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Endless Love
From the series: Faces Around the Cross
Text: Matthew 27:55-56; Matthew 27:61
Richard A. Rhem
Christ Community Church
Spring Lake, Michigan
Palm Sunday, March 23, 1997
Transcription of the spoken sermon
The year was 1970, and the song by Tim Rice, "I Don't Know How to Love Him,"
with music by Andrew Lloyd Webber, was recorded. In 1971, Broadway was
rocking with Jesus Christ Superstar, the rock opera whose centerpiece was
perhaps that marvelous solo just sung so sensitively, "I Don't Know How to Love
Him," ... "I want him so, I love him so, he scares me so." It was the year that I
returned from Europe.
In the year 1960, in this congregation, I was ordained. You remember the 60s? I
don't remember the 60s because I was immune to them. I was inoculated against
all that was happening in the social upheaval of the 60s, a period of time in which
there were tremendous insights gained and great progress made in human
transformation and the transformation of society, an era from which we have also
reaped some bitter fruit.
The 60s - that revolutionary time whose real impact will have to be sifted and
sorted out for decades to come. But, I didn't live through the 60s; probably I was
too old to be a flower child. But, had I even been the right age, I wouldn't have
lived through it with any kind of depth or experience because I had been so
traditioned in the piety of a Jesus who was a heavenly being and, at best, a divine
intruder into this historical human scene. My Jesus, the Jesus of my nurture for
which I will be eternally grateful, was, nonetheless, not a Jesus that I would have
been able to recognize at all in the song of Mary Magdalene, for he was this
heavenly being who dipped down into history, coming in order to die to bear the
sin of the world, providing salvation only to return to the glory that was his with
the Father before all time. That was my Jesus. And so, I would have been well
insulated against the upheavals of the 60s and, as I returned here in 1971 and
Broadway was rocking with "Jesus Christ Superstar," I was conscious of the
criticism that was being fired at that rock opera, and yet in my own existential
journey, having come from Europe where I was beginning to learn a Christology
from below, I have to tell you, the words of that song got to me and I do believe
that song was the catalyst for a long trek from that heavenly being who was a
divine intruder to the flesh and blood Jesus who is my brother, one that I need
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not so much revere as one I could begin to love and honor, one before whom I
could stand in awe.
"I don't know how to love him," because, you see, there was that ethereal, eternal
dimension, that transcendent reality, that presence of God that was in him so
obviously, but he was my flesh and blood brother and I began to experience Lent
and Holy Week and Good Friday as never before, as though I had never
understood in the slightest what it was all about.
Mary Magdalene knew. She is the face upon which we focus this morning, our
final Face Around the Cross in this Lenten journey. Mary Magdalene, who really
didn't know how to love him, who loved him so, wanted him so, and was so
frightened at that which she was experiencing over against this one who was
every bit human in her presence and yet, something more that she couldn't quite
put together. Mary Magdalene is the most prominent woman in the New
Testament. She is the most prominent person in the Gospel story of the life of
Jesus. We read various references to her in the four Gospels. Luke tells us, in the
eighth chapter, that she was a part of those women who joined the disciple band
and was supportive of the disciples. Luke tells us that Jesus healed her, casting
out seven demons, in the terminology of that day. We read that she was with the
mother of Jesus at the cross. She was at a distance witnessing the burial, and she
was the first one to the tomb on Easter Sunday. There was something about Mary
Magdalene - the love and the devotion that comes to expression in the Gospel
that causes me to think that she understood the reality of endless love, a deep,
human, intimate love. It scared her so. She didn't know how to love him, but she
loved him so.
The story that we read in John's Gospel is the story of the anointing that
happened in Bethany outside of Jerusalem in preparation, as it were, for Palm
Sunday and the events of Holy Week that John would record in subsequent
chapters. In the Gospels, if you read all four of them, there are basically two
anointing stories. They may be reflections of one event, or there may be two
events. The details of both events are mixed up in the four stories. That isn't
important. We read in Luke 7 of another interesting anointing - a woman off the
street, a prostitute who barges into the Pharisee's home during a dinner party,
weeping over Jesus, her tears falling at his feet. She lets down the tresses of her
hair and wipes his feet, drying her tears. Jesus speaks to her a word of forgiveness
with those immortal words, "She has loved much, and the one who loves much is
forgiven much." Luke doesn't say that was Mary Magdalene. In John's Gospel,
the anointing before Holy Week, it's Mary, Martha and Lazarus' home, but it
doesn't say Mary Magdalene. That Mary may be Mary Magdalene, she may not be
- it doesn't really matter. This morning, I'm going to use Mary Magdalene
because she was the preeminent feminine presence in the Gospel story, and in
that act of anointing, she gave expression to the very central core of discipleship,
according to the Gospel of John. That kind of loving devotion, that kind of action,
that kind of extravagant expression of love gets the affirmation of John. He
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doesn't use the words that Mark uses, talking about the same incident, when
Mark says that Jesus said to the critics of Mary for this extravagance, "Leave her
alone. And I tell you wherever this Gospel is preached, this story will be told in
remembrance, in memorial of her." A strong affirmation of prodigal love, of an
extravagant expression of love, of tangible, concrete love, of the love of one
human being for another. Mary Magdalene - the most powerful feminine
presence in the Gospels, gives us the supreme expression of discipleship in this
act of extravagant love.
As we reflect on it this morning, I want to suggest a couple of thoughts that come
to me as I think about that scene, the anointing, that loving expression of Mary of
Magdala. In the first place, I want to have us recognize how uneasy we are with
that kind of wholesome expression of love. In the Church we do not handle well
that deep and intimate expression of love, one human being for another, and
when we find it even in the Gospel story, we hedge it in with all kinds of
safeguards.
