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Dinner in Babylon

Icon of Daniel and the Three Holy Youths Circa 16th -18th Author unknown

Daniel decided that he wouldn’t pollute himself with the king’s rations or the royal wine, and he appealed to the chief official in hopes that he wouldn’t have to do so…Daniel 1.12, CEB

I suspect that we are all familiar with the expression “when in Rome, do as the Romans do…” in other words, when you are wherever you are, you should follow the customs and traditions of the local people to avoid offending anyone. Certainly in many contexts that can be good advice. There are many things that we have to do to keep our jobs, to make sure that we can live to see another day, but they are often at odds with our Christian faith. The things that mark us as the people of God are fine for Sundays, for dealing with each other, for charitable causes, but the rest of the time we have to survive at work, we have to survive at school, we have to survive in a world that has its own set of rules that have little or nothing to do with Sunday. The truth is, if we are in Jerusalem, we can do it God’s way, but we don’t live in Jerusalem.

Which is where we find Daniel in chapter one of the book that bears his name. Daniel is living far away from Jerusalem and he had to find ways to survive in a world that that was at odds with his faith in more ways than you can count. When asked to take on a new name, he did not protest. When he was offered a free ride to the University of Babylon and indoctrinated with the language and literature of the Chaldeans, he did not refuse. When he was pruned for a life of service in the court of a foreign king, he did not reject the opportunity. In an ideal world, Daniel, would likely have refused these things. But Daniel did not live in an ideal world.  He was in Babylon–not Zion.

Daniel insists that, even in Babylon, God is still God, and he and his friends are still His people. They declare where they stand when they refuse to eat the food from the King’s table because eating food from the kings table would have been a public declaration of entering into a covenant with him. Daniel knew that the way to survive in Babylon isn’t to be partners with Nebuchadnezzar; it’s to remain part of the people of the God of Abraham and Jacob and Isaac, the God of Daniel, the God of us all.

“And Daniel continued there until the first year of King Cyrus…” It’s the last verse in the chapter and seems a bit odd because it has jumped 70 years ahead to the end of the exile. However, it tell us that Daniel will outlast the exile. He will be there when a new king comes to power and the Jews will go home. God’s people will outlast Nebuchadnezzar; they will survive pretenders to the throne. Today, living in the Babylon of the now not yet of Christ’s return, we also have that promise of survival, that we will live until the year of the King – the time when at long last we will be released from the bondage of exile, but like Daniel, we must make a choice as to which table we feed from – Nebuchadnezzar’s or the table of King Jesus.

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THE POWER YOU POSSESS

Say we want a revolution// We better get on right away// Well, get then on your feet// And enter the street// Singin’ power to the people, power to the people// Power to the people, power to the people, right on… John Lennon, 1971

Hold on to your socks because whether or not you think so, you are a very powerful person! But to all who received him, who believed in his name, he gave power to become children of God… John 1.12, NRSVUE. God has given you power to live triumphantly, to move mountains instead of tripping over anthills, and to transform the world instead of conforming to it. It’s tremendous power, so take a few moments to reflect on that.

You have the power to change for the better. Yup, you do! The good news is that you do not have to remain as you are. If you feel discouraged, fearful, angry, or confused, you have the power to find dynamic new life in Christ and God will help you. God himself will help you become more like Jesus, our model for holiness, goodness, righteousness and perfection. “And all of us, with unveiled faces, seeing the glory of the Lord as though reflected in a mirror, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another, for this comes from the Lord, the Spirit (2 Corinthians 3.18). You can change for the better, if you want to.

You have the power to choose for the truth. Since the beginning of time, God has given people the power to choose the course of their destiny. “I call heaven and earth to witness against you today that I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Choose life so that you and your descendants may live…” (Deut. 30.19). No living being has more power to choose than you. You can’t always control events, but you can control your response to them. Conditions color life, but you can choose the color! It’s your choice to rise above mistakes and hurts, to love the unlovable, forgive the unforgivable, and open your heart to the transforming love of Christ – or not. Today choose right – choose life, choose blessing, choose Jesus. You have that power.

You have the power to challenge yourself and others. “Be strong and courageous; do not be frightened or dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go” (Joshua 1.9). Be bold in your faith! Challenge yourself and others to change for the better and choose for the right.

Today, don’t just stand there with your hands in your pockets – use the power you possess. God grieves when Christians fail to show evidence of His strength. Concentrate on your power, not your problems. The world needs to see the children of God courageously challenging themselves and others to change for the better and choose for the truth.

