First Reading Ezekiel 33:7-20
7“So you, son of man, I have made a watchman for the house of Israel. Whenever you hear a word from my mouth, you shall give them warning from me. 8If I say to the wicked, O wicked one, you shall surely die, and you do not speak to warn the wicked to turn from his way, that wicked person shall die in his iniquity, but his blood I will require at your hand. 9But if you warn the wicked to turn from his way, and he does not turn from his way, that person shall die in his iniquity, but you will have delivered your soul. 10And you, son of man, say to the house of Israel, Thus have you said: ‘Surely our transgressions and our sins are upon us, and we rot away because of them. How then can we live?’ 11Say to them, 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; turn back, turn back from your evil ways, for why will you die, O house of Israel? 12And you, son of man, say to your people, The righteousness of the righteous shall not deliver him when he transgresses, and as for the wickedness of the wicked, he shall not fall by it when he turns from his wickedness, and the righteous shall not be able to live by his righteousness when he sins. 13Though I say to the righteous that he shall surely live, yet if he trusts in his righteousness and does injustice, none of his righteous deeds shall be remembered, but in his injustice that he has done he shall die. 14Again, though I say to the wicked, ‘You shall surely die,’ yet if he turns from his sin and does what is just and right, 15if the wicked restores the pledge, gives back what he has taken by robbery, and walks in the statutes of life, not doing injustice, he shall surely live; he shall not die. 16None of the sins that he has committed shall be remembered against him. He has done what is just and right; he shall surely live. 17Yet your people say, ‘The way of the Lord is not just,’ when it is their own way that is not just. 18When the righteous turns from his righteousness and does injustice, he shall die for it. 19And when the wicked turns from his wickedness and does what is just and right, he shall live by this. 20Yet you say, ‘The way of the Lord is not just.’ O house of Israel, I will judge each of you according to his ways.”
Psalm Psalm 85
1You have been gracious to your land, O Lord, you have restored the good fortune of Jacob. 2You have forgiven the iniquity of your people and blotted out all their sins. 3You have withdrawn all your fury and turned yourself from your wrathful indignation. 4Restore us then, O God our Savior; let your anger depart from us. 5Will you be displeased with us forever? will you prolong your anger from age to age? 6Will you not give us life again, that your people may rejoice in you? 7Show us your mercy, O Lord, and grant us your salvation. 8I will listen to what the Lord God is saying, for he is speaking peace to his faithful people and to those who turn their hearts to him. 9Truly, his salvation is very near to those who fear him, that his glory may dwell in our land. 10Mercy and truth have met together; righteousness and peace have kissed each other. 11Truth shall spring up from the earth, and righteousness shall look down from heaven. 12The Lord will indeed grant prosperity, and our land will yield its increase. 13Righteousness shall go before him, and peace shall be a pathway for his feet.
Second Reading 1 Corinthians 10:1-13
1For I do not want you to be unaware, brothers, that our fathers were all under the cloud, and all passed through the sea, 2and all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea, 3and all ate the same spiritual food, 4and all drank the same spiritual drink. For they drank from the spiritual Rock that followed them, and the Rock was Christ. 5Nevertheless, with most of them God was not pleased, for they were overthrown in the wilderness. 6Now these things took place as examples for us, that we might not desire evil as they did. 7Do not be idolaters as some of them were; as it is written, “The people sat down to eat and drink and rose up to play.” 8We must not indulge in sexual immorality as some of them did, and twenty-three thousand fell in a single day. 9We must not put Christ to the test, as some of them did and were destroyed by serpents, 10nor grumble, as some of them did and were destroyed by the Destroyer. 11Now these things happened to them as an example, but they were written down for our instruction, on whom the end of the ages has come. 12Therefore let anyone who thinks that he stands take heed lest he fall. 13No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man. God is faithful, and he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation he will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it.
Gospel Luke 13:1-9
1There were some present at that very time who told {Jesus} about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mingled with their sacrifices. 2And he answered them, “Do you think that these Galileans were worse sinners than all the other Galileans, because they suffered in this way? 3No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish. 4Or those eighteen on whom the tower in Siloam fell and killed them: do you think that they were worse offenders than all the others who lived in Jerusalem? 5No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish.” 6And he told this parable: “A man had a fig tree planted in his vineyard, and he came seeking fruit on it and found none. 7And he said to the vinedresser, ‘Look, for three years now I have come seeking fruit on this fig tree, and I find none. Cut it down. Why should it use up the ground?’ 8And he answered him, ‘Sir, let it alone this year also, until I dig around it and put on manure. 9Then if it should bear fruit next year, well and good; but if not, you can cut it down.’”
