How to be a Watchmen

    A couple weeks ago I broke one of my personal rules in that I told you some of the struggles in my personal life. Today I am going to break another personal rule: I am going to tell you how to do something. I hate the question how, as it is probably the most useless question there is. The questions "what" and "why" are so much more vital to understanding and life. Those are the questions that help us distinguish between the black and white through the gray. Those are the questions that lead us to discovering the principles for living life. "How" only deals with practically applying principles into our daily lives. With that is important, too often people try answering the "how" question before answering the "what" and "why". An example of this is the Jews of Jesus day. They answered the "how" of the Sabbath quite thoroughly with some 39 general prohibitions for the Sabbath. Yet, as Jesus repeatedly pointed out, they never bothered with "what is the Sabbath?" and "why is the Sabbath here?" Had they delved into these issues, they probably would have discovered the beauty of the Sabbath and made it a joy, instead of a burden. Alas, they did not.

    Another reason that I disdain the "how" question is that how a principle is applied varies greatly from person to person. Principles are universal; applications are not. Of course I answer the "how" question in my life all the time; I must if I am going to grow as a person or even function as a person. But how I apply one principle or another will probably vary from how you apply the principle. Neither is necessarily wrong nor even better. Different strokes for different folks, as they say. This is something that is important to remember as a watchman: be careful to distinguish between principle and application. Alas, the only advice I can give you on accomplishing that task is to study and internalize the principle, ask questions, and pray for the Holy Spirit to give you discernment. Easier said than done, I assure you. The point is that I cannot easily tell you how to apply these black and white principles because you are different than me.

    But today is different; I am going to tell you how to be a watchman, at least as I understand it. These are more principles than a checklist of things to do, but very practical, at least according to my experience. Understand this one point very clearly though: being a watchman will not endear you to people. Most people will get irritated, annoyed, or even angry because people do not like being told that they and their actions are wrong. Being a Christian, which I would equate with being a watchmen, will not win you any popularity contests. The ancient Israelites killed their watchmen (the prophets). The 1^st New Testament watchman was killed by a woman who could not stand being called out (John the Baptist). The Jews crucified the ultimate watchman (Jesus). They then began to relentlessly persecute that watchman's followers (the apostles, all but one of whom met an unsavory end). Throughout history, watchmen have been derided, persecuted, and murdered (see Foxe's Book of Martyrs). We are not here to be liked; we are here to change the world and the world does not like change. This is simply the way it is; if you cannot handle it, then you may need to seriously reconsider your loyalties and your faith.

    So for those who are up to the challenge, here are the principles of being a proper watchman. The first and most important thing about being a watchman is relationship. In order for people to listen to you, you need to have a good relationship with them. You need to know and accept them for who they are for two reasons: first, if you know them well, then you will be better able to discern between whether they are applying the same principle differently than you or if they are simply disregarding the principle entirely. Secondly, and more importantly, if you have a good relationship with someone, they are much more likely to listen to you because they know that you care. This is probably the most crucial aspect of being a watchman: making sure that people know that you care. As my wise mother is fond of saying, "People don't care how much you know until they know how much you care." I have no idea if she came up with that or not, but here she gets credit for it. Of course you must actually
care about said person. If you do not, then you are not the right person to be their watchman for you will have no chance at a positive effect.

    How you confront someone is also greatly important. Here the principles that Jesus laid forth in Matthew 18:15-20 are quite useful (the man was rather intelligent). Unless absolutely necessary, never call people out in public. If you are unsure, do not. Very few, if any, will respond positively to being called out and humiliated in front of their peers. While there are times for this, public confrontation is as a general rule unadvisable. When you do confront someone privately, make sure that they know you are doing this because you care about them, not because you are interested in being right. If you were offended, let them know by discussing your feelings, not their actions. This puts you in the defensive position, not them. Above all, speak the truth in love, as Paul says (Ephesians 4:15). You do this by being gentle, though there are times for a harsh rebuke, and above all communicating that you are concerned about them, not about getting your way.

