St. Andrew's Brussels Sermons

Why is the story of the Road to Emmaus so popular? Well, it's a miracle story. But it is also s homecoming story. The Disciples had just witnessed a catastrophe, and the story ends by giving them new hope and new energy. The story is about a married couple, Mr and Mrs Cleopas. Their whole world had collapsed. The messiah they had believed Jesus to be had just been cruelly executed by the authorities. They were distraught and despondent. Then Jesus joins them on their walk. But despite the fact that Jesus was on their minds and in their conversation, they do not recognise Him! Why? Well, something kept them from seeing Him as Jesus. Of course, or modem, scientific minds don't get this, and try to explain this with science and logic. The option that this was a divine act doesn't enter our minds. Practical people do not consider the possibility of miracles, do they The difference with today is that in those times, people *did* believe in miracles. In the original text, the phrase actually says that their eyes “were kept from recognising” Him. Grammatically, this is called the “passive voice”, and it was used exclusively in the New Testament to describe situations where God is acting. In other words, it was God who kept them from recognising Jesus. But why would He do this? It was a ten kilometre walk. This provided plenty of time for them to be *tutored*, by Christ Himself! They were kept from recognising Him, so that they could be instructed! This had got to have been the greatest Bible Study in all time, because it was led by the Greatest Bible Teacher of all time! In that light, a ten kilometre walk could not possibly have been a long enough walk to cover all the areas of the Scriptures that point to Jesus. After all, the Bible is all about God's plan of salvation for Mankind through His risen Son, Jesus. To Him be all glory and praise!

The Gospel of John makes it clear that the place where Jesus was buried was a garden. The tomb was a new tomb in that garden. This location, and its implied imagery of luxuriant plant life and greenery, echoes the poetry of the Song of Solomon, where the lovers meet in a garden. So, John is setting the scene for what is going to be a remarkable event. Mary Magdalene doesn't grasp the significance of Jesus being buried in a garden. Kings were buried in a garden! Note that the word for such gardens of delight came from the Persian: “paradise”. So, Mary had stumbled into paradise, into Eden, even, the source of fruitful life, but she doesn't understand all that. Mary is in the presence of the Garden of God, without even realising it. How guilty are we, dear Reader, of not realising that we too are in God's Garden? Have we abdicated our responsibilities as custodians of the planet? In a way, Mary Magdalene was not wrong when “she supposed him to be the gardner”: Jesus *is* the Gardener. So, how much more shameful is it, then, when we neglect His Garden?

“We are Christians, therefore we pray!” The Apostle Paul encouraged, nay required, Christians to pray continually and at all times. However, individual prayer is difficult. Self-discipline is a challenge. It is hard for us to devote the time necessary for prayer. Indeed, prayer has been squeezed into the margins of life in our modern society. In TV, for example, we rarely see people take to prayer, even in the most difficult circumstances. That is why we need communal prayer! We need to get together with other Christians, sharing in greater prayers about the Church as a whole. The supreme act of communal worship is at the Communion Table. In today's first Reading, Paul attempts to describe the significance of Communion as a communal act. Sharing this special Supper together helps the individual Christian realise that they are part of a far greater whole. The Communion helps make us feel truly part of the wider Church. “It's a ladder by which we climb up to Heaven”, says Calvin, who goes on to conclude that it is also a continual encouragement to us in our weakness. It is a means to receive a strength that we never knew we had - strength for the work of the Kingdom. Having received the Sacraments, we are invigorated all the more to pray for the world around us. When we leave the Lord's Table, we leave into the world with the taste of Christ on our lips. This is a wondrous thing! May the Lord give us the courage to act accordingly.

