An Anglican Priest of Northern English extraction
Discovering Home
Learning to be a Friend, father and husband - but above all, and indeed radically redfining all of this, a Disciple of the Risen One
The Advent Antiphons are said or sung before and after the Magnificat at Vespers each evening of the week immediately prior to Christmas. Each one speaks of an aspect of the One who is to come, Israel’s hope and a Light to the Gentiles.
This set of reflections juxtaposes each of the Antiphons with one of the seven ‘I AM’ sayings of Jesus Christ, the embodied Hope of all Creation – the Word made flesh.
In this video, the Dominican brothers of Blackfriars Oxford sing the Magnificat Antiphon, O Adonai
O Adonai, et Dux domus Israel,
qui Moysi in igne flammae rubi apparuisti,
et ei in Sina legem dedisti:
veni ad redimendum nos in brachio extento.
O Adonai, and Ruler of the house of Israel,
you appeared to Moses in the fire of the burning bush,
and on Mount Sinai gave him your law:
Come, and with an outstretched arm redeem us
(Translation from Benedictine Daily Prayer: Liturgical Press)
To be in a Christian is to be in a War. As we are baptised into the life of Christ, the people of our new family, the church exhort us to
‘Fight valiantly as a disciple of Christ against sin, the world and the devil, and remain faithful to Christ to the end of your life’ We had thought that being called into the body of the Church was to than discover ourselves emerging into a place of unadulterated peace, we discover we’ve been thrown into the front line of a conflict we never knew existed. We encounter Christ and find ourselves conscripted in His army and posted back to the place from which we came. We Die, and are made Alive in the same place.
We thought faith was no more than a set of ideas – we discover that it is a Life – moreover one in which the Reality of the World’s ongoing resistance to its Lord is revealed and not just ‘out there’, that it runs like a scarlet thread through every aspect of our own lives.
And so our new home community, the church blesses us with tools to engage in this ongoing War – not least that of the seasons of Lent and Advent. Over and again as we follow the church Calendar, we come to stations of refreshment, training camps along the way, where we sharpen those aspects of our faith walk which have become dulled. In Advent, we are called to Wake Up! We hadn’t realised that we were fallen asleep, but sin and death have worked their narcotic effect and we need rousing. And at once we realise the conflict – for Advent readings call us Awake in a season which the world has captured for its own, and filled with a myriad of distractions which simply MUST be obeyed. There is no gentle winsomeness in this call. It is Imperatival – Commanding and Imperious. Buy! Buy NOW! Rush! Hurry! Get Ready! Don’t forget all those traditions your family demands at this time of year! There is SO much to do!!
Yet this is the culture of Death – it is an overwhelming with thorns and weeds and we must ‘flee to the hills’, with the Abbas and Ammas of old, roused from the sleep which sweeps us away, we make haste for the Desert. And Wait. Wait on that world that raises us from the dead, and that casts us back into the conflict in the strength of The Holy One of Israel.
In the days of Christendom, the church having lost sense of its head Ruled with a rod of iron and prescribed the ‘How’ of Advent , under Law, not under gentle yet infinitely winsome Grace. We were Told to Fast and Pray. Perhaps thus, cultural memory being the deep unconscious current which we often swim all too readily with, it is not surprising that we choose not to now, but if we are attentive to the Word, then we will gladly abandon All Things for Him, the Pearl Without Price. Seeking above all, indeed Only to hear His Voice, to See His Fire, to Desire His Life. That somewhat hidden under the mantle of coercion, there was a voice, the Voice of love, like that of many waters, calling us to fast and pray ‘that we enter not into temptation’.
The Voice which calls Lazarus from the grave, calls us too. The Fire which captivated Moses on Sinai seeks a home amongst His people. The Life known in and through ‘the glorious battle’ is held out to us all.
Let us abandon distractions. Let us Go with Him, Let us go too Him, the one who frees us from our many shroud like captivities. The One who sends us back into Egypt, back to the place of captivity that we might be His instruments of release for others.
The Advent Antiphons are said or sung before and after the Magnificat at Vespers each evening of the week immediately prior to Christmas. Each one speaks of an aspect of the One who is to come, Israel’s hope, and a Light to the Gentiles.
