1
12
3
-
https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/c4c20c42bf96629eb62ee2b7b5a17b05.pdf
fe18060ae9231b42e53bab0b4ec7062c
PDF Text
Text
Life Through Dying
An Article By
Richard A. Rhem
Minister of Preaching and Theological Inquiry
Christ Community Church
Spring Lake, Michigan
Published in
Perspectives
A Journal of Reformed Thought
November 1994, pp. 3-4
“Life, what a beautiful choice!” So goes a commercial for pro-life in the culture
war over abortion. The ads are tastefully done featuring beautiful children
frolicking in idyllic scenes of delight. Fair enough as long as it is recognized at the
same time that there are also children born into horror whose existence is to be
marked by dehumanizing tragedy.
Recently I have been, as pastors often are, thrust into the drama of real life-anddeath choices. Not choices about whether to bring a fetus to term but, rather,
whether to keep a body alive by means of medical technology. Three times within
a four-month period I walked with families through the anguish of making the
decision to let go, to allow a loved one to die. The three had been my people over
many years; they were dear to me, as were their families as well—spouses,
children, grandchildren. In periods of five days to ten days I watched and waited
with the families. The experience was as filled with beauty as it was filled with
anguish. The bonding of children and grandchildren in solidarity with a parent or
grandparent was moving. Thankfully, in all three cases there were living wills in
order, and the desires of the person in question were clear. Those desires were
honored. The deceased had, while in good health, chosen not to be sustained in a
less-than-human condition. Two of the three died in the hospital; the third had
been sent home to die.
During the five-day vigil at the home, we watched life ebb. The two grandchildren
stood on either side of the bed, rubbing their grandfather’s arms, intensely
monitoring each labored breath. The love was palpable. After a time, I went to
this dear man and took his hand. In his ear I spoke the benediction. I spoke his
name, asking him, if he were able, to squeeze my hand if all were well. There was
a feeble but certain response. I kissed him and left. Within a couple hours he
entered that eternal light.
It struck me then, as it had in the hospital earlier, that in honoring his choice to
die without radical intervention, he (as they) had in actuality chosen life.
© Grand Valley State University
�Life Through Dying
Richard A. Rhem
Page 2
Of late I have been preparing a series of sermons on the wisdom literature of the
Hebrew Scriptures. Israel’s wisdom teachers were careful observers of human
experience. With clear-eyed candor, they recorded their observations of how life
really is, not how we long for it to be. Their legacy is the wise counsel of sages
who have discerned a way that leads to well-being. Their teaching contrasted the
way of wisdom that leads to life and the way of foolishness whose end is
destruction. The challenge is to choose the path of wisdom, thereby finding life.
Choose life!
In an early writing, In Man We Trust, Walter Brueggemann says,
The man of Proverbs is not the servile, self-abasing figure often urged by
our one-sided reading of Scripture in later Augustinian-Lutheran theological tradition. Rather he is an able, self-reliant, caring, involved, strong
person who has a significant influence over the course of his own life and
over the lives of his fellows. (118)
Thus the challenge of the Deuteronomist:
... I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Choose life so
that you and your descendants may live.... (Deut. 30:19)
The human person as understood in the wisdom tradition was both capable and
responsible to choose wisely and thus to find the way of life.
I had never spent much time with the wisdom literature. But in preaching from
Job, Proverbs, and Ecclesiastes I have become aware of a rich vein of biblical
teaching that calls the human person to maturity, to take responsibility for one’s
life by making responsible choices, choices that at either end of life’s spectrum
are choices of life and death. Paradoxically, I am realizing that a choice for death
sometimes means a choice for life.
In the current cultural war raging on questions of abortion and euthanasia, one
hears that life is sacred, God’s gift, and thus that it is wrong to abort a fetus or to
end a life of irremediable and terrible suffering. These are exceedingly complex
matters and simplistic slogans will not do. But, that we are called to make very
difficult choices cannot be denied.
The question is not whether life is sacred; it is. Life is God’s gift. But the more we
understand about the mystery of human existence, the more medical technology
makes possible intrauterine procedures and life-sustaining measures at the end,
the more incumbent it is upon us to make choices that lead to life, wise choices
made upon careful, serious reflection and discussion before the face of God.
One sometimes hears the argument that life is a continuum from conception to
death. Biologically, that is irrefutably true. But is biology the measure of life? Is
that the life spoken of by the wisdom teachers? If so, then there will be no real
© Grand Valley State University
�Life Through Dying
Richard A. Rhem
Page 3
choices to make. But if life involves more than biological reality, if life involves
also some quality of humanness—humane existence—then, given what is possible
through the advancement of medical science, the choice for life will demand serious thought and prayerful contemplation. And the choices will be made, not
simply regarding the immediate subject whose situation calls for decision, but the
larger implications touching the others immediately involved, indeed, the
community.
Resistance to making decisions and taking initiative is a refusal to be responsible
and accountable as a human person, a human society before the face of God.
I found the wisdom literature a strange new world in the Scriptures. As
Brueggemann points out, at first blush it may seem that wisdom threatens the
traditional idea of God’s sovereignty. Not so. What is at issue is not whether God
is sovereign but, rather, the tenor of that sovereignty. It is not the more
traditional sovereign who appears angry or at least grudging.
