Find out what is happening at Ramsgate's Town Centre Church.
On Monday 16th December St George’s will participate in the annual Ramsgate Living Advent Calendar, Advent Doors. Please join us from 3pm until 6pm for soup, hot drinks, mince pies and music. The Christmas Tree Festival will be open so the church will be looking extra wonderful!
“[The Son of Man] was given authority, glory and sovereign power; all nations and people of every language worshipped him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion that will not pass away, and his kingdom is one that will never be destroyed.” (Daniel 7:14)
It is Advent Sunday, and we will be looking at Daniel’s vision in chapter 7 which shows us God’s perspective on the future.
As recorded at St. Luke’s
A big thankyou to everyone involved in ‘Let There Be Light’!
It was wonderful to welcome over 650 people into the church following on from the Christmas lights switch on in Ramsgate town centre. At the opening night of the 1st Ramsgate Lumiere we celebrated the end of Year 2 of Project 200, our 5 year regeneration project at St George’s, generously funded by Canterbury Diocese. The Community Soup team served mince pies, mulled cider and mulled wine and their delicious soup and thanks to the generosity of visitors on the night we gathered a significant sum in donations towards the emergency repair on the Vestry roof.
GB Carnival and Samba Ya Wantsum, Gaddzukes, Thanet Festival Choir and Soul Choir entertained us in the church. With lighting outdoors and indoors by James Brown AV, and video projections by Lumen Studios the church was filled with light and festive joy. See the galleries below for some fantastic photos taken on the night. Some videos which really capture the atmosphere are up on our Instagram.
Photos by Frank Leppard
Photos by Jess Hudsley
Photos by Vicki Couchman
“[The Son of Man] was given authority, glory and sovereign power; all nations and people of every language worshipped him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion that will not pass away, and his kingdom is one that will never be destroyed.”
(Daniel 7:14)
Important Reminder: This Sunday is a joint service for St. Luke’s and St. George’s at St. Luke’s church at 11am. Please join us there.
Traditionally, New Year is the time to think about the future and make plans or resolutions for the coming year. The church’s calendar is different. The church’s new year starts on Advent Sunday (which this year is 1st December). Also, it is not meant to be a chance to think about just the coming year, but the future more generally. It is not just about taking up New Year’s resolutions but asking whether we are ready for Christ’s return.
During his ministry, Jesus regularly referred to himself as ‘The Son of Man.’ He does so finally and climactically when on trial before the High Priest, when he says, “And you will see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of the Might One and coming on the clouds of heaven.” (Mark 14:62). This is a clear echo of Daniel 7:13, which precedes the verse above.
As we think about the future, it is important to see that the alternatives to Christ’s rule, the other religions, philosophies and political structures, although they all have many good points – as well as bad, are all temporary. Basing our life around them can never be ‘future proof.’ They will all let us down in one way or another.
In contrast, the Kingdom of God, ruled over by the Son of Man, i.e. Jesus, is eternal. It is future proof. As we start a new church year and approach another New Year, let’s not limit our vision to the coming year, but ask ourselves whether we are ready for God’s eternal kingdom. If we are not, let’s pray for God to help us re-orient our lives to his purposes and ways.
Paul Worledge
Thank you so much to everyone involved in helping to make this happen. We think we had between six and seven hundred people through the doors of the church on the evening and many who stayed for most of the entertainment. A fantastic event.
Join together with Christians from all over Thanet as we come together for prayer in the lead up to Christmas. 6:30pm-7:30pm, St. Philip’s Church.
Tickets are now sold out.
Tickets available online or from Paul in church. Do join us for lovely Baroque music in the setting of St. George’s Christmas tree festival.
Coming up at the start of December on Thursday 12th, Friday 13th, Saturday 14th December 2 to 8pm and Sunday 15th December 2 to 7pm we are looking for volunteers who can sit in the Sailors Church down on the harbour to look after a sculpture which is part of Ramsgate Lumiere. Please let Jemima on 07971 782477 know if you can cover any of the hours. Stewarding will be broken into shifts, so volunteers are not there too long.
