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https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/ab0e832950cbf1a7394580bc382ce63b.mp3
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1+1+1=1 to the Higher Power
Trinity Sunday
Text: John 1:1,14,18; John 14:9; II Cor. 3:18
Richard A. Rhem
Christ Community Church
Spring Lake, Michigan
Father’s Day, June 18, 2000
Transcription of the spoken sermon
As the early Jesus movement moved into the early Catholic Church stage, the
experience of Jesus moved out of the context of Israel geographically, but also
spiritually, into an alien culture as far as Israel was concerned. It moved into a
world dominated by Imperial Rome and marked by Greek culture, Greek
thinking, Greek language, Greek philosophical ideas. And so, it was the task of
those who were sent out by Jesus Christ to tell their experience, what they had
experienced in him, in quite another context, quite another religious, cultural
context, and that is always a difficult thing. To translate an experience is difficult,
even when you are talking to those in your own language and your own
environment. But, now to try to tell someone of a transforming experience in a
totally different context to those who have had no share in your background, your
spiritually traditioning - that, indeed, was a major task, and that was the task of
that early Jesus movement.
It was a movement Jewish to the core. The disciples were those who had been
nurtured on the central tenet of the creed of Israel, "Hear, 0 Israel, the Lord our
God is one." And now they had experienced in a transforming way that God, in
their encounter with Jesus, a human, historical figure with whom they had
walked and talked and shared the table of fellowship. In that human, historical
figure they had encountered the God of Israel, the God of Moses, the God of
Abraham and Isaac and Jacob.
When they met God in Jesus, they didn't meet some other God. They didn't stop
to say, "I wonder about my Judaism. I wonder now if I have to become something
other." No, they were fully cognizant of that experience of Jesus being the
experience of God, the only God they ever knew, they ever worshiped. The task
was how to give expression to that, how to translate that into another context so
that it could be understood. In order to do that, we always have to find some
common meeting ground; we have to find something in common so that those to
whom we are bringing a message or translating an experience can relate to it
through some shared knowledge or experience. The Greek civilization, the
© Grand Valley State University
�1+1+1= 1 to the Higher Power
Richard A. Rhem
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ancient world, those to whom they went were not irreligious. They were religious.
There were Oriental, mystical religions, there was all the Greek mythology, there
was certainly a religious context from which to try to find that which might help
communicate their experience. Secondly, there was the whole Greek
philosophical tradition. Philosophy was born of the Greeks centuries before.
Someone has said all of Western civilization is a series of footnotes to Greek
philosophy. So that Greek philosophy conceptually provided the intellectual,
rational tools by which they attempted to translate that God experience.
But, in the beginning, of course, it was the experience and they stammered and
stuttered and tried to give expression to that which had transformed their lives,
and we have the raw material of the eventual church dogma in the New
Testament. The church dogma says, according to the title of this message, “1 + 1 +
1=1.” (One of my dear friends said to me yesterday, “You restructured religion;
now are you starting on math?”) “1 + 1 + 1=1” because these were Jewish people
and they could not begin to conceive of God other than one, but they had
experienced God in Jesus, a human, historical figure, and once they had
experienced God in Jesus, Jesus crucified was alive with them still, a powerful
presence still with them in the Spirit. We find this in the documents of the New
Testament.
Paul was the earliest one to write. I love Second Corinthians 4:6. It has been a
text for us. "We've seen the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face
of Jesus Christ." That's how Paul said it. In the third chapter of that letter, he was
defending his apostleship and he was saying, "Do you think I need letters of
recommendation? I don't need letters of recommendation; you are my letters of
recommendation; your transformed lives validate my gospel." And then he goes
into a paragraph with Moses and the veil of Moses' face. I'm not going to get into
all that, but he comes down to the end of the chapter and says, "But we, with
unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the Lord, are transformed by degrees into
his likeness by the Spirit." The last paragraph of the third chapter says, "The Lord
is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is..." One might ask, "Does Lord
refer to God? Or does Lord refer here to Jesus?" and one might find different
commentators coming up with different answers. Those are a very confusing few
statements because Paul is confused, because this great monotheist of the God of
Israel is talking about God in a human face, and how does one do that? He says
somehow or other by the Spirit in that face the glory of the Lord was shining, and
then he talks about that face as the Lord, and he says, "As we gaze on that face,
we become like that face, shaped like that one who was the shape of the heart of
God," and he says all of this is through the Spirit of God. And so, Paul is trying to
give expression to that experience that he had. He never encountered the
historical Jesus, we don't believe, but he did have that visionary, mystical
experience and this great champion of the God of Israel became the apostle of
Jesus Christ as the incarnation of the God of Israel.
