Word to the Wise
Wednesday, November 23, 2011 - Wednesday in the 34th Week in Ordinary Time
[Dan 5:1-6, 13-14, 16-17, 23-28 and Luke 21:12-19]Suddenly, opposite the lampstand, the fingers of a human hand appeared, writing on the plaster of the wall in the king's palace. When the king saw the wrist and hand that wrote, his face blanched; his thoughts terrified him, his hip joints shook, and his knees knocked...... "But the God in whose hand is your life breath and the whole course of our life, you did not glorify. By him were the wrist and hand sent, and the writing set down.
From this famous scene in the Book of Daniel comes our expression: "the handwriting on the wall" which means a warning that is clear but is often ignored. In this case, the King is terrified, but it was too late. In our own culture, I'm beginning to wonder if God is suffering from "writer's cramp" because so many messages have come to our wall and we are so polarized in our culture that we cannot stop fighting long enough to read the messages. The political debacles in Washington, DC, the "Occupy Wall Street" movement, the violence and unrest in the Middle East, the monetary crisis in Europe - all of this is a mess of human making that arises from human ambitions and appetites. So many people are pointing the finger at each other that the finger writing on the wall seems like just another finger!
The message on the wall for us was preached and then written down after the violent death of the preacher two millenia ago: "As often as you did this for the least of my brethren, you did it for me." The reaction of those in leadership resembles that of the King in today's first scripture! However, it is more a reaction to not being re-elected and joining the vast numbers of unemployed, for whom they are doing little if anything to help. We should pay close attention to that ancient message about our days being numbered, our leadership found wanting and our kingdom to be divided. Where are the "Daniels" who can get the message on the wall to our attention? AMEN