” was reflecting his understanding, I think, of what was happening. But there are those who say that cry, which Mark gives us from Psalm 22, goes through the utter depths of human suffering, but comes through finally at the end of the Psalm to offer praise to God and express confidence in God. There are those who say that word from the cross was simply the beginning of the citation, the quotation of the Psalm. God’s children have long recited the word of God in times of extremity as the source of comfort and strength. There are those who say this is what Jesus was about. And it may be so. Mark is considered to be the earliest Gospel, and it is interesting that, especially Luke and John, later Gospels, coming perhaps with the Christian interpretation of Jesus’ death, soften. They don’t have the word of forsakenness. They have in Luke’s case the word of trust: “Into Thy hands I commend my spirit,” a citation from another Psalm. Or in John’s case, “It is finished,” a declaration of accomplishment. I wonder if maybe even those Gospel writers were uncomfortable leaving the raw suffering and darkness, and cry of dereliction as the last word? In any case, that’s what we have in Mark. So in the cry of abandonment, in the case of Jesus according to Mark, there is suffering, and there is darkness, and there is death. In the case of Job, after the point has been made, there is revelation and restoration. In the case of Jesus, there is abandonment, darkness and death. I think sometimes we attempt to defend God and a rightness of things so that we are uncomfortable just leaving it with the darkness. But to the person who is in the darkness, it is not always a kindness to try to lighten the darkness. © Grand Valley State University �Suffering: Is One Abandoned? Richard A. Rhem Page 4   William Styron, the novelist of Sophie’s Choice, has Stengle making his sad journey from Washington to New York on the train to bury his two close friends who had committed suicide and, in his utter despair, a black woman who is a fellow traveler, offers him Psalm 88, the one Psalm that we began with at the beginning of this series and in which there is no alleviation of the darkness. Again, paradoxically, Psalm 88, which is unrelenting darkness, becomes a source of comfort to one who has no eyes but for the darkness in the present circumstance. The cross gives us a true, an honest, and an awful insight into our human existence, which is historical existence, which means that we move one step at a time, and one day at a time. Therefore, we walk by faith and not by sight, and at the cross we see that sometimes there is a sense of abandonment with no alleviation, no relief, and no final resolution. That’s a hard word, but it’s honest, and it is true to human experience. Henry Nouwen says that we resist being with people in their pain. We do, don’t we? We would love to fix it. We resist simply being there with care. We would go there with a cure. It is an act of tremendous grace to go there with care and identify with the darkness and not try to explain it away. I think we pastors are probably the most vulnerable to that temptation to try to make it better. But the cross and the cry of dereliction is testimony to the fact that within the parameters of our life, our human experience sometimes is an experience of abandonment, darkness and death. But that dismal word is not my last word, thank God. I mentioned to begin with that it is that sense of absence that points to the presence. Even that cry of dereliction was a cry to God: “My God, my God.” The link. The fragile link between the darkness and the living Lord is the cry. And, for us, we cannot talk about the cross without at least pointing ahead two weeks hence to Easter. If it is the cross, and only the cross, then there is only bad news. For there was no alleviation of the sense of abandonment for Jesus. But the one to whom he cried, we believe, had not abandoned him, but was present with him and not unaffected by him. That’s bald-faced trust. That is an affirmation of faith that comes from Easter faith, but in no way does that take away from the darkness. Yet our darkness can never compare with his darkness. For if we have lingered with him in his darkness, then we have learned with him to cry, even to sing, “Sometimes I feel like a motherless child.” But if we have been with him in the darkness, we also will know now and again what it is to steal away to Jesus. © Grand Valley State University � https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/c850af7f5f30fe23af99ebac22c4e672.mp3 d192f0e560ba8971192f153b25b5286a 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 Lent Series Job and Jesus: The Mystery of Human Suffering, Midweek Lent Scripture Text Job 23:3, Mark 15:34 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-0-19930324 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1993-03-24 Title A name given to the resource Suffering: Is One Abandoned? Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Richard A. Rhem Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Subject The topic of the resource Clergy--Michigan Reformed Church in America Christ Community Church (Spring Lake, Mich.) Sermons Relation A related resource Richard A. Rhem - An Archive of Sermons, Prayers, Talks and Stories: http://richardrhem.org/ Language A language of the resource eng Type The nature or genre of the resource Sound Text Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource audio/mp3 application/pdf Description An account of the resource A sermon given by Richard A. Rhem (Dick) on March 24, 1993 entitled "Suffering: Is One Abandoned?", as part of the series "Job and Jesus: The Mystery of Human Suffering, Midweek Lent", on the occasion of Midweek Lent, at Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI. Scripture references: Job 23:3, Mark 15:34. Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Lemmen Library and Archives Job Nature of God Suffering Theodicy https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/5d3e8fd4ed033198996c59b29c040426.mp3 f23069e6345ae35b8fc92af8f3aef661 https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/cbedc1f888842495f4ccbed603fd1efa.pdf 480842e0e3724422876e0b9d99c3087f PDF Text Text Suffering: Is There a Reason for It? From the Midweek Lenten series: Job and Jesus: The Mystery of Human Suffering Job 3:1-26; Psalm 88:1-18 Richard A. Rhem Christ Community Church Spring Lake, Michigan March 3, 1993 Transcription of the spoken sermon This evening we will begin a study of Job in a series of messages under the theme Job and Jesus: The Mystery of Human Suffering. For these Lenten meditations I want to raise certain questions, the questions that I think arise rather naturally in our minds when we enter into the darkness. I want us to deal with human suffering, recognizing that there is some suffering that comes upon us because of our own wrong choices. Someone said to me on my return, “Did you read the newspapers while you were gone?” And I said, “Yes.” “Did you read about bald men that they are more prone to cancer?” I said, “Yes.” And then I said to him, “I eat too much. I drink too much. I smoke too much. The least of my worries is my bald head.” There is that which comes upon us, which we bring upon ourselves. And in those cases perhaps we can find some connection between what we are experiencing and what had been our patterns earlier. Of course, sometimes we suffer because of the wrong choices of others. But that’s not the real human darkness that I want to speak of in these weeks. The real human darkness, the mystery of suffering, is that which comes upon us for which there seems to be simply no explanation, and which affords us not a modicum of human understanding. It is simply the mystery of suffering. I want to say in this series of messages that that is a reality that is a part of our human experience. I want to deal with it, not out of some morbid desire to probe in the darkness, but rather in order that we might, if we are in the darkness, find a way to cope and survive. And if, pray God, at the moment we are not personally in the darkness, we know not what tomorrow brings. There are few of us who go through life unscathed, that do not come into those deep, dark valleys where the shadow of death is cast over us. So I hope that it might be a sense of preventative therapy simply to acknowledge the fact together that a very real part of our human experience involves the mystery of human suffering. And to do that, I want to focus on the stories of Job and Jesus. We will begin with Job. We will move toward Jesus. And perhaps they will interface at some point. But in both cases we have stories of persons who experienced the intensity of the darkness, © Grand Valley State University   �Suffering: Is There a Reason For It? Richard A. Rhem Page 2   and didn’t simply passively capitulate, but rather were so bold as to question God. Jesus said, “My God, my God, why hast Thou forsaken me?” And Job railed against heaven, maintaining his innocence and claiming God to be unjust. Yet in both