November 14, 2021 – Daniel 12:1-3
Daniel 12:1-3
In the Boat with Michael
Lectionary 33B – November 14, 2021
First Lutheran Church – Winnipeg, MB
When I was a kid, my Dad always sang to me, “Michael, Row the Boat Ashore.”
It seemed kind of corn.
I don’t really know why he always sang it to me – except that my name happens to be Michael.
And the fact that it was a big hit for the Highwaymen in the 60s, followed by others:
Pete Seeger, Peter, Paul, and Mary, and Harry Belafonte.
Another reason was maybe because the second verse is “Sister, help to trim the sails,”
and I happen to have five sisters.
Ultimately, it was probably simply because my Dad was nothing if not corny.
In the song, Michael refers to Michael the Archangel, who we meet in the reading from Daniel today.
There is nothing about Michael rowing in today’s reading.
Or anything about a boat, for that matter.
What we do get is this description of Michael: “the protector of your people.”
The protector of Daniel’s people, the people of Israel.
Michael the archangel is above all a protector.
The picture in the book of Daniel is this:
each nation has a “Prince” or a “guardian angel” looking after it.
Michael goes to battle on behalf of the people of Israel and protects them from other nations’ “princes.”
These semi-divine powers were very real to the people living a few hundred years before Jesus.
The Book of Daniel about 160 years before Jesus was born.
It was a time of great uncertainty and suffering and anguish for the people of Israel,
a time of tremendous pain and confusion.
Under the Greek king Antiochus IV Epiphanes, the Jewish religion was outlawed,
the Temple in Jerusalem was desecrated, and the people were forced to worship a foreign god.
Daniel has just been told in a vision that this king will meet his end, “with no one to help him.”
It is just then that our reading today begins:
At that time, Michael, the great prince, the protector of your people, shall arise.
Antiochus IV Epiphanes will have no one to help him.
But the people will have Michael to help them.
I don’t always know what to make of the Bible’s talk of angels and archangels.
I tend to think of angels as divine messengers in human form – biblically that’s generally what they are.
So I tend to think we are often messengers of God sent to one another with messages of hope and
actions of encouragement and help:
we have the grace to be angels, sent by God to help one another.
But these semi-divine beings who, though unseen by us, struggle on our behalf –
as a modern person I don’t really know what to do with that.
However, sometimes hope in a Michael is all we have.
And that is wonderful good news.
Take, for instance, the song, “Michael, Row the Boat Ashore.”
It is, of course, an African-American Spiritual.
It was first sung by slaves in pre-civil war America who worked on island plantations off the coast of South Carolina.
They sang as they rowed their produce to the shore – it was a rowing song.
The lyrics, though, sing of hope and freedom and life in a new land as Michael – their protector –
guides them in their boat.
Michael, row the boat ashore, Hallelujah.
Michael, row the boat ashore, Hallelujah.
Sister, help to trim the sail, Hallelujah.
Sister, help to trim the sail, Hallelujah.
Jordan’s river is deep and wide, Hallelujah.
I’ve got a home on the other side, Hallelujah.
The slaves believed – beyond, maybe, our ability to believe –
that despite all evidence to the contrary,
some divine, unseen force was protecting them and would ultimately guide them
across the deep Jordan river, to a place where they could be free to live as God’s people.
The figure of Michael, the protector and guide and deliverer, focussed their hope in a God who was working,
despite all evidence to the contrary, to protect them and guide them into a world of justice.
Michael helped them endure.
Daniel likewise implies that, unbeknownst to the people of Israel,
Michael had been their protector from the beginning.
Michael struggled for them when they could not struggle themselves.
The situation they were in – like the situation of African slaves – seemed hopeless.
But what they could see and hear does not tell the whole story.
Behind the scenes, a force more powerful that those on earth shapes the destinies of people and nations.
In the midst of trials, God can seem very distant.
A figure like Michael provides the perspective that though we cannot see it,
God is in fact working in the midst of difficulty and confusion for our good.
We are being guided and we are being protected and like the people of Israel,
and like the African-Americans who were forced into slavery – we will be delivered.
Michael is in the boat with us. God is in the boat with us.
And as Christians, we trust that Jesus is in the boat with us.
Moreover, this knowledge should embolden us to be witnesses,
to follow the example of those whom Daniel mentions today, namely, “the wise.”
These are the ones who resisted the pressures of the empire and its ways.
These are the ones who remained faithful.
And the first part of the Book of Daniel is filled with stories of just such people.
Daniel in the lion’s den. Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednigo in the fiery furnace.
Protected and guided, we each have the ability to endure, to be faithful,
to shine like the brightness of the sky, and lead many to justice and peace.
Those we remember today on Remembrance Sunday lost their lives in a struggle for freedom against tyranny,
not unlike the struggle of the people of Israel against the Seleucid Empire of Antiochus IV Epiphanes.
And our remembrance of them is an act of hope.
Death seeks to erase – but remembrance keeps alive.
Daniel is assured that none of the faithful are lost to God – their names are written down forever.
Death sought to erase them, but their remembrance keeps their example alive to us.
Just so – it is so important on this day to remember those who gave their lives in the service of freedom,
justice, and peace.
Because it helps us to live lives dedicated to those same ideals.
At its best this remembrance should inspire us to live lives dedicated to peace and the protection of the vulnerable.
We may not be archangels, but surely we are God’s angels, God’s messengers:
messengers of peace and justice,
messengers of grace and good news,
messengers of healing and hope.
Be filled with hope by Daniel’s witness this day – and endure, for there is a deliverer working to deliver you.
Emboldened by this, be people of encouragement and help.
Do not lose faith – there is more going on than we can see and hear.
And it is not in vain. Amen
Pastor Michael Kurtz
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