Sunday 28 April: “Doubting Thomas?” Preacher: Rev Eric Foggitt Readings: John 20:19-31 & Psalm 150 The story of “Doubting Thomas” is one of the best-known in the Bible, for understandable reasons. After all, the Disciples had just seen their Leader crucified, and no doubt they feared that the Romans would come after them now too. The Disciples' reports of Jesus risen would have hit Thomas's ears like a bombshell! But it is a bit misleading to call Thomas ‘doubting’. One could actually argue that he was only being a realist. He was trying to figure out what to do next. After all, he had just given up three years of his life to follow a man who had just been beaten up and crucified publicly by the Roman occupiers. Thomas may have simply been taking stock of his situation in the wake of the horrific episode on Good Friday. Maybe that is why he wasn't with the rest of the Disciples when they were cowering in fear in the presence of Jesus - the very man he had seen crucified with his own eyes. So, when he was told that Jesus had risen, he reacted in disbelief. “Yeah, right!” is the kind of reaction he gave the other Disciples. He just couldn't believe it. However, when Jesus Himself confronts him, Thomas's reality was completely changed. He was made to realise that his own understanding of things was too restricted, too wee. He needed to be reminded of the grander vision - a grander vision than what he had so far. The appearance of Jesus to Thomas challenged his view of the world. It opened his eyes to a far bigger, very different vision of life than that which he had entertained so far. As the staggering reality struck, Thomas was suddenly moved to cry out to Jesus, “My Lord and my God!” Similarly, our own preconceived ideas also act to constrain our understanding of God and His plans for us. If you respond as Thomas did, then things can start happening that you may have considered to be impossible before! You can break free from the shackles of your earlier, limited perceptions, and instead start living in an alternative reality of love and harmony and peace. Faith works! Amen.

Easter Day 2019: Christ has risen! Preacher: Rev Eric Foggitt Readings: Isaiah 65: 17-25 & Luke 24: 1-12 The miracle of Easter Day took place in the early hours of the morning when it was still dark, and nobody was there to see it. The disciples and the women find the tomb empty. John’s gospel describes how Mary Magdalene goes to the disciples and tells them, ‘I have seen the Lord’. In our endless attempts to make the Bible relevant we forget that the Bible creates its own relevance. In those simple words, Mary describes the miracle that occurred on the first Easter Day. Have we met Jesus? People need to feel able to approach Jesus and to let him into their lives so that they, too, can say ‘I have seen the Lord’. Resurrection is not just life after death but the assurance of God’s continued love for us. The promise of the resurrection is when we can say, ‘I have seen the Lord’: words that roll back the stone that keeps us from living a Christian life of love. Thanks be to God for the opportunity to celebrate this miraculous day and our prayers for courage and peace to all those affected by the terrible events in Sri Lanka on this most blessed day.

Sunday 7 April: ‘All I once held dear I have counted loss’ Preacher: Rev Eric Foggitt Rev Foggitt is a member of our sister church in Amsterdam and will be preaching at St Andrew’s during April. Readings: John 12:1-8, Philippians 3:1-14 (NIV) In today's reading, Paul explains that his call to service in the Lord had nothing to do with his background. Sometimes, things come crashing into our lives that completely change the way we look at our lives. Deaths, divorces, breakups, unemployment, or things for which we have been working for for a long time, suddenly cast aside in a moment. Today, we see that Paul is angry with people who were proclaiming that salvation came through circumcision. They claimed that you could only come to Christ after becoming a Jew first. Paul dismissed this heresy by calling it ’mutilation’, not only of the body, but also of our *faith*. Because circumcision was not needed for our salvation; only faith in Christ, given to us by the Grace of God. Paul was saying that circumcision was being proclaimed as a way to *replace* grace - completely contrary to God's plan for us through Christ Jesus, His Son. This is why Paul was so livid when people claimed that our salvation was only possible through circumcision. This would be a mutilation of our faith! And ultimately worthless. Paul speaks from personal experience when he says this. He was right up there among the most zealous persecutors of Christians. He was so passionate as a Pharisee that he had many Christians killed. But now, in the light of God's Grace and our salvation through His own Son, his world was turned upside down, and he concluded that everything that he had done before was *rubbish*! Paul knew for sure that salvation only comes by grace, and by grace alone. God had a different purpose for Paul for which his background was irrelevant. And in finding this purpose, Paul achieved peace and fulfilment to such an extent that he gladly dismissed all that he had done before as a waste. God has a purpose for each of our lives. What is God's purpose for you, dear Reader? We only find peace when we are at the centre of God's will for us. Amen.