The sovereignty of God affirmed in wisdom is that of a God who accepts
the legitimacy of his rule and therefore the legitimacy of the freedom of his
human subjects. (119)
The church has too long kept people in spiritual adolescence rather than calling
them to maturity, to decision making grounded in honest observance of human
experience, cultural development, and growing insight into cosmic reality. In
Brueggemann’s words, the church has fostered a kind of piety that
“places it all in God’s hands” and an understanding of prayer which looks
blindly to God for guidance and answers. Too often this is a not very subtle
form of copping out so that we don’t have to make our own choices and
exercise responsibility. (20)
Life is a beautiful choice—life as humane existence. To choose for life is sometimes to let go, to let die, in the confidence that in life, in death, the Lord and
Giver of life will never let us go.
Reference:
Walter Brueggemann. In Man We Trust: The Neglected Side of Biblical Faith.
John Knox Press, 1973; Wipf & Stock Publishers, 2006.
© Grand Valley State University
�
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Richard A. Rhem Collection
Description
An account of the resource
Text and sound recordings of the sermons, prayers, services, and articles of Richard Rhem, pastor emeritus of Christ Community Church in Spring Lake, Michigan, where he served for 37 years. Starting in the mid 1980's, Rhem began to question some of the traditional Christian dogma that he had been espousing from the pulpit. That questioning was a first step in a long and interesting spiritual journey, one that he openly shared with his congregation. His journey is important, in part because it is reflective of the questioning, the yearnings, and the gradual revision of beliefs that many persons in this part of the century have experienced and continue to experience. It is important also because of the affirming and inclusive way his questioning was done and his thinking evolved. His sermons and other written and spoken materials together document the steps in his journey as it took a turn in 1985, yet continued to revolve around the framework and liturgies of the Christian calendar.
Subject
The topic of the resource
Clergy--Michigan
Reformed Church in America
Christ Community Church (Spring Lake, Mich.)
Religion
Interfaith worship
Sermons
Sound Recordings
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Rhem, Richard A.
Source
A related resource from which the described resource is derived
<a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/514">Richard A. Rhem papers (KII-01)</a>
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives.
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
Kaufman Interfaith Institute
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
<a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a>
Language
A language of the resource
English
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Sound
Text
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
KII-01
Coverage
The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant
1981-2014
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
audio/mp3
text/pdf
Text
A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text.
References
Walter Brueggemann, In Man We Trust: The Neglected Side of Biblical Faith, 1973, 2006
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
RA-4-19941101
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1994-11-01
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Text
Title
A name given to the resource
Life Through Dying
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
Perspectives: A Journal of Reformed Thought
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Richard A. Rhem
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
<a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a>
Language
A language of the resource
eng
Description
An account of the resource
Article created, delivered, or published by Richard A. Rhem (Dick) on November 1, 1994 entitled "Life Through Dying", it appeared in Perspectives, pp. 3-4. Tags: Hebrew Scriptures, Wisdom Literature, Death, Life, Nature of God. Scripture references: Walter Brueggemann, In Man We Trust: The Neglected Side of Biblical Faith, 1973, 2006.
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
application/pdf
Death
Hebrew Scriptures
Life
Nature of God
Wisdom Literature
-
https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/bf2e9c7eddd36f3a759466abeeda2042.pdf
d29f5472217d8a7f163a63900ed15773
PDF Text
Text
Prayer
Offered at the Celebration of Dorothy Boelen’s Life
Richard A. Rhem
St. John’s Episcopal Church
Grand Haven, Michigan
August 1, 2013
In the spirit of quiet anticipation,
we come consciously into your Presence, Sacred Mystery of Being,
in Whom we live and move and have our being.
We would be still and know that you are God,
our Sustainer through this earthly pilgrimage and our eternal home.
Hidden from us in a cloud of unknowing,
yet so very present to us in life’s Grace moments,
moments when Love becomes tangible
because embodied in another, in a face, a smile, a touch.
This one whose life we celebrate today
was such an instrument of your Love, a channel of your Grace.
What a gift we have shared!
Loss is proportionate to love;
pain is measured by what the one removed meant to us –
and this one, our Dorothy, meant so much.
There is no denying the loss.
Yet, O God, there is no denying the wonder as well,
wonder at the beauty of love she embodied,
wonder at grace amazing, simplicity, humility, authenticity,
indeed, an altogether lovely humanity.
We remember the way she was.
We remember and we give thanks that our lives were enriched
living in the circle of light that shone through her.
Good and Gracious God,
we have gathered in worship to remember and to give thanks –
to remember a wife, a mother, grandmother,
great grandmother, sister, aunt and friend.
We acknowledge our sadness as over the last years and months
we witnessed that brilliant mind closed even as her eyesight dimmed.
The strong and gracious presence was reduced to quiet desperation.
We were heartbroken that we lost her long before she breathed her last.
© Grand Valley State University
�Prayer in Memory of Dorothy Boelens
Richard A. Rhem
Gord’s loving care, family’s deep concern and love surrounded her.
But that vibrant one we loved and admired
was only a shadow of herself.
Yet, amazingly, O God, these are bittersweet moments.
There is no denying the loss
but there is no denying the wonder as well –
the wonder at the beauty of love, the meaning of life,
the sacredness of human bonding.
Things come into focus; we gain perspective,
We know in tangible experience what we thought we knew before,
but realize we didn’t know as deeply –
That what really matters finally is the love we’ve known –
love given, love received.
Our hearts swell, eyes moisten as we contemplate it all –
the gift we’ve known in this one
who loved so deeply, so broadly.
And in such a time as this, in such a place as this,
Gracious God, we are grateful above all
that the end is not broken health and dreams unfulfilled,
swallowed up in death,
but rather the confidence that to live is to live unto the Lord,
and to die is to die unto the Lord,
so then whether we live or die, we are the Lord’s.
Sacred Mystery of our lives,
You are there to hear our borning cry,
You are there when we are old.
