“Drunken Watchmen”
Text: Luke 21:25-36
12-1-2024
In the name of our Advent King, dear friends in Christ. If you were paying attention to the Gospel Lesson for the past 2 weeks and compared it to this week’s, then you were probably thinking those famous words of Yogi Berra: “This is like déjà vu all over again!” Of course, if you know what déjà vu means then you know Yogi was being repetitively redundant. {A little inside joke there which I can explain to you later if you don’t get it.} Anyway, my point is that last week you heard nearly the same words of Christ in the reading from St. Mark’s Gospel, but St. Luke adds a few variations. Mark also quoted Jesus as He warned us about the end times– speaking of a cosmic disruption, with a parable of the fig tree sandwiched in between, and then the admonishment to stay awake while watching for the second coming of our Lord.
Two weeks ago, Pastor Kumm preached on the Gospel reading and these warning signs of the end of the world. Well, guess what I’m preaching on today? Yep, the Gospel. But lest you think that this sermon is simply going to be déjà vu all over again, let me assure you that it’s not. Actually, I’d like to pick up where we left off a week ago and answer an important question in the process. Jesus says here again that we are to stay awake while awaiting His return. Obviously, He’s not talking about becoming insomniacs. No, Christ is telling us to stay awake spiritually. But the question for us today is: What is it that makes people, including Christians, spiritually sleepy and unprepared for the return of our King?
I have an illustration that I think will help us answer that. It’s a story from my past that I’m not at all proud of. While I was in the Army, the first place I was stationed at was a nuclear missile site in Germany. Even though I was trained to be a Military Policeman, I was assigned to a unit whose job was nothing more than glorified security guards. Sure, guarding nuclear weapons is a bit more important than catching shoplifters at Walmart. But without a doubt, it was the most boring task I could think of.
Well, one night I was assigned to guard the front entry gate of our compound. My task was to be a watchman of sorts. I was to watch for any enemies who might try to get in as well as watch for our supervisor, the Lieutenant. Either way, I was responsible for alerting the rest of the guys in the compound. It was an important task and I knew it. But on that one fateful night it was a task I failed at. I fell asleep when I was supposed to be watching on guard duty. Like I said, it’s not something I’m proud of. But wait, it gets worse. Do you know why I fell asleep? It was New Year’s Eve. Oh, I can tell that some of you have already figured it out. One of the guys brought me a pretty stiff celebration drink out to the guard shack. Well, the combination of fatigue and alcohol did me in.
Now I certainly hope that you will forgive me for that because I was not a faithful watchman that night for our country. Thankfully, nothing bad happened because of it. I also hope that you don’t think any less of me. It was a stupid, foolish mistake made by a 19-year-old kid. A mistake which I never repeated. Even so, I hope there is a statute of limitations on such an infraction because I’ve just confessed it publicly. If I had been caught back then, I suspect I would have faced a court martial with the result being either loss of rank, jail time, dishonorable discharge, or all the above. During a time of war, I may have been shot for my foolish mistake.
So let me ask you a question or two. If my commander would have caught this drunken watchman, do you suppose he would have accepted any excuses I might have come up with? I mean, couldn’t I have tried to shift the blame to the guy who brought me that intoxicating drink? Maybe the Lieutenant would have entertained an argument that it was the Army’s fault for making me sit there bored out of my skull? Besides, it was late and I was tired. Or perhaps I could have argued that I should have been given the night off so that I could celebrate with the rest of the guys? Even if you’ve never served a day in the military, I think you know the answer to all of those. I was solely responsible for dereliction of duty. The only right answer is that I should have remained sober and watchful.
Last week, speaking of His second coming, Jesus used the illustration of a watchman at the gate and He said to stay awake lest He return suddenly and find you sleeping. Jesus tells us again in our Gospel reading today that we are to stay awake! But He also tells us why some people will be found spiritually asleep. In verse 34 Christ says, “But watch yourselves lest your hearts be weighed down with dissipation and drunkenness and cares of this life, and that day come upon you suddenly like a trap.” Okay, so you’re wondering first of all what this dissipation business is. Simply put, it’s the nausea and headache that come from a hangover. I think you all know what drunkenness is. It’s what causes dissipation. Jesus adds to the list the “cares of this life” which weigh on a person’s mind. All of these will distract an alert watchman from their duty.