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Prison Time

Rembrandt, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

“Paul in Prison”, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Many of the heroes of the Bible suffered trials and hardships for God. Hebrews 11 tells us about Noah, Abraham, Moses, and others who dared lived by faith.  It wasn’t always pretty: “…Others were tortured, refusing to accept release, in order to obtain a better resurrection. Others suffered mocking and flogging and even chains and imprisonment. They were stoned to death; they were sawn in two; they were killed by the sword; they went about in skins of sheep and goats, destitute, persecuted, tormented…”(35-37). Don’t forget Joseph, John the Baptizer, Peter and John – they all spent time behind bars. And of course there was Paul, “an ambassador in chains” (Ephesians 6.20) with his stints in the cooler. 

Jails and penitentiary’s are not places most of us are familiar with, but that doesn’t mean that many are not experiencing imprisonment. We do not have to be behind bars to be in jail. There are some who live in a prison of despair or hopelessness. Still others are held captive in prisons of fear, bitterness, or low self-esteem. Maybe it is the prison of an addiction or habit that we cannot control. As Peter said, “…for people are slaves to whatever masters them” (2 Peter 2.19).

If you are trapped in a dark, spiritual prison today, try to understand a difficult fact – you may very well be your own jailer. Harsh, yes, but words that I offer in love. The message of the gospel is that you do not have to serve a life sentence in a dismal 6×9 cell. You have the key that will unlock the prison door and let you live in the light of freedom if you are willing to trust that Jesus can save you. Jesus is the light and the truth and the truth will set you free: “So if the Son makes you free, you will be free indeed” (John 8.36). Your release into new, triumphant life in Christ begins the moment you invite Him into your heart and surrender to His control. The Spirit of the Lord will liberate you from the oppression of sin and deliver you to unfettered love, joy, peace, and power. The length of time you spend in jail is up to you. If you are tired of the constraints of prison life, pray today, “Lord, make me a captive of yours, and then I shall be truly free.”

Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. 2 Corinthians 3.17, NRSVUE

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Friday Failures

After this, when Jesus knew that all was now finished, he said (in order to fulfil the scripture), ‘I am thirsty.’ A jar full of sour wine was standing there. So they put a sponge full of the wine on a branch of hyssop and held it to his mouth. When Jesus had received the wine, he said, ‘It is finished.’ Then he bowed his head and gave up his spirit. John 19.28-30, NRSV

Good Friday – talk about a dark day in the history of the world! Crucified on Golgotha Hill, everyone thought Jesus was a complete failure. Just another flash in the pan of wanna-be’s. His disciples, who had given up everything to follow him three years before, felt cheated, bitter, and depressed and they had abandoned him. Of course, things didn’t end there. Friday’s failure had turned to glory on Sunday morning. The Cross emerged triumphant from the empty tomb. What seemed like sure-fire failure Friday afternoon became on Sunday the greatest historical event the world has ever known: the Lord is risen, indeed!  There is no stone strong enough, no tomb deep enough, no death deadly enough, to keep Christ and his believers entombed.

It’s something we seem to easily forget though. I don’t think a single one of us has escaped a sense of devastation or failure at some point in our lives and sadly, many folks never get over it. They dwell on problems instead of solutions, death instead of life, tragedy instead of triumph. The power of the resurrection has escaped them and they never experience the life intended by their creator.

“Failure” is a horribly debilitating word. If it were left up to me, I’d re-jigger things in our world that would make church something no one wanted to do without, take all of the calories out of pecan pie and put them in turnips, and erase “failure” from every language under the sun.

If you find yourself feeling demoralized by your apparent failures, take heart in knowing that there is no such thing in God’s sight if you have done your best to turn to him. I’m not invoking a Pelagianistic heresy – that if you do your best, God will do the rest. That denies everything Paul said about grace alone. When you turn to God with your heart and soul, your imperfect life will reflect the light of success that Good Friday’s failure created, even though you may trip and fall along the way.

Don’t let Friday failures cripple you. The incarnation and finally, the resurrection, affirmed that we humans are good, warts and all. A sincere faith in the triumph of the cross on a dark Friday afternoon may be the very thing which sets you off in a thrilling fresh direction tomorrow. God didn’t come in the flesh to love the loveable or to improve the improvable. God has a greater plan for you that you can ever imagine. He came to raise the dead. “For surely I know the plans I have for you, says the Lord, plans for your welfare and not for harm, to give you a future with hope.” Jeremiah 29.11, NRSV

Artwork: Mikhail Nesterov, The Empty Tomb, 1889.

