1 24 2 https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/a3f17712227e82e1f3131a21f279a875.pdf a2740ad6dadda5118f5d10c8f69ced69 PDF Text Text You Can’t Fight It, Paul From the series: Christian Faith: Interpretations of Experience Text: Acts 9:4; Acts 26:14, 19 Richard A. Rhem Christ Community Church Spring Lake, Michigan Eastertide, April 26, 1998 Transcription of the spoken sermon The Christian faith is one of the great world religions, flowing out of the faith tradition of Israel and developing from the event of Jesus Christ, as Israel’s faith tradition, following the destruction of the Temple at Jerusalem in 77 CE, developed along the lines of Rabbinic Judaism. Out of the First Century, then, two religious traditions developed, both rooted in the Hebrew Scriptures, or, as the church has traditionally referred to them, the Old Testament. Religions are rooted in a foundational experience of a person or a people in which some profound insight overwhelms the subjects of the experience, creating a whole new perspective on the nature of things: on God, on the meaning of being human, on the purpose of life. One is transformed and one’s life is reorganized around that life-changing experience. We can speak of a paradigm shift - some insight, some discovery throws everything up in the air and a whole new configuration of reality emerges. This happens in the natural sciences; it happens in religious understanding. Perhaps it is most accurate to speak of a foundational experience that effects a radical perceptual shift. This happens all the time to all of us in all sorts of human understanding in the spectrum of human knowledge. Some years ago there was a film with a title something like, "You Are What You Were When." The powerful impacting events that we experience during adolescence will shape us for a lifetime. Only a significant emotional experience later can alter our perception of reality and our instinctive responses to life. The Stock Market Crash of 1929 - the experience of the great wars of this century, the Holocaust. On an individual scale, this happens to us all - experience and the emotional response to concrete experiences form our perception of reality. On the larger canvas of the human story, we see the same thing - A foundational experience finds expression in a story using images, symbol, metaphor; the story eventually © Grand Valley State University   �You Can’t Fight It, Paul Richard A. Rhem Page 2   is probed for its meaning and that meaning is given conceptual expression. We have an intellectual systematic account of reality on the basis of the foundational experience. Moses leads a slave band out of Egypt to freedom - the Exodus becomes the foundational event of Israel. The Jewish teacher and prophet, Jesus of Nazareth, is crucified by Imperial Rome and his followers despair because they had hoped through him God would bring to consummation God’s reign and then one day, preparing to take up again the fishing trade in Galilee, Peter experiences Jesus as a living presence and he is transformed by that experience, declaring, "The Lord is risen." If such an experience had been limited to the immediate followers of Jesus, all Jewish, all hoping for God’s final visitation to God’s people Israel, there would perhaps have been an ongoing Jesus Jewish movement - as there was for a century or two, but there would probably not have emerged what we know as the Christian church. To understand that phenomenon into which we have entered, we must move to Paul, or as he is named in his first appearances in Acts, Saul. Now we are dealing not with a Galilean peasant nor with a disciple of Jesus, but with a well educated, well traveled member of the strictest of the Jewish groupings, the Pharisees - the group who was serious in its observance of Jewish religious practices, strictly following the prescriptions of Torah. Furthermore, we are dealing not with a Pharisee who was open to Jesus as was, for example, Gamaliel or Nicodemus. Rather, we are dealing with one who is in the employ of the High Priestly establishment, committed to the stamping out of the movement that gathered around Jesus, the movement called People of the Way. The story of Paul’s revelatory experience is familiar enough. We read Luke’s account in Acts 19. Luke sees this experience as so critical to the development of the Christian religion that he repeats the story twice more, in chapter 22 of Acts and chapter 26. We in the Christian church speak without thinking of the conversion of Saul or Paul. But this was not a conversion from one God to another or even from one religion to another. Paul was born a Jew and died a Jew and never claimed to be anything else and consistently declared the God of Israel to be God alone, Creator of all and ultimate Goal of all. Paul was not a convert to a new religion; rather, he experienced a radical perceptual shift Jesus was indeed God’s anointed one whose death on the cross was the means by which God effected reconciliation with humankind. Further, God had raised Jesus from the dead and destined Paul to declare this reality of reconciliation to the Gentiles, the nations beyond the bounds of Israel. © Grand Valley State University �You Can’t Fight It, Paul Richard A. Rhem Page 3   I cannot here recount the whole story of Paul’s missionary journeys, the tension created with the Jewish Jesus Movement led by Peter and James, the brother of Jesus at Jerusalem, and the compromise