In this set of reflections each of the seven Antiphons is juxtaposed with one of the seven ‘I AM’ sayings of Jesus Christ, the embodied Hope of all Creation – the Word made flesh.
In this video, the Dominican brothers of Blackfriars Oxford sing the Antiphon,
O Sapientia
O Sapientia, quae ex ore Altissimi prodiisti,
attingens a fine usque ad finem,
fortiter suaviter disponens que omnia:
veni ad docendum nos viam prudentiae.
O Wisdom, you came forth from the mouth of the Most High,
and reaching from the beginning to end,
you ordered all things mightily and sweetly.
Come, and teach us the way of prudence.
(Translation from Benedictine Daily Prayer; Liturgical Press)
‘Thomas said to Him, “Lord, we do not know where you are going. How can we know the way?’
To be Christian is, as it were, to live in a state of contemplation – that is that our attention is, like that of Mary upon him, in amidst ‘the many things’ He fills our vision and thus we can only ‘see’ the world through Christ.
Advent offers us the gift of renewing that contemplation, of abandoning distractions. It is a reminder from the Church, to which we are ‘members’ through baptism, of the counsel of the writer to the Hebrews: that is, to ‘lay aside every weight and the sin that clings so closely, and let us run with perseverance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus the pioneer and perfecter of our faith’
It is a commonplace that our age excels in distractions. Like the circuses of old, Distraction has become our way of life, so much so that we believe we are attentive not at all distracted. In so many ways we are surrounded by multiple media of distraction, each cleverly tuned to our attentive weakness. And when we are so entranced, so captivated – when ‘Distraction’ has become for us our way of being in the World . . .
At the root of much, if not all of our distraction is the Ancient distraction of Knowledge. Knowledge which promises that which we desire above all things, control of our own lives, that we ‘might be like God’. And so the alluring appeal of, for example, these words from Jimmy Wales, founder of Wikipedia ‘Imagine a world in which every single person on the planet has free access to the sum of all human knowledge’.There are few if any of us, who can say in truth that we do not find the allure of such a situation somewhat attractive, that is, Distracting. For if together we knew everything, then we would all be ‘one people, . . . [having] one language; and this [would] only the beginning of what [we could] do; nothing that [we] propose to do [would] be impossible for [us]’ Gen 11:6
Thomas, Jesus’ disciple blindly grasps for this knowledge. ‘Lord. We do not know where you are going. How can we know the way?’ Where is the map? What does the Way look like? Where are you going? Tell us these things and we shall be satisfied. And so he desires knowledge, apart from Jesus. Like so many of us today, understanding ‘faith’ in terms of ‘beliefs’ to which we may or may not assent, that we know for ourselves. Like the rich young man Jesus encounters, seeking an answer to the question ‘What must I do to inherit eternal life?’ Seeking to retain control through appropriate knowledge. Tell me and then I can go my own way.
Jesus in his answer to the young man, and in his answer to Thomas, shatters all our attempts to create eternal life on our own terms, to ‘make a life for ourselves’. ‘I Am the Way and the Truth and the Life’
And here there is a double move, from facts to relationship, and from impersonal to personal knowing. Not that eternal life is to know facts personally, but it is to Know The Person. The One in whom all things hold together, and by and through and for whom all things exist.The One who ‘came forth from the mouth of the Most High, reaching from the beginning to end, who ordered all things mightily and sweetly.’
This double move is that from Knowledge to Wisdom. From the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil which leads us away from the Goodness of Life, to the Tree of Life, and the One who resides there.
St Paul says Jews demand signs and Greeks desire wisdom, but we proclaim Christ crucified, a stumbling-block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles, but to those who are the called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. For God’s foolishness is wiser than human wisdom, and God’s weakness is stronger than human strength. Consider your own call, brothers and sisters: not many of you were wise by human standards, not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth. But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong; God chose what is low and despised in the world, things that are not, to reduce to nothing things that are, so that no one might boast in the presence of God. He is the source of your life in Christ Jesus, who became for us wisdom from God.
Ancient Wisdom – which danced before the Lord before the beginning of Creation – in his Flesh reconciling all things to God.
‘Now this is eternal life, that they might know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent’
To be Christian is to live in a state of contemplation. He fills our vision and thus we can only ‘see’ the world through Christ.
