by Rev. Gina Johnson
I don't know about you all, but it has been pretty dang hot the past couple days. Have you felt it with me? See, I don't like talking about things that make me feel old, because age is just a number. I recognized I don't enjoy trick-or-treating with my children about five or six years ago. Yeah, it's like, is that me getting old that I just want to stay and pass out the candy and see the costumes come in? And, like, if it’s a beautiful day, it was time to go to the park, and I’d be like, “I'll sit home and get the snacks ready for when you return.
Travis, that's all you.”
You know, and same with the fair being here. I'm like, “Boy, I got a choice. I can go walk around, ride these rides, eat some unhealthy food, and sweat my buns off, or I could stay in the cool air conditioning.”
So I don't know if that is a coming-of-age thing, but I remember when I used to be able to go outside in all kinds of weather, and it was awesome. I remember when I could say to my kids, you know what, we're not going to run the air condition during the day. During the day, the air condition stays on, you know, 77.
I'll tell you what, I've been home a day or two because I wasn't feeling the best. 72? Nope, that's not cool enough. 71? Nope, that's not cool enough. 70?
Man, I don't know if Gina is just getting weak, but I'm like, whew, it is getting hot out there. And I thought, what better way to greet the summer heat than to spend a few weeks diving into some of the scripture passages that turn up the heat a little bit, that have the potential to set our spirits on fire. So today and the next two weeks, we're going to be talking through some scriptures that have a little bit of a fiery element to it, and I hope that we are all alive and awake and ready to receive in such a way that we blaze out of this place and spread that fire.
Today, the story that we're going to dive into, I'm sure many of you have heard it, comes from the book of Daniel. And when we go to this part of the scripture, we find a city of Babylon. And in the city of Babylon, we have a king called King Nebuchadnezzar.
And King Nebuchadnezzar, he's pretty proud of himself. He thinks he's hot stuff. He likes to have control and rule his land, so he decides, “I am going to erect a statue made of gold.”
And when you break it down to numbers we can understand versus cubits, it's 90 feet high and 9 feet thick. So picture that, the statue of gold 90 feet high and 9 feet thick. And this statue is going to represent him and his power and his authority.
This statue is going to represent the one that he worships, but ultimately, he wants everyone worshiping him. So he tells everyone that every day when you hear the nifty sounds of the bells and the horns and the music play, you will come and you will bow down and worship the statue. He calls everyone to the plains of Dura and he has sort of like the unveiling.
It's the ribbon cutting of the statue. And everyone comes and you hear the fancy music and people bow. But there are these advisors who recognize that there are some that have not taken the time to bow.
You see the king, he has three Jews that he has put in charge of some of the affairs. And these three, Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego did not bow. And so the king summons them forward to say, “Hey, what's the deal here? Everyone is going to bow and if you don't bow, then you're getting thrown into the fiery furnace. So if you refuse to worship me, you want to keep worshiping your god, let's see if your god can save you when you get thrown into the fiery furnace.” And that's where we'll turn to the scripture.
Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego replied to the king, King Nebuchadnezzar, we do not need to defend ourselves before you in this matter.
If we are thrown into the blazing furnace, the god we serve is able to deliver us from it. And he will deliver us from your majesty's hand. But even if he does not, we want you to know, your majesty, that we will not serve your gods or worship the image of gold you have set up.
Then, Nebuchadnezzar was furious with Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego and his attitude toward them changed. He ordered the furnace heated seven times hotter than usual and commanded some of the strongest soldiers in his army to tie up Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego and throw them into the blazing furnace. So these men, wearing their robes, trousers, turbans and other clothes, were bound and thrown into the blazing furnace.
The king's command was so urgent and the furnace was so hot that the flames of the fire killed the soldiers who took up Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego. And these three men, firmly tied, fell into the blazing furnace. Then, King Nebuchadnezzar leaped to his feet in amazement and asked his advisors, weren't there three men that were tied up and threw into the fire? They replied, certainly, your majesty.
He said, look, I see four men walking around in the fire, unbound and unharmed, and the fourth looks like a son of the gods. Nebuchadnezzar then approached the opening of the blazing furnace and shouted, Shadrach, Meshach, Abednego, servants of the most high god, come out, come here. So Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego came out of the fire and the satraps, prefects, governors and royal advisors crowded around them.
They saw that the fire had not harmed their bodies, nor was a hair on their heads singed, their robes were not scorched, and there was no smell of fire on them. Then Nebuchadnezzar said, praise be to the god of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, who has sent his angels and rescued his servants. They trusted in him and defied the king's command and were willing to give up their lives rather than serve or worship any god except their own god.
