1 24 36 https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/69159221b3cd3cec67a7b8de45985d2e.pdf 539637c38aa5582542c1dc0c0e8ba5bf PDF Text Text Who Says God Says? Richard A. Rhem Christ Community Church Spring Lake, Michigan July 25, 1993 Transcription of the spoken sermon "…never again prophesy at Bethel, for it is the king's sanctuary, and it is a temple of the kingdom." Amos 7:13 "Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing." Luke 4:21 Within the last couple of years we have had a guest at Christ Community; his name is Niko Terlinda. He is a pastor in Amsterdam. He has an exciting ministry there. He told of his experience of teaching the Bible at the public school. Strangely enough, with the secularizing of that country that was so deeply imbued in the Christian tradition, a minister like Terlinda would go to a public school and tell Bible stories, not in order to evangelize the children, but simply to keep the knowledge of the Biblical tradition alive. He tells about the day he told the story of how God spoke to Amos, when a little nine-year-old raised his hand and said, “Does God still say something?” As Terlinda noted to us, and as we so note this morning, that really is a critical question. Does God still say something? When I came out of seminary in 1960, within a year or two a friend of mine was called to a sister congregation in the area and I was invited to preach the ordination sermon. I took a text from one of the prophets. I am not sure just which one. I can't remember the text, but I remember the sermon very, very well, and I remember the point of the sermon. I said to this person about to assume a ministry of the Word of God that, in the case of Jeremiah, the biblical prophet, Jeremiah could say, “Thus saith the Lord.” But I said to my friend on the threshold of being ordained into the ministry of the Word, “You can't say that. What you must say is, ‘Thus hath the Lord said.’” Do you get the difference? At that time, in the days of my youth, and days of my insecurity and defensiveness, which I didn't really understand, I wanted every word that God had ever spoken to be in this book. I wanted to have between the covers of this book every revealed word, and it would be then from that mind that I would have the Word, it would be given here, I could manage it, and I could proclaim it. I said to my friend, “The biblical prophet said, ‘Thus saith the Lord,’ but you will be able to say only, ‘Thus hath the Lord said.’” I was dead wrong. Somebody should have come up and taken me by the ear and brought me home. Someone should have © Grand Valley State University   �Who Says God Says? Richard A. Rhem Page 2   said to me, “Do you know what you have just done to this young minister? You have absolutely shackled him. You have ruled out the possibility that God still speaks. You have ruled out the possibility that there could still be today the immediacy of God's address of God's people through the proclaimed word.” Or in answer to the question of the little nine-year-old – "Does God still say something?”– what I was saying in that message was, "No. God has spoken. God speaks no more!" We have now to proclaim what once came to expression, but there was always that indirectness, this truth at second hand. That was safe, and it was manageable. But it was absolutely wrong. I don't know how long it took me to figure that out. Thank God I realized at some point that God still speaks. While this Word is a record of that encounter of God with God's people in the past, and it becomes still the instrument through which God addresses God's people in the present, it is the address of God's people in the present about which we are concerned. We would hear the Word of God now, here and now, addressed to our lives and our situation. But the moment one would make that claim someone is going to say, "Who Says God Says?" I suppose that could be your question. As I preach, you are responsible people, thinking people, serious people. Sometimes I suppose the question must arise over against what I am proclaiming: "Who Says God Says?" You know really the idea of preaching, the conception of preaching in the Reformed tradition, is a presumptuous idea. Calvin and Luther said that the proclaimed word becomes the Word of God. In our tradition there is the Word of God written, the Word of God in flesh, but also the preached Word. That is why the Word has been so central. The proclaimed Word, the Word of God – that almost smacks of arrogance to me. This Word, the Word of God – did you ever say, "Who Said God Says?" Do you ever challenge that preached word? I suspect you do. I hope you do. I think you ought to, because, as a matter of fact, I stand in the tradition of Amos, and for that matter of Jesus. Amos was a farmer, but he got a call one day and he went to the Northern Kingdom of Israel and to the very royal court itself, and he proclaimed the word of judgment against that Northern Kingdom and against Jeroboam the king to the point at which the royal priest – (because every court also had its cadre of priests because every wise political leader will do his or her best to co-opt the Church, the messenger of God, so that there can be the union of throne and altar) – Uzziah, the court priest, came out to this prickly prophet and said, “Go back home. Earn your bread in Judah, but don't preach here any more.” Well, Amos said, “Don't call me a professional prophet who earns his bread preaching. I'm just a farmer. God took me, called me, and sent me to preach.” But the dilemma. Amos, a man of passion and conviction. Without that no one listens. Nothing happens. But Uzziah, he had his ordination too. He was a priest. Maybe he was in it just for the prestige and the pay, or maybe he was a serious priest of the God of Israel. I don't know, but I know he had a task to do too. As © Grand Valley State University �Who Says God Says? Richard A. Rhem Page 3   one who presided at the royal court, he encounters a prophet. This is not the only instance of that conflict in Israel's history where the prophetic word was expressed and the royal response countered it, and I suppose a case could be made for Uzziah. Israel was at the height of its prosperity and who likes to have a dour word, a negative word of judgment and critique spoken in the halls of power where they are trying to keep everything moving positively. Jesus - if you had been in Nazareth that day and Jesus whom you saw grow up went to the pulpit and then came to the stool and sat down and said, “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me. God has anointed me to… and to say this word has been fulfilled in your presence.” What would you have thought? You see, it’s not so difficult to look back on Israel's history in the 8th century BCE and to analyze the conflict between Amos and Uzziah and say obviously Amos had a word from God (and as a matter of fact, that word did eventuate). It’s not so difficult for us who are the followers of Jesus to say the people in Jesus' home synagogue in Nazareth were absolutely wrong. Not that they didn't understand; the problem is they didn't like what they understood. So, if you don't like the message, you kill the messenger. But, it wasn't so easy. They didn't really have any basis on which to judge this one except he'd grown up in the corner carpenter shop and they had heard some rumors about what he was doing in Capernaum and neighboring areas. Some of the things he was doing were unsettling. Then he has the audacity to sit in their midst in the synagogue and to say, “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me. I am anointed to preach.” Would you have been ready to hear that word, which would have involved the tumbling of the propositions of one's system of understanding? Or might you have gone to the parlor and had brunch and said, “I don't know. ‘Who Says God Says?’” Who Says God Says? That's not so easy, is it? That's not so easy for you because you have to live with me. You know all the foibles and flaws of this preacher. Then for twenty minutes on a given Sunday I sit on this stool and I say, “Thus saith the Lord.” Well, you're not just subservient puppets that you should just sit there and take it. Discern, test the spirits. But it's not so easy for me either. How do I know? I know this. With the little bit I do know I begin to know how little I know. Then I am supposed to say to you, God's people, “Thus saith the Lord.” That's scary business. That's why I get a headache on Saturday. (Laughter) A headache before and then one on Sunday afternoon after. Someone said to me this week, “If I had your job I'd have a headache too.” Who Says God Says? How in the world do we know? If there isn't passion and conviction on the part of the messenger, the message will not be heeded. But if there is a kind of absolutism and dogmatism, and authoritarianism in the message, the message very naturally is going to be resisted, and rightly so. Who Says God Says? It isn't simple. And I am not going to turn now to the typical preacher’s trick of giving you six easy ways by which to know. My point is: It is not that easy. It is not that simple. © Grand Valley State University �Who Says God Says? Richard A. Rhem Page 4   I did talk to a friend of mine yesterday who gave me some help in order that I could say something that maybe you could go out of here thinking about. He was recently in England and Scotland and Ireland, and on the trip back from Ireland to England they came into the harbor of Holy Head in Wales. It reminded him of a story of an old preacher who had come into Holy Head Harbor in the dead of night and the darkness was so thick that you could cut it with a knife. This preacher said to the captain, “How in the world do you know that you are going to sail into the harbor?” The captain said to him, “Do you see those three lights on the horizon?” He said, “Yes.” He said, “When those three lights line up as one you will sail into the middle of Holy Head Harbor.” If we apply this, we could say on one hand there is that light of the tradition. We are a people who have been shaped. We have come from a womb that has shaped us and has implanted deeply within us, woven into the fabric of our being, certain perceptions, a certain frame of reference, a sense of being. We do not disparage that rock from which we have been hewn. We have a tradition. We are the recipients of a great heritage, and that tradition has been written of, spoken of as scriptures, and we have two thousand years of church history. We are Christians. We are part of the God of Israel. Going back to the creation, we are a people who believe in that one who created all things and who was revealed in the face of Jesus Christ. We come out of a community that has spoken, that has affirmed some things. So we do have some guidelines. We don't start out from square one, with a blank slate as it were. But that one light isn't enough because it can then simply be an external rule to which one would assent mentally but without inward conviction. That inward conviction must also be there. How does that inward conviction develop? What do you really believe? What do you really believe? What would make you stand on your feet and be counted? What would fill you with rage causing you to move into action? What would break your heart and cause compassion to flow? What do you really believe? I speak of my concrete truth. It’s one thing for me to say I am a part of this grand tradition. It’s another thing for me to say, “This I believe. This I will die for. This I will live for.” How does that come? Out of our experience? I suppose. Out of the ongoing communion of the Spirit? God is not done speaking. God says something still. Jesus said, “The Spirit will lead you into all truth.” Calvin said, “The internal testimony of the Holy Spirit must confirm what the word or the tradition says to us.” Somehow or other those things come together until finally I can take my stand. I can say, “I believe.” So that is a second light. Then, of course, the tradition has not issued to us in our present experience in a vacuum. We live in a cultural context in a specific historical setting. As we said last week, it’s a fascinating time in which to be alive – the knowledge that is exploding all around us, the fantastic knowledge of the physical universe, of the human person, of the movement of history, all of this that becomes accessible to us so that in our own experience tried and true physical theories like that of Newton are blown sky high. And instead we have quantum physics. We live in a © Grand Valley State University �Who Says God Says? Richard A. Rhem Page 5   cultural context that is alive with all kinds of knowledge that give us new insight. So I have to take that which shaped me and that tradition in which I was nurtured, and my experience…my experience of grace…of God…of my human experience. Then I have to understand myself in this present time, this ongoing human drama…my time. So our specific time, context, the influence of our culture is a third light. But it is still not simple. The Church historically has majored in absolutes. Some of the greatest problems in the Church are the preachers who want to make it clear and simple, and who need to be right. But there’s a problem in the pew also. The people would like to have it simple and clear and tight. It isn’t simple and clear. It is complex, full of ambiguity, and we cannot know. We cannot know absolutely. To know absolutely is to deny the nature of our historical existence. And I don’t think the Church over the centuries has done a favor to people to try to give that kind of security that will remove all uneasiness and ambiguity from the human situation. In the ongoing movement of the human drama we need to be open and alive and alert and humble, and trusting that the Spirit of God will lead us into all truth, and that underneath are everlasting arms and that God will move and that God's purposes will be in ways beyond our wildest dreams. But the secret of that is not knowing, but trusting. To be able to live with questions, all the time trusting the eternal God who is the foundation, the God who holds the world in God's hand knowing that there are yet more wonders to behold and dreams to dream and insights to gain than have ever entered into the human heart. “We walk,” said Paul, “not by knowledge but by faith.” For he said, “It has not entered into the heart of man to dream the things that God has prepared for those that love God.” When we walk by faith, when we trust God, then we can be open to the continuing surprises of grace and the “aha!” The Church still today, maybe today more than ever, is making all kinds of absolute statements. In order to increase summer attendance we decided to add a Sunday supplement to the bulletin. You've now got a comic strip. I would have mentioned it earlier, but I didn't want to lose your attention. (Laughter) The little comic strip on the last page would be funny if it weren't true. People like me have stood before people like you and have said, “It is abundantly clear that...” and it’s not. And you don't need to have it so clear, and so neat, all tied up in a little package. One thing you need: to trust God. Trust God. People like me have pandered to people like you, succumbed to the seduction of trying to be the font of all knowledge and wisdom. Giving you answers where there were really only questions, when what we should have been saying to you was, “On the one hand, on the other, but nevertheless.” The foundation is solid. God is God, and you can trust that! Well sometime I'll be preaching along and I expect one of you will stand up in the pew and say, “Who Says God Says?” And I'll say, “Time out. You're right,” because dear friends I believe with all my heart and I preach with all the passion of my soul, and I know some things. The thing I know more than all is that I don't © Grand Valley State University �Who Says God Says? Richard A. Rhem Page 6   know very much when it comes to the real mysteries of life. But I know God will take care of you…come what may. © Grand Valley State University � https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/2077f9fdcde92369a03cf483dbfd88aa.mp3 024595722119c65af3db000409e4d3bc Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Richard A. Rhem Collection Description An account of the resource Text and sound recordings of the sermons, prayers, services, and articles of Richard Rhem, pastor emeritus of Christ Community Church in Spring Lake, Michigan, where he served for 37 years. Starting in the mid 1980's, Rhem began to question some of the traditional Christian dogma that he had been espousing from the pulpit. That questioning was a first step in a long and interesting spiritual journey, one that he openly shared with his congregation. His journey is important, in part because it is reflective of the questioning, the yearnings, and the gradual revision of beliefs that many persons in this part of the century have experienced and continue to experience. It is important also because of the affirming and inclusive way his questioning was done and his thinking evolved. His sermons and other written and spoken materials together document the steps in his journey as it took a turn in 1985, yet continued to revolve around the framework and liturgies of the Christian calendar. Subject The topic of the resource Clergy--Michigan Reformed Church in America Christ Community Church (Spring Lake, Mich.) Religion Interfaith worship Sermons Sound Recordings Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Rhem, Richard A. Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/514">Richard A. Rhem papers (KII-01)</a> Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives. Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Kaufman Interfaith Institute Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Language A language of the resource English Type The nature or genre of the resource Sound Text Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context KII-01 Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant 1981-2014 Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource audio/mp3 text/pdf Sound A resource primarily intended to be heard. Examples include a music playback file format, an audio compact disc, and recorded speech or sounds. Event Pentecost VIII Scripture Text Amos 7:13, Luke 4:21 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-0-19930725 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1993-07-25 Title A name given to the resource Who Says God Says? Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Richard A. Rhem Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Subject The topic of the resource Clergy--Michigan Reformed Church in America Christ Community Church (Spring Lake, Mich.) Sermons Relation A related resource Richard A. Rhem - An Archive of Sermons, Prayers, Talks and Stories: http://richardrhem.org/ Language A language of the resource eng Type The nature or genre of the resource Sound Text Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource audio/mp3 application/pdf Description An account of the resource A sermon given by Richard A. Rhem (Dick) on July 25, 1993 entitled "Who Says God Says?", on the occasion of Pentecost VIII, at Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI. Scripture references: Amos 7:13, Luke 4:21. Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Lemmen Library and Archives Prophecy Revelation Trust Word of God https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/150579ce89eec17329090218cac9c295.pdf cea7f6253bb4c485f347c73fa36fa206 PDF Text Text When the Crisis Comes – It’s Too Late From the sermon series: Now – But Then Text: Isaiah 11:9; I Corinthians 13:13; Luke 1:37 Richard A. Rhem Christ Community Church Spring Lake, Michigan Advent II, December 10, 1995 Transcription of the spoken sermon Our Advent theme comes from Paul's first Letter to the Corinthians in the 13th chapter, where he sets in contrast, “Now - But Then.” He writes to this congregation that was bubbling over with spiritual gifts and enthusiasm run out of control, and he urges them to seek the best gift, the gift of love. And in the context of that discussion, he suggests that there are three things that remain faith, hope, love. He encourages the Corinthians to major in faith and hope and love as that which matter eternally. And in the remaining three weeks of the Advent season, I want to consider with you faith and hope and love. First of all, faith, or maybe the word that for us says it better - trust, that basic orientation of life that is trusting: trusting in God, trusting in life's meaning, in the goodness of reality. To trust is to have a place to stand and to be and then to be free to be in the fullness of every moment. To live by faith is to live by an eternal verity. The gift of faith, the gift of trust enables us to negotiate the passages of life, come what may. And that's really the issue of this message. I want to suggest to you that the time to cultivate basic trust is before you need it. I think it's at the Advent season that we feel the stark contrast between what is and what might be. It is at this season of the year that we are called to remember that we are people on the way, we are in a process, something's happening, we're going somewhere, there is something developing, something emerging, invisible, unseen. And yet, we're caught up in that process. And to remember, that is to be reminded that what is falls so far short of what might be. To be human is not to be locked in to the present, the present moment. It is to be free to unlock from this moment and to travel backward in time through memory and to experience again the joys of the past or the pain of the past. To be human is to have that gift of consciousness that allows us to unlock from this present moment and to travel into the future and to conceive of what might be, to dream of another possibility. In the Advent season we recognize that it's precisely because we are people on the way, going somewhere we have been and we will be, and the contrast between what is and what might be can be a painful contemplation. And it is only if we © Grand Valley State University   �When the Crisis Comes, It’s Too Late Richard A. Rhem Page 2   have received the gift of trust that we are able to negotiate every moment with a certain freedom and serenity. Isn't it remarkable that from ancient time humankind has conceived of something different than that which is? Take the dream, the vision of Isaiah, as we read it a moment ago. There, 2500, 2800 years ago there was a contemplative, there was a religious spirit that was contrasting that which was his context with that which was his dream. He dreamed of a day when there would be a ruler upon whom the spirit of God would fall, a ruler who would not judge by what his eyes saw or his ears heard, a ruler who would discern down into the depths of things. A ruler would arise who would rule with equity, with justice. He would be concerned for society's most vulnerable ones; he would rule with righteousness, and that righteous rule in the arena of history would spill over into nature so that the lion and the lamb would lie down together and the child could play over the adder's den, and they would not hurt or destroy in all God's holy mountain. What a dream! What a vision! Campaign '96 is warming up. Wouldn't we love such a candidate for office? Wouldn't it be great if we could cast our ballot next November for one upon whom the spirit of God would dwell in fullness, who would judge with equity and rule with righteousness and bring in God's peaceable kingdom? Luke believed that that one arrived in the child of Mary's womb, a child conceived by the Spirit of God, a child who would bring about that peaceable kingdom. Mary laid hold of the vision and sang a song of praise, The Magnificat, which we noted last week, about this child who would raise up the lowly and bring down the arrogant. And yet it seems as though history continues to go along, business as usual. Well, that's not a new problem. It was recognized 2000 years ago. The second Letter of Peter, if you want to refer to it – there were scoffers then who were saying to the likes of St. Luke, "Where is the day of his appearing? It looks pretty much like the same, tired old world to me." And, of course, it is, isn't it? Even 2000 years later. The Advent season gives us opportunity to reflect on the fact that something's happening. We're moving, we're going somewhere. And we can dream of something quite other than that which confronts us. And yet, troops move into Bosnia where there's a paper peace but no peace in the human heart. And Israel still reels from the assassination of its leader who was seeking peace. And if not on the national or international scene, there are those within our own community who enter into crisis, the kind of crisis that makes us wonder what it's all about and if it's all worth it, and if anybody, anybody is managing this cosmos into which we are caught up. The issue before us this morning: St. Paul says faith is that which abides, but, can I believe it? Can I hold on to the vision? Can I dream the dream? Can I be set free in the present moment because I believe that this present moment does not proscribe the parameters of my possibility? © Grand Valley State University �When the Crisis Comes, It’s Too Late Richard A. Rhem Page 3   You'll never gain trust by observing life. That's my point this morning. It is trust that you must bring to experience. It is faith that you must bring to the ongoing story. You'll never gain faith or come to trust simply by observing the story. One of the great historians of a former generation, H.A.L. Fischer, in his History of Europe, wrote these words, "One intellectual excitement has been denied me. People wiser and more learned than I have discovered in history a plot, a rhythm, a predetermined pattern. These harmonies are concealed from me. I can see only one emergency following another, as wave follows upon wave. Only one great fact with respect to which, since it is unique there can be no generalizations, and the only safe rule for the historian is that he should recognize in the development of human destinies the play of the contingent and the unforeseen." That's a good statement. If you go out to the beach today, you'll find one wave crashing on the beach after another - wild, stormy water, wave upon wave crashing on the beach. And Fischer says, "As I observe history, that's what I see." One emergency after another, one crisis after another, one valley of darkness after another. And I see no predetermined pattern. I see no rhythm. I see no pattern. Honestly, as I look at it as an historian, that's all I can see. And as an historian, that's all one can see if one starts out with a blank sheet, if one would simply, neutrally, somewhat objectively survey the human story, then one cannot say it more eloquently than Fischer has said it. The pattern is not in there to be seen. The pattern is imposed by those who have faith and that are given eyes to see it. I picked up a book last night, which someone sent me. I've been dabbling, you know, in cosmology, physics, astronomy, that sort of thing. But, this book is entitled, God and The New Biology, by an Oxford biologist, Arthur Peacocke. Fascinating discussion in which he acknowledges that it is in physics and cosmological speculation that science is giving us a sense of mystery before this unfolding cosmic drama. But, in molecular and sub-molecular biology as well, there is tremendous ferment and some breakthrough as to the development of the human person and indeed all living structures. And Peacocke suggests a sense of God more immanently involved in that process than we have yet conceived. But he also honors that which has come to light, and that is that there isn't some prescribed pattern, but rather there is both law and chance. And he suggests that the Creator has put into the structure of things a kind of law, a kind of regularity, a kind of structure that gives some stability, but within that, in its sub-molecular structure, as we learn from quantum physics, there are things that happen at that sub-molecular level that can only be described as chance. Unpredictable! Unprogrammable! And Peacock says that's precisely the point at which creativity is possible. In other words, reality is an open system, not closed. © Grand Valley State University �When the Crisis Comes, It’s Too Late Richard A. Rhem Page 4   I think the Christian tradition, or religious people generally, would love to have the system closed and to know that from the beginning to the end it is all determined. That's been used as a kind of security blanket to remove us from the sense of life's fragility and the peril to which our lives are always exposed, but it is not so, really, and we know it, too, out of our experience. H A.L. Fischer is right! One wave after another - that's the way we live. God answers prayer, yes. This one was healed. God answers prayer, maybe not. That one wasn't healed. In all of the existential experiences of our life we would so much love to be able to boil it down and get a finger on it, tie it in a package and put a bow on it and say, "Now, there. That's it. A manageable universe and a secure human existence." But, we know it is not so. It is not so! How, then, can I live? How, then, can I be set free from the constant anxiety of the next moment and tomorrow? By trust. By faith that I do not derive from the observation of the story, but that I bring to the story. Because I believe beyond what is observable that there is something happening, and that this process which is going somewhere will have an end which will not be nothing, but something, an end which will not be no one, but someone. Do you want me to prove it to you? Of course, I can't. That's my point. That's my faith! I trust that. And that's the great divide. Those who live with that trust and those who live perhaps with an agnosticism that says I don't know, or a bitter cynicism that says I don't believe it. Those are the choices. Well, how do you come with such trust? With some struggle, I would hope. And it is a gift not at our disposal. But a season like this does give us those moments of reflection. And if one longs for some breath as the Advent carol says, some pulse of being stirring as in a heart of stone, if in the longing of one's heart there is at least that openness – at the end of the day, in a moment of reflection – to that light as a falling star across the consciousness of the night of the heart, then perhaps we may be probing the edges of that gift of faith which is a gift of God that is the promise of Advent. And to live by such trust is not to denigrate the present in favor of the future. It is to give a promise for the future that releases us to delight in the present, fully to live, with a measure of peace and joy. The gift of Advent. The gift of the Child. © Grand Valley State University � https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/74a30e714c780cff96a7e6176a23fc75.mp3 6b2e6007e6461b2ca078e5b8b93295e5 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 Advent II Series Now _ But Then Scripture Text Isaiah 11:9, I Corinthians 13:13, Luke 1:37 Location The location of the interview Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI References Arthur Peacocke, God and the New Biology, 1987. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context KII-01_RA-0-19951210 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1995-12-10 Title A name given to the resource When the Crisis Comes - It's Too Late 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 December 10, 1995 entitled "When the Crisis Comes - It's Too Late", as part of the series "Now - But Then", on the occasion of Advent II, at Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI. Scripture references: Isaiah 11:9, I Corinthians 13:13, Luke 1:37. Advent Emergence Faith Love Shalom Trust https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/bfb1c800a9adfe0ec9458566769fceb5.pdf 345e4ec1d8472d3a9711ca08c8b67dda PDF Text Text What Is Good News? 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 February 1989, pp. 24-27 The goal of preaching is not to get something said, but to get something heard. So contends Fred Craddock in his popular textbook, Preaching. That may sound obvious, but it is not so at all, at least not from the perspective of the preacher. Far too often, we who are called to the task of the weekly proclamation concentrate exclusively on developing something to say and fail to recognize that the problem is not to say Something, but rather...to be heard. We must never rest content with delivering a message; we must exercise our best gifts and our strenuous effort to get a message heard that forms in the consciousness of the congregation and shapes God's people. To make this claim is not to deny that whatever is effected through the preached word is finally the work of the Spirit of God, the Spirit who caused the Word to be written and who must make it in the moment of proclamation the living Word that effects the purpose of God. Such a conviction, however, must not be used by the preacher to evade the responsibility to work seriously at the task of preaching so as to be effective. Hans van der Geest studied the effects of preaching from a psychological perspective. A supervisor in clinical pastoral education in a hospital in Switzerland, van der Geest became interested in the personality of the preacher and its impact on effectiveness in the pulpit. Presence in the Pulpit: The Impact of Personality in Preaching reports his findings and presents a serious challenge to the traditional emphasis in the training of preachers. Practicing preachers, too, could profitably evaluate their own practices in the light of what van der Geest has discovered. Van der Geest was surprised to find that the most important quality in the preaching event mentioned by those surveyed was the personal manner of the preacher. This might well send shock waves through a church of the Reformed tradition with its heavily intellectual bent. Yet van der Geest, himself steeped in © Grand Valley State University ! �What Is Good News? Richard A. Rhem Page 2! the Dutch Reformed Church, found again and again that the content of what is said is much less important for the process of engaging the listeners than most textbooks on preaching allow. The author raises the questions that immediately come to mind as one views the results of this psychological perspective on preaching: Are we now going to judge preaching's effectiveness by whether or not it satisfies people? Is it legitimate to judge preaching by psychological effect? Van der Geest contends that the listeners' statements of response as to what they actually experienced have great value: It's not just primitive or, for that matter, illegitimate wishes alive in them, but also expectations wakened by worship services in the past and still alive. At least in part these expectations are a reflection of what a worship service and sermon intend to mean to a congregation. Taking the needs of the congregation seriously as they present themselves at worship is imperative. Van der Geest isolates three dimensions in the experience of a worship service that must be present if the basic needs that people bring to worship, and specifically to the sermon, are to be met effectively: the renewal and restoration of basic trust; a hope for deliverance, a sense of release from the everyday burdens and struggles of life; and a new perspective from which to gain understanding in light of the gospel. Security, deliverance, understanding: apart from these three dimensions, all of which must be present, a sermon will be less than effective and people will leave without the feeling of having been personally addressed. These three dimensions can be delineated for the sake of analysis, but they cannot be separated; they comprise a unity in the worship event. Van der Geest writes: There is admittedly a security without release, but it is an infantile security addressing only immature people; and without understanding, it is naive. Release without security is irrelevant; release without understanding is not dependable. Understanding without security is impersonal; without release it is sterile. The three dimensions are intimately related. They are variations of the trio of love, hope and faith. Security People need to feel they are being addressed as individuals. In psychological terms this need represents the necessity of having our basic trust renewed at regular intervals. Psychologist Erik H. Erikson coined the expression primal trust, the development in earliest infancy of the conviction that life in this world is a good thing. Theologically, it is the fundamental conviction of being loved and secured by God. While primal trust is formed in us through the earliest © Grand Valley State University �What Is Good News? Richard A. Rhem Page 3! experiences of infancy, it is in need of constant renewal. In the face of the deepest and final questions of life, people need the confirmation of this basic trust in the worship service. The questions that play on most people, according to van der Geest, include Do I have a future? Am I lost or supported? Do I have ground under my feet? Am I left alone by myself, or is there help? Do I have to defend myself, brace myself, or should I relax and be giving? Does it make sense to have courage, or should I be resigned? Life is simple for only very few. Disturbances and dangers are the daily bread of most. What are people at worship seeking? Here are some sample responses: I want to forget day-to-day sufferings for a while. I am looking for strength for the coming week. I would like to get out of the rat race and find a little quietness. No more arguments. I want a little peace now. Someone has to talk kindly to us once in a while, too, and give us courage. Is worship simply a comforter? Is there not also a disturbing side of the gospel? To be sure. But, as van der Geest points out, what he is advocating is not simply an affirmation of the status quo. There is more to worship than the renewal of primal trust, but for anything positive to result, it is essential that the people of God come into contact with the living God, the God in whose love they rest. How can this happen through preaching? Van der Geest's research reveals that feelings of security are aroused only if love is expressed. "Whenever people go into a worship service to find feelings of security, they are seeking love, clear signs of love." This happens where the preacher is perceived to be sincere and genuine in his or her concern for the congregation as individuals. The use of firstperson singular pronouns signals the preacher's personal commitment. Body language is important, at least as important as the verbal language of content. A cool, distant preacher signals a lack of emotional involvement. Rhetorical skill is desirable, but it will never make up for authentic caring and sincerity. Colloquial language gives the congregation the sense of being addressed personally. Pulpit language and any affectation of manner or tone build a wall between pulpit and pew. To achieve a renewal of basic trust, a sense of being loved of God, the congregation's members must sense that they are taken seriously. Just as the preacher must express personal commitment through the use of the first person pronoun, so the people must be addressed as "you" and invited to participate in the proclamation. The sense of participation is heightened by the avoidance of heavy dependence on a manuscript or written notes, according to van der Geest. There is much more at stake than those who support the writing down and reading from notes believe. The personal style, the direct address indispensable for awakening trust, is in general seriously impaired by © Grand Valley State University �What Is Good News? Richard A. Rhem Page 4! reading from notes. This is the case because not only the content, but precisely the presentation—including the visible—is essential for gaining access to the realm of emotion. But what does such reading from notes show us, no matter how sophisticated it's done? The sermon does not emerge; it comes from yesterday. The preacher misses the "act of restructuring during the moment of speaking." The sermon should be as natural as conversation. This, of course, does not mean less preparation, but more. Preaching personally is speaking in the name of God; it is not delivering a treatise about God. Finally, the preacher must communicate a clear expectation of the mystery of God. From his research van der Geest concludes that "the real mystery of encounter occurs for the experience of the congregation in the relationship between the preacher and the listeners." Deliverance From the analysis of listener reaction, van der Geest found not only the need for security but also for a sense of release, of deliverance from the anguish of the human experience. Deliverance cannot come through a denial of the darkness. If the dark side of life is not taken seriously, if life’s tragic dimension is rendered harmless, the congregation will be disappointed and leave dissatisfied. Rather, van der Geest argues: The people in a worship service want to have light offered to them in the darkness of their lives; they want to see the hopelessness of day-to-day life surpassed by a perspective which can’t be found in that day-to-day life itself. They yearn for a deliverance from the misfortune, oppression, and the misery which are, after all, a part of life. In this dimension the key is the encounter with that aspect of the message which awakens hope, the words about the beyond. This is the message the worshipers are waiting for, the language of release. The congregation looks to the preacher to communicate a hope that is incredible and that becomes believable only as the preacher manifests a personal wonder that such a hope should be true. What is sought here are not simplistic solutions to life's complexity. The reality of darkness must be acknowledged on the one side and, on the other side, the preacher himself or herself must have sifted through the results of the modern critical study of the biblical text. But finally the preacher must take responsibility for the text as it appears relevant to him or her and then proclaim the incredibly hopeful news of the gospel in the face of the real anguish of the human situation. The yearning for release or deliverance presupposes that there is nothing within the framework of human possibility that can effect transformation. It is into such a situation of human impossibility that the "nevertheless" of the gospel is spoken, © Grand Valley State University �What Is Good News? Richard A. Rhem Page 5! thus arousing wonder. The preacher's own astonishment is fundamental. "For the mediation of this improbable thing preachers must themselves be struck by the miraculous." When a preacher unconsciously ceases to feel the joy and freedom of the gospel or, even worse, has never really personally experienced the grace of God, preaching becomes legalistic and moralistic, burdening the congregation with the tyranny of "we must," "we should," "we ought." Still, the obligation of the gospel must be made clear, recognizing the reality of guilt and calling for commitment to a higher standard. Understanding If in a sermon trust is awakened and the message of deliverance through the gospel clearly proclaimed, there remains yet a decisive element. Listener responses point to that missing element: He was too sure about God and the beyond for my taste. It's too bad she turned away from the difficult things so quickly. I don't really know what to do with this unquestionable faith. My unbelief wasn't taken into consideration. Listeners are not always ready or able to accept the message. The hymns and prayers are easier to receive with trust; much greater demands are made of the sermons. The analysis of listeners' responses reveals that the congregation both challenges the sermon's claims and, at the same time, hopes to be convinced and persuaded of its truth. The preacher must reckon with the rhythm of human experience that is never static, but always moving between the poles of trust and doubt. It looks like a game, but it is no malicious game; doubts are spread out and the preacher is tested, but the listener does not want to win the game; he hopes in fact to lose, to be overcome. The listener wants to be convinced of the truth of the gospel, but the problem the preacher faces is that persuasion is being required in an area of life in which logical arguments have almost no value. Discursive reasoning does not suffice; rather, it is the preacher's own deep, warm, and living faith that persuades. Says van der Geest: The truth sought again by the people in a worship service is not an objective one, but is rather an existential truth precipitating engagement and participation, not cool ascertainment...: in the act of persuasion itself the emotional effect of the renewal of trust is inseparably connected with cognitive understanding. That process of being persuaded is thus a total experience, not just an intellectual comprehension. Sermons must be planned with the temptation to doubt in mind, but the doubt raised by the text, not the doubt raised by the great religious-existential questions of life. These questions arising out of tragedy, pain, and human anguish are not © Grand Valley State University �What Is Good News? Richard A. Rhem Page 6! helpfully addressed in preaching. The Christian proclamation does not solve life's inscrutable mysteries but rather announces the reign of God. The doubts aroused by the text and the resistance of the listener to the proclamation of the gospel are not removed by logical, conceptual speech of discursive reasoning. Rather, it is through story, image, and graphic speech that persuasion is achieved. Narrative preaching is widely advocated today and preaching as story is in vogue. Van der Geest's research would indicate that this is more than a fad, the swing of the pendulum. He points out: In contrast to the more conceptual approach, something graphic causes the listeners themselves to become active. Concepts are finished products which the listeners simply register. They need only to think, to think abstractly. But if the preacher tells a story, the listeners themselves construct the forms of the people, the appearances of the events. Now they can experience something. Images and stories are suited to the Christian proclamation; concepts are not. The sermon must activate the listeners' imaginations. Existential truth is grasped through metaphorical language. As the imagination is stimulated, a person's own creativity is engaged. Such preaching becomes dialogue. The listeners find themselves in the story and re-experience their own joy and pain, disappointment and hope. They are able to identify with the story's situation and characters. Graphic speech touches more than the cognitive level of our understanding; it reaches to the subconscious level of inner vision where truth is grasped as a whole. In this kind of evidence precisely the apparently impossible happens: The unseen becomes seen. This occurrence is always impressive and precipitates intense surprise. People are encountering their life's truth. Rational, objective truth does not require this kind of evidence; sense perception and logical argumentation are sufficient. In the worship service and the sermon, existential truth is being sought. The one who thus perceives is engaged, "struck at the very roots, and his or her whole life is affected: feeling, thinking, inner vision and will." The goal of preaching is not to get something said, but to get something heard. The experience of the worshiper is thus critical for the evaluation of preaching. The people have cried out, this is who we are, and this is what we need. Effective preaching will renew their basic trust, give them a sense of deliverance, and provide a new perspective, a fresh insight to the understanding. Where these three dimensions are present, the listener will feel spoken to by the preacher and by God. Reference: © Grand Valley State University �What Is Good News? Richard A. Rhem Hans Van der Geest. Presence in the Pulpit: The Impact of Personality in Preaching. John Knox Press, 1st English edition, 1981. © Grand Valley State University Page 7! � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Richard A. Rhem Collection Description An account of the resource Text and sound recordings of the sermons, prayers, services, and articles of Richard Rhem, pastor emeritus of Christ Community Church in Spring Lake, Michigan, where he served for 37 years. Starting in the mid 1980's, Rhem began to question some of the traditional Christian dogma that he had been espousing from the pulpit. That questioning was a first step in a long and interesting spiritual journey, one that he openly shared with his congregation. His journey is important, in part because it is reflective of the questioning, the yearnings, and the gradual revision of beliefs that many persons in this part of the century have experienced and continue to experience. It is important also because of the affirming and inclusive way his questioning was done and his thinking evolved. His sermons and other written and spoken materials together document the steps in his journey as it took a turn in 1985, yet continued to revolve around the framework and liturgies of the Christian calendar. Subject The topic of the resource Clergy--Michigan Reformed Church in America Christ Community Church (Spring Lake, Mich.) Religion Interfaith worship Sermons Sound Recordings Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Rhem, Richard A. Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/514">Richard A. Rhem papers (KII-01)</a> Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives. Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Kaufman Interfaith Institute Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Language A language of the resource English Type The nature or genre of the resource Sound Text Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context KII-01 Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant 1981-2014 Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource audio/mp3 text/pdf Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. References Hans Van der Geest, Presence in the Pulpit, 1981 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-4-19890201 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1989-02-01 Type The nature or genre of the resource Text Title A name given to the resource What is Good News? Great sermons must embrace the 3 basic needs of those who listen 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 February 1, 1989 entitled "What is Good News? Great sermons must embrace the 3 basic needs of those who listen", it appeared in The Church Herald, Feb. 1989, pp. 24-27. Tags: Preaching, Gospel, Trust, Love, Mystery, Hope, Sympathy. Scripture references: Hans Van der Geest, Presence in the Pulpit, 1981. Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource application/pdf Gospel Hope Love Mystery Preaching Sympathy Trust https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/2f61cf151f6752fb9db1eb01b736d70d.mp3 a1b65eb3db5e1f0fcaa935263d3561ef https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/7147b2d0da366895a0c04cf4e789749b.pdf f9987aec993f794a81fd7f3958c1724b PDF Text Text What Are You Afraid Of? Text: John 4:18; Luke 1:30 Richard A. Rhem Christ Community Church Spring Lake, Michigan Advent IV, December 20, 1992 Transcription of the spoken sermon There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear; for fear has to do with punishment and whoever fears has not reached perfection in love. I John 4:18 Do not be afraid, Mary... Luke 1:30 In Advent, 1992, we’re asking significant questions that have to do with our human existence and our relationship to God: Do you really think that he will come - this one who came? Will he come again? Do you expect that? Is there life after life? Hell? In these weeks, although we have answered those questions in less than traditional ways, we have affirmed again our Christian faith. We have affirmed that the God of our beginning is the God of our end, and the God of our meantime, that God is with us and that the last word is Grace. And if that is the case, then, “What Are You Afraid of?” What are the fears that dog your steps? What are the fears that haunt the inner sanctum of your heart? Fear, Henri Nouwen says, is so characteristic of our lives today that one could speak of our living in “a house of fear.” Fears that are very personal. Fears that are connected with those we love. Fears connected with the situation of the world and the destiny of the cosmos. Category after category of fearful thoughts that often take possession of us. We live in “a house of fear.” Nouwen, in his little book Lifesigns, invites us to move from “a house of fear” into a house of love - the house constituted by Jesus Christ, our Lord, the one who came at Christmas and whose Advent we celebrate again, and whose birth we will remember this week. To move from the house of fear to the house of love is the invitation of the Christmas Gospel. Easier said than done perhaps, but let’s for just a bit of time think about the perspective of the writer of this first letter of John, for he tells us that fear and love cannot coexist. Oh well, I suppose that’s too strong a statement. As a matter of fact they do coexist in the hearts of us all. But to the extent that there is love, there will be an absence of fear. And to the extent that there is fear, there will be an absence of love. If we did a little word association, if I gave you a word and you were to come up with the opposite… if I said, “high,” I suppose you would say, “low.” And if I said, © Grand Valley State University   �What Are You Afraid Of? Richard A. Rhem Page 2   “black” you would say, “white.” If I said, “hot” you would say, “cold.” If I said, “love,” what would you say? Hate? I think there was a time when I would have said that hate is the opposite of love, but I don’t think so any more. I think, according to John in this letter, the opposite of love is fear. Perfect love, he says, “casts out fear.” Love and fear are at enmity with one another. It’s like light and darkness. To the extent that the light is there, the darkness is absent. To extent that it is dark, the light is absent. To the extent that the heart is filled with love, fear is absent. To the extent that fear controls the heart, love is absent. The opposite of love is fear. Fear is the root of all that destructive behavior, of evil and darkness. Destructive behavior, born of fear, impinges upon our selves and reaches out to all of those whose lives we touch. When we are afraid we are destructive. When we are afraid we cannot love, and we cannot live lovingly. So John in a very interesting association suggests that love casts out fear. He says, “God is love. And those who abide in love abide in God, and God abides in them.” Love has been perfected among us in this that we may have boldness in the Day of Judgment, because as He is so are we in this world. There is no fear in love. Perfect love casts out fear. In this Advent season when we have been talking about the last things - the last events - that final encounter - judgment - Hell? -I find it rather interesting that John associates love as the absence of fear, fear particularly related to the Day of Judgment. Now you say to me, “Well, fear of the day of judgment. There isn’t a lot of that around today. Most people have kicked that habit. We don’t have to fear eternal punishment or damnation or hell - we talked about that last week!” Most moderns, our neighbors, have put that idea to rest. It isn’t that terrifying threat that it once was, and yet John says that fear has to do with the experience of punishment and the fear of punishment. He says that love comes in in order that we might have confidence and boldness in the Day of Judgment. John seems to relate our present possibility of living in love without fear in relationship to the end event. I just wonder - I wonder if he might be right. I wonder if there is something about us as human beings that would on a willed, conscious level rid ourselves of the idea of punishment and judgment, but that fear of it simply goes underground and in a kind of gorilla warfare disables us, so that much of our action that we would not directly relate to a fear of judgment and punishment is nonetheless precisely that. Whether consciously or unconsciously, we know that we are people who will be held accountable, that there will be a time of reckoning, that there will be that final encounter. Maybe down in the depths of our being we know that, so that it doesn’t matter to what extent we may pooh-pooh that final encounter, that day of judgment; nonetheless, there is something perhaps in the very fact that we are human that causes us consciously or unconsciously to feel a bit of disease and thus produce in us fear – fear, whose root we don’t understand, but whose consequences are felt in all of our relationships and all of our doings. Could that be? John says, “God is love. The one who abides in love, abides in God, and this love is what gives us confidence in the Day of Judgment because there is © Grand Valley State University �What Are You Afraid Of? Richard A. Rhem Page 3   no fear in love.” Hm-m-m. Rather interesting association of ideas isn’t it? I wonder if there could be something to that? Harold Ellens, the psychiatrist, theologian and pastor, has spoken about the human condition as a condition of anxiety. I mentioned this a few weeks ago, I forget in what connection, but that human anxiety is not the consequence of our sin, it is the consequence of our being human. He speaks of a kind of generic anxiety which is the consequence of spending nine months all safe and secure in the darkness and warmth of the womb, only to come splashing and bouncing down the birth canal into the bright lights of the delivery room to respond to a whap on the bottom side with a wail! We come into this world wailing. Scared to death. Fragile. That’s anxiety producing. And then he goes to the Genesis stories and shows that even in that setting, the human couple there is anxious - there is an anxiety producing set of circumstances, so that to be human is to be anxious. Then he goes on to say, and I think quite rightly, that the greatest anxiety reducing mechanism in the world is religion. Religion is a universal phenomenon. Stamp it out here and it will pop up there. You can’t seem to get rid of it. Any place you go in any age, any people, there is some kind of religious ritual, some form of religious practice. We who are simply a little farther along on the human story and a little more sophisticated in our religious experience, nonetheless, crave the basics - a kind of cultic practice. That is, a ritual. The prayers we offer. The gestures we make, and a certain mode or code of behavior that we follow, certain creeds that we assent to. They all constitute cult for worship. A creed to lead, a moral code to follow - those are the ingredients of religion, whatever the religion may be. And religion, by and large, is a universal phenomenon which has been a great anxiety reducing mechanism. It is how we anxious people try to come to terms with our anxiety. It is a way we come to curry favor with God, to appease God. There is something endemic in us that knows that we write with crooked lines. And, accountable people that we are, because we are human, we feel a need for some kind of buffer against that final moment, that examination, that judgment day, when God might hold us accountable. So our life is fraught with anxiety. And Ellens says that we try to devise means by which we can buffer ourselves against that anxiety, a way by which we may find ourselves acceptable to that all examining eye of the Eternal God - and so we turn to religion. That is the story of most religion. That is very much what most religion has been about. But the problem with most religion is that it becomes the tyranny of the should and the ought and the must. It becomes a prescription to follow. It becomes a matter of performance - of doing things, of gaining favor through ritual acts, creedal belief, and moral behavior. And any time you are in the business of gaining peace through performance you never make it. We can never satisfy the demands, the infinite demands. We will always fall short. We will always come up wanting. We will always be weighed in the balance and found © Grand Valley State University �What Are You Afraid Of? Richard A. Rhem Page 4   wanting and we know it. There is no peace! Rather, that anxiety reducing mechanism that we call religion becomes an exacerbation of the anxiety with which we came into this world, and our religion all too often binds us and makes us seven-fold more the child of hell than when we began. Religion is too often binding, controlling, coercive, manipulative. It is not too often good news, but bad news. And the threat of hell and of judgment, and of damnation and of condemnation broadly used in the religions of the world, do not reduce anxiety, but increase it. But, of course, the people cowering in fear are manageable at least. John has quite a different thing to say. What he says isn’t the Bible’s only message, but if we could only hear this. Do you hear it with me? “God is love.” He has said it before. He doesn’t say “God loves,” he said, “God is love.” That is whatever God is, whatever God does, God does it in a loving fashion because God is love, and, “Those who abide in love, abide in God and God abides in them. Love has been perfected among us in this that we may have boldness in the day of judgment.” It would seem that what John is trying to say is that if you could get a glimpse of the love of God, if you could get a grasp of the love of God, then that intrinsic human guilt and cowering before that final moment of judgment would dissolve. Because John says that, “there is no fear in love. God is love.” And, love has been perfected among us in this, that we may have boldness in the day of judgment because as he is so are we in the world.” As Christ is. How is Christ? Christ is one with God. Christ is in the presence of God - crucified, resurrected, received in the presence of God. “As he is so are we in this world.” Earlier he has said, “Beloved, 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 it doth not yet appear what we shall be, but when He appears we shall be like him for we shall see him as he is. Beloved, what matter of love, we are now, children of God.” If we could only believe it. If we could only lay hold of it. If we could only know that there is no record that stands against us. If we could only know that the love of God somehow or other has embraced us so that the record has been expunged and we are embraced in an everlasting love, so that there is no need for fear in judgment. I think that’s what John is talking about. Do you sense that’s about one hundred eighty degrees from where most religion would take you? From the place of the tyranny of the ought and the should and the must. People have challenged me about my promiscuous offer of grace, about the prodigality of God’s love, about the unconditional love of God that embraces us. Is that not dangerous? they ask. Will not people exploit that? Will not people take advantage of that? If that is true - if we are loved already, if we are embraced already, if judgment is passed already - then why worship? Then why live in praise and wonder? © Grand Valley State University �What Are You Afraid Of? Richard A. Rhem Page 5   Why? Precisely because of that! Precisely because of a love so amazing, so divine that it demands my life, my soul, my all! There is no fear in love. Most of the time the Church has not dared preach it. Too radical. The people cannot handle it. They will take advantage of it. Nonsense! Preach fear to the people and you bind them in fear. Preach fear and you increase resentment. Preach fear and you exacerbate anger - hostility. Dare to preach love - and you transform. God is love. And love is perfected in this - that we have boldness before the thought of judgment. There is no fear in love. Perfect love casts out fear. The one who fears is not perfected in love. Most of the time the Church would keep you afraid. It’s safer that way - for the masses. Nonsense. Dear, serious, sincere, religious people have been forced to cower before the demands of an angry God rather than hearing the word of the Christmas Gospel. The covenant of grace instituted with Abraham began when God came to Abraham and said, “Do not be afraid.” Old Zacharias was in the temple doing his thing and the angel came and said, “Do not be afraid.” Mary, a young Hebrew maiden doing her cross-stitching was encountered by an angel who began, “Don’t be afraid.” And Joseph, concerned about this situation that confronted him, heard from the angel saying, “Fear not.” The Christmas Gospel is Good News pure and simple. You don’t have to be afraid. God is love. And love casts out fear and so that endemic human sense of accountability that causes you to cower has been dissolved by the chemistry of God’s eternal love. Preaching on this text one day, Martin Luther King Jr. spoke about the time of the Montgomery, Alabama bus protest. After one particularly horrendous week in which he had been arrested and he had received phone calls threatening his life, and everything seemed impossible, he had to speak to a mass rally. When he was done speaking he came down from the podium and old Mother Pollard came forward. She was an old, black woman, uneducated and wise, who marched and marched, and marched in many protests. She came up to him after he had finished speaking and said, “Son, come here.” He went to her and gave her a hug and she said, “What’s wrong with you tonight?” He said, “Nothing, I’m fine.” She said, “You don’t talk strong tonight. Something’s wrong. Is it that we ain’t followin’ you enough? Or is it them white folk?” And then she looked at him and said, “Son, whether we follow you or not, God’s gonna take care of you.” And Martin Luther King said that from that day, because of the words of old Mother Pollard, he was able to live without fear. You say, “Well, that’s just fine. He said it that way at 8:30 but if you remember he died by an assassin’s bullet.” He was killed after all. Yes, that’s true. The Christmas Gospel does not say that life is not perilous, that human existence is not fragile, that there is not tragedy and suffering. Bullets cut us down. Cancer cuts us down. There is brokenness and pain enough to go around. But Martin Luther King lived the rest of his days without fear. That is to say, he lived until he died. But when fear enwraps our hearts we never live before we die. We will all die one way or another. And we will meet the Lord face to face. The question is whether we will have truly lived before we die - lived without fear. © Grand Valley State University �What Are You Afraid Of? Richard A. Rhem Page 6   So what are you afraid of? What are you afraid of? Name it. Speak it before the face of God - and let it go. Just let it go. © 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 Advent IV Scripture Text I John 4:18, Luke 1:30 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-0-19921220 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1992-12-20 Title A name given to the resource What Are You Afraid Of? 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 December 20, 1992 entitled "What Are You Afraid Of?", on the occasion of Advent IV, at Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI. Scripture references: I John 4:18, Luke 1:30. Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Lemmen Library and Archives Fear Judgment Trust Way of Love https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/f507b0cfa1ae854fea576fc16e88a5cf.mp3 eb113abf8e118eb5f28b35087094bf5f https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/d27d30490657ff2c35fad3e5fdadd494.pdf 2dedcab7843f92308542ca51a12ac7fa PDF Text Text Weaving Our Way Into God’s Story Text: Isaiah 55:11; Acts 11:17 Richard A. Rhem Christ Community Church Spring Lake, Michigan Pentecost XIX, October 18, 1992 Transcription of the spoken sermon ...so shall my word be that goes forth from my mouth; it shall not return to me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I purpose, and succeed in the thing for which I sent it. Isaiah 55:11 ...who was I that I could hinder God? Acts 11:17 The Old Testament text today is Isaiah 55. I don’t generally push you to get your Bibles out, but I might today suggest that it would be a good idea. I will give you a little Bible lesson at no extra cost. If you will open your pew Bible to page 650, you will be at Isaiah 55, I trust, if the bulletin is correct. And then if you would page back a few pages to find Isaiah 40. Biblical scholars believe that Isaiah 40 to 55 is written by a single prophet, not Isaiah of the 8th century, but a prophet who spoke to the people of Israel, the people of Judah, who were in exile in Babylon, having been taken there in 586 B.C. and this word, Isaiah 40 to 55, was addressed to those exiles in Babylon, probably sometime after 550 B.C. To a people who had lost their faith. To a people who had given up on God. To a people who were full of despair. Just ordinary people like us. They figured that their future was behind them and heard that Babylon’s gods must be supreme because the God of Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and Moses and David had allowed them to be overcome. They were strangers in a foreign land, a captive people. They simply had lost their faith. It is always to a concrete context, always to a particular people, that the Word of God is addressed. Sometimes we speak about the Bible as being the Word of God, but the Bible isn’t the Word of God. The Bible is a record of the Word of God that once has been heard, and that is heard again and again as the Holy Spirit moves upon the sacred page. But this isn’t the Word of God. We would love to have this be the Word of God, because then we could get it all between the covers of this book and we could master it. We could master the Word of God. But that is not the Word of God. It is a record of how the Word of God in the past has come to expression, around those originating events of our tradition - Israel and Jesus. And that’s all it is. © Grand Valley State University   �Weaving Our Way into God’s Story Richard A. Rhem Page 2   Yet the Word of God is always God’s word addressed to concrete people in their contemporary situation. It is a word of grace, or a word of judgment, but it is always God’s word here and now. This little section of prophecy in Isaiah 40 to 55 is a beautiful example of it. You will recognize how chapter 40 begins, from Handel’s Messiah. “Comfort ye, comfort ye, my people, says your God. Speak tenderly to Jerusalem and cry to . . . etc.” And then in the 6th verse, “A voice says, ‘Cry, and the prophet says, “What shall I cry?” And what he is really saying is, “What’s the use of crying? What’s the use of speaking? All flesh is grass. All human flesh is transient, passive, fading. Why should I cry? The grass withers, the flower fades, the breath of the Lord blows upon it. The people are grass. What is there in this call now to cry? Why should I cry?” Well, says verse 8, that’s right. The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God will stand forever. So, now, get back into the cities of Judah and say, “Behold your God. Lift up your hearts. Raise your voice in the midst of that people and tell them that I’m not through. I’m not finished. There’s still something going to happen in the future, and it’s going to be a word of salvation.” It ends beautifully in the 40th chapter, verse 28: “Have you not known, have you not heard? The Lord is the everlasting God, the creator of the earth, he doth not faint or grow weary, and his understanding is unsearchable. He gives power to the faint and to him who has no might he increases strength. Even youth shall faint and be weary, and young men shall fall exhausted, but they who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength, they shall mount up with wings like eagles, they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint.” So you see, this is the Word of God addressed to this people in their situation and they are called to hope. Fear not. Hope in God. Watch. Something is going to happen. I’m not through yet. And then the 55th chapter is the concluding part of this writing, which has many beautiful passages in it. If we start at the 6th verse: “Seek the Lord while he may be found. Call upon him while he is near. Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous one his thoughts. Let him return to the Lord that he may have mercy on him and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon. For my thoughts are not your thoughts. Neither are your ways my ways, says the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts. For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven and do not return thither but water the earth, making it bring forth and sprout, giving seeds to the sower and bread to the eater, so shall my word be that goes forth from my mouth. It shall not return to me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I purpose and prosper in the thing for which I sent it.” This is the word of the Lord. © Grand Valley State University �Weaving Our Way into God’s Story Richard A. Rhem Page 3   And the New Testament lesson from the Book of Acts, the 11th chapter, is Peter’s summary of what he had just been doing because he had had a vision and was sent by this vision to the house of Cornelius, the Roman leader, where he had told the story of Jesus and saw the Holy Spirit fall upon them. Now, of course, for Peter, a Jew, to go to the house of a Gentile was forbidden. And, of course, the Church then being good Jewish people, they criticized him and so he had to give account of himself, and the 11th chapter is Peter relating his experience. “Now the apostles and the brethren who were in Judea heard that the Gentiles also had received the Word of God, so when Peter went up to Jerusalem, the circumcision party criticized him saying, ‘Why did you go to uncircumcised men and eat with them?’ And Peter began to explain to them, I was in the city of Joppa praying and in a trance I saw a vision, something descending, like a great sheet let down from heaven by four corners, and it came down to me. Looking at it closely I observed animals and beasts of prey and reptiles, and birds of the air, and I heard a voice saying to me, “Rise Peter, kill and eat.” But I said, “No, Lord, for nothing common or unclean has ever entered my mouth.” But the voice answered a second time from heaven, “What God has cleansed you must not call common.” This happened three times and all was drawn up again into heaven. At that very moment three men arrived at the house in which we were, sent to me from Caesarea, and the Spirit told me to go with them, making no distinction. These six brethren also accompanied me and we entered the man’s house, and he told us how he had seen an angel standing in his house and saying, “Send to Joppa and bring Simon, called Peter. He will declare to you a message by which you will be saved, you and all your household.” As I began to speak, the Holy Spirit fell on them just as on us at the beginning and I remembered the word of the Lord how he said: “John baptized with water, but you shall be baptized with the Holy Spirit.” If then God gave the same gift to them as he gave to us when we believed in the Lord Jesus Christ, who was I that I could withstand God? When they heard this they were silent and they glorified God saying, “Then to the Gentiles also God has granted repentance unto life.” This is the word of the Lord. I suppose it’s the campaign, the political campaign, the election coming and all the issues that are constantly before us, and we are bombarded by the media from every angle, but I sense there is a lot of unrest and dis-ease, restlessness and lack of clarity in the minds of many people. Such ambiguity out there. Maybe I’m just getting old. Maybe I don’t remember any more former elections, but I don’t ever remember a time when so many people were so dissatisfied with their favorite candidate - and when it seems that so many people are going to vote for the least unliked person. However that may be, all of the issues are before us and it seems as though we are in a time of social upheaval and chaos. There is just a lot of unrest in the body politic. © Grand Valley State University �Weaving Our Way into God’s Story Richard A. Rhem Page 4   But really that isn’t so unusual. All historical times are messy, full of ambiguity. We only dream of the Golden Age and the Good Old Days and the past; they never did exist really. We are simply in the midst of times that are changing. That is always the rule, because history is an ongoing movement, this ongoing tide. We would love to be able to stop the process somehow or other. We would love to be able to have some absolutes in the midst of all the relativities. We would love to have a place to stand in the midst of shifting ground. There is that lust for certitude in our hearts - that longing for something that is more stable and something that is certain. But it’s really never that way. It never has been that way. The thing that has always tried to dislodge God’s people from that place to stand is the Word of God. The Word of God is always a word that would unshackle and set free and propel, and energize and move God’s people in accord with the purposes of God. And it seems to me that as the people of God, one of the wonderful assurances that we could have is that our life has meaning and purpose, and that our life is being woven into a tapestry that God is weaving. Well, do you believe that? Do you really believe that? Is there the uncanny that laced into our lives that we cannot explain, but in which we trust? Is there a purpose and a meaning that infiltrates history? Is there an invisible hand? Not Adam Smith’s invisible hand that drives the market, but is there an invisible presence powerful and purposeful that impacts the movement of things, that engages our willing and deciding and planning and strategizing? Is there more than meets the eye in the ongoing movement of human history? Is God “a Weaver of a tapestry vivid and warm...?” Is God able because God is a “Spinner of Chaos...” to effect God’s purposes - ultimately? That really is the question. Do you live with that kind of fundamental trust - or aren’t you so sure? Are things just up for grabs; is it chance? Is all human ingenuity and human willing? Or is there woven in and through it all the eternal God? Well, the prophet believed in the Word of God to effect history. In Hebrew it is interesting that the term for word and deed is the same word, because the Hebrew conception of God speaking of God’s word was God effecting that word. A word was not an empty word. A word was an action word. A word was the Word of God effecting the purpose of God, and so the Hebrews have given us the prophets and that dynamic sense of history moving toward its goal. Not the old cyclic eternal return, but this ongoing movement. That’s an Old Testament conception. The prophet as the spokesperson for God was the effector of those purposes. The prophet spoke to the people of God, a word from God. And that word in this case, as we saw in Isaiah 40 to 55, was a word of comfort. It was a word that said to a people in despair, “Fear not.” The people of hopelessness wait on the Lord. And that word is full of hopeful expectation. They that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength and say to the cities of Judah, “Your God is abroad. Lift up your voice. Cry out a word of salvation.” © Grand Valley State University �Weaving Our Way into God’s Story Richard A. Rhem Page 5   This word the prophet says will be effected – it’s going to happen. Oh, you can’t get a neat blueprint of it. You can’t nail it down and be so certain it is just this way or that way, because “my ways are not your ways and my thoughts are not your thoughts. My thoughts are higher than your thoughts.” God never becomes simply accessible to our human conjure. We can never get it all clear. I smile at those who claim that there is absolute truth. Well sure there is absolute truth - but we don’t have it. We only have an approximation, a relative grasp of that which is beyond us. And we are always groping, always feeling our way, because we can only know within the rootedness of our lives in that movement of history. Sometimes, when you hear preachers talk, you would think that somehow or other they were able to get out of the stream of history and look down and see the whole picture. Not so. The Word of God comes to us and that word is released. God’s spirit breathing through that word continues to effect God’s purposes. That’s why the Reformation insight was that there was the word in the flesh of Jesus and the Word of God written, and the word preached. The preaching of the word was presumptuous. And yet right at the heart of our Reformation tradition was the belief that the Word of God preached becomes again the Word of God because it addresses concrete people in a concrete situation with a word – a word of judgment or a word of grace. So in the Old Testament in the experience of Judah there came this voice, in spite of the fact that the people were despairing, this voice speaking into that transient ambiguous human situation encouraging people to be not afraid - to trust in God. The Word of God is always calling people to trust God, not to know everything that God is doing, but just to trust God. Fundamentally to trust God, to trust that there is that invisible hand - that there is that intangible person - that there is something more than meets the eye that’s going on. But the Word of God is always a word addressed to God’s people trying to get them moving and setting them free and finding their lives caught up in this grander purpose of God. So what happens to Peter living in the wake of that time when God’s people shut down, rejected the “word made flesh,” the one whom God raised up. In the experience of that early church we see that once again that word coming, and nudging and pushing and shoving. Peter says, “Not so, Lord.” The word comes and says, “Yes, Peter.” And so Peter goes to the house of Cornelius and he says, “You know I shouldn’t be here. I am not supposed to associate with you folks. That’s what my religious tradition and my religious training has taught me, but now I am being pushed to do what breaks and shatters my neat little system of ideas.” And so there he is in Cornelius’ house and what does he do? He gives the word. He tells the story - he tells the story of Jesus. And it becomes in the telling the instrument of revelation and insight, and the Spirit of God falls on these people. So Peter goes back and they say, “What in the world are you doing traipsing with Gentiles?” And Peter says, “What in the world was I supposed to do? Here’s my story . . .” And he just throws up his hands and says, “How could I hinder God?” © Grand Valley State University �Weaving Our Way into God’s Story Richard A. Rhem Page 6   I submit to you, dear friends, that it is not the world that hinders God; it is the Church that hinders God. The Word of God has problems with the people of God because the people of God always want to shut down - always just love to have it right here. It’s not right here; it’s beyond us. It’s in things we haven’t yet dreamed of. It is the word that keeps coming to us here, and wherever, because God is always calling us to find our lives being woven into a larger pattern and a grander design in the tapestry God is weaving. We in our Reformation tradition have found our center back in the 16th century, but if you read the somewhat recent biography by William Bowsma, you find that the 16th century was a period of social chaos and unrest, probably not so different than our own period. It was a period when the Renaissance had permeated the European scene, and the Reformation was afoot and it was leading to the Age of Reason. And all of the old forms and all of the old structures were being challenged and were falling away. All kinds of new configurations were developing and our saint, John Calvin, was a man whom Bowsma says was characterized by anxiety. But some reviewer in the New York Times says that, according to the way Bowsma describes it, it wasn’t simply anxiety; it was angst, the pain of the world. John Calvin was a man torn. There were two vivid images that shaped his life: one was the abyss. He was terrified of the abyss - a kind of a free-fall without structure or order. And on the other hand the horror of the labyrinth, being entrapped in all kinds of tunnels and channels and structures. John Calvin was a man who throughout his days was filled with anxiety, with angst, with the pain of existence. He was a great Christian leader, but . . . for us today to imagine that the 16th century was some kind of century of pristine clarity and subtle truth is simply to deny reality. And for us today to think that the answer is for us to somehow or other hark back to that - to reassert it, to reaffirm it, to renew it, to revive it, to cling to old structures and old forms, to buttress them and to shore them up and to buoy them up - is to fail to see that we are God’s people today and the Word of God addresses us today for tomorrow! We’ve always got a choice. It is either to hark back, to shut down, or to trust God and open up. And it is the call of the Word of God for us to be shapers of the future, not the guardians of the past. In gratitude for what has been, it is our task to address the Word of God to shape what will be. We are at one of those interesting points in history - one of those hinge points in history. The Renaissance is past, and the Reformation is past, and the Enlightenment is past. The Modern Age has come to an end. We are in the Postmodern period and its configuration is not yet at all clear, but we are at a time when there is a shifting and a sifting. The word today is paradigm. Everybody’s looking for a new paradigm. And at such times there is a lot of fear abroad and there is a kind of desperate attempt to hunker down and hold on. © Grand Valley State University �Weaving Our Way into God’s Story Richard A. Rhem Page 7   The fundamentals of the word that some of us are looking at on Wednesday nights are indications of that social dis-ease with the chaos and the attempt to get hold of something that is tangible and something that can be grasped, and some place to stand. You can’t stand. You’ve got to move. The good news is that you don’t have to be afraid, for the Word of God is always out ahead of us, and out of the chaos God is able to create beauty. Remember the image of Brian Wren in the hymns that we have sung here “Spinner of Chaos, pulling and twisting, freeing the fibres of pattern and form, Weaver of stories, famed or unspoken, tangled or broken, shaping a tapestry vivid and warm.” Have you not heard? Have you not seen? The Everlasting God is not weary, nor is there any lack of his strength. The Creator of the ends of the earth neither slumbers nor sleeps. God is not dead, and God’s finest word was not yesterday, but tomorrow – and today . . . today. So it’s not all settled. So it’s ragged around the edges. Do you trust God - or not? Are you able to flow with it because you trust God? Or have you no faith? Do you want it nailed down - i’s dotted, t’s crossed? The last word spoken back there? Not so. God’s people are always faced with a choice - to trust God today for tomorrow on the basis of God’s steadfast love and faithfulness in the past. But it’s always before us, dear friends. And the Word of God is always “Don’t be afraid.” The best is yet to be - through ups and downs, through valleys and mountains, darkness and light, but God will not abandon us. My friend, Ernie Campbell, in his recent newsletter talks about the urge to shrink the world. And he says, “As I listen to others who speak for God professionally and I listen to the murmurings of my own heart, I am forced to conclude that many of us live with a kind of chronic sense of being overwhelmed.” Can you identify with that? A chronic sense of being overwhelmed - more questions are being raised than we can answer. Old reasoning doesn’t fit. Someone in the night moved all the landmarks. Right? Ministers in their 50s and 60s longing to retire, (Not this one, thank God, but I’ve got a lot of colleagues that can’t wait to get out. That’s too bad.) Couples, so happy that their child raising days are over. Too bad. Can’t God nurture tomorrow’s children? Is God unequal to the future? Fingers pointing in all different directions to the cause of malaise. Ernie pictures a castle turret and people going up with binoculars and one looks out in this direction and says, “The problem with our world is theological; they’re taking our © Grand Valley State University �Weaving Our Way into God’s Story Richard A. Rhem Page 8   God away.” Another looks in another direction and says, “No, no it’s cultural; where have all the values gone?” Another looking this way is saying, “No, it’s economic; the world can’t support what we’ve been used to any more.” And a fourth one looks off in the other direction and says, “No, it’s the ongoing tide of history; what is one to do?” Well, that’s what Ernie asks, “What to do?” He suggests that there is that urge in us, probably all of us at one time or another just to shrink our world. Cut it down to size. To go back inside; the cloister calls. What we ought to do is cut back. Stay home. Build a colony of faith in this benighted world. Doesn’t that sound pious? And then he says that the churches that have gone back inside are faring better, it would seem, than the congregations that are still intent upon making a difference in the world. The world of claimed absolutes tends to be quiet and reassuring, but the charged atmosphere outside where people claw and scrape for a relatively better rather than an absolutely right will always be subject to division and hostility. Shrink your world. To God, yes. To scripture, yes. To prayer, yes. To family values, yes. To growth in grace, yes. Let the church be the church. Ernie says, “I have more respect for this position every day. I watch the Orthodox Jews in my neighborhood, marked by their peculiar dress, simply doing their thing. It’s tempting.” Withdraw. Shrink to size. Shut down. Now I’m just about ready to say, “Ernie, Ernie, don’t leave me there. You know you’re my last hope.” But then in the last paragraph he says, “And yet I cannot.” (Didn’t lose a hero this time.) He said, “I’ve come too far for that. I may be short of answers, but I believe that God’s purpose for the world does not collapse when I’m confused. All change is not decay. The old is shattered that the new may come to birth. I want to help make it happen. To shrink the world to God and myself in the garden alone, or to God and the company of like-minded people meeting with closed minds behind closed doors tortures my theology to an unbearable degree.” We belong outside the camp, with Him who had the whole world in his heart when he lived and when he died. Do we shrink the world to fit our faith? Or do we pray for a faith big enough to match the hour God has given us? I know not what others may choose, but for me there is only one choice because I trust in God - the Spinner of Chaos - who says, if hope will listen, love will show and tell and all shall be well. All things shall 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 Pentecost XIX Scripture Text Isaiah 55:11, Acts 11:17 Location The location of the interview Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context KII-01_RA-0-19921018 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1992-10-18 Title A name given to the resource Weaving Our Way Into God's Story 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, 1992 entitled "Weaving Our Way Into God's Story", on the occasion of Pentecost XIX, at Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI. Scripture references: Isaiah 55:11, Acts 11:17. Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Lemmen Library and Archives Divine Intention Prophetic Scripture Trust Word of God https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/ad3714b2e8f6d3762f130322913347d6.pdf 4fd033f50ae55d8c70be0fdd814b33a4 PDF Text Text Trust That Survives Tragedy From the sermon series on the biblical story of Israel Text: Habakkuk 3:17-19; Psalm 137:1 Richard A. Rhem Christ Community Church Spring Lake, Michigan Pentecost XXVI, November 20, 1994 Transcription of the spoken sermon Though the fig tree does not blossom, and no fruit is on the vines;…yet I will rejoice in the Lord; I will exult in the God of my salvation. Habakkuk 3:17-19 By the rivers of Babylon—there we sat down and there we wept when we remembered Zion. Psalm 137:1 Israel's story—we have been following in broad strokes the story of that people. We have been following the story of the people of Israel because it is our story. The Christian movement that follows in the wake of Jesus is a movement that comes out of the womb of Israel, for Jesus never intended to be more than an observant Jew. The God of Israel was his God. The scriptures of Israel were his scriptures. The hope of Israel was his hope. So for us to understand ourselves, we need to understand that story. For it is that story that has shaped our identity as well. We have followed in broad strokes that story, seeing the beginning of Israel created in the exodus event, when under the leadership of Moses, Israel was set free from the oppression of Egypt's bondage. We followed them through the wilderness and into the promised land, into Canaan or Palestine, as we would call it. We saw them move from a loosely connected tribal confederacy to a monarchy in order that they might be a nation as other nations. But there was a difference because, with the rise of the monarch, there was also the rise of the prophetic word, the prophetic voice that was spoken into the social, economic and political arena of the life of Israel. The king of Israel was reminded ever and again that he was not really absolute, not really sovereign, for he served by the grace of God and under the sovereignty of God, who alone is the sovereign of heaven and earth and the course of human affairs. We find them now after that kingdom had gone on for a couple of centuries with a moment of glory, a golden age, and then downhill all the way. We find them in 722 B.C., the northern kingdom dispersed by the great Assyrian empire, the © Grand Valley State University   �Trust That Survives Tragedy Richard A. Rhem Page 2   southern kingdom, Judah, remaining yet for a time. But in 587 Judah too, is ripped from her roots, the temple burned, the walls of Jerusalem thrown down, and the cream of the crop of Judah brought in exile to Babylon. That's where we find them today. And, it's not the end of the story. But with Advent Sunday coming next Sunday, the season of Advent, I'll have opportunity to tell you more of the story. For the Advent hope is really a reflection of the hope of Israel. The amazing thing is that, although Judah is in exile in a foreign land, what might have been the end was not the end, for Judah survives and indeed Israel survives. And that is the amazing truth that I would have you focus on today. The fact that out of the tragedy and disaster, the natural catastrophe that overcame this people whose sorrow and sadness was expressed so plaintively in Psalm 137, there is yet a continuing people because, paradoxically and surprisingly, it happened as it happens so often that, in the midst of tragedy, trust is kindled, and out of trust hope is born, and hope lays hold of newness. That's an amazing truth. It is one of the wonderful learnings from the whole Biblical story that tragedy rather than being the end so often becomes prelude to a new beginning. That in tragedy trust is born, and from trust hope springs, and out of the hope, newness arrives. It is really an amazing paradox. It is one of the great values of learning the Biblical story, of being steeped in that Biblical tradition. There's nothing there that denies the darkness. There's nothing there that denies the tragedy. The plaintive tone of Psalm 137 expresses the despair of a people who are being mocked by their conquerors, who say, "Sing us a song." And they say, "We can't sing a song in a foreign land." Then they begin to remember Jerusalem. And isn't it often the case in our experience that we begin to remember and to value what we have lost? It was in the tragedy of the exile that they began to remember, and caused them to dig deeper into the spiritual depths of that tradition that had shaped them as a people. Psalm 137. The last verses were not sung for you, for how can you sing expressions of raw anger. The last couple of verses of Psalm 137 are verses that those of us of delicate taste would wish were not even in the Scripture. They are expressions of anger and hatred so violent that they could hardly be duplicated, the hatred and the anger focused at the conquering Babylonians. The awful expression that chills us. "I would that your little ones were dashed against a stone." But, it's there and it is true to human experience. No, don't hear me saying this morning that the darkness isn't really so dark, or the coldness not so cold, or the tragedy not so bad. That's not being faithful to the Biblical story. Habakkuk, for example. Habakkuk looked about him also. He was living right at this hinge-point also. He looked about and he saw the chaos and the corruption and the violence. He cried out to God, as we have done as well, have we not? "Oh God, how long... how long?" The mystery of the world is the absence of God when all goes wrong. Where is God? How long, O Lord, will you cause me to see this violence? How long will you withhold your hand? Where are you? in other words. Then there comes to the prophet this consciousness: I am doing a work in your © Grand Valley State University �Trust That Survives Tragedy Richard A. Rhem Page 3   day that you wouldn't believe if you knew it. I am doing a work in your day, invisible, unknown to peasant and king alike. But be sure that history is not simply unraveling apart from my presence. So the prophet says, "I'll go into the watch tower of faith and I will wait to see the vision. The Word of the Lord comes to him saying, "Write this vision large so that one running will be able to read it. Wait for the vision for it will surely come. Know this that the unjust will fail, but the righteous one will live by faith." Then the vision comes and in panoramic view he sees, as though the film is flashing through his mind, the history of his people. In response to that vision we have that marvelous expression of devotion and praise: "Although I am stripped bare of everything, yet I will rejoice in the Lord. I will exalt in the God of my salvation." How do you figure it? How do you figure it? Will you note this morning that I am not trying to explain it, but I am pointing to it. I am pointing to a phenomenon concrete in history, Israel's history. As I said a moment ago, Israel survived. And then I added, "and survives." Israel survives. When there was no human reason for it to survive except that it remembered and began again to believe and to hope and to grasp a new beginning. Ah, a conviction that somehow or other there is some presence or some power engaged with this whole historical process which we cannot discern or explain, and yet in which we trust. Was that it? Wasn't that it for Habakkuk? Wasn't that it when he was able to say, "Take everything away - the crops from the field and the herd from the stall - take it all away and I will yet rejoice in God, my strength. I will exalt in the God of my salvation." How do you explain it? That indomitable trust that issues in hope, that waits for newness. It is not naive. A faith that has as its center a cross on which one was crucified cannot be naive. Israel that survives cannot be naive when it looks back in its own recent history to the cremation of six million of its number in the Holocaust, standing there as a hard knock in human history. Who can believe after the Holocaust? Who could believe after the son of God was crucified? Who could believe? That's the mystery of faith. I can't explain it. But it's not head-in-the-sand stuff. It's not pie-in-the-sky stuff. It's the stuff of human experience out of which amazingly the human spirit yet trusts and hopes and grasps the dawning of a new day. That's the miracle, which I cannot explain, but to which I point you and why it's so important that we know that story. That's why some weeks ago I began this whole tale, because I remember my old professor Berkhof who told me that he couldn't speak to the younger generation in secularized society because he said, "They are not prodigals." The prodigals still knew there was a home and a parent. They are not prodigals; they are the children of the prodigals. The children of the prodigals don't even know there's a home or a father. They have no center — homeless. The sign of the end of the end of the twentieth century, masses of people homeless, adrift, estranged and © Grand Valley State University �Trust That Survives Tragedy Richard A. Rhem Page 4   alienated, exiled. One of the Biblical images that best bespeaks our own day is homelessness. No rootage. No place to stand. The story, which continues to be told, doesn't explain, but it points us to a reality and that is there is no night so dark but what the dawn will follow. Trust is that which enables one or a people to survive tragedy, to experience loss, to come to total despair only to find indomitable faith rising, hope springing, newness dawning. That's the wonder of the tradition, which has shaped us and given us birth and which we keep alive by telling the story to those brought to the baptismal font today, in order that with us they may place their trust in the God, the God of Israel, the God of Jesus. Next Sunday, Advent I, we'll sing, "O come, O come Emmanuel and ransom captive Israel that mourns in lonely exile here." And it will be our cry. We'll speak the Advent word, "Comfort ye, comfort ye, my people says your God." And we'll find our faith renewed and our hope restored that that same God will surely bring us home. © Grand Valley State University � https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/2480aff3003169db610f067eecaeae80.mp3 ee5c3bae483e74953e3a9919e94304d1 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 XXVI Series The First Testament Scripture Text Habakkuk 3:17-19, Psalm 137:1 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-0-19941120 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1994-11-20 Title A name given to the resource Trust That Survives Tragedy 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 20, 1994 entitled "Trust That Survives Tragedy", as part of the series "The First Testament", on the occasion of Pentecost XXVI, at Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI. Scripture references: Habakkuk 3:17-19, Psalm 137:1. Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Lemmen Library and Archives Faith History of Israel Mystery Tradition Trust https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/6e9969320ea8676eab566d86bb163913.mp3 8a892bc3c3e6c110509b1962fe6e6bc0 https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/097e028340500adc6941bfd440c6e7c6.pdf 4c29f2bfd768b1583fe119b54ebcd23a PDF Text Text Trust Third sermon in the series: What the Church Has Forgotten, AA Remembers Text: Romans 7 Richard A. Rhem Christ Community Church Spring Lake, Michigan July 25, 1982 Transcription of the spoken sermon "Miserable creature that I am, who is there to rescue me... God alone, through Jesus Christ, our Lord " To trust is to have faith or confidence in; to rely or depend upon; to commit oneself to. Faith is a key word in the New Testament, being the term regularly used to denote the many-faceted religious relationship into which the Gospel calls persons - trust in God through Jesus Christ. Trust in God involves the whole person. If faith is the most common umbrella term, trust carries with it strong connotations of the total commitment of oneself to another. When one says, "I believe," it is a conscious and deliberate act, but it carries with it the idea of surrender to a new reality. A variety of terms can be used to describe this surrender, but implicit in the act of faith or trust is the element of acknowledgement - one knows and acknowledges the one in whom one trusts and the element of commitment - the entrusting of oneself to another. Volumes have been written on faith or trust. The nature of faith and its place in the Christian scheme of redemption have been endlessly discussed and debated. Too often trust has been defined and delineated in abstraction and what has resulted is a sterile theological proposition or doctrinal statement. Our interest in this message is more practical and experimental. We will look at trust as an act of stepping out of ourselves and outside our experience, looking to a gracious Power beyond ourselves, surrendering ourselves to the care of that Power - that Power that for us has been made known as the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. In this series of messages we are paralleling the Twelve Step program of Alcoholics Anonymous with the Gospel of Christ, not in order to learn AA’s Twelve Steps, but rather to learn again the Gospel diagnosis of the human situation, the remedy in the Grace of God and the way of life to which the Gospel © Grand Valley State University   �Trust Richard A. Rhem Page 2   calls us. These things AA has discovered and by them alone they live. These things too often the Church forgets, encrusting this way of human transformation with religious burden and institutional baggage. Step One: We admitted we were powerless over alcohol -that our lives had become unmanageable. Step Two: We came to believe that a Power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity. That Power was left undefined, our relationship to that Power left unexplained. In the AA program - which is spiritual, but not religious, that Power is never defined, nor must one subscribe to a carefully delineated formula of relationships. Step Two is little more than a positive response to the cry out of desperation -Is there Someone who can help? Step Two points to the existence of a higher Power. Step Three takes us further We made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God as we understood Him. Step Two speaks of little more than our openness to the truth of the existence of a higher Power - of God. Step Three speaks of opening one's life to God. It speaks of decision, thus to a deliberate act. The decision is to turn one's will - indeed, one's whole life - over to the care of God. Steps One and Two were reflective in nature: My life is unmanageable! Possibly there is Someone who will help! Step Three requires more than the acceptance of the truth of a statement. It calls for affirmative action. At Step Three the alcoholic is called to act to let God into his or her life. It is the profound conviction of AA that anyone can begin to let God into his life if he is willing. Willingness is the key. One has acknowledged he is powerless. One has come to a point of at least minimal faith that there is a Power - gracious Power. Now one is at the point of decision; one decides to turn over one's will, one's life to the care of God. AA shows great wisdom in separating Steps Two and Three. The world is full of people who believe there is a God, but too few have ever experienced the power of God operating in their lives. It is the entrusting of one's life to God that allows the © Grand Valley State University �Trust Richard A. Rhem Page 3   flow of God's power to effect our lives. It is trust - which is more than intellectual assent to the proposition "God exists" - which puts us into vital relationship with God. Trust is the action called for when Steps One and Two have become our profound conviction. Step Three is the watershed. It is the end of the self-life. It is the beginning of the God-controlled life. This step is what the New Testament means by conversion. It is a turning point. A turning from self to God, from independence to dependence, from self control to God-control, from self will to God's will, from impotence to Power, from death to life. There are many people who are religious. Too few people experience power in their religion. It is when one consciously and deliberately turns from oneself and turns to God that one is in a place to appropriate the Power that transforms human existence. Only a vital, personal, total surrender of our wills to God puts us in touch with His life-changing Power. There is much that could be said about the background of this commitment according to Christian teaching. Behind the commitment must be the prior work of the Holy Spirit convincing us of our need. And the work of the Spirit points to the Grace of God - His initiative as He reaches out for us and pursues us through the labyrinth of our human predicament. But it is clearly a biblical teaching that decision is demanded. That decision may be an undramatic, quiet resolution of the heart. That decision may come at the end of a long process of conflict and struggle. That decision may be made as a result of a sudden crisis experience. There is no stereotype that can be advocated. What must be insisted upon is that one must decide to turn over one's life to God. There is an interesting aspect of AA's understanding of this decision to turn one's life over to God which is largely forgotten in the Church - especially that part of the Church that most stresses conversion. Conversion is not once for all, as though once accomplished one was through with it. Too much of the evangelical Church stresses the initial commitment so strongly that the impression is made that once that is handled one simply goes on as a Christian. Perhaps this is why there are so many professing Christians who demonstrate little power, little of the reality of God in their lives. AA has discovered what the Heidelberg Catechism understood in the sixteenth century; conversion is not once for all, but daily - the daily dying of the old man and the daily making alive of the new man. AA goes further; it is the moment-bymoment turning over of one's life to God. One day at a time - one moment at a time. Living by the power of God is a dynamic process of appropriating that power, of turning over our wills to His. © Grand Valley State University �Trust Richard A. Rhem Page 4   There is another AA insight the Church needs to relearn. While we must stress the deliberate, conscious act of the will in commitment, we must know that we are dependent on the enabling grace of God even for such an act of faith. If it were I who finally chose for God it would still be "I", the self determining the self. But it is precisely self-sufficiency of which I must be rid. Thus the appeal to the will of so much hardcore evangelism is still an appeal to self-determination. Rather than having confidence in his self-determination, the alcoholic says only he is willing. To clench my fists, to grit my teeth and to say, "I am determined..."is quite different from saying, in total self-resignation and surrender, "I am willing..." The latter is AA's way. It is a way that acknowledges that rescue comes by grace. As one recovering alcoholic put it, You don't reach for God. You become willing to have Him take over, and He reaches for you! Trust is surrender. AA lives by this truth and, if we understand ourselves and our faith, so do we in the Church. Surrender to God. Total dependence upon God. Moment by moment appropriation of His grace and power. That is salvation, rescue, redemption. Consider now the experience of St. Paul. I chose Romans 7 as the biblical basis for this message even though it is not one that would seem to speak to the matter of conversion as the church has understood it. Yet I believe this passage illustrates vividly what these first three messages have been trying to point out. Romans 7 is a hotly debated chapter. Was Paul speaking autobiographically, telling his own story, or was he speaking of the human situation in general? And even more hotly contended is the question whether he is describing the experience of a believer or the experience of one before conversion. Perhaps as with no other passage, there continues to be little agreement on that question and excellent biblical scholars, ancient and contemporary, can be lined up on either side of the questions. Obviously, I will have to give you space to understand this passage as you become convinced in your own mind. I will, however, tell you how I read it while admitting one should not be dogmatic and should always remain open to a new insight and angle of truth. © Grand Valley State University �Trust Richard A. Rhem Page 5   I believe the passage describes the human condition - the enigma of our human nature; but I believe Paul does that so poignantly, so vividly, so powerfully because it is a description of his own experience. So much for the first question. I believe as to the second question that Paul is describing in Romans 7 the experience of a believer rather than a pre-conversion struggle. As we look at the passage I trust that my reasons for adopting these positions will be clear. Let me begin the exposition by pointing to the text - a cry of miserable despair, an expression of grateful trust. Listen to Paul: "Miserable creature that I am, who is there to rescue me out of this body doomed to death?" There you have despair, although not absolute despair. Paul has not given up on the possibility of Someone to rescue him. Do you recognize Steps One and Two? There follows an expression of grateful trust: "God alone, through Jesus Christ our Lord! Thanks be to God!" Do you recognize there Step Three? Although the word trust or faith does not appear, it is obvious that Paul points to God Who has reached him through Jesus Christ - God alone; God his only hope, the God of Salvation in Whom he trusts, to Whom he commits himself, the God to Whom he has made unconditional surrender. Having begun with the conclusion, let us now examine the dilemma out of which Paul cried for deliverance. The great question Paul is dealing with is how a person becomes right with God. Essentially there are two ways, two ways which divide all religions into two camps. Either through human effort and achievement one makes oneself right, or one trusts the grace of God to make one right, trusting God to do what one has found impossible to do. Paul's position is... Salvation (being right with God) is God's gift. It is of grace. It can never be achieved, earned or merited. His antagonists, in this case, Jewish legalists, believed Salvation must be achieved through obedience, the performance of God's will in obedience. The Jewish position saw the human will as having the ability, the power, to perform, to keep the Law. © Grand Valley State University �Trust Richard A. Rhem Page 6   Paul saw the human will as powerless so that the more one was concerned fully to follow the Law, the deeper one mired oneself in the misery of powerlessness. Paul's position will be illustrated somewhere in this area today. On a beautiful Summer Sunday with thousands flocking to the beach, the parking lots will be filled and people will have to park on the street and just off the street. Someone will misjudge the shoulder, not realizing it is nothing but sand. The car will sink. As they try to accelerate to gain sufficient power to extricate the car, the wheels will spin, but rather than propelling the car forward and out of the sand, the wheels will spin where they are, digging themselves in. The more gas that is given, the quicker the car will burrow down until the axle will be resting solidly on the sand. The only possible deliverance is for a power from the outside to pull the car out - its own wheels moving in response to the power of the other vehicle, but simply turning as they are turned with no power applied from the buried car itself. This was precisely Paul's experience. Read his autobiographical statement in Philippians 3. He says if you want to talk about credentials, confidence on external grounds, qualification, achievements, in sum, one's own record, let me mention mine. "Circumcised on my eighth day, Israelite by race, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew born and bred; in my attitude to the Law, a Pharisee; in pious zeal, a persecutor of the Church; in legal rectitude, faultless." Phil. 3:5-6 That is some record. Never was one more serious about life's ultimate concern. Not one of his detractors could match that achievement. Paul knew whereof he spoke. And where did it get him? In despair. What did he learn? The powerlessness of his own will to perform what his reason agreed was the just requirement of the Law. He knew the problem was not with the Law. He says, "...The Law is in itself holy, and the commandment is holy and just and good." But what did that good Law accomplish in him as he tried to follow it fully? It brought about his death - spiritually. Why? Because he says, "...The Law is spiritual; but I am not. I am unspiritual, the purchased slave of sin." In utter amazement, Paul says, "I do not even acknowledge my own virtues as mine, for what I do is not what I want to do, but what I detest." What is the solution? © Grand Valley State University �Trust Richard A. Rhem Page 7   To look to Someone who can do for me what I cannot do myself. Here is Step One - Misery; life unmanageable/ Here is Step Two - A Power beyond myself. And Paul took Step Three - God alone - through Jesus Christ our Lord! I believe what Paul describes here is universal. Surely not every person goes through that agonizing struggle because not everyone has been sensitized by the claim of God upon his life. Paul acknowledges that, before the Law came, rebellion was out of the question. But for the person who becomes serious about being right with God - having one's life in conformity with the Law of love and justice and compassion, the greater the struggle, the greater the sense of powerlessness. But I am convinced Paul can speak so vividly of a universal condition because he read the experience out of his own heart. Is there no let up, no abatement of the struggle? Yes, there is. That is why I added the first four verses of Chapter 8. The power of the Spirit, which is the Power of God, sets us free from the Law of sin and death. When I entrust my life to another, when I surrender to God through Jesus Christ, the grace and power of the Spirit accomplish in me what I through my own efforts could not accomplish. Are there any more blessed words in Scripture than this marvelous declaration? " There is now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus." Here we have the victory cry! Here is rescue, redemption, salvation, help, healing and wholeness. Is the struggle over? Do we move from misery to victory once for all? Is Romans 7 the state of unbelief and Romans 8 the state of faith? I do not think so. I do not think we ever move finally from Romans 7 to Romans 8, from the life of misery to the life of victory. Notice the summary of Romans 7 in the 27th verse... "In a word then, I myself, subject to God's law as a rational being, am yet, in my unspiritual nature, a slave to the law of sin." To be sure, Paul has made other statements that would seem to contradict this. For example, "If anyone be in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has passed away; behold, the new has come.” II Cor. 5:17 And we know the truth of that statement, too. But it is not as though we move beyond the first into the second once for all. Here the AA experience has much to © Grand Valley State University �Trust Richard A. Rhem Page 8   show us. It is precisely the day by day and moment by moment appropriation of the power of God or, to put it more precisely, the moment by moment trusting, yielding, surrendering to the Spirit that enables us to live in the realm of victory and escape the situation of misery. Is there no alternative to the life of Trust? There is none. But to live in conscious trust is to live in constant power. And to live in constant touch with God's saving power is to live in grace. And to live in grace is to live in gratitude. And to live in gratitude, in grace, in touch with God's power is to live indeed! AA leaves to each person the task of defining God. Note Step Three speaks of God as we understand him. Here the Gospel of Jesus Christ leaves us no doubt. We see Him in the face of Jesus. We come to Him through Jesus Christ our Lord. Jesus said we come to the Father through him and he said, "He that cometh unto me, I will in no wise cast out." Have you come to the Father through Jesus, the Son? Can you remember some moment past that was filled with the glory of His presence, power and grace? Can you remember when you said clearly and deliberately, "Jesus, I come"? Have perhaps the years passed and the stress of life taken its toll? Would you now in the sanctuary of your heart surrender again to the gracious God Who calls you to Himself, to rest and peace, Who calls you simply to trust Him and find in Him salvation, healing and health? Come... He will set you free! © 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. Series What the Church Has Forgotten, AA Remembers Scripture Text Romans 7 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-0-19820725 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1982-07-25 Title A name given to the resource Trust Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Richard A. Rhem Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Subject The topic of the resource Clergy--Michigan Reformed Church in America Christ Community Church (Spring Lake, Mich.) Sermons Relation A related resource Richard A. Rhem - An Archive of Sermons, Prayers, Talks and Stories: http://richardrhem.org/ Language A language of the resource eng Type The nature or genre of the resource Sound Text Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource audio/mp3 application/pdf Description An account of the resource A sermon given by Richard A. Rhem (Dick) on July 25, 1982 entitled "Trust", as part of the series "What the Church Has Forgotten, AA Remembers", at Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI. Scripture references: Romans 7. Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Lemmen Library and Archives Alcoholics Anonymous Grace Spirit Transformation Trust https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/6e4de325402d055e6ed77eff021b2c5a.mp3 4a14fb17f2ecbf7266b15654afd2f018 https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/2a2d8d04182d17b23768b45076643285.pdf 62e56675421ea4018ec860055476ac46 PDF Text Text The Worship of God: The Healing of Persons Text: Psalm 73:16-17 Richard A. Rhem Christ Community Church Spring Lake, Michigan June 19, 1988 Transcription of the spoken sermon But when I thought how to understand this, it seemed to me a wearisome task, until I went into the sanctuary of God; there I saw clearly... Psalm 73:16-17 We all love a good fairy tale, children and adults, as well. Perhaps that is because fairy tales are true. The story comes out right: the good prosper, the wicked are wasted. Maybe something in the depths of our being responds to that because something in us knows that is the way it ought to be, should be - will be. But, the fairy tale is true only if one takes the long-range view; only if God is God, Sovereign, working God's eternal purposes out, purposes of love and grace and salvation, bringing about finally a Kingdom in which dwells righteousness and peace - Shalom. In the short range, the fairy tale is just that - a fairy tale, meaning a fantasy world quite out of sync with the real world. In the short range, things do not work out right – everyone does not live happily ever after. In the short range, one cannot find the working out of justice, fairness and equity. And if one’s peace of mind and happiness and wellbeing are dependent upon life being fair and all things working out in an equitable fashion, one will have slight chance of arriving at inward peace and joy and rest of soul. Life is not fair. There is no justice within the span of a person's existence. No amount of research on actual, concrete, human stories will demonstrate that things work out right according to our human standards of what is fair and just. And that is a cause of much human suffering and anguish. It leads to one of the most serious and debilitating diseases of the human spirit - cynicism, bitterness, caused by envy and self-pity. A cynical and bitter spirit smoldering with jealousy and self-pity has a corrosive effect on the human spirit; it is to have an acid eating away at one's soul; it is a © Grand Valley State University   �The Worship of God: The Healing of Persons Richard A. Rhem Page 2   source of constant inward pain which is often assuaged by growing callouses on the soul, hardening oneself against feelings -feelings of joy and sorrow, of depression and exaltation. Cynicism is the sneering attitude that denies the sincerity or goodness of human motives. It is the tendency to criticize and find fault. It flows from one generally embittered with life, disillusioned with the way things have turned out. Unless it is checked, such bitterness will become a permanent hardness of heart resistant to trust, to joy, to spontaneity in any form. It is a kind of spiritual deadness. There is perhaps no more vivid portrayal of human experience struggling with cynical loss of faith and embitterment of spirit than Psalm 73. The Psalmist sets the record straight at the beginning. Truly God is good to Israel, to those who are pure in heart. That is both his conclusion and his premise. He can begin that way because he has passed through the fires of doubt and struggle and has come to affirm his trust in God, renewed only after great and painful wrestling with life experience. Brueggemann comments: Verse 1 sets the premise for the Psalm, which is also its conclusion. But it is a different statement when it is conclusion than when it is premise. When it is premise, it may be taken as pre-hurt, pre-doubt, pre-anguish. It is then a buoyant statement of naiveté. But as a conclusion, the affirmation is on the other side of hurt, doubt and anguish. While the words may be the same, they now bear different freight. Now the unuttered words of resentment have been uttered. Now the unthinkable thoughts of hostility have been thought. ... Psalm 73 is an assault on any naive faith. It arrives tortuously at a second, knowing naiveté. (The Message of the Psalms, p. 116) Having stated his premise, which is also his conclusion, the Psalmist goes on candidly to confess that he almost went over the brink, losing his grip on this fundamental conviction of faith. He writes: My feet had almost slipped, my foothold had all but given way. He then goes on to detail his bitter experience of doubt, his dark night of the soul as he questioned the moral structure of life and the knowledge and care of God. He speaks vividly, in graphic terms of how everything appeared to him during his time of intense struggle. We must recognize immediately that in the midst of his personal torment his vision is blurred and his judgment warped. He gives us a very distorted view of things. According to him, the careless, the godless prosper, experience no pain, © Grand Valley State University �The Worship of God: The Healing of Persons Richard A. Rhem Page 3   no suffering, are strangers to trouble and trial. They grow wealthy, enjoy good health. They are proud, violent and full of scorn. Is the picture overdrawn? Probably. The world is not really divided into two camps, one a camp of white hats, the other a camp of black hats. To divide the world into the righteous and the wicked is a bit too simple, too neat. Certainly it is too simplistic for a congregation that prints on its bulletin week after week the statement of Hans Küng: The front between the world and God's rule, between good and evil, runs right through the church, right through the heart of the individual. Evil is much more subtle and entwines itself in the lives of us all. This is not to say that there is no difference in people. Certainly there are those whose lives reflect a commitment to truth, righteousness, justice. There are those, as well, who seek their own advantage at whatever human cost to another and with total disregard for what is right and true. Nonetheless, especially in the Church we need to resist the too simple division of persons into categories of righteous and wicked. But for the purpose of the Psalmist's story, it is not so important whether reality reflected what he perceived or not. The fact is this is the way he felt. This is how it looked to him. We are indebted to this singer of Israel for revealing his soul to us. He was deeply hurting. He was angry at the world. He was angry at God. We have been there, too. And it is helpful to know that this kind of experience is not foreign to God's people. The Old Testament is especially healthy in this regard. They stormed heaven with their wounded spirits and called the Almighty to account. There was no pious masking of their true feelings. The Psalmist is not the only Old Testament figure that stormed the citadel of Heaven crying out to God, “How come?” I wonder what it was that was really rankling the Psalmist. Had he worked hard, done his best, dealt honestly and lived with integrity, only to have the bottom fall out of the economy and watch his life's work dribble away? Or had he risked everything to help a friend, only to have the friend turn on him? Was he disappointed in love? Did his children prove ungrateful? Had he just learned of a terminal disease which would soon cut him off? The particulars are unimportant. Life has more than enough trouble and heartache to go around and the stuff of which the Psalmist's pain was made is almost without limit because we can set it down as a fundamental truth of human experience – Life is not fair. © Grand Valley State University �The Worship of God: The Healing of Persons Richard A. Rhem Page 4   Having admitted that, I want to make a point of application right here; granted, life is not fair, but Pain perverts perspective. If we could learn that well, it would save us much angry bitterness. As we said above, the Psalmist's view of things was warped, distorted, but this is what he was feeling. Happy the person who before the crisis promises himself he will make no world-encompassing generalizations in the midst of his anguish, because, again, Pain perverts perspective. Can we understand? Certainly. Have we been there? Most of us, at some time. But, it can be helpful to recognize ahead of time that how we feel and how things appear when we are hurting is not a true reflection of reality. Pain perverts perspective. When people are in crisis it does not help to try to correct their vision. It does little good to assure them that “This, too, will pass.” When someone is pouring out their grief and anguish, just let it come; absorb it; feel it with them. That is not the time for a brilliant discourse or “a true perspective on Reality.” However, we can help ourselves be prepared for crisis times if we come to realize that Pain perverts perspective. The Psalmist has already given us his strong affirmation of faith and so obviously something happened to turn him around. He tells us in verse 16. He had been quite overcome with his completely negative perception of life. He says, I set myself to think this out but found it too hard for me, until I went into God's sacred courts; there I saw clearly what their end would be. The Psalmist learned the secret of the sanctuary. There, in the presence of God, in the posture of worship, he gained a new perspective. He found that Worship is healing. To make that statement calls for immediate clarification. I am not suggesting that the primary purpose or focus of our worship is our personal healing. We worship God. We celebrate the grace of God in response to God's revealing of an eternal saving purpose, a plan for the establishing of a Kingdom in which dwells righteousness and justice and peace. © Grand Valley State University �The Worship of God: The Healing of Persons Richard A. Rhem Page 5   But with that being granted, it is also important to understand the reflexive effect of our worship - to see how the action of worship has a healing effect on the one who worships. The Psalmist says, “ Life was too painful for me; I tried to think it through and I could not. Then I went into the sanctuary -then I understood.” In fairness to the text, I should let the whole statement be heard: ... Then I saw clearly what their end would be. One could hear this as a rather mean satisfaction that “the wicked” will get theirs and maybe there is some of that operating here. It is a rare person that takes no satisfaction in the fall of another, particularly if one has been infected with the disease of bitterness and has wallowed in self-pity. But even if that is true, there is the discovery here of a fundamental truth about God and human destiny which is the bedrock of biblical faith. The perspective of the sanctuary enabled the Psalmist to take the long view and to see that, although there is no justice in the short run, there is certainly a coming round of all things in the long run. Within the stream of history there is no possibility of seeing things whole. It is only in the posture of worship, in the presence of God that one is able to trust the process, trust the good and gracious and sovereign Lord of History to effect the promised Kingdom and bring Shalom. But, beyond the new insight, beyond a renewed vision of God's eternal purpose, the Psalmist found a Presence. The Presence of God, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, the God of Moses and the Exodus, the God of Covenant, the God of grace and steadfast love, the faithful God. In the sanctuary, in worship, the Psalmist experienced communion with God. It is in the gaining of new insight and the experience of communion with God that healing happens! Look at the Psalmist's expression of where he was before he worshipped: My heart was embittered. I felt pangs of envy, I would not understand, so brutish was I. I was a mere beast in thy sight, O God. Now there was insight - not only on human experience in time and space, but also self-awareness, self-knowledge, understanding of the paralysis of spirit caused by his envy, cynicism and bitterness. The world did not change. Circumstances did not change. The one who worshipped was changed. © Grand Valley State University �The Worship of God: The Healing of Persons Richard A. Rhem Page 6   I went into the sanctuary, there I saw clearly. Thus we have a vivid statement of intense spiritual anguish and suffering and its cure – going to church! Perhaps that sounds naive. But it is, of course, more than going to church. It is the experience of worship. The effect of worship on the worshipper is the healing of the person. Do we approach the worship of God with such high expectation? Do we recognize how crucial is the worship of God for the health of our being? What a strange situation is Sunday morning! Karl Barth describes it vividly in one of his early essays - the building, the appointments, the songs, the prayers, the preaching - all of them “saying” more than they say; all of them pointing beyond themselves to another; all of them crying out, “God is here!” And we come, Barth says, only half conscious of why - some out of habit, some out of need or hope - some believing, some not - some open and sensitive, some hardened by much hard experience. But, we come. And consciously or unconsciously we come with the burning question, “Is it true?” “Is God God?” “Is it true?” Is there reason to hope? Is there life in the end? Will grace and truth triumph? Will there break a dawn which shall know no setting sun? That's why we come. And all we do here is in order to lift our lives into the presence of the One Whose grace will touch us and Whose light will give us light and hope and heal us. Come, then. Come prayerfully. Come with heart prepared, open, ready to be encountered. Come and worship, for worship puts us in touch with God. The wrenching questions are not answered, but there is a Presence. Yet I am always with thee; Thou holdest my right hand; Thou dost guide me by thy counsel and afterwards will receive me with glory. Whom have I in heaven but thee? And having thee, I desire nothing else on earth. And then he makes this very beautiful expression of absolute trust. My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion for ever. © Grand Valley State University �The Worship of God: The Healing of Persons Richard A. Rhem Page 7   The Psalmist learned to trust when faith came hard. He worshiped and worship puts us in touch with God. In touch with God. As prayers are offered, hymns are sung, the Word is proclaimed, trust replaces agonizing doubt, peace mantles my heart, peace that passes understanding. That is, peace I cannot rationally explain, but peace I experience. In the sanctuary, in the posture of worship, the picture clarifies, my perverted perspective gives way to new perspective; as I worship, I get in touch with God Who has come close to us in the flesh of Jesus. Reality and truth break in on me. I see beyond the chaos a larger screen, a heart and purpose of love, a thread of meaning. Surely in the awful tragedy and intense suffering that is the daily lot of so many it must seem that God is dead or worse still, that He doesn't know; that He doesn't care. But in His Presence, I know He knows, I know He cares. Here I hear the story again of His own deep plunge into the depths of our suffering, His own embracing of the worst of our darkness in Jesus, His Son. In the sanctuary I see the cross and I am reminded that God suffers, too; that God was crucified with Jesus on the cross; that the heart of the Eternal breaks with the weight of human sin, rebellion and violence. In touch with God, I sense that history with its terrible woes and awful suffering is not all there is; that death and defeat will not have the final say; that the God Who has joined us in our darkness will finally make some sense out of this senseless suffering; will yet effect His purposes and cause love to prevail and peace to be the final word. In worship, in communing with God, I am healed. I see clearly. I trust. I rest in the abyss of God's love. Now I can go on. Amen. © Grand Valley State University � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Richard A. Rhem Collection Description An account of the resource Text and sound recordings of the sermons, prayers, services, and articles of Richard Rhem, pastor emeritus of Christ Community Church in Spring Lake, Michigan, where he served for 37 years. Starting in the mid 1980's, Rhem began to question some of the traditional Christian dogma that he had been espousing from the pulpit. That questioning was a first step in a long and interesting spiritual journey, one that he openly shared with his congregation. His journey is important, in part because it is reflective of the questioning, the yearnings, and the gradual revision of beliefs that many persons in this part of the century have experienced and continue to experience. It is important also because of the affirming and inclusive way his questioning was done and his thinking evolved. His sermons and other written and spoken materials together document the steps in his journey as it took a turn in 1985, yet continued to revolve around the framework and liturgies of the Christian calendar. Subject The topic of the resource Clergy--Michigan Reformed Church in America Christ Community Church (Spring Lake, Mich.) Religion Interfaith worship Sermons Sound Recordings Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Rhem, Richard A. Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/514">Richard A. Rhem papers (KII-01)</a> Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives. Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Kaufman Interfaith Institute Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Language A language of the resource English Type The nature or genre of the resource Sound Text Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context KII-01 Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant 1981-2014 Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource audio/mp3 text/pdf Sound A resource primarily intended to be heard. Examples include a music playback file format, an audio compact disc, and recorded speech or sounds. Event Pentecost IV Scripture Text Psalm 73:17 Location The location of the interview Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context KII-01_RA-0-19880619 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1988-06-19 Title A name given to the resource The Worship of God: The Healing of Persons Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Richard A. Rhem Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Subject The topic of the resource Clergy--Michigan Reformed Church in America Christ Community Church (Spring Lake, Mich.) Sermons Relation A related resource Richard A. Rhem - An Archive of Sermons, Prayers, Talks and Stories: http://richardrhem.org/ Language A language of the resource eng Type The nature or genre of the resource Sound Text Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource audio/mp3 application/pdf Description An account of the resource A sermon given by Richard A. Rhem (Dick) on June 19, 1988 entitled "The Worship of God: The Healing of Persons", on the occasion of Pentecost IV, at Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI. Scripture references: Psalm 73:17. Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Lemmen Library and Archives Love Peace Presence of God Suffering Trust Worship https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/b4ac5666fb2e85eba7516ad43d569866.mp3 84ff4108bf05daa48ee15f33a84418ae https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/57f63e6ac921d1c5d2637de9d7caa88a.pdf c17c5a4a42a98cece36a251222954c22 PDF Text Text The Thread of God’s Plan in the Tapestry of Our Lives From the sermon series: The Mystery of God’s Sovereign Grace Text: Genesis 50: 19-20 Richard A. Rhem Christ Community Church Spring Lake, Michigan August 30, 1987 Transcription of the spoken sermon …Fear not, for am I in the place of God? As for you, you meant evil against me; but God meant it for good… Genesis 50: 19-20 It is the very nature of our human experience that we can live it only one day at a time. The present moment can be understood in the context of the past to the present and such an understanding lends perspective; however, the future is open and unknown. Consequently, while we are living our lives the meaning of the whole is not available to us and because the whole is not available to us, neither is the final meaning of any particular period or event. Thus, not only in regard to our lives as a whole, but even in regard to single events or limited periods, the jury is still out. That may seem unsettling; perhaps we simply don't think about it. Nonetheless, it is true. Yet we are told that critical for our human wellbeing is meaning and purpose. The crisis of Western culture, many believe, is precisely a lack of meaning in human existence. But if we are truly historical creatures and the meaning of the whole and even the parts is not available to us, from whence can we derive a sense of meaningful and purposeful existence? That is the question this series of messages is addressing. We are focusing on the mystery of God's sovereign grace and such a focus is already an affirmation of faith as well as an acknowledgement of our human situation. It is an acknowledgement of our human situation as limited and finite in the fact that we are speaking of mystery. That is, the meaning of our lives in relation to God's gracious purpose is not accessible to our human investigation. Human reason is not competent to unravel the mystery of God's sovereign grace as it embraces our lives and gives them meaning. © Grand Valley State University   �Thread of God’s Plan in the Tapestry of Our Lives Richard A. Rhem Page 2   But the very idea of a sovereign gracious purpose of God is already an idea which rests on faith; it is a statement of fundamental trust. It is a faith claim that our lives find meaning and purpose by resting in and being caught up in a plan and purpose of God Who is sovereign and gracious. The specific theme of this message is that the tapestry of our lives is determined by the thread of God's plan woven through it. We are often "spooked" by the phrase, "plan of God." Some speak of it too glibly, too easily as though they are fully informed as to the Divine design. Some speak of it defensively as though any such plan must reduce human freedom and responsibility to insignificance. Some speak of it despairingly wondering how in the world one can ever find it out and fit into it. Because of the difficulties it raises we have too often been silent about the plan of God; knowing not how to deal with it, we have simply not dealt with it. Yet what is more important to our spiritual peace and human wellbeing than a sense that our lives are meaningful as they are caught up in the plan and purpose of God? My contention in this message is that one can trust in, if not discern, the thread of God's plan in the tapestry of our lives. That contention is based on the conviction that God is working His purpose out in spite of, through and against every human effort. God does His own work and executes His own sovereign, gracious purpose at the same time that He fully honors the work of His creatures. This is a mystery and we honor the mystery; we do not attempt to dissolve it or to rationalize it. But the contention is essential if we would let God be God and at the same time reckon with our own freedom and responsibility. Neither the freedom of the creature nor the gracious sovereignty of God is canceled. They are not in conflict nor are they to be equated. God's will makes use of all human action but is domesticated or limited by no human decision or action. Recall the image of the river. Humans blast away at rock and run bulldozers through forests and hills to make a canal. God makes the river which meets resistance and flows another way, but eventually reaches the sea. The purpose of God may be delayed; it may be held in abeyance; it will not be defeated. Through every human action and effort runs a transcendent purpose according to a plan of God, which he will sovereignly effect for salvation and life. We could soon get bogged down in abstract debate were we simply to argue this point. This unfortunately has too often been the case in the history of theological discussion. The Bible does not engage in abstract speculation. Rather, it tells stories. The narrative of God's going with His people through their history is told and retold in order to keep memory alive and stimulate hope. The classic story of God's providence is the narrative of Joseph. It is a familiar story and Joseph is a favorite Bible character. © Grand Valley State University �Thread of God’s Plan in the Tapestry of Our Lives Richard A. Rhem Page 3   The story brings to a close the history of the Patriarchs, the history that brings us up to the Exodus and the creation of the nation Israel. Abraham was given the initial covenant promise. It passed to Isaac and then to Jacob. Jacob's name was changed to Israel. He had twelve sons, one of whom was Joseph. He loved Joseph above the others and showed his partiality openly, giving Joseph a long robe with sleeves, a mark of his special favor. This offended the brothers and engendered their hatred. But Jacob's special favor was not all. Joseph further alienated his brothers when he related his dreams. While binding sheaves in the field, Joseph told how his sheaf stood up and the brother's sheaves bowed down to his. It took no special insight to get the meaning. They hated him! In another dream, the sun, moon and eleven stars bowed down to him. This was too much even for Jacob. He reprimanded Joseph. One day Jacob sent Joseph to see how his brothers were doing with the flocks out in the field. The brothers saw him coming and decided to do away with him. Rather than kill him, they sold him to traveling merchants who brought him to Egypt and sold him as a slave. The brothers ripped his beautiful cloak, stained it with blood and took it to their father, claiming a wild animal had killed Joseph. Jacob grieved and would not be comforted. In Egypt Joseph prospered for the story tells us God was with him. He endured many trials, but finally was raised to the rank of Prime Minister over all Egypt because he interpreted a dream of Pharaoh. He said there would be seven years of plenty and then seven years of famine. He suggested that a plan should be put into effect to prepare for the lean years. Pharaoh put Joseph in charge and he proved a wise administrator. When the famine hit, Jacob and his sons, too, were without food. They went to Egypt to secure provisions and to whom did they appeal but to Joseph whom they did not recognize, but who recognized them. In the end, Joseph revealed himself to his brothers. They were fearful that now Joseph would get his revenge, but instead he reassured them, saying: Now do not be distressed or take it amiss that you sold me into slavery here; it was God who sent me ahead of you to save men’s lives…God sent me ahead of you to ensure that you will have descendants on earth… So it was not you who sent me here, but God… Genesis 45:5-8 He then sent them back to fetch father Jacob and there was a moving reunion. Joseph settled his family in a district of Egypt where they were preserved and prospered. But then old Jacob died and again the brothers were fearful. Had Joseph only restrained his anger until his father died? Would he now wreak vengeance on his © Grand Valley State University �Thread of God’s Plan in the Tapestry of Our Lives Richard A. Rhem Page 4   brothers? So they came to him, pleading forgiveness. The text tells us they bowed down before him. (The dream was realized). But again Joseph proved gracious. In the words of our text he says, Do not be afraid. Am I in the place of God? You meant to do me harm, but God meant to bring good out of it by preserving the lives of many people, as we see today. Do not be afraid. I will provide for you and your dependents. Thus he comforted them and set their minds at rest. The Joseph narrative could better be handled in a series of messages for the richness of teaching that lies embedded therein cannot possibly be handled in the compass of one message. But let me simply point you to some areas for reflection. To begin with, note that Joseph speaks of the contrast between the intention of the genuinely human action of the brothers and the action of God. You meant to do me harm; but God meant to bring good out of it... The word for "meant" in Hebrew is hasab. An alternative translation is "plan." You planned ... God planned... The reality of our human situation is that we make plans; we plan. It cannot be otherwise because we are by our very nature creatures open to the future. Some of us make long-range plans; some of us more or less bump along; still it is a rare individual who does not at some time think, "Someday I will...” The scriptures affirm that God plans, too. God is a purposeful Being. Here we bump into that scary idea of Predestination. Listen to St. Paul. He has made known to us his hidden purpose – such was his will and pleasure determined beforehand in Christ – to be put into effect when the time was ripe; namely, that the universe, all in heaven and on earth, might be brought into a unity in Christ. Ephesians 1:9-10 God is a God with a plan. Created in God's image, we, too, have the capacity, the inevitability of planning. It is in the conjunction of our plan and God's plan that history moves on its way. Now I could give you a whole list of citations from scripture speaking of God's plan and human plans. Let me simply say this: Human planning is a genuinely human action of free and responsible persons. Those plans are not crushed, tossed aside, treated with derision by God. They are our acts; they stand. They create their own reality. God's plan works in, through, in spite of and against our plans. © Grand Valley State University �Thread of God’s Plan in the Tapestry of Our Lives Richard A. Rhem Page 5   God's plan will finally have its way; sometimes delayed, sometimes detoured, sometimes held in abeyance; yet God will have God's way. This the Joseph narrative teaches us. We must take care holding this truth, not to claim too much. We must be careful not to picture a God in some ethereal heaven swooping down and rescuing his people when the going gets tough - a God who always intervenes to make things right. That is naive and simplistic and it may create a cozy feeling for some of the time, but it cannot stand up before the tragedy and suffering of human experience. It cannot be maintained in light of the experience of Jesus in crucifixion. God is no "quick fix" for human suffering. not to claim too little, falling into the trap of a humanism that removes God as major actor in the human drama, claiming God "has no hands but our hands." A humanism embarrassed about faith will also miss the point of the biblical teaching and the confidence and comfort that comes from trusting the working out of the sovereign, gracious purpose of God. God's rule is no vacuous sovereignty, the assertion of some absolute but irrelevant power quite removed from the arena of life and history. God has a plan. God is working out that plan; we can be certain of it; we can rely on it. God is working out that plan in and through human willing and planning and action. God's plan will ultimately have its way. The text teaches us further, that God plans for our good. God meant (planned) to bring good out of it. The series title is “The Mystery of God's Sovereign Grace.” Not raw sovereignty, not absolute power, not a coercive, crushing, all-mightiness. No, rather a gracious plan and purpose that will prevail - "for good." You recognize that word "good." God surveyed the creation He had fashioned and said, "Very good!" (Genesis 1:31) That is where this book of beginning begins. Now at its ending, once again we have the affirmation of God's purpose for good that reminds us of St. Paul's classic faith statement: God works all things together for the good of those who love him. When the curtain rings down on the whole cosmic drama, the whole human story, God will have only one word to speak: Good. © Grand Valley State University �Thread of God’s Plan in the Tapestry of Our Lives Richard A. Rhem Page 6   And we shall be wrapped in the eternal praise of God's sovereign, gracious purpose, finally brought to fruition, and we shall echo the word: Good. Alleluia! Thus in our human existence, caught between a world tending toward death and a God intending life, we live with Realism - about our human place, its fragility, its peril, its pain. There is no Pollyanna view of things. Sometimes it is very dark; sometimes it hurts so bad. Certitude - about the outcome of the whole drama because of the faithfulness of God. Realism alone leads to despair because it focuses only on the danger and peril. Certitude alone leads to romanticism, focusing only on victory and failing to reckon with battle as though one is immune to the tragedy. Biblical faith is unflinching in its realism, undoubting about the outcome. Where does that leave us? Go again to the text; hear Joseph say to his brothers' urgent pleas for mercy, Am I in the place of God? Joseph's faith enabled him to wait on the Lord, to commit his way unto the Lord, to be patient as the drama of his life unfolded. Such a confidence in the overarching purpose of God enabled him to trust in faith and love. It saved him from anger, that dissipating emotion that drains one of energy and creative living, that spoils everything, souring life. How many of us live with unresolved anger - anger at God, anger at others, anger at ourselves? It energized him for meaningful action. His administration in Egypt spared the nation and his own family. God's plan is not the end of human planning, but its foundation. His life had purpose. Joseph trusted God's plan. Joseph worked the plan. As we leave this story, so vivid in its portrayal of God's hidden gracious, sovereign purpose in and through human purposing, let me leave you with Joseph's application for our lives. His first word to his brothers was, "Fear not." That is the word Abraham heard when God called. It is the word Second Isaiah heard when in Exile in Babylon. It was the word Mary heard when encountered by Gabriel. It was the word shepherds heard at the birth of Jesus. It was the word of the resurrected Christ on Easter morning. Dear friends, hear it; it is for you. Fear not. Whatever you are facing - fear not. © 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 XIII Series The Mystery of God's Sovereign Grace Scripture Text Genesis 50: 19-20 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-0-19870830 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1987-08-30 Title A name given to the resource The Thread of God's Plan in the Tapestry of Our Lives 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 30, 1987 entitled "The Thread of God's Plan in the Tapestry of Our Lives", as part of the series "The Mystery of God's Sovereign Grace", on the occasion of Pentecost XIII, at Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI. Scripture references: Genesis 50: 19-20. Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Lemmen Library and Archives God's Sovereign Grace Joseph Meaning Trust https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/e7ca3560e05a3241f0a4b24309029741.pdf 66162dd6e8ba24367b8ffee05df7d86c PDF Text Text The Old Story Ever New: Formation and Freedom Richard A. Rhem Park Church Grand Rapids, Michigan November 23, 2014 Transcription of the written talk I created this title, “The Old Story Ever New: Formation and Freedom,” from what Max wrote in the “advertisement” about my “talk:” Rev. Richard A. Rhem will facilitate a discussion on faith, life, heaven, and the human experience. We will talk about classical interpretations of scripture, the progressive perspective, and whatever else comes to mind. Please join us! I was greatly relieved to read that he promised that I would “facilitate a discussion” rather than promise that I would lay bare all the mysteries of our faith and human experience. I was further relieved when our facilitator this morning, Camille, who has long known me from our Spring Lake days, wrote me, “I don’t expect you to formally speechify.” You see, she knows me well; I’ve been known to “speechify” although I had not heard that term before. So I promise I won’t speechify! Camille gave me a brief account of the first two discussions in this series and I’m sure you have had a meaningful time together. From my assignment I sense, when the series was conceived, your leaders were thinking that after two discussions on near death experiences, you might be ready to step back and reflect on human experience in the larger picture – Is this all there is? Is there more beyond death’s pale? What do our classic creeds affirm? How do we interpret the biblical message? How do we reconcile ancient creeds and ever-emerging human knowledge? If I have sensed correctly that these are questions your leaders anticipated in the wake of the first two sessions, then it will not be so much answers we seek today but clarifying the questions with which we live, even as we rest in a fundamental trust. © Grand Valley State University   �The Old Story Ever New: Formation & Freedom Richard A. Rhem Page 2   As I invite you to reflect with me on these questions and the meaning of our human journey, let me say a word about how I approach these ultimate concerns. I see such questions as calling one to serious engagement with the meaning of life – not questions that have answers. That was not always the case for me for I was nurtured and formed within a strong orthodox Reformed dogmatic system. Dogma is such a familiar term in religious parlance that I can probably take for granted that everyone knows the meaning of the term. Yet precisely such familiarity sometimes misses a term’s nuance and depth. I went to the dictionary. Dogma comes from the Greek – “that which one thinks true, an opinion, decree, from dokein, to think, seem.” Meanings listed: 1. a doctrine; tenet; belief (also collectively); 2. a positive, arrogant assertion of opinion; dogmatic utterance; 3. in theology, a doctrine or body of doctrines formally and authoritatively affirmed. Under “dogmatic” – “asserted a priori or without proof; asserting opinion in a positive or arrogant manner.” Checking the synonyms sheds light on the danger of dogma: “imperious, dictatorial, authoritative, arrogant, magisterial, self-opinionated, positive.” While I hope I was not authoritative, magisterial, arrogant, etc., I did believe there were clear answers to ultimate questions and they were to be found in the inerrant, infallible Word of God. Although that may sound like I was confident, assured and certain of the Christian faith I professed and preached, as a matter of fact I was afraid, unsure and defensive. Every new emerging insight, from growing knowledge of historical development, from exploding data about biblical formation, from breakthroughs in the sciences, threatened my neatly formed faith structure. It has been a long and painful journey for me – so deeply formed, so seriously threatened. When the carefully crafted structure of orthodox Reformed faith collapsed in the pursuit of a faith I could rest in, I found there was something deeper than I had ever known – a fundamental trust that God is Love and Love is the grain of the universe. I found it to be true for me what the early 20th century German scholar Rudolph Otto wrote in his book The Holy, where he attempts to analyze “the feeling that remains when the concept fails.” I sense that is what you are about in this discussion group – plumbing the deep questions of meaning in our human pilgrimage. There was a time I would have felt compelled to have answers. Thank God I now know I can only help clarify the questions as together we wonder about this amazing human journey. © Grand Valley State University �The Old Story Ever New: Formation & Freedom Richard A. Rhem Page 3   On further reflection, that early deep formation I experienced was not in vain. The rational system, the dogma – that, I have learned, was a futile effort to define the Mystery of Reality – the Sacred, the Holy. But the community, the symbols, the rituals, the liturgy – the whole religious drama – in my case, the Christian story – moves me still and points me to the Sacred Mystery of the ongoing cosmic journey. In her beautiful book Physics and Faith: The Luminous Web, Barbara Brown Taylor writes, When I am dreaming quantum dreams, the picture I see is more like that web of relationships – an infinite web, flung across the vastness of space like a luminous net. It is made of energy, not thread. As I look, I can see light moving through it like a pulse moving through veins. I know the light is an illusion, since what I am seeing moves faster than light, but what I see out there is no different from what I feel inside. There is a living hum that might be coming from my neurons but might just as well be coming from the furnace of the stars. When I look up at them there is a small commotion in my bones, as the ashes of dead stars that house my marrow rise up like metal filings toward the magnet of their living kin. Where is God in this picture? All over the place. Up there. Inside my skin and out. God is the web, the energy, the space, the light – not captured in them, as if any of those concepts were more real than what unites them, but revealed in that singular, vast net of relationship that animates everything that is. Marvelous imagery! The whole of reality saturated with the Spirit, the Breath, that is the energy of the Sacred Mystery we call God, a Sacred Mystery we describe as Love because, at one moment in the luminous web that enlivens all that is, a face appeared – the Logos (Word) became flesh, and God, the X factor, that abstract Ground, Source and Goal of all there is, became concrete. Now there was a clue as to the nature of the originating, everything-permeating, infinite Mystery that takes our breath away and gives us breathing room. Resting there, I readily recognize I have not “proven” anything rationally. But, of course, that is what I have come to understand – the ultimate mystery of the cosmic web into which our lives are woven is not available to rational analysis but rather only to supra-rational or trans-rational, deeply intuitive fundamental trust before the presence of Mystery. Brilliant scholars in various fields deny this and conclude quite differently. For example, the Nobel Prize winning biologist Jacque Monod writes in his work Chance and Necessity: If he accepts this (negative) message in its full significance, man must at last wake out of his millenary dreams and discover his total solitude, his fundamental isolation. He must realize that like a gypsy, he lives on the © Grand Valley State University �The Old Story Ever New: Formation & Freedom Richard A. Rhem Page 4   boundary of an alien world; a world that is deaf to his music, and as indifferent to his hopes as it is to his suffering and his crimes. Similarly, Erich Fromm, one of the world’s leading psychoanalysts, wrote in Man for Himself, There is only one solution to his problem: to face the truth, to acknowledge his fundamental aloneness in a universe indifferent to his fate, to recognize that there is no power transcending him which can solve his problems for him. If we humans are defined by our reason alone and have to do only with rational argument – Monod and Fromm define our human situation with clarity – we are alone and this is all there is. But there are other thoughtful persons who deny our humanity can be delineated by reason alone. In his major early work, the Catholic scholar Hans Küng describes the advent and development of modern atheism in the thinking of Feuerbach, Marx, Freud and Nietzsche, ending with Nietzsche’s nihilism. A section on nihilism concludes: “Nihilism – possible, irrefutable, but unproved.” From that point, Küng’s next major heading is “Yes to Reality – Alternative to Nihilism.” Within this heading is a subsection he entitles “Fundamental Mistrust or Fundamental Trust? Küng obviously will build a case for religious faith building on fundamental trust. In another work he affirms, To believe in an eternal life means, in reasonable trust, in enlightened faith, in tried and tested hope – to rely on the fact that I shall one day be fully understood, freed from guilt and definitively accepted and can be myself without fear; that my impenetrable and ambivalent existence, like the profoundly discordant history of humanity as a whole, will one day become finally transparent and the question of the meaning of history one day be finally answered. (Eternal Life, p. 231) The late Dag Hammarskjold, a General Secretary of the United Nations, wrote in his spiritual diary, Markings, 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 and from that hour I was certain that existence is meaningful, and that, therefore, my life in self-surrender has had a goal. I love that expression – far beyond the limits of rational control – a deeply felt intuition of the Presence of the Sacred Mystery we call God. © Grand Valley State University �The Old Story Ever New: Formation & Freedom Richard A. Rhem Page 5   In his Opinion column in The New York Times, David Brooks cites the poet Christian Wiman who, in his My Bright Abyss, points to the contemporary sense of cosmic connectedness in reference to the movie “Interstellar”: But in the era of quantum entanglement and relativity, everything looks emergent and interconnected. Life looks less like a machine and more like endlessly complex patterns of waves and particles. Vast social engineering projects look less promising, because of the complexity, but webs of loving and meaningful relationships can do amazing good. As the poet Christian Wiman wrote in his masterpiece, My Bright Abyss, “If quantum entanglement is true, if related particles react in similar or opposite ways even when separated by tremendous distances, then it is obvious that the whole world is alive and communicating in ways we do not fully understand. And we are part of that life, part of that communication….” I suspect “Interstellar” will leave many people with a radical openness to strange truth just below and above the realm of the everyday. That makes it something of a cultural event. (David Brooks, NYT, 11/21/14) As one who began in a serious orthodox understanding of Christian faith which was defensively reacting to the overpowering movement of Enlightenment Rationality – thus entering an arena in which it could never prevail, I’ve come to rest deeply in the fundamental trust in which I was nurtured. With the contemporary sense of an interconnected cosmic dance of Being, I find great peace and rest in a conviction that Heaven is here, heaven is now and the best is yet to be! References: David Brooks, “Love and Gravity,” New York Times, Nov. 20, 2014 Hans Küng. Eternal Life: Life After Death as a Medical, Philosophical, and Theological Problem, p. 231. Wipf & Stock Pub., 2003 Barbara Brown Taylor. Physics and Faith: The Luminous Web. Cowley Publications, 2000. © 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 Park Street Discussion Group Location The location of the interview Park Church, Grand Rapids, MI References David Brooks, "Love and Gravity," NYT, Nov. 20, 2014, Hans K 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-0-20141123 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2014-11-23 Title A name given to the resource The Old Story Ever New: Formation and Freedom 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 November 23, 2014 entitled "The Old Story Ever New: Formation and Freedom", on the occasion of Park Street Discussion Group, at Park Church, Grand Rapids, MI. 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 Dogma Enlightenment Faith Journey Love at Core of the Universe Sacred Mystery Trust https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/cc5a17acfe8b56b1f64ca99387388081.pdf c0d80f13083483ae20aeb840c0e197c7 PDF Text Text The Mystery of Suffering: Trust in the Darkness From the sermon series on the Book of Job Text: Job 13:15, in four translations Richard A. Rhem Christ Community Church Spring Lake, Michigan Pentecost XII, August 14, 1994 Transcription of the spoken sermon "He may kill me, but I won't stop; I will speak the truth to his face, Translation by Stephen Mitchell "He may slay me, I'll not quaver. I will defend my conduct to his face." Translation by Marvin Pope "If he would slay me, I should not hesitate; I should still argue my cause to his face." New English Bible "Though he slay me, yet will I trust him: But I will maintain my own ways before him." King James   I find it is not so easy to bring Job to a conclusion. I struggled in the last service and am very thankful I don't have such a long struggle this time. I have four manuscripts in various stages of completion, and had to finally quit and say, "So, what's the bottom line?" The last word of Job must be this, I believe, "There is a Mystery of Suffering, in the midst of which we must dare to trust God, even in suffering’s darkest days." In his poem, the author of Job makes it eloquently clear that the innocent suffer, that the kind of world that we live in is a world where cancer strikes "willy-nilly," blood clots form, loved ones are ripped from our lives, and sometimes the wicked prosper and the innocent suffer. The word last week, the voice from the whirlwind, was God's defense against Job's accusation, which comes to expression in the text of the morning, "He may kill me, but I'll not quaver." Job was absolutely convinced that the conventional wisdom was wrong. He was so convinced that the religious establishment didn't have it right, that he was willing to stand with his fist raised to heaven. There were moments of deep pathos when we felt Job reaching out. "Oh that I knew where I might find him," says Job, because he was convinced that he had a case to make. Ironically, Job in some ways still shared the erroneous conventional wisdom of his friends. Job still felt that somehow or other God sent that suffering. And if God sent that suffering, God was unjust, for in his case, God was in the wrong. Job cried out to heaven © Grand Valley State University   �The Mystery of Suffering: Trust in the Darkness Richard A. Rhem Page 2   and said, "If it takes my life, I'm going to state my case." Well, God showed up, as we noted last week, and out of the whirlwind Job was given a panoramic view of cosmic reality and it literally blew him away. He said, "Well, I knew God is big. I never denied that. I knew if I ever did get my opportunity to state my case I'd probably have no chance against God so now I will be silent." But he was still thinking the same way. Once again the voice sounds and God says, "Job, come on and take my place. What would you do if you were God for a day? Because you see, Job, the issue is not whether or not I have absolute power. The issue is: What does one with absolute power do in a world where there are other values as well, values that I have woven into the fabric of creation—freedom of choice, moral choice, spontaneously offered worship, virtue done for its own sake? How does one guard those values in a cosmos like this as one seeks to manage the world, even if one be God?" God is saying, it seems to me, "The world is not perfect, it is a world where cancer strikes, a world where people die, it is a world where darkness can be oh, so dark, but I, God, given the values to which I am committed and the created order I am weaving together – I, God, am doing the best I can do." Well, where does that leave us? Is that a God in which you can find comfort and security? It certainly isn't the traditional view of God that we have been nurtured on, is it? The traditional view of God that we've been nurtured on is a God of the omni's: omnipotent, omnipresent, omniscient, knowing all, present everywhere, all powerful, able to do all. Some of us, at least, who have come out of the Reformed tradition have had that large word "predestination" hovering over us throughout all of our days; that is, that all things ultimately are predetermined, that there is a predestinating will of God that determines all that happens. I heard a delightful story the other evening. It was a family story about a young man courting a young lady whose father was a sturdy Christian, of strong persuasion that predestination is indeed the rule, and that God indeed determines all that happens. As they were walking the back 40 acres, a donkey happened to bray and the young man, the interlocutor, said, "You mean at 3:00 in the afternoon on this given date, God determined that that donkey should bray?" The old man said, "Absolutely. My God is a God that makes it so that whatever is going to happen is going to happen, whether it happens or not." (Laughter) Now, Yogi Berra would have been proud to have said that, wouldn't he? If you think about it, "whatever is going to happen is going to happen whether it happens or not," now that's a muscular God, that's a macho God, that's a no nonsense God, that's a God in control. If we want anything, we want God in control, and understandably so. We don't want to be orphans in a pathless wilderness leading nowhere. We don't want to feel abandoned and alone on this spinning mud-heap. But if I hear the voice from the whirlwind correctly, then that old classic idea of God of the omni's is flawed. In the light of what we know about cosmic reality, if we know anything about our world, the cosmos, we know there is a kind of randomness about it. There is an unpredictability, there is the Huizenberg second law of thermo dynamics (which of course, you all © Grand Valley State University �The Mystery of Suffering: Trust in the Darkness Richard A. Rhem Page 3   understand), a law that on the one hand was able to open a cause and effect universe that had no room for miracle or eruption of the new, but on the other hand shows us that this cosmos is so much more mysterious than we ever dreamed of. Perhaps the people today, who stand in the greatest awe, are the physicists who study the mystery of the universe and are continually mystified at ever deepening reality. So, the God of the whirlwind is a God who suggests that, while this is not a perfect world, God is nonetheless engaged in moving it in that direction, and invites us who are created in the image of God to grow up and to become mature and to join our shoulders to the task as well. It is not so much that I look at God in my pain and say, "Why are you doing this to me?" But rather, I sense the presence of God with me in the midst of the darkness, moving toward the Light. What I really need to know, I think, is what Job needed to know. He longed not to receive a logical and rational answer to the mystery of suffering, but to know that there was someone who would show up, that there was a Voice, that there was Someone engaged and involved. When Job saw that, Job said, "I didn't know. I didn't understand. I didn't realize." If we're honest, I think we would all have to own the fact that we would love to have God simply a littler larger than our parents, a divine parent, someone who could make it all right, someone who could fix it all, soothe it all, salve the wounds. Friends, it isn't so. You know it isn't so. If in that old classic idea of God where God is throwing all the switches and pulling all the strings, there is an awful lot of darkness and pain and horror in this world that then has to be attributed to God. It won't do simply to say that all the darkness and the pain and the horror of the world is the consequence of human sin and rebellion. There is a grand residue of darkness for which there is no explanation, and for which there seems to be no meaning and no purpose. There is a contemporary school of theology that has been very helpful to me. It's called "Process Theology," which does not deny God's ultimate power and purpose, rather sees God neither aloof nor pulling the strings, but rather a God who is in there with us, a fellow traveler, a fellow struggler, a fellow sufferer, One who has invited us to join in the creative purposes that would move reality toward the realization of love and mercy and justice. The vision of Shalom, that beautiful word, which we translate as "peace," is more than peace. It is a vision of the total harmony of things. If I understand the God who speaks through the whirlwind, if I understand the message of the poet-Job, there is a picture there of a God, who, in the midst of this cosmic reality, is far beyond our ability even to conceive. It is a vision of a God who is engaged in the movement toward wholeness and toward Shalom, and invites us to become one with God and the establishment of justice, and the doing of mercy, and the building of community for the purpose of Shalom. A God like that I can trust in the darkness, a God who is for us. © Grand Valley State University �The Mystery of Suffering: Trust in the Darkness Richard A. Rhem Page 4   This was Paul's conviction. "What can separate us from the love of Christ, famine or nakedness or peril or sword? Know in all things that we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am persuaded that there is no angel or principality or power or thing in the heights or the depths, nothing in all creation that can ever separate us from the love of God, in Christ Jesus our Lord." That God I can trust in the darkness, believing that God is for us, that God's purposes of love are for wholeness and health and Shalom, and that God is doing all God can do. Given not only God's absolute power, but also God's absolute commitment to our human freedom and our moral choice, and the universe in which there is elbowroom for the reality and authenticity of a human creature living in the image of God. A God like that I can trust. Ironically, the religious always try to protect God and to blunt human responsibility. So that as you read the citation of William Safire in the bulletin states, the translation of Job 13:15, is not as we read it this morning as it is accurately translated, "Though he killed me, yet I will not quaver," but rather the mistranslation of, "Though he slay me, yet will I trust him." This translation plays down the darkness and blunts the edge of Job's charge. But ironically the mistranslation may actually better articulate the bottom line in the book of Job. It is said, perhaps even better, in Psalm 23, by the Psalmist who had also struggled with the prosperity of the wicked and yet says, "Whom have I in heaven but Thee, there is none on earth that I desire beside thee." I like it better in the words of Habakkuk who struggled with the place of God in human events, who finally said, "Though there be no olive crop, though there be no cattle in the stall, though all be lost, yet I will rejoice in God, my Savior." There is that witness in our tradition. There is that Biblical witness that is able to say, "Nevertheless... Let it all be stripped away, nevertheless ... I will trust." That's where Job came to rest. And that's finally where Job would invite us to rest. As I said last week, the evidence is divided, the circumstances full of ambiguity. There is no simple and easy unraveling of the knot of the Mystery of human suffering. But, finally, the alternatives are embittered cynicism and cursing the darkness, or trust in God that will sustain one through hell itself— "Though he slay me, yet will I trust Him." © Grand Valley State University � https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/8fd6010e9c25529043ffde293385aeb4.mp3 7317fab644e3402970396d5eb576e560 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 XII Series The Job Series Scripture Text Job 13:15, Romans 8:39 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-0-19940814 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1994-08-14 Title A name given to the resource The Mystery of Suffering: Trust in the Darkness 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 14, 1994 entitled "The Mystery of Suffering: Trust in the Darkness", as part of the series "The Job Series", on the occasion of Pentecost XII, at Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI. Scripture references: Job 13:15, Romans 8:39. Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Lemmen Library and Archives Hebrew Scriptures Meaning Nature of God Pentecost Presence Shalom Trust https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/f60998192905d443efa05e6dcbf72d98.mp3 72ab03bb0dac595433ebbbb6277f69e0 https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/72a4b4af1a415396820fe1e1b4e7f0bd.pdf 8e3bdb0a270e803101a6a54b663fd6b3 PDF Text Text The God Who Is Absent From the sermon series: God, Our Ally Text: Job 23: 3, 10; Mark 15: 34 Richard A. Rhem Christ Community Church Spring Lake, Michigan July 21, 1985 Transcription of the spoken sermon Oh, that I knew where I might find him… Job 23: 3 But he knows the way that I take; when he has tried me, I shall come forth as gold. Job 23: 10 …My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? Mark 15: 34 God, our Ally. That is the focus of this series of messages. The reiteration of that theme over a sustained period of time will write it indelibly on our minds and weave it into the fabric of our hearts. With such a conviction being foundational to our lives, we will be able to negotiate life's perilous way with confidence and hope. At no time will that be more important and necessary than at those times when it seems that the God with Whom we have to do is absent. It is such times that this message addresses and it is with such times that Christian preaching must honestly deal lest it become superficial sentimentality, a kind of religious "whistling in the dark." The proclamation of the Gospel, the announcement of Good News, must never be an upbeat, positive message of good cheer that communicates the idea that one should simply keep one's chin up because it is really not as bad as it seems. If the Church conveys that impression; if Christian preaching is no more than cheerleading, then it will serve well those who live on the surface of life with no depth of experience and certainly no encounter with suffering, but it will fail miserably and soon alienate more serious souls who have been brushed with the mystery of evil and suffering in the world. Not only will such superficiality offend those who know the experience of darkness; it will also fail to do justice to the full spectrum of biblical truth, for the © Grand Valley State University   �The God Who Is Absent Richard A. Rhem Page 2   biblical message never makes light of the darkness but rather announces a Light the darkness can never overcome. But, darkness there is. Real. Devastating. Causing fear and trembling. God is our Ally. God is there for us. That affirmation of faith I am attempting to declare from Scripture, approaching that truth from various angles. But certainly one of the most critical situations from which to trust that truth is the experience of God's absence. One of the greatest concerns I have in preaching is that the Truth declared may leave the one who needs it most in a worse state than before, simply because the dark night of the soul is so deep, the pain so great, the feeling of desolation so overwhelming that a message that promises joy and triumph simply cannot be received. That may sometimes happen in spite of the sensitivity of the preacher. But it will certainly happen if the message fails to acknowledge the hell of experiencing the absence of God. If Scripture is faithfully taught, there will be no danger of soft-pedaling the darkness, the horror of being alone, lost, in a world from which God is absent. Let us look then for a moment into the soul of Job. This Old Testament drama deals in classic fashion with the problem of suffering. Its theme is familiar and its purpose well known. The book was written to counter the prevailing idea that there is always a connection between human sin and human suffering. It is a drama. The opening verses present the greatness and prosperity of Job. Then scene one takes place in the Court of Heaven. God speaks of Job's righteousness; Satan, the accuser, says it is not surprising that Job is so good - see how he has prospered. God says, "Go ahead, remove everything, test him." So Job loses everything; great calamity and loss are his. But through it all Job remains faithful. His classic response: Naked I came from the womb, naked I shall return whence I came. The Lord gives and the Lord takes away; blessed be the name of the Lord. (1:21) Scene two: Again the Court of Heaven. Obviously God won round one. Job was stripped bare but yet worshiped the Lord. Satan says that the real test comes when Job’s own health, his flesh and bone are touched. God says, “Go ahead, test him but do not take his life.” And it happens. Job suffers terrible physical disease. His wife cries out angrily, Are you still unshaken in your integrity? Curse God and die! (2:9) But Job remains a rock. © Grand Valley State University �The God Who Is Absent Richard A. Rhem Page 3   If we accept good from God, shall we not accept evil? (2:10) The suffering was massive. Friends came to comfort but for seven days simply sat there, numbed by the magnitude of the horror. Now we have the setting for the lesson of the drama. Job finally breaks out in bitter complaint. He curses the day of his birth. He lets it all spill out. His friends had been silent, quite overwhelmed by the magnitude of his suffering and as long as he bore it in silence they too said nothing. But now that he has finally broken out in bitter complaint, they find their own preconceived notions and pre-set judgments threatened. Now they feel constrained to answer because what they believe - their little systems of making sense of the world - was being challenged. They would have claimed that they were coming to the defense of God, of truth, of the proper view of things. In reality of course they were coming to the defense of their own dogmatic opinions. They had certainly come with good intentions of being comforters to Job in his affliction, but they had also come knowing the answer to the mystery before they heard the question. Their religious system was now under attack and so their intention to bring comfort was now overcome by their need to preserve intact their own world and life view. Listen to Eliphaz go on the attack: ... now that adversity comes upon you, you lose patience; it touches you, and you are unmanned. (4:5) Then he comes to the point: ... what innocent man has ever perished? Where have you seen the upright destroyed? (4:7) That was the prevailing opinion. That is what everyone took for granted. It was a life axiom, no longer even questioned. But Job questioned. He refused to bow to popular opinion - "What everyone knew." He was a good man. There was no secret iniquity he was hiding. His probing of the mystery is eloquent. The dialogue continues: Job's friend defending God for punishing Job, convinced that whatever Job gets he has coming to him; Job defending himself against their insensitive taunts. Finally Job cries out in despair at the blindness and obstinacy of his friends and makes his appeal to God. Oh, that I knew where I might find him, that I might come even to his seat! I would lay my care before him ... Behold, I go forward, but he is not there; and backward, but I cannot perceive him; by the left hand I seek him, but I cannot behold him; I turn to the right hand, but I cannot see him. (23:3-4, 8-9) Job found no comfort or understanding from his friends whose insensitivity has gotten them the label "miserable comforters." He refuses to accept the popular © Grand Valley State University �The God Who Is Absent Richard A. Rhem Page 4   wisdom. He refuses to believe God is doing this to him as a punishment. He refuses to believe that God would not solve his terrible dilemma. But, God is absent. He cannot find him. This is the point I want to make for the purpose of this message. Sometimes God is absent. Let me simply summarize the resolution of the drama of Job. There is never given an answer to the why of suffering, the suffering of the innocent, the pervasive presence of Evil in God's good creation that brushes us all at some point. What is soundly refuted and persuasively denied is that there is a correlation between sin and suffering. God does reveal Himself to Job. Job is quite overwhelmed by the majesty of God. His persistent questioning seems almost silly in the light of the revelation of Who God is. He bows and worships. No answer is given. But the absent God does reveal Himself. And Job finds that God is enough. A light scatters the darkest darkness when the Presence is known. But let us remain with Job in his anguish for a moment. It is so very real and so very terrifying. In the midst of that darkness, no light is visible, not because there is no light, but because one is so numbed by the pain that one simply cannot penetrate the shroud of darkness that envelops the soul. Perhaps in the Church we do not deal well with the darkness because it makes us nervous - like Job's friends we rush to God's defense - not that God needs to be defended but the darkness threatens our own little security systems. We are really defending ourselves against that darkness. We grow anxious when someone close to us in a time of great trauma seems to question God or even to deny that God is, is good and merciful, is there for us. Job's friends did not do wrong in coming to Job. They did well in coming and being silent before the awful reality of his suffering. They seriously erred when they spoke, trying to explain, to rationalize, to defend God. God needs no defense. We often simply have no answers. It is our proper posture just to be there and wait in silence, bringing the comfort of a presence that cares even when it cannot fathom. Sometimes God is absent. Sometimes we must simply trust, holding on with white-knuckled grip. Job did not give up on God. But he could not find him. Thus his piercing cry, © Grand Valley State University �The God Who Is Absent Richard A. Rhem Page 5   "Oh, that I knew where I might find him!" Job's darkness was terrible indeed; yet it did not match the darkness of another whose cry is differently expressed, yet essentially the same; a cry of total abandonment and utter desolation: "My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?" Still there was a clinging to God - the address is a personal address, "My God." Yet there was a sense of being abandoned, of being alone in the darkness. The darkness is real. There is a mystery of Evil in the world. Sometimes there is no clue - no answer to the anguishing, "Why?" Let us simply acknowledge that. Perhaps the most horrible instance of such darkness and suffering of the innocent occurred in our own time. The Holocaust, which claimed the lives of six million Jews in Nazi death camps, can never be fully taken in. The most eloquent statement of the darkness I have ever encountered is in Elie Wiesel's account of his own childhood nightmare in the camps, seeing the smoke rise from the gas furnaces that consumed his mother and sister and watching his father die by inches. His account is entitled simply Night. He writes, Some talked of God, of his mysterious ways, of the sins of the Jewish people, and of their future deliverance. But I had ceased to pray. How I sympathized with Job! I did not deny God's existence, but I doubted His absolute justice. (p. 55F) One day a young boy was executed, hung from a gallows with the whole camp marched out to witness. Elie Wiesel watched, too, himself only a boy. As the child twisted in the air suspended from the noose, someone behind Wiesel said, "Where is God? Where is He?" Again, as he was marched by the child dying agonizingly, he heard it again, "Where is God now?" And he writes, And I heard a voice within me answer him, Where is He? Here He is - He is hanging there on the gallows... (p. 76) The Jewish New Year, Rosh Hashanah, was at hand and on the eve of that day is a great Jewish festival celebration. In the prison camp the Jews gathered for worship. Wiesel writes his thoughts. © Grand Valley State University �The God Who Is Absent Richard A. Rhem Page 6   "What are you, my God," I thought angrily, "compared to this afflicted crowd, proclaiming to You their faith, then anger, then revolt? What does Your greatness mean, Lord of the Universe, in the face of all this weakness, this discomposition, and this decay? Why do You will trouble on their sick minds, their crippled bodies?" (p. 77) … "Blessed be the Name of the Eternal!" Thousands of voices repeated the benediction; thousands of men prostrated themselves like trees before a tempest. … Why, but why should I bless Him? In every fiber I rebelled. Because He had had thousands of children burned in His pits? Because He kept six crematories working night and day, on Sundays and feast days? ... How could I say to Him: "Blessed art Thou, Eternal Master of the Universe, Who chose us from among the races to be tortured day and night, to see our fathers, our mothers, our brothers, end in the crematory? Praise be Thy Holy Name, Thou Who hast chosen us to be butchered on Thine altar?" (p. 78) … This day I ceased to plead. I was no longer capable of lamentation. On the contrary, I felt very strong. I was the accuser, God the accused. (p. 79) And what was the sensation of this awful situation? My eyes were open and I was alone - terribly alone in a world without God and without man. Without love or mercy. (p. 79) Elie Wiesel has become a strong advocate of the Jewish cause. I do not know where he is now in relation to the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. But certainly the poignancy of the pain could hardly find more powerful expression than he gives it in his account. In his book, The Meaning of Christ, Robert C. Johnson records an incident from the ministry of H.H. Farmer. Many years ago I was preaching on the love of God; there was in the congregation an old Polish Jew who had been converted to the Christian faith. He came to me afterward and said, 'You have no right to speak about the love of God, until you have seen, as I have seen, the blood of your dearest friends running in the gutters on a gray winter morning. I asked him later how it was that, having seen such a massacre, he had come to © Grand Valley State University �The God Who Is Absent Richard A. Rhem Page 7   believe in the love of God. The answer he gave in effect was that the Christian gospel first began to lay hold of him because it bade him see God - the love of God – just where he was, just where he could not but always be in his thoughts and memories - in those bloodstained streets on that grey morning. It bade him see the love of God – not somewhere else, but in the midst of just that sort of thing, in the blood and agony of Calvary. He did at least know, he said, that this was a message that grappled with the facts; and then he went on to say something the sense of which I shall always remember though the words I have forgotten. He said, "As I looked at that man upon the cross, as I heard him pray, 'Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do,’ as I heard him cry in his anguish, ‘My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?’ I knew that I must make up my mind once for all and either take my stand beside him and share in his undefeated faith in God ... or else fall finally into a bottomless pit of bitterness, hatred, and unutterable despair. (p. 46F) That I submit to you is a profound and moving response to the incomprehensible mystery of human suffering. The darkness is real. Wiesel’s God died in the onslaught of senseless suffering, human cruelty and the absence of God. The Polish Jew found the love of God in a similar life situation because he sensed that in the awful agony of another Jew, Jesus, who expressed that absence, there was yet an undefeated trust in God - even in the depths of hellish torment. He sensed that Christian faith, the Gospel, if you will, was not a superficial pep pill that asserted God was in His heaven and all was right with the world, but was an invitation to trust in the God of love in the deepest darkness, not because an explanation was offered for the suffering, but that the God of Jesus and the Cross is a God present in the moments of most acute abandonment. He trusted God in the darkness because the alternative was horrible beyond description – a bottomless pit of bitterness, hatred and unutterable despair. That is the choice we must finally make. The darkness is real. Biblical faith never denies its reality. Sometimes one finally cries to heaven, "Oh, that I knew where I might find him!" Sometimes one's God dies on the gallows of human evil as did Wiesel's. Sometimes one cries, "My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?" Sometimes - realizing this God invites us to trust him at the very point of history's darkest hour, one comes to find the love of God just there, as did the Polish Jew. © Grand Valley State University �The God Who Is Absent Richard A. Rhem Page 8   Biblical faith never takes lightly the darkness; Biblical faith declares a light that the darkness cannot overcome - the Light of Easter, of resurrection, of the promise of God's final triumph over the darkness. Good Friday was not the last word. Had it been the last word, there would have been no further word. But Good Friday found its answer in the Easter wonder of Jesus' resurrection. That is the one supreme moment of God's revelation - within history, a moment from beyond history, illuminating history's meaning. An event of the End happening in the middle of history, throwing its light forward and backward, giving meaning to the whole and filling the whole with meaning - that life is not a cruel joke, a cosmic mistake; that life is not a tragic moment bracketed by oblivion before and oblivion beyond; that life with all the vicissitudes of our human experience is undergirded and overshadowed by the Presence of the God Who sometimes seems absent. St. Paul said it well: "God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself." The French Christian writer, Francois Mauriac, wrote the foreword to Elie Wiesel's Night. This is how he ended: And I, who believe that God is love, what answer could I give my young questioner, whose dark eyes still held the reflection of that angelic sadness which had appeared one day upon the face of the hanged child? What did I say to him? Did I speak of that other Israeli, his brother, who may have resembled him - the Crucified, whose Cross has conquered the world? Did I affirm that the stumbling block to his faith was the cornerstone of mine, and that the conformity between the Cross and the suffering of men was in my eyes the key to that impenetrable mystery wherein the faith of his childhood had perished? Zion, however, has risen up again from the crematories and the charnel houses. The Jewish nation has been resurrected from among its thousands of dead. It is through them that it lives again. We do not know the worth of one single drop of blood, one single tear. All is grace. If the Eternal is the Eternal, the last word for each one of us belongs to Him. This is what I should have told this Jewish child. But I could only embrace him, weeping. (p. 10f) The Gospel we proclaim points to a gracious God, our Ally, Who will overcome the darkness with His light. God is our Ally; God is God. The darkness is real but it is not final. But Mauriac was quite right not to speak but to embrace the suffering one, weeping. That sensitive silence was the most cogent invitation to trust in the darkness. © Grand Valley State University �The God Who Is Absent Richard A. Rhem Page 9   If that is where you are, or if tomorrow that should be your lot, cling to God Who seems absent but Who feels our pain more deeply than any human support and who promises that dawn will yet break and light break through. Amen. Reference: Elie Wiesel. Night. English translation, Hill & Wany, 1972, 1985. © Grand Valley State University � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Richard A. Rhem Collection Description An account of the resource Text and sound recordings of the sermons, prayers, services, and articles of Richard Rhem, pastor emeritus of Christ Community Church in Spring Lake, Michigan, where he served for 37 years. Starting in the mid 1980's, Rhem began to question some of the traditional Christian dogma that he had been espousing from the pulpit. That questioning was a first step in a long and interesting spiritual journey, one that he openly shared with his congregation. His journey is important, in part because it is reflective of the questioning, the yearnings, and the gradual revision of beliefs that many persons in this part of the century have experienced and continue to experience. It is important also because of the affirming and inclusive way his questioning was done and his thinking evolved. His sermons and other written and spoken materials together document the steps in his journey as it took a turn in 1985, yet continued to revolve around the framework and liturgies of the Christian calendar. Subject The topic of the resource Clergy--Michigan Reformed Church in America Christ Community Church (Spring Lake, Mich.) Religion Interfaith worship Sermons Sound Recordings Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Rhem, Richard A. Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/514">Richard A. Rhem papers (KII-01)</a> Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives. Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Kaufman Interfaith Institute Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Language A language of the resource English Type The nature or genre of the resource Sound Text Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context KII-01 Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant 1981-2014 Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource audio/mp3 text/pdf Sound A resource primarily intended to be heard. Examples include a music playback file format, an audio compact disc, and recorded speech or sounds. Event Pentecost VIII Series God Our Ally Scripture Text Job 23:3, 10, Mark 15:34 Location The location of the interview Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI References Elie Wiesel, Night, 1972, 1985 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context KII-01_RA-0-19850721 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1985-07-21 Title A name given to the resource The God Who is Absent Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Richard A. Rhem Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Subject The topic of the resource Clergy--Michigan Reformed Church in America Christ Community Church (Spring Lake, Mich.) Sermons Relation A related resource Richard A. Rhem - An Archive of Sermons, Prayers, Talks and Stories: http://richardrhem.org/ Language A language of the resource eng Type The nature or genre of the resource Sound Text Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource audio/mp3 application/pdf Description An account of the resource A sermon given by Richard A. Rhem (Dick) on July 21, 1985 entitled "The God Who is Absent", as part of the series "God Our Ally", on the occasion of Pentecost VIII, at Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI. Scripture references: Job 23:3, 10, Mark 15:34. Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Lemmen Library and Archives Grace Hebrew Scriptures Job Nature of God Sin Suffering Trust https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/41b5ccbba30dc99bb95b475b85d48aa6.pdf a8dbd4eb13137d177876b84e2c92dcd1 PDF Text Text The God Who Heals and Gives Us Peace From the series: If God Be For Us… Scripture: Isaiah 57:19; Romans 8:31 Richard A. Rhem Christ Community Church Spring Lake, Michigan July 14, 1996 Transcription of the spoken sermon We begin today a four-part series on the theme "If God Be For Us ..." Let me introduce the theme with some explanatory remarks. “If” is “Ei” in Greek and is called a conditional particle. It expresses a condition thought of as real or denotes an assumption relating to what has already happened. This is the case in the text of the morning. Paul set forth his understanding of all God had done in Jesus Christ. He deals in Romans 8 with suffering and hope. He points to the Spirit praying through our groanings that defy utterance. He concludes with that declaration of profound trust - God working in all things for our good. Romans 8:31 is one of the greatest statements of trust ever penned and it begins with Paul's words, "What then are we to say to these things?" His answer to his question: If God is for us, who is against us? Thus, my first comment. The "If" points not to uncertainty but to certainty. We could perhaps better translate it "Since." Since God is for us ... This is not a tentative statement; rather, it is an affirmation of deep trust and solid conviction. God is for us, or as the NEB translates, "God is on our side". That particular translation brings me to my second comment. The claim, the conviction that God is on our side is the source of a very great comfort if properly understood and may be the source of a very dangerous arrogance if not understood correctly. Let me address the latter first: Claiming God on our side can be a dangerous arrogance; it misses the point of Paul's claim. The human situation is full of conflict; conflict between nations, ethnic groups, political parties, cultural movements; conflict between individuals. Our present cultural situation has been marked by the descriptive phrase "culture wars." In human conflict situations, it is presumptuous and arrogant to claim God is on our side. God does not take sides in those conflicts; our human perspective may be sincere and even responsible, but it is too much to claim God on our side. © Grand Valley State University   �God Who Heals and Gives Peace Richard A. Rhem Page 2   A story is told of Abraham Lincoln during the tragic days of the Civil War. A Calvinist minister in a time of prayer thanked God that God was on the Union side. Afterward, Lincoln was heard to say the question was not whether God was on the Union side, but, rather, whether the Union was on God's side. When Paul claims God is on our side, he is pointing to something other than God being for one party over another, one nation over another. Rather, Paul is making the great claim that God is for the human family – even broader, that God is for Creation in all of its wonder and complexity. God is for, is on the side of, the wellbeing of Creation. As I indicated above, Paul prefaces this claim with the question, "What then shall we say to these things?" That is, are the things Paul has been pointing to – the whole movement of God's Spirit to effect salvation - salvation which means wholeness – liberation? Liberation from bondage of every sort. Paul was convinced that God was engaged with, involved in, the whole of creation and the human situation in order to effect salvation or wholeness or Shalom. It is clear from this letter to the Romans that Paul saw the whole world in bondage - the Jew, the Gentile - indeed, in this chapter he even speaks of the bondage of creation, but it is also clear that he did not see the present state of things as the final word. There was plenty of trouble. He lists famine, nakedness, peril, sword. We might make a list with different items - ethnic feuds, religious wars, cancer, terrorism, urban decay, youth gang wars. Paul did not put his head in the sand; yet, he was convinced of something else - an ultimate power for the wellbeing of Creation and the liberation of humankind, rooted in the love of God. That is the ground of the claim of our text. God is on our side - the human side, creation's side - because the ultimate reality of the world, of the whole grand scheme of things, is the love of God. Paul saw this demonstrated in the event of Jesus Christ. Jesus, who died the victim of the world's darkness and evil, was raised from the dead, brought into God's very presence and was there praying for us. When it seemed the forces of darkness had carried the day, that the human No to God had prevailed, God said No to our No and Yes to life, to the future, to the final triumph of God. Thus, Paul says, "What can separate us from the love of God?" And he answers, in a word, "nothing." That is the biblical picture - the big picture. God is love. God is for us. That was Israel's faith. The reading from Isaiah 57 comes from what scholars speak of as Third Isaiah. The whole book in the Hebrew Scripture is called Isaiah, but it is generally recognized that there are writings from three hands and three periods 1-39, 40-55, 56-65. The first is from an 8th century prophet Isaiah; the second from a prophet during Judah's Exile in Babylon - the one who assumed the return © Grand Valley State University �God Who Heals and Gives Peace Richard A. Rhem Page 3   of the Exile to Jerusalem; the third a prophet who wrote during the period of the return, around 530 BCE. Things did not turn out the way the Exile prophet had envisioned. There was no restoration of the glory of Jerusalem. Poverty and despair marked the post-exilic period. In that situation, the one we call Third Isaiah called Judah for laxness in religious observance and failure to create a just and compassionate society. God's anger was experienced as God's judgment on that failure. Yet, true to the spirit of Israel's prophets, it was declared that God's anger was but for a moment with the purpose of turning the People back to the Lord. And the prophet speaks these words that form our text: "I have seen their ways, but I will heal them ... Peace, peace to the far and the near, says the Lord". That is always the last word in the story of God's People - I will heal them ... Peace, peace ... This is the deep substructure of the whole biblical drama - A God Who is for us - A God Who heals us - Who gives us peace. That is the nature of God, according to the Scriptures of Israel, according to Paul as he contemplated his faith in God in the light of Jesus - and it is still the picture that sustains us and heals us and gives us peace. Yesterday I attended the Bat Mitzvah of the daughter of Rabbi and Mrs. Alpert at the Muskegon Temple. Eliza, at age 13, went through the rite of passage; she moved into adulthood. For three years her father, the Rabbi, had been preparing her. She read from the Hebrew Torah (beautifully, I must say). She delivered the sermon - a very thoughtful one. She led the worship of that congregation. The Temple was nearly full, a quite amazing statement of community, of love and support. After experiencing that, I do not wonder that the Jewish People have continued a destined people through the millennia. I was not only experiencing the worship, but also reflecting on my theme for this morning - The God Who heals and gives us peace. I was struck by the fact that God's people are always looking for closure, for God to come and bring things to a proper conclusion. Second Isaiah in Babylon's exile cried, "Comfort ye, comfort ye, my people, says your God. Speak tenderly to Jerusalem ... A voice cries out: In the wilderness prepare the way of the Lord ... Get you up to a high mountain, O Zion, herald of good tidings, lift up your voice with strength, O Jerusalem ... say to the cities of Judah, Behold your God." If you would go through chapters 40-55, you would find some of the most moving passages of the Scripture. Judah will return and the glory will return, for God is coming to redeem and glorify the People of God's Covenant Love. The reality: a small remnant returned. They lived in poverty and despair, disillusioned that the © Grand Valley State University �God Who Heals and Gives Peace Richard A. Rhem Page 4   glory was absent. Along comes third Isaiah. He picks up the stirring words of the earlier prophet, but explains the poor situation as the consequence of Judah's disobedience. Yet, he holds before them the promise of our text: healing, peace. Finally a second Temple is built, but they weep because it has not the glory of the first. They remain for the most part an occupied territory, never realizing the promises of the prophet in exile. Five hundred years later and Jesus is born. Again the ancient world senses it is on the edge of the End. And we have noted in past weeks how that early Jewish Jesus movement waited expectantly for the return of the Son of Man, of the Messiah from heaven. But, it did not happen. Yesterday Eliza Alpert spoke of the Journey and the Dream. She spoke of Israel's founding leader, Moses. He led the People to the borders of the Promised Land, but could not go in. Joshua was the one who finally brought them over. And she pointed to Rabin - a man of war who became a man of peace, but in the midst of the peace process was cut down by an assassin's bullet. And she appealed to her people to do Joshua's work - to take up the peace initiative of the fallen leader. Well, as I said, I was thinking of this long, ancient tradition - this people of whom we, too, are a part, for we were born from Israel's womb. We pray, we long for the consummation of God's purposes in history. The images of Shalom play before our eyes. We read of terror on the street, of the awful conflict fanned into flame again in Northern Ireland, of the excavation of more graves in Bosnia, of terrorism in Saudi Arabia and Moscow and who knows where next. Or we have experience of the word "cancer" spoken over us, or of the failure, the disappointment of one on whom we counted. Or we see starkly our own tragic flaw. And where do we turn? To whom? And for what do the groanings of our inward being long? All of this I contemplated in light of the God spoken of in the text as “the God Who heals and gives us peace.” I experienced that healing and that peace in that Bat Mitzvah service. There was a young woman surrounded by her family, extended family, community of faith. The family was smaller than it might have been because her mother's family suffered great loss in the Holocaust. She spoke of Moses who had a dream, led the journey, but failed to enter the Promised Land. She spoke of Rabin, the warrior become peacemaker, cut down by an assassin's bullet. And she called her people to take up the cause of peace and human freedom. I find that quite remarkable. It would seem that the prophetic images of the new Creation, of the reign of Shalom when lion and lamb lie down together and they do not hurt or destroy in all God's Holy Mountain are not really future states of history, but rather, the ever present judgment on our discord and tragic warring – and not only images of judgment on our present, but also promises of present possibility because God is not so much the future binder up of present wounds as © Grand Valley State University �God Who Heals and Gives Peace Richard A. Rhem Page 5   the present healer and peace giver to those who open their lives to the Spirit to love and to grace. I experienced the healing, the peace of God in that moment. The long story of the ages, the images of Shalom, the longing, the yearning, the repeated failure of history's reality to measure up to the promise - all of that coalesced in the moment of a young woman claiming her place in the line of generations of a people who live lives in dialogue, in communion with the living God. It is quite something, this being human. Many are broken on the rocks of human reality. Dear God, the suffering. Many have become cynical, embittered because the prayer was not answered, the promise not fulfilled. Many are hollow persons, empty and void of meaning or purpose. And the usual posture, I suppose, of the Church has been to condemn those whose hopes have been shattered and whose prayers left hanging in the air. But, when I experience God's love and grace and presence so tangibly as I did yesterday in the faith of a beautiful young person supported by the love of family and community - when I let the words of Paul wash over me, then I know a healing and a peace that nothing can take away. Then I know something of the present Presence of the God Whose ways are past finding out, but Whose healing grace and gracious peace are here and now. It is not out there, dear friend, it is right here. Oh, I do believe there is more but God will take care of that. But, the real possibility is the present possession of a peace that passes human understanding. To experience that peace is to be healed here and now in the midst of bombings and strokes and cancer, and all the tragedy that laces the human story. And this is the care we trust because we trust the loving center of things - the God Who said "Let there be," the God Who says, "I will be with you," Whose Presence we experience in the presence of the other, in the community of faith, the God Who heals us and gives us peace. God knows it is not easy to be a creature, to be human. God knows and God promises “nothing shall ever separate you from my love.” So, then, what shall we say to these things? If God be for us, who can be against us! © Grand Valley State University � https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/81bb01c687b00ee973e72301c10466d2.mp3 8b98515d34d1223ea3d7a43fce02de93 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 VII Series If God Be For Us Scripture Text Isaiah 57:19, Romans 8:31 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-0-19960714 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1996-07-14 Title A name given to the resource The God Who Heals and Gives Us Peace Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Richard A. Rhem Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Subject The topic of the resource Clergy--Michigan Reformed Church in America Christ Community Church (Spring Lake, Mich.) Sermons Relation A related resource Richard A. Rhem - An Archive of Sermons, Prayers, Talks and Stories: http://richardrhem.org/ Language A language of the resource eng Type The nature or genre of the resource Text Sound Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource audio/mp3 application/pdf Description An account of the resource A sermon given by Richard A. Rhem (Dick) on July 14, 1996 entitled "The God Who Heals and Gives Us Peace", as part of the series "If God Be For Us", on the occasion of Pentecost VII, at Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI. Scripture references: Isaiah 57:19, Romans 8:31. Nature of God Shalom Trust Universal Love https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/fe84308f8c827e539c1872fa95336bfd.mp3 f16030dfcac039db2a0043f1bdfa5a28 https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/cd717ff899bf7a876f53b7e956fd3be5.pdf 3aa232682bbb0d719974b213d55d09ef PDF Text Text The God Who Forgives Us From the sermon series: God, Our Ally Text: Micah 7: 18-19; Romans 11: 33-36 Richard A. Rhem Christ Community Church Spring Lake, Michigan July 28, 1985 Transcription of the spoken sermon God is our Ally. That is the center of our faith, the heart of the biblical revelation. He is there for us, our friend, at our side, on our side. Our lives are undergirded by His faithfulness and mercy, overshadowed by His love. Even when we cannot sense it amidst tragedy, in the darkness, He holds us still. Even when our conscience condemns us and our guilt threatens to overwhelm us - even then, God is our Ally, for He is the God Who forgives us. That is the theme of this message. We recite the familiar Apostles' Creed and we affirm, I believe the forgiveness of sins. That is a great affirmation. That speaks to the deepest need of the human heart to be forgiven, to be accepted, to be right with God. That which is our deepest need is that which God has provided, for He is a God Who forgives us. Micah ends his prophecy with a great exclamation of hope and confidence, an expression of sheer wonder at the grace and mercy of God. Who is a God like Thee? Thou takest away guilt, Thou passeth over the sin of the remnant of Thy people... Thou wilt show us tender affection and wash away our guilt, casting our sins into the depth of the sea. This amazed exclamation comes at the end of a prophetic book that had dealt seriously with the sin of God's people, Judah. Micah prophesied near the end of the Eighth Century, B.C. With Amos, Hosea and Isaiah he formed the quartet of Eighth Century prophets that represents the golden age of Hebrew prophecy. The social structures of Judah were in a state of deterioration. The nation lacked moral integrity and Micah realized that this people was ripe for judgment. © Grand Valley State University   �The God Who Forgives Us Richard A. Rhem Page 2   He was a contemporary of Isaiah and although Isaiah, too, knew of the sin of the nation, he could not yet conceive of the fall of Jerusalem. Micah, however, predicted that fall, believing that Judah was not immune to the righteous judgment of God. He did not whitewash the estate of a people who had left the paths of righteousness. But as for me, I am filled with power, with the Spirit of the Lord, and with justice and might, to declare to Jacob his transgression and to Israel his sin. (3:8) Micah was no "soft touch." But true to the prophetic tradition and the whole biblical perspective, judgment was not the outpouring of the wrath of a vengeful God Who found pleasure in destroying but rather the disciplining hand of a loving Father Whose purpose was always and forever the redemption of His children. For Micah, then, the last word was not judgment, but grace; not wrath, but mercy. He does not retain his anger forever because he delights in steadfast love. The forgiving grace of God is the last word and the psalm that concludes this prophetic book sings it beautifully with a sense of wonder - the wonder known and understood by all who know what it is to be forgiven. Let us attempt to understand the wonder expressed in our text by acknowledging the biblical diagnosis of the human condition - the condition of sin. We can get this diagnosis from Micah or any other biblical writing. The text is a statement that takes this human condition for granted; it is an expression of amazement at the forgiving grace of God, given the human condition of sin. Paul cites a Psalm and puts it bluntly: All have sinned. To be in a state of sin is to be in a state of alienation from God and one's neighbor. In the Old Testament the Genesis stories portray the human person doubting God's word and God's goodness, the unwillingness to live as creature trusting the Creator, but rather wanting to usurp the place of God and to be Lord of one's own destiny. It was Israel's lack of trust in God that is portrayed as the root of their alienation and separation from God, which led to all the disastrous consequences of their corporate and individual lives. Sin is an old fashioned word. Its reality has been soft-pedaled, its seriousness denied. Yet its manifestation is universal and its devastating effects everywhere to be seen. Anyone with a pinch of common sense must acknowledge that something is wrong. Those profound stories in Genesis, full of symbolic meaning, © Grand Valley State University �The God Who Forgives Us Richard A. Rhem Page 3   tell us that something is wrong indeed, because we are out of relationship with the God Who created us for Himself. Modern psychiatry recognizes that something is wrong. A few years ago Karl Menninger of the famed Menninger Clinic wrote a book that was titled, Whatever Became of Sin? in which he implored the pulpit to preach on human sin because this was to recognize the humanity of persons - that they are free and responsible beings, accountable, with the need and capacity to repent. Otherwise we rob persons of their unique humanness, their freedom and responsibility, making them marionettes in a cosmic drama of fate. This is the biblical perspective... God is good and not the author of evil. We make wrong choices, foolish and brazen, and create chaos for ourselves and our world. We get entwined in a web of wrong and we are wrong-headed and wrong-hearted. We must own our wrong but we cannot unwrite the record of our deeds. Therefore, we need to be forgiven or our situation is hopeless. Ernest Becker, in his book, The Denial of Death, gives a fascinating analysis of how the biblical picture of human sin parallels the findings of depth psychology and psychoanalysis. He compares the work of the psychoanalyst, Otto Rank, with the insights of the Christian thinker, Soren Kierkegaard. He writes: Both men reached the same conclusion after the most exhaustive psychological quest: That at the very furthest reaches of scientific description, psychology has to give way to "theology" - that is, to a worldview that absorbs the individual's conflicts and guilt and offers him the possibility for some kind of heroic apotheosis (to be exalted to the rank of a god). Man cannot endure his own littleness unless he can translate it into meaningfulness on the largest possible level. Here Rank and Kierkegaard meet in one of those astonishing historical mergers of thought: that sin and neurosis are two ways of talking about the same thing - the complete isolation of the individual, his disharmony with the rest of nature, his hyperindividualism, his attempt to create his own world from within himself. Both sin and neurosis represent the individual blowing himself up to larger than his true size, his refusal to recognize his cosmic dependence... In sin and neurosis man fetishizes himself on something narrow at hand and pretends that the whole meaning and miraculousness of creation is limited to that, that he can get his beatification from that. Rank's summing up of the neurotic world-view is at the same time that of the classic sinner: The neurotic loses every kind of collective spirituality, and makes the heroic gesture of placing himself entirely within the immortality of his own ego ... (p. 196) © Grand Valley State University �The God Who Forgives Us Richard A. Rhem Page 4   There is not only the neurotic and the sinner's unreal self-inflation in the refusal to admit creatureliness, but also a penalty for intensified self-consciousness "The failure to be consoled by shared illusions." The result is that the sinner (neurotic) is hyperconscious of the very thing he tried to deny: his creatureliness, his miserableness and unworthiness. (p. 197) But there is a significant difference between the classical sinner and the modern neurotic. Both of them experience the natureliness of human insufficiency, only today the neurotic is stripped of the symbolic world-view, the God ideology that would make sense out of his unworthiness and would translate it into heroism. Traditional religion turned the consciousness of sin into a condition for salvation; but the tortured sense of nothingness of the neurotic qualifies him now only for miserable extinction, for merciful release in lonely death. It is all right to be nothing vis-à-vis God, who alone can make it right in His unknown ways; it is another thing to be nothing to oneself, who is nothing. (p. 197) In Rank's own summary: The neurotic type suffers from a consciousness of sin just as much as did his religious ancestor, without believing in the conception of sin. This is precisely what makes him "neurotic"; he feels a sinner without the religious belief in sin for which he therefore needs a new rational explanation. (p. 198 in Becker from Rank, Beyond Psychology p. 193) Thus declares Becker: Thus the plight of modern man: a sinner with no word for it or, worse, who looks for the word for it in a dictionary of psychology and thus only approaches the problem of his separateness and hyperconsciousness. Again, this impasse is what Rank meant when he called psychology a "preponderantly negative and disintegrating ideology." (p. 198) And sounding like a biblical prophet, Rank concludes, according to Becker, that if neurosis is sin, and not disease, then the only thing which can "cure" it is a world-view, some kind of affirmative collective ideology in which the person can perform the living drama of his acceptance as a creature. Only in this way can the neurotic come out of his isolation to become part of such a larger and higher wholeness as religion has always represented. (p. 198F) © Grand Valley State University �The God Who Forgives Us Richard A. Rhem Page 5   That is the conclusion of the best insight of the science of psychoanalysis and it is a striking conclusion. Believing religion an illusion, Rank nonetheless believed that human health could be achieved only by living in that illusion. Only thus could the isolation and alienation of creatureliness be overcome by one being caught up in a larger framework of meaning and purpose. The diagnosis of the human condition is the same whether read from the Bible or from the journals of psychiatry. The terminology differs but the meaning is the same. The human being turned in upon himself, rejecting the status of creature, grasping for autonomy - that person is in biblical terminology a sinner, in the parlance of modern psychology a neurotic. Probably as much as anybody, Robert Schuller has attempted to utilize the findings of the psychological science in his presentation of the Gospel. In his book, Self Esteem, he contends that we are born with a lack of trust. This is suggested by Erik Erikson in his studies in child psychology. Thus Schuller contends we are by nature fearful, anxious, but not wicked. However one responds to Schuller's dialogue with classical Reformed theology, he does make an important point. For too long in the Church we have assaulted the dignity of human personality and have ground persons even deeper into the paralysis of their sinful condition with our heavy handed preaching of human sin. The question is not whether we are sinful and thus commit sins for which we are guilty. That is plain for anyone to see. The question is rather how can we understand the human predicament and meaningfully bring the Gospel to that predicament so that human transformation will result? Somehow we must recognize that all the wrong we do, all the hell on earth we create, is a reflection not of the human nature God created in his own image, but of a negative response of that human nature which fails to understand God, itself, and the way to wholeness. This is not to downplay the havoc wrought by the person. Schuller uses the image of a golf ball. Outside is a thin, dimpled cover. Beneath are layers and layers of rubber wrappings. The core is a hard rubber ball. To describe a golf ball simply in terms of the outer cover is superficial. The real nature of the golf ball is still unknown. The outer cover he compares to human rebellion. But whence comes that rebellion? Schuller claims we are like that golf ball. At the core is a natural lack of self-esteem, a negative self image - all coming from a lack of trust. From that core come all those rubber wrappings: anxiety, fear and all negative emotions resulting in a face that appears angry, mean, rebellious. At the core of our being we are non-trusting, insecure, defensive and our response to life is angry, negative, destructive. Projecting our fear and suspicion outward, we ruin our interpersonal relationships and generally make a mess of our lives and the community. © Grand Valley State University �The God Who Forgives Us Richard A. Rhem Page 6   Berkhof in his Christian Faith sees our sin "rooted in the creaturely structure of the risky being called man." We do seem to live in two worlds; we are part of the animal kingdom and we are created in the image of God. There is both our misuse of freedom and therefore our guilt and there is a gravitational force from below. In Berkhof s terms: Sin is not a fall from a higher form of existence, but the refusal to rise to the higher form of existence of loving fellowship with God. Sin is contrary to nature precisely because it is a yielding to the pull of our inherited nature. Man falls victim to it if he does not in confidence, in surrender, and in obedience open himself to the call from on high as it invites him to join unconditionally and with his whole being in God's venture of a joint history with man. (p. 207) While not contending that Schuller and Berkhof are saying the same thing or share a common analysis of the human condition, this much can be said - and needs to be said - it is possible to understand the sinful behavior of persons, acknowledging the seriousness of the wrong that we do, without painting the human being as a monster, wicked and incorrigible. Invited to friendship with God from above, pulled by a gravitational force from below, the human being is both guilty and tragic, wonderful and capable of transformation. What, then, is the deepest human need? Is it not unconditional love, unlimited grace, full acceptance and free forgiveness? What we most need God provides, for He is the God Who forgives If the rather long path we have taken to diagnose the human condition is accurate - the biblical picture, the insight of psychoanalysis, of Schuller and Berkhof, then what is it that can effect human transformation? How can human nature be changed? Simply stated: An encounter with unconditional love and grace. If it is true that at our core we are lacking in trust, fearful and anxious and if all forms of negative behavior are the consequence, then it is precisely in the experience of being encountered by an all-embracing grace and a nonthreatening love that we will find our anger dissolved, the shell of our hostility shed and our defenses fall away. The Gospel is the good news about God whose nature is love and Whose love in action toward us is grace. And God encounters us in Jesus Christ. It is when we encounter God in Jesus Christ that we know what it is to be unconditionally accepted and embraced by grace. We meet God when we meet Jesus and we meet Jesus when we meet a brother or sister in whom he lives and through whom he loves. © Grand Valley State University �The God Who Forgives Us Richard A. Rhem Page 7   Then we may well exclaim with Micah, Who is a God like thee? Thou takest away guilt... casting our sins into the depths of the sea. Is it that simple? Yes, it is. But it is not cheap. The story of Jesus reveals the costliness of that forgiveness. His life, his death. He lived a fully human life in total harmony with the Father. He bore our sin in his body on the tree. God made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in him. We are forgiven through Jesus Christ our Lord. We are accepted in Jesus. When we can receive that, "hear" that, really appropriate that, we are changed, transformed, inside out. The Gospel announces forgiveness through the grace of God; He the God Who forgives us. No wonder Micah exclaimed in wonder, Who is a God like thee? Paul was awestruck, too, at the forgiving grace of God offered in Jesus Christ. In Romans 9-11 he struggles with Israel's failure to believe in Jesus as their Messiah. He finally concludes that in the mystery of God's ways Israel's disobedience has resulted in the salvation of the Gentile world but he never gives up on Israel either. Quoting from Isaiah 27:9, From Zion shall come the Deliverer; he shall remove wickedness from Jacob, And this is the covenant I will grant them, when I take away their sins… He contends that God will one day remove Israel's sin as well because he is certain of the faithfulness of God and the unconditional nature of his promise. "... God's choice stands, and they are his friends for the sake of the Patriarchs. For the gracious gifts of God and his calling are irrevocable." (11:28-29) He can only conclude - even though he cannot fully fathom For in making all mankind prisoners to disobedience, God's purpose was to show mercy to all mankind. (11:32) This leaves him breathless. In a mood similar to Micah's, he breaks out in grand doxology: O depth of wealth, wisdom and knowledge in God! How unsearchable his judgments, how untraceable his ways! ... Source, Guide and Goal of all that is - to him be glory for ever! Amen." (11:33-36) © Grand Valley State University �The God Who Forgives Us Richard A. Rhem Page 8   What a doxology! What a God! And what calls forth that irrepressible praise of the whole human being? The marvel of a grace that forgives! God is a God Who forgives us! Now if only we could believe it; if only we could receive it. Let me speak of God's forgiveness lifting up some aspects of it that may cause us to sense more deeply its wonder and to appropriate more fully its blessing. The first thing 1 would point out is that God's forgiveness has already been provided - it is a reality now offered unconditionally to all who will receive it. God does not hold us at arm's length, seeing first if we measure up, if we are worthy, if we will do it all right now and not abuse His free grace. We do not deserve it. It was while we were yet enemies that we were reconciled - while we were yet sinners that Christ died for us. (Romans 5:6-8) Forgiveness is not conditional on good behaviour; there is no parole system with God - just a declaration of undeserved mercy and freedom from the guilt of our sin. Forgiveness is not a future possibility if in the meantime we keep our nose clean. Forgiveness has already been procured through the one offering of Jesus and is ours now. There is now therefore no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. (Romans 8:1) The Gospel is not a religion. A religion has a teaching, a ritual, a way of life. Christianity is a religion, but the Gospel is the announcement of what is true now because God has acted: Forgiveness is provided already - secured, forgiveness is freely offered, forgiveness can be now received - received only as gift. A second reflection I would share is that it is those who need it most who find it the most difficult to receive it and personally to appropriate it. Certainly there are those who bulldoze their way through life with seemingly little sensitivity to the havoc they produce and the hurt they inflict. But I am more concerned about the one of sensitive conscience, the one who longs to be right but senses her failings and perhaps even despairs, feeling simply a failure. That one tends to withdraw from the grace of God and from the fellowship where that grace is extended. Such a one feels unworthy which is true enough; yet it is precisely there that the misconception of forgiveness manifests itself. For if I do not allow myself the luxury of grace, being unworthy, then I must be saying that those who do receive it are worthy and then, of course, grace is no longer grace. When I feel wrong, then I feel I do not belong. Withdrawal, isolation, alienation the bitter fruits of failure and despair not dispensed by God's unconditional grace that will never be defeated, will not give up or let go. © Grand Valley State University �The God Who Forgives Us Richard A. Rhem Page 9   I wonder if in this state we do not take ourselves too seriously. Are we so allimportant and our sin of such cosmic dimension that even God can not forgive us and create for us a new beginning? Is not such withdrawal really the last holdout of pride that says, "I will do it on my own or I will not do it"? This leads me to a third observation which follows as a matter of course: Forgiveness is only for the helpless, the hopeless, the one who cannot help himself. We know that; it is a truism of the Gospel. But we find it difficult to keep that truth before our minds. That is inevitable in the Church, I suppose. In the Church you hear about the "oughtness" of life. Certainly there is an "oughtness" in Christian existence: We ought to love God. We ought to love our neighbor. We ought to live truthfully, honestly, nobly, purely, faithfully, etc. Thus the Church becomes the society of oughtness, the place where duty and obligation are set forth, the place where discipline and censure are applied and where failure is not easily tolerated. It is the last place one would dare be honest about his life. Thus develops the paradoxical situation that the place of grace becomes a place of judgmental spirit and the place of Good News becomes the place of bad news. And what kind of people do we form? People grim-faced, tightly wound, anxious, masking their real life full of conflict and ambiguity behind a facade of community respectability, lacking real spontaneity and joy. Are you a hopeless case? You are very near the Kingdom; you are forgiven; breathe easy and begin to enjoy the journey. Finally, I can hear a chorus of dissent: You make the Gospel too easy; you make a mockery of the Christian life. To that I can only say I will take that risk if only I can help one suffering, sensitive struggler to hear and receive the Gospel of forgiveness. And further, religion doesn't work anyway; it only binds another burden on people and places one more monkey on their back. Religion never transformed anyone. It controls, manipulates, keeps one in line (in public,) but it can never free and heal and make whole. If I am accused of announcing a grace that might put in jeopardy duty and obligation and law, then I am in good company; St. Paul was likewise objected to. He spoke glowingly of the triumph of grace in his Roman letter: But where sin was thus multiplied, grace immeasurably exceeded it, in order that, as sin established its reign by way of death, so God's grace might establish its reign in righteousness, and issue in eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. (Romans 5:21) © Grand Valley State University �The God Who Forgives Us Richard A. Rhem Page10   That "immeasurably exceeded" follows an earlier "vastly exceeded by the grace of God" in verse 15 and an "in far greater measure" -verse 17. Thus Paul knows what will be countered. What are we to say, then? Shall we persist in sin, so that there may be ail the more grace? (6:1) He answers sharply, "No, no!" And his answer contains the key to mystery of human transformation; it is precisely the reality of an unconditional love and gracious acceptance that triggers inward change; this is the reality that by the Spirit effects new birth. Law can point the way, Law can indicate duty, Law can carry with it threat, Law can hem us in, bind us up, keep us in tow, effecting an external conformity to righteousness, But Law cannot change us. Law will never make us dizzy with wonder, speechless in awe finally to exclaim, “What a God!” Who is a God like Thee? God is our Ally; He is the God Who forgives us. References: Ernest Becker, The Denial of Death. First published in 1973. Hendrikus Berkhof, Christian Faith: An Introduction to the Study of the Faith. Wm Eerdmans & Co., 1979. Robert H. Schuller. Self-Esteem: The New Reformation. Word Books, 1983. © Grand Valley State University � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Richard A. Rhem Collection Description An account of the resource Text and sound recordings of the sermons, prayers, services, and articles of Richard Rhem, pastor emeritus of Christ Community Church in Spring Lake, Michigan, where he served for 37 years. Starting in the mid 1980's, Rhem began to question some of the traditional Christian dogma that he had been espousing from the pulpit. That questioning was a first step in a long and interesting spiritual journey, one that he openly shared with his congregation. His journey is important, in part because it is reflective of the questioning, the yearnings, and the gradual revision of beliefs that many persons in this part of the century have experienced and continue to experience. It is important also because of the affirming and inclusive way his questioning was done and his thinking evolved. His sermons and other written and spoken materials together document the steps in his journey as it took a turn in 1985, yet continued to revolve around the framework and liturgies of the Christian calendar. Subject The topic of the resource Clergy--Michigan Reformed Church in America Christ Community Church (Spring Lake, Mich.) Religion Interfaith worship Sermons Sound Recordings Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Rhem, Richard A. Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/514">Richard A. Rhem papers (KII-01)</a> Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives. Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Kaufman Interfaith Institute Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Language A language of the resource English Type The nature or genre of the resource Sound Text Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context KII-01 Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant 1981-2014 Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource audio/mp3 text/pdf Sound A resource primarily intended to be heard. Examples include a music playback file format, an audio compact disc, and recorded speech or sounds. Event Pentecost IX Series God Our Ally Scripture Text Micah 7:18-19, Romans 11:33-36 Location The location of the interview Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI References Ernest Becker, The Denial of Death, 1973 Hendrikus Berkhof, Christian Faith, 1979 Robert H. Schuller, Self-Esteem: The New Reformation, 1983. 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-0-19850728 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1985-07-28 Title A name given to the resource The God Who Forgives Us Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Richard A. Rhem Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Subject The topic of the resource Clergy--Michigan Reformed Church in America Christ Community Church (Spring Lake, Mich.) Sermons Relation A related resource Richard A. Rhem - An Archive of Sermons, Prayers, Talks and Stories: http://richardrhem.org/ Language A language of the resource eng Type The nature or genre of the resource Sound Text Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource audio/mp3 application/pdf Description An account of the resource A sermon given by Richard A. Rhem (Dick) on July 28, 1985 entitled "The God Who Forgives Us", as part of the series "God Our Ally", on the occasion of Pentecost IX, at Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI. Scripture references: Micah 7:18-19, Romans 11:33-36. Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Lemmen Library and Archives Forgiveness Grace Hebrew Scriptures Judgment Micah Nature of God Prophets Sin Transformation Trust https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/57e3660acefce76ec5188e3e273277ba.pdf 59eef9d0972dbeaf21a3e363c68d0d6a PDF Text Text The God We Forsake From the series: If God Be For Us… Text: Jeremiah 2:13 Richard A. Rhem Christ Community Church Spring Lake, Michigan July 28, 1996 Transcription of the spoken sermon The word of God comes not only from those of ancient time whose words are recorded in the canon of the scriptures; there are contemporary voices, as well, that can set that ancient word in a context. These words, for example, by the wellknown psychoanalyst, Carl Jüng: Among all my patients in the second half of life, that is to say over thirtyfive, there has not been one whose problem in the last resort was not that of finding a religious outlook on life. It is safe to say that every one of these fell ill because he had lost what the religions of every age have given their followers and none of them has really been healed who did not regain his religious outlook. This, of course, has nothing to do with a particular creed or membership of a church. In 1953, Rollo May, a psychotherapist in his book Man's Search for Himself, wrote, The chief problem of people in the middle decade of the 20th century is emptiness. The human being cannot live in the condition of emptiness for very long. If he is not growing toward something, he does not merely stagnate. The pent-up potentialities turn into morbidity and despair and eventually into destructive activities. The experience of emptiness generally comes from people feeling that they are powerless to do anything effective about their lives or the world they live in. Finally, these words from Hans Küng: The whole development, including the problem of addiction, particularly of educated young people for quasi-religious ideologies up to the point of terrorist anarchy is connected in no small degree with a breakdown of religious beliefs and the abandonment of religious rites. And from Jeremiah: © Grand Valley State University   �The God We Forsake Richard A. Rhem Page 2   The word of the Lord came to me saying, "Go and proclaim in the hearing of Jerusalem, 'Thus says the Lord, I remember the devotion of your youth, your love as a bride, how you followed me in the wilderness in the land not sown. Israel was holy to the Lord, the first fruits of his harvest. All who ate of it became guilty. Evil came upon them, says the Lord. Hear the word of the Lord, O House of Jacob and all the families in the House of Israel. Thus says the Lord.' What wrong did your fathers find in me that they went far from me, and went at their worthlessness and became worthless? They did not say, 'Where is the Lord who brought us up from the land of Egypt, who led us in the wilderness, in a land of deserts and pits, in a land of drought and deep darkness, in a land that none passes through, where no one dwells?' And I brought you into a plentiful land to enjoy its fruits and its good things, but when you came in, you defiled my land and made my heritage an abomination. The priest did not say, 'Where is the Lord?' Those who handle the Law did not know me. The rulers transgressed against me. The prophets prophesied by Baal and went after things that do not profit. Therefore, I still contend with you," says the Lord, "and with your children's children I will contend, for cross to the coast of Cyprus and see your sin to Kedar and examine with care: see if there has been such a thing: Has a nation changed its gods, even though they are no gods? But my people have changed their Glory for that which does not profit. Be appalled, O heavens, at this. Be shocked. Be utterly desolate," says the Lord, "for my people have committed two evils: They have forsaken me, the fountain of living waters, and hewed out cisterns for themselves, broken cisterns that can hold no water." The word of the Lord. In a week in which we have continued to witness the salvaging of the horror of TWA Flight 800, and a week which sees the Olympic Games disrupted by a pipe bomb, we are faced as a people with the recognition that we no longer live in fortressed America, separated from all of the disaster that has stalked the world through the ages, from which we have been mercifully spared for so long. We recognize that our world is changing drastically and there is no safe place, and we can rail about it and we can speak negatively about it, we can throw up our hands in despair about it, we can condemn the perpetrators of it, but we will do well to take a moment to ask, "What in the world is going on?" And, "What time is it?" I'm struck with the parallel between our present situation and the time of Jeremiah the Prophet. Walter Brueggemann, in his comments on Jeremiah, says that just as Jeremiah, in 587 BCE, the time when Babylon removed Judah from Jerusalem into exile and Babylon, had been announcing the End of things as they © Grand Valley State University �The God We Forsake Richard A. Rhem Page 3   had always been - the end of the Temple, the end of the dynasty, the return of Creation to chaos - and every one of these a symbol for a whole complex of social structures and meaning, and Jeremiah was the spokesperson to announce the end. He was saying, in effect, "Folks, it's over." And he was saying, further, that all of the frantic energy that you are expending to shore up these structures, to find some security, and to perpetuate, to preserve that which you've always known, that is not only futile, it is disobedient, because God is in this thing, and we happen to be at a time of dismantling. The prophet of Israel, at its best, was a destabilizer, destabilizing the status quo, announcing the end of things, and the emerging of something on the horizon that was new but could not yet be fully conceived. The prophets were not popular. Jeremiah is spoken of as the weeping prophet, and one time he cursed the day that his mother gave him birth. At another time, he said, "The word of God I will no more speak," only to find that the word of God was like a fire in his bones that he could not contain. And so, he had to announce to a people not so unlike us that their whole religious structure, their whole social arrangement, indeed, the monarchy that had held them together - all of that was coming to an end. And that God was in this thing, and therefore, they should recognize not all of the surface symptoms, but the deep, underlying cause of it all. Chapter two of Jeremiah documents how God had graciously brought them into the Promised Land and established them only to find the people having priests who knew not God, prophets who prophesied not the word of God, people who handled the law who knew not God. God said, "What have I done to you? Has it ever been such? Be appalled, O earth. My people have committed two sins: They have forsaken the fountain of living waters and hewed out for themselves cisterns, broken cisterns that can hold no water." What a vivid image. With all of the lakes around here, we can't begin to appreciate the image in its original context where water signified life so dramatically, and God being offered as the fountain of living water, the very source of life. And the people being seen as forsaking that living water scurrying about with great energy to hew out cisterns, cisterns that were broken and could hold no water. A fatal forsaking, a futile pursuit, a double folly. Jeremiah says to the people of his day, "The problem is we have forsaken God, and all of the rest of the chaos on the present horizon are but symptoms of that deeper, deeper loss." As I was contemplating that, I thought about the contemporary prophets that speak in our day. I read the words of Carl Jüng, who said that all of those who came in with deep neuroses were those who had finally lost the sense of meaning that their religious traditions had mediated to them, that sense of the transcendent. Not talking about a creed, not even talking about a particular religion, but recognizing that there is a spiritual dimension to life, that to which all of the religions would point us, that to which we must be plugged in if we would be fully human and know some measure of human wellbeing. And then, © Grand Valley State University �The God We Forsake Richard A. Rhem Page 4   thinking about our present situation, where in the words of Hans Küng, commenting on that statement of May, where he says that what we see, particularly among the educated young, is the seeking after pseudo, quasireligious ideologies, but it ending in all kinds of addiction and finally terrorist anarchy. And we think about our world where the danger is not simply from without, but growing from within, and those who have studied the contemporary situation and the human person recognizing there a deep spiritual malady which probably can be expressed no more eloquently than in the words of Jeremiah: "Forsaking the fountain of living waters". Another commentator in the same area spoke about how, when he was used to setting forth all of the problems that he saw, whether it be the gridlock in Congress or potholes in the highways or the infrastructure of society, or the tax system or the welfare system, or the miserable way that we go about electing our politicians - and you could name your own litany of horrors of our contemporary society - and incidentally, these are all the things that the Hebrew prophets addressed – but this particular person said, "When I was naming off those problems that I would see, I was always stopped short when somebody would look at me and say, 'Well, what's your solution?' And he said, I sort of felt deflated and walked away, until I came to realize that it was not my responsibility to find a solution, a new arrangement for every particular problem that I saw about me. But it was enough right now to expose the emptiness, to at least say there is a problem, something is desperately wrong." And then he said to his friend, "We are like those who are singing under the balcony. We are the precursors of a day not yet arrived, but we see that something is happening. We are announcing the end of things," which is precisely what Jeremiah was doing, which is precisely what folks really don't like to hear, which causes us to get into that frantic activity to try to patch it up and hold it together, holding on with a kind of white-knuckled intensity, hoping that the world will stay together long enough at least for us to get through it. I had always hoped that I could get through life without ever turning on a computer, but it's all going so fast now, I don't think that I'm going to be able to make it! But, it's a very normal response for us to say if we can just keep the present structures intact long enough, if I can just get through with my retirement without Social Security going bankrupt, if I can only get through my life without Medicare going to pot, if only we can hold on - you see, it's always that kind of reactive, that sort of fearful response to the fact that things are being chipped away, things are unraveling. Nothing is the same anymore; there's no solidity, there's no security. We live in a world that is blowing up! And those who have observed, not simply just Jeremiah in 587 BCE, but those who have written in the last half of this century, have identified the human problem as a problem of meaninglessness and as one of them has said, ultimately the question of meaning is a question of God. Not a particular creed, not a © Grand Valley State University �The God We Forsake Richard A. Rhem Page 5   particular religion, but a particular spiritual dimension apart from which the human person is not whole, apart from which the human person becomes neurotic, apart from which human society becomes desperately ill. And so, the image of Jeremiah is not only apropos for that day in Judah's past, but I think very apropos for our day, too, for we can see the symptoms all about us, and the sense of powerlessness, the sense of victimhood. And then the dimensions of the problem and the feeling of helplessness to do anything about it, to make any difference, any dent in it - all of that is characteristic of our day and of many of us. I went to the New York Times Book Review section of last Sunday and found out that the longest running bestsellers have to do with the spiritual dimension. The Road Less Traveled by Scott Peck - 662 weeks. In fiction, that kind of "New Agey", interesting story, The Celestine Prophecy - 125 weeks. Embraced By the Light - 96 weeks. And Thomas Moore's Care of the Soul - 131 weeks. Dear God, folks! Our contemporary society is starving, hungry and thirsty and, if we could move back in time about 36 years and I was preaching to you on this text, I would now begin to beat you over the head with it. I would begin to say, "That's your problem. Your life is empty. You have forsaken God." And I would have two or three simple answers for you, all of which would be rather self-serving for myself in this congregation. But, it's very interesting to me that a Marxist, atheist commentator, sociologist, dead a few decades – (Modern atheism is the great critique of religion. If we don't hear the modern atheistic critique of the Church and of religion in general, we will miss the most profound insight into the problem of religion and the Church) – this particular man said, in his latter years, "The problem with the Church is that it has failed in its representation of God to present God as the all-bountiful Creator. It has failed to sense the yearning in the modern person's heart for the holy Other, and rather than presenting God as the all-bountiful Creator, it has rather used its dominance, it has been marked by an exploitation by the darker instincts of the human person to inflict cruelties, crusades, witch hunts, and all of that darker side of institutional religion." This atheist says the problem with us is that, in the face of the hunger of the human heart, we have failed to mediate this all-bountiful Creator, and so I recognize that I, in the past, have been part of that problem, too. Beating people on Sunday, that poor, struggling remnant that still come, decrying their godlessness, rather than all of us recognizing together that that which the world is hungry for, that which our brothers and sisters on the contemporary scene are longing for, whether consciously or unconsciously, is some sense that maybe there is an all-bountiful Creator. © Grand Valley State University �The God We Forsake Richard A. Rhem Page 6   This is the thing that Paul was so convinced of. That's why I speak of this series about God as, "If God Be With Us," or better translated "Since God is With Us." You see, everything is falling apart and there are lives everywhere that are meaningless, that are empty, and those most profound commentators of the human situation are telling us that that's what it is. That's not from a biblical text; that's from a contemporary analysis - meaninglessness, emptiness. And what do we offer? Well, I hear it all the time in the Church - Let's go back to the good old days. Let's go back home when it was safe. Let's turn back. Folks - you can't turn back. You can't go home. It's only the future we'll be entering into. It is the future uncharted. It is a future that is unfolding with a drama and with a rapidity and with a profound change never yet experienced in the human story! Now, how will you enter the future? Will you enter the future with hope in your heart, deeply trusting the God of the past, knowing that the future will not outrun the God Who beckons us from the future? Ironically, Jeremiah the prophet, who was the destabilizer and the dismantler, was also the great prophet of hope, because Jeremiah the prophet believed in God! Jeremiah believed in the God Who created and Who redeemed and Who sustained and Who would finally bring to consummation. Therefore, Jeremiah could say to the people of his day, "Will you let it go? Will you let the Temple go? Will you let the dynasty go? Will you let the whole social arrangement that's given you security go, and will you find your security the only place it can be, that is in the living God? If you will quench your thirst at the fountain of living waters, you will find, drinking deeply there, that you will be able to deal with all the symptoms out here." That's the task of the Church. The Care of the Soul is not pop psychology and it's not fluff, and Thomas More cannot believe that it has sold so broadly and has hung on so long, because he says to people, there is no quick fix, but would you pause long enough to experience your own depths? Would you listen to what your body is saying? Would you listen to your heart? Would you take time out, take a step back and find out what time it is? And then rest in God? Trust Creation, dare to move with hope into the future?" The God we forsake is not angry with us. The God we forsake pleads with us, "Drink deeply. You are a people with whom I contend, and I will contend with your children's children; I will be there for you; I will never abandon you; I will never give up on you. Return to me in your frantic chase, hewing out cisterns that can hold no water, leading to addictions and to emptiness and weariness in boredom. Come unto me and find rest for your soul. That's the all-bountiful Creator. You may have forsaken the fountain of living waters, but God has not turned the fountain off, and He invites us to embrace our neighbors, as well, and together to drink deeply of living waters and find peace, even in the midst of a world that's © Grand Valley State University �The God We Forsake Richard A. Rhem Page 7   blowing apart, trusting that there is something out there that is emerging, and it will be good, because God would have it so. © Grand Valley State University � https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/0b274fcc250d6e225cb436f8e13fbdf2.mp3 187c12f7d7a512a7b3b799f9ab268900 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Richard A. Rhem Collection Description An account of the resource Text and sound recordings of the sermons, prayers, services, and articles of Richard Rhem, pastor emeritus of Christ Community Church in Spring Lake, Michigan, where he served for 37 years. Starting in the mid 1980's, Rhem began to question some of the traditional Christian dogma that he had been espousing from the pulpit. That questioning was a first step in a long and interesting spiritual journey, one that he openly shared with his congregation. His journey is important, in part because it is reflective of the questioning, the yearnings, and the gradual revision of beliefs that many persons in this part of the century have experienced and continue to experience. It is important also because of the affirming and inclusive way his questioning was done and his thinking evolved. His sermons and other written and spoken materials together document the steps in his journey as it took a turn in 1985, yet continued to revolve around the framework and liturgies of the Christian calendar. Subject The topic of the resource Clergy--Michigan Reformed Church in America Christ Community Church (Spring Lake, Mich.) Religion Interfaith worship Sermons Sound Recordings Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Rhem, Richard A. Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/514">Richard A. Rhem papers (KII-01)</a> Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives. Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Kaufman Interfaith Institute Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Language A language of the resource English Type The nature or genre of the resource Sound Text Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context KII-01 Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant 1981-2014 Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource audio/mp3 text/pdf Sound A resource primarily intended to be heard. Examples include a music playback file format, an audio compact disc, and recorded speech or sounds. Event Pentecost IX Series If God Be For Us Scripture Text Jeremiah 2:13 Location The location of the interview Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context KII-01_RA-0-19960728 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1996-07-28 Title A name given to the resource The God We Forsake Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Richard A. Rhem Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Subject The topic of the resource Clergy--Michigan Reformed Church in America Christ Community Church (Spring Lake, Mich.) Sermons Relation A related resource Richard A. Rhem - An Archive of Sermons, Prayers, Talks and Stories: http://richardrhem.org/ Language A language of the resource eng Type The nature or genre of the resource Text Sound Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource audio/mp3 application/pdf Description An account of the resource A sermon given by Richard A. Rhem (Dick) on July 28, 1996 entitled "The God We Forsake", as part of the series "If God Be For Us", on the occasion of Pentecost IX, at Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI. Scripture references: Jeremiah 2:13. Hope Meaning Nature of God Prophetic Voice Spiritual Quest Trust https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/4eb16878619466fe1633e9624cfe0435.pdf 866401eb0300628e5e71a86925de0e15 PDF Text Text The Fairy Tale Is True Text: Luke 2:7; Revelation 12:5 Richard A. Rhem Christ Community Church Spring Lake, Michigan Christmastide, December 28, 1997 Transcription of the spoken sermon Children love fairy tales. I remember a fairy tale feast when I was a child of preschool age. I was ill with scarlet fever. The family was moved out into the garage, the house put under quarantine. But, of course, my mother couldn’t leave me. The shades were pulled and I was kept in bed. There was nothing to do but read to me - the same stories over and over, Jack and the Beanstalk, The Gingerbread Man, Goldilocks and the Three Bears. Mother read until she was tired of it. On occasion she turned two pages at once, hoping to abbreviate her task, but I always caught her at it; I knew the stories by heart. But it made no difference; each time it was like a first time adventure. This Christmas the family gathered to watch a video produced by David with all the children as his research assistants - 25 years of this family growing up and then each with their own families. There were several photos of me holding one of the grandchildren on my lap - reading to them. That was usually a Sunday after dinner pleasure, although I remember well getting very sleepy after a big dinner and wanting very much to get to a serious nap when the little one would say "Read it one more time, Bumpa." Why do you suppose children love fairy tales so much? Of course, they are great stories, but I think there is something more They turn out right; just as they begin with the classic phrase, "Once upon a time ..." so they end with, "... and they lived happily ever after." When you think about some of the most familiar fairy tales, they are not all sweetness and light - there is high adventure, danger, darkness and evil woven into the plot. A good fairy tale has moments of high tension; they can be scary which is part of their attraction. But, in the end, good prevails, right emerges on top and nobility and truth are vindicated. In that sense, the fairy tale is reflective of a whole philosophy of life and reality and, in turn, it is a teaching tool for the shaping of one’s perspective on life. © Grand Valley State University   �The Fairy Tale Is True Richard A. Rhem Page 2   Stories not only entertain, they form a philosophy of life. And the classic fairy tale reflects the conviction that the good and true will triumph in the end. Later on when the child develops the capacity for abstract thinking, one can discuss values, right and wrong, truth and falsehood and their implications, but a sense of ultimate value has already been richly laid in the child’s being by the tapestry of stories heard and lived. I was thinking about this because of a few conversations I’ve had with some of you who have wondered how to receive the Christmas story - a story that begins, "And it came to pass ...", and is laced with angelic announcements accompanied by a heavenly choir, Magi from the East following a brilliant star that comes to rest over a stable wherein lies a newborn child born to a virgin. Although scholarly research has investigated the whole of the biblical tradition for two hundred years, that research has only somewhat recently seeped into the church. But in our day, such research makes the feature articles of popular news magazines at Christmas and Easter, at least. So, how does one deal with the growing recognition that the Gospels are storied accounts of something that happened in the past? The question is not so simple. For one thing, we are dealing with something that happened; we are dealing with the story of an actual birth event, not of a makebelieve character, but of one whose historical existence is almost universally acknowledged. On the other hand, the story is a story laced with the supernatural - angels and stars and kings and a miraculous conception - aspects one finds surrounding the birth of other ancient heroic figures. Consequently, the stories have been scrutinized intensively in an attempt to ascertain facts from fantasy. I suspect this is inevitable. We make a faith claim that is entangled with concrete historical reality - the word became flesh and dwelt among us. There is no way that claim will not be tested. Nonetheless, such scholarly scrutiny of the historical event is the ruination of the story because the truth of the story is not in the narrative details, but in the meaning of the story - that which is "coming to pass" in the event - which is that God visits God’s people to rescue them from darkness and death and secure them in light and life. The story is the vehicle of the truth about reality, about the nature of things, about the meaning and end of life. Do you remember our Advent question - How can we who are top dogs sing the songs of liberation of underdogs? Well, I am not going to repeat that, only to say once again that the songs Luke includes in the birth story are songs of liberation sung by people who have borne the heavy load of oppression and domination and © Grand Valley State University �The Fairy Tale Is True Richard A. Rhem Page 3   they celebrate God’s visitation in this child through whom God will reverse the fortunes of the oppressed and their oppressors. The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light. Those dwelling in the shadow of death have had the sun of righteousness dawn upon them with healing in his wings. I stressed during Advent the very concrete nature of the salvation referred to - its social, political and economic dimension -This was good news of a different kind of world for the poor and the marginalized. But now let me suggest that there is another dimension spoken to, as well - the anxiety of being human. It is not easy to be human and that is universally true for rich and poor, powerful and powerless. We are all afraid, insecure - We are subject to disaster, catastrophe, disease - and we die and those we love die. Human existence is precarious, perilous, awesome, wonderful, and fragile. Not only in our individual experience, but also globally. The holocaust happened in the lifetime of many of us. Tyrants like Saddam Hussein hold our world hostage. In the ancient world of the birth story of Jesus, it was taken for granted that there were powers behind the actors on history’s stage, Herod and Caesar and Pilate – that the struggles on earth were reflective of cosmic conflict between the God of light and life and the Prince of Darkness. As you know, that time was an age of the expectation of the end of the age and the literature that pointed to the end was called apocalyptic - a word meaning "unveiling." The curtain was drawn back and one was given a glimpse of the transcendent world - the behind-the-scenes view of the powers of evil at work in the present and the sovereign God with whom the powers of darkness were in conflict. The Revelation of Jesus Christ to John is such a work. John was given a vision of what was going on in the cosmic drama. He was in exile for his testimony to Jesus. The Christian community for which he wrote the vision was experiencing severe persecution. Some were giving up their faith, returning to the imperial cult. John writes to encourage them to be faithful, to hold on. Chapters 12-14 are the center of the Revelation. A woman is pregnant. A dragon is poised to consume the child. The woman gives birth and the child is snatched up to heaven. There is war in heaven and Michael, God’s Angel Warrior, with the heavenly hosts defeats the dragon who is thrown down to earth. Although the victory is won in heaven there remains the mopping up on earth where the defeated dragon is causing all the hell he can. The saints suffer greatly; yet they sing of triumph because they know the ultimate victory is theirs because God has © Grand Valley State University �The Fairy Tale Is True Richard A. Rhem Page 4   conquered - for 1250 days, 42 months, they suffer the ravages of the dragon, but this is a brief period. If you go to the Hebrew Scriptures, Numbers 33, you will find that Israel made 42 moves on the way to the Promised Land. Thus, the writer says -Hold fast; this journey so full of suffering will end in the security of God’s Kingdom. A story, a vision. It borrows images from the Hebrew Scriptures – the Exodus, the wilderness wandering; the woman, Eve, Genesis 3:15, the seed of the woman will bruise the head of the serpent; the woman - Mary, pregnant with child; the child snatched up to heaven - but through death and resurrection by which victory is achieved, the dragon falls. Well, I cannot give you a full account of the rich imagery of this vision, but I think you can see how the vision weaves together images from Israel’s history and the event of Jesus’ birth, life, death and resurrection. Out of historical happenings whose details we can never recover, a story is told to convey a deeply held conviction that in the end God will reign, the God of life and light having conquered the forces of darkness that threaten human existence and bring death. Now here is an interesting fact - In Greek mythology, Zeus was the chief god. His consort, Leto, was with child. The dragon Python was determined to kill the child. Leto fled to the island of Delos where Apollo was born in safety. Eventually Apollo returned to the mainland and at the great shrine, Delphi, Apollo slew the dragon. When John, on the island of Patmos, not far from the island of Delos, told his story in vision form, he borrowed not only from the Hebrew tradition, but also from Greek mythology to convey the message - that the God of life and light will finally overcome the forces of evil and darkness. The biblical story as a whole is rooted in the conviction that finally God will subdue the darkness. It is the same conviction that underlays the beloved fairy tales of our childhood. That is faith’s conviction. That is hope’s ground - God is love. Love triumphs. Truth triumphs. Therefore, trust. Now, that’s the story; that’s what we celebrate. Just to tell you that straight out may get us into an intellectual discussion and you might say, "Well, the data is © Grand Valley State University �The Fairy Tale Is True Richard A. Rhem Page 5   ambiguous." You might end up not trusting; maybe you would become a cynic. But, let me tell you a story - deeper than reason can probe. You might then feel it and know it beyond knowing. Don’t you see it - the baby a sign of hope, of a future, of life? Don’t you hear the angels sing? Haven’t you seen a special star? Don’t you hold absolutely to much that you cannot rationally describe or defend? If you have eyes to see, ears to hear ...You know it’s true. The fairy tale is true Trust Hope Be of good cheer, All will be well. © Grand Valley State University � https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/e7f38e808835dfc95e1c04cfcf536539.mp3 42babc195984ed26cb1f9067f3f65645 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 I Series Songs of Liberation Scripture Text Luke 2:7, Revelation 12:5 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-0-19971228 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1997-12-28 Title A name given to the resource The Fairy Tale Is True 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 December 28, 1997 entitled "The Fairy Tale Is True", as part of the series "Songs of Liberation", on the occasion of Christmastide I, at Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI. Scripture references: Luke 2:7, Revelation 12:5. All Will Be Well Apocalyptic Story Trust https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/0d887fd798c231b8bd03b9ce0696094d.mp3 3ef966eaef354aa6e5384c74a82e8c2b https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/74ddf4040d65102b3ed2df7a79bf9f7b.pdf c2a5d28540de685c06d42d80eba10a1c PDF Text Text Surprised by Grace Text: Lamentations 3:22-26 Richard A. Rhem Christ Community Church Spring Lake, Michigan August 2, 1987 Transcription of the spoken sermon The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases, his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is thy faithfulness… It is good that one should wait quietly for the salvation of the Lord. Lamentations 3:22-26 Sometimes a light surprises the Christian while he sings; It is the Lord, who rises with healing in His wings: When comforts are declining, He grants the soul again A season of clear shining, to cheer it after rain. William Cowper has captured the theme of this message beautifully in these lines. He lived from 1731 to 1800 and was England's most honored poet between Pope and Shelley. He was a frail child and very sensitive. His mother died when he was a child of six and near the end of his life he remarked there had never been a day when he had not mourned her death. His father sent him to law school, but the prospect of appearing for his final exam so frightened him that he suffered a mental breakdown and even attempted suicide. For 18 months he was placed in an insane asylum. He found a personal relationship with Jesus Christ through reading Romans. Having recovered, he was befriended by the family of a clergyman, Morly Urwin, and when Urwin died, John Newton, the converted slave trader become Anglican pastor and author of "Amazing Grace," invited Cowper to come to Olney, England, Newton's parish. For the last two decades of Cowper's life, he was a close personal friend of Newton. With Newton, Cowper cooperated in producing Olney Hymns, a collection of 349 hymns. Cowper's own personal experience finds expression not only in the hymn cited above but, for example, in "O For a Closer Walk With God." Return, O Holy Dove, return, Sweet messenger of rest! I hate the sins that made thee mourn And drove thee from my breast. © Grand Valley State University   �Surprised by Grace Richard A. Rhem Page 2   And in "God Moves In A Mysterious Way." Ye fearful saints, fresh courage take; The clouds ye so much dread Are big with mercy, and shall break In blessings on your head. In a word, the one who trusts in the good and gracious God is not spared the troubles and anguish common to humankind; the child of God, however, knows more than the awful darkness; the child of God also knows what it is to be surprised by grace. Sometimes a light surprises a Christian while he sings – or prays, or reflects on the past mercies of God. And the light which scatters the darkness ushers in "a season of clear shining." The experience is one of sheer grace; it comes in the wake of an anguish and despair which seemed beyond resolution; it comes when one has lost all hope and cannot imagine that things will ever come right, that one's heart will ever be mended, that one will ever again know joy and rejoicing. Unpredictably, unexpectedly, light returns, the woundedness heals and grace is experienced. God intervenes; one is assured anew of a mercy that never fails and a steadfast love that never wavers and a faithfulness that remains rocklike. So to experience grace is to find life transformed, reality transformed. One moves from disarray, disorientation to new orientation and all one can do is praise God out of a heart saturated with gratitude. In our study of the Psalms we have traced the rhythm of human experience that is never static but rather dynamic, in motion. Sometimes life is experienced as harmonious and well-ordered. Meaning is secure and purpose in life clear. One trusts in the wise and gracious rule of the Sovereign Creator. But sometimes the roof collapses, the bottom drops out and order turns to chaos. The dark night of the soul knows only anguish - and as noted in our study of Psalm 88, the darkness sometimes settles in with no relief, no resolution. But, thank God, in our common human experience there more often follows a scattering of the darkness, a burst of light, the promise of joy and a new orientation – the surprise of grace. The Psalms are a mirror of Israel's spiritual experience; they are a portrait of the way life is for us all. Life is lived not so much in one state or the other, but in the dynamic movement from orientation through disorientation to new orientation. © Grand Valley State University �Surprised by Grace Richard A. Rhem Page 3   That is the way life is and the Bible is a very honest book and the Old Testament a very wholesome portrayal of human experience before the face of God. This message celebrates the surprising grace of God that effects healing and wholeness, the grace that is not at our disposal, not ours to control or manipulate, not predictable or expected – the grace which is the intervention of the faithful God Who comes to us out of the darkness, Who meets us in the darkness, Who transforms the darkness into light. Although we have been tracing this pattern in the Psalms, and there are many examples of the surprise of grace in the Psalms, I have chosen my text from the Book of Lamentations. The whole book is poetry, five poems, elegies that give expression to the deep anguish of the people of God over the devastation of Jerusalem through the destruction ordered by the Babylonian King Nebuchadnezzar after the seige of 587 was successful and the Holy City was finally taken. The walls were torn down, the Temple burned, the best of the citizenry taken away and the city left a smoldering shambles. The situation, the historical context out of which this grief pours, is given in the book of II Kings 25:8-12: In the fifth month, on the seventh day of the month, in the nineteenth year of King Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon - Nebuzaradan, captain of the guard, an official of the king of Babylon, entered Jerusalem. He burned down the house of Yahweh, and the King's house; and all the houses in Jerusalem, including every great man's house, he set on fire and burned. The whole army of the Chaldeans tore down the walls of Jerusalem, all around... The rest of the people who were left in the city, and those who had deserted to the King of Babylon, and the rest of the populace, Nebuzaradan, captain of the guard, took to Babylon as prisoners. The captain of the guard left only some of the poorest in the country to tend the vines and farm the land. Lamentations.supplies the meaning of this historical data. As one commentator says, It is first of all a recital of the horrors and atrocities that came during the long siege and its aftermath, but beyond the tale of physical suffering it tells of the spiritual significance of the fall of the city. For the ancient people chosen by Yahweh it meant the destruction of every cherished symbol of their election by God. In line after line the poet recalls all the precious, sacred things which had been lost or shattered: the city itself, once "The perfection of beauty, the joy of the whole earth;" the city walls and towers, once the outward sign that "God is in the midst of her," the King, "The anointed of Yahweh, the breath of our nostrils"; the priests, and with them all festive and solemn worship; the prophets, and with them all visions and the living word of God; the land itself, Israel's "inheritance" from Yahweh, now turned over to strangers; the people - dead, exiled, or © Grand Valley State University �Surprised by Grace Richard A. Rhem Page 4   slaves in their own land. Every sign that had once provided assurance and confidence in God was gone. (Anchor Bible, Lamentations, p. XV) To the survivors these poems in Lamentations served as a means by which to bring to expression an almost inexpressible sorrow. Their grief was deep - beyond words; yet these words gave vent to the anguish and as we noted last week, when in the darkness, it is so important to bring to expression the anguish - to bring it into the presence of God Who is experienced as absent, yet present in the absence. So much for the historical context and the deep spiritual malaise the events of 587 created in the experience of Judah. What we are focusing on in this message is not the darkness which provides the backdrop, but rather the surprise of grace, the return of hope. From near total despair, the person described by the poet wins through to confidence that God's mercy is not at an end and that his steadfast love will not fail nor his faithfulness falter. In chapter 3, the first 16 verses portray vividly the terrible suffering the person has experienced; verses 17-20 describe the resulting despair and then, in an amazing turnabout, verses 21-25 speak of renewed hope that rises from the remembrance of the mercy of God. In verses 1-16 the author is saying, "This is what any human being may be called to endure." Verses 17-21 are a transitional bridge which portray the despair and despondency which results from the onslaught of suffering. But even in the darkness of despair, the one who trusts in God will wait. With verse 22 we have the breakthrough, the surprise of grace. And the surprise of grace is a renewed sense of the mercy or the steadfast love of the Lord. The Hebrew word is hesid, "steadfast love" or "loyal love" or "mercy." The remembrance of the steadfast love of the Lord is the basis for renewed hope. Hesid describes God's faithful and merciful love which is promised and may thus be expected even when there is no tangible sign of its presence. Hesid speaks of more than an emotion; it is the loving and merciful action of God which transforms reality. In the darkest hour Israel remembered the steadfast love, the mercy of God. The reality of the God of covenant grace returned to flood the soul of the sufferer; he was surprised by grace and found his hope renewed; he found the grace to wait patiently for the salvation of God. To his surprise, a new and unexpected possibility shows itself. God's mercy is not at an end; God's compassion will not fail. He breaks forth in exclamatory praise, "Great is Thy faithfulness." In the wake of the new realization there is amazement, joy, gratitude and praise. This is an expression of biblical faith at its heart, at its most profound depths. It rests on the sure mercy, the steadfast love of the faithful God. It was when the © Grand Valley State University �Surprised by Grace Richard A. Rhem Page 5   grief had been brought to speech in the presence of God, that the writer was no longer mesmerized by the darkness but once again remembered the true nature of the Covenant God. Suddenly a light surprised him and that light was a prelude to a season of clear shining. This mercy of God was not spent, exhausted; rather, embracing the darkness and permeating the darkness was that mercy which was new every morning. Now the sense of the faithfulness of God returns and hope once again floods the soul. In human experience we find that there are periods of anguish but we find, too, that there is a grace that comes to us from beyond ourselves, that effects healing in the midst of brokenness and creates hope in the most desolate human situations. The movie, "Choices of the Heart," was rerun on TV last week. It is the story of Jean Donovan, one of the four women brutally slain in El Salvador a few years ago. She was narrating her experience showing the terrible poverty, the violence and fear that stalked the lives of the people. But she pointed to the children in tattered rags, playing in the dusty rubble of their poor neighborhood and remarked how amazingly they lived with hope. "They know," she said, "the roses will bloom again." It seems that hope thrives best in the darkness awaiting the light. And it is true there is a positive, healing power that gives buoyancy to the human heart even in the darkness. I re-read M. Scott Peck's The Road Less Traveled, remembering his discussion of grace which he defines as a powerful force originating outside of human consciousness which nurtures the spiritual growth of human beings. As a medical person trained in the natural sciences, he witnesses to a miraculous power which cannot be located as to origin or source nor explained in any scientific fashion, but which he has, nonetheless, experienced for himself and as operative in the patients he has dealt with in his psychiatric practice. He is ready, for himself, to identify the source of grace as God. This, of course, is precisely the witness of the Scriptures. It is not simply that there is a force that is on our side; it is that there is a gracious God Who is for us. It is not that the darkness is not threatening, that the anguish is not real; it is that there is One Who invades the darkness and by the transformation of grace changes the reality of our situation. It is not simply that time heals all wounds; it is that God graciously heals us and brings us toward wholeness, just when it seemed all hope was gone. In the previous message I found the epitome of the experience of Psalm 88 in the crucifixion of Jesus who cried out, "My God, why...?" and died in darkness, alone. Within the framework of history there was, neither for the psalmist nor for Jesus, a resolution. But, we can move beyond history now to the ultimate word, the event of Easter morning. God raised Jesus from the dead. That is the last word, a © Grand Valley State University �Surprised by Grace Richard A. Rhem Page 6   word far too good to limit to Easter. Each Lord's Day is an Easter celebration, a celebration of the bedrock of our confidence; our trust is in the God Who transforms reality, the God Who raises the dead. Sometimes we marvel at the resiliency, the buoyancy, the toughness of the human spirit. It is really amazing and awesome. But that is not so much a characteristic of the human spirit; it is a testimony to the steadfast love of the Lord Whose compassion never fails, Whose mercy is new every morning, Who is great in His faithfulness. Sometimes hope is almost gone. Sometimes despair completely overwhelms. What then? Wait. Why? Because, The Lord is good to those who look for Him, to all who seek Him; It is good to wait in patience and sigh for the deliverance by the Lord. Again, that Hebrew word, "wait," can also be translated "hope," or "wait with expectation," because His mercy is not over. Sometimes a light surprises; Sometimes we are given "a season of clear shining;" Sometimes we are surprised by grace because God is good and gracious. He is our God. © Grand Valley State University � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Richard A. Rhem Collection Description An account of the resource Text and sound recordings of the sermons, prayers, services, and articles of Richard Rhem, pastor emeritus of Christ Community Church in Spring Lake, Michigan, where he served for 37 years. Starting in the mid 1980's, Rhem began to question some of the traditional Christian dogma that he had been espousing from the pulpit. That questioning was a first step in a long and interesting spiritual journey, one that he openly shared with his congregation. His journey is important, in part because it is reflective of the questioning, the yearnings, and the gradual revision of beliefs that many persons in this part of the century have experienced and continue to experience. It is important also because of the affirming and inclusive way his questioning was done and his thinking evolved. His sermons and other written and spoken materials together document the steps in his journey as it took a turn in 1985, yet continued to revolve around the framework and liturgies of the Christian calendar. Subject The topic of the resource Clergy--Michigan Reformed Church in America Christ Community Church (Spring Lake, Mich.) Religion Interfaith worship Sermons Sound Recordings Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Rhem, Richard A. Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/514">Richard A. Rhem papers (KII-01)</a> Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives. Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Kaufman Interfaith Institute Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Language A language of the resource English Type The nature or genre of the resource Sound Text Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context KII-01 Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant 1981-2014 Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource audio/mp3 text/pdf Sound A resource primarily intended to be heard. Examples include a music playback file format, an audio compact disc, and recorded speech or sounds. Event Pentecost IX Scripture Text Lamentations 3:22-26 Location The location of the interview Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context KII-01_RA-0-19870802 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1987-08-02 Title A name given to the resource Surprised by Grace Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Richard A. Rhem Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Subject The topic of the resource Clergy--Michigan Reformed Church in America Christ Community Church (Spring Lake, Mich.) Sermons Relation A related resource Richard A. Rhem - An Archive of Sermons, Prayers, Talks and Stories: http://richardrhem.org/ Language A language of the resource eng Type The nature or genre of the resource Sound Text Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource audio/mp3 application/pdf Description An account of the resource A sermon given by Richard A. Rhem (Dick) on August 2, 1987 entitled "Surprised by Grace", on the occasion of Pentecost IX, at Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI. Scripture references: Lamentations 3:22-26. Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Lemmen Library and Archives Hope Psalms Suffering Transforming Grace Trust https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/bdbf8feb65f2ac2c464cfcf0c388e7c1.pdf 0fae8d580784c10584e0ad8b8e8d7e84 PDF Text Text Spirit, Spirit: A Cosmic Drama Pentecost Text: Genesis 1:2; John 3:6 Richard A. Rhem Christ Community Church Spring Lake, Michigan May 18, 1997 Transcription of the spoken sermon The consternation in the heart and mind of a Nicodemus brought him to Jesus, confused as to exactly what was going on in the life and ministry of this one, this respected teacher of Israel. And so, he came to him, saying, "Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher who has come from God; for no one can do these signs that you do apart from the presence of God." Jesus responds with the claim that one must be born again, from above. Nicodemus' confusion only deepens. He says, "How can this be?" And I suppose that all religion arises out of those deep existential questions, from whence have we come? Whither are we going? And what is the meaning of it all, the purpose, the intention? What is our life? With Nicodemus, I think, from time to time we all say, "What does this mean? How can this be?" We keep ourselves busy for much of our lives, frantically pursuing our penultimate goals, but there are those moments that dawn upon us, maybe when we take a candle as a young person, maybe as a parent holding an infant at a baptismal font, maybe some moment with the bread in our hand; or at a moment of great fear, tragedy or loss, or deep joy and delight. Sometime or another, we ask, "How can this be? Whence have we come? Whither are we going? What does it mean?" Because we are human, and after a cosmic drama of 15 billion years, the likes of us have emerged on planet earth, able to wonder about it all, becoming when, how, who knows but, at some moment, conscious, selfconscious, aware, aware of the other, finding voice, having language, able to express deep thoughts. And before the mystery of life, its wonders causing us awe, its terrors causing us dread, we ask, "What does it mean? Where are we going? And what is this human existence into which we've entered?" That is the source and the origin of the wide diversity of religions, belief and religious practice throughout the ages and around the world. That was no less the case with the Hebrew poets and prophets. Interestingly, the clear statement of God's creation in Genesis did not arise until that people had a national identity for centuries. The creation account in Genesis arose out of the situation of exile, when that people in their alienation and estrangement had lost their confidence in their Yahweh God, believing as did most ancient peoples, that God was the God of the winners, or that the winner's God was God. Then, in the midst of that © Grand Valley State University   �Spirit, Spirit: A Cosmic Drama Richard A. Rhem Page 2   rather despairing exilic community, there arose a voice, a poet, who stirred them to the depths, reminding them that the God of Abraham and Isaac and Jacob was none other than the Creator of the heavens and the earth, and he wrote that marvelous poem, "In the beginning, God ..." There was an earlier account, somewhat less sophisticated, that focused on the human person, the creation of humankind. In those stories we see a people orienting themselves and their lives around the sharp focus of a God Who spoke and called all things into being. Obviously, the conception of the natural world, the universe, the cosmology reflected in those Genesis accounts was representative of the understanding of the age in which the poet wrote. It was a three-storied universe, the heavens above, the waters beneath the earth, and God was the Great Mechanic, the Great Architect, the Great Designer, the Great Clockmaker, as it were. God was a being, a Superbeing. God was like us, personal, only bigger, more so. God was the Supreme Being Who, from beyond, out of the depths of eternity, decided to call into being that which was not, and did it like a designer, like a contractor, like one who constructs a model. There was a kind of naiveté about that account, as we look at it 25 or more centuries on. The world is not the world that was conceived of by the biblical writer. But, ancient people were not naive. Ancient people had all of the questions that we have. Those creation accounts are an attempt to give account of the reality of the universe and of the human experience. And there is a profundity there. The Spirit of God - in the Hebrew language, spirit, breath, wind are all translated by the same word, Ruach - brooded over the chaos. Over that soupy chaos, the poet tells us, the breath or the wind of God brooded or hovered, and out of the chaotic stew, through the brooding of the breath of God, came the cosmic miracle of which the ancient writer knew only a little. In the other account in the second chapter, you see the beautiful simplicity of this Creator God coming down to the earth that was created and scooping up a handful of mud, fashioning a body and breathing in life so that the man became a living soul. Such an insight saw the human person connected absolutely with the elements of the earth, but having something more, that spirit dimension that created the possibility of consciousness and awareness and attentiveness. Rooted to the earth but beckoned upward by the Spirit, the human person comes from the hand of the Creator God. The Psalmist sang about it, sang about it with delight and with joy. "Every living thing, the whole vast created order, all of it emerged at the behest of the Creator's Word Whose breath, whose Wind, whose Spirit enlivens it all. You remove your Spirit and we die. You bestow Your Spirit, and we live." The Psalmist sang about the God Who is life, the life of the world, the life of all that is. The Hebrew tradition out of which we have come is a tradition that is centered in that breath of God, Spirit of God, wind of God. Poets and prophets with vivid imagination envisioned a whole new world endowed with Spirit, looking for the © Grand Valley State University �Spirit, Spirit: A Cosmic Drama Richard A. Rhem Page 3   day when one would come, filled with the Spirit. The story goes on to the point at which one was conceived by the Holy Spirit, according to the Gospel, Jesus by name, in whose life and ministry there developed that movement from which we stem, a Christian Church, celebrating the birth of that movement on the day of Pentecost, according to Luke. For Luke would have us see that that which happened in the wake of Jesus was nothing more than the continuation of that activity of the breath of God, the breath and the wind of God that swept upon that early gathering of disciples, empowering them, enlivening them, firing them to go out and to tell the story, the Good News of what God had done in Jesus Christ. So, on Pentecost we recognize that we are preeminently a people of wind, the people of breath, the people of Spirit, that it is Spirit that marks us as humans, that causes us to wonder, to raise those deep questions and to seek after God. Nicodemus came to Jesus in his confusion and Jesus confused him even more. "You must be born again," or "You must be born from above," or "from beyond." That new birth, if we were to understand it today, would have to be translated from the understanding of Jesus, because Jesus didn't know our cosmology. Jesus saw a distinction between the flesh and the Spirit, and we certainly understand what he meant. All of us know and of some of us it is true that we are dead while we live. And certainly that was the reality to which Jesus was pointing, the possibility of living a human existence without being human, being a human automaton without spirit, without consciousness, without awareness, without attentiveness, without that spirit dimension, that depth dimension. But we would have to say today, in the light of what we know about this amazing cosmic drama into which we have been caught up, that there is no such thing as flesh and spirit, for there is only one cosmic river of energy. Fifteen billion years ago there was an explosion, the Big Bang, as the physicists speak of it today; 15 billion years ago, Jesus, would you believe it? They tell us it's not like an explosion of TNT, but rather, the explosion of a musical chord, perhaps the most famous chord in all the world, Beethoven's Fifth. You know how it begins. It's "Boom, boom, boom, boom." That's it, you see, the Big Bang. It is a chord that begins to reverberate outward, outward, outward, and as it goes, it does not fill space, it creates space; it does not take time, it creates time, so time and space are expanding in resonant circles outward, outward, outward, for 15 billion years. Here we are at this late point of development in a cosmic drama, and we understand that we have been created with spirit that has become aware of it all. Fifteen billion years until there emerged the likes of us, who could ask "from whence did we come," and "whither are we going," and "what is the meaning of it all?" We have discovered that we are not flesh and spirit, but we are enspirited flesh, for we know that energy and mass are interchangeable, and that our mass is but dammed up energy, coalesced for a time and then released in another form. We find ourselves little whirlpools of meaning in that cosmic river that has been © Grand Valley State University �Spirit, Spirit: A Cosmic Drama Richard A. Rhem Page 4   flowing for 15 billion years, and if we cannot discover the meaning of it, we have become those who can give meaning to it and create meaning for it. We create meaning in our lives in community with one another, trusting in that process that has been emerging, baffled by the mystery of its beginning, and being without a clue as to the manifestation of its culmination, but in the meantime, trusting God Who is spirit, Who enspirits, enlivens, fires the imagination and creates between us and among us human community. As you know, this past week Nancy and I spent a few days in New Jersey and we were privileged to hear the English scholar, Karen Armstrong, who spoke twice last Tuesday, in the morning on "The History of God." In 1993 she published her rather significant work, The History of God: 4000 years of the human understanding and conception of God. Then in the afternoon she spoke of "The Future of God," and she addressed, I thought, very profoundly the present state of the human family. We don't get a very good feel for that in Western Michigan, but the institutional Church is certainly in trouble, and the manifestation of the great religious traditions around the world that were once thought to be passé are experiencing a resurgence. There is confusion on every hand. Karen Armstrong is currently researching a book on Fundamentalism, which she sees as the desperate human attempt to resuscitate the God of the Bible, the God of that cosmology of the Genesis writer, that God "out there," that Clockmaker, Designer, King and Ruler. That conception was reflective of the understanding of the day but cannot carry the freight in our day. She said in all of the monotheisms, Islam, Judaism, Christianity, even in some of the Eastern religions, there is currently a fundamentalism which is a kind of a fanatical attempt to resuscitate an old conception of God, bringing that which is dead and to bring "Him" crashing back into history, the God that has long since been dead. Well, are we then in a period of atheism? Much of the world is, notwithstanding the resurgence of that fundamentalism manifest around the globe. In the long haul, where we are going is into the darkness of atheism. But then she said a most interesting thing, and I believe she's right. You don't have to worry about atheism, not even if you're making your Confirmation today, because atheism is not a rejection of God. It is simply a rejection of an inadequate conception of God. Years ago, J.B. Phillips, who paraphrased the New Testament, wrote a book whose title says it all: Your God Is Too Small. We are living in a period of time when the conception of God that has come with us out of the past is not adequate anymore to connect with our human experience. That conception makes no sense of this 15-billion-year river of energy that is flowing, God knows where. But, in the meantime, in the darkness it's as the poet Keats claimed: You don't just sit down and write a poem. You wait in the darkness. You wait in the darkness until the poem writes itself. And so, now, we don't know so much, and there are big questions afoot. But if we trust, if we have faith to believe, then we will not idolize those formulations and conceptions that have come to us. We will recognize where they are inadequate, where they can no longer connect with our © Grand Valley State University �Spirit, Spirit: A Cosmic Drama Richard A. Rhem Page 5   experience, no longer give orientation for our human life. We will wait, wait in the darkness, trusting, not knowing what will be, but knowing what can no longer be. And I want to say to you young people, those who tell you so clearly all about God, don't know, because we don't know; we trust that Mystery, and we have seen the reality of the Mystery revealed in the face of Jesus and we have experienced the breath of God in community. Thus we know all will be well. Let God be God and let us with confident trust move into the future unafraid, for you see, Pentecost keeps happening. Pentecost is simply the presence of the Spirit. In the words of the poet, There lives the dearest freshness deep down things; And though the last lights of the black West went Oh, morning, at the brown brink eastward, springs Because the Holy Ghost over the bent World broods with warm breast and with ah! bright wings Pentecost. Breath. Spirit. God. Wonder. Wonder! © Grand Valley State University � https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/85ed5a1f0f1ac0262770bd0b2686d8af.mp3 a9ab35106c27c01007166902efee6b55 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 Series A Cosmic Symphony Scripture Text Genesis 1:2, John 3:6 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-0-19970518 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1997-05-18 Title A name given to the resource Spirit, Spirit: A Cosmic Drama 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 May 18, 1997 entitled "Spirit, Spirit: A Cosmic Drama", as part of the series "A Cosmic Symphony", on the occasion of Pentecost, at Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI. Scripture references: Genesis 1:2, John 3:6. Community Consciousness Cosmic Evolution Spirit of God Trust https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/032c65f035803d86e0e726dae59ef79d.pdf 3f2f08d473aeca0c75135ae977831739 PDF Text Text Sola Fidei: Trust From the series: New Wine for Century 21 Text: Psalm 16:8; Romans 8:38-39 Richard A. Rhem Christ Community Church Spring Lake, Michigan November 3, 1996 Transcription of the spoken sermon All of those wonderful children that emptied out of here a few minutes ago are God's great gift, and one of the greatest gifts that we can give to them is to create in our homes and in our faith community the kind of environment that will build within them fundamental trust. Fundamental trust has been defined by the developmental psychologist Erik Erickson as that total orientation of life that views all of reality in a positive fashion so that one can live almost instinctively, trustfully. And I say that, not because fundamental trust is a religious category, it's a general human capability or possibility, but I say this on the final week of our Sola series, "Sola Fidei: Trust," because trust, while it is a gift of the Holy Spirit, is a gift of faith. The kind of trust beyond fundamental trust that gives us that consciousness of relationship to God is a gift from God, but received with such difficulty if our lives are not oriented to be trustful. I think, for example, of Martin Luther, whose name is synonymous with justification through faith, who recognized that the whole of the Gospel was with the open hand of faith to receive the gift of God, the gift of God's grace. But I think of Luther, whose name is synonymous with that great theme, but who had such a terrible struggle in his own life. We heard the story. I referred to it in the previous weeks, but let me remind you again of how Luther's God was not a gracious and loving God, but in his mind, an angry God. And in all of his seriousness he struggled with a terrible torment of his conscience as he went through his religious exercises, trying to appease the demons that assaulted him, failing to find a resting place, blessed assurance eluding him at every turn; finding himself absolutely miserable to the point of his frustration, as I said last week, when he said, "Love God? I don't love God. I hate God." Luther, thank God, is an example of one who in adulthood broke through by the miracle of grace by the inspiration of God's Spirit, and was able in his adulthood to come to that place of trust. But it's so very difficult to do it that way. It's so much easier if we have been nurtured in an environment that has led us to trust instinctively out of the depths of our being. Thank God if that has been our experience. The spirit of God can create that faith and trust in us so that no one is © Grand Valley State University   �Sola Fidei: Trust Richard A. Rhem Page 2   a hopeless case, no one need despair. But how much better it is if we can come to that trust almost as a flower opening to the rays of the sun, than through the anguish and the crisis through which a Luther had to go. He came to great clarity, however, and out of his great clarity, the whole Reformation, the whole Protestant Christian faith understanding was shaped and formed. Listen to his words, which express that to which he was able, finally, to come by the grace of God. He said, This is the reason our theology is certain. It snatches us away from ourselves and places us outside ourselves so that we do not depend on our own strength, conscience, experience, person or works, but depend on that which is outside ourselves, that is, on the promise and truth of God which cannot deceive. You see, he got the focus out of himself; he got his obsession with his own doings loosened and he came to realize that it was not through his performance, but it was through that which God had done for him, but apart from him. He did learn to cast himself and rest himself on the good and gracious God Who was revealed in Jesus Christ, and not the high and mighty God. He said in his very earthy fashion, "Don't climb up to the heights of heaven, to the majesty of God, and don't bother with all of the philosophical and theoretical speculations about God. If you would know God, go to the crib that holds a child. Go to the mother at whose breast a child is nursed. Go to the cross at which that one suffers and dies. There you'll find the gracious God. Thank God he came to that peace. He learned to trust and, out of his experience, down through the centuries since that Reformation of the Church, we have sung the song, "Sola Fidei: by faith, through faith alone," the hallmark of our Reformation Christian faith. I don't think that many of us know the anguish that Luther knew, and I doubt that many of us struggle to the extent that he struggled with the sinful conscience that he felt was resting under the wrath of God. I think that was part of his own setting, his own environment, maybe his inability to trust early on was reflective of his very early experience. Whatever that may be (sometimes it can just be the genetic makeup; some of us trust more easily than others), but, whatever that may be, he came to trust. But I think not many of us will come the way he came, struggling with that particular question of our sin and our guilt and our fear of an angry God. And yet I think that all of us have those moments when we wonder about the meaning of life and we struggle with the mystery of life. I was reminded, reflecting on all of this, of when I went to the University of Michigan in 1983. I was there that fall term and Hans Küng was the guest. He gave lectures that were subsequently published under the title, "Eternal Life?" © Grand Valley State University �Sola Fidei: Trust Richard A. Rhem Page 3   And here was a Roman Catholic theologian who was dealing with the end questions, the existential questions of death, of heaven, of hell, of purgatory. I couldn't believe it! The University of Michigan is not much into religion, having only a half-time program in studies in religion. A great, secular, educational institution, but very little regard to the whole dimension of religious faith. But they brought in Hans Küng, and during that term he spoke on these questions that I had not preached on because I didn't know how to handle them in the pulpit. I wasn't satisfied with the pat answers about heaven and hell and purgatory and death, and what a preacher does, when a preacher doesn't know how to handle it, is simply not to handle it. And, frankly, I was embarrassed. Here, in the middle of that secular campus, this man stood up and spoke about heaven and hell and purgatory, grace, death, life. It was a wake-up call for me because those lectures were attended by overflow crowds - the university crowd, the community crowd, standing room only, and I thought, "Dear God, people may be highly educated, sophisticated, quite secular in their whole life, unaffiliated with the institutional structures of the Church, but they're all going to die. They all have questions, and they have loved ones who die, and they wonder." And from that point on, you've heard a great deal about life and death and grace and that which lies beyond, because I came to see that it is in the moment of our death that we encounter God. It was the 500th anniversary of Luther's birth and there was a weeklong conference of international scholars gathered there to celebrate the birth of Martin Luther. Ironically, it was Luther, whose attack on the Church was at the point of indulgences and all of the apparatus used so abusively surrounding purgatory that made it for us a non-subject. Yet, it was at that time from this Catholic scholar, Hans Küng, who spoke about Luther in a magnificent lecture, affirming justification by faith, who also caused me to go back and think about Purgatory. What was in the mind of the Church that said maybe everything is not all over at the point of death. Maybe God is not done with us at the moment of our death. Maybe the moment of our death will be the moment of illumination and the beginning of purification and the preparing of us for further in and farther up and the shining presence. And from this Catholic theologian, as he spoke about Luther, I heard these words: To believe in an eternal life means in reasonable trust, in enlightened faith in tried and tested hope, to rely on the fact that I shall one day be fully understood, freed from guilt and definitively accepted and can be myself without fear. (Is that beautiful? To believe in eternal life means with reasonable trust, enlightened faith, tried and tested hope, to rely on the fact that I shall one day be fully understood, freed from guilt and definitively accepted. Would not Martin Luther affirm his brother priest 500 years later? It would be hard to say it more clearly, more fundamentally.) © Grand Valley State University �Sola Fidei: Trust Richard A. Rhem Page 4   That my impenetrable and ambivalent existence, like the profoundly discordant history of humanity as a whole, will one day become finally transparent and the question of the meaning of history one day be finally answered. My impenetrable and ambivalent existence. I don't think so many of us will struggle just where Luther struggled, but don't we all yearn to understand, to penetrate the mystery? Do we not experience our ambivalence, the equivocation of our lives? Do we not wonder why and wherefore and whence for ourselves and for those we've loved and lost a while? And to be able to trust that I, personally, will be definitively accepted – to that, Luther would say, yes, yes. Because of that which has been done for me, apart from me, that which God has revealed to me in Jesus Christ, that heart of God that I see in the face of Jesus - that I can trust. And also for those I love and lose, that they, too, in the mystery that surrounds their going, whether it be the normal passage after many years or the tragic loss too soon, that this impenetrable mystery of ourselves and this discordant history of humanity as a whole will one day be transparent. To be able to live thus is to trust. As the Psalmist expressed: "I have set the Lord always before me; because God is at my right hand, I shall not be moved." And a little farther on – “Not now the Lord before me, but I in the presence of the Lord. Thou wilt show me the path of life. At Thy right hand are pleasures forevermore.” In the presence. In the presence. God at my right hand; I in the presence of God. For the Psalmist, all within this present existence, but for the apostle Paul, more than that. For he, too, spoke out of that deep confidence. "If God be for us, who can be against us?" "What can separate us from the love of Christ?" Well, any number of things, Paul. Famine or nakedness or peril or sword or cancer or tragic loss or deep suffering. No, Paul said. No. No, no, no. To all of that I must say, Nevertheless. “Nothing in this life, nothing in death, nothing in the whole creation will ever sever us from the love of God in Christ Jesus.” That's to live trustingly, you see Ah, it helps so much if, as a child, we have been nurtured even from the womb to experience the totality of things with a positive regard. But even if not, here and there, now and again, like a Luther, the Word finds rootage, the Spirit opens the mind and, with a Luther, we can say it was as though the gates of paradise were opened. Or, with a John Wesley hearing the same word and the testimony of Luther can say, "I found my heart strangely warmed." And then we can negotiate life's passages, trustingly, and we can face our end trustingly, and we can let go of those we loved and lost trustingly, for beyond it all, behind it all, underneath it all is that understanding of God full of grace, God, the abyss of love, and the conviction that nothing of love will ever be lost. That, therefore, for ourselves and those we've loved and lost, it will be like © Grand Valley State University �Sola Fidei: Trust Richard A. Rhem Page 5   Stepping on shore and finding it heaven, like touching a hand and finding it God's, like breathing new air and finding it celestial, like waking up in glory and finding it home. Believe that. You can trust that, and you will be wonderfully free. © Grand Valley State University � https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/8ddcc5655a7d1630c8efe5c88d31326f.mp3 d123732566a306f763dec572c12de4c8 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 XXIII Series New Wine for Century 21 Scripture Text Psalm 16:7-11, Romans 8:31-39 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-0-19961103 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1996-11-03 Title A name given to the resource Sola Fidei: Trust 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 November 3, 1996 entitled "Sola Fidei: Trust", as part of the series "New Wine for Century 21", on the occasion of Pentecost XXIII, at Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI. Scripture references: Psalm 16:7-11, Romans 8:31-39. Grace Nature of God Trust https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/f87585bf5b0e28fda0eadfcce942396a.pdf a4b633acf9c12a277af19d28dadcedac PDF Text Text Present to the Presence Living with Awareness of God in Whom We Trust Psalm 16: 5-11; Romans 8: 31, 35-39 Richard A. Rhem Lakeshore Interfaith Institute and Community, Mother’s Trust Ganges, Michigan July 29, 2012 Prepared text of Talk I am really not being morbid but, of late, when I am trying to determine what to speak about when fulfilling an assignment such as this, I think about what some professors are invited to do: to deliver a lecture they would deliver if they had but one last opportunity. What would one want to say if he or she knew all their learning, all their wisdom and insight, knowledge and passion were to be packed into their final lecture? That is really a great challenge: if this were your last time to address a group of students, what would you say to them? The concept was inspired by the “Last Lecture” delivered at Carnegie Mellon University by Dr. Randy Pausch on September 18, 2007. He had terminal pancreatic cancer – a fact known at the time that he spoke. His lecture was entitled “Really Achieving Your Childhood Dreams.” He died on July 25, 2008. So what would I want to say if I had one last time to bring to expression my deepest truth? I’ve entitled my presentation “Present to the Presence: Living With the Awareness of God in Whom We Trust.” As part of the process of coming to that decision I traveled back over my faith journey, trying to identify those critical moments that have shaped me and brought me to where I find myself at this advanced stage of my journey. And there is no question but I must point to the loving nurture of my childhood, the nurture received from deeply committed Christian parents. There was implanted in me an unquestioned trust in the good and gracious God of Christian faith. Growing up, there was never a question, never a doubt. At my ordination I received a letter from my father telling me when I was in my mother’s womb he dedicated me to God’s service should I turn out to be a boy. (Women’s ordination wasn’t even in the picture at that time.) Of course, that was not a surprise to me for he would often speak of his prayer that I would go into the ministry. Yet I did not know of the moment when he first brought it to expression on his knees. In a sense I never chose my vocation; it seemed as natural as breathing that I would pursue that course. I never questioned nor resisted. Thus, graduating from © Grand Valley State University   �Present to the Presence Richard A. Rhem Page 2   seminary in 1960, I assumed my first pastorate at the First Reformed Church of Spring Lake, Michigan. I came to that wonderful congregation with my childhood faith and piety. Having gone through twenty years of education including the four at college and three at seminary, my childhood faith remained intact; I really had not been educated but remained with the faith and piety I imbibed with my mother’s milk. I began my ministry with an unexamined faith understanding, believing not only that it was true but that it was absolute truth. I was not only very conservative in my Reformed and evangelical faith, I was militantly so. In retrospect I realize that that militancy was the consequence of a deep insecurity. I was defensive but without being really aware of it. A statement put out by the Theological Commission of the Reformed Church on the authority of Scripture stated the Bible was “infallible in what it intended to teach.” I considered that statement was intended to allow that Scripture might be in error in things that were not what it “intended to teach” regarding our salvation. I objected; I insisted that the Bible was inerrant and infallible, period! That is not really important except to indicate where I was as I began my ministry – very conservative and threatened by any challenge to my fervently held orthodox Reformed faith. That is the setting for detailing the long journey that brings me to where I am at present – very comfortable giving expression to my faith understanding in this fine interfaith community. I suspect the long unwinding of that exclusive, absolutist faith was triggered by what may seem a rather trivial occurrence. One of my young people made her Christian confession of faith. The next summer she went away to work with a friend whose mother was a Mormon. She returned to tell me she was going to become a Mormon. I was heartbroken. I gave her Scripture texts. She came back with texts from the Book of Mormon. It was then that I realized if all I had was a text against another text, I was deadlocked. (I shudder to think of my ignorance.) About this time the Reformed Church came out with a new curriculum in conjunction with the Presbyterian Church – The Covenant Life Curriculum. The curriculum was introduced with Foundation Papers. I began to study them, especially regarding the view of Scripture. For the first time I began to open up to a larger view. I taught the opening adult course at Spring Lake and then moved to a congregation in New Jersey that was very conservative. When I brought in that curriculum there, there was resistance. The resistance made me dig deeper. I began to see the closed orthodoxy, from which I stemmed, from the other side. After a brief three-year pastorate there it was time to go back to school. I left for post-graduate study in the Netherlands. © Grand Valley State University �Present to the Presence Richard A. Rhem Page 3   Without going into the details, I made an appointment with Professor Hendrikus Berkhof at the University of Leiden. His study was in his home and I met him there. A most inviting and cordial person. I was impressed though not yet committed to Leiden. But as I arose to leave I noticed a mimeographed paper penned to the drape that separated his study from the rest of his house. I went to read what was written; what was written changed my life. The lines were those of Alfred Lord Tennyson: Our little systems have their day; They have their day and cease to be; They are but broken lights of Thee, And Thou, O Lord, art more than they. I remember the moment vividly. I had found my professor! For those who have been with me for some time, this is a familiar account but I must, in this retrospective, underline it here because I was at a critical point in my life and ministry. My “little system” had hit a wall. My whole “system” was based on the absolute authority of the Bible as the God-breathed, inerrant, infallible truth. I was devoid of any sense of how the critical studies of Scripture had revealed it as a very human product that was a witness to revelation – that is, the report of an experience of unveiling, not the unveiling itself. As mentioned above, my first hint of a critical view of Scripture came in the Foundation Papers of the Covenant Life Curriculum. The first assignment from my new mentor, Professor Berkhof, also my professor of Dogmatics, was to read Karl Barth. I went to my set of Karl Barth’s Church Dogmatics, Vol. I, Part 2 – The Doctrine of the Word of God, and 45 years later I could turn to the page heavily underlined that struck me as I first encountered it: If we take Luther and Calvin together, we can say that the way to that universal and moving view of inspiration which answers to the majesty of God, and as we find it in Scripture itself, was again opened up by the Reformation. The Reformers’ doctrine of inspiration is an honouring of God, and of the free grace of God. The statement that the Bible is the Word of God is on this view no limitation, but an unfolding of the perception of the sovereignty in which the Word of God condescended to become flesh for us in Jesus Christ, and a human word in the witness of the prophets and apostles as witnesses to His incarnation. On their lips and understanding this is the true statement concerning the Bible which is always indispensable to the Church. But the post-Reformation period first of all failed really to take the newly opened road to the meaning and understanding of the statement. And then it obviously took a different and mistaken way: mistaken, because it destroyed the mystery of this statement, because it necessarily resulted in © Grand Valley State University �Present to the Presence Richard A. Rhem Page 4   a denial of the sovereignty of the Word of God and therefore of the Word of God itself. In this connection we cannot pay too much attention to a remarkable parallelism: the development of the original Reformed Protestantism into the newer Protestantism which began in the so-called orthodoxy and became visible about 1700 was admittedly characterised by a gradual growth of uncertainty in the knowledge of the sin and justification of man and the judgment and grace of God. This uncertainty, as it concerned the question of revelation, was followed first by a quiet, then by an increasingly open and direct inflow of natural theology. To this development there corresponded, curiously enough, a stiffening in the understanding of the inspiration of the Bible which also began quietly but then developed no less definitely. The strictly supranaturalistic character of the statements which were the outcome of this stiffening tends to create an optical illusion. We first think that we are faced by a contradiction when we see orthodoxy becoming laxer and laxer in relation to natural theology and in secret to the doctrine of grace, but stricter and stricter in relation to the doctrine of the inspiration of the Bible. In reality the two belong intimately together. The gradually extending new understanding of biblical inspiration was simply one way and, in view of its highly supranaturalistic character, perhaps the most important way in which the great process of secularisation on which post-Reformation protestantism entered was carried through. This new understanding of biblical inspiration meant simply that the statement that the Bible is the Word of God was now transformed (following the doubtful tendencies we have already met in the Early Church) from a statement about the free grace of God into a statement about the nature of the Bible as exposed to human inquiry brought under human control. The Bible as the Word of God surreptitiously became a part of natural knowledge of God, i.e., of that knowledge of God which man can have without the free grace of God, by his own power, and with direct insight and assurance. That the highly supranaturalistic form in which this step was made was only a form used because no better was available is proved by the haste with which it was abandoned almost as soon as it was adopted. It was followed by the enlightenment and the ensuing “historical” investigation and treatment of the Bible, i.e., the character of the Bible as the Word of God was now transformed into that of a highly relevant historical record. And this merely revealed what high orthodoxy had really sought and attained under this apparently supranaturalistic form: the understanding and use of the Bible as an instrument separated from the free grace of God and put into the hands of man. If it should be our aim © Grand Valley State University �Present to the Presence Richard A. Rhem Page 5   today to go back to the better understanding of the Bible which we find in the Reformers and above all in the Bible itself, then it is not a question of renewing the doctrine of inspiration of high orthodoxy in opposition to the Enlightenment and the development which followed it. Rather, we must carefully and consistently avoid the mistake of that orthodoxy – which is all the more dangerous because its supranaturalistic trend can make it appear advantageous. It is only at this root that the evil which broke out later can really be tackled. (Karl Barth, Church Dogmatics, Vol. I.1,p. 522f) Barth’s essential insight was that revelation must be a present experience as the Holy Spirit takes what once was revealed and recorded in Scripture so that it becomes, by God’s grace, a present revelation by the same Holy Spirit that inspired prophets and apostles. God’s revelation is not to be contained between the covers of a book that one can slip in one’s pocket, as it were, carrying around the Word of God. Revelation happened; revelation happens; but it is always a contemporary event by the grace of God’s Spirit. I was fascinated by Barth’s historical analysis that revealed how, as reason’s dominance evolved as the Enlightenment emerged, exalting human rationality, challenging the Bible as the supernaturally inspired Word of God, the orthodox Protestant church increasingly affirmed the Bible as inerrant and infallible. As reason rose in ascendancy, Barth claimed, rather than trusting the Bible as the product of God’s revelation which, by the grace of God, would become ever anew revelation by the same grace of God, the post Reformation Scholastics now set up the Bible as itself the depository of revelation, utilizing the same human reason that Enlightenment thinkers were using to discredit the Bible. I found that movement fascinating and very enlightening. I understood Barth saying the whole approach to “saving” the Bible from its Enlightenment critics by means of counter-reasoned argument was doomed to failure. Now the Bible was in human hands; rather than seeing it as a record of revelations past that may by God’s grace be again a place of revelation, orthodoxy attempted to prove the Bible itself was the revelation – a futile endeavor. I became a convinced Barthian at that point, no longer afraid that turning over the next stone might bring to light some data that would undercut biblical authority. The authority did not reside in “the book” which was a fallible human witness to revelatory experience of the respective writers. With that a huge burden was lifted from my shoulders. Now I had room to think, to question, to wonder. With the wise and gracious guidance of my mentor, Hendrikus Berkhof, I plunged into my study with a voracious hunger. I would read and read, one volume leading to five more and from time to time would call my Professor for an appointment to discuss my progress. Eventually, after a couple years, he would say, “Mr. Rhem, now you must begin to write.” But the next volume lead me to investigate more footnotes and delve further into the bibliography. I was so “hungry” and I could not stop pushing out the frontiers of my evolving grasp of © Grand Valley State University �Present to the Presence Richard A. Rhem Page 6   the historical development of Christian dogma from the Apostolic Age through the early church fathers and the creedal formation that continues to mark Christian dogma. Since Dogmatics was not considered a science in the Netherlands’ university system, Professor Berkhof, though my advisor, could not be the professor of the major study of my program, he being a “Church Professor,” appointed by the Netherlands Reformed Church. He advised a second minor in New Testament, and The History of Dogma as my major. What wise counsel; the history of the development of Christian Dogmatics was precisely what I needed – what I loved. I traced the historical development from the early centuries through the Reformation. It was an exciting time of discovery. After three years I took my testamens – oral exams with each of my three professors in Dogmatics, New Testament and History of Dogma. Having passed those three exams I was ready for the oral exam before the whole faculty for the Doctorandus Degree, which I was granted in April, 1969. Next – deciding on a subject for my doctoral dissertation and the writing of it. I decided to write on the place of history in the theology of Karl Barth and Wolfhart Pannenberg, a young German theologian who was of a school of scholars who were the students of the twentieth-century giants, Barth and Rudolf Bultmann, both of whom in their respective fields had no place for “revelation in history.” For Bultmann, the only “footprint” of revelation in history was the “dass,” the “that” of Jesus – he was an historical person but we can recover no reliable data of his life except that he “was.” For Barth, revelation came “vertically from above;” it was always an event. The only footprint of God’s revelation in history was the thirty-three years of Jesus’ historical existence bracketed by two miracles – the Virgin Birth at the beginning and the Resurrection at the end. The next generation was not satisfied with that conception of revelation that disallowed historical enquiry into the life of Jesus as well as the Old and New Testament history. That debate was the focus of my research and I became intensely interested in the development of historical thinking which emerged in the nineteenth century. But I soon learned that the real watershed that divided theological development from the Apostolic Age to the present was the Enlightenment. My sense was one had to go through the Enlightenment if the ancient faith was to be adhered to in the present. After having chapter one of my dissertation approved, I returned home but I had none. I had spent the last six months alone in the Netherlands, my former wife having left in the summer of 1970. A broken marriage finally came apart and I returned in December of 1970 to see my children, thinking I would return to the Netherlands to finish the dissertation and receive the Doctor of Theology degree which I saw as necessary because I thought my pastoral ministry was finished since divorce was certain and, at that time, I had no hope of receiving a call from a congregation. But I was wrong. © Grand Valley State University �Present to the Presence Richard A. Rhem Page 7   My first congregation, in what I still can only understand as an act of very great grace, invited me to return to be their pastor, knowing that divorce would follow shortly. Returning to Leiden, I packed my books and few belongings and on March 1, 1971, began again to be the pastor of the First Reformed Church of Spring Lake. Again, graciously, I was encouraged to continue to work on my dissertation. But the congregation began to grow and I was fully engaged. I did keep in touch with Professor Berkhof, letting him know what was happening. One day I received a letter from him in which he wrote, Mr. Rhem, I no longer expect you to return to complete your doctoral work. Theology is for the service of the church. God has called you to a more important work. Such a professor! Such grace! Such sensitivity! It is no wonder in subsequent years we, with our spouses, traveled together and twice they were our house guests. But that is another story. The above transitions me to Spring Lake where, three months after beginning again, we re-named ourselves Christ Community Church. Though now a full-time pastor, I could not cease being fascinated by the theological history through which I had traversed. In my preaching I sought to interlace my best understanding of the biblical text but in the present context of our history. Adult Education, however, provided opportunity to share my growing understanding of the Christian faith. In 1974 the Catholic theologian Hans Küng published a book in German entitled Christ Sein, which was translated into English in 1976 under the title On Being a Christian. I found it a marvelous statement of Christian faith in light of all I had learned about the historical development that brought us to the present and I used it with groups of lay folk. In 1978 Küng published Existiert Gott?, an English translation appearing the same year under the title Does God Exist? That book too I consumed and used in an adult education class. For me, it was as though my whole European study was condensed in one 800-plus page volume. It was here that I faced the Enlightenment head-on as it related to the Christian faith. Küng drew together for me in concise form the crisis of modern atheism that arose in the wake of the Enlightenment. In a section entitled “The Challenge of Atheism,” Küng’s sub-sections are: I. God – a projection of man? Ludwig Feuerbach II. God – a consolation serving vested interests? Karl Marx III.God – an infantile illusion? Sigmund Freud. © Grand Valley State University �Present to the Presence Richard A. Rhem Page 8   The next major division Küng entitles “Nihilism – Consequence of Atheism,” dealing with Friedrich Nietzsche. In scholarly fashion with great clarity he sets forth the kernel of the thought of these thinkers. He then offers a critique acknowledging where the thrust of their thought raised valid issues Christian theology must deal with. Küng opens this section, “The Challenge of Atheism,” by setting the stage for his development which follows: Socrates was condemned to death as atheos, as “godless.” But he had by no means rejected any kind of God; he had rejected, like many other educated Greeks, only the customary veneration of the gods of the Greek polis. Atheism properly so-called does not deny merely a plurality of gods or merely a particular way of worshiping God or even simply a personal, ”theistic” God. It denies any God and any divine reality, whether understood mythologically, theologically or philosophically. In both antiquity and the Middle Ages, there were very few who upheld atheism in this sense: a total view of reality assuming that it is possible to do without any God at all. It was only with the radicalized French Enlightenment – in the aftermath of secularization and the Church’s compromising of belief in God by its struggle against both modern science and modern democracy – that atheism, as we saw, became more widespread at first among the educated classes. The new defenders of atheism in the nineteenth century felt, however, that they were far above this “common atheism.” In fact, it was only with Feuerbach and Marx and later – supported by atheistic natural scientists – with Nietzsche and Freud that atheism became a Weltanschauung, threatening belief in God and Christianity at their roots, penetrating all classes of the population and finally reaching global dimensions beyond the frontiers of Europe. (p. 189) The font of this modern (nineteenth century) atheism Küng finds in Ludwig Feuerbach (1804-1872). Of course, Hegelian philosophy had set the stage but in Feuerbach modern atheism found its architect. Küng contends that, With Feuerbach, the tremendous danger to belief in God and Christianity presented by Hegel’s identification of finite and infinite consciousness, of man and God, becomes apparent. (p. 199) What happens to God? Küng explains: And God? What follows, from all this, for the notion of God? The essential presupposition is that “the consciousness of the infinite is nothing else than the consciousness of the infinity of the consciousness.” That is: “In © Grand Valley State University �Present to the Presence Richard A. Rhem Page 9   the consciousness of the infinite, the conscious subject has for his object the infinity of his own nature.” This, then, is how the notion of God emerges, and it seems entirely understandable. Man sets up his human nature out of himself, he sees it as something existing outside himself and separated from himself; he projects it, then, as an autonomous figure – so to speak – in heaven, calls it God and worships it. In a word, the notion of God is nothing but a projection of man: “The absolute to man is his own nature.” The knowledge of God, then, is a gigantic floodlight. God appears as a projected, hypostatized reflection of man, behind which nothing exists in reality. The divine is the universally human projected into the hereafter. What are the attributes of the divine nature: love, wisdom, justice...? In reality, these are the attributes of man, of the human species. Homo homini Deus est, man is God for man: here lies the whole mystery of religion. This becomes particularly clear with the personal (“theistic”) God of Christianity, independent and existing outside man. This God is nothing other than the specific notion of man, given independent existence, the personified nature of man. Man “contemplates his nature as external to himself”; God is the manifest interior of man, his expressed, “relinquished self.” The Attributes of God are really the attributes of the objectified nature of man. It is not, as in the Bible, that God created man in his own image. But, on the contrary, man created God in his own image. God as a ghostly Opposite, existing outside man, stimulated by man himself. Man a great projector, God the great projection. Just test it...and it disappears. God is intellectual being, spirit. In this very way, God appears as a pure projection of human understanding...” (p. 200f) From Feuerbach’s God as Projection idea one can see how that was used by Karl Marx claiming God, thus projected, serves the vested interests of the powerful. From Feuerbach, Freud claimed God to be an infantile illusion. Küng explains Freud’s claim regarding the source of religion. What is the source of religion? First of all we must look at the historical background. For Freud, the question of the origin of the various religions was quite obviously psychological in character. For Christian and Jewish theologians, for centuries it had been a dogmatic question: the pagan religions were distortions, degenerations of the original, pure, revealed religion (with a primordial revelation), as a result of man’s sin as described in the Bible. But, for the rationalist “enlighteners” of the eighteenth century also – David Hume in England, Rousseau, Voltaire and Diderot in France, © Grand Valley State University �Present to the Presence Richard A. Rhem Page10   Gotthold Ephraim Lessing in Germany – it was a dogmatic question: the various religions were distortions and degenerations of the originally pure religion of reason, with its clear belief in God, freedom and immortality – distortions brought about by priestly inventions and popular customs. It was only with the rise of a science of religion, in the nineteenth century that the question of the origin of religion became a historical, philological, ethnological, psychological question. Even in classical Greece, of course, there had been an interest in the history of religions; but a science of religion as a specific field of study has existed only from the nineteenth century onward. In this field, primitive religion itself became a problem. (p. 175f) Freud’s answer to the question of the source of religion? Küng summarizes thus: Religion, then, arose out of the oldest, strongest and most urgent wishes of mankind. Religion is wishful thinking, illusion. “Illusion” means that religion is not a deliberate lie in the moral sense or – and Freud stresses this – error in the epistemological sense; nor is it necessarily illusory in the sense of being unrealistic or contradicting reality. Illusion – and this is typical – is motivated by the need of wish fulfillment: it is a product therefore of sensual-instinctual life and needs for its deciphering the decoding technique of applied psychology. (p. 284) And where did the projection idea of Feuerbach and the various ways projection was utilized by Marx and Freud lead? Küng leads us to the conclusion found in the brilliant Friedrich Nietzsche (1844-1900) – that is to Nihilism. In his parable of the “madman” his atheism comes to expression. There a keen-sighted prophet “who lit a lantern in the bright morning hours” proclaimed the death of God. “Whither is God,” cried the ‘madman’... “I will tell you. We have killed him – you and I. All of us are his murderers.” Küng gives us Nietzche’s understanding of the nihilism which he embraced. Küng writes that Nietzsche used the term nihilism initially with little discrimination, but in his unpublished work he reflected on all aspects of it. “What does nihilism mean?” asks Nietzsche here, and his answer now runs: “That the highest values devaluate themselves. The aim is lacking: ‘why?’ finds no answer.” In another fragment, he expresses it more precisely: “Radical nihilism is the conviction of an absolute untenability of existence when it comes to the highest values one recognizes; plus the