And when we shut our weary eyes you are there
with just one more surprise.
With such full faith we bid our loved one farewell,
trusting in full assurance that
All will be well,
All will be well,
All manner of things will be well.
O God, our hearts are full, quite overwhelmed.
We commend our loved one, full of love,
into the abyss of Your Love,
in the name of the Good Shepherd whose love she embodied,
Jesus Christ our Lord.
© Grand Valley State University
Page 2
�
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Richard A. Rhem Collection
Description
An account of the resource
Text and sound recordings of the sermons, prayers, services, and articles of Richard Rhem, pastor emeritus of Christ Community Church in Spring Lake, Michigan, where he served for 37 years. Starting in the mid 1980's, Rhem began to question some of the traditional Christian dogma that he had been espousing from the pulpit. That questioning was a first step in a long and interesting spiritual journey, one that he openly shared with his congregation. His journey is important, in part because it is reflective of the questioning, the yearnings, and the gradual revision of beliefs that many persons in this part of the century have experienced and continue to experience. It is important also because of the affirming and inclusive way his questioning was done and his thinking evolved. His sermons and other written and spoken materials together document the steps in his journey as it took a turn in 1985, yet continued to revolve around the framework and liturgies of the Christian calendar.
Subject
The topic of the resource
Clergy--Michigan
Reformed Church in America
Christ Community Church (Spring Lake, Mich.)
Religion
Interfaith worship
Sermons
Sound Recordings
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Rhem, Richard A.
Source
A related resource from which the described resource is derived
<a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/514">Richard A. Rhem papers (KII-01)</a>
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives.
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
Kaufman Interfaith Institute
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
<a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a>
Language
A language of the resource
English
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Sound
Text
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
KII-01
Coverage
The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant
1981-2014
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
audio/mp3
text/pdf
Text
A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text.
Event
Funeral Service for Dorothy Kruizenga Boelens
Location
The location of the interview
St. John's Episcopal Chruch, Grand Haven, Michigan
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
RA-1-20130801
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2013-08-01
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Text
Title
A name given to the resource
Prayer in Celebration of the Life of Dorothy Boelens
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Richard A. Rhem
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
<a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a>
Language
A language of the resource
eng
Description
An account of the resource
Prayer created, delivered, or published by Richard A. Rhem (Dick) on August 1, 2013 entitled "Prayer in Celebration of the Life of Dorothy Boelens", on the occasion of Funeral Service for Dorothy Kruizenga Boelens, at St. John's Episcopal Chruch, Grand Haven, Michigan. Tags: Prayer, Mystery, Death, Profile in Love, Family.
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
application/pdf
Death
Family
Mystery
Prayer
Profile in Love
-
https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/264d5834425cc69103038c7a2e5d1e16.mp3
bad34bd955aceaba073d8e7b27b782fc
https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/ae91d9c2f20a64a447bc4cd0b6195a3a.pdf
79f5f7b94edba797fa64a6e412e07d31
PDF Text
Text
Why I Believe in Purgatory
Text: I Corinthians 3: 14-15; Luke 12: 47-48
Richard A. Rhem
Christ Community Church
Spring Lake, Michigan
Advent, December 15, 1985
Transcription of the spoken sermon
Purgatory is a foreign word in a Protestant pulpit. It is even a greater surprise to
find it in a title such as I have given to this message: "Why I Believe In
Purgatory."
Perhaps it is just a teaser: baiting you a bit to get you to return - an attention
catcher. You will have to judge that for yourself when we are finished. In the
meantime, I must declare the seriousness with which I am treating the subject.
Purgatory conjures up all sorts of ghosts in our minds and certainly there is much
in the history of the tradition of the Roman Catholic Church with which I cannot
agree. Yet there is a reality, a truth to which that teaching pointed, and we may
well have missed that truth because our forefathers in the Reformation threw out
the idea of Purgatory with all of the many abuses that went along with it.
Before we get into the idea itself, let me remind you of our deliberations this
Advent Season. We are considering the great questions of the End. The drama of
history will have its End. That is Advent's theme: the King is coming. God will
bring Creation to its consummation. We personally will have our End; we will die.
And then what?
We have affirmed that there is life after life. Death remains the last enemy but its
sting has been removed; it is a conquered foe. The grave has been robbed of its
fearsome power.
For since we believe that Jesus died and rose again; even so, through
Jesus, God will bring with him those who have fallen asleep. (I
Thessalonians 4:14)
Therefore we do not grieve as those who have no hope; we have a basis for
comforting one another.
We have seen, too, that the New Testament sets forth a double image of the End:
Heaven and Hell, Glorification and Condemnation, Union with God and
© Grand Valley State University
�Why I Believe in Purgatory
Richard A. Rhem
Page 2
Separation from God. We quoted the pithy statement of C.S. Lewis in The Great
Divorce:
There are only two kinds of people in the end: those who say to God, "Thy
will be done," and those to whom God says, in the end, "Thy will be done."
(p. 66F)
The traditional teaching of the Church and the conventional understanding of
most of the Church is simply that those who receive Christ will be saved and
those who reject him will be damned.
But a little sober reflection - and reflection on this subject ought to be sober shows us that the matter is not quite that simple. Even if those who are exposed
to the Gospel are judged on their acceptance or rejection of Christ - what about
those who never heard? What about those who die in infancy? What about the
mentally impaired?
A further serious question: What about those who have been terribly wounded by
the Church itself? What about those who have been abused as children and are
never able to trust? What about those who have received only a perversion and
distortion of the Gospel?
It would seem that we must begin to make some exception, some qualification.
