Psalm 1:1-6
who do not walk in step with the wicked
or stand in the way that sinners take
or sit in the company of mockers,
but
who delight in the law of the LORD and meditate on his law day and night.
They
are like a tree planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in season
and whose leaf does not wither— whatever
they do prospers.
Not
so the wicked! They are like chaff that the wind blows away.
Therefore
the wicked will not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the assembly of the
righteous. For the LORD watches over the way of the righteous, but the way of
the wicked will be destroyed.
1
Corinthians 5:9-11
My great aunt Lucille was my oldest
relative. When I was a child, she would
talk about the war. The Civil War. She talked about her uncles, all of whom were
missing an arm or leg. She could tell
you which family relative died at Shiloh, and which one died as a POW in Maryland
Actually, Great Aunt Lucille was born in
1875, a decade after the war. But she
grew up under influence of the war. She
heard her father tell the stories at the dinner table. She heard the uncles talk about their
battles.
We all live life under the influence. Our history, our environment, our culture,
the stories we hear, the people around us – they influence us. Whether we like it or not, and even if we are
aware of it or not, everything around us has an influence on who we are, what
we believe, what we do.
Great Aunt Lucille was influenced by the
words she heard at the dinner table. And
so, while she was born ten years after the end of the war, she never, ever
liked my Dad. She never trusted
him. Aunt Lucille was on my mother’s
side of the family, but Dad, while he was born in South
Carolina , was the son of parents from Massachusetts
We live life under the influence.
We can’t escape it. We are surrounded by history, and culture and
music, and words, and stories. And like
it or not, all that surrounds us become threads weaving in and out of the
fabric of our souls.
We all live our lives under some sort of influence. And so we are told in our Old Testament
lesson, “Blessed are those
who do not walk in step with the wicked
or stand in the way that sinners take
or sit in the company of mockers…”
who do not walk in step with the wicked
or stand in the way that sinners take
or sit in the company of mockers…”
What is the influence of your life?
For some people, this Psalm seems to be
telling us to be so careful with whom we associate and that we should have
nothing to do with anyone who is immoral in any way. In fact, Paul in his letter to the
Corinthians begins our New Testament reading by saying, “I have told you not to
have anything to do with immoral people.”
Avoid anyone who is a negative
influence.
Avoid anyone who would influence you to lie
or cheat.
Avoid anyone who lives life in a way other
than what Christ would desire.
Avoid them!
And, in fact, that is what many parents
teach their children, even though parents know what Paul would eventually get
around to admitting – you can’t avoid evil people all the time. You will be influenced by them. Like it, or not.
+++
A few years ago one of the members of the youth group had a new CD that he was showing others in the youth group - he was very happy to have it - it was at that time the latest thing and everyone wanted that album.
On the cover was a naked man. A knife had ripped out his heart and there
was blood everywhere in the picture. In
the corner of the cover of the CD was a warning to parents. “Parental advisory” or some such words, that
obviously that child’s mother had ignored.
So I talked about music. I talked about how it was a gift from
God. And how it can glorify God. And how it can inspire. Or not.
Music does not always inspire. It
is not always positive. So we have to be
careful with the music we listen to. Because the words become part of our soul.
As I gave that children’s devotional, I was
hoping that the mother of that child was listening that day. I thought the music was inappropriate for the
child to listen to, and I thought the mother should have kept that influence
completely out of her child’s life.
It was later that week that I remembered my
father tried to do the very same thing with me.
I wanted to buy some Elvis Presley albums and my father, believing that
rock and roll was the devil’s music, prohibited me from buying any recordings
by the King of Rock and Roll. While I
was begging my Dad to give me some of that old time rock and roll, because I
thought it would soothe my soul,[1]
Dad decided to protect me from the evil influence of the devil’s music. My Dad then went to his music collection and
gave me three albums, all by the same singer, and as he handed me those albums
he said, “Al Jolson is good enough for anyone.”
Now what makes that story so interesting is
that a few years ago, as I was preparing to move here, I was selling stuff, and
throwing away stuff, and giving away stuff.
