(Singing): “Sitting by the window praying, waiting for the break of day; sitting by the window praying, waiting to hear what the Lord might say.” (Repeat)
The way to live large is not only to step out in faith, as Abraham did, leaving his comfort zone; and not only to get past old defeats, even when they were self-inflicted, as Joseph did. The way to live large and to make a difference is also to know one’s self, as Moses came to do, recognizing that when you listen honestly to the depths of your own soul you are listening to very God Himself; and then, like Joshua, to evaluate your failures and discover that you are not going to fail if you have followed God’s plan and depended on God’s strength. Living large, as all these Old Testament men came to do, depended on their being very human, not extraordinary at all, but human, and even, like King David, thrashing around, just trying to make something happen, but finding themselves sifted and refined into instruments useful for God’s purposes. Living large, how to make a difference. I hope we have learned much about that.
But what if you do everything right, you learn your lessons, you apply them all, but the world in which you are living spins out of control? What if the times become so terrible, the world so chaotic, that you are swept away? How do you learn to manage terrible times and still live large and make a difference? The last of our Old Testament characters will teach us; and what Daniel will teach us is that the final key to living large is prayer. When life goes well, pray; but when all things crash down, pray. For more things are wrought by prayer than this world dreams of – or than this world wants. Daniel – what did he do?
(Singing): “Sitting by the window praying, waiting for the break of day; sitting by the window praying, waiting to hear what the Lord might say.” (Repeat)
Of all the images that linger, nearly six years later, of the attacks of September 11, none is more haunting than the picture of people flying out of the windows of the World Trade Center. Do you remember that as those buildings burned with hellish intensity, bodies came out of the windows and fell to certain death on the pavements below? Were these victims blown out of the windows by the force of the explosions? Or did people break open the windows intentionally, and throw themselves out, preferring death by concussion to death by burning? I don’t suppose we will ever know. There is no way to know whether the windows were blown out by accident or were opened on purpose. Either way, however, men and women of all walks of life, rich and poor, young and old, had no choice but to throw themselves on the mercy of God. A terrible time.
But the truth is that in all terrible times, when you are undergoing great stress, there is never any choice other than to throw yourself on the mercy of God. Whether the windows through which you see this world are blown out by the terrible times in which we live, or whether you have yourself opened those windows for fresh winds to blow through, the mercy of God is available. Receiving God’s mercy depends on sitting by the windows to see this world.
I have used the phrase, “terrible times.” Those are heavy-duty words. But there are plenty of signs that ours are terrible times. They are terrible for the residents of Baghdad, who do not know whether they will be incinerated by a car bomb. These days are terrible for the people of a half dozen African nations, living under oppressive dictators whose soldiers use machetes to maim those deemed rebellious. These are terrible times for the residents of certain neighborhoods not very far from here, where gunshots ring out regularly and it is not the law that is in control, but gangs like MS-13. Terrible. Stressful.
And if you say, thank God none of that applies to me, I am so glad I don’t live in a place like that, think again. Think about how the accumulated stress of merely knowing that these things happen, plus being aware that they impact all of us, add the knowledge that we are aging and that some of the things we hoped we would do we will never do – think about all of that together and you will discover that indeed we live in stressful times, terrible times, times that try men’s souls.
This little difficulty I have had with shingles – and I do not dwell on it, because compared with what others go through, it is what the Bible would call a “slight momentary affliction” – but this little bout I have had with a lingering illness has taught me a lesson about stress. You see, the virus I have, which lay dormant in my body for some sixty-four years, may have been triggered by stress. So the physicians say, so say others who have had it, and so says my wife, whose word I dispute at home but to whom I admit in public sermons that she may be right! Stress. Frankly, I do not know what I have to be stressed about. I am retired from the pastorate and do not have to attend deacons’ meetings any more! My mortgage is paid and I do not have to pinch pennies any longer. My children are grown and married and settled, so that no longer do I have to get up in the middle of the night to deal with, “Dad, my car has broken down.” I have two or three little jobs, all of which I love, so what is the stressor on me?
The times in which we live! The knowledge that, as the poet put it, life is “nasty, brutish, and short”. A general awareness that our times are far from pleasant, far from what our God wants them to be. I cannot identify a personal stress, exactly, but I have to wonder if it is just the accumulation of a whole host of things that may be a silent killer. Who knows but what some of us are so stressed that our very lives are being shortened?
So I invite you to consider this: when your life is undergoing stress, the mercy of God is there for you, whether the windows through which you see the world have been blown out by the circumstances of the times or whether these windows have been opened intentionally. When your life is undergoing stress, the mercy of God is there for you.
Daniel’s days were stressful. His very life was in peril. The things in which Daniel believed were being challenged. His culture, his faith, his commitments – all of them under duress. How did Daniel respond? How did he manage his terrible times? By sitting in the window praying. Whether the window through which you see your life is blown out by terrible times, or whether you have thrown it open yourself to fresh winds, the result is the same: the mercy of God is available to those who will sit by the window praying. Now what did Daniel do?
