Tas Valley Sermons

 

Return to the Sermon Library click here to return

 

Title: The Writings' on the Wall

 

Bible Readings: Daniel 5. 1-12, 13-30

 

On holiday one of my favourite activities was jumping over waves at the beach.  We would wade into the sea as a family and then as the waves came close I would bend my legs and let the wave carry me to the shore.  It made me think I was about 8 years old again.  Absolute magic.  But one day I came to the shore expecting to do this again and it was a little different.  The tide was further out and instead of soft sand under foot there were sharp stones I couldn’t jump, the waves knocked me to my knees and the swell was stronger picking up more of the stones and bouncing them against my legs.  This was not what I had bargained for.  This was not fun.  I had a couple of goes but soon retreated to the safety of the sand somewhat disgruntled.

 

What was true of that day on the beach is often true of our lives.  Often what we get is not what we would have chosen.  We get educated, choose a career, a partner and earn money with the idea that we will choose the way our lives go – but often it doesn’t turn out like that.  The job is not as good as it seemed at first, the people we love have faults and flaws which can seem impossible to live with – and sometimes disaster happens.  I could walk out of the sea and choose to do something else – but with life, we have to embrace it as it is.  When we have to live with a life we wouldn’t choose, the story of Daniel and his friends is a great inspiration.

 

Daniel wanted to live the life of a good Jew in Jerusalem with his family.  But as a young man, the Babylonian army took Jerusalem and carried him off into exile.  If you’ve been watching the pictures of New Orleans on the Tv this week you will get an idea of what this was like.  Everything seemed lost.  All hope was gone.  Thousands of their neighbours were lying dead in the streets.  He was hungry, weak – but he had to walk hundreds of miles in chains to a foreign land.  The culture of Babylon was alien, its gods its food its language.  Even when he was offered food from the King’s table, he didn’t want to eat it – not just because it was cooked with spices, not just because Jews had special laws about the preparation of food – but because it had been used in ritual sacrifice to other gods. The job eventually assigned to him was one he didn’t want – handling Babylon’s administration.  This was Daniel’s life – not even his second choice – in living in Babylon all his life he had no choice at all.

 

We often think that to have a fulfilling life we need to be able to choose what we do; to be able to fulfil our potential we need the perfect circumstances.  The motto of our age might be “I want it and I want it now”.  If we don’t get what we want we think somehow we have failed – we may be tempted to give up – like me walking out of the sea – but with life we have to embrace it as it is.   The story of Daniel and his friends shows us that second choice worlds are not dumping grounds for losers .  They are arenas in which God can show his power. 

 

And here is Daniel again.  He is in his eighties now.  You would have thought he had earned a nice quiet retirement – but no, The Writing’s on the Wall for King Belshazzar and Daniel has to explain why.

 

“You praised the gods of silver and gold, of bronze, iron wood and stone which you cannot see or hear or understand.  But you did not honour the God who holds in his hand your life and all your ways”

 

We might identify with this message egs.

Are there things for which God’s judgement hangs over our society?

Reponse to Pnerty?

 

            Response to environmental issues?

            Honouring the gods of hard currency and consumer products

 

Daniel spoke out even though it was no personal gain to him.  Though he was in his eighties and had no desire for promotion.  Though he risked death by being the bearer of bad news.

 

One person can make a difference.  Daniel was to become a senior advisor to King Darius who through his influence was to come to respect Daniel’s God.

 

End with a story of a mother who had to live very much in a world of second choice