A Cup of Eau Claire

Sunday I began worship by having the congregation create "God's Bucket List" (*) -- with the caveat that I do NOT mean to suggest that God is going to kick the bucket. Ever. But, what's on that list? What are God's hopes and dreams for the world? The list is referred to later in the sermon.  In chapter 9, Daniel gets a vision about how long  Jerusalem’s punishment (exile) will last. Remembering the sinfulness of the people,  the ways they turned from God and did not live according to God’s instruction in Torah,  he prays, confessing and repenting. Throughout the Bible, people sin, confess, repent, repeat. Sometimes they are punished for their sin, either the natural consequences of their actions, or God intervenes and takes away God’s favor. Remember it was very common in ancient times to give God (or the gods) all the credit and blame for what happened in life: if God was happy with you, you were blessed, profitable, fortunate; if...

                                                                                                             So I’m sitting around the house one afternoon a few weeks ago and the phone rings. It’s Pastor Lori. She explains that she is going to a conference over the weekend of August 4 th and asks if I would be available to preach that day. I looked at the calendar: nothing going on.   She’s asked me so many times in the past and I have alway...

Daniel is different from other prophetic books— less messenger and more fortune teller, predicting future events based on the visions from God. In the first half, Daniel interpreted dreams of the king; now he is having the dreams himself, and we’ve jumped ahead about 500 years. The visions point to a time when four kingdoms will rise, then be overthrown: Babylonia, Media, Persia, and Greece— but  then God will enter history and establish God’s kingdom forever.  This is what makes Daniel apocalyptic literature, stories about the end times: the world as we know it will be completely destroyed, and God will usher in a new reality through “spectacular divine intervention”. Why is apocalyptic literature in the Bible so confusing, and so intriguing?   It seems to be a secret code, describing events we can’t decipher. I mean, life is pretty good for us, white, middle-class Christians living in the US--we don’t need our reality repl...

In chapters 7-12 of Daniel there's a shift, chronologically, narratively, and theologically. The timing of the story continues to move, referenced (sometimes inaccurately) by the reign of certain kings. In the second half, events described refer to things that happened as much as 500 years later than the kings who reigned in the first half. Daniel didn't live that long, but the story, which was composed late (probably the latest or "youngest" of the Hebrew Bible) spans several centuries. The style of writing changes, too, from narration of events in Daniel's life (and his friends) to visions which Daniel himself dreams or sees. The second half, then, is apocalyptic literature, similar to parts of Ezekiel, Isaiah, Mark, and the whole of Revelation. The word "apocalypse" means revealing or uncovering, not "violent wars orchestrated by God to vanquish sinners" or "sudden rapture/taking up to heaven of the faithful", which connotation...