1 24 12 https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/09bc57f989035914c584330e132eafc6.pdf 8098a707555493ff3e2f258bafd53c2f PDF Text Text Is Religion Really Escape From Life? From the series: Tough Questions: No Easy Answers Scripture: Jeremiah 45:5; John 12:20-28 Richard A. Rhem Christ Community Church Spring Lake, Michigan July 27, 1997 Transcription of the spoken sermon A question I often ask myself as a pastor, a teacher of this religious community, is whether I am an agent of human wholeness or of human weakness. Do I enable my people better to face life and cope with reality as I understand it, or, do I shield and shelter you from life and reality, perpetuating beliefs and ideas that are really at odds with what I believe to be true about the universe, the human experience and the nature of religion? We are considering tough questions for which there are no easy answers and in this sermon I raise the question whether religion is really an escape from life. By that, I mean whether our religious belief and practice may be an expression of human fear and weakness in the face of the reality of our human experience and, further, whether perhaps religion’s focus on another world and a hereafter becomes a detriment to the full engagement with and celebration of this world and this life. As we saw last week, religion is a universal human phenomenon; the study of the human species from the most highly developed societies to the most remote and primitive, manifests religious belief and practice of one sort or another. That is because religion’s origin lies in the core questions that reside in the human consciousness. At some point in the cosmic evolutionary development of billions of years, the energy of the Big Bang coalesced into inorganic matter that, over the stretch of billions of years, evolved into organic or living matter. The development eventuated in living matter, in the case of animal life, coming to consciousness. Self-consciousness, awareness of oneself and of the other. With selfconsciousness dawned the realization that death is universal; the human creature recognized the fact of mortality and the presence of suffering, anguish, questions that cannot be repressed finally, questions about the meaning of existence. It is out of such deep questions that religions arise in the multi forms of their manifestations. © Grand Valley State University   �Religion Escape from Life? Richard A. Rhem Page 2   Our focus last week was on the question at the core - What Lies Beyond Death’s Veil? I suggested that perhaps that was the core question of the core questions about human existence. There is, however, an equally anguishing question – the more human existence came under thoughtful scrutiny, and cumulative human experience became available for reflection – and that is the question of human suffering. Let me make it concrete; we need no long treatise on the mystery of suffering and how suffering defies meaning and reduces us to numb silence. Late Friday evening I was called and responded by making a midnight run to Grand Rapids, Butterworth Hospital, The Children’s Unit. Five-year-old Lydia Hatton had been brought in in order to try to bring excruciating pain under control. For 16 months she and her parents, Brett and Carla, have carried on a fierce battle against the killer cancer that refuses to be stymied and defeated. The child is beautiful, brilliant, adorable. And the child’s body is racked with pain. And the child is dying. A child. Wide awake at midnight, she counted to 100 for me. No stone has been left unturned to find a cure and health for Lydia. The suffering increases as the end approaches. What does one say to Brett and Carla? One best not say anything; I told them I have nothing to say. I was there simply to hug them and hold them as we wept together. Certainly, death consciously confronted raised the questions that gave rise to religion. And, perhaps, even more for us, who have become aware of the full scope of the human drama, suffering drives us to the questions of meaning and meaninglessness. Religion has been throughout human history the means by which, through which, people have responded to the reality of death and the painful aspects of life. Religion has provided a teaching, a cultic form for worship, and a way to live, or a moral code. Until the 18th century, God’s existence was taken for granted, however God might have been conceived. Worship, through cultic action, sacrifice, penance and prayer, was the means to gain favor, be in harmony with, appease or cajole the deity, thereby preserving life and securing blessing. Thus, fear, suffering, a sense of vulnerability and weakness before powers and forces beyond a person’s control were the origin of ritual, sacrifice and prayer - the ingredients of religion. Ludwig Feuerbach, to whom I referred last week as the source of the projection theory that led to the whole development of modern atheism, saw God as a human invention. This is what he meant by projection. Feuerbach claimed that religion is fundamentally a product of human instinct for self-preservation, of human egoism. The person projects an objective Being as real beyond him or herself and that Being possesses the powers, desires and wishes in ideological © Grand Valley State University �Religion Escape from Life? Richard A. Rhem Page 3   form which the human being finds in him or herself. The person then worships this transcendent Being, which is only one’s own idealized self. In weakness, the person depends on this supernatural being of their own construction. Feuerbach claimed, "What man wishes to be, he makes his God." Consequently, the idea of God is nothing but human fantasy born out of desire for this perfect being to exist in order to be leaned on in the midst of life’s trials, suffering and uncertainties. This, Feuerbach claimed, cultivated weakness in humankind. Rather than celebrating humanity in its infinite spirit, we worship a perfect being "out there" and miss the grandeur of this world. He saw it as his task, a task given even more radical expression by Karl Marx, to turn the attention of the human species from God to the human, from heaven to earth, from the hereafter to the here and now. In his critique of Feuerbach, Hans Küng in Does God Exist?, begins by recognizing much truth in Feuerbach’s description of religion and the role it plays in human experience. The evidence of religion as a human security blanket, as a buffer against the darkness, the pain and the suffering of human experience is too obvious to question. In the wake of the emergence of modern atheism, scholars from various fields have expressed the implication of a heaven devoid of God and an earth devoid of heaven. Eric Fromm in Man for Himself, has written, There is only one solution to his problem: to face the truth, to acknowledge his fundamental aloneness in a universe indifferent to his fate, to recognize that there is no power transcending him which can solve his problem for him. The biologist Jacques Monod, in his Nobel prize winning work, Chance and Necessity, declares, If he accepts this (negative) message in its full significance, man must at last wake out of his millenary dream and discover his total solitude, his fundamental isolation. He must realize that, like a gypsy, he lives on the boundary of an alien world; a world that is deaf to his music, and as indifferent to his hopes as it is to his sufferings or his crimes. (p. 160) Such expression of the consequence of the development of modern atheism has a chilling effect, but it does point out a major function that religion has performed in the human story. Fearful of being alone, of being powerless, a pawn of arbitrary and capricious cosmic forces, the creature come to consciousness devises a means by which to tame the powers, to appease an offended deity, to gain favor and blessing. No one surveying the human story and aware of the function of religion can deny that there is much truth in such an analysis. Before we rise up in protest and accuse those who have come to such a conclusion of godlessness and wickedness, we would do better to take seriously the critique, to recognize the validity of this description of religion’s role in the history of the race. © Grand Valley State University �Religion Escape from Life? Richard A. Rhem Page 4   Having done that with as much candor as we can summon, we might then go on to inquire whether, having analyzed religion thus, that is all there is to say, or might there be something more? That religion can be used to deny the darkness and escape life’s harsh edge, to project to the future what is longed for and missed in the present, cannot be denied. To the question, "Is Religion really an escape from life," one can only answer - all too often. That religion as a human structure in its wide variety of forms is a coping mechanism for conscious creatures quaking before threat and loss is too obvious to deny. I have no argument with Feuerbach or Marx or Freud or Nietzsche on that score. To the degree that religion has, consequently, debased the person and dehumanized people, causing them to remain in infancy and adolescence rather than growing to maturity, taking responsibility for their lives and their world, working at transformation and the movement toward Spirit and shalom, I, too, would criticize it and distance myself from it. But, this I would claim against those who say Religion is nothing more than escape - might religion be universal not simply because of the universality of human death and suffering that has spawned its presence, but because of a response to an encounter from beyond or from the depths? Might not the human creature in his or her consciousness be aware of an inner dialogue with "Something" or "Someone," a dialogue in which the first word issues from the other side? And is there not evidence that religion has been not only a coping structure to keep the darkness at bay, but also a divine imperative to speak some word, to act out some conviction no matter what the price? Has not religion also been a force for transformation of society, challenging established orders that have become demonic and oppressive. I think of Dietrich Bonhoeffer, certainly one of the great human spirits of this century who was martyred 52 years ago as the Second World War was ending - a victim of the darkness spread by Hitler and the Nazi regime. He saw the underside of religion. He saw how religion appealed to human weakness. He saw how its institutional forms could be coopted by political power and how the religious institution sought to perpetuate itself by addressing the human being at his or her weakest point. I’ve included in the liturgy some citations from his Letters and Papers from Prison. But, one cannot read that spiritual testament without recognizing that it was precisely his spiritual center that enabled him to throw himself into the conflict, to risk and finally offer up his life in the cause of humanity which is, he believed, the cause of God. It was from Bonhoeffer that I learned of Jeremiah 45. In his thin volume there are over a hundred scripture citations, but five times he refers to Jeremiah 45. Obviously, it became for him a key life text. © Grand Valley State University �Religion Escape from Life? Richard A. Rhem Page 5   Jeremiah’s secretary, Baruch, who recorded Jeremiah’s words, was in despair. When Babylon carried off the exiles, they left some Jews in the land, among them Jeremiah and Baruch. But now those who remained were going to flee to Egypt for protection. Jeremiah spoke against it, but was forced, nonetheless, to go along and it was true also for Baruch. In chapter 45, Baruch cries out in weariness and despair. God’s word comes to him through the prophet You sought great things for yourself. Seek not your advantage. Be true to your risky faith; ask no more. But, there is a promise I will give you your life. You will survive. Or, at least that for which you stand, that for which you have stood up - that vision, that truth - that will survive. Jeremiah’s life was taken in Egypt. Bonhoeffer’s life was taken by the Nazis. But, they lived, true to their vision. That is to live. And what shall we say of Jesus? As the crisis broke upon him, in the phrase of John’s gospel, "The hour," he said, What should I say? Father, save me from this hour? No, it is for this reason that I have come to this hour. Father, glorify your name. Is religion really escape from life? Much religion much of the time is just that. But, that is not its truest, highest function. It can also be response to a word, a call from beyond, from the depths to commit oneself to an alternative vision. Sometimes, like Jesus and Jeremiah and Bonhoeffer, we are caught in the dismantling phase - to tear down and pluck up, to use Jeremiah’s call; sometimes we may die in the darkness with the exhaustion of Baruch, the dereliction of Jesus, "My God, why ..." But, if some truth has grasped us, some vision possessed us, then to be true to that vision, that word is to find life by losing life. Such religious passion is not escape; it is rather the catalyst to engagement with life - and that is the only life worth living. © Grand Valley State University � https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/ea7c5d5d927d588cb1c6ffc2439821b9.mp3 1207256c35e74632d0902a333b131287 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 X Series Tough Questions: No Easy Answers Scripture Text Jeremiah 45:5, John 12:20-28 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-0-19970727 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1997-07-27 Title A name given to the resource Is Religion Really Escape from Life? 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 July 27, 1997 entitled "Is Religion Really Escape from Life?", as part of the series "Tough Questions: No Easy Answers", on the occasion of Pentecost X, at Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI. Scripture references: Jeremiah 45:5, John 12:20-28. Nature of Religion Suffering Transformative Love https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/b8a909cba54403e49ab4d428189c33ea.pdf cd619248d14037223dca58b02bbc86d4 PDF Text Text Praying To An Absent God Article by Richard A. Rhem Minister of Preaching and Theological Inquiry Christ Community Church Spring Lake, Michigan Published in The Church Herald The Magazine of the Reformed Church in America January 1987, pp. 9-11 It is painful to pray to an absent God; most of us have felt that pain at some time in our lives. One feels alone, cut off; no answer comes and no light penetrates the thick darkness; it is the winter of the soul and one fears the killing snows will never pass. The Psalms are replete with expressions of lament and plea, of complaint and pathetic cry. They are expressions of deep human feeling and experience, the anguish of the soul and longing of the heart. Jesus found articulation of the desolation and horror, of the aloneness, the forsakenness that he experienced in crucifixion by reciting a Psalm. His piercing cry of excruciating pain, “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?” comes from Psalm 22. It has been understood as the expression of ultimate aloneness and dereliction, and it is that. Yet, those chilling words are not the whole Psalm. To be sure, there are few more poignant expressions of pain anywhere than Psalm 22. However, some biblical expositors suggest that what has come to us as a word from the cross was part of a recitation of the Psalm by Jesus. In the depths of anguish, he reached for the Psalmist’s expression by which to give utterance to what he was experiencing, but he most likely recited the Psalm to its end and it ends in an expression of trust. Light has broken through, the darkness is scattered, praise returns to the Psalmist’s heart. Thus, the recitation was perhaps the consummate act of trust by Jesus. That is the way it is in the rich and varied outpouring of spiritual life that we find in the Psalms. Lament, plea, complaint, even angry challenge to God are common, but before the Psalm is concluded, some resolution has been experienced, a sense of being heard and helped is declared and praise ensues. That is the way it is in all cases save one; Psalm 88 is a cry in the darkness and the Psalm ends with thick darkness still enveloping the Psalmist’s soul. There is no lightening of the burden, no assuaging of the pain, no sense of being heard, no © Grand Valley State University   �Praying To An Absent God Richard A. Rhem Page 2   promise of healing. Psalm 88 is a bitter cry to an absent God and the soul finds no relief. O Lord, my God, by day I call for help, by night I cry aloud in Thy presence. But no help is found; I ... have become like a man beyond help, like a man who lies dead... Still the Psalmist persists; I have called upon thee, 0 Lord, every day and spread out my hands in prayer to thee. … But, Lord, I cry to thee, my prayer comes before thee in the morning. Why hast thou cast me off, 0 Lord, why dost thou hide thy face from me? The Psalm ends with these pathetic words; Thou hast taken lover and friend far from me, and parted me from my companions. The mystery of suffering prevails; no shaft of light breaks the grip of darkness. Thunderous silence is heaven’s mute reply; prayer is raised to no avail, for God is absent. Leaf through the Psalter; see if Psalm 88 is not unique in that no final resolution is found, no word of hope offered, no sense of grace expressed. It stands alone; still it has found a place in Israel’s hymnbook. It is not familiar; it would not be on anyone’s “best-loved” list. Yet, within the rich variety of spiritual expression in the Psalms, its voice is heard. Then perhaps we should “hear” it. There is a temptation to limit our devotional reading to a few selected favorites. And there are so many inspiring, uplifting passages of Scripture, why pause to consider this painful cry? One would seldom find this text listed for Sunday morning’s message; its positive possibilities are severely limited. Who wants to come to church to hear of the agony of praying to an absent God? Perhaps we should simply cut this Psalm out of the collection; in fact, by our selective usage, that is precisely what we have done. Why stop to consider Psalm 88, then? Because life is like that even though it is threatening to our traditional piety to admit it, even though the fact is rarely mentioned in church. But life for many is like that; for some all the time, and for all, some of the time. The experience of praying to an absent God is a not uncommon experience even though we do not speak much of it. Honesty demands that we acknowledge that © Grand Valley State University �Praying To An Absent God Richard A. Rhem Page 3   even for the child of God there are periods of pain that know no relief, times of deep darkness when no ray of light brings comfort. In The Message of the Psalms, Walter Brueggemann speaks of Psalm 88 as leaving us “lingering in the unresolve, dangling in the depth of the pit without any explicit sign of rescue.” He goes on to assert, That is an important statement to have in the repertoire, precisely because life is like that. Faith does not always resolve life. There is not for every personal crisis of disorientation a way out, if only we can press the right button. Too much pastoral action is inclined and tempted to resolve things, no matter how the situation really is. Faith is treated like the great answer book. (p. 78) Sometimes when the way is hard and bitter and God seems deaf to our urgent appeal, we are made to feel that the problem must be with us - our sin and guilt, our feeble faith or faint devotion. It must be me; no aspersion must be cast on God. Clichés trip lightly over the tongues of the untroubled, assured in their safe tranquility that if there is a communication blackout, the problem lies not on the side of deity. Thereby we often add to the sufferer’s burden of alienation a load of guilt, undercutting perhaps the last vestige of self-confidence and self-worth. Not so Psalm 88 and that is why it is so important that it has found place in the Psalter. Brueggemann writes, Psalm 88 is adamant in its insistence, and it is harsh on Yahweh’s unresponsiveness. The truth of this Psalm is that Israel lives in a world where there is no answer. We are not offered any speculative answer... The Psalm is not interested in any theological reason Yahweh may have. The Psalm is from Israel’s side. It engages in no speculation. It asks no theological question. It simply reports on how it is to be a partner of Yahweh in Yahweh’s inexplicable absence. (p. 78F) We have not done well with inexplicable absence, with unanswered questions, with a silent God. To that extent we have not always been honest with human experience or honest with God and we have not joined in solidarity with the pain of the wounded ones. We are nervous before the mystery of suffering. We want to be in control, to manage the situation, to bring a cure; but sometimes we can only be present to the pain and wait in silence. In his meditation, Out of Solitude, Henri Nouwen writes of the ministry of Jesus. He points out, © Grand Valley State University �Praying To An Absent God Richard A. Rhem Page 4   What we see, and like to see, is cure and change. But what we do not see and do not want to see is care, the participation in the pain, the solidarity in suffering, the sharing in the experience of brokenness. And still, cure without care is as dehumanizing as a gift given with a cold heart. (p. 31F) The persons who mean the most to us, Nouwen contends, are the ones who can be silent with us in moments of despair, who