    Next, you must listen. As someone, probably several someones whose names escape me at the moment, have said, "God gave us two ears and one mouth. Therefore we should to twice the listening as we do the talking." Some of us have a harder time with that than others. Hence I have a blog where I can "talk" merrily way to my heart's content and somebody is probably going to hear. However, when being a watchman ironically requires that you do more listening than talking. After presenting your concern, let the other person talk. Often they know that what they are doing is out of line, but are hurting inside for some reason or another and need someone to talk it out with. Other times they are confused about something and have questions that need answers. Be the listening ear that need; that alone is often enough to turn people around. Look at Jesus: he listened to people's pain and answered their questions. He was, as a general rule, a rather quiet individual who did more listening than talking. The only times he was loud was with the Jewish leaders who needed it. Even then, he still listened. Part of listening is asking questions. This puts both of you on the same page and also makes the other person feel heard. Being heard is probably one of the most powerful things for a person to experience because it makes them feel valued and cared for. One other thing that is important about listening is that you give the other person a chance to explain. It very well may be that they are simply applying the same principle in a different way. That is okay and now you know that they are on the straight and narrow still. Even if you are wrong, taking the time to check up on someone still builds up that relationship because you are demonstrating that you genuinely care about them. The vast majority of people will appreciate and respect that.

    Finally, let them go. After you have talked, you let them go. Either they will listen or they will not, but ultimately it is their choice and there is really nothing more we can do. A watchman cannot truly force someone inside the walls, a fact that is all the more true in the Kingdom of Heaven. The only person's fate we control is our own. If we have warned, then we have done the best we can. We have to accept people's right to choose their own path. This does not mean that we stop loving or caring about them; but it does mean that we do not force them. It also means that we do not blame ourselves for their choices. This is the hardest thing for a watchman to accept: non-responsibility. All we can do is warn and nothing more. It is a big and frightening task, but it is ours nonetheless. Some will listen, most will probably not, but that does not change our mission. We are the watchmen.

The Watchman

    After my most recent post, a wise young woman asked a very pertinent question: what is the line between taking a stand and imposing your morality on someone else? What is the difference between being a concerned friend or relative who sees an important person in their life going down the wrong path and someone who is harsh and judgmental? Are we are brother's keeper?

    Of all the prophets in the Bible, the one with the most bizarre ministry is without a doubt Ezekiel. This guy went through some really strange stuff. Ezekiel was an exile to Babylon who prophesied from about 592 B.C. to 570 B.C. (Robert K. Mciver; The Abundant Life Bible Amplifier, Ezekiel). Most of his prophecies were direct either at the Jews living in Babylon or remaining in Jerusalem. Of course all of his prophecies were eventually directed at the Jews in Babylon after Jerusalem was destroyed in 586.

Despite preaching the word of the Lord for years, no one listened to him; or rather no one took him seriously. They people continued to keep on doing the same stupid stuff day after day, year after year. In despair, he watched his people continue foolishly down a path that he knew would lead only to their destruction. Ezekiel got tired of saying unpopular things and having it do no good and he probably wanted to just quit. That is when Yahveh told him about the "watchman" in Ezekiel 33.

A watchmen, Yahveh tells Ezekiel, is responsible for his people's lives. If he sees an enemy army coming, he has a duty to sound the warning trumpet and tell everyone to get inside the walls and prepare for battle. Let us say he does that; anyone who hears that warning trumpet and ignores it, then their blood is on their own heads. They had been warned and ignored the warning; therefore the watchmen cannot be held responsible for that. However, let us say that the watchman sees the army coming and then does nothing. Anyone who is killed, which is likely to be most everyone, those peoples blood is on the head of the watchmen. He takes the blame for their deaths because he did not warn the people. He did not do his job.

"Son of man, I have made you a watchman for the house of Israel," Yahveh tells Ezekiel. The point is clear: I have a message and a warning for you to give to the people of Israel and you are responsible for it. If you give that message and they ignore you, then that is their choice; you are not responsible for their choices. But if you say nothing and do nothing, then you are also held responsible for their choices because you could have warned them but did not. They might have averted disaster if you had warned them but because of your silence, they came to a ruinous end. This does not excuse the actions of the wicked, but rather does not excuse the messenger from giving his message.

