Walking through Fire - Sermon for the Twelfth Sunday after Pentecost - Summer Series on Daniel

Walking through Fire

Pentecost 12 – Summer Series on Daniel

August 11, 2024

Our Savior’s, Faribault, MN

Daniel 3.1-30

During my final year of seminary, it became clear that one of my classmates had been unfairly targeted by one of the professors.  Cindy and I had grown close to Matt and his wife, who we had invited to share Thanksgiving with us. So this felt personal. The administration held a meeting that I attended where we aired our concerns, but it was clear nothing would change. My angst at the situation was compounded by Matt’s leaving the seminary and finishing elsewhere. He became a pastor in another denomination and the ELCA lost a fine candidate, not to mention the respect that suffered because of this. Even more so, I came away feeling like I didn’t stand up against the injustice enough because I was afraid. Afraid of suffering the same fate after already giving up so much to go to seminary in the first place.

Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego faced a difficult decision in today’s reading. This is the second in our five-week sermon series on Daniel. As we mentioned last week, the central question in Daniel is, “Where is God?” Perhaps an ancillary question is also, “Who is God?” Daniel was written to encourage a Jewish people who were going through a difficult time of oppression. The Assyrian king Antioches IV Epiphane was desecrating the temple and making life a living hell for them Though Daniel was set about 400 years earlier during a similar situation, this time the Babylonian exile, it was a story for the ages. Daniel and his friends, who had been princes in Jerusalem, now serve in the court of the Babylonian king. Nebuchadnezzar as we discovered last week was an unreasonable, insecure, and fickle tyrant. Nothing’s changed.

This week Daniel is put on the back burner, so to speak, as his compatriots, Shadrach, Meshach, Abednego are literally on the hot seat. They are faced with an impossible choice: apostasy or death. Worship another set of gods or be thrown into the fiery furnace. The long list of officials and instruments highlights the absurdity of the king’s reign and his temper. As we know, it is the weird, crazy, and out of touch tyrants who are the most dangerous. But it’s important to know that this is the last in many ways their existence has been threatened. It began not only with their deportation from Jerusalem into Babylon, but then being stripped of their identities. Their name changes say it all, Daniel, Hannaniah, Mishael, and Azariah, names that describe their worship of and connection to YHWH now become Belteshazzar, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, name that connote worship of the Babylonian gods, Bel, Marduk, and Nabu. They have a new religion imposed upon them

As I watch the political scene these days, I’m concerned about candidates and elected leaders who demand absolute loyalty from their followers and practice retribution against those who question them. (An aside: I am neither a Democrat nor Republican.) (Another aside: if you are mad at me for what I’ve said, you are angry at the wrong person.) I also wonder about the ways we pressure immigrants to deny their heritage and cultural identity. How much do we try to strip people of their culture and force them into our conception of what it means to be an American? As the grandson and great-grandson of Swedish and Norwegian immigrants, I'm grateful for my cultural heritage that’s been preserved. (All seriousness aside, my forbearers could have left behind lutefisk.) The story of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego give those of us who find ourselves in difficult situations the courage to trust in God but not to presume upon God. And it reminds those of us in places of privilege to not abuse our position either.

Fast forward a few years past seminary and well into my first call. I’m at a pastor’s theological retreat and the bishop launches into a rant about something. This just didn’t feel right to me. At the end, this tirade roused the pastors to stand and applaud the bishop. That is, everybody but me. I stayed seated and didn’t cheer; somehow I knew I was being manipulated. Later, a few pastors said they wished they’d had my courage, realizing they’d been manipulated. (One more aside: not this synod or bishop.) But I’m not the hero, for I thank God for the ability to see what was happening and to act on my convictions, though it cost me professionally. When it came time to seek another call, the bishop agreed to send letters to other synods but did not try to convince me to stay in the synod. I think it worked out okay. I believe that God was with me.

I think this is what it means to take up the cross and follow Jesus, trusting in his presence. We don’t know who the fourth man was in the fiery furnace with Shadrach, Meshac, and Abednego. Nebuccadnezzar believed it to be an angel. Some say it was Jesus himself. We don’t know, but we do know that God is with us through times of trial. May you know God’s presence and be strengthened by it. Amen

My sermons don't always preach as they are written. For video of the sermon with the entire service, click here.