realization that we lack the least right to posit a beyond or an in-itself of things that might be ‘divine’ or morality incarnate.” It can be said – and this, too, will be explained in the following pages – that, according to Nietzsche, nihilism means the conviction of the nullity, of the internal contradiction, futility and worthlessness of reality. © Grand Valley State University �Present to the Presence Richard A. Rhem Page11   Nietzsche sees this nihilism as coming in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries: “What I relate is the history of the next two centuries. I describe what is coming, what can no longer come differently: the advent of nihilism. This history can be related even now; for necessity itself is at work here. This future speaks even now in a hundred signs, this destiny announces itself everywhere; for the music of the future all ears are cocked even now. For some time now, our whole European culture has been moving as toward a catastrophe, with a tortured tension that is growing from decade to decade: restlessly, violently, headlong, like a river that wants to reach the end, that no longer reflects, that is afraid to reflect.” Indeed, it must be said: “Nihilism stands at the door,” and we can only ask: “Whence comes this uncanniest of all guests?” Thus Küng charts the nadir of modern atheism. But he does not leave us there. Rather he begins to build his case for a “yes” to reality beginning with an alternative to the emptiness of nihilism – fundamental trust. From there he affirms a “yes to God – alternative to atheism.” Then “yes to the Christian God” – finally, “The God of Jesus Christ.” Küng builds carefully, taking into account all that has been considered in the claims of modern atheism but offering an alternative based in trust. In my own continuing wrestle with the issues raised in the post-Enlightenment modern atheism, I struggled to find a reasonable faith. In my study of the new quest for the historical Jesus I found John Knox particularly helpful in his The Humanity and Divinity of Christ. Writing about the humanity of Christ he makes a statement that defined my own quest for understanding Jesus. There are two conditions under which a significant symbol loses (or, perhaps better, is shown to have lost) its vitality and power. One of these is when our hearts no longer need it, when all we want to say or need to say (or to have said to us) can be said without it. The other is when our minds, failing to discern in it the coherency of truth, are forced to reject it. For our hearts cannot finally find true what our minds find false. If they could, we should be hopelessly divided and any firm grasp of reality would be impossible. What we mean by ‘the heart’ in this connection is not something alien or counter to the mind, but is the mind itself quickened and extended. The wisdom the heart has found, if it be wisdom and not fantasy, is the same wisdom the mind all the while has been feeling after, if haply it might find it. It is a wisdom which, far from bypassing the understanding, enters through the doors of it, fills and stretches the space of it, and only then breaks through and soars above it. (p. 107) That was for me a critically important insight. Yet I was aware that my faith from childhood, which through all the intellectual struggles of my quest for an © Grand Valley State University �Present to the Presence Richard A. Rhem Page12   understanding, was deeper and more expansive than my mind, my rational faculties, could explain or justify before the bar of reason. Only recently was I given a copy of a chapter from the book Walking the Tightrope of Faith. The chapter’s author is Hendrik Hart, a philosopher/theologian who has done much work in post-modern thought. Without doing justice to the careful development of his contention in this chapter, let me simply offer a few lines from Professor Hart: Trust in a spiritually powerful orientation to the existential issues in the face of the boundary conditions of existence is historically not a matter of concepts, propositions, and arguments, but of stories, rituals, prayers, and hymns. (p. 198) Hart is in dialogue with Kai Nielsen as he writes that for which I have been seeking. Closely connected to Nielsen’s insistence that faith-as-trust is logically dependent on propositional belief is his pervasive complaint about religion’s lack of rational coherence (37, 39, 41, 43, 111). One problem with this complaint is that it does not do justice to those Christians who try to nourish faith as a non-intellectual(istic) life-guiding trust, as a form of spirituality. In faith thus developed, rational coherence is not necessarily a relevant concern, the way it is in forms of theology developed to counter the Enlightenment by modelling theology on rational philosophy (38-39). I think Nielsen misses the point when he continually charges that in order to be properly religious these Christians must conform to notions of religion especially developed in Enlightenment-influenced theology. (p. 199) “Enlightenment-influenced theology” – that was the story of my long journey. Finally I come to realize what Hendrik Hart claims defines my ongoing quest while living with fundamental trust. This is the understanding I have been seeking. We all need to trust some orientation to the ultimate questions of life. But “answers” to these questions point in a direction that transcends rational comprehension. These “answers,” that is, point to mysteries, told in myths. If we trust traditions which “tell” what people have experienced when they trusted the life-direction to which the “answers” in the myths point, these traditions provide guidance, especially if we decide to trust the narratives enough to live by them. It is not necessary here to insist on traditional language. If the faithful of some religion are to be in communication again with contemporary naturalists or atheists on equal footing, we can at least temporarily suspend talk about God, or even about some “transcendent revealed,” and for the time being talk only about trust making visible © Grand Valley State University �Present to the Presence Richard A. Rhem Page13   something that comes from beyond the boundaries of our understanding and is related to the boundary issues of existence. To derive hope from a resurrection narrative is not the same thing as insisting on the filmable factuality of a resuscitated corpse walking out of a grave. If our hope depends on the scientific modernization of an ancient faith-language, then hope undermines the nurture of trust. It is possible to “claim” the “truth” of such a resurrection narrative. But that is done, not in the logical space of reasons, or by delivering technologically enhanced evidence, but by actually living the life of hope the narrative inspires, by practically making manifest in action that such a life reveals truth or lights up our path. (p. 216) Finally, after that lengthy excursus I am ready to deliver “My Last Lecture.” There are many places within Scripture to which I might turn but let me select just two – a Psalm and a paragraph from Paul’s Letter to the Romans. Psalm 16 is one of my favorites. Beginning with verse 5, the Psalmist expresses a sense of deep wellbeing. The boundary lines have fallen to me in pleasant places; I have a goodly heritage. He is full of gratitude for his human situation – referring to Israel’s coming into the land of Israel when the tribes divided the land by casting lots. The Psalmist is pleased with his human situation. But his wellbeing is rooted in something deeper. I keep the Lord always before me; because he is at my right hand I shall not be moved. In the Hebrew “before me” is literally “before my face.” That being so he is steadfast whatever human experience brings him. His heart is glad; His soul rejoices. So confident is he that he cannot conceive of being given up to Sheol – the realm of the dead. One commentator writes, It can be read as the general prayer of the faithful who, without any doctrine of resurrection or eternal life to explain just how, nonetheless trust the Lord to keep them with such total confidence that they cannot imagine a future apart from life in God’s presence. (James L. Mays, Interpretation: Psalms, p. 88) © Grand Valley State University �Present to the Presence Richard A. Rhem Page14   Again the Psalmist exclaims, You show me the path of life. In Your presence there is fullness of joy; in Your right hand are pleasures forevermore. Were we to read this poem in the original Hebrew we would see a beautiful juxtaposition. In verse 8, as noted above, “before me” is literally “before my face.” In verse 11, “in Your presence” is literally “before Your face.” God before my face; I before God’s face. Further, God at my right hand keeps me secure. At God’s right hand are pleasures forevermore. The Psalmist lived with a vivid sense of God’s presence. That awareness kept him steady in all the vicissitudes of life. That sense of trust was so strong even the fear of death, of loss, was transcended. He lived with fullness of joy. He was present to the presence of God. We find the same confidence in St. Paul in the wake of his vision of the crucified Christ who was resurrected – living beyond death’s boundary. If God be for us, who can be against us? Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Then he lists a series of negative human experiences – No, he affirms, in all life’s trials we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. Listing again all possible threats to us he finally declares nothing will separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. Present to the Presence, living in total trust, the Apostle knew a peace which he says in another context is beyond all human understanding. With those two eloquent expressions of trust bringing confidence, joy and deep assurance that All will be well; all will be well; all manner of things will be well. Thus I would keynote my last lecture. I feel deeply blessed to have had the exceptionally rich experience of plumbing the depths of the human record of the quest for God, for the deep probing of our human condition at life’s boundary © Grand Valley State University �Present to the Presence Richard A. Rhem Page15   situations. I have followed rational inquiry to the depths of nihilism and known there was something more. And at the end of my serious quest, what rational inquiry could not deliver, I find in trusting where I cannot know, and “know” all is well. Was the long journey of intellectual quest worth it if, in reality, I end where I first began? Indeed, for I’ve seen it for the first time! Oliver Wendell Holmes said it well: I would not give a fig for the simplicity this side of complexity, but I would give my life for the simplicity on the other side of complexity. © Grand Valley State University � https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/d7d2ab3e9fe95a1c6e0451b55ae7da1c.m4v 775e7bea34fbe35091a2e1c11080f2eb 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 Scripture Text Psalm 16:5-11, Romans 8:31, 35-39 Location The location of the interview Lakeshore Interfaith Center, Ganges References Karl Barth. Church Dogmatics, Vol. I, 1932. Hendrik Hart. Walking the Tightrope of Faith: Philosophical Conversations About Reason and Religion, 1999. John Knox. The Humanity and Divinity of Christ, 1967. Hans K 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-0-20120729 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2012-07-29 Title A name given to the resource Present to the Presence - Living with Awareness of God in Whom We Trust 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 29, 2012 entitled "Present to the Presence - Living with Awareness of God in Whom We Trust", on the occasion of Lakeshore Interfaith Center Gathering, at Lakeshore Interfaith Center, Ganges. Scripture references: Psalm 16:5-11, Romans 8:31, 35-39. 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 Historical View of the Bible Presence of God Trust https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/b8a909cba54403e49ab4d428189c33ea.pdf cd619248d14037223dca58b02bbc86d4 PDF Text Text Praying To An Absent God Article by Richard A. Rhem Minister of Preaching and Theological Inquiry Christ Community Church Spring Lake, Michigan Published in The Church Herald The Magazine of the Reformed Church in America January 1987, pp. 9-11 It is painful to pray to an absent God; most of us have felt that pain at some time in our lives. One feels alone, cut off; no answer comes and no light penetrates the thick darkness; it is the winter of the soul and one fears the killing snows will never pass. The Psalms are replete with expressions of lament and plea, of complaint and pathetic cry. They are expressions of deep human feeling and experience, the anguish of the soul and longing of the heart. Jesus found articulation of the desolation and horror, of the aloneness, the forsakenness that he experienced in crucifixion by reciting a Psalm. His piercing cry of excruciating pain, “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?” comes from Psalm 22. It has been understood as the expression of ultimate aloneness and dereliction, and it is that. Yet, those chilling words are not the whole Psalm. To be sure, there are few more poignant expressions of pain anywhere than Psalm 22. However, some biblical expositors suggest that what has come to us as a word from the cross was part of a recitation of the Psalm by Jesus. In the depths of anguish, he reached for the Psalmist’s expression by which to give utterance to what he was experiencing, but he most likely recited the Psalm to its end and it ends in an expression of trust. Light has broken through, the darkness is scattered, praise returns to the Psalmist’s heart. Thus, the recitation was perhaps the consummate act of trust by Jesus. That is the way it is in the rich and varied outpouring of spiritual life that we find in the Psalms. Lament, plea, complaint, even angry challenge to God are common, but before the Psalm is concluded, some resolution has been experienced, a sense of being heard and helped is declared and praise ensues. That is the way it is in all cases save one; Psalm 88 is a cry in the darkness and the Psalm ends with thick darkness still enveloping the Psalmist’s soul. There is no lightening of the burden, no assuaging of the pain, no sense of being heard, no © Grand Valley State University   �Praying To An Absent God Richard A. Rhem Page 2   promise of healing. Psalm 88 is a bitter cry to an absent God and the soul finds no relief. O Lord, my God, by day I call for help, by night I cry aloud in Thy presence. But no help is found; I ... have become like a man beyond help, like a man who lies dead... Still the Psalmist persists; I have called upon thee, 0 Lord, every day and spread out my hands in prayer to thee. … But, Lord, I cry to thee, my prayer comes before thee in the morning. Why hast thou cast me off, 0 Lord, why dost thou hide thy face from me? The Psalm ends with these pathetic words; Thou hast taken lover and friend far from me, and parted me from my companions. The mystery of suffering prevails; no shaft of light breaks the grip of darkness. Thunderous silence is heaven’s mute reply; prayer is raised to no avail, for God is absent. Leaf through the Psalter; see if Psalm 88 is not unique in that no final resolution is found, no word of hope offered, no sense of grace expressed. It stands alone; still it has found a place in Israel’s hymnbook. It is not familiar; it would not be on anyone’s “best-loved” list. Yet, within the rich variety of spiritual expression in the Psalms, its voice is heard. Then perhaps we should “hear” it. There is a temptation to limit our devotional reading to a few selected favorites. And there are so many inspiring, uplifting passages of Scripture, why pause to consider this painful cry? One would seldom find this text listed for Sunday morning’s message; its positive possibilities are severely limited. Who wants to come to church to hear of the agony of praying to an absent God? Perhaps we should simply cut this Psalm out of the collection; in fact, by our selective usage, that is precisely what we have done. Why stop to consider Psalm 88, then? Because life is like that even though it is threatening to our traditional piety to admit it, even though the fact is rarely mentioned in church. But life for many is like that; for some all the time, and for all, some of the time. The experience of praying to an absent God is a not uncommon experience even though we do not speak much of it. Honesty demands that we acknowledge that © Grand Valley State University �Praying To An Absent God Richard A. Rhem Page 3   even for the child of God there are periods of pain that know no relief, times of deep darkness when no ray of light brings comfort. In The Message of the Psalms, Walter Brueggemann speaks of Psalm 88 as leaving us “lingering in the unresolve, dangling in the depth of the pit without any explicit sign of rescue.” He goes on to assert, That is an important statement to have in the repertoire, precisely because life is like that. Faith does not always resolve life. There is not for every personal crisis of disorientation a way out, if only we can press the right button. Too much pastoral action is inclined and tempted to resolve things, no matter how the situation really is. Faith is treated like the great answer book. (p. 78) Sometimes when the way is hard and bitter and God seems deaf to our urgent appeal, we are made to feel that the problem must be with us - our sin and guilt, our feeble faith or faint devotion. It must be me; no aspersion must be cast on God. Clichés trip lightly over the tongues of the untroubled, assured in their safe tranquility that if there is a communication blackout, the problem lies not on the side of deity. Thereby we often add to the sufferer’s burden of alienation a load of guilt, undercutting perhaps the last vestige of self-confidence and self-worth. Not so Psalm 88 and that is why it is so important that it has found place in the Psalter. Brueggemann writes, Psalm 88 is adamant in its insistence, and it is harsh on Yahweh’s unresponsiveness. The truth of this Psalm is that Israel lives in a world where there is no answer. We are not offered any speculative answer... The Psalm is not interested in any theological reason Yahweh may have. The Psalm is from Israel’s side. It engages in no speculation. It asks no theological question. It simply reports on how it is to be a partner of Yahweh in Yahweh’s inexplicable absence. (p. 78F) We have not done well with inexplicable absence, with unanswered questions, with a silent God. To that extent we have not always been honest with human experience or honest with God and we have not joined in solidarity with the pain of the wounded ones. We are nervous before the mystery of suffering. We want to be in control, to manage the situation, to bring a cure; but sometimes we can only be present to the pain and wait in silence. In his meditation, Out of Solitude, Henri Nouwen writes of the ministry of Jesus. He points out, © Grand Valley State University �Praying To An Absent God Richard A. Rhem Page 4   What we see, and like to see, is cure and change. But what we do not see and do not want to see is care, the participation in the pain, the solidarity in suffering, the sharing in the experience of brokenness. And still, cure without care is as dehumanizing as a gift given with a cold heart. (p. 31F) The persons who mean the most to us, Nouwen contends, are the ones who can be silent with us in moments of despair, who will stay with us in an hour of grief, who can tolerate not-knowing, not-curing, not-healing and face with us the reality of our powerlessness. (p. 34) That, insists Nouwen, is the person who cares. But our tendency is to run from painful realities, to try to change them. We are more comfortable as rulers, controllers, manipulators, but sometimes the human circumstance will not yield to the “quick fix.” Such “cure” without care is violent and insensitive; it leaves the suffering one even more alone in her pain. Nouwen condemns the preachers who reduce mysteries to problems and offer Band-Aid-type solutions. It is only out of compassionate solidarity with the one suffering that healing comes forth. Those who do not run away from our pains but touch them with compassion bring healing and new strength. The paradox indeed is that the beginning of healing is in the solidarity with the pain. (Reaching Out, p. 43) When there are no answers, when pain will not be alleviated, it just may be that the only comfort would be the comfort of such a word as Psalm 88 that acknowledges the pain that knows no healing. According to Brueggemann, ... The speaker is shunned and in darkness. The last word in the Psalm is darkness. The last word is darkness. The last theological word is darkness. Nothing works. Nothing is changed. Nothing is resolved. All things deny life. And worst of all is the “shunning.” (p. 80) Brueggemann raises the obvious question, “So, what is one to do about it?” The answer he gives is, “Wait.” That, he says, is what Israel has been doing for a long time. Wait or speak it again; keep on crying out. One has two options: either to wait in silence, or to speak it again. What one may not do is to rush to an easier Psalm, or to give up on Yahweh. (p. 80) Why does this Psalm appear in the Bible? As stated above, life is like that and the Bible addresses life - all of life, not just the pleasant parts. But beyond that, this is not a psalm of mute depression. It is still speech, speech addressed to God. © Grand Valley State University �Praying To An Absent God Richard A. Rhem Page 5   In the bottom of the Pit, Israel still knows it has to do with Yahweh. (p. 80) Sometimes God’s presence is most poignant precisely in the absence. Jesus cried, “My God, my God, why are you absent?” and paradoxically, that is the time and place of God’s nearness, of the ultimate expression of his love. When there is no answer, when one wearies of speech, then it is that one can only wait; but that word found frequently in the Psalms is not simply passive resignation, but rather “hoping intensely.” Sometimes one can only hope intensely in the darkness, conscious of a presence in the absence. Psalm 88 is not scripture’s only word, nor is it the last word. But in some situations of human suffering it may be the only word that can evoke any resonance in the anguished soul. We must have enough trust in the good and gracious God to let that word come to expression, to stay with it and let it be the present word of the God who is currently known only as absence. To wait in such a time of not-knowing and non-healing is the most helpful support that the sufferer can receive and the most caring ministry another can offer. Within history there is not always resolution; beyond history there is resurrection. Thanks be to God! References: Walter Brueggemann. The Message of the Psalms. Minneapolis: Augsburg, 1984. Henri Nouwen. Out of Solitude. Notre Dame: Ave Maria Press, 1974. Henri Nouwen. Reaching Out. Garden City: Doubleday and Co., Inc., 1975. © Grand Valley State University � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Richard A. Rhem Collection Description An account of the resource Text and sound recordings of the sermons, prayers, services, and articles of Richard Rhem, pastor emeritus of Christ Community Church in Spring Lake, Michigan, where he served for 37 years. Starting in the mid 1980's, Rhem began to question some of the traditional Christian dogma that he had been espousing from the pulpit. That questioning was a first step in a long and interesting spiritual journey, one that he openly shared with his congregation. His journey is important, in part because it is reflective of the questioning, the yearnings, and the gradual revision of beliefs that many persons in this part of the century have experienced and continue to experience. It is important also because of the affirming and inclusive way his questioning was done and his thinking evolved. His sermons and other written and spoken materials together document the steps in his journey as it took a turn in 1985, yet continued to revolve around the framework and liturgies of the Christian calendar. Subject The topic of the resource Clergy--Michigan Reformed Church in America Christ Community Church (Spring Lake, Mich.) Religion Interfaith worship Sermons Sound Recordings Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Rhem, Richard A. Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/514">Richard A. Rhem papers (KII-01)</a> Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives. Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Kaufman Interfaith Institute Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Language A language of the resource English Type The nature or genre of the resource Sound Text Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context KII-01 Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant 1981-2014 Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource audio/mp3 text/pdf Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. References Walter Brueggemann, The Message of the Psalms, 1984, Henri Nouwen, Out of Solitude, 1974, Reaching Out, 1975 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context RA-4-19870116 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1987-01-16 Type The nature or genre of the resource Text Title A name given to the resource Praying to an Absent God Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available The Church School Herald Journal Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Richard A. Rhem Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Language A language of the resource eng Description An account of the resource Article created, delivered, or published by Richard A. Rhem (Dick) on January 16, 1987 entitled "Praying to an Absent God", it appeared in The Church Herald, pp. 9-11. Tags: Suffering, Prayer, Trust. Scripture references: Walter Brueggemann, The Message of the Psalms, 1984, Henri Nouwen, Out of Solitude, 1974, Reaching Out, 1975. Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource application/pdf Prayer Suffering Trust https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/b9f21ef2290e7257c9e672479f6a389c.pdf 35fb114eecee4d3cc5a28cc4589a976e PDF Text Text Prayer offered by Richard A. Rhem At the Celebration of the Life of Nancy Kay Edelmayer November 9, 2011 -––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––– God of Love, God of Life, we have gathered in this place, in this hour, still reeling from the shock, the abrupt, wrenching away of someone so loved, someone so very much an anchor of loving support, a mother, grandmother, great grandmother and friend, whose vital presence was such a strong center of the family circle and the extended community. We know that death awaits us all, that from the moment we emit our borning cry there is for all of us a final farewell. Yet, especially when the leave-taking is sudden, it seems too soon. Though spared the agonizing pain and suffering of a slow, deteriorating death, there has been no time for proper goodbyes, no time to say things so often felt but left unsaid, no time for mutual blessing and holding and hoping. And thus, the grieving comes so sharply, cuts so deeply, because there has been no time for easing into the inevitable, to adjust to the loss. Thus, we feel bereft of one whom it seemed would always be there, an anchor, a rock, a steadying presence. We remember in these moments the way she was. Images tumble through our mind: She was a natural leader, strong, knowing her own mind, decisive, yet open, marked by good humor. She was without pretence; there was an authenticity about her; she never put on airs. Her honesty was refreshing if sometimes devastating; she had little patience for the games people play © Grand Valley State University �Prayer Offered to Celebrate the Life of Nancy Kay Edelmayer Page 2 when they are being less than honest. But somehow her strength, her presence larger than life, was wrapped in warmth, in compassion, empathy and good humor. She was kind and generous. She had a big heart and she loved deeply. No wonder then, O God, her death leaves such a crater, such emptiness. And no wonder we are gathered to celebrate her good life, to remember and give thanks for the gift we have shared. And on this, the eve of her 80th birthday, we remember the words of the Psalmist, “three score years and ten or by reason of strength, four score years “… Four score years she lived, lived well and fully, and then made her own 911 call. For her good death, we give you thanks, O God. Where love looms large loss is large as well. Where bonds of love are tight, when broken, grief and loss are painful. All of that we own, we acknowledge without denial . . . Yet we sense as well the beauty of this life lived well with love and grace, ending in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, confident that new vistas of wonder await, confident that all will be well, all will be well, all manner of things will be well. Amazed by grace, now home, we rejoice for her, with her, and we worship you, O good and gracious God, through Jesus Christ our Lord who taught us all to pray saying, Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread; and forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors; And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory, forever. Amen. © 2012 Richard A. Rhem � 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. Event Nancy Edelmayer Funeral 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-1-20111109 Type The nature or genre of the resource Text Title A name given to the resource Prayer for Life 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 Prayer created, delivered, or published by Richard A. Rhem (Dick) on November 9, 2011 entitled "Prayer for Life ", on the occasion of Nancy Edelmayer Funeral. Tags: Trust. Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource application/pdf Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2011-11-09 Trust https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/7c2689ab3ee735b032e9b5d7140f983e.pdf 11512cc243754e285468d0c9c1b09a70 PDF Text Text Prayer At The Celebration of The Life of Margaret Ruth Olezczuk Richard A. Rhem The Lee Chapel, Sytsema Funeral Home Norton Shores, Michigan September 15, 2014 Transcription of the written prayer For these few moments, O God, Sacred Mystery of our lives, Creative Source, Eternal Presence, and our Final Home, grace us with awareness that we are held in the embrace of Love as family and friends and the one we have loved and lost awhile. God of our lives, beyond the changing seasons, constant through the passages that mark our days, for these moments, still our minds, quiet our hearts, be present to us as we, in Your presence, remember this one who filled so large a role in our lives. Her physical beauty was the outward embodiment of the beauty of the soul, the instrument of a human spirit that transformed every situation into which she entered, creating joy, good humor, well being. She had that about her that made us confident that all would be well – not through what she did, but simply because her presence was a sweet aroma of grace and goodness that changed everything for the better. O God, our hearts are full. Images tumble through our minds. We see her yet, always a lady, stunning, stylish, classy, able always simply to be herself – unaffected, genuine, authentic, deep. © Grand Valley State University   �Prayer in Celebration of the Life of Margaret Olezczuk Richard A. Rhem For this crown jewel of Your creative art, we give You thanks. O God, there is no denying our loss. Where love looms large, loss is large as well. Where bonds of love are tight, when broken, grief and loss are painful. All of that we own, we acknowledge without denial. Yet we are overwhelmed by the beauty, the wonder of this life that has touched us so deeply – the amazing grace with which she lived and the deep trust with which she breathed her last. And in such a time as this, in such a place as this, Gracious God, we are grateful above all that the end is not broken health and dreams unfulfilled, swallowed up in death, but rather the confidence that to live is to live unto the Lord, and to die is to die unto the Lord. So then, whether we live or die, we are the Lord’s. Receive our thanksgiving, O God. Grant the comfort of Your Spirit. Renew our hope and lead us on in the confidence that nothing can ever separate us from Your love in Christ Jesus our Lord, Who taught us to pray, saying, “Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be Thy name. Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil, for Thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen. © Grand Valley State University Page 2   � 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. Event Funeral Service at Sytsema Funeral Home Location The location of the interview Lee Chapel, Norton Shores, 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 RA-1-20140915 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2014-09-15 Type The nature or genre of the resource Text Title A name given to the resource Prayer at the Celebration of the Life of Margaret Ruth Oleszczuk 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 Prayer created, delivered, or published by Richard A. Rhem (Dick) on September 15, 2014 entitled "Prayer at the Celebration of the Life of Margaret Ruth Oleszczuk", on the occasion of Funeral Service at Sytsema Funeral Home, at Lee Chapel, Norton Shores, MI. Tags: Funeral, Prayer, Grace, Trust. Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource application/pdf Funeral Grace Prayer Trust https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/6445f66e6bb3749084003288945f25b1.pdf 98c92710c5b6e9a20a2d4da8b2baa236 PDF Text Text My God…Why? From the series: The Seven Words From the Cross Text: Mark 15:34 Richard A. Rhem Christ Community Church Spring Lake, Michigan Lent IV, March 13, 1994 Transcription of the spoken sermon "My  God,  my  God,  why  have  you  forsaken  me?  Mark  15:34   My God why? The fundamental central question of our human existence. And it is the fourth word from the cross. Actually, for Mark and Matthew where it is recorded, it is the only word from the cross. But when we combine the four gospels, as we are doing during the Lenten season, then tradition has ordered them in such fashion that it becomes the fourth word. Luke and John decided not to use this word, although they had the tradition from which it was taken. Were they somewhat frightened by the cry? Was it too strong? Was the darkness too great? Would they soften the sharp reality of that cry which pierced the night noontime? Whatever their reasons, at least from Mark and from Matthew these words are recorded, "My God, My God, why hath thou forsaken me?" During this Lenten journey we're taking a special angle on the traditional words from the cross. We've noted that it's not as though there was a court reporter down at the base of the cross recording words that came from the lips of Jesus, but rather that the evangelists selected these particular words and placed them on Jesus’ lips, in order to give us insight into their own particular understanding of the meaning of Jesus' death. These words are simply windows. From the respective evangelists these words are the windows through which we can see how they understood what was happening when Jesus died. And so what was Mark telling us by recording this awful cry, "My God, why?" It is the primal scream that arises involuntarily from the human heart in the midst of the cauldron of human suffering from time immemorial. But the cry itself, the phrase, Jesus didn't invent, nor did Mark, for it's a citation from Psalm 22. Psalm 22 is an anguished cry. It begins with those words, "My God, My God, why hath thou forsaken me?" There are some who say that what Mark is doing is reflecting the idea that Jesus was attempting to route this Psalm. If you would read Psalm 22 to its conclusion, you would find that, while it begins in deepest darkness and is a cry of human anguish, nonetheless, if you follow through to the end, the light breaks through. At its conclusion there is vindication and deliverance and praise to God. © Grand Valley State University   �My God…Why? Richard A. Rhem Page 2   There are interpreters who say that that's what Mark is telling us; but I can't really accept that because, if that's what Mark is telling us, then those to whom he wrote would have had to know that he was citing a Psalm, and there is no indication that that would have been true. Most of Mark's listeners would not have been well educated in the scripture readings. And his listeners would have had to know how the Psalm ended, would have to really know the whole Psalm. If you stop to think about it for a moment, if Mark's telling us that Jesus was reciting a Psalm that ended in trust and vindication, then what he would be conveying would be precisely the opposite of what he actually conveys with the actual words he uses: "My God, My God, why?" That is a cry of dereliction, of desolation, a shriek of horror, a wail in the darkness. That's what comes through. That's the picture. No, I don't think it was simply the beginning of a long recitation, I think it was borrowing the Psalm's opening cry of deepest anguish. There is another very common, classic, traditional theological interpretation of the cry as well. Some of you may remember the old communion liturgy that speaks about Jesus on the cross bearing the wrath of God for us. That on the cross, when he cried, "My God, My God, why hath thou forsaken me?" he was forsaken of God that we might never be forsaken. Well, wherever you might go in scripture in support of that idea, you will have to grant me that it's not in Mark. That is a theological interpretation laid on the passage. It's not in the passage itself. No, No, I think what we have here is one crying out a fundamental central question of our human existence. In the extremity of human suffering, which knows no explanation, the cry is, "My God, My God, why hath thou forsaken me?" Mark is picturing for us Jesus in the most profound suffering, crying out at the silence of heaven as his whole life in ministry is being contradicted. For it was not simply death against which Jesus was railing but the fact that in his death, everything for which he had lived seemed to be over. His strong proclamation of the nearness of God in grace, of the open accessibility of God to all, excluding none, of the presence of God in his presence at table fellowship, in his touch of compassion for those who were sick, in his incarnation of that gracious Presence of God whom he addressed in the intimacy of "Abba," the address that a child would use for a loving and trusted parent. Such intimacy had characterized his whole life. Even in the garden, even when three times over he prays, if it be thy will let this cup pass from me, even there it's "Abba." But not now, not here. Here it's "Eloi." Here it's God. The intimate communion is broken you see. He is abandoned. Heaven is silent. He is in utter despair. And he raises the question. Thank God he raises the question. A primal scream from the depths. It is an involuntary exclamation. Thank God Mark tells us that Jesus said, "My God, Why?" because that legitimizes the question you see. That means that there is human experience for which there is nothing to say but "Why?" Not an intellectual question looking for an answer, but the cry of a breaking heart looking for succor: "My God, Why?" That is a valid human experience. The bible tells us so. Jesus tells us so. © Grand Valley State University �My God…Why? Richard A. Rhem Page 3   That cry has become more poignant to me this Lent than ever before because my friend Arie Brouwer died in October. You know Arie Brouwer. He's been in this congregation. As Executive Secretary of the Reformed Church, he dedicated this sanctuary in 1978. He preached for us a couple of years ago. He was a classmate of mine, a colleague in ministry over many years. Moving from The Reformed Church to The World Council of Churches in Geneva to the National Council of Churches of Christ in this country, he was a born leader, a significant churchman, a believing Christian servant of Christ. In December of 1992, cancer was discovered. In October of 1993 he died. And a year ago during Lent he preached on the seven words from the cross. He tells a story in one of his sermons about coming from New York and a hospital examination after surgery where his son Steven asked, "Dad, you mentioned living by faith, what does that mean?" And he said, "Well Steve, I've had a love affair with God all my life, and I'm not going to let cancer come between God and me." And Steve said, "You and Mom have given your whole lives to the ministry of the church and to the kingdom of God. This seems like a strange way to repay you." And then Arie heard himself saying to his son, "Steve, I don't think that God wants me to have cancer. But I don't think God can do anything about it." And he said, "I know that that challenges something I've always believed about the almightiness of God, but I've been so busy with survival issues that I haven't been able to think about it. But I am going to think about it, and I can hardly wait until I preach on the fourth word from the cross." And when he preached that sermon in Glenrock Community Church in New Jersey just a year ago you could tell that he could hardly wait to get to the sermon because it had become his own existential quest, his wrestling in the dark in the midst of cancer, struggling with his question, "My God, My God, why?" He tells how he picked up the book by Rabbi Kushner. If you were here twelve years ago during Passion week, holy week, I treated When Bad Things Happen To Good People. Rabbi Kushner had lost a child and had gone through deep personal tragedy. Arie found himself coming to the same conclusion that Rabbi Kushner had come to: God is good. God is full of love but God cannot change this situation. The almightiness of God. Because Kushner had said, in classic logic, "If God is almighty, and will not change it, God cannot be good. If God is good and would change it but cannot, then I have to rethink who God is." In the midst of his cancer struggle this was the process through which my friend Arie was also struggling. He went to the Bible. He found out that almightiness is spoken of God ten times in the New Testament but nine of them appear in the book of Revelation. And the book of Revelation, as you know, is a book about the end time, the end of history. It confirmed Arie's conviction, as he wrestled with his question in a very personal way, that God's love and light will ultimately triumph, but that in the meantime there is no tinkering with the process of history. Whether it be God's self-limitations or however you want to explain it. And as he saw Jesus saying, "Why?" in the darkness, with the heavens sealed, his © Grand Valley State University �My God…Why? Richard A. Rhem Page 4   own experience was illuminated. And he was convinced that he must change his understanding of God in order to have God, that Loving Presence, with him in the darkness. I almost hesitated to preach on this word having heard my friend speak out of the anguish of his own dark night. It made me realize how facile is so much pulpit work. So much prattle. It is one thing to talk about the will of God and about the mystery of human suffering when one is healthy and all is well. It is another thing to speak out of the fiery furnace. As I reflected on the experience of my friend, I recognized the value of a Christian formation and the danger of it, and the inadequacy of it. Oh, a Christian formation is valuable. When cancer struck and Arie faced his mortality, he had a tradition to which to turn. He was steeped in it. He had been taught from a child. He had lived in the faith, in the church, in the community of God's people. He had a tradition of faith to which to turn, to test, to plumb. Obviously, we need to tell our children. Obviously we need to nurture our adolescents, giving them a place to stand, a compass for their lives. Obviously we all need a reason for the hope that is within us. We need to be able to speak of the things we believe and the things by which we live and for which we live. There is value in that. What a precious gift to be deeply steeped in a strong tradition of faith. But there is a danger too. The danger is that my understanding of the faith will be, in my mind, identical with the God to whom it points. The danger of a strong traditioning in the faith is that I will see my faith understanding as the absolute truth, rather than a relative grasp of something that is far beyond my grasp. The danger of a strong Christian tradition is that I will come to a moment, as Arie came, when I am face to face with an idea, a conception that no longer works. Then if I have identified my idea of God with God, as though the two were absolutely identical, then if my idea crashes, my God crashes. If I have failed to recognize that all of my catechisms and creeds and confessions are stammering, stumbling, human attempts to express what is beyond expression, to apprehend what is incomprehensible, if I don't know that my best wisdom and insight is a partial piece of a larger puzzle, then, when I come into the crunch and it doesn't work, I will be afraid not simply that my formulation needs reworking, but that my God is gone. Arie went through that experience. He told how, throughout all of his ministry he'd thought about these things, as we all do. And he had tried to rationalize the problem by making a distinction between the prescriptive will of God and the permissive will of God. Now it's a neat scheme. The prescriptive will of God says these are the things God wills, and the permissive will of God is about the things that God does not will but allows. That can work in some situations. He tells, however, that shortly before preaching that sermon a year ago he saw Billy Graham interviewed by David Frost. Arie knew Billy Graham and respected him. He had crossed paths with him many times. David Frost was pressing Billy Graham. He said to him, "What do you say to a parent whose child has born © Grand Valley State University �My God…Why? Richard A. Rhem Page 5   severely handicapped, or what do you say about your own Parkinson's disease?" And Arie heard Billy Graham give this distinction between the things that God wills and the things that God allows, adding, "When I see God, I'll have a lot of questions." With great passion Arie reacted, "Billy it just won't do! If you tell me you've got good news from God about all kinds of lesser things but when it comes right down to the center of my existence you have no news, it just won't do. It won't do for me anymore because it won't do anymore for those who love me." Fortunately, Arie was one who was open and growing and who could look his faith formulations in the face and say, "that won't work anymore. I've got to break through that and move beyond that." Fortunately, he was one who had learned the truth of the poet who penned these words: "Our little systems have their day, they have their day and cease to be. They are but broken lights of thee, and thou, Oh Lord, are more than they." But unless one is open and growing, strong faith formation can be dangerous when you get in the crunch. The finest gift I could give you would be if you hear me, if you could learn from me, if you could receive from me, that you ought to trust God with all your heart, and hold all of your convictions lightly. But an inherited faith, valuable though it is and dangerous though it can become, is finally inadequate. If I have only that which has been given to me, if I have a system of faith, a creedal confessional background, assumptions untested, simply absorbed, they'll not do it for me in the darkness. Finally, one must own one's own faith convictions, and that will not come apart from concrete human experience. If I have a set of truths that I have to impress upon my experience in order that I may understand my experience, I'm in deep trouble. It is rather out of an honest living of my experience that I come to reflect on the tradition that has been given to me and then make it my own through reformulation and new insight. Secondhand faith will not do it for you in a crisis. Somebody else's convictions and conclusions will not allow you to float in the storm. Finally, I must believe what I really believe. I like Mark's gospel. I'm grateful that Mark brought Jesus to his last breath with no shout of triumph, no light breaking through, just simply the awful question, "My God, why?" because that's honest. That's the way it is all too often, for all too many. But if that's Jesus last word in Mark's portrayal, it's not God's last word. For following Good Friday dawned Easter Sunday. I mentioned Arie’s funeral in December during Advent. He had become fascinated with Greek Orthodox liturgy and the music of worship of the Eastern Rite. And the funeral service began with a long prelude of entrance music and then the service ensued. The point at which we would come to the committal service, dust to dust, ashes to ashes, there was once again the entrance music. I thought perhaps it was a mistake until I realized that the first entrance music was the entrance into the presence of God in worship, and the second entrance music pointed to the entrance of my brother into light eternal. As the congregation was © Grand Valley State University �My God…Why? Richard A. Rhem Page 6   acknowledging dust to dust, God was saying, "Good and faithful servant, enter into the joy of your Lord.” No easy solution this side of the final breath. But there is light beyond, thank God. © Grand Valley State University � https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/fa6fd6b910172cc5eba98f79eb69613e.mp3 4ab11f0a86c446faf4c7651bd03d01d2 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 The Seven Last Words of Christ Scripture Text Mark 15:34 Location The location of the interview Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context KII-01_RA-0-19940313 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1994-03-13 Title A name given to the resource My God, ...Why? 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 13, 1994 entitled "My God, ...Why?", as part of the series "The Seven Last Words of Christ", on the occasion of Lent IV, at Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI. Scripture references: Mark 15:34. Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Lemmen Library and Archives Creeds Lent Nature of God Reimagining the Faith Trust