Sunday 31 March: The Book of Revelation Preacher: Daniel Brink Readings: Genesis 2:4-9, Revelation 21:1-4 (NIV) How do you approach the Book of Revelation? Is it a Book of the Bible that you avoid, because of its complexity and obscure symbolism? Let's try and look at it the way the original readers would have seen it. This is because it was basically a letter - a letter to the early church with the purpose of encouragement and exhortation. It was written by John, who urged its readers to take it to heart. It was clearly an important document, and we shouldn't avoid it at all! If anything, it is a reminder that God is sovereign, and that Jesus is victorious over death. But it is a complex Book, containing references to the past, the present *and* the future. By the time we arrive at Revelation chapter 21, we see a future-oriented part of the Book, describing scenes from ‘eternity’. Eternity, as described here, takes the form of an entirely new Creation, similar to the current Creation, except much, much better: “like a bride prepared for her husband”. In the new Creation, God dwells with His people. There are two features of this wonderful prospect for God's people that we should look at: - God's presence as the *culmination* of God’s rescue plan for us; and - The *comfort* of being with God. First, “culmination”. It is interesting that the Bible opens with God’s act of creation, and it closes with another creation - a new Creation. It encompasses the entirety of God's plan for His creation, His ‘Story’ for us. ‘Stories’ are much appreciated by mankind all over the world. All of us are drawn to stories that feature a grand dilemma, a problem to be overcome. We want a story to have a hero. Perhaps this is because we are the creation of God, whose story for Mankind is one of rescue from evil. God's presence with His people is a repeating theme throughout the Bible. First, there was the Tabernacle, then the more permanent structure of the Temple. By the time we get to the Book of Revelation, the new Jerusalem is described as a perfect cube. This would have meant a lot to first Century Christians, because the Holiest of Holies was a cube room which was the dwelling place of God in the Temple. Second, God as our *comfort*. The good news is that in that New Jerusalem, chaos and suffering no longer appear. The Lord is on the Throne, and brings an end to suffering and loneliness. God dwells *with* His people. Our relationships here are tainted by the Fall. But in the Lord, we reach the fulfilment of our need for the perfect, intimate relationship with God. We belong to Him, and how wonderful it is to be where we belong. God's rescues His 'Bride', His people, through His Son. This is the culmination of the purpose of Mankind, and is our greatest comfort. Thanks be to God! Amen.

Sunday 24 March: “Good, old-fashioned repentance” Preacher: Lisbet Duerinck Van Gysegem Readings: 1 Corinthians 10:1-13 & Luke 13:1-9 (NIV) “Repentance” is not a particularly popular topic nowadays, is it? It's like it went out of fashion with black and white TVs! When you say the word “repentance”, people tend to dismiss it as belonging to the distant realm of some isolated, old-fashioned “hellfire and brimstone” churches. What does the word evoke in you, Dear Reader? In the Bible, repentance is described in terms that include “missing your aim”, “turning away from old ways” or “mourning our mistakes”. There is an important undercurrent here: the really important thing is how we react *after* we have sinned. Do we persist in being a ‘barren fig tree’, like in the Reading taken from the Gospel according to Luke? Or do we change our ways, turn to Christ, and begin bearing fruit? You may then ask, should it matter how *big* the sin was? It may surprise some to learn that determining how “big” a sin is is largely *irrelevant*. A sin is a sin! It is the persistent presence of sin that prevents us from entering into God's presence. Jesus bore the consequences of our sins, and offers us the possibility to be washed clean of them, so that we can enter into God's presence. Consequently, we must not make the mistake of losing sight of Christ when we repent. God will judge us, but in His grace, He provides us with the means to forgiveness, through Jesus. Amen, and thanks be to God!

