2026-09-06 Pentecost 15
Grace, mercy, and peace be to you from God our Father and our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen!
The craziest thing about life is that it’s almost impossible to see your own sins. It’s like your neighbour’s kids. They’re awful. They do all kinds of bad stuff. They’re disrespectful. Obnoxious. Undisciplined. They walk the dog and let it pee on your lawn. They hang around with the wrong crowd. All they do is play video games all day and so on. Meanwhile, your kids are great. Ok, Ok, they’re not perfect, but they’re way better than the neighbour’s kids, that’s for sure. We are often blind to the mistakes, goof-ups and sins of our own kids. We will cover for them, make excuses for them, turn the blind eye to their iniquity. But the neighbour’s kids, pfff, you see them sinning a mile away!
But that’s just the kids! What about ourselves? Our sins are often invisible … to us. Here’s a funny story. When I made up the September calendar, I put all the monthly events in. I went over it, I checked it, two or three times at least I reviewed it to make sure I didn’t forget anything. Satisfied with my work, I printed some copies for you fine people to pick up. Last Sunday, our beloved congregational president, Ravishing Randy I call him, he comes in and takes one look at that calendar and says, Labour Day isn’t the first. It’s the seventh! What? Sure enough, I had Labour Day on the wrong day. I looked at that calendar a zillion times before pressing print button! It’s almost impossible to see our own sins - but others can spot them right away!
Our lessons today all have this “sin detector” common thread through them. The Gospel talks about the protocol for when someone sins against you. “Go and tell him his fault, between you and him alone” (MT 18:15). St. Paul does precisely this when St. Peter was caught up in Jewish hypocrisy. He says “I opposed him to his face, because he stood condemned” (Gal 2:11). And our Ezekiel reading gives us a really good visual for this: a watchman, standing on guard to protect the people.
This text comes to us from the time of the Neo-Babylonian Empire. Way back in the 500s BC. King Nebuchadnezzar had ascended to power and became the dominant power in the Near East. He came through and conquered the people of Judah. His general, Nebuzaradan, then looted the Temple, burned it and the royal palace, tore down the city walls, and deported much of the population. God’s people were held in captivity in a foreign land, a long way from home, unable to worship in their temple. They had a lot of time to ponder why this happened. Ultimately, they came to the conclusion that this terrible exile happened because of their ongoing failure to honor the covenant that God made with their ancestors. They fell into idol worship and embracing the sins of the peoples around them. It was then that Ezekiel received his call to be a prophet and call the people on their sins that they would embrace repentance.
To this end, God tells Ezekiel that he is to be a watchman. At the beginning of chapter 33 he describes the duties of a watchman. If he saw an enemy army coming to attack them, it was his duty to blow the trumpet, sounding the alarm and warning the people. Upon hearing this grave warning, the people could flee to safety behind the fortified walls of the city … or, they could perish. The watchman was accountable only for giving the warning. He was accountable for the process, not the results. As a prophet, Ezekiel was a watchman for the spiritual lives of the people of God. He was called to warn the people to turn from their wicked ways or die in their iniquity. If he was faithful and warned them, he did his part. He was not held accountable for how the people respond. If he failed to warn them though, then that was a different story. The wicked person’s “blood I will require at your hand” God tells him.
So what are the implications here? First of all, when last I checked, none of your first names were “Ezekiel!” That is to say, most people on planet earth have not been called to be prophets. Being the watchman was a specific office that Ezekiel held as a prophet. By extension, we could say that Pastors and Bishops share this same kind of role. The scriptures emphasize that those in such offices will bear heavier accountability (James 3:1; Hebrews 13:17; Acts 20:26–28). They are charged to declare the whole counsel of God, including uncomfortable warnings about sin and judgment.
But what are the implications for you, the average good Lutheran in the pew? Well, you are firstly a watchman over your own soul. The second half of the chapter 33 in Ezekiel (vs. 10–20) immediately turns from the watchman’s duty to individual responsibility. So the first application is therefore personal vigilance. Heed the warnings already given in Scripture. Review the 10 commandments and see what you can find. Have you put God first in your life above all things? Have you cursed with His name? Have you neglected coming to His house on His day to receive His gifts? Have you disrespected your parents or others in authority? Have you harmed your neighbour or his reputation? Have you had impure thoughts? Have you embraced deceit and lies? Have you been gossiping up a storm? Have you been coveting your neighbour’s stuff?
But, like I said at the outset, it’s hard to see your own sins - even when they are staring you in the face. This is when the Pastor, or perhaps another Christian, may come to you and sound the trumpet. It’s like St. Paul writes in Galatians “if anyone is caught in any transgression, you who are spiritual should restore him in a spirit of gentleness. Keep watch on yourself, lest you too be tempted” (6:1). Such warnings and admonishing are good when they are done in this gentle way. They sound the alarm to help us repent of our sins and turn away from evil and turn towards God’s grace in Christ. We see the heart of the Gospel in Ezekiel 33:11 “As I live, declares the Lord God, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but that the wicked turn from his way and live.”
It’s like if you looked out across your backyard and saw that the neighbour’s house was on fire. What do you do? Do you just stand there and watch it burn?? It might be 3 o’clock in the morning and what do we say, “Oh, I wouldn’t want to wake them up at this hour!” Of course not. You’d grab your phone, call 911 and run over there to see if could wake them up and get everybody out safely as soon as possible. You love your neighbours and you don’t want to see harm come their way. This same kind of lesson applies to the spiritual realm as well.
Or it’s like gardening. You plant your seeds, you water them, you add your fertilizer and soil amendments. You do everything you can to benefit those little plants so they grow and become fruitful. Gotta make that chocolate zucchini cake after all, right? At the same time, you also pick out the weeds. Because the weeds come and gobble up the water and the nutrients that you want your plants to get. What happens if you let the weeds grow alongside your vegetables or flowers? They get bigger and bigger while your plants struggle and struggle. If you let the weeds go entirely, they completely take over. Your beloved good plants get completely over taken by the ever spreading and thriving weeds.
Our spiritual lives are exactly like this. God’s word tells us to confess our sins and embrace repentance. It assures us of God’s forgiveness in Christ Jesus. His death on the cross and precious blood have covered over our transgressions. Our Baptism unites us to His victory over sin, death and the devil. His supper feeds us with the nutrients of His resurrection, giving us life and abundant life at that. Through these means of grace the Holy Spirit continues to help us and bless us, sanctifying us to be God’s holy people.
So keep tending the garden. Water it with the Word. Feed it at the Table. When a brother or sister, or your pastor, or even Ravishing Randy with the calendar, points out a weed you somehow missed—don’t get defensive. Thank God someone sounded the trumpet. That’s not condemnation. That’s love. That’s Ezekiel 33:11 in action: “God takes no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but that they turn from their way and live”. You will still be blind to some of your own sins. Your neighbour will still see them a mile away. That’s why we need each other. That’s why we need the Church. That’s why we need a Watchman who never falls asleep on the wall. That Watchman is Jesus. He saw the enemy coming—not just Babylon, but sin, death, and the devil—and He didn’t merely blow the horn. He went out to meet them. He took the blow that was meant for us. He died the death we deserved so that we who were wicked might turn and live. His blood covers the sins you can name and the ones you still can’t see. His resurrection is the fortified wall you run to when the alarm sounds. So hear the trumpet. Confess. Receive His Absolution. Come to the Supper. Then go home and love your neighbour as yourself. In the name of Jesus. Amen.
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