IS THE SIN OF OTHERS MY BUSINESS?
It’s probably silly of me to do this, but, I want to warn you up front, this morning’s sermon topic isn’t going to be a popular one. Today, far too many Christians delight in talking about God’s love, grace and mercy, but refuse to talk about God’s commands, expectations and especially, His judgement. Most want the teddy bear God who takes everyone to heaven, at least all the good people anyway, and only condemns to hell, those who commit heinous crimes. We also want our faith to be private, forwarding that my relationship to God is my own, it’s not anyone else’s business.
For some reason, today’s Christians have been duped into believing that sharing our faith could be offensive, so we need to keep it to ourselves. Of course, this attitude only applies to Christians, not to the other religions of the world. For some reason they are openly welcome and encouraged to share their faith. Folks it’s high time the Christians of this country wake up. To be a faithful follower of Jesus is to share our faith and to identify sin, and wrong doing, in our society. We are called to be more than social servants, helping those less fortunate. As Baptized believers, we are called to be God’s watchmen in a society that is replete with wickedness. This is why our first reading for today is so important; it’s a wakeup call to all how claim to be disciples of Jesus.
In our Old Testament reading for today, we hear God tell Ezekiel, “So you, son of man, I have made a watchman for the house of Israel; whenever you hear a word from my mouth, you shall give them a warning from me. If I say to the wicked, O wicked man, you shall surely die, and you do not speak to warn the wicked to turn from his way, that wicked man shall die in his iniquity, but his blood I will require at your hand. But if you warn the wicked to turn from his way, and he does not turn from his way; he shall die in his iniquity, but you will have saved your life.”
This morning I think it’s very important for a Christian to hear God’s message to Ezekiel here: [if] “you do not speak to warn the wicked to turn from his way, that wicked man shall die in his iniquity, but his blood I will require at your hand.” This begs the question, is the sins of others my business? Now before we go any further, it’s important to understand that I’m not talking about judging others. Judging someone involves condemning that person. We’re not called, nor do we have the authority, to determine someone’s eternal future. Jesus, the only person without sin, is the only one righteous enough to pass judgement on people. What I’m talking about is condemning sinful actions. We are called to be fruit inspectors, as a pastor of my youth used to say.
The first and greatest Commandment, according to Jesus, is to love God with all our heart, and the second He said is like it, we’re to love others as ourselves (Matt. 22:36-28). To love others, is to want only the best for them now, and in eternity. To love others is to identify sinful behaviors and actions, even if it means we might be ridiculed and persecuted for it. The problem is, society wants us to believe that we’re to mind our own business. In retort to us identifying sinful behavior, the world will tell us, “you have enough sin to worry about without getting involved in mine.” They will even go so far as to accuse you of being a bigot, a hater or a phobic of some sort, to get you to stop.
This attitude then leads us to ask, “Why should I get involved with other people’s style of living?” When people sin, it’s so much easier to ignore it by looking the other way. We’re encouraged to let others decide how to run their life and make their own decisions as to what’s right and wrong. In one of the episodes in the once popular TV show, All in the Family, Edith Bunker comes home unexpectedly and finds a girl in a bedroom with her boyfriend. After he leaves, she has a talk with the girl and says, “You have your own life to live. You must do what you think is best.” The question for us is, is either of these positions approved by God? What does God say about this issue?
Are the sinful actions of others my business, my concern? According to Genesis 4:9b, Cain’s question “am I my brother’s keeper” is answered by Jesus in His parable of the Good Samaritan (Luke 10:25-29). Jesus says it is our business to be concerned about our brothers and sisters, this includes the sin of others. In Matt. 18, Jesus said, “If your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault …” In other words, we are not to ignore the wrong others do to us, nor are we to wait for them to come to us with an admission of wrongdoing and with an apology. We’re instructed to go to the offender and say, “You have sinned against me; let’s talk about it.”
