August 11-12, 2007
The Rev. John C. Horn

            What does it mean to be vigilant? It’s easy to come up with definitions for words that have been the subject of sermons during the previous weeks, such as compassionate, forgiving, faithful, prayerful, and wise. But what does it mean to be vigilant?

            The first thing that popped into my head when I asked myself that question was what happens when there’s a noise in the street outside our house. Our dog, who seemed to be sound asleep, immediately jumps to the window, on the alert for whatever is going on. I tell people that we don’t have a doorbell, we have a door-dog, for whenever someone comes to the door she starts barking. That’s one kind of vigilance, to be sure. Cats show the same kind of vigilance by the window, but their reaction is considerably more subtle.

            The other day I in my neighborhood I passed by a pickup truck with a dog inside that barked furiously at me. As I talked with the dog’s owner, I discovered that both he and the dog work for Homeland Security. He said that they patrol ports of entry where foreign ships have docked. (I didn’t ask what they were doing in Iowa!) The dog is trained to bark any time he sees a person moving even a hundred yards away, so that no authorized people get off the ship. I also found out that the dog can be sent to “take someone down,” as its owner euphemistically put it. That, too, is vigilance, and as a country we are considerably more vigilant in that way than we used to be.

            This kind of vigilance is “being wary of danger,” as one dictionary puts it. It is really based on fear, for we are afraid of what might happen if we let our guard down. But there’s another sense of watching and waiting that is described by the word vigil. Parents sit up at night with a sick child, keeping watch until the child falls into a healing sleep. Parents of teenagers lie awake until their son or daughter gets home safely after a night out. And there is the long, hard waiting by the bedside of a beloved friend who is actively dying. These are all vigils, illustrating another definition of vigilant: “sleeplessly watching.”

            What does Jesus mean by being vigilant? Right from the start it’s clear that fear has nothing to do with it. “Do not be afraid, little flock,” he begins, “for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom.” “Be dressed for action and have your lamps lit,” he says. Be ready to go. We are to be watching and waiting, yes, but not fearfully. We are to wait joyfully.

            The example Jesus gives is not hard to translate into today’s life. When I was a child it was always a joyful day when we expected someone to come whom we had not seen in a while – a grandparent or a sibling coming home from college. I used to sit by the window and watch, although I don’t remember barking when their car drove up. I still anticipate with joy the arrival of guests. Jesus, of course, is not talking about guests, but the owner and master of the house himself coming back from a joyful wedding feast. The servants are so eager to hear all about it, who was there, what they ate and what they drank, that they wait up eagerly for the master. And the master is so overcome with joy and gratitude that they have stayed up to greet him, that he sits them down and serves them himself. Even the second example which Jesus gives, of the owner knowing when the thief would come, is not so much about fear as about prudence, taking practical precautions to protect one’s property.

            In the same way, Jesus says, we should be ready, “for the Son of Man is coming at an unexpected hour.” Some interpret this phrase as a literal return of Jesus Christ, coming with the angels in the clouds, as Jesus himself talks about the Son of Man coming in the Gospel of Mark. Others take a more metaphorical view, believing that we will encounter the risen Christ and enter the kingdom of God when we die. Personally, I’m not sure it makes much difference. We don’t know when we will die, and we certainly don’t know when Christ will return. The point is to be ready in any case. And the way to be ready is to be vigilant.

            In the Eastern Orthodox tradition, being vigilant – being watchful – often refers to being watchful over one’s thoughts. Orthodox theologians teach that there are three sources of our thoughts: from God, from ourselves, and from Satan. It is essential that we learn to discern those three sources. One of my favorite stories from this tradition is about a monk who looked up and suddenly found an angel of light standing before him. The angel said, “I am an angel of light and I have been sent to you by God.” The monk shook his head and said, “You must have the wrong fella. I haven’t done anything to deserve an angel.” At that the angel went poof! and disappeared, because it turned out that he hadn’t been sent by God after all! That monk was discerning, a word that you’ll hear more about in next week’s sermon.

            Keeping watch over our thoughts is important, yet Jesus is more action-oriented. He knew that what we do reveals our thoughts. He had read Isaiah. He had heard God speaking to the people of Israel through Isaiah: “I cannot endure solemn assemblies with iniquity…Your appointed festivals my soul hates; they have become a burden to me, I am weary of bearing them.” The complacent people of Israel were still going through all the motions of worshipping God, but they ignored the essentials of justice, which were what really mattered. So God said to them, “Cease to do evil, learn to do good; seek justice, rescue the oppressed, defend the orphan, plead for the widow.” And if they did those things, if their hearts turned, then God would accept them again.

            In the same way Jesus exhorts us to action. “Sell your possessions and give alms,” he says. Don’t be so caught up in what you have. Get rid of some of it, desire less, and give to the poor. Would it be too much of a stretch to say that he could be talking about the Millennium Development Goals? Or being a “Cool Congregation”? Or taking seriously the commands in Matthew 25 to feed the hungry, clothe the naked, visit the sick and those in prison? These are all ways of being vigilant.

            As a dog owner, I suppose I will always think of animals when I consider what it is to be vigilant. Yet I hope and pray that I will also look joyfully to the coming of Jesus, not just in the future but in the present, Christ coming to greet me in every person whom I encounter. It is that daily, hourly expectation of encountering the risen Christ that can motivate us to seek justice and learn to do good. That is what it means to be vigilant.