Keeping watch: Reflections from an evening's intercession

We have this monthly practice at Refuge that I call “Wait & See”. On the first or second Sunday evening of the month those who can gather in the sanctuary to wait upon the Lord. The first half hour or so we find a quiet place in the sanctuary to read the Scriptures or still ourselves while either sitting or kneeling. We're encouraged to pay attention to Scripture or thoughts that come to mind while we wait. The second half hour, then, we circle up and share what Scripture or impressions we experienced and then see if we can discern a common thread or “word” that the Holy Spirit is bringing to mind in helping us to pray. Admittedly, it's more art than science but it seems more often than not to work for us. This is a reflection based on December 2019's gathering.

“And there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks at night. An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. But the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid. I bring you good news that will cause great joy for all the people. Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is the Messiah, the Lord. This will be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger.”

Suddenly a great company of the heavenly host appeared with the angel, praising God and saying,

“Glory to God in the highest heaven,
    and on earth peace to those on whom his favor rests.”

When the angels had left them and gone into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, “Let’s go to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has told us about.”

So they hurried off and found Mary and Joseph, and the baby, who was lying in the manger. When they had seen him, they spread the word concerning what had been told them about this child, and all who heard it were amazed at what the shepherds said to them.” Luke 2:8-18, NIV

While kneeling at the altar and trying to still my scattered thoughts a seasonal verse comes to mind: “And there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks at night”. Just what did it mean to 'keep watch' over the flock? My assumption is they were staying awake and alert to ensure their sheep remained safe from predators that may slink into the herd unawares or that none of them wandered off from the flock of their own accord. The night the angel showed up was, as we say today, “just another day at the office.” It was an otherwise normal night suddenly and terrifyingly interrupted by a messenger of heaven announcing the dawn of a brand new age. Have shepherds in those days or really in any day ever commanded the respect of their contemporaries? Bottom-dwellers the lot of them living on the outskirts of society caring for critters that are renowned for their skittishness and stupidity. But at the moment that the angel stands before them and announces the birth of Messiah in nearby Bethlehem they find much to their surprise that they are on the proverbial 50-yard-line of God's new thing he is beginning in the little town just over yonder ways.

In response to this heavenly visitation they head into town to get a look-see themselves and discover that, just as the angel had said, here was a young couple holed up in a shallow cave and their brand new baby boy lying where livestock would normally find their feed. I like how The Message translates that moment: “Seeing was believing” (v. 18). They saw it and then whooped it up and told everyone they met just what they had heard and later seen with their own eyes: at long last the days of Messiah had begun.

First witnesses of Messiah

The handful of us gathered in the sanctuary tonight have not come seeking an angelic visitation. We're just here to seek God's face and wait upon Him. And if he should speak to us then it will be our job to let others in on what he has said allowing them to judge themselves whether or not it's a 'word' from God – or not.

In a way, we too are keeping watch over the flock (there are never many of us at these gatherings but those who do come are usually the elders of our fellowship). We are “guarding the flock”, “overseeing them” for their own welfare, on guard against predators and against their knack to wander off and drift apart. While kneeling and thinking about these things a few more verses come to mind:

Acts 20:25-31

Paul, on his way to his “rendezvous with destiny” in Jerusalem, meets once more with the leaders of the Church of Ephesus:

Paul says farewell

“Now I know that none of you among whom I have gone about preaching the kingdom will ever see me again. Therefore, I declare to you today that I am innocent of the blood of any of you. For I have not hesitated to proclaim to you the whole will of God. Keep watch over yourselves and all the flock of which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers. Be shepherds of the church of God, which he bought with his own blood. I know that after I leave, savage wolves will come in among you and will not spare the flock. Even from your own number men will arise and distort the truth in order to draw away disciples after them. So be on your guard! Remember that for three years I never stopped warning each of you night and day with tears. (NIV)

Peterson translates 28-31 in this way:

“Now it’s up to you. Be on your toes—both for yourselves and your congregation of sheep. The Holy Spirit has put you in charge of these people—God’s people they are—to guard and protect them. God himself thought they were worth dying for.” (Msg)

“I know that as soon as I’m gone, vicious wolves are going to show up and rip into this flock, men from your very own ranks twisting words so as to seduce disciples into following them instead of Jesus. So stay awake and keep up your guard.”

So the need for vigilance in the exercise of pastoral oversight is necessary not because we want to control people but exercise good spiritual care for them.

