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As Intimate As Breathing
From the series: Credo
Acts 2:1-4; John 14:15-20 Text: John 14:17
Richard A. Rhem
Christ Community Church
Spring Lake, Michigan
Pentecost, June 3, 2001
Transcription of the spoken sermon
On this Pentecost, I want to say that God is as intimate as your breathing; that is,
God is in you and you are in God, and that is good news. You don't have to look
elsewhere, "out there," "up there," you don't have to wonder. You can be assured God is in you and God will be with you always.
I don't watch television. I should, because it is a good connector to contemporary
culture and one who preaches as I do ought to get his nose out of the theology
books once in a while and see what people are thinking about. But, I understand
that the dramatic series, "West Wing," in its finale, had some serious theology
about it. Or, so the reporter in the Grand Rapids Press said in yesterday's edition,
and, as I read that, I recognized that I probably had missed something to which I
should have been attuned.
The "West Wing" drama series is a fictionalized White House setting with a
President, Jed Bartlett, who is apparently a very religious, deeply Christian man,
and he is having one of those days, one of those days which we all have once in a
while, although for a President, I suppose there are a few more dimensions to it.
Hostages have been taken at the embassy in Haiti, a tropical storm is bearing
down on Washington D.C., he's on his way to the funeral of his secretary who was
killed in an accident, hit by a drunken driver, he has just revealed that he has
Multiple Sclerosis after eight years of denying it. It's just not a good day for the
President. He goes to the National Cathedral for the funeral and after the funeral,
he asks that the doors be sealed because this man who was seriously Christian
has some things to say to God. He becomes very much like one of those Old
Testament prophets who rails against heaven. He cries out against God. All of
these actions that are going on, he says to God, "Are those the actions of a caring
God? Of a just God? Of a benevolent God? A wise God? Well, to hell with your
punishments! I've served you, I've proclaimed your word and done your work and
now to hell with your punishments, to hell with you!" He curses God.
Because it is the season's finale and that is not a nice way to end a season, the
secretary who has been killed appears in angelic form to say to him, "Come now.
© Grand Valley State University
�As Intimate as Breathing
Richard A. Rhem
Page 2
You know God doesn't cause cars to crash." And he begins to remember all the
work there is yet to be done and, like the Old Testament prophets, he gets up and
gets back at it. The journalist calls it "Serious Theology on Prime Time TV."
Well, true. The railing against God - as I said, that has good, particularly Old
Testament precedent. The shaking of the fist at heaven, the outpouring of an
anguished heart or an angry heart - who has not been there? Who has not done
it? And God can take it, as it were. I mean, it is not a problem with God, but it is a
way that we humans react in the midst of our misery and our tragedy. There
seems to be something almost endemic in us that, in the midst of that kind of
crisis, causes us to cry out, shake our fist at heaven, to plead, cajole, whatever.
And yet, that is an image of God that really won't wash anymore. Our knowledge
and our human experience today tell us that that ancient conception of a God
"out there" who is running the universe won't work anymore. I think the
emotional response probably written into our genetic code – probably out of the
early dawn of what it was to be human, confronted with the mysteries and the
tragedies that are a part of the human scene – still find utterance in that kind of
call and prime time TV 2001. And yet, I have to say that presentation on "West
Wing" is very much of the biblical view, isn't it? It is a supernaturalistic view of
things. There is this realm, this world, this universe, and there is another where
God dwells. There is the ongoing drama of nature and there is one above nature
who controls nature and intrudes into nature.
On this Pentecost Sunday we would have to say in the Gospel of John, Jesus is
the word made flesh who comes from the father and who returns to the father
and who promises, "I will not leave you orphaned, I will come to you, I will send
another advocate or spirit to be with you."
So, "West Wing" is not only consonant with something that is intuitive in the
human being, but also reflected in the biblical story. Too bad we can't believe it
anymore. Because it is really counter to everything we know about the way things
work, about our world, the cosmic drama, about the human being.
There was something comforting about it, something "up there" in control.
Somebody pulling the strings, working the gears, interrupting the process on
occasion. But, I suppose the angel visitant at the end of the drama on "West
Wing" which not only gave the season finale a softer touch and a bit of hope, a
little sentimentalism and a little romanticism (don't we all love angels?) was also
an admission, once we think about it, we know better. God doesn't cause cars to
crash. We're on our own.
