A Posted Sentinel - Reflections on Isaiah 62:6-12, Christmas Day, Year A
by John C. Holbert on Wednesday, October 22, 2025
Though it may be rare for many churches to hold worship services on Christmas Day, unless it happens to fall on a Sunday, I remember with complete clarity the Christmas Day in 1994, a Sunday, that concluded my time as Interim Senior minister of First United Methodist Church in Ft. Worth, Texas. That memory is so distinct for many reasons, not all of which I can share in this brief essay. However, the text I chose for that day was Is.62, perhaps something of an unusual choice, the common text being Is.9. But for my particular sermon for that day, Is.62 was far more appropriate.
On that Christmas Day I was concluding my four-month pastorate for that 12,000 member congregation, concluding four months that often seemed like four years or longer. I was tapped by my bishop for this assignment just after I had returned from a year-long sabbatical in England, where my wife, Diana, had been sent as an intern minister in the English Methodist Church. Our family, she and our two children and I, were appointed to live in Alderly Edge, a small village a few miles south of Manchester in England’s north. It was really a lovely place to be, albeit very cold and dark for much of the year, and each of us had especially wonderful experiences. Barely three weeks after our return, my bishop called, and I went to Ft. Worth as interim minister.
The previous minister of the church, who had served there for 18 years, had been removed from the pulpit while investigations were held to determine whether or not several accusations against him for sexual harassment were valid ones. During my time there, I spoke to approximately 15 women who affirmed that his actions with them certainly involved chargeable offenses, but that information remained private since several women had made formal charges and legal demands made any public discussion off-limits. Several times a week during my time at the church, a local reporter tried to pry information from me, and others, but we were all duty-bound to remain silent.
Still, each week, I stood in the pulpit to preach, knowing full well that many congregants simply refused to believe the rumors floating about their beloved and well-known pastor. I knew those rumors to be true, and others in the church perhaps knew that truth as well, but the tension was forever high during all church meetings, all church gatherings, and all worship services. The truth very gradually slipped out, and fortunately by Christmas Day, 1994, my last day at the church, most members were aware that some terrible things had gone on with their pastor.
I tell you all of that by way of explaining why Is.62 was my text for that Christmas Day. I saw my role in the church, during those fraught days, to be precisely as Isaiah described the “posted sentinels” on the walls of Jerusalem whose function was “all day and all night never to be silent” (Is.62:6). And what exactly were those sentinels never to be silent about? “You must remind YHWH to take no rest, to never allow YHWH to rest until YHWH establishes Jerusalem and makes it known throughout the earth” (Is.62:7). Those sentinels (“watchers, guarders” are other possible translations) are commanded, apparently by YHWH (!), never to cease telling YHWH to act in the ways YHWH has promised to act, namely to reestablish a fallen Jerusalem to its former glory. In the same way, I saw my limited role to speak on behalf of and to YHWH to continue the divine work of remaking and remolding this particular church back into its former position as flagship community in the city and as a church fully worthy of its name as church. My preaching and leadership, and all of the community’s best fforts alone would not be able to effect this possibility. Only with the help of YHWH, God, could the church recover its role as church, and I needed above all to continually remind YHWH of that task, and to join YHWH in that work. Such a partnership between people and God is always the goal of pastoral leadership, but the unique and painful circumstances of this church’s life called especially for that real partnership.
The passage ends with resounding words that spoke mightily to me 31 years ago and even now. As the result of YHWH’s mighty acts, “They shall be called Holy People, Redeemed of YHWH,” and also named “Those Sought After, a City not Abandoned” (Is.62:12). Each of those titles I imagined were the goal of that church, to become holy, redeemed of God, a place sought out by many, and not at all abandoned to a grim fate, but held by YHWH. Believe me, that was a fabulous Christmas Day in my life, and I have prayed for First United Methodist Church for all the years since. For me, Isaiah’s words came fully alive that day, and I hope for you the wonderful words of that scripture may also ring true for you on this most holy of days.