cases there was a movement, a movement from the sense of utter desolation to a kind of waiting on God in the darkness. For the one on the cross who said, “My God, my God, why…?,” he breathed his last saying, “Father, into Thy hands I commend my Spirit.” And Job, in the experience of the revelation of God, didn’t simply, passively submit, but he did surrender himself to Almighty God. Both of them going through the experience found a place to rest and wait for the darkness to clear and for the light of God to break upon them. If I were to set concisely the goal that I have for these messages, it would be that we might be enabled when we enter into the darkness to find God as our friend and not as our enemy. It is ironic, but it is so characteristic of our human response to suffering that, at that point at which we more desperately than any other time need to sense the presence of a gracious God, we tend to see God rather as the adversary, and experience God as the enemy. That seems so characteristically human. I think it is particularly the response of good religious people. We who have been nurtured in the faith are most vulnerable to experiencing God as the enemy in the darkness. We are all vulnerable people, fragile. Who of us always does it right? Who of us has not made wrong choices? And who knows our weaknesses and the ambiguity of our being more than we do? Who knows the complications of our own persons more than we do ourselves? And who is harder on us than we are ourselves? I think it is precisely that that sets us up. We who are particularly religious people are somehow set up to experience God in the darkness as the accusing enemy rather than as our friend. What is operating here? What is operating when I move to the darkness and begin to accuse myself and feel the foundations shake underneath me and begin to condemn myself? What is operating? Is it not a movement from the good and gracious God modeled out in Jesus Christ to an understanding of God as the stern judge who rewards the righteous and punishes the wicked? If you scratch us, I dare say that even you at Christ Community, who for these twenty-two years have been brainwashed with grace – if you scratch, underneath is too often that fearful vision of God as the one who is the stern judge, the one who punishes the wicked and rewards the righteous. We can talk about faith until we are blue in the face, but when push comes to shove and when our life moves into the deep, dark shadow we become the accusers of ourselves. And we see God as joining us in that accusation against us rather than, as the whole Christian Gospel tells us, God being for us. So, I believe it is important for us to think a bit about human suffering in order to better understand who God is for us, there in that place, and to look at who God is for us in that place in the light of the stories of Job and Jesus. Perhaps in so doing we might find some place to rest, come what may - be it light or shadow. © Grand Valley State University �Suffering: Is There a Reason For It? Richard A. Rhem Page 3   The first thing I simply want to say is that human suffering is very real. We read about it in our newspapers. Sometimes we encounter those who suffer greatly. And sometimes it is our own personal experience. The Psalmist in Psalm 88 speaks of suffering. I said before I read, it’s the one Psalm in the whole Psalter in which there is not a ray of light. Psalm 22, that Jesus quoted on the cross, “My God, my God why hast Thou forsaken me?” is a Psalm of bitter complaint, of intense suffering poured out. But it ends in faith and in praise. Not so, Psalm 88. It is interesting that Psalm 88 made the cut when the canon was put together, when the hymnbook of Israel was collated, because it is just pure darkness. It’s not exactly the kind of Psalm you want to wake up in the morning and read for your devotions. But there are those times when no light breaks through and I am glad that that reality is recognized in the scriptures, that in the Old Testament faith there were those who, like Job, addressed God and could bring to speech the awful suffering of his soul, having found no resolution. There are days like that, and sometimes weeks and months like that. As far as Job is concerned, he curses the day of his birth. He wishes he would have been stillborn. He says, “Why? Why don’t you simply let me die and be at rest where I’ll no longer know this awful torment of soul, this terrible suffering?” Job’s friends to their credit had come to be with him. And even better than that, we are told that they sat with him and didn’t say a word for seven days. For seven days they were simply present to the other, which is so terribly important. But when Job began to make his claim they couldn’t keep silent any more. They were good religious sorts, and they felt it imperative upon them to rush to the defense of God. They operated on the basis of the traditional understanding that I mentioned a moment ago: God is the stern judge of all the earth, rewarding the righteous and punishing the wicked. Their syllogism went something like this: Suffering comes from God. God is just. Therefore, Job is guilty. Job’s syllogism was: Suffering comes from God. I am innocent. Therefore, God is unjust. His friends couldn’t just sit there and take that. They had to defend God. Of course , God couldn’t be unjust. The only option was that Job must be hiding some deep sin. Their orthodox faith, their little system, was such that they could not get out of their own minds and actually identify with Job in his suffering. The moment Job began to defend himself they rushed to the defense of God. And in the Book of Job, if you go home and you read it between now and next week, you will find there are three cycles of discourses. Job’s three friends go on and on, and on and on, defending the honor of God, and Job intersperses his counterclaims. It’s interesting that when Job began to say, “I am suffering and I know not the reason why,” his friends could not just hear it and be silent with him, but rather had to begin to explain why he must be suffering. There is a reality of human suffering. “Is there a reason for it?” The message of the Book of Job is, “No.” Now that was a challenge to the traditional understanding of things. That was a challenge to the orthodox understanding of © Grand Valley State University �Suffering: Is There a Reason For It? Richard A. Rhem Page 4   things. “Human Suffering: Is There a Reason For It?” The real mystery of it. In the face of that real, deep human suffering, the Book of Job says there is no reason for it. There is no connection between what I am experiencing and what my life has been. To connect as cause and effect, sin and suffering, is to fly flat in the face of the Book of Job. Thank God, Job is there, because as I said, there is something about us when we enter into the darkness – we get very hard on ourselves. We accuse ourselves. No one can accuse us better than ourselves, because no one knows those weak spots in our soul like we do. So, we begin to suffer not only that darkness that has come upon us, but then our own sense of unworthiness, our own guiltiness, and it exacerbates and it can become a syndrome that picks up momentum until we are absolutely crushed under it. The Book of Job says, “No, don’t do that. That’s not true.” The whole purpose of that book in the Old Testament canon is to speak a word of God against that inhumane tendency to connect sin and suffering. The darkness can be very real. There is something in us that so wants to have an explanation. Often there is none. The most brilliant philosophical discourses, the most profound theological reflections down through the centuries have not always been able to give a rational explanation or the reason for suffering. We have it not within ourselves to explain it. Therefore, the best counsel is to wait on the Lord in the darkness. I can’t go through the whole series for you tonight, but our problem with starting a series here is I would like to give you the resolution at the other end and I can’t do that. I simply have to say to you that we are not left hanging. There will be that resolution which is not a rational explanation, but is simply a trusting in the darkness. But I think that it is good for us simply to come to the recognition that there is some terrible suffering as a part of the human experience. And then to recognize that if it happens to us, we must wait. And if it happens to another, we must be compassionate. © Grand Valley State University � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Richard A. Rhem Collection Description An account of the resource Text and sound recordings of the sermons, prayers, services, and articles of Richard Rhem, pastor emeritus of Christ Community Church in Spring Lake, Michigan, where he served for 37 years. Starting in the mid 1980's, Rhem began to question some of the traditional Christian dogma that he had been espousing from the pulpit. That questioning was a first step in a long and interesting spiritual journey, one that he openly shared with his congregation. His journey is important, in part because it is reflective of the questioning, the yearnings, and the gradual revision of beliefs that many persons in this part of the century have experienced and continue to experience. It is important also because of the affirming and inclusive way his questioning was done and his thinking evolved. His sermons and other written and spoken materials together document the steps in his journey as it took a turn in 1985, yet continued to revolve around the framework and liturgies of the Christian calendar. Subject The topic of the resource Clergy--Michigan Reformed Church in America Christ Community Church (Spring Lake, Mich.) Religion Interfaith worship Sermons Sound Recordings Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Rhem, Richard A. Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/514">Richard A. Rhem papers (KII-01)</a> Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives. Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Kaufman Interfaith Institute Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Language A language of the resource English Type The nature or genre of the resource Sound Text Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context KII-01 Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant 1981-2014 Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource audio/mp3 text/pdf Sound A resource primarily intended to be heard. Examples include a music playback file format, an audio compact disc, and recorded speech or sounds. Event Midweek Lent Series Job and Jesus: The Mystery of Human Suffering Scripture Text Job 3:1-26, Psalm 88:1-18 Location The location of the interview Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context KII-01_RA-0-19930303 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1993-03-03 Title A name given to the resource Suffering: Is There A Reason For It? Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Richard A. Rhem Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Subject The topic of the resource Clergy--Michigan Reformed Church in America Christ Community Church (Spring Lake, Mich.) Sermons Relation A related resource Richard A. Rhem - An Archive of Sermons, Prayers, Talks and Stories: http://richardrhem.org/ Language A language of the resource eng Type The nature or genre of the resource Sound Text Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource audio/mp3 application/pdf Description An account of the resource A sermon given by Richard A. Rhem (Dick) on March 3, 1993 entitled "Suffering: Is There A Reason For It?", as part of the series "Job and Jesus: The Mystery of Human Suffering", on the occasion of Midweek Lent, at Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI. Scripture references: Job 3:1-26, Psalm 88:1-18. Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Lemmen Library and Archives https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/6f9975ba9c92e0775c3b29e6d446dd40.pdf ff9d3037cd116fd38732380825e315b0 PDF Text Text Suffering: Nevertheless… From the Midweek Lenten series: Job and Jesus: The Mystery of Human Suffering Text: Romans 8:18-39; Mark 14:32-42 Richard A. Rhem Christ Community Church Spring Lake, Michigan March 31, 1993 Transcription of the spoken sermon Jesus expressed the ultimate in human suffering with his cry of dereliction: “My God, my God, why hast Thou forsaken me?” We raised the question last week: Are We Abandoned? And suggested that it was in the sense of abandonment, in the consciousness of the absence of God, that we had a tenuous link to the presence of God. For one does not miss what one has not experienced. So, ironically, paradoxically, the very absence was a sign of the presence. That experience of abandonment and knowing the presence only in the absence was the deepest of human suffering and the nadir of Jesus’ anguish. The garden experience was the place where he waged the greatest conflict and won. It was not on the cross that he won the victory. It was in the garden. On the cross the die was set; the die was cast. There he experienced the abandonment and the awful suffering. But in the garden it was the struggle to be true. It was the last chance. His entry into the garden was not marked by a sign “No Exit.” It could still have been different. But it was with a poignant awareness of what lay before him that he struggled there. Lest we take away at all from that suffering, we must recognize that Jesus was not some stoic, setting his chin, gritting his teeth, simply going through with it. He was not a fatalist, throwing up his hands, saying, “Whatever will be, will be.” It was in the garden that he said, “Please release me.” He did not want to go through with what he was going to go through. In fact the language that the evangelist uses could not be any stronger. One New Testament commentator says that when Mark records words like, “My soul is crushed within me,” it could be translated, “I wish I were dead.” So this was no heroic figure. No calm philosophical Socrates draining the cup of poison. This was a trembling human being. This was a human being who knew fear and trembling, and who faced down the darkness, fully cognizant of all of the implications, pleading for release, yet coming finally to say, “Nevertheless. Nevertheless. Not my will but Thy will be done.” The irony of that is that in so winning through, in bowing in such obedience, Jesus found the truest human freedom. Had he buckled at that moment, he would have denied his truth. He © Grand Valley State University   �Suffering: Nevertheless… Richard A. Rhem Page 2   would have denied himself. He would have become a slave in bondage to fear, to prejudice, to all of that which was set against him and the truth that he proclaimed. He would have denied his deepest sense of who God was and what God had called him to be, and to do, and to say. He would have lost his freedom and been robbed of his strength if he had saved his life, and so his “Nevertheless,” was really his breakthrough to victory. It was the saving of his soul. It was the holding on to his life. And the very giving of his life. “Nevertheless, Thy will be done.” In the home in which I grew up, and in the church in which I grew up, and the piety which was a part of the shaping of my life - family prayers, long prayers. (There used to be long prayers in church. That was a pretty good example of our liturgical sense at Third Reformed, Kalamazoo. I had no idea what these various prayers were, but I knew they were long prayers.) There are certain clichés and certain little phrases. I remember as a young person a certain church I attended that was not my own had a pastor I liked to hear quite a bit, but in his pastoral prayers I knew that he was about 1-1/2 minutes from landing when he would call upon God to cast the “lariat of his love around us.” One of the phrases that tripped off the tongue almost without thinking, well, indeed without thinking was “Thy will be done. Thy will be done.” Oh, those are words that sometimes I hardly dare pray, now that I have become somewhat conscious of what those words really mean. It is quite rare with me when I can honestly say, “Thy will be done,” when it runs counter to my will and what I would have done. I am not very good at that point of ultimate submission. I am a rebel. A strong rebel, affirmed of my way. Jesus in full light of the darkness said, “Nevertheless, Thy will be done,” and ironically won his freedom in bowing to the will of God. That’s not how we see the will of God very often. Usually the human will and the divine will are in competition. They are over against each other. It’s God’s will at the expense of my will. Or if it is my will, it’s at the expense of God’s will. It’s like there’s 100% will out there and whatever percentage I give to God is deducted from my share. So there’s conflict. We never really believe that it is finally in finding the will of God that we find true freedom and the empowerment of our own will to be all that we can be. So Jesus was able to say, “Nevertheless, Thy will . . .” And in the wake of Jesus, those who follow him have also found a great “Nevertheless.” It has been expressed nowhere more powerfully and beautifully than by St. Paul in the 8th chapter of Romans. That chapter is so replete with riches that one paragraph is enough to give a congregation indigestion in one message. Sometimes I treat it as a paragraph at a time and I forget the string, but beginning with the 18th verse, he talks about suffering. He talks about the fact that the whole creation seems to be caught up in these convulsions. It is almost as though there is a cosmic convulsion, a suffering, a bondage, and a darkness. The Apostle says that we are all in the whole creation - one translation has it “the whole creation is on tiptoe” - © Grand Valley State University �Suffering: Nevertheless… Richard A. Rhem Page 3   for that day when we will be delivered and freed from this bondage which has its share of suffering and darkness. Then he goes on to give us that marvelous