Sermon – Daniel 5 – Faith in an Unfaithful Land – Keeping Holy

Rev. Jeffrey T. Howard

Sermon – Daniel 5 – Faith in an Unfaithful Land – Keeping Holy

Pitts Creek and Beaver Dam Churches

October 9, 2011

In 1962 in Engel v. Vitale the Supreme Court of the United States removed prayer from the public schools. In 1973 in Roe v. Wade it made abortion legal everywhere in the country. Neither of these decisions can be overturned by state legislatures or the United States Congress. We have to live with Supreme Court decisions forever at least until the justices change their minds or we amend the constitution. Today the Supreme Court is looking at a case with enormous implications for the church.

The 1964 Civil Rights Act prohibits discrimination in employment practices based on faith. If you own an ice cream store or a farm or any business and you hire someone you must not make Christian faith a criteria for the job. But the law has an important exemption for churches. When we call a pastor, an educator, a musician, an administrator we must demand strong Christian faith and the law permits this. When you called me to this church you looked at my statement of faith and had an opportunity to talk with me about my faith. You would never call a pastor to serve this church who did not have strong faith. The government has no right to tell the church who it may or may not hire. But the Obama administration has asked the Supreme Court to change this and have government regulations apply to some religious hiring.

The case before the court this term is Hosanna-Tabor Evangelical Church v. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. The facts of the case are these: Hosanna-Tabor Church operated a school in Michigan. They employed teachers at the school. There were two classes of teachers at the school, contract teachers and called teachers. A contract teacher was hired just like any teacher would be at any private school and would come under government regulation. But called teachers were very different. We believe the God calls people to various vocations and some are called as Christian teachers. Cheryl Perich experienced this call to teach. So she approached her church to confirm God's call and took some courses at a local Lutheran college. She became a called teacher and taught religion and other classes at the school. After a while Cheryl developed a sleep disorder and could not work. The school had to replace her with another teacher. After her doctor said she could return to work the school informed her that she was no longer needed and terminated her employment. She sued demanding protection of federal labor laws. The church claimed their religious exemption from those laws.

This is a difficult case for the court because we have compassion for Cheryl and want her needs met. But at the same time we must demand that employment in churches is a matter between the members of the church and God free from government control. We must do this to keep our churches holy, set aside for God's purposes. As our country becomes less and less faithful we will struggle to keep our churches holy. But this is something we must do as faithful people. And so we turn to the Book of Daniel help us keep things holy in a faithless land. But first lets pray.

“Grant unto us, O Lord, to be occupied in the mysteries of thy heavenly wisdom, with true progress in piety, to thy glory and our own edification. Amen.” (John Calvin)

Daniel 5:17-31 ¹⁷ Then Daniel answered the king, "You may keep your gifts for yourself and give your rewards to someone else. Nevertheless, I will read the writing for the king and tell him what it means.

¹⁸ "O king, the Most High God gave your father Nebuchadnezzar sovereignty and greatness and glory and splendor. ¹⁹ Because of the high position he gave him, all the peoples and nations and men of every language dreaded and feared him. Those the king wanted to put to death, he put to death; those he wanted to spare, he spared; those he wanted to promote, he promoted; and those he wanted to humble, he humbled. ²⁰ But when his heart became arrogant and hardened with pride, he was deposed from his royal throne and stripped of his glory. ²¹ He was driven away from people and given the mind of an animal; he lived with the wild donkeys and ate grass like cattle; and his body was drenched with the dew of heaven, until he acknowledged that the Most High God is sovereign over the kingdoms of men and sets over them anyone he wishes.

²² "But you his son, O Belshazzar, have not humbled yourself, though you knew all this. ²³ Instead, you have set yourself up against the Lord of heaven. You had the goblets from his temple brought to you, and you and your nobles, your wives and your concubines drank wine from them. You praised the gods of silver and gold, of bronze, iron, wood and stone, which cannot see or hear or understand. But you did not honor the God who holds in his hand your life and all your ways.