And there ends the reading of the Word. So that is a great Bible story. I've been reading that one ever since I was really little.
I've had it read to me, taught to me, shared with me, and I always have walked away with the same message that no matter what we are facing, no matter what is going on, if we are loyal to our God, if we are loyal to our Creator, that he will show up and save us. And I think we'd all agree with that message. That if we remember to praise, to serve, to follow our God, he will show up and rescue us from the flames, from the fire, from the things that could burn us and scorch us.
Well, that could be it right there. That could be the end. We could put a period on the end of that.
We could say a closing prayer and sing a hymn and walk out of here. And a lot of times when it comes to the Bible and scripture, we've been taught the same lesson time and time again and that's just where we land. It all comes back around to being our God is greater, our God is powerful, our God is sovereign and faithful, and that's where we can put in that pin and recognize that we have everything we need through our God.
But I want to invite you today to take this story, this teaching, this lesson, just a step further. I want to invite you today to open your eyes, open your ears, your hearts and your minds to hear this just a little bit different. I’m not asking you to change the message there because our God is faithful and our God is sovereign and our God is almighty and all powerful.
But I'm asking you to read this story with me and hear yourself in this story. Now some people get a little rocky sometimes with the Old Testament because that God, oh he was jealous and he was a God of wrath and oh he was a God that went out there and got even when people did wrong. So I know people who won't even acknowledge the Old Testament.
But I'll tell you without going too far down this rabbit trail since we only have so much time that the Old Testament is a beautiful foundation for the New Testament and there are lessons all throughout it that if we just take a second and listen we'll gain something from it. So let's stop and let's look at the elements of that story.
First we have King Nebuchadnezzar and King Nebuchadnezzar is a great representation of status in the world.
King Nebuchadnezzar is that thing, that person. It's the one that comes in and says this is how you do it, this is why you do it, this is when you do it. How many of us have seen and recognized a King Nebuchadnezzar in our world, in our life? Maybe it's on a large scale where you look at a system or a structure and you say “Wow, that is something that's trying to control me, that's trying to tell me how to live my life.”
You know that happens a lot in religions, that happens a lot in educational institutions, that happens a lot in our world of medical care, that happens a lot in our government. But we can take it down even smaller. Some of us have King Nebuchadnezzar right in our own family.
Family that say that if you do not follow this, this is my rule, this is how I govern things, if you do not fall in line with what I am saying, what I am teaching, then you are out of line. And you are not welcome here. So many of us have fallen prey to a King Nebuchadnezzar in our life and sometimes we don't even recognize it because we've grown up in it.
Because it's been told to us and fed to us. How many times are we given the Bible and told, “Here. Read this. And, by the way, let me go ahead and tell you what it says, how to read it, what meaning to take from it, and if you can hear everything I'm saying, actually you don't even have to read it. Just trust that the way I'm presenting it to you is the way that it is. And don't question it.”? We run into that a lot.
And that's why I love the Disciples of Christ Church because the Disciples of Christ Church says, “Get in there, dig in, explore it, learn who you are from it, and use it as a tool, as an instruction, not as a gatekeeper, not as some kind of shackles, but as a very proof, living example that the Spirit is alive and it comes alive in these pages, especially when we have the eyes to see and the ears to hear.”
So, we have King Nebuchadnezzar and everyone has their own interpretation of their King Nebuchadnezzar. And then we have the city of Babylon and Babylon is that place where it's a world of confusion.
How many of you wake up and look at the world today? You know, when you look past your living room, past your neighborhood, past even the town of Maryville and you're like, “Wow, our world is in confusion.” What are we doing to look at that differently? What are we doing to sort through that confusion? What has happened? Who has ruled our world to get us to that place?
See, I'm not one of those people who wake up each morning and say, “Oh man, our world is going to hell. Gosh, what are we going to do about this?” I'm one of those people who wake up and say, “Wow, it is a beautiful day and I am blessed with so many great things in my life and I am empowered by an unstoppable Spirit.”
I may step into a world of confusion but I'm going to go out there and I'm going to try and make sense of it. I'm going to try and bring love. I'm going to try and bring peace.
I'm going to try and bring compassion and understanding so we can start to untangle the confusion. So, we can start to see where in every place that looks dark, there is a lesson to learn, and we can see the light. And everything that looks twisted and knotted, it just takes a little bit of time, but we can undo those knots.