assurance that “in all these things”– that is, in all this crap, that he has been talking about that we have to wade through –“in all these things God works for the good of those who love him.” I was not welcome last Saturday to this church. It was Woman’s Day, but I got to listen to the tape. My friend, Carmelita Murphy spoke powerfully, as I knew she would. She spoke about the darkness and about being willing to stay for a time in the darkness. That sometimes the darkness becomes the womb of newness, and that in the disarray and the dis-ease, in the brokenness and in the pain lies the seed of the new which is striving to be born, because the Spirit of God also is active in the darkness. Someone in the discussion raised a question; it is a question that I hear often. It is a question often raised by people who are concerned with the present state of things, whether it be the world, the nation, the church, the community, or the family. The question was raised: “But how do we know how to go on when all the norms of the past…there’s just a breakdown all over?” Carmelita was equal to that question. She said, “Someone has said that breakdown leads to breakthrough.” If we could only believe it. If we could only hang on long enough in the darkness. Oh, don’t get me wrong. I hate the darkness. We all resist the darkness. If we don’t resist the darkness there is truly something dysfunctional about us. To be followers of The Way, we do not need to be masochistic and go out of our way to find suffering, but we don’t really have to because there’s plenty to go around. If only I could remember in the darkness that it is so often the prelude to the dawn and that the brokenness is that which invites the newness that sometimes can only come when we have had forcibly ripped out of our tight fists that which is all settled and safe. The Apostle concludes with what must be among the most marvelous words ever written. “What are we to say to all these things? If God be for us, who can be against us? What shall separate us from the love of Christ? Famine or nakedness or peril or sword,” cancer, betrayal . . . you name your hurts. “What can separate us from the love of Christ?” All these things? No. None of these things. “For we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us.” For the Apostle Paul said his “Nevertheless,” in the wake of Jesus’ “Nevertheless.” His “Nevertheless,” wasn’t exactly Jesus’. Jesus’ was “Nevertheless, Thy will be done.” But following Jesus, Paul could say in the face of the deepest darkness that life could hand out, “Nevertheless in all these things we are more than conquerors. For I am persuaded that neither life nor death, nor angels nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things in the future, the world as it is or the world as it shall be, nothing in all creation shall be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.” © Grand Valley State University �Suffering: Nevertheless… Richard A. Rhem Page 4   So we will kneel tonight and we’ll take cup, and we will be in touch with Jesus. As you taste and digest, let this word of promise seep into the pores of your being as well. With the touch and taste of bread and wine, let the word “Nevertheless,” become the word that you take into Holy Week, knowing that you will never be abandoned. You will never finally be left alone in the darkness, for you are loved with an everlasting love, and with cords of love God has bound you to God’s self. God will never let you go. Let the bread and the cup, the body and the blood be the sign of God’s never ending love for you tonight. © Grand Valley State University � https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/6d71afec9b91c5b3edf394f1c78b5f6c.mp3 7cd8269dabe5d35ca3bffc4b833a0e6f 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 Lent Series Job and Jesus: The Mystery of Human Suffering, Midweek Lent Scripture Text Romans 8:18-39, Mark 14:32-42 Location The location of the interview Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context KII-01_RA-0-19930331 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1993-03-31 Title A name given to the resource Suffering: Nevertheless... Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Richard A. Rhem Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Subject The topic of the resource Clergy--Michigan Reformed Church in America Christ Community Church (Spring Lake, Mich.) Sermons Relation A related resource Richard A. Rhem - An Archive of Sermons, Prayers, Talks and Stories: http://richardrhem.org/ Language A language of the resource eng Type The nature or genre of the resource Sound Text Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource audio/mp3 application/pdf Description An account of the resource A sermon given by Richard A. Rhem (Dick) on March 31, 1993 entitled "Suffering: Nevertheless...", as part of the series "Job and Jesus: The Mystery of Human Suffering, Midweek Lent", on the occasion of Midweek Lent, at Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI. Scripture references: Romans 8:18-39, Mark 14:32-42. Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Lemmen Library and Archives Suffering Unconditional Love of God Way of Jesus https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/bd91d3605061e8e5442a6c71637018c5.pdf b16077893f69d3097bc22cf752c8427e PDF Text Text Suffering: The Need For Another From the series: Job and Jesus: The Mystery of Human Suffering Luke 22:14-24 Richard A. Rhem Christ Community Church Spring Lake, Michigan Maundy Thursday, April 8, 1993 Transcription of the spoken sermon We can bear just about anything if we are not alone. We can go through just about any valley if there’s someone to walk with us. Unless, of course, we are accompanied by friends like Job had in his deep valley. We call them “miserable comforters” because, although they started out well, by sitting silently for seven days and simply being present to Job, they could not keep silence once Job began to reveal the intensity and the depths and the darkness of the anguish that he was experiencing. The real test of a friend is whether or not they can just absorb all of that pain and darkness that sometimes erupts out of the human heart when it is in the intensity of the dark night of the soul. Job’s friends couldn’t do that. They began to protest against Job’s cries to heaven and his cries against heaven. I suppose that it is because of the experience of a Job, for example, that most of us live lives of quiet desperation, not really revealing who we are. And not really bringing to expression the things that are in our depths. I have a book on my shelf, an old book really, written by John Powell, Why Am I Afraid To Tell You Who I Am? Well, of course, I know why I am afraid to tell you who I am. If I really told you who I was, if I really dared to reveal myself, would you still be able to embrace me? Could you still love me? Or, with Job’s friends, would you begin to perhaps defend God, or whatever. Why Am I Afraid To Tell You Who I Am? That’s part of the deep anguish of human suffering: to feel isolated and alone with no one to whom to reach out and to reveal. The anguish within. Jesus understood that. On that night in which he was betrayed, he sat at table with his disciples. It may have been the Passover Feast or it may have been the night before Passover. In any case we are told it was at the time of Passover and it was that gathering around the table. I chose Luke’s story because of what seems to be a rather peripheral side note I suppose, and yet it’s the kind of thing I wanted to say tonight. Jesus sits at table and in the fifteenth verse he says, “I have eagerly desired to eat this Passover with you.” In the original the word is repeated. “I have desired with great desire.” Used once as a noun and once as a verb, expressing the intensity of that desire, that yearning, that longing. © Grand Valley State University   �Suffering: the Need for Another Richard A. Rhem Page 2   Jesus knows now there is no question about what lies before him. So in this dark night of his soul he gathers around him, with him, those whom he had come to love and to whom he had given himself. He says, “I desire with such great desire to celebrate this feast with you.” In our darkest moments we really need another. If there is only someone to whom we can speak. To whom we can reveal ourselves. With whom we can feel so safe that we know that there is nothing that we can reveal about ourselves that will result in our being condemned or judged or rejected. Then we can go through just about anything. Job’s friends proved flawed at that point. Actually, Jesus’ friends did too because, when they went from table to the garden, he said, “Stay with me and pray.” But they fell asleep. We do let one another down so often at the point of our greatest need – that need to know that we are not alone, that our darkness is shared, that our pain is being absorbed by another, and that no matter what we are going through for whatever reason there is still someone there with us. We can go through