There was a time, because I was nurtured in that biblical story, as were all of you,
when I thought in terms of a natural realm and a supernatural realm, but I know
now that that just doesn't work, that the God, whatever God may be, will be
experienced and known in that total phenomenon of which we are a part called
nature. And in terms of that ancient cosmology, I now must move to that which
© Grand Valley State University
�As Intimate as Breathing
Richard A. Rhem
Page 3
we understand, and that is that there was a moment, some 15 billion years ago
when all of matter and energy was concentrated into one infinitely small point. I
can't understand that. I'm only telling you what I have heard. But, I think that is
the best scientific understanding of things today, that everything that is, this total
universal system, all of the galaxies, all of the stars and the planets, the earth, the
trees, the oceans, the mountains, and you and I are all the consequence of that
which was all in a point in a moment. And that explosion in that infinite time past
is still expanding so that this drama of which we are a part is underway. Someone
has said if you would compress those 15 billion years into one year, the
appearance of the human being would be in the last minute or two. I can't take
that in. But, when I think about God in cosmos, God and human being, then it
seems to me that that scientific picture is a picture which would indicate that the
whole of reality must somehow or other be permeated by that divine presence,
that sacred, that holy, call it God if you will. Not out beyond it somewhere, but
within it. God as intimate as breathing.
Even though the Bible is solidly supernatural and the day of Pentecost is an
invasion from beyond, nonetheless, there are little hints in the biblical story itself.
For the word becomes flesh and dwells among us so that God is in the human
celebrated at Christmas. And Pentecost is a celebration of the presence of the
Spirit of God and the breath of God within us, and John's Gospel you well know,
"I am in the father and the father in me, and you in me." How do you
intellectually understand that mysterious language? Isn't it a stammering attempt
to hint at the fact that God is not "out there," but in here?
You know, Graduates, if I were in your spot, if I had your youthful energy, your
razor- sharp minds and all of your years, you know what I'd do? I wouldn't go to
seminary. There is hardly a seminary alive that isn't still teaching that old
biblical, supernaturalistic understanding of God. If I were you and I wanted to
pursue God passionately, I would become an astronomer, a physicist. I'd study
cosmology, because for years I have known and always said I should write a
dissertation on the fact, which can be traced, of a shift in cosmological
understanding, the nature of the universe. A shift there is reflected eventually in a
shift in theological understanding. It can be traced down through the eons of the
Christian story - change the conception of the universe, of the cosmos, of nature,
and eventually, well, it takes the Church a long time, but eventually what we come
to know impacts how we image what we believe.
And so, let me tell you the good news - God is not against you. And to be spiritual
is not to swim against the tide. But, rather, it is to move with the grain of the
universe, for what is coming to expression, what is emerging in this drama of
billions of years is Spirit. Think of it. An explosion 15 billion years ago, the
cooling of that soupy chaos, the coming into formation of the stars and galaxies,
eventually life, conscious life, conscious life that - here we are, reflecting on it all!
It's amazing! How many generations before us could have some vista of 15 billion
years of a drama that is still occurring as we speak, and within us?
© Grand Valley State University
�As Intimate as Breathing
Richard A. Rhem
Page 4
And then, this conscious life developing a spiritual dimension, a dimension of
spirit, breath, which is the enlivening of the whole by the God who is not "out
there" somewhere grinding the gears of the universe, but the God who is to be
sensed in the stillness, in our very breathing. God present to us, in us. Thank
God.
Someone has said it so beautifully, speaking of you, "Offspring of the stars,
children of earth, we are great mothering nature's soul-space. Her heart and vocal
cords, and her willingness if we consent to it, to be spirited, to be the vessel of the
holy one."
God is not "out there." God is in here, and you are a vessel of the holy one, full of
spirit and our task together is to make this world civil, decent, full of love and
grace. God, as intimate as breathing.
© 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/.
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Richard A. Rhem Collection
Description
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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
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Clergy--Michigan
Reformed Church in America
Christ Community Church (Spring Lake, Mich.)
Religion
Interfaith worship
Sermons
Sound Recordings
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Rhem, Richard A.
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<a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/514">Richard A. Rhem papers (KII-01)</a>
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Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives.
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Kaufman Interfaith Institute
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English
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KII-01
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1981-2014
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audio/mp3
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Event
Pentecost
Series
Credo
Scripture Text
John 14:17
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Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI
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KII-01_RA-0-20010603
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2001-06-03
Title
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As Intimate As Breathing
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Richard A. Rhem
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Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives
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<a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a>
Subject
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Clergy--Michigan
Reformed Church in America
Christ Community Church (Spring Lake, Mich.)
Sermons
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Richard A. Rhem - An Archive of Sermons, Prayers, Talks and Stories: http://richardrhem.org/
Language
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eng
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Sound
Text
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audio/mp3
application/pdf
Description
An account of the resource
A sermon given by Richard A. Rhem (Dick) on June 3, 2001 entitled "As Intimate As Breathing", as part of the series "Credo", on the occasion of Pentecost, at Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI. Scripture references: John 14:17.