will stay with us in an hour of grief, who can tolerate not-knowing, not-curing, not-healing and face with us the reality of our powerlessness. (p. 34) That, insists Nouwen, is the person who cares. But our tendency is to run from painful realities, to try to change them. We are more comfortable as rulers, controllers, manipulators, but sometimes the human circumstance will not yield to the “quick fix.” Such “cure” without care is violent and insensitive; it leaves the suffering one even more alone in her pain. Nouwen condemns the preachers who reduce mysteries to problems and offer Band-Aid-type solutions. It is only out of compassionate solidarity with the one suffering that healing comes forth. Those who do not run away from our pains but touch them with compassion bring healing and new strength. The paradox indeed is that the beginning of healing is in the solidarity with the pain. (Reaching Out, p. 43) When there are no answers, when pain will not be alleviated, it just may be that the only comfort would be the comfort of such a word as Psalm 88 that acknowledges the pain that knows no healing. According to Brueggemann, ... The speaker is shunned and in darkness. The last word in the Psalm is darkness. The last word is darkness. The last theological word is darkness. Nothing works. Nothing is changed. Nothing is resolved. All things deny life. And worst of all is the “shunning.” (p. 80) Brueggemann raises the obvious question, “So, what is one to do about it?” The answer he gives is, “Wait.” That, he says, is what Israel has been doing for a long time. Wait or speak it again; keep on crying out. One has two options: either to wait in silence, or to speak it again. What one may not do is to rush to an easier Psalm, or to give up on Yahweh. (p. 80) Why does this Psalm appear in the Bible? As stated above, life is like that and the Bible addresses life - all of life, not just the pleasant parts. But beyond that, this is not a psalm of mute depression. It is still speech, speech addressed to God. © Grand Valley State University �Praying To An Absent God Richard A. Rhem Page 5   In the bottom of the Pit, Israel still knows it has to do with Yahweh. (p. 80) Sometimes God’s presence is most poignant precisely in the absence. Jesus cried, “My God, my God, why are you absent?” and paradoxically, that is the time and place of God’s nearness, of the ultimate expression of his love. When there is no answer, when one wearies of speech, then it is that one can only wait; but that word found frequently in the Psalms is not simply passive resignation, but rather “hoping intensely.” Sometimes one can only hope intensely in the darkness, conscious of a presence in the absence. Psalm 88 is not scripture’s only word, nor is it the last word. But in some situations of human suffering it may be the only word that can evoke any resonance in the anguished soul. We must have enough trust in the good and gracious God to let that word come to expression, to stay with it and let it be the present word of the God who is currently known only as absence. To wait in such a time of not-knowing and non-healing is the most helpful support that the sufferer can receive and the most caring ministry another can offer. Within history there is not always resolution; beyond history there is resurrection. Thanks be to God! References: Walter Brueggemann. The Message of the Psalms. Minneapolis: Augsburg, 1984. Henri Nouwen. Out of Solitude. Notre Dame: Ave Maria Press, 1974. Henri Nouwen. Reaching Out. Garden City: Doubleday and Co., Inc., 1975. © Grand Valley State University � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Richard A. Rhem Collection Description An account of the resource Text and sound recordings of the sermons, prayers, services, and articles of Richard Rhem, pastor emeritus of Christ Community Church in Spring Lake, Michigan, where he served for 37 years. Starting in the mid 1980's, Rhem began to question some of the traditional Christian dogma that he had been espousing from the pulpit. That questioning was a first step in a long and interesting spiritual journey, one that he openly shared with his congregation. His journey is important, in part because it is reflective of the questioning, the yearnings, and the gradual revision of beliefs that many persons in this part of the century have experienced and continue to experience. It is important also because of the affirming and inclusive way his questioning was done and his thinking evolved. His sermons and other written and spoken materials together document the steps in his journey as it took a turn in 1985, yet continued to revolve around the framework and liturgies of the Christian calendar. Subject The topic of the resource Clergy--Michigan Reformed Church in America Christ Community Church (Spring Lake, Mich.) Religion Interfaith worship Sermons Sound Recordings Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Rhem, Richard A. Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/514">Richard A. Rhem papers (KII-01)</a> Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives. Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Kaufman Interfaith Institute Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Language A language of the resource English Type The nature or genre of the resource Sound Text Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context KII-01 Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant 1981-2014 Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource audio/mp3 text/pdf Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. References Walter Brueggemann, The Message of the Psalms, 1984, Henri Nouwen, Out of Solitude, 1974, Reaching Out, 1975 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context RA-4-19870116 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1987-01-16 Type The nature or genre of the resource Text Title A name given to the resource Praying to an Absent God Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available The Church School Herald Journal Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Richard A. Rhem Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Language A language of the resource eng Description An account of the resource Article created, delivered, or published by Richard A. Rhem (Dick) on January 16, 1987 entitled "Praying to an Absent God", it appeared in The Church Herald, pp. 9-11. Tags: Suffering, Prayer, Trust. Scripture references: Walter Brueggemann, The Message of the Psalms, 1984, Henri Nouwen, Out of Solitude, 1974, Reaching Out, 1975. Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource application/pdf Prayer Suffering Trust https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/3ae90fed5249abb54a3110b5a2363deb.pdf a74dd012d836122d37b26e9514bd0e47 PDF Text Text The Cross in History and Human Experience A Lenten Devotional Article by Richard A. Rhem Minister of Preaching and Theological Inquiry Christ Community Church Spring Lake, Michigan Published in The Church Herald The Magazine of the Reformed Church in America April 20, 1973, pp. 10-11 History unfolds under the sign of the Cross; its shadow lies over all human experience. That is a rather somber note, standing in stark contrast to the triumphant sound of the Christian proclamation. Yet it is true, and unless we reckon with that fact we will at some point in our lives encounter an experience which cannot be understood in terms of our faith. History has its darker hues, human experience its valleys of shadows, but a Christian stands undismayed before them because he looks out at the world from a vantage point from beneath the Cross. The Cross is not God’s final act, and tragedy in human life is not the final word. The brilliant revelation of triumph in Jesus’ resurrection reveals to us an ultimate victory beyond the limits of history. The splendor of that victory shines brightly, giving us courage and a solid base for hope; nevertheless, for us, that resurrection preeminently is future. To be sure, we have been raised together with Christ to newness of life, but we remain a part of the old order, and the sign over the old order is the Cross. The suffering, tragedy and death of this present age touch all of us at some point. None of us is immune to the misery that stalks the steps of the children of men. The Christian faith does not gloss over the reality of human experience. Jesus Christ never covered up the difficult, the dark, the tragic. Prior to his death, he prepared his disciples for the fact that they would very soon be severely tested. He prepared them for the fact that their dreams were about to be shattered — that their high hopes were about to be crushed — that their aspirations were to evaporate into thin air. He prepared them for his crucifixion — a crucifixion so excruciatingly painful to him that even he cried out in the midst of it, “My God, my God, why hast Thou forsaken me?” He prepared them for the hard realities of life. He said, “In the world you will have tribulation.” Anybody who comes into the Christian faith or into the haven of the Christian Church thinking hereby to avoid the harsh reality of human experience has not read the Gospel. In the © Grand Valley State University   �The Cross in History & Human Experience Richard A. Rhem Page 2   mystery of suffering, nothing makes the Christian unique except that he has the resources to overcome it, and finally to prevail. Look at the Cross. What does it really say? Look at the one who hangs there — Jesus Christ —the only life that has ever really been played out in the course of human history. Look at how he gave of himself, ministering constantly on behalf of those in need. Listen to his words of wisdom and compassion. Note his healing touch. Behold his self-forgetfulness. Watch him as he goes through the days of his life in perfect obedience to the Father. Look at him as he lives that life of righteousness, of service, of love, of obedience. And where did it end? On a cross! Jesus Christ was too good for this world! Much suffering and tragedy in the world comes through our own negligence, foolishness or irresponsibility. But there is some suffering and some tragedy in life that come precisely because a man is good. The righteous suffer. The only man who fully incarnated the love of God in human flesh ended up on a cross. That is the best commentary we have on human history and human life. Righteousness crucified. Is it not significant that he was condemned by the Roman government, by Pontius Pilate, the representative of the greatest legal system the world has ever known? Even today when one thinks of Imperial Rome, one thinks of the magnificent system of justice that it gave to the world. It was man's highest achievement in jurisprudence that impaled Jesus on a cross. But not only Rome. What about the Jewish leaders — the leaders of the one religion that had an understanding of the true God and were prepared for God to intervene in human history? It was those who stood in the line of Abraham and David and Isaiah who cried out, “Crucify him! Let his blood be on us and on our children!” There you have it. Rome and Jerusalem, the highest achievements in human justice and religion, barbarously murdering Jesus Christ on a cross. That’s what life is all about. Righteousness crucified. Love condemned. Self-sacrifice hanging on a tree. The only conclusion that one can come to is that human life is tragic — that goodness suffers — that love is crucified — that righteousness is of no avail. We may, at times, be tempted to cry out, “Why me?” But then we remember Jesus. Why him? Why anyone? Because there is a tragic element in human existence, a mystery of evil in the world that crucifies righteousness and justice and love. Jesus was too good to be in this world, and if a person tries to live as Jesus lived, he will find himself suffering as Jesus suffered. If he loves too much, or cares too much, or gives too much of himself, he may end up broken and crushed and disillusioned, looking in vain for a vindication of his human experience. Now, there is another side of the coin, of course. God can transform tragedy into triumph. God can use the excruciatingly painful experiences of life as stepping © Grand Valley State University �The Cross in History & Human Experience Richard A. Rhem Page 3   stones in building a beautiful life. And in the midst of human tragedy where there is submission and trust in God there comes a strength and a grace that is poured into life which makes of a person a most beautiful instrument in the hands of God. Jesus found, even in his darkest hour, that victory was possible because he was able to look at his spitting, jeering tormentors and say, “Father, forgive them for they know not what they do.” He found out that the power of love can overcome the worst of human tragedy. But it was only beyond Calvary that his righteousness, his love, his obedience and his trust were vindicated. This means we may suffer all our lives and die without having the sunlight break upon our path. It means we may live in tragic circumstances all our days despite obedience and submission. The Cross is the one symbol in all human history that tells us that we cannot ask the question “Why?” Oh, we can ask it, but we cannot answer it. There is no sure justice. Tragedy is everywhere; evil rears its ugly head everywhere we turn, and the righteous suffer. And those who love are crushed. What then? Is that the last word? No, it's not. Because of Jesus, the final word is not crucifixion, but resurrection. Not the blackness, the darkness of Calvary, but the brilliant light of Easter morning. We live in hope because a life was lived that ended in tragedy, but was vindicated by a mighty act of God. Jesus, who died in trust, was vindicated by the Father in his resurrection. We, however, are still under the shadow of the Cross, because our own resurrection is in the future. Its light has already broken in on us in Jesus, the first fruits of them that sleep. Its power is already ours because his Spirit lives within us. We already have a foretaste of the victory and triumph to come. Although we still look forward to our own resurrection, the new age has invaded history in Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ assures us, in the face of inexplicable human tragedy, that we can continue to trust him because beyond the limits of history is resurrection. Within history — no answer. Beyond history —the risen Christ and victory. © Grand Valley State University � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Richard A. Rhem Collection Description An account of the resource Text and sound recordings of the sermons, prayers, services, and articles of Richard Rhem, pastor emeritus of Christ Community Church in Spring Lake, Michigan, where he served for 37 years. Starting in the mid 1980's, Rhem began to question some of the traditional Christian dogma that he had been espousing from the pulpit. That questioning was a first step in a long and interesting spiritual journey, one that he openly shared with his congregation. His journey is important, in part because it is reflective of the questioning, the yearnings, and the gradual revision of beliefs that many persons in this part of the century have experienced and continue to experience. It is important also because of the affirming and inclusive way his questioning was done and his thinking evolved. His sermons and other written and spoken materials together document the steps in his journey as it took a turn in 1985, yet continued to revolve around the framework and liturgies of the Christian calendar. Subject The topic of the resource Clergy--Michigan Reformed Church in America Christ Community Church (Spring Lake, Mich.) Religion Interfaith worship Sermons Sound Recordings Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Rhem, Richard A. Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/514">Richard A. Rhem papers (KII-01)</a> Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives. Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Kaufman Interfaith Institute Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Language A language of the resource English Type The nature or genre of the resource Sound Text Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context KII-01 Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant 1981-2014 Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource audio/mp3 text/pdf Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context RA-4-19730420 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1973-04-20 Type The nature or genre of the resource Text Title A name given to the resource The Cross in History and Human Experience Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available The Church School Herald Journal Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Richard A. Rhem Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Language A language of the resource eng Description An account of the resource Article created, delivered, or published by Richard A. Rhem (Dick) on April 20, 1973 entitled "The Cross in History and Human Experience", it appeared in The Church Herald, pp. 10-11. Tags: Lent, Suffering, Crucifixion, Transforming Love, Resurrection . Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource application/pdf Crucifixion Lent Resurrection Suffering Transforming Love https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/c9813f854c92c6b8a3b181c8d70128cd.pdf 4d0e761bffcdac1f9b3f33446b4e6e14 PDF Text Text A Compelling Question: Does Sin Reap Suffering and Virtue Reap Reward? From the sermon series on Job Text; Job 6:26-30; Job 8:20 Richard A. Rhem Christ Community Church Spring Lake, Michigan July 17, 1994 Transcription of the spoken sermon Job: "Do you want to disprove my passion or argue away my despair? Look me straight in the eye. Is this how a liar would face you? Can't I tell right from wrong? If I sinned, wouldn't I know it?" Job 6:26-30 Bildad: "Good never betrays the innocent or takes the land of the wicked." Job 8:20 (Translated by Stephen Mitchell) We are in the midst of a series on the Book of Job. Job is a dramatic poem found in the Hebrew Scriptures. Let me catch you up for just a moment, because we began last week, and it will be important to have the proper context. I noted last week that Job was a heretic. That word comes from the Greek language and it means " to choose." A heretic is a person who stands up apart from the rest and dares to speak one’s mind, to give expression to one’s conviction and passion. To defy conventional wisdom, to remove oneself from majority opinion, to stand alone if need be. Job was a heretic in that sense because he spoke against the conventional wisdom of his day. He spoke against those things that everyone knew, namely that human suffering was the consequence of human sin; that God punishes human sin with suffering. Everyone knew that. Everyone took it for granted. And then Job spoke out of an experience in which he said, "No, I don't believe that." And in standing up, and in challenging, and in protesting to God, he became a heretic, as it were, over against the orthodox opinion. Orthodox is also from the Greek. It means "straight opinion," or "correct view of things." That is, correct in terms of the majority vote of the establishment at any given time. Job made his protest and it comes to expression in chapters 3-42, the majority, the corpus of the poem. But it is encased in a prologue and an epilogue. The prologue and the epilogue say a contrary thing to what the whole middle of © Grand Valley State University   �A Compelling Question Richard A. Rhem Page 2   the book says. The prologue and the epilogue, those who study it believe, reflects an ancient legend that the author of the dramatic poem used in order to set forth his protest. The ancient legend said that Job was the most patient man who ever lived, that he was prosperous, came into calamity, endured patiently, and was prospered once again. That message is diametrically opposed to the message of, the protest of the poet who lived perhaps four, five, six hundred years before Jesus. The poet borrowed an ancient legend in order to set off his radical and heretical view: that there is no link between human suffering and human sin. That's what the poem of Job is about. Today, let's focus on the heart of the issue. I frame it as a compelling question. "Does Sin Reap Suffering And Virtue Reap Reward?" Maybe a more existential question, maybe with a deeper pastoral concern, I might simply say, "Does God punish us for our sin with suffering?” Is human suffering a consequence of wrong-headedness or wrong-heartedness or wrong action? Does God as the moral cop of the universe send thunderbolts to us, bringing about our suffering in order to punish us for our sin? Well, you say, "Everybody knows . . . it is conventional wisdom . . . it is the knowledge of the person on the street that that's not true. There is no link between suffering and sin, and its corollary is also not true. There is no necessary link between virtue and reward." Everybody knows that, don't we? But before we make short shrift of the question, let us recognize that if we know that . . . if everybody knows that at least in their head, it may be in part due to the fact that the Book of Job is in the canon. Because it is precisely to break the link between human suffering and God's punishment that that book came forth as an eloquent statement of a contrary view. So thank God for Job—if everybody knows that. We may know that now, but Job got into severe argument with his friends who, though they came to comfort him, had become miserable comforters