The Church has done a great disservice to the world in our understanding of
human love in its full expression. Jesus Christ Superstar was protested by the
Church because, traditionally, we in the Church have been very, very tense about
the possibility of bringing him down, making him flesh and blood like the rest of
us. Even more recently, at the showing of the film based on the novel, The Last
Temptation of Christ, by a Greek author, people picketed outside the theaters,
saying it was blasphemous. In that scene in which the novelist, as an artist, tries
to get into the head and the mind and the being of Jesus - Jesus who, if he was
flesh of our flesh and bone of our bone, must have struggled with his vocation Jesus who, if he was really one of us, must have found his obedience only in the
wrestling with his true humanity. In that film, Mary Magdalene again plays that
role of a potential lover, maybe even wife or partner for life. In the Church we
have not wanted to deal with Jesus, a real human being, and all of the
implications of that human reality.
The big word for love in the New Testament is agape. When I learned about
agape in the seminary, it was a love that stems from the lover and flows out to
the one loved, but the one loved has no loveliness at all. There is no reason in the
one who is loved that he or she should be loved; it is simply the love that bubbles
up within the lover. This is the love of God. This is the word used in the New
Testament over and over again. I was so thankful this fall when Krister Stendahl
was here, who is no mean New Testament scholar himself, who said we have
misused and misunderstood agape. Agape love is love that esteems the other,
that finds that which is valuable in the other and, therefore, it is not simply the
outpouring of love from the lover falling upon one who has no reason at all to be
loved, but it is the esteeming of the other. But, nonetheless, that is only one word
in the Greek language for love.
© Grand Valley State University
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Another word is the word Eros, and you won't find Eros dealt with in the Church.
It is the Greek word from which we get the word erotic, and so you will
understand that we can't talk about that in the pulpit. But, actually, the meaning
of Eros is that yearning for the human person, it is that drive for union and that
drive for union within the human heart and soul is no different in its longing after
God than in its longing after the other. And there is no longing after God that
does not find expression and concrete experience apart from the loving of the
other.
Ah, there are a few special souls down through the centuries, mystics, we call
them, who got lost in some kind of ecstasy in contemplation of the divine in
splendid isolation. But, it doesn't work for most of us. Most of us need another,
another for whom the soul longs, whom the arms would embrace, the other body
that is the embodiment of the other which, in the experience thereof, brings with
it that dimension of the holy, the transcendent, so that in the horizontal
realization of union there is the experience of that vertical dimension of the one
who is in us and beyond us. We haven't done very well with that in the Church,
even though the Gospel story makes Mary Magdalene the most flesh and blood
woman in the Gospels, the preeminent feminine figure in the life of Jesus.
If you read the writings that come from the early Church fathers (and they were
fathers), you will be aghast, honestly. You will be aghast at the distortion of
human sexuality. Marriage is a compromise to the weakness and the lust of the
flesh. The brilliant Church Father, St. Augustine, even suggests that marriage is
for procreation without passion. Incredible! But that strain of asceticism, that
rejection of the body, that distortion of human sexuality has so permeated the life
of the Church that, in all honesty, there is probably no group of human beings
anywhere, in any other organization or society or institution who are more fouled
up in the handling of human sexuality than the Christian Church. We are scared
to death of it, and not without reason. It is so powerful. And in the 60s, when the
flower children threw off the oppression and brought about the revolution, they
also reaped the whirlwind and the tragedy that follows in the steps of the abuse of
that marvelous gift. But we have to be honest. Mary Magdalene said, "I don't
know how to love him. I want him so. I love him so. He scares me so." That is
more honest than anything you will read in any Church Father for 2000 years,
and probably more helpful in gaining an insight into Jesus Christ.
That brings me to my second comment, and that is that, if Mary Magdalene in
that intimate relationship, was moved off into the wings immediately in the Early
Church we can understand why. Isn't it remarkable that the preeminent feminine
presence is not heard of again? Instead, Mary, the mother of Jesus, is exalted to
the place of preeminence. Mary, the mother of Jesus, is mentioned at the
gathering on Pentecost. Mary, the mother of Jesus, becomes the feminine symbol
for the Church, and, for those of you who have some feeling for the Virgin Mary, I
don't mean to be disrespectful, but in all honesty, if it is a male-dominated clergy
that is setting up the ideal of the feminine, is it at all surprising that Mary
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Magdalene is removed out of the place she has in the Gospel and replaced by the
Virgin Mary who is marked by submission, passivity and obedience? And in the
Church still today the feminine is put down and there is injustice to a Mary
Magdalene and there is the exultation of the Virgin Mary who, in the Gospels,
gets an ambiguous press, who didn't really get it, who had to be distanced by her
own son. The Virgin Mary, for all of the femininity she brings into the divine and
into the godhead and all of that, all of the beauty of her intercession, her
openness to sinners - all of that which has been used positively and is
understandable - nonetheless, it is not the Mary of the Gospel. The Mary of the
Gospel is Mary Magdalene. Mary Magdalene is the model of discipleship. She was
the last at the cross; she was at the burial; she was there on Easter morning. It
was Mary Magdalene who in her expression knew the secret of endless love, and
it was because her life had been transformed and she loved him so, and she
wanted him so, and he scared her so. And it was that love, that endless love, that
has the affirmation of Jesus Christ.
Maybe we are about to turn a corner where we'll see not the domination of the
feminine, but the reciprocity and the mutuality of the masculine and the feminine
and the honoring of both and the honoring of the Eros that is the yearning within
us for union, in which union we experience something more - something more,
indeed - the presence of the Endless Lover.
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Richard A. Rhem Collection
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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.
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Clergy--Michigan
Reformed Church in America
Christ Community Church (Spring Lake, Mich.)