Divine Presence
Grain of the Universe
Immanence
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PDF Text
Text
Religion as Illusion
From the series: Religion: Significant Critique and Fresh Expression
Text: Isaiah 43:3; Ephesians 4:13; Matthew 6:3
Richard A. Rhem
Christ Community Church
Spring Lake, Michigan
August 6, 2000
Transcription of the spoken sermon
I have within reach of my desk chair a volume of The New York Times Magazine
of some three years ago which has a bright red cover and big letters in black
about God. It is about the God question, and there is article after article about the
quest for God in all of the respective forms of that quest and the various religious
traditions, as well as within our own country and within our own Christian faith.
There is an interesting piece by Jack Miles. Jack Miles wrote the book, God: A
Biography, which some of you perhaps read within the last two or three years.
Jack Miles writes about the resurgence of religion and he says that what is
happening is the dealing with questions that have been postponed too long,
questions that finally cannot be put off, questions about the ultimate meaning of
life. He makes a couple of points that are fascinating to me because I suppose one
always likes to have one's own biases confirmed, but we have been talking a lot
here about religion as a human construct, as a response to the mystery that is
God, and Jack Miles says very clearly that the resurgence of religion involves not
fascination with the mystery of religion, but with the mystery in response to
which the religions arise. In other words, the resurgence of religion is a serious
quest for God, or for the holy, the sacred, the ultimate. The religions are
response. They involve all of the dimensions of that quest that seriously hungers
and thirsts after the knowledge and the experience of God.
He says one other thing that pleases me very much and that is, in order for
religion to have broad social viability, it needs to have established its intellectual
viability, at least by a few. The social viability for the many depends upon the
establishment of the intellectual viability of religion by the few. He recognizes
that there are only a few that have the interest, the fascination, the patience and
the preparation to investigate the intellectual foundations of religious expression,
religious faith. But, he makes the point that those few are very critical for the
larger practice of religion because ideas count, ideas make a difference, ideas
trickle down and shape the large majority of the population eventually, and
therefore, it is critical that someone somewhere, that some people somewhere
engage in a serious investigation about the intellectual viability of religious faith,
© Grand Valley State University
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Richard A. Rhem
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and we do that here. We do it here seriously and it cannot be engaged in, it
cannot be executed for us today without our going through the nineteenth
century.
In the nineteenth century lie the roots of modern atheism and we have been
looking at some of those brilliant thinkers who were atheistic in their posture and
who were often anti-religious, believing that religion had to be jettisoned in order
for humanity to grow up. It seems as though Ludwig Feuerbach had this idea
whose time had come, the idea that God is a human projection, that our own selftranscendent capacity, our ability to step out of our skin and observe ourselves
was simply absolutized and projected into heaven. What we really worship is a
human projection. God is the ideal of our humanity to the extent that we are able
to conceive it.
Karl Marx took that idea and said religion is wishful thinking, it is consolation, it
is a narcotic for the oppressed multitudes. "Religion," he said famously, "is the
opium of the people." He was not severely critical of that, except that he said to
the extent that religion dulls human awareness of suffering, of injustice, of what
is wrong with this world. To that extent it keeps us from dealing with that wrong
here and now. He saw the religious structuring as creating another world in
which everything would be all right, all the wrongs would be righted and we'd
finally have peace and satisfaction. So, Marx believed that to the extent that
religion was a narcotic to dull us to the present, it allowed us to focus on another
world, keeping us from dealing with that which had to be dealt with in order to
transform the world and to bring about a just society.
Sigmund Freud followed in the steps of Feuerbach, as did Marx, simply accepting
the idea that God was a projection. There is no God "out there," so to speak, that
there is no objective reality. Freud saw religion as illusion, as the consequence of
our oldest, strongest, most urgent wishes, our human wish for security, for
justice, for the prolongation of earthly life, for the future life. The oldest,
strongest, most urgent wishes of humankind he saw as the seedbed of religion.
He had it all mixed up with the Oedipal complex and the fact that the experience
of the human race could be seen in the experience of a child, the helplessness of a
child, the need for protection, looking to the father, the authority figure who is
both loved and feared. The father, then, and the experience of the child, becomes
the God figure that is projected outward, but, essentially, it is wish fulfillment,
living by illusion. Illusion is not the same as error because the religious hopes and
dreams cannot be demonstrated to be true, but they cannot be refuted, either.
They are illusions; they are unfounded beliefs by which humankind lives in order
to find comfort and to have hope and courage. Religion as illusion.
