(Reflections on the readings from All Saints Day Year C in the Revised Common Lectionary)
“I, Daniel, was troubled in spirit, and the visions that passed through my mind disturbed me. (Dan 7:15). I know how Daniel felt. I’m aware of our election results a well.
I do not mean to trivialize the significance of the choices our nation made. But in spite of the heated rhetoric on both sides, the biggest thing happening is not about American government. In order to get a glimpse of what God is up to we need to look closer at the Scriptures for All Saints – first at Daniel and then at Luke.
Here is the reading from Daniel:
In the first year of Belshazzar king of Babylon, Daniel had a dream, and visions passed through his mind as he was lying in bed. He wrote down the substance of his dream. Daniel said: “In my vision at night I looked, and there before me were the four winds of heaven churning up the great sea. Four great beasts, each different from the others, came up out of the sea. […] “I, Daniel, was troubled in spirit, and the visions that passed through my mind disturbed me. I approached one of those standing there and asked him the meaning of all this. “So he told me and gave me the interpretation of these things: ‘The four great beasts are four kings that will rise from the earth. But the holy people of the Most High will receive the kingdom and will possess it forever–yes, for ever and ever.’
This Daniel reading has a missing middle and the missing middle is not a new problem in Christianity. The baptismal covenant which is renewed from time to time in our services has its own missing middle; in the Apostles’ creed.
He was conceived by the power of the Holy Spirit and born of the Virgin Mary. He suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died, and was buried.
The thirty-three years of Jesus’ life and most of the content of all four Gospels disappear in to a punctuation mark. That’s the missing middle. Our regular Nicene creed has the same problem. They both jump from birth to crucifixion without mentioning the substance of what Jesus does and says in the Gospels. That’s really not the fault of the creeds or their authors. The creeds are like a drawing that marks the footprint of a house. It’s not the house, nor even the foundation, it is simply the outline and you can’t live in an outline.
The missing middle of Daniel’s vision tells an important story. It is important to understanding Daniel’s vision, but also important to understanding Jesus and therefore important for our self-understanding as a Christian community. The first five omitted verses describe the beasts which are images of various kingdoms and empires and emperors. In the next four verses the God of Israel arrives in a court scene as the books of judgment are opened and the beasts are slain or rendered powerless.
Then there are two verses more and they are the key to what Jesus was about, how he saw himself and what that means for us. It’s best to read the verses:
“In my vision at night I looked, and there before me was one like a son of man, coming with the clouds of heaven. He approached the Ancient of Days and was led into his presence. He was given authority, glory and sovereign power; all nations and peoples of every language worshiped him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion that will not pass away, and his kingdom is one that will never be destroyed. (Dan 7:13-14)
This is why Daniel is so important, this is where Jesus picks us his self-identifying phrase “the Son of Man.” The scene in which the son of man is given authority, glory and sovereign power is Jesus’ own vision of his destiny. It was a vision and a hope shared by many Jews of the time, the hope that God’s anointed one would appear in power and set a chaotic and unjust world to rights. You might think that Jesus and his contemporaries having the same vision in mind would lead to a meeting of minds. But there was a problem, a very big problem.
For Jesus’ compatriots the vision was to be fulfilled by an abrupt invasion of the glory and power of God. For Jesus the attainment of the vision required following a long path that would seem anti-intuitive to normal human expectation. The Jesus path to the vision led through seeking out the hapless – widows and orphans – and the hopeless – prostitutes and traitors: “the Son of Man came to seek and save the lost.” The Jesus path to the vision went through service, like washing the feet of those who thought they were supposed to serve him, but “the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve.” Ultimately the Jesus path leads through the crucifixion, “the Son of Man will be handed over to sinners and be crucified.” The Jesus path made no sense to his contemporaries and it makes little sense to us, even to us Christians. If we want to change our world for the better our obvious path is the path to power.
But of course, the Jesus path really only makes sense if we take in the rest of the story. The Resurrection as an historical event is God’s vindication of the Jesus path. The Resurrection is not only about our lives after we die, it is about our lives as we live them in a world that neither understands or respects the Jesus path.
Something big is going on and our world is missing out on it. Something big is going on and it can only be seen by those who take the Jesus path.
So take Jesus at his word: the poor inherit the kingdom that is already loose in the world, the hungry will find their nourishment, those who mourn will rediscover laughter and if the world mocks you for that, rejoice because you know you’re on the Jesus path. Love your enemies and do good to those who hate you. That’s the Jesus path. Bless those who curse you and pray for those who treat you badly. That’s the Jesus path. Do to others as you would have them do to you. On the Jesus path is a whole company of saints who will inherit the kingdom that comes only on the Jesus path. And this Jesus who God vindicated in Resurrection, who is now enthroned over all the heavens and the earth will take our small counter intuitive deeds and build them into an unstoppable force of healing and blessing.
That may sound like a wonderful charge for wonderful change, but all of the truth about the Jesus path has to be followed in the world that produced our bitter campaign and tumultuous election. It is clear from all the campaign rhetoric that the Jesus path isn’t on the radar screen of our national culture. In fact, we Americans, along with all of the other nations of the world follow a different path and that will be addressed in my next posting.
The Apprentice Priest 