Sunday 17 March: “Love, unrequited and relentless” Readings: Philippians 3:14 - 4:1 & Luke 13:31-35 (NIV) Our service was led by Rev Peter Gardner, Minister to the Visual Arts Communities of Glasgow. The love of God is powerful. We know that. But do we also really appreciate that God's love is relentless? “You cannot wash off God's love for you,” as the phrase goes. Yet despite this assurance, we live in a world marked by fear. The recent massacre in the New Zealand mosque, the uncertainties around Brexit, and so many other things keep us worried and concerned. We feel *vulnerable* as a result. The readings today speak to our human feelings of vulnerability. In the first Reading, we see that Jesus mentions Herod. Jesus is told that Herod wants to kill Jesus. This kind of threat is a classic resort of totalitarian governments throughout the ages. Making people live in fear is a way of forcing your will on society. Further, fear nurtures fear. Jesus was no stranger to such attempts by the authorities of the day to try to intimidate people via fear. Years before, he was born in a stables because of a similar attempt by the authorities to get their way through fear! Yet despite this threat, Jesus still pours out His love. His concern is to continue His ministry to His people. In essence, He is saying that He will not stop His loving just because of the shameful threats of a despot who fears losing his power. Jesus, by contrast, has no fear. Instead, Jesus's longing shines like a light into all our fears. He calls us to be open-hearted, like Him. The question is, namely, how we navigate the concerns of the world while embracing God's love. How do we live in a world marked by fear? What does it mean to be a Christian in such a world? The answer lies in living God's love, in living in His light. Jesus's strong love made Him vulnerable, but it ultimately overcame all on the third day, because it even overcame death! Let us rejoice in that! Amen Thanks for an interesting sermon, Peter Gardner.

Our service on January 6th, 2019 was led by our Interim Moderator, Rev. Dr. Lance Stone, Minister of our sister church in Amsterdam. The first Sunday of 2019 was the start of a journey for St Andrew's, as we start the search for a new minister. Also we each have our own journeys and at the start of the new year reflect on what may lie ahead. The challenges and opportunities that we may face. Matthew tells the story of the Wise Men's journey. There has been much speculation about who they were or whether they existed at all. The sparseness of the narrative has inspired many writers to fill in details. They are described as astrologers and the celestial event they saw was significant enough to stimulate their long journey. It was not their initiative: they were drawn to the Christ child. They were compelled to follow the star. But they went astray and travelled to Jerusalem instead of Bethlehem, and ended up in the lair of the paranoid despot, Herod, with horrific consequences. They eventually find their true destination. In many ways their journey is like our own: we too have been drawn to Christ. Ou faith journey is not our choice but we are compelled by grace. Ephesians tells of God's greater plan and our journey is part of that plan. That is good news: when our faith is challenged or grows weak we can be comforted by the thought that God is working for us. Like the Wise Men we may go astray but God will get us there in the end.

There are many things that make it clear you're in an alien environment, that you're not at home: the way people dress, the architecture, the languages. Brussels has many people who have come from very different places. Some have come here to escape violence and war. Others have come here for a job. But living in a new country can present them with quite a culture shock. In time, though, things become familiar. Today's reading is about the deported Israelites, now living against their will in exile in Babylon. They got there because God put them there to teach them a lesson after their continuous rebellions and disobedience. Some, like Daniel, found favour with the local rulers and worked in the luxurious surroundings of the royal palaces. But most of them lived in poverty. This episode in today's reading shows a group of Israelites in a state of shock, sitting by the banks of the river Babylon and asking themselves, “how did we get here?” Their captors taunt them, demanding them that they sing their old songs of home. Eventually, they have enough of this bullying, and they go on strike. They hang their harps up and sing the Lord's songs no more. They begin asking themselves, “How can we make things better?” The Psalmist shows the response: to remind them of their roots, to remind them of who they are. “Don't forget home,” says the Lord. But this does not mean that they should dwell on their past. After all, God Himself had put them there. So, they are encouraged to set up their home in their new surroundings. There is a danger of not really getting to grips with living in your new surroundings if you don't apply yourself. For the Israelites, this meant that they should learn the local languages, work together, and pull themselves together as a community. The priests needed to develop the spiritual life of the community. For any community to work well, things do not happen on their own. The members of the community need to get more involved. Clearly, the advice to the Israelites is to foster the development of the community. Form families. Have children. ‘Community’ begins with the family unit. God days, “Make communities”. Another piece of advice to the Israelites is to encourage them to seek the peace and prosperity not only of their own community, but also of the city of which they form a part. God's people are instructed to pray for the good of the whole city. How has God helped you to settle down in a place that is not your home, dear Reader? What wisdom would you pass on to others in a similar situation? How has life changed for you over the years since you arrived in the city you're in? Are you a more resourceful person? You need God to make sense of it all.

