1 24 25 https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/84fc3432cd7d686c979dc969e11969e9.pdf b2788abe144731cd1a0d154ef2074586 PDF Text Text Why Is There So Much Anger in Religion? From the series: Tough Questions; No Easy Answers Scripture: Jonah 3, 4; James 1:17-27; Luke 15:25-32 Richard A. Rhem Christ Community Church Spring Lake, Michigan August 3, 1997 Transcription of the spoken sermon One of the fascinating aspects of preaching for me is the way questions, insights, and reflections that lead me to a sermon series that I create, sometimes lead me to deeper levels of reflection and to the analysis of a subject that I had not anticipated. Such is the case in this current series, "Tough Questions: No Easy Answers." On the surface, the tough questions are simply questions that arise as I reflect on the phenomenon of religious experience. But, I am finding myself with each successive question moving to a deeper level, thinking about religious experience itself or religion itself, its origins, its function in society, its potential for negativity leading to human bondage and oppression as well as its possibilities for human fulfillment and growth. Take the question raised in this message, "Why is there so much anger in religion?" That is an easily observable fact: anger seethes beneath the surface in the respective religions and in many religious folk. Once again this past week, terror struck in Jerusalem, bringing death and injury as suicide bombers blew themselves up in a crowded market, assured that such martyrdom would bring them immediately to paradise. In Brooklyn, a bombing plot was preempted by arrest before another tragedy was perpetuated. What is at work here is not simply religious fanaticism. Religion is often coopted by political opportunists, and cultural humiliation fuels terrorism. Nonetheless, religion is intertwined, often providing legitimation for such acts and, of course, rewards. In the three great Western religious traditions linked to the Bible, Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, there are powerful fundamentalist movements that are marked by violent means justified by the ends in view - the establishment of the righteous empire and the destruction of those viewed as the enemy of true belief and practice. © Grand Valley State University   �Why So Much Anger in Religion? Richard A. Rhem Page 2   But, we need not go to the radical fringes of religious belief and practice to encounter anger which results in broken community, the erecting of barriers between people - even within families - and the exclusion of anyone who fails to pass whatever litmus test might be established for group identity. We see it all around us. Why? That is the question. Attempting to find an answer drives us once again to reflect on the phenomenon of religion itself. We typically think of religion as the mediator of meaning, of salvation or healing, of peace and comfort. Are we not taken aback when we realize religion is also a source of anger in its practitioners? We have become aware in this series of reflections that religion is a human creation arising out of the experience of death. The cosmic drama evolves to a point billions of years along where a creature we call human develops the capacity for consciousness, self-awareness and, thereby, the ability to "get out of his skin," to reflect back on himself, becoming aware that "all flesh is mortal." He will die. Those he values in his intimate circle will die. He develops with awareness the capacity to suffer; he encounters the tragic dimension of existence. He asks "Why? What does it mean?” In the wrestling with such ultimate existential questions with, we might say, life’s boundary situations, the human creature, human society, develops structures of meaning which become the means of coping with the mystery of life, of death, of tragedy, of joy. Existence is threatening; life is fragile; the human experience is perilous. Religion arises as a means of negotiating life’s passages. This was articulated powerfully in the 19th century, as we have seen, by the German philosopher/theologian, Ludwig Feuerbach, who was followed by Marx who sought resolution of history’s suffering by history’s transformation through class warfare; by Freud who saw religion as illusion and salvation by psychotherapy dissolving the power of the distortion within the unconscious and early childhood experience; by Nietzsche who proclaimed "God is dead" and who celebrated "the superman" and the will to power. Quite naturally, the religious world fought these thinkers who opened up the avenue of modern atheism and denied the truth of their claims. But, their claims made too much sense, had too much the ring of truth. The Church, to speak only of the Christian tradition, went into a defensive posture, simply denying the insight of the modern analysis of religion, failing to recognize that there was really only one issue that demanded denial if religion was to continue to be intelligently practiced; namely, that human religion had its source, not in the human creature, but in the Question placed in his experience from beyond, from his depths - that religions are human creations but created in response to an address from outside, beyond, the depths. Such a claim is grounded on the conviction that there is a Mystery, creative Source of all, that confronts, encounters, puts in question the human creature. © Grand Valley State University �Why So Much Anger in Religion? Richard A. Rhem Page 3   We might speak of it as simply the experience of God, of the Infinite One from whom all flows and to whom all returns. If we have such a conviction, then we can recognize the respective religions as the result of some founding vision which resulted in a teaching, a cultic practice, and a code of behavior. The teaching flows out of the particular vision or epiphany; the cultic practice directs the manner of worship and devotion; the code of behavior gives directions for living in a way congruent with the teaching, or conception of deity. Thus we have come to see Religion as a human creation, as response to an encounter with God performing a critical function: It provides Something to believe, A manner of worship, A way to live. Such a function is mediatory; Religion provides the means by which a person opens him or herself to the experience of the transcendent Mystery, the experience of God. Religious belief, devotion or practice is never an end in itself. It is rather the agency through which one comes into the presence of God that issues in the experience of love, of grace, of freedom. Religion functioning thus fulfills an extremely critical and positive purpose for the human creature for, as we have seen, there is a universal human yearning for some meaning in the face of life’s perplexity, some hope and comfort in the presence of human suffering and death. But, if this is the case, why is there so much anger in religion, or, why is so much anger present in religious communities? That is a tough question and I have no easy answer, but let’s think about it together. One of the most acute analyses of Religion of which I am aware is Charles Davis’ forward in his Temptations of Religion. Acknowledging the need of structures and institutions to bring some order to our human experience, Davis points to the fatal tendency of all such social structures and institutions to absolutize themselves, becoming ends in themselves rather than understanding themselves as merely means to a greater end - the experience of community or of the transcendent. Rather than understanding themselves as means to a greater end, as provisional, as relative, they become ends in themselves. They harden, grow rigid, inflexible; unable to allow new, more effective structures or institutions to replace them. In his own words, Davis claims, © Grand Valley State University �Why So Much Anger in Religion? Richard A. Rhem Page 4   I would stress the importance in human living of that consolidating function. Men cannot live without the imposition of some social, institutional order upon the flux of their experience. Nevertheless, all such orders and their components are relative. In themselves they cannot claim an absolute value or a universal necessity. To speak of a particular order as relative does not mean that it is the product of individual or group caprice. A good social order will be the result of creative intelligence and freedom, and designed both to increase the quality of human living and to release and foster the drive toward transcendence. But none of this makes the order with its prescriptions an unchanging absolute. This brings me to one of the most persistent and perhaps deadliest of the temptations of religion, the temptation I am calling the anger of morality. By this I mean the insistence upon an established pattern of behavior and thought for its own sake, so that it loses its mediatory quality and becomes a closed order as an end in itself. I call it anger, because psychologically the attitude I am describing would seem to be a hostile reaction that chokes love, a bitter rejection of what is free and does not conform, the sharp repulsion of anything that disturbs or threatens an enclosed self. Since the established pattern that may be angrily insisted upon is threefold, namely, ritual, ethical, and doctrinal, we find three similar forms of distortion. These are familiar to us as ritualism (in a pejorative sense), legalism, and dogmatism. All three manifest the same fundamental failing, that is, a restrictive insistence upon a particular institutional order, so that instead of facilitating the movement of men toward selftranscendence, it becomes a rigid framework that imprisons them. Here, however, I want to direct my attention to the working of this temptation in the area of moral values and conduct. Hence I have called it the anger of morality. But there should be no difficulty in applying my remarks to the other two areas. The anger of morality is more than the periodic inertia that defends an obsolete system and resists change. An underlying factor is the human fear of freedom, of love, and of self-transcendence. That fear can turn with hatred as well as anger upon those who manifest an openness one is afraid to allow oneself. It is the personal repression of self-transcendence that leads people to seize upon an institutional order as an instrument for suppressing the feared drive in others. Law and order becomes the cry of the repressed against the free. Rosemary Haughton, in her book Love, shows in some detail how the organization of human life so often suppresses love, a word she uses in the sense of the self-giving form of the drive for self-transcendence. In writing © Grand Valley State University �Why So Much Anger in Religion? Richard A. Rhem Page 5   of child-rearing, which after all is the process of socialization and thus shows the working of the social order, she says: "In fact the study of child care, both in the past and present, is largely a study of the restriction or suppression of love." Men fear the openness, the self-transcendence, the self-giving of love, and this fear often cripples the mediatory function of their institutions and of the code of behavior these demand. The anger of morality is a temptation for every social order and institution, even those making no explicit appeal to religion. It appears as the failure to recognize the inadequacy of any particular institutional order in relation to reality and human experience as a whole. Man is taken as made for the law, instead of the law as being made for man. Any movement that cannot be contained within the established order is feared and suppressed. But distinctively religious institutions are subject to more virulent forms of the temptation. Because of their direct concern with the transcendent absolute, when they turn in upon themselves, lose their openness and mediatory capacity and become closed institutions, they fall into a selfidolatry and claim an absolute value for themselves. They do so in effect if not in words. The consolidating function of the religious system in sustaining a stable, meaningful order is no longer complemented by its function of promoting the human drive beyond every limited order to reality and truth as transcendent. Why? Because the religious system cannot bear to be itself surpassed and relativized. Hence the order ceases to mediate and becomes so much dead weight. Temptations of Religion, Charles Davis, p. 79F. Charles Davis points out how religion in its respective forms claims finality, absoluteness. The institutional leadership makes the claim and shapes the mind set of the people forming in them a sense of the ultimacy of the respective religious traditions in their doctrine, their forms of worship and their moral code. Institutional strength and solidarity is sought by claiming absolute truth and absolute practice in devotion and life. Conformity to belief and practice is not left to persuasion and freely offered response; means of enforcement are developed and, where the system is challenged or appears vulnerable, coercion is applied. A movement that begins in spiritual explosion resulting from fresh vision and is marked by confidence, freedom, and joy moves toward normality and then sterility, and at each stage the demand for conformity increases and coercion comes into play. That’s a view from the institutional perspective. But, why do so many passively conform for so long? In other words, why do people put up with institutional coercion? © Grand Valley State University �Why So Much Anger in Religion? Richard A. Rhem Page 6   Is it because we prefer order and predictability in our lives that are chaotic enough without too much freedom and openness in our lives? I think this is particularly true in the area of our concern - in our religious experience. I think it is safe to say that in no other area of life has the human creature been so passive, so conforming as in religious belief and practice. The institutional leadership has cultivated in the people an unthinking passivity and the people have traded a vital personal faith perspective for the ease and comfort of certainty. The problem is, of course, that such absolute certainty is a false certainty, for it is the very essence of human historical existence that absolute truth and absolute certainty are denied us. There is no possibility of anything more than a relative apprehension, always provisional, always tentative, always open to revision, of the Absolute, of the transcendent Mystery. But, that is not what we have been told. Rather, the respective religious traditions - some at least and ours certainly - have claimed absoluteness and played to the human lust for certitude. In these messages I have been repeating again and again my understanding of religion as a human construction. It is response to genuine encounter, but the response is a human creation, which means precisely that it is not to be identified with absoluteness that is to turn it into idolatry. Someone sent me a copy of an article that appeared recently in a hyper-Calvinist publication showing that my "heresy" stems from my failure to take the Bible, in the words of the Belgic Confession, as being "most perfect and complete in all respects." The author went on to claim "that the Bible is the infallible and complete written record of God’s revelation in Christ to His people." The article was appropriately entitled "God’s Way ... Or No Way." There was not enough selfawareness or humility to acknowledge that "God’s Way" is not the same as our limited human groping after truth that will always fall short in our attempts to reduce it to our little systems. Karen Armstrong’s in-depth study of 4000 years of the history of God provides a much broader perspective. She recognizes the creative role of human imagination in the forming of images of God, symbolic language that points beyond itself to the Mystery. And she views the present time as a time of transition when old metaphors have lost their power and new symbols are trying to emerge. She pointed to the English poet John Keats who spoke of the poet’s waiting in the darkness for the poem to write itself. This capacity to wait while the image was forming he called "negative capability ... [being] capable of being in uncertainties, mysteries, doubts without any irritable reaching after fact and reason." © Grand Valley State University �Why So Much Anger in Religion? Richard A. Rhem Page 7   According to Karen Armstrong, that is where we are in the present cultural milieu - waiting, but not anxious, as though we had to protect God or preserve a religious system. Newness will emerge; in the meantime, we trust. I was delighted to find in Kathleen Norris’ recent book, The Cloister Walk, a chapter entitled "Exile, Homeland, and Negative Capability." The citation above about negative capability was at the head of the chapter. In this chapter, she speaks of going into elementary classrooms to read poetry and to stimulate the children to write. Interestingly, she noted that the good students did not generally do well with this endeavor in creative writing, but often the traditionally poorer students who did not function well in the ordered disciplines showed great creativity and entered more happily into the exercise. Norris writes, Metaphor has been so degraded in our culture that it may be difficult for people to conceive of worship as a "metaphoric exchange." But as a poet, I am willing to explore the implications. How would it change our understanding of worship if, from the time they were small, children were taught to value and explore the possibilities of Keat’s "negative capability" in themselves? They might better understand faith as a process and church tradition as not only relevant but strikingly alive. It is worship, she contends, that gives rise to theological reflection, and not the other way around, and if this is understood, then on the analogy of writing a poem, we would see "that one might grow into faith much as one writes a poem. It takes time, patience, discipline, a listening heart. There is precious little certainty, and often great struggling, but also joy in our discoveries." Again, analogous to birthing a poem, one must not settle for a false certitude but embrace ambiguity and mystery. If the Church had had more of such an understanding - God as mystery, the ambiguity of human experience, the struggle for insight, the walls of faith as a process, the people would have been shaped with a different mind and heart, would have developed patience in the quest for God and compassion with their fellow pilgrims on journey to the Holy City. Instead, the religious institutions have been marked by arrogant claims to absoluteness, oppressive methods of requiring conformity, coercive means to eliminate spontaneity and freedom, and, consequently ,utterly failed to create space for the freedom of the Spirit’s brooding ministry. Pressure to conform, coercion used against the one who fails to comply - all of this creates rather a spirit of fear, suspicion, and anger. Within the biblical witness there are protests against the angry spirit that battles against an inclusive and compassionate spirit. © Grand Valley State University �Why So Much Anger in Religion? Richard A. Rhem Page 8   In the Hebrew scriptures, Jonah is the classic text condemning a narrow exclusionary spirit and calling for compassion. The story is in the form of parable - Jonah is called by God to go to the great ancient city of Nineveh, a center of wickedness, according to the story. Jonah is to preach repentance lest God visit the city with judgment. Jonah wants nothing of such an assignment. He cares not whether Nineveh is scorched; in fact, he would rather have it that way. Should he preach and bring repentance, he senses God would spare them and, in all honesty, he would rather they be damned. So he boards a boat sailing on the opposite direction. Well, you know the story; a storm arises. The ancient thinking said God must be angry because of someone on board. Jonah acknowledges it is he; he is fleeing God’s command. So, overboard he goes; the storm ceases; the boat and crew are safe. But, what of Jonah? A watery grave? No. He is swallowed by a great fish and survives being there for three days and three nights after which the fish spews Jonah on to dry land: Nineveh after all. He goes. He preaches God’s word. Nineveh heeds, repents, and is spared. Ah, just as he thought - God’s compassion will spare this alien people when everything in Jonah was saying - "God, damn them!" God changed his mind about the calamity that he had said he would bring upon them; and he did not do it. Can you celebrate that, Jonah? Your preaching made a difference. The people are turning to God and God is full of mercy. No, not so. We read, rather, "But this was very displeasing to Jonah, and he became angry." He badgers the Lord. See! This is just what I expected! That’s why I fled to Tarshish in the first place because, "I knew that you are a gracious God and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love ..." Jonah was so depressed by the wideness of God’s mercy that he wanted to die. But, God is not done with this prophet for this story is not about Nineveh, but about Jonah and the spirit Jonah represented - a narrow exclusionary spirit that resented the mercy of God flowing beyond the narrow limits of Israel. So, God queries, "Is it right for you to be angry?" No answer. Jonah heads for the hills to watch the drama unfold. He sat under a leafy booth he made to protect him from the burning sun. Waiting in the shade, there grew © Grand Valley State University �Why So Much Anger in Religion? Richard A. Rhem Page 9   above him a marvelous bush that provided even better cover. Jonah was pleased very comfortable. But, the next day the Lord sent a worm that killed the bush as quickly as it had grown. And, you guessed it - Jonah was angry. Once again, he wanted to die. Now it was time for the lesson - God asks, "Is it right for you to be angry about the bush?" Yes! But, Jonah, you didn’t have anything to do with the growth or development of the bush, which was here today and gone tomorrow; yet you grieve its loss. How should I feel about this great city of Nineveh - all the people and the animals? The parable makes its point - about as poignantly as the one Jesus told of a father with two sons - I need not rehearse the parable - only to say that when the prodigal returns from his fling in the far country, he is received graciously by the Father who throws a party. The elder brother reflects precisely the bitter spirit we just saw in Jonah. Jesus says, " ... he became angry and refused to go in." Think about it: Jonah, a parable in the Hebrew scripture that reveals the ugliness of an exclusive spirit that really does not want God’s mercy to be experienced by all, that is really angry that others who are different - in race, culture, ethnicity, creedal commitment or whatever are also loved by God. The parable Jesus told exposing the naked face of resentment that God’s grace is not a matter of performance, of merit, but offered to any open to receive it. What is operative here? Is it not perhaps a religion of obligation grudgingly practiced for fear that failing to do so would hold negative consequences now and eternally? Anger is seen to arise when the absolute certainty of one’s creed and practice is relativized; Anger is present when one views his religious obligation as an onerous task which he resents - and then sees some other one invited to the party while never having "put in his time." Lust for certitude that is not possible. Resentment at a grace that is offered apart from performance. There may be more operative in the anger present in much religion but these two causes are quite obviously major factors. What a pity. How many good people, sincere and well meaning, have not been crippled by an angry spirit because they were never told honestly that their religious system is relatively effective, not the one and only absolute way. They’ve been told their beliefs and practices "fall out of heaven" unmediated by human imagination and construction. © Grand Valley State University �Why So Much Anger in Religion? Richard A. Rhem Page10   Further, they have never been allowed a glimpse of the wideness of God’s mercy that will never be denied, never exposed to a grace irresistible that will never give up on the human family, all of whom are sisters and brothers because all the children of the God Who is Mystery, Who is Love. References: Charles Davis. Temptations of Religion. Harper & Row, 1974. © Grand Valley State University � https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/b1ee50b60fb460ecfd496ca1911745fb.mp3 068a35a3e159c8753aa3a3b794c650c9 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 XI Series Tough Questions: No Easy Answers Scripture Text Jonah 3,4, James 1:17-27, Luke 15:25-32 Location The location of the interview Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI References Charles Davis, Temptations of Religions, 1974 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-0-19970803 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1997-08-03 Title A name given to the resource Why Is There So Much Anger in Religion? 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 August 3, 1997 entitled "Why Is There So Much Anger in Religion?", as part of the series "Tough Questions: No Easy Answers", on the occasion of Pentecost XI, at Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI. Scripture references: Jonah 3,4, James 1:17-27, Luke 15:25-32. Inclusive Meaning Nature of Religion Transforming Love https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/cb0784e2989fa582da5eae187cb16636.pdf 159865f3537a710b2a149f7d9f553b5b PDF Text Text Love Enfleshed Text: Hosea 11:8; I John 4:16; Luke 10:27 Richard A. Rhem Christ Community Church Spring Lake, Michigan June 8, 1997 Transcription of the spoken sermon Those of you who have been around a while with me know that I like to preach in series; it helps to focus my own thinking and reading and reflection, and it keeps you in a rut. But, there are those periods of time when I don't have a series and I just sort of spot things in, and then sometimes I find I am in an accidental series, and that's where I am right now. I am fascinated with God and I think that happened when I began to reflect on Pentecost and thinking about the Spirit of God, in terms of the cosmos of which we are all a part, the fact that the Spirit of God is the Breath of God, that Breath of God that hovered over the Chaos of Creation's dawn, maybe 15 billion years ago, that Spirit or Breath of God that permeates the whole of reality, enlivening all that is, nothing existing apart from that inspiring, in-breathing of God's Spirit, so that the birth of the Church, the Jesus Movement that emerged into the Christian Church which we celebrate on Pentecost, is really not something new. It's simply another stage, another development. It is simply the continuity with that which has been true throughout all - the enlivening, permeating presence of God's breath, God's Spirit. Then, we come to Trinity Sunday and we recognize that God is a Mystery, a mystery beyond our fathoming. The old theologian spoke about the incomprehensibility of God, that we cannot know God. On Pentecost, we experience that Mystery as an ever-present enlivening wind or breath, and so we have a Mystery and we have that permeating life-giving power force. But, how do we give some focus to it? Then we discover a face, and in the face of Jesus we believe we see into the heart of God, so that that Mystery beyond our fathoming takes on some definition; the nature of that Mystery becomes concrete in that human form of Jesus who shows us the way to be in communion with that Mystery that we cannot touch nor grasp. And so, we have a face and an enlivening breath throughout all, lifting us to a Mystery beyond us. © Grand Valley State University   �Love Enfleshed Richard A. Rhem Page 2   Yet, we are meaning-seeking animals and that may be all well and good, but what does it mean for my life? We have those deep questions, because, as we have noted, the deep questions about God are really deep questions about ourselves. Whence have we come? Whither are we going? And what is the meaning of it, in the meantime? What does it mean for my concrete living today, in the concrete context of my life, this Mystery that is God that is focused in the face of Jesus and experienced as life? Well, I think it just goes to show that there is something deep within us that wants to know, that needs to know about the meaning of it all. The current issue of Life magazine has in bold print, "Why we are looking for the meaning of our soul in the stars," and then in bolder print, "The Rising of Astrology," and there is a rather main-theme article in that picture magazine about current stargazing and we are told that there is more interest in astrology today than in the past 400 years. The last period of time when there was a lot of interest in stargazing, palm reading, finding the alignment of the planets, was during the period of the Renaissance. And today, at this Post-Enlightenment era, when we have moved through all of the scientific discoveries and scientific methods and all of the rationality of the Enlightenment, we have a world that is more interested in stargazing than in the past 400 years. Well, that art goes back over 3000 years to Babylon and it's been with us ever since, some periods rather lean, some periods of popularity as at present, but it's amazing to me. People all over the globe are asking to have their destiny read out from the heavenly planets. We can scoff at it and laugh at it and yet, there's a rather fascinating tiein with astrology and the concepts of modern physics. One of Einstein's protegés, David Bohm, an English physicist and no mean scientist, has been very interested in the connection between the two. He speaks about cosmic reality as an unbroken entity inflow, and he speaks about matter and energy and meaning as the three manifestations of this unbroken flow of reality, and then he suggests that maybe there is that constant tug to check the stars because, after all, we are star children, we are stardust. He speaks of an implicate order of reality, an order which enfolds, intertwines - Bohm's word for the total interconnection of the whole of reality. Bohm uses an analogy - if one takes two glass cylinders, one fitting into the other, with just a little space between them, filling that space with some high-viscosity liquid, some heavy oil, and then into the oil drop a drop of ink, one can see that drop of ink through the cylinder walls. If the cylinders are spun in opposite directions, what happens to the drop of ink? It begins to make a circle around that cylinder, and if continued to be spun at a high rate of speed, eventually that line becomes thinner and thinner until it disappears and is actually absorbed into the liquid. One can no longer identify that spot of ink which once was so clear. Now, what happens if the revolutions of the cylinders are reversed, spinning in the opposite direction? Will the ink be gathered again, until finally it becomes that spot at which it began? © Grand Valley State University �Love Enfleshed Richard A. Rhem Page 3   He illustrates that there is an implicate order of reality in which every spot of ink, every thing is connected with everything else in an implicate order beyond our fathoming. There is an explicate order that our senses can observe, and it is like observing the tip of the iceberg. With our senses, we have accessible to us the tip of the iceberg of reality. The rest is Mystery. But, it is one totality, one continuity, and it is manifested in energy and matter and meaning So, the human person is an animal that asks deep questions. But, when we do that, it's not just an intellectual exercise. It is not an academic game. We are not playing with riddles for fun. We are asking the deep questions of our lives. What, then, does it mean to be alive, to be conscious, to be aware? What does it mean to be in relationship? What does it mean to be in community? What does it mean to be this human person caught up in this totality of reality? What does it mean for my life? Those are the questions that the Bible addresses. The Bible is not a book of theology. The Bible is not about theological questions, about who can be saved and where heaven is and a multitude of other things that preachers talk about every Sunday. The Bible is a whole cumulative set of stories of concrete encounter with God. That's really what we want. We want to experience God. Knowledge is fine, but it is experience for which we hunger. The Bible tells about people who have shaped us in our tradition, who have had an experience of God and tell the story, and in telling the story, they draw us into the story and prepare us to experience similarly in our own stories, and at the heart of the biblical conviction is that confidence that God is love. The title of the message in the liturgy is "Love Enfleshed," but I really didn't mean to write "Love Enfleshed." I really meant to write "Mystery Enfleshed." That's the way it appeared in the newspaper ads, and that's correct, because what I want to say is the Mystery that we cannot touch, we cannot fathom, the Mystery enfleshed, can be experienced. But, as a matter of fact, if John is right, who says God is love, then it amounts to the same thing. My point to you this morning is simply this: To experience love is to experience God. Mystery enfleshed, Love enfleshed is the experience of God. Hosea, the Hebrew prophet, has no equal when it comes to talking about the passionate love of God. The first three chapters of his prophecy which were not read this morning are about Hosea's own personal experience with an unfaithful wife who he has to bring back out of her unfaithfulness to a loving relationship again. Out of his own personal experience Hosea experiences the anguish of the heart of God over a people that God has loved but a people who turn their back on God, and so Hosea speaks of the marriage relationship as an image of the relationship of God and God's people. But, in the passage that was read, the image is that of a parent and a child. © Grand Valley State University �Love Enfleshed Richard A. Rhem Page 4   When Israel was a child, I brought him out of Egypt. I picked him up, I held him in my arms, I brought him to my cheek. The intimate, beautiful image of a parent and child, that deep, binding, bonding love - that is the image that Hosea has for the relationship of God to God's people. The child turns away and deserves to be cut off. And then, in the midst of that statement of the child's unfaithfulness, we hear these words: How can I give you up, O Ephraim? My heart warms within me, my compassion roils within me. I cannot give you up! I will not give you up, because I am God, not human. It would be human, it would be expected, it would be normal and natural to have you cut off, but I am not human; I am God, I am Love, I am passionate Love, I will not let you go! And, of course, this is what John was talking about when he said God is love. But again, John wasn't talking about some speculative theological preposition that appears in a creed. John was talking about concrete human experience, for he says God is love, and the one who dwells in love, dwells in God. John says, the one who dwells in love, God abides in that one, and that one abides in God. If someone should say, "I love God," but doesn't love his brother or sister, that one is simply a liar, that one is not speaking truth, for John says you cannot love God whom you have not seen if you do not love the flesh around you, humankind that crosses your path. Jesus is the supreme storyteller. (Ah, I hate to say this with my son here, but in Jesus' day also there were lawyers.) Lawyers who would put him to the test, so Luke tells us. And so, the lawyer says, "What must I do to inherit eternal life?" But, Jesus is equal to the lawyer; he says, "Well, what does it say in the Torah?" The lawyer says, "Love the Lord your God with heart, soul, mind and strength and your neighbor as yourself." Jesus said, "Right answer. Go do it." Ah, but lawyers. He begins to think about all of his neighbors and of the exhausting imperative, and, wanting to carve out a little more manageable space for himself, he says, "Could you define neighbor?" Jesus tells the story of the Good Samaritan, the religious people on their way to General Synod who didn't have time, and the outcast Samaritan who met the need of the person. Of course, Jesus won't answer directly; he makes the lawyer answer his own question. Now, this is good. The lawyer asks, "Who is my neighbor?" © Grand Valley State University �Love Enfleshed Richard A. Rhem Page 5   Jesus says, "Who was neighbor to the one in need?" Nice twist, isn't it? I'm not going to go out there and tell you people who you ought to care for. I'm telling you that you are the person to care for any human need that crosses your path. It is in doing love that God is experienced. It is in the practice of the faith that the reality of God is known. It is in the action of love that the academic questions disappear and the reality of concrete human experience reveals God. As I was reflecting on this last evening, my contemplation was broken by a call from below; it was Nancy. She is the sports fan of the family, and she said, "Would you like to see history for a moment?" Knowing that her husband is sick, she is very patient with me, but she did call me down with a minute, 40 seconds left, and I was going to say, after that experience, the discovery of God, the experience of God is winning the Stanley Cup. I really did think about it. I didn't admit this to her, but I really was thinking about the sermon when I saw those thousands of people made as one, in communion, in community, in a moment of exhilaration, of pure joy! I saw them transcended out of themselves, pulled out of themselves. They didn't think about any problem they had, any ache or pain or anything that was going on in their lives. For a moment they were transported, they were transcended into one rejoicing, jubilant community, and I thought to myself, maybe the temples of the 21st century are the great sports palaces that now punctuate this land, and maybe it is in the sports arena that God will be found in the future. You laugh, but I'm serious. But, then I thought, the Red Wings, let alone the Flyers, after that ecstatic moment, this morning are reaching for the BenGay and those celebrating fans missed worship and are taking aspirin, because, you see, as really wonderful as that ecstasy is, as that moment of pure joy is, it fades. But, if you've ever held a child, if you ever loved a woman or a man, if you've ever been able to touch and heal someone in need, if you had a moment of love, you've had the experience of God, and it keeps getting richer. The Mystery is beyond us, but the experience is as close as the person at your side. © Grand Valley State University � https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/d94ace94adab39356577d8d8cf535acc.mp3 ca75db8011c61d71089b8c5c3f85cd63 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 III Series A Cosmic Symphony Scripture Text Hosea 11:8, I John 4:16, Luke 10:27 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-0-19970608 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1997-06-08 Title A name given to the resource Love Enfleshed 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 June 8, 1997 entitled "Love Enfleshed", as part of the series "A Cosmic Symphony", on the occasion of Pentecost III, at Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI. Scripture references: Hosea 11:8, I John 4:16, Luke 10:27. Mystery Nature of God Transforming Love https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/acaa4444137c5609f10cc5295954d3c9.pdf 1c004d35dc58cf552853a85a5bd69844 PDF Text Text Love That Puts You Out of Control The Nature of the Love of God Micah 7:19; Luke 15:20 Richard A. Rhem Christ Community Church Spring Lake, Michigan September 1, 1996 Transcription of the spoken sermon The religious people were grumbling at the life and the action of Jesus. They were grumbling because his attitude and his behavior were breaking down the lines that they had drawn that indicated who was "in" and who was "out." His behavior and his attitude embracing all, as the text says, receiving tax collectors and sinners, was distressing to the religious establishment, because they had set up a purity code so that everyone was clear on the rules. Those who were" in" knew they were "in" and those who were "out" knew that they were "out." Those who were "in," even if perhaps with some protestation of great humility, nonetheless were effected with an almost inevitable self-righteous satisfaction, while those who were "out" also received that message and considered themselves "out," unworthy. In the arrangement of that day in which the lines were clear, Jesus' manner of receiving all sorts and conditions of humankind was terribly confusing, and those who were in authority were afraid that there might be those who were "out" who might attempt to come in. And so, in response to this criticism, Jesus told three stories, and in telling these three stories, he was seeking to create a window through which could be seen the amazing love of God. These three stories have as their central thrust the nature of the love of God. Now, as I have said often enough, we have failed to focus on the central thrust of this parable as is indicated by the very name by which it is known - The Parable of The Prodigal Son. It's not a parable about a prodigal son. It is a parable about the love of God. It is a parable in which Jesus portrays a love divine, a love that stands in sharp contrast to all human loves, a love that dumbfounds us and confounds us because it is so strikingly in contrast to the love that we manifest in family and in larger community. It is a love that causes us to catch our breath and wonder if it can be true, and if indeed it is true, a love that certainly makes our human society impossible. Jesus, in this parable, was responding to his critics in order to justify his behavior on the basis of his understanding of God, of the love of God, which, if I understand the story correctly, was his understanding of the nature of reality that at the very heart of things, deep down at the core of things, there is a love © Grand Valley State University   �Love That Puts You Out of Control Richard A. Rhem Page 2   such that it continues to cause us to stand in amazement. It is a love, I would suggest, that puts us out of control. In saying that, what I mean is that it is a love that causes us to loose our grip on the reins. It is a love that finally dissolves that frantic grip on the reins of our life, because if there is anything that threatens us as human beings, it is to be out of control. I don't care if you are wild and wicked like the young one, or stiff and righteous like the older son, there is a commonality that binds them together and, indeed, I believe, is a thread woven through the fabric of the lives of all of us, and that is a desire to be in control. "Don't surprise me." Now, we have not only misnamed that parable, thereby missing the central focus of Jesus' story, the love of the Father, but we have also, in its preaching, focused where Jesus' focus was not. We have focused on that younger son and we have (I'm talking about we preachers. I have been guilty of it in the past and I have heard it preached this way often enough.), we have taken this marvelous story of Jesus about the love of God, and made it a story about this younger son who went off into the far country. Then we made some moralistic applications appealing to youth not to kick over the traces, not to leave home, showing the dangers thereof and the decadence that's at the end of that road. But, then, we come in with our evangelistic appeal saying that the conversion point of the young son is when he came to his senses. Have you ever heard it preached this way? He was in the far country, he came to a deep misery, but thank God he came to himself, he came to his senses. Well, I want to suggest to you that's not a critical point at all, for that young rascal was just as much in control in the far country, in the pigpen as he had been any moment of his life. That young boy woke up to the fact that, while things were boring back home, at least there was a bunkhouse with a bunk and three squares a day, and he analyzed this situation in an ongoing, calculating human fashion and said to himself, "You know, it may be boring there, but I'm very hungry here." And so, simply adding up the pros and cons, coming to take account of things, what does he do? He just sits down and says, "You know, I think it's better at home." So, he goes home. He writes himself a speech, he memorizes it, he rehearses it, and all the time he's still in control, still writing the script, throwing in a little regret and remorse for effect. But, as a matter of fact, in coming to himself, that's precisely what he came to - he came to himself and his ongoing desire to survive and to make it with the reins still well intact in his own hands. The young rascal was still in charge. And it was true of the elder brother, as well. He may have been seething with anger throughout all of the years of his responsible, faithful, diligent service to the father. He may have done it all without joy. He may have grumbled and been resentful underneath, but there's one thing about it - it was safe. He was in control. He was his own person, miserable person that he was. I think that's so characteristic of all of us, isn't it? Isn't maybe our greatest fear that we'll spin off into free fall, that we'll lose control, that we'll lose our grip? Wouldn't we be © Grand Valley State University �Love That Puts You Out of Control Richard A. Rhem Page 3   willing to do almost anything, go almost anywhere, bear almost any burden if at least we could say we are in control? Isn't there something deep in the human person that longs for that kind of autonomy? And again, it doesn't matter where on the spectrum of human personality you fall. I find it in all of us. "Don't surprise me. Let me write the script." Some risk a bit and pay the price. Some play it safe and never play at all. But, depending on the personality type, the commonality is the desire to be in control. I'm suggesting that Jesus confronts us with the love of God that is the only thing that can finally dissolve that tight rein with which we hold our lives in tow. It is love that puts us out of control, and it is love that brings us into an arena of vulnerability where we can relax and rest in the abyss of divine love. Love is the only transforming agent in the world. Threat can keep us in line for a bit. Fear can keep us somewhere down the straight and narrow. There are control mechanisms by which we control one another, our families. The Church has been heavily into control, thereby justifying everything that Freud has ever said about the anger over against the father, the father complex, because the Church has played the role of the stern parent. Control. That's the name of the game. We try to control and we try to stay in control. That word is so common that I wondered where it came from, so I took my big, fat dictionary and looked it up. It comes from the French language, made up of two French words, neither of which I can pronounce. But, it means against the role. And then I was reminded that when I travel through Europe, Germany for example, go across the border or go into a bank or something, one sees this word, Kontrol. And what that means is that you are checked against the role. Guard the borders. Make sure nobody slips through. Check against the role. And we spend so much of our time making sure we measure up against the role that there will be no surprises for us, either. Control, that my life is checked off on the list. Jesus gives us a picture of the love of God that absolutely decimates control, dissolves that frantic effort to hold on that tight grip, allowing us for the first time in our lives, once we taste it, to let go and to rest in the love of God. That's what his critics didn't understand. They had made it very clear who was "in" and who was "out," and those who were "out," as I said, considered themselves "out" and had given up on themselves. And those who were "in" considered themselves "in," never understanding the fact that they could be totally alienated within, homeless at home. Jesus was painting the picture of the love of God, which dissolves those distinctions and transforms. The young rascal came to himself, to his senses in the far country. But, that was not the point of his conversion. It was the beginning of his movement toward home, but he wasn't transformed until he allowed himself to be embraced by the father, whose arms had never been anything but outstretched. © Grand Valley State University �Love That Puts You Out of Control Richard A. Rhem Page 4   Threat can control us. Fear can control us. Reason, less successfully, can control us; but love alone can transform us. That's the love of God, and that is the deepest reality of the cosmos, and that's what Jesus was trying to say as he explained his action of welcoming all comers. It's a powerful story, isn't it? Vivid story. The only drawback is that it's so powerful and so vivid that we begin to think about God as the Divine Parent and we forget that this is a parable and that the father figure is a symbol. God is person but God is more than person. The father symbol must be seen through to the larger reality. Jesus is not talking just about God as a Super-Parent; he's not talking about God as one more person, be that person bigger than life. He is not pointing to God as the CEO of the Universe. Jesus uses the symbol of the person of the father in order that we may see through that symbol to the vast background of reality, to that ground of all being. Jesus is trying to say, "Look! This is the way things really are at the core." What Jesus was trying to convey is the fact that in this brief life that we live, our three-score years and ten, or four-score years, or less or more, in this brief human experience of ours, what we are struggling to learn is what is true all the time - that we have come from love and that we move toward love and that we are, in the meantime, embraced by love. We have come from God and we will move to God and it is to God that we belong. I think what Jesus was trying to say was that what the younger son was seeking "out there" and the elder son missed at home was true for both of them all the time. It was demonstrated in the non-accusing, non-condemning, nonquestioning, warm embrace of the father of the younger. It was expressed by the father to the elder in the words, "My child, you are always with me. All I have is yours." Jesus was saying to the religious leaders of his day, the guardians of institutional religion, "My manner of life, what I am seeking to embody, is a picture of the nature of reality, of the heart of God. And it is true for all, all the time, always, for we have been created by love and we will move into the abyss of love, and, in the meantime, we are loved, because that's the deepest truth, and it's the only truth that can do for us the only thing that God really wants to do for us and that is to transform us into those who catch a glimpse of being loved and love in return. I mentioned last week Henri Nouwen's marvelous meditation on Rembrandt's painting of "The Return of the Prodigal," and how he had, at a point of his life feeling so burned out, longing for home and yearning for the embrace of the father, identified with the younger son, until a friend said to him, "Henri, you are really the elder brother," and he had to say, "I am the elder brother, having done it all right, all my life, and being a little resentful of it." And then sometime later another friend said to him, as he was speaking about that painting that had become such a part of his life, "All your life you've been one of the sons, whether the younger or the elder. Don't you think it's time you moved into the role of the father? All of your life you've been seeking recognition and friends and accomplishments and proper performance - all of your life, Henri, all of your life © Grand Valley State University �Love That Puts You Out of Control Richard A. Rhem Page 5   you have been on a quest. Isn't it time that you simply accept the fact that you are deeply loved in order that you may ask no quarter, but simply love in kind?" We never love supremely, obviously; always partially, often half-heartedly. But, isn't that really what God is about with us? If ever we could sense that the deep underground is nothing but love, and from that we have arisen, and to that we will return, and in that we can rest in the present. Ah! If we could taste it, I do believe we could share it. And if we could taste it, we would be home, we could create home. So, the deepest word of the Gospel is, "My children, come home." © Grand Valley State University � https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/9ec3172efd9725fe222fdea7c7d2c4d1.mp3 be0f115168b26c07092fd9572e268c37 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. 