Lions

 

Service of Worship

Eastern Parkway United Methodist Church

November 21, 2021

Rev. Natalie Bowerman, Pastor

 

Prelude

Greeting and Announcements

 

Mission Statement: We are a faith community striving to be, to nurture, and to send forth disciples of Jesus Christ.

 

Call to Worship

 

B. David Hostetter, Prayers for the Seasons of God’s People: Worship Aids for the Revised Common Lectionary Year B, (Abingdon, 1999), 216.

 

Leader: The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all.
People: And also with you.
Leader: Holiness is the beauty of God’s temple while time shall last.
People: We worship God in the sanctity and freedom from our sins, which Christ gives us through his life’s blood.

 

Hymn 160: Rejoice, Ye Pure in Heart

 

Prayer of Confession:

You are the God of ⁠

Abundance, Provision, and Plenty⁠

Yet⁠

So many do not have enough⁠

So many are burdened by far too much⁠

So many squander what they have⁠

So many do evil to get more⁠

The “many” include me⁠

Lord, have mercy

Help me choose ⁠

Collaboration over competition

Gratitude over greed ⁠

Rest over hustle

Generosity over fear ⁠

Help me choose You and Your ways⁠, always

Prayer of Confession for Thanksgiving © 2019 Lisa Ann Moss Degrenia, www.revlisad.com

 

Assurance

 

Jesus said, take up your cross and follow me. I will forgive your sins and give you rest. In the name of God the Almighty, we are forgiven. Amen.

 

Anthem

 

Daniel 6: 1-23

The Plot against Daniel

6 It pleased Darius to set over the kingdom one hundred twenty satraps, stationed throughout the whole kingdom, ² and over them three presidents, including Daniel; to these the satraps gave account, so that the king might suffer no loss. ³ Soon Daniel distinguished himself above all the other presidents and satraps because an excellent spirit was in him, and the king planned to appoint him over the whole kingdom. ⁴ So the presidents and the satraps tried to find grounds for complaint against Daniel in connection with the kingdom. But they could find no grounds for complaint or any corruption, because he was faithful, and no negligence or corruption could be found in him. ⁵ The men said, “We shall not find any ground for complaint against this Daniel unless we find it in connection with the law of his God.”

⁶ So the presidents and satraps conspired and came to the king and said to him, “O King Darius, live forever! ⁷ All the presidents of the kingdom, the prefects and the satraps, the counselors and the governors are agreed that the king should establish an ordinance and enforce an interdict, that whoever prays to anyone, divine or human, for thirty days, except to you, O king, shall be thrown into a den of lions. ⁸ Now, O king, establish the interdict and sign the document, so that it cannot be changed, according to the law of the Medes and the Persians, which cannot be revoked.” ⁹ Therefore King Darius signed the document and interdict.

Daniel in the Lions’ Den

¹⁰ 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. ¹¹ The conspirators came and found Daniel praying and seeking mercy before his God. ¹² Then they approached the king and said concerning the interdict, “O king! Did you not sign an interdict, that anyone who prays to anyone, divine or human, within thirty days except to you, O king, shall be thrown into a den of lions?” The king answered, “The thing stands fast, according to the law of the Medes and Persians, which cannot be revoked.” ¹³ Then they responded to the king, “Daniel, one of the exiles from Judah, pays no attention to you, O king, or to the interdict you have signed, but he is saying his prayers three times a day.”

¹⁴ When the king heard the charge, he was very much distressed. He was determined to save Daniel, and until the sun went down he made every effort to rescue him. ¹⁵ Then the conspirators came to the king and said to him, “Know, O king, that it is a law of the Medes and Persians that no interdict or ordinance that the king establishes can be changed.”

¹⁶ Then the king gave the command, and Daniel was brought and thrown into the den of lions. The king said to Daniel, “May your God, whom you faithfully serve, deliver you!” ¹⁷ A stone was brought and laid on the mouth of the den, and the king sealed it with his own signet and with the signet of his lords, so that nothing might be changed concerning Daniel. ¹⁸ Then the king went to his palace and spent the night fasting; no food was brought to him, and sleep fled from him.

Daniel Saved from the Lions

¹⁹ Then, at break of day, the king got up and hurried to the den of lions. ²⁰ When he came near the den where Daniel was, he cried out anxiously to Daniel, “O Daniel, servant of the living God, has your God whom you faithfully serve been able to deliver you from the lions?” ²¹ Daniel then said to the king, “O king, live forever! ²² My God sent his angel and shut the lions’ mouths so that they would not hurt me, because I was found blameless before him; and also before you, O king, I have done no wrong.” ²³ Then the king was exceedingly glad and commanded that Daniel be taken up out of the den. So Daniel was taken up out of the den, and no kind of harm was found on him, because he had trusted in his God.

 

 

A Message

“Lions”

Good morning, friends! And happy new year’s eve! I know what you guys must be thinking—wait, that doesn’t happen for another 6 weeks! Well, the Church uses a different calendar. This is the last Sunday of the Church year. This Sunday is called Christ the King Sunday, a day that we celebrate the Lordship of Jesus. That’s how we Christians end the year. Most years, Christ the King Sunday coincides with Thanksgiving. So we give thanks for all the blessings in our lives, and of this past year, while also giving thanks for Jesus, our King of Kings.

