Reflections on "Stories of Faithfulness" Daniel 3 and Daniel 6

Two great stories. Go read them if you haven't already.  We read them in their entirety (liturgist Jim Riley did a great job reading Daniel 3) so that people could hear the whole story.  Actually, in-between services Jim and I decided to edit the story by taking out the repetitious parts (it probably would have saved 30-60 seconds), but then someone who had been to the Chapel service came in and noted how she really noticed the repetition and how she interpreted that as part of the reading.  We put the repetition back in the text!

For me, this was a powerful sermon.  I love these stories, and I love having heroes.  I also gave up my other concerns about the text and focused on their faithfulness.

Other ideas for how to have preached this sermon:

1. One day, I want to preach either of these stories and reflect on the innocent people who were killed -- i.e. the soldiers burned at the furnace as they were doing their job or the family members who ended up being fed to the lions who had done nothing but be related to the wrong people!  As I studied the text, I was reminded of this story from Mitch Albom about a 1974 sermon preached by Rabbi Albert Lewis:  Talmudic interpretation of the crossing of the Red Sea:  After seeing Pharaoh's soldiers drowned in the Red Sea, the angels in heaven wanted to celebrate the enemy's demise.  God grew angry with this and said, '"Those are my children too.'" Mitch Albom, Have a Little Faith:  a true story (76)  I continue to struggle with the violence of the OT, especially when it seems to be attributed to God.

2.  Mario Bolivar, who was a seminary intern with us at FPC, Troy, noted that the sermon made him wonder how often we are like King Nebuchadnezzar in that we expect everyone to worship like we do.  That reminded me of my suggestion that we ought to see ourselves as different people in the story and what it might be like to consider this story from the perspective of King Nebuchadnezzar or King Darius (I actually think that would be more interesting because he seems more conflicted). 

These OT stories are sending my creative juices into overdrive!

Conclusion was rather weak. Probably should have just stopped on the sentence before the conclusion.

Next week the youth will lead us in worship at both services.

“Stories of Faithfulness” February 23, 1014; Daniel 3 and Daniel 5; OT Stories series; FPC, Troy

Move 1:  Sometimes you need a hero.

a.      I grew up reading sports books. 

1.       Roughly Jr. High level. 

                        2.  Collect them.  Read one this week.  I’ve read them so often through the years that I can skim one in about the time I ride the exercise bike at night.

2.      the books I have are older ones and read like those from another generation.

3.       There are new authors out there now who write sports books.  I have read some of them.  But they are less comforting.  They are more complicated. Divorce, drugs, crime, all sorts of issues that add ambiguity to the story.  Probably more like real life. 

4.      So I read the older sports novels that are much simpler.  Every story has a hero.  The hero is clearly marked and has to overcome an obstacle or two, but in the end the hero comes out on top.  No ambiguity.  Very black and white. 

5.      There is comfort to be found in the story of those heroes.

b.     Consider the Israelites who are in exile.

1.      God’s people, who have been defeated, captured, moved to a new place.

2.   They have no inherent power.

3.   No easy opportunities to gain control in the world around them.

4.   They struggle to cling to their faith.

5.   They need a hero or two.

c. Heroes like Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego, or someone like Daniel.

     1.  These stories are so important to an exiled community because they tell people who stand up for their faith against all odds.

     2.  People who faced down the powers who ruled over them and survived unscathed.

     3.  Stories parents and grandparents could tell their children and grandchildren about people who kept the faith in the face of difficulties and even the threat of death.

     4.  For a community in exile, Shadrach, Meshach, Abednego, and Daniel were the heroes they needed.

Move 1:  Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego

            a.  King Nebuchadnezzar wants to be god.

                        1.  He builds this strangely shaped statue that looks like a golden pole.

2.      Everyone has to bow down to the pole.

3.  It would appear that the king wants to have the status of god in the eyes of the people.

            4. Vs. 15 gets to the heart of the matter – King Nebudchanezzar demands to know:  “Is it true that you do not serve my gods and you do not worship the golden statue that I have set up?”

            5.  A clear choice – worship the king or worship God.

            6.  The stage is set for the heroes to respond.

            7.  Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego announce to the king and to the world that they will remain faithful.  In fact, they do not even need to defend themselves against the king because God will take care of them.

            8. A powerful statement of faith in that moment.

b. We soon discover that their faith is even stronger than just choosing God over the king.

1.      In vs. 18, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego note the even if God does not deliver them from the fiery furnace, they would not bow down before the king.

3.  Not the bargaining kind of faith, “God if you save us, then we will be faithful to you.”

4. No their faith is more like this:  “If we are saved from the fiery furnace, then ‘Glory be to God;’  and if we’re not saved from the furnace, still ‘Glory be to God’ because we trust in God.