But let’s clear something up. Jesus is not necessarily talking about the excessive consumption of alcohol here. While that may be one of the things that leads to a person falling asleep spiritually, alcohol is not the main issue. You see, there are many things in this life which a person may imbibe on that can numb our spiritual senses and cause us to drift off into spiritual la-la land. Like what, you ask? Well, the list is rather long but several examples will give you an idea. As Christ says, the cares of this life can be rather intoxicating. We can get so consumed with work that we’re like a drunk: oblivious to everything around us, especially the care and feeding of our faith. Worship and the reception of God’s Word and Sacrament get pushed aside. After all, we’ve got to make a living, right? Along with that, I’d add spiritual laziness. If you believe that coming here to church once a week is all there is to the care and feeding of your soul, then you’re drunk on another lie of this world. Bible Study and your private devotions at home are essential to staying awake.
Our world also offers us some very intoxicating beverages to numb our spiritual alertness. St. Peter warns us in his second epistle that in these last days scoffers will say, “Where is the promise of his coming? For ever since the fathers fell asleep, all things are continuing as they were from the beginning of creation.” Isn’t that what the sinful world serves to us today? They say, “You Christians have been saying for over 2,000 years that Jesus will return. Give it up! It’s all a terrible hoax.” There are modern books and movies which attempt to prove that Christianity is just a big, cruel conspiracy. Add to that the surge of false religions such as Islam, Mormonism, and various new age spiritual movements. And of course, there’s the ever-present hedonism which invites us to party-hardy and enjoy every and any pleasure of this life to the excess. To make matters even worse, many of us suffer from information overload. Information is good, but our world crams so much into our heads through TV, radio, the internet, newspapers, and cellphones that we can’t even sit still long enough to read a simple, daily devotion. Lots of people have drunk deeply of these various intoxicating “beverages” and are spiritually drunk on them.
This last one may surprise you, but it shouldn’t. Just as I had a fellow soldier supply me with the alcohol that led to my drunken sleep, so it is in the Christian Church. Sad to say, there are many false prophets out there who teach things that seem to taste so good when they first go down, but will lead to spiritual drunkenness and dissipation. We have fellow Christians whose teachings deny the power of the Sacraments. Others teach that homosexuality and a variety of sins are okay with God. And still others push the idea that worship is primarily for making you feel good about yourself and the sermons are filled with legalism on how you can make yourself into a better Christian. Instead of pointing you to Christ and what He has done, the focus is on you! Oh sure, they usually reference the Scriptures, but sadly it’s taken out of context in order to suit their purposes. All this goes down like a smooth alcoholic beverage but leads to spiritual drunkenness which leaves us unprepared for Christ’s return.
Just as it would have done no good for me to shift the blame for my sleeping on guard duty, as Christians we too must take full responsibility for our sinful mistakes. We can’t blame the world or our fellow Christians who may have offered us these intoxicating sins. And it’s foolish to try and blame God for making us wait so long for His return. The logical question is: How do we avoid this spiritual drunkenness and dissipation? Jesus says in verse 36, “Stay awake at all times, praying that you may have strength to escape all these things that are going to take place, and to stand before the Son of Man.” The word there for “praying” is one which means pouring out your heart to God when in distress. And isn’t that what we are encouraged to do when we recognize our sins? We cry out to God for mercy knowing that for Jesus’s sake He will forgive us. It’s also through this kind of prayer that we cry out to God asking for His strength to resist the temptations to drink in the intoxicating lies of our world.
Christ was born into our fallen world so that He could die on the cross for our sins. Through faith in Him we are set free and declared righteous in God’s sight. In Baptism, we receive this glorious gift of God’s grace. Cleansed of our sins and strengthened by the power of the Holy Spirit we are then able to stand confidently before our holy God on Judgment Day, wrapped in the robe of Christ’s righteousness. As we await Christ’s return, through God’s Word and Sacrament we are kept sober-minded. Today, once again, He invites you to literally come forward and drink deeply from the cup of His grace in Holy Communion. Drink and be filled with the Lord’s goodness, leaving no room for the intoxicating beverages of sin. And in this way, you will remain spiritually awake, watching with joy for Christ’s glorious return. Amen.
Soli Deo Gloria!