by Parrish W. Jones, Ph.D.

1. Sermon preached at Summit PC for VBS Sunday.
   

2.           (Note: Sermon was preached interactively with the children.)
   

3. 
   

Psalm    135:1-5

Daniel 3:1-30

Colossians 3:15-25

I want to outline the story of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. According to Daniel, they lived during the time that the people of Israel lived in exile in Babylon. The king was named Nebuchadnezzar. Daniel is a series of stories about how the culture of Babylon tried to coerce the Israelites into its ways and, failing that, of its attempts to entice the people of Israel into Babylonian culture.

The story we have before us is about the time the king built a huge golden statue and demanded that all the people living in Babylon bow down and worship it. Nobody knows what it looked like. What do you think? Maybe it looked like the Potomac Mills Mall or the Capitol Building in Washington or the Pentagon or Wall Street Stock Exchange building. Maybe it looked like an American flag or the baseball stadium or football stadium. Oh, I know what it looked like: it looked like a computer, TV, or iPod. King Nebuchadnezzar represents the attempt of the economic, political, and cultural powers to get us to desire what they offer us instead of desiring God.

When all the people went to worship this huge statue, what did Meshack, Shadrach and Abednego do? They didn't do it. But were they alone? No, our three friends took the place of all the Jews who refused to worship this statue. Now, why did the Jews refuse to worship this big statue? Because the Bible tells them that there is only one God and they are to worship only God and to make no images of God. So what was happening? They were being faithful to God by doing what God had told them to do instead of what the political, economic and cultural leaders told them to do.

So the king got mad. You know that is what the powers of the world do when people do not do what they want. They get mad and they take a few of those who resist and make examples of them. So the King figured if he made examples of Shadrach, Meshack and Abednego, all the other Jews would do what he wanted.

So what happened? The king threatened the three Jews with the very hot, extremely hot, the unbelievably hot furnace. How did they respond? They surprised him with their faithfulness to God. What did they say? "Throw us in. God will save us. But even if God does not save us, you will know that we will not worship your god." Even if we die, we win because the true God wins.

That was only the first surprise. Nebuchadnezzar knew the furnace was really hot because the men he ordered to throw them in died from the heat and they just went to the opening of the furnace. The second surprise was that Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego were not also burned up. In fact, what did the king see? He saw a fourth person in the fire with them. Who do you think that was? The Bible does not tell us, except that whoever it was looked like a god. What does that look like? Most have interpreted this fourth person to be God's Spirit sent to protect the men.

So Nebuchadnezzar was surprised in three ways. He was surprised that these men were so faithful to God that they would die for God. He was surprised that the men were protected. And he was surprised that God showed up because the Babylonians were not used to gods showing up.

Then instead of Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego worshipping the statue of Nebuchadnezzar, the king ended up worshipping the God of the Israelites. So when we are faithful to God, other people get to know God through us and come to worship God.

Now the Bible School had another scripture passage that sort of goes with the story from Daniel. "Work from the heart for your real Master, for God" (Colossians 3:23). That verse comes at the end of some disturbing words for many of us. Paul writes things like: "Wives be subject to your husbands" and "Slaves, obey your masters."

None of these words can be understood unless we remember two things. One is they were written in a very different time when attitudes about family were very different than ours are and attitudes regarding women were extremely different. The second thing is that Paul had spent the whole chapter discussing behavior. He tells us to put to death in ourselves and in our culture a whole host of things and then he says we should put on, like we put on clothes, things like: "compassion, kindness, humility, quiet strength, discipline. Be even-tempered, content with second place, quick to forgive an offense. Forgive as quickly and completely as the Master forgave you. And regardless of what else you put on, wear love. It's your basic, all-purpose garment. Never be without it. Let the peace of Christ keep you in tune with each other, in step with each other. None of this going off and doing your own thing. And cultivate thankfulness. Let the Word of Christ--the Message--have the run of the house." (Colossians 3:12-15)

The Nebuchadnezzars in our world do not want us to hear this passage of scripture and they do not want us to live by it. They want us to be like animals. You know about animals. If an animal is scared what will it do? It will fight or it will run away. Our culture, the powers of our world want us to be like animals. They want us to believe that whenever we are threatened, we have only two choices: fight or flee. The powers also want to train us to behave as they wish just as we try to train our pets to do.

Jesus and his faithful disciple, Paul, tell us there is another way. There is a third way. Now suppose you were a slave and you had a very mean master. What do you think would surprise your master more: trying to find ways not to do what he wants or doing more than he asked? Obviously, doing more than the master wanted would certainly surprise him the most. Then he'd have to ask why you were doing it wouldn't he? Then you could say, "I'm not working for you. I'm working for Jesus." That would set him back a bit wouldn't it.

Being faithful to God means finding ways to surprise the world with our faithfulness to God's way. It means doing our best at whatever we do not so other humans will praise us, but because we love God and we want others to know God like we do. That's what Shadrach, Meshack, and Abednego did. That's what Jesus did. That's what Paul did. In fact, biblical scholars believe that Paul wrote the letter to the Colossians from prison.

One time while Paul was in prison for being faithful to God, he and his friends did a surprising thing. They began to sing. The prison guards were so surprised at their joy that they asked them how they could be so happy when their lives were being threatened. Then Paul and the other faithful disciples were able to share their joy in Jesus.

But not all faithful people lived a long time ago. Not so many years ago in the United States Black people were not allowed to eat in restaurants where white people ate nor go to school where white children went nor vote for their senators and representatives or the President. Some very brave people who were faithful to God said that was not right. They very carefully planned and taught each other so they could work to change the laws without being violent. Martin Luther King became the leader of the movement. Their goal was to change the law through love, grace and respect and without violence. They were trying to live the words of Paul to let the peace of Christ govern their lives. Sometimes the political leaders ordered the police to treat them very badly and to put them in jail. Instead, of fighting back with their bombs and guns, they fought back with songs of praise to God and in the courts to change the law. Today, you live in a very different world than the one I grew up in because of those brave disciples of Jesus who did what they did because they are faithful to Jesus.

That is surprising faith in a world that wants us to believe that we can only fight violently or run away scared.