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Interfaith worship
Sermons
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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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Event
Palm Sunday
Series
Faces Around the Cross
Scripture Text
Matthew 27:55-56, Matthew 27:61
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Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI
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1997-03-23
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Endless Love
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Richard A. Rhem
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Grand Valley State University
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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/
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eng
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Text
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Description
An account of the resource
A sermon given by Richard A. Rhem (Dick) on March 23, 1997 entitled "Endless Love", as part of the series "Faces Around the Cross", on the occasion of Palm Sunday, at Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI. Scripture references: Matthew 27:55-56, Matthew 27:61.
Palm Sunday
Prodigal Love
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Love That Puts You Out of Control
The Nature of the Love of God
Micah 7:19; Luke 15:20
Richard A. Rhem
Christ Community Church
Spring Lake, Michigan
September 1, 1996
Transcription of the spoken sermon
The religious people were grumbling at the life and the action of Jesus. They were
grumbling because his attitude and his behavior were breaking down the lines
that they had drawn that indicated who was "in" and who was "out." His behavior
and his attitude embracing all, as the text says, receiving tax collectors and
sinners, was distressing to the religious establishment, because they had set up a
purity code so that everyone was clear on the rules. Those who were" in" knew
they were "in" and those who were "out" knew that they were "out." Those who
were "in," even if perhaps with some protestation of great humility, nonetheless
were effected with an almost inevitable self-righteous satisfaction, while those
who were "out" also received that message and considered themselves "out,"
unworthy. In the arrangement of that day in which the lines were clear, Jesus'
manner of receiving all sorts and conditions of humankind was terribly
confusing, and those who were in authority were afraid that there might be those
who were "out" who might attempt to come in. And so, in response to this
criticism, Jesus told three stories, and in telling these three stories, he was
seeking to create a window through which could be seen the amazing love of God.
These three stories have as their central thrust the nature of the love of God.
Now, as I have said often enough, we have failed to focus on the central thrust of
this parable as is indicated by the very name by which it is known - The Parable of
The Prodigal Son. It's not a parable about a prodigal son. It is a parable about the
love of God. It is a parable in which Jesus portrays a love divine, a love that
stands in sharp contrast to all human loves, a love that dumbfounds us and
confounds us because it is so strikingly in contrast to the love that we manifest in
family and in larger community. It is a love that causes us to catch our breath and
wonder if it can be true, and if indeed it is true, a love that certainly makes our
human society impossible.
Jesus, in this parable, was responding to his critics in order to justify his behavior
on the basis of his understanding of God, of the love of God, which, if I
understand the story correctly, was his understanding of the nature of reality that at the very heart of things, deep down at the core of things, there is a love
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such that it continues to cause us to stand in amazement. It is a love, I would
suggest, that puts us out of control. In saying that, what I mean is that it is a love
that causes us to loose our grip on the reins. It is a love that finally dissolves that
frantic grip on the reins of our life, because if there is anything that threatens us
as human beings, it is to be out of control. I don't care if you are wild and wicked
like the young one, or stiff and righteous like the older son, there is a
commonality that binds them together and, indeed, I believe, is a thread woven
through the fabric of the lives of all of us, and that is a desire to be in control.
"Don't surprise me."
Now, we have not only misnamed that parable, thereby missing the central focus
of Jesus' story, the love of the Father, but we have also, in its preaching, focused
where Jesus' focus was not. We have focused on that younger son and we have
(I'm talking about we preachers. I have been guilty of it in the past and I have
heard it preached this way often enough.), we have taken this marvelous story of
Jesus about the love of God, and made it a story about this younger son who went
off into the far country. Then we made some moralistic applications appealing to
youth not to kick over the traces, not to leave home, showing the dangers thereof
and the decadence that's at the end of that road. But, then, we come in with our
evangelistic appeal saying that the conversion point of the young son is when he
came to his senses. Have you ever heard it preached this way? He was in the far
country, he came to a deep misery, but thank God he came to himself, he came to
his senses.
Well, I want to suggest to you that's not a critical point at all, for that young rascal
was just as much in control in the far country, in the pigpen as he had been any
moment of his life. That young boy woke up to the fact that, while things were
boring back home, at least there was a bunkhouse with a bunk and three squares
a day, and he analyzed this situation in an ongoing, calculating human fashion
and said to himself, "You know, it may be boring there, but I'm very hungry
here." And so, simply adding up the pros and cons, coming to take account of
things, what does he do? He just sits down and says, "You know, I think it's better
at home." So, he goes home. He writes himself a speech, he memorizes it, he
rehearses it, and all the time he's still in control, still writing the script, throwing
in a little regret and remorse for effect. But, as a matter of fact, in coming to
himself, that's precisely what he came to - he came to himself and his ongoing
desire to survive and to make it with the reins still well intact in his own hands.
The young rascal was still in charge.
And it was true of the elder brother, as well. He may have been seething with
anger throughout all of the years of his responsible, faithful, diligent service to
the father. He may have done it all without joy. He may have grumbled and been
resentful underneath, but there's one thing about it - it was safe. He was in
control. He was his own person, miserable person that he was. I think that's so
characteristic of all of us, isn't it? Isn't maybe our greatest fear that we'll spin off
into free fall, that we'll lose control, that we'll lose our grip? Wouldn't we be
© Grand Valley State University
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Richard A. Rhem
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willing to do almost anything, go almost anywhere, bear almost any burden if at
least we could say we are in control? Isn't there something deep in the human
person that longs for that kind of autonomy? And again, it doesn't matter where
on the spectrum of human personality you fall. I find it in all of us. "Don't
surprise me. Let me write the script." Some risk a bit and pay the price. Some
play it safe and never play at all. But, depending on the personality type, the
commonality is the desire to be in control.
