“Standing in a Hot Spot”
Help to withstand the pressures of the culture
Sermon Preached by
The Rev. Dr. Andrew Stirling
Sunday, November 16, 2003
Text: Daniel 3:11-17
I'm sure that most of you will recall the scene from Baghdad a few months ago, when the huge statue of Saddam Hussein was brought tumbling down. I'm sure we all felt great emotions at that moment, some of which for me were mixed. It was wonderful to see a tyrant being brought down, wonderful to see an idol, a symbol of power being crushed into dust. I was saddened, however, that one officer would put the flag of the United States in its place, for it seemed that nothing should be there. No matter, those in power understood the wisdom of removing that flag in time. But the symbol was powerful, and it is one of the central themes that we will remember from the past year.
As I saw the symbol of Saddam's power being destroyed, my mind went back some 2,500 years, to the time of the Bible. The story that we had read this morning from the Book of Daniel is the story of how another Babylonian king decided to erect a great statue on the plain of Dura between two great hills so everyone could look down on it. The king in question was Nebuchadnezzar, who was the greatest of all the Babylonian kings. He was responsible for the conquest of Israel, for the destruction of Jerusalem, and for Jews fleeing into exile in his and other countries. Of all the symbols of tyranny that the Bible could ever erect, the symbol of Nebuchadnezzar is by far the most notable.
We read earlier in Daniel that he built this statue 90 feet high and nine feet wide, and it was made of gold. Now, it probably wasn't that big and it wouldn't have been solid gold; it would have been made of wood covered in gold, but the symbolism was the same. It stood for all the world to see that Nebuchadnezzar was supreme and that Babylon ruled the world.
And so, we come to our text this morning, a wonderful moment when all the people there were called to come and celebrate the creation of this great symbol. It was a great symbol because it was supposed to symbolize the unity of the empire, and just like Caesar's symbols, it was a sign that one person was in charge of everything - the symbol of Nebuchadnezzar. But it was even more than that. It was the symbol of the power of the culture of Babylon, ruling the world and all the other nations being subsumed by the power of that culture.
So Nebuchadnezzar decided that when he erected this, so that everyone would know, he would throw a big party, a soirée. When he did so he made sure that everyone would be there. Unlike Timothy Eaton, however, where we invited you, he demanded that everybody attend -under threat of death. No one could refuse the invitation. If you worked for the state and were a foreigner you had to attend. If you were a resident of the community or even in exile you had to attend. There were trigons, harps and pipes. Messengers were sent throughout the world with personal invitations from Nebuchadnezzar himself to come and experience the idol on the plain of Dura. This was the party of all parties - the ultimate in idolatry - the symbol for the world to bow down before the great Babylonian king.
There was an exception. Three men who were working for the government at that time were Jews, and their names were Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego. As Jews, they faced a huge dilemma. On one hand there was the threat of death if they didn't attend this party and on the other hand there was their faith. Their faith was based on the first of the Ten Commandments, the one saying “You shall have no other gods before me.” Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego faced the most difficult moment of their lives. What are you to do when the all powerful king of Babylon demands that you come and worship his idol?
There were three basic approaches to deal with this. The first approach was that of the tyrant. I call it: “Bow or burn.” The tyrant said you either come and bow before this great throne or you will burn, you will die, for what you believe. Like so many despots throughout the ages, Nebuchadnezzar maintained his power through tyranny. He was able to sustain his ego and his own position and maintain his own hegemony by threatening violence. It was the power of conformity, designed to ensure that everyone understood the cultural and political supremacy of Babylon, and of Nebuchadnezzar as its head.
Now, every culture I think has its own symbols that represent what it stands for, and it is very true that when immigrants move to a country it takes them a while to understand their meaning. I remember, for example, when I first saw, after emigrating to South Africa, the Voortrekker monument outside of Pretoria, and I realized that this incredible symbol of a people's liberation was for some a great symbol of joy and for others a symbol of oppression and all that was wrong in the country. But I did not appreciate until later on just what that symbol meant, and what its identity implied. It takes time to understand the symbols of a culture.
But it took Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego no time to understand what Nebuchadnezzar was doing. He was forcing people not to look at the symbol but to identify with it as an act of worship. Very often, my friends, even being part of a culture itself can imply an act of worship and can demand your allegiance. There's nothing wrong with that - as long as it is not allegiance at the expense of the will of God.
For example, I was astonished some years ago when I read that the United States Navy had named a nuclear submarine the Corpus Christie - the Body of Christ. I was mortified to learn that the symbol of Christ had been used and transformed into a nuclear submarine - an instrument of war!
So, too, the modern path of materialism causes us to bow down before it and conform to its image. And so we subtly worship it as our God, and make it our golden idol. But do not realize that there are times when that materialistic culture can use religion to substantiate itself and to make itself a palpable god.
