Advent 1 (NL3) John B. Valentine
Daniel 6:6-27 December 1, 2024

“LIVING AMID THE BEASTS”

Any of the rest of you struggle to find something to watch on the idiot box these days?

I mean ... it may be just me ... it may be just Bethany and I ... but we have access to like five or six different streaming services ...

• Netflix ...
• Prime ...
• Hulu ...
• Apple ...
• Acorn ...
• Cinemax ...

And we STILL have a hard time finding anything that we’d really like to watch!

I mean ... what’s wrong with this picture???

How can it be that we have access to some ten thousand different movie titles ... and we STILL can’t find anything to watch???

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Actually ... at least PART of the problem has to do with movie genres. You see:

• Bethany will tell you that she doesn’t much like fantasy stuff ... though she recently DID watch the extended edition of “Lord of the Rings” ... and she’s a sucker for things Harry Potter ... and

• Neither one of us is very into Sci-Fi ... which means that all the Star Wars knock-offs aren’t under consideration ... and

• The whole “superhero fiction” genre ... everything from Antman to the X-Men and everything in between ... it just leaves us kind of cold.

Which means that those cinematic genres that all the major studios have invested in so heavily over the past two decades are things we don’t much like to watch!

But enough about us ... what about you?

• How many of you enjoy a good fantasy movie ... something with magic or magical creatures ... like “The Hobbit” or something like that?

• And how many of you enjoy a good sci-fi movie ... something that is set in the future and explores that implications of some scientific premise on another ... like “Jurassic Park” does with the concept of cloning?

• And how many of you are drawn to the whole superhero genre ... wherein some limited number of folks with extraordinary powers work to make things right ... like ... say ... one of the Batman movies?

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Actually ... the reason I ask is NOT because I’m trying to figure out what sorts of movie Bethany and I should maybe watch tonight.

No ... it’s because there are sixty-six books in the Bible ... right???

And two of them ... just two of them ... are written in this genre that scholars call ‘apocalyptic’ ... which is pretty much akin to the whole fantasy / sci–fi / superhero thing.

• One of them is from the Old Testament ... the Book of Daniel ... which is the source of this morning’s scripture lesson ... and

• The other of them is from the New Testament ... the Book of the Revelation to John ... which we walked through last summer ... I think it was.

You see ...

• Both Daniel and Revelation are both shot full of fantastic imagery ...

• Both Daniel and Revelation are both about the cosmic battle between good and evil ... and

• Both Daniel and Revelation can be incredibly confusing if you try to read them literally ...

But ...... both Daniel and Revelation are incredibly inspiring if you dare to read them imaginatively!

They’re like a fantasy or a sci-fi or ... maybe better ... a superhero movie.
Now that’s not to say that this story that we read about Daniel and the Lion’s Den didn’t actually happen ... no ... far from it ...

But the point of the telling of this whole story of Daniel spending a night among the lions ... ‘the beasts’ ... as it were ... is that it is a precursor to the series of visions that Daniel has that follow after it ...

It’s a story that sets the stage for what it is that follows..

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You see ... Daniel ... chapters seven through twelve is a whole series of visions about beasts of a different kind ...

Geopolitical ‘beasts’ as it were ...

Those numerous nations and empires that would subjugate Israel.

Those ‘beasts’ that Daniel envisions are beasts that would dominate and terrorize and devour God’s people ...

Those ‘beasts’ appear to Daniel to be the very embodiment of evil in the world in which he lives.

The point being that this story about Daniel living among the lions for a spell ... living ‘among the beasts’ ... is laid before us as an analogy ...

As an invitation to ponder what it means to ‘live among the beasts’ ... and to consider what God’s people can do to change the world for the better.

And ... in that way ... it’s a whole lot like most of those superhero movies that they’ve made in the past two decades ... each in their own way being an analogy about how simple ordinary everyday folks can use their superpowers to change the world for the better.

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Can any of you relate to the idea ... the image ... of ‘living among the beasts’?

• Feeling like you’re trapped?
• Feeling like you’re stuck in the middle of a hopeless situation?
• Feeling like you’re surrounded by forces that are beyond your control ... be it physically or emotionally or financially or relationally?

