Sermon for March 15 from Daniel 8

So…

We are living in crazy times. These times seem to come and go and sometimes they are worse and sometimes not so bad.

Right now we are living with a virus outbreak that is new and for which we were seemingly unprepared. Some folks got right to working figuring it out and deciding the best ways to slow it down so it didn’t overwhelm the health system. And others went shopping.

Now I don’t anything good to say about hoarders other than, one, you are weird, and two, you have endangered the folks who actually need what you are hoarding.

This virus doesn’t require you to hoard much of anything. Twenty bottles of Purell and a room full of toilet paper, makes no sense.

What does make sense is social distancing. Why, pure and simple, it slows down the transmission rate of the virus. That way, health providers can get ready.

This virus’s worst damage is to breathing and the lungs, and most dangerous to folks with compromised immune systems and breathing issues.

It is transmitted it seems through folks coming in contact with the spray and the surfaces it lingers on from coughs and sneezes.

When and if people are hospitalized because the virus has overtaken them, what they will need is critical care because they will need breathing support, and our hospitals can only do that for so many people before they run out of beds.

So, though most of us might get the virus in time, most of us will recover. But if the spread of the disease slows down, those hospital beds will be there when they are needed.

Like I said crazy times and scary times. We want everyone to be and stay well, and if sick, able to get the care they need.

But imagine if you had a dream where you saw all of this happening a couple of years ago? You would have been scared and confused and not sure how to respond. And that is what happened to Daniel.

He saw a picture that told him about the next 500 years of God’s peoples future.

While for Daniel seeing this vision at the almost end of Babylonia’s Empire would have been terrifying, not just because it was so odd and so symbolic, but also because it meant that Babylon was about to fall, and then after it Persia & Media (the ram) and then after that the Greek Empire of Alexander the Great (the goat) and then the great horn broken off (Alexander’s death).

It was replaced by four horns, the four successor empires of Alexander’s, including the Ptolemies in Egypt and North Africa, and the Seleucid’s in Syria and Persia and Palestine, and then in the Seleucid Empire the rise of Antiochus Epiphany, a horrible man who in anger and hatred made mockery of the Jews, killed 20,000 of them on two occasions, and completely desecrated the Temple and its worship, until arose leaders in Jerusalem who threw off the Seleucid’s for a time before the Roman’s returned.

And we think we have reason to be upset.

But here’s the lesson for Daniel and for us. The reason Daniel has seen all he has in his vision, is because God knows all about it.

None of was happening then or is happening now is news to God! In it all, God still has us in the palm of his hand. He is still watching over us, guiding us, enabling us to be the church, his people in the midst of trying circumstances.

We need not fear!

But we do need to get busy being the church!

So, the question is, how do we do that? How do we care for each other as well as the folks in our community struggling with this virus?

One, call each other, text, email, and see what needs to be done! We don’t all need to be in the same building to communicate.

Make sure your neighbors have food, while our Backpack people figure out ways to see that kids have food, and our Food Pantry people figure out how to make sure our food pantry clients have food.

Keep on social distancing for a time, but make sure you are praying! Folks are and will be sick and/or hospitalized. Check and see if those families need support.

If you are working, take all safety precautions. Everyone, wash your hands!

And remember, we have lived through worse, and God has got us and intends to use us for his kingdom.

What Dickens novel starts it was the best of times, it was the worst of times? Just like it was for Daniel, and it seems for us, it is an opportunity to see what our faith is made of!

Have faith, labor on, we like Daniel shall come through these times and see what God has planned for us.

Amen!