Twenty-third Sunday in Ordinary Time, September 6, 2020         (today’s lectionary)
Go set a watchman
In the army a private is told by a general (think a moment about the words “private” and “general”), “I want you to spend the night on the edge of camp, watching for the enemy.”
If you see something, sound the alarm!
In a medieval town the sheriff hires a deputy and assigns him the job of spending the night on the ramparts, looking out over the moat, watching for the enemy.
If you see something, sound the alarm!
We consider, in small and large groups, who we could ask to be our watchman, and what enemy that person might watch for (think a moment about the words “president” and “congresswoman”).
The Vietnam War expanded under three US presidents. Bella Abzug was sure that would NOT have happened if one or more of those three presidents had been a woman. I agree with her.
If you see something, sound the alarm!
Thus says the Lord:
I have appointed you watchman for the house of Israel,
And what you hear from me you must speak out.
God further says that if the watchman does NOT speak, then the watchman will be guilty under God and under the law for the death and destruction of the army, the town, the people.
If you hear my voice and do NOT speak out what I say,
The wicked shall yet die for their guilt,
But I will hold YOU responsible for their death.
Most Fridays I take time to listen to “conservative” and “liberal” commentators on PBS, this week David Brooks and Jonathan Capehart. Usually these watchmen are looking for different enemies and have different action plans. I agree with parts of what they both say, and then I wonder about my own voice. When should I speak, and what should I say? Am I hearing from God through the human voices around me?
If today you hear his voice, harden not your hearts.
Acclaim the rock of our salvation.
Psalm 95 tells me to listen to God and respond – bow down to Him with praise, worship, and thanks. Like C. S. Lewis, I’d prefer to do this alone in my house, but like C. S. Lewis I discover I must rub shoulders with my friends and family and yes, even enemies, in God’s house. In his groundbreaking book Holy Longing, Ron Rolheiser lists “ecclesiology,” or church-going, as a completely necessary spiritual practice. At church we aren’t supposed to agree, we are supposed to learn to love.
And just how, pray, will I learn that? Well, mostly, by listening when others’ speak and I disagree, and then speaking myself so they can do the same. Speaking out in church isn’t limited to ancient bearded prophets, or to evangelical preachers or to priests. We all need to learn to love before we can safely learn to agree.
But I’m putting up a fight here. What do I say, and when do I say it? I can just hear it now. “Who made YOU the watchman?”
Paul didn’t hesitate to speak, and encourages me with he learned about the law of love.
Love your neighbor as yourself.
Love does no evil to your neighbor.
God entrusts you with the message of reconciliation.
This is so different from me as the monkey holding my hands over my eyes and ears and mouth. When I see and hear what I’m sure God is calling evil, Jesus says I must say something!
If your brother sins against you, David,
Go and tell him so.
But he isn’t finished with me yet. Jesus moves me out of my house and into HIS house, beyond my face-to-face with one other person, and into community.
If he doesn’t listen, take two or three others with you and tell him again.
This feels to me like a Hard Teaching. But just as it was for Yahweh and Ezekiel, so it is for Jesus. Sin in the community is a big deal! When I see it, hear it, feel it … I have to say something. Couple that with Jesus’ metaphor about the plank in my eye which makes it harder to see my own sin, and it’s obvious that I need you to see my evil, and you need me to see yours.
God is speaking to us all the time. Over and over he says, “This is the law of love. Obey it.”
Do not be afraid.
            (Ezekiel 33, Psalm 95, Romans 13, 2 Corinthians 5, Matthew 18)
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