I'm suggesting that Jesus confronts us with the love of God that is the only thing
that can finally dissolve that tight rein with which we hold our lives in tow. It is
love that puts us out of control, and it is love that brings us into an arena of
vulnerability where we can relax and rest in the abyss of divine love.
Love is the only transforming agent in the world. Threat can keep us in line for a
bit. Fear can keep us somewhere down the straight and narrow. There are control
mechanisms by which we control one another, our families. The Church has been
heavily into control, thereby justifying everything that Freud has ever said about
the anger over against the father, the father complex, because the Church has
played the role of the stern parent.
Control. That's the name of the game. We try to control and we try to stay in
control.
That word is so common that I wondered where it came from, so I took my big,
fat dictionary and looked it up. It comes from the French language, made up of
two French words, neither of which I can pronounce. But, it means against the
role. And then I was reminded that when I travel through Europe, Germany for
example, go across the border or go into a bank or something, one sees this word,
Kontrol. And what that means is that you are checked against the role. Guard the
borders. Make sure nobody slips through. Check against the role. And we spend
so much of our time making sure we measure up against the role that there will
be no surprises for us, either. Control, that my life is checked off on the list.
Jesus gives us a picture of the love of God that absolutely decimates control,
dissolves that frantic effort to hold on that tight grip, allowing us for the first time
in our lives, once we taste it, to let go and to rest in the love of God. That's what
his critics didn't understand. They had made it very clear who was "in" and who
was "out," and those who were "out," as I said, considered themselves "out" and
had given up on themselves. And those who were "in" considered themselves "in,"
never understanding the fact that they could be totally alienated within, homeless
at home. Jesus was painting the picture of the love of God, which dissolves those
distinctions and transforms.
The young rascal came to himself, to his senses in the far country. But, that was
not the point of his conversion. It was the beginning of his movement toward
home, but he wasn't transformed until he allowed himself to be embraced by the
father, whose arms had never been anything but outstretched.
© Grand Valley State University
�Love That Puts You Out of Control
Richard A. Rhem
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Threat can control us. Fear can control us. Reason, less successfully, can control
us; but love alone can transform us. That's the love of God, and that is the
deepest reality of the cosmos, and that's what Jesus was trying to say as he
explained his action of welcoming all comers.
It's a powerful story, isn't it? Vivid story. The only drawback is that it's so
powerful and so vivid that we begin to think about God as the Divine Parent and
we forget that this is a parable and that the father figure is a symbol. God is
person but God is more than person. The father symbol must be seen through to
the larger reality. Jesus is not talking just about God as a Super-Parent; he's not
talking about God as one more person, be that person bigger than life. He is not
pointing to God as the CEO of the Universe. Jesus uses the symbol of the person
of the father in order that we may see through that symbol to the vast background
of reality, to that ground of all being. Jesus is trying to say, "Look! This is the way
things really are at the core." What Jesus was trying to convey is the fact that in
this brief life that we live, our three-score years and ten, or four-score years, or
less or more, in this brief human experience of ours, what we are struggling to
learn is what is true all the time - that we have come from love and that we move
toward love and that we are, in the meantime, embraced by love. We have come
from God and we will move to God and it is to God that we belong.
I think what Jesus was trying to say was that what the younger son was seeking
"out there" and the elder son missed at home was true for both of them all the
time. It was demonstrated in the non-accusing, non-condemning, nonquestioning, warm embrace of the father of the younger. It was expressed by the
father to the elder in the words, "My child, you are always with me. All I have is
yours." Jesus was saying to the religious leaders of his day, the guardians of
institutional religion, "My manner of life, what I am seeking to embody, is a
picture of the nature of reality, of the heart of God. And it is true for all, all the
time, always, for we have been created by love and we will move into the abyss of
love, and, in the meantime, we are loved, because that's the deepest truth, and
it's the only truth that can do for us the only thing that God really wants to do for
us and that is to transform us into those who catch a glimpse of being loved and
love in return.
I mentioned last week Henri Nouwen's marvelous meditation on Rembrandt's
painting of "The Return of the Prodigal," and how he had, at a point of his life
feeling so burned out, longing for home and yearning for the embrace of the
father, identified with the younger son, until a friend said to him, "Henri, you are
really the elder brother," and he had to say, "I am the elder brother, having done
it all right, all my life, and being a little resentful of it." And then sometime later
another friend said to him, as he was speaking about that painting that had
become such a part of his life, "All your life you've been one of the sons, whether
the younger or the elder. Don't you think it's time you moved into the role of the
father? All of your life you've been seeking recognition and friends and
accomplishments and proper performance - all of your life, Henri, all of your life
© Grand Valley State University
�Love That Puts You Out of Control
Richard A. Rhem
Page 5
you have been on a quest. Isn't it time that you simply accept the fact that you are
deeply loved in order that you may ask no quarter, but simply love in kind?"
We never love supremely, obviously; always partially, often half-heartedly. But,
isn't that really what God is about with us? If ever we could sense that the deep
underground is nothing but love, and from that we have arisen, and to that we
will return, and in that we can rest in the present. Ah! If we could taste it, I do
believe we could share it. And if we could taste it, we would be home, we could
create home. So, the deepest word of the Gospel is, "My children, come home."
© Grand Valley State University
�
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be0f115168b26c07092fd9572e268c37
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
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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
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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.
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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<a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a>
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English
Type
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Sound
Text
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KII-01
Coverage
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1981-2014
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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 XIV
Series
Prodigal Son Parable
Scripture Text
Micah 7:19, Luke 15:20
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/.