almost anything if we are not alone. It was appropriate that this series of Lenten midweek meditations conclude on this night, the theme of which has been the Mystery of Human Suffering, because Passover is really the Old Testament feast of liberation and freedom and deliverance from the cauldron of human suffering. Sometimes I wonder how I lived so long without seeing some things that are so very plain, but for some reason or other I know that, in my growing up and in my training and many years of my preaching, I have identified the Lord’s Supper with the death of Jesus for our sin. I perceived it only as a feast of atonement, or a feast of celebration of atonement. Now I believe that is not necessarily the case. A festival of atonement, the Great Day of Atonement, was in the seventh month, the tenth day of the month and it led into a harvest festival, the Feast of Booths, or the Feast of Tabernacles. But that wasn’t Passover. Passover was the annual celebration of the deliverance from Egypt. The Exodus was that prime central event of salvation when God with mighty arm set God’s people free from the house of bondage, from the slavery of Egypt. You read the opening chapters of Exodus. You read how the cries of God’s people went up to heaven. God heard their cry. The terrible suffering, which is duplicated all over our globe tonight. The horrendous measures of a pharaoh whose power was threatened by the growth of the population of a people. An oppressive ruler. An absolute monarch, totally unfeeling. All of the anguish of that Hebrew situation in Egypt is a paradigm of the ongoing suffering of humankind in the midst of history, and finally God says, “Enough.” And God sets God’s people free. God says to Moses, “Have the people roast a lamb and be ready to move because this is the night of freedom. It is the deliverance from the oppressive human situation of bondage.” God set God’s people free. That is the Old Testament experience to which Jesus connects this meal that we celebrate tonight. In the intensity of his own anguish, having suffered what he suffered – “My God, if possible, lift this cup from me.” All of the darkness that he endured, all the © Grand Valley State University �Suffering: the Need for Another Richard A. Rhem Page 3   suffering that was his lot – all of that, gathered now and coming down in a heavy shadow upon him, he gathers with those whom he loves. I wonder if he wondered if this Passover he was celebrating, or was about to celebrate, was a sign that God might do again then what God did in Egypt? Maybe so. Maybe he came to conclude that it was not through his teaching, through his modeling out, but that somehow or other he was going to effect the change that had to be effected in the midst of that people, in his dying. We don’t really know, except that we know at this point he knew inevitably that he would die. But would his death be the means of deliverance and liberation? Would his death be the way by which Israel would be set free, and then perhaps the whole world? Human suffering is the constant chronicle of darkness. It was true in Egypt in Pharaoh’s time. It was true in Jerusalem in Jesus’ time. It is true all over our globe tonight. Yet we come to this Passover Lord’s Supper to remember, but also to hope. To remember, to be sure. But the Passover in its initial celebration was a feast with sandals and backpacks ready, of a people who were ready to move into a new future. They were ready to go. They were coming out of darkness and they were moving toward the light. They ate bitter herbs. They ate unleavened bread. They didn’t forget that from whence they were going to depart, but they knew that they were on their way to something new. So, for us the Lord’s Supper is a Eucharistic feast. It is a feast of Thanksgiving because we take bread and break it, we take the cup and pour it, and we know that it cost the life of one who loved us and gave himself for us. But we know that we do this hastily, hastening toward Easter and toward the light and toward resurrection. So we come, perhaps in our darkness, but we come as a community together because that’s what Jesus intended so that we would never have to be alone. So that we could take one bread and drink from one cup and know that we were bound together in community, in communion, because you can endure almost anything if you are not alone. Jesus would make us brothers and sisters, one of another, caring for one another, supporting one another, being there for one another. Knowing that in this darkness the light will dawn, experiencing here in the bread broken and the cup shared, the community in communion that will enable us to move into the dawn of Easter. I experienced the breaking of bread and the sharing of a cup in a remarkable way a couple of months ago. Before I went on vacation I told you that a friend of many of us, Ernie VanDam – Ernie and Doris who were here for many years – that Ernie was on the threshold of death. I did not think by the time I got down there he would be living. In fact I anticipated getting down there and coming back for his funeral. We got down there and he had come home from the hospital with tubes, sacks, bags and was a shadow of himself. But yet it was Ernie, irrepressible Ernie. Then in the middle of our stay we had a call from a couple of other of our people, Marilyn and Weldy Brumels, who wanted to stop and see Ernie. I said, “Meet us at the gate and we’ll go in together,” because I had something up my sleeve. I brought a shirt with clerical tabs along with me. Not to wear at the pool. © Grand Valley State University �Suffering: the Need for Another Richard A. Rhem Page 4   (Laughter) But just in case. When we arrived at Ernie’s I said to Doris, “Open a bottle of wine and give me some bread.” Then the six of us—with Ernie in his hospital bed with sacks and tubes and things—we broke the bread, we shared the cup. I hugged him; I kissed him. All of us were weeping together. Loving each other. Made one with bread and cup. I don’t know whether Ernie will be back here or not, but I know that together we experienced the possibility in the darkness and the vulnerability and the mortality of the human situation, of that which lifts and enables us to transcend all of that. It happens at a rail like this, with a table like this and with people like this. You can go through almost anything if you are not alone. © Grand Valley State University � https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/2d992fc99977251c0e25d15c0a54e8e8.mp3 0853f52f2670acfc25b9e5b905e5f08d 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 Series Job and Jesus: The Mystery of Human Suffering Scripture Text Luke 22, 14-24 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-0-19930408 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1993-04-08 Title A name given to the resource Suffering: The Need For Another Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Richard A. Rhem Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Subject The topic of the resource Clergy--Michigan Reformed Church in America Christ Community Church (Spring Lake, Mich.) Sermons Relation A related resource Richard A. Rhem - An Archive of Sermons, Prayers, Talks and Stories: http://richardrhem.org/ Language A language of the resource eng Type The nature or genre of the resource Sound Text Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource audio/mp3 application/pdf Description An account of the resource A sermon given by Richard A. Rhem (Dick) on April 8, 1993 entitled "Suffering: The Need For Another", as part of the series "Job and Jesus: The Mystery of Human Suffering", on the occasion of Maundy Thursday, at Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI. Scripture references: Luke 22, 14-24. Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Lemmen Library and Archives Community of Faith Empathy Job Passover Suffering https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/e7ef8450f3342b0340642b7578bce743.jpg 2744f7c4f64961a66422dfc1a9c63df2 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Robert H. Merrill photographs Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Merrill, Robert H., 1881-1955 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1909/1950 Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Robert H. Merrill papers (RHC-222) Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource In Copyright Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context RHC-222 Description An account of the resource Photographs, negatives, and lantern slides digitized from the papers of engineer and archaeologist Robert H. Merrill. A Grand Rapids native, Merrill held an accomplished career as a civil engineer. He founded the company Spooner & Merrill, which held offices in Grand Rapids and Chicago. From 1919-1921, Merrill lived in China, working as Assistant Principal Engineer on a reconstruction of the Grand Canal - the oldest and longest canal system in the world. Merrill became fascinated by archaeology, and among other projects, he traveled to the Uxmal Pyramids in Yucatan, Mexico, with a research expedition from Tulane University. Merrill's photo collection includes images of his travels and projects, friends and family. Still Image A static visual representation. Examples include paintings, drawings, graphic designs, plans and maps. Recommended best practice is to assign the type Text to images of textual materials. