Dear brothers and sisters,

You remember the fable of Chicken Little. Henny Penny the chicken is struck on the head with an acorn, and she is convinced that the sky is falling. Frantic to save others, she whips the barnyard into a state of panicked hysteria. The fable is supposed to caution us against recklessly going along with a mob mentality. I’ve noticed that, as Christians, we can be prone to this kind of frenzy. Not everyone, and not all the time, but we have a tendency to be easily worked up, to become restless and unsettled with the way that things are going.

I’ll explain what I mean. Sometimes when I listen to people talk with one another about the way things are in the world, there is feeling of despair woven throughout the conversation. They might remember back, to the way that things used to be. TV shows were more wholesome than they are today. Young people treated their elders with respect. Society honored proper values and morals. People were just plain decent to each other. As I listen, the conversation inevitably turns towards what is wrong today. The sky is falling! There is nothing but garbage on TV. Morals and values have been tossed by the wayside. Society is falling apart!

Whether or not things are better or worse today is a complex question. I’ll say this. Human nature doesn’t change. Human beings are just as sinful today as they were 25, 50, 100 and a thousand years ago. However, society’s level of tolerance DOES change over time. So what we’re seeing today that is different than a couple of decades ago, is that our culture is much more permissive of what is wrong. Christian values and practices are discarded, in favor of an “anything-goes” approach. That’s why we find ourselves in the minority. That’s what is often troubling for us.

In this way, we’re living in a setting much like Daniel, some 2500 years ago. Daniel is a book that we only half-appreciate. As a book, it’s divided into two parts – and the first part, we all know quite well. The first half of the book includes all of the Sunday School staples – Daniel in the Lion’s Den, three friends in the fiery furnace, the handwriting on the wall. Many of us have heard these stories told to us since we were old enough to listen to mom or dad read the children’s bible to us.

Sadly, we almost completely ignore the second half of the book. Admittedly, the second part of Daniel’s book is a little harder to follow. It’s filled with puzzling dreams, visions of hideous looking creatures, images of four-horned animals, end-time predictions, and numerical codes that lead to endless speculation about the second coming. There’s a lot in the second half of the book that is hard to make sense of, and so many of us avoid it. However, there’s a lot for us to learn here – the dreams and the visions that Daniel has carry a message of comfort for God’s people today!

I said a moment ago that we have a lot in common with the life and times of Daniel. We can get a sense of this from the first 2 verses of the book. Flip back a few pages to Daniel 1:1: [READ]. This was a colossal event! This was the headline news of the century! Daniel is writing about the downfall of a global superpower. Israel used to be THE kingdom to contend with. Names like King David, and King Solomon were emblematic of power and wealth, and prestige. They inspired fear among the nations of the world.

No more. Over time, Israel had fractured into two nations, and in time, the northern kingdom of Israel was taken over, leaving only the southern kingdom of Judah. Daniel begins telling his story with the collapse of the last remnant of Israel. The king of Babylon marches his army against Jerusalem, and captures it. Nebuchadnezzar rounds up all the people of Judah, and marches them out of their homeland, into Babylon. The mighty nation of Israel is no longer a nation. Babylon is now king of the hill.

The rest of the book of Daniel gives us front row seats as world history unfolds. The story of Daniel, in part, is all about global superpowers, fighting for control. Daniel lets us watch as kingdoms rise and fall. We watch as Nebuchadnezzar consolidates his empire – only to be knocked down by the king of Persia. Later on, we get a glimpse of the future, through Daniel’s dreams. Daniel is allowed to see the rise and fall of Alexander the Great, and the Greek empire. He’s allowed to see the greatest nation yet – the Roman Empire, a nation wealthier and more powerful than any nation yet to appear in the history of the world. Daniels forces God’s people to figure out where they fit in amidst the rise and fall of worldly empires.

Deeper still, the book of Daniel leads us to consider how we, as God’s people, live in such a time. The rise and fall of global empires presented a political challenge for Israel and Judah. They had to deal with military defeat, they had to face the loss of their land – but even more than the political crisis, God’s people were faced square-on with a spiritual crisis. The people of God have been dispersed throughout an alien land. Babylon is ruling over God’s people now. Things are going to be done the Babylonian way. Dietary customs would be set by the Babylonians. The Culture would be shaped by the Babylonians. The religious and moral standards would be set by Babylon.

This was a spiritual emergency. Look back again to those first two verses of Daniel – they tell not only the political story. They are packed with heartbreak, and emotion. God’s people have been stripped of their identity. The people of God have been kicked out of the Promised Land, and to them, they feared that the presence of God would not go with them any further. Psalm 137 is a heart-wrenching Psalm – “By the streams of Babylon, we sat and wept when we remembered Zion. There on the poplars we hung our harps, for there our captors asked us for songs…How can we sing the songs of the LORD while in a foreign land?” Do you hear the anguish? God’s people felt orphaned. They were strangers, aliens, longing for God’s presence to return.

That’s the spiritual conflict of this story. How will God’s people live in Babylon? How will they live, surrounded by a pagan culture? What will happen to them, now that they are entrenched in a land, a culture, a people, foreign to them? Where will they turn for hope, and for comfort? That’s the struggle of Daniel’s story.

We relate to this on at lest two levels. Just as it was in Daniel’s day, we witness, almost every day, nations vying for power. Last Wednesday, the United Nations approved more restrictive sanctions on Iran as a consequence for their nuclear ambitions. North Korea is making her neighbors nervous, testing out its missile arsenal. The United States struggles to hold on to her position of prominence. China is showing signs of becoming the next superpower. The world is in a state of perpetual unrest.