In his first letter to the Corinthians, St. Paul discussed the case of a man living with his father’s wife. He urges the church to discuss the matter with the offender and if he doesn’t change his behavior, the church is to “drive out the wicked person from you” (1 Cor. 5:1-2). Ignoring sinful behavior makes us guilty of condoning such behavior and God says we will be held accountable for that.
In our Old Testament text, God tells Ezekiel that he is to be a watchman to warn people of the consequences of their sin. In his day, the Jews had the custom of building watchtowers in their fields and vineyards for a person to keep watch at harvest time to warn of approaching hostile people coming to steal the harvest. Today we still believe in having watchmen to warn of us danger. The US has an early warning network located in the Arctic and in space to tell us of approaching planes or missiles. The National Weather Service watches the weather and warns us of tornados, hurricanes and other dangerous weather. On our highways we have signs: “Danger Ahead,” “Sharp Curve,” “Bump,” “Detour,” and “Bridge Out.” To have watchmen warn us of danger is a normal part of our everyday life, and we’re safe if we heed those warnings.
In a similar way, God knows we need to be warned of the danger of sinful behavior. We’re called to warn people of the effects of sin not only in this life, but in eternity as well. At no time has the law of the harvest been nullified, we will reap what we sow (Gal. 6:7). This is why God commissions His people, like Ezekiel, to serve as watchmen to warn others of the consequences of sin. Therefore, as a Christian, it’s our business to warn others of their sinful behavior and of its consequences. However, if this appointment bothers you, look at it in a different way. In really, it’s not our business, it’s God’s business. It’s God who calls us to be watchmen. It’s God who gave us His commands and statutes. It’s God who orders us to warn others of the consequences of wicked living. We’re simply expected to do what we’re told. In our text, God says, “I have made you a watchman … whenever you hear a word from my mouth, you shall give them warning from me.” However, if we’re to fulfill our calling as God’s watchmen, we must be able to recognize the danger of sin.
“You shall give them warning,” God says. To give people a warning, we need to be able to recognize that their acts, words, and thoughts are sinful. This means that, we as watchmen, must know what is and what isn’t sin; what’s right and what’s wrong? This is why we spend time each week in worship, Sunday School, Bible study and prayer. Preachers, teachers, theologians, parents and others are given so we can tell the difference between what God commands and what the world forwards as acceptable behavior.
When we fail to see sin as sin, we’re not moved to cry out a warning. Instead we’ll simply bury our heads in the sand and say, “I see nothing.” In effect we’re saying, we see nothing wrong in what someone else is doing.” So, we remain silent and in doing so actually approve of their way of life. Time magazine reports a mother as saying, “If my teenage daughter wants to lead an active sex life, I consider it a moral obligation to give her all the information I can on birth control.” Obviously, for her, pre-marital sex is not a sin. But what has the result of this attitude been? Promiscuity, rape, abortion, sexually transmitted diseases, children being raised in single parent homes, human trafficking and more. The same could be said of drug use and abuse.
Instead of condemning it and openly, recognizing the harmful effects it has, not only for people but society as a whole, we want to legalize it and collect taxes from it. But sinful behavior goes beyond hot button topics like sex and drugs, many in today’s society see no wrong in whatever they do. They have no qualms of conscience in cheating, lying or stealing. And this is due to our loss of absolute moral standards.
Because Christians have become lax and failed in their duties as watchmen, society has forgotten God. God is no longer the Lord of our lives, so we do what we think is right, not what God tells us is right. In the time of the Judges, it was said, “Because there was no king in Israel, every man did what was right in his own eyes” (Jud. 21:25). The same is true today; so we could very easily adapt this passage to read, “because God’s watchmen have failed in their duties, people are doing what they see as right in their own eyes.”
Today we have situational ethics, standards that are relative to our thinking, to our circumstances, and to our inverted scale of values. A movie ad said, “Nothing is wrong if it feels good” (Emmanuelle II). If you feel good about anything – feel good about hurting others, stealing, defrauding, lying, engaging in reckless behavior, if it feels good, then it isn’t a sin! Another slogan of our day is, “If all parties agree in doing it, it’s all good.” If we agree to hurt each other, if we agree to wife swap, if we agree to tell a story, it’s supposed to be ethical! Some have the attitude that if you tell a lie long enough and convincing enough, it becomes the truth. Another way of saying it is, “If everybody’s doing it; why shouldn’t I?” The problem is, we have so few in the watchtowers sounding out a warning, that it’s rapidly becoming a do whatever you want society.