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KII-01_RA-0-19960901
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1996-09-01
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Love That Puts You Out of Control
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Richard A. Rhem
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Grand Valley State University
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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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Text
Sound
Format
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audio/mp3
application/pdf
Description
An account of the resource
A sermon given by Richard A. Rhem (Dick) on September 1, 1996 entitled "Love That Puts You Out of Control", as part of the series "Prodigal Son Parable", on the occasion of Pentecost XIV, at Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI. Scripture references: Micah 7:19, Luke 15:20.
Love at the core of reality
Nature of God
Prodigal Love
Transforming Love
-
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54a09586e19db8459ea6b76f27313c6a
PDF Text
Text
Take Care How You Kick Over the Traces
Scripture: Isaiah 1:1-6; Luke 15:11-16
Richard A. Rhem
Christ Community Church
Spring Lake, Michigan
August 18, 1996
Transcription of the spoken sermon
We're thinking, in these days, about organized religion, its institutional forms,
and last week I noted that it can be an oppressive and de-humanizing force in
one's life. Bad religion has destroyed a lot of people. But, we also noted its
importance, its critical importance, because religion is that which relates us to
that which is beyond us, and puts us in connection, in communion with God. So,
it's not a matter of ridding ourselves of religion, but it is a matter of
understanding religion's true function and what its true message really is.
I clipped an article from yesterday's Grand Rapids Press. The headline says,
"Church Attendance Reaches 20-Year Low." It's the research of a certain George
Barna who has written a number of things about the contemporary scene, at least
over the last decade, maybe two, and in this news report, he tells us that we have
perhaps been lulled to sleep by the fact that the percentage of people who attend
church has remained rather constant, but to remain constant in a growing
population is like feeling good about the fact that I'm still making just as much as
I made in 1960. The Church is losing ground and this article says that we are at a
20-year low. His comments about it reveal that all denominations, including
conservative Protestants, have grown slower; there's been a very large decline in
institutional religion. Young people especially are confused about morals and not
familiar with religious tradition, and the global youth culture has become
pluralistic and relativistic. I don't think anybody's doing much to help them sort
it out. And then the commentator said it's not just a phase they're going through.
There's less reason to say they'll come back when they never went in the first
place. The reserves of religious tradition are dwindling.
I believe that's true, and I believe that the frantic activity of much of the
institutional church is an attempt to stem a tide and not very successfully. A few
weeks ago in The New York Times Magazine, the magazine that's included in the
Sunday edition of the Times, there was a brief article on the Willow Creek Church
west of Chicago, which has become such a phenomenon in our day and has
spawned so many look-alike congregations called "seeker congregations." It's
been a very successful movement. But, the insight of the columnist in this
particular magazine article was that the truth is in the packaging. In other words,
© Grand Valley State University
�Take Care How You Kick Over Traces
Richard A. Rhem
Page 2
the success has been a success in marketing, and while marketing is not
unimportant, it is not what is ultimately important, for in this little article, a
representative of the Willow Creek Church said with some pride, "And we have
not changed one article of our belief."
And I want to say, "Shame on you." If you think you can take that old core and
not re-examine it and bring it to new expression in a new day and in a culture
that is radically changing all about us, if you think that you can take that old core
and simply dress it up and put it in a shiny package and sell it, the success will be
temporary because you have not dealt with the issue in depth. Good religion
needs to be very clear about the message it presents and about its function, which
is to be an agent, a means, not an end in itself. Good religion is a means to
enabling the people to come into communion with God and to experience God in
the depths of their being. The message is critical, and what is the message? The
message is that God is love.
Well, ho-hum, right? Haven't we always heard that God is love? But, I mean God
is love in the deepest biblical sense, the most radical sense of love, that which
came to expression in Israel in its best understanding. My text says that the "ox
knows its owner and the ass its master's crib, but Israel does not know; my
people does not consider." This is the portrait of God throughout the whole of
Hebrew scriptures, the God Whose hands are always outstretched, the God Who
pleads with God's people, the God Who never turns away but always beckons. In
this context, a little further along the chapter - "Come, let us reason together, says
the Lord. Though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be white as snow. Though
they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool." Farther on in that same
prophecy:
"Come, seek ye the Lord while he may be found. Call ye upon him while he
is near. Let the wicked forsake his way and the unrighteous one his
thoughts, and let him return to the Lord and he will have mercy upon him
and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon."
Throughout the whole of Israel there was this pleading note of a pleading God
with outstretched arms, waiting only to embrace the one who would return,
coming to one's senses, coming home.
But, of course, the consummate expression of it is in the parable of the Prodigal
Son, which is terribly misnamed. It's not a story of a prodigal son; it's not a story
of a son at all; it's the story of God, of a father, of an unquenchable love, of an
irresistible grace, of a love that is unconditional and irresistible in its appeal to
God's children. The context is important. It's the third of three stories. The first is
the shepherd who goes after the lost sheep. The second, the woman who searches
the house for a lost coin. And then this story of a father who had two sons.
Jesus was responding to the criticism of his life and ministry. In the opening of
the 15th chapter, those who represented institutional religion in the day of Jesus
© Grand Valley State University
�Take Care How You Kick Over Traces
Richard A. Rhem
Page 3
were grumbling. They were grumbling because they said he receives and eats with
sinners. And as you've heard me say many times, the mark of Jesus' ministry, the
way in which he embodied his message, was in the table fellowship that he
practiced. Even for us to break bread together, to sit at a meal together is an
expression of intimate friendship. But, in Jesus' day it was especially the case.
You did not break bread with that one who was not friend. You did not share a
meal with the outcast or the alien or the estranged. And in the temple religion of
the day with its code of holiness, it was very clear who was in and who was out.