Let us abandon distractions.
May the Wisdom of God be The the object of our Contemplation, both through this Advent, and to His Appearing
Sermon for Sunday December 15
Isaiah 35:1-10
James 5:7-10
Matthew 11:2-11
“Are you the one who is to come, or are we to wait for another?”
It is said that when the Bhudda was on his deathbed, he told his followers not to remember him, but to remember his teaching. Given the number of statues one sees around the world of the Bhudda, it seems that perhaps that counsel was not heeded.
Jesus on the other hand was quite specific, that in the night before he died, he took bread and when he had blessed it, he broke it and gave it to his disciples saying, ‘Take! Eat! This is my body which is given for you. Do this to remember me’ There is at once a teaching, a Command indeed – Jesus Commands us to take the bread and eat it – but the teaching has one purpose, ‘to remember Him’, which goes some way to explain the somewhat cryptic response that Jesus gives to John’s question “Are you the one who is to come, or are we to wait for another?”.
For Jesus sends John’s disciples with the prophetic words of Isaiah ringing in their ears – and indeed with a demonstration of those words ‘Go and tell John what you hear and see: the blind receive their sight, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the poor have good news brought to them.’ Note that Jesus does NOT tell them – go and tell him what you see me doing – rather go and tell him what is happening in my presence. Where Jesus turns up Creation is healed in the most dramatic way – this is happening all around him. These are the promised signs of God’s arrival, God’s Kingdom breaking in. They are SIGNS revealing the presence of the Kingdom . . . and then Jesus adds these words of his own – ‘and blessed is the one who takes no offense at me’ For it is in Jesus, the Messiah, that the Kingdom is breaking in – he is not so much the agent of the Kingdom, he is its very embodiment – that in Jesus these things are coming to pass. His Presence is healing and transformation. His actions reveal his Being.
And yet it seems the church, as God’s people in the past, often misses the point. That the focus of our faith is Not the miracles of Jesus, it is not the teaching of Jesus, it is Christ himself. That without him there are no healings, and without him his teaching becomes but another set of dust dry lifeless morals, or as the society in which we live puts it, Values.
Jesus Over and over again calls his disciples and those with ears to hear Not to put their faith in the miracles – but in Him. Not in his power to Heal, but in Him, not in his words, but in Him. We long for the healing that he brings, we long for a world where his teaching is obeyed – but we do not long for HIM. We ask Jesus to make his world perfect, FOR US. However much we may say otherwise, deep down We are the centre of our faith, and thus frail uncertain creatures that we are we doubt – for who would believe in Us?
And missing this we fall prey to lives not of faith, but of doubt. Lives indeed where in our hubristic superiority we elevate doubt to a moral virtue, and perversely for some a signifier of authentic faith, mistaking as we do the centre of our faith faith for mental assent to a set of propositions about reality, as opposed to the one through whom all things are created and in whom all things hold together. This is not to say that Jesus’ words and works are of no value – far from it, but without Him they are nothing! The transformation of the world will not come about, as some romantically suppose because the world will come to its senses and everyone will come to follow the teaching of Jesus – the world will only transformed through faith In Jesus Himself. But failing to recognise this we put our faith in ourselves and above all our immensely limited power of reason, the greatest thing known to us – that which we exalt far above all gods. And thus we doubt.
At the beginning of the C19 a German theologian by the name of Frederich Schleiermacher set out to try and make such a faith ‘reasonable’ to what were termed the cultured despisers of his age – those who elevated their own powers of reason above everything. But now it seems we live in an age when the cultured despisers are live and well within the church – demanding Doubt as the only genuine authentication of faith.
And John’s question is paraded about as an example of doubt – yet it is far from it, it is THE question of faith. Here he is – languishing in the depths of Herod’s prison – unknown to him only days from his death at an executioners sword for slighting Herodias, reminding the King that his marriage was unlawful. Those in authority rarely respond well to being confronted with unwanted truth. But John’s question has one and only one doubt, one which counter intuitively reveals his Deep and abiding faith. For his question reveals that he KNOWS that one Is to come who will redeem Israel – his question is, ‘Are you the one?’ It is the question of one who believes – If you’re not, then we shall go on as a people, patiently waiting, for we Know that God WILL redeem his people. Although it had been 400 years, there was no question in John’s mind that God Would send One to save his people – we have waited 400 years, if you are not the Messiah, then we have learned patience – we can wait, we will wait – He Will come..
