Sunday, November 8, 2026 • Preached by David Morreale
Summary: Daniel 1 opens with a young man carried to the capital of the empire that destroyed his home, where Babylon sets out to make him forget who he is. It relocates, reeducates, renames, and refeeds him and his three friends. Daniel doesn’t refuse everything. He takes the education and the job, and he draws a line where allegiance is at stake, with his friends, without demonizing anyone. That raises the question of how we live in Babylon without letting Babylon have us. We often frame faith and culture as a war and end up making demons of the people across the aisle. Jesus offers a different picture, a field where good and evil grow together, so the question becomes “What are we growing?” Faithfulness in Babylon isn’t a battle line but the posture of a gardener, rooted and tending together. Daniel outlasts the empire but never goes home, so we come to a table set in the middle of Babylon, where we are called by name.
Babylon forms identity through relocation, reeducation, renaming, and refeeding. Daniel accepts much of it and draws his line where allegiance is at stake, in a way that is bounded, discerning, and together. Reflection: Where would your line of allegiance fall?
Faith and culture aren’t a war, but a garden. When we frame them as a war, we make demons of the people on the other side. Jesus points us to a field and to fruit, so the question is “What are we growing?” Voting is one tool, and the other 364 days are for loving the people who voted differently. Reflection: Who have you been tempted to see as an enemy? What would the world see if it looked at our fields?
We are formed by what we repeat, and faithfulness is the posture of a gardener. Work, screens, school, and the news train us in names we never chose, like productive, successful, informed, and one of us. Daniel’s faithfulness made life in Babylon possible without making it home, and at Christ’s table we are called by name instead. Reflection: What names have you been answering to? What are you repeating week after week?
Passage for Reflection: Daniel 1:8-17
⁸ But Daniel resolved that he would not defile himself with the royal rations of food and wine, so he asked the palace master to allow him not to defile himself. ⁹ Now God granted Daniel favor and compassion from the palace master. ¹⁰ The palace master said to Daniel, “I am afraid of my lord the king; he has appointed your food and your drink. If he should see you in poorer condition than the other young men of your age, you would endanger my head with the king.” ¹¹ Then Daniel asked the guard whom the palace master had appointed over Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah: ¹² “Please test your servants for ten days. Let us be given vegetables to eat and water to drink. ¹³ You can then compare our appearance with the appearance of the young men who eat the royal rations and deal with your servants according to what you observe.” ¹⁴ So he agreed to this proposal and tested them for ten days. ¹⁵ At the end of ten days it was observed that they appeared better and fatter than all the young men who had been eating the royal rations. ¹⁶ So the guard continued to withdraw their royal rations and the wine they were to drink and gave them vegetables. ¹⁷ To these four young men God gave knowledge and skill in every aspect of literature and wisdom; Daniel also had insight into all visions and dreams.
Formation Practice:
Choose someone this week and tell them something true about who they are, starting with “The way I see you is...”
Keep it about character, not what they produce. For example, someone who makes everyone in the room feel safe, or who puts themselves last so others have enough.
Bonus: choose someone who votes differently than you.
Say it and let it land. If they say something back, receive it.
Alternative: Fast from streaming, social media, or the news for a set time, and replace it with a human connection. Grow something in its place.