(Singing): “Sitting by the window praying, waiting for the break of day; sitting by the window praying, waiting to hear what the Lord might say.” (Repeat)
Consider Daniel and also consider who came to his window during those terrible times.
I
First, conspirators came to Daniel’s window. Evil men with malice on their minds watched Daniel day by day and conceived a plan to harm him. Conspirators came to Daniel’s window:
“[They] ... tried to find grounds for complaint against Daniel ... but they could find no grounds for complaint ... [They] said, ‘We shall not find any ground for complaint against this Daniel unless we find it in connection with the law of his God.’”
The conspirators devised a plot against Daniel. They persuaded King Darius to enact a law that no one should pray to any god other than the king himself. These men were jealous of Daniel; he threatened them with his integrity. They set him up. They thought that Daniel would self-destruct. Little did they understand that the mercies of God come to us when we are sitting by the window praying. Little did the conspirators know that when they tried to interfere with Daniel at prayer, they were engaging a power for whom they were no match.
There is little doubt that we in Christian culture have been the targets of conspiracy. The terrorists have thought that if they could topple our buildings or blow up an airport, they could bring our civilization to its knees and damage us beyond repair. We have learned of a vast global conspiracy; we have read about Osama bin Laden, the Taliban, Al Qaeda. We have had to accept deaths and costs, inconveniences and difficulties of all sorts. There is a vast hatred of all things American, all things Christian, in much of the world. Fed by a militant form of religion, nourished by a theology that sees us as idolaters, there is an ideology that wants to destroy us, a conspiracy that wants to see us down. I am not speaking entirely about Islam itself. I am thinking about a whole conspiracy of anger, a gathering of hatreds, a culture of hostility.
But, brothers and sisters, the sad thing is that we have allowed this conspiracy to grow. We have given it a measure of credibility because we Christians have not been loving, we have not been Christlike. We have not been on our knees, where we could have learned what it is to be authentically missionary and vibrantly evangelical. We are the victims of a conspiracy we allowed to happen by our own carelessness. No wonder we feel some stress!
Managing terrible times – a time when so much in the world seems to conspire against us – Daniel would call us to prayer. For over the centuries those who have prayed have found not just comfort, nor vague promises, nor nebulous hopes – but Christian people have found courage and power through prayer. The saints of the ages have prayed and then found reason to live large, to do something to counter the forces of evil. Prayer is not doing nothing; prayer is a weapon of great power, one which we have scarcely begun to use.
The conspirators came to the window. Evil men with malice on their minds planned harm for Daniel. But they did not know what they were up against when they took on a praying man. What did Daniel do?
(Singing): “Sitting by the window praying, waiting for the break of day; sitting by the window praying, listening to hear what God might say.” (Repeat).
II
The conspirators came to the window, but the second to come was Darius the King. Darius came to the window, but there the king saw nothing and heard nothing, because this king was the victim of bad religion. He was the victim of faulty theology; and so Darius clamped shut the window. Darius got trapped in rigid, legalistic ideology, masking as faith. Listen to this rich text:
“[They] came to the king and said to him, “O King Darius, live forever! All ... are agreed that the king should establish an ordinance ... that whoever prays to anyone ..., except to you, O king, shall be thrown into a den of lions. Now, O king, ... sign the document, so that it cannot be changed, according to the law of the Medes and the Persians, which cannot be revoked.”
King Darius came to the window, and all Darius saw was himself. They said, “O King, live forever.” Guess what? That’s not going to happen! But they suckered the king into bad religion because they knew that he, like all of us, lived his life in a self-centered way. The center of Darius’s universe was Darius. They hooked him on that. “O King, live forever”. They flattered him into self-centered religion. They tempted him with faulty theology, rigid and legalistic.
Make a law, Darius, that anyone who prays except to you will be thrown away. And make it so that the law cannot be changed even if your heart would like to change it. That is rigidity to the nth degree. Darius came to the window and clamped it shut, set it up so that no new thought would ever cross his mind, no human need would ever penetrate his heart.
You see, some of us respond to stress by becoming very strict. We decide that the rules are the rules, and that’s that. Most parents have done this. Those kids pluck our last string, and we say, “All right, you. Go sit down and do not move until I say move.” We respond to stress with rigid demands. But be careful. When we are under stress, we get hooked into protecting our positions, our privileges. My way or the highway. That’s not about truth. That’s about saving our egos.
Will it shock you to hear the preacher this morning say that religion is often the enemy of living large? Religion is sometimes the way we clamp down and keep ourselves from being all that we could be. If we are living in terrible times, that is in some measure because we are the victims of bad religion. The greatest enemy of genuine faith is an unbending approach, where we put ourselves at the center of our own wants and wishes. But that’s not genuine faith. That’s bad religion.