1 Peter 5:1-3

“I have a special concern for you church leaders. I know what it’s like to be a leader, in on Christ’s sufferings as well as the coming glory. Here’s my concern: that you care for God’s flock with all the diligence of a shepherd. Not because you have to, but because you want to please God. Not calculating what you can get out of it, but acting spontaneously. Not bossily telling others what to do, but tenderly showing them the way. (Msg)

There is something real to this shepherding-thing which requires diligence on the part of pastors and elders whom God has placed in places of authority.

So this night, kneeling at the altar waiting upon the Lord I, too, am playing the role of a shepherd keeping guard and praying God's protection upon the flock of God who gather at 724 Leonard Street. These people, with all their virtues as well as their flaws, “God himself thought they were dying for.”

As I kneel there different faces come to mind of individuals who while once part of the “festive throng” of our regular gatherings (Psalm 42:4) have now become inactive on account of being overwhelmed by life. While no longer “here” nor seemingly able to contribute in any meaningful way to the fellowship they are still part of us and require my encouragement and prayers for the protection of their souls. I sincerely believe that just like the earth is made up of huge tectonic planes slowly moving infinitesimally across the globe so our souls do the same. Why else would the writer of Hebrews warn: “We must pay the most careful attention, therefore, to what we have heard, so that we do not drift away” (Hebrews 2:1, NIV)?

Nothing is static. Everything is in movement.

So, we guard. We watch. We wait. We pray. We intercede. We visit. We encourage hoping to strengthen those who have become weary in well-doing.

Sharing notes

Later as we gather in the “couch corner” of the sanctuary to share our thoughts and impressions, Duane shares of old Zechariah, while burning the incense in the holy place in the Temple, Gabriel appears before him and announces: “Your prayer has been heard” (Luke 1:12ff). How many years had he prayed that prayer? After all he was an old man and his wife, Elizabeth, was way past her prime.

Don't doubt God's messenger

When was the last time he had prayed that prayer? He questions the veracity of Gabriel's announcement and, of course, for his trouble is struck mute and has to watch the wonders of his elderly wife's growing abdomen until the day she gives birth to their son. What Duane feels that we need to hear is that God hears our prayers and while not everyone is answered in a timely way – if at all – it's important to remind ourselves that this regular gathering together is not just a waste of time. God is watching, listening and nearer than we suppose. And should he decide to send a messenger to inform us that our prayers for our fellowship are heard we best not ask too many questions.

Randy is the only real shepherd in our bunch. He owns and cares

for a small flock of them on his and Renee's hobby farm. He laughs as he thinks about his flock and how after a recent snowstorm a large pile of snow had dropped from a tree near the feed trough. This mass of frozen water crystals set them all on edge and they refused to approach the trough hungry though they were. Randy had to get out there and move the snow pile or they would have starved themselves for fear of the big white mass that stood in their way. Good thing they had a shepherd who was “keeping watch” over them.

Lois shared how she found herself reflecting on the prayer of Ezra. Ezra is the scholar and priest sent to re-establish the regular routines of Temple worship and life in Jerusalem following seventy years of exile. He's a bit of a crank and exercises a firm hand but to be fair a firm hand was needed. The people were back in the land but already were engaging in spiritual compromise, intermarrying with folk who were not God-fearers or followers. Did they learn nothing from exile? In chapter 9 he prays:

“And now this, on top of all we’ve already suffered because of our evil ways and accumulated guilt, even though you, dear God, punished us far less than we deserved and even went ahead and gave us this present escape. Yet here we are, at it again, breaking your commandments by intermarrying with the people who practice all these obscenities! Are you angry to the point of wiping us out completely, without even a few stragglers, with no way out at all? You are the righteous God of Israel. We are, right now, a small band of escapees. Look at us, openly standing here, guilty before you. No one can last long like this.” (Ezra 9:13-15, Msg)

Let's admit it: there's plenty to be riled up about today

Lois is a grandmother and an elder in our fellowship. She is a very loving person but she struggles with what she sees as the Church – big “C” - seems to more and more reflect our culture (increasingly pagan by the year) rather than the other way round. “No one can last long like this”. Or, we will last but we will cease to represent Him.

So these became our prayer points for the evening, our intercession for the flock of God here at this fellowship prone to wander because of busy-ness and inattention, for those we know and love who are doing just what the writer of Hebrews warned them not to do – fall out of the habit of meeting together (see Heb 10:25) – and for Christians of the Church of Jesus in our area that we repent and align ourselves with His rule and standard as opposed to whatever messages we are receiving from our culture of what is “right” and “normal.”

Before the end of our gathering we didn't receive an angelic messenger to assure us that “our prayer has been heard.” I guess we didn't need that because the things we prayed for and about lined up with what God has clearly spoken in his Word. We trust that he did hear us and that somehow our gathering together and intercession mattered for these people that he thought were worth dying for.