Well, what will we say to that? In the first place, I suppose we have to recognize
that much of what Freud said was true. Freud is the father of psychoanalysis, but
probably also the one that made psychology in general a household word. Freud
was a brilliant thinker, a careful analyzer of the human psyche. He is the one we
© Grand Valley State University
�Religion as Illusion
Richard A. Rhem
Page 3
look to as the one who uncovered that underground river of the unconscious
which so powerfully influences what we think and what we do. There are so many
insights that came through Freud that I'm not competent nor would I begin to try
to give a synopsis of his thought, but he gave us brilliant insight into the human
psyche and it was his conviction that our religious faith and practice is a
childhood fantasy carried into our adulthood and that our religion is simply
illusion. As I immersed myself again in these 19th century thinkers, I am
impressed with the fact that they are brilliant. They are a century after the
breakthrough in the natural sciences. The world was opening up; reality was
opening up, and they brought to light scintillating insight.
As I reflect on them in the light of my own education and training, my own
nurture and upbringing, I realize what a tragedy it is that there was such an
adversarial relationship between these 19th century thinkers and the Church. I
suppose it was inevitable. It is probably a case of the chicken and the egg. I don't
know if they were so nasty that the Church got its back up, or if they were so
threatening that the Church became nasty. It may well have been the latter. But,
as I see that history, I realize how much we have lost by being at enmity with
some of the most brilliant thinkers of the past century. They were atheist and I
think they believed that they had to be that and against religion to one degree or
another, because only thus could they get the cobwebs out of our human minds
and hearts so that we might grow up to come to maturity, that we might face the
real world that was coming more and more to light. But, in that adversarial
relationship between the Church and science, the Church and the human
sciences, we lost a great deal.
I saw a TV ad yesterday for Gore against Bush in which he had George Bush with
a background of Houston, the smog capital of the world, and George Bush looks
for all the world like he is hung over, and I said to myself, "How too bad." Of
course, that's the real situation. They slug at one another and put each other
down and do their best to make each other look ridiculous, but how unfortunate
that that is the only way that we, the electorate, can be appealed to. There is no
civil dialogue, no civil discourse, no setting forth of issues that are discussed
intelligently, but rather, the other is made to look like some kind of a fool, and I
thought about the way Dr. Freud was portrayed to me in my own education. He
was really a bad man, a rotten man. He was really a reason why religion was in
deep trouble because of his terrible threat, because of his thinking, because of his
ideas. I so wish that someone at some point would have sat me down and said,
"Look at the brilliant insights that are coming to light. If you could only hear
them," because there is much religious expression that is illusion and there are an
awful lot of people who cling to religion as a crutch in their weakness, their
insecurity.
There is an awful lot of lack of reality in religious expression in the Christian
Church as well as other religions. Only when one comes to acknowledge that and
understand that is one going to be able to put religion on a more sure foundation
© Grand Valley State University
�Religion as Illusion
Richard A. Rhem
Page 4
in light of the modern world. We have still in the traditional, classical paradigm
of Christian faith, not come to terms with the knowledge that has come to light in
the last two and a half centuries, and the critique of religion that has come forth
in the nineteenth century is a significant critique that uncovered great
weaknesses and vulnerabilities in the intellectual understanding of the faith,
which in turn has its repercussions in practice and in life. What a shame that in
the Church we have not had enough confidence to hear the critique that could
open up to us new questions that could give us a new understanding and greater
confidence in the expression of our faith and practice.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer, who took in, absorbed all of this trained development of
thought of the 19th century and into the early 20th century and who, in his
brilliant mind, able to assimilate all of that, got himself into a situation where, of
course, he was arrested because of his conspiracy to assassinate Hitler, finds
himself in jail, in prison thinking the faith. His Letters and Papers From Prison
are a spiritual gem, a document that can keep one engaged for a long, long time. I
have given you some citations in the back of your liturgy for your meditation this
afternoon. But, what I love about Bonhoeffer is that, having taken in all of the
critique of religion, he was able to admit to much of it. He spoke of man come of
age; that was his classic phrase. He spoke of God being edged more and more out
of this world in terms of the explanation for how things work. He acknowledged
the present situation without arguing with it or trying to refute it. He said, "This
is it. Now what will we do?"
And he began to think about how Christ could be meaningful even to those who
were without faith in God. He asked questions about religionless Christianity,
what would it look like? And this I love, he said, "I want to confront people in
their strength. I don't want to take rather healthy, well-adjusted, somewhat
affluent people who are getting along just fine and try to convince them how
miserable they are so that I can give them a Gospel pill to make them better." He
said that is unworthy of the Gospel. Let us confront the human person at his or
her very strength, with God. How does one encounter those who are doing just
fine, thank you, those who are reasonably well-adjusted, reasonably happy,
reasonably prosperous, doing a good job - how does one convince them that
underneath there is a hunger and a restlessness which only the God quest can
finally satisfy? How does one present God to people's strength, not to their
weakness? How does one look them in the eye and not whine? This was
Bonhoeffer's quest. This was the thing that occupied him and he was wrestling
with the faith with a great intensity in those days of incarceration.