I’m not sure what you think of all of this. 50 years ago, schools had their kids practice what to do in case of a nuclear attack. Now, we worry about weapons of mass destruction. We fear another terrorist attack. We worry about what will happen if a rogue nation develops nuclear power. In many ways, I find it unsettling. Maybe this makes you uneasy too. From our vantage point, we easily forget that God is in control.

On a spiritual level, there is a deeper concern. Like the exiles of Babylon, we too are living in a culture that IS less and less shaped by Christian values and virtues. As time passes, we are going to face the reality that Christian morals are no longer the norm. Attitudes towards sexuality and marriage are changing rapidly, and becoming more and more tolerant and open-minded. Attitudes toward religion are changing, so that it’s up to each individual to craft their own, custom-made belief system. Even a basic understanding of right and wrong, of truth will become more and more unstable as time goes on. Yes, in many ways, we are living in a modern day Babylon.

There is a plethora of different ideas about how Christians should respond. Some say we should go along with culture, some say we should withdraw from culture completely. The first half of the book of Daniel is instructive in this way – Daniel’s life shows us how God wants his people to live in exile. But unpacking that in depth is beyond our scope this evening. Tonight, Daniel points us—not to a simple “how-to” guide, but he instead, he anchors us in hope, and assurance.

He asks us to anchor our hope in a place we might not think. Our hope, our confidence is found in the “resurrection of the Body.” The last three chapters of Daniel contain a vision, a picture of the future. God sends Michael, the angel on a mission of comfort. In chapter 10, Michael comes to Daniel, as Daniel is wading in the banks of the Tigris River. He begins telling Daniel the bad news. Things were going to get a lot worse, for a long, long time. For centuries, nations would rage against one another; empires would be locked in global conflict. The people would cry out for relief, for deliverance, but they would find none.

And then as he brings his message to a close, Michael brings the good news, the hope, the assurance – in chapter 12:1. “But at that time, your people -- everyone whose name is found written in the book – will be delivered.” God’s people have their names inscribed in the book of life. So no matter what happens in this life, no matter what affliction or distress, or misery may come, we can be assured that our future rests eternally secure with God!

Why? Because at the end of time, God has appointed a day of final judgment. It will be a day when all things will be made right again. And then Michael gives us one of the clearest pictures of the resurrection of the body found in the Old Testament. “Multitudes who sleep in the dust of the earth will awake: some to everlasting life, others to shame and everlasting contempt.”

At funerals, I’m often asked what happens to a loved one when they die. Are they immediately transported to heaven? Do they simply cease to be, until Jesus returns? People wonder. Daniel 12 doesn’t give us a thorough answer on this, but it tells us something important, and using other words from scripture, we’re able to come up with a clear picture to that question. The catechism tells us that “our soul will be taken immediately after this life to Christ its head.” The moment our earthly life ends, we will find ourselves in the presence of Christ, in paradise! That’s a source of great joy. Your spouse, your parent, your loved one who has died in Christ, is, today, with the Lord!

But that’s not the end! Daniel 12 shows us that in the last days, our bodies will be raised from the dust of the earth. No matter what happens to our bodies physically, God will raise our mortal bodies back to life. Our bodies, in spite of all their frailties and weaknesses, in spite of their imperfections, will be restored!

Better yet, our bodies will be made perfect! The second part of Question and Answer 57 exults this: “even my very flesh, raised by the power of Christ will be reunited with by soul, and made like Christ’s glorious body!” We will enjoy a perfect body, a body freed from the curse of sin, a body free of imperfection, and suffering and pain! That means that heaven is not just a vague spiritual reality, where we all drift around like ghosts. No, we will have a bodily existence in heaven. In heaven, you will have the body we have now, only in a perfect, and glorified state.

On that day, when we are raised from the dead, the multitudes of humanity will be judged. This is a sobering reality – but for the Christian THIS is where our hope, our comfort and our joy is found! For us who are in Christ, we will be vindicated. Listen to the beautiful hope that is described for us: “Those who are wise will shine like the brightness of the heavens and those who lead many to righteousness, like the stars for ever and ever.” If we cling to Jesus Christ, if our hope and our righteousness come only from him, THEN we will shine like the brightest start. We shine because the perfection of Jesus Christ shines FOR us!

That’s why this is a message of comfort for people who are living in Babylon. God will vindicate his people! The culture around us may pressure us. Ridicule us. Oppose us. Attack us. We may continually struggle to live in a world set against us, but in the end, God will deliver his people! We will be given to our eternal reward, and we will receive “such blessedness, such as no eye has seen, no hear has heard, no man has ever imagined; a blessedness in which to praise God eternally.” In the end, God’s people triumph! God will give us our reward!

This is a message of great joy, but also a sobering warning. For those apart from Christ, this will be a day of unspeakable anguish. Those who stand before God apart from Jesus will be exposed to shame and disgrace. They will be sent away to everlasting contempt. But that should never lead us to indifference, or even a sense of joy at the prospect of others getting their just desserts.

No, instead, it ought to motivate us. Did you catch the extra blessing that Michael promises, in verse 3: “Those who lead many to righteousness will shine like the stars forever and ever.” Precisely because of the disgrace that awaits those apart from Christ, we must eagerly seek to lead others to place their trust in Christ! This is not a call to be indifferent, or hostile to those outside o the faith; just the opposite! This is a call to draw others TO him! We can call others to enjoy the same hope and comfort that we do!

So let us never despair! Let us never be anchored in despondency, or hopelessness. We ARE living in Babylon; we are living in a world that is less and less accommodating and accepting of the Christian worldview. But in Christ, we triumph! We will be victorious! At the end of time, God will raise us up again, and bring us, body and soul, into everlasting life with him.

AMEN.