There was a kind of exclusion practiced. And the reason that the temple
authorities were grumbling at Jesus was because Jesus went against the
conventional wisdom, he went against what everybody else was doing. He opened
his heart and he opened his table to all comers. No one was excluded. And that
was threatening to the institutional religion of the day, and they grumbled.
And so, as Jesus always did, he responded with a story: There was a father who
had two sons. There was a younger son who was a rebel who asked for his
inheritance early on and who left home and wasted his life, ending up in
decadence and despair. And there was an obedient son who followed the letter of
the law, but grudgingly so with a kind of inward resentment over against the
father that was as painful to the father as was the rebellion of the other. There
was a father who had two sons, both of whom broke the father's heart.
So, for two or three weeks, let's think about this old story. Maybe you say, "How
can you say anything new about that old story?" Well, I wonder myself, but let's
try. Let's focus primarily this morning on that younger son. For him to ask for his
inheritance and to leave home was a radical request that was unheard of. In his
culture, in Jesus' day, what he was really asking for was the death of his father.
He was cutting himself loose from his whole legacy, everything that was sacred
and holy, everything that was home. For in that day more than our own, a person
was identified by a father's house, by the village from which he stemmed. All of
his life, that was his identity. His total social security was in belonging to a house
and to a village and to a community. That's who he was. And so, the request of
this young man was a horrible request that implicated him in the wish for the
death of his father.
I don't know whether Sigmund Freud ever talked about this parable or not. I've
never seen a reference to it, but I think he could have done a lot with it because,
according to Freud, the origin of religion is in the wish for the death of the father
which then creates guilt which then needs atonement. I don't think Freud had it
all right by any means, but I wonder without reading Freud back into Jesus or
taking contemporary psychological insights that we do have from the behavioral
sciences and reading them into the parable, I wonder if Jesus was not essentially,
intuitively, instinctively understanding that there is within us that which would
leave home.
© Grand Valley State University
�Take Care How You Kick Over Traces
Richard A. Rhem
Page 4
As a matter of fact, I think the two sons are not two different sons; I think the two
sons live in all of us, whether it be two sons or two daughters, both reside in the
heart of each of us and there is in each of us that which would leave home, that
which would rebel, that which would cut loose. And I suspect that Jesus
understood that as an observer of human nature and human behavior. He didn't
need Freud to tell him about that; he didn't need our modern psychological
insights to know that. Truth and illumination were not born in the 20th century.
And if we walk around that for a moment, I wonder if Jesus was really
condemning that leaving of home altogether because we have learned, have we
not, that it's necessary to leave home. Now, in the maturation process of every
individual, is it not true that we must go through a process of individuation?
Must we not separate? Doesn't every parent want a son or a daughter to move
from under their roof and to find that kind of independence that will bring to
expression the fullness of that person?
I shake my head at how in earlier years I preached this parable and it's still being
preached that way all over the church, as though this is the parable of the
Prodigal Son and as though it is a warning to young people that there are great
dangers in loose living. That is to trivialize this story. As a matter of fact, aimless
freedom or autonomy, in this case, can lead to decadence and destruction.
There's no question about that. But, that's not what Jesus is talking about. Jesus
is talking about that within us that necessarily and normally and naturally must
find its own independent expression. And I think what Jesus is saying is that's a
very perilous journey. Well, it is a perilous journey, isn't it? Is there a parent
among us that doesn't hold their breath when our youth are going through that
process?
A few weeks ago my elderly sisters came up to visit Nancy after her surgery and
one of my sisters is here today, but I talk about my sisters once in a while because
they hear the tapes and they feel good just to know that I'm still thinking about
them, but my sisters were remarking about what a nice boy I was, what a nice
child, and the fact that as a youth I never brought any grief to my parents. The
years of adolescence when one ought to be separated, I just sort of lollygagged
along and didn't cause any particular concern, to which Nancy responded that
she sort of wished that I would have gone through my adolescence when I was
with my parents rather than with her.
I don't know whether we just go through our adolescence one time. I was
comforted hearing one psychologist speak one day who said for the male,
adolescence is from 17 to 47. But, as a matter of fact, folks, it is necessary for us to
move away from home in order that we can be at home with who we are, and it is
a perilous process. My sermon title this morning is, "Be Careful How You Kick
Over the Traces," because the pitfalls are many and potential disaster lies around
every corner, and there is no parent that has not had sleepless nights over a son
or a daughter who was struggling to find themselves. And it isn't just the
adolescents. Those of us who are old enough to have children and grandchildren
© Grand Valley State University
�Take Care How You Kick Over Traces
Richard A. Rhem
Page 5
know that there is never a time when our children get beyond the pale of our
concern and are not the subjects of our prayers. To be human isn't easy, and to
find that kind of independent expression of the fullness of our own person - that
doesn't come without some struggle and some serious mistakes and often some
pain and some dreadful hurt.
But, that's really enough about that younger son, because that's not the focus of
the story. As I said, the focus of the story is the father. That father in the story is a
window that Jesus offers us into the very heart of God, and if good religion is to
reflect accurately the nature of God, then it must listen to Jesus in this story,
because if the son's request is outrageous, then the father's response is incredible!
For, what does he do? He gives him the goods and lets him go. And that is the
point at which it is most difficult for us to emulate the behavior of God, this God
reflected in this story by Jesus. He loves him and lets him go and stands by the
side of the road, trembling, watching and waiting, hoping that this one will
return. That is the picture of a love that is unconditional. It is the story of a
relationship whose bonds are love with no other strings attached. And even those
of us who love our kids find that there are times when we get into a tug of war
and a battle of the wills and, love them as we may, our own egos do get involved.
There is a power struggle often before parents and child come to reconciliation
and peace. But, that's the amazing thing about the biblical nature of God - that
God loves and lets go and keeps arms outstretched, waiting for the free and uncoerced return.
