How then can we live?

The first line in this morning's passage from Ezekial really struck me: God made Ezekiel a sentinel for the house of Israel.

What is a sentinel? In military terms, a sentinel is a soldier who watches over something. Their job is to stand guard and protect it from harm.

In our text, God places Ezekiel as a sentinel guard over the House of Israel. His assignment is to protect the people of Israel by speaking out and warning them when he sees them going astray from God’s path.

Ezekiel is called to warn the people and urge them to repent, to turn away from their wicked ways and back to following the Laws and Commandments that God had given them.

This sentinel role comes with a lot of responsibility. God tells Ezekiel that, if he doesn’t speak out to warn someone to turn from their sinful behaviour, he is responsible for whatever the consequences are for that person. But if he speaks out and the person chooses to ignore the warning, Ezekiel would not be responsible.

The people of Israel, who were well aware of their tendency to go astray, also felt the weight of responsibility to follow God’s Laws. They asked God the question, “How then can we live?” They recognised that they were prone to stumble and that they struggled with sin. How on earth could they live their lives following God’s commandments and laws. It would be impossible to always get it right.

Well, God’s answer to their question is reassuring.

He tells them that He has no pleasure in the downfall of people who sin, in fact he takes great pleasure in seeing them turn from their evil ways and live His way.

This imagery of a sentinel soldier standing guard to protect the House of Israel, stayed with me as I read the other scriptures for today’s service.

In Paul’s letter to the Romans we learn that we are enlisted to the same role as Ezekiel. We are called to be sentinels; to wake from sleep, stand guard and watch over God’s Church and His people.

We are told that we have a uniform to wear. An armour of light to clothe ourselves with.

As sentinels we are asked to warn each other, as members of God’s Church, if we see someone going astray from the path.

And, like Ezekiel, this is an assignment that comes with a lot of responsibility.

We are told that we have a moral obligation, a responsibility, to love each other. St Paul writes to the Roman Church “Owe no one anything, except to love one another.” We have a responsibility to love each other and part of loving someone is warning them when we see they are in danger.

Love fulfils the whole of God’s commandments, because love can do no harm to it’s neighbour. If we are loving our neighbour as ourselves, we won’t cheat them, or hurt them either physically or with our words.

But we know that we are human. That our relatives can get on our nerves sometimes, let alone the people we worship with. We know that our faults and weaknesses can cause us to give or take offence to people in our church and wider communities.

So perhaps we might be asking the same question as the Israelites did when they heard Ezekiel’s assignment to keep them following God’s Laws. “HOW THEN CAN WE LIVE?”

How do we live our lives whilst carrying this responsibility, this debt of love to our neighbours. How do we carry the responsibility of being a sentinel, warning our brothers and sisters, our Church laity and leaders, when they go astray?

Well, just as God encourages the House of Israel when they asked the same question, How then can we live?, we can be encouraged today by His answer.

God takes no pleasure in the death of the wicked. He wants the wicked to turn from their ways and live.

He demonstrated the truth of these words when He sent His Son, Jesus Christ, to provide a way, The Way, for repentant sinners to turn from their wicked ways and enter into His Kingdom.

We have new life through Christ and a place in God’s House.

And in our new lives we are assigned the role as sentinels, clothed in Christ’s righteousness and wearing an armour of light.

Now, this Armour of Light is not camouflage gear. We are not supposed to blend in with the world around us to the point where no one knows we are God’s soldiers.

We are called to be the light of the world. Shining in the darkness around us. When the world gets darker, angrier and divided, we are called to shine brightly. We are called to show, in our communities and families and this church, what love, unity and reconciliation look like.

In our Gospel passage, Jesus teaches his disciples how to handle the inevitable disputes and offenses that would arise in the church. The emphasis is on reconciliation and restoration. Warning someone if they are going astray. The whole church community acting as sentinels, urging them to repent and do the right thing.

This is not something to be taken lightly. It is vital that we speak up to guard the Church, to call its members repeatedly back to follow the Law of Love.

We know that much distrust of the church from those outside its walls is due to the failure of sentinels to speak out, or the failure of the church to listen to sentinels and whistleblowers who did speak out. We see in some awful situations, people thinking they were protecting their church or institution by hiding and camouflaging evidence of sins: elder abuse, child abuse, financial abuse.

But this is the complete opposite of what we are called to do. God wants us to protect His House by wearing armour of light.

He knows that the world is watching. He wants us to live in love, in truth, in visibility, in openness. Not covering up wickedness but exposing it to the light.

He wants us to do this in our own lives. To be sentinels to ourselves, noticing when we are straying off the path, when our eyes are turned to watch worthless things, when our attitudes and behaviours are not aligning with the Law of Love. If we fall out with someone, we must follow the Law of Love, try to resolve the problem and reconcile with the person, where it is possible.

Paul reminds us that salvation – Jesus’s return – is nearer to us now than when we became believers; the night is far gone, the day is near. So we must lay aside the works of darkness, put on the armour of light and take up our posts as sentinels in His Kingdom.