 

And oh, what a year it’s been. There’s been tumult, and big headlines. An insurrection at the Capitol kicked off the year. Two weeks later a new President was inaugurated. Pfizer, Moderna, and Johnson & Johnson all released covid-19 vaccines to the public, and we rushed out to get our shots as soon as we possibly could. Some of us drove a hundred miles just to get the shot when it was first unveiled, and only available in small supply. Our vaccination numbers rapidly increased, and in the spring we celebrated “70% Day”, and stopped wearing masks inside! But then the Delta variant took over. Also, the Governor who had us celebrating “70% Day”, and who aggressively fought against the spread of the pandemic in our State, stepped down after years embroiled in scandal. And while many rushed out to get their vaccine the second it was available, many refused to get vaccinated, touting conspiracy theories about DNA and microchips. And the world kept turning. America’s longest war, in Afghanistan ended. And then the Taliban quickly took advantage and came to power in the Middle East. Texas passed the most restrictive abortion law in our country’s history, and the Supreme Court continues to hear arguments defending it, and decrying it.

 

Unarmed people of color were gunned down by armed law enforcement officers and vigilantes. Unjust laws that maintain white supremacy were protested, and trials were held. Derek Chauvin was found guilty. Kyle Rittenhouse was acquitted. The killers of Ahmaud Arbery await their jury’s verdict. News stories of mass shootings popped up around the country. We fought for tighter gun control laws, and we fought for our right to bear arms.

 

Global initiatives were taken to fight climate change, and a world-wide summit was held. Many stress that we aren’t taking our carbon footprint on the earth anywhere near seriously enough. It may even be too late to stop the damage that has been done. But many argue that climate change is merely a hoax.

 

It’s been a great year in this church. And a great year in my life. We celebrated a year of us serving this church together. We started singing again. We lost old friends, but then met several new ones. We’ve faced cancer diagnoses, surgeries, moves to nursing homes, and injuries. In my own life I spent the better part of the months of July and August fighting an infection in my left leg—if you don’t know the details, trust me, you don’t want to hear them. I went on a road trip with my family and saw my parents for the first time in 4 years. I helped Habitat for Humanity construct 4 houses—then got stabbed by a nail and had to get a tetanus shot. The Tooth Fairy visited us several times on account of my 7 year old son, and I had a root canal.

 

And this is all just life. Nothing stands still, even in a pandemic with quarantine orders being tossed about left and right. Everything keeps changing. Wondrous things show us God’s splendor. Mundane things make us question the volume of God’s still small voice. And tragedies make us wonder if God is out there at all.

 

This mixed bag is what Jesus hands us when we name him our Lord, Savior, and King. It would be so much easier to commit to following him if he promised us rainbows, kittens, and blue skies. But he doesn’t. He doesn’t promise us any good days at all. Instead he charges us with the responsibility of building our own good world, with his help. And he gives us steadfast love. It’s a very hard sell, and it has been in every generation of Jesus followers. In other religions your god might promise you vengeance against your enemies. Our guy tells you to turn the other cheek. In other religions if you pray to the gods of nature you’re promised rich rains, green fields, and a plentiful harvest. Our guy lifted up a farmer who hoarded grain as a what-not-to-do story. Other religions, and even other interpretations of the Gospel, promise that in exchange for good faith you’ll be blessed with lots of money. Our guy teaches us not to store up riches on this earth, and tells us that we’ll shove a camel through a needle faster than we’ll get a rich dude into heaven. Jesus must have had fun coming up with ludicrous images before he settled on that one. But even though your common sense will yell at you over and over that this Jesus stuff doesn’t make a lot of logical sense, and even though there’s plenty of alternatives out there—comfier chairs, better coffee, and the opportunity to sleep in on Sunday—Jesus saves. And his Kingship is the Kingship we need. Often we can’t understand it until we look to the Divine through the eyes of someone who trusted the Holy a lot more than we do.

 

Our lectionary supplies that for us this morning, in the form of the words of Daniel, a prophet of the Hebrew Bible. The lectionary tells us to focus on the lesser known corners of the book of Daniel, where he, as a highly visual prophet, colorfully warns us of the end times. Rather than taking you folks in that direction though, I chose to keep us in Daniel (I named my kid after him so I got a soft spot for the guy) and focus on his most famous story: Daniel in the lion’s den.

 

What fascinates me over and over about beloved Bible stories is that we often don’t know many of the details. Our minds go straight to the picture we colored with crayons when we were little, or turned to in our Precious Moments Bibles. In this story, we know the most important end detail well—Daniel survives, and he cuddles some Big Cats. But it’s worth fleshing this story out, it’s a great one.