Then, too, we have noted that the witness of the New Testament is not consistent.
Several texts in Matthew and Revelation especially speak of eternal torment but
several statements in Paul's letters seem to point in the direction of universal
salvation.
Therefore I raised the question whether or not it might be possible that God's
grace might finally triumph in the case of all persons; whether God would finally
be "all in all" with every remnant of opposition to His Rule of Grace wiped out. I
suggested that perhaps God's "Yes" to us in Jesus might be stronger than our
"No."
God respects our response. He will never coerce. His is always a gracious
invitation. Therefore, just as our "no" turned to "yes" by His grace must be
authentically our own, just so our "no" maintained is always a possibility. It
remains a possibility and witnesses to the seriousness of our decision.
But what if in His infinite patience He never gives up? (I asked you whether you
hoped Hell might be finally empty.) I suspect you have thought about that. I
suspect, too, I would receive a variety of responses. Let us admit at the outset we
cannot know the answer to the question as to whether Hell will finally consume
some eternally or whether Grace will finally triumph completely.
In either case, the reality of judgment is a reality through which we all must pass.
There is a double judgment for each of us. First, the judgment regarding eternal
© Grand Valley State University
�Why I Believe in Purgatory
Richard A. Rhem
Page 3
salvation. Second, the judgment regarding the character of our lives - the story we
write with our lives.
The first is determined by our relationship with Jesus Christ. He is the Saviour of
the world.
God sent His Son into the world, not to condemn the world but that the
world through Him might be saved. John 3:17
And Paul declared,
There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ
Jesus. Romans 8:1
Therefore, since we are justified by faith, we have peace with God
through our Lord Jesus Christ. Romans 5:1
In John's Gospel we read:
Truly, truly I say to you, he who hears my word and believes him who
sent me, has eternal life; he does not come into judgment, but has passed
from death to life. John 5:24
Thus judgment is passed. The verdict is not still out. The acquittal has been
granted. We possess new eternal life.
But there is a second aspect to judgment that remains to be experienced by every
person, that is the judgment of our work or our lives. This judgment has nothing
to do with whether a person is saved or lost. This judgment has to do with seeing
our lives in God's light, seeing our lives played out before us in His presence.
The main contention of this message is that God is not done with us at the
moment of our death.
I can base that contention on Scripture in regard to those who die trusting in God
through Jesus Christ. I will suggest that the possibility of an "empty hell" can be
based only on the possibility of a continuing process of encounter between God
and the person who dies without an experience of His grace.
Let us first look at the Scripture. To begin with, we must recognize that there is
not much to go on because the whole thrust of Scripture is the imperative to
repentance and faith and the whole stress is on the urgency of decision. Yet there
are indications that there is something more.
Our first Scripture investigation is Paul's first letter to the Corinthians, Chapter 3.
Let me acknowledge immediately that this passage can be used only indirectly for
the purposes of establishing the main contention of this message - namely that
God is not done with us at the moment of our death. Paul is talking to a particular
© Grand Valley State University
�Why I Believe in Purgatory
Richard A. Rhem
Page 4
congregation about a specific problem - divisions in the Church. Dealing with
that issue he decries the choosing up of sides, identifying with one leader rather
than another and thus forming factions in the Church. He points to the one
foundation of the Church, Jesus Christ, and says all who build on that
foundation, which he had himself laid in Corinth, must take care how they build.
But all are co-laborers.
Whether they plant or water, they work as a team. I Corinthians 3:8
That refers to the image of the garden. One plants, one waters, but God makes it
grow. The image of the building picks up the idea of foundation and
superstructures. Christ is the foundation. He, Paul, Apollos and the other
apostles build the superstructure. If they build well the building will stand; if they
build of faulty materials the building will not meet the test.
This is where we touch our interest - the idea of judgment: This is not a judgment
regarding one's eternal salvation; this is a judgment of one's works or a judgment
of one's life. This is a judgment through which all God's children will pass. The
question is not whether one will be finally redeemed and enter the presence of
God - enter "heaven." The question is how will one fare as one's life comes under
the scrutiny of the Eternal God.
The text speaks specifically about ministers of the Gospel and the building of the
Church. I do not think we err, however, in seeing what here has a specific focus as
being generally true of all persons regarding their life's issue whether that be in
building churches or building houses or laboring in business or industry or living
in community, nation, family.
Will the things to which we devote our lives, our time, our energy stand God's
refining process or will they go up in smoke?
Notice: The one who builds with precious stones, gold and silver, will see his
creation stand the test. He enters life beyond life with something good and
positive going with him.
The one who builds with wood, hay, straw - one who cuts corners and just gets by
will see his life's devotion consumed before his eyes.
But now note carefully:
He will bear the loss but he himself will escape with his life, as one might
from a fire.
Such a person will enter life beyond life having lost everything, secure in God's
eternal presence, yet with nothing to show for his life.
© Grand Valley State University
�Why I Believe in Purgatory
Richard A. Rhem
Page 5
From this text I conclude that there is beyond death or through death an
encounter with God in which one's life will be tested. The issue will not be
salvation or condemnation. The issue is whether we bring into God's presence
something, or nothing.
Now I am going beyond the text's specific teaching but drawing, I believe, a
legitimate inference from the text:
Through death, beyond death, at death, there is something more.
Does this text not indicate that Paul thought in terms of encounter with God and
perhaps continuing the process beyond death? If it is a matter simply of being
saved or lost as we enter the moment of death - if there is a status called
"Salvation" and a status called "Condemnation," and that is all there is, then why
be concerned about what one brings to death's moment: a fruitful life, or a barren
life?
