Words of the watcher and the sentinel

Sermon for Pentecost XV, 2026, delivered at St. Paul's Episcopal Church, Louisville, KY
Text: Ezekiel 33:7-11, Matthew 18:15-20

During my high school years, I would swim in the pool in our school building after classes. Afterward, I would leave the building, cross the street, and take a city bus home with my hair still wet. Mistake number one. In the winter, I would do the same, and my hair would freeze until I got on the bus. Mistake number two. Given my "mistakes," I am quite sure that someone said to me, “You’re going to catch your death a cold,” implying that being outside with wet hair, in the cold no less, was going to cause me to have a possibly fatal respiratory infection. And this was said to me with great certainty. I was not convinced then, and I am even less convinced now because I subscribe to the germ theory of such illnesses. But it was nonetheless a warning to me that if I continued in my mistaken ways, I was going to suffer for them.

Ezekiel shares some rules, or guidelines if you will, about warnings, but to clearly understand what he refers to, we have to stop for a moment and understand what Ezekiel is being commanded by God to do. At the beginning of chapter 34, Ezekiel writes, 

     “The word of the Lord came to me … prophesy and say to them…Woe, you shepherds of Israel  who have been feeding yourselves! Should not shepherds feed the sheep?”

This is a prophecy, a warning to the people Ezekiel is addressing, warning them of their selfish actions. That is the role of a watcher, or a prophet in scripture, someone who watches for and warns of possible danger. That is different from a warning from a sentinel, who says imminent danger approaches, and something must be done immediately. This is what we hear in this morning’s reading in Ezekiel, 

“You, mortal, I have made a sentinel for the house of Israel; whenever you hear a word from my mouth, you shall give them warning from me.”

And God goes on to outline the sentinel’s responsibility to warn and what happens when a warning is not given. So, there are two types of warning: potential danger, and imminent danger; that is, what could happen if we turn away from God, and what is happening now that we have turned away. The warning about my hair leading to a cold was a combination of both kinds of warning that could be broken down into, “Be careful going outside with wet hair,” and “You are coming down with a cold because you went out with wet hair.” 

So, how does the Gospel reading fit into this? If Ezekiel is ultimately a watcher, a prophet, what does that make Jesus’ pronouncements on confronting sin? It means that Jesus is acting as a sentinel, warning of the immediate danger of sin within the community of believers. But his call to immediate action is not a defense against evil forces, but instead a peaceful resolution to the harm that sin has caused. It is a reaction of redemption that comes first, and there is mention of expulsion or shunning that is a last resort. One of the characteristics of the Church is that it is full of prophets, prophets who warn of what might happen if we keep going in a certain direction. I myself speak with a prophetic voice at times from the pulpit, but if I am honest, most of the time I am speaking as a sentinel, warning the people who hear me that danger is coming. And let us be honest, warning of danger that will arrive is much more dramatic and attention-getting than saying, “It could happen, might be a possibility, if we are not careful.” So, what do we do with a Church full of prophets? Everyone is claiming authority because scripture says this, or the Church says that, so it is true. We slip from being watchers into being sentinels to make our point among many other voices doing the same, so that we can be heard, and the rhetoric intensifies as emotions take over. We cannot stop ourselves from escalating to the point where we are no longer speaking as prophets of God, but prophets of our own certainty.
 
We have been caught up in a destructive habit of expulsion of sinful members of our communities, self-righteousness masquerading as a prophetic voice. No matter what the issue is, there are many voices on multiple sides of an issue that call out the others as absolutely wrong and they should be thrown out - out of the discussion, out of society, or out of the country. We do not look for where harm truly is, and we are being convinced that repentance and redemption are weaknesses and are for losers. This sounds pretty bleak, that there is no hope for us, that God and Church have failed us. They have, and rightfully so when it comes to prophesying as we have. But consider what Jesus says at the very end of the Gospel reading,

“...if two of you agree on earth about anything you ask, it will be done for you by my Father in heaven. For where two or three are gathered in my name, I am there among them.”

This is news to us, but not to the Jews of Jesus’ time, because this is how they studied the Torah and knew that God was among them: in groups, discussing, debating, but most importantly, listening. We understand these words mostly in the context of worship as a prayer written by John Chrysostom and found at the end of Morning Prayer,

“You have promised through your well-beloved Son that when two or three are gathered together in his Name you will be in the midst of them .”

The hope from this gathering is from coming together as one people, united in one faith in the risen Son of God in worship. But there is another way to gather that has a price, and that price is to let go of fear and frustration, to change our values of winners and losers to people who gather in humility, as people who know what it means to speak as a watcher or as a sentinel. Do not tell me I will get sick from wet hair, instead remind me to pay attention to my health. Do not tell me I have misinterpreted scripture because that is not how you understand it, instead tell me how it has impacted your life. Do not tell me that I am wrong, instead tell me what you know. We need Jesus to be with us as we gather, and that can only happen when we humble ourselves and pay attention to how we speak and what we say to others. We cannot call Jesus down to be with us any more than we can call down fire and brimstone on those we dislike. We cannot call down Jesus by warning of possible or imminent doom. But by the act of gathering as Jesus calls us, gathering in humility and in love, he will be there among us, and we will know what it means to speak as a watcher or as a sentinel of his word.