I thought about Isaiah 43 because Bonhoeffer was certainly going through a dark
valley. He must have known the very real possibility that any day his name would
be called. But they say that in prison he was a shining light, a source of
encouragement, the embodiment of hope, thinking as he was thinking about God
and religion in the light of everything that he had understood and studied and
become aware of, he was able, nonetheless, when his name was called to say to
© Grand Valley State University
�Religion as Illusion
Richard A. Rhem
Page 5
his friend, "This is the end, the beginning of life." He could kneel at the
hangman's noose and commit his life to God. In other words, his quest, his
engagement with the God question was not that which undercut his trust, but it
was his trust that enabled him thus to query and to quest. He was able to ask
those questions while experiencing what the prophet spoke of as that presence in
the midst of the flame, through the rushing river. He was able to live as Jesus
pointed us to in that Sermon on the Mount. He was in sync with reality as he
understood it; the lilies of the field, the birds of the air, Jesus said, pointing to
creation, to be able to be at one with that and to live with trust.
I am not trying to say that Isaiah was not a theist or that Jesus was not a theist,
for that matter. I am saying that in their understanding of God they were able to
point us to a presence that would be with us, and one of the things that we
struggle with in our own day as we try to interpret the faith and translate the faith
is how to say God, how to image God, because it is that image of a theistic God,
the governor of the universe pulling the gears and turning the wheels, that God
"out there" who controls us and pulls the strings, that God that doesn't work for
me anymore and for many of us.
It is the re-imagining of that God that is the difficult task. But, it doesn't mean
that one has to live without God, for one can believe that if God is God, after all,
God will be sufficient for whatever comes. And to think thus and to wrestle thus is
not in order finally to have an intellectual answer, but it is finally in order to have
peace with God, to have that kind of confident non-anxious living to come, as
Paul said, to maturity. Or, as Freud said, to grow up, to move beyond childhood
illusions and superstitions and magic, to be able to think deeply and to entertain
every idea and concept and every suggestion anywhere with a confident trust that
somehow or other there will be a fresh expression. Paul said, "No longer being
children tossed about by every wind of doctrine through the cunning and
scheming of people like me." Think of Paul. Think of the transformation of Paul.
Think of this passionate, deeply traditioned Jew who was able to turn around and
to come to a new expression that enabled him to say in the face of Jesus, "My
God!"
You see, if we are not afraid, then we can ask the questions, clarify the questions
and wait in the darkness if need be for the clearing and for the answer, but all of it
is finally that we might rest in the Lord, having the presence through the flood
and through the fire, and be able to take the name of the Lord upon our lips with
our last breath, to be able to live and to die and to be all right. That is our quest.
© 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
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<a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/514">Richard A. Rhem papers (KII-01)</a>
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Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives.
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Kaufman Interfaith Institute
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Language
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English
Type
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Sound
Text
Identifier
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KII-01
Coverage
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1981-2014
Format
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audio/mp3
text/pdf
Sound
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Event
Pentecost IX
Series
Religion: Significant Critique and Fresh Expression
Scripture Text
Isaiah 43:3, Ephesians 4:13, Matthew 6:3
Location
The location of the interview
Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Identifier
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KII-01_RA-0-20000806
Date
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2000-08-06
Title
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Religion As Illusion
Creator
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Richard A. Rhem
Publisher
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Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives
Rights
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<a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a>
Subject
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Clergy--Michigan
Reformed Church in America
Christ Community Church (Spring Lake, Mich.)
Sermons
Relation
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Richard A. Rhem - An Archive of Sermons, Prayers, Talks and Stories: http://richardrhem.org/
Language
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eng
Type
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Sound
Text
Format
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audio/mp3
application/pdf
Description
An account of the resource
A sermon given by Richard A. Rhem (Dick) on August 6, 2000 entitled "Religion As Illusion", as part of the series "Religion: Significant Critique and Fresh Expression", on the occasion of Pentecost IX, at Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI. Scripture references: Isaiah 43:3, Ephesians 4:13, Matthew 6:3.