I see in our text Paul's conviction that there is not only the discontinuity between
our time and God's eternity, death being the break, but also continuity between
this life and the life beyond death's passage. We bring something (or nothing)
with us and whatever lies beyond is influenced and determined by what we bring
(or fail to bring.)
Let us look at one more text: Luke 12:47-48. These verses are in a context of the
teachings of Jesus. The immediate context is a call to be watchful and ready for
the End - the coming of the Son of Man. Jesus is encouraging loyal, faithful
stewardship of life.
Happy that servant who is found at his task when his master comes!
(Verse 43)
But then Jesus speaks of two kinds of servants. One knew the master's
instructions and failed to comply with them. The other did not comply either, but
he was unaware of the demands. The first was flogged severely; the second was
flogged less severely. This vivid, picturesque language of Jesus must not be
pushed too far. We certainly could not build a whole system of judgment on the
basis of these words. Yet, perhaps it is legitimate to draw at least this teaching:
the sentence will vary in light of individual circumstances. Again, we have here
not a judgment to eternal salvation or eternal condemnation; we have here a
gradation of judgment on the basis of the individual life being examined.
The moment of death, the moment of encounter with God will be very personal,
individual and discriminating. The sentences will vary. Does this point to a
process beyond death's moment? If this were the only text it would be risky to
claim so. But again, this seems to point in the direction of Paul's teaching
explained above. To be sure, the Luke passage speaks of a gradation of severity of
judgment depending on knowledge or opportunity while the Pauline passage
© Grand Valley State University
�Why I Believe in Purgatory
Richard A. Rhem
Page 6
speaks of entering God's presence beyond the testing of judgment – with positive
fruit of one's life, or denuded of whatever constituted one's life. Yet in both cases
there is judgment in terms of one's life being put to the test and then the entering
into the consequences of what that judgment revealed.
The traditional understanding of our texts is that, in the case of the Luke passage,
there are gradations of punishment - yet to be lost, eternally condemned is to
remain in a state spoken of as hell - separation from God. In the case of the
passage from Paul, the understanding has been that the "saved" enter into
heaven, or union with God, but some with greater, some with less capacity to
experience the joy of salvation.
But let us push those conventional interpretations. Let me repeat what I said
earlier: we cannot finally know answers which remain for us veiled in mystery.
Yet it is important to come to some place where we can live with faith, conviction
and peace. Think with me then; let your imagination loose. Think about the God
of grace, His creation purpose, His covenant faithfulness, His final triumph over
all. Think about the whole impact of the Scriptural revelation beyond individual
texts.
I entitled this message, "Why I Believe in Purgatory," because I did want to grasp
your attention. Surely you know that in a day when Catholic theology itself is very
self-critical and is engaged in serious encounter with Scripture, I am not about to
suggest we reinstitute a teaching that has been a means of distortion of the
Gospel and open to great abuse. We cannot forget that it was precisely at the
point of the teaching of indulgences, the exploitation of the faithful for purposes
of raising money and manipulating people, holding them in spiritual bondage,
that the Reformers rose up in protest.
But my title is more than a ploy. It expresses a conviction to which I have come
through study and reflection, which is as much a surprise to me as it may be to
you. I am convinced that, behind all indefensible practice and abuse of the
Church, there is yet a true intuition. There has been over the centuries a sense
that God was not through with us at the moment of our last breath.
Now the traditional Reformed faith never said He was through with us; there
remains the judgment with its double issue - to salvation or condemnation. But
the traditional teaching has been that with the last breath the issue is irreversible.
It is this claim that I am calling in question. I do recognize that the strong call to
decision, the seriousness of choices in this life is stressed. I would not deny that
or even downplay the urgency of that call. However, is it not possible that in the
experience of death itself, understood as an encounter with God, there is the
possibility of something of eternal significance occurring? I raise the question for
reflection.
Let me share with you some of the best thinking available on the subject. My first
serious consideration of the idea of purgatory or the reality toward which that
© Grand Valley State University
�Why I Believe in Purgatory
Richard A. Rhem
Page 7
teaching points was in Berkhof’s Christian Faith. Because of my high regard for
the thoroughness of his scholarship, depth of biblical and theological
understanding, and deep personal faith in Christ, I had to take seriously his
suggestion that there was really something here to be taken seriously. In his
discussion of the judgment of the works done by believers, which we discussed
above, Berkhof writes:
In protestant theology, this viewpoint is almost completely pushed aside
by the accent on grace. In Roman Catholic piety it is (or used to be) very
prominent in connection with the veneration of saints and purgatory. The
Roman Catholic Church assumes correctly that believers differ greatly in
regard to their progress and fruitfulness...
So the idea of a judgment according to one's deeds leads of itself to the
consideration of a process of purification, called purgatory in Roman
Catholic tradition. ... The Reformation broke with that doctrine because of
its moralistic conception of salvation and its detrimental effect on the
practice of piety (indulgences; intercessory prayers and masses for the
dead.) It imagined a sudden, radical transformation after the judgment,
usually without giving it further theological reflection and without
connecting it with the struggle for sanctification on earth. Meanwhile
Roman Catholic thinking, too, has become much more reserved. Typical of
the modern R.C. conceptions is the idea of "ripening" ... which K. Rahner
develops in "The Life of the Dead."
