Poems, Sermons and Writings

“Those who fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat it.” So said Winston Churchill in 1948. But sometime it feels like we are doomed to repeat it anyway or at least that is what I found myself thinking as I looked at the book of Daniel. I wonder how familiar you are with the book of Daniel? We don’t get much of it in our Sunday lectionary readings. Perhaps you might remember back to Sunday school days  and the stories of Daniel in the lions’ den or Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego and their stint in the furnace. Heroes for their faith while in exile in Babylon and miraculously rescued. But Daniel is a book in 2 halves - the first half is those stories we remember set in the royal court in exile. The second half of the book is quite different, it is what we call apocalyptic literature.  It is full of dreams and visions, terrifying monsters and angels. Today’s reading comes from the end of that apocalyptic part of Daniel. The weird bit. Perhaps that is why we shy away from Daniel -

When my sister messages that she’s on her way to our home, I’ll likely respond with something about putting the jug on to boil.   These days in our society perhaps the most common act of hospitality is offering one’s visitor a hot drink. Back in 1st century Palestine it would be “come in, come in - let me get you some water for those feet”. Most commonly the water would be for the visitors to wash their own feet, occasionally perhaps a slave might do it. But not the host, never the host. This action of Jesus is an act of hospitality - but not just any kind of hospitality it is an act of radical hospitality - going far above and beyond.   An act whereby His disciples are welcomed into His presence, into the home which Jesus shares with His Father. It was a place of love - this is made clear by that verse we didn’t read tonight which, in the King James, version speaks of the Beloved disciple “leaning on Jesus’ bosom” The Message version puts it like this “One of the disciples, the one Je