Or worse yet, the people in the watchtower are folks who don’t know any better because we, as a church, have failed in our duty to rightly divide God’s word of truth (2 Tim. 2:15). Before we can warn people of their sin, we must know whether or not they are committing sin. Sometimes the hard part of being God’s watchmen is to know what is and isn’t sin. This isn’t about what you or I personally think is sin. This isn’t what any group of us decide is a sin. God is the only one who can answer the question. Sin is not a matter up for debate.
Sin isn’t simply a sickness, an environmental maladjustment or a social indiscretion, sin is a serious matter to God. According to the Bible, sin deeply grieves and offends a holy God (Eph.4:30). God hates and despises sin for what it does to Him and His people. The Bible describes sin as a rebellious condition of humanity. Sin is the breaking of the first Commandment; it’s unfaithfulness, it’s putting ourselves, our desires and things before God. Sin is disobedience to God’s commands and statutes and sin breaks the holy heart of God. But where do we start in our identification of sin?
First, God gave us the Ten Commandments. These are basic absolutes showing us what God expects of us. They tell us what’s right and what’s wrong. But it goes further than simply following the letter of the law, it’s about understanding the intent, the spirit of the law. To become sin-conscious, we need to place ourselves before the mirror of the Decalogue. Moreover, we need to delve deeper into scripture, to hear what God instructs through His prophets, His apostles, His messengers and His own Son, Jesus.
Once we’ve learned from God’s word, we also need to remember that God has also given us His Holy Spirt which will guide us in all truth (John 14:16-17a). A Spirit who will guide our moral faculty, our conscience, which tells us what’s right in those areas not covered by a specific scripture. With a conscience enlightened by the Spirit, and the Holy word of God to guide us, we will be able to critic correctly. Furthermore, we have Jesus as an example, to show us how God wants us to live. And when we possess the mind of Christ, we will be able to determine what is God’s will and what isn’t. Nietzsche wrote, “This is my way; what is your way? The way does not exist.” Nietzsche was wrong; apparently, he didn’t know Jesus who said, “I am the way” – the way to live, the way to please God, the way of righteousness. The question some will ask is, it’s my business alone, what does it matter if I sin?
There are many who will forward, suppose I do sin, so what? If I’m not hurting anyone, it’s of no concern of yours. The truth is, sin does affect others. Sin always comes with consequences. The truth is, there are serious consequences to sin. Sin could mean destroying relationships, getting hurt, catching a disease, losing your job, ruining your good reputation, being prosecuted and spending time in jail, or even losing your life. And while any of these could be detrimental, none of these compare to the real consequences of sin.
Our text gives us the Word of the Lord: “You shall surely die.” There can be nothing worse than death; it’s humanity’s worst enemy. But it goes beyond the death of this life, God is talking about a much worse death, what the Bible calls the second death; eternal damnation, an eternity completely separated from God, what the Bible describes as the Lake of Fire (Rev. 20:14). Identifying sin is that important. If the wicked will die for their sin, we as the watchmen of God need to sound an alarm to warn the sinful of the consequences.
St. Paul said, “The wages of sin is death” (Rom. 6:23). As of April of last year, there were 2,738 criminals on death row in the US awaiting execution. Our evil deeds can bring death to us, physical as well as spiritual. In the book of Esther, Haman had a gallows built to hang Mordecai for nothing but racial hatred. In the end, Haman was hanged on the very gallows he built for Mordecai. Malcolm X preached violence as the method to effect social reform, but he was shot down while addressing a convention, a victim of the violence he espoused. When we do harm to others, we could bring harm to ourselves.
One day, two Arkansas natives met on a small road. The first man noticed the second had a bulge under the bib of his overalls and asked why. The second explained, “Well, whenever I meet Joe, he always hits me on the chest. The next time he’ll be sorry. He’ll hit this stick of dynamite and blow his fool hand off!” “He shall surely die” means far more than physical death, it could also mean spiritual death.