He KNOWS that one IS to come – his only question is “Are you the one?” He like the disciples of Jesus remains unsure, but he is in NO doubt that God Will come and redeem his people. He is one of The great examples of the Advent posture towards the world – that resolutely, and quietly and with infinite patience Waits, for the one who IS to come – except he is just a shadow of the person of faith . . .
It is I must admit rather hard to imagine John as a shadowy character – isn’t he surely the most Full On individual we meet, Jesus aside in the whole of Scripture? With his powerful and merciless denunciations of the Pharisees and Sadducees, coming for Baptism for heavens sake!! – ‘you brood of Vipers!’ As always, fearfully trying to get it right – to get on the right side of God, and John lambasts them ‘Who warned you to flee from the wrath that is to come?!’ And Jesus indeed picks up on this theme as John’s disciples return with the Good News to their master – Jesus turns then to the crowds and vindicates John and his ministry.
‘Tell John what you see’, Jesus tells John’s disciples – but then asks the crowds ‘What did you go out in the wilderness to look at? A reed shaken by the wind??’ It is hard to think of any less appropriate metaphor for John – you can see the smile on the faces of the crowds at Jesus’ joke. John’s ministry has been anything but like a frail reed moved around by the gentlest of breezes – rather he is utterly steely. His question of Jesus reveals that steel – even in the depths of the darkness of prison he is the same – interrogating Jesus – ‘Are you the one? Or do we wait for another?’
So quite clearly they haven’t gone to look at yet another reed flopping around in the wind. ‘What then did you go out to see? Someone dressed in soft robes?’ Again the crowd enjoy the joke, the hair shirted baptist has probably never felt the softness of fine cloth, and his diet was hardly the cuisine of the wealthy. ‘Look, those who wear soft robes are in royal palaces.’ What then did you go out into the wilderness to see? A prophet?’ The crowd nod back at him – there was no doubt in their minds about what John was – but Jesus now takes them further – ‘Yes, I tell you, and more than a prophet. 10This is the one about whom it is written, ‘See, I am sending my messenger ahead of you, who will prepare your way before you.’’
John is more than a Prophet – he is THE prophet, the Prophet who is preparing the Way of the Lord – the Royal Highway of which it was said – ‘it shall be called the Holy Way; the unclean shall not travel on it, but it shall be for God’s people; no traveler, not even fools, shall go astray. No lion shall be there, nor shall any ravenous beast come up on it; they shall not be found there, but the redeemed shall walk there.’ The one who prepares the way of the Redeemed, of the Ransomed of the Lord upon the heads of whom shall be everlasting joy, the ones who will know the departure of sin and sorrow. ‘If you are willing to accept it, if you have ears to hear’, Jesus says, ‘He is Elijah who is to come’ John is the prophet of the end of the age.
And the crowd must have been brought from knowing smiles to almost stunned silence by those words – into which Jesus speaks words which radically calls into question All that his hearers have understood about God’s plans for his people. Surely after all, who can be greater than the one who announces the culmination of the history of Israel . . .
Jesus said you are right, and you are wrong – ‘Truly I tell you, among those born of women no one has arisen greater than John the Baptist’ – ‘John’, he tells the crowd, a crowd which at this point is all too ready to believe him, ‘John is the greatest man who has ever lived’ but then as he keeps on doing, he demolishes all our categories of understanding – ‘yet the least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he’.
John is just a shadow of the person of faith – John belongs to the age that is passing away – and up to the coming of Jesus, No one is greater than John the Baptist, which in itself undoes some of our categories, in that this wild man of the wilderness is the greatest of those born amongst women – but let us not be deflected – John is the last of the age that is passing away – he is the herald of the age that is to come, and as John embodied the line of the Prophets, bringing it to an end, so, indeed more so, infinitely more so, Jesus Embodies the age that is to come. He IS the age that is to come.