Divine Presence
Nature of Religion
Spiritual Quest
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https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/f6696cb990308efd8cb6c04211602160.mp3
34f6ca74cdce81ee97caac77027df6e1
https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/2a82130876e534059c54b762d513b913.pdf
f670a6e8fe9a3fa222dcffc6eb4cde82
PDF Text
Text
Prayer Changes People
Pentecost V
Text: Jeremiah 29:11-14; Psalm 131:1-2; Matthew 6:8-9
Richard A. Rhem
Christ Community Church
Spring Lake, Michigan
July 9, 2000
Transcription of the spoken sermon
Some months ago I received a letter from one of our members, a good friend with
whom I was going to have lunch, and as a prelude to the lunch, he gave me a
series of questions that he thought would be good for discussion. He indicated
that he had heard, from me and others who had come this way, the ultra-liberal
view of things and he wondered about the old, traditional answers to some of the
old, traditional questions, such as Creation and Adam and Eve and the Virgin
Birth and Resurrection, Salvation through Christ alone. Then he had a whole
paragraph on prayer in which he indicated that he had a Christian surgeon friend
who said that in all of his many, many years and many, many procedures he had
never known any effect of prayer in the changing of the result. He gave a whole
paragraph to prayer and so, while I didn't think I wanted to get back to Adam and
Eve or even the Virgin Birth, I thought probably those old questions about prayer
continue to come, to rise within us in the variety of our human experience.
What does prayer mean? Does prayer change anything? Does it affect reality?
Prayer, now, not in its whole spectrum. There is prayer as praise. Prayer as
adoration, prayer as confession, prayer as thanksgiving. That's all given. But,
prayer as intercession, prayer as petition, prayer that asks God, as it were, to do
something. That kind of prayer has always been the source of deep questions
within our Christian experience, and so I thought this morning it might be well
for us to spend a little time and reflect on prayer because certainly prayer is the
very heart and center of the religious life or spiritual life. To be religious or to be
spiritual is to pray, and yet, as our understanding of our faith and our experience
moves and changes, how do we understand this exercise of prayer, this
communion with God, this conversation with God? And does prayer affect or
change reality?
Those questions are certainly not new and I recognize and I want to say in the
beginning that to give a sermon on the subject of prayer requires of one to be very
careful and very sensitive. There are devotional habits that we have all developed
over the years and it is never my intention to talk anyone out of that which is
© Grand Valley State University
�Prayer Changes People
Richard A. Rhem
Page 2
satisfying and that which works for them in their spiritual pilgrimage and in their
Christian life. My correspondent was taking a step back and looking at prayer
somewhat objectively, wondering about it from a step removed from real
existential engagement, and a sermon necessarily has to do that, too, and all of us
can do that on occasion. But, to preach a sermon on prayer is a very risky thing
because, in a congregation gathered like this, the whole spectrum of human
experience is present, and while there are plenty of you who can take that step
back and think with me about it this morning, there are no doubt others of you
here in an existential point in your life where you are praying for your life, and I
have often found that while many times with many people a conversation about
prayer is possible, for others, it creates a great defensiveness and we become very
protective and can be easily wounded as one discusses this kind of thing. In the
crucible, we tend to react emotionally, not rationally, and in a setting like this this
morning I am aware that there may be those of you who are deeply engaged in
some existential moment where the wrestling and prayer is where you are, and I
hope that you can, nonetheless, for just a few moments, think about this
wonderful gift, this wonderful reality that we call prayer.
I had set down this topic some weeks ago and was intending fully to treat it as
one has to treat it, from a step removed, looking at it as a phenomenon of the
spiritual life, and two weeks ago, my sister Lois underwent surgery. The diagnosis
was melanoma cancer in all the vital organs and in the brain, and the doctor gave
the diagnosis to her in the presence of her family and she is now home under
Hospice care, for he said it could be a week or it could be a month, those things
are not predictable. And last week a niece of mine – who happens to be the oldest
grandchild of my parents, who when she was a little tyke I took care of one whole
summer because her mother, my sister, couldn't pick her up, being pregnant once
again, another one with whom I am very closely bonded – had a stroke, followed
by seizures which have continued through the week, as late as this past Friday.
And so, I found myself praying, and a preacher is always thinking about the next
sermon, and so for the last two weeks I have been very much aware of what I
intuitively sense, of what I emotionally feel, and of what I intellectually
understand. I've been preaching this sermon for two weeks in quite another
fashion than I intended to when I put down the subject and committed myself to
preach on prayer today, and it's been really a good exercise for me because I have
been so existentially engaged in the practice of prayer while also reflecting on the
praying and on my own engagement in this exercise, and what I have come to see
is that my understanding of prayer is really part and parcel of my
understanding of God. And my understanding of God, it is no secret to you who
have been with me for a while, the image of God has been transformed over the
last few years from the classic theism with which I was nurtured and educated
and which for most of my ministry I preached, transformed from that classic
theism to an understanding of God as part of the reality of our life. The old classic
theistic conception of God is that of the supernatural being outside of our reality
who dips into our reality now and again to effect this or that, that idea of God as
© Grand Valley State University
�Prayer Changes People
Richard A. Rhem
Page 3
Almighty, the sovereign of history, the ruler of the world, the one who shifts the
gears of the universe, the one who determines all that happens, that one, in a
word, who is in control -that's the God with which most of us have grown up. But,
also I think that image of God or the understanding of God has become more
difficult for us. As we have come to more and more of an understanding of our
world, of our human existence, of reality as such, I think that that old image of
God as Almighty, in control, has really created our problems with prayer, because
I do believe in all honesty that prayer has been a question and oftentimes an
anguishing problem for devout persons.