We would love to deliver as many leaflets as we can around St. Luke’s, St. George’s and Christ Church parishes. Please pick a road, indicate it on the map, take a bundle of fliers and deliver to the road asap. You can find details of the Christmas Services on the website.
If you weren’t able to come on Monday night and missed the livestream, you can still watch it here. You can find the Vision 2030 document here. We are asking people to give us feedback on the vision using this simple and short online form by the end of the year. Then we will review the Vision and agree how to move forward at our PCC meetings in January.
This week some possible Advent Devotionals to try out in the lead up to Christmas:
From London Institute of Contemporary Christianity:
Reflect on our ‘down to earth’ Saviour – the Jesus who stepped into the mess and detail of life on Earth and calls us to do the same. Find out more…
Rediscover the Magic of Christmas (Book or ebook from IVP):
This Advent, join John Hayward on a daily journey to rediscover some of the magic of Christmas. Originally written as letters from a father to his adult children, this book warmly invites you to feast richly on some of the passages of scripture less commonly associated with our celebrations of the birth of Jesus. Find out more…
Church of England Daily Reflections to your Inbox
Sign up to our Christmas reflection emails and receive daily messages straight to your inbox. Our daily emails will offer Bible readings, short reflections and a practical challenge, as well as prayers linked to weekly themes.
Finally, let’s pray that we can re-orient our lives to be ready for God’s future.
Yours in Christ
Paul Worledge
(Priest in Charge, St. George’s Ramsgate)
Joint Service (St Luke’s Church, 11am) – Reading: Daniel 7:9-14
Prayer Meeting (St. Luke’s Church) – 9:30-10:00am
Craft Group (St. George’s Hall, Soup Kitchen) – 2:00-3:30pm
Study Group (South Eastern Road) – 7:15-9:30pm
Prayer Meeting (St. George’s Church) – 9:30-10:00am
Coffee Morning (St. George’s Hall) – 11:00am-12:00pm
Study Group (Lyndhurst Road) – 2:30-4:00pm
Community Meal (St. George’s Hall) – 5:30-7:00pm
Study Group (Langdale Avenue) – 10:00-12:00 noon
Community Soup (St. George’s Church) – 12:00-2:00pm
Depression & Anxiety Self-Help Group (Perry Room) – 6:00-7:30pm
Study Group (South Eastern Road) – 7:30-9:30pm
Prayer Meeting (St. Luke’s Church) – 9:30-10:00am
Churches Together Prayer Breakfast (St Augustine’s) – 9:00-10:00am
Community Soup (St. George’s Church) – 12:00-2:00pm
Eucharist (St George’s, 9:30am) – Reading: Daniel 5:1-6, 13-17, 22-30
Under the ‘Contact’ tab on the website, there are now three forms that you can use to help us in managing the church:
If you volunteer in anyway at church the national authorities are strongly encouraging you to take at least the Basic Module in safeguarding training once every three years.
If you have not completed the training in the last three years, then the module can be completed online and takes about ninety minutes. You can access the training by following this link. You will need to first register, to access the training. Once the training is completed, you will be sent a certificate. Please forward that certificate to James (office@stlukesramsgate.org), so that we can keep records of who has done the training.
”They trusted in him and defied the king’s command and were willing to give up their lives rather than serve or worship any god except their own God.” (Daniel 3:28b)
This Sunday, we continue our series on Daniel with a look at the time, when Daniel’s friends resisted strong pressure to worship a golden statue.
As recorded at St. Luke’s
Dare to Resist
Dare to Resist – that is our topic today in our Sermon series on the Book of Daniel and I’m going to read our bible passage out after we’ve had a little look at the context so don’t worry it’s not been forgotten. But if you haven’t been here the last few weeks our previous two topics have been based around this idea to Dare – Dare to stand out and dare to pray. That’s partly because the book of Daniel contains many daring stories, people stepping out, being brave, being unshakeable in their faith, such as Daniel in the Lions den or our story today which is about the three men thrown into a fiery furnace. It’s no wonder that the people and the events recounted are so extraordinary because they took place in an incredibly chaotic time, Jerusalem has been conquered by Babylon and the Israelite people, God’s people are forced into exile with those who had besieged their city and plundered their Holy temples. So we read this morning Daniel chapter 3, Daniel 1 Daniel stood out and spoke up for his friends, chapter two is full of prayer, revelation and Daniel interpereting dreams causing the King to actually proclaim God is the one true God, the lord over kings.