© Grand Valley State University
�1+1+1= 1 to the Higher Power
Richard A. Rhem
Page 3
This is what John says, as well. "In the beginning was the Word and the Word
was with God, the Word was God." I like to translate that, "In the beginning was
the intention, God's intention. In the beginning was the intention of God and in
the fullness of time, the intention became flesh and dwelled among us, and we
beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten Son of God." No one has ever
seen God, but the Son has revealed God and, as John was telling the story of
Jesus decades later, Jesus has that discussion with the disciples. Jesus is going to
leave them. They know the way and all that, and finally Phillip says to him, "Just
show us the Father and we'll stop bugging you," and he says, "Oh, really, Phillip?
Have I been with you so long and you still don't get it? If you've seen me, you've
seen the Father."
Did Jesus say that? I doubt it. I don't think so. Wouldn't that be a bit off-putting,
Jesus going around ringing a bell saying, "Here comes God. Just look at me, here
comes God." That doesn't feel right to me. I think what we have in the Gospel of
John is precisely the experience of finding God in Jesus. This is faith's
affirmation. Jesus simply was that authentic human incarnation of the living
God, and those who encountered God in Jesus tried every which way to bring to
expression that which they had experienced, that which was the deep conviction
of their lives, that Jesus was the intention of God in human flesh so that in order
to communicate that, John has this beautiful discussion with the disciples in
which Jesus says, "If you've seen me, you've seen the Father," which is the same
thing that Paul was saying, "We've seen the light of the knowledge of the glory of
God in the face of Jesus Christ."
The New Testament is not a systematic document. Paul was not a systematic
theologian, but all of that raw "stuff" eventually got gathered up because the
Jesus movement, which was a Jewish movement, had to somehow or other come
to understand its own experience. The God of Israel now, these monotheists had
to reckon with, had been enfleshed in a human, historical figure who was
crucified and yet present and powerful with them still so that they broke bread
and remembered him and experienced him and went out to do his work in the
same powerful fashion as when he was in the flesh. How do you figure?
Well, eventually, of course, they had to give some account of that. Now, if they
had been in India and Jesus had been an Indian and they had been Hindus, they
wouldn't have had a problem. Cast the mold for another little image and put it on
the shelf, because Hinduism is polytheistic and it believes in numerous historical
manifestations of the Divine Mystery. That doesn't work for a Jew, because you
can have not only no representation of God, but there is only one true God,
Creator of all. But, to touch Jesus was to touch God! To look into Jesus' face was
to see into the heart of God! How could it be? So, Jesus is God? But, Jesus is
human. That was the problem of the nature of Christ; it consumed a couple of
centuries. And if Jesus is God, and God is God, and the Spirit of God makes Jesus
present now, now you have 1 + 1 + 1=1. How do you figure?
© Grand Valley State University
�1+1+1= 1 to the Higher Power
Richard A. Rhem
Page 4
We could ridicule the doctrine of the Trinity because that is what this eventually
became, the dogma or the doctrine of the Trinity. We can ridicule it; we can be
confused by it; we can be frustrated by it, but we have to know that some of the
most brilliant minds, some of the most serious persons in that ancient world
wrestled with this experience which they tried to translate into Greek
conceptuality, and they knew they were up against a real problem. Augustine
wrote a treatise on the Trinity and after it was over, he said, "We say these things
not because we would say these things, but because we wouldn't be silent," trying
to give some kind of word to experience. Eventually the Church formulated this
doctrine of God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit, one God blest
forever. 1 + 1+1=1. You see, it's not a problem as long as you are in the heat of the
experience, the white heat of the experience of God, because the experience is
enough to say I can't make logical sense of it, but I know. Then, once the
experience gets translated into a formula and it becomes a dogma and then the
dogma is used to catechize the next generation and the next generation, now we
have a problem because there is no longer that white heat experience. Now it
becomes an intellectual conundrum; it becomes a puzzle, and now you have
creedal authority and a Church institution enforcing a creedal statement with
those who may or may not have had the experience of God. Then you have
orthodoxy which can be very, very killing if it lacks the experience.
