To That Rock I'm Clinging

To That Rock I’m Clinging

A sermon delivered by Rev. Peter T. Atkinson

October 1, 2017

at Bethany Presbyterian Church, Zuni, Virginia

2 Samuel 7: 4-7

Matthew 5: 38-42

Let us pray,

Help us to see despite our eyes

Help us to think outside of our minds

Help us to be more than our lives   

For your eyes show the way

    Your mind knows the truth

    Your being is the life.

Amen.

As we have been going through the Apostle Paul’s “marks of a Christian” according to his letter to the Romans, we have begun each week with reading that full passage. So again this morning here are the marks, Romans 12: 9-21:

⁹ Let love be genuine; hate what is evil, hold fast to what is good; ¹⁰ love one another with mutual affection; outdo one another in showing honor. ¹¹ Do not lag in zeal, be ardent in spirit, serve the Lord. ¹² Rejoice in hope, be patient in suffering, persevere in prayer. ¹³ Contribute to the needs of the saints; extend hospitality to strangers.

¹⁴ Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse them. ¹⁵ Rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep. ¹⁶ Live in harmony with one another; do not be haughty, but associate with the lowly; do not claim to be wiser than you are. ¹⁷ Do not repay anyone evil for evil, but take thought for what is noble in the sight of all. ¹⁸ If it is possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all. ¹⁹ Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave room for the wrath of God, for it is written, “Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord.” ²⁰ No, “if your enemies are hungry, feed them; if they are thirsty, give them something to drink; for by doing this you will heap burning coals on their heads.” ²¹ Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.

So far we have gotten through all of the first verse, which is verse 9. . . “Let love be genuine; hate what is evil, hold fast to what is good;” last week we talked of the importance of hating what is evil, setting up your life in aversion to whatever is evil, and we looked at how that can be problematic, because so often hating, itself, can become a slippery slope, that if you are hating evil, the very act of hating, can slip slide into evil itself, and that you can become quickly the very thing you were opposing so valiantly, and as if Paul knows that tendency, and I think he does, he follows the hating what is evil, with hold fast to what is good. And actually I really like the NIV translation of this, not “hold fast” but “cling” as if you might lose your grip, as if it might be difficult to hold on, as if you are hanging out over a precipice and your very life, your very well being depends upon you holding on, there you hang, clinging with all of your might to the good. I like that imagery because history I think shows us that the human grip on the good is constantly in danger because letting go is easier, more comfortable, less challenging, more efficient, effective, expeditious, or what is so often the case, it just seems to us like there is no reason to cling to the good, we might as well let go because we can convince ourselves that it doesn’t matter anyway, there is no precipice, there is no risk, we are ok.

I want to look at a few examples from human history where people lost this battle. They found themselves to be good, okay, set, and stopped clinging to the good. The first I want to look at is our Old Testament lesson from this morning. . . Here we find King David, with all of the success that God has given him. At this point he has defeated Goliath, been lifted by God from a little shepherd boy to King of Israel, having risen above Saul, because he was chosen by God. He has risen to the top. . . and you could say he grows comfortable. But look at what God tells him here at the high water mark of his career as king. And I know that your bulletin only has v. 4-7, but I’m going to include a little bit more for the sake of context. . . This is 2 Samuel 7: 4-16

⁴ But that same night the word of the Lord came to Nathan: ⁵ Go and tell my servant David: Thus says the Lord: Are you the one to build me a house to live in? ⁶ I have not lived in a house since the day I brought up the people of Israel from Egypt to this day, but I have been moving about in a tent and a tabernacle. ⁷ Wherever I have moved about among all the people of Israel, did I ever speak a word with any of the tribal leaders^[a] of Israel, whom I commanded to shepherd my people Israel, saying, “Why have you not built me a house of cedar?” ⁸ Now therefore thus you shall say to my servant David: Thus says the Lord of hosts: I took you from the pasture, from following the sheep to be prince over my people Israel; ⁹ and I have been with you wherever you went, and have cut off all your enemies from before you; and I will make for you a great name, like the name of the great ones of the earth. ¹⁰ And I will appoint a place for my people Israel and will plant them, so that they may live in their own place, and be disturbed no more; and evildoers shall afflict them no more, as formerly, ¹¹ from the time that I appointed judges over my people Israel; and I will give you rest from all your enemies. Moreover the Lord declares to you that the Lord will make you a house. ¹² When your days are fulfilled and you lie down with your ancestors, I will raise up your offspring after you, who shall come forth from your body, and I will establish his kingdom. ¹³ He shall build a house for my name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever. ¹⁴ I will be a father to him, and he shall be a son to me. When he commits iniquity, I will punish him with a rod such as mortals use, with blows inflicted by human beings. ¹⁵ But I will not take^[b] my steadfast love from him, as I took it from Saul, whom I put away from before you. ¹⁶ Your house and your kingdom shall be made sure forever before me;^[c] your throne shall be established forever.

