Sunday, December 2, 2012

Advent 1 :: Dec 2, 2012 :: Daniel 6:6-27


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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