In the name of Jesus. Amen.
Let me set the stage for this book of Daniel. No doubt many
of you know the story of Daniel in the lion’s den from your Sunday School
classes, but there is some interesting back story that’s good to know.
Daniel was a prophet in an unsteady time. God’s people, the
Israelites, whom he had blessed to be a blessing to the whole world, were being
tossed around between the ruling nations of the time. Like a game of four
player ping-pong, they were tossed from the Assyrians, to the Babylonians, to
the Persians and finally to the Romans.
Daniel lived at the time of Israel bouncing from the
Babylonians to the Persians. His calling from God was to be a spokesperson for
God in the middle of the reign of some of the most ruthless kings of all time.
The Babylonian kings were notorious for their ruthlessness; at times dragging
around their slaves, including the Israelites, on large hooks placed deeply in
their chins and strung together by long chains. This was no ordinary slavery,
as if there was such a thing.
Daniel’s people, especially Daniel and his friends, were in
a bit of a pickle. You see, the law of the day was that worship meant bowing to
the king. Refusing to worship the king and instead worshiping God meant sure
and certain death.
You might remember some of the other stories about Daniel
and his friends. Three guys named Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego were some of
Daniel’s friend who were thrown into a fiery furnace because they refused to
worship the King Nebuchadnezzar. In their faith they would not worship anyone
but God alone. And you might also remember that the three guys were kept safe
from the fire by the God whom they worshiped. When they were released from the
furnace, they came out unharmed.
Or maybe you remember the dreams of King Nebuchadnezzar and
how Daniel interpreted the dreams to mean that God would crush the king because
he forced everyone to worship himself? Or how about the strange story of the
floating hand that appeared out of nowhere, writing on the wall of the palace
after King Nebuchadnezzar died and his son followed in his footsteps. Daniel
interpreted the writing to mean that God, too, would crush this king.
After so much warning, you would think the kings would get
that Daniel was right about God crushing them. And yet, the king’s officials
plotted against Daniel and God. They wanted to have Daniel killed. And so King
Darius was forced into a law that said if anyone worshiped a god besides the
king that person would be put to death.
Daniel worshiped God. He did not worship the king. And so
Daniel was thrown into the lion’s den. Our story today tells of Daniel’s
incredible faith as he spends the night with the lions but emerges the next
day, completely unharmed.
The Israelite people, especially people like Daniel and his
friends, were faithful people. They looked to God to save them. God would
deliver them from the evil kings. In fact, all that waiting for God to deliver
them is why the Jewish people were always waiting for a Messiah. They wanted
someone who would deliver them from the evil kings. Daniel’s people were
anxiously awaiting deliverance from the Babylonians and the Persians. They were
waiting for the King of all to come and set them free from their slavery.
And this, of course, leads us into thinking about Advent,
and teaches us about the people who were anxiously awaiting the Messiah. As we
are led toward Christmas, the day we celebrate Christ finally coming to God’s
people to set them free, it is good for us to remember these stories, stories
like Daniel and his friends having patient and yet anxious hope for God to
deliver them.
Except the Messiah that God’s people were given was not what
they had expected. In a manger, in a stable, behind an old dusty motel,
together with the animals and the cold, a baby was born; a King to end all
kings, a Messiah like no one expected. And yet, he was the Messiah. Christ was
born, he lived, he died and he was raised to set God’s people free. Not from
evil kings, but from the power of evil itself.
In Christ, we are set free from the power of sin, death and
the devil and we anxiously await the coming of Christ again, a second Advent.
We are a hopeful and anxious people once again, waiting for the Messiah each
and every day.
This is what baptism is for. Christ sets us free, once and for
all time, in baptism. Our anxious wait is over when Christ arrives with his
word of grace and hope and promise; and we pray that Christ arrives daily and
abundantly. One day Christ will have his final triumph. But now were are like
Daniel and his friends, anxiously awaiting amidst the rulers of our own time,
waiting to be set free once again from sin, death and the power of the devil.
As we pour water over the head of little Macy Mae this
morning, as we proclaim that her a child of God in the name of the Father and
the Son and the Holy Spirit, our Messiah arrives. He shows up unexpectedly in
simple water and word. Here is Christ for us, the Advent of our God and king.
In the name of Jesus. Amen.
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