they reached. I want, rather, to focus on the interpretive shift that Paul effected on the basis of his experience of being encountered by the Risen Lord. Paul had a vision, a revelation, an unveiling. It was a transformation experience that resulted in new insight and a radical perceptual shift - out of it came the Christian movement, the Christian church and the Christian tradition. The shift from the performance principle - righteousness through obedience to the Law or Torah, observance as a way of life - to the reality of grace: present existence as a new creation marked by confidence that God has given us our life as sheer gift to be lived in freedom with joy and peace in loving community. One enters the reality of the people of God by faith - confidence that this is so. This was a new conception of the nature of religion - response of gratitude for the gift of life. Thus, religious observance is because of, not in order to.... A second insight: God has elected not only Israel and not Israel as a biological, historical people, but also in Christ, the Gentiles, the nations. This was a radical departure from the traditional conception of Israel as God’s elect. But, so far, we might agree that all of this is interesting and does explain the eventual break between Judaism and the Christian church. But, is the radical perceptual shift effected in and through Paul the last word? E. A. Sanders raises the question, what if Paul had lived beyond the first generation of the Jesus movement, or, what if he could have seen out 2000 years that his apocalyptic scheme of the near end of the age would not happen? We know what he thought in his own context: the only way to be saved was through faith in Jesus Christ for both Jew and Gentile. But, what if he saw from our historical perspective, the Christian tradition, the continuing Jewish tradition and a world of other faiths - would he still claim salvation through Jesus Christ alone? Sanders says he personally would vote against such a claim in any ecclesiastical assembly today and he suspects so would Paul. Paul, in Romans, near the end of his career wrestled with the native convictions he held - that God had chosen Israel and would be faithful to that election of grace; yet, in his revelation Paul sees access to God by grace through faith in Jesus Christ, the one largely rejected by the "Elect People," Paul’s brothers and sisters. There was conflict in Paul, tension. He struggled with this problem in Romans 9-11, concluding that somehow the Gentiles would be included by grace through faith in Jesus Christ and, mysteriously, Israel too would be included. Israel’s large-scale rejection of Paul’s Gospel distressed him; yet he could not simply write them off. © Grand Valley State University �You Can’t Fight It, Paul Richard A. Rhem Page 4   I am finally encouraged by the confusion of the great Apostle. I like a questioning Paul. It gives me courage. Paul entered into a present experience of God’s grace giving him freedom, joy, peace and love. That was his great discovery and he witnessed to it with passion. In regard to God’s timetable in history, he was wrong. The present age did not come to an end. The Messiah, the Risen Lord, did not return in clouds of glory. So, obviously, there were chapters yet to be written about which the Apostle had no clue. Nor do we. But, the present possibility of resurrection life, life as sheer gift to be received with gratitude and lived with wonder - about that the Apostle was quite right - it is the continuing present possibility for all who have eyes to see it and mind and hearts open to it. And, is that not enough - life as gift, sheer gift, the gift of God Whose intention was revealed in the face of the Crucified, who lives, who is present with us in the ongoing journey of faith in the adventure of life? © Grand Valley State University � https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/329ad83de6f1219e845df9d3fbf957be.mp3 ca726f061c2fb34ff2d90c1137f38730 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Richard A. Rhem Collection Description An account of the resource Text and sound recordings of the sermons, prayers, services, and articles of Richard Rhem, pastor emeritus of Christ Community Church in Spring Lake, Michigan, where he served for 37 years. Starting in the mid 1980's, Rhem began to question some of the traditional Christian dogma that he had been espousing from the pulpit. That questioning was a first step in a long and interesting spiritual journey, one that he openly shared with his congregation. His journey is important, in part because it is reflective of the questioning, the yearnings, and the gradual revision of beliefs that many persons in this part of the century have experienced and continue to experience. It is important also because of the affirming and inclusive way his questioning was done and his thinking evolved. His sermons and other written and spoken materials together document the steps in his journey as it took a turn in 1985, yet continued to revolve around the framework and liturgies of the Christian calendar. Subject The topic of the resource Clergy--Michigan Reformed Church in America Christ Community Church (Spring Lake, Mich.) Religion Interfaith worship Sermons Sound Recordings Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Rhem, Richard A. Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/514">Richard A. Rhem papers (KII-01)</a> Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives. Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Kaufman Interfaith Institute Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Language A language of the resource English Type The nature or genre of the resource Sound Text Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context KII-01 Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant 1981-2014 Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource audio/mp3 text/pdf Sound A resource primarily intended to be heard. Examples include a music playback file format, an audio compact disc, and recorded speech or sounds. Event Eastertide III Series Christian Faith: Interpreting an Experience Scripture Text Acts 9:4, Acts 26:14, 19 Location The location of the interview Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context KII-01_RA-0-19980426 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1998-04-26 Title A name given to the resource You Can't Fight It, Paul Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Richard A. Rhem Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Subject The topic of the resource Clergy--Michigan Reformed Church in America Christ Community Church (Spring Lake, Mich.) Sermons Relation A related resource Richard A. Rhem - An Archive of Sermons, Prayers, Talks and Stories: http://richardrhem.org/ Language A language of the resource eng Type The nature or genre of the resource Text Sound Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource audio/mp3 application/pdf Description An account of the resource A sermon given by Richard A. Rhem (Dick) on April 26, 1998 entitled "You Can't Fight It, Paul", as part of the series "Christian Faith: Interpreting an Experience", on the occasion of Eastertide III, at Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI. Scripture references: Acts 9:4, Acts 26:14, 19. Nature of Religion Paradigm Shift Transformation https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/83facdebde0d21920172dcf9c1cf1dce.pdf 639e568d0ead7885d5858d339b63249d PDF Text Text The Magnificent Vision of Shalom Summer Social Gathering Richard A. Rhem The Spring Lake Country Club Spring Lake, Michigan August 27, 2006 On this, another social gathering, I want to say what a pleasure it has been to be with you on these summer evenings, and to thank you for giving me an opportunity to reflect on my life and ministry from the perspective of my retirement. For the first time in that two-year period, I have been stimulated to think about my journey from the deep Christian formation of my childhood and youth to the unabashed posture of a critical thinking intellectual of open and liberal mind and spirit. That is the identity I would claim for myself. Critical Thinking - We live in a cultural period named Post-Modern which is a designation that means simply "after the Modern," and conveys the fact that we don't really know what to call the present. Post-Modern thinkers criticize the Modern Period - the Enlightenment over-confidence in human rationality to master the Mystery of reality. However, one of my best teachers, Hans Küng, wrote in one of his earlier works that the one mark of modernity that we must never lose is critical rationality, the exercise of human intelligence, of human reason, in the pursuit of the human project. Intellectual -I remember so vividly the Sunday the great New Testament scholar, Bishop Krister Stendahl, preached at Christ Community and spoke at the Perspectives hour. He said, "I am an unabashed intellectual." I loved it and began at that point to own the designation for myself. There are intellectuals and there are intellectuals, and I have no illusions about being in the "Intellectual Big Leagues." Nonetheless, I do value the life of the mind, the world of ideas and the intellectual probing of new frontiers of the human experience. Being a pastor first of all, I did not have the luxury of the scholarly life of reading, reflection and writing. Yet, in the tasks of preaching and teaching, I was always fascinated by the intellectual task of understanding - understanding the biblical story, the theological tradition and their application to ongoing human experience. Of Open and Liberal Mind and Spirit. My last presentation traced my movement to a liberal posture - liberal of mind and spirit. Let me pick up the story there, reminding you that being liberal is not a position, but a posture. It is not a creedal position or even a religious commitment, nor is it a political platform. It has to do with the open mind operating with critical © Grand Valley State University   �The Magnificent Vision of Shalom Richard A. Rhem Page 2   rationality that engages religious/cultural/moral and political issues, seeking understanding in order to forge commitments and action intended for the enhancement of the human situation - ultimately for creating a global community rooted in love, marked by grace - in a word, the realization of the Hebrew prophets' magnificent vision of Shalom - peace as total harmony. The Vision The vision of Shalom - of a new creation - comes to expression in various prophetic writings in the Hebrew tradition. I refer you to two, one from Isaiah, the great 8th century, B.C.E., prophet, in Chapter 11, which begins with the idea of "a shoot" from "the stump of Jesse," and Chapter 65 of Isaiah, a writing from a later prophet during the Exile looking to the Return. We need not debate the conception