So now we come to what is estimated to be years or months later and that is Daniel chapter 3 – where the king on the plain of dura has invited the most important people, including Shadrach Meshach and abednigo, Jewish exiles who so impressed the king, to worship a statue of Gold, an impressive maybe even excessive band is playing and they are warned anyone who refuses to obey and worship the statue will be thrown immediately into a fiery furnace. The King hasn’t seen that these three men have refused to bow but some of the astrologers tell on them and we jump into chapter 3 here at verse 13 to see how the King responds.
Reading – Daniel 3:13-30
The men, without Daniel their leader this time as they had in the last two chapters, the men dare to resist. They resist temptation, pressure, threats and turning away from their God even in the face of such a terrible consequence.
Why did they feel the need to resist in the first place? How did they know bowing down to a piece of Gold in the desert would have been a bad decision.
As much as the men had learnt about their new culture, they hadn’t forgotten what God had done for them, Who God was and who they were in his eyes. Even though they were living and working for the good of Babylon they had resisted the polytheism of the culture, poly meaning many, polytheism meaning many Gods they had resisted that. Knowing their commandments and knowing there were no other Gods above God and that God had commanded them, us not to make Idols. An object of devotion – something you worship and give worth to.
And that is exactly what happened in Babylon; the King had created an idol of Gold 60 cubits by 6, around 90 feet high and 9 feet wide in our measurements today. And the polytheistic people of Babylon, used to acknowledging many different deities or gods had just added it to their collection of things they worshipped.
But this was not the case for Shadrach, Mishach and Abednigo. They refuse, as everyone is bowed to the ground the three men are tall above the rest. And are tattletaled on by the astologers.
An interesting comparison to make is the control between the mens voices, the astrologer, the King and the Exiles.
The astrologer seems calm on the surface but looking deeper we can see a cold manipulation in their use of you, very little they and a lot of you. They use the power of someone else – the king to get what they want
‘They said to King Nebuchadnezzar, “O king, live forever! 10 You, O king, have made a decree, that everyone who hears the sound of the horn, pipe, lyre, trigon, harp, drum, and entire musical ensemble, shall fall down and worship the golden statue, 11 and whoever does not fall down and worship shall be thrown into a furnace of blazing fire. 12 There are certain Jews whom you have appointed over the affairs of the province of Babylon: Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. These men pay no heed to you, O king. They do not serve your gods, and they do not worship the golden statue that you have set up.” Daniel 3 9-12
The King – able to control so much around him – cannot control himself – He is in charge of his own power, and he is using it, but it causes him rage and anger, not peace and calmness, knowing he is in control. He is SO full of rage that it says he visually become distorted. This feeling inside spews onto the outside and his rage and desire for the furnace to be 7 times hotter results in the death of some of his strongest soldiers. And its not even logical, the hotter the furnace surely the quicker the death. He is so in control in his own power but so out of control.
However the exiles, they hand all and I mean all their power over to God. They don’t expect power back from God, they’re not manipulating God in a way to get out of this death threat, They don’t argue, they don’t explain, they simply and calmly say ‘Dad’s got this’ ‘ Our Father I heaven, he’s got this, I don’t even need to know the outcome because whatever he decides its for our good and for his glory.
‘They will remain faithful to the living God, who is able to save even if he chooses not to save, rather than abandon him for the idols and images of the Babylonians, who could not save even if they were sufficiently alive to wish it’ Iain Provan – Eerdman’s Commentary
And because of that because we are looking at daring to resist specifically today rather than incredible miracles or hints of Jesus in Old Testement Passages – we are not going to focus much on the rest of this passage with the men walking out of the fire unharmed either – of God’s miracle saving them from the flames, of the fourth man in their with them, because their resistance, they themselves proclaim, was not dependant on God saving them, and neither should our resistance be. Our resistance, just like theirs, should be based on who God is and who God says we are, the promises he has made for us.
