The Watchman

"Anyone appointed to be a watchman for the people must stand on a height for all his life to help them by his foresight." (Gregory the Great, "A Homily on Ezekiel." The Liturgy of the Hours, IV, pp. 1365, 1366.)

"I will walk in the presence of the Lord * in the land of the living." (Psalm 116:8 BCP)

The watchman on the height is called to walk in the presence of the Lord. Walking in the presence of the Lord, both in Hebrew and Greek, literally means to walk before the face of God. The expression is concrete and not abstract. Here is God! His face is here! The "soles of his feet" stand on the same small piece of ground as the soles of our feet. "Son of man, this is the place of my throne and the place of the soles of my feet, where I will dwell in the midst of the people of Israel forever" (Ezekiel 43:7 ESV). There is an immediacy in the concept of the presence of the Lord that extends beyond the generality of immaterial spiritualized "presence." He is literally here, physically here though unseen. Our hearts cry out "Incarnate Deity we adore you, and 'we walk before your face in the land of the living'" (Psalm 116:9). The word for land is 'erets, as in 'erets Yisra'el, the land of Israel, the geographical, concrete, physical land of Israel. We walk our walk in physical reality before His face in the land of the living, the half-living and the spiritually dead. The latter, the golem (Gollum?), the spiritual zombies of this world, who, fleeing from before the face of God and His revivifying Spirit, have been filled with that other spirit who is both malign and destructive. The land of the living is the place of spiritual warfare, the heavenly places manifest on earth. "For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places" (Ephesians 6:12 ESV).

The Psalmist says, "I will walk before the face of God." God walks with us and our hearts ardently desire not just to walk "before" Him, but to walk with Him, hand in hand grasping His promise "I will never leave you, nor forsake you" (Hebrews 13:5). Our hearts yearn to walk so consistently with Him that we might hear Him say of us, "a man after my own heart, who will do all my will" (Acts 13:23b ESV). The emphasis is not on emoting some inner surrender, but on action: "a man who will do all my will." Yet our humanity, warped like a treacherous bow betrays us (Ps. 78:57). That is precisely what Gregory wrestles with in his homily. He says, "I do not stand on the mountain of action, but lie down in the valley of weakness." But Gregory hears the challenge: "Anyone appointed to be a watchman for the people must stand on a height for all his life to help them by his foresight." The watchman on the height is called to walk before the face of God.

How do we reconcile these two realities? Gregory says "Truly the all-powerful Creator and Redeemer of mankind can give me, in spite of my weakness, a higher life and effective speech; because I love him, I do not spare myself in speaking of him." Our love for Him, springing from His incredible love for us, provides the vehicle for the authority of the Holy Spirit who speaks in our hearts before speaking through us, "Son of man, eat whatever you find here. Eat this scroll, and go, speak to the house of Israel (Ezekiel 3:1). We are called to stand with Him on the mountain (Mark 1:35), in the place of prayer, in the place of dialogue with God, the place of listening and personal transformation. "We ourselves heard this very voice borne from heaven, for we were with him on the holy mountain" (2 Peter 1:18). From that place we are called to proclaim the wonders of His grace and love, to be watchmen, for we have seen for ourselves the unmerited grace, the steadfast love of God, the cloud of the glory of the Lord. We walk before His face, in His presence, and we proclaim that He came down to live in the midst of men, to die for the warped bow, and to rise again.

~ Father Rob +

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