Referring to our text, I Corinthians 3:15, Berkhof asserts,
... that statement does suggest that Paul thought of more than an abrupt
re-creation of man; salvation is accompanied by a painful becoming aware
of one's own failures on earth. The difficulties here are more an open
question for theological reflection than a subject for back and forth
theological denouncement. (p. 489)
In the previous message I cited Berkhof s statement about the question of
whether "Hell" was forever. He writes:
God is serious about the responsibility of our decision, but he is even more
serious about the responsibility of his love. The darkness of rejection and
God's forsakenness cannot and may not be argued away, but no more can
and may it be eternalized. For God's sake we hope that hell will be a form
of purification. (p. 532)
That word "purification" is one used by the Catholic theologian Hans Küng. It
was Küng who stimulated me to pursue these matters. His forthright handling of
them at the University of Michigan convinced me that these questions do not go
away; they are deeply written on the human heart. In the published lectures
© Grand Valley State University
�Why I Believe in Purgatory
Richard A. Rhem
Page 8
Eternal Life? Küng treats the idea of purgatory in his discussion of the question
whether hell is eternal.
Some theologians argue that it is not God who damns man by a verdict
imposed from outside. They are human beings themselves, by sins
committed with inward freedom, who damn themselves. The
responsibility lies not with God but with man, and by death this selfdamnation and distance from God (not a place, but a human condition)
becomes definitive. Definitive? Do not the psalms say that God rules over
the realm of the dead? What is supposed to become definitive here,
contrary to the will of an all-merciful and almighty God? Why should God,
who is infinitely good, want to perpetuate enmity instead of removing it
and in practice to share his rule forever with some kind of anti-God? Why
should he have nothing more to say at this point and consequently render
forever impossible a purification, cleansing, liberation, enlightenment, of
guilt-laden man? (p. 137)
Then he refers specifically to purgatory.
Purification, cleansing, liberation, enlightenment: Here perhaps may be I want merely to prompt a few reflections - the particle of truth, the real
care, of the problematic idea of purgatory, which has been translated in
German from the Middle Ages onward with the unfortunate designation of
Fegefeuer ("winnowing fire") -This may be the true core, but it remains
only if the idea is not reified. ... as no human being is entirely bad, neither
is anyone entirely good. Any human being, even the best, falls short of
what he might be, fails to meet his own demands and norms and thus
never wholly realizes himself. For if he is to be fully himself, even the
"saint" needs completion, not after death, but in death itself. And, in view
of so much unpunished guilt in the world, a number of people wonder not entirely wrongly - if dying unto God, the absolutely final reality, can be
one and the same for us: The same for criminals and their victims, for
mass murderers and the mass of the murdered; for those who have
struggled a whole life long to fulfill God's will, true helpers of their fellow
human beings, and for those who for a whole life long have only carried
out their own will and at the same time shut out others? ...how this ...
purification, cleansing, follows is not left to the speculation or calculation
of human curiosity but remains a matter for God as merciful judge, in
God's all-embracing final act of grace.
The key idea Küng would stress is the shattering effect of the encounter with God.
We die not into nothingness; we die into God. Küng cites Karl Barth:
Man as such therefore has no beyond. Nor does he need one, for God is his
beyond. Man's beyond is that God is his Creator, Covenant-partner, Judge
and Saviour, was and is and will be his true Counterpart in life, and finally
© Grand Valley State University
�Why I Believe in Purgatory
Richard A. Rhem
Page 9
and exclusively and totally in death. (Church Dogmatics Vol. Ill, 2, pp.
632-33)
Küng also cites a Catholic theologian, Greshake:
From this standpoint we can understand what was pointed out earlier, that
God himself, the encounter with him, is purgatory. But this means that we
need not fall back on a special place or still less on a special time or special
event to grasp the meaning of purgatory. Still less do we need to work out
crude ideas about the 'poor' souls. Instead we can understand what the
Church teaches and has taught from the earliest times as an element in the
encounter with God in death. ... we should avoid any talk of fire and speak
instead of purifying and cleansing as an element of the encounter with
God. At the same time what should be particularly clear is that purgatory
is not - as it often seems to be in popular piety - a "demihell" which God
has erected in order to punish the person who is not entirely bad, but also
not entirely good. Purgatory is not a demihell but an element of the
encounter with God: that is, the encounter of the unfinished person, still
immature in his love, with the holy, infinite, loving God; an encounter
which is profoundly humiliating, painful and therefore purifying. (Cited on
p. 139)
Küng concludes,
That is to say that, since it is a question of dying into the dimensions of
God, where space and time are dissolved into eternity, nothing can be
discovered, either about place and time or about the character of this
purifying, sanctifying consummation. (p.139)
A Lutheran theologian, Hans Schwarz, discusses the views of Tadislaus Boros
who suggests something similar, the significance of the final decision at the
moment of death.
... decisively modifies the traditional concepts of purgatory and death.
Boros agrees that the Church has only gradually developed the doctrine of
purgatory. Though the Scriptural basis of purgatory may be obscure, the
fact and the essential nature of purgatory are of such quality that it must
be called a "truth of revelation." However, through his hypothesis of a final
decision, Boros seems to view purgatory as the "point" of intersection
between life and death. Purgatory is no longer conceived of as a process of
purification which can be measured similar to the days and years we live
here on earth. According to Boros, "purgatory would be the passage, which
we effect in our final decision through the purifying fire of divine love. The
encounter with Christ would be our purgatory. ... Boros replaces an
untenable concept of purgatory with the idea of a confrontation with
Christ in death. ... he calls death "man's first completely personal act;"
and, "therefore, by reason of its very being, the place above all others for
© Grand Valley State University
�Why I Believe in Purgatory
Richard A. Rhem
Page10
the awakening of consciousness, for freedom, for the encounter with God,
for the final decision about eternal destiny." (On The Way To The Future,
pp. 142F)
It has been obvious to me as I have pursued this subject that those who have
reflected on the biblical material, the whole context of Scripture, the revelation of
God as He has shown Himself in Jesus Christ and the human person are very
restrained in their conclusions and very cautious in their statement. There is in
all serious inquirers into this question a recognition of the serious nature of
human decisions, an acknowledgement of the urgent need for repentance and
faith, the reality of evil and human wickedness that demands response if there is
any justice, the judgment as the exposure of our lives to the scrutiny of the God of
truth.