 

Daniel was from the Southern Kingdom of Israel, also known as Judah, and he was a prophet. His story takes place during the most traumatic moment era of Jewish Biblical history—the Babylonian Empire conquers the Southern Kingdom, sacks Jerusalem, and destroys the Temple. Then they take many of the population into exile in Babylon as prisoners of war. Daniel is in that group. His life is deeply sorrowful.

 

But Daniel is powerful character. He doesn’t believe he’ll ever see his beloved homeland again, scores of his friends and neighbors were violently murdered, and now he spends all of his time in the company of the very people who turned his life upside down. But none of this has broken his spirit, or his faith. He’s stayed devoted to the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

 

Daniel proves himself useful and trustworthy, even to his captors. And soon he lands a very unexpected position—advisor to King Darius. He lives in the palace, and the King loves him. So despite being a prisoner of war, he’s treated very well. However, several other men are vying for this coveted job, and these men are native to Babylon and are especially bitter that this foreigner slave has skyrocketed up the ladder of royal favor. They can’t succeed as long as Daniel is around, so they decide that Daniel has to die. But they can’t attack the King’s most beloved advisor, so they have to plan this death carefully. They quickly deduce that no one can touch Daniel but the King himself, so only the King can kill him. And the King would only do that if he was left with no choice, so these competitors manipulate King Darius into a corner.

 

Knowing that King Darius doesn’t think too far ahead of the present moment, these competitors present him with a proposal for a new law: no one in the kingdom can worship any foreign god; they may only recognize their own king as divine and worship him. Anyone who disobeys will be sentenced to death. King Darius is in no way suspicious of this law as many kings and emperors in his time had similar mandates, so he signs it into law and doesn’t give it another thought. Daniel’s competitors rejoice, as Daniel, who was known for praying three times every single day, breaks this law within hours of its passing. King Darius can’t take back his law, so as much as it breaks his heart to do it, he throws Daniel into a cave full of hungry lions at dinner time. All he can offer Daniel is a piece of advice that saves his life: pray.

 

In the morning, Daniel, famously, is unharmed, but not, contrary to what is often depicted in children’s Bibles, because God rendered the lions docile and harmless. All God did to the lions was shut their mouths. Daniel could have spent that whole night in the lion’s den being clawed and hit and stepped on, and all that God protected him from was biting.

 

In my experience, this is exactly what God provides for us—no more, but no less. When evil, manipulative, power-hungry people throw us into deadly circumstances God doesn’t neutralize the danger, open up the cave, or even throw us a flashlight and a pillow to sleep on. It might sound like very little in exchange for our love and devotion to building God’s Kingdom, but I can’t help but think in this modern age of twitter feuds and fake news and insensitive pundits on TV how glorious it is that God is in the business of shutting mouths.

 

Take that Good News, and think of it as God’s blanket of protection over you from the worst that your adversaries in this life may do. God has silenced the voices and disarmed the teeth. Think about the hardest moments you had in the last year. God was there for you in those moments, even if God’s presence was hard to discern. God helped you. God helped you see the sun come up the next morning. You’re here. You’re a survivor.

 

Think about the most glorious moments from your last year. Your moments of celebration, of happiness, of love. God was there. God was woven throughout all of it. And others, like King Darius when he saw Daniel climb out of the lion’s den alive, looked at you, and found their faith.

 

Happy New Year.

 

Amen.

 

Hymn 121: There’s a Wideness in God’s Mercy

 

Offering, doxology, and prayer of dedication

 

Pastoral Prayer and Lord’s Prayer

 

Holy God:

 

We have no words to express the gratitude we feel for all you have done.  You have given yourself to us in Jesus.  You have given us your life.  You have loved us long before we were aware of you.  You have been gracious to us in our failings and never held our sins against us. 

 

You have poured out the blessings of life upon us.  You have given us food to eat, clothes to wear, friends and family who love us, homes in which to live, cars to drive, and so many other things we so often take for granted or are tempted to think we have gotten for ourselves through our own diligence.

 

You have given us so much more—you have given us the privilege to live in a free and peaceful land where we can worship according to the dictates of our own conscience.  You have given us health.  You have given us a sound mind.  You have filled us with joy.

 

You have also filled our lives with purpose and meaning by making us agents of redemption and ministers of your Gospel.  You have given us an open heaven and the ability to speak to you in prayer anytime.  You have given us your spirit, your wisdom, you guidance. 

 

Our hearts overflow with all the good things you have given us, all the ways you have shown your love and shown us that we are deeply loved. 

 

We ask you to make us truly thankful.  To always take time to say what it has meant to us that you have shown your goodness to us.  You have made us beloved children and treated us like no earthly parent ever could.  And so, we thank you.  We are eternally grateful to you.

 

Amen. (From Nathan Atwood)

 

Our Father, Mother, Creator God, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy Kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who have trespassed against us. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For thine is the Kingdom, and the Power, and the Glory forever. Amen.

 

Hymn 102: Now Thank We All Our God

 

Benediction

Our God, our Creator, Redeemer, and Sustainer, will guard our going out and coming in from this time on and forevermore. And as all God’s people we say together, Amen.

 

Postlude

 

All scripture comes from the New Revised Standard Version