of God as the sovereign of history, nor the fact that the vision was not realized in the Exile's return and which, in the present violent chaos of the Middle East, seems farther from realization than ever. The vision ends: They will not hurt or destroy on all my holy mountain; for the earth will be full of the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea. There was in the human mind and heart over two and a half millennia ago such a vision. I find that most remarkable. It remains a dream in the human breast while our whole understanding of cosmic reality and the action of God in history has been radically transformed. That transformation has come about by the emergence of the scientific breakthroughs through the empirical method, applied by critical reason to the study of the natural world. And that transformation has been fought at every new breakthrough by religious authority and, unfortunately, such fighting still marks much of the religious world. Such opposition is futile and fruitless and has caused much of the intellectual community to write off the religious community as hopelessly benighted. In the epic struggle of science and religion, there have been scholars on the scientific side who have claimed more than their empirical investigations can justify, denying the whole realm of religious mystery and experience. One such is Francis Crick, who, in his The Astonishing Hypothesis: The Scientific Search for the Soul, writes, The astonishing hypothesis is that "you," your joys and your sorrows, your memories and your ambitions, your sense of personal identity and free will, are in fact no more than the behavior of a vast assembly of nerve cells and their associated molecules. As Lewis Carroll's Alice might have phrased it: "You're nothing but a pack of neurons ..." The scientific belief is that our minds - the behavior of our brains - can be explained by the interactions of nerve cells (and other cells) and the molecules associated with them, (p. 3, 7) Crick claims this position stands in contrast with "The religious concept of a soul, and puts science in a head-on contradiction to the religious belief of billions of human beings alive today." © Grand Valley State University �The Magnificent Vision of Shalom Richard A. Rhem Page 3   "A head-on contradiction ..." indeed, and it rages still. But, is that impasse the only possibility? I contend it is not and will attempt to offer an alternative possibility. In doing so, I do not claim to be proposing something new and original, but rather, what many scholars both in science and religion have proposed. The Wonder of the Cosmos The scientific endeavor is never finished, but what we have learned about the natural world takes our breath away. We stand in wonder and awe before the unfolding of the cosmic dance - an unfolding we are told that has been in process for over 13 billion years. And space! Can we begin to comprehend the thought of an expanding universe of billions of light years, of billions of stars and galaxies and, some would claim, parallel universes? Mind-boggling beyond my capacity to take in. At its best, the scientific enterprise continues to probe, recognizing, as the great Einstein claimed, it is probing Mystery, with each new breakthrough bringing forth fresh questions, creating models, carrying on experiments which bring forth more data that, in turn, call for new paradigms. It is a wonder-full drama with no necessity to threaten religious reality, although certainly necessitating adjustment of ancient forms of religious belief. To resist the ongoing march of scientific discovery, as indicated above, is futile and foolish and it robs one of the freedom to revel in amazement at the natural order into which our lives are woven. Rather, in my experience, it is inspiring to take in the natural world to the extent possible and then re-think the possibilities of religious response in light of what is. So, where are we? We have a marvelous vision of Shalom from the ancient prophet, expressed in a worldview and conception of God which the natural sciences and historical consciousness make necessary to revise. Let me attempt to portray the ongoing development of human understanding by reminding you of my own journey which I think many of you have traversed, as well. That journey consists of three stages: The Pre-Critical The Critical The Post-Critical In my first presentation, I told you of my whole academic experience through high school, college and seminary which left me in a pre-critical stage, unable and unwilling to think critically as I held to and taught the biblical story in terms of the ancient biblical worldview. I was defensive of that worldview, took it literally, and was threatened by all knowledge to the contrary. But, alas, finally I could no longer deny that my deeply formed and very rigid understanding of the biblical paradigm could no longer be held with integrity. In the words of Alfred Lord Tennyson, © Grand Valley State University �The Magnificent Vision of Shalom Richard A. Rhem Page 4   Our little systems have their day, they have their day and cease to be. They are but broken lights of Thee, and Thou, O Lord, art more than they. It must be obvious that being deeply formed in a pre-critical mindset in a world exploding with data that could not be incorporated into that pre-modern understanding of God, nature and history put one in a very uncomfortable position - constantly threatened, always