If we look back to Jeremiah, we can see an amazing prophecy about how the exiles are to live in Babylon.
Jeremiah 29:5-7,11
“Build houses and settle down; plant gardens and eat what they produce. 6 Marry and have sons and daughters; find wives for your sons and give your daughters in marriage, so that they too may have sons and daughters. Increase in number there; do not decrease. seek the peace and prosperity of the city to which I have carried you into exile. Pray to the Lord for it, because if it prospers, you too will prosper.” … 11 For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.”
So the Men know their commandments and appear to know God’s desire for them to work for the good of the city they are in, not to harm or respond in violence to what has happened to them but respond in peace.
So let’s look at what the exiles, the three men, Shadrach, Mishach and Abednigo resist, and ive got three out of a possible many ways they could have talked themselves into worshipping other Gods. These three are rationalising, minimising and validating, Rationalising, minimising and validating.
Rationalising – Rationalising is where we give or come up with a reason for our actions. These men are exiles they’ve probably got a worry or a desire to see God worshipped by more generations than just them they could very easily have rationalised that if they worship today a big golden statue and live another day maybe they’ll have another chance to share their story of their God that would have been a very rational idea for why they needed to worship another God.
Minimising this is when we convince ourselves that the problem is smaller than it is they could have thought to themselves well it’s clearly not a God it’s clearly nothing that can actually hurt us it’s just a bit of gold in the middle of the desert I’m sure God wouldn’t mind if we just bow our heads down to save us from this horrible future of having to get thrown into a burning furnace I’m sure it’s nothing to worry about it doesn’t mean anything anyway we know in our hearts that we’re not doing anything wrong.
And the third one out of probably many other ways they could have thought around this is validating and the Bible tells us that iron sharpens iron as one man sharpened another.
the problem with rationalising minimising and validating is we take the problem ourselves when we’re rationalising we think there’s a big problem that but that we can solve it for our own thinking power
minimising we’re completely unrealistic about what the problem is in the first place
and validating we have that issue in that communication between us and other people
in each of these areas God is kept out, kept away and actually to work against these we need to make sure that the problem the thing that we’re facing the thing that we need to resist stays between ourselves and God or us and God
For me I think what I find hard with resistance is knowing exactly what to resist I haven’t had a point in my life yet where someone stood me in front of something and said worship this instead of God. But time and time again I felt forced to give things more time more money more power in my life than God and I think that’s exactly what this passage is trying to tell us to resist.
So I’m going to finish with three things that will hopefully help us dare to resist more and more first one is know God more we won’t know what to resist if we don’t know him if we don’t know the good ways in which he’s asked us to live our lives.
The second is to be aware when you’re rationalising minimising or validating reasons why you can’t do what God has specifically asked you to.
And the third one I want to take from king nebuchadnezzar’s response because when the men walk out of that furnace unharmed the king again like he did in the chapter before responds in praise he says praise to the God of Shadrack Meshach and Abednego he sent his angels to rescue his servant who trusted in him they defied the King’s command and were willing to die rather than serve or worship any God except their own God therefore I make this decree if any people whatever their race or nation or language speaker word against the God of Shadrack Meshach and Abednego they’ll be torn limb from limb and their houses will be turned into heaps of rubble there is no other God who can rescue like this’
Sounds great doesn’t it but what I notice when I look at this King’s response and he’s responded a similar way to this before is that he praises God but he doesn’t repent to God he doesn’t turn away from what he’s already doing from the other gods he’s already worshipping but he does praise. And surprise surprise he turns away from God again after this but we will hear more of that in the coming weeks. so let’s be careful where in our lives might we might be really willing to receive blessing and praise God but not ready to listen to him for things we need to resist, to be daring in standing up for our faith, for the goodness of all people and the goodness of the whole earth.
Let’s finish with a prayer.
Holy Spirit search our hearts bring to our mind something we need to resist.
