Sermon for April 21st, 2013

Daniel 7:1-8

1In the first year of King Belshazzar of Babylon, Daniel had a dream and visions of his head as he lay in bed. Then he wrote down the dream: 2I, Daniel, saw in my vision by night the four winds of heaven stirring up the great sea, 3and four great beasts came up out of the sea, different from one another. 4The first was like a lion and had eagles’ wings. Then, as I watched, its wings were plucked off, and it was lifted up from the ground and made to stand on two feet like a human being; and a human mind was given to it. 5Another beast appeared, a second one, that looked like a bear. It was raised up on one side, had three tusks in its mouth among its teeth and was told, ‘Arise, devour many bodies!’ 6After this, as I watched, another appeared, like a leopard. The beast had four wings of a bird on its back and four heads; and dominion was given to it. 7After this I saw in the visions by night a fourth beast, terrifying and dreadful and exceedingly strong. It had great iron teeth and was devouring, breaking in pieces, and stamping what was left with its feet. It was different from all the beasts that preceded it, and it had ten horns. 8I was considering the horns, when another horn appeared, a little one coming up among them; to make room for it, three of the earlier horns were plucked up by the roots. There were eyes like human eyes in this horn, and a mouth speaking arrogantly.

Revelation 12:1-6; 13:1-4, 11-13,16-18

12:1A great portent appeared in heaven: a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars. 2She was pregnant and was crying out in birth pangs, in the agony of giving birth. 3Then another portent appeared in heaven: a great red dragon, with seven heads and ten horns, and seven diadems on his heads. 4His tail swept down a third of the stars of heaven and threw them to the earth. Then the dragon stood before the woman who was about to bear a child, so that he might devour her child as soon as it was born. 5And she gave birth to a son, a male child, who is to rule all the nations with a rod of iron. But her child was snatched away and taken to God and to his throne; 6and the woman fled into the wilderness, where she has a place prepared by God, so that there she can be nourished for one thousand two hundred and sixty days.

13:1And I saw a beast rising out of the sea, having ten horns and seven heads; and on its horns were ten diadems, and on its heads were blasphemous names. 2And the beast that I saw was like a leopard, its feet were like a bear’s, and its mouth was like a lion’s mouth. And the dragon gave it his power and his throne and great authority. 3One of its heads seemed to have received a death-blow, but its mortal wound had been healed. In amazement the whole earth followed the beast. 4They worshipped the dragon, for he had given his authority to the beast, and they worshipped the beast, saying, ‘Who is like the beast, and who can fight against it?’

11 Then I saw another beast that rose out of the earth; it had two horns like a lamb and it spoke like a dragon. 12It exercises all the authority of the first beast on its behalf, and it makes the earth and its inhabitants worship the first beast, whose mortal wound had been healed. 13It performs great signs, even making fire come down from heaven to earth in the sight of all; 16Also it causes all, both small and great, both rich and poor, both free and slave, to be marked on the right hand or the forehead, 17so that no one can buy or sell who does not have the mark, that is, the name of the beast or the number of its name. 18This calls for wisdom: let anyone with understanding calculate the number of the beast, for it is the number of a person. Its number is six hundred and sixty-six.

Of Dragons, Monsters and Emperors

When my oldest son Grady was just two years old, he would sometimes wake up too early and we'd bring him back to our room to sleep with us for awhile. Of course, he never once went back to sleep, so Amy and I would take turns reading books to him so while one of us read, at least the other could sleep. This would last for three or four books, at which point he would begin to squirm, wiggle, holler, and try to get down, so he could go play (unsupervised) in the living room. Which was never a good idea.

One morning, when he began his escape attempts, his evil father came up with a plot to keep him in bed, and said to him, “You can get down from the bed, but watch out for the alligators on the floor–-they might eat your toes.” Amy gave me a dirty look, but it didn’t phase Grady for even a second: He instantly pointed, and said “look–-I see one, Daddy!” At which point his imagination began to fill in the gaps of my vague threat. He named the alligators: Nick, Nack, and Ruby became the three pink alligators who lived on our bedroom floor, although sometimes they liked to crawl on the ceiling. They did eat toes in a pinch, but what they really liked was macaroni and cheese. Nick was very preoccupied with his personal hygiene, and consistently washed his claws in the bathroom before eating (especially dirty toes). Nack and Ruby, not so much.

At the end of the day my threat didn't really scare him that much. On the other hand, at least his creativity kept him in bed for another five minutes.

In both of today's scripture passages, we have some pretty scary monsters--lions and tigers and bears, oh my! Actually it's lions and leopards and bears...and dragons...and beasts with multiple horns. Through the centuries, these monsters from the Book of Daniel and the Book of Revelation have been the subject of many paintings and drawings, appearing in bizarre, grotesque, and disturbing ways. More recently, these monsters have appeared in Christian films, documentaries and depictions of the end times--not as dream-visions and symbols--but as literal, actual monsters projected into a nightmarish future that is just around the corner.

But, as I've said in previous sermons, scaring people into the Kingdom of God doesn't work so well. It's about as effective (and lasts about as long) as me threatening my two-year-old son with imaginary alligators. And it's probably not what the author of Revelation, John of Patmos, had in mind in the first place.