²⁴ Therefore he sent the hand that wrote the inscription. ²⁵ "This is the inscription that was written: MENE, MENE, TEKEL, PARSIN ²⁶ "This is what these words mean: Mene: God has numbered the days of your reign and brought it to an end. ²⁷ Tekel: You have been weighed on the scales and found wanting. ²⁸ Peres: Your kingdom is divided and given to the Medes and Persians."

²⁹ Then at Belshazzar's command, Daniel was clothed in purple, a gold chain was placed around his neck, and he was proclaimed the third highest ruler in the kingdom. ³⁰ That very night Belshazzar, king of the Babylonians, was slain, ³¹ and Darius the Mede took over the kingdom, at the age of sixty-two.

According the Babylonian history 25 years have passed between the reign of Nebuchadnezzar at end of Daniel 4 and the beginning of Daniel chapter 5. During that time Babylon had become complacent. The people felt secure, protected by a strong army and massive walls around the city. It was said that the city walls were so thick that a four horse chariot could go around the perimeter at the top. The Babylonians no longer worried about maintaining their empire or growing their economy. They just wanted to party. They were more interested in getting drunk and having sex than working, worshiping or being faithful. The conversion of Nebuchadnezzar that we saw in chapter 4 was long forgotten, and the Babylonian society descended into the decadence that we see in chapter 5.

Also according to Babylonian records Belshazzar was never the king. He was the king's son. His father was Nabonidus, a Babylonian general who led a successful coup. But Nabonidus didn't like leading an empire so he left for a 10 year sabbatical at a resort in the Arabian dessert. He left behind his wife the queen and his son who liked to drink wine and have lots of concubines around.

One day, according to scripture, this son, Belshazzar, after drinking heavily saw what looked like the shadow of a hand writing on a wall. The words the hand wrote were MENE, MENE, TEKEL, PARSIN. These words refer to units of measure for money. If you asked a Babylonian merchant what something cost he might say MENE, MENE, TEKEL, PARSIN or about 62 shekels. Remember the number 62, it will be important later. Of course none of the magicians or astrologers had any idea what the inscription meant. So Belshazzar's mother suggested that they call for Daniel, an exile from Judah, who had interpreted things for King Nebuchadnezzar years before. Daniel came to interpret the inscription.

Now, to understand what Daniel does to interpret the inscription you have to know a little about the Aramaic language, Written Aramaic, like written Hebrew, contains no vowels only consonants. The reader would be expected to fill in the vowels from the context. Using different vowels would change the meaning of the words. Daniel reads these words but uses different vowels. He reads the words as verbs not nouns. Remember what he said, “ Mene: God has numbered the days of your reign and brought it to an end. Tekel: You have been weighed on the scales and found wanting. Peres: Your kingdom is divided and given to the Medes and Persians."

While the party continued with riotous drinking Daniel's prophecy was fulfilled. We know from Persian records that they arrived in Babylon and saw the impressive fortress around the city. While the city's inhabitants partied inside, the Persians dug a trench around the walls diverting the Euphrates river. The Persian army entered Babylon from the dry riverbed and quickly subdued the drunken guards. Scripture teaches us that the Persian general who conquered Babylon without a fight that night was Darius the Mede who was 62 years old. Mene Mene Tekel Peres, 62 shekels, I told you to remember that number.

Why did God allow the Persians to conquer this once great empire of Babylon? Scripture teaches us it was because they misused holy things, things that had been set aside for God's use. The gold goblets from the Jerusalem temple were set aside for use in the worship of God. Belshazzar used them for his drunken parties honoring pagan gods. This was not something that God would tolerate. We must keep holy that which is holy.

We must always remember that the church is holy. It set aside for God's use. What we do with the church must be always according to God's will as we discern it in scripture and prayer. The government must never try to use the church for it's purposes by regulating what we do. So we must prayerfully ask God to speak to the Justices of the Supreme Court to rule in such a way as to honor God and preserve what is holy. And we must work politically to ensure that political decisions are always made by faithful people.

Almighty God, we ask that you always help us to preserve the holiness of the church. Keep what we do set aside for your purposes. Help us to discern what you are doing in the world and allow us to work alongside of you. Amen.