Sermon: "I Don't Know", Daniel 12:5-13 (September 1, 2024)

Well, we’ve been working our way through the book of Daniel over the past month, and today we finally arrive at the last chapter. Since Deanna preached for me last week, I’ve actually had two weeks to sit with this passage, reflecting on everything else that’s come before it and how it all fits together. I’ve reread my sermons, listened to Deanna’s, and carefully studied the chapters that we skipped over. And now, thanks to all that, I can confidently tell you that I’ve got nothing.

I just don’t know.

Liturgy: 15th Sunday After Pentecost, Daniel 12 (September 1, 2024)

 *You are welcome to use or adapt any of my resources for free, but I ask that you provide proper citation AND comment on this post to let me know.*

Hymns

Hymn GTG #305, “Come Sing, O Church, in Joy!”
Hymn GTG #687, “Our God, Our Help in Ages Past”

Sermon: "My Hands Are Tied", Daniel 6 (August 18, 2024)

Most of us are young children when we first encounter Daniel’s twin stories of the Fiery Furnace and the Lion’s Den (because apparently, stories about capital punishment are foundational to every child’s theological education). And almost universally, we’re told that the moral of both stories is that if we trust in God, God will rescue us from danger. But of course, as most of us have figured out by now, that’s just objectively untrue. It’s probably past time for us to consider more nuanced interpretations of these ancient stories.

Liturgy: 13th Sunday After Pentecost, Daniel 6:1-27 (August 18, 2024)

 *You are welcome to use or adapt any of my resources for free, but I ask that you provide proper citation AND comment on this post to let me know.*

Hymns

Hymn GTG #307, “God of Grace and God of Glory”

Hymn GTG #468, "In My Life"
Hymn GTG #335, “The Foolish in Their Hearts Deny”
Hymn GTG #332, “The Right Hand of God”

Sermon: "A Window to the Future", Daniel 2:29-45 (August 4, 2024)

Over the next five weeks of worship, we’ll be doing a deep dive into the book of Daniel. Daniel is best known for the classic church school stories of the Fiery Furnace and the Lion’s den (and we’ll definitely get the chance to dig into those in the next month) but there’s a lot more to this book than we often realize. It’s made up of a collection of writings largely concerning Daniel, a young Israelite man brought to the Babylonian court to serve the king during the 6th century Jewish exile. As usual, context is really important: having been written 400 years after its setting, Daniel is very much about remaining faithful to God while living among non-Jews (a topic that was yet again relevant to the community by the 2nd century). Its first half is largely narrative (including those two stories I mentioned before) while the second half focuses more on apocalyptic writings (remember: apocalypse is Greek for “revelation” or “unveiling”; it’s not a synonym for “cataclysmic”).

Liturgy: 11th Sunday After Pentecost, Daniel 2:29-45 (August 4, 2024)

*You are welcome to use or adapt any of my resources for free, but I ask that you provide proper citation AND comment on this post to let me know.*

Hymns

Hymn GTG #30, “O God, in a Mysterious Way”
Hymn GTG #507, “Come to the Table of Grace”
Hymn GTG #376, “When All Is Ended”