page 1 Prayer of Confession on Behalf of a Nation Date: July 5, 2009 Text: Daniel 9:3-19 Location: College Community Church Mennonite Brethren by Mary Anne Isaak We all live our lives by a script a set of truths that organizes our world and our decisions, - a belief that gives us a purpose for living. The script we live by supplies us with words and actions even when we aren t thinking too carefully, Some of the lines in our script are explicit, If we take care of the planet today, our children will have a viable future tomorrow. So we recycle, eat organic vegetables and drive more fuel-efficient cars. Some of the lines in our script are unrecognized and the truths we live by slip out of our mouths in phrases like, As my Mom always says,... The scripts we as individuals live by are shaped by the contexts of our family upbringing, the expectations of our peers and our work place, the convictions of our faith, and the national story of the country we live in. Nations also live by scripts. In October of 2007, the Canadian Board of Faith and Life hosted a theological consultation on gospel, culture and church. Valerie Rempel and I were asked to present a workshop answering these organizing questions: How does being Canadian or American affect
how we understand culture, gospel and our view and practice of church? Are Christians on either side of the border comparatively different in type or merely degree? What, if any, are the advantages or disadvantages of being a Christian and a member of a national community? We began by comparing the nations of United States and Canada to a family. If Britain and France were the parents, and the early colonists were siblings, then the countries of the United States and Canada could be called cousins whose family stories now operate by different scripts. Families that are related share common features but, given experience, marriage, education, and other dynamics, we grow in different directions. And then Valerie and I conducted an experiment. We pasted numbers 1 to 10 across the wall of the room and asked the workshop participants to physically move to the number that best represented their answer to a question. Number 1 represented the answer definitely the same; Number 10 represented the answer definitely different and numbers 2-9 were the spectrum in the middle. page 2 Here s the question that continues the family metaphor: If we were to assign a gender to the United States and Canada, would they be the same or different. And what gender would each country be? Answer the question for yourself. What number would you choose? If you would clearly assign United States and Canada the same gender, either both male or both female, you choose number 1. If you would clearly assign the United States and Canada different genders then you choose number 10. There isn t, of course, a right or correct, answer. But it was interesting to witness how the group coalesced toward one end of the spectrum.
page 3 The point of the exercise was to begin a conversation about the scripts by which our nations live. The United States lives by a script and a calling for life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness for ALL with assertive efforts to secure these rights.. This is encoded into the constitution and fiercely guarded by a process that gives strength to our nation. Even this past week, watching the news, looking at the dynamics of other nations around the world, we in America have much for which to be profoundly grateful. Daniel and his friends lived by a national script so strong that it gave them as individuals courage to stand firm against kings of other nations, against regulations and against threats of death. The national script of the people of God went something like this: The God of Israel is the one true God who is in control of all that happens. Our people, as the people of the covenant have a special place as beloved in this world. Our people have a special calling to be light to the all nations of the world. The result is that individuals within this nation can be radically faithful to God even in the riskiest situations because God is always faithful to his promises and his people. Living out of this script of a God faithful to his covenant people, Daniel and his friends resolved not to defile themselves with the diet prescribed by Nebuchadnezzar s court. Living out of this script, Daniel had the audacity to ask his friends to seek mercy from the God of heaven concerning the mystery of the king s dream and its interpretation, on several occasions. (2:18). Living out of this script Daniel s friend refused to bow down to the golden statue of Nebachadnezzar and give complete allegiance to the state, even when the penalty was the fiery furnace. Living out of this script, Daniel continued to pray publically to his God three times a day even when the law then condemned him to the lions den.
page 4 The script was working. The people were faithful to God. God was faithful to his covenant people. But, in hard times, scripts tend to break down. Even scripts about our faith. Maybe especially scripts about faith and God. In Daniel chapter 9, Daniel was troubled by his script. In fact it didn t seem to be working. The people of God, which he and his friends represented, were faithful to God s covenant. And yet they remained in captivity. Exiled from their home. Exile meant they were aliens in a foreign land, without a sense of control over their destiny without a sense of belonging to mark their lives. Like their ancestors before them who were slaves in Egypt, the people were resigned to the status assigned them not by God but by a succession of tyrants. For the exiles, the prior vision of life in God and one another, of an honorable covenant was being radically altered. Daniel: Under the Siege of the Divine: Daniel Berrigan Exile has a way of eroding our souls! For Daniel, exile was experienced by the people of Judah deported to Babylon. For us today, exile is experienced where the structures that have provided reliable frameworks for our lives in the past now seem to be crumbling. - these can be structures representing our family, or the church and denomination or the structures of the state involving economy, security and the future. When our traditional sense of belonging and control is threatened, we, like Daniel and his people, are in exile. When the nation s script was challenged, Daniel turned to the scriptures. Daniel 9:2 says that he studied the word of the Lord to the prophet Jeremiah,
page 5 and discovered that there would be 70 years after the devastation of Jerusalem. It was a hopeful message. The Scripture said that after seventy years of exile, God would return them to their homeland. God was walking with them through this difficult time and would restore their fortunes. But there was still a problem, and here is Daniel s crisis. According to the time frame accepted by most commentaries I ve read, when Daniel prayed this prayer the 70 years prophesied by Jeremiah had long since passed without the realization of relief that Jeremiah had predicted. Berrigan, Anderson, Longman, Ballantyne Daniel, in the tradition of the Deuteronomist writer of the Old Testament could see only two options. Either God was not acting according to the script, or the people were not acting according to their script. And so Daniel, the completely faithful follower of God, prays a prayer of penitence. Daniel, the representative of God s people, prays a prayer of confession on behalf of the nation. His tone is not calm, measured speech with which he speaks throughout all the crises of the first half of the book of Daniel. This is an outcry. His prayer is effortful and wrenching. He struggles with the Holy One. He fasts; he mourns and he confesses. Even though his people have been the victims of oppression, in his prayer, Daniel has no petition for divine vengeance. Even though his people have been exploited by at least one of the cruelest tyrants in history, in his prayer, Daniel does not ask retribution, or denounce the sins of the oppressing nations. Berrigan Daniel addresses the God he knows through scripture, tradition and experience. Daniel addresses the God who listens.
page 6 Ah Lord, great and awesome, keeping covenant and steadfast love. he says. Righteousness is on your side, O Lord, but open shame falls on us. And Daniel asks for forgiveness for the ways the nation has not lived up to their God-given place in history. Daniel asks for forgiveness for where the nation has not lived up to the script they claim for themselves. th This weekend is the 4 of July. Independence Day. It is a weekend of celebrating the greatness of our nation. And we do live in a great nation. God has blesses the United States of America with a script to be a light to the nations, a hope for the down-trodden. And yet, we have not always lived up to our calling. Today s scripture calls us to stand with Daniel. We are challenged to continue trusting the righteous God who has called us individually and as a nation. Today we are invited to make confession, on behalf of our nation. Later in the pastoral prayer, I will leave space for you to pray silent prayers of confession on behalf of our country. There will be space to confess silently and with gratefulness where you have seen the United States living up to the calling of God that comes with power. There will be space to confess silently where you have seen our nation falling short of our calling. This confession we offer, saying together with Daniel, O Lord, hear; O Lord forgive: O Lord listen and act and do not delay! For your own sake, O my God, because your city and your people bear your name.