Father god thank you that when we have been walking away from you, as soon as we turn back you are there waiting with open arms. We pray give us the strength to not just resist but be daring in our resistance, for our good and your glory, in Jesus name Amen.
”They trusted in him and defied the king’s command and were willing to give up their lives rather than serve or worship any god except their own God.”
(Daniel 3:28b)
Sorry it’s late this week… but please do read our weekly email. In particular, there is a lot happening in the next couple of weeks in the lead up and preparation for Christmas, so do see if you can help!
There are many things in life we need to resist, gossiping, malicious speaking, violence, losing our temper, taking people for granted, being hard hearted, the list could go on and on.
In our third Daniel sermon, we look at how three Jewish men, exiled in Babylon, dared to resist idolatry. Taken from their homes as youths, with their God honouring names changed to fit the Babylonian idols, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego had earned high-ranking positions of leadership within an alien city.
When they refused to worship to a golden statue, the King of Babylon was overtaken by a furious fit of rage, demanding that if they do not bow, they would be thrown into a fiery furnace. Yet, they knew the greatness of God. Rather than rationalising their worship of an idol to themselves, they remained faithful to the commandment.
The three act with respect and graciousness, not overcome with emotion, but overflowing with loyalty, peace and faithfulness to God. In stark contrast, the King had very little control over himself. His fit of rage led him to violence and so they were thrown into the blazing furnace, but God rescued them.
There will be many times that we will have to resist temptation, but just like Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego, let’s resist the temptation to think God is less than he is, let’s resist the temptation to rationalise why we can turn from him. Let’s close the door on opportunities to deny our faith and walk forward faithfully towards our God, whatever the outcome, however hopeless or hopeful the circumstances may look.
Beth Keenan
This will be a joint all age service at St. Luke’s at 11am. There won’t be a service at St. George’s this Sunday, please join us at St. Luke’s.
We would love to deliver as many leaflets as we can around St. Luke’s, St. George’s and Christ Church parishes. Please pick a road, indicate it on the map, take a bundle of fliers and deliver to the road asap.
If you weren’t able to come on Monday night and missed the livestream, you can still watch it here. You can find the Vision 2030 document here. We are asking people to give us feedback on the vision using this simple and short online form by the end of the year. Then we will review the Vision and agree how to move forward at our PCC meetings in January.
If you would like to enter a tree into the Christmas Tree Festival, then please collect a form from Janet Reid or off the church website and return it to her by Tuesday 26th November.
Next Sunday evening after the town light switch on, there will be a special event in St. George’s with light shows, refreshments and music (this year with more mainstream music). Please pick up a leaflet and come with friends. If anyone can lend us a ‘slow cooker’ or similar to heat mulled wine, then please let us know this weekend.
Join together with Christians from all over Thanet as we come together for prayer in the lead up to Christmas. Sunday 1st December, 6:30pm-7:30pm, St. Philip’s Church, Northdown.
Please come and support this evening of carols and Christmas music at St. Luke’s church 7:30pm on Friday 6th December. Tickets £7 all proceeds to Cheerful Sparrows Chairty. If anyone would be willing to help with refreshments and/or welcoming please see Brenda Clarke who will coordinate a team.
With MPs due to debate the Assisted Dying Bill this week, here are a couple of articles about the subject.
MPs won’t have sufficient time to scrutinise assisted suicide legislation before it’s debated in the Commons, CARE has warned. Read Statement.
Ian Stackhouse reflects on why he is so concerned about the idea of Euthanasia becoming legal. Read more…
Finally, let’s pray that we are able to dare resist pressures towards idolatry in our society.
