YESTERDAY'S HANDWRITING, TODAY'S WALL

“YESTERDAY’S HANDWRITING, TODAY’S WALL”

DANIEL 5:1

5:1 King Belshazzar gave a great banquet for a thousand of his nobles and drank wine with them.

2 While Belshazzar was drinking his wine, he gave orders to bring in the gold and silver goblets that Nebuchadnezzar his father had taken from the temple in Jerusalem, so that the king and his nobles, his wives and his concubines might drink from them.

3 So they brought in the gold goblets that had been taken from the temple of God in Jerusalem, and the king and his nobles, his wives and his concubines drank from them.

4 As they drank the wine, they praised the gods of gold and silver, of bronze, iron, wood and stone.

5 Suddenly the fingers of a human hand appeared and wrote on the plaster of the wall, near the lampstand in the royal palace. The king watched the hand as it wrote.

6 His face turned pale and he was so frightened that his knees knocked together and his legs gave way.

8 Then all the king's wise men came in, but they could not read the writing or tell the king what it meant.

13 So Daniel was brought before the king, and the king said to him, "Are you Daniel, one of the exiles my father the king brought from Judah?

14 I have heard that the spirit of the gods is in you and that you have insight, intelligence and outstanding wisdom.

15 The wise men and enchanters were brought before me to read this writing and tell me what it means, but they could not explain it.

16 Now I have heard that you are able to give interpretations and to solve difficult problems. If you can read this writing and tell me what it means, you will be clothed in purple and have a gold chain placed around your neck, and you will be made the third highest ruler in the kingdom."

17 Then Daniel answered the king, "You may keep your gifts for yourself and give your rewards to someone else. Nevertheless, I will read the writing for the king and tell him what it means.

18 "O king, the Most High God gave your father Nebuchadnezzar sovereignty and greatness and glory and splendor.

22 "But you his son, O Belshazzar, have not humbled yourself, though you knew all this.

23 Instead, you have set yourself up against the Lord of heaven. You had the goblets from his temple brought to you, and you and your nobles, your wives and your concubines drank wine from them. You praised the gods of silver and gold, of bronze, iron, wood and stone, which cannot see or hear or understand. But you did not honor the God who holds in his hand your life and all your ways.

24 Therefore he sent the hand that wrote the inscription.

25 "This is the inscription that was written: MENE, MENE, TEKEL, PARSIN

26 "This is what these words mean: Mene : God has numbered the days of your reign and brought it to an end.

27 Tekel : You have been weighed on the scales and found wanting.

28 Peres : Your kingdom is divided and given to the Medes and Persians."

29 Then at Belshazzar's command, Daniel was clothed in purple, a gold chain was placed around his neck, and he was proclaimed the third highest ruler in the kingdom.

30 That very night Belshazzar, king of the Babylonians, was slain,

31 and Darius the Mede took over the kingdom, at the age of sixty-two.

This is probably another urban legend but it’s still a good story. It is said that many years ago one of our former presidents held a press conference at a time when the economy was on really shaky ground. With that in mind, the president began the press conference with an opening statement. He did his best to paint a rosy picture and assure everyone that things really weren’t that bad. He then ended by saying, “If I wasn’t the President of the United States I would invest heavily in the stock market.” Immediately a voice from the back of the room hollered, “So would I.”

I’m pretty sure that story is an urban legend. It’s a story though that does capture the anxiety that a lot of people are feeling these days. Let me ask you this. When you look at everything that’s going on in the world right now does it fill you with confidence or does it make you want to cringe? If you had to vote would you vote thumbs up or thumbs down?

Before you answer that question let’s do a quick reality check. Let’s see. More and more families are finding it harder to make ends meet. Millions of people are loosing their homes. The bombs are still going off in Iraq and Afghanistan. We have guns in our schools, drugs on the playground and contraceptives that are readily available in the nurse’s office.

This past week I also came across an ominous study that was done last year by the Energy Watch Group. Based upon that study I’ve got some good news for you and some bad news for you. The good news is that gasoline prices aren’t going to stay this high forever. The bad news is that 50 years from now there won’t be any gasoline at all. According to this study oil production reached its peak in 2006 and is now on the decline. At the current rate of production and consumption the earth’s oil reserves will only last for another 42 or so years. That means in the not too distant future there’s a good possibility of “widespread blackouts, the virtual collapse of transportation infrastructure in industrialized countries and a shortage of petroleum-based chemical fertilizers necessary to grow most of our food.” The article then pointed out the obvious. That means “war, famine, pestilence and hunger.”

Some would say that the hand writing is on the wall. Some would say that the situation isn’t all that different from what happened when King Balshazzar hosted that lavish banquet. By the way, this was one of my favorite Bible stories when I was growing up. I was fascinated by the image of that mysterious hand that suddenly appeared out of nowhere and wrote that cryptic message on the wall. Mene, mene, tekel parsin. Daniel translated that cryptic message for the king and it was a message that I’m sure the king didn’t want to hear. Mene, mene, tekel, parsin. “You have been weighed in the balance and found wanting.” God wasn’t happy with the king and let him know that his days were numbered. Why? Because this king was way too full of himself. This king was too high and haughty and that arrogant attitude made him do something that was really stupid. The king took the sacred vessels his father looted from God’s Temple in Jerusalem and used them for his drunken orgy. King Balshazzar was practically spitting in God’s face.