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context Merrill_EastmanAlbum_1_1909_055 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1909-07-11 Title A name given to the resource Sugar Loaf from Pt. Lookout Description An account of the resource Black and white photograph of the Sugar Loaf rock on Mackinac Island, Michigan, as seen from Point Lookout. Subject The topic of the resource Mackinac Island (Mich.) Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Robert H. Merrill papers (RHC-222) Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource In Copyright Type The nature or genre of the resource Image Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource image/jpg Language A language of the resource eng Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Merrill, Robert H., 1881-1955 Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Lemmen Library and Archives https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/39f41ada8a59ee22fb739153c905ca04.pdf 66bbfbfd9eb5a2b03fa7d6b42aa4d618 PDF Text Text � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Incunabula Description An account of the resource The term incunabula refers to books printed between 1450 and 1500, approximately the first fifty years following the invention, by Johann Gutenberg of Mainz, of printing from moveable type. Our collection includes over 200 volumes and numerous unbound leaves from books printed during this period. Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant 1450/1500 Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Incunabula Collection (DC-03) Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/NoC-US/1.0/?language=en">No Copyright - United </a> Subject The topic of the resource Incunabula Printing 1450-1500 Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context DC-03 Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource application/pdf Type The nature or genre of the resource text Language A language of the resource eng it la nl de Still Image A static visual representation. Examples include paintings, drawings, graphic designs, plans and maps. Recommended best practice is to assign the type Text to images of textual materials. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Summa angelica de casibus conscientiae [folium 15] Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context DC-03_015Clavasio1489 Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Clavasio, Angelus de, 1411-1495 Description An account of the resource One leaf of Summa angelica de casibus conscientiae by Angelus de Clavasio. Illustrated with red and blue rubricated initials. Printed in Strassburg by Martin Flach in 1489. [GW 1929; ISTC ia00719000] Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Strassburg: Martin Flach Subject The topic of the resource Incunabula Printing 1450-1500 Clavasio, Angelus de, 1411-1495 Language A language of the resource la Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/NoC-US/1.0/?language=en">No Copyright - United States</a> Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource application/pdf Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1489 Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Seidman Rare Books Collection Type The nature or genre of the resource Text https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/a656169dcd07bdb07d994b1634608b6a.pdf d4858120ef402e0b9b946b6df2d13cd4 PDF Text Text � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Incunabula Description An account of the resource The term incunabula refers to books printed between 1450 and 1500, approximately the first fifty years following the invention, by Johann Gutenberg of Mainz, of printing from moveable type. Our collection includes over 200 volumes and numerous unbound leaves from books printed during this period. Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant 1450/1500 Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Incunabula Collection (DC-03) Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/NoC-US/1.0/?language=en">No Copyright - United </a> Subject The topic of the resource Incunabula Printing 1450-1500 Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context DC-03 Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource application/pdf Type The nature or genre of the resource text Language A language of the resource eng it la nl de Still Image A static visual representation. Examples include paintings, drawings, graphic designs, plans and maps. Recommended best practice is to assign the type Text to images of textual materials. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Summa angelica de casibus conscientiae [folium 16] Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context DC-03_016Clavasio1492 Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Clavasio, Angelus de, 1411-1495 Description An account of the resource One leaf of Summa angelica de casibus conscientiae by Angelus de Clavasio. Illustrated with red rubricated initial. Printed in Venice by Georgius Arrivabenus in 1492. [GW 1934; ISTC ia00723000] Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Venice: Georgius Arrivabenus Subject The topic of the resource Incunabula Printing 1450-1500 Clavasio, Angelus de, 1411-1495 Language A language of the resource la Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/NoC-US/1.0/?language=en">No Copyright - United States</a> Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource application/pdf Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1492 Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Seidman Rare Books Collection Type The nature or genre of the resource Text https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/b4707902759b29b866861196455de711.pdf 4d7b9cabe4c0b4bfd6781c70fb9f05d9 PDF Text Text � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Incunabula Description An account of the resource The term incunabula refers to books printed between 1450 and 1500, approximately the first fifty years following the invention, by Johann Gutenberg of Mainz, of printing from moveable type. Our collection includes over 200 volumes and numerous unbound leaves from books printed during this period. Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant 1450/1500 Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Incunabula Collection (DC-03) Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/NoC-US/1.0/?language=en">No Copyright - United </a> Subject The topic of the resource Incunabula Printing 1450-1500 Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context DC-03 Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource application/pdf Type The nature or genre of the resource text Language A language of the resource eng it la nl de Still Image A static visual representation. Examples include paintings, drawings, graphic designs, plans and maps. Recommended best practice is to assign the type Text to images of textual materials. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Summa casuum conscientiae [folium 121] Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context DC-03_121Salis1488 Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Trovamala, Baptista Description An account of the resource One leaf from Summa casuum conscientiae by Baptista de Salis (Trovamala). Printed in Nuremberg by Anton Koberger on April 14, 1488. Illustrated with red rubricated initials. [GW 3322; ISTC is00046000] Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Nuremberg: Anton Koberger Subject The topic of the resource Incunabula Printing 1450-1500 Language A language of the resource la Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/NoC-US/1.0/?language=en">No Copyright - United States</a> Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource application/pdf Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1488 Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Seidman Rare Books Collection Type The nature or genre of the resource Text https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/f632e0ea8bf3c27cc372b9c4b345c520.pdf e05e4c5f27f5af8657d3d3a48e50c7f8 PDF Text Text � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Incunabula Description An account of the resource The term incunabula refers to books printed between 1450 and 1500, approximately the first fifty years following the invention, by Johann Gutenberg of Mainz, of printing from moveable type. Our collection includes over 200 volumes and numerous unbound leaves from books printed during this period. Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant 1450/1500 Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Incunabula Collection (DC-03) Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/NoC-US/1.0/?language=en">No Copyright - United </a> Subject The topic of the resource Incunabula Printing 1450-1500 Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context DC-03 Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource application/pdf Type The nature or genre of the resource text Language A language of the resource eng it la nl de Still Image A static visual representation. Examples include paintings, drawings, graphic designs, plans and maps. Recommended best practice is to assign the type Text to images of textual materials. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Summa confessorum [folium 57] Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context DC-03_057Friburgenis1478 Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Johannes, von Freiburg, -1314 Description An account of the resource One leaf of Summa confessorum by Johannes Friburgensis. Printed in Augsburg by Johann Bämler on June 20, 1478. [GW M13596; ISTC ij00318000] Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Augsburg: Johann Bämler Subject The topic of the resource Incunabula Printing 1450-1500 Johannes, von Freiburg, -1314 Language A language of the resource de Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/NoC-US/1.0/?language=en">No Copyright - United States</a> Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource application/pdf Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1478 Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Seidman Rare Books Collection Type The nature or genre of the resource Text https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/381247f0f8cdb3453f238f369c0bbd10.pdf ae0b9b228c216ff47a05ece09dba4a89 PDF Text Text � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Incunabula Description An account of the resource The term incunabula refers to books printed between 1450 and 1500, approximately the first fifty years following the invention, by Johann Gutenberg of Mainz, of printing from moveable type. Our collection includes over 200 volumes and numerous unbound leaves from books printed during this period. Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant 1450/1500 Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Incunabula Collection (DC-03) Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/NoC-US/1.0/?language=en">No Copyright - United </a> Subject The topic of the resource Incunabula Printing 1450-1500 Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context DC-03 Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource application/pdf Type The nature or genre of the resource text Language A language of the resource eng it la nl de Still Image A static visual representation. Examples include paintings, drawings, graphic designs, plans and maps. Recommended best practice is to assign the type Text to images of textual materials. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Summa confessorum [German] [folium 203] Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context DC-03_203Friburgensis1492 Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Johannes, von Freiburg, -1314 Description An account of the resource One leaf from Summa confessorum [German] by Johannes Friburgensis and translated by Berchtold, O P. Printed in Ulm by Conrad Dinckmut on November 12, 1484. Typed identification on recto. [GW M13606; ISTC ij00321000] Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Ulm: Conrad Dinckmut Subject The topic of the resource Incunabula Printing 1450-1500 Language A language of the resource de Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/NoC-US/1.0/?language=en">No Copyright - United States</a> Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource application/pdf Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1484 Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Seidman Rare Books Collection Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Berchtold, O P. (translator) Type The nature or genre of the resource Text https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/09007563159dcd752f91fd3a82153a4c.pdf 0f3909a55baf87b374150a001e757178 PDF Text Text � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Incunabula Description An account of the resource The term incunabula refers to books printed between 1450 and 1500, approximately the first fifty years following the invention, by Johann Gutenberg of Mainz, of printing from moveable type. Our collection includes over 200 volumes and numerous unbound leaves from books printed during this period. Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant 1450/1500 Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Incunabula Collection (DC-03) Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/NoC-US/1.0/?language=en">No Copyright - United </a> Subject The topic of the resource Incunabula Printing 1450-1500 Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context DC-03 Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource application/pdf Type The nature or genre of the resource text Language A language of the resource eng it la nl de Still Image A static visual representation. Examples include paintings, drawings, graphic designs, plans and maps. Recommended best practice is to assign the type Text to images of textual materials. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Summa de casibus conscientiae [folium 55] Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context DC-03_055Sancto1475 Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Bartholomaeus de Sancto Concordio Description An account of the resource One leaf of Summa de casibus conscientiae by Bartholomaeus de Sancto Concordio. Printed in Augsburg by Günther Zainer not after July 19, 1475. Illustrated with red rubricated initials. [GW 3453; ISTC ib00172000] Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Augsburg: Günther Zainer Subject The topic of the resource Incunabula Printing 1450-1500 Language A language of the resource la Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/NoC-US/1.0/?language=en">No Copyright - United States</a> Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource application/pdf Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1475 Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Seidman Rare Books Collection Type The nature or genre of the resource Text https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/32507262fec89fb793248782f0870e63.pdf 9e6487d497a2a8d77c3e17f31fa43d13 PDF Text Text � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Incunabula Description An account of the resource The term incunabula refers to books printed between 1450 and 1500, approximately the first fifty years following the invention, by Johann Gutenberg of Mainz, of printing from moveable type. Our collection includes over 200 volumes and numerous unbound leaves from books printed during this period. Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant 1450/1500 Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Incunabula Collection (DC-03) Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/NoC-US/1.0/?language=en">No Copyright - United </a> Subject The topic of the resource Incunabula Printing 1450-1500 Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context DC-03 Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource application/pdf Type The nature or genre of the resource text Language A language of the resource eng it la nl de Still Image A static visual representation. Examples include paintings, drawings, graphic designs, plans and maps. Recommended best practice is to assign the type Text to images of textual materials. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Summa de virtutibus [folium 77] Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context DC-03_077Paraldus1475 Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Guilelmus Peraldus, approximately 1109-1271 Description An account of the resource One leaf from Summa de virtutibus by Guilielmus Paraldus. Printed in Basel by Michael Wenssler not after 1475. Illustrated with red rubricated initials. [GW 12049; ISTC ip00083000] Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Basel: Michael Wenssler Subject The topic of the resource Incunabula Printing 1450-1500 Guilelmus Peraldus, approximately 1109-1271 Language A language of the resource la Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/NoC-US/1.0/?language=en">No Copyright - United States</a> Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource application/pdf Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1475 Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Seidman Rare Books Collection Type The nature or genre of the resource Text https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/3dd899135def5e3c9dbdafabc26623d7.pdf f085649ea72f9c29abd588cc8c28c8b7 PDF Text Text � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Incunabula Description An account of the resource The term incunabula refers to books printed between 1450 and 1500, approximately the first fifty years following the invention, by Johann Gutenberg of Mainz, of printing from moveable type. Our collection includes over 200 volumes and numerous unbound leaves from books printed during this period. Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant 1450/1500 Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Incunabula Collection (DC-03) Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/NoC-US/1.0/?language=en">No Copyright - United </a> Subject The topic of the resource Incunabula Printing 1450-1500 Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context DC-03 Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource application/pdf Type The nature or genre of the resource text Language A language of the resource eng it la nl de Still Image A static visual representation. Examples include paintings, drawings, graphic designs, plans and maps. Recommended best practice is to assign the type Text to images of textual materials. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Summa de virtutibus et vitiis [folium 100] Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context DC-03_100Paraldus1479 Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Guilelmus Peraldus, approximately 1109-1271 Description An account of the resource One leaf from Summa de virtutibus et vitiis by Guilielmus Paraldus. Printed in Cologne by Heinrich Quentell in 1479. Illustrated with red rubricated initials. [GW 12050; ISTC ip00084000] Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Cologne: Heinrich Quentell Subject The topic of the resource Incunabula Printing 1450-1500 Language A language of the resource la Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/NoC-US/1.0/?language=en">No Copyright - United States</a> Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource application/pdf Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1479 Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Seidman Rare Books Collection Type The nature or genre of the resource Text https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/12cc35676445165f0dcddfd429563786.pdf 8336726da64eaea8934be6a7c159f933 PDF Text Text � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Incunabula Description An account of the resource The term incunabula refers to books printed between 1450 and 1500, approximately the first fifty years following the invention, by Johann Gutenberg of Mainz, of printing from moveable type. Our collection includes over 200 volumes and numerous unbound leaves from books printed during this period. Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant 1450/1500 Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Incunabula Collection (DC-03) Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/NoC-US/1.0/?language=en">No Copyright - United </a> Subject The topic of the resource Incunabula Printing 1450-1500 Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context DC-03 Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource application/pdf Type The nature or genre of the resource text Language A language of the resource eng it la nl de Still Image A static visual representation. Examples include paintings, drawings, graphic designs, plans and maps. Recommended best practice is to assign the type Text to images of textual materials. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Summa de vitiis [folium 73] Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context DC-03_073Paraldus1474 Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Guilelmus Peraldus, approximately 1109-1271 Description An account of the resource One leaf of Summa de vitiis by Guilielmus Paraldus. Printed in Basel by Berthold Ruppel circa 1474. Illustrated with red rubricated initials. [GW 12051; ISTC ip00089000] Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Basel: Berthold Ruppel Subject The topic of the resource Incunabula Printing 1450-1500 Guilelmus Peraldus, approximately 1109-1271 Language A language of the resource la Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/NoC-US/1.0/?language=en">No Copyright - United States</a> Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource application/pdf Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1474 Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Seidman Rare Books Collection Type The nature or genre of the resource Text https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/d0437faca79d047ed180ef8cdceb0d00.pdf 0fbe41bc852266db7c027f39a549d413 PDF Text Text � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Incunabula Description An account of the resource The term incunabula refers to books printed between 1450 and 1500, approximately the first fifty years following the invention, by Johann Gutenberg of Mainz, of printing from moveable type. Our collection includes over 200 volumes and numerous unbound leaves from books printed during this period. Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant 1450/1500 Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Incunabula Collection (DC-03) Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/NoC-US/1.0/?language=en">No Copyright - United </a> Subject The topic of the resource Incunabula Printing 1450-1500 Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context DC-03 Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource application/pdf Type The nature or genre of the resource text Language A language of the resource eng it la nl de Still Image A static visual representation. Examples include paintings, drawings, graphic designs, plans and maps. Recommended best practice is to assign the type Text to images of textual materials. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Summa praedicantium [folium 14] Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context DC-03_014Bromyard1484 Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Bromyard, Johannes de Description An account of the resource One leaf of Summa praedicantium by Johannes de Bromyard. Illustrated with red rubricated initials. Printed in Basel by Johann Amerbach circa 1484. [GW M13114; ISTC ij00260000] Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Basel: Johann Amerbach Subject The topic of the resource Incunabula Printing 1450-1500 Sermons Bromyard, Johannes de Language A language of the resource la Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/NoC-US/1.0/?language=en">No Copyright - United States</a> Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource application/pdf Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1484 Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Seidman Rare Books Collection Type The nature or genre of the resource Text https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/e3b0b04cdcd973debf90a207dd8de9f7.pdf e987750cee0a91059ab1db24cbd8b528 PDF Text Text � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Incunabula Description An account of the resource The term incunabula refers to books printed between 1450 and 1500, approximately the first fifty years following the invention, by Johann Gutenberg of Mainz, of printing from moveable type. Our collection includes over 200 volumes and numerous unbound leaves from books printed during this period. Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant 1450/1500 Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Incunabula Collection (DC-03) Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/NoC-US/1.0/?language=en">No Copyright - United </a> Subject The topic of the resource Incunabula Printing 1450-1500 Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context DC-03 Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource application/pdf Type The nature or genre of the resource text Language A language of the resource eng it la nl de Still Image A static visual representation. Examples include paintings, drawings, graphic designs, plans and maps. Recommended best practice is to assign the type Text to images of textual materials. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Summa super titulis Decretalium [folium 144] Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context DC-03_144Segusio1478 Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Henricus, de Segusio, Cardinal, approximately 1200-1271 Description An account of the resource One leaf from Summa super titulis Decretalium by Henricus de Segusio. Printed in Strassburg by the Printer of Henricus Ariminesis (Georg Reyser) in 1478-1479. Illustrated with red rubricated initals. [GW 12233; ISTC ih00044000] Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Strassburg: Printer of Henricus Ariminensis (Georg Reyser) Subject The topic of the resource Incunabula Printing 1450-1500 Language A language of the resource la Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/NoC-US/1.0/?language=en">No Copyright - United States</a> Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource application/pdf Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1478/1479 Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Seidman Rare Books Collection Type The nature or genre of the resource Text