on the defensive and wondering what the next breakthrough in the sciences might reveal. Finally, my "little system" broke and I was ready to open myself to the best of human knowledge and understanding. Intellectual honesty, I realized, was also a spiritual matter. I wanted to know the truth and tell the truth to the extent that was possible for me. Thus, I entered the next phase of my life and ministry - the critical phase - a phase that lasted for me about thirty years, during which I was preaching and teaching, thinking, reading and writing. My move into the critical stage was never marked by a "loss of faith" or a negative spirit over against my Christian faith. During those three decades, I was being a pastor and living out of a deep faith that was undergoing considerable revision, but never overthrown. I lived out the experience that Gary Dorrien, in his Making of the American Liberal Theology, documents. I find his definition of the Liberal movement and his high valuation of it precisely my experience. He defines the Liberal movement thus: In accord with my concept of it as a movement that began in the late eighteenth century, I define liberal theology primarily by its original character as a mediating Christian movement. Liberal Christian theology is a tradition that derives from the late-eighteenth and early nineteenthcentury Protestant attempt to reconceptualize the meaning of traditional Christian teaching in the light of modern knowledge and modern ethical values. It is not revolutionary but reformist in spirit and substance. Fundamentally it is the idea of a genuine Christianity not based on external authority. Liberal theology seeks to reinterpret the symbols of traditional Christianity in a way that creates a progressive religious alternative to atheistic rationalism and to theologies based on external authority. (Vol. I, p. XXIII) It took me a long time to work out the question of biblical authority and I can trace the gradual movement in my understanding. But, the mediating function of the liberal approach was obvious to me, once my infallible, inerrant scripture eroded and my conservative biblical paradigm collapsed. I spent the Fall Term in 1983 at the University of Michigan with Professor Hans Küng, who was deeply engaged at the time in his work on paradigm change in theology. A book of great impact, The Structure of Scientific Revolutions (1962), by Thomas S. Kuhn, had, in the words of one commentator, made clear that © Grand Valley State University �The Magnificent Vision of Shalom Richard A. Rhem Page 5   science is not the steady, cumulative acquisition of knowledge that is portrayed in the textbooks. Rather, it is a series of peaceful interludes punctuated by intellectually violent revolutions ... in each of which, one conceptual world view is replaced by another ... The book was enlarged in a second edition in 1970. Küng charted the course of paradigm shifts in theological development from the earliest centuries much as Kuhn did for the unfolding scientific worldviews in which he showed how, in the scientific revolutions, one worldview is replaced by another. Kuhn documented how the scientist takes the data available and builds a model or a paradigm. Further data comes to light that doesn't fit into the prevailing paradigm and it is resisted, but finally more data is accumulated and the prevailing paradigm is rejected, its data and the new data of discovery are combined into a new paradigm that can accommodate all the data available at that time. Küng documented a similar movement in theological conception except, in the religious community, there were always groups that perpetuated a given paradigm despite the ever-evolving knowledge of the cosmic story and scientific understanding. Out-of-date worldviews are manifold in religious worldviews. But, this is where the Liberal movement comes in - no longer willing or able to deny the explosion of knowledge provided by the natural and social sciences, the liberal Christian thinkers were open to scientific breakthroughs and, with continuing commitment to their Christian faith and experience, sought to distinguish the faith from the worldviews in which it came to expression. Thus, there was revision of much biblical conceptuality and the faith that came to expression in the ancient worldview was set free from the ancient forms in which it was expressed. This was the mediating function of the liberal movement - the use of critical reason to understand the data of scientific discovery and the discernment of Christian faith that was wrapped in now outdated worldviews that had to be abandoned in light of new discovery. This process which marked the Liberal movement and continues to be its finest gift to Christian faith is a process I have gone through, as indicated above, and let me acknowledge it is scary and sometimes painful. One wonders if one's faith will dissolve, leaving one without the source of one's meaning, hope and comfort. And, it can be costly! Hans Küng, in 1983, had just learned that the German Bishop, Joseph Ratzinger, presently Pope, had passed on Rome's decree that the theology courses Küng taught at Tubingen would no longer be credited for those studying for the priesthood. To read Küng's Memoirs is to realize the risk one takes as one seeks to bring one's Christian understanding into accord with one's understanding of the knowledge available in all the disciplines of human learning. Yet, once