Through death to life - trusting in the power of God's wisdom
3rd April 2005, Evening Eucharist
Daniel 6:6-23
Mark 15:46 - 16:8
The Sunday after Easter is traditionally known as Low Sunday. Probably this name marks, as much as anything, the contrast with the excitement and splendour of the Easter feast. This Sunday is quieter, more reflective. Now that the first euphoric response to the news of the resurrection is completed, we have time to reflect further on the Good News of that resurrection and its implications for us.
This evening the lectionary offers us the story of Daniel in the Lion's den and Mark's account of Jesus burial and the discovery of the empty tomb to inspire and direct our reflections. There is a clear parallelism between these two passages that merits attention. In each the hero remains faithful to God in the face of certain death, even though they could have saved themselves by turning away from God. In each there is a period of time spent in a cave and the cave is clearly a place of death. For Jesus, the cave is his tomb and he is placed there only after his death. For Daniel, the cave is expected to be where he meets his death. For each, the emergence from the cave is a triumph of God's power in bringing life out of death: Daniel emerges unharmed by the lions through God's protection and Jesus is, of course, resurrected from the dead demonstrating once and for all the victory over the grave.
These visible parallels have been recognised since the days of the early church, when representations of Daniel standing unharmed among the lions were often used as symbols of the resurrection of the body. This would presumably have both acted as a code that demonstrated faith in the resurrection without exposing Christians to the threat of persecution and would also have inspired them to stand firm in their faith even at the risk of martyrdom.
The story of Daniel tells of a situation where there is immense pressure on the faithful man of God, Daniel, to abandon his faith or at the very least to subordinate it to worship of King Darius. Not only is there the threat of martyrdom if he does not comply with the King's command, there is also the pervasive allure of the pagan society around him in a society where those who have power do not share his faith. The book of Daniel probably came to the form in which we now have it sometime after the events it describes, but at a time when, once again, the Jews lived in an attractive pagan culture and where there was a real risk of martyrdom for Jews who refused to put their faith to one side and worship the ruler. The example of Daniel, standing firm not only in his inward convictions but also in his outward religious practice, and thereby being saved by God, would have been an example and a reassurance to Jews who read or heard this account.
In a similar way, the Gospel of Mark was probably written down in Rome at a time when the Christian community there was living under the threat of imminent persecution, or perhaps where persecution was already happening. The pagan world around them demanded worship of the Emperor as the civic duty of every person and saw the Christians, with their insistence that they could worship no other God than their own, as a threat to the civic order and to the safety of Rome, because of their failure to appease the Roman Gods. Against these threats and a powerful pagan philosophy the Christians needed encouragement to stand firm in their faith and in its practice and reassurance that God was with them in all things and that his wisdom would triumph in the end. Both Daniel and Mark reassure their readers and hearers that God has ultimate control over history and that the actions of pagan rulers are part of the preparations for his ultimate reign over all people. So these two passages have served two different communities facing parallel situations.
We are fortunate in that we do not live under the threat of persecution, although there are many Christians around the world who do. But we do live in a culture that, on the whole, does not share our faith and, insofar, as it recognises and believes in God or in 'a supreme being' does not see religious observance as following from that. Recent suggestions, even from believing politicians, that we should not mix religion with politics, are perhaps our equivalent of the demands of King Darius and of first century Roman Emperors that worship of God should be subordinated to worship of the ruler. We are not asked to engage in public worship of democracy as a god, but we are asked to subordinate our religious faith to its practice. And around us is a largely secular philosophy that claims all revelatory power to itself, pushing God to the margins. In this context, we also are in need of examples in the faith who can encourage us to continue faithfully in our religious practice and to allow it to shape our lives. We need reassurance that God is still at work in our world, despite its frequent denials of his power. We need confidence to see the Holy Spirit working through the limitations of our leaders and in the eventual triumph of God's wisdom over secular philosophy. We also need to continue to see the revelations of science, of historical endeavour, of progress in understanding international relations, as part of God's wisdom and not allow it to be claimed by a purely secular agenda, because if we do, then the role of ethical reflection on matters of public importance risks being undermined, as seems to have been the case in the recent suggestion that the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority be scrapped.
The world in which we live is God's world. It is a world that was transformed once and for all by the resurrection of Christ and no amount secular philosophy or unbelief by the powerful will change that. Our call as Christians is to live the life of the risen community, to be members of the body of Christ in our world, to trust in God and in the eventual triumph of his wisdom and to follow conscientiously the practice of our faith. In this we have many examples before us and we seek also to be examples to those around us.
Amen.