We are all watchmen of each other; this part of what it means to be part of the Kingdom of Heaven. It means that we look out for each other's spiritual lives, as well as the spiritual condition of those that are not in the Kingdom of Heaven. Paul asks how can people believe if they have never been told (Romans 10:14, 15). In his Sermon on the Mount, Jesus does admonish us to take the plank out of our own eye, but then tells us to remove the speck from our brother's eye (Matthew 7:3-5). We are not to leave our brother hanging. How many times did Jesus say, "Go and sin no more"? Did Jesus not constantly try to warn, rebuke, and correct the Jewish leaders? How often did the apostles call each other out when they were going astray? Paul tells us that Scripture is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting, and training in righteousness. Obviously rebuking and correcting is something that we are to do to each other when we see our brother or sister going down a dangerous path.

As we progress on our journey through the gray fog of ethics to the clarity of Yahveh's morality, right and wrong become more and more apparent. Where others can only see gray, we see black and white. That knowledge carries a responsibility to inform people of the black and white. What they do with it is their choice; some will listen, others scoff, most will probably ignore. No one ever said being a Christian was easy or pleasant. A read through of Pilgrim's Progress should convince you of that. Isaiah was told right at the beginning of his ministry that the vast majority of people would completely ignore him. They would be "Ever hearing, but never understanding; be ever seeing, but never perceiving." Truth is their response is not our responsibility; rather ours is to give them a chance to have a response, one way or another.

How is this different than judging? Simple, judgment demands that others reach a certain level of "holiness" before you will accept them. Judging is telling people they are not good enough to make the journey to begin with, as if you were. Warning accepts people and then pushes them to become better; judging demands that you become better to be accepted. Think of the Pharisees: in order to associate with them, you had to be a "good" person. They reviled Jesus because he spent time with "sinners" (Matthew 9:9-13), people they would never be with. Judging sees yourself, intentionally or not, as God. What you understand right and wrong to be is the absolute standard; you leave no room for the possibility that there might be more that you do not understand. It is refusing to admit you are messed up; it is ignoring the "plank" in your own eye. You do not want to help people; you want to exclude them to preserve your own "purity." Judging is standing at the door of the church and filtering the people coming in based on their dress, occupation, type of Bible they carry, state of lucidity, and so on. This does not call people to a better life nor does it warn them of their own wickedness; rather it tells them that salvation is not for them so don't bother. This is the watchman taking a person and throwing them outside the gate.

Jesus accepted everyone, even the Jewish leaders, for who they were. But because he is perfect and he is the law-giver, he knew of the best life possible for people. So he told people about this life in the Kingdom of Heaven, something that was available for everyone. He accepted people where they were at yes, but he also did not leave them there. He told people that he knew of a better life that they could have. Jesus pushed and prodded the people around him to see that they could have so much more than this. Some accepted his message, others did not, some even crucified him for it. That did not (through his disciples) stop him from still being the watchman. While the rejection saddened him, he did not love or accept those people any less. But importantly, he respected it as their choice, not his (see story of rich young ruler in Matthew 19:16-30). If the God of the universe who could control men's choice can respect them, then so must we.

We are to tell people about life in the Kingdom of Heaven, which means we warn and rebuke. But it also means that we must let people make their own choices and deal with the consequences. We warn, not control. Yahveh has gifted us with free choice, something we cannot take away from others. Guards we are not. Watchmen we are.

Black, White, and Gray

    This morning I was sitting in New Testament, half-listening to the professor describe the facets of John's epistles when he said that for John, everything was in black and white. Scanning through the epistles, you see he is right (not surprising given his PhD in New Testament studies). The letters are filled with images of light and dark; perfection and sinfulness; friends and enemies of God. John makes it seem that everything is either good or bad and there is no middle ground. This, of course, got me thinking. An oddity is that the class that I consider the most boring keeps stimulating my mind, but I digress.

    Is life really that black and white where there is a definite right and definite wrong? My friends who would say absolutely not; life is not black and white, but gray. "Everyone has different beliefs that work for them and are sincere about it," they tell me. "These people sincerely believe they are following god of some kind. You're telling me that God doesn't accept that because it isn't exactly in the way he prescribed?" My more conservative relations would disagree, claiming that there is an absolute truth and therefore an absolute right and wrong. "If there isn't," they argue, "then what's the point of anything? How do we know whether or not we are following God? Why bother trying to follow God if it doesn't matter what we do or believe? That's chaos."

    I say they are right. Who is right, you ask, the postmodern mind or the traditional mind? Yes. As in yes, they are both right. Allow me to explain.