when he began to raise his challenge to God. For in raising a challenge to God, Job threatens their belief system. So, forgetting that they are there for comfort, Job's "friends" go on the attack. They seem to have a lot of data going for them too. They were operating on the accepted opinion, the orthodox view, that God gives suffering. Job is suffering, God does not give suffering to the just. Therefore Job has sinned. Job accepted their major premise. We'll have to deal with that subsequently in another message, but he accepted their major premise: God gives suffering. But Job said, "I am innocent. Therefore, God is unjust." Now that is the radicality of Job's protest. He doesn't question whether or not God gives suffering, but he does say, "I am innocent, and therefore I will take my cause to heaven. God is unjust." That is how strongly his own concrete experience moved him. But, as I said, the friends of Job seemed to have some pretty good basis for their view that punishment from God comes in the wake of human sin. For example, maybe they were reading from Leviticus 26. At the head of the paragraph in my © Grand Valley State University �A Compelling Question Richard A. Rhem Page 3   Bible it says, “Rewards for Obedience. If you follow my statutes and keep my commandments and observe them faithfully, I will give you your rains in their season…." It continues on and on about all the blessings that will come in the wake of obedience. If you move to the 14th verse, my Bible has a heading that says, “Penalties for Disobedience,” and there I read, "In turn, if you do not obey me, I will bring terror on you….” I selected Leviticus 26, but you can go to Deuteronomy 28 or you can read that marvelous statement in Isaiah 1:18, "Come let us reason together says the Lord, though your sins be as scarlet they shall be as white as snow. Though they be red like crimson they shall be as wool." That's where I'd like to stop. But it goes on, "If you are willing and obedient you shall eat the good of the land. But if you refuse and rebel you shall be devoured by the sword. The mouth of the Lord has spoken." So you see, the friends of Job weren't just blowing a lot of smoke. They could quote a lot of Bible verses. We have to recognize that the earliest Jewish tradition was being expressed by these three friends. They could cite chapter and verse. Actually, when you stop to think about it, it does make sense. You don't really have to be a Bible student to know that there are certain manners of behavior and certain attitudes and certain spirits that lead to disaster. And there are other actions and attitudes and behaviors that lead to blessing. Perhaps that's why Job's protest has never really gotten through to us. We may say in our head there is no necessary link, but in our gut how quickly we say, "What have I done that is wrong?” What about the way we often look askance at the victim? Why did one in five Americans a year ago say the floods in Mississippi or the earthquakes in Los Angeles are God's judgment on human sin. Why is there this popular theology in the church and out of the church that somehow or other this is just the way things are, and that God does intentionally harm people and punish people. There is a deep thread in the human person of connecting behavior and painful consequences. It may be because preaching has a bad name. Do your kids ever say to you, "Don't preach to me?" Parents have a tendency to preach. "Don't you dare." "You had better." "Because of - - - this consequence will follow." Preaching. People don't like preaching. Why should they like preaching? The whole tradition of preaching in the Church is to turn the whole religious experience into a promise and reward system. We try to keep people on the straight and narrow and have them avoid the disaster. So preaching has a kind of heavy-handedness about it, which makes out that God is some kind of moral cop up in heaven and that you had better watch out. We transform the gracious God into Santa Claus. Santa Claus is coming to town. You had better be good, you had better watch out, because God knows if you have been naughty or nice. That's what religion can degenerate into. That's what comes through too often, overpoweringly. That's why people have left the church in hordes. Turn on your television today, and don't watch golf. Find some great evangelist. He will give you texts right out © Grand Valley State University �A Compelling Question Richard A. Rhem Page 4   of context. They will promise you reward for thus and so. He'll give you all kinds of verses ripped right out of the context that will give you dire warnings of dire consequences. You can always be sure that when a text is ripped out of its context, it’s a pretext for something else. A text without a context is a pretext. There are all kinds of hucksters in religion and out of religion. There are all kinds of hucksters who are using religion as a means to sell their product, who are quoting the Bible all the time. I listened to some motivational tapes this week. I won't tell you why I got into it or how I got into it. I am just a sucker that's all. (Laughter) I've got to tell you, they used Deuteronomy 28:10, Exodus 5:14, and Joshua 3:16 to prove their point and sell their product. God says . . . God says, as though you can just take a verse of scripture and say, "God says," as though it’s right out of heaven, as though you could hear the voice of the Almighty. "If you will do thus and so … If you won't do that….” You would think that the whole of religion and the whole relationship to God is this matter of sin and get punished, be virtuous and be rewarded. It is ignorant, it is arrogant, it is an abuse of the Bible, and it is an abuse of people. It makes me angry! (And if you want to know something I am really passionate about, come next week!) (Laughter) I'm telling you, it's everywhere. That's popular religion, and it is used by hucksters out of ignorance at its best, arrogance at its worst, and it has ruined so many people. It distorts God. It distorts the grace of God. That's why you can say off the top of your head, "Of course there's no link between suffering and punishment," until you move into the darkness and begin to doubt yourself, and you begin to look up and say, "God, why?" Obviously there are some behaviors whose end is disaster; there are some behaviors whose end is blessing. But as William Safire says about Job, "There is a fire wall." The Book of Job is like a fire wall between the necessary link between human suffering and human punishment. We may not blame the victim, for it is not ours to judge. When we see someone in darkness, or when we enter the darkness ourselves, what we need to know is that God is there with us. God is not waiting in the dark with a club ready to beat us down. There is a mystery of human suffering. In the first service I read the Foreword from Night by Elie Wiesel, the renowned author and the survivor of the Holocaust, which occurred in our own century and in our own remembrance. The author of the Foreword, Noriak, quoted this paragraph from the book. These are the thoughts, the anguishing remembrances of Elie Wiesel. On the last day of the Jewish year the child was present at the solemn [ceremony] of Rosh Hashanah. He heard thousands of these slaves cry with one voice, 'Blessed be the name of the Eternal.' Not long before he too would have prostrated himself and with such adoration, such awe, such love. But on this day he did not kneel, the creature outraged and humiliated beyond all that heart and spirit can conceive of, defied a Divinity who was blind and deaf. That day I had ceased to plead. I was no © Grand Valley State University �A Compelling Question Richard A. Rhem Page 5   longer capable of lamentation. On the contrary I felt very strong. I was the accuser and God the accused. My eyes were open and I was alone, terribly alone in a world without God and without man, without love or mercy. I had ceased to be anything but ashes, yet I felt myself to be stronger than the Almighty to whom my life had been tied for so long. I stood amid that praying congregation observing it like a stranger." Our world is torn. It is bleeding. People are suffering, especially the children. Job said, "God is not doing it. God is not responsible. It is a mystery." His friends, representatives of the tradition, said, "God gives suffering: Job is suffering: Job is guilty." Job said, "God gives the suffering: I am innocent: God is unjust." No one thought to say, " Job is suffering: Job is innocent; therefore, suffering is a mystery that we cannot explain." Virtue is not necessarily met with reward. There are those who will tell you that. Those on the religious network, on the tapes I heard will promise you assured blessing, if only you'll subscribe, if only you will send in your contribution, if only you'll do this or that. It's not true. It's not necessarily so. Sometimes there is the person who is suffering deeply, and there are those who say, "If only you had faith and would pray." That's cruel. Don't we all know some who have had faith and have prayed and have died? God will not be manipulated into our schemes of things. Logical syllogisms do not work in concrete human experience. If you don't believe Job, would you at least believe Jesus? That life, wholly open to the will of God, lived before the face of God on behalf of the world, crucified, with a cry of dereliction on his lips, "My God, my God, why?" Not "Why are you punishing me?" That wasn't the question. The question had to do with the mystery of evil. "My God, where are you?" No, being virtuous carries its own reward. I can't promise you prosperity. Be careless and you may end up a wreck, but not because God punishes you. When you come into the darkness, look to the one who went before you, as the writer to the Hebrews invites you to do. We have this faithful High Priest, Jesus Christ, who was in all ways tested like we are; therefore, come boldly to the throne of grace to find mercy and obtain help in every time of need. There is a throne, there is a throne of grace. There is one to whom to go. This one is the God of all mercy. That you can count on. Reference: Elie Wiesel. Night. Hill and Wang, 1960. © Grand Valley State University � https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/3e9f73e628057f23ec7aa8fd87e11750.mp3 3b262edf461d5967b0f4b1bf5f2e365e 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 Series The Job Series Scripture Text Job 6: 26-30, Job 8:20 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/. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context KII-01_RA-0-19940717 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1994-07-17 Title A name given to the resource A Compelling Question: Does Sin Reap Suffering and Virtue Reap Reward? 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 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 17, 1994 entitled "A Compelling Question: Does Sin Reap Suffering and Virtue Reap Reward?", as part of the series "The Job Series", on the occasion of Pentecost VIII, at Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI. Scripture references: Job 6: 26-30, Job 8:20. Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Lemmen Library and Archives Morality Open Mind Suffering Wisdom https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/bd91d3605061e8e5442a6c71637018c5.pdf b16077893f69d3097bc22cf752c8427e PDF Text Text Suffering: The Need For Another From the series: Job and Jesus: The Mystery of Human Suffering Luke 22:14-24 Richard A. Rhem Christ Community Church Spring Lake, Michigan Maundy Thursday, April 8, 1993 Transcription of the spoken sermon We can bear just about anything if we are not alone. We can go through just about any valley if there’s someone to walk with us. Unless, of course, we are accompanied by friends like Job had in his deep valley. We call them “miserable comforters” because, although they started out well, by sitting silently for seven days and simply being present to Job, they could not keep silence once Job began to reveal the intensity and the depths and the darkness of the anguish that he was experiencing. The real test of a friend is whether or not they can just absorb all of that pain and darkness that sometimes erupts out of the human heart when it is in the intensity of the dark night of the soul. Job’s friends couldn’t do that. They began to protest against Job’s cries to heaven and his cries against heaven. I suppose that it is because of the experience of a Job, for example, that most of us live lives of quiet desperation, not really revealing who we are. And not really bringing to expression the things that are in our depths. I have a book on my shelf, an old book really, written by John Powell, Why Am I Afraid To Tell You Who I Am? Well, of course, I know why I am afraid to tell you who I am. If I really told you who I was, if I really dared to reveal myself, would you still be able to embrace me? Could you still love me? Or, with Job’s friends, would you begin to perhaps defend God, or whatever. Why Am I Afraid To Tell You Who I Am? That’s part of the deep anguish of human suffering: to feel isolated and alone with no one to whom to reach out and to reveal. The anguish within. Jesus understood that. On that night in which he was betrayed, he sat at table with his disciples. It may have been the Passover Feast or it may have been the night before Passover. In any case we are told it was at the time of Passover and it was that gathering around the table. I chose Luke’s story because of what seems to be a rather peripheral side note I suppose, and yet it’s the kind of thing I wanted to say tonight. Jesus sits at table and in the fifteenth verse he says, “I have eagerly desired to eat this Passover with you.” In the original the word is repeated. “I have desired with great desire.” Used once as a noun and once as a verb, expressing the intensity of that desire, that yearning, that longing. © Grand Valley State University   �Suffering: the Need for Another Richard A. Rhem Page 2   Jesus knows now there is no question about what lies before him. So in this dark night of his soul he gathers around him, with him, those whom he had come to love and to whom he had given himself. He says, “I desire with such great desire to celebrate this feast with you.” In our darkest moments we really need another. If there is only someone to whom we can speak. To whom we can reveal ourselves. With whom we can feel so safe that we know that there is nothing that we can reveal about ourselves that will result in our being condemned or judged or rejected. Then we can go through just about anything. Job’s friends proved flawed at that point. Actually, Jesus’ friends did too because, when they went from table to the garden, he said, “Stay with me and pray.” But they fell asleep. We do let one another down so often at the point of our greatest need – that need to know that we are not alone, that our darkness is shared, that our pain is being absorbed by another, and that no matter what we are going through for whatever reason there is still someone there with us. We can go through almost anything if we are not alone. It was appropriate that this series of Lenten midweek meditations conclude on this night, the theme of which has been the Mystery of Human Suffering, because Passover is really the Old Testament feast of liberation and freedom and deliverance from the cauldron of human suffering. Sometimes I wonder how I lived so long without seeing some things that are so very plain, but for some reason or other I know that, in my growing up and in my training and many years of my preaching, I have identified the Lord’s Supper with the death of Jesus for our sin. I perceived it only as a feast of atonement, or a feast of celebration of atonement. Now I believe that is not necessarily the case. A festival of atonement, the Great Day of Atonement, was in the seventh month, the tenth day of the month and it led into a harvest festival, the Feast of Booths, or the Feast of Tabernacles. But that wasn’t Passover. Passover was the annual celebration of the deliverance from Egypt. The Exodus was that prime central event of salvation when God with mighty arm set God’s people free from the house of bondage, from the slavery of Egypt. You read the opening chapters of Exodus. You read how the cries of God’s people went up to heaven. God heard their cry. The terrible suffering, which is duplicated all over our globe tonight. The horrendous measures of a pharaoh whose power was threatened by the growth of the population of a people. An oppressive ruler. An absolute monarch, totally unfeeling. All of the anguish of that Hebrew situation in Egypt is a paradigm of the ongoing suffering of humankind in the midst of history, and finally God says, “Enough.” And God sets God’s people free. God says to Moses, “Have the people roast a lamb and be ready to move because this is the night of freedom. It is the deliverance from the oppressive human situation of bondage.” God set God’s people free. That is the Old Testament experience to which Jesus connects this meal that we celebrate tonight. In the intensity of his own anguish, having suffered what he suffered – “My God, if possible, lift this cup from me.” All of the darkness that he endured, all the © Grand Valley State University �Suffering: the Need for Another Richard A. Rhem Page 3   suffering that was his lot – all of that, gathered now and coming down in a heavy shadow upon him, he gathers with those whom he loves. I wonder if he wondered if this Passover he was celebrating, or was about to celebrate, was a sign that God might do again then what God did in Egypt? Maybe so. Maybe he came to conclude that it was not through his teaching, through his modeling out, but that somehow or other he was going to effect the change that had to be effected in the midst of that people, in his dying. We don’t really know, except that we know at this point he knew inevitably that he would die. But would his death be the means of deliverance and liberation? Would his death be the way by which Israel would be set free, and then perhaps the whole world? Human suffering is the constant chronicle of darkness. It was true in Egypt in Pharaoh’s time. It was true in Jerusalem in Jesus’ time. It is true all over our globe tonight. Yet we come to this Passover Lord’s Supper to remember, but also to hope. To remember, to be sure. But the Passover in its initial celebration was a feast with sandals and backpacks ready, of a people who were ready to move into a new future. They were ready to go. They were coming out of darkness and they were moving toward the light. They ate bitter herbs. They ate unleavened bread. They didn’t forget that from whence they were going to depart, but they knew that they were on their way to something new. So, for us the Lord’s Supper is a Eucharistic feast. It is a feast of Thanksgiving because we take bread and break it, we take the cup and pour it, and we know that it cost the life of one who loved us and gave himself for us. But we know that we do this hastily, hastening toward Easter and toward the light and toward resurrection. So we come, perhaps in our darkness, but we come as a community together because that’s what Jesus intended so that we would never have to be alone. So that we could take one bread and drink from one cup and know that we were bound together in community, in communion, because you can endure almost anything if you are not alone. Jesus would make us brothers and sisters, one of another, caring for one another, supporting one another, being there for one another. Knowing that in this darkness the light will dawn, experiencing here in the bread broken and the cup shared, the community in communion that will enable us to move into the dawn of Easter. I experienced the breaking of bread and the sharing of a cup in a remarkable way a couple of months ago. Before I went on vacation I told you that a friend of many of us, Ernie VanDam – Ernie and Doris who were here for many years – that Ernie was on the threshold of death. I did not think by the time I got down there he would be living. In fact I anticipated getting down there and coming back for his funeral. We got down there and he had come home from the hospital with tubes, sacks, bags and was a shadow of himself. But yet it was Ernie, irrepressible Ernie. Then in the middle of our stay we had a call from a couple of other of our people, Marilyn and Weldy Brumels, who wanted to stop and see Ernie. I said, “Meet us at the gate and we’ll go in together,” because I had something up my sleeve. I brought a shirt with clerical tabs along with me. Not to wear at the pool. © Grand Valley State University �Suffering: the Need for Another Richard A. Rhem Page 4   (Laughter) But just in case. When we arrived at Ernie’s I said to Doris, “Open a bottle of wine and give me some bread.” Then the six of us—with Ernie in his hospital bed with sacks and tubes and things—we broke the bread, we shared the cup. I hugged him; I kissed him. All of us were weeping together. Loving each other. Made one with bread and cup. I don’t know whether Ernie will be back here or not, but I know that together we experienced the possibility in the darkness and the vulnerability and the mortality of the human situation, of that which lifts and enables us to transcend all of that. It happens at a rail like this, with a table like this and with people like this. You can go through almost anything if you are not alone. © Grand Valley State University � https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/2d992fc99977251c0e25d15c0a54e8e8.mp3 0853f52f2670acfc25b9e5b905e5f08d 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 Maundy Thursday Series Job and Jesus: The Mystery of Human Suffering Scripture Text Luke 22, 14-24 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-0-19930408 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1993-04-08 Title A name given to the resource Suffering: The Need For Another 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 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 April 8, 1993 entitled "Suffering: The Need For Another", as part of the series "Job and Jesus: The Mystery of Human Suffering", on the occasion of Maundy Thursday, at Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI. Scripture references: Luke 22, 14-24. Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Lemmen Library and Archives Community of Faith Empathy Job Passover Suffering https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/6f9975ba9c92e0775c3b29e6d446dd40.pdf ff9d3037cd116fd38732380825e315b0 PDF Text Text Suffering: Nevertheless… From the Midweek Lenten series: Job and Jesus: The Mystery of Human Suffering Text: Romans 8:18-39; Mark 14:32-42 Richard A. Rhem Christ Community Church Spring Lake, Michigan March 31, 1993 Transcription of the spoken sermon Jesus expressed the ultimate in human suffering with his cry of dereliction: “My God, my God, why hast Thou forsaken me?” We raised the question last week: Are We Abandoned? And suggested that it was in the sense of abandonment, in the consciousness of the absence of God, that we had a tenuous link to the presence of God. For one does not miss what one has not experienced. So, ironically, paradoxically, the very absence was a sign of the presence. That experience of abandonment and knowing the presence only in the absence was the deepest of human suffering and the nadir of Jesus’ anguish. The garden experience was the place where he waged the greatest conflict and won. It was not on the cross that he won the victory. It was in the garden. On the cross the die was set; the die was cast. There he experienced the abandonment and the awful suffering. But in the garden it was the struggle to be true. It was the last chance. His entry into the garden was not marked by a sign “No Exit.” It could still have been different. But it was with a poignant awareness of what lay before him that he struggled there. Lest we take away at all from that suffering, we must recognize that Jesus was not some stoic, setting his chin, gritting his teeth, simply going through with it. He was not a fatalist, throwing up his hands, saying, “Whatever will be, will be.” It was in the garden that he said, “Please release me.” He did not want to go through with what he was going to go through. In fact the language that the evangelist uses could not be any stronger. One New Testament commentator says that when Mark records words like, “My soul is crushed within me,” it could be translated, “I wish I were dead.” So this was no heroic figure. No calm philosophical Socrates draining the cup of poison. This was a trembling human being. This was a human being who knew fear and trembling, and who faced down the darkness, fully cognizant of all of the implications, pleading for release, yet coming finally to say, “Nevertheless. Nevertheless. Not my will but Thy will be done.” The irony of that is that in so winning through, in bowing in such obedience, Jesus found the truest human freedom. Had he buckled at that moment, he would have denied his truth. He © Grand Valley State University   �Suffering: Nevertheless… Richard A. Rhem Page 2   would have denied himself. He would have become a slave in bondage to fear, to prejudice, to all of that which was set against him and the truth that he proclaimed. He would have denied his deepest sense of who God was and what God had called him to be, and to do, and to say. He would have lost his freedom and been robbed of his strength if he had saved his life, and so his “Nevertheless,” was really his breakthrough to victory. It was the saving of his soul. It was the holding on to his life. And the very giving of his life. “Nevertheless, Thy will be done.” In the home in which I grew up, and in the church in which I grew up, and the piety which was a part of the shaping of my life - family prayers, long prayers. (There used to be long prayers in church. That was a pretty good example of our liturgical sense at Third Reformed, Kalamazoo. I had no idea what these various prayers were, but I knew they were long prayers.) There are certain clichés and certain little phrases. I remember as a young person a certain church I attended that was not my own had a pastor I liked to hear quite a bit, but in his pastoral prayers I knew that he was about 1-1/2 minutes from landing when he would call upon God to cast the “lariat of his love around us.” One of the phrases that tripped off the tongue almost without thinking, well, indeed without thinking was “Thy will be done. Thy will be done.” Oh, those are words that sometimes I hardly dare pray, now that I have become somewhat conscious of what those words really mean. It is quite rare with me when I can honestly say, “Thy will be done,” when it runs counter to my will and what I would have done. I am not very good at that point of ultimate submission. I am a rebel. A strong rebel, affirmed of my way. Jesus in full light of the darkness said, “Nevertheless, Thy will be done,” and ironically won his freedom in bowing to the will of God. That’s not how we see the will of God very often. Usually the human will and the divine will are in competition. They are over against each other. It’s God’s will at the expense of my will. Or if it is my will, it’s at the expense of God’s will. It’s like there’s 100% will out there and whatever percentage I give to God is deducted from my share. So there’s conflict. We never really believe that it is finally in finding the will of God that we find true freedom and the empowerment of our own will to be all that we can be. So Jesus was able to say, “Nevertheless, Thy will . . .” And in the wake of Jesus, those who follow him have also found a great “Nevertheless.” It has been expressed nowhere more powerfully and beautifully than by St. Paul in the 8th chapter of Romans. That chapter is so replete with riches that one paragraph is enough to give a congregation indigestion in one message. Sometimes I treat it as a paragraph at a time and I forget the string, but beginning with the 18th verse, he talks about suffering. He talks about the fact that the whole creation seems to be caught up in these convulsions. It is almost as though there is a cosmic convulsion, a suffering, a bondage, and a darkness. The Apostle says that we are all in the whole creation - one translation has it “the whole creation is on tiptoe” - © Grand Valley State University �Suffering: Nevertheless… Richard A. Rhem Page 3   for that day when we will be delivered and freed from this bondage which has its share of suffering and darkness. Then he goes on to give us that marvelous assurance that “in all these things”– that is, in all this crap, that he has been talking about that we have to wade through –“in all these things God works for the good of those who love him.” I was not welcome last Saturday to this church. It was Woman’s Day, but I got to listen to the tape. My friend, Carmelita Murphy spoke powerfully, as I knew she would. She spoke about the darkness and about being willing to stay for a time in the darkness. That sometimes the darkness becomes the womb of newness, and that in the disarray and the dis-ease, in the brokenness and in the pain lies the seed of the new which is striving to be born, because the Spirit of God also is active in the darkness. Someone in the discussion raised a question; it is a question that I hear often. It is a question often raised by people who are concerned with the present state of things, whether it be the world, the nation, the church, the community, or the family. The question was raised: “But how do we know how to go on when all the norms of the past…there’s just a breakdown all over?” Carmelita was equal to that question. She said, “Someone has said that breakdown leads to breakthrough.” If we could only believe it. If we could only hang on long enough in the darkness. Oh, don’t get me wrong. I hate the darkness. We all resist the darkness. If we don’t resist the darkness there is truly something dysfunctional about us. To be followers of The Way, we do not need to be masochistic and go out of our way to find suffering, but we don’t really have to because there’s plenty to go around. If only I could remember in the darkness that it is so often the prelude to the dawn and that the brokenness is that which invites the newness that sometimes can only come when we have had forcibly ripped out of our tight fists that which is all settled and safe. The Apostle concludes with what must be among the most marvelous words ever written. “What are we to say to all these things? If God be for us, who can be against us? What shall separate us from the love of Christ? Famine or nakedness or peril or sword,” cancer, betrayal . . . you name your hurts. “What can separate us from the love of Christ?” All these things? No. None of these things. “For we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us.” For the Apostle Paul said his “Nevertheless,” in the wake of Jesus’ “Nevertheless.” His “Nevertheless,” wasn’t exactly Jesus’. Jesus’ was “Nevertheless, Thy will be done.” But following Jesus, Paul could say in the face of the deepest darkness that life could hand out, “Nevertheless in all these things we are more than conquerors. For I am persuaded that neither life nor death, nor angels nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things in the future, the world as it is or the world as it shall be, nothing in all creation shall be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.” © Grand Valley State University �Suffering: Nevertheless… Richard A. Rhem Page 4   So we will kneel tonight and we’ll take cup, and we will be in touch with Jesus. As you taste and digest, let this word of promise seep into the pores of your being as well. With the touch and taste of bread and wine, let the word “Nevertheless,” become the word that you take into Holy Week, knowing that you will never be abandoned. You will never finally be left alone in the darkness, for you are loved with an everlasting love, and with cords of love God has bound you to God’s self. God will never let you go. Let the bread and the cup, the body and the blood be the sign of God’s never ending love for you tonight. © Grand Valley State University � https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/6d71afec9b91c5b3edf394f1c78b5f6c.mp3 7cd8269dabe5d35ca3bffc4b833a0e6f 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 Midweek Lent Series Job and Jesus: The Mystery of Human Suffering, Midweek Lent Scripture Text Romans 8:18-39, Mark 14:32-42 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-0-19930331 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1993-03-31 Title A name given to the resource Suffering: Nevertheless... 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 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 March 31, 1993 entitled "Suffering: Nevertheless...", as part of the series "Job and Jesus: The Mystery of Human Suffering, Midweek Lent", on the occasion of Midweek Lent, at Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI. Scripture references: Romans 8:18-39, Mark 14:32-42. Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Lemmen Library and Archives Suffering Unconditional Love of God Way of Jesus https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/ae562377967707e6b4d9b0bfcef548d9.pdf 6e011328b4f64cbbbd186b77ac5dc186 PDF Text Text Suffering: Is One Abandoned? From the Midweek Lenten series: Job and Jesus: The Mystery of Human Suffering Job 23:3; Mark 15:34 Richard A. Rhem Christ Community Church Spring Lake, Michigan March 24, 1993 Transcription of the spoken sermon As we have moved through this Lenten journey, we come to the very heart of it this evening. Actually in these meditations I am reversing the events of the narrative itself. We go to Calvary this evening, and then back again to Gethsemane next week. I do that because I want to treat as honestly as I can the sense of abandonment that Jesus experienced. But I don’t want to leave the study there. I want rather to leave it with a final word of trust. So I am going to move to Calvary and back to Gethsemane, contrary to the record itself. The whole question of God and suffering which has been our focus defies rational explanation. Human suffering puts a limit to human reasoning. Inevitably, down through the centuries people have tried to reconcile the almightiness of God and the anguish of human suffering, and there have been all kinds of schemes proposed. The technical term is theodicy: the justification of God in light of the reality of human suffering. There have been some grand schemes proposed, but finally there simply is no rational explanation that can remove the sense of darkness and despair, which is so very real a part of our human experience. Someone has said that all of the attempts at rational explanation and understanding are like a lecture on nutrition to a starving person. For when one is in the anguish and in the darkness, there is no satisfactory explanation. There is only the darkness and that fragile connectedness that is the consequence of the experience of the absence of the presence. That’s a rather complicated thought, isn’t it? The sense of the absence of presence points to that other one that one has known, whose presence one has known. Only as one has known that presence does one become conscious of the absence. So, ironically, it is the sense of the absence that points to the presence and becomes that tenuous link between the darkness and the Living Lord. In Job and in Jesus we see the depth of human suffering. We see it in their cry of abandonment. What an eloquent word in that Old Testament story. Can’t you feel the pathos of Job’s cry, “Oh that I knew where I might find him. I go forward and © Grand Valley State University   �Suffering: Is One Abandoned? Richard A. Rhem Page 2   he is not there. I go backward and I cannot reach him. I go to the right hand and I cannot behold him, and to the left hand and he is not there. Oh that I knew where I might find him.” And Jesus. The words from Mark’s Gospel, the cry from the cross, borrowed from Psalm 22, “My God, my God, why hast Thou forsaken me?” In the case of Job the purpose of that Old Testament book was to break the link between sin and suffering, that traditional conception of things that if one is suffering one must have sinned because God rewards the righteous and punishes the wicked. So the “miserable comforters” who come to be with Job, being prisoners of that scheme of things, cannot fully enter into Job’s suffering because their scheme disallows their total identity with him. They cannot hear him. His anguish is that he is suffering and he cannot figure it out because he has lived with integrity. So he knows in his present human experience that the scheme of things that is traditionally accepted, the conventional wisdom, simply doesn’t hold. That’s part of the anguish, when our human experience doesn’t fit the mold. Some of us know what that is to get in circumstances that simply don’t fit. They don’t fit the conception of things that we had always taken for granted, that we had always assumed, that had been taught us from our childhood up. In Job’s case he suffers alone, because there is no one who will grant him that, just perhaps, there is a mystery of human suffering that shatters the conventional wisdom and the commonly accepted scheme of things. The Old Testament book is an eloquent denial of that conventional wisdom that God, the rewarder of the righteous and the punisher of the wicked, makes everything finally come out right. And that, if one is suffering, one has sinned. A denial of the conventional wisdom that suffering is the punishment for wrongdoing. No causal relationship. No necessary proportion between those two, says the Book of Job. We have in the book itself, finally, this overpowering revelation, which doesn’t answer the existential question of why, but is a revelation of God, so that Job out of his darkness and anguish is encountered by God. Then, picking up that old tale which is at the beginning and the end of the dialogues, we have the restoration of Job in this life. So for Job there is the awful anguish and the revelation, and the restoration. But it is not so for Jesus. For Jesus we have the cry of abandonment, the darkness and death. The cry of abandonment of Jesus reaches to a brassy heaven that makes no move in reply. There is no scattering of the darkness. There is no alleviation of the pain. Jesus hangs abandoned to the public gaze. Job’s problem was difficult enough: the suffering of the innocent. One living with integrity, yet crushed. But it didn’t begin to address the anguish of Jesus. For with Jesus the absence of God at the moment of his terrible need begged the question of the whole project of his life. This is the one who had proclaimed the nearness of God, the presence of God, the grace of God. This was the one who had announced the presence of the Kingdom of God in the midst of the people. Consequently, it was not simply that he was suffering. It was the fact that everything he had staked his life on hung in the © Grand Valley State University �Suffering: Is One Abandoned? Richard A. Rhem Page 3   balance. That was the depth of the anguish of Jesus. Who can begin to imagine, to conceive of the physical agony of Jesus? But I suspect he hardly was conscious of the physical suffering in light of the mental and spiritual anguish that he was undergoing. I asked you on Sunday morning whether in your understanding of Jesus there is any room for self-doubt. I believe that that must have been the great temptation of Jesus. The temptation to lose faith. To stop trusting in the midst of that darkness when his whole life’s project was on the line and the heavens were silent. Might he have been wrong? He had set himself against the whole institutionalization of religion, that whole structure – the temple and the priests, and the sacrifices – not denying the efficacy, not denying the fact that they were a part of this covenant people of God and not denying that they had been and still could be the mediators of the grace of God, and the presence of God, but relativizing all of that and announcing the presence of God for all. The inclusive concern of God. God of the abandoned. God of the outcast. God of the godless. All of that was at stake as Jesus hung there, for it was Roman power and Jewish religion collaborating to put the lie to everything for which he had lived, and for all the claims that he had made; therefore, far beyond anything that Job suffered, Jesus saw everything go up in smoke. There are different opinions as to the citation of Psalm 22. Mark, giving us that opening cry, “My God, my God, why hast Thou forsaken me?” was reflecting his understanding, I think, of what was happening. But there are those who say that cry, which Mark gives us from Psalm 22, goes through the utter depths of human suffering, but comes through finally at the end of the Psalm to offer praise to God and express confidence in God. There are those who say that word from the cross was simply the beginning of the citation, the quotation of the Psalm. God’s children have long recited the word of God in times of extremity as the source of comfort and strength. There are those who say this is what Jesus was about. And it may be so. Mark is considered to be the earliest Gospel, and it is interesting that, especially Luke and John, later Gospels, coming perhaps with the Christian interpretation of Jesus’ death, soften. They don’t have the word of forsakenness. They have in Luke’s case the word of trust: “Into Thy hands I commend my spirit,” a citation from another Psalm. Or in John’s case, “It is finished,” a declaration of accomplishment. I wonder if maybe even those Gospel writers were uncomfortable leaving the raw suffering and darkness, and cry of dereliction as the last word? In any case, that’s what we have in Mark. So in the cry of abandonment, in the case of Jesus according to Mark, there is suffering, and there is darkness, and there is death. In the case of Job, after the point has been made, there is revelation and restoration. In the case of Jesus, there is abandonment, darkness and death. I think sometimes we attempt to defend God and a rightness of things so that we are uncomfortable just leaving it with the darkness. But to the person who is in the darkness, it is not always a kindness to try to lighten the darkness. © Grand Valley State University �Suffering: Is One Abandoned? Richard A. Rhem Page 4   William Styron, the novelist of Sophie’s Choice, has Stengle making his sad journey from Washington to New York on the train to bury his two close friends who had committed suicide and, in his utter despair, a black woman who is a fellow traveler, offers him Psalm 88, the one Psalm that we began with at the beginning of this series and in which there is no alleviation of the darkness. Again, paradoxically, Psalm 88, which is unrelenting darkness, becomes a source of comfort to one who has no eyes but for the darkness in the present circumstance. The cross gives us a true, an honest, and an awful insight into our human existence, which is historical existence, which means that we move one step at a time, and one day at a time. Therefore, we walk by faith and not by sight, and at the cross we see that sometimes there is a sense of abandonment with no alleviation, no relief, and no final resolution. That’s a hard word, but it’s honest, and it is true to human experience. Henry Nouwen says that we resist being with people in their pain. We do, don’t we? We would love to fix it. We resist simply being there with care. We would go there with a cure. It is an act of tremendous grace to go there with care and identify with the darkness and not try to explain it away. I think we pastors are probably the most vulnerable to that temptation to try to make it better. But the cross and the cry of dereliction is testimony to the fact that within the parameters of our life, our human experience sometimes is an experience of abandonment, darkness and death. But that dismal word is not my last word, thank God. I mentioned to begin with that it is that sense of absence that points to the presence. Even that cry of dereliction was a cry to God: “My God, my God.” The link. The fragile link between the darkness and the living Lord is the cry. And, for us, we cannot talk about the cross without at least pointing ahead two weeks hence to Easter. If it is the cross, and only the cross, then there is only bad news. For there was no alleviation of the sense of abandonment for Jesus. But the one to whom he cried, we believe, had not abandoned him, but was present with him and not unaffected by him. That’s bald-faced trust. That is an affirmation of faith that comes from Easter faith, but in no way does that take away from the darkness. Yet our darkness can never compare with his darkness. For if we have lingered with him in his darkness, then we have learned with him to cry, even to sing, “Sometimes I feel like a motherless child.” But if we have been with him in the darkness, we also will know now and again what it is to steal away to Jesus. © Grand Valley State University � https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/c850af7f5f30fe23af99ebac22c4e672.mp3 d192f0e560ba8971192f153b25b5286a 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 Midweek Lent Series Job and Jesus: The Mystery of Human Suffering, Midweek Lent Scripture Text Job 23:3, Mark 15:34 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-0-19930324 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1993-03-24 Title A name given to the resource Suffering: Is One Abandoned? 