Today, we're thinking about hospitality. There is a real need for hospitality for Ministers of the Church to do their job. If it wasn't for the hospitality of other people, the Minister would not have been able to do the things he has. This kind of support could be called “networks of grace”. Hospitality is an important part of Christian discipleship. What does it mean for us in our city life? From the Apostle Paul, in his second missionary journey, we learn that he continually relied on hospitality. There was no booking.com for him to arrange his accommodations ahead of time! He had to rely on networks of grace. At Troas, Paul has a vision: “come and help us in Macedonia” was the call, and so begins the series of adventures he was to experience on his second missionary journey. Paul pushes the door that God has opened a bit further. He didn't just sit still. He decided to use the opportunity to share the Gospel. He pushed the door open to discern God's plan. We can learn from this: if you want to discern God's plan when he has opened a door for you, you need to push the door a bit further. Otherwise things will pass you by. In the first reading, we learn of Lydia. Lydia is a widow; she has known sadness in her life. Clearly she has taken over the family business. Purple cloth was a high-value commodity. So Lydia was probably a well-off trader.Upon hearing Paul's message of the Gospel, Lydia decides to show hospitality to these strangers. In the story of Abraham in today's second reading, we're shown an image of an oasis. It's a haven of grace and welcome in the middle of the desert. As soon as Abraham sees the visitors arrive, he shows respect to them. He shows that he is interested in them. That is a manifestation of respectful hospitality. The second thing we notice is that there is a bit of protocol: Abraham offers to give them water and to wash their feet. When we show others hospitality, there's always some kind of protocol. The third thing we notice about Abraham's hospitality is his generosity: only the best will do! He gives his visitors the best that he can. The calf, the milk etc. What does this show us? If we think about the ultimate aim of the gospel, it's all about restoring our relation with God, to be able to receive God's hospitality. When God invited you into his kingdom, he is offering you the most lavish hospitality imaginable. Second: you must imagine that someone to whom you offer hospitality is treated in the same way as you would treat Jesus. As followers of the Lord Jesus Christ, we are called to offer the same hospitality that Christ offers us.

Things break. Things in the house can break. Things in the city can break. Traffic lights stop working, or buses break down. This is just a fact of city life. However, *communities* can also break. Nehemiah was normally a person with a positive demeanour. He had a good rapport with the king of Babylon, and was a success in his job as a sort of personal assistant to the powerful monarch. But he hears news from people who had returned to Jerusalem from exile, only to report that the city was in ruins. This affected him greatly. He was deeply troubled by this news. Not only were the walls of the city broken; the people themselves were broken. They had no vision. The *community* back in Jerusalem was broken. Nehemiah couldn't hide his concern, and the king spotted his distress. He asks him, “What do you want? How can I help you?” Nehemiah knows that hearts soften when there is prayer. He had been wrestling in prayer with the problem of how to restore people's lives in Jerusalem. He needed to go there, in person. Nehemiah realises that he needs something special from the king: he needed paperwork! Yes, bureaucracy was around even thousands of years ago! He needed a document giving him safe passage to the city of Jerusalem, and permission to chop down lumber from the king's forests. When Nehemiah finally arrives at Jerusalem, he does a number of things that we can learn from. First, he takes time to gather information about the situation there. He spends three days taking in what is going on. You can't begin restoration if you don't understand the problem! The second thing he does is to be *discreet* about his work. God is also often quiet in His work to bring about change. The third thing he does is to be *thorough*. He is dependable. This is a valuable trait. He determines how long the project will need to take, and how many resources will be needed. God in Heaven also has attention to detail - after all, He knows every hair on our heads. The fourth thing to note is that Nehemiah is “Mr Motivator”. Nehemiah motivated the people in Jerusalem to embrace the project of restoration. Jesus is our great motivator: He gave the Great Commission to His disciples, encouraging them to go out into the world and make disciples of the people. When Nehemiah gets under way with the project, there is opposition from the neighbours. They mock him. How does Nehemiah react? He doesn't give up in the face of this criticism. He continues, confident, and with God's conviction. That faith helps him to overcome the obstacles. There is a lot that we can learn from Nehemiah!