This is where the Church has failed so miserably and not just the Church, but
institutional religion, period. For institutional religion moves into the role of
parent, not after the model of God, but after the model of the human parent, the
stern, demanding parent, the parent that, if Freud has any truth at all in him, is
the parent that we would kill, the parent that we must flee, the parent that we
rebel against. The Church becomes the upholder of virtue and of morals, the
guardian of society's values; the Church condemns and excludes, draws lines, and
to that extent conveys a distorted image of God and sets forth altogether the
wrong message, for that message is being rejected en masse! Institutional religion
is being left in droves because there is that within the human person that simply
will not remain in that position of childhood and servitude and, consequently,
God is dishonored through God's own people.
I said the message is God is love and you said, "Ho-hum, so what else is new?"
That is new, that God is that loving, that love is that unconditional, that love is
finally irresistible, that to the rebel, there is finally nothing against which to rebel!
There is no barrier that needs to be overcome; there is no seawall against which
to break one’s waves, for God stands with arms outstretched and the only thing
that can break the rebellion is a love in which there is no fight, and if I read this
story accurately at all, that's the amazing news of that which Jesus taught and in
his life embodied - that God is love, period.
© Grand Valley State University
�Take Care How You Kick Over Traces
Richard A. Rhem
Page 6
How do you fight love? When the son comes home, no questions are asked, no
condemnation is offered, just salty tears and arms that embrace. Because all that
God is ever about is to bring God's children home.
Years and years ago I read an old sermon illustration; it's about as musty as the
book in which it now resides. It's about a son who left home with brokenness with
his father and went out and got rid of all of the rebellion and came on hard times
and sent a letter to his father saying on such and such a day I will pass by the
house. If I would be welcome, tie a white handkerchief in the branch of the old
apple tree in the front yard. And as he approached the homestead with heart
pounding, he saw not a handkerchief tied in the apple tree. He saw hundreds of
white handkerchiefs tied to every branch of the apple tree, because finally, all the
divine parent wants is for you to come home. I invite you this morning, whether
you're young and rebellious or old and crotchety, why don't you come home?
Come on home.
© Grand Valley State University
�
https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/20040fa0f427ae2ec56ac12b2cd6cfe7.mp3
c62eb01261940b58ba78f89dff12a047
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
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<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 XII
Series
Prodigal Son Parable
Scripture Text
Isaiah 1:3, Luke 15:13
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-0-19960818
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1996-08-18
Title
A name given to the resource
Take Care How You Kick Over the Traces
Creator
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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 August 18, 1996 entitled "Take Care How You Kick Over the Traces", as part of the series "Prodigal Son Parable", on the occasion of Pentecost XII, at Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI. Scripture references: Isaiah 1:3, Luke 15:13.
God is Love
Inclusive Grace
Nature of Religion
Prodigal Love
-
https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/66689638c038fb05a52b2e36d75c1817.mp3
0bd179ec5d0198bc427eae15caf5f41d
https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/4ed37bf385612b275fd264f70df0ff75.pdf
d68adf7d0542ab08d569b7996888c2fd
PDF Text
Text
The Gift of Life; The Life of Grace
Text: Luke 15
Richard A. Rhem
Christ Community Church
Spring Lake, Michigan
Pentecost VIII, July 22, 2001
Transcription of the spoken sermon
Life is a gift. The Psalmist knew that. The old, familiar 100th Psalm says we are
the creatures of God's hand, God has made us, not we ourselves. Life is given. We
are the recipients of that miracle, and a miracle it is, really. A sperm and an ovum
unite and there potentially is a human being. The human genome project is
mapping out the genetic mysteries of the human being and it is far beyond my
understanding, but, in any case, when we think of life, when we think of birth, we
say it is a miracle, and it is a miracle in the best sense of the word, for miracle is
not some event that goes contrary to the processes of nature, but rather, it is that
wonderful, awesome consequence of nature itself when it is functioning
according to its intention. Life is a gift and life is a miracle.
It is almost impossible these days for a pastor to make a hospital call on a new
mother, but it used to be one of my favorite calls to make. Today, by the time we
hear of the birth, the mother is out of the hospital, hopefully with a baby in tow.
But, formerly, there were a few days of grace and it was always marvelous to
make that call. There were tears and there was joy, such a wonderful experience.
My favorite text was Psalm 34, verse three, which must have been in Mary's mind
when she sang The Magnificat, "O magnify the Lord with me and let us exalt
God's name together," because in the face of the gift of life, in the face of a birth,
we know we are in the face of a wonderful miracle. I think that when my own
children were born, I was somewhat in a fog, not fully aware, lacking wisdom and
experience to stand in adequate awe. I wonder if it may be that God gives us
children before we are wise enough and have experience enough fully to
appreciate the awesomeness of it. Perhaps when we get that experience and
wisdom, we'd be so scared, we wouldn't have them in the first place. As
grandparents, at least we have a second chance to enter into that with our own
children if God is gracious to us.
I can remember as though it were yesterday four years ago this past Friday.
Nancy was entertaining some of her friends on our deck. They were having a
luncheon, as I remember, and she received a call from her son-in-law that our
daughter was on her way to the delivery room, and with uncharacteristic
irresponsibility, she left her guests at lunch. They could continue to eat if they
© Grand Valley State University
�The Gift of Life; The Life of Grace
Richard A. Rhem
Page 2
would. They could clean up if they were helpful, but she wouldn't care. She was
on her way to the hospital.
