“CHRIST WATCHES YOU THAT YOU MAY WATCH HIM”
Saint Luke 21: 25-36
Populus Zion: 8 December Anno Domini 2019
Father Jay Watson SSP
The second Sunday of Adventide is denominated Populus Zion. While literally meaning people of Zion—i.e. God (the population of God) it is commonly translated as Daughter of Zion. How fitting! How beautiful that the Lord views you as His dear child, who as you are adopted + Baptized into His Name grow by His Word to be His Holy Bride: One Flesh!
Christ watches you that you may watch Him.
“Watch ye therefore, and pray always, that ye may be accounted worthy to escape all these things that shall come to pass, and to stand before The Son of man.”
Jesus is saying to you: “Watch.” He says “pray.” He desires you to be “accounted worthy.”
Of course, God want you to be aware, cognizant, and very mindful of where you are and what’s going on around you. Sure. But He also does not want you distracted and emmeshed in anything that takes your eyes off the prize—Christ crucified! “I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus” [Php. 3.14]. If you cannot add one cubit to your height [Mt. 6.27] how much less can you, as you, change the world’s geo-political and socio-economic positions. You are The Daughter of Zion, the sheep of The Good Shepherd’s flock, and the “little Christs” of The Church Catholic. Too much emphasis on Republican, Democrat, Libertarian, Independent, Anglo-European, Hispanic, American, or even LCMS, will quickly lead you on a dangerous path to heresy (Manicheanism, Dualism, Sectarianism, Humanism) Dives was not able to stand before God (Abraham’s bosom) but Lazarus was, because the seemingly poor man “watched” and “prayed.”
Your sinful nature can take even this Gospel text and twist it into anthropocentric self-righteous navel-gazing. You are simply to understand that “signs” in the heavens…astronomical phenomena, political upheavals, and natural disasters upon the earth, are all continuing signs of both the fall—the decay of the earth—and also the precursors of the coming Return of The Son of Man. “For we know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now” [Rom. 8.22]. But, a myopic and Asperger’s like fascination with “end time predictors” is like gazing into a mirror looking at how good you are. “But of that day and hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels of heaven…” [Mt. 24.36] Jesus Himself moves from the cosmic and world-wide indicators to the simple garden variety. “Behold the fig tree…when they shoot forth…ye see and know…summer in now nigh.” You observe Robins coming back in March or April; you see the spring rains; your yard begins to green up…and you “know” that Kansas July is coming. Christ knows that when it comes to the normal profane things of the world, the Kingdom of Power, you can pay attention. But He wants you focused on the Kingdom of Grace—The Church of the living God. When you watch Jesus, watch Zion, you are safe. Nowhere else does your future lie—save the lake of fire if you are not “accounted worthy to escape.”
The repeat whiners and the oh-so-predictable sectarian spirits (and far too many Lutherans who should know better) are quick to pop-off: “but Pastor, are you saying Jesus isn’t with me when I’m not in Church?” Well, Jesus is “with” you, apart from The Word, the way He is with a rabbit, rock, or rancid piece of meat. Well, more so, since you are + His lamb, and thus His guardian angels are with you—with The Spirit trying to turn you back into The Word. But He is only “for you” when you are with Him in His Holy Word. Not a bad reason to daily study and meditate on the Scriptures, eh? Or: “and pray always.” To those who carp: “I can be a Christian without going to Church; I can be a Christian without receiving The Sacrament” The Word of God, and this pastor, say “No, no you can’t.” It’s like the husband who says to his wife, “dear, I keep you and cherish you always in my heart. But, I like going to the bars, the lake, the place where the “ladies” are, and other places…by myself.” No. The Lover of your soul will always want His precious beloved to be with Him—where He is; where He has promised that His Word and Presence is for your salvation. It is where The Gospel is preached in its purity and The Sacraments are administered according to His institution that you “watch,” and “pray always,” and nowhere else.
The decaying and perishing world is likened to the stormy and tempestuous sea—an ocean of chaos: sinful flesh, Satanic temptations, worldly mammon and cares. But when Saint Peter kept His eyes on The Lord, i.e. “Watched” Jesus, he was able to walk on the surface and not plunge into death and hell. Only when he took his eyes off of The Lord, and looked at the lesser things, did he begin to doubt, fear, and apostatize. But Jesus was watching Peter as closely and lovingly as He watches each one of you. Christ’s watchful care, and Grace giving faith, allowed Peter’s faith to cry out—TO JESUS: “Lord save me!” The Kyrie Eleison, what a perfect prayer indeed.
Adventide is about waiting, about being prepared and ready for The Master’s return. And what does That Lord want you to be doing while you eagerly wait? Yes, Love God. Yes, Love your neighbor. And when you fail to do both. He still loves and forgives you. He watches you that you may watch Him. And now having “watched” Him in His Gospel and Gospel sermon, you will go on to “watch” Him in the Prayer of Populus Zion and the “Our Father.” And the crescendo of your faithful “watching” will be when you receive Him in Body and Blood. Thus, you are “accounted worthy to escape all these things that shall come to pass, and to stand before the Son of man.”
In the Name of the Father and + of the Son and of The Holy Ghost
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