The Good Samaritan - Luke 10 by St. Andrew's Brussels

Sunday 12 August: The Transfiguration Reading Luke 9: 28-36 (NIV) Going somewhere new or different gives us a new perspective on things. In this period of summer holidays, our time away from home gives us new experiences and sights and we, hopefully, return home refreshed and with new energy. In this week’s reading, Jesus has taken his core team of apostles up a mountain and there they saw Jesus in a new light. Peter, John and James were people with whom Jesus could kick around ideas, share his feelings and get some honest feedback. They had spent enough time with Jesus to know about his mission and his teaching. In taking them up the mountain, Jesus wanted to change their outlook and strengthen their faith in him for the trails that were to lie ahead. On that mountaintop, the team saw Jesus in all his glory. He was seen with Moses, who was Israel’s greatest law given and had led God’s people from captivity, and with Elijah, their greatest prophet, who had stood up for the people against an oppressive king. They talked with Jesus about what he was going to achieve in Jerusalem. Finally, the most spectacular moment, they hear the voice of God say ‘This is my Son, whom I have chosen; listen to him.’ The disciples were left in no doubt who Jesus was. They now knew he was truly the Son of God.

In our lives, there are public places and private spaces. There are concert halls, restaurants and hospitals, where people gather in groups of different sizes, and small rooms in the home where people retreat to for privacy. In today's world, public spaces are increasingly difficult to protect from people who wish us harm. In the aftermath of terrorist attacks in Belgium, we still need to get used to seeing troops in our streets. In this reading from the Gospel according to Matthew, we see two miracles: one in a very public place, and the second in a private space: the feeding of the (more than) 5,000 and the miracle on the water of the Sea of Galilee. These two miracles take place in very different contexts. But they have something in common: one way of looking at the miracles in the Bible is to see them as instances of the inbreaking of the Kingdom of Heaven into our world; they are a demonstration of God's power. The feeding of the 5,000 is reported in all four Gospels. In that story, we see Jesus teaching and healing. The feeding is somewhat secondary to the main point: it’s Jesus's compassion that is the key element here. It was a big deal for Jesus to reach out to this ‘flock without a shepherd’, and guide them as the Good Shepherd. We can be inspired by this compassion. In the second miracle, we see Jesus retreating into the hills after what must have been an exhausting day, having dismissed his Disciples into a boat on the lake. Then the Disciples have to contend with one of the violent squalls for which the Sea of Galilee is famous. They fear for their lives… until all of a sudden, Jesus appears to them, walking on the water! The action then focuses right down into the private space of the boat and on Peter. We are shown what happens when he takes his eyes off Christ. The lesson here is the importance of keeping our eyes fixed on Jesus. Dear reader, do you allow your gaze to be distracted by the cares around you, instead of keeping focused on our Saviour and Lord?