And so it is - the gift of life. Life is a gift, and when we stand in its presence, we
know miracle. It would be wonderful, we often say, if we could only keep them
little. Not really, of course. And yet, they do grow up, and in order to become
adults, they have to go through adolescence and then there comes that moment
when we have to let go, when we have done all we can do, when we have prayed
for them and nurtured them and shaped them and formed them as best we can,
given as much wise counsel as we can. But, with fear and trepidation, there comes
that moment when we have to let go. Then it is that life becomes a choice. It
becomes a choice for them. What will they do with this miracle of life that is
offered as gift?
In the story that Jesus told which is called the Story of the Prodigal Son, it could
well be called the story of a father's unrelenting love. But, interestingly, in the
very beginning of the story we learn that when the young son came and asked for
his inheritance, lacking all propriety and wisdom, the father let him go. There was
wisdom in that. All of us, I suppose, at one time or another have cajoled, we have
pled, we have bribed, perhaps. But, we know that there is a limit. There is a time
to let go.
Then the choice belongs to those who have grown up under our sheltering wings,
for it is time for them to try their own wings. The younger son wanted his
inheritance and he took off, and Jesus said he squandered his property on
dissolute living. Just what the details of that were is totally unimportant. The fact
is that he just thought it would be a party forever. He didn't realize that there
could be a turndown in the stock market. Suddenly he found himself in dire
straits.
Well, you know the story well. A significant little phrase has it that "he came to
himself." He came to himself. He had made a choice and it was a rather
disastrous choice. But, all of us have the privilege of one or two of those. Thank
God he came to himself, and he began to calculate a bit and then he said, "I will
arise and go to my father," because what he really wanted was a bunk and
breakfast. Or, maybe a bunk and three square meals. We get to the bottom of the
heap sometimes and we get desperate and we need the common, ordinary things.
He was remembering the parents' home, its civility and its dignity and its
adequate provision, and so he arose and went to his father without any sense at
all that there was not a day since he had left that the father's heart had not been
wrenched and that the father had not looked longingly down the road if
perchance he might see some indication of a returning boy.
Well, he wasn't home yet. He wasn't even totally changed and transformed at this
point. He was still calculating a bit He was still figuring how he could make it on
his own with a little help. And so, he had a well-crafted speech that he was going
to give to his father. He had memorized that speech and said it over and over all
© Grand Valley State University
�The Gift of Life; The Life of Grace
Richard A. Rhem
Page 3
the way from the far country, only to be interrupted by the father's running to
him, embracing him, kissing him, the father's heart breaking over him, and the
father's love breaking his heart And then, finally, he was home, for he had had an
experience of an overwhelming grace. No more calculation. No more selfjustification. No more rationalization. Just home in the father's arms. Rembrandt
has captured it magnificently in oil on canvas, 'The Return of the Prodigal." He
was home. Grace transformed him.
But, it isn't only the far country that beckons those who come to years of
responsibility and have to choose. There are those who dwell in the far country,
even though it's only the back forty, those who never leave home, but have never
been home. Those who are responsible and faithful and dependable who never
kick over the traces or kick up their heels. Those who are righteous to a fault. In
the parable, the elder brother who was such a person, coming in from the fields,
hears the music and dancing and catches a whiff of the fatted calf roasting on the
spit, and like the eruption of Mt Etna, all of his anger and resentment and
hostility break forth. He had been faithful and responsible every day of his life,
and he had hated every minute of it. He had not followed his younger brother's
example, maybe because he lacked imagination or courage or whatever. But the
reason that we cannot applaud him for his faithfulness and his righteousness is
his self-righteousness, and the fact that there was no joy or spontaneity in his life.
What he did, he did as onerous duty and heavy responsibility, and the resentment
continued to build up until the moment of the party, of the joy, of the
spontaneous bursting forth of life watered richly with grace. And then, in total
alienation, he left the home, the home of which he had never really been a part.
Life is a gift, and then becomes a choice. We have to remember why Jesus told
this story. Luke tells us in the opening of the 15th chapter that it was because he
was receiving criticism because of his table fellowship, because of the people with
whom he consorted, because he was open to ail sorts and conditions of
humankind, because he didn't make distinctions between clean and unclean,
righteous and unrighteous, godly and godless. And he didn't do that because
Jesus saw more deeply into the human soul than most of us. Jesus saw the
turmoil there; Jesus saw the hurt and the pain, he saw the fear and the wonder
there, and he knew that all of the negativity sometimes takes over a human soul, a
reaction, a very clear response to a multitude of life experiences.
But Jesus never lost sight of the fact, as he looked into the depths of every human
being, that there was a child of God, and so, with open arms, with an open
invitation to the table, with an embrace, with a spirit and an attitude that was
totally opposite of any kind of exclusion or ruling out, Jesus was able, as the
father in the parable, to transform human beings, to give them an image of God
as the God full of grace who creates every new possibility.
Here we are this morning, gathered in community in worship. What an
interesting story it would be if all of our tales could be told. Some of us have been
© Grand Valley State University
�The Gift of Life; The Life of Grace
Richard A. Rhem
Page 4
here forever and some of us have returned somewhat recently. Some of us are full
of grace and some of us are still not sure, and the message this morning is that
grace creates the possibility for new beginnings, for new possibilities. There is
always the opportunity to choose again and to be born and to be born again, for
finally, the only thing that God desires for us is that we come home and that we
rest in the grace symbolized in the arms of the father as we are washed with tears
and made clean. If only we would come home, we would learn to sing, to sing a
simple song.
© 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
Pentecost VIII
Scripture Text
Luke 15
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-0-20010722
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2001-07-22
Title
A name given to the resource
The Gift of Life, The Life of Grace
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 22, 2001 entitled "The Gift of Life, The Life of Grace", on the occasion of Pentecost VIII. Scripture references: Luke 15.
Inclusive
Life
Miracle
Pentecost
Prodigal Love
Transforming Grace