In the death and resurrection of Jesus, the Messiah, the age that is passing away comes under the judgement of God, and the age that is to come is revealed, and those who are In Christ are already beginning to participate in the fulness of the reign of God, something which even John could not do, ‘for as yet the Spirit had not been given, for Jesus had as yet not been glorified’
The Resurrection of Jesus releases the Life of God into the world – the Spirit, the Spirit of Jesus, the Spirit of the risen one, making Christ present in all who welcome him, to all who believe in him . . . ‘But to all who received him, who believed in his name, he gave power to become children of God, who were born, not of blood or of the will of the flesh or of the will of man, but of God.’
John, the shadow of the person of faith, yet what a shadow! For in his faith we see so much of what it means to be faithful people – resolutely and quietly with Infinite patience Waits in Advent Faith – Waiting for? Well waiting for God’s work in Jesus to come to fruition amongst his people – waiting for the Seed of the Life of the Risen one to bear fruit, 30? 60? 100 fold? However much fruit, waiting in faith for an Abundance of Fruit.
Just this week I was speaking with Andrew Scott as he spoke about this seed bearing fruit in Brockville, about how all of a sudden people are asking to become Christians, are seeking to be baptised – the Life of Jesus bursting forth, after 8 years of patient work and watching the field and waiting.
As James reminds us 7Be patient, therefore, beloved, until the coming of the Lord. The farmer waits for the precious crop from the earth, being patient with it until it receives the early and the late rains. 8You also must be patient.
And next week we turn our attention to Mary the Mother of God, who is the first to know this Life of Jesus within her and so who exemplifies for us the Waiting of those who belong to the age He has ushered in.
But for now, let us KNOW his presence amongst us – let us Take – let us Eat – let us Feed on Him, by faith and with Great Thanksgiving.
Sermon for the Patronal Festival of St Nicholas, Waverley, Dunedin
At the first service of Revd Jo Fielding as Priest in Charge of The Otago Peninsula Parishes
‘Peter and Andrew left their nets and followed our Redeemer. They had not seen him work one miracle, or heard any mention of an eternal reward, yet one word from The Lord was enough to make them forget all their possessions” St Gregory the Great 40th homily in Evangelia
‘His mercy is on them that fear him, throughout all generations’
Jesus puts a high premium on childlikeness – indeed he goes so far as to say that only the childlike can enter the Kingdom of Heaven. Childlikeness has many dimensions, which as the father of five I know all too well – and not all of those things which make up childlikeness are comfortable to live with. In particular the child’s Perception, their clear sightedness. They may not understand the world – but they clearly see it! As embarassed parents can only too well testify. Indeed if you really want to know the truth about an adult, ask their offspring. How often have I known children who have seen their parents far better than their parents see themselves – and indeed I’m sure this is true of me also. I’m frequently reminded of some of my deepest flaws by my children.
This is unsettling. It is Not the way we largely assume things are. We assume that as we get older we see better, that we understand more clearly – yet in truth what we often do is to Rationalise, to ignore so much of what we See in order to make those judgements which keep us secure in the worlds we carefullly construct for ourselves. We mistake knowledge for Wisdom, a few facts for genuine insight. As we age we trade clarity of Vision with all the confusion this brings for ‘Answers’ a form of Security against the Overwhelming nature of Reality, of Light and of Life. We trade deep encounter with Life for what we sense is Power over it. And we mistake our power for maturity. Because we can drive a car, or do higher mathematics we assume we have as it were developed into something better. We smile at childrens’ insights but have lost our way, substituting power and Mastery Over life, for Wonder, Awe and indeed genuine ‘fear’ in the deepest sense of profound Respect for all that Is – that which children apprehend all too well.
This is of course not only true for us as individuals, it is also true for societies. I remember once spending a day with a colleague and friend walking the hills of the Lake District. John, my friend had one of those enviable physiques which meant he just kept going and on the day in question we’d walked nearly 40 miles over the highest hills in England, so as we descended into the valley of Borrowdale it was dark. Without torches the tiny hamlet of Seathwaite beckoned and I cried out – “Ah! Civilisation!” John without a moment’s hesitation replied- “I wouldn’t call it that”.