Daniel in the Lions' Den - Daniel 6 by St. Andrew's Brussels

When we look at Jesus's ministry, we notice that He responds to different people in different ways, depending on the person concerned. Sometimes, He is gentle, and towards some people, He is hard. One example of the latter is His parable about the foolish rich person (Luke 12:16-21).It reminds us of God's dealings with Nebuchadnezzar's grandson, Belshazzar, the subject of this week's sermon. The Persians and Medes were at the gates of Babylon, besieging the once great city. It is surprising, therefore, that Belshazzar decided to organize a party, with the enemies at the gate! He is clearly in denial. The summit of his debauchery is Belshazzar’s abuse of the cups and goblets that had been taken from the Temple in Jerusalem. These were vessels that had been used for sacred things. In abusing them I this way, he disregards and insults the God of the Jews - the God in whom his grandfather believed. Instead, Belshazzar wasted his time worshipping dead things: idols of gold, silver and wood. The banquet was a debauched affair. For Belshazzar, this was no concern. But God is interested in how we live. Our behaviour says something about where our heart is. In this case, the King's behaviour is debauched. Belshazzar should have known better. When he sees the writing on the wall, he is frightened. He calls on his wise men, but they're no use - unsurprisingly! Then the queen remembers Daniel, and he is summoned into the presence of the king. Daniel then gives Belshazzar a history lesson. He reminds him of the things that had happened to his grandfather, Nebuchadnezzar. Belshazzar should have been aware that he should have put his trust in his Father in Heaven. He should have yielded his heart to God. If he had done so, the God in Heaven would not have been the object of his hate. Instead He would have been the object of his faith. However, just like the Parable of the rich man who was building bigger and better barns to store his accumulated wealth, it was too late for Belshazzar. He is debauched, and he knows what is expected of him, but he doesn't yield to God. He is terrified when he sees the writing on the wall because he has no relationship with God. Everyone needs someone wise to turn to for advice and insight. As Believers, we have the privilege to turn to God for such wisdom. That path was closed to this debauched king, though. Consequently, the king was judged. “You're sacked!” is the message to this king. Not only will the kingdom be taken away from this king, but it will be split and divided. As we read this account, what should we do? The Parables in the New Testament reveal to us the importance of our relationship with God: they repeatedly emphasise that the Gospel is the most precious thing in the Christian's life. This is what the first believers discovered on that first Pentecost. The story of Belshazzar is sad, because Belshazzar repeatedly ignored the generous offers by God to repent and turn from his evil ways. At a certain point, it was too late for him, because of his stubbornness and hard-heartedness. May the Lord prevent us from ever falling into the same situation!

In our series on the Book of Daniel, we have learned a lot about the main characters: Daniel, who is steadfast and faithful in dire circumstances, and who was blessed by God with great wisdom and insight; his three friends, Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego, whose faithfulness to God does not waver either, even as they were thrown into the furnace. Then there's the cruel, insecure and utterly self-centred king, Nebuchadnezzar. In this chapter, Nebuchadnezzar seems to have a change of heart - finally. He declares for all to see what God has done for him. The king speaks of God as eternal and all-powerful. Could it be that the king has come to genuine faith in God? We see a number of developments in this chapter that suggest that this may indeed be happening... (1) God hounds Nebuchadnezzar: We see that God is persistent with the king. He patiently works on him, to open his eyes to his self centeredness and accept the God of the Jews as the Most-High. Time and again, Nebuchadnezzar seems ready to accept this, but then he always back-slides. But God is patient with him. (2) God humbled the king: Nebuchadnezzar was at the very peak of his reign and his dominion was vast. But, just as the king reaches this pinnacle of achievement, God gives him a troubling dream. So troubling, in fact, that the king bypasses all the soothsayers and advisers who had disappointed him on previous occasions, and turns straight to Daniel to interpret the dream for him. Daniel realises that the dream was not good news. He tells the meaning of the dream to his king. He doesn't sugar-coat it: it's bad news. Daniel makes it clear that this was a warning of God's judgement to come. “But it's not too late,” is Daniel's message. The king can still repent. However, after a whole year, the king had still done nothing. God had given him plenty of opportunities to change his ways, but he did not do so. So, as predicted, the king loses his mind *and* his kingdom. It's tragic and pathetic. This man had refused to obey God, to yield his heart to Him, and he suffered the consequences of his folly. There's a lesson here for us too: unfortunately, the human heart can be remarkably prideful and arrogant. We often surround our heart with a tremendously hard shell. It can take a long time for God to cut through all that resistance. And it took a long time for King Nebuchadnezzar to cease being self absorbed and self centred. (3) God Heals Nebuchadnezzar: After years as a mad, wild man, Nebuchadnezzar finally reached out to God. He finally became God-centred, and began worshipping the living God. Note that worshipping God is restorative. God heals us when we worship Him. Note also that restoration is part of healing. God restores the kingdom to Nebuchadnezzar when Nebuchadnezzar realises the supreme authority of God. Human kingdoms can rise and fall, but Nebuchadnezzar is relieved to recognise that God's Kingdom lasts forever. He is healed by that realisation.