This is the great covenant that God makes with David, recalling how God has been with him from the beginning, but look at what David had wanted to do. He wanted to build a house for God, a temple, he looks at his own situation, in the palace, and cannot understand why God would dwell in just that old tabernacle that had been through so much. He sees that as problematic, an injustice, and he thinks it is his duty to set things right. . . and it is response to this that God reminds him of his place. . . I have done all this for you, I have pulled you from following sheep to set you in the palace, put the crown on your head. . . do not think that it is your place to build a palace for me. It is so interesting right, why wouldn’t David out of thanksgiving build God a temple? Why would that be wrong? How could it be wrong? But God knows. . . he knows us so well. He knows that when we find ourselves in power, we start with good intentions, but then we lose grip on the good really fast, before we even realize. God knows this about David, I believe, and promises here that the covenant will be strong, even in his son, but there is danger in giving too much power to a man of action like David has been.. . a man of action has needed to be effective, pragmatic, efficient, and it is too often the case that a man of action can forget the good, the God, that made all of the success possible in the first place, and begin to take credit himself. Or maybe it is just possible that God knows the next pieces of David’s story. It is in the next chapter, early in the reign that David lusts after Bathsheba, commits adultery with her, and has her husband, one of David’s most important military officers, Uriah the Hitite, killed, not even by David’s own hand, but by cowardly putting him forward in the battle. So despicable. . . and then the story of Absolom’s rebellion. . . David struggles with clinging to the good, he waivers, and goes back and forth. God’s steadfast love is solid, but David like so many of us does not continuously cling to the good.

And David falls away from the good when all is going well, but so often it is the other way around. . . sometimes in success we lose our grip, and sometimes in trials. . . Think of the Israelites having been freed from Egypt, suffering in the desert, they lose faith and wish instead for the chains in Egypt that they have left behind. . . Things start to get bad and there must be another way, an easier way, a way that seems so right in the moment, but is not the good. What about not just when things are going well, or things are going badly, but what about when someone hurts you, when someone else behaves badly to you, acts against you, does that give you the excuse to change your actions, how hard is it to cling to the good then? This leads me to the New Testament Lesson, this one of the famous passages from the Sermon on the Mount. . .

³⁸ “You have heard that it was said, ‘An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.’ ³⁹ But I say to you, Do not resist an evildoer. But if anyone strikes you on the right cheek, turn the other also; ⁴⁰ and if anyone wants to sue you and take your coat, give your cloak as well; ⁴¹ and if anyone forces you to go one mile, go also the second mile. ⁴² Give to everyone who begs from you, and do not refuse anyone who wants to borrow from you.

So I said something about the danger of letting go of the good when everything is going well, and I said something about the challenge of clinging to the good when everything is falling apart and you are facing challenges, but what about when someone has just smacked you in the face. Literally or figuratively, what then? What about when the person you are working for, after a long day of working hard, tells you to come and put in a little over time, but for no pay, just because you are needed, what about clinging to the good, then, clinging to what you know is right after someone has stolen your coat? Could you still live free and open, or would you lock every door? Could you cling to the good while having to go that extra mile? Could you cling to the good enough to turn that other cheek? Why is it so important to cling to the good? Frankly because rarely do people do so, and the result is our world. . . with all its cycles of evil, injustice, and misfortune. . . Good is what breaks those cycles, sometimes it’s on a small and personal level. . . a friendship that breaks apart ends in a grudge, but sometimes it’s on a much larger global scale. A few years ago I wrote this poem about this issue, of when things just start to slide away from the good, at first slowly and then. . . well let’s take a look

Progress and Progressive 

Progress is not as loathsome as progressive,

Just as active pales in comparison to activist.

