Walk Through the Bible: Daniel
Text for Sermon: Daniel 1:1-, 6-7; 1:19-21; 2:20-21, 34-35; 3:17-18
Introduction.
Change. I know a thing or two about change. Allow me to do a few moments of autobiography.
1018 Front Street is the 32nd address I have lived at. That becomes even more impressive when you consider I had 29 addresses in my first 36 years, and only three in my last 33 years. I attended 10 different schools in my 13 years of kindergarten through High School. I spent most of my education being the new kid.
I think it would take an expert psychologist to unpack how all of that has impacted and influenced me and still affects me.
One of the particularly interesting challenging set of changes occurred during seminary while I was an Assistant to the Pastor at the First Parish Congregational Church in Wakefield, MA. It was a historic congregation. Six years ago they celebrated their 375th.
I served there for three years under three different senior pastors. The pastor of 17 years retired near the end of my first year. The interim pastor served during my second year. The newly called senior pastor served during my third year. Three years, three very different senior pastors.
The Greek philosopher Heraclitus is attributed with saying, “The only constant in life is change.”
Change can be hard, big changes even harder. Changing homes or jobs, moving to a different state. Changing countries and cultures and languages is even harder, as some of you have done. The death of a child or a spouse or a divorce are considered the most devastating changes we experience in life.
The changes in our world in the past 100, even the past 50 years are huge. Even just this millennia. And no doubt in the next decade we will see staggering changes. No one really knows how AI is going to change our world. It is a new world and getting newer all the time.
Change is hard. We have limited capacity for change, and we are easily overwhelmed. How do we survive?
God anticipated our need for help and one of His tools to help us is the book of Daniel. It is a survival manual for navigating massive changes that life throws at us.