one sees one's faith as distinct from the conceptual framework in which it first came to expression, and once one opens one's mind to the knowledge of the natural and social sciences, there is no "going home." And so one must move through the Critical stage, testing everything, ruling out no question, claiming no privilege of "the eyes of faith" in one's inquiry. © Grand Valley State University �The Magnificent Vision of Shalom Richard A. Rhem Page 6   The Critical phase is both necessary and dissatisfying for one deeply formed in the conservative biblical paradigm as I was. It is an anxiety-ridden experience; one wonders where one will end up. But I was fortunate in that I had time to read and think and write sermons. And, I took a cadre of folk with me in Wednesday evening classes where we probed the questions and read significant scholarly works. And along the way, there were cumulative experiences. I've already mentioned the semester with Küng. And, in the early 90s, the exposure to the Jewish community, involvement with the Jewish-Christian committee, and the inter-faith experience was very significant for me. Perhaps the most significant endeavor for me was serving on the Board of Editors of Perspectives, a journal of Reformed theology intended to stimulate theological dialogue in the Reformed Church. In the writing of several essays, I began to focus the new understanding I had been gaining in my reading and reflection. In these years 1985-95, I brought into sharp focus the results of my critical inquiry of the previous years post-Europe. I won't trace the development of my thinking here, but simply point out that by the mid-90s, the Muskegon Classis challenged my theological position, determining I was outside the pale of Reformed theology and, with the congregation, I moved out of the RCA to independency. I experienced freedom - a freedom I did not know I did not have while engaging in my critical testing of my theological understanding while still in the ordained ministry of the RCA. Now I was finally free to follow the consequences of years of critical investigation. Declaring our independence in 1996, by 1999 I had moved into a Post-Critical stage. But, before I go there, I must mention that my understanding of the nature and function of religion was changing. This change came about as I got involved in inter-religious dialogue, as well as experiencing firsthand the deeply religious life of one who called himself a Religious Naturalist - Dr. Duncan Littlefair. I saw in him the celebration of the wonder, miracle, joy and glory of life, lived out in a life of worship and the wonder of all creation and the human being. These concrete life experiences were life-changing for me. I wonder if we ever really change, if we are ever transformed in any other way than through encounter and concrete experience. I had to rethink the phenomenon of religion itself, all knowledge to the contrary. One of the significant scholars whose work we studied was Gordon Kaufman, who had recently retired from Harvard. His In Face of Mystery was a great "revelation" for me, especially his claim that religion is a human creative construct. Tracing the development of the human from earliest beginnings, he showed how the religious dimension developed and I found his explanation compelling. I came to understand how religion played a significant role in human development, beginning within clans and tribes as the means to explain the natural phenomena experienced, to seek security and harmony with the Ultimate Mystery, eventuating in 800-600 BCE in the great religious traditions that arose simultaneously in what is called the First Axial Period. Informed by such an understanding, I came to see religious truth, not as a series of creedal propositions containing absolute truth, but as sacred story lived out in © Grand Valley State University �The Magnificent Vision of Shalom Richard A. Rhem Page 7   life-forming fashion through prayer, ritual and moral living. The story was celebrated in music and sacred dance and worship. And, as Karen Armstrong has claimed, at the heart of all the great religions is the call to compassion. Understanding the nature and function of religion thus, I realized exclusivism was a hangover of tribalism and, for me, the theology of religion pointed to pluralism as the only reasonable conclusion. This, too, was freeing; with absolutism and exclusivism removed, I was able to go back to my own story, the biblical story and my Christian faith - no longer needing to defend or convince or argue, but simply search out again its depth and meaning, its wisdom and its teaching as to the meaning of human existence before the Face of the Sacred Mystery we call God. I had entered fully the post-critical stage where I could see the whole grand story and tradition as for the first time - and loving it now, not as the only way, truth and life, but as my way, my truth, my life. No need now to prove anything; rather, I could live fully in the human world, open to the wonder and miracle of the universe, trusting that all Being was grounded in an Ultimate Mystery that was the creative, enlivening source of all that is. An Ultimate Mystery who is lifegiving, as seen in the cosmic drama that has been emerging with life to the point at which the human can trace the process of billions of years and stand in awe of it all, giving voice in praise and adoration. Emergence has become a key concept for me