All serious biblical thinkers recognize that God takes us seriously and that our
wrong and guilt are not simply soft-pedaled and our exposure to God's light and
truth will be painful even while we are conscious of being embraced within a
larger grace. Judgment will be experienced: No one will "get away" with anything.
If an eternal hell is questioned, it is not because passing through God's final
examination is not a serious matter and neither is it because there is no sense of
the need for change and renewal of the person who through the earthly
pilgrimage has become scarred and tainted and twisted.
Recognizing that we cannot simply move from the ambiguity, partial insight,
fickleness and unfaithfulness of one's human experience into the presence of the
God of light and truth, there is the belief on the part of some that a purifying
process will be necessary.
What have we believed traditionally? Simply that God sees us in Jesus; his
righteousness is our righteousness now and when we pass through death to life
we will be made like him - instant perfection.
What I am questioning in this message is the instant perfection.
Certainly the question is not whether God is able in a moment to totally
transform us. But does He ever work as far as we can trace His work in Creation
apart from process? How often we wish He would work by a "snap of the finger;"
but God takes time and allows the process to work.
Further, we must recognize that we can only think in terms of time but when we
speak of moving through "the moment of death," what do we mean? At that
"moment" we move beyond "moments in succession" - we move into the
dimension of Eternity. It is far beyond our purpose or capacity to enter into the
discussion of time relative to eternity here, but we must not naively project our
time-conditioned thinking beyond death.
© Grand Valley State University
�Why I Believe in Purgatory
Richard A. Rhem
Page11
C. S. Lewis has dealt as creatively and profoundly as anyone of whom I am aware
with the question of heaven, hell and purgatory. He points to the relation of time
and eternity in a fascinating imaginary discussion with the Christian writer,
George MacDonald:
'In your own books, Sir,' said I, 'you were a Universalist. You talked as if all
men would be saved. And St. Paul too.'
'Ye can know nothing of the end of all things, or nothing expressible in
those terras. It may be, as the Lord said to the Lady Julian, that all will be
well, and all will be well, and all manner of thing will be well. But it's ill
talking of such questions.'
‘Because they are too terrible, Sir?’
'No. Because all answers deceive. If ye put the question from within Time
and are asking about possibilities, the answer is certain. The choice of
ways is before you. Neither is closed. Any man may choose eternal death.
Those who choose it will have it. But if ye are trying to leap on into
eternity, if ye are trying to see the final state of all things as it will be (for
so ye must speak) when there are no more possibilities left but only the
Real, then ye ask what cannot be answered to mortal ears. Time is the very
lens through which ye see - small and clear, as men see through the wrong
end of a telescope - something that would otherwise be too big for ye to see
at all. That thing is Freedom: the gift whereby ye most resemble your
Maker and are yourselves parts of eternal reality. But ye can see it only
through the lens of Time, in a little clear picture, through the inverted
telescope. It is a picture of moments following one another and yourself in
each moment making some choice that might have been otherwise.
Neither the temporal succession nor the phantom of what ye might have
chosen and didn't is itself Freedom. They are a lens. The picture is a
symbol: but it's truer than any philosophical theorem (or, perhaps, than
any mystic's vision) that claims to go behind it. For every attempt to see
the shape of eternity except through the lens of Time destroys your
knowledge of Freedom. Witness the doctrine of Predestination which
shows (truly enough) that eternal reality is not waiting for a future in
which to be real, but at the price of removing Freedom which is the deeper
truth of the two. And wouldn't Universalism do the same? Ye cannot know
eternal reality by a definition. Time itself, and all acts and events that fill
Time, are the definition, and it must be lived. The Lord said we were gods.
How long could ye bear to look (without Time's lens) on the greatness of
your own soul and the eternal reality of her choice?' (The Great Divorce,
p. 114 F.)
In his imaginary conversation with MacDonald, Lewis is told that it is possible for
people in hell to take holiday excursions to the boundaries of the heavenly
country, Lewis exclaims,
© Grand Valley State University
�Why I Believe in Purgatory
Richard A. Rhem
Page12
'But I don't understand. Is" judgement not final? Is there really a way out
of Hell into Heaven?'
'It depends on the way ye're using the words. If they leave that grey town
behind it will not have been Hell. To any that leaves it, it is Purgatory. And
perhaps ye had better not call this country Heaven. Not Deep Heaven, ye
understand.' (Here he smiled at me). Ye can call it the Valley of the
Shadow of Life. And yet to those who stay here it will have been Heaven
from the first. And ye can call those sad streets in the town yonder the
Valley of the Shadow of Death: but to those who remain there they will
have been Hell even from the beginning.'
I suppose he saw that I looked puzzled, for presently he spoke again.