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 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 March 24, 1993 entitled "Suffering: Is One Abandoned?", as part of the series "Job and Jesus: The Mystery of Human Suffering, Midweek Lent", on the occasion of Midweek Lent, at Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI. Scripture references: Job 23:3, Mark 15:34. Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Lemmen Library and Archives Job Nature of God Suffering Theodicy https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/b68c40c3a6d092a43a7f4a6fd26fa2f9.mp3 9858126fbadf0754e18a2d570676c452 https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/d584cb5944a406c0aaa5a5e948f9c3f0.pdf 979fd549b9b8f8a08e0e6af3d610b65f PDF Text Text Suffering: Is It Punishment? From the Midweek Lenten series: Job and Jesus: The Mystery of Human Suffering Job: 8:1-16; 21:7-27; 22:1-5; 23:1-10; 42:7-9 Richard A. Rhem Christ Community Church Spring Lake, Michigan March 10, 1993 Transcription of the spoken sermon The lesson from the scripture tonight is a collation of passages from the Book of Job. I am going to suggest that you take the bulletin home and read the entire text from your Bibles at home. But tonight, I invite you to listen as I read from a translation by Stephen Mitchell. His book, entitled The Book of Job, has an introduction and then a translation of the dialogues found in Job. It's very well done, and I hope to weave together these readings to make some things clearer. As we said last week the Book of Job has a prologue and an epilogue. The prologue and the epilogue, if they were put together, would make their own story. That story is a very ancient story from the region of Mesopotamia that dealt with a righteous sufferer who experienced terrible calamity and yet who was very patient, blessed God, and then had his fortunes restored. That old story, which would have been readily recognized by those who first heard or read the book of Job, became the occasion for the biblical writer to address the question of suffering. The author has inserted something new between the prologue and the epilogue – a Job much less compliant in the face of suffering. The main body of the biblical story consists of Job's complaint; the responses by his three friends, Bildad, Eliphaz, and Zophar, and then a young man, Elihu; then finally, the whirlwind, the voice of God, the vision of God, and the resolution. The Job of the dialogues is not patient, but impatient, a rebel against heaven who cries against God, who calls God to account, who would bring God into court, who says, "You are unjust," and who maintains his integrity and his innocence throughout. I've selected some readings from Stephen Mitchell so that you get the flavor of these dialogues. It is impossible within the compass of a brief service like this to do justice to this book. But at least perhaps you will get the idea of what is going on in this drama. The dialogue is in three cycles. In the first cycle in the 8th chapter, Job’s second friend Bildad says, "…punishment means that wickedness has been done." Now that's the traditional way to understand suffering. That's orthodox religion. If © Grand Valley State University   �Suffering: Is It Punishment? Richard A. Rhem Page 2   there is suffering it is because there has been sin. Suffering just doesn't happen "willy-nilly." It's punishment for what has been done wrong. Bildad says, How long will you go on ranting, filling our ears with trash? Does God make straightness crooked? Or turn truth upside down? Your children must have been evil. He punished them for their crimes. But if you are pure and righteous and pray to God for mercy, surely he will answer your prayers and will fill your greatest desires. Your past will seem like a trifle. So blessed will your future be. You have to think of those words of wisdom as being addressed to a man in intense suffering - on the garbage heap. That's why Job's friends have come to be called "miserable comforters." Then in the 21st chapter Job retorts, Your doctrines can't be right. If your doctrine were right the innocent would be blessed and the wicked would suffer. But as a matter of fact, when I look out on human society, it doesn't work that way. The wicked sometimes prosper." Here's the point of Job's speech: Why do the wicked prosper and live to a ripe old age? Their children stand beside them. Their grandchildren sit on their laps. Their houses are safe from dangers, secure from the wrath of God. Not one of their bulls is impotent. Not one of their cows miscarries. Their grandchildren run out to play, skipping about like lambs. Singing to drum and lyre. Dancing to the sound of the flute. They end their lives in prosperity and go to the grave in peace. Yet they tell God, 'Leave us alone. We can't be bothered about you. Why should we pray to God? What good will it do to serve you?' Is the lamp of the sinner snuffed out? Does misfortune knock at his door? Is he really driven like chafe, blown like straw in the wind? Is calamity saved for his children? Let him have his punishment now. Let his own eyes see disaster. Let him choke on the wrath of God. For what does he care about others when his own life comes to an end? One man dies serenely wrapped in safety and comfort, his thighs bulging with fat, the marrow moist in his bones. Another dies in despair, his life bitter on his tongue. Both men rot in the ground and maggots chew on them both. So says Job. Job's righteous and orthodox friends can hardly let him get away with that. And so Eliphaz, the Temanite, said, What use can man be to God? Even the wisest of men? Does God profit from your goodness or gain by your perfect conduct? Would he sentence you for your piety? Or punish you for your faith? Your guilt must be great indeed. Your crimes must be inconceivable. © Grand Valley State University �Suffering: Is It Punishment? Richard A. Rhem Page 3   Job responds in an eloquent passage. If only, he cries, he could bring his case before God: Still my condition is desperate. His fist still beats on my skull. If only I knew where to meet Him, or could find my way to his court. I would argue my case before Him. Words would flow from my mouth. I would counter all his arguments and disprove his accusations. Would he try to overpower me? Or refuse to hear my defense? Surely he would listen to reason. I would surely win my case. For he knows that I am innocent. If he sifts me I will shine like gold. My feet have walked on his way and never strayed from his path. I have kept all of his commandments treasuring his words in my heart. And then the dialogues are over and we come to the epilogue. Here it is obvious that the purpose of this whole drama was to demonstrate that Job was right; that there isn't a connection between sin, punishment, and suffering. To bear that out I read simply this paragraph from the 42nd chapter: After he had spoken to Job, the Lord said to Eliphaz, the Temanite: 'I am very angry at you and your two friends because you have not spoken the truth about me as my servant Job has. So take seven bowls and seven rams and go to my servant Job and offer a sacrifice for yourselves. My servant Job will pray for you and for his sake I will overlook your sin. For you have not spoken the truth about me as my servant Job has.' So Eliphaz, the Temanite, Bildad the Shuhite, and Zophar, the Naamathite went and did what God had commanded. And the Lord accepted Job's prayer. Our focus in these Lenten evenings is the mystery of human suffering. As we said last week there is some suffering that obviously is the result of our carelessness or the irresponsibility of some other, but there is a mystery of darkness and human suffering which has no explanation, and it has been a stumbling block for so many in terms of faith in God. That is the suffering of the innocent. Those who have a fundamental integrity of life, but yet it seems that life continues to dump on them. The greatest minds over the centuries have struggled with this problem and we know that there has never been a satisfactory, rational explanation. Surely we are not going to find one either. But my purpose in these Lenten evenings is a kind of preventive therapy so that if we are in the darkness we might find help. And if we are not in it, pray God, then preventive therapy so that, if we enter into it we might in the darkness find God to be our friend and not our enemy. I have been a pastor long enough to know that it is precisely in the darkness when one comes into intense suffering that one tends to accuse one’s self and condemn one’s self, to be filled with self-doubt. We are vulnerable to that kind of thing because none of us do it right all the time, and no one is as hard on us as we are on ourselves. There is seemingly something © Grand Valley State University �Suffering: Is It Punishment? Richard A. Rhem Page 4   endemic in human nature and broadcast in human society that seems to connect suffering with a punishment for sin. The stories of Job and Jesus I think will indicate that that is not a legitimate connection. Job cried out, "Unjust. Unfair!" in the midst of his pain. Jesus in darkness said, "My God, my God, why?" Thank God for those who in the darkness have uttered these expressions, which give us permission as well when we have no other word to say. Job's curses and blasphemies were the expressions of such intense pain that he could not hold it back. And so with us, there are those times when there seems to be absolutely no light, and no hope, and no future, and no reason, no rationale, just pain. At such times, as well, we may take the words of Job or Jesus to our lips and know that we are at least not isolated, but have company with those who have gone before us. To find God as our friend in suffering is so critically important, rather than to see God as the adversary. "Why is God doing this to me?" I am trying to approach the subject in this season by raising the honest questions that haunt us. Last week, "Suffering: Is There A Reason For It?" I said, "No." The kind of suffering we are taking about - that intense darkness – is such that there is no reason. The clichés trip off our tongues in reference to ourselves and sometimes painfully in reference to another when we say, "God has a reason for it." Don't ever say it! Don't ever say it! The Book of Job took on the whole orthodox understanding of things, the whole Old Testament tradition and said, "No. No. God doesn't have a reason for it." If God has a reason for it, it's not anything that you or I are ever going to be able to figure out. Tonight, just shifting the focus a little bit: "Is It Punishment?" All that I have already said would indicate that I give another firm "No." It is not punishment. God does not punish us like a parent who punishes a naughty child. I make the statement boldly. I hope it runs square in the face of everything you've ever believed in order to shake you up a little bit, and allow you to hear me. Allow me to say something to you tonight that may get you off from that if you would tend to fall into that so-typical human pattern. "Suffering: Is It Punishment?" "No." The three friends of Job said, "Yes." They sat with Job for seven days and didn't say a word. That's the best thing they did. But when Job said, "I am innocent. Why is this happening? God, you are unjust," they rushed to God's defense. They could sit in silence and identify with his darkness and his pain until he opened his mouth. But when he challenged the system of ideas, the doctrine, the insight that was traditional, that was orthodox. (Orthodox means the received opinion, the true, correct doctrine.) When Job in his pain blasphemed God and challenged that one-on-one relationship, that causal connection between sin and suffering, they had to rush to God's defense. Do you ever rush to God's defense? I used to rush to God's defense, when I was young, when I was growing up, when I was studying theology, when I was uptight and upright. When I was young I would rush to God's defense. I can remember a © Grand Valley State University �Suffering: Is It Punishment? Richard A. Rhem Page 5   time in my own life’s spiritual maturation when I realized that I didn't have to defend God, that God could take care of God's self quite well. But I used to do it. If you would make a statement that was contrary to correct doctrine, I would fault you. I would argue with you. I would defend the received tradition. If there was some piece of human experience that didn't fit into the biblical mold, I would deny the experience rather than check the mold. I was a defender of God. I remember it so clearly. I know now in retrospect (Thank God you didn't suggest it at the time, had you known me.) it was not that God needed to be defended, but that I needed to defend my little structure of things. I was defensive. I thought I was defending the honor of God. I thought I was defending the Word of God. Like Job's friends, that made them totally unable to enter into his pain. They couldn't even hear him. They couldn't allow his pain to penetrate into their depths, because his pain and his cries and his near blasphemy was so threatening to what they believed in their little box that they had to turn their back on the sufferer in order to preserve their structure. I said Sunday at the conclusion something that several of you have spoken about since then. One of you here even wrote me a beautiful card about it. The fact that we ought never to let our doctrine or our moral principles stand in the way of leading with our heart, of letting compassion flow through us. It’s not a bad insight actually. It was worth the price of the service - the entrance fee. The more I think about it, that's what happened to religion. Religion starts as an experience. It becomes solidified in a doctrine, and it becomes codified in a moral code. Then we lose the experience. We become disciples at second or third hand. We experience over here; now it’s a creed and a code. And the creed and the code shape us and make us prisoners, so that we can no longer identify with the experience. Job's friends had their doctrine right. God is not capricious. God is not unjust. If you are good, things will go well for you. If you are wicked, you will suffer. Job, you are suffering: Job, you are wicked. Job said, "No." They said, "Yes." As those three cycles took off they became more strident because when you are threatening a person’s doctrinal box or moral code, you are dealing very near the core of that person. We get very nervous when somebody is jangling our religious cage. They were defenders of God. I used to defend God, too. It was one of the great liberating moments of my life, it was like a burden rolled off my back when I woke up to the realization one day that God could take care of God's self. So, Job will not be silenced. They cannot confute him. He says to them, "I am innocent." He goes to the extreme at the tail end of his dialogue to take an oath, to call down terrible curses upon himself if he is not being true. And then also, in the one passage that I read, he says, "Your doctrine simply does not hold true in what you observe in human experience." Now he may overstate the prosperity of the wicked a little bit. Even the wicked don't get off as good as he described, but the Psalmist in Psalm 73 said the same thing. "Surely God is good to Israel, but as for me my feet had almost slipped when I observed the prosperity of the wicked." Some people seem careless, carefree. "Life is just a bowl of cherries," and they don't seem to have a care about God or anybody else. And they get by just fine, © Grand Valley State University �Suffering: Is It Punishment? Richard A. Rhem Page 6   thank you. It’s true. If we are honest there is no relationship between one’s outward circumstances and one’s piety or morality. Some bad people get it in the neck. And some good people get it in the neck. Job said, "Just look around you. If you could get your focus off your doctrine and moral code, and your concern to preserve all your little structures - if you would just open your eyes." That's what an orthodox person cannot do: cannot open his or her eyes. It’s too threatening. The system will be shattered by the unevenness of human experience. Well, the Book of Job was written in order to take on that whole traditional connection between sin and punishment and suffering. After the speeches are all over, there is this overpowering vision of God. Job has been saying, "God, you are unjust." And the vision shows Job how powerful God is. Job's issue is never addressed. There is simply this revelation. It is as though the God of the cosmos is saying, "Do you know anything at all about who I am and what I am about? Do you think I am tinkering around with those little petty things that concern you? Well, my goodness, I've got this whole cosmos in my hands. Where were you when creation first dawned? Where were you when I bound the creatures with chaos? And on and on. It’s marvelous poetry. It doesn't even address Job's question. Job never questioned the omnipotence of God. He was questioning the justice and mercy of God. God doesn't even address, doesn't even acknowledge his question because God is God after all. Job saw the revelation. You see, God did take Job seriously. God did get pushed into showing God's self and the experience of that revelation was so overpowering that Job said, "I repent in dust and ashes." But note this, he never said, "I repent and acknowledge that I indeed am lacking in innocence and integrity." No, no. He repented and recanted only to this extent: He said, "Well, you're right. How could I know the greatness and the grandeur that is God?" In the epilogue there is the vindication of Job. Not an answer. But God says to those "miserable comforters" with their orthodox doctrine and their legalistic morals, "You didn't speak truly of me as did my servant Job." Job spoke truly. Job spoke honestly. "You are all caught up in your little structures. You have pat answers. Clichés trip off your tongues. And you spoke falsely. My servant Job spoke truly. Take some oxen and some rams and go make a sacrifice and ask Job to pray for you." The point of the book is thus powerfully made that that old traditional connection that suffering is the punishment for sin is not true. Why is there suffering? It is not answered. But God is, and God unveiled God's self and vindicated the truthfulness of his servant Job. "The Mystery of Human Suffering: Is It Punishment?" No. And, therefore, we may never look at another and judge another and claim that their suffering is the punishment of God. One more thing we may never do. You'll do it. You'll do it in spite of this eloquent plea. You'll do it because it is second nature to do it. In all these three decades of pastoral ministry how many times haven't you said it to me? But, you may not say it! "Say what?" Say this: "Why is God doing this to © Grand Valley State University �Suffering: Is It Punishment? Richard A. Rhem Page 7   me?" Don't say it. God is not doing it to you. God is not your adversary. God is not your enemy in the darkness. God would be your friend. As we move from Job to Jesus we will see that trusting in the darkness is finally the last word. Reference: Stephen Mitchell. The Book of Job. New York: HarperCollins Publishers, Inc., Revised edition, 1987. © 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 Midweek Lent Series Job and Jesus: The Mystery of Human Suffering Scripture Text Job 8:1-6, 21:7-26, 22:1-5, 23:1-10, 42,7-9 Location The location of the interview Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI References Stephen Mitchell, The Book of Job, 1987 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-0-19930310 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1993-03-10 Title A name given to the resource Suffering: Is It Punishment? 