I just had too much stuff and moving was good time to lighten the load –
if you’ve ever moved, you know what that’s like. I came across those three Al Jolson albums
that my Dad had given me. They were
stacked with all of my Elvis Pressley and Beatles and Steppenwolf albums. I took a lot of them to a collector and there
were three albums he bought.
You guessed it. He bought the three Al Jolson albums.
He didn’t even look at the records. They could have been badly scratched and he
still would have bought them. He was
fascinated by the album covers. He said,
“these are the most offensive, evil, vile album covers I’ve ever seen.”
My father would have been shocked. He thought they were wholesome, but there on
each album cover was Al Jolson dressed in blackface.
Now for those of you who do not know,
blackface was a form of entertainment that lasted from the 1830s until around
the 1950s. White singers would paint
their faces black, their mouths white.
They would depict African Americans as charactertures in a manner that
today is understood as racist.
But that is the way it is with the
influences under which we live our lives.
It is sometimes so subtle, that the evil does not become apparent until
many years later. In the late 1950s, my
Dad would have never have thought of Al Jolson in blackface as a bad influence
on a young child’s image of African Americans.
Theologically, sin is NOT a list of dos and
don’ts. It is a part of the nature of
humanity that so permeates this world that everything we do is tainted by
it. So we are all influenced by its
presence, and you can’t get away from it.
So what does it mean? “Blessed is the one who does not walk in the
counsel of the wicked or stand in the way of sinners, or sit in the seat of
mockers.”
It does not mean that you are to completely
avoid the influence of the immoral. Even
Jesus did not try that – in fact, he delighted in every opportunity to be with
anyone and everyone, no matter their lifestyle.
The biggest criticism of Jesus by his contemporaries was “He eats with
sinners.”[2]
What this Psalm forbids is not walking in
the company of the wicked, but rather walking in the guidance or counsel of the
wicked.
What this Psalm forbids is not standing
alongside the sinner, but rather standing in the belief and lifestyle of the
sinner.
What this Psalm forbids is not sitting
beside someone who is immoral, but rather sitting in their seat and adopting
their ways.
You cannot avoid the negative neighbor
whose influence drains your spirit.
You cannot avoid working with people who
have lifestyles that are offensive.
You cannot avoid racist people. Or hateful people. Or sexist people. Or greedy people.
And you will live your life under the
influence of such people ---
Unless you take one step that can put your
life back into balance.
It is a step found in our Old Testament
lesson.
Blessed is the man who does not walk in
the counsel of the wicked or stand in the way of sinners or sit in the seat of
mockers. But his delight is in the law
of the LORD, and on his law he meditates day and night.
We live life under the influence.
We can’t control the influences under which
we live our lives, but we can balance them with the most positive of all
influences – the Word of God.
Time and again in Scripture, the Word of God
says of itself that it is useful for putting balance into your life. Psalm 119:11 says, “Your Word have I hidden
in my heart, that I might not sin against you.”
It is true, you cannot avoid the negative
neighbor, but you can balance that negativity with God’s Word about joy and
peace.
It is true, you cannot avoid working with
people who have lifestyles that are offensive, but God’s Word can teach love
and tolerance.
It is true, you cannot avoid racist
people. Or hateful people. Or sexist people. Or greedy people. But by making the Word of God part of your
life, you can walk in God’s way, rather than, as Psalm 1 warns, “walk in the
counsel of the wicked.”
The problem is, the Word of God sits on our
nightstands, not in our hearts.
Our Bibles decorate our bookshelves, or
gather dust, and are rarely opened.
In a world that is bombarding us with
influences of all sorts – desirable AND undesirable, are we meditating on the
“word day and night?”
When will we read the Word of God? When will we let it be the primary influence
of our lives?
Copyright 2015.
Dr. W. Maynard Pittendreigh
All rights reserved
Ministers may feel free to use some or all of this sermon in
their own ministries as long as they do not publish in print or on the Internet
without ascribing credit to the author.