Yours in Christ
Paul Worledge
(Priest in Charge, St. George’s Ramsgate)
Eucharist (St George’s, 9:30am) – Reading: Daniel 3:13-30
Let There Be Light! (St George’s Church) – from 5pm
Prayer Meeting (St. Luke’s Church) – 9:30-10:00am
Craft Group (St. George’s Hall, Soup Kitchen) – 2:00-3:30pm
Study Group (South Eastern Road) – 7:15-9:30pm
Prayer Meeting (St. George’s Church) – 9:30-10:00am
Coffee Morning (St. George’s Hall) – 11:00am-12:00pm
Study Group (Lyndhurst Road) – 2:30-4:00pm
Community Meal (St. George’s Hall) – 5:30-7:00pm
Study Group (Langdale Avenue) – 10:00-12:00 noon
Community Soup (St. George’s Church) – 12:00-2:00pm
Study Group (South Eastern Road) – 7:30-9:30pm
Prayer Meeting (St. Luke’s Church) – 9:30-10:00am
Prayer Meeting (St. George’s Church) – 9:30-10:00am
Community Soup (St. George’s Church) – 12:00-2:00pm
Eucharist (St George’s, 9:30am) – Reading: Daniel 7
Under the ‘Contact’ tab on the website, there are now three forms that you can use to help us in managing the church:
If you volunteer in anyway at church the national authorities are strongly encouraging you to take at least the Basic Module in safeguarding training once every three years.
If you have not completed the training in the last three years, then the module can be completed online and takes about ninety minutes. You can access the training by following this link. You will need to first register, to access the training. Once the training is completed, you will be sent a certificate. Please forward that certificate to James (office@stlukesramsgate.org), so that we can keep records of who has done the training.
Check out our Christmas services below and those at our partner churches below that.
Join us in the beautiful setting of the town centre church, for carols, creating a crib scene and the tree of remembrance.
Welcome in Christmas Day itself with this special Holy Communion.
A chance to come and remember and give thanks for the lives of loved ones who, who we will be missing this Christmas.
Join us for Christmas at the beautiful Royal Harbour’s church. The services is repeated to ensure there is space for everyone.
A carol service for all ages.
An interactive retelling of the Christmas story for young children.
9 lessons and carols by candle-light, not suitable for young children.
An informal Christmas Day celebration for all ages.
Monday 16th December, 7:30pm. Doors open at 7:00pm.
In the setting of the beautiful St. George’s church as it hosts its annual Christmas Tree festival, join us for this wonderful concert of Baroque music, featuring the Baroque Collective: Hannah Morley, Joel Raymond, Tom Shelley and Petra Hajduchova.
Tickets are £13 in advance (before 12th December) or £15 after this date or on the door. Under 16s are free.
“God reveals deep and hidden things; he knows what lies in darkness,
and light dwells with him.” (Daniel 2:22)
This Sunday, we return to our series on Daniel. Faced with an impossible seeming challenge from the boss, Daniel turns to prayer. As a result, Daniel brings some powerful and challenging truths to the king.
As recorded at St. Luke’s
Dare to Pray (Daniel 2)
Safeguarding Sunday
Today is Safeguarding Sunday, which is poignant considering the Archbishop has had to resign, because of a failure to deal adequately with a Safeguarding issue.
But, why do institutions or organisations fail to tackle abusers. Part of the problem is that it takes courage to call out, challenge or uncover such wicked behaviour when it comes to light. Victims need to dare to share the abuse they have suffered, leaders in an organisation need to be willing to accept that sometimes well respected people within an organisation might be an abuser, and they have to be willing to share that truth beyond the organisation, risking reputational damage for themselves and the organisation itself.
In short stopping abuse, needs people to act in ways that can be deeply uncomfortable. Yet, not to act can allow abusers to go unpunished and more people to suffer abuse. Which tragically is what happened with John Smyth.
Our reading today from Daniel, is not about tackling abuse, but it does involve people being willing to challenge conventional thinking and to speak the truth, even though to do so is risky.
It’s a long story, but involves two key characters, Nebuchadnezzar who was king of the Babylonian empire, the biggest empire ever seen in the Near East up until that point and Daniel, a Jewish exile recruited to be trained up in the Babylonian empires civil service.
Let’s start by considering Nebuchadnezzar, someone who dares to push beyond conventional thinking, albeit in a very bullying and aggressive way!
