Rev. George
Miller
November 29,
2020
Daniel 6:6-11
The Season of Advent begins
today; a time of hopeful expectation for the Light of Jesus that is about to arrive.
While the secular world is
busy with decorations, sales and Mariah Carey, the Church views Advent
differently.
Though we know this season
ends in light, we are aware that it begins with the year’s darkest, longest
nights.
In the darkness we endure loneliness,
uncertainty, and unexpected situations.
Perhaps no news story better
illustrates this than what’s happening in Ethiopia.
With a war raging on, 40,000
people have fled to the Sudan seeking safety.
Half of the refuges are under
18. 700 of the refugees are pregnant women.
One woman named Lemlem gave
birth while on the run. Her baby’s 1st bath was in a puddle.
Her friend, named Blaines is
8 months pregnant and travelled across a dessert, sleeping on the scarf she
carried.
Think of these two women,
Lemlem and Blaines- they are perhaps closer to Jesus’ mother than any movie can
be.
Think of the Christmas
Story. Of Mary, pregnant. Traveling for days to Bethlehem. Giving birth in a
manger.
Perhaps she too had nothing
but a scarf to sleep on; perhaps she too had to bathe her child in a puddle…
…My Lord…
Now, before we get too glum,
let us lift up that in their stories there is the Light of Hope- Resilience.
Resilience, means the
ability to hold on, be strong, overcome what comes your way, even if it leaves
you a bit broken and feeling undone.
Resilience is a rose that grows
through a city sidewalk; resilience is surviving 5 years of being a war prisoner.
Resilient.
Tenacious.
Remembering.
That’s who we are. Why we survive.
Why we reach out. Why we show up.
Why we proclaim Emmanuel- God
With Us.
Look no further than Daniel.
Daniel was a faithful,
God-Loving Jew who lived during one of the darkest, most uncertain times in
history.
Daniel was a citizen of
Jerusalem. He saw his beloved city was
destroyed. He was among thousands taken
away.
Daniel was a physically fit
specimen of human perfection. The Babylonian
administration took him in as someone who could be taught their ways and turned
into a proper society member.
But Daniel was a man of deep
conviction and faith. Every time they
tried to turn him from his ways, Daniel found a way to non-violently protest,
speak up and do what he felt was right.
This solid sense of
character made Daniel quite successful, so successful the next king promotes
Daniel to one of the 3 “presidents” in his kingdom, giving Daniel authority to
look after the people in his part of Babylon.
Danny-Boy is so good at his
role that the other 2 presidents get jealous and come up with a plan- let’s
have the king proclaim a law that says if anyone prays to anyone but the king,
they will be cast into the lion pit.
“M’Kay,” the king foolishly
says, passing this abomination of faith into law.
And Daniel? He knows full well that this law has been put
into effect, but it doesn’t stop him from being who he is.
Just as he has always done,
3 times a day Daniel goes into his 2nd floor apartment, opens up his
window that faces Jerusalem, and he prays.
Daniel just doesn’t pray- he
seeks mercy before God.
Mercy, as you recall from
Jonah and Jeremiah, is a Hebrew word rooted in the word “womb” and means
motherly love.
Daniel, a captive in a
strange land, stays true to who he is, and when told he must pray a certain
way, he takes a non-violent stance by getting on his knees and praying to God
for womb-love.
This Daniel, just like
Rachel who refused to stand for her father, just like Hannah, who refused to
apologize for her style of prayer, is the spiritual legacy in which we are from.
Though faced with death,
Daniel choses life by choosing God.
Like Jonah, Daniel is forced
into a dark pit. Instead of being inside
a giant fish, he is in a den of hungry lions.
Yet somehow, someway, he survives,
and he lives to see another day.
Now we could spend time
wondering “How this can be?”
Was it Daniel’s prayers for
God’s womb-love that saved him?
Was it the prayers of the
King after realizing he’d been tricked by his administration?
Was it simply that the lions
had no desire for the flesh of a vegetarian?
That’s for you to discern at
home, but here is what we’d like to say- today’s story about Daniel teaches us one
way to be strong, one way to survive.
How to be strong when we are
in great darkness. How to be strong when
we face uncertainty. How to be strong living
with unexpected experiences.
Daniel teaches us one way to
face our enemies. One way to deal with
death head on. One way to face
injustice, unkindness, and non-humility.
Just as Jonah can be a
patron saint for men facing bruised egos, Daniel can be a patron saint for all
people who feel like they’ve been cast into a lions’ den, living in dangerous
times, or being asked to go against what they believe.
In other words- Daniel is
all of us, and we are all Daniel.
Daniel is an ancestor we all
share, someone we can trace our spiritual lineage too.
Daniel shows us how to turn
to God, how to seek God’s motherly love, and how to open the windows of our
heart.
No doubt Daniel’s story empowered
the people of Jesus’ day when the Temple fell a second time.
No doubt Daniel’s story empowered
the Jewish people during the Crusades and the Holocaust.
No doubt Daniel’s story is
offering many people courage during this time of rising white supremacy.
This is the power of the
Biblical Narrative; this is why we love to tell the story-
Because the more we know,
the more we remember.
When we remember the mercy
that God has shown before, we can find our own heavenly strength to
-hold on
-stay strong
-face the darkness
-make it to the Light.
And when we survive, we
proclaim our story so others in the wilderness, others in the belly of the
fish, and in the den of lions know how to respond.
How to seek mercy.
To not give up without a fight
and how to find the strength to endure.
To live on.
To be resilient.
To be tenacious.
To have hope, and to hope
with the Lord.
For that we can say “Amen.”
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