In this week's reading, we see yet another example of just how hostile the environment is in which the Jewish exiles had to live after they had been deported to Babylon. Time and again, the insecure, cruel king Nebuchadnezzar made decrees or took decisions that put Daniel and his friends into peril. But time and again, Daniel and his friends did not yield to the dictats of this ungodly despot. Time and again, God rescued them. This time the focus is less on Daniel, and more on his three friends, Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego. The despot comes up with ever more self-aggrandizing schemes, and we see his government advisors blindly doing the bidding of this self-obsessed king. We learn how desperately he seeks the limelight. He even sets himself up as a god to ensure that he gets the adulation and adoration that he craves! Of course, we as Christians know that a created idol or a man-made object of worship will ultimately be a disappointment to its followers. Here, Nebuchadnezzar managed to impose his will through a reign of terror - remember that this is a cruel king - so it was no surprise that people did as he ordered… ...except the Jews! Their defiance did not go unnoticed, though, and they were denounced by Nebuchadnezzar’s lackeys. When the king confronted Daniel's three friends, they were given a stark choice: obey, or be thrown into a blazing furnace! Which option would you have chosen, dear reader, if it had been you in the same situation? They commit themselves to the Lord's providence, just like Jesus did in the garden of Gethsemane. They face the condemnation of being consumed by the flames of the furnace, but they stay steadfast in their faith in the one true God. The living God delivered the three faithful believers. The king was astonished! He offers them to be released, and even goes so far as to warn of punishments to anyone who insults the God of the Jews. But note that the king falls short of making any personal commitment to the Lord. Even in the light of this extraordinary miracle, which he witnessed with his own eyes, King Nebuchadnezzar does not draw the right conclusion! His self-obsession prevents him from seeing what he is being offered: he misses the opportunity to allow God's saving grace to reign in his life. This was a decision that was to have grave consequences for him later.

The Meaning of the King's Dream - Daniel 2, part 2 by St. Andrew's Brussels

In this first chapter, we see some of the background to the story. The Babylonians were the predominant military power in the region. They besiege Jerusalem and capture the king of Judah. The tactics of the Babylonians were to humiliate their foes. They replace the king with a puppet king (who would rebel ten years later). They then take away the holy items from the Temple, to be installed in the Babylonians’ false gods’ temples. They had desecrated the Temple of the Lord. But the truth is that the people of Judah had long ago desecrated the Temple of the Lord themselves! The Babylonians also proceeded to dismantle the whole administrative system of the country: first, they remove the civil servants, then the artisans etc. The strategy is to isolate the Jews, and then brainwash them so that they would think like Babylonians. That's why they began schooling the Judah’s brightest. Those would also be bribed with the best food available: food that was served to the king himself. Note that this privileged diet included meat that was routinely offered to the Babylonians’ false gods. The final stroke would be to replace the names of the Jews with Babylonian names. The idea was consistently to humiliate God's people. This is exactly what the enemy of the Lord does: he attempts to push Christ out from our hearts (idolatry). He works to get Believers to abandon their beliefs, to become more like the world. Then it aims to get them to think like the world around them. In other words, there's a spiritual battle for the hearts and minds of God's people. The rest of the first chapter gives us more insights into Daniel himself. He would become the key character in the rest of the book. We see that he has the courage of his convictions. In this case, he refused to eat the meat that had been offered to the false, fake gods of the Babylonians - that was what was an integral part of the king’s food. Daniel was clear about his principles, though, but he also understood the situation of the officials tasked with implementing the King's commands. He is not confrontational; he is wise and shows understanding of the officials’ situation. Therefore, he comes up with a strategy that would be acceptable to them, given the constraints that he knew the officials faced. The other key feature is that by doing this, Daniel was showing faith: he was convinced that he was honouring God, and that God would honour him. The vegetarian diet was a risk in those days, but Daniel left it in God's hands, trusting in Him. Finally, we see how God is faithful to Daniel and his friends. We see that God causes the Babylonian officials to be positively disposed to Daniel and his friends. God gives them sharp and wise minds too. To Daniel, God gave understanding of dreams and visions, something that we saw before with Joseph: it's a rare blessing. God is just as trustworthy and faithful now as He was then. We need to ask ourselves: would we dare “to be a Daniel” in our lives, and stand up bravely for the things we believe in?