How many of you have a bumper sticker on your vehicle? Some are quite witty, amusing, or nudge us to think (or act) differently. Like these: Dogs are for life, not just for Christmas. Tequila! Have you hugged your toilet lately? I used to think I was indecisive, but now I’m not sure.
Not everyone chooses to stick a message on their bumper, but I believe for the most part, bumper sticker people are people who care.
What if God calls us to be bumper sticker people? Consider the prophet Ezekiel. God called him to be a watchman over the house of Israel. In ancient Israel a watchman was positioned on city walls, towers, and hills to detect troop movement by the enemy. God tweaks this last understanding of the watchman, so that Ezekiel watches out for any incursion of sin in fellow Israelites.
God makes it clear. If “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. But 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” (Ez 33:8-9).
We may be thinking: “Glad I’m not Ezekiel,” because that’s quite a mandate for him to fulfill (or fail at) as a prophet. And yet, in who we are in Christ Jesus as the Body of Christ, we are called to be watchmen and women. St. Paul wrote to the church in Galatia: “Brothers (and sisters), if anyone is caught in any transgression, you who are spiritual should restore him in a spirit of gentleness” (Gal 6:1). That baton is passed on to us.
When I was a boy an older brother woke up in pain in the middle of the night. My parents rushed him to the hospital, and he was found to have appendicitis. During his hospital stay, someone gave him this little felt covered animated figure of a lion, which was emblazoned with this short saying, “I’m a lover, not a fighter.”
That message stuck with me, and at first glance – nothing wrong with it. It is good and right to care for others, and not good to fight and treat others poorly. Even St. Paul encourages Timothy to show “love that issues from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith” (1 Tim 1:5).
On the flip side, we can be seduced into thinking that in my care (or love) for someone – I allow them to do or believe what is wrong, without warning them of the spiritual consequences. We play it safe. At that moment we are not lion-hearted in truly loving God and loving others.
Think of the natural disasters we’ve been made aware of. If we would have noticed how the melting of glacier water was going to burst away, and sweep away, hundreds of lives in Nepal – we would have done all that we could to warn people in its path. If we would have noticed how a forest fire in the Okanagan was perilously close to sweeping into, and burning up a community – we would have done all that we could to warn people to flee.
Let’s adopt that same spirit, which is the gracious alarm that rescues. Then in love, we give the other person what they need the most (the truth), when they deserve it the least (because of sin), at great personal cost (by their Savior). And, that’s exactly what we need (I need), when we have not been lion-hearted in our call to be watchmen and watchwomen.
Christ Jesus stepped forward and labored to be the perfect prophet in speaking the truth, while bearing the awful agony of our failure to save us. The bumpers of our souls are then plastered with the sticker that reads: “Forgiven I live. Forgiven you live.” •
— By Pastor Neil Stern
Grace Lutheran Church
Edmonton, AB