I read a story about a schoolteacher who asked children in her class what they had done over the Christmas holidays. One of the children said: “I'm Roman Catholic. On Christmas Eve I went and celebrated Mass. On Christmas morning I had a big breakfast and we opened all our gifts.”
Another child said: “I'm a Methodist. I went to Communion service and a pageant on Christmas Eve. On Christmas morning I had a big breakfast and we opened all our gifts.”
A third child said: “Actually, we're not Christians and we don't believe in God at all. We got up on Christmas Day and we had a big breakfast and we opened all our gifts. We then went down to Daddy's store and looked at all the empty shelves that had held all the things that we had sold and sang a hymn: 'What A Friend We Have In Jesus.'”
Sometimes my friends, religion can be co-opted by culture and when that happens, it is hard to distinguish between the two.
Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego would not bow before Nebuchadnezzar's idol because they knew that idolatry is not just about statues and culture and power - it is about faith. Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego were told to bow or burn and they chose to burn. Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego stand for all time as people who were defiant in the face of idolatry. They refused to be co-opted by the powers around them and they did so not only with words but also with their deeds.
Aristotle once wrote: “It is not true as some writers assume in their treatises on rhetoric that personal goodness revealed by the speaker contributes nothing to his power of persuasion. On the contrary, his character may almost be called the most effective means of persuasion that he possesses.”
Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego not only told Nebuchadnezzar that they would not bow before his idol, they were willing to go into the fire to prove it.
They were like those who followed them through history, from Polycarp of Smyrna to Justin Martin to Oscar Romero to Dietrich Bonhoeffer, and all those who throughout the ages have refused to be co-opted by the power of culture that wanted them to bow before it. Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego showed that martyrs speak not only with their lips but with their lives.
Now, my friends, I don't think that any of us are being asked to jump into a furnace every day for our faith, I hope not, anyway. But what I do know is that many of us face temptations. Many of us face challenges to conform to the culture, to conform to what is acceptable, to conform to what is appealing at the expense of the integrity of our faith, to conform to the spirit of the age rather than to see God's call to assist those who are poor or in need. We face many, many temptations as individuals and collectively. Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego stand before you as they have in all time and say in the face of such temptations, “We will not worship before this false god.”
What made Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego's words so powerful was that they said to Nebuchadnezzar, “If our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the furnace of blazing fire and out of your hand, O king, let him deliver us.” Then, one of the most faithful statements in all of the Bible: “But if not, be it known to you, O king, that we will not serve your gods and we will not worship the golden statue that you have set up.” Now, that is faith. That is the second approach: “Burn, not bow.” Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego are a great example to us all.
There is one last approach to this and it is God's approach. Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego will neither burn nor bow. The story goes that when Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego were put in the furnace, to the astonishment of everyone, while there was smoke, heat and fire they did not burn. On the contrary, they stood unsinged in the midst of the fire. This is a sign that God can see us through even the most difficult moments in our lives, even when it appears that all is afire.
When Calvin Coolidge was vice-president of the United States and was therefore the Speaker of the Senate, one day when he was presiding over the Senate two senators got into a fierce argument. One of them stood up and said: “Why don't you go to hell?”
Very upset by this, the senator who had been maligned turned to Coolidge and said, “What should I do in response to this?”
Calvin Coolidge got out the manual to look at the rules and said, “Well, I've had a look at the rules and it doesn't say anything about this, but my advice to you is: You don't have to go!”
Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego were put in the fires of hell, really. They were put in the most difficult situation of all. But when they went in there, God made sure they were safe.
This past week a very good friend of mine in the ministry phoned me about a disturbing task he had to perform - the funeral of a 16-year-old boy who probably committed suicide. When my friend phoned me he asked what he should say. He asked me to ask Jean what she would say and for her wisdom in such matters. He said it was like a family going through the fires of hell. As we looked at Scripture together and talked to each another I commented that it was ironic that this week I was preaching on Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego. He just laughed and said: “Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego, I haven't thought about them for years. What an incredible story this is.” And we read it together.
We noticed something else in this story: When Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego were in the fire and all looked dark, we are told that a fourth figure appeared in the fire with them. A fourth figure that seemed like, according to the Book of Daniel, the Son of God. And we both said, “Is that not just like the pre-existent Jesus! could this not be the very presence of the pre-existent Christ coming into the midst of the fire, to the hell and the defiance of the tyrant, to be with Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego, ensuring that they came out alive.”
We knew that nothing could be done to bring back that boy except in eternity. But to the family going through that hell, there is assurance that they don't have to be there alone, that there is One in the midst of it who can help them, give them strength and save them from the fiery furnace.
Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego: Their names have gone down in history. Long after Nebuchadnezzar's idol crumbled to the ground, long after the Babylonian empire came and went, the names of Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego stand as a beacon to remind us that when you're in the fire, if you stand with God, God will stand with you. God will stand with you even in the fire. Amen.
This is a verbatim transcription of the original sermon.