            5. the faith of these three is so great that they will remain faithful no matter what happens!

            6.  A powerful statement of faith that will be told for generations so that any Israelite who finds himself or herself confronted with making a choice between God or some other king will find the strength to cling to their faith.

c. There are more lessons of faith to be learned in this story.

            1.  Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego get tied up and thrown into the fiery furnace.

            2. The furnace is so hot that the soldiers who throw them in are killed by the heat (a pretty good image of hell, right?)

           

            2. As the king looks into the burning furnace, to his surprise he sees four men walking around unbound.

            3.  He goes to the furnace and calls on Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego to come out of the fire. 

            3.  The king does not just call them by their names, but he describes them as “servants of the Most High God.”

            4. And King Nebuchadnezzar announces throughout the land that anyone who speaks out against their God will be in trouble.

            4. The faith of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego is so great that even the king recognizes the power of their God and proclaims that God to all the earth.

            5. the faith of Shadrach, Meshach, and Adednego compel the king to proclaim their God.

d. One more thought on what we learn from these heroes.

1.      The fourth person who saves them from the fire does not show up until they are thrown into the furnace.

2.      In other words, the God who saved them showed up in their crisis. 

3.      For a people in exile who wonder where they will find God, this story reminds them that God finds them in the depths of their crisis.

Lessons learned from heroes; lessons taught again and again to a people who struggled to be faithful and desperately sought to find God in the midst of their exile.

Move 3:  Daniel and the lions' den.

a.  Power issues at play.

            1.  We saw it in the previous story, but here it is again – people are jealous or envious or threatened by someone like Daniel who is faithful to God.

            2.  Particularly since Daniel has worked his way up to a position of authority and gained some power in the world of exile.

            3.  In fact, the officials cannot find anything wrong with what Daniel is doing so they have to create an issue with his faith.

            4.  As this story of officials trying to get Daniel in trouble is told, everyone Israelite in exile who has gained some power in their world recognizes the potential for others  to resent them and use their faith against them.

b.  Again, the story contains a clear choice for the faithful Daniel.

            1. He can either pray to God as he always does, or he can capitulate to the decree of the king and quit praying.

            2. Daniel openly defies the king’s decree.

            3. In fact, it is almost as if Daniel is looking to prove a point about his faithfulness as he goes to his house and prays to God with the windows open so all of Jerusalem can see him praying to God.

            5. Perhaps the first act of non-violent civil disobedience.

            4. I find it fascinating is that the king does not want Daniel to get in trouble.  He tries to find a way to avoid having to punish Daniel.

c. But the other officials force the king to act.

            1.  Daniel is thrown into the lion’s den.

            2.  Ironically, as the king sends him in to the lions, the king actually expresses his hope that the Daniel’s God will save him.

            3. As the story is told, the listeners hear this question – do you want to be like the king, who gives to pressure despite what he knows to be true about God, or do you want to be like Daniel, firm in his faith?

d.  Again, the faithfulness of the hero, in this case Daniel, is rewarded. 

            1.  In the morning he is still alive, and he tells the story of the angel of the Lord shutting the mouths of the lions so they could not hurt him.

            2.  As if to prove that is was God who saved Daniel, his accusers are thrown into the lions’ den, and they do not fare quite as well as Daniel.

            3. Again, the king announces to all the nations that about the power of Daniel’s God.

e. another hero’s story to be told for Israelites in exile to find strength and comfort as they claim their faith.

Move 4:  Admittedly, we hear these stories in a different context.

            a.  Most of us do not find ourselves having to make life and death choices about our faith.

                        1. There are places in the world today where to cling to faith does put a person’s life at risk, but not here in Troy, OH or other parts of the United States.

            2. But we still tell the stories of these heroes of faith.

b.  Why?

            1. Because we need to be reminded of how important faith was to people like Shadrach, Meshach, Adednego, and Daniel.

            2.  We may not live in place where proclaiming our faith will lead to death, but we do live in  world where faith seems to matter less and less and the world offers to us lots of different answers to our questions that have no connection to God.

            3. The threat of death for being faithful may not be present, but the dying out of faith as we turn to anyone and anything except God does threaten us.

            4.  In our world where earthly power is held in high esteem, we need to hear the stories of those who choose faith in God over the powers of the world.

4.      We are not people in exile, but we live in a world that seems to want to exile God.

5.       So we tell the stories of the faithfulness of these heroes and imagine what it might mean for us to proclaim our faith in our world in ways that might cause others to recognize God in our midst. 

Conclusion:  If you need a hero, you don’t need to borrow one of my sports book, you just need to remember and tell the stories of Shadrach, Meshach, Abednego and Daniel.