Again I am not speaking of Islam alone, although it has more than its share to be blamed for. I am speaking of sick imitations of Christianity. Brutal and destructive patterns that bear the name of Christ but none of His spirit. It was bad religion that sent missionary priests along with the conquistadors to press into baptism native Americans and plunder their lands. It was bad religion that read into the Bible the idea that Africans were ordained of God for slavery. It was bad religion that declared the doctrine of “manifest destiny” and justified the American takeover of other nations. It was bad religion that formed a German Church to cooperate with the Third Reich in the destruction of six million Jews. It was bad religion, rigid and self-centered, that drew Jim Jones to lure his followers into self-destruction. And, brothers and sisters, it is bad religion that even today dismisses leaders who will not subscribe to a rigid view of the Bible, bad religion that pulls out of joint ventures with other believers because the others are perceived to be “liberal”. Lest there be any doubt, I am speaking about some of the things that have happened in Baptist life, where it is very possible to be stuck in faulty religion and mindless fervor.
King Darius is alive and well, sitting at the clamped-down window, hearing nothing, seeing nothing, mired in bad theology, captured in rigid thinking, protecting himself against anybody who is different.
But there was Daniel, who came to the window, praying, knowing that the heart that communes with God will always become a compassionate heart. Daniel came to the window, praying, knowing that the mind that communes with the Creator will grow larger than simple ideas and strict doctrines. Daniel came to the window, praying, for when you are in fellowship with God you cannot avoid being in fellowship with your brothers and sisters. You appreciate their differences and you understand their needs.
There is a strength in this Daniel. Daniel lives large, for Daniel knows that the mercy of God is available at all times. Daniel was …
(Singing): “Sitting by the window praying, waiting for the break of day; sitting by the window praying, waiting to hear what the Lord might say.” (Repeat)
III
So here is the witness of Daniel on living large. In stressful times, under the attack of conspirators, oppressed by bad religion, pray on, listening to hear what God might say.
Although Daniel knew that the document had been signed, he continued to go to his house, which had windows in its upper room open toward Jerusalem, and to get down on his knees three times a day to pray to his God and praise him, just as he had done previously.
Just as he had done previously .. do you hear that? Prayer was not an emergency flare, sent up by a distraught Daniel when the windows blew out. Prayer was Daniel’s life and breath. Prayer was his habit. Prayer was his way of being. For Daniel, prayer was like breathing. He just did it, instinctively, constantly. For Daniel, prayer was like eating; sooner miss one of his three square meals than to miss being on his knees thrice daily. For Daniel, prayer was an open window, letting in light and refreshment. Daniel had opened that window. It was not blown out. He opened it, on purpose, regularly, gladly. The way Daniel saw life was through the window of God’s everlasting mercy.
Did you hear it? Daniel’s prayer was the prayer of constancy. He knew how to respond to attacks because he knew well who his defender would be.
Did you notice it? Daniel’s prayer was the prayer of intimacy. He did not fear the mouths of hungry lions, for he knew that his God was a God of compassion.
Do you see it? Daniel feared not even the loss of his life, for Daniel knew that He who has begun a good work in you will be able to keep you from falling.
And so, brothers and sisters, as you must manage these terrible times, be Daniel. Pray. Pray now that you may be ready for times of trial. Pray today when it is easy so that you may pray tomorrow when it is difficult. Pray regularly while you have the time so that you may pray instantly when you do not have the time.
In good times and in bad, in season and out of season, pray. When you have everything to be grateful for, pray. When all you possess comes crashing down, then you will be ready.
When all speak well of you, pray. When all conspire against you, you will be ready to pray for your enemies and those who despitefully use you.
When you feel generous toward others, pray. When you feel as though you just want to pull out the rule book and clamp down on them, you will be ready with a wounded heart to see their need.
Pray, like Daniel, at the break of day, for night comes too, when the powers of evil are afoot. But you will be ready.
Pray, like Daniel, at the break of day, for you will grow weary and the burning of the noontide heat will sap your strength.
Pray, like Daniel, at the break of day, lest the day break you.
Pray, like Daniel, at the break of day, at morning, at noonday, and at evening. Pray when it is convenient and when it is not convenient. Pray when it is popular and when it is not politically correct. Pray when you feel inspired and pray when your tongue is tied. But pray. Open the windows.
For when the windows are blown out, and the times are terrible, you will need to pray. God’s mercies will be available. But far better if we open the windows on purpose, and let in the sunshine of His truth and the refreshing winds of His presence. Daniel’s testimony is:
My God sent his angel and shut the lions’ mouths so that they would not hurt me
So Daniel was taken up out of the den, and no kind of harm was found on him, because he had trusted in his God.
(Singing): “Sitting by the window praying, waiting for the break of day; sitting by the window praying, waiting to hear what the Lord might say.” (Repeat)