Nebuchadnezzar: Dares to Push beyond Conventional Thinking
Under Nebuchadnezzar’s father, the Babylonians had destroyed the Assyrian Empire and before he was king Nebuchadnezzar, himself had led an army, which had wiped out the Egyptian Army under Necho II in the Battle of Carchemish. With the empire now established, Nebuchadnezzar’s dad had died and he had taken over ruling this large and powerful empire.
Nebuchadnezzar, was already then used to turning the world upside down, as well as enforcing his rule through violent means. We see both those aspects in this story.
He has had a disturbing dream and he wants to know its meaning. The normal way of doing things was to tell the dream to his advisers, then they would give an interpretation. But how could Nebuchadnezzar be sure, their interpretation was the real meaning of the dream and not just an attempt to interpret it along with conventional thinking? Nebuchadnezzar comes up with a bold request. He wants them to tell him what the dream was, before telling him the meaning. Only then could he be confident that they had real insight beyond human thinking.
The magicians and advisers respond by saying, this is impossible! How can they know his dream? No other king has ever made such a request. Basically, they say this is an impossible and ridiculous suggestion. So, Nebuchadnezzar becomes angry and threatens violence. “Tell me or you all die!” is the gist of what he is saying.
Now, admittedly, this is not the kind of boss you would want to work for. And Nebuchadnezzar’s threats of violence are not to be commended – he is clearly not concerned about safeguarding his staff! His style of rule is closer to Stalin than the Archbishop of Canterbury!
Yet, there is something to be commended about his bold request. He wants to get beyond the platitudes of conventional thinking, he wants to push to the deeper meaning behind his dream. He is questioning the attitudes of his day. He wants to really know the truth.
Perhaps you too are someone fed up with the conventional wisdom of today. Perhaps like Nebuchadnezzar, God has brought you to long for a deeper meaning or understanding of life. Perhaps you are beginning to question the kind of ideas you have always believed in.
Increasingly, people in our society are questioning some of the commonly held assumptions. Louise Perry, for example has written a book called, The Case Against the Sexual Revolution, questioning many of the now conventional beliefs about sexual liberation, because she has come to see that on the whole sexual liberation has been bad for most women, but most benefits predatory men.
Others are beginning to question the idea that science can fully explain life and shows us that God is not needed. They are seeing that science cannot answer all our questions, it does not help us find agreement on some of the big cultural questions of the day. It cannot connect us with the deeper meanings of life and the world. Perhaps we need guidance from God after all.
Still others are questioning whether the technological revolutions around smart phones are leading us and particularly our children to become increasingly anxious and depressed, that rather than connecting people they are leaving people increasingly isolated and alone and distracting us from exploring deeper meanings in life.
Will you be a Nebuchadnezzar and dare to push beyond conventional thinking and ways to seek a deeper truth?
Daniel: Dares to Seek God’s Help
The magicians and advisers see no way to be able to meet Nebuchadnezzar’s demand to tell him his dream, so the command goes out that all of them be killed. This is where Daniel comes in. Although they are at the lowest rung of the civil service, he and his friends also face death. But Daniel response in a different way to the magicians and other advisers. He dares to pray, to seek God’s help.
This contrast between Daniel and his friends and the magicians and advisers, is fundamental to the story and rooted in a contrasting belief in God.
In verse 11, the Magicians and advisers say: ‘No one can reveal it to the king except the gods. The gods do not live among humans’ (vs. 11)
They believe in the spiritual, but not in a spiritual that reveals things to human beings, not in gods who listen and speak.
Daniel on the other hand, believes in the God revealed by Moses and the prophets. He believes in a God who does listen and speak. So rather than responding with despair, he dares to seek God’s help, he dares to pray.
“He urged them to plead for mercy from the God of heaven, concerning this mystery.” (vs. 18)
And the amazing thing is God answered his prayer, and that night revealed Nebuchadnezzar’s dream and its meaning to him. Daniel prayed, God revealed and the other magicians and advisers were saved.
This is a challenge for us as Christians today. Like the magicians and advisers, it is easy to despair, to see the impossible, to give up and resign ourselves to collapse. We can forget that our God is the God who speaks and listens. He is not a distant unknowable God, but one we can engage with, cry out to. He is, ‘our Father.’
