Moving towrd Christmas: From the Depths" Sermon for Advent 1

From the Depths

Advent 1

December 2, 2012

Daniel 6.6-27

Is it just me, or is it a fact of the life that the more you are in a hurry the slower you’ll get there? Perhaps a corollary of this truth is that the more you want something the slower the time goes. I think that there’s a fine line between anticipation and anxiety, often exacerbated by impatience. Today we begin the season of Advent, the period leading up to our celebration of Christ’s birth, and the line between anticipation and anxiety might be blurred. I wonder about our reactions as we entered worship today. Some of us may ooh and ah over the decorations. Maybe some of us feel a heightened excitement and anticipation. But some may also feel some anxiety over what needs to be done: shopping, Christmas cards, baking, etc. Finally, some may feel sadness because one of more of our loved ones won’t be celebrating Christmas with us this year.

Wherever we are, and it’s possible to be in several places at once, we may find ourselves both on this journey toward Christmas yet stuck in a place that may or may not be of our choosing. Daniel finds himself in just such a situation, on a journey of faith, both in a place of his choosing and not in a place of his choosing. On a recent episode of NCIS: Los Angeles, Hetty, the head the LA office, was asked if she regretted killing someone earlier in her career as a Federal agent. After noting that the death of one person saved many lives she added, “I didn’t choose this life, it chose me.” One has to make choices in a life that chooses us.

The book of Daniel is set in a much earlier time than it was written. It was written about a century and a half before Jesus walked the earth, during a time that the Jews were being persecuted by the Greeks. But it was set about three and a half centuries earlier during a time when the Jews were exiled in Babylon. It was written to encourage Jews as they struggled with how to live as Jews while living under an occupying government. When the Persians defeated the Babylonians, Jews who had been exiled to Babylon were permitted to return to Jerusalem if they wished. Or they could stay and many, like Daniel, chose to stay. Daniel not only found himself rising to a position of prominence, he found himself as a target of jealous officials. So, Daniel finds himself in a place we often find ourselves: how do we live as people of faith in a place that makes that difficult, if not impossible. In other words, it’s tough to be an Advent people when the culture is celebrating Christmas.

Daniel doesn’t go looking for trouble and, though he could have avoided it, he simply does what he has always done, live his life of faith. He persists in his life of faith not knowing how the story is going to play out. I am struck how the three main characters are all engaged in some kind of anticipation and waiting. Presumably, the conspirators are celebrating and looking forward to a new day without Daniel. We know that the king spends an anxious night, hoping Daniel’s God will do something, but afraid to hope for a good result. But what about Daniel, how did he spend the night? Was it warm and cuddly like some of our children’s Bible stories hint? Or, was it full of anxiety, with fierce lions watching his every move, waiting for the angel’s hand to slip from their mouths?

 The story invites us to use our imaginations because it leaves a lot of room for us to do so. This is not fanciful speculation but rather an opportunity to think about how we might live out our lives of faith as we connect our stories to God’s story shown through the Bible. The story invites us to consider how many of us are eager to be on our way to Christmas, but find ourselves stuck in the depths. How many of us are waiting for God to do something, but are having a hard time seeing it?

 Our journey toward Christmas begins with the realization that we may be in places not of our own choosing and quite unsure how the story is going to play itself out in our lives of faith. However, we are reminded that the God who has called us and claimed us as his own will bear us through wherever we feel stuck and alone, even though we may not know how or what. For, as Darius the King and Daniel both recognize, our God is a living God, one who not only invites us to anticipate what he is going to do in our lives and in our world, but to expect the unexpected. We persist, just as Daniel did, not knowing how God will work, yet trusting Immanuel, God with Us to carry us on our journey. Whether filled with anticipation, anxiety, or both, may you know that God will bring you from the depths and on the way. Amen