For example, I pray for my child and she is healed. You pray for your child and
she dies. Or, droughts and floods and hurricanes and all of those natural disasters
that we call in the insurance lingo the "acts of God," a God who is all-powerful
and is in control, but does not rule out cancer in a child, or in our own lifetimes
that most chilling realization that God's chosen people, the Jews, could be
murdered en masse, six million, as occurred in the Holocaust. What does one do
with God in control in face of human tragedy and suffering?
Well, of course, I know the traditional answers - "God makes no mistakes," we
say, feeling we have to say something in the face of tragedy, saying something like
that which can really only wound the one who has experienced great loss. Or, "It
is the inscrutable will of God and it will be made clear one day." Well, you can't
argue with that and it has worked for many people, but in all honesty, it doesn't
work for me anymore and I suspect there are many of you who say the same. If
God can heal, why is it only one here and there? If God can send the rain or spare
it, if God can send the wind or hold it back, then why should life be laced with
such ongoing suffering and tragedy, if God is really in control? That is, if God
really controls, pulls the levers, the strings, and determines all that happens?
In the face of my own existential concern for those I dearly love, I had an
opportunity to test the different image of God, not a God in control, but a God a
part of the very reality of which we are all a part. If you want an attempt to label
it, it is a conception that can be referred to as pan-entheism. Pan is the Greek
word for "all," and the preposition en is "in," and theos, of course, is the Greek
word for God. Pan-entheism tries to say God in everything and everything in God.
God more than everything, but nothing apart from God, nothing exists apart from
the presence of God. All of reality shot through with God. God present to all and
all embraced in God, so that God is not one who needs to be called into the
process. God is not one being, be God supernatural and super-human, human
writ large. God is not just another being, a spiritual factor that here and there
reflects the course of nature and interrupts the process, but rather, God as the
enlivening center of all that is, the creative Spirit that moves it all. God present to
all, in all and all in God so that prayer becomes coming to be at one with that
mystery that is one with us.
© Grand Valley State University
�Prayer Changes People
Richard A. Rhem
Page 4
How, then, does one pray? Did I, do I pray for God to heal my sister's cancer? No,
I don't. What, then, do I pray for? I pray for awareness. I pray for an awareness of
the presence of the life-giving, loving God in all things that binds us all together. I
pray for a sense of the enlivening, life-enhancing, loving, sacred and holy One,
bringing me and those I love into sync with that which is God, the deepest and
most profound Mystery of all reality. Because when I can come to recognize my
part as a part of the whole, when I come to sense that I am laced into this whole
amazing and wonderful miracle we call life and reality, when I come to the
awareness that God is in me and with me and in and with those I love, then, in
that awareness, there comes a certain peace, aware of the totality of things, of
life's beauty and its terror, of a flower in a crannied wall and a child with cancer,
and knowing that all of it is a part of this reality into which our lives are woven, a
reality that is shot through with the holy, a reality to which God is present at all
times, in all things, a presence whose awareness can give peace. And so, then I
can go to be with my sister, I can go to be with my niece, I can be present to them
in solidarity with them in this crisis of their physical being, but present to
embody a love and a care and a concern which is the expression of that mystery of
love that is God.
In our Christian tradition, the word became flesh. In a human face we saw God
and not that God was in one human face, period, but that God has become
human, God has come into expression in the human. God is expressed in you and
in me. We are God-persons to one another, and the presence of God to one
another, and the embodiment of compassion and love and the deep bonding of
human relationship, and that's beautiful, and that's powerful. No matter what the
existential circumstance, to be able to break through to that sense of the presence
of a God who is the mystery of life and love - that's powerful.
