Easter 2 A Covid 2020 Evening Prayer 2nd Service
Sunday school – loved this story of Daniel and the lion’s den. It got my imagination going, putting myself into the story. Peering into the den in the morning to see whether or not Daniel had survived.
It’s an interesting story to have in our lectionary for Easter 2. But I think it’s been inserted because of the similarities with Jesus and the passion:
Daniel and Jesus were both plotted against because other powerful people were jealous of them.
The jealous men made use of reluctant secular rulers (King Darius and Pontius Pilate) to carry out their plans.
In both stories, the rock was sealed to make it secure.
King Darius and Mary Magdalene set out for the respective “tombs” at dawn.
Angels play a role in both stories.
So there are very interesting parallels. Thinking about the story of Daniel more broadly, we sometimes use it as a metaphor to describe difficult times we go through, or a difficult encounter with others.
Lions of course are large and wonderfully scary creatures. I think that’s partly what fired my imagination at Sunday school. They are animals that naturally provokes fear in us, both visibly and audible.
Today, we’re not battling with lions. The corona virus is quite different. It’s invisible to the naked eye, yet is proving to be for many people a deadly foe. And we understandably feel scared, and quite rightly take precautions.
In contrast to Daniel, we find ourselves locked away in a den, our homes, to avoid the lions, the virus, and the danger that threatens us.
There are similarities and dis-similarities with the story of Daniel, Easter and what we are experiencing today. I think what we might hold onto this week is firstly that whatever we are going through, the incarnation affirms that God is with us in all that we experience.
Yes, this Easter week affirms that we are a resurrection people, and yet we are still hurting. The world in which we live is still wounded. We are still concerned about a grief being on a scale most of us have never experienced before. This Easter, especially, Jesus’s scarred body speaks with great power, tenderness, mercy, and truth. Allow them to speak to us today. Jesus walk alongside us in all that we go through.
Second, from the danger and darkness of the den and tomb, new life erupts, new possibilities arise, and faith blossoms. In that we take confidence and hope. Nothing, not the lion’s den, nor the Eastern tomb, nor Covid-19, will have the final word. That is the hope and message of Easter.
What does this new life of Easter look like today? Here’s a story to inspire us.
Well known story in the Coptic churches of Egypt:
In the C10th the Caliph in Cairo issued a decree to close all churches of the Coptic Christian community in the land and to forbid the church bells to ring.
The churches were closed, the gates grew rusty and the pigeons took residence in the sanctuaries. Some of the faithful Copts travelled across the desert seeking monasteries in the wilderness so that they could meet for prayer and worship.
However, the majority of the Copts could not afford the time or money to travel on foot across the desert, so they were forced to stay in their homes on Sundays.
After nine years, the Caliph decided to see for himself how the Coptic Christians were faring.
In disguise, he set out on a Sunday and walked in the streets of their quarters in Old Cairo. As he walked in the narrow streets, he heard the sound of their prayers, Bible readings and worship from every house that he passed.
His reaction was another decree: "Open their churches and let them pray as they please. I thought I had closed the church in every street, only to find out that I opened a church in every house."
What if that happened again?