as I survey the whole cosmic drama - the gradual unfolding of the universe issuing, at this point in the process, in creatures such as we are. Emergence I understand as a model I create in place of the ancient Genesis story with its profound mythical story, and I propose emergence because I can hear all the data available from cosmology in its present state and see it as the emerging reality that has come to this point without feeling any threat to my religious being. In other words, I can receive the latest and best knowledge and then think about it religiously in terms of my biblical story. And here I find a fascinating point of connection. In John's Gospel the prologue begins In the beginning was the Word ... In Greek, "word" is logos, a philosophical term that points to the divine intention in Creation. The prologue reminds us of Genesis 1:1, In the beginning God... And then in verse 14, The word became flesh ..., a reference to Jesus as the human incarnation of the Divine Intention. Then in verse 18, an interesting statement, No one has ever seen God, followed by the claim that Jesus, the Word made flesh, has made God known. This, of course, is the Christian understanding of Jesus as the embodiment of God in human being - The Christian understanding of Incarnation. God become Human. Translating that into Emergence conceptuality, I would say that the cosmic process emanating from the Creative Source, the Ultimate Mystery, has evolved to a point where that Infinite Mystery emerged in human form. © Grand Valley State University �The Magnificent Vision of Shalom Richard A. Rhem Page 8   Stating it differently, the Infinite is now revealed in finite form - the human - and the human, in the image of the Infinite, is the emergent form of that Infinite Ground - thus, the deep yearning for God in the human being. This whole idea is given a further and profound development in the First Epistle of John, chapter 4. In verse 7, we are called to love one another because love is from God, and "God is love." Then the phrase from the Gospel, 1:18, is repeated, No one has ever seen God. But, then a significant development of the idea of incarnation is added: If we love one another, God lives in us, and God's love is perfected in us. A few lines later, the same claim is made. God is love, and those who abide in love abide in God, and God abides in them. If we put all this together, we have a theological model which is in harmony with an emerging cosmic drama whose Creative Source, God, is understood as Love and whose presence in the cosmos is experienced in human love, the human being the embodiment of the infinite creative Ground of Being. The cosmos becomes conscious in the human and love is the highest expression of cosmic reality - love that gathers all into harmony, the only possibility for Shalom, the ancient prophets' vision. And where do we see such love lived out? In our biblical story, we see it concretely come to expression in Jesus, in whom the cycle of violence was broken, who counseled, "Love your enemies," and whose non-violent resistance to imperial power and political expediency brought him to the violent death by crucifixion. Jesus, who was true to his own teaching as he died, prayed Father, forgive them for they know not what they are doing. Other religious traditions teach and encourage positive human values and contain profound insights, having guided generations in their respective "ways." I need not denigrate another tradition. I need not claim I have fully grasped the deepest insights of the biblical story, nor claim I have embodied the way, the truth and the life as it came to expression in Jesus. But, it is enough for me that that story, that life in which I have been nurtured, which I have preached, challenges, inspires and enables me to realize my full humanity. And I believe that in that “Way, Truth and Life” lies the hope for a human future - the realization of the vision of Shalom. References: Francis Crick. The Astonishing Hypothesis: The Scientific Search for the Soul, 1994. Scribner reprint edition, 1995. © 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 Summer Social Gathering Location The location of the interview Spring Lake Country Club References Francis Crick. The Astonishing Hypothesis: The Scientific Search for the Soul, 1994. Gary Dorrien. The Making of the American Liberal Theology, Vol. 2, 2003. 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-0-20060827 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2006-08-27 Title A name given to the resource The Magnificent Vision of Shalom Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Richard A. Rhem Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Subject The topic of the resource Clergy--Michigan Reformed Church in America Christ Community Church (Spring Lake, Mich.) Sermons Relation A related resource Richard A. Rhem - An Archive of Sermons, Prayers, Talks and Stories: http://richardrhem.org/ Language A language of the resource eng Type The nature or genre of the resource Text Description An account of the resource A sermon given by Richard A. Rhem (Dick) on August 27, 2006 entitled "The Magnificent Vision of Shalom", on the occasion of Summer Social Gathering, at Spring Lake Country Club . Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource application/pdf Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Lemmen Library and Archives God as Love Paradigm Shift PostModern Shalom