Over this year of discernment, we have been asking God to speak to us. To show us the plans for the future. Like Daniel, who asked his friends to pray, we’ve done this together and we think that God has now revealed the outlines of a way forward. A vision not of despair, but I hope of growth.
But, we need to keep on praying. Indeed, prayer must be front and centre of our attempts to implement the vision if we really are to grow the church. We need to dare to seek God’s help.
But of course, daring to seek God’s help, may involve us becoming part of the solution. The truth is it is easier or more comfortable to sit back and despair, than pray for God to intervene and risk becoming part of God’s solution. That is what happened to Daniel, he was the one that having now been given Nebuchadnezzar’s dream had to tell the king what it was and its interpretation. He needed to dare to speak truth to power.
Interlude: The Dream and its interpretation
So, what was the dream and what was its interpretation?
In the dream was a statue, with four layers. The head was gold, the chest and arms silver, the belly and thighs bronze and the legs and feet of iron and clay. In the dream a rock comes and strikes the feet of iron and clay and the statue is destroyed and all its parts lost without trace, whilst the rock becomes a huge mountain and fills the earth.
The interpretation is that each stands for a great kingdom, beginning with the kingdom of gold, which is Nebuchadnezzar’s kingdom. But none of the Kingdom’s last, each one is replaced by the other, until finally a different kind of kingdom, represented by the rock and mountain, which is God’s kingdom. This kingdom will endure forever.
For Nebuchadnezzar, the dream and interpretation is both encouraging, but also deeply challenging. His kingdom is golden, but it won’t last, it is not ultimate. God has something better in mind.
Daniel: Dares to Speak Truth to Power
Now how would you feel about telling Nebuchadnezzar that his kingdom, great though it is, is not going to last? This is the guy, who was quite quick to order his whole civil service to be killed. Wouldn’t you want to tell him what you think he wants to hear?
Again here is a contrast between the magicians and other advisers and Daniel. Back in verse 4, they say to Nebuchadnezzar, “O King live forever!” They tell him what they think he wants to hear, that his kingdom is going to be the one that lasts. That his conquests mark the end of history. They want to give him the attractive conventional wisdom of the day.
But Daniel is willing to tell him the deeper truth that comes from God: ‘After you, another kingdom will arise…’ (vs. 38) Your kingdom is not the ultimate kingdom. Actually, there will be three other great kingdoms after you, but none of them will be the ultimate kingdom. Only God’s kingdom is eternal.
Fortunately, for Daniel, Nebuchadnezzar is delighted to be told this deeper truth and to know that because Daniel told him the dream as well as its meaning he could trust it was true and Daniel’s God is the true God:
“Surely, your God is the God of gods and the Lord of kings and a revealer of mysteries…” (vs. 46)
Had Nebuchadnezzar been converted? He had certainly taken a big step in the right direction, but as we will see next week, he still had some way to go!!
As for us, will we like Daniel dare to speak God’s truth. Are we prepared to tell people the deep things God reveals, when it may well not be what they want to hear?
Daniel told Nebuchadnezzar, that his cherished empire, magnificent as it was, his life’s work would ultimately be like rubbish blown away by the wind. That only God’s kingdom is eternal.
Are we willing to challenge people, that the things they work for and value most in life, great and good as those things may be, will one day all come to nothing? That they need to seek first God’s kingdom and his righteousness?
To trust in what Christ has done for them and not in what they have achieved for themselves?
Will we dare to speak or share God’s truth?
Nebuchadnezzar dared to push beyond conventional thinking to God’s truth, Daniel dared to pray that he might be used by God as a solution to the crisis and he dared to speak challenging truths to power. Will we dare to step out of the conventional and seek first God’s kingdom and his righteousness?
Join us for a fun event at St. Luke’s Hall, 7:30-9:30pm tonight (Saturday 16th November). Come as a team or as individuals and join up with others to form a team on the night. Simple snacks and refreshments are provided, but you may also want to bring your own.
There will also be an opportunity to hear about the work of Tearfund and make a donation to them. Gift Aid envelopes will be available.
St. George's Church Ramsgate