Because .. If you can ... then Daniel has got a message for you!

You see ... psychologists label that ‘trapped’ feeling as ‘despair’.

It’s that feeling you may have when ... no matter how you move things around and no matter what expenses you cut ... you realize aren’t going to be able to pay the rent and the utilities and put food on the table .... and you just lose hope ......

It’s that feeling you may get when ... having invested the best of your life’s energies into your children’s well-being ... they get wrapped up in something ... be it a relationship or a community or an addiction ... and turn their back on you ......

It’s that feeling you may get wherever and whenever you feel like you’ve done everything right but still things have gone terribly wrong ... and you find yourself wondering “Where is God in all this?”

Now ... honestly ... I don’t know what despair might look like in your particular situation. It’s different for each and every one of us.

But I suspect that most all of us have ... a time or two in life ... maybe even now ... come up against that haunting question “Where is the hope?”

In fact ... though I wouldn’t wish that feeling upon any of you ... I can’t help but imagine that some of you folks ... for whatever reason ... are pretty close to feeling that way right now.

Just because ... sometimes ... we feel like we have done everything right ... and still things have gone horribly wrong.

Because sometimes we feel like we’re “living among the beasts”.

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There was an article in the New York Times the other day about Hurricane Helene and the effect that it had on different communities.

As you may remember ... that Hurricane roared out of the Gulf of Mexico and settled over the hill country of western North Carolina ... and there it dumped upwards of eighteen inches of water in the course of about two days.

• Businesses were lost ... homes were lost ... lives were lost ...
• Bridges and roads and schools were washed away ... and
• People had no power ... no electricity ... and no running water.

But ...from Day One ... some communities rallied ... and bounced right back ... with

• Neighbors out with chainsaws clearing roads ... and
• Neighbors opening their houses to those who’d lost everything ... and
• Neighbors sharing what they had in terms of safe water and food and power.

While in other communities ... they just didn’t.

Some rallied ... some did not. Some despaired ... some did not.

And in order to make sense of how despair effected different people differently ... the author of that article turned to the writings of Holocaust survivor and psychologist Viktor Frankl.

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You see ... Frankl ... having lived through the horrors of a concentration camp ... and having watched some folks give into despair while others did not ... coined the term “tragic optimism” as a way to talk about the resilience that some people seem to have while others do not.

And he said that ... to his observation ... embracing “tragic optimism” means acknowledging, accepting and even expecting that life will contain hardship and hurt ......

And then doing everything we can to move forward with a positive attitude anyway.

“Tragic optimism” doesn’t mean you just put on a smile and try to be happy ...

But it does mean allowing happiness to co-exist with sadness and loss to co-exist with possibility.

“Tragic optimism” isn’t about denial or delusion ...

But it is about resilience and not getting stuck in the past.

“Tragic optimism” isn’t about romanticizing suffering ...

But it does say that while suffering may be inevitable ... we generally do have at least some say in how we face it.

“Tragic optimism” is what psychologists call it ... but what the people of God call it is “HOPE”.

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Today marks the beginning of Advent ... folks.

• It’s a time for us to prepare our hearts for the coming of the King ...
• It’s a time to get ready ...
• It’s a time to hope.

Not to hope that I get all the presents that I want under the tree ...

Not to hope that you get all the presents you want under the tree ...

But to hope ... to put our hope in ... the One who is coming ... the One who can put all things right and make all things new.

You see ... for a whole lot of years ... the Church has marked the days of Advent is with Advent wreaths ... like that one over there that we lit during KidTalk.

And ... long ago ... folks gave names to those four candles of Advent ...

• Hope ...
• Peace ...
• Joy .... and
• Love.

For this hope we have doesn't mean we just put on a smile and try to be happy ...

But it does mean we allow happiness to co-exist with our sadness and loss to co-exist with a spirit of possibility.

This hope we have isn’t about denial or delusion ...

But it is about resilience and not getting stuck in the past.

This hope we have isn't about romanticizing suffering ...

But it does say that ... while suffering may be inevitable ... we generally do have at least some say in how we face it.

And so my prayer for you today is that the light of hope may fill even your darkest days ... and give you peace.