    There is such a thing as absolute truth. This is because Yahveh is absolute: he, and only he, is the source of everything (Genesis 1:1, Exodus 20:11, Job 26:7, Psalm 33:6, John 1:3, and so on). As the creator, he makes the rules and has the right to make the rules; indeed he must for without rules there is only chaos. By rules of course I mean a certain way things ought to run, like my car has the rule of running on gasoline. If I tried to use diesel, things would not turn out so well. Therefore Yahveh is the lawgiver as well as the life-giver and he does not change (Numbers 23:19, Hebrews 13:8). If you break the rules, i.e. live in a way that disharmonious with the way you are designed to live, there are definite consequences, namely death. Look at Adam and Eve: they choose to go against what Yahveh had commanded and there were immediate and long-term consequences. There was a big, black line that they had crossed and there was the result, one we all live (and die) with. It was black and white; do what Yahveh says and live a happy, joyful life; rebel and die.

    Because there is an absolute creator, there is therefore an absolute law-giver. Because there is an absolute law-giver, then there is an absolute law. Because this law-giver is unchanging, then so is his law. Therefore there is an unchanging, absolute law, one that determines the best possible way we are to live our lives. Anything, anything, that is not in harmony with that law is bad. We would call it wrong, or even sinful. Hence there is an absolute morality.

    What are not absolute are ethics. Morals and morality are the ideal standards that we live by. In other words, if all was perfect in the world, this is how we would live. I am sure by now you see the catch to all of this: we do not live is such a world. This is where ethics come in: the practical application of morals in our day-day life, at least as I understand the terms. Instead of living in a place that nothing bad ever happens, we live in a place where bad is the norm. As such, we have to make judgments about what is right and what is wrong. For example, the Bible says do not take a human's life, but does that mean I allow one person to kill another because I should not take a life? Is there a difference? Is it wrong to steal money so that I can pay a medical bill to save someone's life? While we will probably never be faced with such issues in our lives, we do face issues like that, simply on a much less dramatic scale, all the time. We ask ourselves do the ends justify the means? Or do the means justify the ends?

    The more relevant issue we deal with is that so many people have different ideas of what is right and what is wrong. In our culture, it is completely appropriate to have sex with virtually whoever you please before (and sometimes during) marriage. In an Islamic culture, you would get stoned for it (and I do not mean with drugs). In this culture, women can wear whatever they like, as long as it something (though that does depend on your job); in Islamic culture women are strongly encouraged to cover-up. Who is right? Or is everyone right?

    This is where things become gray. What should be crystal clear (Yahveh's law) is not. The law says love Yahveh with all your heart, soul, and mind and your neighbor as yourself. How do I do that? To be honest, I do not always know. I know it looks like Jesus, but how do I apply the principles of his life 2000 years ago into today's life and society. It is not like we all walk around wearing bathrobes and have the Roman government sitting on our heads.    The fact is that we live in a world where the black of sin and the white of Yahveh have collided, resulting a gray fog that makes telling the difference between the two very difficult.

    During the American Revolution, the British and the Americans fought over New York in the Battle of Long Island. The Americans were soundly beaten and in danger of being destroyed, which have relegated the Revolution to a mere footnote in history. General George Washington had to retreat, which he did. During his retreat, which was near perfect, there was a thick fog that obscured the Americans from the British who were nearby. It was so thick that one American claimed you could barely discern a man six yards away. The last Americans could say that they heard the British soldiers digging their trenches, they were so close, but the British did not know the Americans were gone.

    Life is like that. We are caught in the middle of this dense fog between two sides. The closer we get to Yahveh, the clearer and clearer the picture becomes, but it is still a shadow or silhouette. So is there an absolute morality? Yes. Can I, in good conscience, claim to know it? No. Rather understanding right and wrong is a process that takes a lifetime to figure out through the fog. Some days I am nearing the enemy's side and so what appears to be right is really wrong and vice-versa. Other days I come closer to Yahveh's side and the gray of life becomes more black and white. But this does not mean that I can impose my sense of morality on anyone because I might be wrong. This is a personal journey that each of us must undertake for ourselves. To be sure there are things that we discover together and if we see those we love veering wrong, we try to help them. In return, we must be willing to admit that we may be wrong and need to correct ourselves. But in the end, the search for absolute truth is an individual journey that we must make and cannot impose on anyone else. Therefore, morality is black, white, and gray.