This sermon was born one day when an old veteran of the A.A. movement said to
me, grousing about ministers and churches, which is his custom, and I suppose
finding a sympathetic ear in me, he said, "I wish I could take all the community
pastors down to an A.A. meeting and make them sit there and listen to people
who really talk about God!" And I have had enough experience with the A.A.
community in the past to feel that would be a very good move. So, I went back
and went through some of the A.A. material again. I found reference to Ernest
Kurtz who was here a few years ago. Ernest Kurtz wrote the definitive history of
the A.A. movement, entitled Not God. This is what the human being has to learn Not God. I am not God. But, God is. That is, there is a Higher Power, and the AA.
movement, in its steps, gives one the freedom to understand God in one's own
way, not worried about dotting the I's or crossing the T's, but recognizing that
God is, coming to an awareness that I am not my own, I have not created this
whole phenomenon we call the world, I have not created my own life. All is gift,
all is given, I am given and I am a part of that which is given, and there is a
mystery that is beyond and beneath and above all that is.
And in the A.A. movement, just call it the Higher Power. Call it anything you
want to call it. Visualize it any way you want to visualize it. Use any kind of an
image that will work. But it is the movement from I am not God to God is, and as
the veterans of the A.A. movement say, if one can take that step, in other words, if
one can come to an awareness that God is, that Ultimate Mystery of all things,
and if one can trust that power to be gracious in the transformation of the human
person, then one is on the way to health and healing. Then the doctrine of God
may become refined. Then someday someone along that path may discover the
© Grand Valley State University
�1+1+1= 1 to the Higher Power
Richard A. Rhem
Page 5
face of Jesus, and in the face of Jesus, may see into the heart of God and all of its
wonder and all of its beauty, because Jesus is the face that gives form to the
Mystery. And then one may feel some tingle in one's pinkie, and that would be
because there is a connection, because it is not the ancient One, period, but the
ancient One who is present in the Spirit. After all, that's all that Trinity Sunday is
trying to say - that God is, and that God is for us, that God is focused in the face of
that gracious one full of mercy and available to us through the Spirit of God or the
Spirit of Christ or the Holy Spirit, or whatever you want to call it, because, you
see, finally God is not about giving us a theological exam, and coming to worship
is not about a rational discussion of the conceptual framework of the ontological
Trinity, thank you very much.
We come here in our deep grief and brokenness and our great joy and
celebration, when the diagnosis is cancer, when the last week has left us bereft of
our most beloved, when we launch our youth, bundle our babies, and experience
the deepest dimensions of human experience. It is then that God is that which
gives us hope, that is what sustains us and keeps us, that infinite and
inexhaustible ground of our being, that overshadowing presence, because you
see, it's 1 +1 + 1 = 1 to the Higher Power. Image it as you will, but I suggest you'll
go a long time before you'll find a more beautiful image than that etched in the
face of Jesus, and we, beholding as in a mirror that image, we with unveiled face
beholding that image, miracle of miracles, are shaped into that image. We begin
to take on the likeness. And so, you know, the historical Jesus is no more, but the
Spirit who is affecting that transformation is yet still, and though I cannot see his
face, I can see your face, and in your face, I see his face which is the picture of the
heart of God, God, who is good. That's all Trinity is all about -1 + 1 + 1 = 1 to the
Higher Power.
© Grand Valley State University
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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
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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>
Publisher
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Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives.
Contributor
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Kaufman Interfaith Institute
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<a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a>
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
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audio/mp3
text/pdf
Sound
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Event
Trinity Sunday, Pentecost II
Scripture Text
John 1:1, 14, 18, John 14:9, II Corinthians 3:18
Location
The location of the interview
Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Identifier
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KII-01_RA-0-20000618
Date
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2000-06-18
Title
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1 + 1 + 1 = 1 to the Higher Power
Creator
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Richard A. Rhem
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
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
The topic of the resource
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 June 18, 2000 entitled "1 + 1 + 1 = 1 to the Higher Power", on the occasion of Trinity Sunday, Pentecost II, at Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI. Scripture references: John 1:1, 14, 18, John 14:9, II Corinthians 3:18.
Divine Intention
Father's Day
Jesus Movement
Spirit