+ + + In Nomine Jesu + + +
Please join me in prayer: May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be pleasing in your sight, O Lord, our Rock and our Redeemer. (Amen.)
Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ. (Amen.)
There is a popular mis‑perception by some people in our Church body, that the Missouri Synod each week sends out a free sermon for all the pastors to preach the coming Sunday. No free sermon is so sent, but there is a quarterly preaching journal, for which journal Rev. Adler and I have both written sermons, and to which journal congregations and individuals can subscribe, as Pilgrim subscribes, and which journal Pilgrim has used, for example, in a case of emergency. North of the border, our sister synod Lutheran Church-Canada on its website does link a free sermon for the coming Sunday, especially for those congregations that do not have a pastor and maybe cannot afford the preaching journal that I mentioned. However, just like a national weather forecast may be too general to really help with local weather in a particular place, a sort of general sermon written by someone far away may not apply God’s law and Gospel to a particular congregation as well as a sermon written by a man whom God has called and sent to a particular congregation. As you might imagine, God’s message through Ezekiel to the Judean exiles in Babylon, such as what we heard in today’s Old Testament Reading, is similar to but also different from God’s roughly contemporaneous message through Jeremiah to those who remained back in Judah. God gave each prophet to his respective “congregation” with a particular message, and we can say that the same is similarly true today: God calls pastors through congregations in order for the pastor to preach to the congregation to which he is called. God gives the pastor, or “watchman”, His Word, usually by our series of appointed Readings, and the pastor gives the people applicable warning from God. This morning we consider “God’s watchman and warning”.
Civil defense sirens and speakers in our communities, severe weather radios in our homes, and alert applications on our smart‑phones may be the closest modern-day eqwuivalents that we have to the kind of watchman that God made Ezekiel for the House of Israel. Simply put, as God’s watchman Ezekiel was to warn the House of Israel of impending disaster, and, as we heard, if Ezekiel did not warn them, God required their blood at Ezekiel’s hand, but, if Ezekiel did warn them, Ezekiel delivered his soul. Either way, the people were still responsible for their own sin, but God’s warning through the prophet was intended for them to repent and be forgiven, which essentially is how today’s Old Testament Reading fits in with today’s other Readings and the Sunday’s overall theme.
People sometimes complain that a particular sermon singles them out. Sometimes the person making the complaint was not in my mind at all! And, one can hardly dismiss a sermon as if it is just my “berating someone”, because, while pastors are not Divinely‑inspired exactly the same way that the human authors of Holy Scripture were, the Holy Spirit still is ultimately responsible for applying God’s law to each and every individual, including to me. On Pilgrim’s website you can find nearly fifteen years of sermons that I have preached here, and I think that probably every single one of those sermons ultimately indicts all people of sin, including me. Ezekiel was not exempt from the warning that he gave to the House of Israel from God, and I am not exempt from the warning that I give to people here at Pilgrim from God. Sin destroyed our relationship with God, and, as a result of sin, we all deserve temporal and eternal punishment. Apart from repentance, we all shall surely die. Even if people wrongly think that they are being singled out by a particular sermon, they hardly can deny that, in some sense, they are guilty of a particular sin: for example, God through the apostle James says that whoever fails in keeping one point of the law has become guilty of all of the law (James 2:10). If we reject the Holy Spirit’s application of God’s law to us, then the Holy Spirit does not apply God’s Gospel to us. And, apply God’s Gospel is ultimately what God and His watchmen want to do, not only so that the watchman delivers his own soul, but also so that all turn from their way and live (confer, for example, Ezekiel 33:11).
Today’s Old Testament Reading comes as part of a turning point in the book of Ezekiel, as God moves, from Ezekiel’s prophesying judgment for past sins, to Ezekiel’s promising restoration in future forgiveness. In today’s Old Testament Reading, God is sometimes said to “recommission” Ezekiel, who already has proclaimed God’s law, to then proclaim God’s Gospel. In the book of Ezekiel, “son of man” refers to Ezekiel and emphasizes his humanity, unlike elsewhere, where “Son of Man” refers to Jesus and can emphasize His Divinity. Of course, God’s Gospel is that Jesus, true God and true man, perfectly kept the law that we fail to keep and died on the cross, in our place, for our failure to keep the law perfectly. Then, Jesus rose from the dead. The Messiah, Whom Ezekiel and those who heard him believed was coming, truly did come. The same God, against Whose judgment God warns us, delivers us from His judgment, out of His love, mercy, and grace for Jesus’s sake. When you trust God to forgive you for Jesus’s sake, then God does forgive you: your original sin and all your actual sin, whatever your actual sin might be. You have God’s peace and joy, already now. God is in control: through the preaching of the Gospel and the administration of the Sacraments, He gives the Holy Spirit, Who creates faith when and where He pleases in those who hear the Gospel (Augsburg Confession V:1-2).
Apparently, Ezekiel was of a priestly line and was carried into exile in Babylon before Jerusalem was destroyed by the Babylonians. Ezekiel served his prophetic ministry of some 20 years along a large irrigation canal, called the Kebar River, in southern Mesopotamia, modern‑day Iraq. We might think of a refugee camp in a war-torn country. Back in Judah, Temple worship soon came to an end. We might say that the exiles in Babylon were in uncharted waters. Ezekiel was accountable to God, as God’s watchmen are today, and we know that on God’s behalf Ezekiel continued to call the House of Israel to repent, even when they ignored the call, as their ancestors had ignored the call for hundreds of years through generations of watchmen. We are not told to what extent things such as circumcision and Passover were observed during the exile (see, for example, Ezekiel 45:21), nor are we told how Ezekiel might or might not have maintained fellowship with those who did not turn from their way.
We also might say that we at Pilgrim somewhat similarly are in uncharted waters. I continue to honor God’s call through the congregation for me to serve as pastor here, being God’s watchman and giving God’s warning of law and Gospel, and baptizing, as two Sundays ago. But, my conscience and the consciences of others are burdened by the congregation’s full fellowship with the Synod, and so by Pilgrim’s sharing in false practices that not only are permitted but in some cases even promoted in our Circuit, District, and Synod. Other people’s consciences may not be so grieved, for various reasons (confer Romans 14:1-23). You may have heard me previously quote God’s call, initially to His people in Babylon, like Ezekiel and those with him, and then subsequently also to His people of the New Testament, calling: “Come out of her, my people, lest you take part in her sins, lest you share in her plagues” (Revelation 18:4; confer Isaiah 48:20 and 2 Corinthians 6:17). So, some Pilgrim members and I are abstaining from communing at this altar at the present time, not because we think that we are better than anyone else but because we know that we are just as sinful as everyone else and do not want to risk our forgiveness and so our salvation. Other Pilgrim members may not be communing here for other reasons, and Pilgrim’s Elders and I are trying to meet with them, as described in today’s Gospel Reading (Matthew 18:1-20), and we pray that they will be responsive to our ministry on behalf of our Lord and the congregation. Even if we are not communing together, we individually receive God’s forgiveness in other ways, such as in Holy Absolution, and we each forgive the sins that we commit against one another.
This morning in this particular sermon that I wrote for this congregation and its current circumstances, we have considered “God’s watchman and warning”. More sermons that I wrote for the Synod’s preaching journal will be published in its next issue, and I have still more general sermons to submit for an issue that will be published in 2028. No general Synod‑provided sermon would apply God’s law and Gospel to our particular circumstances here. As we heard in today’s Old Testament Reading, may those who fail to repent be blamed and die eternally, and may we who we repent glorify God and live eternally.
Amen.
The peace of God, which passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. (Amen.)
+ + + Soli Deo Gloria + + +