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 XIV Series Prodigal Son Parable Scripture Text Micah 7:19, Luke 15:20 Location The location of the interview Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context KII-01_RA-0-19960901 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1996-09-01 Title A name given to the resource Love That Puts You Out of Control 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 September 1, 1996 entitled "Love That Puts You Out of Control", as part of the series "Prodigal Son Parable", on the occasion of Pentecost XIV, at Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI. Scripture references: Micah 7:19, Luke 15:20. Love at the core of reality Nature of God Prodigal Love Transforming Love https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/4a107a18add49469fa889d93f0b09e9c.pdf da105f13faa7299291aeaab9eb8fe17a PDF Text Text It’s a Pity to Pout at the Party Text: Isaiah 40:27; Luke 15:28, 31 Richard A. Rhem Christ Community Church Spring Lake, Michigan August 25, 1996 Transcription of the spoken sermon The parable of the Prodigal Son, as I indicated last week, is misnamed. It is really a story of a father with two sons, and it's not really about the two sons so much as about the father. It is about the incredible, amazing love of the father who is, in the story Jesus told, a symbol for God. This story is about the love of God, and it was told, initially, because there were those of the religious leadership that were grumbling because Jesus was receiving all kinds of people without condition, sitting at table with them, breaking bread with them. He told this story in order to respond to that criticism and that condemnation of his ministry. Last week we focused on the younger son who was a rebel who sought his freedom, or better, his autonomy. And we noted that Jesus just might have been saying it is necessary to separate and to move out in the natural, normal maturation process. But, it's a very perilous move and it can lead to selfdestructive behavior, decadence and despair. But, he told not only of that younger son who left home; he told, also, of the elder brother who stayed home. And just as the younger son in his move from home cut himself off from that whole spiritual legacy that was his and became homeless, so Jesus says in this story, the elder brother living all of his days at home righteously, responsibly, faithfully, seriously, nonetheless was just as homeless as his younger brother. For Jesus was saying that it is possible to be homeless by leaving or by staying, but failing to delight and to bask in the love of God that is the mark of the house of God. The younger son broke the father's heart because he left. The elder brother just as surely broke the father's heart because he stayed without joy. And so, for a bit this morning, having focused on the younger son last week, let's linger with that elder brother a bit because, as I said last week, probably Jesus was not talking about two kinds of persons so much as the two persons that live within us. Is there not the rebel in us whose recklessness can lead to decadence, as well as the diligent, elder brother whose serious obedience is given grudgingly, without joy? Don't we know moments in our lives when we are the one and the other? So, for a time, think with me about that elder brother. © Grand Valley State University   �It’s a Pity to Pout at the Party Richard A. Rhem Page 2   The story is a sad story. It's a sad story because it's always a pity to pout at a party, and there was a party going on. There was a celebration. The elder brother coming in from the field hears the sound of singing and dancing and he calls a servant to say, "What's the meaning of this?" I wonder, what do you think? I suspect he knew what was going on, don't you? Don't you suspect he knew the father well enough to suspect that maybe the young rascal came home and all of the joy and celebration was about that? And I wonder if he didn't call the servant to confirm his suspicions in order not to have to go too close and be drawn into the circle of light and celebration. It's a sad story because, hearing the news, we're told that he was angry and he would not go in. He stayed outside the party, paralyzed, as it were, by that anger that welled up within him and erupted, probably surprising him, himself. There he stands. Can you get into his skin? The best way to hear the word of God is to put ourselves in the characters. Have you been there? Have you felt that kind of resentment and anger overcoming you in a moment, so unexpectedly that it absolutely paralyzed you, and you were consumed with a fury and a wrath that even scared you a bit? That's the sad story of the elder brother. I suspect that we've all been there on occasion, because I suspect that there are more elder brothers and sisters in church than younger rebels who have returned. Well, in a congregation like Christ Community, there are some rebels who've returned. But, by and large, we are the folks who stayed home, aren't we? We are the folks who've been serious and responsible and diligent and faithful, while the masses have left, seemingly rather carefree and reckless. Apparently they could not care less about whether the church lives or dies. I mean, we've stayed home, haven't we? We've taken upon ourselves the heavy burden for keeping the church alive, for God's sake. So, I suspect that when I ask you to get inside the skin of the elder brother, probably many of us here have been there a time or two. The elder brother is a type that is found often in church, because the elder brother was a good and righteous and serious and faithful and diligent and responsible person. But the thing that he didn't realize was that underneath, he was also a very angry person, full of resentment. I have a large library and I love books, and one of the most beautiful books in my library is a book by Henri Nouwen, the Dutch Catholic priest. You've probably read some of Nouwen's works; he's written a number of things - contemplative, meditative, about the spiritual life. Very fine writer. This book is called The Return of the Prodigal, and it's bound beautifully, and it is a meditation on his contemplation of Rembrandt's painting of the return of the Prodigal, and there are several colored plates of that painting in various scenes sprinkled throughout the book. That text is Nouwen's encounter with that painting. He tells about a time in his life when he was worn out, he had been carrying on his ministry, he had been teaching and traveling, he had been engaged in Latin America, concerned about the injustices there. He was really burning out and he came to a point when he knew that it was time for him to take a sabbatical or change his © Grand Valley State University �It’s a Pity to Pout at the Party Richard A. Rhem Page 3   course or something, and he went into an office and there he saw a poster of this painting of the return of the Prodigal, and something in it drew him and he was drawn to it and struck by it and he saw the embrace of the aged father embracing the son, kneeling, weeping at his feet. Nouwen said, "I saw myself in that return of the younger son. I so yearned and longed for the embrace and the touch of the father. I needed to come home." It was a short time later that he was invited to travel to Russia and he went to St. Petersburg, formerly Leningrad, where in The Hermitage Gallery, is the original of the Rembrandt painting. Through special arrangements he was enabled to spend hours sitting in front of that painting, just contemplating it, seeing himself in the painting, thinking about Rembrandt, thinking about all of the dynamics of that painting, finding in himself that longing to be held by the father and to go home. He did change his career, of course, and he settled in and things began to move for him again and he shared with a friend one day that he identified with that younger son who'd been embraced by the father, and the friend said to him, "Henri, don't you really think that you're the elder brother?" And it took him aback. Then he began to think about it and he began to study the elder brother and think of his own life, and he said, "I had to conclude I was the elder brother." He said, "At the age of six I was already committed to the priesthood. I was the oldest child of the family. All of the expectations of the eldest child were upon me. All of my life I had tried to please; I had tried to measure up. All of my life I had been serious and responsible; I had obeyed my parents; I had obeyed my teachers; I had obeyed my bishops. I had given my whole life to the service of God. And as I thought about myself as the elder brother, I had to admit that there was some subterranean stream in me of resentment and of anger." He said, "I never cut loose, I never kick up my heels, and yet as I thought about my life at that point in my life, I recognized that there was a subtle anger within me and a resentment over against those who had been reckless and careless and seemingly to have gotten away with it. I was resentful about those who could go out and turn the tables upside down and then come back repentant and receive all grace. The more I thought about it, the more I recognized that it was me in that picture, that I was the one, underneath, resentful and angry for all of the diligence and all of the faithful service I had rendered." And Nouwen identified that which is the central characteristic of the elder brother, which is an anger that manifests itself in resentment. And it is a serious disease, and there are few of us who escape it totally, for whether we be the elder child like Nouwen or some other scenario is written over our lives, as a matter of fact, most of us at some time have to own up to having held a pity party, that "poor me" syndrome, the fact that I've tried so hard, I've worked so hard, I've been so faithful, I've been so righteous, and nobody really appreciates it; nobody really appreciates me. Who would ever throw a party for me? So, if there's a party around, I'm going to pout at the party because I'm feeling sorry for myself. © Grand Valley State University �It’s a Pity to Pout at the Party Richard A. Rhem Page 4   I think Nouwen put his finger on that besetting sin of good people. It is doing everything right and hating it. It is being absolutely square and resenting it. And it doesn't take simply a child-parent relationship. The elder brother was resentful against the father, but those of us who are parents can pull the same trick on our children. Now, I'm sure there's not a father or a mother here that has ever given even a hint to a son or a daughter that, in light of the sacrifice that we've made for our sons or daughters, one might think that a phone call or a visit might have been in order. I'm sure that there's not a parent here who has ever felt sorry for themselves over against the tremendous job we've done in nurturing and raising and working hard and scraping and sacrificing for our children, and look what we get! And, it doesn't even have to be within the family. It can be among colleagues; it can be among friends. "Look what a friend I've been to so-and-so. Do you think that there's any reciprocity, any appreciation? In fact, as I think about it, nobody really appreciates me and I really do feel sorry for myself, and when somebody's having a good time and celebrating, I'm going to be outside, pouting at the party, because I am so angry." And the problem is no one can do anything for you because the problem's inside. It's a kind of feeling of inadequacy, a lack of self-confidence and self-esteem. And so, it doesn't matter how much affirmation we get. It doesn't matter how many kudos are sent our way. It's because we don't love ourselves and respect ourselves enough and we can't believe anybody else would love and respect us. I think that's sort of what's going on with the elder brother syndrome. I see this in the Church because, again, I think we in the Church tend to be more the elder brother than the younger rebel. I ran into it in 1988 when I wrote that article on the extent of God's grace, and I found that people were really angry to think that perhaps the grace of God was broader than the scope of our human imagination, that maybe the grace of God could embrace even those who were outside our serious, dedicated, diligent, faithful, responsible commitment to the kingdom of God. At that time, a colleague of mine was quoted to me as saying, "If he believed the grace of God was that broad, he would give up the ministry and start selling used cars." We've experienced it recently again, haven't we? The Detroit Free Press headlines said, "If Dick Rhem Is Right, the Heart of the Gospel is Cut Out." That sounds to me an awful lot like those grumbling people who condemned Jesus for breaking bread with those who were outside the acceptable parameters. What is there about the Church? Do we feel put upon because we have stayed home? Do we feel jealous of those who have simply left? Do we resent the fact that we have a commitment to be faithful to the mission of the Church and to the broader kingdom of God? Do we do it, but do we hate it? It's such a pity, because the kingdom of God is about dancing and singing and feasting. It is to be a banquet. It is to be a ball. And it's a pity to pout at a party, but the Christian Church members are not the most spontaneous, joyful people in © Grand Valley State University �It’s a Pity to Pout at the Party Richard A. Rhem Page 5   the world, but we should be. So, whether it's in our individual lives or whether it's in our corporate lives, it's a rather sobering thing to size up the elder brother and then see the contours written in our own hearts. But, again, this story isn't about those two boys at all. It's about God. And the thing I think I never really appreciated in this old, old story, although I would have thought that there wasn't another phrase in it that could have passed me by in the many years of my life, but the thing that amazes me is that the love of God is absolutely consistent over against the younger rebel and the older pouter. For, just as God the father runs to meet the youngster who is returning, so the father leaves the party and comes out into the darkness to plead with the elder son, and the word he uses in the Hebrew language does not mean "son," but "my child;" it is the word of affection. The father comes out to this elder son and pleads with him to come and the elder son begins a tirade, listing all of his credentials and all of his responsible actions and behavior, holding up to the father the dissolute life of "this son of yours," whom he doesn't even claim as "my brother." The anger just spews out of him! He can't contain it anymore. The dam bursts! To which the father says, "My child, all I have is yours. You are always with me." No accusation. No condemnation. Not of the younger one. Not of the older one. Just, "Look, look, I love you and I value you, and everything I have is yours." Unconditional love. If it's amazing that over against the younger one, he could let him go and love him still, this is absolutely incredible. I mean, it's not so hard to take a rascal back, is it? Particularly when the kid's weeping at your feet? One can embrace such a youngster. But, this elder brother standing stiffly in his selfrighteous pride, resentful and angry, spewing out to the father all of hurts over all of the years - to love that one? Well, I might have gone out, but I sure would have let him know how disgusted I was with his behavior. And then if he wouldn't have come in, I would have said, "Then stay there and rot!" But, you see? That's the amazing nature of the love of God. Jesus couldn't portray it any more vividly. It's not simply a greater degree of our love. It is a love divine. It is the love of God. And right now I think there's some of you that may feel a kind of constriction in your innards because you know that it is your nature to pout at the party. And I wish I knew how to set you free. I wish I knew how to set your tongue to singing and your feet to dancing, to lead you into the spontaneity of joyful celebration. I know what you need, what you yearn for - it is to be loved, it is to be valued. And I wish for just a moment this morning you could really hear Jesus, really hear the story, really put yourself in the skin of the elder son, acknowledge it, confess it, own it and then let the love of God wash over you. I tell you, it is so transforming, if once you feel it. Friday night Nancy and I were invited to the Sabbath service of the Muskegon Temple where I was invited to give the sermon. In 1984, in Schenectady, that congregation that I served for three months had an annual exchange with the Jewish community in Schenectady and, while I was there, that exchange took © Grand Valley State University �It’s a Pity to Pout at the Party Richard A. Rhem Page 6   place and we went to the Sabbath service in the temple. I have to tell you, I couldn't be free. I didn't know what to say. I didn't know what to do. I didn't know how to pray. I wasn't even sure if Jesus' name wasn't attached to the prayer, if it was ... I mean, that's where I was. I was thinking about all of these things, and what I want to say to you is that, in that experience, I wasn't present with those people. I was there in body, but I wasn't present with them. Friday night it was quite different, because I know, I have experienced enough now to know those are God's beloved children, and I could rejoice when the candles of the Sabbath were lighted and when the bread was blessed and when the wine was poured. It was such an enriching, warming, human experience. And I could sing. And I could dance. And I could be there. Because, you see, the Kingdom of God is about a love that is so incredible that it far exceeds the measure of our lives, and God would have each one of us know down in our depths that we are valued and loved and hallowed, whether we've kicked up the traces or kept plowing the furrows. Whether we've been wild and decadent, or righteous and resentful - God wants us home. God wants us to know we're loved, and if you could believe that this morning, if you could feel that this morning, it would be wonderful, because it's such a pity to pout at a party! Reference: Henri J. M. Nouwen. The Return of the Prodigal Son: A Story of Homecoming. Doubleday, 1992. © Grand Valley State University � https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/3244b2d75715702d2c2fa0555c27d47a.mp3 378c350cf56df29a107db7c7d751760f 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 XIII Series Prodigal Son Parable Scripture Text Isaiah 40:27, Luke 15:28, 32 Location The location of the interview Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI References Henri J. M. Nouwen. The Return of the Prodigal Son: A Story of Homecoming, 1992 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-0-19960825 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1996-08-25 Title A name given to the resource It's a Pity to Pout at the Party 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 August 25, 1996 entitled "It's a Pity to Pout at the Party", as part of the series "Prodigal Son Parable", on the occasion of Pentecost XIII, at Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI. Scripture references: Isaiah 40:27, Luke 15:28, 32. Inclusive Love Transforming Love Unconditional Love 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/e9da8d2281b5ad8ac940326248bcd819.pdf 06bb24733b3f17c56c66a45d3836d9fa PDF Text Text Love at the Core: The Grain of the Universe Matthew 5: 1-14; 38-48; I John 4:7-8; 12, 16b Richard A. Rhem Lakeshore Interfaith Center, Ganges, Michigan July 17, 2011 –––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––– The theme for today’s reflection has been announced as: Love at the Core: The Grain of the Universe The first letter of John affirms, “God is Love.” Pitirim A. Sorokin concluded that, with the birth of the atomic age, humanity needed more than ever a quantum leap both in the scientific understanding of altruistic love and its implementation. By the late 1940s, he was especially interested in discovering how love for others is related to their felt participation in a presence that is higher than our own and that serves as a source of unlimited love across all divisions of tribal, religious, political and ethnic loyalties. Sorokin’s The Ways and Power of Love, published in 1954, is a careful scientific analysis of love with regard to its higher and lower forms, its causes and effects, its human and cosmic significance, and its core features. Combining Biblical insights and Sorokin’s analysis, I will claim love is the core of reality reflected in the grain of the universe. As you can well imagine, it is one thing to stake a claim; it is quite another to establish it. My intention here is to hear Sorokin’s contention and show how it aligns with New Testament teaching and especially the Way of Jesus as it comes to expression in the Sermon on the Mount. My endeavor is not the introduction of material foreign to Sorokin’s research. Indeed, he begins his Preface with a quotation from the Sermon on the Mount and goes on to relate his own personal experience that caused him to embark on his life’s work – the description of and advocacy for altruistic love. Sorokin begins, Blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the earth. Blessed are the merciful: for they shall obtain mercy. Blessed are the peacemakers: for they shall be called the children of God. In 1918 I was hunted from pillar to post by the Russian Communist Government. At last I was imprisoned and condemned to death. Daily, during six weeks, I expected to be shot, and witnessed the shooting of my friends and fellow prisoners. During the subsequent four years of my stay in Communist Russia I underwent other painful experiences and observed, to the heartbreaking point, endless horrors of human bestiality, death, and destruction. Exactly in these conditions I jotted down in my diary the �Love at the Core: The Grain of the Universe Richard A. Rhem July 17, 2011 following “observations of a cold intellect and plaintive murmurs of a saddened heart”: “Whatever may happen in the future, I know that I have learned three things which will remain forever convictions of my heart as well as my mind. Life, even the hardest life, is the most beautiful, wonderful, and miraculous treasure in the world. Fulfillment of duty is another marvelous thing making life happy. This is my second conviction. And my third is that cruelty, hatred, violence, and injustice never can and never will be able to create a mental, moral, or material millennium. The only way toward it is the royal road of all-giving creative love, not only preached but consistently practiced.” Some thirty-five years have passed since these lines were written. The tragic events of these years, as well as my scientific studies, immeasurably reinforced these beliefs, and led me even to the establishment of the Harvard Research Center in Creative Altruism. Now more than ever before I believe in the following truths, which are fully confirmed by our experimental studies: Hate begets hate, violence engenders violence, hypocrisy is answered by hypocrisy, war generates war, and love creates love. Unselfish love has enormous creative and therapeutic potentialities, far greater than most people think. Love is a life-giving force, necessary for physical, mental, and moral health. Altruistic persons live longer than egoistic individuals. Children deprived of love tend to become vitally, morally, and socially defective. Love is the most powerful antidote against criminal, morbid, and suicidal tendencies; against hate, fear, and psychoneuroses. It is an indispensable condition for deep and lasting happiness. It is goodness and freedom at their loftiest. It is the finest and most powerful force for the ennoblement of humanity. Finally, only the power of unbounded love practiced in regard to all human beings can defeat the forces of interhuman strife, and can prevent the pending extermination of man by man on this planet. Without love, no armament, no war, no diplomatic machinations, no coercive police force, no school education, no economic or political measures, not even hydrogen bombs can prevent the pending catastrophe. Only love can accomplish this miracle, providing, however, we know well the nature of love and the efficient ways of its production, accumulation, and use. But, unfortunately, Sorokin writes, we know less about the energy of love than about light, heat, electricity, and other forms of physical energy. He continues, citing A. H. Maslow: © Grand Valley State University �Love at the Core: The Grain of the Universe Richard A. Rhem July 17, 2011 “It is amazing how little the empirical sciences have to offer on the subject of love,” correctly says A. H. Maslow. “Particularly strange is the silence of the psychologists. Sometimes this is merely sad or irritating, as in the case of the textbooks of psychology and sociology, practically none of which treat the subject… More often the situation becomes completely ludicrous. [As a rule] the word ‘love’ is not even indexed [in psychological and sociological works].” (“Love in Happy People,” in Ashley Montagu, ed., The Meaning of Love, pp. 57-58) It is obvious from the Preface that Sorokin will offer no dry academic treatise on love. Much rather, what he offers is an existential quest to discern the nature of love, its creative source, its characteristics in real life and the fruitful practices by which Love is enacted and embodied. Before outlining the flow of the work, he expresses his sense of urgency about researching love’s nature and his commitment to adding to our understanding and practice of love. At the present juncture of human history an increase in our knowledge of the grace of love has become the paramount need of humanity, and an intensive research in this field should take precedence over almost all other studies and research. This present work, together with its companion volume, Forms and Techniques of Altruistic and Spiritual Growth: A Symposium, is my humble contribution to this great objective. Considering the immensity of the task, the contribution is very modest in comparison with the total sum of the necessary studies. Since, however, the better brains are busy with other problems, including the invention of means of extermination of human beings; since educators are largely engrossed in cultivation of the intellect and tribal patriotism of their pupils, while many a religious leader is absorbed in the intertribal crusades against various enemies – under these conditions somebody, somehow, must devote himself to a study of the miracle of love, no matter how inadequate is his capacity to do the work well. Feci quod potui, faciant meliora potentes. This is my excuse for the innumerable infirmities of this contribution. (xii) The Introduction, “Pitirim Sorokin as Pioneer in the Scientific Study of Unlimited Love,” by Stephen G. Post, gives a portrait of Sorokin’s life which sets his passion and his work in historical context. First, however, he gives a concise summary of Sorokin’s analysis of love. He begins the Introduction with a reference to Sorokin’s life but quickly moves to the summary. A towering figure in twentieth-century sociology, Pitirim A. Sorokin (18891968) was born in Russia, and died near Boston. One might introduce his The Ways and Power of Love with a summary of the author’s life, which would indeed be fascinating. As a young man in Russia, for instance, he © Grand Valley State University �Love at the Core: The Grain of the Universe Richard A. Rhem July 17, 2011 was imprisoned first by the Czarists and then by the Bolsheviks, allowing him to conclude that Czarist prison was the more comfortable of the two. After immigrating to the United States in 1923 to teach at the University of Minnesota, he went on to become the founding chairman of the Department of Sociology at Harvard University in 1931 and later established the Harvard Research Center for Creative Altruism. It is best, however, to reflect on Sorokin’s life only after acquainting the reader with the essential features of his analysis of love. The scope and depth of his analysis, which can only be described as uniquely insightful, will naturally kindle the reader’s curiosity about the man behind these enriching ideas. (p. xv) The Ways and Power of Love was published in 1954 when Sorokin was leading the Harvard Research Center in Creative Altruism. In Mortimer J. Adler’s Concepts of Western Thought Series, the philosopher Robert G. Hazo wrote, Sorokin treats love as a separate subject in a treatise devoted exclusively to it. His elaborate discussion and analysis of love, its causes and effects, its human and universal significance, its higher and lower forms, and its implications for other subjects constitute one of the most extensive treatments to be found in the systematic literature about love. The Ways and Power of Love is an ambitious attempt to subject analytical schemes to a phenomenon that Sorokin claims has both a human and a cosmic dimension. (p. xvf) Post relates the rich background of Sorokin in the nineteenth-century Russian tradition. He was, “a creative and idealistic social thinker devoted to scientific observation but with too wide-ranging an intellect to rest content with a purely technical rationality.” The Russian movement sought “integral knowledge,” and included Feodor Dostoyevsky. A close friend of Dostoyevsky, Vladimir Solovyov, was a special influence on Sorokin. He synthesized philosophy and mysticism in his classic work entitled The Meaning of Love (1894). Solovyov wrote of love and its contrasts: The basic falsehood and evil of egoism lie not in this absolute selfconsciousness and self-evaluation of the subject, but in the fact that, ascribing to himself in all justice an absolute significance, he unjustly refuses to others this same significance. Recognizing himself as a center of life (which as a matter of fact he is), he relegates others to the circumference of his own being and leaves them only an external and relative value. Positively stated, Solovyov described the nature and value of love thus: The meaning and worth of love, as a feeling, is that it really forces us, with all our being to acknowledge for another the same absolute central significance which, because of the power of our egoism, we are conscious © Grand Valley State University �Love at the Core: The Grain of the Universe Richard A. Rhem July 17, 2011 of only in our own selves. Love is important not as one of our feelings, but as the transfer of all our interest in life from ourselves to another, as the shifting of the very center of our personal lives. Solovyov, like Sorokin, understood human love as a partial reflection of, and at its heights a participation in, divine love. (p. xvif) According to the Russian movement that sought “Integral Knowledge,” Sorokin analyzed love under seven aspects – the tenets of integral knowledge, which Post summarizes thus: The religious aspect of love identifies it with a Higher Presence, however variously symbolized in the great spiritual and religious traditions; the ethical aspect of love identifies love with goodness itself; the ontological aspect of love defines it as a “unifying, integrating, harmonizing, creative energy or power” that works in the physical, organic, and psychosocial worlds ( p. 6); the physical aspect of love is shown in “all the physical forces that unite, integrate, and maintain the whole inorganic cosmos in endless unities, beginning with the smallest unity of the atom and ending with the whole physical universe as one unified, orderly cosmos” (pp. 8-9); the biological aspect of love is evident in procreation and parental care. The sixth aspect of love is the psychological, and it is here that Sorokin defines love as follows: “In any genuine psychological experience of love, the ego or I of the loving individual tends to merge with and identify itself with the loved Thee. The greater the love, the greater the identification” (p. 10). He views love as a “life-giving force” because of studies showing that people who are altruists live longer than egoists do, although Sorokin does not elaborate. Love is also defined as “the loftiest form of freedom” (p. 11), for where there is love there is no coercion. Sorokin refers to the writings of St. Paul on this point, and was conversant with his Russian contemporary, the theologian Nicholas Berdyaev, who emphasized that love nailed upon a cross compels no one. On the psychological level, Sorokin also notes that love overcomes fear, as exemplified by the life of Gandhi, whom he much admired as a modern saint: “Love does not fear anything or anybody. It cuts off the very roots of fear” (pp. 11-12). In a manner that brings to mind the various spiritual-ethical writings of the contemporary Dali Lama, Sorokin associates love with “the highest peace of mind and happiness (p. 12).” Seventh is the social aspect of love: “on the social plane love is a meaningful interaction – or relationship – between two or more persons where the aspirations and aims of one person are shared and helped in their realization by other persons (p, 13).” (p. xviif) The depth and breadth of Sorokin’s analysis of love is demonstrated by his careful scientific description of love as lived out in human experience, but is not satisfied © Grand Valley State University �Love at the Core: The Grain of the Universe Richard A. Rhem July 17, 2011 with such a phenomenological approach. Rather he wrote, “Concentrating on these planes, however, we shall always keep in mind the manifoldness of love as a whole because, without its religious, ethical, and ontological aspects, we cannot truly understand a “visible” part of this cosmos, its psychological, empirical aspects” (p. 14), (p. xviii). Post comments, Methodologically committed to new scientific knowledge that can move our understanding of love forward, he was also attentive to a wider cosmic context and to the fullness of human experience and history. (p. xviii). While Sorokin’s analysis of love, its marks, dimensions, practice in varying groups and disciplines, is painfully thorough and expansive, it is not my intention to go into any depth or breadth of his remarkable analysis. That would be beyond the limits of time and beyond my capacity. What struck me about Sorokin is the combining of careful scientific study along with the realization that such love as he was analyzing and calling for, if the human family is to have a future, must be rooted beyond its surface manifestation that was observable. Here was a serious scientist, a truly great scholar, pointing beyond the limits of empirical research. Yet the love he was researching has been lived out from time to time by truly exceptional human beings. Post notes, Of special interest to Sorokin was the love of figures such as Jesus, Al Hallaj, Damien the Leper, and Gandhi. Persecuted and hated, and therefore without any apparent social source of love energy, they nevertheless were able to maintain a love at high levels in all five dimensions. Such love seems to transcend ordinary human limits; it seems to suggest, argued Sorokin, that some human beings do, through various spiritual and religious practices, participate in a love energy that defines God…. Sorokin was convinced that such perfect or unlimited love can best be explained by hypothesizing an inflow of love from some higher source of love energy that far exceeds that of human beings. One might ask why, after all, we human creatures should arrogantly think that our paltry manifestations of love represent love’s highest expression in the universe of being. Sorokin, following the Russian tradition of integral knowledge, was willing to hypothesize the existence of a higher source of love in the universe in which degrees of human participation are possible. He writes quite metaphysically of the exemplars of love at its fullest, many of whom were despised and had no psychosocial inflow of love to sustain them: The most probable hypothesis for them (and in a much slighter degree for a much larger group of smaller altruists and good neighbors) is that an inflow of love comes from an intangible, littlestudied, possibly supraempirical source called “God,” “the Godhead,” © Grand Valley State University �Love at the Core: The Grain of the Universe Richard A. Rhem July 17, 2011 “the Soul of the Universe,” the “heavenly Father,” “Truth,” and so on. (p. xxi). In a section entitled “Creative Personality and the Supraconscious,” Post states that “Sorokin openly asserted a view of human nature that included the supraconscious.” It is at the level of the supraconscious that genuinely creative love resides. Post continues, Of course, Sorokin was running against the grain of the social sciences, with their “materialistic and mechanistic metaphysics” (p. 98), and he therefore felt compelled to “lay down the very minimum of evidence” (p. 98) for the reality of the supraconscious. This evidence, as Sorokin offers it, includes the supraconscious intuition that informs so much of the highest human creativity (and the work of child prodigies) in virtually all fields from mathematics to ethics and religion (ch.6). The perfectly integrated creative genius achieves the highest level of creativity without strenuous effort. In ego-centered love, i.e., love “of low intensity, narrow extensivity, and short duration, impure and inadequate” (p. 125), no supraconscious is involved. However, “quite different seems to be the situation with the supreme forms of creative love – intense, extensive, durable, pure, and adequate. Like supreme creativity in the field of truth or beauty, supreme love can hardly be achieved without a direct participation of the supraconscious and without the ego-transcending techniques of its awakening” (p. 125), italics in original). Sorokin gathers empirical support for this statement from the testimony of “innumerable eminent apostles of love” who, across cultures and generations describe themselves as instruments of the supraconscious: “God, Heaven, Heavenly Father, Tao, the Great Reason, the Oversoul, Brahma, Jen, Chit, the Supre-Essence, the Divine Nothing, the Divine Madness, the Logos, the Sophia, the Supreme Wisdom, the Inner Light” (p. 127). One realizes immediately, reading Sorokin, that this is no ordinary scholarly pursuit; for Sorokin was dealing with the possibility of a human future. Relating something of Sorokin’s life, Post writes, In 1945, anxious over the human condition in the wake of World War II and Hiroshima, he determined to found a program on creative altruism. Here Sorokin’s autobiography, entitled A Long Journey (1963), becomes essential. Sorokin expresses pessimism abut potential political or other attempts to bring abut peace without the “notable altruization of persons, groups, institutions, and culture.” He is hardly sanguine about the role of extrinsic religion, because his own studies indicated that a “purely ideological belief in God or in the credo of any of the great religions” rarely results in more altruistic behavior. He became increasingly interested in investigating “scientifically this unknown or little known energy” of love: “The phenomena of altruistic love were thought to belong to religion and ethics rather than to science. They were considered good topics for © Grand Valley State University �Love at the Core: The Grain of the Universe Richard A. Rhem July 17, 2011 preaching but not for research and teaching.” He thought that research grants on the topic of creative, unselfish love would be uniformly rejected by peer reviewers. In a voice that has since been heard by the now rising positive psychology movement of the 1990s, Sorokin noted the tendency of scientists to focus research on the disease model: While may a modern sociologist and psychologist viewed the phenomena of hatred, crime, war, and mental disorders as legitimate objects for scientific study, they quite illogically stigmatized as theological preaching or non-scientific speculation any investigation of the phenomena of love, friendship, heroic deeds, and creative genius. This patently unscientific position of many of my colleagues is merely a manifestation of the prevalent concentration on the negative, pathological, and subhuman phenomena typical of the disintegrating phase of our sensate culture. (p. xxvi) Sorokin recognizes his concern, his passion, was “the stuff of preaching, of theological discourse,” but he had no confidence in religion in the form of institutions or in credal formulation that often not only unite a group but also divide the human family – “purely ideological belief in God” cannot effect the loving community as broad as humanity and finally anything less than that is inadequate to cast the mantle of creative love over humankind. Post points to Sorokin’s final chapter: The final part of the book, Tragedy and Transcendence of Tribal Altruism, consists of a single chapter 23, entitled From Tribal Egoism to Universal Altruism. This is the last and most pessimistic chapter. Sorokin asserts a general law: If unselfish love does not extend over the whole of mankind, if it is confined within one group – a given family, tribe, nation, race, religious denomination, political party, trade union, caste, social class or any part of humanity – such in-group altruism tends to generate an out-group antagonism. And the more intense and exclusive the ingroup solidarity of its members, the more unavoidable are the clashes between the group and the rest of humanity. Herein lies the tragedy of tribal altruism not extended over the whole of mankind or over everyone and all. An exclusive love of one’s own group makes its members indifferent or even aggressive towards other groups and outsiders (p. 459, italics in original) Sorokin’s concern with in-group insularity pervades his writings, especially in his many passages regarding the extent to which apostles of universal love have clashed with tribalists and been imprisoned, banished, tortured, and killed. But in addition to exemplars of unlimited love for all humanity, innumerable groups have themselves been destroyed by the collective egoism of group loyalty. As Sorokin writes, “Whether in the form © Grand Valley State University �Love at the Core: The Grain of the Universe Richard A. Rhem July 17, 2011 of a cold or a hot war, this intergroup warfare has gone on incessantly in human history, and has filled its annals with the most deadly, most bloody, and most shameful deeds of Homo sapiens” (p. 461). In-group exclusivism has “killed more human beings and destroyed more cities and villages than all the epidemics, hurricanes, storms, floods, earthquakes, and volcanic eruptions taken together. It has brought upon mankind more suffering than any other catastrophe” (p. 461). Religious, ethnic, tribal, caste, and class wars have thus far defined much of human history and experience. What is needed, argues Sorokin, is enhanced extensivity. His recommendation is that the power of hatred be focused on threats to the whole of mankind, such as disease, ignorance, and poverty. He also recommends that competitions be sponsored on the basis of new values: “Unselfish love and humility can successfully be one of the most important competitive values” (p. 468). Indeed, humility was a core value in Sorokin’s approach to a better human future. (pp. xxiiif). Sorokin writes about love but he is not a sentimentalist. He is painfully aware of the violence that has marked the human story. Neither is he naïve. He faces honestly the terrible blood-soaked history of humanity. He writes, “Imperialistic” encroachments of any selfish group are opposed, first of all by all persons whose love behavior extends over other groups and especially over the whole of humanity. They cannot approve aggressive misdeeds of an exclusive tribal loyalty. Their universal or more extensive love cannot help clashing with the narrow, tribal love of the group. Hence the conflict between such persons and the group. Hence the persecution of such individuals by the group. Hence the tragic martyrdom of the apostles of universal love, who have been condemned to death, imprisoned, banished, tortured, and variously persecuted by the partisans of tribal loyalty. Socrates, Jesus, St. Peter, St. Paul, Al Hallaj, Gandhi and some 37 per cent of the saintly Christian altruists are eminent examples of its victims. The total number of the martyrs of tribal patriotism of various political, ethnic, racial, religious, economic, occupational, and other collectivities with exclusive in-group solidarity has been enormous in human history. Jesus well understood this clash between the two types, and the persecution of the universal altruists by the tribal ones, when he said to his disciples: “And ye shall be hated of all men for my name’s sake….” “Think not that I am come to send peace on earth: I came not to send peace, but a sword. For I am come to set a man at variance against his father, and the daughter against her mother.” Almost any universal altruist is bound to become a “subversive enemy” to be persecuted by the “patriotic” tribal altruists. In this sense the eternal tragedy of the agnus Dei qui tollis peccata mundi continues in human history unabated. The tribal patriots of “the Athenian Committee on un-Athenian Activities” condemned to death Socrates; “the Jewish Committee on un-Jewish Activities” crucified Jesus; © Grand Valley State University �Love at the Core: The Grain of the Universe Richard A. Rhem July 17, 2011 “the Muslim Committee on un-Muslim Activities” quartered and burned Al Hallaj; the self-appointed guardians of Hindu Orthodoxy shot Gandhi for his “un-Orthodox” activities. The annals of history are sprinkled with the blood of altruistic “heretics and schismatics” put to death by the tribal “orthodox” religions; indeed, each page of these annals is soaked in the blood of altruistic “subversives” executed by the tribal state governments. Most of the political parties, racial occupational, national, and other groups have been guilty in persecution of their “disloyal” members whose “disloyalty” consisted exactly in extension of their love far beyond the boundaries of the respective organization. And so this drama is continued up to this day when a multitude of “patriotic governments” and “crusading committees” relentlessly persecute many a “disloyal” altruist in the name of Communist, Socialist, Liberal, Conservative, Fascist, Democratic, Capitalist, Labor, Atheist, Religious, and other tribal solidarities and lilliputian in-group patriotisms. And so far, no end of this tragedy is visible. (p. 459f) That was published in 1954 and the half-century since has only been an exclamation point to Sorokin’s sad portrait. But he will not yield to despair and hopelessness. The vast variety of human beings, of such different orientations, cultural differences, traditional formation, religious understanding – in a word, everything that uniquely marks individuals, groups, tribes, nations is not the cause of aggression, violence, warfare and bloodshed. Rather, Sorokin asserts, History exhibits to us thousands of dissimilar families and millions of heterogeneous persons who have at various periods peacefully lived side by side in mutual harmony. If dissimilarity were the cause of interpersonal and intergroup conflicts, such a peaceful coexistence of heterogeneous individuals and collectivities would have been impossible. If it has occurred many times, as it undoubtedly has, then the real cause of the warfare lies not in these differentiations, but in something else – namely, in the poison of tribal selfishness that infiltrated in the differentiated societies and their members. This poison consists exactly of the restricted extensity and exclusiveness of their tribal love or solidarity. If this hypothesis is correct, then the disease can be cured only by extension of solidarity or love to include everyone and all. This extension does not require elimination of all interpersonal and intergroup dissimilarities. It requires only a thorough cleaning of individuals and groups from the poison of exclusive selfishness. (p. 463) Perhaps now the reader will shake her head and write the author off as an impossible dreamer. But Sorokin will not falter before the seeming impossible dream. Rather, he continues, If this diagnosis is correct, can the prescription of the universal love be carried through? Can one indeed love equally every human being, the © Grand Valley State University �Love at the Core: The Grain of the Universe Richard A. Rhem July 17, 2011 strangers and the enemies as much as the members of his family and friends? Is not such love a biological and psychological impossibility? Taken literally, the prescription is impossible for the overwhelming majority of human beings; however, the extension of love over the whole of mankind neither means nor requires an equal distribution of love among all human beings. At its initial stage it means three things: first, that everyone loves the members of his family and the limited circle of his friends and acquaintances as his special part of humanity chosen by and entrusted to him for this purpose. If everyone does so, every member of the human race will find himself loving and loved by the members of his special groups. Under such conditions not a single person in the whole human population remains unloved and not loving. Second, universal love means that everyone must abstain from all actions harmful to any human being. Through this neminem laidere in the whole human race nobody remains hated, harmed, and seriously mistreated by other human beings. Third, it means that everyone, within his capacity, extends his loving hand beyond his special group to everybody who is in need of help and warm sympathy – first of all, in one’s immediate community and second, in the whole human universe. If everybody does so in regard to the persons in his own community, then every human being will find the needed loving help from his community. If each community does the same in regard to other communities in need of help, then the whole human population will be blessed by, at least, the minimum of love and vital help. Under these conditions in the whole mankind there will be found not a single person lonely, forsaken, unloved, or unhelped. This extension of love can be done privately and publicly, in individual and social forms. If now and then it requires sacrifice on the part of the individual and his group, such sacrifice is to be gladly given. If every person and group do so, these sacrifices will be repaid by other individuals and groups when the sacrificing persons and groups are in need of help. Viewed so, the sacrifices are but a form of a mutual insurance of all human beings against possible insecurity and misfortune. Such is the meaning of the universal love at its initial stage. It is easily seen that it does not contain anything utopian or impossible. At this stage it represents but a development of the existing “network of love,” and an increased inhibition of the interhuman aggression. Once established in this initial form, it will in the course of time and practice spontaneously develop into ever richer, nobler, and more perfect universal love. If wisely guided and earnestly executed, the initial phase of universal love can be achieved without serious difficulty and at a much cheaper cost in the terms of death, suffering, and destruction, than the price to be paid in this sort of “money” for continuation of tribal loyalties and tribal warfare. Within the life cycle of one or two generations this phase will bring mankind much closer to the ideal of security, brotherhood, and peace on the earth, than the leaders and followers of tribal patriotisms have been © Grand Valley State University �Love at the Core: The Grain of the Universe Richard A. Rhem July 17, 2011 able to do for millennia or can do in the future. Here are some of the practical prescriptions as to what the first steps of realization of the universal solidarity should consist in, and how they should be carried through, to bring mankind nearer to this objective. (pp. 463-464) Nothing utopian or impossible here, Sorokin claims and he is surely right. We have become so pessimistic, so despairing. So easily we simply throw up our hands and don’t even take seriously such an impossible dream. But might that not be because we are mired in our own present experience of a world at war, of violence and aggression, of the vast treasure spent on armaments, of terrorism and “the war on terror?” But what about the long view, the evolutionary drama that has seen the emergence of the human, of consciousness, of the recognition that at the core of the human is an empathy that is triggered by human suffering, human pathos, human tenderness, human beauty? The summer of 2010 I tackled