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https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/09bc57f989035914c584330e132eafc6.pdf
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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
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Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
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Richard A. Rhem Collection
Description
An account of the resource
Text and sound recordings of the sermons, prayers, services, and articles of Richard Rhem, pastor emeritus of Christ Community Church in Spring Lake, Michigan, where he served for 37 years. Starting in the mid 1980's, Rhem began to question some of the traditional Christian dogma that he had been espousing from the pulpit. That questioning was a first step in a long and interesting spiritual journey, one that he openly shared with his congregation. His journey is important, in part because it is reflective of the questioning, the yearnings, and the gradual revision of beliefs that many persons in this part of the century have experienced and continue to experience. It is important also because of the affirming and inclusive way his questioning was done and his thinking evolved. His sermons and other written and spoken materials together document the steps in his journey as it took a turn in 1985, yet continued to revolve around the framework and liturgies of the Christian calendar.
Subject
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Clergy--Michigan
Reformed Church in America
Christ Community Church (Spring Lake, Mich.)
Religion
Interfaith worship
Sermons
Sound Recordings
Creator
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Rhem, Richard A.
Source
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<a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/514">Richard A. Rhem papers (KII-01)</a>
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Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives.
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Kaufman Interfaith Institute
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<a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a>
Language
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English
Type
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Sound
Text
Identifier
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KII-01
Coverage
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1981-2014
Format
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audio/mp3
text/pdf
Sound
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Event
Pentecost 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
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KII-01_RA-0-19970727
Date
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1997-07-27
Title
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Is Religion Really Escape from Life?
Creator
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Richard A. Rhem
Publisher
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Grand Valley State University
Rights
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<a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a>
Subject
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Clergy--Michigan
Reformed Church in America
Christ Community Church (Spring Lake, Mich.)
Sermons
Relation
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Richard A. Rhem - An Archive of Sermons, Prayers, Talks and Stories: http://richardrhem.org/
Language
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eng
Type
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Text
Sound
Format
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audio/mp3
application/pdf
Description
An account of the resource
A sermon given by Richard A. Rhem (Dick) on 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