The worst thing that can happen to us isn’t the death of the body, but the death of the soul. The biblical understanding of spiritual death is that it is complete separation from God. A soul apart from God means death just as a branch dies when torn from the vine. God is love and to be separated from Him means to live in and with hatred and evil. God is hope, and to be apart from Him is utter despair. In the biblical sense, death does not mean extinction. If that were so, death would be a blessing, the end of all our cares. A person apart from God continues to exist, but they will be away from God – from life, light, and love. The opposite of this, is an existence of darkness, despair, and misery. This is the horror of death, an eternal hell.
The good news is that in Christ, God experienced death for us when Jesus died on the cross. In this way God swallowed up death and conquered it. By the cross, Jesus reconciled us to the Father so that we would not be separated from God because of our sin. Thus, the cross is a means of our atonement with God. In Christ, we have life eternal, because we are in God and one with God who is life. The terrible danger sinners face is death of the soul. As sinners and saints, we need to warned others of the dangers of sin so that all my turn to Christ and have life; you and I are called to be God’s watchmen.
If death is ahead for unrepentant sinners, they need a watchman to give the alarm. Since sin is so serious and the consequences so dangerous, God in His mercy calls us, like Ezekiel, to be watchmen to warn sinners of what is coming. We are called to warn, not criticize or condemn sinners. He doesn’t expect us to scold or harangue the wicked. However, if we fail to warn the wicked, we commit a sin.
It’s not only a sin of disobedience to God who called us to warn others, but we will also be guilty of their death. What happens when people are not warned about a catastrophe ahead? Remember the destruction and death at Pearl Harbor because the intelligence division of the U.S. Navy failed to give the alarm of approaching Japanese planes. Without a warning, the ships in the harbor were like sitting ducks.
Some time ago a ship struck a pier of the skyway bridge over Tampa Bay and knocked down a span. A bus full of people and a number of cars, without warning, drove off the bridge to a watery death, 100 feet below. Recently one person was killed on 1-70 in Missouri, when 150 cars smashed into each other because they were blinded by white-out conditions. As the cars came down the highway, there was no warning of an accident ahead. Likewise, if we do not warn sinners, they will hurtle into eternal death. And God will hold us accountable, for in our text He says, “His blood I will require at your hand.” Who of us wants to be guilty of lost souls? It’s imperative that we accept God’s call to be watchmen, broadcasters to warn sinners of their plight.
Some of course will be hesitant, not wanting to get involved, or risk ridicule or rejection. In his play, Sweet Charity, Neil Simon has Charity walking with her boyfriend by a lake, and she tells him how much she loves him. He doesn’t share that love. He suddenly grabs her purse, pushes her into the lake, and runs off. As she’s floundering in the water, a couple walks up. The woman says, “Look, Walter, there’s a girl down there drowning.” Walter replies, “Don’t look, dear!” “But, Walter” – “Don’t look, I tell you. Don’t get involved. It’s none of our business.”
Contrast this to a seven-year-old boy of St. Petersburg, Florida, who, while riding his bicycle, saw that recent rains had washed away part of a road base leaving a hole two feet across and several feet deep. Little Aaron ran home for a cardboard box and wrote “Danger Hole” on the side of it with red crayon and then ran back to place it over the hole to warn the drivers. He explained, “I didn’t want a car to run over it and get stuck or crash.” This lad gave a warning to prevent others from having a disaster.
God is asking us to do the same in the spiritual realm. We may feel uneasy and unworthy, we might even ask, who am I to warn others when I myself am a sinner? Didn’t Jesus say, “Let him who is without sin cast the first stone”? Nevertheless, as those who are forgiven and redeemed by the blood of Christ, God asks us to warn sinners of their possible fate. When we sound the warning, we do it in humility and kindness; with great tact, we must speak the truth in love to show sinners we’re not condemning them, judgment is a job for Jesus. We warn others sincerely because we’re concerned about their eternal welfare. This warning to sinners is evidence of God’s mercy and love.
In a couple of verses later in our text, God says through Ezekiel, “As I live, says the Lord God, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but that the wicked turn from his way and live; turn back, turn back from your evil ways; for why will you die…? “Unless you repent, you will all likewise perish.” Jesus said, “for God so loved the world He sent His only Son.” It’s up to us to share God’s word to the world, both law and gospel. When we do, all those who will listen and believe, will live.
Amen
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