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 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 March 10, 1993 entitled "Suffering: Is It Punishment?", as part of the series "Job and Jesus: The Mystery of Human Suffering", on the occasion of Midweek Lent, at Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI. Scripture references: Job 8:1-6, 21:7-26, 22:1-5, 23:1-10, 42,7-9. Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Lemmen Library and Archives Nature of God Orthodox Belief Sin Suffering https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/6e4de325402d055e6ed77eff021b2c5a.mp3 4a14fb17f2ecbf7266b15654afd2f018 https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/2a2d8d04182d17b23768b45076643285.pdf 62e56675421ea4018ec860055476ac46 PDF Text Text The Worship of God: The Healing of Persons Text: Psalm 73:16-17 Richard A. Rhem Christ Community Church Spring Lake, Michigan June 19, 1988 Transcription of the spoken sermon But when I thought how to understand this, it seemed to me a wearisome task, until I went into the sanctuary of God; there I saw clearly... Psalm 73:16-17 We all love a good fairy tale, children and adults, as well. Perhaps that is because fairy tales are true. The story comes out right: the good prosper, the wicked are wasted. Maybe something in the depths of our being responds to that because something in us knows that is the way it ought to be, should be - will be. But, the fairy tale is true only if one takes the long-range view; only if God is God, Sovereign, working God's eternal purposes out, purposes of love and grace and salvation, bringing about finally a Kingdom in which dwells righteousness and peace - Shalom. In the short range, the fairy tale is just that - a fairy tale, meaning a fantasy world quite out of sync with the real world. In the short range, things do not work out right – everyone does not live happily ever after. In the short range, one cannot find the working out of justice, fairness and equity. And if one’s peace of mind and happiness and wellbeing are dependent upon life being fair and all things working out in an equitable fashion, one will have slight chance of arriving at inward peace and joy and rest of soul. Life is not fair. There is no justice within the span of a person's existence. No amount of research on actual, concrete, human stories will demonstrate that things work out right according to our human standards of what is fair and just. And that is a cause of much human suffering and anguish. It leads to one of the most serious and debilitating diseases of the human spirit - cynicism, bitterness, caused by envy and self-pity. A cynical and bitter spirit smoldering with jealousy and self-pity has a corrosive effect on the human spirit; it is to have an acid eating away at one's soul; it is a © Grand Valley State University   �The Worship of God: The Healing of Persons Richard A. Rhem Page 2   source of constant inward pain which is often assuaged by growing callouses on the soul, hardening oneself against feelings -feelings of joy and sorrow, of depression and exaltation. Cynicism is the sneering attitude that denies the sincerity or goodness of human motives. It is the tendency to criticize and find fault. It flows from one generally embittered with life, disillusioned with the way things have turned out. Unless it is checked, such bitterness will become a permanent hardness of heart resistant to trust, to joy, to spontaneity in any form. It is a kind of spiritual deadness. There is perhaps no more vivid portrayal of human experience struggling with cynical loss of faith and embitterment of spirit than Psalm 73. The Psalmist sets the record straight at the beginning. Truly God is good to Israel, to those who are pure in heart. That is both his conclusion and his premise. He can begin that way because he has passed through the fires of doubt and struggle and has come to affirm his trust in God, renewed only after great and painful wrestling with life experience. Brueggemann comments: Verse 1 sets the premise for the Psalm, which is also its conclusion. But it is a different statement when it is conclusion than when it is premise. When it is premise, it may be taken as pre-hurt, pre-doubt, pre-anguish. It is then a buoyant statement of naiveté. But as a conclusion, the affirmation is on the other side of hurt, doubt and anguish. While the words may be the same, they now bear different freight. Now the unuttered words of resentment have been uttered. Now the unthinkable thoughts of hostility have been thought. ... Psalm 73 is an assault on any naive faith. It arrives tortuously at a second, knowing naiveté. (The Message of the Psalms, p. 116) Having stated his premise, which is also his conclusion, the Psalmist goes on candidly to confess that he almost went over the brink, losing his grip on this fundamental conviction of faith. He writes: My feet had almost slipped, my foothold had all but given way. He then goes on to detail his bitter experience of doubt, his dark night of the soul as he questioned the moral structure of life and the knowledge and care of God. He speaks vividly, in graphic terms of how everything appeared to him during his time of intense struggle. We must recognize immediately that in the midst of his personal torment his vision is blurred and his judgment warped. He gives us a very distorted view of things. According to him, the careless, the godless prosper, experience no pain, © Grand Valley State University �The Worship of God: The Healing of Persons Richard A. Rhem Page 3   no suffering, are strangers to trouble and trial. They grow wealthy, enjoy good health. They are proud, violent and full of scorn. Is the picture overdrawn? Probably. The world is not really divided into two camps, one a camp of white hats, the other a camp of black hats. To divide the world into the righteous and the wicked is a bit too simple, too neat. Certainly it is too simplistic for a congregation that prints on its bulletin week after week the statement of Hans Küng: The front between the world and God's rule, between good and evil, runs right through the church, right through the heart of the individual. Evil is much more subtle and entwines itself in the lives of us all. This is not to say that there is no difference in people. Certainly there are those whose lives reflect a commitment to truth, righteousness, justice. There are those, as well, who seek their own advantage at whatever human cost to another and with total disregard for what is right and true. Nonetheless, especially in the Church we need to resist the too simple division of persons into categories of righteous and wicked. But for the purpose of the Psalmist's story, it is not so important whether reality reflected what he perceived or not. The fact is this is the way he felt. This is how it looked to him. We are indebted to this singer of Israel for revealing his soul to us. He was deeply hurting. He was angry at the world. He was angry at God. We have been there, too. And it is helpful to know that this kind of experience is not foreign to God's people. The Old Testament is especially healthy in this regard. They stormed heaven with their wounded spirits and called the Almighty to account. There was no pious masking of their true feelings. The Psalmist is not the only Old Testament figure that stormed the citadel of Heaven crying out to God, “How come?” I wonder what it was that was really rankling the Psalmist. Had he worked hard, done his best, dealt honestly and lived with integrity, only to have the bottom fall out of the economy and watch his life's work dribble away? Or had he risked everything to help a friend, only to have the friend turn on him? Was he disappointed in love? Did his children prove ungrateful? Had he just learned of a terminal disease which would soon cut him off? The particulars are unimportant. Life has more than enough trouble and heartache to go around and the stuff of which the Psalmist's pain was made is almost without limit because we can set it down as a fundamental truth of human experience – Life is not fair. © Grand Valley State University �The Worship of God: The Healing of Persons Richard A. Rhem Page 4   Having admitted that, I want to make a point of application right here; granted, life is not fair, but Pain perverts perspective. If we could learn that well, it would save us much angry bitterness. As we said above, the Psalmist's view of things was warped, distorted, but this is what he was feeling. Happy the person who before the crisis promises himself he will make no world-encompassing generalizations in the midst of his anguish, because, again, Pain perverts perspective. Can we understand? Certainly. Have we been there? Most of us, at some time. But, it can be helpful to recognize ahead of time that how we feel and how things appear when we are hurting is not a true reflection of reality. Pain perverts perspective. When people are in crisis it does not help to try to correct their vision. It does little good to assure them that “This, too, will pass.” When someone is pouring out their grief and anguish, just let it come; absorb it; feel it with them. That is not the time for a brilliant discourse or “a true perspective on Reality.” However, we can help ourselves be prepared for crisis times if we come to realize that Pain perverts perspective. The Psalmist has already given us his strong affirmation of faith and so obviously something happened to turn him around. He tells us in verse 16. He had been quite overcome with his completely negative perception of life. He says, I set myself to think this out but found it too hard for me, until I went into God's sacred courts; there I saw clearly what their end would be. The Psalmist learned the secret of the sanctuary. There, in the presence of God, in the posture of worship, he gained a new perspective. He found that Worship is healing. To make that statement calls for immediate clarification. I am not suggesting that the primary purpose or focus of our worship is our personal healing. We worship God. We celebrate the grace of God in response to God's revealing of an eternal saving purpose, a plan for the establishing of a Kingdom in which dwells righteousness and justice and peace. © Grand Valley State University �The Worship of God: The Healing of Persons Richard A. Rhem Page 5   But with that being granted, it is also important to understand the reflexive effect of our worship - to see how the action of worship has a healing effect on the one who worships. The Psalmist says, “ Life was too painful for me; I tried to think it through and I could not. Then I went into the sanctuary -then I understood.” In fairness to the text, I should let the whole statement be heard: ... Then I saw clearly what their end would be. One could hear this as a rather mean satisfaction that “the wicked” will get theirs and maybe there is some of that operating here. It is a rare person that takes no satisfaction in the fall of another, particularly if one has been infected with the disease of bitterness and has wallowed in self-pity. But even if that is true, there is the discovery here of a fundamental truth about God and human destiny which is the bedrock of biblical faith. The perspective of the sanctuary enabled the Psalmist to take the long view and to see that, although there is no justice in the short run, there is certainly a coming round of all things in the long run. Within the stream of history there is no possibility of seeing things whole. It is only in the posture of worship, in the presence of God that one is able to trust the process, trust the good and gracious and sovereign Lord of History to effect the promised Kingdom and bring Shalom. But, beyond the new insight, beyond a renewed vision of God's eternal purpose, the Psalmist found a Presence. The Presence of God, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, the God of Moses and the Exodus, the God of Covenant, the God of grace and steadfast love, the faithful God. In the sanctuary, in worship, the Psalmist experienced communion with God. It is in the gaining of new insight and the experience of communion with God that healing happens! Look at the Psalmist's expression of where he was before he worshipped: My heart was embittered. I felt pangs of envy, I would not understand, so brutish was I. I was a mere beast in thy sight, O God. Now there was insight - not only on human experience in time and space, but also self-awareness, self-knowledge, understanding of the paralysis of spirit caused by his envy, cynicism and bitterness. The world did not change. Circumstances did not change. The one who worshipped was changed. © Grand Valley State University �The Worship of God: The Healing of Persons Richard A. Rhem Page 6   I went into the sanctuary, there I saw clearly. Thus we have a vivid statement of intense spiritual anguish and suffering and its cure – going to church! Perhaps that sounds naive. But it is, of course, more than going to church. It is the experience of worship. The effect of worship on the worshipper is the healing of the person. Do we approach the worship of God with such high expectation? Do we recognize how crucial is the worship of God for the health of our being? What a strange situation is Sunday morning! Karl Barth describes it vividly in one of his early essays - the building, the appointments, the songs, the prayers, the preaching - all of them “saying” more than they say; all of them pointing beyond themselves to another; all of them crying out, “God is here!” And we come, Barth says, only half conscious of why - some out of habit, some out of need or hope - some believing, some not - some open and sensitive, some hardened by much hard experience. But, we come. And consciously or unconsciously we come with the burning question, “Is it true?” “Is God God?” “Is it true?” Is there reason to hope? Is there life in the end? Will grace and truth triumph? Will there break a dawn which shall know no setting sun? That's why we come. And all we do here is in order to lift our lives into the presence of the One Whose grace will touch us and Whose light will give us light and hope and heal us. Come, then. Come prayerfully. Come with heart prepared, open, ready to be encountered. Come and worship, for worship puts us in touch with God. The wrenching questions are not answered, but there is a Presence. Yet I am always with thee; Thou holdest my right hand; Thou dost guide me by thy counsel and afterwards will receive me with glory. Whom have I in heaven but thee? And having thee, I desire nothing else on earth. And then he makes this very beautiful expression of absolute trust. My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion for ever. © Grand Valley State University �The Worship of God: The Healing of Persons Richard A. Rhem Page 7   The Psalmist learned to trust when faith came hard. He worshiped and worship puts us in touch with God. In touch with God. As prayers are offered, hymns are sung, the Word is proclaimed, trust replaces agonizing doubt, peace mantles my heart, peace that passes understanding. That is, peace I cannot rationally explain, but peace I experience. In the sanctuary, in the posture of worship, the picture clarifies, my perverted perspective gives way to new perspective; as I worship, I get in touch with God Who has come close to us in the flesh of Jesus. Reality and truth break in on me. I see beyond the chaos a larger screen, a heart and purpose of love, a thread of meaning. Surely in the awful tragedy and intense suffering that is the daily lot of so many it must seem that God is dead or worse still, that He doesn't know; that He doesn't care. But in His Presence, I know He knows, I know He cares. Here I hear the story again of His own deep plunge into the depths of our suffering, His own embracing of the worst of our darkness in Jesus, His Son. In the sanctuary I see the cross and I am reminded that God suffers, too; that God was crucified with Jesus on the cross; that the heart of the Eternal breaks with the weight of human sin, rebellion and violence. In touch with God, I sense that history with its terrible woes and awful suffering is not all there is; that death and defeat will not have the final say; that the God Who has joined us in our darkness will finally make some sense out of this senseless suffering; will yet effect His purposes and cause love to prevail and peace to be the final word. In worship, in communing with God, I am healed. I see clearly. I trust. I rest in the abyss of God's love. Now I can go on. Amen. © 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 IV Scripture Text Psalm 73:17 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-0-19880619 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1988-06-19 Title A name given to the resource The Worship of God: The Healing of Persons 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 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 June 19, 1988 entitled "The Worship of God: The Healing of Persons", on the occasion of Pentecost IV, at Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI. Scripture references: Psalm 73:17. Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Lemmen Library and Archives Love Peace Presence of God Suffering Trust Worship https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/3dd9e643e68ea95d326ed36a65d0d723.mp3 3bc157e5a0f715ab4ceb77b218d90d86 https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/a52f42e8873b3d9af324a3df8f34f918.pdf e96d403f1c1efb63544a1b9f922b2546 PDF Text Text Authentication From the Lenten sermon series: The Servant of the Lord Text: Isaiah 53: 11; I Corinthians 15: 22-28 Richard A. Rhem Christ Community Church Spring Lake, Michigan Easter Sunday, April 3, 1988 Transcription of the spoken sermon After all his pains he shall be bathed in light, after his disgrace he shall be fully vindicated; so shall he my servant vindicate many, ... himself bearing the penalty of their guilt. Isaiah 53:11 For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive. ... He must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet...that God may be everything to everyone. I Corinthians 75:22-28 God raised Jesus from the dead. That is the great truth we celebrate on Easter. Jesus died. That is the somber reality marked in this sanctuary and around the world on Friday. As Jesus was hanging suspended between heaven and earth, they cruelly mocked him – the soldiers, the religious authorities, even those condemned with him. Did he trust in God? They taunted, let God rescue him… Matthew 27:43 How that must have wrenched him. His whole life, his whole message was posited on trust in God. Where was God, the God Whom he addressed intimately as “Abba, Father”? Is it any wonder that that terrible cry of dereliction found expression in his awful agony, “My God, my God, why hast Thou forsaken me?” He trusted in God; let God deliver him now... But there was no deliverance; Jesus breathed his last. Jesus died. Unless that black reality has seeped into the pores of our being, Easter will fail to appear in all its radical reality. Only the horrid darkness of Golgotha can adequately set the stage for the brightness, joy and wonder of Easter's dawn. The taunters at crucifixion were not without profound insight. They knew everything hinged on God’s intervention on behalf of His Servant. If heaven © Grand Valley State University   �Authentication Richard A. Rhem Page 2   remained relentless and Jesus really died, then put to death as well was all he claimed to be, all he claimed was true, the way he claimed to be God’s way. Those who conspired to put him to death knew instinctively that if there was no move from heaven, no action from God, they had won the day. “He trusts in God; let God deliver him now.” Quite right. That was the issue. If we are right - in agreement with the Gospel writers - that Jesus found his identity, the model of his ministry in the Servant Songs of Second Isaiah, then he must not have been surprised at the opposition he met in the days of his ministry. In the third of the songs, Isaiah 50:4-9, the Servant says, I offered my back to the lash and let my beard be plucked from my chin; I did not hide, my face from spitting and insult; Opposition and suffering must have come as no surprise. But the Servant was certain of the Lord's strong support. ... but the Lord God stands by to help me; therefore no insult can wound me. I have set my face like a flint... Beyond the suffering and persecution there was the promise of God's support and the clear call ... to be my salvation to earth’s fartherest bounds. Isaiah 49:6 And so, on the model of the servant, Jesus carried on a ministry of bringing Salvation, a ministry of healing executed with compassion in gentleness. ... not breaking a bruised reed, not snuffing out a smoldering wick. Isaiah 42:3 All of that must have passed before his mind's eye as he felt death closing in as the tormenters