'Son,' he said, 'ye cannot in your present state understand eternity: when
Anodos looked through the door of the Timeless he brought no message
back. But ye can get some likeness of it if ye say that both good and evil,
when they are full grown, become retrospective. Not only this valley but all
their earthly past will have been Heaven to those who are saved. Not only
the twilight in that town, but all their life on earth too, will then be seen by
the damned to have been Hell. That is what mortals misunderstand. They
say of some temporal suffering, "No future bliss can make up for it," not
knowing that Heaven, once attained, will work backwards and turn even
that agony into a glory. And of some sinful pleasure they say "Let me but
have this and I'll take the consequences": little dreaming how damnation
will spread back and back into their past and contaminate the pleasure of
the sin. Both processes begin even before death. The good man's past
begins to change so that his forgiven sins and remembered sorrows take
on the quality of Heaven; the bad man's past already conforms to his
badness and is filled only with dreariness. And that is why, at the end of all
things, when the sun rises here and the twilight turns to blackness down
there, the Blessed will say "We have never lived anywhere except in
Heaven", and the Lost, "we were always in Hell." And both will speak
truly.'
'Is not that very hard, Sir?'
'I mean, that is the real sense of what they will say. In the actual language
of the Lost, the words will be different, no doubt. One will say he has
always served his country right or wrong; and another that he has
sacrificed everything to his Art; and some that they've never been taken in,
and some that, thank God, they've always looked after Number One, and
nearly all, that, at least they've been true to themselves.'
'And the Saved?'
© Grand Valley State University
�Why I Believe in Purgatory
Richard A. Rhem
Page13
'Ah, the Saved ... what happens to them is best described as the opposite of
a mirage. What seemed, when they entered it, to be the vale of misery
turns out, when they look back, to have been a well; and where present
experience saw only salt deserts, memory truthfully records that the pools
were full of water.'
'Then those people are right who say that Heaven and Hell are only states
of mind?'
'Hush,' said he sternly. 'Do not blaspheme. Hell is a state of mind - ye
never said a truer word. And every state of mind, left to itself, every
shutting up of the creature within the dungeon of its own mind - is, in the
end, Hell. But Heaven is not a state of mind. Heaven is reality itself. All
that is fully real is Heavenly. For all that can be shaken will be shaken and
only the unshakable remains.'
'But there is a real choice after death? My Roman Catholic friends would
be surprised, for to them souls in Purgatory are already saved. And my
Protestant friends would like it no better, for they'd say that the tree lies as
it falls.'
"They're both right, maybe. Do not fash yourself with such questions. Ye
cannot fully understand the relations of choice and Time till you are
beyond both. And ye were not brought here to study such curiosities. What
concerns you is the nature of the choice itself: and that ye can watch them
making.' (The Great Divorce, pp. 61F.)
Lewis' fertile imagination is thought provoking. Great caution is there; our
curiosity will not be satisfied this side of death's portal. Yet it is clear that Hell, he
seems to be saying, is porous. If one spends Eternity there or, conversely, if one
never comes to the light, it will not be so much God's verdict as one's own fatal
choice.
Much lies veiled in mystery. Yet all that is needful is clear and how can it be more
clearly set forth than simply,
Now is the day of salvation;
Now is the day to choose the things that matter, things of ultimate concern; now
is the day to live faithfully - covenant with the Good and Gracious God. Then
already we possess Eternal life and death will move us "from splendour to
splendour 'til we see Him face to face." Amen.
© Grand Valley State University
�Why I Believe in Purgatory
Richard A. Rhem
Page14
References:
Hendrikus Berkhof. Christian Faith: An Introduction to the Study of the Faith.
Wm. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1979.
Hans Küng. Eternal Life? Life After Death as a Medical, Philosophical and
Theological Problem. Doubleday, 1984.
C. S. Lewis. The Great Divorce. First published by HarperCollins, 1946.
© Grand Valley State University
�
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Richard A. Rhem Collection
Description
An account of the resource
Text and sound recordings of the sermons, prayers, services, and articles of Richard Rhem, pastor emeritus of Christ Community Church in Spring Lake, Michigan, where he served for 37 years. Starting in the mid 1980's, Rhem began to question some of the traditional Christian dogma that he had been espousing from the pulpit. That questioning was a first step in a long and interesting spiritual journey, one that he openly shared with his congregation. His journey is important, in part because it is reflective of the questioning, the yearnings, and the gradual revision of beliefs that many persons in this part of the century have experienced and continue to experience. It is important also because of the affirming and inclusive way his questioning was done and his thinking evolved. His sermons and other written and spoken materials together document the steps in his journey as it took a turn in 1985, yet continued to revolve around the framework and liturgies of the Christian calendar.
Subject
The topic of the resource
Clergy--Michigan
Reformed Church in America
Christ Community Church (Spring Lake, Mich.)
Religion
Interfaith worship
Sermons
Sound Recordings
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Rhem, Richard A.
Source
A related resource from which the described resource is derived
<a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/514">Richard A. Rhem papers (KII-01)</a>
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives.
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
Kaufman Interfaith Institute
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
<a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a>
Language
A language of the resource
English
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Sound
Text
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
KII-01
Coverage
The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant
1981-2014
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
audio/mp3
text/pdf
Sound
A resource primarily intended to be heard. Examples include a music playback file format, an audio compact disc, and recorded speech or sounds.
Event
Advent III
Scripture Text
I Corinthians 3:14-15, Luke 12:47-48
Location
The location of the interview
Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI
References
Hendrikus Berkhof, Christian Faith, 1979
Hans K
C. S. Lewis, The Great Divorce, 1946
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-0-19851215
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1985-12-15
Title
A name given to the resource
Why I Believe in Purgatory
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Richard A. Rhem
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives
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 December 15, 1985 entitled "Why I Believe in Purgatory", on the occasion of Advent III, at Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI. Scripture references: I Corinthians 3:14-15, Luke 12:47-48.
Advent
Death
Eternity
Forgiveness
God of Grace
Judgment
Nature of God
Purgatory
Salvation