Not that he longed for the big city lights. No John had worked as a mission teacher for many years in Malawi. Apart from a charming Zambian wife, he’d returned with a deep apprehension of reality having been immersed in life in a way that comfortable modern westerners have never known. He’d only ever had two shirts whilst working in Malawi. One in the wash and one to wear. And that, had been luxurious living in the eyes of some folk amongst whom he lived – but on his return to the UK, he didn’t buy any more, unless they wore out. He didn’t take Western Civilisation’s own story of Advancement and Maturity as self evidently true. For him, the culture he had left, for all its privations was far more Grown Up. Wisdom flourished in amongst the harshness
Mistaking Power for Maturity, Knowledge for Wisdom we might look at this evenings reading from the Book of Daniel – ‘Daniel in the Lions Den’ as we like to call it – and declare “That’s all nonsense for babies!” “Why?” we might think “are we advanced sophisticated mature folk sat here at Choral Evensong, a place for the cultured in the church 🙂 , listening to what we’ve been taught to think (and unless we learn to think we will always be taught to think, unthinkingly) – what we’ve been taught to think are children’s stories?
Those of you familiar with the Narnia books may have recognised that expostulation – “That’s all nonsense for babies!” It comes from Prince Caspian, where the young Caspian is in conversation with his Uncle, Miraz, King of Narnia. Miraz wants to prepare Caspian for ‘the adult world’ – like so many adults, fearful of vulnerablility he projects that fear onto those weaker ones around him – but Caspian is not weaker in one vital respect – that of imagination. Whilst Miraz is encouraging his young charge to learn the way of Horse and Sword, Caspian wonders out loud – [quote from p42-3] – “Oh, but there WERE battles and adventures in the Old Days” and there was much more. Miraz, the adult has taken away from what was the Terrifying Wonder of all that is – and reduced it to a set of skills for getting on in the world – for controlling it
Miraz in his Anger – and how we bully children with our anger – finds out that Caspian’s Nurse has told him these tales. So the nurse – the symbol of childhood is sent away and a Tutor, the symbol of knowledge is employed in her stead – except that unbeknownst to Miraz – his tutor is a dwarf. And in secret he tells Caspian the truth – that Yes, the Old times were as his nurse had told him, but it was his own people, the Telmarines, who had [Quote p50.]
CS Lewis was accused by those who knew him and many who didn’t of doing precisely what Miraz scorned – the Narnia Chronicles seen, as they largely still are as ‘stories for babies’ – at the best somewhat clumsy allegory for the Christian story. Yet in this passage Lewis subtly answers his accusers 🙂
And there are powerful parallels between Lewis’ work and the book of Daniel. Not least in that both are subtly written to Reveal a world of breathtaking richness and yet simplicity, a world which we apprehend in experience and then fearfully and tentatively seek to understand, without reducing it out of fear. So we come to Daniel and this tale, a tale for our times – not because we perhaps live in an age where ‘the end of the world’ is perhaps something towards which one need not be thought mad to envisage – but because Apocalyptic is primarily a Revealing of the Reality of things, it is a tale for all times
For what is unveiled is the arrogance and the blindness of so called ‘Mature Civilisations’. ‘Grown up’ Worlds we create through our own power rooted in fear – the brutal power of a world where we think we understand pretty much what is going on, and act as authors of our own lives. [A reason why we should be far more critical of Science than most would begin to allow – but for another time] In this essentially Secular world, created by Emperors, are thrown Daniel and his three friends – in some traditions interestingly referred to as children . . .
Firstly we note the huge historical sweep of this book. It teaches us – Empires come and Empires go! When Daniel and his friends are first brought from Jerusalem to Babylon Nebuchadnezzar Rules – and his Power appears to be absolute – he appears to have power over life and death throwing the three friends into the fiery furnace. It is he who demands that his courtiers not only tell him the meaning of his dreams but the actual dream itself! But Nebuchadnezzar is brought low – he is utterly humbled.