reminded him that the issue at stake was whether his trust in God would be vindicated; whether he, the Servant of the Lord, would be vindicated. O God, where are you now in my hour of desperate need? Yet, there was more that must have been going on in the mind and heart of Jesus, ravished with pain, alone in his anguish. If he found his identity and destiny in the Servant Songs, then he knew well the, to us, familiar 53rd chapter of Isaiah. We have referred to it in this series twice, noting the Lamb led to the slaughter, the innocent one bearing the transgression of his people. The Servant dies. ... he was cut off from the world of living men; stricken to death for my people’s transgression. He was assigned a grave with the wicked, a burial place, among the refuse of mankind. Isaiah 53:8-9 © Grand Valley State University �Authentication Richard A. Rhem Page 3   The Servant died. Jesus knew he was precipitating a crisis in Jerusalem. He must have sensed the inevitability of death. The institution of the Last Supper certainly indicates that. The Servant died. Jesus was dying, but the taunts must have been sharp spears thrusting into his heart. He trusts in God. Let God rescue him. But God made no move; heaven was silent. The evil designs of threatened religion and political leaders simply unfolded with no sign of intervention. But still there is more; the Servant of Isaiah 53 dies, but the Servant is also vindicated; the Servant's life and ministry is also authenticated. At the conclusion of the report of the Servant's vicarious suffering, bearing the transgressions of his people, we read: Yet the Lord took thought for his tortured Servant and healed him … so shall he enjoy long life and see his children’s children, and in his hand the Lord’s cause shall prosper. After all his pains he shall be bathed in light, after his disgrace he shall be fully vindicated. Isaiah 53:10-11 Jesus was dying. That could not have been a surprise to him. But, where was the vindication spoken of? This, of course, was Jesus’ supreme test; would he hold on trusting through his last breath? This claim of vindication and authentication in the fourth Servant Song is amazing. There was as yet in Israel no knowledge of resurrection, no understanding of a rising from the dead. Yet here we have an idea set forth of which there was no experience and no general expectation. The Servant dies on behalf of his people; God vindicates His Servant and the Servant is satisfied, content, that his mission is accomplished and his triumph is secured. This message is entitled “Authentication.” I contemplated using the term “vindication,” which appears in the text (Isaiah 53:11 NEB). However, that term has taken on a nuance with which I would not like God's raising of Jesus to be associated. It carries the meaning “to clear from censure, criticism, suspicion, or doubt, by means of demonstration; to justify or uphold by evidence or argument,” all of which properly applies to the significance of Jesus' resurrection. Yet it also conjures up images of vindication as avenging or revenge. © Grand Valley State University �Authentication Richard A. Rhem Page 4   Therefore, I have chosen the word “Authentication.” It is defined as “to invest with authority, to give legal validity to, to establish the title to credibility of a statement, or of a reputed fact.” It carries the idea of authorization, genuineness. It is this that God accomplished in raising Jesus from the dead. Easter is God's mighty “Yes” to Jesus, to the way of life he portrayed, the salvation he offered, the God to whom he pointed. Resurrection was for Jesus authentication. With real insight, the crucifiers taunted: He trusts in God; Let God rescue him now. God did; not before the mission was accomplished; but, miracle of miracles, when he had really died, God raised him from the dead. Resurrection is Jesus' authentication. So what? To answer that, we will move from the promise of vindication, life out of death, in Isaiah, beyond the narration of the event in the Gospel, to the consequence of resurrection in the Epistle. Paul's classic discussion of the reality of resurrection – Jesus’ and ours - in I Corinthians 15 makes the simple, straightforward claim: ... The truth is, Christ was raised to life. (vs. 20) He then draws the consequence: As in Adam all die, so in Christ all will be brought to life. Paul envisions an unfolding drama - the story goes on from Easter. Christ, the first fruits, and afterward, at his coming, those who belong to Christ. Israel gathered the first-ripened grain and offered it to the Lord - a sign that the whole harvest was God's. Using that figure, Paul sees Jesus' resurrection as the first instance of a general resurrection to follow at his coming - an event Paul thought was near. At his coming, history would come to its End. Paul understood Jesus to be reigning even as he, Paul, was writing. Jesus was overcoming all opposition to God's rule. When completed, he would overcome the last enemy, death. Then he would yield up the Kingdom to God and God would become all in all, or, “everything to everyone.” Thus, in the resurrection, God authenticated His Servant Jesus and established a whole new order, an order Scripture speaks of as the new age, the Kingdom of God, the Kingdom Jesus had claimed was arriving in his ministry. Jesus was authenticated: his claim authenticated. His resurrection was a sign that everything was new; a whole new world was born. © Grand Valley State University �Authentication Richard A. Rhem Page 5   We are already participating in that new order. We have passed from darkness to light, from death to life. Once, by nature, we were “in Adam,” subject to death. Now, by grace, we are “in Christ,” recipients of life. The old order did its best to defeat the gracious, saving purpose of God. Adam's race of which by nature we are all a part, crucified the Servant of the Lord. But God raised him up. In his death he bore the transgressions of his people, he justified the many whose sin he bore. In his resurrection he gives life to his people. Because Jesus lives, there is a whole new reality. The Kingdom of God, God's rule, acknowledged now by the Church, but one day every knee will bow, every tongue confess: Jesus is Lord. Because Jesus lives, we believe every obstacle and all opposition to God's desire and design to save will be overcome. Grace will triumph over all the forms and structures of evil, of darkness, of injustice, of sin and death. He trusted in God; let God deliver him - God did. And because he lives, I can face tomorrow. Because he lives, all fear is gone. Because I know he holds the future, and life is worth the living just because he lives! © 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 Easter Sunday Series The Servant of the Lord Scripture Text I Corinthians 15:22-28 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-0-19880403 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1988-04-03 Title A name given to the resource Authentication 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 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 April 3, 1988 entitled "Authentication", as part of the series "The Servant of the Lord", on the occasion of Easter Sunday, at Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI. Scripture references: I Corinthians 15:22-28. Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Lemmen Library and Archives Easter Resurrection Salvation Servant of the Lord Suffering Trust https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/0d887fd798c231b8bd03b9ce0696094d.mp3 3ef966eaef354aa6e5384c74a82e8c2b https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/74ddf4040d65102b3ed2df7a79bf9f7b.pdf c2a5d28540de685c06d42d80eba10a1c PDF Text Text Surprised by Grace Text: Lamentations 3:22-26 Richard A. Rhem Christ Community Church Spring Lake, Michigan August 2, 1987 Transcription of the spoken sermon The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases, his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is thy faithfulness… It is good that one should wait quietly for the salvation of the Lord. Lamentations 3:22-26 Sometimes a light surprises the Christian while he sings; It is the Lord, who rises with healing in His wings: When comforts are declining, He grants the soul again A season of clear shining, to cheer it after rain. William Cowper has captured the theme of this message beautifully in these lines. He lived from 1731 to 1800 and was England's most honored poet between Pope and Shelley. He was a frail child and very sensitive. His mother died when he was a child of six and near the end of his life he remarked there had never been a day when he had not mourned her death. His father sent him to law school, but the prospect of appearing for his final exam so frightened him that he suffered a mental breakdown and even attempted suicide. For 18 months he was placed in an insane asylum. He found a personal relationship with Jesus Christ through reading Romans. Having recovered, he was befriended by the family of a clergyman, Morly Urwin, and when Urwin died, John Newton, the converted slave trader become Anglican pastor and author of "Amazing Grace," invited Cowper to come to Olney, England, Newton's parish. For the last two decades of Cowper's life, he was a close personal friend of Newton. With Newton, Cowper cooperated in producing Olney Hymns, a collection of 349 hymns. Cowper's own personal experience finds expression not only in the hymn cited above but, for example, in "O For a Closer Walk With God." Return, O Holy Dove, return, Sweet messenger of rest! I hate the sins that made thee mourn And drove thee from my breast. © Grand Valley State University   �Surprised by Grace Richard A. Rhem Page 2   And in "God Moves In A Mysterious Way." Ye fearful saints, fresh courage take; The clouds ye so much dread Are big with mercy, and shall break In blessings on your head. In a word, the one who trusts in the good and gracious God is not spared the troubles and anguish common to humankind; the child of God, however, knows more than the awful darkness; the child of God also knows what it is to be surprised by grace. Sometimes a light surprises a Christian while he sings – or prays, or reflects on the past mercies of God. And the light which scatters the darkness ushers in "a season of clear shining." The experience is one of sheer grace; it comes in the wake of an anguish and despair which seemed beyond resolution; it comes when one has lost all hope and cannot imagine that things will ever come right, that one's heart will ever be mended, that one will ever again know joy and rejoicing. Unpredictably, unexpectedly, light returns, the woundedness heals and grace is experienced. God intervenes; one is assured anew of a mercy that never fails and a steadfast love that never wavers and a faithfulness that remains rocklike. So to experience grace is to find life transformed, reality transformed. One moves from disarray, disorientation to new orientation and all one can do is praise God out of a heart saturated with gratitude. In our study of the Psalms we have traced the rhythm of human experience that is never static but rather dynamic, in motion. Sometimes life is experienced as harmonious and well-ordered. Meaning is secure and purpose in life clear. One trusts in the wise and gracious rule of the Sovereign Creator. But sometimes the roof collapses, the bottom drops out and order turns to chaos. The dark night of the soul knows only anguish - and as noted in our study of Psalm 88, the darkness sometimes settles in with no relief, no resolution. But, thank God, in our common human experience there more often follows a scattering of the darkness, a burst of light, the promise of joy and a new orientation – the surprise of grace. The Psalms are a mirror of Israel's spiritual experience; they are a portrait of the way life is for us all. Life is lived not so much in one state or the other, but in the dynamic movement from orientation through disorientation to new orientation. © Grand Valley State University �Surprised by Grace Richard A. Rhem Page 3   That is the way life is and the Bible is a very honest book and the Old Testament a very wholesome portrayal of human experience before the face of God. This message celebrates the surprising grace of God that effects healing and wholeness, the grace that is not at our disposal, not ours to control or manipulate, not predictable or expected – the grace which is the intervention of the faithful God Who comes to us out of the darkness, Who meets us in the darkness, Who transforms the darkness into light. Although we have been tracing this pattern in the Psalms, and there are many examples of the surprise of grace in the Psalms, I have chosen my text from the Book of Lamentations. The whole book is poetry, five poems, elegies that give expression to the deep anguish of the people of God over the devastation of Jerusalem through the destruction ordered by the Babylonian King Nebuchadnezzar after the seige of 587 was successful and the Holy City was finally taken. The walls were torn down, the Temple burned, the best of the citizenry taken away and the city left a smoldering shambles. The situation, the historical context out of which this grief pours, is given in the book of II Kings 25:8-12: In the fifth month, on the seventh day of the month, in the nineteenth year of King Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon - Nebuzaradan, captain of the guard, an official of the king of Babylon, entered Jerusalem. He burned down the house of Yahweh, and the King's house; and all the houses in Jerusalem, including every great man's house, he set on fire and burned. The whole army of the Chaldeans tore down the walls of Jerusalem, all around... The rest of the people who were left in the city, and those who had deserted to the King of Babylon, and the rest of the populace, Nebuzaradan, captain of the guard, took to Babylon as prisoners. The captain of the guard left only some of the poorest in the country to tend the vines and farm the land. Lamentations.supplies the meaning of this historical data. As one commentator says, It is first of all a recital of the horrors and atrocities that came during the long siege and its aftermath, but beyond the tale of physical suffering it tells of the spiritual significance of the fall of the city. For the ancient people chosen by Yahweh it meant the destruction of every cherished symbol of their election by God. In line after line the poet recalls all the precious, sacred things which had been lost or shattered: the city itself, once "The perfection of beauty, the joy of the whole earth;" the city walls and towers, once the outward sign that "God is in the midst of her," the King, "The anointed of Yahweh, the breath of our nostrils"; the priests, and with them all festive and solemn worship; the prophets, and with them all visions and the living word of God; the land itself, Israel's "inheritance" from Yahweh, now turned over to strangers; the people - dead, exiled, or © Grand Valley State University �Surprised by Grace Richard A. Rhem Page 4   slaves in their own land. Every sign that had once provided assurance and confidence in God was gone. (Anchor Bible, Lamentations, p. XV) To the survivors these poems in Lamentations served as a means by which to bring to expression an almost inexpressible sorrow. Their grief was deep - beyond words; yet these words gave vent to the anguish and as we noted last week, when in the darkness, it is so important to bring to expression the anguish - to bring it into the presence of God Who is experienced as absent, yet present in the absence. So much for the historical context and the deep spiritual malaise the events of 587 created in the experience of Judah. What we are focusing on in this message is not the darkness which provides the backdrop, but rather the surprise of grace, the return of hope. From near total despair, the person described by the poet wins through to confidence that God's mercy is not at an end and that his steadfast love will not fail nor his faithfulness falter. In chapter 3, the first 16 verses portray vividly the terrible suffering the person has experienced; verses 17-20 describe the resulting despair and then, in an amazing turnabout, verses 21-25 speak of renewed hope that rises from the remembrance of the mercy of God. In verses 1-16 the author is saying, "This is what any human being may be called to endure." Verses 17-21 are a transitional bridge which portray the despair and despondency which results from the onslaught of suffering. But even in the darkness of despair, the one who trusts in God will wait. With verse 22 we have the breakthrough, the surprise of grace. And the surprise of grace is a renewed sense of the mercy or the steadfast love of the Lord. The Hebrew word is hesid, "steadfast love" or "loyal love" or "mercy." The remembrance of the steadfast love of the Lord is the basis for renewed hope. Hesid describes God's faithful and merciful love which is promised and may thus be expected even when there is no tangible sign of its presence. Hesid speaks of more than an emotion; it is the loving and merciful action of God which transforms reality. In the darkest hour Israel remembered the steadfast love, the mercy of God. The reality of the God of covenant grace returned to flood the soul of the sufferer; he was surprised by grace and found his hope renewed; he found the grace to wait patiently for the salvation of God. To his surprise, a new and unexpected possibility shows itself. God's mercy is not at an end; God's compassion will not fail. He breaks forth in exclamatory praise, "Great is Thy faithfulness." In the wake of the new realization there is amazement, joy, gratitude and praise. This is an expression of biblical faith at its heart, at its most profound depths. It rests on the sure mercy, the steadfast love of the faithful God. It was when the © Grand Valley State University �Surprised by Grace Richard A. Rhem Page 5   grief had been brought to speech in the presence of God, that the writer was no longer mesmerized by the darkness but once again remembered the true nature of the Covenant God. Suddenly a light surprised him and that light was a prelude to a season of clear shining. This mercy of God was not spent, exhausted; rather, embracing the darkness and permeating the darkness was that mercy which was new every morning. Now the sense of the faithfulness of God returns and hope once again floods the soul. In human experience we find that there are periods of anguish but we find, too, that there is a grace that comes to us from beyond ourselves, that effects healing in the midst of brokenness and creates hope in the most desolate human situations. The movie, "Choices of the Heart," was rerun on TV last week. It is the story of Jean Donovan, one of the four women brutally slain in El Salvador a few years ago. She was narrating her experience showing the terrible poverty, the violence and fear that stalked the lives of the people. But she pointed to the children in tattered rags, playing in the dusty rubble of their poor neighborhood and remarked how amazingly they lived with hope. "They know," she said, "the roses will bloom again." It seems that hope thrives best in the darkness awaiting the light. And it is true there is a positive, healing power that gives buoyancy to the human heart even in the darkness. I re-read M. Scott Peck's The Road Less Traveled, remembering his discussion of grace which he defines as a powerful force originating outside of human consciousness which nurtures the spiritual growth of human beings. As a medical person trained in the natural sciences, he witnesses to a miraculous power which cannot be located as to origin or source nor explained in any scientific fashion, but which he has, nonetheless, experienced for himself and as operative in the patients he has dealt with in his psychiatric practice. He is ready, for himself, to identify the source of grace as God. This, of course, is precisely the witness of the Scriptures. It is not simply that there is a force that is on our side; it is that there is a gracious God Who is for us. It is not that the darkness is not threatening, that the anguish is not real; it is that there is One Who invades the darkness and by the transformation of grace changes the reality of our situation. It is not simply that time heals all wounds; it is that God graciously heals us and brings us toward wholeness, just when it seemed all hope was gone. In the previous message I found the epitome of the experience of Psalm 88 in the crucifixion of Jesus who cried out, "My God, why...?" and died in darkness, alone. Within the framework of history there was, neither for the psalmist nor for Jesus, a resolution. But, we can move beyond history now to the ultimate word, the event of Easter morning. God raised Jesus from the dead. That is the last word, a © Grand Valley State University �Surprised by Grace Richard A. Rhem Page 6   word far too good to limit to Easter. Each Lord's Day is an Easter celebration, a celebration of the bedrock of our confidence; our trust is in the God Who transforms reality, the God Who raises the dead. Sometimes we marvel at the resiliency, the buoyancy, the toughness of the human spirit. It is really amazing and awesome. But that is not so much a characteristic of the human spirit; it is a testimony to the steadfast love of the Lord Whose compassion never fails, Whose mercy is new every morning, Who is great in His faithfulness. Sometimes hope is almost gone. Sometimes despair completely overwhelms. What then? Wait. Why? Because, The Lord is good to those who look for Him, to all who seek Him; It is good to wait in patience and sigh for the deliverance by the Lord. Again, that Hebrew word, "wait," can also be translated "hope," or "wait with expectation," because His mercy is not over. Sometimes a light surprises; Sometimes we are given "a season of clear shining;" Sometimes we are surprised by grace because God is good and gracious. He is our God. © 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 IX Scripture Text Lamentations 3:22-26 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-0-19870802 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1987-08-02 Title A name given to the resource Surprised by Grace 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 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 August 2, 1987 entitled "Surprised by Grace", on the occasion of Pentecost IX, at Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI. Scripture references: Lamentations 3:22-26. Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Lemmen Library and Archives Hope Psalms Suffering Transforming Grace Trust https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/f60998192905d443efa05e6dcbf72d98.mp3 72ab03bb0dac595433ebbbb6277f69e0 https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/72a4b4af1a415396820fe1e1b4e7f0bd.pdf 8e3bdb0a270e803101a6a54b663fd6b3 PDF Text Text The God Who Is Absent From the sermon series: God, Our Ally Text: Job 23: 3, 10; Mark 15: 34 Richard A. Rhem Christ Community Church Spring Lake, Michigan July 21, 1985 Transcription of the spoken sermon Oh, that I knew where I might find him… Job 23: 3 But he knows the way that I take; when he has tried me, I shall come forth as gold. Job 23: 10 …My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? Mark 15: 34 God, our Ally. That is the focus of this series of messages. The reiteration of that theme over a sustained period of time will write it indelibly on our minds and weave it into the fabric of our hearts. With such a conviction being foundational to our lives, we will be able to negotiate life's perilous way with confidence and hope. At no time will that be more important and necessary than at those times when it seems that the God with Whom we have to do is absent. It is such times that this message addresses and it is with such times that Christian preaching must honestly deal lest it become superficial sentimentality, a kind of religious "whistling in the dark." The proclamation of the Gospel, the announcement of Good News, must never be an upbeat, positive message of good cheer that communicates the idea that one should simply keep one's chin up because it is really not as bad as it seems. If the Church conveys that impression; if Christian preaching is no more than cheerleading, then it will serve well those who live on the surface of life with no depth of experience and certainly no encounter with suffering, but it will fail miserably and soon alienate more serious souls who have been brushed with the mystery of evil and suffering in the world. Not only will such superficiality offend those who know the experience of darkness; it will also fail to do justice to the full spectrum of biblical truth, for the © Grand Valley State University   �The God Who Is Absent Richard A. Rhem Page 2   biblical message never makes light of the darkness but rather announces a Light the darkness can never overcome. But, darkness there is. Real. Devastating. Causing fear and trembling. God is our Ally. God is there for us. That affirmation of faith I am attempting to declare from Scripture, approaching that truth from various angles. But certainly one of the most critical situations from which to trust that truth is the experience of God's absence. One of the greatest concerns I have in preaching is that the Truth declared may leave the one who needs it most in a worse state than before, simply because the dark night of the soul is so deep, the pain so great, the feeling of desolation so overwhelming that a message that promises joy and triumph simply cannot be received. That may sometimes happen in spite of the sensitivity of the preacher. But it will certainly happen if the message fails to acknowledge the hell of experiencing the absence of God. If Scripture is faithfully taught, there will be no danger of soft-pedaling the darkness, the horror of being alone, lost, in a world from which God is absent. Let us look then for a moment into the soul of Job. This Old Testament drama deals in classic fashion with the problem of suffering. Its theme is familiar and its purpose well known. The book was written to counter the prevailing idea that there is always a connection between human sin and human suffering. It is a drama. The opening verses present the greatness and prosperity of Job. Then scene one takes place in the Court of Heaven. God speaks of Job's righteousness; Satan, the accuser, says it is not surprising that Job is so good - see how he has prospered. God says, "Go ahead, remove everything, test him." So Job loses everything; great calamity and loss are his. But through it all Job remains faithful. His classic response: Naked I came from the womb, naked I shall return whence I came. The Lord gives and the Lord takes away; blessed be the name of the Lord. (1:21) Scene two: Again the Court of Heaven. Obviously God won round one. Job was stripped bare but yet worshiped the Lord. Satan says that the real test comes when Job’s own health, his flesh and bone are touched. God says, “Go ahead, test him but do not take his life.” And it happens. Job suffers terrible physical disease. His wife cries out angrily, Are you still unshaken in your integrity? Curse God and die! (2:9) But Job remains a rock. © Grand Valley State University �The God Who Is Absent Richard A. Rhem Page 3   If we accept good from God, shall we not accept evil? (2:10) The suffering was massive. Friends came to comfort but for seven days simply sat there, numbed by the magnitude of the horror. Now we have the setting for the lesson of the drama. Job finally breaks out in bitter complaint. He curses the day of his birth. He lets it all spill out. His friends had been silent, quite overwhelmed by the magnitude of his suffering and as long as he bore it in silence they too said nothing. But now that he has finally broken out in bitter complaint, they find their own preconceived notions and pre-set judgments threatened. Now they feel constrained to answer because what they believe - their little systems of making sense of the world - was being challenged. They would have claimed that they were coming to the defense of God, of truth, of the proper view of things. In reality of course they were coming to the defense of their own dogmatic opinions. They had certainly come with good intentions of being comforters to Job in his affliction, but they had also come knowing the answer to the mystery before they heard the question. Their religious system was now under attack and so their intention to bring comfort was now overcome by their need to preserve intact their own world and life view. Listen to Eliphaz go on the attack: ... now that adversity comes upon you, you lose patience; it touches you, and you are unmanned. (4:5) Then he comes to the point: ... what innocent man has ever perished? Where have you seen the upright destroyed? (4:7) That was the prevailing opinion. That is what everyone took for granted. It was a life axiom, no longer even questioned. But Job questioned. He refused to bow to popular opinion - "What everyone knew." He was a good man. There was no secret iniquity he was hiding. His probing of the mystery is eloquent. The dialogue continues: Job's friend defending God for punishing Job, convinced that whatever Job gets he has coming to him; Job defending himself against their insensitive taunts. Finally Job cries out in despair at the blindness and obstinacy of his friends and makes his appeal to God. Oh, that I knew where I might find him, that I might come even to his seat! I would lay my care before him ... Behold, I go forward, but he is not there; and backward, but I cannot perceive him; by the left hand I seek him, but I cannot behold him; I turn to the right hand, but I cannot see him. (23:3-4, 8-9) Job found no comfort or understanding from his friends whose insensitivity has gotten them the label "miserable comforters." He refuses to accept the popular © Grand Valley State University �The God Who Is Absent Richard A. Rhem Page 4   wisdom. He refuses to believe God is doing this to him as a punishment. He refuses to believe that God would not solve his terrible dilemma. But, God is absent. He cannot find him. This is the point I want to make for the purpose of this message. Sometimes God is absent. Let me simply summarize the resolution of the drama of Job. There is never given an answer to the why of suffering, the suffering of the innocent, the pervasive presence of Evil in God's good creation that brushes us all at some point. What is soundly refuted and persuasively denied is that there is a correlation between sin and suffering. God does reveal Himself to Job. Job is quite overwhelmed by the majesty of God. His persistent questioning seems almost silly in the light of the revelation of Who God is. He bows and worships. No answer is given. But the absent God does reveal Himself. And Job finds that God is enough. A light scatters the darkest darkness when the Presence is known. But let us remain with Job in his anguish for a moment. It is so very real and so very terrifying. In the midst of that darkness, no light is visible, not because there is no light, but because one is so numbed by the pain that one simply cannot penetrate the shroud of darkness that envelops the soul. Perhaps in the Church we do not deal well with the darkness because it makes us nervous - like Job's friends we rush to God's defense - not that God needs to be defended but the darkness threatens our own little security systems. We are really defending ourselves against that darkness. We grow anxious when someone close to us in a time of great trauma seems to question God or even to deny that God is, is good and merciful, is there for us. Job's friends did not do wrong in coming to Job. They did well in coming and being silent before the awful reality of his suffering. They seriously erred when they spoke, trying to explain, to rationalize, to defend God. God needs no defense. We often simply have no answers. It is our proper posture just to be there and wait in silence, bringing the comfort of a presence that cares even when it cannot fathom. Sometimes God is absent. Sometimes we must simply trust, holding on with white-knuckled grip. Job did not give up on God. But he could not find him. Thus his piercing cry, © Grand Valley State University �The God Who Is Absent Richard A. Rhem Page 5   "Oh, that I knew where I might find him!" Job's darkness was terrible indeed; yet it did not match the darkness of another whose cry is differently expressed, yet essentially the same; a cry of total abandonment and utter desolation: "My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?" Still there was a clinging to God - the address is a personal address, "My God." Yet there was a sense of being abandoned, of being alone in the darkness. The darkness is real. There is a mystery of Evil in the world. Sometimes there is no clue - no answer to the anguishing, "Why?" Let us simply acknowledge that. Perhaps the most horrible instance of such darkness and suffering of the innocent occurred in our own time. The Holocaust, which claimed the lives of six million Jews in Nazi death camps, can never be fully taken in. The most eloquent statement of the darkness I have ever encountered is in Elie Wiesel's account of his own childhood nightmare in the camps, seeing the smoke rise from the gas furnaces that consumed his mother and sister and watching his father die by inches. His account is entitled simply Night. He writes, Some talked of God, of his mysterious ways, of the sins of the Jewish people, and of their future deliverance. But I had ceased to pray. How I sympathized with Job! I did not deny God's existence, but I doubted His absolute justice. (p. 55F) One day a young boy was executed, hung from a gallows with the whole camp marched out to witness. Elie Wiesel watched, too, himself only a boy. As the child twisted in the air suspended from the noose, someone behind Wiesel said, "Where is God? Where is He?" Again, as he was marched by the child dying agonizingly, he heard it again, "Where is God now?" And he writes, And I heard a voice within me answer him, Where is He? Here He is - He is hanging there on the gallows... (p. 76) The Jewish New Year, Rosh Hashanah, was at hand and on the eve of that day is a great Jewish festival celebration. In the prison camp the Jews gathered for worship. Wiesel writes his thoughts. © Grand Valley State University �The God Who Is Absent Richard A. Rhem Page 6   "What are you, my God," I thought angrily, "compared to this afflicted crowd, proclaiming to You their faith, then anger, then revolt? What does Your greatness mean, Lord of the Universe, in the face of all this weakness, this discomposition, and this decay? Why do You will trouble on their sick minds, their crippled bodies?" (p. 77) … "Blessed be the Name of the Eternal!" Thousands of voices repeated the benediction; thousands of men prostrated themselves like trees before a tempest. … Why, but why should I bless Him? In every fiber I rebelled. Because He had had thousands of children burned in His pits? Because He kept six crematories working night and day, on Sundays and feast days? ... How could I say to Him: "Blessed art Thou, Eternal Master of the Universe, Who chose us from among the races to be tortured day and night, to see our fathers, our mothers, our brothers, end in the crematory? Praise be Thy Holy Name, Thou Who hast chosen us to be butchered on Thine altar?" (p. 78) … This day I ceased to plead. I was no longer capable of lamentation. On the contrary, I felt very strong. I was the accuser, God the accused. (p. 79) And what was the sensation of this awful situation? My eyes were open and I was alone - terribly alone in a world without God and without man. Without love or mercy. (p. 79) Elie Wiesel has become a strong advocate of the Jewish cause. I do not know where he is now in relation to the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. But certainly the poignancy of the pain could hardly find more powerful expression than he gives it in his account. In his book, The Meaning of Christ, Robert C. Johnson records an incident from the ministry of H.H. Farmer. Many years ago I was preaching on the love of God; there was in the congregation an old Polish Jew who had been converted to the Christian faith. He came to me afterward and said, 'You have no right to speak about the love of God, until you have seen, as I have seen, the blood of your dearest friends running in the gutters on a gray winter morning. I asked him later how it was that, having seen such a massacre, he had come to © Grand Valley State University �The God Who Is Absent Richard A. Rhem Page 7   believe in the love of God. The answer he gave in effect was that the Christian gospel first began to lay hold of him because it bade him see God - the love of God – just where he was, just where he could not but always be in his thoughts and memories - in those bloodstained streets on that grey morning. It bade him see the love of God – not somewhere else, but in the midst of just that sort of thing, in the blood and agony of Calvary. He did at least know, he said, that this was a message that grappled with the facts; and then he went on to say something the sense of which I shall always remember though the words I have forgotten. He said, "As I looked at that man upon the cross, as I heard him pray, 'Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do,’ as I heard him cry in his anguish, ‘My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?’ I knew that I must make up my mind once for all and either take my stand beside him and share in his undefeated faith in God ... or else fall finally into a bottomless pit of bitterness, hatred, and unutterable despair. (p. 46F) That I submit to you is a profound and moving response to the incomprehensible mystery of human suffering. The darkness is real. Wiesel’s God died in the onslaught of senseless suffering, human cruelty and the absence of God. The Polish Jew found the love of God in a similar life situation because he sensed that in the awful agony of another Jew, Jesus, who expressed that absence, there was yet an undefeated trust in God - even in the depths of hellish torment. He sensed that Christian faith, the Gospel, if you will, was not a superficial pep pill that asserted God was in His heaven and all was right with the world, but was an invitation to trust in the God of love in the deepest darkness, not because an explanation was offered for the suffering, but that the God of Jesus and the Cross is a God present in the moments of most acute abandonment. He trusted God in the darkness because the alternative was horrible beyond description – a bottomless pit of bitterness, hatred and unutterable despair. That is the choice we must finally make. The darkness is real. Biblical faith never denies its reality. Sometimes one finally cries to heaven, "Oh, that I knew where I might find him!" Sometimes one's God dies on the gallows of human evil as did Wiesel's. Sometimes one cries, "My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?" Sometimes - realizing this God invites us to trust him at the very point of history's darkest hour, one comes to find the love of God just there, as did the Polish Jew. © Grand Valley State University �The God Who Is Absent Richard A. Rhem Page 8   Biblical faith never takes lightly the darkness; Biblical faith declares a light that the darkness cannot overcome - the Light of Easter, of resurrection, of the promise of God's final triumph over the darkness. Good Friday was not the last word. Had it been the last word, there would have been no further word. But Good Friday found its answer in the Easter wonder of Jesus' resurrection. That is the one supreme moment of God's revelation - within history, a moment from beyond history, illuminating history's meaning. An event of the End happening in the middle of history, throwing its light forward and backward, giving meaning to the whole and filling the whole with meaning - that life is not a cruel joke, a cosmic mistake; that life is not a tragic moment bracketed by oblivion before and oblivion beyond; that life with all the vicissitudes of our human experience is undergirded and overshadowed by the Presence of the God Who sometimes seems absent. St. Paul said it well: "God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself." The French Christian writer, Francois Mauriac, wrote the foreword to Elie Wiesel's Night. This is how he ended: And I, who believe that God is love, what answer could I give my young questioner, whose dark eyes still held the reflection of that angelic sadness which had appeared one day upon the face of the hanged child? What did I say to him? Did I speak of that other Israeli, his brother, who may have resembled him - the Crucified, whose Cross has conquered the world? Did I affirm that the stumbling block to his faith was the cornerstone of mine, and that the conformity between the Cross and the suffering of men was in my eyes the key to that impenetrable mystery wherein the faith of his childhood had perished? Zion, however, has risen up again from the crematories and the charnel houses. The Jewish nation has been resurrected from among its thousands of dead. It is through them that it lives again. We do not know the worth of one single drop of blood, one single tear. All is grace. If the Eternal is the Eternal, the last word for each one of us belongs to Him. This is what I should have told this Jewish child. But I could only embrace him, weeping. (p. 10f) The Gospel we proclaim points to a gracious God, our Ally, Who will overcome the darkness with His light. God is our Ally; God is God. The darkness is real but it is not final. But Mauriac was quite right not to speak but to embrace the suffering one, weeping. That sensitive silence was the most cogent invitation to trust in the darkness. © Grand Valley State University �The God Who Is Absent Richard A. Rhem Page 9   If that is where you are, or if tomorrow that should be your lot, cling to God Who seems absent but Who feels our pain more deeply than any human support and who promises that dawn will yet break and light break through. Amen. Reference: Elie Wiesel. Night. English translation, Hill & Wany, 1972, 1985. © 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 Series God Our Ally Scripture Text Job 23:3, 10, Mark 15:34 Location The location of the interview Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI References Elie Wiesel, Night, 1972, 1985 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-0-19850721 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1985-07-21 Title A name given to the resource The God Who is Absent 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 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 21, 1985 entitled "The God Who is Absent", as part of the series "God Our Ally", on the occasion of Pentecost VIII, at Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI. Scripture references: Job 23:3, 10, Mark 15:34. Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Lemmen Library and Archives Grace Hebrew Scriptures Job Nature of God Sin Suffering Trust