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He Means It

The greatest among you will be your servant. All who exalt themselves will be humbled, and all who humble themselves will be exalted. Matthew 23.11-12, NRSV

Servanthood –  such a beautiful ideal, such a lofty goal. Jesus exemplified the life of servanthood and he calls us to live as he did. I pretty sure that all of us agree with the principle of servanthood, but when push comes to shove and it gets down to the specifics, I wonder how many of us take it seriously? Servanthood – oh that’s for the other guy; that’s for the minister, as if there is some kind of exception for the laity. “You mean, with my position, my salary, my skill set, I have to be a servant to that so-and-so? You mean I have to wait upon others when it should be me that is waited on? I have to pick up after everybody?” Yup! That’s what Jesus means and he means what he says, whether we like it or not. Make no mistake – Jesus is not talking about high-flying, glamorous,  prestigious jobs. He’s talking about jobs that are as menial as they come – sometimes messy, sometimes thankless – like washing a shopping cart person’s filthy feet.

Pride is usually what gets in the way – it’s the huge barrier reef with the great white sharks of our egos swimming around it, ready at all times to devour any notion of seeing others as worthy at our expense. Our human nature makes us think we are just a little bit above everyone else and we should be treated that way. Instead of seeing what we can do for others, we expect others to do things for us. Scripture has lots of warnings that pride is deceptive and dangerous: for those who exult themselves will be humbled by God himself. I love the  way Obadiah says it: “Your proud heart has deceived you, you that live in the clefts of the rock, whose dwelling is in the heights. You say in your heart, ‘Who will bring me down to the ground?’ Though you soar aloft like the eagle, though your nest is set among the stars, from there I will bring you down, says the Lord.” (Obadiah, 3,4, NRSV) If you think you are high above everyone else, invincible, set among the stars and too good for servanthood – watch out!

Greatness in the Kingdom comes in serving, so check your ego and choose to live as a humble servant of Jesus Christ. As Jesus said, he came not to be served, but to serve. He means it! And if it’s good enough for God, it’s certainly more than good enough for you.

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The Reluctant Preacher

When you're down and troubled // And you need some loving care // And nothing, nothing is going right // Close your eyes and think of me // And soon I will be there // To brighten up even your darkest night. // You just call out my name // and you know wherever I am // I'll come running // To see you again // Winter, spring, summer or fall // All you have to do is call // And I'll be there // You've got a friend.   
“You’ve Got a Friend” by Carol King, 1971

The Book of Jonah is a whale of a tale – pun intended. Sometimes though, we get so caught up in the details of the fish that we miss the meat of the message. Jesus spoke of Jonah as a real person, and I think this reluctant Old Testament preacher has a couple of things to teach us.

We cannot hide from God. It is possible to run from God – I did it for 40 plus years. It is impossible to outrun him though. Jonah didn’t fool God for a New York minute by boarding that ship to Tarshish and hiding in its lowest levels. God was right there. In trying to escape his calling, Jonah brought trouble upon himself and others. Those poor sailors were thrown into a monstruous storm and while they valiantly fought to save him, they probably were still burdened by guilt when they had to toss Jonah overboard.

God gives second chances. If we ask for forgiveness, God will give us another shot at things. Jonah was saved when he called for help – “Waters have grasped me to the point of death; the deep surrounds me. Seaweed is wrapped around my head at the base of the undersea mountains. I have sunk down to the underworld; its bars held me with no end in sight. But you brought me out of the pit.” (2.5-6, CEB) That was a pretty deep place to be drowning in and yet, God rescued him. We are never beyond the hope of a new start with God’s help.

We may be unhappy with God’s will. Jonah preached an eight word sermon: “Forty days more and Nineveh will be overthrown.” His sermon worked! The entire city of 120,000 people repented. Yet, Jonah had the chutzpah to be disappointed and unhappy. He got angry! Many of us pray for God’s will expecting to be thrilled about it, but danger, danger, Will Robinson. Where did we ever get that idea from? God’s will is unlikely to make us happy, because to obey God’s will requires us sacrifice our will and that is never easy to do.

We all have a bit of Jonah in us – some more than others – but at the end of the day, we are Jonah on more occasions than we might care to admit. Like Jonah, we often find out the hard way that we can never get away from God, no matter how long, how hard, and  how fast we run trying to escape the calling and responsibility that he places on us. Save your energy instead for doing God’s will, whether you like it or not at the moment. In the end, you’ll be glad that you did.

Just as Jonah was in the whale’s belly for three days and three nights, so the Human One will be in the heart of the earth for three days and three nights. (Matthew 12.40, CEB)

  • Artwork: Jonah, lunette painting in the Cybo-Soderini Chapel in Santa Maria del Popolo by Pieter van Lint, c. 1636. Inscription on the tablet: “Tollite me, et [mittite in mare]” which means “Pick me up and throw me into the sea”