Of course we might think we live in a different time, but still the powers that be exercise the power of life and death. Multinational corporations and Governments conspire to take decisions which lead to the death of many. Just this week it has come to light that Nestle has used its economic muscle to buy up lakes for bottling its water to sell to wealthy westerners – the lakes are in Pakistan – where annually thousands die for lack of clean water. Indeed such ruthless power is now written into international law . . . But Nebuchadnezzar IS brought low . . .Then his Son Belshazzar takes to the throne and holds the famous feast with the writing on the wall – the feast where he has thought nothing of the Sacred things of the Jerusalem temple and has drunk from them – so comes the writing on the wall. and overnight in sweep the Medes and Persians, and Babylon falls. It does not recognise the Sacred . . . a message for our times if I ever heard one. Finally comes Darius King of the Medes and Persians
Note that Daniel has been a fixture throughout all of this – Emperors and their Empires rise and fall – but the Word of the Lord embodied in the Prophet Daniel abides. Immediately we see how the text calls into question our vision of the way the world is – it invites us to see Empires rising and falling – they come and they go – they are as nothing. How the Empires of this world Consume our vision with their promises of being ‘everlasting Kingodms – bringing endless peace and prosperity! My forebears grew up and went to school where the Dominant colour was Pink – The British Empire stretched out across the globe – yet that Empire had passed by about the time New Zealand was being settled by Europeans – Over the past 150 years The American Empire has been seen to dominate world affairs. The American Vision for the world being espoused like the Pax Britannica and the Pax Romana before it as one of prosperity and peace for all – but now we see the clay feet of that ‘civilisation’ as China powers forward, if only perhaps for a brief while. Empires come and Empires go, and the message of Daniel is that they are as nothing. All of them confusing Power for maturity. Ignoring the one who dwells amongst us in Humility and Truth
Darius is like the ‘adult’ – he has enough knowledge to imagine he controls things – but he is trapped in his own conceit – as are all Emperors. From within the world as he sees it he reigns Supreme – he seems to have absolute power, so when the satraps and Presidents come to him in an attempt to trap Daniel, he sees it as not at all unreasonable that people should be required to pray to Him above all gods or people. He sees himself as the centre of the Universe. After all he has built a life for himself – a gilded life, like so may of our contemporaries – but it is a cage, albeit a gilded cage. The only security against the reality of Life is a prison . . .
So Darius is undone. For all he has is his own power – he sets the Law ‘the law of the Medes and the Persians, which cannot be revoked.’ When The Emperor declares a Law, it is the Law! He is trapped in the world he has made for himself and so, like others in scripture who foolishly bind themselves he is trapped by the internal logic of the world he has made for himself lIfe – Daniel MUST be thrown to the Lions
But Daniel is a child before Darius – he is as one who sees – he sees the Empires are but dust – he has seen two Emperors come and go – he has seen a new Empire rise – but in his dreams, his foolish dreams – he has seen these empires themselves turn to dust. The Emperor is not the one who rules over all – he is not the one who grants Life – Although Daniel knew that the document had been signed, he continued to go to his house, which had windows in its upper room open toward Jerusalem, and to get down on his knees three times a day to pray to his God and praise him, just as he had done previously. Yes Daniel Saw – like a child seeing an adult he saw the deeper reality of the world of Nebuchadnezzar, and Balshazzar, and Darius – he Saw the reality of Empires – and he saw that they were but men, that all the Empires have clay feet – and he SAW God, before whom all these empires and emperors were as nothing – even though it might lead to his death, he would Live in the Truth of the vision of God. And so he went three times a day to pray . . . and God heard his prayers and rescued him from the jaws of death itself
Jesus is the one who comes before us in childlike humility and utter vulnerability – day by day he preached his very being – day by day he spoke Words which gave life. As with Daniel, the presidents and satraps, or the Pharisees and Herodians, plotted – they took Him before the Imperial throne in the person of Pilate – and sent him to his death – but no power could hold him. His Life is Life.
Jesus taught them a parable – his Life giving word was given to all an sundry – some had no ears for it – some received it with joy, but the business of saying no to the Powerful apparently all encompassing stories proved to hard, when trouble or persecution came, they withered – some was just overcome because it tried as it were to have it all – the cares and worries of this world – the lure of the good life held out to us crowds it out . . . but as for what was sown on good soil, this is the one who hears it and understands it, who like a child is captivated with wonder and awe and deepest fear or respect for the Life it sees in Jesus – ‘His mercy is on them that fear him, throughout all generations, all empires, all ages . . . the word of the Lord stands forever’ Amen
the elves are heading west 