Mene, mene, tekel, parsin. I wonder what the handwriting on the wall today would say? I wonder if God has weighed us in the balance and found us wanting? Is God weeping because of the greed that has led to some who are incredibly wealthy and some who are incredibly poor? Is God weeping because of the arrogance that says it’s okay to clone human beings? Is God weeping because of the hatred that has led to so much terrorism and senseless violence? Is God weeping because of the stores that are open on Sunday morning and racy R-rated movies and video games where you get points for killing police officers and discrimination that still rears its ugly head every now and smoke stacks that belching more and more carbon dioxide into the atmosphere and slowly killing the beautiful earth that God gave us?

Mene, mene, tekel, parsin. The wall may be different but the handwriting is the same. Now it seems to me that when you’re faced with that kind of a message you can do one of three things. You can party. You can point. Or you can pray.

Those who chose to party have decided that they’re going to ignore the message. That’s what a husband decided to do, much to his wife’s dismay. It bothered her so much that she eventually went to see her minister. “Pastor,” she sobbed. “You’ve got to help me. It’s my husband. Every night he goes out drinking and carousing. Not only that but when the weekend rolls around he goes to Foxwoods to gamble and I think there’s some hanky panky stuff going on as well.” The minister gently put his hand on the woman’s shoulder and did his best to comfort her. “Sister,” he said. “I know it’s hard but you have to pray for your husband. He is, after all, a miserable sinner.” As soon as she heard those words the wife sat up straight in her chair, “Sinner yes” she exclaimed, “but miserable? No way! He’s having the time of his life.”

Mene, mene, tekel, parsin. One way to respond to the handwriting on the wall is to party on. Another way to respond to the handwriting on the wall is to point. You point the finger of blame. You see a lot of that these days. You see it in all of the criticism and the words of condemnation. That doesn’t do anyone any good though. It just leaves people feeling angry and defensive. You end up in the same boat that a grandmother and her grandson found themselves in one night. The grandson was visiting his grandmother who lived in California. Now the grandmother loved her grandson but the visit was still challenging for her. She was used to living a peaceful quiet life and her grandson was always on the go. He was always getting into mischief and turning the house upside down. One night while they were both sound asleep there was an earthquake. As soon as the house began to shake the grandmother woke up and instinctively hollered, “Billy! Billy!” Immediately Billy hollered back, “Honest grandma. I didn’t do it!”

Mene, mene, tekel parsin. If you take the handwriting on the wall seriously the party response isn’t the way to go. If you take the handwriting on the wall seriously the pointing response also isn’t the way to go. Prayer is the way to go. Living a life of faith is the way to go. Being humble and living your life as an example that others can follow is the way to go. That’s what Jesus meant when he said that you are “the salt of the earth” and “the light of the world.” That’s what it means to be an instrument of God’s grace and an ambassador of Christ’s love. You do what Daniel did. You live your life faithfully and you speak the truth in love.

That’s the only you’re going to survive in this world. That’s the only way things are going to get better. Christian author and motivational speaker Tony Campolo tells a story about a friend of his who had a PhD. and taught English literature. One day the friend suddenly quit his job and went to work as a mailman. Campolo tried to get him to change his mind, but his friend wouldn’t listen. His friend was convinced that this is what God wanted him to do. So, Campolo finally gave up and told him to be the best mailman he could possibly be. The friend looked at him with a smile and said, “I’m a lousy mailman.” When Campolo asked why his friend replied, “Everybody else gets the mail delivered by one o’clock. I never get back until about five thirty or six. “What takes you so long?” Campolo asked. Without any hesitation at all the friend replied, “I visit! That’s why it takes so long. You wouldn’t believe how many people on my route never got visited until I became the mailman.

Campolo then wrote these words: “I began to get the image of this mailman on the job. He was no ordinary mailman. I could picture him going from door to door and at each home
giving more than the mail. I could see him visiting solitary widows, counseling troubled teenagers, joking with lonely old men. I could see him delivering the mail in a way that was extra-ordinary for the people on his route. He's the only mailman I know that on his birthday the people on his route get together, hire out a gym, and throw a party for him. They love him because he's a mailman who expresses the love of Jesus everywhere he
goes. In his own subtle way, my friend Charles is changing his world, changing the lives of people, touching them where they are, making a difference in their lives. It may not sound like much, but that man who is delivering mail, like Jesus would deliver mail, is an agent of God who is changing the world.”

What a wonderful story! Campolo’s friend did confide in him though that answering God’s call to become a mailman had made life a little difficult for him. “I’ve got this problem,” he said, “I can’t sleep at night.” When Campolo asked him why his friend replied, “Who can sleep after drinking twenty cups of coffee?”

The handwriting is on the wall. What isn’t written on that wall is what you and I and we are going to do about it. Amen.

Rev. Dr. Richard A. Hughes

April 6, 2008