When a movement organizes the mob,

Watch Out! Change is gonna come child.

The pendulum will swing the guillotine’s blade,

Removing all obstacles in the path,

But the momentum grows and loses direction

And discretion, then desecration and destruction

Follow, replacing oppression with oppression,

Power with power, corruption with corruption

Human authority with human authority,

And God, who inspired the first steps,

Justice, which pointed out the inherent evils,

Love, which catalyzed the necessity,

Are lost when the blade sweeps side to side

Again and again, throughout human history. 

This is what seems to always happen. We hate injustice, we hate inequality, we hate oppression, we hate the way the powerful are corrupt, we hate the way the world is unfair, we hate the way that people are marginalized, we hate how children across the world are starving, we hate the way our money is spent on wars, we hate how our educational systems are in decline, we hate how money is being wasted, we hate that taxes are going up, that inflation is going up, that the debt is going up, we hate, we hate, we hate. We hate these things but then these things turn into other people, the other side, our opponents, and then we hate them, and we are lost, and God forbid you give power to that hate because then we've all lost, hate goes into action and all of the good intentions of hating injustice are lost, and lost forever, and the guillotine sweeps side to side, again and again and again and again. Because it seems that all we do is hate what is evil, we don't also cling to what is good.

Have you ever noticed how things in today’s world become political and then they all seem to get fuzzy? I think it is because no one clings to the good. . . they get locked up on one thing and then they forget the bottom line, they forget the good. They allow their own unique perspective and anger, to excuse the big picture. The big one in today’s headlines is the National Anthem at NFL games. Does anyone have a clear cut understanding of who is right and who is wrong with this. . . even if you do, even if you wrap yourself in the flag, or if you side with the players and can see the racial injustices that they say they are fighting for, the message has been corrupted because they allowed the good to become second. . . and the message is lost completely. . .It is the same with Statues, global warming, marriage, abortion, etc., because the good is forgotten, rather than positive change, the only thing that comes is more division and hypocrisy. . . the issue takes precedence and the people are lost.

How do we cling to the good? How do we not let ourselves lose the good? I think, and it must because it is so rare, it must take constant vigilance. The wise man built his house upon the rock and the rains came tumbling down. Clinging to the good is building on good foundation, with good soil, good nourishment, and good fruit is produced, likewise evil produces ruin, or as children like to sing, "the rains came down and the floods came up and the house on the sand went "Splat" or was it swing. . . Chop! The Psalms are filled with this same language, in Psalm 34, verse 10: "The young lions suffer want and hunger, but those who seek the Lord lack no good thing."^[1][2] Seek the Lord, lack no good thing. Psalm 1 as well:

¹     Happy are those

who do not follow the advice of the wicked,

or take the path that sinners tread,

or sit in the seat of scoffers;

²     but their delight is in the law of the Lord,

and on his law they meditate day and night.

³     They are like trees

planted by streams of water,

which yield their fruit in its season,

and their leaves do not wither.

In all that they do, they prosper.^[2][3]

If we cling to the good, cling to God there, cling to the cross, there is good fruit within us, each of us, and we will prosper, and we will be able to hate evil without succumbing to evil. If we cling to good, cling to God, we can truly band together in a trusting community. If we cling to good, cling to God, the evil that we hate stands no chance. Only this clinging can stop the human pattern that we are caught up in only this can stop the swinging blade before it again swings and chops. Let us dull the blade, let us cut the rope, let us cling to the good, hate what is evil and love genuinely, both God and our neighbor,

In the Celtic tradition of Christianity, they created traditions of singing prayers. They would have prayers for each of their daily tasks. . . the idea that if they could pray constantly, they could remain vigilant, their daily work would be dedicated to God because they would be praying while doing it, but also their hearts would be clinging to God because they were constantly praying. Sometimes these prayers took the form of songs. . . have you ever had a song stuck in your head? Of course you have. . . how lasting and wonderful could it be if the message of that song was building up your soul, and forging a relationship with God. . . You couldn’t keep from singing, and your life would become a prayer song to God. I took the title of this sermon from an old hymn I’d like to sing for you now, as a way to prepare for Communion and coming to the table. . . How can I keep from Singing?

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