Jeremy Rifkin’s The Empathic Civilization whose subtitle is “The Race to Global Consciousness in a World in Crisis.” I have been struck by how much Rifkin’s claim that empathy is at the core of the human reflects Sorokin’s belief that love is the core of the human because it is the core of reality – the supraconscious, however named, pouring out love’s energy in limitless supply. (I was also amazed that Sorokin’s name does not appear in the index nor The Ways and Power of Love in the bibliography!) Here is Rifkin: Historians, by and large, write about social conflict and wars, great heroes and evil wrongdoers, technological progress and the exercise of power, economic injustices and the redress of social grievances. When historians touch on philosophy, it is usually in relationship to the disposition of power. Rarely do we hear of the other side of the human experience that speaks to our deeply social nature and the evolution and extension of human affection and its impact on culture and society. The German philosopher Georg Wilhelm Fredrich Hegel once remarked that happiness is “the blank pages of history” because they are “periods of harmony.” Happy people generally live out their existence in the “microworld” of close familial relations and extended social affiliations. History, on the other hand, is more often than not made by the disgruntled and discontented, the angry and rebellious – those interested in exercising authority and exploiting others and their victims, interested in righting wrongs and restoring justice. By this reckoning, much of the history that is written is about the pathology of power. Perhaps that is why, when we come to think about human nature, we have such a bleak analysis. Our collective memory is measured in terms of crises and calamities, harrowing injustices, and terrifying episodes of © Grand Valley State University �Love at the Core: The Grain of the Universe Richard A. Rhem July 17, 2011 brutality inflicted on each other and our fellow creatures. But if these were the defining elements of human experience, we would have perished as a species long ago. All of which raises the question “Why have we come to think of life in such dire terms?” The answer is that tales of misdeeds and woe surprise us. They are unexpected and, therefore, trigger alarm and heighten our interest. That is because such events are novel and not the norm, but they are newsworthy and for that reason they are the stuff of history. Today, our twenty-four hour cable TV news shows become the chroniclers of the accounts of pathological behavior, bombarding us with tales of horror and woe. The everyday world is quite different. Although life as it’s lived on the ground, close to home, is peppered with suffering, stresses, injustices, and foul play, it is, for the most part, lived out in hundreds of small acts of kindness and generosity. Comfort and compassion between people creates goodwill, establishes the bonds of sociality, and gives joy to people’s lives. Much of our daily interaction with our fellow human beings is empathic because that is our core nature. Empathy is the very means by which we create social life and advance civilization. In short, it is the extraordinary evolution of empathic consciousness that is the quintessential underlying story of human history, even if it has not been given the serious attention it deserves by our historians. (The Empathic Civilization, p. 10) Rifkin criticized the historians for focusing on “crises and calamities, harrowing injustices and terrifying episodes of brutality inflicted on each other and our fellow creatures” while Sorokin makes a very similar criticism of the field of psychology. This is what he wrote over half a century ago: MAIN BLUNDERS OF THE PREVALENT THEORIES The ultimate task of these studies is to find out the efficient ways of making persons more creative and altruistic. In order that this purpose may be fruitfully advanced, one has to have an adequate theory of the mental structure of human personality and of the energies generated in and operating through the human organism. The prevalent theories in this field are grossly defective. The first of the blunders consists of merging into the category of the “unconscious” or “subconscious” (E. von Hartmann, P. Janet, S. Freud, and others) two radically different energies of man: the biologically unconscious that lies below the level of the conscious state of mind and the supraconscious (“genius,” “creative élan,” “divine inspiration,” etc.) that lies above the level of any conscious and rational thought or energy. The “depth psychology” of the prevalent theories of personality is in fact quite shallow. It either flattens the mental structure almost exclusively to the level of the unconscious or subconscious, with a sort of epiphenomenal and vague © Grand Valley State University �Love at the Core: The Grain of the Universe Richard A. Rhem July 17, 2011 “ego” and “superego,” or just depicts it as a “two-story building” – the unconscious (subconscious) and the conscious (rational). In harmony with the negativistic character of the disintegrating Sensate culture, the prevalent theories of personality also move mainly in the region of the “social sewers.” They see mainly the lowest form of man’s energies (the unconscious and subconscious) and are blind to man’s highest supraconscious genius. They emphasize man’s animal, sadistic, and masochistic tendencies and pass by man’s sublime, creative, and altruistic properties. They interpret the highest creative élan as a mere biological reflex or drive; the sublimest sacrifice as masochistic tendency; the noblest inspiration as this or that subnormal complex; the genius as an abnormal neurotic; and the saint as a doubtful “deviant.” ( p. 83) Anticipating Rifkin’s claim of empathy at the core of the human, Sorokin declared the power of creative love and took note of the widespread contrary views. In the atmosphere of our Sensate culture we are prone to believe in the power of the struggle for existence, selfish interests, egoistic competition, hate, the fighting instinct, sex drives, the instinct of death and destruction, all-powerful economic factors, rude coercion and other negativistic forces. Yet we are highly skeptical in regard to the power of creative love, disinterested service, unprofitable sacrifice, mutual aid, the call of pure duty and other positive forces. The prevalent theories of evolution and progress, of the dynamic forces of history, of the dominant factors of human behavior, of the “how” and “why” of social processes unanimously stress such negativistic factors as the above. They view them as the main determinants of historical events and of the individual life courses. Marxism and the economic interpretation of history; Freudianism and its libidinal-destructive explanation of human behavior; instinctivist, behaviorist, and physiosomatic theories of personality and culture; Darwinistic and biological theories of the struggle for existence as the main factor of biological, mental, and moral evolution; even the prevalent motto of the chambers of commerce that “rivalry and competition made America great” – these and similar theories dominate contemporary sociology, economics, psychology, psychiatry, biology, anthropology, philosophy of history, political science, and other social and humanistic disciplines. These ideologies have an enormous appeal to the prevalent Sensate mind, are eagerly believed by Sensate man, and are considered by him as “the last word in modern science.” In contrast to that, Sensate minds emphatically disbelieve the power of love, sacrifice, friendship, co-operation, the call of duty, unselfish search for truth, goodness, and beauty. These appear to us as something epiphenomenal and illusory. We call them “rationalizations,” “selfdeceptions,” “derivations,” “beautifying ideologies,” “opiates of the people’s mind,” “smoke screens,” “idealistic bosh,” “unscientific delusion,” © Grand Valley State University �Love at the Core: The Grain of the Universe Richard A. Rhem July 17, 2011 etc. We are biased against all theories that try to prove the power of love…. (p. 47) Rifkin very astutely prefaces his monumental study with a full account of December 24, 1914, on Flanders Field – Christmas Eve, the German and English troops in their trenches thirty to fifty yards from each other. The Germans lighted candles on Christmas trees brought to them and began to sing carols – “Stille Nacht”…from the British trenches arose a response – “Silent Night.” You have heard the story – by morning it is estimated up to 100,000 soldiers came out of their trenches, met in the middle between the lines, sharing Christmas greetings, showing photos of their families, sharing cigarettes and sweets, telling where their home was – a fully human moment. In the morning news of the event filtered back to the command centers, and the soldiers were ordered back to their trenches to take up again the awful conflict. I cannot read that account without a lump in my throat because it is such a beautiful human moment, redolent with the presence of God – on Christmas Eve, the Prince of Peace. Rifkin says it well: Yet what transpired in the battlefields of Flanders on Christmas Eve 1914 between tens of thousands of young men had nothing to do with original sin or productive labor. And the pleasure those men sought in each other’s company bore little resemblance to the superficial rendering of pleasure offered up by nineteenth-century utilitarians and even less to Freud’s rather pathological account of a human race preoccupied by the erotic impulse. The men at Flanders expressed a far deeper human sensibility – one that emanates from the very marrow of human existence and that transcends the portals of time and the exigencies of whatever contemporary orthodoxy happens to rule. We need only ask ourselves why we feel so heartened at what these men did. They chose to be human. And the central human quality they expressed was empathy for one another. Rifkin introduces his startling claim with the incident of Christmas Eve, 1914, because it is a powerful witness to his central thesis. Interestingly, Sorokin, as I have indicated, opens his Preface with three of Jesus’ Beatitudes: Blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the earth. Blessed are the merciful: for they shall obtain mercy. Blessed are the peacemakers; for they shall be called the children of God. In his discussion of the aspects of love, the final aspect is the social aspect. He defines it and then cites another section of the Sermon on the Mount. Finally, on the social plane love is a meaningful interaction – or relationship – between two or more persons where the aspirations and © Grand Valley State University �Love at the Core: The Grain of the Universe Richard A. Rhem July 17, 2011 aims of one person are shared and helped in their realization by other persons. A loving person not only does not hinder the realization of the wise aims of the loved person but positively helps it. So far as he helps, he does not cause pain or sorrow to the loved person, but increases his happiness. It is the joy of giving and the joy of receiving; it is fulfilling oneself in others and by others. The terms “solidarity,” “mutual aid,” “cooperation,” “unity of good neighbors,” “familistic relationship,” and the like denote various forms of love as social relationship. Its highest forms are magnificently defined in the Sermon on the Mount. Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you and persecute you. Agree with thine adversary quickly. First be reconciled to thy brother, and then come and offer thy gift [to the altar]. Ye have heard that it hath been said, An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth: But I say unto you, That ye resist not evil: but whosoever shall smite thee on thy right cheek, turn to him the other also. And if any man will sue thee at the law, and take away thy coat, let him have thy cloak also. And whosoever shall compel thee to go a mile, go with him twain. Give to him that asketh thee, and from him that would borrow of thee turn not thou away. These norms outline the social relationships of love at their highest and best. (p. 13) Sorokin quotes these verses because he is explaining the social aspect of love. But, to my mind, even more remarkable, indeed the epitome of what both Rifkin and Sorokin are pointing to, is expressed in the paragraph calling us to love for enemies. “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be children of your Father in heaven; for he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the righteous and on the unrighteous. For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Do not even the tax collectors do the same? And if you greet only your brothers and sisters, what more are you doing than others? Do not even the Gentiles do the same? Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect. As we have noted above, this is precisely what Sorokin calls for as the only cure for our human malady – …the disease can be cured only by “the extension of love to include everyone and all.” Jesus calls us to be God-like. Matthew uses the word teleios which is translated “perfect.” That is an accurate translation but I think a bit misleading. Are we not quick to declare, “Nobody’s perfect!” The Greek word © Grand Valley State University �Love at the Core: The Grain of the Universe Richard A. Rhem July 17, 2011 points to fulfilling one’s purpose, realizing one’s end. I prefer the word “mature.” Is that not what so often we fail to be? Our conception of God as perfect, yes, but being mature. Perfection tends to scare us I think; it has an edge. Whereas in the context of the Sermon on the Mount Jesus is saying, “Be mature.” One might even suggest Jesus say, “Grow up!” In Luke’s Gospel, the word oiktirmones is used, translated “compassionate,” which also works well but I prefer Matthew’s choice – be mature because maybe indeed that is what is happening to humankind over the aeons of time. The movement from the hunter tribes of early humans to herders and farmers has been underway for millenia. And we surely are dismayed by the ongoing mayhem we create in the human family. Ongoing militarism, brutal dictators holding their people with iron grip in fear of expressing their longing for freedom and a decent human existence, weapons of mass destruction at the ready, a flourishing arms industry, the perfecting of ever smarter more lethal weapons systems – drones that can kill half a world away. In light of all of that are Rifkin and Sorokin simple idle dreamers? An even more poignant question I would pose for you – was Jesus simply a good person who really didn’t get it? Wrestling with a major work such as Sorokin’s The Ways and Power of Love is no easy task. Trying to follow his intensive analysis of creative love and its application to the human situation is not summer reading lite, fit for a beach chair. But, as I struggled to get my head around his analysis and its implications and applications, there was another presence of which I was aware throughout and that was the presence of Jesus. If you have been with me for some time you have probably heard me confess that I did not know what to do with the Sermon on the Mount; not the Beatitudes, not the turning of the cheek, and certainly not the love of enemies. Rifling my old files I found once I did a series on the passage – probably 35 or 40 years ago. At that time I was locked into orthodox Reformed theology with a heavy dose of pietism. The center of my faith and my preaching was the atonement – Christ’s death in our place whereby our sin is forgiven and heaven’s gate is open. Then the Christian, thus “saved,” was called to a life of righteousness, of goodness and mercy; indeed, one was to love one’s neighbor and, because Jesus said so, love one’s enemy. But the broader context was a world unredeemed that would only be transformed at the coming again of Jesus Christ in glory to judge the world, claiming his own and giving their just reward to those who had not bowed their knee to Him. This was the scheme of world history moving toward the end, the damning of the wicked” and the establishment of God’s eternal kingdom. The Sermon on the Mount was a blueprint for the life of a Christian but we “knew” world history, human development would not emerge as the Kingdom of God about which Jesus spoke. © Grand Valley State University �Love at the Core: The Grain of the Universe Richard A. Rhem July 17, 2011 I will not burden you with the long journey that has brought me to where I am today. I also want to say the faith and piety of my early years produced generations of really good human beings, sincere, faithful, generous, compassionate. In no way do I denigrate the community in which I was shaped, formed and given a deep sense of God’s love and grace that is with me still. Neither will I attempt to portray the whole vision of faith by which I now live and how the old understanding has given way to the new. Only this I will say; moving from an atonement centered theology, I came to see Jesus as dying the way he died because he lived the way he lived. Speaking truth to power, he was killed through the collusion of church and state. I do not understand him calling people into the kingdom that was imminent, forsaking “the world,” awaiting his reappearing to bring history to its consummation. I see him rather calling people to a new way to live in order that the will of God would be done on earth as it is in heaven. In contrast to my questions about the Beatitudes, about turning the other cheek, about loving one’s enemies, I now see Jesus as dead serious. He was calling people to live a life of love, of compassion, of non-violence, of peacemaking – not until God’s last dramatic act to end history with all its darkness and bring in the Kingdom from beyond. This earth, this history, this human family are the subjects of Jesus’ calling to live here and now the life of the Kingdom of God. Jesus was serious; he meant it when he spoke of human behavior, human encounters, human beings under the imperative to love all and everyone. This is what Sorokin affirmed. It is what Rifkin sees emerging. And think of the lives that have been world-transforming – Jesus himself and in his steps the Hindu Gandhi and Martin Luther King, among others. Recently I read a marvelous book portraying the life and business of Warren Buffett. Related there is the time Buffett heard Martin Luther King speak. Finally King strode to the podium, dressed in his preacher’s robes. He had chosen the theme of “Remaining Awake During a Revolution,” and his resonant voice rang out with a quote from poet James Russell Lowell’s “The Present Crisis”, the anthem of the civil-rights movement. The Scaffold Sways the Future Truth forever on the scaffold, Wrong forever on the throne: Yet that scaffold sways the future, And behind the dim unknown, Standeth God within the shadow Keeping watch above His own. © Grand Valley State University �Love at the Core: The Grain of the Universe Richard A. Rhem July 17, 2011 He spoke of the meaning of suffering. Inspired to nonviolent resistance by Gandhi, King invoked the lessons of the Sermon on the Mount. Blessed are the persecuted, it said, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth. … Buffett had always responded to powerful, charismatic orators. Now he saw King standing before him: moral courage in the flesh, a man who had been beaten and imprisoned, put in shackles and sentenced to hard labor, stabbed and clubbed for his beliefs, a man who had carried a movement on the strength of his ideas for nearly a decade despite enraged opposition, violence, and limited success. King had once described the power of nonviolence, which “has a way of disarming the opponent. It exposes his moral defenses. It weakens his morale and at the same time it works on his conscience…. Even if he tries to kill you, you develop the inner conviction that some things are so precious, that there are some things so dear, some things so eternally worthful, that they are worth dying for. If an individual has not discovered something that he will die for, he isn’t fit to live. When one discovers this, there is power in this method.” (The Snowball, p. 304) Buffett was struck by a statement which King repeated often: “The laws are not to change the heart, but to restrain the heartless.” As I stated above, immersed in Sorokin, I was so conscious of the presence of Jesus, of the spirit of the one whose call to a way of love, nonviolence and peace I failed to grasp in my early ministry and only gradually, haltingly have come to see as the way to life. This is not the stuff of preaching. It is not something I can explain and advocate and you can hear and accept. Too often preaching pleads and people resist or preaching declares and the critical faculties are alerted to question. No, to find the way of Jesus compelling, to determine however poorly to follow, to commit oneself to the way of non-violence and peace – that is the stuff of witness. To that I witness and invite you to wonder about it. Love is at the core of reality, the creative center of the cosmos. The grain of the universe is Love. It is to love we are called everyday in every way to one and all. It is the Way of Jesus for me, a very concrete way to which I am called, which I betray and fail miserably to fulfill. Yet a way I will not deny or rationalize away; a way I will self-consciously cultivate because it compels me. I choose that way and will not give up in spite of falling so far short. Love is the answer to the world’s violence, to humanity’s disease and finally Love will prevail because there can be no doubt, Love wins. This I believe. © Grand Valley State University �Love at the Core: The Grain of the Universe Richard A. Rhem July 17, 2011 References: Jeremy Rifkin. The Empathic Civilization: The Race to Global Consciousness in a World in Crisis. Tarcher, 2009. Pitirim A. Sorokin. The Ways and Power of Love: Types, Factors, and Techniques of Moral Transformation. Originally published in 1954; Reprint: Templeton Foundation Press, 2002. © Grand Valley State University � https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/e584f4aa2c22868031d42cf069823306.m4v e90909d44f982b6176b9cbc65603d121 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 Lakeshore Interfaith Center Gathering Location The location of the interview Lakeshore Interfaith Center, Ganges References Jeremy Rifkin. The Empathic Civilization. Tarcher, 2009, Pitirim A. Sorokin. The Ways and Power of Love: Types, Factors, and Techniques of Moral Transformation. Orig. published, 1954, Reprint, Templeton Foundation Press, 2002. 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-0-20110717 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2011-07-17 Title A name given to the resource Love At the Core: The Grain of the Universe 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 Moving Image Text Description An account of the resource A sermon given by Richard A. Rhem (Dick) on July 17, 2011 entitled "Love At the Core: The Grain of the Universe", on the occasion of Lakeshore Interfaith Center Gathering, at Lakeshore Interfaith Center, Ganges. Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource video/x-m4v application/pdf Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Lemmen Library and Archives Sermon on the Mount Transforming Love https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/db1dc5c8893d47256131cd777175dfe6.pdf c932866a06d1f39eacf89b95925c9f9d PDF Text Text Unruly Grace From the series: Stories Jesus Told Matthew 20: 1-16 Richard A. Rhem Lakeshore Interfaith Community, Mother’s Trust Ganges, Michigan October 28, 2007 My theme these three presentations has been Stories Jesus Told with the purpose of discovering what the stories reflect about the nature of God. Parables should be heard to catch their major point and should not be pressed in all their details. I think in the stories I’ve chosen it is faithful to the heart of the stories/parables to read off from them Jesus’ understanding of the mystery of God and that has been the focus of my study of these stories. The nature of God as it comes to expression in the stories Jesus told – that has been my purpose. In doing so I reflect as a Christian, as a follower of Jesus, the way of Jesus. But I’ve enjoyed doing it so much in this setting – an interfaith gathering place where we seek to be true to our respective faith traditions but have opportunity to be enriched by other traditions and the unique insights and perspectives each brings. In my previous two discussions and again this morning I am inviting you to reflect with me on the Nature of the Sacred Mystery – Jesus being the stimulus, the catalyst, but not so much to instruct you in the Christian understanding as to invite you to reflect with me on the mystery we will never fathom. When we speak of God as Mystery, we use the term not as a mystery novel where finally the mystery is unraveled or solved. God as mystery indicates a reality beyond our human capacity to comprehend. That is not an obvious truth. Given all the words we speak, all the sermons preached, all the volumes written – one might get the impression we know a great deal about God. We preachers are probably the greatest deniers of God as Mystery – we often give the impression that we are quite well informed as to the nature of the Mystery that is God, but that is a false impression. Whether dogmatically orthodox or radically liberal, whether Christian or Muslim or Jewish, whether Buddhist, Hindu or Jain – all God talk is a probing of a mystery that cannot be fully grasped – at best a relative apprehension of the Ultimate – and that of course is why the exclusive claims to the faith, for example, of a Christian tradition are both arrogant and ignorant. And yet the massive human endeavor we speak of as religion/ the religious quest/ religious observance/ religious behavior – witnesses to the manifestation of the Sacred Mystery in our human experience. There is, I believe, an insatiable hunger © 2013 Kaufman Interfaith Institute and Grand Valley State University   �Title Richard A. Rhem Page 2   and thirst for communion and/or union with God, with the Mystery that is the origin, ground and goal of all that is. Certainly there are those who deny that to be the case for themselves and there are those who write the religious quest off as a carryover from the age of superstition that, for thinking folk, is being replaced by critical rationality and scientific endeavor. But the religious sense of awe and wonder remains for the vast majority of humankind even when the critical faculties are engaged. Why is reflection on the nature of the sacred mystery important? Beyond the fact that it seems simply part of being human to wonder about the nature of God, I would suggest such a quest is important because human behavior tends to reflect the image of God one carries in one’s being – one’s mind and heart. We tend to emulate the Ultimate Reality we conceive. We reflect our understanding of the nature of God or of reality in our behavior – in our attitudes and actions. I am a Christian first of all because I was born into a Christian family and tradition. Over a long pilgrimage I have come to see my tradition in the context of the great religions. I affirm my Christian faith but not uncritically. I reject any claim to absolute revealed truth or exclusive claim to the mediation of God’s salvation. The dimension of the Christian tradition – the New Testament particularly – that I find most profound is the claim of the Incarnation – God in the human –specifically in the humanity of Jesus, but not only in Jesus – rather the human becoming of God and thus the God embodied in the human, again in Jesus for Christian faith. In the face of Jesus I see the heart of God. In his total life, in his words and deeds, I see God revealed. I chose the way of Jesus as the path I would follow – always poorly – and, in these Sunday mornings, as an invitation to reflect on the Nature of God. So let me return to my purpose after that lengthy parenthesis – I am inviting you to reflect with me on the nature of God and, I can even say, the Nature of Reality, from the understanding of Jesus as it comes to expression in the stories he told. The first story – The Prodigal Son, which I suggested was really a story about the Prodigal Love of the Father where salty tears drowned out a returning son’s carefully crafted speech of apology and request – God/Reality as Prodigal Love. And then the second story of the woman of the night who entered the Pharisee’s dinner party and wept over Jesus’ feet, evidence that at some point he had touched her life, accorded her human dignity and a sense of worth. She was transformed by love and loved in return – transforming love. For the story Jesus told of two debtors who had nothing to pay and were freely forgiven – Jesus asked the Pharisee, Simon, which one would love most and he said rightly, the one who was forgiven most – © 2013 Kaufman Interfaith Institute and Grand Valley State University �Title Richard A. Rhem Page 3   Transforming Love. We turn now to the third story which I am entitling “Unruly Grace”. Grace is simply love in action. Jesus’ stories have portrayed the nature of God as love and that love moving out to the world to a person, a community, is Grace. The prosaic definition we often use is “undeserved favor” – but I like “love in action”. And love in action is unruly. I like that word in this connection – it is a surprising combination – unruly usually carries a negative connotation – an unruly child, an unruly guest, etc. – one not playing by the rules: rules of fairness, rules of contracts, rules that structured social relations. That is what today’s story is about. Matthew 20:1-16 is a story Jesus used to make the point of the startling statement in the previous chapter that human salvation was an impossible human achievement: The rich young man – What do I lack? Sell all… Disciples: “Who can be saved?” Human impossibility – But with God (only with God), salvation is possible because it is Gift. The Parable: Matthew 20:1-16 A landowner hires workers to work his fields. It is 6:00 a.m. They contract – a day’s wage for a day’s labor. But he needs more workers and so returns to the “unemployed laborer pool” at 9:00, noon, 3:00 and 5:00 p.m., each time finding laborers looking for work and sending them to his fields without contract, assuring them only to pay whatever was right. When evening arrived the workers returned for their pay. The landowner instructed his manager to pay them all a day’s wage beginning with those hired last. When those hired first – at 6:00 a.m.– got a day’s wage – as they had agreed when they were hired –, they grumbled because those who came later got the same amount. They protested, These last worked only one hour, and you have made them equal to us who have borne the burden of the day and the scorching heat. Their complaint wasn’t that those hired at 5:00 p.m. got a day’s wage but only that they didn’t receive more – “you made them equal to us!” If, before you hear this story in terms of God as the householder and you take it as a human story, with whom do you identify? Don’t you tend to join the first hires in their grumbling? It isn’t fair after all. Is not the mantra of the women’s movement, equal pay for equal work, relevant? Isn’t there something that offends our sense of justice? But think about it… © 2013 Kaufman Interfaith Institute and Grand Valley State University �Title Richard A. Rhem Page 4   Take the householder’s final word: “Are you envious because I’m generous?” It was the generosity of the householder that the workers resented. He had fulfilled his word. The contract mutually agreed on was honored. But those whose contract was fulfilled were offended by the householder’s grace. And this surprising fact has profound relevance for religious understanding, observance, practice. Again, remember the context – Who can be saved? Jesus’ answer: No one through human effort of whatever kind Religion based on the Performance Principle Does not save, does not achieve Peace with God. In my particular faith family background this is Reformation Sunday, the last Sunday in October. Martin Luther in 1517 nailed his 95 theses to the church door in Wittenberg, Germany, protesting the practices of his Roman Catholic Church that had a full set of observances, practices, and requirements through which the church mediated God’s saving grace, and in the 16th century the system had become very corrupt. Luther was one of those persons who suffered from an accusing conscience – He found no peace, try as he may, punish and pummel himself as he did. In anguish he performed and performed and performed some more. Going to his Confessor, the Confessor said, “Martin, you must love God”, to which Luther responded, “Love God? I hate God!” The agony of Luther has been played out again and again, over and over. There is that about us human beings that wonders about God, desires peace, union, communion with God. Whatever the roots of religion in the human are – fear, guilt, wonder, intuitive sense of the sacred – there is the felt need to be put right with God or the Ultimate Order of the Universe. And it just seems natural that we must find a way to achieve that being right with God. And there is the rub – We can’t achieve it. We don’t need to achieve it. It is given fully by a gracious God – Who plays by no rules – Unruly Grace you see! The nature of the Sacred Mystery, of God, of the Real is Love expressed as Grace for creation and all creation’s children. © 2013 Kaufman Interfaith Institute and Grand Valley State University �Title Richard A. Rhem Page 5   Isn’t that quite amazing when you think of all the religions and all the religious observances and practices? Isn’t it just human/quite natural to assume on the basis of being right with the Universe, with the Ultimate, with God would be some sort of performance? And has not the institutional form of the respective religions reinforced that natural tendency What do I lack? What must I do? And the institutional religions are on guard against any suggestion that there is a Grace that transcends them all, with nothing to do. I found that out… The RCA Minister of Evangelism was scandalized and very critical of my suggestion of universal Grace. He said, “If that’s true, I might as well sell used cars.” The Prodigal’s well-rehearsed speech about what he would do to earn a bunk in the servants’ quarters was simply drowned out by the father’s loving embrace. The two debtors of Jesus’ story in Luke 7, both owing different amounts, both had nothing to pay and were both fully forgiven. And in this story the first hires are given their due while all the rest are simply graced by the householder’s generosity. Kristen Stendahl suggests Matthew was writing to a Jewish-Jesus community that was beginning to receive non-Jews – Gentiles – into the community and how would they be received? As second-rate Christians? You mean, some must have said, that we who are the products of generations of faithful covenant membership have no advantage over these Gentiles coming in out of pagan darkness? Jesus’ story says – That’s right because nobody earns salvation – there is no performance principle, no merit system. God’s unruly grace relativizes all human observance/ practice/ behavior. Well, then why do we engage in religious observance? Hopefully because we find meaning and fulfillment in that observance. Hopefully our religious practice is an end in itself giving wisdom, insight, peace and joy and the experience of being in the Presence of the Holy. And for some of us the experience of community – community where our best selves are confirmed and encouraged, where our © 2013 Kaufman Interfaith Institute and Grand Valley State University �Title Richard A. Rhem Page 6   insights are tested and our horizons broadened – a community where compassion finds expression and serving finds opportunity. Once we are touched by Grace, transformed by Grace, all coercive, obsessive religion evaporates and we are transformed. In a beautiful writing by Paul Tillich, “You are accepted”, I find this expressed: It strikes us when our disgust for our own being, our indifference, our weakness, our hostility and our lack of direction and composure have become intolerable to us. It strikes us when, year after year, the longed-for perfection of life does not appear, when the old compulsions reign within us as they have for decades, when despair destroys all joy and courage. Sometimes at that moment a wave of light breaks into our darkness and it is as though a voice were saying, “You are accepted. You are accepted.” Accepted by that which is greater than you and the name of which you do not know. Do not ask for the name now. Perhaps you will find it later. Do not try to do anything now. Perhaps later you will do much. Do not seek for anything. Do not perform anything. Do not intend anything. Simple accept the fact that you are accepted. If that happens to us, we experience grace. Salvation – do we need to be saved? That word has much baggage with it and is used so differently. Do we need to be saved? Yes, if salvation is understood as its root suggests – as healing. We bring as much baggage with us ourselves and most of us manage to mess up our lives at some point – and then, trying harder doesn’t really help. Finally there is nothing we can do. But the Word of Grace is healing – that is salvation – issuing in peace and joy. So is the universe/ ultimate reality full of Grace? This is the understanding of Jesus according to the stories he told – In a word, he said God is like that… And if I hear that and trust that and entrust myself to such a Reality, such a Sacred Mystery, I will act in kind, and if all who would encounter such Grace were to act it out would we not create the reality we trust in, the reality we live. All religious traditions have their own take on this and I’m not knowledgeable as to how such Unruly Grace would translate in other religious traditions but this is what I find in Jesus and that’s why I chose to follow his way – poorly to be sure – but seriously. © 2013 Kaufman Interfaith Institute and 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 Lakeshore Interfaith Gathering Series Stories Jesus Told Scripture Text Matthew 20:1-16 Location The location of the interview Lakeshore Interfaith Center, Ganges 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-0-20071028 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2007-10-28 Title A name given to the resource Unruly 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 Text Description An account of the resource A sermon given by Richard A. Rhem (Dick) on October 28, 2007 entitled "Unruly Grace", as part of the series "Stories Jesus Told", on the occasion of Lakeshore Interfaith Gathering, at Lakeshore Interfaith Center, Ganges. Scripture references: Matthew 20:1-16. Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource application/pdf Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Lemmen Library and Archives 2007 Transforming Love https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/817731ed123ccc489e9dbce48c9e3aba.pdf 2f314399f474aa1545a9a5fd1e03be1b PDF Text Text   Transforming Love From the series: Stories Jesus Told Luke 7:18-50 Richard A. Rhem Lakeshore Interfaith Community, Mother’s Trust Ganges, Michigan September 16, 2007 Let me begin by reminding you of what I am attempting in these three presentations which I’ve titled “Stories Jesus Told.” The first last month focused on the parable of the Prodigal Son which I suggested is not about the prodigality of the son but the prodigal love of the father. Today an encounter and a story about transforming love. My purpose in centering on these stories is to discover the understanding of the nature of God they reflect – using the word God as the symbol for the Sacred Mystery at the heart of reality – Sacred Mystery, Ground of Being, Creative Source/Enlivening Presence, even, I suppose, Creative Nothingness/Emptiness. The great religious traditions have variously imaged the ultimate/the absolute. My Christian faith finds its most profound understanding of the nature of God in the incarnation – the human embodiment of God in Jesus. The Word became flesh and dwelt among us. And the one in whose face we see a clue to the mystery of God did not leave us a dogmatic text or a catechism; rather, Jesus told stories – stories whose purpose was to reflect the nature of God as Jesus understood the Divine nature and reality. Today’s lesson, I suggest, reveals God as Transforming Love. Let me be clear: I am selective in my use of Scripture. I take responsibility for that selection because part of my religious journey as a Christian and a minister of the Gospel has been a movement from seeing the Bible as my authority for truth, to seeing truth as my authority as I meditate on the Bible. Stated differently, my authority is truth rather than some authority being my truth. Truth – Do I claim to possess it? No, not as ultimate, absolute truth – It is truth as I understand it, as it resonates with me, with my best wisdom and insight. This is not to deny that there is Absolute Truth; it is simply to recognize no human possesses it. There will always only be a relative grasp of that Absolute. With that acknowledgement let me set the context for the story we consider today. In Luke 7 we have Jesus carrying on his healing ministry and he is being acclaimed by the people. Then in 7:18 John the Baptist appears in the narrative. John had led a popular religious renewal movement and is called the Baptist for © Grand Valley State University   �Transforming Love Richard A. Rhem Page 2   he called people to be baptized as a sign of repentance and renewal before what he believed would be the in-breaking of the Kingdom of God. John was apocalyptic. He expected the end of the age. He was looking for God to send a messenger (Messiah – anointed one) who could usher in the end time when God would vindicate the righteous and pour out God’s wrath on the wicked. John was expecting, in the parlance of the Hebrew prophet, “that great and terrible day of the Lord.” And John couldn’t wait. It seems he had hoped Jesus was that one who was to come. But now, in prison because he had the temerity to condemn the court scandal of King Herod, he hears of the ministry of Jesus – Good news of the in-breaking of God’s Kingdom all right, but good news and grace to all and healing – a ministry of inclusion for all people. And John is confused and disappointed – hoping for fire and judgment, John hears of grace and healing. And so he sends his disciple to Jesus with the burning question for John: Are you the one who is to come or do we look for another? Oh, can’t you feel the urgency, the pathos of that question for John! His whole life project is at stake. Had he got the wrong person? Had he misunderstood the times in which he lived? Was he wrong about God’s program? The disciples of John come to Jesus and they pose the question. In a positive and gracious way Jesus responds. He doesn’t answer the question as such. He simply says, “Go tell John what you have seen and heard: the blind receive their sight, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, the poor have good news brought to them, and blessed is anyone who takes no offence at me.” The citations of the dimension of Jesus’ ministry are taken from the Hebrew prophets but those who spoke of healing, not apocalypse. When John’s disciples left, Jesus spoke to the crowd about John. He affirmed him as a great prophet. Jesus himself had begun as part of the movement of John the Baptist but at some point he left and went on his own and he fashioned quite a different ministry. But nonetheless, he honored John as a great prophet. Then in a parenthesis Luke tells us that the very religious authorities, the Temple establishment, that were offended at Jesus and grumbled about his inclusion of all and his refusing to follow the purity codes that determine who was in and who was out, had also rejected John’s ministry. That brings us to the occasion for the story we examine today. The Occasion: © Grand Valley State University �Transforming Love Richard A. Rhem Page 3   A religious leader – a Pharisee named Simon – wanted to know Jesus firsthand so he could judge for himself whether this one causing such a stir was a genuine religious teacher, a prophet as claimed, or just another messianic pretender of which there were plenty – another charismatic religious figure who would flame up and soon burn out. And so he invited Jesus to a dinner party. We need not attribute sinister motives to Simon. Let’s assume it was an honest effort to judge Jesus for himself. And there it happened. Unlike our dinner parties in the privacy of our homes, the Middle Eastern home had an open courtyard where folks could wander in and then it wasn’t that unusual for some even to sit along the wall of the inner home and listen to the conversation. On this occasion a woman of the street or lady of the night entered. Seeing Jesus whom she must have seen before – a time when somehow he gave her dignity and humanity – she lost it – emotion burst forth. She intended to give him a sign of love and respect for she brought a flask of ointment. What she did instead was the bursting forth of emotion – tears falling on his feet – letting down her hair never done in public by respectable women but an action she had mastered. She wipes his feet with her hair and anointed them with the ointment. Such a display of love and emotion was precisely what never happened at the house of a Pharisee. It was all quite embarrassing and disconcerting for Simon, the host, but at least he accomplished the purpose of the dinner engagement – he knew now that Jesus was indeed no prophet, for a prophet would have known what sort of woman this was fondling his feet – a sinner with whom the righteous would have nothing to do. And it was just at that point that Jesus spoke saying he was indeed a prophet able to read the musing of the other’s mind – and this brings us to the story. The Story: And Jesus answered and said to him, “Simon, I have something to say to you.” And he said, “Teacher, say it.” “There was a certain creditor who had two debtors. One owed five hundred denarii, and the other fifty. And when they had nothing with which to repay, he freely forgave them both. Tell me, therefore, which of them will love him more?” Simon answered and said, “I suppose the one whom he forgave more.” And He said to him, “You have rightly judged.” © Grand Valley State University �Transforming Love Richard A. Rhem Page 4   Then He turned to the woman and said to Simon, “Do you see this woman? I entered your house; you gave me no water for my feet, but she has washed my feet with her tears and wiped them with the hair of her head. You gave me no kiss, but this woman has not ceased to kiss my feet since the time I came in. You did not anoint my head with oil, but this woman has anointed my feet with fragrant oil. Therefore I say to you, her sins, which are many, are forgiven, for she loved much. But to whom little is forgiven, the same loves little.” And He said to her, “Your sins are forgiven.” And those who sat at the table with Him began to say to themselves, “Who is this who even forgives sins?” Then He said to the woman, “Your faith has saved you. Go in peace.” (Luke 7:40f The Teaching: I like the King James version in this instance because I want to use the characterization of the two debtors – both having “nothing to pay” – and turn it around from the human obligation before God to the requirement of God – which is “nothing to pay.” In the context and story what we have is the contrast between: 1. Jesus/John – A Kingdom of Grace/ A Kingdom of Judgment: John’s threat and appeal, but Jesus’ reflecting a gracious God who says you have nothing to pay; 2. The religious institution with its delineation of who is in and who is out, its exclusionary justice dividing the righteous and the unrighteous– and – Jesus whose attitude, spirit and behavior was open to all conveying grace to all who, self-aware, knew they needed forgiveness and acceptance and allowed themselves to be embraced by grace. Aware of need, receiving forgiveness and acceptance, the response is transformation and the image of God in the story is of a God whose love transforms. Love changes a person – Law may control; Fear can cripple; Power coerce; © Grand Valley State University �Transforming Love Richard A. Rhem Page 5   but Love transforms. Application: If, as I believe, the Christian tradition sees Jesus as the human mirror of the nature of God then that mirror reflects a God who says you have nothing to pay – all your religious duties, obligations and demands are baggage placed on the single truth that you are loved for no other reason than that it is my nature to love and, when you get it, you will be transformed and love in response. Overwhelmed by grace the dam of emotion breaks and love pours out in light of such love that transforms, that changes and frees. Finally let me come back to the issue I raised in the first presentation. This, I believe, is a faithful rendering of the nature of God as imaged in the stories Jesus told and indeed in his whole behavior to the end. But is this also the nature of reality? If God is the Ground of Being, the Eternal Creative Source of All, is Love at the center? Does the God Jesus mirrors match the Creative Source of Cosmic Reality? Let me suggest that the cosmic drama of 13.7 billion years has eventuated in the likes of us – self-conscious beings able to ask such a question and if we can wonder about such a question are we not also the very means by which the cosmic process, the human story, can be shaped? Has not the cosmic drama come into our hands? Do we not face a choice as to what future will emerge? Look at our world – in the grip of imperial designs as we seek dominance globally, accomplished by military might and intimidation. We may have enough power at present to keep the lid on, enforce our will, put down all resistance but seething beneath the surface is violence and anger that at any time can explode and bring apocalypse. Maybe Jesus was just a dreamer, a visionary, impractical when it comes to the affairs of nations. But look at the chaos we have created. What if one should arise to lead who would give love a chance – because only love transforms. It works one to one, why not people to people? Could we be on the way to a future shaped by love and grace that alone can transform the human family and create a global community of justice and peace? © 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 Lakeshore Interfaith Gathering Series Stories Jesus Told Scripture Text Luke 7: 18-50 Location The location of the interview Lakeshore Interfaith Center, Ganges 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-0-20070916 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2007-09-16 Title A name given to the resource Transforming Love Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Richard A. Rhem Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Subject The topic of the resource Clergy--Michigan Reformed Church in America Christ Community Church (Spring Lake, Mich.) Sermons Relation A related resource Richard A. Rhem - An Archive of Sermons, Prayers, Talks and Stories: http://richardrhem.org/ Language A language of the resource eng Type The nature or genre of the resource Text Description An account of the resource A sermon given by Richard A. Rhem (Dick) on September 16, 2007 entitled "Transforming Love", as part of the series "Stories Jesus Told", on the occasion of Lakeshore Interfaith Gathering, at Lakeshore Interfaith Center, Ganges. Scripture references: Luke 7: 18-50. Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource application/pdf Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Lemmen Library and Archives Transforming Love https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/4f229b7a8476be45871527d6fe3f78f4.pdf a4caff4787d102b37784b8811cbd9a88 PDF Text Text A Fool for Christ Palm Sunday Luke 19:35-44; John 12:9-19; Zechariah 9:9-10 Richard A. Rhem Lakeshore Interfaith Community, Mother’s Trust Ganges, Michigan April 1, 2007 When, some months ago, Tapas invited me to speak today, he reminded me that it would be April Fool’s Day and wondered if I might like to use the phrase from St. Paul – “A Fool for Christ.” I consulted the calendar and realized April 1 was also Palm Sunday and the beginning of Holy Week on the Christian Calendar. I immediately agreed on the theme because I have always felt that in the events of this week one sees the very heart of Jesus’ ministry and one who seeks to follow the way of Jesus as it comes to expression in the events of this week must, by human or worldly standards, be a fool. We all know what a fool is but I got the dictionary out nonetheless – ...one who is lacking in reason or common powers of understanding; a person with little or no judgment, common sense or wisdom; to act in a ridiculous manner; to do silly things… Such is the definition of a fool. What has that to do with being a fool for Christ? Well, as I am using that designation on the threshold of Holy Week in the Christian Calendar, I am suggesting that from the perspective of worldly wisdom, from the perspective of common sense, to follow the way of Jesus is foolhardy because it is to live out an ethic of love, specifically of non-violent resistance to the systems and structures by which human society is ordered. It is to pursue the way of peace in a violent world – to live with compassion in a brutal world – to seek justice in a world marked by injustice – to live in love in a hostile world. And why is such a way of life the way of a fool? Simply because to live in the way of vulnerable love is to court death by the powers that be, powers of church and state, the established institutional structures by which our world is ordered and controlled. Let me be clear at the outset – 1) The Way of Jesus that beckons me has not been realized in my own life; it is an amazing ideal which draws me but which I have betrayed. © Grand Valley State University   �A Fool for Christ 2) Richard A. Rhem Page 2   In this setting I want to be very clear that the Way of Jesus is my way, my story, but not the only way, the only story – not the only dream and vision for a transformed world – but I speak out of my own tradition, grateful for a place like this where our respective stories are shared and respected – where our shared stories enrich us all in our respective journeys. With those comments made let me take you to the Palm Sunday event that is today celebrated in the Christian Church. The four canonical Gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, each record the occasion of Jesus entering Jerusalem, but each has its own interpretation of the event. The Gospels, written four to six decades after the event, arose in different communities at different times and reflect the historical contexts of their communities, each community with special situations, challenges and interests as well as the perspective of the authors. When I took English Bible at Hope College, we used a harmony of the Gospels – parallel readings of the four Gospels in columns down the page. That was the result of a scholarly process that forced each Gospel with its unique angle into one consistent story. We’ve learned after serious scholarly research of the Gospels that in so doing we missed the respective nuances of the story as it was composed by various writers in various situations and historical contexts. This morning I want to focus on the accounts of John and Luke because it is my judgment that in those two portraits we see the entry into Jerusalem in the best perspective from which to understand the whole week culminating in Jesus’ crucifixion. First, John – the only account mentioning palm branches – a significant detail because the palm branch was a sign of nationalistic fervor. What is going on with the crowd and its palm branches? According to John’s picture, this is a crowd filled not so much with religious fervor as with rising nationalistic zeal. As I mentioned, only John speaks of palm branches and that is significant. Palm branches had a nationalistic association. Palms were evocative of Maccabean nationalism. As a symbol of nationalism, the palm occurred on the coins of the Second Revolt (132-135 C.E.). When Judas Maccabeus rededicated the temple altar after the Syrians had profaned it (164 B.C.E.), the Jews brought palms to the temple. When Simon Maccabeus conquered the Jerusalem citadel (142 B.C.E.), the Jews took possession of it carrying palm fronds. In the Testament of Naphtahali V4, the fronds are given to Levi as a symbol of power over all Israel. In sum, John’s use of palms would seem to give to the whole scene a political overtone: Jesus being welcomed as a national liberator. © Grand Valley State University �A Fool for Christ Richard A. Rhem Page 3   Further, the words “God bless the King of Israel,” which John has the crowd chant are not found in Psalm 118:26 from which the words, “Blessings on him who comes in the name of the Lord!” are taken. Once before in John’s gospel (6:14-15), after Jesus fed the multitude, he realized the crowd wanted to make him king and he withdrew from them. There is little doubt that the scene John paints is intended to indicate what was going on with the crowd. They were hoping that in Jesus they had found a national liberator and they hoped that this one now entering Jerusalem was about to declare himself the King of Israel. But this was precisely not what Jesus was intending. Now he must do something to set them straight. What does he do? He seeks to dispel the crowd’s misunderstanding through a prophetic action – an action even the disciples did not understand until after his death and resurrection. The action: Jesus sat on a colt, thereby seeking to call to mind the words of Zephaniah and Zechariah. In Zechariah and Zephaniah it is the king who comes, but it is a different kind of king. Listen to the Zechariah citation: See, your king is coming mounted on an ass’s colt. If we go to that context in Zechariah, we find it is a call to Jerusalem to rejoice because its king is coming, coming mounted on an ass’s foal, to banish chariots from Ephraim and war horses from Jerusalem; the warrior’s bow shall be banished. The prophet’s word continues: He shall speak peaceably to every nation, and his rule shall extend from sea to sea, from the river to the ends of the earth. “Yes, Jerusalem,” Jesus seems to be saying by mounting the ass’s colt, “I am your king coming to you, but a different kind of king than you expect or desire.” Similarly, in Zephaniah we have, Fear not, O Zion,…the Lord your God is in your midst, like a warrior to keep you safe; he will rejoice over you and be glad; he will show you his love once more… In that same context the prophet cries, …be glad, rejoice with all your heart, daughter of Jerusalem…the Lord is among you as King, O Israel… © Grand Valley State University �A Fool for Christ Richard A. Rhem Page 4   Jesus’ mounting the colt was a prophetic action, according to John. After the death and resurrection, John writes, we understood what that action was trying to say. Jesus realized that the crowd had misinterpreted the Lazarus miracle just as the crowd had misunderstood the multiplication of loaves and fishes in John 6. The raising of Lazarus was a sign that God the giver of life was visiting His people in Jesus. They should not be proclaiming him as an earthly king, but as the manifestation of the Lord their God who has come into their midst, the God of Zechariah who would bring peace to the whole world. We find this focus on peace for the world even more pronounced in Luke’s Gospel. Remember the angel’s song with which Luke portrays the birth of Jesus – “Glory to God in the highest and on earth peace…” Now as Jesus approaches Jerusalem we have him arrive at the destination intended in chapter 9:5l, where Luke writes, “…he set his face to go to Jerusalem,” and the so-called “journey section” of the Gospel culminates with Jesus overlooking the city from the Mount of Olives and weeping over it – weeping because in its imminent rejection of him it could only look forward to total devastation. I find this a most moving scene and it could be spoken time and again over the course of the human story – missing the moment, missing the possibility to avoid disaster, missing the visitation of God and the things that make for peace – human blindness, human stubbornness, human pride, anger, arrogance and cussedness in the service of nationalism, obsession with power and domination, refusing the way of peace which demands humility and willingness to change, to repent, to acknowledge one has been wrong… Two portraits of Jesus on the occasion of his entry into Jerusalem, each being very clear about the intention of this one and the challenge he brought to his own people and his world. Reflect with me for a few moments about those two portraits of Jesus as he moves toward the climax of his life’s mission. The Gospels – not biography, but there is biographical data; not history, although the Gospels do deal with real historical time and place. Literally “Gospel” means good news – it is a report, a perspectus, an interpretation of historical events. In the case of our Gospels they are portraits of the founder and founding events of the Christian religion, the Christian faith tradition. And what we reflect on today – the entry of Jesus into Jerusalem – no doubt has an historical core. Jesus did indeed come to Jerusalem, the center of his peoples’ religious life and their total self-understanding as a people, a people of God, of Yahweh. But did it happen as either John or Luke told the story? Probably not. Out of whatever happened a story was told as part of a larger story and a portrait was painted as part of a larger painting to reflect the impact of his life. This is what was experienced in the life of Jesus. © Grand Valley State University �A Fool for Christ Richard A. Rhem Page 5   A scholar who has worked intensively on the birth of Christianity and the Historical Jesus, John Dominic Crossan, makes what was for me a most helpful distinction between “History Remembered” and “Prophecy Historicized.” History remembered is a recounting of events as they were experienced, as they occurred. There is no such thing as an absolutely accurate recounting of historical events – point of view, angle of vision, memory all force us to speak of a relatively accurate recounting. Until the relatively recent past (during two or three decades of biblical studies), I had taken the Gospels as history remembered – but then I came to see them as prophecy historicized – meaning the Passion Narrative of the Gospels, the story that begins on Palm Sunday and moves through Easter Sunday, is created out of the sacred text of the Jews – what we traditionally call the Old Testament, the sacred text of Jesus and his contemporaries, as well as ongoing Jewish faith. I cannot begin to document that here – it is a study in its own right. I simply say that it is most remarkable that the events beginning with Jesus’ arrival at Jerusalem and unfolding through crucifixion and resurrection, are woven together out of Old Testament citations. And how were these citations selected? There was selection and I suggest the selection was make in order to create a portrait of the one whose life, ministry and message were being set forth as the way, the truth and the life. The concrete life, ministry and teaching of Jesus as experienced by those who became the Jesus Movement or the early Christian Church was told in terms of the story the gospel writer told but the citations were chosen because they reflected the way Jesus was experienced. I go into this not to call in question the respective accounts of palm Sunday; I do it to transcend questions about whether it all happened, which account is the most accurate, etc. I do it to get to the portrait itself because the portrait reflects the impression Jesus made, how he was heard and understood – the Gospel as presentation of the Good News that came to expression in the life and ministry of Jesus, the details of whose lie are lost in the cloudy fog of the past never to be totally recovered. Think with me about the portrait of Jesus as Luke and John narrate the story of Palm Sunday. And what are the contours of the message embodied in the historical life of this one coming of full expression at this critical juncture of his life? Let me suggest the following – certainly not a complete description but a dimension I find both inspiring and challenging for our world today – Jesus as an embodiment of humility and love expressed in non-violent resistance. We see it in the refusal to play to the nationalistic fervor of his contemporaries. © Grand Valley State University �A Fool for Christ Richard A. Rhem Page 6   This we see particularly in John as he tells the story: the crowd with its palm branches, symbolic of the Maccabean revolts of the second century before the Common Era – nationalism – my nation right or wrong, the lust for power and domination, the desire to be # 1, lie just beneath the surface for most of us most of the time. There were the zealots of the time of Jesus, those who were committed to throwing off the Roman yoke; those who eventually brought about the fatal collision with Roman power that left Jerusalem streets run red with the blood of the slain and the city a heap of ruins. Zealotry among an oppressed people is understandable and ultimately fatal. But zealotry is not restricted to dominated peoples; it is present as well in the nationalistic rhetoric of our own administration and shamefully of many among the religious right who even now advocate military action against Iran just as, tragically, we have engaged in the pre-emptive war with Iraq. No dove for sure, Colin Powell warned before that fateful attack, the Pottery Barn analogy “if you break it you own it.” Having created the tragic chaos in Iraq we live with the consequences and still there are political and religious voices that would have us begin anew in Iran. The imperial mindset entails endless war. That is simply the way it is. Luke wrote after the destruction of Jerusalem: Jesus’ prophecy was most likely never uttered on the Mount of Olives before he entered Jerusalem but Luke was quite right in attributing those words to him because his whole life and ministry was an effort to short-circuit the nationalistic passion that assumed it was possible means of force and military/guerilla action to find freedom and peace. This is what the portrait of John tells us. He sought to put out the nationalistic passion of the crowd whose palm branches signaled their desire for the use of force to overthrow the oppressor, for a leader who would spark a revolt to overthrow the imperial domination. In the words of Luke’s Jesus, “If you…had only recognized on this day the things that make for peace! But now they are hidden from your eyes….” Was Jesus simply a weakling, fearful, cowering before the powers that be – religious, social, cultural and political, suggesting one should simply submit to unjust structures and violent oppression? Not al all; Jesus was no advocate of the status quo. It was not the human desire for freedom, justice and humane existence that he called in question. It was rather that there is only one way to peace, justice and community – it is through non-violent resistance from a posture of humility and strength. We have seen instances of such non-violent resistance that have overcome overwhelming odds: Ghandi – Martin Luther King Jr. –And that may be too © Grand Valley State University �A Fool for Christ Richard A. Rhem Page 7   little, too rare, to convince one. Yet there is that in the human consciousness that is moved at such action and spirit. When I think, “But it can’t work on the global scale” then I realize that our present course is what does not work. A military solution is not a solution – it is a shorter or longer term stop-gap measure that will finally degenerate again into violence and war. Whether with individuals or nations, only love transforms and compassion heals and creates the possibility for peace. It is time such a claim ceases to be mere religious cliché and pulpit talk. If we live by empirical evidence that evidence lies in all the tragedy, violence, death and devastation of the entire human story. We should be able to see in the overwhelming evidence of the historical record that the human species has developed to such a point and the present human potential to destroy the human emergent world is so evident that we can no longer live by the clan and tribal ways of fear, isolation, national sovereignty and imperial dominion. War is insane. War is no longer an option. Our thinking must change! That has been true of me; my thinking that is my understanding of God and the nature of God’s action in the world has changed dramatically when first humankind lived under the threat of nuclear annihilation, I was not afraid because my understanding of God was that of the Sovereign Lord of History, the Lord God Almighty. The End was in God’s hands. But this was a sovereign God external to the creation, ruling and, on occasion, intervening. But God has become for me much more the Sacred Mystery, the Creative Center of Being who rules through the lure of love or not at all. Love persuades; love does not coerce. The human creature in the image of God can resist the lure of love and the consequences may well be the end of the human emergent world. War is no longer an option. Our thinking must change - change or we will destroy our world as surely as Jerusalem was destroyed in awful violence. And, if we stave off total devastation, we will nevertheless live in fear of destruction in the meantime. Jesus called his world to repent. In Greek metanoia is composed of two parts: meta, “to change,” nois from nous, “mind.” Jesus’ message was: “Change your mind!” © Grand Valley State University �A Fool for Christ Richard A. Rhem Page 8   Our thinking needs to change. And we need to experience a change of heart. I’m not sure which one must occur first. Maybe our thinking won’t change without a significant emotional experience. And such an emotional catharsis is the potential of Holy Week for those for whom the Way of Jesus is compelling. As I reflect on my own spiritual journey, my thinking has changed dramatically while at the same time I have experienced a significant emotional transformation in my experience of following Jesus and if, as I believe, Jesus was a human embodiment of God, of the Creative Mystery of Being, then I can say it is only in my latter years that I have experienced love for God. For me there has been a transformation of my thinking and my experience of God and that has come about through a fresh vision of Jesus in his full humanity in the portrait I see painted in the Gospels. Studies in research of the Historical Jesus have been important in putting Jesus in his historical context and, in the portraits painted of him in the Gospels, I have seen the amazing life of this one whose life was marked by grace, who reflected God’s unconditional love and who spoke truth to power, confronting the oppressive structures of established political and religious authority – for which he was crucified. While this fresh portrait of Jesus was making its impact on me, changing my thinking, I encountered two stories of persons whose heroic lives were the consequence of the Way of Jesus as I was coming to understand it. While studying in the Netherlands, trying to find a new theological understanding since my little system had groaned and cracked in the midst of my seven years of pastoral experience, I was struggling with trying to translate and understand contemporary Dutch and German theology. One day I picked up a little paperback, Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s Letters and Papers from Prison. It was my spiritual sustenance during those four years in Europe. In Bonhoeffer I found a contemporary disciple of Jesus who risked his life and finally gave his life in his resistance to the Nazi horror that was raging in Europe. His life, his faith, his courage so impressed me. At some point I realized what I felt for Bonhoeffer was more gripping than what I felt for Jesus. But my understanding of Jesus was changing the more I saw him fully human in his own historical context. I grew up with Jesus, Son of God, second person of the Trinity, whose atoning death was my only hope of salvation but that divine Saviour figure never really got to me in the same sense I was experiencing the life of Bonhoeffer. Finally I brought all this to expression. It was actually a Palm Sunday sermon, April 15, 1984. In that sermon I said, Jesus has no doubt been the greatest inspirer of human faith and life in the whole of human history. I have been reflecting on why his life has not been more © Grand Valley State University �A Fool for Christ Richard A. Rhem Page 9   powerful for me. I think I understand why Bonhoeffer moved me more – or so it seems. I think it is because Bonhoeffer was of our time. He seems more human – more one of us. He took on Hitler – not the Jewish High Priest or the Roman Emperor. He was a man – just a man. But Jesus was something else. The more I think about it, the more I am convinced that the Church in her theological discussion has removed Jesus – the real, historical, human figure – from me. Yet the more I penetrate through the theological haze surrounding him, the more I see him for what he was. The more overwhelmed I am at the grandeur of his life, the more I am moved by his faith and commitment, the more I love him and want to be like him. It is a paradox; the more I see him in his full humanity, the more I am inclined to bow in worship before him. I concluded the sermon inviting the congregation to think about Jesus in his full humanity, confronting non-violently the domination system of his day. Maybe in our contemplating of his behavior in these days we will see the wonder of his life. Maybe we will finally break out with the exclamation, “Jesus, you are really something!” If that happens, we will be changed; we will die and be born again. If the events of this week – the magnificence of Jesus’ authentic human life, the humility that is strength, the obedience that is freedom, the self-renunciation that is the highest expression of selfhood – ever penetrate to the core of our being, then we will bow in adoring worship before him whom God has highly exalted. “Adoring worship” was probably not the strongest way to conclude but in the sermon I had cited that powerful solo sung by Mary Magdalene in the rock opera Jesus Christ, Super Star, who sings so movingly, “I don’t know how to love him.” My second story came not long after Bonhoeffer triggered fresh emotional apprehension of Jesus. I was given a book by Philip Hallie, Lest Innocent Blood Be Shed, the story of a village in the French Alps. It is a story of how this mountain village, Le Chambon, defied the orders of the German Gestapo and the collaborating French Vichy government under Nazi domination during the Second World War, by sheltering refugees of all sorts, but the majority of whom were Jews. It is a gripping, moving, inspiring narrative whose center is a French Reformed pastor, Andre Trocmé. In his youth Trocmé had experienced the gruesome horror of World War I. He encountered an occupying German soldier and learned this soldier went about his duties as a telegrapher unarmed because he refused to kill – He had had a conversion experience and he believed as a follower of Jesus, he could not do © Grand Valley State University �A Fool for Christ Richard A. Rhem Page10   harm to another – he could not kill another human being. The German soldier said to him, “Christ taught us to love our enemies.” This encounter so deeply impacted Trocmé that for the rest of his life he lived by the imperative to do no harm to another. Trocme eventually studied theology at the University of Paris and became a French Reformed pastor. One evening in a men’s group, Trocme was discussing a book that claimed Jesus was a myth created by St. Paul. Trocmé refuted the book’s claim but found himself asking the question: If Jesus really walked upon this earth, why do we keep treating him as if he were a disembodied, impossibly idealistic ethical theory? If he was a real man, then the Sermon on the Mount was made for people on this earth; and if he existed, God has shown us in flesh and blood what goodness is for flesh-and-blood people. (p. 68) The rest of his life was a living out of the Sermon on the Mount. The events of the village of Le Chambon during the German occupation of France during World War II, the story as told by Hallie, is wonderfully moving and inspiring. I suspect what was so powerful for me was the connection between Trocmé’s total living out of the Sermon on the Mount as the catalyst for the magnificent compassion and love that was embodied in the village as it became a city of refuge. And I had not known what to do with the Sermon on the Mount in my preaching. I could not go along with certain fundamentalist claims that it represented the ethic for the kingdom age when Jesus returned and ruled on earth. But of what practical good was it in a winner-take-all world such as ours – competitive, aggressive, where nice guys come in last? And so I seldom selected my sermon texts from those passages that scholars who study the New Testament text actually are inclined to attribute to Jesus when they withhold such accreditation to much else recorded in the gospels. But I was being changed: Bonhoeffer’s heroic engagement with the Nazi darkness; Le Chambon saving hundreds of lives at their own peril; my own wrestling with the Gospel. And I am still being changed, still wondering, questioning, trying to understand the Way of Jesus in the present historical moment. © Grand Valley State University �A Fool for Christ Richard A. Rhem Page11   That is a bit of my journey – my thinking has changed: Jesus, second person of the Trinity to Jesus, the embodiment of God in a fully human being, the embodiment of humility, compassion, grace and love who through non-violent resistance speaks truth to power in order to re-order human society in the ways of peace and justice. And I have been emotionally gripped – I love Jesus. I believe he is the way, the truth and the life and I do believe his way is the only hope for the world. And my nation is a world empire and empires can only perpetuate their imperial dominance through military might, intimidation and the arrogance of power. War is insane, but we are still on a war strategy. We have unlimited power but we have become too civilized to use it and what we cannot defeat by our power is the violence of the powerless – the terrorist who will blow him or herself up because of ideology or religious faith or because there is nothing to lose. There was a moment when the Berlin Wall fell and we were without question the one world super power, that we might have had an opportunity for a new creation. In the world of power politics you dare not let down your guard unless the biggest power on earth takes the lead. And I wonder if following 911 we had responded differently – if we had pursued the murderers as they should have been pursued by police action, but if we had called an International Conference of Nations rather than naming an Axis of Evil– hearing the plaints of the oppressed, the background of the anger of the terrorists, the hopes and fears of the powerless and the voiceless – What if we, the world’s one super power, had voluntarily put away our nuclear arms leading the nations to disarmament. Hopeless idealism? Perhaps. What’s the alternative? Don’t we have it? Don’t we see the carnage daily on our TV? And are we not really in a more dangerous world today than on 9/12? I wonder if we could transcend partisan politics, if we could gather as concerned human beings we couldn’t agree that the present policy is not working. A radical new approach is called for. What if we got a conversation going with Islam, with the Palestinians, with Israel, with China, with Saudi Arabia, the Sudan, Somalia, with whoever would come to the table and we did it without the threat of our power, militarily, economically – What if as a so-called Christian nation we really took seriously the way of Jesus as the way we would be what if...? On this Palm Sunday I propose the above which, I suspect, makes me a fool for Christ, but I also suspect if someone would arise on the national scene who would © Grand Valley State University �A Fool for Christ Richard A. Rhem Page12   dare to propose such, he or she might be elected President in a landslide because, deep down, we know… Jesus was right. Would that he would not have died in vain. References: Philip Hallie. Lest Innocent Blood Be Shed: The Story of the Village of LeChambon and How Goodness Happened There. Harper Perennial; Reprint edition, 1994. © 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 Palm Sunday Scripture Text Luke 19:35-44, John 12:9-19, Zechariah 9:9-10 Location The location of the interview Lakeshore Interfaith Center, Ganges References Philip Hallie. Lest Innocent Blood Be Shed: The Story of the Village of LeChambon and How Goodness Happened There, 1994. 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-0-20070401 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2007-04-01 Title A name given to the resource A Fool For Christ Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Richard A. Rhem Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Subject The topic of the resource Clergy--Michigan Reformed Church in America Christ Community Church (Spring Lake, Mich.) Sermons Relation A related resource Richard A. Rhem - An Archive of Sermons, Prayers, Talks and Stories: http://richardrhem.org/ Language A language of the resource eng Type The nature or genre of the resource Text Description An account of the resource A sermon given by Richard A. Rhem (Dick) on April 1, 2007 entitled "A Fool For Christ", on the occasion of Palm Sunday, at Lakeshore Interfaith Center, Ganges. Scripture references: Luke 19:35-44, John 12:9-19, Zechariah 9:9-10. Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource application/pdf Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Lemmen Library and Archives Palm Sunday Transforming Love Way of Jesus https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/60ae0bd1ae1c2ecd69dac1069f501518.pdf 46980a4d275f01e595c50b262aecad75 PDF Text Text Love That Just Won’t Give Up Easter Sunday Luke 24:13-17, 28-35; I John 1:1-4; 4:7-8; 12, 16 Richard A. Rhem Christ Community Church Spring Lake, Michigan March 27, 2005 Easter 2005. Who would have dreamed I would be the preacher! Ian called a couple of weeks ago and asked if I would be willing to be the preacher for Easter, and I responded that I would be happy to be. He honors me thus and demonstrates his trust in me; I am grateful for that. Reflecting back over the year, I went to my file of liturgies, as well as my daily calendar. If my notes are correct, the Lawtons arrived on March 22 a year ago. On March 28, which last year was the Fifth Sunday in Lent, I read a note of greeting and gratitude from Ian, promising to be present the next week which was Palm Sunday, April 4. And on Easter, April 11, Ian preached his first sermon here. This invitation to preach at the end of Ian’s first year with us provides an occasion to look back over that year – not that that was Ian’s intention; nor do I intend to use the Easter sermon as a backward glance. Resurrection opens the future and I intend to get to that. But, I cannot pass up this opportunity to make a comment or two. Many ask how I like retirement. My answer: I recommend it! I am delighted to be at this time in my life. The time was right; you created such a beautiful closure. I’m so content and, honestly, proud of the community I, with the team and lay leadership, was able to create, that I have no regrets. And I have let go. Some doubted I could. I knew I could and would and I have. The transition has happened. Transitions are not for the faint-hearted. Nobody said it would be easy. We had it so good for so long – 33 years! – and we were so comfortable. But I knew it was time to catch the next wave and move this community to the next stage. This was the challenge we laid before Ian and I cannot imagine anyone coming in and doing it with greater courage and confidence, intelligence and passion than Ian has. One realizes in such a transition there will be change but, of course, to know that intellectually is one thing; to feel it emotionally is another. Faced with the emotional shock, one must choose between trying to exercise power to hold on, hold back, resist the new movement and control the development, or, recognizing © Grand Valley State University   �Love That Just Won’t Give Up Richard A. Rhem Page 2   the inevitability of change, and indeed the necessity of it, open one’s being to the creative interchange that is occurring and trust the process in community to effect creative transformation. I sense most of us are following the second option and that is hopeful. Last Sunday, Nancy and I remained for the Sermon Talk-back and many expressions were offered which reminded me of similar settings we experienced over the years and similar comments – for example: “I can bring my family and friends here and know they will not be embarrassed;” and, “This is the first church I have been able to feel at home in.” There were expressions, too, of love for and emotional attachment to the tradition; beloved symbols and rituals which move the heart and reach the depths of our beings. I saw Ian listening, taking it in, and I’m sure desiring to continue to bridge past to future with sensitivity and care. And it is happening. Lent has been for me once more a meaningful journey. The preaching has been strong and full of integrity. I am so thankful that there continues to be in this place honest and intelligent preaching that engages me. I know there are some of you for whom the transition has not been comfortable, causing dis-ease and discontent. But, I must say honestly to you I believe that is the result more of style, not substance. I’ll probably never forgive Ian for that metal bed frame hanging over my head, messing up the aesthetics of my sacred space! But, so what? That doesn’t matter. While in Florida, Nancy and I spent our annual evening with the VanHoeven clan: Gord and Dorothy, Doc and Shirley and Gord’s brother Jim and his wife, Mary. After a fabulous fish fry which Doc prepared, we watched a bit of the Christmas Sunday service at which Ian’s father preached, which they had on a DVD. I was really impressed; it was professionally produced and well done and I suspect one of these days folks around the globe will be able to experience the Sunday service from Christ Community – and, God knows, such an alternative the world desperately needs. The title of my sermon is “Love That Just Won’t Give Up.” Ian listed that to be his sermon title before he asked me to preach and I assured him I would stay with that. After all my years of preaching, I am able to twist any text or title to say what I want to say. © Grand Valley State University �Love That Just Won’t Give Up Richard A. Rhem Page 3   And that title affords me a bridge to my Easter message. Love that just will not give up is a claim that reveals the grain of the universe, that points to the Ultimate Mystery of Reality – and that is what I want to say this morning – Love is the Originating Mystery of the Cosmos and that Love will never give up. The Gospels give us a variety of snapshots of the Easter story – snapshots, incidentally, that cannot be reconciled into a coherent picture. The Easter Gospel this morning from Luke 24, the narrative of the encounter of the risen one with two followers on the Emmaus Road, is my favorite, I suspect because I love the manner in which the revelation of the Easter miracle unfolds. Unrecognized, Jesus joins the disciples and joins their conversation. They are leaving Jerusalem in despair with sadness of heart in the wake of the crucifixion of Jesus. This one unknown reminds them of their scriptures and then, arriving at their home, they invite the stranger in who, though the guest, becomes the host at table and in the blessing and breaking of bread, is revealed as the Living One whose death they had been grieving. Their eyes were opened even as he vanished from their sight and with amazement, they speak of how their sad hearts had become burning hearts and their grief transformed to joy, for they knew Jesus was alive and very much present to them. They rushed to tell their good news to the disciples, exclaiming he was made known to them in the breaking of the bread. Sadness to joy;Despair to hope, and the deep assurance that the love embodied in their Jesus could not be put to death, the realization that Love just won’t give up. I love Dom Crossan’s comment on the Emmaus story: Emmaus never happened. Emmaus always happens. The Church has struggled so strenuously with the Easter Event – insisting on its historicity – that Jesus did, indeed, rise bodily from the tomb. And in the traditional interpretation of Jesus’ death as an atonement for the sin of the world, I understand that need to insist that he arose from the grave, because that was the sign of sin removed and heaven opened to all who trusted him. The bodily resurrection was God’s sign that salvation had been accomplished for us by him. But, that has not been our understanding of Jesus’ death for a long time. It must have been a dozen years ago that I suggested that Easter was not about the resuscitation of a corpse. And I raised a few eyebrows and, here and there, a fever arose. (You forgive an old man and forget that his radical moves in the past caused you discomfort and confusion.) © Grand Valley State University �Love That Just Won’t Give Up Richard A. Rhem Page 4   It was Palm Sunday, 1993, when I preached “Jesus Died Because of our Sins, Not For Them.” For years there has been no atoning death preached here – my concise summary statement each Lent has been, “He died the way he died because he lived the way he lived.” And Ian has been preaching that eloquently. Jesus spoke Truth to Power in the best tradition of the Hebrew prophets. He challenged the power of the established Church and State. He came preaching the Kingdom of God, crying, “Repent, for the Kingdom of God is here.” Repent is the English translation of the Greek word Metanoia, Meta the prefix meaning change, and Noia from Nous, for mind. Change your mind! Change your thinking! Etymologically, Metanoia is the opposite of Paranoia, from which we have paranoia, irrational fear, delusional suspicion. Jesus’ message was, Change your thinking! The old order of domination, oppression and human exploitation is doomed! All too soon the Christian Church domesticated Jesus’ radical social/political claim and turned repentance into a moralistic call to turn from personal sins and peccadilloes. But, Jesus was talking about a different kind of sin – the institutionalized sin of imperial domination that oppressed the people. Believe me, the authorities would have applauded him, not crucified him if he had preached “Keep your nose clean; obey the commandments and piously follow the tradition.” They would have subsidized him, popular as he was – he could sell family values, tax cuts for the wealthy, and the shredding of the social safety net so the poor might be stimulated to move to self-sufficiency. No, Jesus proclaimed an alternative world marked by justice and fairness and compassion. He was judged a menace to established order and marked for death, the death of a social/political subversive. But, that is where the Miracle occurred – On many Emmaus Roads over days and weeks, over months and years, gathered in community, sharing a meal, blessing and breaking bread, his followers sensed his presence and they knew all that had come to expression in him was true – and that truth could not be killed. The love he embodied just would not give up, because it was the reflection of the heart of the Originating Mystery of Being. That was Easter Faith – You can’t prove that, except by living its truth and that was the Easter Miracle: A shift in perception – and it is a shift in perception that transforms. © Grand Valley State University �Love That Just Won’t Give Up Richard A. Rhem Page 5   Such a shift in perception is the result of a moment of revelatory luminosity; a moment of unveiling of what is always everywhere the case. But, in a moment of disclosure, we see and, seeing, we come to a conscious awareness of a new possibility and we are transformed. And what constitutes that transformation? What are the contours of the transformation effected by the shift in perception Easter brings about? Would it not be a transformation into the likeness of Jesus? Wouldn’t one so transformed take on the mind of Jesus? The heart of Jesus? The agenda of Jesus? Wouldn’t that agenda, now translated into the great issues of Century 21, have some strong words about corporate corruption, about the unconscionable increase in CEO salaries when wages of the average worker have decreased? Have something to say about the Imperial Designs of this nation, even though woven with idealism? Raise questions about the dismantling of the social safety net and the re-distribution of wealth upward? Wonder about health care and education and the cities that face massive deficits? The historical Jesus and the early Jesus Movement were too soon co-opted by the powers that be. Jesus was made into a Savior figure. The Cross, instead of being a sign of the death that results from speaking truth to power, was made into a symbol of salvation from sin and damnation and the Christian Church became a salvation cult. All of this is old news here. But, with each returning Lent I wonder anew if we can really follow Jesus or are so locked into a social structure so at odds with his agenda that it would take a revolution to give the way of Jesus a chance. I’ve been out of step all my life. I kid about it, but I am serious. Growing up in a wonderful home with all the love and security one could ask for, it was a very conservative religious and political environment – totally authentic and sincere. Religiously, as a child, I thought salvation would be limited to a narrow range of Christians – which certainly did not include Roman Catholics. You get the picture. The liberal Methodists in my little village were also out of luck, or beyond the pale. There was no “luck” involved. Politically, the only option for a Christian was to be Republican. My first awareness of the political scene was the Presidential election of 1944. As a child of nine, I sensed FDR was the wrong choice. I imbibed real negativity toward him, knowing nothing, of course, and many years later having to recognize how twisted and warped was my estimate of one considered to be one of the greatest presidents this country has ever had. In all of this – my home village, my religious affiliation, my political affiliation, such as it was, I felt in a minority, different, out of step with where the world was going. That only intensified my youthful commitments – didn’t the Gospel quote © Grand Valley State University �Love That Just Won’t Give Up Richard A. Rhem Page 6   Jesus claiming, The gate is narrow and the road is hard that leads to Life and there are few who find it! Steered from the womb to the ministry, I studied and studied and studied. You know that – I tried so hard to support intellectually the nurture and conditioning of my childhood and youth and then the orthodoxy of the Church. I need not belabor this, but I remind you of the path I’ve traveled because I am Exhibit A of one who has undergone a dramatic shift in perception, for me a long process rather than a sudden awakening, but total, nonetheless. And that shift in perception was for me a miracle, a miracle of resurrection and it has been transforming, And it has made me out of step again as surely as I was as a child and youth. The shift came from meeting Jesus again for the first time, as Marcus Borg would say. It was a Palm Sunday, April 15, 1984, when I preached a sermon entitled “Jesus, You Are Really Something!” It was the beginning of an encounter with the humanity of Jesus, disentangling him from the high Christological doctrines that the Church created in those early centuries as they lost the real human being – a loss which turned him into a savior figure, removing from him the prophetic edge that threatened Imperial Rome and got him crucified. As has been characteristic of my journey, the progress was slow, but with each returning Lent I felt more sharply the disparity between the way of Jesus and the way we follow him. Slowly but surely, I knew to follow him would put me out of step again because as I was being sensitized to the practical implications for Christian faith and political commitment, religion and politics in this nation were moving to the right and the contrast with the agenda of Jesus as I have come to understand it grows ever more sharp. And, frankly, it is painful. So much about the political agenda of the nation troubles me; so much about most of the Church embarrasses me. And it is because the shift in perception caused by encountering Jesus in his humanity transformed me, changed me – it was a miracle of resurrection because, you see, the really critical miracle is not some past event, but present transformation through a shift in perception. That is the Easter miracle. Emmaus never happened. Emmaus always happens. Jesus arose in the conscious awareness of those who had been his community. In the love he embodied they met the Ultimate Mystery, the Sacred Mystery which is the final truth in whom we live and move and have our being. © Grand Valley State University �Love That Just Won’t Give Up Richard A. Rhem Page 7   And that means Love is the Final Truth, Love by which every religious institution, every political agenda, every social program is to be judged, because Love expresses the Grain of the Universe, the Cosmic intention. And Love just will not give up. Love – not sentimental sweetness, but tough, strong, marked by integrity, committed to the well-being of the other, refusing to respond in violence, taking the consequences. Let me be clear; the Love of which I speak, the Love embodied in the flesh of Jesus, in his concrete behavior, is not some sentimental sweetness. It was Love that stood up against injustice, that protested human exploitation by religiopolitical systems and structures, that broke down social-religious barriers that excluded. It was non-violent Love, but not passive; Jesus’ protest was concrete resistance which provoked and elicited reaction. And then, most amazing, a Love that received into itself the lethal consequences without hostile response; indeed, purveying grace and forgiveness to the end. It was such Love concretely lived out that put its stamp on the Jesus community. From one of the early Christian communities we get the Fourth Gospel and the Letters of John. It was the Gospel that told the story of Jesus as “The Word became flesh” (John 1:14) – the central Christian affirmation of Incarnation, Jesus, the human as the embodiment of God. In the First Letter of John that theme is picked up. Listen to the concreteness of the experience: We declare to you what was from the beginning, what we have heard, what we have seen with our eyes, what we have looked at and touched with our hands concerning the word of life. In chapter 4, the writer says it straight out: God is love. And later he writes, No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God lives in us, and God’s love is perfected in us.…God is love, and those who abide in love abide in God, and God abides in them. To see that is a shift in perception; it is the Easter miracle; it is transforming. The natural sciences probe the vast expanse of outer space and the amazing mysteries of sub-atomic particles. Cosmology seeks to unravel the secrets of the expanding universe and quantum physics the nature of energy fields in which that universe swims – a Reality marked by chance and necessity, randomness © Grand Valley State University �Love That Just Won’t Give Up Richard A. Rhem Page 8   and order. But, whatever its future unfolding in all its awesome splendor, the Cosmic Process has issued in the likes of us who know in our deepest core that Love is the Grain of the Universe, and that love lived out concretely brings to fullest, richest expression our humanity reaching toward Global Community. Out of step, on the edge of despair at the present abuse of power and failure to protect the weakest members of the human community, I come to Easter; I experience again the Miracle of Resurrection; I know the Ultimate Movement of the Creative Spirit is toward the Light and the concretion of Love – and I believe again. This present darkness will overreach and implode – because Love just won’t give up! A shift in perception – Resurrection, the Easter Miracle – Change your minds! Don’t yield to the darkness; Light will dawn; Love will prevail. That is true as broadly as the cosmos. It is true for the global community. It is true for this community – But I cannot conclude without acknowledging that for some, perhaps for many, the darkness and pain is more personal – where you live with those you love, or those you have lost. Your own hurt is so deep you cannot begin to worry about the global community or the nation or even this community in transition. Perhaps Easter is just too bright; your pain just too deep. Although you cannot take it in, let me nonetheless affirm that the cloud will lift, the darkness dissipate, and healing will ensue because Love just won’t give up. Let this Easter morning be a reassurance for you – Love will never give up. And we will make that love as tangible as this community in its embrace of you. In these moments, open your heart to the new being Love creates, a shift in perception; the Easter Miracle which is transforming. And finally, know that All will be well, All will be well All manner of things will be well. © 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 Scripture Text Luke 24:13-17, 28-35, I John 1:1-4, 4:7-8, 12, 16 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-0-20050327 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2005-03-27 Title A name given to the resource Love That Just Won't Give Up Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Richard A. Rhem Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Subject The topic of the resource Clergy--Michigan Reformed Church in America Christ Community Church (Spring Lake, Mich.) Sermons Relation A related resource Richard A. Rhem - An Archive of Sermons, Prayers, Talks and Stories: http://richardrhem.org/ Language A language of the resource eng Type The nature or genre of the resource Text Description An account of the resource A sermon given by Richard A. Rhem (Dick) on March 27, 2005 entitled "Love That Just Won't Give Up", on the occasion of Easter, at Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI. Scripture references: Luke 24:13-17, 28-35, I John 1:1-4, 4:7-8, 12, 16. Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource application/pdf Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Lemmen Library and Archives Easter Transforming Love https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/588b99d438b1bf4edeb1a4a63a6f2e76.pdf a70652caf985f5da4c566316cf1e7faa PDF Text Text A Dreamer’s Portrait of God From the Lenten sermon series: The Dream Text: Luke 15:20 Richard A. Rhem Christ Community Church Spring Lake, Michigan March 19, 1995 Transcription of the spoken sermon I love books and I have many books. One of them is a book by Henri Nouwen, the Dutch Catholic contemplative writer. Henri Nouwen has written many books, but this book is special. It is entitled The Return of the Prodigal Son. It's beautifully bound and it has reproductions of Rembrandt's painting of the return of the Prodigal. And the picture returns throughout the course of the book as Nouwen writes about the wonder of the love of God that embraces this son, and speaks also about the elder brother who stands on the sidelines. It is a beautiful book. The portrait struck Nouwen back in the early 80's. He purchased a poster reproduction of it, put it wherever he was living at the time, and then had opportunity to go to Leningrad to the Hermitage Museum, where he saw the original. The picture is one of an old father, nearly blind, with his hands on the son as he kneels, and Nouwen contemplated that picture for over four hours on two different occasions; he sat before that picture and just absorbed it. It became for him a portrait of God as it was a rendering of the portrait of God that Jesus painted in words in the Gospel lesson of the morning. As Nouwen contemplated this picture, he noticed that the left hand was masculine and it was firm on the shoulder of the son, but the right hand was obviously not a match. It was a more feminine hand, and Nouwen contemplated what Rembrandt was expressing near the end of his life after he himself had suffered such deep loss of his wife and of children and of dear friends. The aged Rembrandt painting an aged father receiving a child, one hand obviously masculine, the other as though it would caress, a feminine hand. I suppose that Rembrandt was familiar with that word from Isaiah, where Judah says God has forsaken us; God has forgotten us, and the Lord responds, "I have not forsaken you. I have not forgotten you. Could a mother forget a child at her breast? Could a mother lack compassion for the child of her womb? But even if these should forget, I will never forget you. I have engraved you in the palm of my hands. Like as a mother comforteth, as a father pities his children ..." I suppose all of those images were in Rembrandt's mind as he painted this magnificent portrait of the father receiving the son to his home. And I suspect that all of that imagery was also in the mind of Jesus. © Grand Valley State University   �A Dreamer’s Portrait of God Richard A. Rhem Page 2   We noted last week that he came to his hometown and declared his dream, and the contours of that dream he took from the Prophet Isaiah, "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, for he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor, the release of the captives, to bring healing, to cause the lame to walk and the blind to see and the deaf to hear, to proclaim the year of God's favor." This was the declaration of the dream of Jesus. Where do dreams come from? What is it that settles in on one, that takes possession of one, that causes one's whole life to be shaped, and energizes and empowers one's life to live out that vision? A transforming moment? Certainly in Jesus' case, the deep mining of that tradition of Israel that had shaped him. Some encounter perhaps, some human encounter that made it all come together for him. A Rosa Parks climbs on a bus and sits where she is not supposed to sit because she is a black woman. And they tell her to move and suddenly she says, "No." Because suddenly in a moment, her own human dignity takes possession of her and she resists that code that was written in concrete. Martin Luther King picks up the story and stands eventually before the Lincoln Memorial and sings, "I have a dream." What was it that triggered a Gandhi to become the leader of passive resistance that had such earthshaking effect? What was it that caused a Nelson Mandela to be willing to endure years and years of incarceration for what he believed to be right and true? What was it that enabled Jesus to live out so faithfully that vision he had of who God was and what God was calling him to be? He was a dreamer, and it's dangerous to dream. Because it's so possible that the dream will fail, or that we'll be rejected. Remember the story in Genesis of Joseph - he was a dreamer. And he came one day approaching his brothers with supplies, and they said, "Here comes the dreamer." It's so easy to write off the one whose life is consumed by a vision. They make us nervous, I suppose. It's unsettling. The dream is too bold, too daring. If it demands change and transformation, dreamers die. Jesus was a dreamer. And his whole life was the living out of a dream, and he said, "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me. He certainly claimed the authorization of God. He must have been totally convinced that his vision of God was rooted in reality and in truth. It was a vision of God, a portrait of God that ran contrary to the accepted wisdom of the time. He ran into conflict because he lived out his vision of God full of mercy and compassion, a God who would not exclude, but include, a God who caused him to sit at table with anyone, a God who would break through all of those dividers between people that we call alienation, that would make some people inside and some people outside. There were so many people outside in Jesus' day. He saw them all. They were like sheep without a shepherd, harassed, and Jesus was moved with compassion for them because he must have been convinced that there was compassion in the heart of God for these people because they didn't really have a chance. They were ruled out from the beginning. People wear down after a while, if they get continually reflected back to them that they don't amount to anything, they are ritually impure, they are in a class that is not acceptable, finally people just wear down. © Grand Valley State University �A Dreamer’s Portrait of God Richard A. Rhem Page 3   The worst thing in the world we can do to people is to reflect to them that they don't count, that they have no value, that they belong on the outside. Finally, one begins to imbibe that in the very marrow of one's bones and one begins to take for granted that that is what one is - just one no-account. And Jesus broke through all of that and he had relationship with all kinds of people, he sat at table with and he invited them to his table and he scandalized those who were responsible for keeping society orderly. That's the setting of the story he told. I didn't read the first three verses of Luke 15, but you'll find there that it was the religious leadership of his day that was grumbling because he communicated with tax collectors and sinners. Now, sinners – they weren't bad people. That was a class of people, people that were simply outclassed. And they grumbled and they said, "Look, he sits at table with people like this!" And so, he told his story. It had three parts - about a lost sheep, and a lost coin, and about two lost sons. We call it the parable of the prodigal son, but even in that we misname it and we resist what is really there. It is not the parable of the prodigal son. Neither is it the parable of the elder son, although there is a prodigal son and an elder son, two brothers, but it's not about the boys. It's about God. It is about the father. This is a story about God. This is Jesus' understanding of God. This is the dreamer's portrait about God. He tells the story about the father who gives to the younger son his inheritance, knowing that it will be spent in the far country away from the father's home. And Jesus tells about the young man coming to himself and coming home. To show how we resist the real truth of this parable, you probably have heard it preached on as the parable of the prodigal son illustrating conversion, the son out in the far country having sinned grievously, comes to himself. Oh, my dear friends, he was not converted in the far country. Coming to himself in this story only means that he wised up. He sat down and took account of his circumstances and he said, "Look, I'm hungry and destitute. No one is giving me anything. And the hired servants of my father are better off than me." So, he memorized a speech. He was still scheming. He was still strategizing. He still wanted to be in control. He was not going home to love the father; he was going home to get a bunk bed and three square meals. That boy wasn't changed until he felt the salty tears of his father. Because Jesus knew. And Jesus believed that God knew that it is only unconditional love that can transform a human personality. And the transformation took place in the light of this old father who gathered his skirts and ran down the street contrary to every good social conduct and code, and embraced the son without recrimination; rather, he threw a party. That is Jesus' understanding of God. That is the dreamer's portrait of God so beautifully captured by Rembrandt, continuing down through the centuries to be the most profound image of God that we have as a body of Christ, as the people of God. © Grand Valley State University �A Dreamer’s Portrait of God Richard A. Rhem Page 4   Can you hear it without being moved by it? As many times as you have heard it, is not that God, is that not amazing? Is it not true that that transforming love alone can change a person? Or change the world? But, Jesus, of course, painted the portrait because he was encountering the anger of those who purportedly were the advocates of God. And so he told of the elder son, as well, the elder son who came in from the field and saw the party and, finding out that the father was throwing the party for the son who had returned, was offended and grew angry. I'll give you a mystery to think about. This is a mystery. Why is it that unconditional love and grace proffered elicits such anger? Jesus painted the picture of the elder son as well to whom the father went out and pleaded, without recrimination to him, saying, "Son, everything I have is yours. Come in! It is simply good that we celebrate. Your brother is home and he's safe." Why is it that grace and love promiscuously offered in the name of a prodigal God elicits anger? Jesus must have understood this, as well. Maybe the elder son has his counterpart in the Prophet Jonah in the Old Testament. Remember that story? God says to Jonah, "Go to Nineveh, a foreign city and a pagan people, and preach there." And Jonah took a boat and went the other way. Not because he was afraid to preach, but because he knew that if he preached and Nineveh heeded, God would forgive Nineveh. And Jonah didn't really want God to forgive Nineveh. Jonah really wanted God to damn Nineveh. But finally, you know, when you're in the whale of a belly, ... you reconsider, and so he went and he preached. And it's just like he suspected. Nineveh heeded the word of God and repented. And just as he suspected, God being an old softy, spared the city. And if you take that little book of Nineveh, if you can find it in the Minor Prophets, only four chapters, look at the 4th verse of the 4th chapter - Jonah is pouty, and God comes and says, "Jonah, do you do well to be angry?" "Yes!" So, Jonah takes his place over in the hill overlooking the city and the sun is hot. God causes a gourd to grow up to give him shade. Jonah's happy. Next morning, God creates a little worm that gnaws at the gourd and the gourd wilts and falls down and the sun blasts Jonah in the face again, who is angry. God says, "Jonah, do you do well to be angry at the gourd?" "Yes!" "Well, Jonah, if you're angry about a gourd that was here yesterday and is gone today, how do you think I feel about all the people of Nineveh? Don't you know that I care for them, too? Don't you know that they, too, are my children? Don't you know that my heart of compassion would embrace them as well?" Jesus was consumed by his understanding of God, which was a God that would exclude no one, that would embrace everyone, Whose compassion knows no limit, Whose mercy is as broad as the whole human family. And so, in the face of the anger, he told this story, and the story is just this, dear friends. God has one deep passionate desire - God wants you home. God wants you home. That's all. © Grand Valley State University � https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/205861631cd00d22bcd7326ef6ecd82b.mp3 41176c4ee9e66e91d2f9c5ee0852cba0 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 Lent III Series The Dream Scripture Text Luke 15:20 Location The location of the interview Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context KII-01_RA-0-19950319 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1995-03-19 Title A name given to the resource A Dreamer's Portrait of God 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 19, 1995 entitled "A Dreamer's Portrait of God", as part of the series "The Dream", on the occasion of Lent III, at Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI. Scripture references: Luke 15:20. Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Lemmen Library and Archives Inclusive Nature of God Transforming Love Way of Jesus https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/b1bf5f126c11e3592b6b92e2890d14f9.pdf a81d611d739cd5c2c7648a2ad9794c60 PDF Text Text Credo: I Believe Text: Acts 17:24; John 14:1,9 Richard A. Rhem Christ Community Church Spring Lake, Michigan Eastertide II, April 10, 1994 Transcription of the spoken sermon Credo, that is a Latin word and in the Latin the verb takes its subject to itself. Credo means “I believe.” Not, I believe something. Or not even, I believe someone, but I believe in someone. That’s the sense of that word as it has come down to us in the Christian tradition. It is that personal affirmation of faith in God, which in our Christian tradition is the consequence of the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. If you read the Gospels, the story of Jesus’ life, the experience of the disciples with Jesus, it must be very obvious that if it had not been for the resurrection we would not have heard anything of Jesus. They didn’t understand. They were dull of understanding, dull of mind and heart. Jesus, certainly for them, was a remarkable teacher, a rabbi. But they scattered at the point of his death. He was abandoned, not only by God, but by those who followed him to that point. It was only in the wake of Easter, it was only in the encounter with the Living Lord, that the Jesus movement took flight. And the flame of faith spread through that ancient world and has come down to us these nearly two thousand years later. People have been able to say, Credo, I believe in God, because they have been encountered by the risen Christ in the Spirit, the sign of the presence and the grace and the love of God that upholds all things, and embraces us in that love and grace. Credo, I believe. It is a statement of faith. It is a statement of faith as experience, faith more than intellectual assent. More than conceptual understanding, it is experience. It is the encounter with that One beyond ourselves who overwhelms, who encounters us in grace, who reaches us, leaving us stammering and stumbling to give expression to what happened. Faith is the consequence of an encounter with the reality of God, with the reality of Love, with the reality of Grace. Faith is the transformation of a person through an experience with that which is beyond the person and which the person is never able to get his or her arms around, or head around, never able to give adequate expression to. Faith in that sense is that deep life-changing, life-transforming experience that is the result of meeting God. Faith. Credo. I believe. Let me distinguish that from a set of beliefs. I want this Eastertide season to make some reference to the Apostle’s Creed. The Apostle’s © Grand Valley State University   �Credo: I Believe Richard A. Rhem Page 2   Creed in its final form, coming from maybe the fifth century is perhaps the most familiar and the best loved of the Christian creedal statements. I am not going to give a careful exposition of every exposition of that creed. It is a valuable tool. I want to distinguish the faith about which I just spoke from the knowledge of that creed, because the faith of which I would speak this morning and to which I would invite you is more than a set of beliefs. A set of beliefs is the consequence of the experience to which I point. The experience of faith—the experience of God—is that which causes us then to step back and to reflect on the experience and out of that reflection on experience comes a set of beliefs. Our creeds are the condensation of the articulation of what happened in the experience, even though the experience itself is beyond articulation. God’s inexpressible gift, Jesus Christ, the Risen Lord encountering us leaves us speechless, but not for long. We will soon be trying to give some kind of witness to that experience as we always do. But a set of beliefs, as important as they may be, are not the same as the experience of faith. Do you hear me? Do you recognize that we might, all of us might witness to the experience of God and come up with a variety of sets of beliefs? Do you see that the experience of God is such that it cannot be reduced to a set of statements? A set of beliefs, a creed, that is inevitable and is necessary. It will always happen, but it is always a step removed from the experience. It is always after the fact, and it is always an inadequate expression of the thing to which it points. In fact, when a movement begins to write creeds, the faith is dampened and the vision is dimmed. You don’t write creeds in the midst of the fire of experience. You don’t define your faith when it is simply so overwhelming that it permeates every pore of your being and flows out of you in every word you speak. It is only later when the fires of faith have dampened and the vision of faith is dimmed that we try to give some expression to this and we come up with our creeds and our sets of beliefs. It is important to do that because somehow or other we have to say something, and it is important to do that because we have to have something to tell our children. We pass on the faith. There is a certain content of faith out of the experience we need to pass on, and if we are going to pass it on we have to do it in some kind of reasonable fashion so we write creeds and confessions. But, it is always a sign of the deterioration of faith and the dimming of vision, and it is always a sign that a movement has become an institution. How unfortunate that a movement has to become an institution. A movement of the Spirit cannot stay a movement of Spirit because Spirit seeks form, and Spirit will come to institutional form and become articulated in structures and creedal statements. But, do you see that that is a degeneration? Do you see that that is a movement away from the fresh experience of faith? The experience that draws out of one Credo. I believe. Ah, it’s necessary. It is inevitable. But now hear this too. Our creedal statements are negotiable. They are all historically conditioned. You show me a creed out of the two thousand year © Grand Valley State University �Credo: I Believe Richard A. Rhem Page 3   history of the church and I’ll tell you when it was written, because it will have been shaped by a certain historical context and determined by a certain cultural understanding, because it will be a human expression of the inexpressible and it will take the stamp of the moment of its arising. It is relative, it is historically conditioned, it can never be absolutized. It must always be provisional and should always be open-ended. Do you see, the experience of faith is not something that I will argue about, or debate about sets of beliefs. My goodness, the history of the Church is replete with theological discussion and debate and division over sets of beliefs. Sets of beliefs arise when faith is dampened and vision is dimmed. They are a necessary and unfortunate consequence of the experience. The experience is one thing, and in reflection on experience we write creeds. We may start the creed, Credo. I believe in God the Father Almighty , but that statement in itself is a pale shadow of the reality of the experience of the Living God. Paul, for example, believed from his youth up. He was trained in the rabbinical school. He was a devout and zealous follower of Israel. Then he met Jesus and his life was transformed, and he became open to something entirely different. There was new insight, new understanding, new faith vision. Paul was a changed person. He didn’t find a new God; He was still the God of Israel, but now the God of Israel he had met in the intimacy of encounter through Jesus Christ, the Risen Lord. And he went everywhere babbling this Good News. He came to Athens and talked about the God of Israel who was the Creator God, the only God. And he acknowledged that even the idolatry of the Athenian and Greek religion was an idolatry that, nevertheless, pointed beyond itself to this one God. Even the religion of Athens, with all of the idols and statues that provoked and disgusted him, nonetheless spoke to him of that religious yearning within the human heart for the one God. And he acknowledged, as some of the Greek poets had said, that God is God alone in whom we live and move and have our being. We are God’s offspring, said Paul. So in building bridges through that Greek religion, he pointed to the one true God, the God of Israel, the God of his fathers and mothers, the God who had encountered him through Jesus Christ and changed his life. Well, I know that it’s a good trick of preachers to point to someone like Paul and then say, “Go thou and do likewise,” or make you feel a little inadequate because you don’t have a Pauline experience. But, how about something a little more modest? Listen to this statement by a contemporary saint. “I don’t know who or what put the question. I don’t know when it was put. I don’t even remember answering. But at that moment I did answer, ‘Yes’ to someone or something. From that hour I was certain that existence is meaningful and that, therefore, my life in self-surrender has had a goal.” That’s from Markings by Dag Hammarskjöld, Secretary General of the United Nations, now dead, but a beautiful statement. Modest. “…someone or something. © Grand Valley State University �Credo: I Believe Richard A. Rhem Page 4   . . .” just when or where or how I don’t know, except I know that from me was drawn a “Yes,” and from that moment my life has been life in self-surrender with meaning because in that moment I was convinced that existence is meaningful. Jesus was that kind of person. Marcus Borg, in his latest book Meeting Jesus Again For The First Time, talks about Jesus as a Spirit person, and says that, rather than being an article of belief, God becomes an experiential reality. You see, instead of God being an article of belief, God becomes an experiential reality. Creeds are necessary and they are important. They represent a dampening of faith and a dimming of vision. They are an unfortunate necessity, an inevitability. But, the downside of creeds is that they can become a substitute for the real thing. George Gallup will tell us that some 90+% of the population believe in God. Believe in God, as an article, as a belief. But, what about an experiential reality? Borg goes on to say that Jewish tradition in which Jesus stood speaks of persons who know God, “know” God. The Hebrew word for “know” is the same word used for sexual intercourse. God can be known in that direct and intimate way, not merely believed in. The experience of spirit persons in general, and of Jesus in particular, suggests that God is not to be thought of as a remote and transcendent Creator, far removed from his world, but imaged as all around us, as the one in whom we live and move and have our being as the Book of Acts puts it in words attributed to St. Paul. Within this framework, the pre-Easter Jesus becomes the powerful testimony to the reality and the knowability of God. That’s what they experienced when they were encountered by the Risen Christ. They came to know God in experience. They had never probably had a day in their life when they doubted the existence of God, but faith as experience is something other than a set of beliefs, as inevitable as those are. Ah, but don’t you see, don’t you see then, that faith means something other than a set of beliefs, makes those beliefs in themselves relative, negotiable, and that the thing that we need to strive for, open our lives to, is that experience of faith beyond all of the trappings of the institution. I get concerned about how much weight we place on our sets of beliefs. They are not absolute. They are not final. They are not to be held up as means by which people can determine whether they are in or out. Sets of beliefs, creeds, special statements— dear friends, they aren’t important. They can be instruments. They can prepare us for the experience. But it is, after all, the experience. It is the Living God, so that life is transformed. That’s the thing for which we must be yearning and striving. You say, “How do I get it?” I don’t know! I can’t do it for you. The Psalmist said, “Be still and know that I am God.” The mystics of all generations have spoken about awareness. Being still long enough to be aware of this moment, of myself, of my body, of my breathing in, of my breathing out, of the sunshine, of the budding tree, of the tulip pressing upward, of springtime, of sunset, of loving © Grand Valley State University �Credo: I Believe Richard A. Rhem Page 5   relationships, pausing long enough to become aware. Another word that is often used is attention. Good grief, we get in a treadmill existence, we grind on our way, we go lickety split. Do we ever stop long enough? Someone has said you have to actually shut down the brain —shut down the brain. Because, you know what? God isn’t available to the brain. God is not for intellectual pursuit. I should say that? (Laughter) I mean, it’s causing me great despair now. It’s the culmination of my great career. Everything I’ve tried to do all my life, to no avail. You can’t do it that way. I talk to you about the experience of God, doing it reasonably, doing it rationally. I can’t lead you into that experience because you can’t think your way into God. In fact, it helps if you stop thinking for a moment and let the mind be infiltrated, and let one’s being be encountered and embraced and submerged in the God who is closer than our breath, the God in whom we live and move and have our being. If we only had eyes to see that faith vision, that to which I point you this morning, not to make you feel guilty if you haven’t had it like Paul, or even if you haven’t had it like Hammarskjöld. God embraces you in grace whether you’ve had it or not. I give you the invitation to open your life to what could be transforming and wonderful. During the Lenten pilgrimage I twice brought to this stool Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s Letters and Papers from Prison, and I got a call yesterday that there was going to be a special on Dietrich Bonhoeffer last night. It was wonderful! Union Seminary is establishing a chair in theology in his name and yesterday marked fifty years since he was hung by the Gestapo. There was this marvelous concert with instrumentalists from around the world, from leading orchestras from around the world, over one hundred sixty pieces in Riverside Church in New York City, with narration by Bill Moyers telling the story of Bonhoeffer’s life and reading from his writing. Some of the reading I have read here to you. Powerful! Starting out with Beethoven’s Egmont Overture, moving into Schomberg’s Survival of the Warsaw Ghetto, telling the story then of Bonhoeffer’s martyrdom with the orchestra and chorus breaking out into Brahm’s German Requiem, “How lovely are Thy Dwelling Places, O Lord God of hosts,” Bonhoeffer living his faith, and the Brahm’s Requiem giving witness to the conviction that there was life after life so that the praise of God here issues in the praise of God there. The director of the orchestra, Christof VanDallier, the son of Hans VanDallier, the brother-in-law of Dietrich Bonhoeffer who was, like Dietrich Bonhoeffer, killed for his faith. The son of a martyr, Bonhoeffer being his uncle, leading this great orchestra in “How Lovely Are They Dwelling Places, O Lord God of Hosts,” as a witness to the conviction that his life could be ended, but it could not be ended and the truth and the cause for which he lived and gave his life goes on. You see, faith as experience leads us back into life. Playing in the orchestra was a man named Bethke. Everard Bethke was the biographer of Bonhoeffer and his closest friend. Bethke’s son was godson to Dietrich Bonhoeffer. On the day of his © Grand Valley State University �Credo: I Believe Richard A. Rhem Page 6   baptism, Bonhoeffer wrote him a letter telling him of the dark days through which he was living and how he was praying that there would be brighter days when this child, this infant at the baptismal font, could once again plan his life. But Bonhoeffer saying to his godson, from prison in jeopardy of his life, “I would choose to live this time.” You see, faith as experience enables you to go through hell. Faith as experience. The Psalmist said, “The Lord is at my right hand, I shall not be moved.” Faith as experience. Don ‘t worry about dotting i’s and crossing t’s, creeds come and go, but the experience of God, the Living God, if you have that the rest doesn’t matter. And if you don’t have that, the rest won’t help you. I don’t know what more to say except, let us be open . . .God, God, come to us . . . . come to us. © Grand Valley State University � https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/7fb615bf97ac6f65dcdb10414121981c.mp3 498db72e2bd5ed6da711192cf5e7d3ff Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Richard A. Rhem Collection Description An account of the resource Text and sound recordings of the sermons, prayers, services, and articles of Richard Rhem, pastor emeritus of Christ Community Church in Spring Lake, Michigan, where he served for 37 years. Starting in the mid 1980's, Rhem began to question some of the traditional Christian dogma that he had been espousing from the pulpit. That questioning was a first step in a long and interesting spiritual journey, one that he openly shared with his congregation. His journey is important, in part because it is reflective of the questioning, the yearnings, and the gradual revision of beliefs that many persons in this part of the century have experienced and continue to experience. It is important also because of the affirming and inclusive way his questioning was done and his thinking evolved. His sermons and other written and spoken materials together document the steps in his journey as it took a turn in 1985, yet continued to revolve around the framework and liturgies of the Christian calendar. Subject The topic of the resource Clergy--Michigan Reformed Church in America Christ Community Church (Spring Lake, Mich.) Religion Interfaith worship Sermons Sound Recordings Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Rhem, Richard A. Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/514">Richard A. Rhem papers (KII-01)</a> Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives. Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Kaufman Interfaith Institute Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Language A language of the resource English Type The nature or genre of the resource Sound Text Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context KII-01 Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant 1981-2014 Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource audio/mp3 text/pdf Sound A resource primarily intended to be heard. Examples include a music playback file format, an audio compact disc, and recorded speech or sounds. Event Eastertide II Series Credo: A Series for Eastertide Scripture Text Acts 17:24, John 14:1, 9 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-0-19940410 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1994-04-10 Title A name given to the resource I Believe 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 10, 1994 entitled "I Believe", as part of the series "Credo: A Series for Eastertide", on the occasion of Eastertide II, at Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI. Scripture references: Acts 17:24, John 14:1, 9. Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Lemmen Library and Archives Awareness Eastertide Experience of Faith Transforming Love https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/c0816778f9d21ff725ac66f3b03db380.pdf c90b780f62da8ad157c5cbb7fefbd3d1 PDF Text Text Today…Paradise… From the series: The Seven Last Words of Christ Text: Luke 23:32-43 Richard A. Rhem Christ Community Church Spring Lake, Michigan February 27, 1994 Transcription of the spoken sermon In the four Gospels there are seven utterances recorded from the cross. We call them the “Seven words from the cross.” They are not words that were taken down by a court reporter, as it were. They are, rather, windows through which we can see how the respective evangelists understood the meaning of the death of Jesus, how they interpreted the cross. Those words give us insight into their understanding in those decades following the death of Jesus when they tried to tell the story and make some sense of that crucifixion of the one whom they had called Lord and Messiah. Luke records three words. The second we take up this morning. It has to do with the dialogue between Jesus and the criminal who was crucified with him. Luke tells us that there were two criminals crucified with Jesus: one on his right hand and one on his left. The two criminals were colleagues together in their revolutionary activity, but they are contrasted by Luke in the manner of their death in relationship to Jesus who hung between them. The one, angry, railing on Jesus, dying with a curse on his lips. The other, broken, overwhelmed by the grace of Jesus, asking for Jesus to remember him. The one dying in belligerence, the other dying in grace. Who were they, and what was going on in this drama on the cross? Well, as a matter of fact, we don’t know. Nothing is told of these two men, not even a name. Although, wherever there’s a vacuum, pious imagination will fill in the blanks. So, one has been named, and legends by the legion have been told of these two, and how it happened that the one turned to Jesus in his dying hour. But all of that we know nothing of, really. What we do know, however, is that the time of Jesus was a time when there was a great revolutionary ferment in the air. That we know. The more they study and understand the historical situation, the social, the political, economic context in which Jesus lived and died, the more we understand that this was a time in which there was a ferment in the air. There was a widespread Messianic expectation, and there was an apocalyptic spirit abroad. © Grand Valley State University   �Today…Paradise… Richard A. Rhem Page 2   Apocalyptic is a word that means unveiling. And what people were looking for was that moment when God would unveil God’s self and reveal his rule of righteousness, throwing down the evil and establishing the right. Apocalyptic is what people turn to when they get desperate in their human situation. A person who is caught up with apocalypticism is a person who has given up on history, has given up on human government, who has given up on human structures and systems, sees absolutely no hope, totally despairs, sees the human scene as futile and, therefore, cries to heaven that the heavens might be rent and God would come down and make things right. There were all kinds of forms of this, but we do know that this was operative because, in all of the four Gospels, the name Barabbas appears. Barabbas was that insurrectionist, we are told, who was imprisoned and Pilate, in order to get Jesus off his back, having a sense that he really was a ploy and guilty of nothing, offered to the Jewish leaders the release of Barabbas or Jesus, hoping they would choose Jesus and he could be done with this Jesus affair. That story is in all four Gospels in various degrees, the idea that, at the festival of the Passover, this time of great ferment in the city of Jerusalem, a political prisoner would be released to the crowd. Matthew even calls Barabbas, Jesus Barabbas. Luke, not so, just Barabbas. Matthew makes it so pointed as to have Pilate say, “Will you have me release for you Jesus Barabbas or Jesus of Nazareth?” Of course, they cried, “Barabbas. Crucify Jesus.” And so it goes. Those who were crucified with Jesus were most likely insurrectionists, revolutionaries, perhaps a part of a guerilla band, dedicated to the overthrow of the occupying power. Now, they certainly knew the odds. But whenever a people are desperate enough, and this apocalyptic vision stirs them, and messianism is in the air, they take radical measures in order to change their situation, which is hopeless anyway. Whenever you see this happening in the human story you know that the massive peasant class is being pressed down below subsistence level. The world is a dangerous place whenever there are any people who have nothing to lose. And the peasant masses of Palestine under the occupying Roman power, with which the leadership of that people also collaborated and accommodated, were a seedbed of violent revolution. Jesus did not take that way. But Barabbas did. And very likely the two who hung, the one on his right hand and one on his left, were a part of some guerilla band. We know from the historical sources of the time that there were any number of messianic pretenders at the time of Jesus. Jesus himself did not claim to be Messiah. He was acclaimed to be Messiah after his death by the Jesus movement. But there were any number of those at that time who did claim to be the Messiah, and they came to nothing. And there were those who led a band across the Jordan into the wilderness in order to duplicate the movement of ancient Israel when Joshua led them into the Promised Land, and in their duplicating that event, hoped that somehow or other God would move and some miraculous deliverance would come. This was what was in the air, and those who hung with © Grand Valley State University �Today…Paradise… Richard A. Rhem Page 3   Jesus were probably caught up in that kind of revolutionary activity. And the one continued to his dying breath, full of anger, full of hate, full of curses, joining in with the soldiers and the leaders mocking Jesus, saying, “If you are king of the Jews. If you are the Messiah, save yourself and us.” There’s something rather heroic about that. This was a “rebel with a cause,” and he died. He went down in flames — for the cause to which he had committed his life. No whiner, no wimp. This one died! With his fist clenched! Throughout the human story we can see this kind of thing. Remember the 60s? Some of you are too young. There was Martin Luther King with his nonaggression, his passive resistance. There was Malcolm X whose life has been brought to the screen a year ago and reminded us of one who looked at Martin Luther King and thought he was a wimp, who could bring a few folks to a lunch counter and maybe from the back of the bus, but wouldn’t really change the situation because the situation needed radical surgery — transformation — revolution! Malcolm X himself went through a transformation. But he would have been one before that, who would have been the railing criminal on the cross, deriding Jesus to his closing breath. Time Magazine this week has Louis Farrakhan on its cover because one of his deputies recently at Keene College in New Jersey made a speech full of venom and hate over against the Jews, and because of this there is now a discussion in our own society about the Nation of Islam that Farrakhan heads, and the antiSemitism which is becoming so obvious and belligerent in that group. That kind of rhetoric in our world is so terribly dangerous. It is the kind of rhetoric that puts fear in the hearts of people and causes people to do terrible things. A young man is on trial for his life down South because, shaped and formed by that kind of scare tactic and high decibel rhetoric, he pulls out a gun and shoots a doctor as he approaches an abortion clinic, claiming now that it was the literature and the rhetoric that brainwashed him, as it were, making him not responsible. Religious fundamentalism, such as we see in those settlers in the West Bank in Israel, living with that kind of righteous anger, causing a doctor to go into a mosque with a machine gun and massacre those worshiping there. And so we cannot speak strongly enough against that kind of hate-filled rhetoric, that venom and bile that spews from a heart symbolized by the clenched fist. But as Michael Lehrner, editor of Tickon, a Jewish magazine, says, “It is one thing for us with all of our righteous indignation to look at the Nation of Islam and a Farrakhan and to decry the venom and the hate, but it is another thing for us to ask the question, ‘What is it in the human story, what is it in the human situation that causes one to become so venomous, so hateful, so angry? What is it in the social fabric of the United States of America that causes Louis Farrakhan to be able to fill any hall, gathering thousands and thousands and thousands at any appearance? Is it not because he touches a raw nerve and speaks truth to them? Truth that © Grand Valley State University �Today…Paradise… Richard A. Rhem Page 4   they have lived and experienced. It is not enough for us to decry the terrorist and to speak against violence. It is for us to say, ‘Why?’ and in that we are all in complicity.” The one, at his crucifixion, went to his death with clenched fist, cursing. And the other one? The other one rebukes his brother, acknowledges the justice of his own situation, and then unclenches his fist and with open hand reaches out to Jesus. “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.” Broken. Suddenly, in a moment like that with not much time to live, changed, transformed. Was it the prayer of Jesus? Certainly, Luke would point us to that. “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.” The grace of Jesus with which he lived and with which he was dying. Was it that grace? We are really only ever changed by a concrete encounter with grace, only when we experience grace in another. And then that grace washing over us — in a moment can transform us. “Jesus, remember me.” And Jesus responded far beyond that humble request for he said, “Today you’ll be with me in paradise.” What is it that makes one person go to his death full of anger and hate, cursing, with fist clenched all the way while another opens the hand and seeks grace? Frederick Beuchner has said, “With a clenched fist you can prevail, you can grow, you can bend, you can survive, but you cannot become human. For to become human it is only the outstretched hand, acknowledging one’s dependency on grace that transforms.” Why one this way and one that way? I don’t know. I don’t know. That word from the cross today, “You will be with me in paradise.” Paradise , a word borrowed from the Persian language meaning a walled garden. The Persian king would sometimes bestow the highest honor on his subject. He would make him or her the companion of the garden. This person could be the companion of the king in walking in the walled garden, reminding us, of course, of the creation story in the Garden of Eden, the Garden of Delight where the Lord God walked with those he had created in the cool of the day. Jesus said, “The walled garden, the Eden of Delight, in the presence of God will be yours. Not because somehow or other I am dying here for you but, as I die with you, you will come with me into the presence of Eternal Life, the God who dwells in light inaccessible.” And not later, but today, here and now. For you see, when grace washes over one, then one does not wait until one’s last breath in order to experience the embrace of the Light, but rather one begins to know heaven on earth, for this is life eternal to know God, to be embraced by that Light, to be a companion in the garden here and now so that as one moves toward death, whether that be eminent, as in the case of the criminal, or whether it be afar off it matters little. For death becomes simply that portal through which one moves from Light to Light, from Light to Life with Jesus into the presence of God. © Grand Valley State University �Today…Paradise… Richard A. Rhem Page 5   Luke loves to set contrasts. He painted that portrait on Palm Sunday of Jesus weeping over the city saying, “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, if only you knew the things that make for peace, but now they are hid from your eyes. You’ve missed God’s moment.” Now Luke gives us two ways to live and two ways to die. And he says, “God simply waits to grace and forgive, both the one and the other.” And the choice we have is whether we will meet that grace now and extend the hand and make the plea and know heaven on earth as did the one criminal, or whether we will go raging into the night. Martin Luther used this text as a wonderful statement against the use of the doctrine of purgatory. That was the burning issue, of course, in the 16th century. The Pope was raising St. Peter’s and all of its glory on the basis of all the indulgences that were being sold, and if you had an extra hundred or two and you had a relative who had died and was, according to Catholic teaching, “in purgatorial fires,” going through the process of purgation, then in that abusive system of the 16th century, a little money shortened the sentence. Why, Tetzel the traveling monk would say, “when you hear the coin fall in the coffer, the soul springs out of purgatory to God.” And Martin Luther wanted none of it. He could see what a manipulative, coercive thing this was. Unfortunately, in the Reformation the Church jettisoned that insight and wisdom of the ancient Church that, even at our death we have soul work to do. Think of it for a moment. One died with clenched fist, cursing and the other with opened hand, full of grace. But their histories were very much the same. Do you suppose that the moments that the one had yet to live would have been so transformative that their destinies would have been light and darkness? Or might it be that the Light that began to dawn on the one with open hand was a Light that the other met also, with a curse only half spoken, as his breath ran out? I suspect that, in the wisdom of the ancient Church, the whole idea of purgatory was the recognition that, for all of us as we move through our life and toward its terminus point, there is yet soul work to be done. And I would like to think that there is no darkness for anyone except perhaps the one who has been embraced by the Light but who persists in saying, “Not thy will be done;” the Lord of Light might say then, “Thy will be done.” But other than that here are two ways to die. They really also represent two ways to live. The one is with clenched fist, a certain amount of strength . . . survival. But you can’t be human that way. To be human is to open the hand and simply to say, “Jesus, remember me, for God’s sake.” Then you begin to live before you die. Thank God. © Grand Valley State University � https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/22edfa4dd084ee082da70054a564e07f.mp3 d0addfcc4a9ee8346c9d8b11f6e7c61e 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 Lent II Series The Seven Last Words of Christ Scripture Text Luke 23:32-43 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-0-19940227 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1994-02-27 Title A name given to the resource Today...Paradise 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 February 27, 1994 entitled "Today...Paradise", as part of the series "The Seven Last Words of Christ", on the occasion of Lent II, at Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI. Scripture references: Luke 23:32-43. Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Lemmen Library and Archives Apocalyptic Forgiveness Transforming Love https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/c9aa8983e9ad140ccc482690ee40ba75.pdf 00950e97db74a3e10265705c40671a2b PDF Text Text “Father, Forgive Them” From the series: The Seven Last Words of Christ Text: Luke 23:32-38 Richard A. Rhem Christ Community Church Spring Lake, Michigan February 20, 1994 Transcription of the spoken sermon For the Sundays of Lent our meditation will be on the seven words from the cross, the seven words uttered by Jesus in the time of his crucifixion. No one Gospel has all seven words. The most that any one Gospel has are three words. You have to take all four Gospels in order to come up with seven utterances from the cross. Mark’s Gospel, the earliest Gospel, has only the groan, “My God, my God, why?” In these Lenten weeks, with these familiar utterances before us, let us think about them not so much as words that Jesus spoke, as though there were some scribe with a dictating pad down at the foot of the cross. Let us understand them as they probably were intended, that is, as the windows through which the respective Gospel writers were finding meaning in the death of Jesus. Those seven words, which appear collectively in the four Gospels, give us a window. We can look through that window with the respective evangelists to sense what they sensed was going on and, thereby, hopefully to find for ourselves renewed meaning, as once again we contemplate the crucified one. The first word, “Father forgive them for they know not what they do,” is an amazing utterance in the context of the paragraph in which it appears. We have the leaders scoffing at Jesus, the crowd mocking Jesus, the soldiers making sport of Jesus. In the midst of the excruciating pain and anguish of crucifixion, the cruelest blow that could be delivered in that ancient world, Jesus had the grace and the compassion to pray, “Father forgive them, for they know not what they are doing.” That statement really is like a concise creed of Christian faith. For therein we find a word about ourselves, and we find a word about God, and we find a word addressed to us as well, giving us a way to live. It is a word about us. Jesus said, “Father forgive them, for they don’t know what they are doing.” And we don’t know what we are doing most of the time, do we? It wasn’t a matter of whether they were educated or uneducated, whether they were intelligent or lacking in intelligence. It wasn’t a matter of that kind of knowing. It was that totality of their being and the totality of our humankind that simply drifts into all kinds of circumstances and situations that lead to brokenness and © Grand Valley State University   �Father, Forgive Them Richard A. Rhem Page 2   hurt and pain and tragedy. Most of the time we don’t mean it. We don’t intend it. We get caught up in it. And there is a kind of solidarity about humankind, so when Jesus prayed that prayer I think he had in mind not only those gathered at the foot of the cross, the soldiers, the religious leaders, and a few scattered followers. He had in mind those to be sure, but he had in mind really the whole body of humankind — all of us as well. For it is true of us so much of the time — we just don’t know the implications and the consequences. We get caught up in the solidarity of the human situation. And Jesus holding us not in contempt is the beautiful thing about Jesus. He never held a person in contempt nor did he hold us all together in contempt, but rather with deep grace — amazing grace – said, “Father, forgive them. Because they don’t know what they are doing.” And we don’t, do we? Some time this evening the deadline will be reached for whether or not the guns have been pulled out of Sarajevo or whether the air strikes will commence. That tragic war has been going on for nearly two years, and we have watched it night after night — the misery, the anguish, old women weeping over graves, parents grasping bleeding children, bodies blown apart. And we say to ourselves, “What in the world is going on? What are those people thinking of? Ethnic cleansing. All of the tragedy of that situation in the former Yugoslavia and we don’t know what to do about it. A friend of mine preached a year ago, saying (and he’s had a good deal of experience in terms of international affairs) that the judgment of history will be harsh for not doing something. Others have said we stand by in this century and watch the horror of the Holocaust, and now we’re sitting by again. But, as a matter of fact, what do you do? A civil war, a civil conflict, ethnic rivalries, blood feuds, what do you do? What do you do if you are a world leader? What do you do if you are a politician? We haven’t known what to do. Voices have been raised, but the risks are there too and the stakes are high. It took the explosion of a shell in a market place, killing over 60 people, that finally galvanized public opinion and gave the administration, I suppose, the green light to move and to gather the NATO forces and to come to some decision to act, at least to lay down an ultimatum. I suspect that Pilate gathered his national security council around him also as Passover was approaching, and the possibility of this Nazarene coming to town was discussed. What were they to do? Ah, Pilate doesn’t come off very well — washing his hands as though he could absolve himself from this whole thing. He couldn’t absolve himself, but what should he have done? I imagine they went back and forth with hot debate. What does a politician do, having to test the winds because another election is coming? Does one act according to one’s conviction, or is it true of the politician as it is true of all of us that our personal ambitions and our personal motivations and our own egos and our own pride get so wound up and so involved with our desire to serve the public good and to do what is right that it is hard to separate them? What does one do? We don’t know, often we simply don’t know. Jesus said, “Father forgive them. They just don’t know. They don’t know what they are doing.” © Grand Valley State University �Father, Forgive Them Richard A. Rhem Page 3   Can you imagine the discussion in the Sanhedrin cloakroom on Good Friday afternoon when Annas and Caiaphas conferred about the fact that now the deed was done? It would not have been difficult for them to rationalize everything that was done for the well being of the people, for the peace and tranquility of the city, for the accommodation of the Roman occupier. It wasn’t easy, folks. Jesus said, “Father, forgive them. They really don’t know. It’s not that they aren’t intelligent. It’s not that they are not responsible. It’s not that they’re not guilty. It’s not that they will not have to live with the implications of their actions. But, really, forgive them. Forgive them!” Jesus didn’t stand in contempt of humankind in the ambiguity of our situation, but with deep compassion and deep insight said, “The only thing that can do anything is Your grace, O God. Forgive them.” One of the advantages of vacation time is I can read books in the daylight and go to movies at night. In the Name of the Father is a powerful film taking place in about 1974, about some early bombings of the IRA. London, England is upset. A young Irishman is arrested with his friends. The evidence is rigged. There is police brutality and coercion such that one is disillusioned. One is disillusioned who has such a respect for the grand British tradition of law and of rectitude, one who has a vision of British police as the London Bobby without a gun, with nightstick, tipping his hat. Here was coercion. Here was a keeping away of evidence. This was a skewing of the system because the English were nervous, because there was terrorism in their land, in their city. Something had to be done. Someone had to be nailed. Someone had to be arrested. Someone had to be proven guilty in order that the people would feel secure again. And that British system of law and justice, that wonderful system, these remarkably dignified people with their wigs and all, held people in prison for fifteen years for a crime they hadn’t done when they knew they hadn’t done the crime. You don’t want to believe it can happen. But you sense the pressure they were under to make it right. They didn’t know what they were doing. They did know what they were doing, but they didn’t know what they were doing because we are constantly caught in that kind of bifurcation to do what is right, or to survive. Schindler’s List, a powerful film that must be on your list, shows the Holocaust in all of its horror. The most dastardly deed in human history, in this century. Not a film without hope, however. Schindler, a swash-buckling reckless, hard drinking, woman-chasing exploiter of other human beings, going to the Krakow Ghetto during the Nazi occupation to exploit the vulnerability of the Jews, to get their money in order to establish a factory, to hire them cheaply in order for him to make a fortune — pure and simple. He was clear about that. But he ends up beginning to see these people as people, begins to use his considerable fortune to bribe the system and get around that awful Nazi horror in order to save little children and old people and those in between. His list is those ostensibly working in his factory. But Schindler, this swash-buckling, kind of careless German becoming human, has had his own heart broken with compassion. Schindler is I, © Grand Valley State University �Father, Forgive Them Richard A. Rhem Page 4   and I am Schindler, the light and the shadow that are always coexistent within me. Jesus knew it, and Jesus did not hold me in contempt, nor did he hold Schindler in contempt. But Jesus said, “Father forgive them, they don’t know what they are doing.” Ah, there’s a word about us here. I grow so angry with people. I get disgusted. I get impatient. I despise gutless leadership full of guile. I criticize and I judge, and when I do that I set myself apart as though I am not in complicity with the whole human scene. But you see, I can’t do that. I am in solidarity with it all; the light and the shadow run through my heart too. I am a part of the picture, so it is not a question of whether I can stand apart and judge. It is rather the fact that with you I stand before the cross and hear Jesus say of me and of you, “You just don’t know.” What grace! What insight! What empathy! What compassion for us, such as we are. And it’s a word about God. “Father, forgive.” It’s a word about God. It’s a prayer that issued from Jesus’ deepest, most profound sense of who God was. “Father, forgive.” In the intimate connection, that Abba relationship, relationship of parent and child, that intimate connection of Jesus and Father. Divine parent. “Loving God, forgive.” It is what he taught. He was living out simply what he taught, for in the Sermon on the Mount he said, “Be children of your heavenly father. Love your enemies. The sun shines on the just and the unjust. The rain falls on the good and the evil. Your heavenly father embraces the whole human family and graces them all together. Be children of your heavenly father. Love your enemies.” It was the God he pictured so beautifully in the story of the Prodigal Son, which is really the story of a prodigal father, a father’s love. The son coming home, humiliated, with his speech well rehearsed, ready to make a plea to be put up in the bunk house and finding himself rather overwhelmed by the father’s love, drenched in the father’s tears, embraced in the father’s bosom. Jesus, knowing God as Jesus knew God, said, “Forgive them,” because he knew that forgiveness is God’s thing. Forgiveness is God’s thing. You notice what’s not here? There’s not the slightest hint here in this word from the cross that Jesus was somehow or other standing between an angry God and a sinning people. There’s not a word of that in this word. In fact, I will be pointing out throughout the season of Lent that if we had only the four Gospels, which seem to me would be enough– if we had only the four Gospels, if only we had these seven words by which to interpret the cross – there would be not the slightest hint that that one whom Jesus addressed was full of wrath, ready to strike. There’s not a word of that. It is rather out of our tradition, coming from Anselm, the archbishop of Canterbury in the 11th century, that the idea comes that there is some kind of inexorable law that needs to be satisfied and that God could not be just and forgive unless God exacted the pound of flesh and that inexorable law was satisfied. Not a word of that here. Just — “There is forgiveness with Thee,” as the Psalmist said. “Father, forgive them.” Ah, it’s a word about God. God is like that. © Grand Valley State University �Father, Forgive Them Richard A. Rhem Page 5   And it is a word for you and for me, for Jesus has given us an example that we might live as he lived, being forgiven so that we might forgive one another, being love that we might love one another, being the recipients of amazing grace that we might be gracious one to another. The model of Jesus, the life he lived, the grace he conveyed, if only we could do it, would change the world, the only thing that would change the world. Being lived out before us these days in the Olympic Games is the drama of Nancy Carrigan and Tanya Harding. I would love to have five minutes with each of those young ladies, individually. I would like to say to Nancy Carrigan, “Nancy, if you want to have freedom, if you want to skate as a swan with grace and delight, then although I don’t know the horror of that experience, let it go and forgive whoever is guilty. Let it go so that your heart will not be alienated and your mind filled with fear. Let it go. Pray Jesus’ prayer, ‘Father, forgive; because certainly they didn’t know what they were doing.’ Oh yes, they did know what they were doing, but they didn’t know what they were doing.” Have you ever been caught in something like that? And I would say to Tanya, “I don’t know if you are guilty or not. If you’re not guilty, God give you grace and courage. But if you are guilty, God forgive you.” And I would hug her. That girl needs a hug. Doesn’t she need someone to love her and to tell her that she too is lovely? And, that’s just two people whom the media have lifted high before our view, but in those two the paradigm of Bosnia, and of East and West, and of the whole world. The world would be changed if we could do just two things, if we could hear the prayer and know it is for us, and be forgiven. The last bastion of pride is the resistance to the word, “I forgive you.” Then, if we could forgive one another it would change the world. © Grand Valley State University � https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/1eff76346fc91fa68656c5ba5af2dfed.mp3 305cf187a8da209672a2f8a4dcff8431 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 Lent I Series The Seven Last Words of Christ Scripture Text Luke 23:32-38 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-0-19940220 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1994-02-20 Title A name given to the resource Father, Forgive Them 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 February 20, 1994 entitled "Father, Forgive Them", as part of the series "The Seven Last Words of Christ", on the occasion of Lent I, at Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI. Scripture references: Luke 23:32-38. Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Lemmen Library and Archives Compassion of God Forgiveness Grace Transforming Love https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/f97220491c563be8a6aa520560c839e7.mp3 8329a28ac6fd608bc8fede687923713d Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Richard A. Rhem Collection Description An account of the resource Text and sound recordings of the sermons, prayers, services, and articles of Richard Rhem, pastor emeritus of Christ Community Church in Spring Lake, Michigan, where he served for 37 years. Starting in the mid 1980's, Rhem began to question some of the traditional Christian dogma that he had been espousing from the pulpit. That questioning was a first step in a long and interesting spiritual journey, one that he openly shared with his congregation. His journey is important, in part because it is reflective of the questioning, the yearnings, and the gradual revision of beliefs that many persons in this part of the century have experienced and continue to experience. It is important also because of the affirming and inclusive way his questioning was done and his thinking evolved. His sermons and other written and spoken materials together document the steps in his journey as it took a turn in 1985, yet continued to revolve around the framework and liturgies of the Christian calendar. Subject The topic of the resource Clergy--Michigan Reformed Church in America Christ Community Church (Spring Lake, Mich.) Religion Interfaith worship Sermons Sound Recordings Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Rhem, Richard A. Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/514">Richard A. Rhem papers (KII-01)</a> Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives. Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Kaufman Interfaith Institute Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Language A language of the resource English Type The nature or genre of the resource Sound Text Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context KII-01 Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant 1981-2014 Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource audio/mp3 text/pdf Sound A resource primarily intended to be heard. Examples include a music playback file format, an audio compact disc, and recorded speech or sounds. Event Eastertide VI Scripture Text John 20: 16, Revelation 22:4 Location The location of the interview Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI References Eric Clapton, "Tears in Heaven," 1992. 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-0-19930516 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1993-05-16 Title A name given to the resource Would You Know My Name If I Saw You In Heaven? 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 May 16, 1993 entitled "Would You Know My Name If I Saw You In Heaven?", on the occasion of Eastertide VI, at Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI. Scripture references: John 20: 16, Revelation 22:4. Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Lemmen Library and Archives Transcendance Transforming Love https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/8ddb4fcfe8ff620604897964cc715049.mp3 ea8d6b5ceed9e09a0400b791a49a98b2 https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/bc2ff9517a8a56ed4bc0bbffc9eca7ac.pdf a498dba48a4234c1c3afe9adc1cac715 PDF Text Text Mission: Passion Unleashed From the series: On the Threshold of the Third Millennium Text: Isaiah 58:12; Luke 4:17-18 Richard A. Rhem Christ Community Church Spring Lake, Michigan Epiphany V, February 7, 1993 Transcription of the spoken sermon “You will be called the repairer of the breach, a the restorer of streets to live in.” Isaiah 58:12 “...The scroll of the prophet Isaiah was given to him ... The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me...” Luke 4:17-18 On the threshold of the third millennium Christ Community is newly structured for a forward movement. We struggle with a fresh expression of Christian faith, seeking to translate the tradition in order that we might connect our faith with our human experience. This morning I want to call you to a new sense of mission, a new commitment to be the people of God. I call you to effect the purposes of God in the world as the agents of grace and reconciliation, bringing people together in the name of Christ our Lord. Mission: It has always been a part of the Christian tradition. Missio, the Latin word, means to send, to send out or to be sent. I want to suggest that we ought to be sent out with passion. Passion unleashed. Passion that is compelling emotional engagement with the task. I want Christ Community always to be passionate. Passionate about what we believe and passionate about that which we do in the name of Christ. No kind of routinized ritual, external form, dead-in-thewater, but passionate - with deep conviction, compelling conviction leading to compelling action with emotional engagement. It is that, I believe, to which we are called as the people of God. And as we stand on the threshold of the third millennium, God needs a people who will fearlessly, courageously, unstintingly, unrelentingly be there as a concrete community of love and grace, bringing peace and reconciliation to all people in the local community and throughout the world. I want to call you this morning to be a people unleashed for mission with passion. I want to call us as a community to be committed to the humanization of the world, to the humanization of society. © Grand Valley State University   �Mission: Passion Unleashed Richard A. Rhem Page 2   One of the nice things about having the Perspective class after worship is that I can clarify the fogginess of the sermon, and I can answer the question that I raise in the minds of some. I had a very good question raised to me last week, because I had suggested toward the end of the message that I was not so concerned that we make the world Christian as that we make the world human. And the question was asked, “Well, is that just humanism?” It’s a good question, and the answer is, no it is not. There is a kind of classic humanism that would be defined as over against God. Atheistic naturalist humanism would see human society and the world as a purely human project with no intervention and no involvement by a God if there was one. No, that’s not what I mean. I am thinking rather of the phrase of the Catholic theologian Hans Küng who said, “God’s cause is the human cause.” What I would love to call us to this morning is that we be the agents for the humanization of society, the humanization of the world, meaning that we seek to do that which would make for all people a fully human existence possible. So all people might be set free, set at liberty, the shackles off, all forms of human bondage removed so that all people in all sorts of conditions could move into the fullness of human existence as God intends. Jesus lived such an existence. In him, we believe, was full humanity modeled out for us. When I say that I believe the Church is called to work at the humanization of society, I mean that the church is that group of people who are called to seek to effect the purposes of God in human lives and in human society as a whole. That, to be sure, is a little different than the classic understanding of mission in the history of the Church. The modern missionary movement was initially born in the 19th century, although there has always been from the beginning this impulse to “go into all the world to preach the Gospel.” But the modern movement, the evangelization of the world, really had a new birth in the 19th century and the object there was to bring all of the world to Jesus Christ. It was world evangelization. There was a great missionary conference in Edinburgh, Scotland in 1910 and a great missionary statesman named John R. Mott had a cry that really motivated the student population of the day: “The evangelization of the world in this generation.” There were always educational missions, and medical missions, and farm-agricultural missions which were the accoutrements to the missionary impulse, but the major focus of it was the proclamation of the Gospel, the goal of which end was to bring people to a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ. One rather contemporary missionary statement spoke of the missionary movement of our forbearers as a movement motivated because they could not conceive of people dying without Christ. D. T. Niles said, “In our generation it is more that we go because we cannot conceive of people living without Christ.” But, when I speak of the humanization of society, I have to admit to you - I want to acknowledge to you - that I am not speaking so much in that classic sense of trying to Christianize the world because I am not at all sure that we are called to Christianize the world in terms of bringing the world into the institutional © Grand Valley State University �Mission: Passion Unleashed Richard A. Rhem Page 3   structures of the Christian church. I believe that we are there to witness to the whole world to the God to whom Jesus points us. It is the God of Jesus that we want to point all people to, and we want to do that by all means possible. I think that the missionary movement with all of its good intention and all of its sincerity, and all it has accomplished, nonetheless, because of the very institutionalization of the Christian faith, tended to become a rather arrogant and triumphalistic and imperialistic movement into other cultures. I must say that I don’t really believe, in spite of hundreds of years of witness and sincere effort, that we have done more than slightly dent a Muslim culture or an Oriental culture. Now in Africa today there is an astounding rate of conversion into the Christian church, but that is in a third world; that is not in the first world. The first world is secularized and sometimes that can perhaps dull our sense of the Christian mission. But let me make it clear. I believe that we are called to be the witnesses of Jesus Christ, pointing to the God of Jesus, the God that Jesus reveals, and we are to do that by all means possible. St. Francis of Assisi said, “Preach the gospel by all means possible even in last resort with words.” The humanization of society is a Christian imperative, and I believe we are called to do that. Let me give you a little autobiographical sketch for a moment. When I came here in 1960 I wanted 50% of the budget to go to missions and 50% to stay at home. I was so young and so idealistic that I even turned down a raise. I refused a raise one year because I said, “if you will not go 50% I won’t take a raise.” One of the great pillars of the congregation looked at me and said, “Young man, you’ve got a family coming. Wise up. You’d better start thinking about retirement - it’s not too soon.” He was right. I was wrong. I was idealistic. I was going to change the world. And then I came back here in 1971 and I went with some of you over to the Institute for Successful Church Leadership where Bob Schuller told his story. When he arrived in California, an old pastor took him aside and said, “If you want this new church to prosper, use this formula: give 50% away and put 50% back in.” And Schuller was smarter than I was. He said, “No, I’m going to give only 10% away. But we’re going to build a missionary center right here because mission is where you are.” He said, “You know if I give 50% away I’ll never build a base here, and I’ll never be able to give much more than I give the first year. But if I build a bigger base here I’ll be able to give ten times more than what 50% would have been.” His math was right, and reality has proved him right. I came back and his vision became our vision - this was to be the place of our mission. Not to neglect the world, but to begin here and to build here a center of creative Christian faith which would be a fruitful movement issuing out of this very place. For two decades we have been working at that. We’ve been stretched. We’ve really always been reaching beyond our means - always dreaming a little bit beyond what we could possibly do. But I think that it’s time for us to be fully unleashed. To unleash our passion in the mission of Jesus Christ here, in the nation, and in the world. Not in order to © Grand Valley State University �Mission: Passion Unleashed Richard A. Rhem Page 4   make the world Christian, but in order to humanize the world, transform it so that it might be as the God we have found in Jesus would have it be. That’s the prophetic word I hear here. Jesus stood in the prophetic tradition. Jesus was a prophetic, charismatic figure. The world evangelization, the institutionalization of the church was down the line. But if we really hear what we heard this morning, then God was saying to that Old Testament people a long time ago, “Don’t get all caught up in your rituals, in your church structures, in your sacrifices, in your priesthood and all that business, because I don’t really care about that. If you want to do that, you ought to do that because it can help you be what you ought to be. But you see, religion is never an end in itself. The practice of religion is never an end in itself. Worship, devotion, ritual, liturgy - whatever it may be – is not an end in itself. It is to imbue in us the depths of the mystery of God in order that out of the experience of worship, out of the experience of the reality of God we might be galvanized into significant and meaningful living in the world – significant human living in the world, and the humanization of the world. Old Judah said, “Hey, what’s up. We are doing all this sacrificing and incense and candles, and all of that, and you don’t seem to heed.” And God says, “Is that why you fast? You want to mortify yourself? I’ll tell you what mortification I want. Put your life on the line out there in the community: feed the poor, give shelter to the homeless, clothe the naked, take them into your home. And then call and I’ll answer.” The prophet of our reading said, “The spirit of the Lord is upon me. The spirit has anointed me to proclaim good news.” Jesus came to his home synagogue and he read that word aloud to his home congregation, “The spirit has anointed me.” That’s what Christ means, the anointed one - “I am anointed to proclaim good news, relief to the captive, healing to the broken, setting the prisoner free.” They said, “My, that fellow really speaks quite well. Isn’t that Joseph’s son?” Sure enough, Jesus, Joseph’s son – that’s who it was. But you see he had been on the outskirts of Israel, on the outskirts of God’s people. He had mingled with those who were outsiders and he had done some healing and they had heard about that. And so he knew that underneath that first blush of enthusiasm there was a kind of hostility brewing because Jesus had the audacity to consider the outsider also embraced by God’s love and grace. And so he said to them, “Let me remind you of your own tradition. Do you remember the instance of the famine, when Elijah was a prophet? To whom was the prophet called? To no one in Israel, but to a widow, a woman, an outsider in Zarephat. And what about Naaman? What about Naaman, the leper? No leper in Israel was cleansed, but Naaman the Syrian was cleansed. You see, God has always been concerned about the outsider. My ministry is to all people, and if that offends you, I’m sorry.” Well, it offended them alright. They said, “Let’s throw him over the ledge. Let’s do away with him.” There was wrath and anger, and hostility that are so often in religious people - Christian people. And Jesus ran afoul of it, and everyone who has had the audacity to stand in the prophetic © Grand Valley State University �Mission: Passion Unleashed Richard A. Rhem Page 5   tradition has run afoul of it because it is a very human characteristic to turn religion in upon itself and make it self-serving, when actually God would have God’s people turn inside out, to live on behalf of those who are on the outside, to let them know that they are not on the outside. The old philosophy of mission was to go to the outsider to bring them in. But, with all my heart, I believe we ought to go to the outsider to tell them they are already in. That’s the good news of what God has done in Jesus Christ. Not to make them like us. Not to force them into our structures, into our institutions, but to tell them of the promiscuous grace of a God that already embraces them, and that has come to a particularly full focus in Jesus Christ our Lord. Not to make them Christians like we are, but to point them to the marvelous God to whom Jesus points us. That’s the mission to which we are called, and I am ready for this place to be unleashed for such a mission, laced with passion. You know a couple of weeks ago I was out at the Crystal Cathedral at a conference of churches uniting for global mission, which is the movement that Bob Schuller is hoping to get going. It’s a rather loose affiliation of congregations - a congregationally based movement with very little administration and bureaucracy, but the ability to move immediately with flexibility into opportunities for mission. When he was negotiating the Hour of Power in Soviet television, they said to Bob Schuller, “Here is 50,000 acres of land. Could you make it productive for us? We will give it to you if you can bring us tractors. Bring us seed. Bring us know-how.” When I was in Chicago last summer at the Churches Uniting meeting, David Schouts who has preached for us in the past, of the Hinneton Avenue Methodist Church in Minneapolis, volunteered to head up the Russian farm project. Just a couple of weeks ago in California, David Schouts reported on that project, and he has got Ralph Hostadler who was the CEO of Land of Lakes, retired, who has taken over that project and has taken all kinds of people and resources. Two young men from the Soviet Union, one a member of the parliament, is helping him organize a cooperative project sponsored by CUGM, Churches Uniting for Global Mission, on behalf of the Soviet people. They are helping them gain some knowhow as to how to make farms productive and how to distribute what they produce. Those kinds of opportunities, I believe, are out there in our world. These are the kinds of things we have to do. Let God take care of what God would do with those Russian people. But for God’s sake, let’s get them some grain and some cattle, and get them fat. Then on Wednesday morning, the last morning, there was a black speaker named Leon Sullivan. I hadn’t really heard of him, but when he began to speak, (this man must be in his middle seventies) - I had to look up to him, a big man. When you walked by him it was like there were all kinds of vibrations. This was somebody, and when he spoke I learned he was a Baptist preacher from Philadelphia. And could he preach! Oh, my goodness, he could preach! I learned that he was Leon Sullivan of the Sullivan Principles. The Sullivan Principles were written by Leon Sullivan when he was on the board of General Motors. He came © Grand Valley State University �Mission: Passion Unleashed Richard A. Rhem Page 6   back from South Africa and he said, “In South Africa when American corporations do business, they must dismantle Apartheid in the workplace.” And it happened. The American corporations in South Africa for some years now have operated on the Sullivan Principles. And this was that Leon Sullivan. He had just flown in from Brussels where he had been meeting with the economic community in Europe. He had just met with Helmut Kole and Francoise Mitterand. And he is all turned on about Africa, because right now Leon Sullivan is in the business of raising enough money to send a thousand teachers a year for the next four years to Africa. It only takes $10,000 to support one teacher. He sees the need for education, to teach children. He is looking for 1000 teachers for the next four years. He said (There was a group there of 40-50 pastors, I suppose.), “How many of you could support one teacher - $10,000 for the year? Raise your hands. “Should I have raised my hand? Well, should I have? Would you also keep paying the building debt off? I mean, don’t give me the $10,000 out of your envelope! I need my salary! (Laughter) But, have you got some more? Would you dig deeper if I had raised my hand? Would you? And I thought to myself, “You’ve really changed.” In 1960 when I first came to this place I would have wanted to raise money to send a missionary to tell them about Jesus. Now I want to raise money to send a teacher to educate them so that they might feel the presence of a God whom Jesus incarnated. Someone in the congregation sent me an article and said, “This might be interesting in light of your present series.” It was an article about the Arlington Street Church in Boston, a church that is called “The Conscience of Boston.” It’s a church that has been a center of social activism and social protest for 200 years. It is the place where Unitarianism was born. William Ellery Channing was a great minister there for 40 years. He had the likes of Ralph Waldo Emerson in his congregation. He had the best and the brightest, and the mightiest of New England there. It became a significant center of Christian witness on all kinds of issues that divided and tore society apart. And the Arlington Church was always on the “wrong” side. It was the place where the Abolitionist Movement to dismantle slavery found its headquarters. In the 60s it was the place where William Sloan Kaufman and Benjamin Spock invited the young men of Harvard and Yale to burn their draft cards in protest against the Vietnam War. It was the place in the subsequent decade where every social cause found expression. Its present senior pastor is Kim Crawford Harvey, the first woman senior pastor, who is lesbian. You notice I say she is lesbian. She is not a lesbian. Because people are not gay or lesbian, people are human beings. They are people. Their orientation may be one way or the other, but you don’t refer to me as a heterosexual. I am a person. The Arlington Street Church has found a new issue that needs addressing. There is a great flourishing congregation again, with a budget bigger than it has been for 20 years because they have addressed this issue, which is tearing our society apart. © Grand Valley State University �Mission: Passion Unleashed Richard A. Rhem Page 7   Randall Terry is the head of a movement he calls Resistance . You see him on television on Christian broadcast channels (that I don’t watch), eliciting from people their baser motives, creating fear and division and trying to raise money. He was quoted as saying that if he had scripted Bill Clinton’s first two weeks himself, he could not have done a better job. He’s just delighted at all of the controversy around the White House because fundraising letters are in the mail, and he calls it a bonanza. I read the article on the Boston church, and I’m not a very pious guy and I don’t lay a lot of stuff on you, but when I was done, my eyes were moist and I said, “Dear God, I would that Christ Community would be a community of such integrity that it would provide a shelter for all sorts and conditions of human beings, that would create a space where people could be together, where there would be the acceptance of diversity, the encouragement of dialogue, the embrace of grace, and a love that was a true reflection of the love of God in Jesus Christ, our Lord.” It seems to me, in the words of the title of a book by James Davison Hunter, that in the midst of this time of “Culture Wars,” this world, this nation, needs a people who will be a voice for reconciliation, who will seek to bring people together, who will seek to honor every person’s dignity, who will guard the dignity of every person, and will create a place for people to be fully human in the worship and the service of God. I don’t know why churches, why religions, seem to breed the kind of hostility that in Nazareth wanted to kill Jesus, and did kill Jesus. But I know this, that in the face of Jesus I want us to be something other. I want us to be full of love, dripping with compassion, able to deal honestly with every social issue. I want us to be civil and committed - a place of light, love, healing. Dear God, wouldn’t that be great! Wouldn’t that be great! © 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 Epiphany V Series On the Threshold of the Third Millennium Scripture Text Isaiah 58:12, Luke 4:17-18 Location The location of the interview Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context KII-01_RA-0-19930207 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1993-02-07 Title A name given to the resource Mission: Passion Unleashed 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 February 7, 1993 entitled "Mission: Passion Unleashed", as part of the series "On the Threshold of the Third Millennium", on the occasion of Epiphany V, at Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI. Scripture references: Isaiah 58:12, Luke 4:17-18. Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Lemmen Library and Archives Followers of Jesus Grace Inclusive Transforming Love https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/53f81032e4838a1bc663bbd9a6c514a3.mp3 899798d1d6b0bdc7607eb45a1e02d854 https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/2445c212d6441a4228867e5288bf7a7e.pdf e229b1f6a9b6372d0f2d77049bdca596 PDF Text Text Wrath – Sometimes Necessary: Never the Solution From the series: Heroes in Clay: John the Baptist Text: Matthew 11: 3, 14 Richard A. Rhem Christ Community Church Spring Lake, Michigan November 22, 1992 Transcription of the spoken sermon Are you the one who is to come, or are we to wait for another? Matthew 11:3 ...if you are willing to accept it, he [John] is Elijah who is to come. Matthew 11:14 Wrath is a word that we don’t use often. It bespeaks a violent kind of anger, indignation. It bespeaks a strong passionate anger. When we think of wrath, we often associate it with the “wrath of God.” We even use it colloquially, almost flippantly when we speak about the “wrath of God” coming down on someone. Why do we identify wrath with God? We do so legitimately because, both in the Old and New Testaments, wrath, violent reaction, strong indignation is indicated as that which, from time to time, God expresses. The wrath of God comes to expression most often through a prophet. Israel gave to the world prophecy, that speaking in the name of God, on behalf of God. Most often it was a word of judgment, a word that called God’s people into account. The prophetic word reflected the wrath of God against all that was wrong, all that thwarts God’s purposes of love, and of grace in the world. All that oppresses, all that exploits, all that dehumanizes calls forth from God a wrathful response. God is not all sweetness and light. God is not a wimp. God cares too much. God loves too much. When God’s care and love and God’s purpose for humankind is thwarted - the prophet tells us that God’s response is wrath. Now the prophetic word that announced God’s wrath was never the last word. It was always a penultimate word. For it was spoken in order to elicit in its turn a response from God’s people, a turning back to God in order that God may save. The word of judgment that the prophet speaks, announcing the wrath of God against all that is wrong, is a word that is intended to turn God’s people in order that they might experience the saving love of God. But, nonetheless, that word wrath has a legitimate place in the biblical story. It is the other side of God’s passionate love and all that stands in the way of that love elicits from God wrath announced by the prophet. © Grand Valley State University   �Wrath... Never the Solution Richard A. Rhem Page 2   John the Baptist was among the greatest of the prophets. John the Baptist spoke a word of wrath. John the Baptist was tough. John the Baptist was angry. John the Baptist addressed his word of wrathful judgment against God’s people. The prophetic word of judgment was not often spoken to the world in general. Primarily the prophetic ministry of the Word of God which calls people to account and announces God’s wrath is addressed to God’s people, to the faith community that has failed to trust God and has failed to respond in the way of living to which God calls God’s people. John the Baptist in his day rose up in the wilderness and spoke this word of judgment to the religious leaders. And all of Jerusalem and Judea came to him and heard his preaching. He was tough. How would you like it this morning if I said to you, “You brood of vipers, what are you doing here this morning?” [Laughing] Tough word from old John. He never took Dale Carnegie’s course. He didn’t know “How to Win Friends and Influence People.” John was tough. John was serious. John was passionate, and John was only half right. John was right and John was wrong. John was right in the words he addressed to the community of God’s people at that time, a community that had fallen into a kind of complacency, a kind of spiritual dullness and decadence where religious service had become form and in many cases empty ritual and where the religious worship of God’s people was not reflected in the life that they lived. John preached against the tax collector for exploitation and the soldiers for dehumanizing people, and the Pharisees and Sadducees and religious leaders for their blindness and their unspirituality. He was right about that and in so speaking he spoke a word of God, and the wrath of God on that dead faith community was a word spoken in due season. But John was only half right. When Jesus appeared John embraced Jesus. Jesus was baptized by John. Then Jesus inaugurated his own ministry, and here is where we see that John, who was in many senses a prophetic hero, was nonetheless a Hero in Clay, for Jesus disappointed John. John hoped that Jesus would be the one to ring down the curtain of history and bring fire on earth. John hoped that the world had come to its end point, that soon the wickedness that so tore him up would be blotted out by the judging vengeance of God. He hoped that Jesus would be the one to effect this. John himself in consistency with his moral severity had the audacity to confront Herod for his immorality and was thereby cast into prison. And eventually he lost his head! But while in prison he heard reports of Jesus’ ministry and what he heard he didn’t like. Remember when the disciples of John came to Jesus and they said to him, “John asks, ‘Are you the one that we are looking for or should we look for another?’” That’s where you see the clay in John, the human error. John had a preconception of what Jesus ought to be and when Jesus failed to live up to that preconception John did not say, “I wonder if I’ve got it wrong?” John was ready to look for another one. He could not hear Jesus’ word of grace. He could not hear Jesus’ word of invitation. And he could not countenance the compassion, the healing ministry of Jesus. He was ready to switch messiahs rather than to question his own predisposition. He failed to recognize that, as a forerunner, he had brought only half the message and that his © Grand Valley State University �Wrath... Never the Solution Richard A. Rhem Page 3   message announcing God’s wrath against all that was wrong, was only Act I in order for Act II to happen, which would be the announcement of God’s grace that would embrace all. John was a hero, but a Hero in Clay. He had a true word of God, but his error was making it God’s last word. Wrath is sometimes necessary, but it is never the final solution. I find that juxtaposition of John and Jesus rather interesting for our understanding of what’s going on in our own world, our society, our own lives today. Last week we focused on Samuel and we noted that there was a cultural war in Samuel’s day. There were those who said to Samuel, “You are old and we want a king.” But Samuel reflected those others who said that to serve a king would be to undercut the old values and the old ways. In Samuel’s day there was the conservative party and the liberal party. There were the orthodox and the progressives and there was this great divide within Israel. So we noted that the cultural wars in our day are really nothing new - that God’s people have always lived with these kinds of tensions, the things that are dividing us today in our society, the things against which fundamentalist Christians, especially, are raising their voice: questions of abortion and homosexuality and family values and education, etc. These tension-filled social matters that cut across denominational lines and faith group lines and divide people with great acrimony and create a polarization in society – these issues are not new issues. And we saw last week that God somehow or other is able to embrace the whole spectrum. God does not choose sides. This morning as we look at John in juxtaposition to Jesus, I think we get another interesting angle on what is going on today. Let me say first of all something that you may not agree with, which is alright, and which I may not be able to express with great clarity, I am sort of struggling with this, but it seems to me as I experience what is going on today in contrast to biblical prophecy, the biblical prophets spoke the Word of God to the people of God. And I find today that the Word of God that is being spoken by fundamentalist circles is not addressed to the people of God but to the world out there, as though the Church somehow or other is a kind of a society of the righteous, and the world is a wicked old world that needs to be bombarded with the threat of judgment and hell. It seems to me that is to set prophecy on its head. If God is as Jesus reflects God, there is a great deal of compassion for the world on God’s part. God is rather easy on the world. It is the people of God that get the prophetic word - the people of God who ought to know better. So, that’s the first thing that I would observe as I think about John. John at least addressed the faith community. He addressed tax collectors and soldiers, and Pharisees and Sadducees, and anyone else who dared come within range of his voice, but essentially he was addressing the covenant community. I wonder what John might preach to the covenant community today. I wonder if John would have anything to say to the fact that things in Muskegon Heights are so poor that 68 teachers are getting laid off and class sizes will get doubled, and © Grand Valley State University �Wrath... Never the Solution Richard A. Rhem Page 4   education becomes a joke, and the dropout rate can only increase, and the unemployment among young blacks exacerbates, which results too often in a reaching out for a quick buck through the passing of drugs - a temptation almost too great for anyone to withstand. I think John the Baptist would have a Word of God full of wrath maybe for us who sit twelve miles to the south. Thursday night I saw Malcolm X. When I see a film like that, when I see the way we white people treated black people before the Civil Rights Movement of the 60s I could weep. It is treating people in a dehumanizing way. It is creating in them a slave mentality where they cower and where they don’t rock the boat, where they take abuse. They were treating them with paternalism and condescension. Malcolm X experiences that and says to his people, “Don’t turn the other cheek.” And that word, diametrically contrary to Jesus, was the right word. I think John the Baptist would say, thirty years after the Civil Rights Movement, that racism is alive and well in our hearts, and our society continues to be divided and the people continue to be treated as less than human. Time Magazine’s cover this week has God and women - the story of the Roman Church’s continued intransigence against allowing women into the priesthood and the Anglican Church’s admission of women into the priesthood amongst a furious controversy. I think John the Baptist would have something to say about that. We are in the midst of a cultural, social revolution. The Time article (which I know is not the Word of God; nonetheless it is an astute comment on our social situation) calls the movement of the women in the Church a “Second Reformation,” and points out that an all male jury of bishops sits in judgment as to whether or not a woman ought to be a minister of Christ. I think that some day we will look back on this whole period like we look back after a hundred years on the slavery issue. Again, there were those within the Church who were justifying slavery from the Bible. So often the Church, rather than being the avant guard, rather than sensing the movement of the Spirit, becomes the entrenchment of old ways, full of prejudice, and blindness, unable to see the nose on its face. Where in the world is the world going, and where must the Church be are the questions to be asked of ourselves if the Church is to continue to be taken seriously as a community of the people of God. I imagine, just out of events of this past week, there would be enough fodder to keep old John the Baptist preaching along the Jordan for a long time. And it would be a tough word. It would be a hard word. He would say, “You Christian people coddle yourselves in your aesthetic beauty and wonderful ritual and you don’t give a damn about people who are bleeding, people who are hungry, people who are dehumanized.” There is a place for the wrath of God to be spoken. But not out there to the world. Goodness sakes, let MTV alone; let Madonna do her thing. An old English professor of mine at Hope College had more wisdom than I did one day when I was complaining about the worldliness on campus. [Laughing to himself.] She said, “Let the wicked have their pleasure. They have so little.” We get all steamed © Grand Valley State University �Wrath... Never the Solution Richard A. Rhem Page 5   up about all of the nastiness in the world, and we don’t see the depths, prejudice, racism, and lack of compassion in our own hearts. Sometimes a word of wrath is necessary, but it is never the solution. And now you see the juxtaposition of John and Jesus. John could serve as a forerunner, but not the answer. The answer came in the one whose coming we will remember next Sunday. Jesus full of compassion and full of grace. Jesus who said, “Father, forgive them. They don’t know what they are doing.” For wrath confronts and may make you cower, may bludgeon you into submission, but only love can transform. Only love can change people. When we are angry we lose our effectiveness. Jesus was no wimp. He was every bit as tough as John the Baptist. But rather than anger that wished that the earth would be set on fire, Jesus was full of anguish, “Oh Jerusalem, Oh Jerusalem, how often I would have gathered you as a hen gathers her chicks under her, but you would not.” He came to the crest of Olivet and looked across to the city on Palm Sunday and he wept, and said, “If you had only known the things that belonged to your peace but now they are hid from you. And there will not be left one stone upon another...” But he said this with anguish, not with anger. I get angry. I get angry. Sometimes I would love to run from it all. Sometimes I would love to throw in the towel because it seems such a hopeless task. Anger is self-defeating and doesn’t do the job. Only love can change the world. Only love can change our personal relationships. Anger begets anger. Love melts. Only love finally can bridge the abyss of our culture wars. Angry accusation, acrimony and hatred only polarize and entrench. Only love can change the world. John was a prophet of God with the Word of God, announcing the wrath of God on my life when I fail to be God-like. It’s not the last word. The last word is God’s love that will never let us go - and keeps beckoning us to love in turn. God help us! © 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 XXIV Series Heroes in Clay Scripture Text Matthew 11:3, 14 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-0-19921122 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1992-11-22 Title A name given to the resource John the Baptist: Wrath - Sometimes Necessary: Never the Solution 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 November 22, 1992 entitled "John the Baptist: Wrath - Sometimes Necessary: Never the Solution", as part of the series "Heroes in Clay", on the occasion of Pentecost XXIV, at Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI. Scripture references: Matthew 11:3, 14. Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Lemmen Library and Archives God's Grace John the Baptist Judgment Prophetic Transforming Love https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/05c509aea9fd5dbebf11d8489e6239fc.mp3 4a8c341275569882e9dab07bc8970175 https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/61a8ee56aaa113310746704a11002005.pdf 82087c20f5cc7f8dbad4bf3c7d2471de PDF Text Text Nothing to Pay From the series: Images of God in the Stories of Jesus Text: Luke 7:42 Richard A. Rhem Christ Community Church Spring Lake, Michigan Pentecost XI, July 23, 1992 Transcription of the spoken sermon When they could not pay, he canceled the debts for both of them. Luke 7:42 How does one speak of God? I suggested last week that when Jesus spoke of God, Jesus did not leave us a catechism, but he told us stories - parables. Parables are extended figures of speech. Figures of speech enable us to deal with that which is beyond our experience in terms that are familiar to us. Metaphor comes from two Greek words, meta which means to carry over or beyond or across and pherein to carry, to bear. A metaphor carries us across the gulf of our knowing and enables us to have some sense of that Mystery that is beyond us. We deal with the unknown in terms of that which is familiar. Jesus told us stories. He didn’t leave us a catechism or give us a lecture on the nature of God. Thank God. But that reminded me that in our tradition we have certainly done a good deal of that. I pulled down a copy of the Westminster Confession, one of the great faith documents of our tradition, and the fourth question is “What is God?” Simple little question. The answer: “God is a spirit, infinite, eternal and unchangeable in His being, power, wisdom, holiness, justice, goodness and truth.” What is God? God is a spirit, infinite, eternal and unchangeable in His being, power, wisdom, holiness, justice, goodness and truth. Turn you on? Move you? Well, we could talk about all those terms I suppose, but it is interesting in all of the attributes that I referred to there is one glaring omission. Did you catch it? There is no mention of God’s love. Not the simple definition that we have in the first Epistle of John, where John writes simply, “God is love.” I don’t mean to put the catechism down. It is a faithful document coming out of its own historical context that has been used in a significant way. As I was thinking about the current series, “The Images of God in the Stories of Jesus,” and the contrast from the way that Jesus revealed God and the way that © Grand Valley State University   �Nothing to Pay Richard A. Rhem Page 2   we have subsequently dealt with the nature of God or theological matters. In general, we have tended to write catechisms. We have tended to try to define in an intellectual fashion. We have used reasonable discourse in order to probe the mysteries that are beyond us. And, as a matter of fact, you cannot probe a mystery rationally. You can only deal with a mystery through a metaphor. That’s why Jesus told stories. And we pick up the image of God. We get the sense of who God was for Jesus in the way he behaved, in the manner of life, and in the stories that he told. He conveyed the depths of God’s being through the images that come through in his teaching and his ministry. I want to suggest an image from God through Jesus that comes out of the morning lesson. There is a parable within a story. That story itself is very revealing and the story is the necessary context for understanding the parable. And the story itself was told by Jesus as an illustration. I should say the story was recorded in this context by Luke as an illustration of that which he was dealing. It’s the same thing we had last week in the parable of the Prodigal Son. There were those who were grumbling because Jesus opened himself up to tax collectors and sinners. Jesus ran with ordinary people. Jesus had a kind of inclusiveness about him, about his relationships, which ran counter to the exclusivity of the religious leaders of the day--the Pharisees and the scribes. As I said last week, the poor Pharisees were the best people in town and they get poor press in the New Testament. But this is because they are always set over against. They are always in that adversarial position, and in the case of Jesus they took offense because of his openness to all people and his refusal to discriminate against any, to draw lines and draw people out, and so they grumbled about this. He told the story of the Prodigal Son in order to deal with that. In this context, the discussion had been John the Baptist and Jesus, and in the 7th chapter in verses 29 and 30, Luke puts in a parenthesis and he says that the common people, all of the people including the tax collectors, had received John’s baptism, and to have received John’s baptism was to acknowledge that God was present in the life and ministry of John the Baptist. Just as to hear Jesus, Luke is saying, is to acknowledge that God was present in the life and ministry of Jesus. In the 30th verse of this 7th chapter of Luke, Luke tells us, by refusing to be baptized by him, that is John, the Pharisees and lawyers rejected God’s purpose for themselves. And Luke is saying similarly that, to refuse Jesus, to reject his message and manner of life was to refuse the purpose of God and then, as though to give an instance of this division between people – the ordinary folk who heard Jesus gladly and the religious elite who rejected him – Luke tells us the story of Simon the Pharisee who invited Jesus to dinner. And Luke doesn’t tell us that there was anything sinister here, but obviously Simon, one of the religious leaders, was interested to find out for himself who this person was and what he was about, and whether the rumor was true that this one seemed to be a prophet of God. © Grand Valley State University �Nothing to Pay Richard A. Rhem Page 3   And so Jesus came to dinner and as he was reclining at the table, as was the custom of the day, in a house that was open, which was also the custom of the day so that people off the street might wander in and wander out, while they were at dinner, a woman who was a sinner (The word probably indicates that she was a prostitute, a street-walker, a woman of the city.) came in and began to weep. Her tears wet the feet of Jesus. She wiped his feet with her hair and she had brought a flask of ointment and she anointed his feet in a display of emotion, which was quite out of line for proper decorum in such a setting. But something within her simply burst forth. This obviously was not the first time she had met Jesus. There had to be a prior occasion when he had looked at her, a prostitute, and communicated to her one way or another - through perhaps a word or a touch, or simply the gentle affirmation of his eyes, that she, a woman of the street, was a child of God, a person of worth to whom Jesus accorded a sense of human dignity. It was too much for her. She experienced full forgiveness, newness, self-worth because she was valued by this one who was a prophet of God, and seeing him again and having intentionally entered in order to be near him, she lost it. Simon obviously was a bit uncomfortable with this rather erotically tinged display of emotion, but at least he seemed satisfied that the purpose of a dinner party was satisfied, for he says to himself, “If this man were a prophet he would know what manner of woman this is, and obviously would not have embraced her and allowed this display of emotion.” So then Jesus, on the basis of Simon’s own criteria of what a prophet is, demonstrates that indeed he is a prophet. He reads his mind; he discerns the thoughts of Simon; he is aware of that turning of the wheels in Simon’s mind and so he says, “Simon, I have something to say to you,” and Simon says, “Speak on, teacher.” And he tells them the parable: Two debtors, one owing a huge sum, another owing a lesser sum, but alike in this: neither had anything to pay. And they were alike in this too: their creditor freely forgave them both. In that parable we have an image of God. In the King James Version, the version of which I memorized the Bible, the phrase, which is the title of the message, will be found. They had “Nothing to Pay.” They had “Nothing to Pay.” And before we get to the image of God, perhaps we should say that there is also an image of humankind. In the presence of God we have “Nothing to Pay.” Some of us have incurred a huge debt. Some of us need only a little bit of credit. We are not all the same. As Mark Twain said, “He was a good man in the worst sense of the word.” God save us from too many people who are too good. They are not fun to be with. But there are good people. And then - there are the rest of us. There is a whole spectrum of righteousness, or morality, or goodness. Jesus is not lumping the whole race in one pit of guilt and sin, but he is saying this, “The human condition is such that we are universally in debt and universally we have © Grand Valley State University �Nothing to Pay Richard A. Rhem Page 4   “Nothing to Pay.” We don’t bring our record to God. George Bush is going to run on his record. But if you try that with God, that’s the very reason you are in trouble. It is a record. We have “Nothing to Pay.” But the parable for our purposes this morning is also an image of God and that is where I want us to put the focus. The one who owed a great deal and the one who owed very little both had “Nothing to Pay,” but the creditor freely forgave them both. The word for cancel the debt or forgive the debt is carisomi. You are familiar with that Greek verb I am sure. I only display my erudition because, if you will listen carefully: carisomi, caris. The root of that verb is caris, and as you well know in this congregation the Greek word caris is grace. There is only one word really, isn’t there? Grace. When neither had anything to pay, the creditor graciously, freely canceled the debt. Now that’s an image of God. The image of God that comes through in that story is very similar, it is exactly the same, as the image of God in the story of the Prodigal Son, which is not a story of a prodigal son but of Prodigal Love. As I said last week, in that simple story that Jesus told there is an image of God who simply waits to receive the child that will return - freely embracing, loving unconditionally. And so I want to take the phrase that refers to the debtors, “Nothing to Pay,” and play with that. Let’s turn it around. Let’s now make it the requirement of God. If we have “Nothing to Pay,” let me suggest that, as far as God is concerned, there is “Nothing to Pay.” Oh, that sets the Gospel on its head in terms of the way you’ve always heard it. Hear me now. This is pure, undiluted heresy in terms of the way you’ve generally heard the Gospel preached, because you’ve generally heard the Gospel preached through the focus of Paul. And we have always used Paul to dampen Jesus. The radicality of these messages is that I am suggesting to you we ought to simply listen to Jesus once, without dragging Paul in, with all his metaphors with Roman law and the Roman court system and the transactions. Now, if I am going to try to make this point in a sermon, I’ll tell you I have to go through the hymn book and really be careful about the hymns I pick because almost every hymn, almost every prayer, almost all the liturgy, the whole tradition of the Christian church conveys the idea that Jesus paid it all! Now, what if there is “Nothing to Pay?” A friend of mine, Ernie Campbell, who used to be the pastor of the Riverside Church in New York, edits a little quarterly newsletter for preachers in order to help us out when we get in a tight spot on Saturday and don’t have an idea. Ernie writes this: A couple of times in the last two months I have heard grace defined as “God’s riches at the expense of Christ.” I have not been able to track this definition to its source. Perhaps one of our readers could help in this regard. © Grand Valley State University �Nothing to Pay Richard A. Rhem Page 5   “God’s riches at the expense of Christ.” I find this description of grace deeply troubling. What are we to make of the phrase “at the expense of Christ?” Are we to assume that God would be indifferent to us but for the intervention of Christ? And why the need to reach for a “transaction” metaphor: this for that, as though God were trapped by the accountant’s logic and could credit us only if he could debit Jesus. And are we saying that, because we have received grace through Christ, grace is not available to others under different auspices? Must grace be mediated? Is God not free to directly lavish grace on any or all out of the fullness of the Divine Nature? If grace is to be understood as exclusively Christ-related, how do we explain the lovingkindness of the Lord toward Israel? The definition that most of us learned years ago is still valid. Grace is “the unmerited favor of God.” The unmerited favor of God. Period. Christ did not have to win it or earn it on our behalf. It was always there. Christ did not come to make grace possible but to make grace visible. Richard Niebuhr was right: “Most of our miseries come upon us because we cannot believe that God is as good as Jesus said He is.” “Nothing to Pay.” We have “Nothing to Pay.” And God says there is “Nothing to Pay.” Just open your life to my love that is always there; be valued, given worth. Let your heart be broken by my unconditional love that requires nothing but simple access. Simon had an image of God and lived out his image of God – because we do live out our image of God. Our image of God is probably the most shaping factor in our attitudes and our manner of life. Simon had an image of God and his image of God is revealed when he sees Jesus allowing this woman of the street to have this display of emotion, and receives her and accepts her. Simon’s image of God is this: God withdraws from the likes of that. If this man were a prophet of God he would act as God would act. He would put down a barrier; he would erect a wall; he would separate himself from this ordinary sinful human being. Jesus lived out his image of God, and that was that God never erects a barrier, never builds a wall, never turns the back, but is always simply waiting - longing to do just one thing: to love us, to give us value. God’s love is groundless and infinite. God does not seek value. God’s love creates value. The son in the far country came into a pinch and began to strategize how he might go back and start as a servant and prove himself, prove himself, prove himself. He wasn’t transformed in the far country. He simply had started on the way back home. It was the salty tears of the father, the embrace of the father that changed the boy and got him out of that servant - servile mentality, enabling him again to be a son. The woman in the parable, too, was transformed by an unconditional love. What image of God do we as a community convey? Let me suggest to you that, by and large, the Christian Church in its attitude, spirit, body language and decorations conveys an image of God much closer to Simon’s than to Jesus’. © Grand Valley State University �Nothing to Pay Richard A. Rhem Page 6   Is there not a certain level of morality that is necessary in order to be a part of this community? Is there not a certain expectation, a certain living-up-to, a kind of standard? Is there not some kind of qualification to be considered a people of God? Do we not have barriers and walls, subtly suggested criteria communicated nonverbally by our very body language? And how about you - are you still doing your darnedest to show yourself worthy? Have you ever let down your guard as the woman let down her hair and wept in the face of a love that will never quit and only waits to be experienced? The image of God in this story of Jesus is a God who says to the likes of us, who so love to pay our own way, “There’s nothing to pay.” © 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 XI Series Images of God in the Stories of Jesus Scripture Text Luke 7:42 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-0-19920823 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1992-08-23 Title A name given to the resource Nothing to Pay 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 23, 1992 entitled "Nothing to Pay", as part of the series "Images of God in the Stories of Jesus", on the occasion of Pentecost XI, at Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI. Scripture references: Luke 7:42. Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Lemmen Library and Archives Forgiveness Inclusive Nature of God Parable Transforming Love https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/cd393b8d46efb0cc2a729a03ca44070b.mp3 2d77d3c99eeaae6eeb00609c281a89e1 https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/3dcf76817ae44278a9c7355c05f2d3f7.pdf b2c39a80e83c105da267078ab1f37d81 PDF Text Text I Don’t Know How to Love Him From the Lenten series: Following Jesus Text: Luke 8:2; Matthew 27:61 Richard A. Rhem and Colette Volkema De Nooyer Christ Community Church Spring Lake, Michigan Lent IV, March 29, 1992 Transcription of the spoken sermon Our worship theme this Lenten Season is “Following Jesus,” and to follow Jesus it is necessary to know something of the shape of Jesus’ life, the manner of his behavior, his spirit, his attitude. This was recognized early on and there were four Gospels written, Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. For centuries the Church read those Gospels as though they were accounts of the life of Jesus that could be taken quite literally, just as they were presented. As those Gospels were compared one with another there was a recognition that the chronology was rather difficult to put together and there seemed to be different emphases, etc. Nonetheless, there was assurance that these were pictures of the life of Jesus and one could read them and know something of the historical Jesus. When I was at Hope College, I think I even had to purchase “ A Harmony of the Gospels.” Do they still sell that book? I hope not, really. I have in my hand a book published in 1969 called “The Life of Christ in Stereo.” There was a gentleman who had studied for the ministry and then was wise enough to cop out at the last moment, but he did have good tools of Greek and Hebrew. Then in the midst of his life he was stricken with a disease that put him to bed. There he was. So he spent his time snipping the Gospels. I can imagine a whole pile of old Bibles that he might have had, you know, and he clipped this paragraph from Matthew and then slipped one in from Luke, then add one from John, and go back and pick up Mark so you could read from the beginning to the end. Here it is! The whole of the four Gospels put into one consecutive tale or narrative. Isn’t that wonderful! Not really, because it not only does not give us one Gospel, it distorts all four, because the four Gospels were written by four different evangelists to four different congregations, four different concrete communities with four different sets of needs, for four different purposes. Now they were written twenty, thirty, forty, fifty or sixty years after the event, so they had all of the oral tradition of the early Christian community, and they had all of the experience of being Christian to work with, so they had material from which to select. That’s what they did in order to do a specific thing, in order to make a certain point. John tells us that very clearly in his Gospel, in the twentieth chapter and the thirtieth verse he says, © Grand Valley State University   �I Don’t Know How to Love Him Richard A. Rhem Page 2   “There were indeed many other signs that Jesus performed in the presence of his disciples which are not recorded in this book.” In other words, “I have done a little selecting here, folks. I haven’t given you the whole picture. This isn’t a snapshot. This is a portrait I have painted.” Why? “These things I have written — my selection was in order that you might believe that Jesus, the one that lived, that very real human being – who when he ate garlic you smelled his breath, that very real Jesus who when he walked on the earth got his feet dusty like everybody else – that you might believe that that one is the Christ of God, and believing have life through his name.” Now this is very interesting – do you know what’s in the paragraph above? The story of Thomas, that disciple that Jesus found in Missouri—the one who said, “Dead people don’t rise, fellas. Unless I can touch the nail prints, I’ll not believe.” Jesus appears and Thomas says, “My God.” Jesus said, “That’s right.” Jesus said, “Happy are those who never saw me and yet believed,” because that was the problem for John in his day and his community. Those who never had the chance to rub elbows with that one, whom his contemporaries knew was as real and true, and flesh and blood as they were. So now, here we are and we’ve got Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. Now we’ve got the historical records, right? Wrong! We’ve got faith documents. We’ve got history seen through Pentecost, through Easter, through Good Friday. And the day-by-day life of Jesus as it was experienced by his contemporaries is very difficult to recover. Their problem was not that Jesus was truly human. The Gospel writers in the experience of Easter and Pentecost, in the experience of the Christian community said, as Thomas said, “This Jesus, my God.” They had to say, “This one was that one.” But all we have are documents that say, “That one was this one.” So we’ve got a kind of supernatural divine Saviour who started there and dipped down here and did his thing and went back there. We’ve got this exalted Christ for whom it is very difficult to get next to in terms of a human Jesus who might have been flesh and blood like us, who might have cared about this world, who might have had something to say about those who would follow him. It’s a lot easier to just let him be the Son of God who comes down, dies for our sin and goes back. Whew! I’m off the hook. My sins are forgiven. But what we’ve done to Jesus is reduce his life to a comma, as in the Apostles’ Creed: “Born of the Virgin Mary, (comma) suffered under Pontius Pilate.” Let’s leap from the virgin birth to the atoning death and not get all nervous about that concrete life of the one who said, “I give you an example, follow in my steps.” Well, there is Good News because today there seems to be new interest in the life of Jesus. There are all kinds of historical methods whereby the layers can be peeled off. This research is going on all the time and there are some very interesting studies that would peel off that faith crust in the Son of God in order to lay bare the flesh of the man from Nazareth. Wouldn’t it be interesting if we © Grand Valley State University �I Don’t Know How to Love Him Richard A. Rhem Page 3   could get out of time for a bit, have someone who actually followed him and tell us what it meant? I think I see such a one coming . . . (Colette Volkema DeNooyer speaking:) My name is Mary Magdalene, which means simply, Mary of Magdala. Magdala was the village where I was born and raised. My memories of Magdala are not particularly good ones because I spent most of my life there filled with what we called ‘evil spirits.’ I had heard of Jesus even before I first encountered him. He was healing and teaching around Capernaum near the Sea of Galilee, which was not too far from Magdala. His first disciples were from that place. Peter and his brother Andrew, the Zebedee, James and John—they were fishermen. But you probably know that already, don’t you? Because you have a great gift, the written word and the ability to read it. Most of us had only the words we could hear with our own ears, and the sights that we could see with our own eyes. You see a whole picture, don’t you? But for those of us who were in the midst of it, it was not at all clear at times, and yet we knew the man, we walked with him and we talked with him. We touched him, and we held his hand. We experienced the power of his spirit, of God’s Spirit in him. So perhaps ours is the greater gift, or at least as great a gift, for I fear that perhaps in your written words he is beginning to become imprisoned behind them. Words . . . you know words are such inadequate vessels. And they can grow rigid and cold with time. That’s why I have come, you see, to breathe some fire and life into those words, to bring you to his human passion and love. I owe him at least that because he gave me life when he banished the demons and filled my soul with truth strong enough to keep the evil spirits at bay. But how to do that? I thought perhaps if I remembered things about him that have stayed with me. What were my strongest impressions of him? Three short years was all his ministry was, you know. And I knew him for less than that, really. But the intensity of the experience, it changed lives; it changed my life. I have seen your artist’s rendition of Jesus and I think you misunderstand—he is so often pictured meek and mild. If you think that it was easy to be around Jesus of Nazareth you are mistaken. He was a relentless seeker and prophet of truth. He was always asking, “Why? And, why not?” He was challenging rules and laws that had become burdens for us. It wasn’t enough for Jesus for someone to answer, “But it’s always been done that way.” Or even simply to say, “The law requires it.” Jesus believed that they had lost sight of the purpose of the law and the purpose of tradition. “Why don’t you wash before you eat? It is written in the law,” they said to him. “Because it’s what comes out of one’s mouth and one’s heart that determines whether or not we are clean,” he said. “Why do you eat with tax collectors and sinners?” the Pharisees asked him. “Does a physician come to one who is well?” he asked. © Grand Valley State University �I Don’t Know How to Love Him Richard A. Rhem Page 4   And they were appalled at the way he kept or didn’t keep the Sabbath. They say the Pharisees invited him to dinner on the Sabbath once. When Jesus arrived the seats of honor were taken—the ones closest to the host. So, obviously, they had not invited him because of their great love and respect for him. Jesus said that when he entered the room he could feel their eyes watching him, and almost immediately there was a knock at the door, and then it was clear the invitation was a setup, for in the doorway stood a lame man and it was the Sabbath and, of course, it was unlawful to heal on the Sabbath. They say Jesus looked at the man and then turned and gazed at those seated around the table, pious and faithful keepers of the law each of them. And he asked, “If your cow fell into a well on the Sabbath, would you pull it out to save its life?” The question hung in the air. They didn’t need to answer. They knew they would. So, he turned — in strong truth he turned and healed the man on the Sabbath. For Jesus said, “The Sabbath is made for us, we are not made for the Sabbath.” It is God’s gift to us for wellbeing, so what better way to keep the Sabbath than to heal the broken and the lame? Have you ever known someone in your own life who, when they were near, it seemed somehow as if God were close? I mean, when you were with them, you believe in God and in yourself, in life and in the future. It was that way with him — the power of his presence. There are not words that can describe it, only its happening. In his presence people were healed; by his touch they were healed. They were made whole by his compassionate gaze. How? I don’t know, exactly. I only know that it happened. I saw a woman — she had had a flow of blood for twelve years and no one had been able to heal her. She managed to just reach out and touch the fringe of Jesus’ garment and she was healed. The crowd was large that day, and I’m sure she hoped no one would notice. I mean, it was a great risk she took, you know. It was unlawful for her to touch the Master’s garment in that condition. With her flow of blood she was unclean, and so untouchable. Can you imagine — untouchable for twelve years? She must have been desperate. She risked and she reached out, praying that something would happen, hoping that she would not be noticed. But she was. He noticed. Immediately he turned and said, “Someone has touched me. I felt the power going out from me.” She came forward, terrified, trembling. She fell at his feet weeping and told him why she had touched him, and told him that she had been healed. You should have seen him then. He lifted her so gently up until she was standing right next to him. Then he looked unflinchingly into her eyes and said, “Daughter, go in peace, your faith has made you whole.” Word would spread when someone had found healing. People would come bringing others who had needs. Then the crowds would swell even greater. But you need to know something. He never used his ability to heal or to discern when people were hurting to manipulate them. He never used their adulation to claim political power and authority. How often didn’t he heal and say to the one made whole, “Go and tell no one.” He didn’t heal to draw attention to himself. He © Grand Valley State University �I Don’t Know How to Love Him Richard A. Rhem Page 5   healed to draw attention to God through him, and to the way to God. You know, I don’t think Jesus even intended there should be a religion called Christianity. Oh, I think it was essential for the Gentiles and for the persecuted ones in the years that followed, but Jesus was a Jew. In that time of his ministry I think what he longed for most was that the Pharisees and others like them would see the error of their ways — to see that they were becoming an obstacle, a block to our way to God. What else? Perhaps this: His attentiveness to the overlooked, the disregarded, the shunned of humanity. It never ceased to amaze me or to delight me, his availability to lepers, to tax collectors, to sinners, to children, to women. I don’t know if you can understand, but there are times when men look at women, when they look at us it seems they are not seeing us, they are not touching us, but they are seeing objects to own or to use. It was not like that with Jesus. I wish you could have seen the way he looked at me when he banished the demons. I’ve thought about that moment often and I’ve come to believe he healed me with a look that accepted me just as I was — demons and all. He cast them out when he touched me, not with a touch of lust, but with a touch that showed he valued me. And for me that is still the greatest miracle. So, I tell you what I remember of him, the Jesus who for us was so real, so human, so down-to-earth. And who, for you, I fear is becoming so exalted, so majestic, maybe even so unbelievable. Let me say it again in another way. I know that Jesus was a man, because his humanness caused for me a particular dilemma, and I am not afraid or ashamed to tell you. I was in love with him. Why do you think I dragged myself to the foot of that cross? A thousand soldiers could not have pulled me away until I had seen him breathe his last. Why do you think I went Sunday morning in hopes that I might see him one last time? But, I didn’t know how to love him. He moved me so. And I longed to love him in the only ways I knew. I longed to cling to him in the way one would, to keep him with me. And yet I couldn’t. I had to let go because I sensed that he was called for something more, chosen for something more. Maybe he was even born for something more. I don’t know. But I think you have a dilemma too. The Gospel writers and the apostles that preached Jesus, they took for granted that he was a man. So they talked about that other something that we felt when we were with him, the way in which he was so filled full of God that there was a unique relationship there. And now centuries later you have read only of that. Are you able to cut through the doctrines and the creeds about him, cut through the black and white translations and the spoken pious clichés to feel the heart and the soul and the way and the truth of the man? Or do you cling too tightly to his Godliness? So, I have a dilemma and you have a dilemma. On the one hand his humanness that I knew, his fire and his passion. On the other, his Godliness and his glory. Perhaps that’s why the Church has so long confessed Jesus as truly God and truly man to honor us both. © Grand Valley State University �I Don’t Know How to Love Him Richard A. Rhem Page 6   But I wonder, if I may say so, I wonder if perhaps my perception of him is less confusing, does not distort things as much? You see, what I remember most is that he wanted to show us the Way, the Way to God and the Way to the Kingdom of God. In loving him, his human person, I saw the face of God and, to my deep delight and joy, I have discovered that, now, to love another person – even though I can’t reach out and touch him – when I love another person, it is as though Jesus is with me. Now I find that in them I see also the face of God. I experience that that one who dwells in love, dwells in God. Loving one another, it is the way to God. It is the only way I know to follow Jesus. © 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 Lent IV Series Following Jesus Scripture Text Luke 8:2, Matthew 27:61 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-0-19920329 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1992-03-29 Title A name given to the resource I Don't Know How To Love Him 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 29, 1992 entitled "I Don't Know How To Love Him", as part of the series "Following Jesus", on the occasion of Lent IV, at Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI. Scripture references: Luke 8:2, Matthew 27:61. Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Lemmen Library and Archives Gospels Historical Jesus Nature of Scripture Transforming Love Way of Jesus https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/fb8c6bec6cd294ef2ff65cc401ae050f.mp3 d62763b3e0846384eb0a3d1a0ed23894 https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/f22e932b2fed18f1ba8240114ebff78f.pdf 7b529091afad68a7c8811676da181a8d PDF Text Text The Gospel of Radical Grace: No Human Invention From the series: The One Covenant of Grace – The Salvation of the World Text: Galatians 1:11-12 Richard A. Rhem Christ Community Church Spring Lake, Michigan Music Ministry Sunday, October 18, 1987 Transcription of the spoken sermon …The gospel you heard me preach is no human invention… I received it through a revelation of Jesus Christ. Galatians 1:11-12 As the people of God, we are here to celebrate the radical grace of God. We come here week after week, not simply to fulfill the Sunday obligation; we come here week after week, not simply out of custom, or habit, or out of a sense of duty which has become onerous duty; we come here not begrudging the time or the effort that it takes; we come here week after week to celebrate the radical grace of God. We are a people who celebrate and now for many years we have had it printed on our Order of Worship - Worship is Celebration. Worship is singing and dancing and proclaiming joyfully the Good News of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. We are a people who come here week by week in order to focus upon God, in order to have God in our minds and before our hearts. We are a people who come here week after week in order to lose ourselves in wonder, love and praise. We are a people who come here expecting that the pageantry of corporate worship will catch us up so that we will lose ourselves and so that we will be transported into the very presence of God, so that we will leave this place, if not with an intellectual proposition that we can repeat, nonetheless with an experience that we cannot deny. We come here to present our whole being before the being of God, to experience the Word of His grace, to hear again the joyful proclamation that God is for us, and together to lift our voices and to become joined through that union that the Spirit creates so that we know that we are the people of God and that God is for us, God is with us, God is on our side. We are a people for whom worship is celebration, and there are all kinds of worship. Sometimes the experience is one of silence when we are overcome with the sheer beauty of it all; sometimes the experience of worship is one of contemplation as we reflect quietly on the grace of God; and sometimes the experience of worship is one of such exuberance that we simply cannot be silent, © Grand Valley State University   �The Gospel of Radical Grace: No Human Invention Richard A. Rhem Page 2   that we simply cannot sit still, for we are literally lifted out of ourselves experiencing the joy of the truth of the grace of God. I suppose that it is true that what I have just described is the ideal, and I suppose that the ideal at Christ Community only happens now and again, and I also believe that the ideal happens across the country in the Christian Church rarely, for it is true that the Christian Church has so often become terribly dull and boring and trivial. When you think of the wonder of the Gospel, when you think of the drama of the proclamation, when you think of the fundamental reality to which we point and to which we seek to enter, then for us to be so dull and so drab is a contradiction of the reality we claim. The Gospel of Jesus Christ is a Gospel of radical grace and that is the most fundamental truth of all the world. We come here to celebrate the truth. We come here to enter into reality. We come here in order to be in touch with that which is elemental, fundamental, basic reality. We come here to present ourselves in the presence of God and to worship because of that revelation of Himself in Jesus Christ which assures us that God is for us and God is with us and that we are the objects of His radical grace. The Gospel of radical grace is no human invention. Paul says that in so many words. Had I read the scripture lesson in the New English Bible translation, he would have protested against those who were against him. The Gospel you heard me preach is no human invention. I did not take it over from any man. No taught it me. I received it through a revelation of Jesus Christ. And then a little farther down he says, But then in his good pleasure God, Who had set me apart from my birth and called me through His grace, chose to reveal His Son to me and through me. The Apostle Paul, in his letter to the Galatians, strongly declared that the Gospel of radical grace is not a human invention, but is rather the revelation of God. And it is that Gospel, that good news, that reality that we celebrate when we come together for worship. That is why worship must never be boring, never be dull. It is the experience in which we, the people, together, corporately, lose ourselves in the praise of God, because the face of the matter is that God is gracious, God has reached out to us, God has embraced us. It is the bedrock, fundamental, elemental reality that that with which we have to do is the Gospel of radical grace which is no human invention, but the revelation of God in Jesus Christ. The Apostle Paul in this Letter to the Galatians, as in no other place, rings the changes on the radical grace of God. It has been our theme at Christ Community Church. We have celebrated it over and over again over the years. It is, as I have admitted to you many times, the one string on my banjo and I will be happy to be buried © Grand Valley State University �The Gospel of Radical Grace: No Human Invention Richard A. Rhem Page 3   with the tombstone saying, "He believed; he lived; he preached radical grace." Because that is the heart of the matter. Over the centuries the Church has encrusted the Gospel with all kinds of subsidiary considerations; over the years, the Church has been tempted to move away from the Gospel of grace, institutionalizing itself, setting up structures and forms, degenerating into a kind of moralism that is nothing more than the Boy Scout motto of being good and kind and always prepared, as fine as those things are. The Church of Jesus Christ has degenerated into simply a social club that has celebrated the fact that we ought to be good people, decent people, moral people, and it has so often fallen off its one dramatic, marvelous proclamation that God is gracious, that He has intervened into our history, that He has penetrated into our lives with a message that transforms and frees us, a message of His grace. And when Paul wrote this letter to the Galatians, he was struggling against that which has proven to be the peril and the temptation of the Church down through the centuries – that is, to move the Gospel of Grace to a religion filled with obligation and duty and structure and form, failing thereby to live constantly in amazement at the grace of God revealed in Jesus Christ that has set us free. Everywhere Paul went he proclaimed the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and those who believed found their lives transformed, and those whose lives were transformed formed a community of faith. Paul would go on to another place and another and another. But every place he went there would be others who would come in and who would not deny that God is gracious, who would not deny that God had revealed Himself in Jesus the Messiah, but who would deny that all one needed was Jesus Christ for salvation, who would suggest to those who had come out of the darkness of paganism in that ancient world that God was gracious, that Jesus had come and died for them, but what they also needed beyond their faith in him was to submit, for example, to the Old Testament rite of circumcision, to follow the Old Testament dietary laws – in a word to add to Jesus, Moses. The critical issue in the first century was whether or not one had to become a Jew in order to become a Christian, whether the vestibule into the sanctuary of the people of God passed through Moses, whether or not all of the Old Testament legislation and ceremony had to be added on to one's faith in Jesus Christ. Paul said, "Absolutely not!" Christ alone. Jesus reveals the grace of God, and by faith in him we are redeemed. And in this letter to the Galatians, he claims in the very beginning that that gospel of radical grace is not a human invention, but was given to him by revelation. If you would go through that first chapter carefully you would find that Paul argued for the authority of his gospel on the basis of his call and the revelation that God gave to him. Paul argued for his authority for the Gospel that he preached on the basis that it came through no human consultation, not by discussing it with the Apostles, not as the result of some church ecclesiastical court, but simply as the revelation of God in Jesus Christ to him. And Paul submitted his Gospel to the Apostles; he met with Peter and he met with the other disciples 14 years later, and he checked the Gospel out with © Grand Valley State University �The Gospel of Radical Grace: No Human Invention Richard A. Rhem Page 4   them, and they gave him the right hand of fellowship and they confirmed that the Gospel that he preached was indeed the Gospel that they understood through Jesus Christ. The thing that Paul continued to maintain was that that which he preached was not the result of consultation, it was not a human commission, it was not data and information, it was a revelation from God through Jesus Christ himself. In his own experience he said, "Look. Look at me as one who has been changed by the Gospel. In the first place, I persecuted the Church. The record is there. And in the second place, I was zealous for the traditions of my fathers far beyond my contemporaries; I outstripped them all." Sometimes we make out as though Paul was a miserable, guilty, guilt-laden sinner. There's nothing in the New Testament to indicate that. Paul says, "I was zealous for the traditions of the fathers. I was so zealous for the tradition of my fathers, that I even persecuted the Church, but it pleased God to reveal His son to me." It is in that revelation of Jesus Christ that Paul learned the Gospel and experienced his call to proclaim it. The revelation of God in Jesus Christ is the revelation of radical grace, and Paul would have nothing added to it. Down through the centuries the Church has added to the Gospel, encrusted the Gospel with all kinds of secondary matters, domesticated the Gospel, but the reality of the situation is simply this – that God in Jesus Christ had provided for salvation to be received by us by faith, adding nothing to it. And that Gospel, Paul said, is a gospel for which I'll go to the stake. He wouldn't compromise it. It was not that Paul was hardnosed. Paul has gotten bad press, to be sure. Sometimes Paul comes off as not a very nice guy, and maybe he's not the kind of person you'd choose for a roommate, but at least he cared about something. At least he committed his life to something. He wasn't cool. He wasn't laid back. He wasn't nonchalant. But neither was he just another religious bigot and dogmatist for, if we look at his letters and his writing, we'll find, for example, when he wrote to the church at Corinth, he said, "When I deal with people who are under the law, I am as one under the law, and when I deal with people who are without the law, I am as one without the law. I am all things to all people, that by all means I might win some." There were all kinds of things about which Paul did not care. In his letter to the Romans, he deals with the question about which day of rest should be observed. Should it be the Sabbath Day, the seventh day, or should it be the first day, the Lord's Day? And Paul says, "Really, it doesn't matter. Would you like to worship on Monday?" Religious people have gotten all hung up on all kinds of things. Paul says it doesn't matter. The day doesn't matter. When he wrote to the Church at Corinth, there were some people who went to the butcher shop that was connected with the Temple and they bought a pot roast and the pot roast had, first of all, been offered to the pagan idol, and there were other Christians who saw them buying that pot roast that had been offered to the pagan idol and they said, "Oh, you can't eat something that's been offered to an idol." They said, "Well, let's ask Paul." Paul said, "Who cares? The idol isn't anything. Wave it in © Grand Valley State University �The Gospel of Radical Grace: No Human Invention Richard A. Rhem Page 5   front of the idol as often as you want to. It won't affect the meat. If it's US Prime, it'll be good!" But the point of it all was this – Paul was very flexible, very open; he was not an uptight religious person. Paul was not picayunish. Paul was not small and narrow and mean. Paul didn't go around excluding people from the Kingdom because they parted their hair differently. Paul says the freedom of the Christian person in Christ is grounded in the grace of God. Live it out how you will. Determine how you'll live it out and then do it out of faith, but don't denounce one another and judge one another and condemn one another. Be free in Christ and be of good heart, and then do as you will before the face of God. And so, Paul was not really a bigot, not a dogmatist, not a hard-nose, except on this one thing – he said if you want to turn the grace of God into a religious system full of obligations and duties thereby completing salvation, be accursed. Paul knew that everything was at stake on this pivot point. And this Gospel, he said, is the truth of God. It's not so popular today to talk about the truth. We live in an age in which we have learned to tolerate differences of opinion, and that's good. We live in an age which values tolerance and it is a value. But there are some things, my good friends, that are either true or false, and the Gospel of Jesus Christ is either the expression of the radical grace of God Who is for us and in Jesus Christ has redeemed us, or it is something else, but it's not a gospel. Paul says they preach another gospel which is not another gospel because there is no other gospel. This I received by revelation of Jesus Christ. Now you say, well, that's all fine, Paul. If I were to be able to be smitten with a bright light on the way to Damascus, I would book passage tomorrow. But it wasn't just that. Paul didn't learn about Jesus Christ in the Damascus Road experience. First of all, remember he was battling the followers of Jesus. Brilliant as he was, don't you think that Paul learned about Jesus Christ more than those that he was battling? Don't you think that he had gotten himself well-briefed? Don't you think that he understood every fact about Jesus Christ, even when he was battling? The Damascus Road experience convinced him that Jesus was alive, that Jesus was the Son of God. It was the transforming moment. But when he wrote to the Church at Corinth, he said, "The tradition I received I pass along to you...." He also mentions the tradition when he speaks of the institution of the Lord's Supper in his letter to the Corinthians. He says, "I pass along to you the fact that has been passed alone to me." It wasn't as though he was some Lone Ranger that went off to Damascus and had a message in the sky. Paul was, in that sense, not so different from us who have had access to all of the data and all of the information. Do we not know the Gospel? Any one of you could stand up and you could announce the facts, that data of the Gospel. But what is the Gospel? It is more than the tradition. It is more than Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures, was raised on the third day. It is more than the hard facts that you get out of the book. When Paul © Grand Valley State University �The Gospel of Radical Grace: No Human Invention Richard A. Rhem Page 6   says “by revelation,” he says that all of that suddenly came into focus. "And in a moment I was transformed and I realized that all the data pointed to the stupendous truth - that God, in His grace, through Jesus Christ, loved me." And that the one solid, bedrock, fundamental, basic, elemental truth is that God is gracious, that God is a Saviour, that God has loved us, that all that has to be done has been done, that salvation is complete, that there is nothing we can do for it, nothing we can do to it, nothing we can do to merit it. There is nothing we can do to warrant it! It has been done! It has been done! It is done! Christ has died. Salvation is ours. We are a people loved and graced and all we can do is sing, "Alleluia!" That's why St. Augustine says that a Christian is a person who says, "Alleluia! from the crown of his head to the sole of his foot." And where do we get off with our dullness, with our boring worship, with our hohum attitude, with a strong song of praise that elicits nothing more than a yawn? Shame on us. Shame on us for living in the light of the one great reality, that which is true, and being so blasé about it! Ah, this, my friends, is a celebration in a world that is filled with claims and counterclaims about what is true and what is important and about what ought to have the priority, in a world that is sated with information and data and newscasts and news analysis. In a world like that, this is true – God is good, God is gracious, God loves us, God is the strong foundation of our life, God holds us in His hand and He'll never let us go. And all of His people said, 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 XX Series One Covenant of Grace - the Salvation of the World Scripture Text Galatians 1:11-12 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-0-19871018 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1987-10-18 Title A name given to the resource The Gospel of Radical Grace: No Human Invention 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 October 18, 1987 entitled "The Gospel of Radical Grace: No Human Invention", as part of the series "One Covenant of Grace - the Salvation of the World", on the occasion of Pentecost XX, at Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI. Scripture references: Galatians 1:11-12. Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Lemmen Library and Archives Community of Faith Presence of God Radical Grace of God Tradition Transforming Love Worship https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/522c00faa76359d3e335b5d60cf55745.mp3 a70fd9576c9181f907103cc7e0de0d92 https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/a15109431c6107731e66e49e8e538e64.pdf 5da2c0dd39decccba5353c320e7d5285 PDF Text Text He Lives, We Live, Alleluia! From the sermon series: The Human Face of God Text: John 14:19 Richard A. Rhem Christ Community Church Spring Lake, Michigan Easter Sunday, April 19, 1987 Transcription of the spoken sermon Because I live, you too shall live. John 14:19 "This is the day the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it!" This is the Lord's Day, the Lord's Day of which every first day of the week is a joyful celebration. This is Easter; Christ is risen from the dead. The word from the Gospel for our celebration today is Because I live, you too shall live. It is a simple text; just seven words. You can carry it home with you; you can take it with you through Eastertide; you can take it with you throughout all the seasons of your life; it will give you confidence in your youth, courage in life's middle years, peace at the end; you can take this text to your death, repeating it as you move through the valley of the shadow, into the momentary darkness and into the brightness of the light that will greet you, light streaming from his countenance who spoke this simple, straightforward word. Jesus said: Because I live, you too shall live. Today we focus sharply on the very center of our Christian faith and hope. On Easter we celebrate and rejoice in the final Truth, the last word of our faith: He lives, we live, Alleluia! Today we celebrate the center from which our every Christian celebration stems, the reason why there is any cause at all in this world, in our human condition, to celebrate. Let me set forth but two thoughts around which to center our Easter celebration: the foundation of our celebration, and the reality that we celebrate. © Grand Valley State University   �He Lives, We Live, Alleluia! Richard A. Rhem Page 2   The Foundation The foundation of our Easter celebration is the truth clearly and simply set forth in our text, the claim of Jesus, "I live." That is the great Easter reality. Jesus lives. It is the proclamation of the Gospel story. It was the overwhelming revelation to Mary in the Garden when, in gentle grace, he called her by name. It is the declaration of St. Paul in perhaps the earliest Easter document, the first Corinthian letter, where he declares, ... the truth is, Christ was raised to life. In simplest, most concise terms, Jesus says, I live. Perhaps you were surprised to find the Easter text taken from the Last Discourse with its setting at the Last Supper. That discourse begins with the 13th chapter of John, the moving scene of last supper during which Jesus girded himself with a towel and washed his disciples' feet. Death was at the door; Judas was dismissed. John tells us movingly, "It was night." It was in such a setting that the words of our text were uttered. They appear in a paragraph where Jesus is preparing the disciples for his absence. He assures them that they will not be left desolate, bereft; rather, he will come back to them. Then we hear him say, Because I live, you too will live. How are we to understand these words placed by John in this solemn setting on the eve of crucifixion? Was Jesus aware of Easter before ever he endured Good Friday? Traditionally, the Church has attributed such foreknowledge to him but, I think, wrongly. One thing we can be quite certain of: Jesus knew the end had come; his "hour" had arrived. And further, we can be quite certain that he was confident that God would effect His purposes through life or death. And further, should it be death, still Jesus placed his trust in the Father. But if you ask why I choose a text from the Last Discourse as an Easter text, let me remind you that the whole Gospel and each of the four gospels are PostEaster texts in their entirety. If, as we assume, John's Gospel is the latest of the Gospels to appear, then the Christian community had been living in the light of Easter for several decades. By this time the whole of Jesus' life and all the words remembered that he spoke were understood in the light of Easter. A study of the Last Discourse will show that it is really made up of several pieces of tradition. If, for example, you compare John 13:31 - 14:31 with John 16:4b-33, you will find that they are parallel passages, no doubt remembrances of the same © Grand Valley State University �He Lives, We Live, Alleluia! Richard A. Rhem Page 3   discourse of Jesus stemming from different circles and different times in the developing tradition. There are commentators who go so far as to call these discourses Post-Easter conversations of the risen Christ with his disciples. That is probably not the case, but there is no doubt that these chapters contain various time perspectives and some of the statements appear to be made in the light of the Easter experience and the presence of the Spirit. They reflect the reality of the Post-Easter Christian community. The only point I wish to make out of all of this is that what in the chronology of the Gospel of John appears to be a pre-Easter statement is really a Gospel proclamation in the wake of the Easter experience. Raymond Brown, in his great commentary on John, writes, Although he speaks at the Last Supper, he is really speaking from heaven; although those who hear him are his disciples, his words are directed to Christians of all times. The last discourse is Jesus' last testament: it is meant to be read after he has left earth. Yet it is not like other last testaments, which are the recorded words of men who are dead and can speak no more; ... the Last Discourse has been transformed in the light of the resurrection and through the coming of the Paraclete into a living discourse delivered, not by a dead man, but by the one who has life ... (p. 582) C.H. Dodd writes: It is true that the dramatic setting is that of the night in which he was betrayed, with the crucifixion in prospect. Yet in a real sense, it is the risen and glorified Christ who spoke. Brown explains this rather strange mixture of present and future as follows: The Last Discourse explains the significance and implications of the greatest of Jesus' deeds, namely, his return to the Father; but it precedes what it explains. The reason ... is easy to see: it would be awkward to interrupt the action of the passion, death, and resurrection, and it would be anticlimactic to place so long a discourse after the resurrection. (p. 581) Having explained how such a statement as our text appears in a pre-Easter setting, I want now to examine the foundation of our celebration - Jesus' declaration, I Live. Who makes this claim? It is Jesus, the man of Nazareth whose passion we have traced in these past weeks of Lenten observance. It is Jesus our brother, flesh of © Grand Valley State University �He Lives, We Live, Alleluia! Richard A. Rhem Page 4   our flesh and bone of our bone. It is Jesus, the human covenant partner of the faithful covenant-keeping God. It is Jesus whom Paul calls the last Adam in contrast to the first Adam. In sum: resurrection happened to a fully human person; it was God's mighty act, but the action was worked on Jesus, a human person who had been "made like these his brothers of his in every way," to quote the writer to the Hebrews from whom we took our text on Passion Sunday. Our Lenten pilgrimage began around the Table and the text affirmed the mystery of our salvation: "God was in Christ, reconciling the world to himself." God was in Christ. God was in this thing from the beginning, from eternity, in the conception and birth, in the life and in the death, but the one in whom God was fully present and active was the man Jesus. Our whole understanding of Jesus, of God's action in him, of the salvation accomplished through him comes from the New Testament, all of which was written a good while after that first Easter - a perspective from which the Early Church was fully convinced that God was in this thing. In order to witness to that Truth and to proclaim that Truth, Jesus was given every conceivable title of honor and dignity. There was no doubt that God was fully present to, active in, working through Jesus and when the creeds were formulated in the subsequent centuries, the way the Church gave expression to its understanding was to point to Jesus and say, True God, true man. And in the history of the Church, the "True God" soon overshadowed the true man. But we have followed a different tack these Lenten weeks. We have attempted to see him "from below" in the genuine human existence he lived out. We have attempted to see him as our brother - in fear and trembling before the "hour," determined fully to follow the will of the Father in costly obedience, setting us an example that we should follow in his steps. This Jesus: made in every way like us, the Jesus whom Mary did not know how to love, the Jesus who wrestled in anguish only finally to say, "Thy will be done," the Jesus who with disarming vulnerability faced down the alignment of worldly power determined to maintain its position by fear, coercion and intimidation. If we have done justice to the portrait of the man as the New Testament still portrays him, even through the overlay of deity ascribed to him, then Easter is really something to shout about because then a man has risen from the dead, then a human person has conquered death through the mighty power of God. Now, that's a miracle! © Grand Valley State University �He Lives, We Live, Alleluia! Richard A. Rhem Page 5   This is no God-man with an ace up his sleeve who couldn't die anyway because he was God. Don't tell me about a God-man whom death could not conquer. That would be no miracle. Then Jesus was only a masquerade. Then he seemed human, but was not really our brother. Then one can say God was here and death could not touch him, but one cannot say a fully human person was here and he conquered death by the power of God, Whose will he fully followed and to Whose care he trustingly committed himself. The glory of Easter is that God raised up one like ourselves, that in a fully human existence, death has been conquered. Jesus said, "I live." That is more than I exist; that is, "I am alive with the vitality of God, the source of life, and consequently, because I live, you, too, shall live!" The Reality We Celebrate The reality we celebrate today is that we, too, shall live. That is, that we are enlivened with the vitality of the resurrected Christ and that we now are alive with the life of God and we shall move through the moment of death into a fuller, richer dimension of life forevermore. The biblical term, the great theme of John's Gospel, is Eternal Life – life in a new dimension. Union with Jesus through faith was for John the union with God that was the source of life in a new dimension – eternal life – a present possession and an even more wonderful reality yet awaiting us beyond the terminus of death. You, too, shall live. That is the transforming consequence of the great Easter event. He lives, we live, Alleluia! Again, let me stress, we are not speaking of the mere perpetuation of life, the mere extension of some kind of biological existence. It is not simply to have more of living "at this poor dying rate." Although there is a strong, natural drive to live, to keep alive, it is also true that life can become a burden. Last evening my aunt told me of an uncle who said to her yesterday, "How I wish the Lord would take me home." That is not a rare desire. He, who was full of life and loved to travel and loved to have half a dozen children crawling over him at one time, has been wounded by a stroke. Emotions are out of sync, the mind goes out of focus, the motor skills are damaged, and he who always cared for others is now the object of care, handicapped, crippled, a bird with broken wing whose song is silenced. You, too, shall live! © Grand Valley State University �He Lives, We Live, Alleluia! Richard A. Rhem Page 6   But not in the limitation, brokenness and tragedy of this present experience. We shall LIVE; that is, we are now and we shall be more so, alive with the very life of God, this vitality by which he powerfully raised Jesus from the dead. In the first letter of John, the wonder of what we are now and the anticipation of what we shall be is beautifully experienced. Behold what manner of love the Father has bestowed upon us that we should be called the children of God; and such we are now and we know not what we shall be, but we know that when he appears we shall be like him for we shall see him as he is. Now! The present possession of life is the gift of the risen Lord and there is still more to come. In an Easter letter from prison, Bonhoeffer contrasts Socrates and Jesus. Socrates mastered the art of dying. Jesus conquered death. The first is within human capacity; the latter implies resurrection. The Easter message is a message of radical renewal. What we celebrate today is not just the return of a dead person to life, but the death of death, the conquest of death, the last evening and therefore the triumph of grace in the whole cosmos, the very victory of God over every obstacle, all darkness, every tragedy and all suffering. The resplendent strains of triumph reverberate down the post Easter decades of the Early Church. Paul writes nothing, nothing, nothing can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. He breaks out in triumphant acclamation, Thanks be to God who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ! Socrates mastered the art of dying. One of philosophical bent can come to terms with almost any situation or condition. One can, with discipline and concentration and contemplation, come to a measure of peace in any storm - at least some seem to; that was true of Socrates - he mastered the art of dying. But Jesus conquered death. Socrates calmly drank the hemlock. Jesus anguished before the moment of evil's assault. Jesus wept. Jesus cried for release. Jesus felt utter desolation. Socrates died; nothing changed. Jesus died and then God changed everything. Jesus conquered death through the mighty power of God and therefore it is he who addresses us on each recurring Lord's Day, each First Day of the Week, with the assuring words, © Grand Valley State University �He Lives, We Live, Alleluia! Richard A. Rhem Page 7   Because I live you, too, shall live. We shall live, my friends - live beyond a mean and selfish extension of this present scene; live beyond the dis-ease, the restless anxiety, the broken down and disappointed hope; live beyond the gaping wounds of denial and betrayal; live beyond the weakness of our mortal bodies vulnerable to sickness and crippling disability. We shall live in love in communion with Jesus, in union with God in the eternal praise of His glory. © 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 Human Face of God Scripture Text John 14: 19 Location The location of the interview Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context KII-01_RA-0-19870419 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1987-04-19 Title A name given to the resource He Lives, We Live, Alleluia! 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 19, 1987 entitled "He Lives, We Live, Alleluia!", as part of the series "The Human Face of God", on the occasion of Easter Sunday, at Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI. Scripture references: John 14: 19. Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Lemmen Library and Archives Easter Followers of Jesus Joy Resurrection Transforming Love https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/f2bf5657ccdcef4a3432f109cbff9a78.mp3 ff005de5a264bc93d27e7b50776060b3 https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/5fcee76ea7f2f18f7f61cb8f435a8c73.pdf c78aa5f6ef35e11359d7edafb09df27a PDF Text Text At Our Death – No Fear of Judgment From the Lenten sermon series: Christian Hope in Life and Death Text: John 5: 24-25 Richard A. Rhem Christ Community Church Spring Lake, Michigan Midweek Lenten Service, March 11, 1987 Transcription of the spoken sermon I want to begin this evening a series of brief messages on the theme “Christian Hope in Life and in Death.” And in so doing, I want to probe some of the biblical teaching around the point of our death and the nature of that experience that we will pass through at the moment of death. The Gospel of Jesus Christ is that great positive announcement of what God has done in Christ for the salvation of the world. The Gospel, in its radical announcement in the New Testament, is an announcement of an accomplished reality which is announced by the Apostle in order that people might simply open up their lives to it. Oftentimes in the history of the Church, down through the centuries, salvation has been made something that has been offered as a possibility, sort of dangled in front of a person, almost used, on occasion, as a kind of manipulative motivator in order to get people to toe a certain line or to mouth a certain confession, but salvation as a reality has often been held out as something to be grasped and appropriated. But a line has been drawn, a line around the redeemed with a very clear demarcation between those who are in and those who are out, and therefore, the idea of a final judgment or a continuing judgment, even in the midst of history, has been used often in the Church to create fear and, at its worst, even terror. Religious people have often been people who have been controlled by that fear of the end, and religion has been as much a binder of the human spirit as it has been a liberator of the human spirit. Indeed, I would not be surprised if we could actually examine the annals of history and had a profile on every human person that has ever passed through this way, if we might not find that religion has been a burden to be borne rather than that which lifted the soul and brought a person into the freedom of the grace of God. And the idea of judgment has been one of the great tools that have been used in the religious community to control, and fear has been a negative motivation that has often been used in the church. © Grand Valley State University   �At Our Death – No Fear of Judgment Richard A. Rhem Page 2   It has been my own personal pilgrimage that we have moved from a response of fear to a response of love and joy in the presence of grace. And, as I have done that personally, I have found my own spiritual life enriched and I have found my ministry enriched. You don't find a lot of fire and brimstone preached around here, and you do not have often held before you in vivid fashion the leaping flames of Hell, and I suspect that you probably won't as long as I'm around, because I am, more and more, overwhelmed by the radical nature of God's act in Jesus Christ by which He has brought about redemption of the world, and I see that as an accomplished fact which has wider and broader implications than those that seem to be evidenced within the narrow circle of the Church. I believe that God's salvation of the world has been accomplished through Jesus Christ, but I think that in our traditional understanding of salvation in the Church, we have been far too narrow as to the scope, the breadth and the depth of that saving act in Jesus Christ. Now, it has often been the case that people who have moved away from that fearful portrait of judgment and that threat of Hell have moved in a reactionary way to the denial of the reality of judgment and the seriousness of human experience and the testing nature of human life. I want to avoid that kind of reaction in my own pilgrimage and so, as I have been probing these things personally in my own life, I have begun to share them with you in preaching. A year ago in December we talked about Heaven and Hell and Judgment and Purgatory, and that was only the beginning, but I have continued to study the theme and reflect upon it, and so during these Wednesday evenings in Lent, I want to seek to share with you from the Word of God some conviction to which I have come which I hope will be helpful to you. I am convinced that there are many questions in the hearts and minds of God's people about these themes and, in the Church in general; often not very much is said about it. We have been a little bit embarrassed about the subject of Hell, a little embarrassed about the subject of Judgment, we have oftentimes, in becoming rather uncertain of some of the biblical images, backed away from it and just left it alone, and yet I find that we really still have within our hearts – educated, sophisticated, suave people of the last quarter of the 20th century – we still wonder what lies before us, what is human destiny? What kind of an appointment do we have with God? What has God done in Jesus Christ, and what will be the implications of that for the whole world, for the whole human race, and for me? Well, with that as kind of a broad-stroke introduction, let me say that tonight I simply want to say to you that at our death there need be no fear of judgment. But the first thing I want to say is that there will be judgment, and that is clear throughout the scriptures. In the 5th chapter of John's Gospel, which is really a very difficult passage, – I read part of it this evening – in the 24th verse we have these words, © Grand Valley State University �At Our Death – No Fear of Judgment Richard A. Rhem Page 3   In very truth, anyone who gives heed to what I say and puts his trust in him who has sent me, has hold of eternal life, and does not come up for judgment, but has already passed from death into life. Now, that statement would seem to say that judgment is a thing of the past, for the one who has come to believe in Jesus Christ, there is no condemnation. One has passed from death to life. That's a very common theme in John's Gospel, and it makes a very important point, which we ought to take to our hearts and minds and that is this: that, in coming to God through Jesus Christ, we have moved beyond the fear of judgment, we have moved beyond condemnation. Paul said it another way - in the 8th chapter of Romans, There is now therefore no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus. In John's Gospel the theme of eternal life is dealt with to great extent, and it means the present possession of a qualitative dimension of life which is the gift of God's grace. Eternal life has often been popularly spoken of as something that begins after our death, as though we live now, die and then come into the possession of eternal life. That is not biblical teaching. John's Gospel is very clear - Jesus' words here are explicit. The one who believes, who puts his trust in him who sent me, has (present tense) hold of eternal life, and does not come up for judgment, but has already passed from death to life. There is a state of spiritual death; coming to God through Jesus Christ beings one into a state of spiritual life. To come to life through Jesus Christ is to move beyond the threat or the fear of condemnation. But then you take the passage we read from Paul's letter to the Corinthians, the 5th chapter, and in that chapter Paul speaks about judgment, and he speaks about judgment to those at Corinth who had committed their lives to Jesus Christ. He says "We must all have our lives laid open before the tribunal of Christ where each must receive what is due him for his conduct in the body, good or bad." Now, how do you put Jesus' word from John 5:24 together with Paul's words in Cor. 5:10? Jesus said he is passed from death to life and had moved beyond judgment. Paul says our lives must be laid open before the tribunal of Christ where each must receive what is due him, according to his conduct. Both are true, obviously. In the one case, Jesus speaks about coming into that condition or that state spoken of as eternal life, which is a qualitative change of life, an existence in relationship, in conscious relationship with God through Jesus Christ. For such a person, there is no fear of judgment. Yet, Paul speaks about the judgment of Christian people and, in this case, he says our lives will be laid bare before the tribunal of Christ. So, we have now a testing, an examination that God's people will go through in the moment of their death. On the one hand, Jesus speaks about no fear of condemnation. But, on the other hand, Paul speaks about that testing or sifting that we will go through at our death. And both are true. © Grand Valley State University �At Our Death – No Fear of Judgment Richard A. Rhem Page 4   The subject this evening is, “At Our Death, No Fear of Judgment.” No fear of judgment in terms of being turned away or turned out, or condemned. But judgment, to be sure. Judgment that we need not fear, in fact, judgment that we ought to seek. For when we reflect on our lives, don't we really know that we are people responsible and accountable, and don't we really want to know the truth about ourselves before the face of God? What is it to belong to God through Jesus Christ and experience his grace, if it is not to free us up to want to have our lives just that open in His presence? At the moment of our death, no fear of judgment, but judgment, to be sure, in the sense of a testing and a sifting of the character of our lives. And, indeed, that not only should not strike fear into our hearts, that should give us great consolation. For, not only in our own lives, but as we survey the whole course of human history with all of its horror and its tragedy and its suffering and its evil - isn't it a necessary and desirable thing that somehow or other wrongs will be righted, and justice will be done? Don't we really want to be transparent before the face of Jesus Christ, and is that not what the biblical theme, the New Testament theme of judgment is all about? There is now no condemnation to those who are in Christ. That's behind us. But there is that laying open of our lives before the tribunal of Christ. Now that makes my living every day a very serious matter. Not that it strikes terror in my life, but what it does do is cause me to seek to be a person of integrity, of honesty, of honor, and to the extent that I know that I fail, and to the extent that I know that I'm caught up in life itself where things are not black and white, but various shades of gray, where I not only deliberately do that which is wrong, but sometimes get caught up in the web of that which is wrong, do we not really in the depths of our being long for that day when we will know as we are known, and our lives will be laid open? That is not a cause for fear, but an encouraging cause of hope, for we believe in the God Who takes us seriously and Who takes human history seriously, and Who has a redeeming purpose in the midst of our history, and Who has a destiny designed for us wherein His kingdom will fully come, a kingdom of righteousness and joy and peace. And so, our lives will be laid bare before the tribunal of Christ, and the conduct of every day is a part of the ingredient of that which will be revealed. At our death, judgment without fear, because the judge is Jesus, our Saviour. Now, you know you've heard me say that God is not through with us at our death, and I'll be coming to that on subsequent Wednesday nights. That moment of death must be a fascinating moment when, in a moment, we will understand both the wonder of grace and the record of who we have become. No cause for fear, but a fascinating appointment before the judge of all the earth, who is none other than Jesus Christ, the Saviour of the world. He who loved us and gave himself for us and has prepared for us that place in eternal fellowship with God through that which he has accomplished for us in his death and resurrection. © Grand Valley State University �At Our Death – No Fear of Judgment Richard A. Rhem At our death, judgment without fear, for the judge is our Saviour, who in a moment will give us bread and wine, his very life flowing into our lives. What wondrous love is this, indeed! © Grand Valley State University Page 5   � 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 Lenten Service Series Christian Hope in Life and Death Scripture Text II Corinthians 5:19 Location The location of the interview Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context KII-01_RA-0-19870311 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1987-03-11 Title A name given to the resource At Our Death - No Fear of Judgment 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 11, 1987 entitled "At Our Death - No Fear of Judgment", as part of the series "Christian Hope in Life and Death", on the occasion of Midweek Lenten Service, at Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI. Scripture references: II Corinthians 5:19. Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Lemmen Library and Archives Judgment Lent Transforming Love Universal Grace https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/cc683672d489b1d8a22bf5f74bd796e4.mp3 1ede0a2155f35506c45ab5e2ebce0b3f https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/b19cdda82c25c9e6be51e28fbffbea31.pdf 4d5272f8180d4b2f608406923ce18dcb PDF Text Text Loving is Living Without Fear Text: Luke 1:30; Matthew 1:20; Luke 2:10; I John 4:18 Richard A. Rhem Christ Community Church Spring Lake, Michigan January 4, 1987 Transcription of the spoken sermon ... Do not be afraid, Mary for you have found favor with God. Luke 1:30 ... Joseph ... do not be afraid to take Mary home with you as your wife... Matthew 1:20 And the angel said to them [the shepherds), "Be not afraid; for behold I bring you good news of a great joy ..." Luke. 2:10 There is no room for fear in love; perfect love banishes fear. I John 4:18 If we did a little word association game and we were looking for pairs of opposites, and I said "black," you would probably say, "white," and if I said "hot," you would say, "cold," and if I said "war," you'd say, "peace," and if I said "love," you'd say, "hate." And you would be wrong. Love and hate seem like a pair of opposites, but when you really stop to think about it, it's not really love and hate, but love and fear. That's an insight which has been brought to light by a psychiatrist named Gerald Jampolsky. He shared that on the Hour of Power, and it was an insight that Bob Schuller appreciated so much that he got to know Jerry Jampolsky and last year, in March, when we were on Maui at a theological conference with Bob Schuller, Jerry was there. I must say that he lives his creed. He's written a little book, Love Is Letting Go Of Fear. It's a simple book; it's almost a simplistic book. It has cartoon characters and bold-type declarations that one can memorize, but in spite of the fact that it seems like an elementary treatment, he does have hold of something, and there is a profound truth there. He has had, in his own experience, life transformation through the insight. On reflection, I got to thinking, "Well, Jerry, you're not so smart. The Apostle John in the First Century said that a long tine ago!" He said there's no room for fear in love. Perfect love banishes fear. And so, what has been rediscovered in our day is simply an old truth, and, as a matter of fact, it's at the very heart of the Gospel; it is at the very root of what God has done for us at Christmas in the incarnation of the Word, in © Grand Valley State University   �Loving is Living Without Fear Richard A. Rhem Page 2   the revelation of His glory in the face of Jesus Christ. The Christmas message, at its very core, says that loving is living without fear. Love and fear, according to John, are mutually exclusive. Love and fear cannot coexist in the same heart. Well, I suppose our hearts are always living in a balance of love and fear, but to the extent that we are loving, we are not fearing, and to the extent that we are fearing, we are not loving. And the battle is to get hold of the insight of Christmas and begin to love and not fear. Loving is living without fear, and that is a life-transforming truth if we'd ever let it grip our souls. We do have some control over the ingredients of our minds and the stuff of our life. We can make some conscious and deliberate choices, and those conscious and deliberate choices can be made, for a Christian, on the basis of a foundation of truth rooted in the Gospel, rooted in the Christmas Gospel. John says the greatest reality is that God is love. It is repeated over again in that fourth chapter - God is love. God is love. The ultimate reality is love. At the heart and center of things is love. Reality, history, human experience, the transcendent ground of everything is not love, among other things - it is love. That's John's grasp of the truth that he discovered in Jesus Christ. God is love. And so, when he says that there is no room for fear in love, but rather that perfect love casts out fear, he is giving a very practical prescription for living and that prescription can really transform our human experience. At the heart and center of reality there is love, and he says that love came to manifestation. If you want next week's word, Epiphany, the word is in this text. God showed or God manifested His love to us in that He sent His son. Jesus was the gift of God by which he signaled to the world that He is love. The Gospel of Jesus is the good news that the heart of God is the heart of love, and that the great, basic, ultimate, final, supreme reality of everything, of human life and of the world and of the whole of the cosmic scope of things is love. That's the Christmas message. The Christmas message is meant to enable us to live with love and to be done with fear. That is very, very elemental; it speaks to the root of our problem. God displayed love that casts out fear. I was rather surprised as I began to think about the story, this wonderful Christmas story that we've just lived through again. Mary gets a marvelous announcement from Gabriel. I suppose it would strike fear into one's heart. Gabriel's words to Mary were, "Mary, fear not. Fear not. Don't worry about the fact that you're engaged and the marriage hasn't been consummated. Don't worry about what the community will say. Don't worry about the fact that you might lose Joseph and lose everything and have all your dreams shattered." Easy to say, Good Old Gabriel - "Don't be afraid." But that was his word, because that was Mary's problem. It's always our problem. We're always afraid. Who knows what this new year will bring? Sometimes we grow anxious. How will our new business do? How about the new practice we've just started? How about the new relationship we've just established? How about the new child in our home, or © Grand Valley State University �Loving is Living Without Fear Richard A. Rhem Page 3   grandchild? What about all the scary possibilities of this new year, in this world that is going with such a whirl, on its way, always teetering on the brink of disaster? Fear fills the human heart. "Don't be afraid, Mary." And then, there's Joseph. Joseph is a decent sort of person. What will he do? Will he be willing to risk being made the laughingstock of the community? Will he expose Mary to that ridicule? Will he be so put off and offended at Mary? "Yeah, sure, Mary, a dove. I know, a dove." The angel comes and says, "Joseph, don't be afraid. Don't be afraid to take Mary." He would be afraid. Who wouldn't be afraid? And so the Word of God always has to come through His angelic messenger. "Don't be afraid." And then this marvelous event is broadcast to the world, brought personally to shepherds. Good News! And what did the angels have to say? "Don't be afraid. Fear not. Good news of a great joy that shall be to all people. Settle down. Calm yourselves. Don't be afraid." It must be that there is something intrinsic, something at the very core of our being; there is something about being human that makes us react to life with fear. It's very elemental. It's a very primitive response to life. I suppose it's because of our connection with the whole animal kingdom, our connectedness with all of Creation, that survival instinct. Did you ever watch a bird in the grass looking for a worm, cocking its head, listening? I'm never sure if it's listening for a worm rattling down in the clay, or whether it's cocking its head to see if I have a slingshot in my hand. I think it's always worried about a BB gun. Here, there, all over the place. A parable of a human being. Always looking around for the next threat, the next attack. Life is viewed as threatening, and people's relationship is often viewed as an attack, and we live our lives in an adversarial environment with others. Always feeling that we have something to protect, something to hold onto, something to possess, something to guard. Fear is a very primitive human response. So, all of our lives we go about being afraid and interpreting the behavior of others as an attack. And it happens all over the place. Did you ever go in for a nice meal in a restaurant and the waitress begins by spilling your ice water over the table, pours hot coffee down your back, and snarls, "What do you want?" And you've just come in, expecting a pleasant evening with a waiter to be at your service, and he turns out to be grouchy, and so you say to the people with you, "Well, I'll fix him. We'll give him a little tip." (Don't leave out the tip completely, because then the waiter will interpret that as though you forgot to leave a tip.) Leave a quarter when it should have been a tendollar bill. That will get the message across. Then he'll know that I am saying to him that I am displeased with the service. And, of course, that will make his day, won't it? And maybe the man's wife was just laid off with the prospect of unemployment for months. Maybe his son was just taken to the Emergency Room, having been struck down with an automobile. Maybe he is about to go in for emergency surgery with a bleeding ulcer that's about to burst in the next two © Grand Valley State University �Loving is Living Without Fear Richard A. Rhem Page 4   or three hours, and maybe you were able to add to all the anxiety that will bring it to a head. We do it to each other all the time. Never stop to ask, "Why? Wow, that person must be struggling with something." Rather, we say, "Who do you think you are? And I'll fix you. I'll get my own back." And so, we get this adversarial kind of relationship going, static sparks between us, and we go around through life like a bull in a china shop, we go around causing sparks to fly all over, and sparks fly all over the landscape. What does it do to us? It leaves us more deeply entrenched than ever before in that which has shackled us and gripped our spirit. The pall of darkness is heavier; the loneliness, the isolation is more extreme. And the reaction of fear and anger is all the more intense. We do that to each other, and it's one thing when we do that to each other, but we do it also as peoples and as clans and as ethnic groups and as races and as nations, so that the whole world, the whole human story is a violent story of action and reaction, charge and counter charge. Attack and fearful response, and attack again. There must be something deep down in us that causes us to respond with fear – basic insecurity that makes us go through life always interpreting everything as an attack to which we, out of fear, respond in anger. Attack and anger and attack and anger and the static grows and the sparks grow and the conflagration explodes on the earth. Now, God wants to get through to us. Why don't you do what would be so obvious to do, God, for rebellious subjects like we are? Why don't you come in and clobber us? Why don't you come in with a 2 by 4 to get our attention, beat us over the head? Why don't you come in as the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords, with angel hosts and flashing lights and great power? Why don't you climb on a bulldozer and move through history? Get our attention! Show us who we are! Put us in our place! Well, that's what He decided to do. But He figured, if He did it that way, He'd make us more of what we were already. Oh, He could get our attention. He could make us cower in the corner. He could probably even get our grudging conformity to His will, but it would be full of hostility. It would be full of anger. And it would be the kind of relationship that is characterized by coercion and manipulation. Well, He had a problem, didn't He? So, He decided to come in the vulnerability of a child. Because what He really wanted was not our subservience. What He really wanted was not our obedience, not our cowering, groveling before the presence of His glory. What He wanted us to do was look Him in the face so that He could say to us, "All I am is love, and I love you." So that we might be able to look Him in the face and say, "I love You, too." And how do you get that kind of thing going? You only get that kind of thing going when you take the risk of vulnerability. So there he lies in a cradle, in a child, in all of the harmless vulnerability of a child there's the Lord of glory, there's the everlasting God, the Prince of Peace. And you can handle Him and you can run roughshod over Him and you can put Him up © Grand Valley State University �Loving is Living Without Fear Richard A. Rhem Page 5   on a cross and do away with Him. But He'll have the last word – it's Love. And every once in a while – out of our intense fear and anger that frequently lashes out from us, at various times or inappropriately – every once in a while, somebody looks up and says, "Why am I fighting and full of anger if God is Love?" Every once in a while, somebody gets disarmed by love. That really is what Christmas is all about. God is love. He didn't write that in the sky. John says, "In this the love of God is manifested in that He sent His son." Then John says, "Beloved, if God so loved us..." Well, obviously, again, in our human understanding of things, we know the concluding clause will be, "We ought to love God," because we expect that love will be responded to with love. If God loves us, we love God. How neat. We can go through life with this nice, personal relationship with God and create Hell the rest of the time. But that's not what John says. "Beloved, if God so loved us, we ought to love one another." Isn't that amazing? The Gospel is radical. The word "radical" comes from the root, "radix," which means "root." God addressed the root of our problem at Christmas. The root of our problem is that we're insecure and we're afraid, and so we live always on the attack, interpreting everything as threat, and we create Hell on earth. The Gospel is the radical solution to the human dilemma. The Gospel is God's move into the vulnerability of a child by which He signals to us, "I am love. Be not afraid." Loving, is living without fear, because there is no room for fear in love; perfect love casts out fear. Every once in a while somebody wakes up to that radical story and says, "Wow," and finds the hostility and the anger melt away and life absolutely transformed. One set free - free from fear, free to love. That is a radical message. That is the Christmas message. That is the truth, and in a moment like this, if one could just be grasped by it, it could change one's life. One could go out for dinner and get illserved and smile at the person and give them a gentle touch, and leave a large tip and turn their life upside down. They'll tell you that this won't work. This won't work in Washington, of course. Nor in Moscow. Or Beijing. It won't work in Geneva. It won't work at City Hall. It won't work at the boardrooms of industry. Well, as a matter of fact, it really won't work anywhere without the possibility of one being taken advantage of, made a fool of, maybe even crucified. So, it probably won't work. But, to be honest, nothing else works; we only compound the problems: fear, threat, anger, attack, leaving all parties more deeply entrenched in fear. Nice going, God. We're going to try it on our own. We've got a couple more techniques up our sleeve. But, to be honest, what we need is a miracle of love. I wonder if it would work. I am, on the first Sunday of 1987, going to make a public pledge to try it, intentionally, in that little circle of my life. I invite you to join me, for loving is living without fear. And I suspect that's really living. © Grand Valley State University �Loving is Living Without Fear Richard A. Rhem Page 6   Let us pray. Father, forgive us for all of the common sense rationalization of our failure to live the Gospel. Release us from our fears. Help us to hear Your word, "Be not afraid." Enable us to respond to Your love by loving. Through Jesus Christ, our Lord. 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 Christmastide II Scripture Text Luke 1:30, 2:10, Matt. 1:20, I John 4:18 Location The location of the interview Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context KII-01_RA-0-19870104 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1987-01-04 Title A name given to the resource Loving is Living Without Fear 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 January 4, 1987 entitled "Loving is Living Without Fear", on the occasion of Christmastide II, at Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI. Scripture references: Luke 1:30, 2:10, Matt. 1:20, I John 4:18. Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Lemmen Library and Archives Community of Grace Fear God is Love Incarnation Love at the Core of Reality Transforming Love https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/2d7b46c98e68bebc0f77c3be39557dee.mp3 1b5cde47d8e45400b0905f0a12e11ab0 https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/8678c5a8a4615266210d30329cb7455f.pdf ba908721ca5f40a5860ea3ecc5e780b8 PDF Text Text Mary Magdalene: Bedeviled From the sermon series: No Stained Glass Saints Text: Luke 8: 2; John 20: 16 Richard A. Rhem Christ Community Church Spring Lake, Michigan November 9, 1986 Transcription of the spoken sermon The lilting melody and the words of the song of Mary Magdalene in the rock opera, Jesus Christ, Superstar, are, for me, one of the most moving songs that have come along in a long time. I don't know how to love him, What to do, how to move him. I've, been changed, yes, really changed. In these past few days when I’ve seen myself I seem like someone else. (Mary Magdalene, in Jesus Christ Superstar, A Rock Opera) The song expresses the struggle within the heart of Mary Magdalene, whose life had been transformed by Jesus Christ, trying to come to terms with that experience and with the One Who was the catalyst for that human transformation. Don’t you think it’s rather funny I should be in this position? She is no lover’s fool, the one who has always been so cool, ... running every show. And yet, in the presence of Jesus, Mary is a woman transformed, transfixed, really not knowing how to love him. He scares me so… I want him so…I love him so. I find that Mary Magdalene has been the subject of a great deal of the great art of the world – painting, literature, drama. She has played an important role in the tradition of the Church. She is the example of a person whose life was changed by Jesus Christ. I know that she has been sculpted in statuary, she has been painted © Grand Valley State University   �Mary Magdalene: Bedeviled Richard A. Rhem Page 2   on canvas, and I can't help but believe she has been placed in stained glass, as well. Mary Magdalene is a woman about whom we know very little prior to her encounter with Jesus Christ. Luke's brief statement tells us that Mary was one of a company of women who accompanied the band of disciples and Jesus, who ministered to them out of their resources. He identifies Mary as one from whom seven demons had gone out. I don't know if he meant seven, or if he meant simply seven as that number of completion, but that isn't really important. The important thing is that he points to a woman who ministered to Jesus Christ during the days of his ministry. If we had read the complete Gospel record, we would find her to have been with Mary, his mother, lingering at the Cross when the disciples had forsaken him. We would find her in the company of other women early in the morning, coming to the tomb on the day of Resurrection. We find her, as we read a moment ago, as that one to whom Jesus gave that special and personal revelation of himself. It would seem, perhaps, that Mary Magdalene represented that human person in Jesus' life with whom he must have had the deepest, most intimate relationship. Her life had been changed and with total devotion she followed him, she worshiped him. He was the source of her continuing new existence. And it's a remarkable story full of good hope for all of us, because I don't imagine there is anyone here this morning that could qualify as a better cripple than Mary Magdalene. There is no one who has entered this sanctuary this morning who would have to take a back seat in the presence of Mary Magdalene before she met Jesus. We don't know much about her, but the imagination of the Church has been full and rich. Throughout the Church tradition she has often been lumped with the other Marys. There are, indeed, seven Marys mentioned in the New Testament. Mary, the sister of Martha and Lazarus, for one. And then, just prior to this account in Luke 8 mentioning Mary Magdalene, there is the story of a woman of the street, the streetwalker, the harlot, who comes into the Pharisees’ party where Jesus is, breaks down, weeps over his feet, wipes them with the hairs of her head. In the tradition of the Church, Mary Magdalene has often been identified with this woman, although without any real biblical warrant. She has been identified, also, both in Jesus Christ Superstar, and another, earlier 20th century drama, Mary Magdalene, by a man named Maeterlinck, as the woman in John 8, the woman taken in the act of adultery who was dragged before Jesus with the question, "What shall we do with her? What does the Law require?" Jesus said, as he stooped and wrote in the sand, "Those of you who are without sin, cast the first stone, fulfilling the Law," and with all of them slinking away, he finally confronted the woman, saying to her, "Does no man accuse you?" She said, "No man, Lord." He said, "Neither do I. Go your way and sin no more." There is no biblical basis for identifying Mary Magdalene with the woman in Luke 7 who burst into the dinner party, nor is there any basis for identifying Mary Magdalene with the woman in John 8 taken in adultery. However, it is a possibility. We don't know. Whatever was the trouble with Mary Magdalene, as a matter of fact, she was a wounded, crippled human being. She was a person that © Grand Valley State University �Mary Magdalene: Bedeviled Richard A. Rhem Page 3   was in bondage. She was a person who was not free, not healthy, not whole. She was a person who lacked a sense of identity and self-esteem and spiritual health and wholeness. She was a person who was crippled, injured, wounded. She was a person who was dominated by some power outside of herself, which was not the Power of God, but the Power of Darkness. This one, who has been a great, magnificent woman in the mind of the Church down through the centuries, was, indeed, a broken, crippled human being. Then she met Jesus. And that's the hopeful message this morning – that there is no human condition that cannot be transformed by Jesus Christ. The simple message this morning is that there is no wounding of the human spirit, no crippling of the human person that cannot be reversed by the mighty power of God that appeared in Jesus Christ. I have read books this week because I knew I would be facing Mary this morning, as I faced you, and I knew the Bible says that out of her had gone seven demons, and I'm not one who easily believes in demons. I'm not one who easily believes in angels. I'm not one that easily believes in anything I can't get my hands around. And it's tough to be a preacher of the Gospel when you are also a person who is generally on a head-trip, intellectually oriented, and totally conditioned by the modern scientific method. I say, it's tough to be a preacher of the Gospel when your head keeps getting in the way. And so, I knew I had to start early, but I didn't start early, I simply went late. Reading, reading, reading. Hoping that now, finally, after all of these years of ministry, all these years of preaching the Gospel, all of these years of dealing with Gospels that have the Son of God and human cripples and the demonic and evil in them – that I might get some insight as to how darkness can come to indwell the human spirit and wound and cripple the human person, and how Jesus Christ can transform, setting the person free. Well, I could have just concentrated on the magnificence of the Magdalene in her devotion to Jesus, once she had been healed, and let it go at that. But I couldn't really do that, either, and so I have struggled and I have wrestled and, believe it or not, even prayed. Here is a story of a human being, a human being crippled. I know human beings crippled. I know human beings in this congregation this morning who are crippled, who are wounded, who are scarred, who are in the power of something from which they cannot break free. We come to church - what for? Religious obligation? That doesn't work here for very many anymore. We come here - for what? To hear some interesting word, some scintillating lecture, some good music? Not all bad. But, is that all? Who are you this morning who has entered the sanctuary and come into the presence of God and presented yourself? Is there not one here this morning who is wounded and crippled and broken, struggling with darkness, knowing the anguish of the desperation within for which there seems to be no liberating word? Let me tell you that Mary Magdalene must have been that kind of a person. She is portrayed movingly in some of the drama written about her. She has sparked the imagination of playwrights; she has caused the creativity of artists to flow. © Grand Valley State University �Mary Magdalene: Bedeviled Richard A. Rhem Page 4   Because there she is, bound with seven demons, in the grip of darkness, meeting Jesus, life turned upside down! Changed. I've been changed. Yes, really changed. I don't know how to love him. He scares me so. I want him so. I love, him so. I've been changed. Yes, really changed. Have you come to church this morning to be changed? Have you come to church this morning conscious of bindings, bondage, unfreedom, darkness and desperation? I announce to you the Gospel of Jesus Christ, which says that he has the power to deliver you from whatever shackle binds your spirit. And he can transform you, wherever you are and whatever your condition, into a person that is whole and healthy, full of worship and praise, love and devotion. Jesus can make you new. I believe that. I don't understand it. I often wrestle with it. Jesus taught us to pray, saying, "... deliver us from the Evil One." I don't know anything about the Devil, Satan. I even get queasy when people talk about the Devil. Most of the time, when people say the Devil did this or that, I get to thinking, "Ah, don't blame it on the Devil. We are responsible and we are to be mature and we have a certain freedom to make our own decisions. Don't blame it on the snake." It's not easy for me to picture a universe in which there are, in reality, spiritual powers that impact our lives. But I believe it. In spite of myself, I believe it. And I believe the story of Mary Magdalene is in scripture as a sign of hope for every human being that would be set free. I read a document to which I referred some months ago, Healing The Family Tree, in dazed amazement as it tells about the reversing of incurable, irreversible human situations simply by believing prayer in Jesus' name for deliverance and for healing. Mary Magdalene marches before us this morning as a sign of hope. I confess before you that too many of you have come to me and I, with you, have too readily, too easily acquiesced to the givenness of the human situation. I have not had faith. I confess to you - I do it not as a rhetorical ploy. I confess to you that it is hard for me to believe! Do you hear me? So, I am preaching beyond my experience and I am preaching beyond my faith. I am preaching what the Bible says this morning, calling you to the possibility that your life could be set free if you believe in Jesus and asked him to set you free from whatever shackle or chain is weighing down the human spirit. Don't believe as I believe. Trust the word of God, and Jesus can heal you and change your life, whatever your human situation. © Grand Valley State University �Mary Magdalene: Bedeviled Richard A. Rhem Page 5   And so, this morning, as we close, I'll pray simply. To the extent that it is your prayer, you pray it after me. To the extent that you are serious and it reflects where you are, trust Jesus to do what you need him to do for you. He could change your life here and now. Let us pray. Lord Jesus, Living Christ, present here, present now, powerful here and powerful now, as on the occasion when you met Mary Magdalene. We, too, have demons aplenty raging within our hearts and minds. Assured of your love, assured of the sacrifice you offered once for all, assured that there is now no condemnation to those who are in Christ, assured that the decree against us has been nailed to the Cross, assured that the guilt has been removed as far as the East is from the West, assured that every power of darkness has been conquered once for all on Easter morning, assured that you want for us life and wholeness, Lord Jesus, set us free. Set us free from whatever is binding us. Set us free from whatever has got us in its clutch. Set us free from all the powers of darkness. Lord Jesus, I believe. Set me free. Set me free. 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 XXV Series No Stained Glass Saints Scripture Text Luke 8:2, John 20:16 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-0-19861109 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1986-11-09 Title A name given to the resource Mary Magdalene: Bedeviled 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 November 9, 1986 entitled "Mary Magdalene: Bedeviled", as part of the series "No Stained Glass Saints", on the occasion of Pentecost XXV, at Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI. Scripture references: Luke 8:2, John 20:16. Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Lemmen Library and Archives Followers of Jesus Freedom Hope Mary Magdalene Transforming Love