“The Inexorable March”
Psalm 2
First
Presbyterian
The Reverend
Thomas A. Sweet
May 24, 2009
Seventh
Sunday of Easter and Memorial Day Weekend Sunday
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When
I first learned that the choir was going to sing The Battle Hymn of the Republic today, I admit that I was, at first,
a little flummoxed. But only a
little so, and only for a few brief minutes.
The reason my little funk was short-lived is that I trust Cindy
completely. In twelve or thirteen
years of planning worship together, I think she has made zero errors in judgment
while covering over mine with some regularity.
Almost always we confer about our services of worship but, in those few
times when the opportunity escapes us, it seems as if we are thinking with one
mind anyway. Normally, we do not do
“patriotic” in our worship here, not because there is anything wrong with
loving one’s country, but because the tendency to over-identify the will and
favor of God with one’s own nation already is well developed in most of us and
we do not need any further encouragement. We
may be citizens of the
The
other reason my distemper about Battle
Hymn was short-lived was that, though it often is used as such, the Battle
Hymn of the Republic really is not a patriotic song.
It is, as I delved into the text of the lyrics and the context of its
origin, a religious anthem that affirms the – and before I say it, I just want
you to know how much I love the word I am about to use…it is so lush and
descriptive, it has such a galloping momentum about it, it inspires hope and
trust just in the saying of it – Battle
Hymn is a religious anthem that affirms the inexorable
march, the onward march, the unalterable march, the unstoppable march of God’s
truth in the world.
Caution
and caveat: our truth is not to be
too quickly or easily assumed to be God’s truth.
In fact, it so seldom is that Isaiah tells us that God said to
The
inexorable march of God’s truth.
Do
you remember how Mary sang of God’s truth as it was put in her heart by
God’s Spirit after finding out that she was to give birth to a child “whose
name will be called Jesus”? In
what we call The Magnificat, Mary sings
My soul magnifies the Lord,
and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior…
He has shown strength with his arm;
he has scattered the proud in the imaginings of their hearts.
He has brought down the powerful from their thrones,
and lifted up the lowly;
he has filled the hungry with good things,
and sent the rich empty away.
(Luke 1:46ff)
The
inexorable march of God’s truth.
In
Julia Ward Howe’s Battle Hymn poetry,
written during the American Civil War, she celebrates the inexorable march of
God’s truth as slaves were being liberated and emancipated from their enforced
servitude. She did so with a
plethora of scriptural support, beginning with the Bible’s archetypal story of
the divinely-inspired exodus of the Israelites from the bondage to the
Egyptians.
The
inexorable march of God’s truth.
Psalm
2 tells of the plight of kings and rulers and nations who believe they can
transgress God’s truth with impunity, stop it short, or alter it to serve
their own plans and purposes and privilege.
Why do the nations conspire,
and the peoples plot in vain?
The kings of the earth set themselves,
and the rulers take counsel together,
against the Lord and the Lord’s anointed, saying,
“Let us burst their bonds asunder,
and cast their cords from us.”
The
psalmist is blunt when he conveys God’s response to those who display such
insolence and arrogance:
The Lord who sits in the heavens
laughs;
the Lord holds them in derision.
Why?
Because of the inexorable march of God’s truth.
Perhaps by our actions against it, God’s truth can be delayed for a
while, but it cannot be denied.
In
his transcendent speech at the culmination of the march from Selma to
Montgomery, Alabama in 1965 in the quest for civil rights for all people, Dr.
Martin Luther King, Jr. spoke of the inexorable march of God’s truth, saying,
“I know you are asking today, ‘How
long will it take?’ Somebody’s asking, ‘How long will prejudice blind the
visions of men, darken their understanding, and drive bright-eyed wisdom from
her sacred throne?’ Somebody’s
asking, ‘When will wounded justice, lying prostrate on the streets of
“’‘I come to say to you this
afternoon, however difficult the moment, however frustrating the hour, it will
not be long because ‘truth crushed to earth will rise again.’”
“How long?
Not long, because ‘no lie can live forever.’”
“How long?
Not long, because ‘you shall reap what you sow.’”
“How long?
Not long:
Truth forever on the scaffold,
Wrong forever on the throne,
Yet that scaffold sways the future,
And, behind the dim unknown,
Standeth God within the shadow,
Keeping watch above his own.”
“How long?
Not long, because the arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends
toward justice.”
“How long?
Not long, because
Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord;
He is trampling out the vintage where the grapes of wrath are stored;
He hath loosed the fateful lightning of his terrible swift sword;
His truth is marching on.
He hath sounded forth the trumpet that shall never call retreat;
He is sifting out the hearts of men before his judgment seat.
O, be swift, my soul, to answer Him!
Be jubilant, my feet!
Our God is marching on.
Glory, glory, hallelujah!
God’s truth is marching on!”
The
inexorable march of God’s truth.
The
Old Testament prophets who challenged their fellow and sister countrymen all
were motivated by their knowledge that finally nothing can stand in the way of
God’s truth coming to full flower. Not
even a so-called chosen people or a so-called chosen nation trumps the
inexorable march of God’s truth, as ancient
So,
the call goes out to torture no more no matter what because “what
does it profit a nation to gain the world but to lose its soul?”
So,
the call goes out for the poor to be lifted up because “a nation that quenches dimly burning wicks or crushes bruised
reeds” will not long stand itself.
So,
the call goes out to serve the community of nations on earth with equity and
magnanimity and not to subdue them for self-interest or self-gain for “God so
loves the world…”
So
we sing today of the inexorable march
of God’s truth in the world. And
if we sing of it, there is only one thing then for us to do.
To join it. To join the
inexorable march of God’s truth til it frightens away every demonic impulse,
til it enlightens every human heart, til it brightens every human action, and
til it lightens every human load to the end that justice flowing down like
mighty waters will bathe the world in peace.
On
what kind of march is God’s truth? An
inexorable march. What kind of
march? Inexorable.
God’s truth is marching on. There
is no higher calling than to give your life to it…to heed the prophets and the
gospels and the big-Spirited life and teachings of Jesus the Christ even when to
do so causes discomfort in you, even when it causes you to convert your mind and
to change your ways. So, join the
march, the inexorable march.
Amen.
©
Copyright 2009 First Presbyterian Church