There are a lot of studies being done, currently one underway at Harvard, a huge
study on the connection of prayer and healing, and the evidence has come in that
there is a therapeutic effect in worship, devotion, a life of prayer. But, I don't
want to put it on that basis. I don't want to sell you on prayer; I don't want to sell
you on worship, because it's good for you. Whatever happens that is good is a byproduct of the wonder of the experience of God, of being at one with the whole
scheme of things which is the scheme of things whose font is God, God that
inexhaustible, infinite source and ground of all that is, to be aware that I am
embraced, that I am a part of and bound to those I love with a kind of community
that is deeper than words can describe. To come to that is to come to amazement,
to come to peace, and to know that all, all will be well. Of course, it will, because
all together we are in the embrace of that mysterious love coming to expression in
a process that is full of beauty and full of terror, but which embraced and
experienced in the humanity of the other, in the bonds of love, in the mystery of
compassion, enables one to say, "All is well. All is well."
Prayer changes people, and I said "Prayer Changes People" because when I wrote
that down some weeks ago, it was over against "Prayer Changes Things." But, this
© Grand Valley State University
�Prayer Changes People
Richard A. Rhem
Page 5
is the irony -when once I break through to that sense of being secured and that
loving mystery I call God, and I am changed. Reality just may change, as well.
I looked at my sister on Thursday and two weeks ago she was so terribly sick.
Through competent medical care and the loving ministry of the Hospice people
getting her taken care of, the morphine patch to relax and to cut the pain, to look
at her and see her smile, to know her peace, I could say to her, "You know, you
just might be peaceful enough to reverse that whole cancerous process." And it
could happen. I don't know how it happens. I don't know what happens when we
pray, when we pray in our words and our body language and our presence in the
yearning depths of our hearts, I don't know what happens. Who knows what that
positive yearning affects since we are all interlaced into a continuous reality,
since we are all part of that web of being, who knows what my love and concern
and compassion may affect beyond me?
Jeremiah was a theist, I think. He wouldn't like my transformed image of God,
for the God of Israel was sovereign of history who set the boundaries and
determined the destiny of nations, but Jeremiah was simply imagining God in his
way. The important thing is not that image; the important thing is that Jeremiah
had a basic, fundamental trust in God. In the midst of the darkness of the Exile,
he trusted in God, he believed in God, he trusted in light, in love, and the
purposes that are endemic to the whole scheme of things. And so, he said, "I
know the plans I have for you, says the Lord, plans of good and not for evil to give
you a future and a hope."
I'll tell you what –I lived my life for several years on that text. You see, the biblical
images that are so beautiful and powerful are poetry. They are the poetry of the
soul -God's eye is on the sparrow, the very hairs of your head are numbered, your
name is engraven in the palm of God's hand. Images, images that point to
something profound and deep that you can trust, and if you can trust, you can
resign yourself in peace and life becomes a prayer and your presence to one who
is suffering is a prayer, and your presence to those who celebrate a child is a
prayer. Prayer which arises out of that fundamental trust - that changes people.
So, then, pray without ceasing.
© 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
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Richard A. Rhem Collection
Description
An account of the resource
Text and sound recordings of the sermons, prayers, services, and articles of Richard Rhem, pastor emeritus of Christ Community Church in Spring Lake, Michigan, where he served for 37 years. Starting in the mid 1980's, Rhem began to question some of the traditional Christian dogma that he had been espousing from the pulpit. That questioning was a first step in a long and interesting spiritual journey, one that he openly shared with his congregation. His journey is important, in part because it is reflective of the questioning, the yearnings, and the gradual revision of beliefs that many persons in this part of the century have experienced and continue to experience. It is important also because of the affirming and inclusive way his questioning was done and his thinking evolved. His sermons and other written and spoken materials together document the steps in his journey as it took a turn in 1985, yet continued to revolve around the framework and liturgies of the Christian calendar.
Subject
The topic of the resource
Clergy--Michigan
Reformed Church in America
Christ Community Church (Spring Lake, Mich.)
Religion
Interfaith worship
Sermons
Sound Recordings
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Rhem, Richard A.
Source
A related resource from which the described resource is derived
<a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/514">Richard A. Rhem papers (KII-01)</a>
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives.
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
Kaufman Interfaith Institute
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
<a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a>
Language
A language of the resource
English
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Sound
Text
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
KII-01
Coverage
The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant
1981-2014
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
audio/mp3
text/pdf
Sound
A resource primarily intended to be heard. Examples include a music playback file format, an audio compact disc, and recorded speech or sounds.
Event
Pentecost V
Scripture Text
Jeremiah 29:11-14, Psalm 131:1-2, Matthew 6:8-9
Location
The location of the interview
Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
KII-01_RA-0-20000709
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2000-07-09
Title
A name given to the resource
Prayer Changes People
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 July 9, 2000 entitled "Prayer Changes People", on the occasion of Pentecost V, at Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI. Scripture references: Jeremiah 29:11-14, Psalm 131:1-2, Matthew 6:8-9.
Awareness
Divine Presence
Panentheism
Prayer