COURAGE IN THE FACE OF CRISIS

 

 

(This is an abridged version of the sermon preached at Epworth Chapel, Baltimore on 8/4/13.)

 

“O Daniel, servant of the living God, who you have faithfully served, is your God able to deliver you from the lions?”   “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.”  (Daniel 6:21-22)

 

Each and every one of us will face times when we are confronted by crisis in our life.  It has often been said that “if it’s not one thing it’s another.”  Crises will confront us at virtually every juncture of life, whether it’s in our homes or on our jobs, or in our neighborhoods.     

In the midst of crisis, psychologists have indicated that it is the human tendency for people to react in one of two ways.  Either we will act and react through fight, or we will react through flight.  In other words, in the midst of trouble, people will confront their crisis head on, and seek to fight their way through and out, or they will run from their problems. 

It is indeed true that we all struggle from time to time in our ability to overcome all of the trouble that is in our midst.  And in the midst of this, we wonder about the very presence and providence and power of God.  Where is God in the midst of our struggles?  It is one thing to proclaim that God is a provider – an on-time, right now God – but it is yet another thing to know that when you call on God, God will indeed show up when you need the Lord.

And so it is in midst of crisis and trouble in our lives, we who are people of faith  need to know where God is in the midst of our trials and tribulations.  For if we know where God is, then we will know where our courage and strength really lies – not in us, but in God.

And so it is that we find evidence of the presence of God in the face of crisis in the story of Daniel.  The book of Daniel is part of the biblical genre known as apocalyptic, a type of literature that appeals to an oppressed and down-and-out people, and emphasizes God’s ultimate power over all that will confront God’s people. 

The prophecy of Daniel chronicles the life of one who finds himself in the horns of a particular dilemma – in the face of a real crisis in his life.  Daniel was a foreigner, a Jewish man now living in exile in the strange land of Babylon.

Among his Israelite kindred, Daniel found himself removed from his homeland, alienated and segregated from virtually all that he had known.  Here he was, in Babylon under the reign of the King Darius, the Mede.  As the story moves along, it is discovered Daniel had a special gift from God – the ability to foretell the future and interpret dreams.  And thus, Daniel had been elevated by King Darius and had become a part of the king’s inner circle.   

Daniel had been placed in a position of leadership in King Darius’s administration, and Daniel had distinguished himself as a leader among his peers.

And Daniel’s peers in the king’s administration began to become consumed with jealousy because of the favor Daniel had gained with the king.  And they sought to destroy him.  Knowing that Daniel continued in his faithfulness to God, and that he continued to pray unfailingly and faithfully three times a day, Daniel’s enemies made an appeal to King Darius to enact an ordinance - to sign an executive order -  a law prohibiting any form of prayer to any god or any body, except to the King. 

The decree that King Darius signed declared that anybody who prayed to any other god was to be thrown into a den of lions.  Well, it is apparent that Daniel was aware of this new law.  He knew about the law, but he had made up in his mind to continue to pray to the only God he knew.  He continued to worship his God, the God of Israel. 

Daniel knew that this law was now being enforced, but he also knew a God who could make a way out of no way.  Daniel knew that he was staring punishment and even death in the face, but he also knew that his God was omnipotent and sovereign.  And so Daniel kept on praying to his God.

Daniel was caught praying to his God, and King Darius had no choice, given the law he had signed, but to throw Daniel in the lion’s den.  

The Lion’s Den

The lion’s den is that place, those situations in life, where it seems that all hope is gone.  It is those circumstances where the surety of despair and the certainty of death loom.  There is apparently no human escape from the lion’s den. 

Indeed, there is desperation in the lion’s den situations of life, for you cannot make it out on your own, you cannot solve the lion’s den realities of life by yourself.

One of my favorite animated movies and Broadway plays is the Lion King.  One of the reasons why I love the Lion King is because I’m fascinated with the mystique, the power, and yet immaculate grace of the lion.  It has been said that the lion is the king of the jungle. 

We recall in the Lion King, that the young lion Simba was the heir apparent to his father Mufasa’s lion kingdom.  Simba, would sing early on with great anticipation and youthful joy, “I just can’t wait to be king.”  As the story goes, Simba’s joy was taken and his world virtually destroyed when his uncle Scar killed his father, Mufasa, and tried to take the kingdom and steal Simba’s birth right.  Eventually, all that Simba could sing to soothe his soul was “hakun a matada,” it’s a problem free philosophy.”

In the midst of Simba’s lion family and their lion drama, one thing is never in doubt in the Lion King.  There’s always certainty about the fact that some lion will be the king of the jungle.  If it wasn’t to be Simba, then it was to be Scar.  We know that as wise and spirited as the mere cats were, they wouldn’t be king, as wise and encouraging as the baboon Rafiki was, Rafiki wasn’t to be king.  The wildebeests and the wart hogs, and the hyenas would never become the king Pride Rock.  That place in the animal kingdom is reserved for a lion. 

And King Darius asked Daniel a question: "O Daniel, servant of the living God, who you have faithfully served, is your God able to deliver you from the lions?”

Daniel was placed in the lion’s den, with all expectations that he would be consumed by the lions.  Well, we are told in the book of Daniel that at daybreak, King Darius went to the lion’s den and called for Daniel, and Daniel was not dead, but he was alive, and Daniel responded that his God had shut the mouths of the lions and preserved his life.

The story of Daniel and the lion’s den is really a story God’s divine power, and a story that points to the reality that God is with us in all of the lion’s den realities of life.   The good news today that whatever the lion’s den situation is that you are confronting or that you might confront, God can and God will bring you out. 

All hope may appear to be lost, but ultimately God is more powerful than any trouble in your way, and God can and will bring you out.  God gives you the courage to face any lion’s den situation, any crisis, any trial and tribulation, any tumult and trouble, any difficulty and distress, any disappointment and discouragement, any vicissitude and valley that comes your way.  God can, and God will, bring you out!