We can unravel those twists and we can see the beauty of what's there. Babylon was a world of confusion. Those who were living there were either under the law and the rule of King Nebuchadnezzar because they were imprisoned as Israelites, as Jews, or they were those who were growing up in his system and structure and whether or not they wanted to rebel, whether or not they wanted to do something different, they knew that this is how we do it. This is how we always do it. All hail the King.
In today's day and age, I don't really need to turn on the TV anymore. I mean, yes, I physically turn on the TV but I can stream whatever I want to watch. But I remember back when technology wasn't as cool with so many choices as it has today, all these streaming options, you turn on the TV and there would be so many different commercials and so many different commercials of the same product and one of them is better and faster and one of them is going to make you stronger and you've got to get this one. If you get this one, then you're in but if you don't have the money to get that one, you can settle for this one but you're not going to be as cool as that person over there.
This is the best and the brightest and the baddest so you better catch up. Keep up with the Joneses or who are you? And that's how we have that world of confusion. There's always something on the external saying, “Hey, look at me. I'm the way to get there. No, no, look at me. I'm the way to get there. Hey, you want glory? You want status? Buy this now. Take this course. Come to this understanding. Bow down to this religion and you will have it made.”
I think we tend to live in a Babylon far more often than we realize, but it's a choice. It's a choice that we make to be in that Babylon and then there is that structure, mammon, that gold statue and what is that statue? It's basically false power and as I was diving into this, as I was really thinking about this, I got thinking about something that I will never preach about, but I'm going to talk about it a little bit today and that's politics.
Excuse me while I go throw up for a moment. Because when it comes to politics, this is what I believe and remember this is what Gina believes. No one has to believe this.
We don't have to grab the pitchforks. It's going to be okay. I believe that we have beliefs, values, morals, things that we saw to be right, ways that we wanted to raise our children, love our families, nurture each other and build a place and somehow that turned into politics. It turned into parties. It turned into choosing sides. It turned into a gold statue.
Make sure you're bowing down before the right representation of your king. By the way, which one is your king? Are you liberal? Are you conservative? Oh, I'm neither. But even being neither, you're claiming to something.
Isn't it funny how we've let so many gold statues get erected in our lives? Isn't it funny how we have dissolved friendships? We have quit jobs. We have said hateful words. We have passed by a person on the street needing our help because we have been bowing down to a gold statue of whether or not you're a Democrat or a Republican.
How sad is that? How sad is that that King Nebuchadnezzar and all of his wealth and status decided this isn't good enough. Not only do they need to bow down to me and follow my laws, I also need to erect this statue and I need to ring a little bell so all these people will come in and cower. So all these people will hold me on this pedestal.
I'm asking you, church, what statues have been brought up in your life and when are you going to take the time to start tearing them down? Because it's those statues that are so beautiful and so captivating at the same time so blinding. We get so caught in looking and worshiping those structures and those things that tell us this is how it's got to go that we lose sight of what's here right in front of us. People.
Community. People who are hurting and need love. But it doesn't fit to worship that.
It doesn't fit to worship the idea of service. It doesn't fit to worship the idea of going the extra mile and giving an extra hand. It's easier to say, nope, this is what I believe, this is what I've always believed, this is where I'm going to stay.
And then there's the element of the advisors. I'm not claiming anyone lost their way, but my friend Deena told us a story about a grain of wheat and how it can either hold tight to the stem or fall and become a part of the soil. It's choice that it can cling on and cling on and cling on or it can fall and die and birth so much newness.
These advisors, who really knows? Do we really know if they were happy with their role? If they agreed with everything King Nebuchadnezzar said? Do we really know if there was a part of them that wasn't waking up each morning like, “I'm tired of this. My life can be more than this. I want more than this.”
But the thing is, some people get so caught up in what they think is their safety net, their protection of “This is the way I've been told to see it. This is the way I've been told to do it. And if I see anyone else doing different, then I'm going to go and tattle tale. I'm going to go and say, ‘King Nebby, King Nebby, see them over there? I think they're trying to outreach in a whole new way. I don't think that's allowed. King Nebby, King Nebby, they're listening to a different kind of music. They're not singing the same songs. Wait, they're doing something different at the table. Oh no, King Nebuchadnezzar, they invited a whole new crowd in. What if that crowd doesn't worship you the same?’”
Isn't that what we do? We're either on the side of things where we are ready to make a difference, where we're a little bit scared because here comes this new person who's throwing out an idea and it starts to resonate with us, but we're like, “Wait, everyone else in the room might not agree with what they're saying.” And then we have to make that choice.
Can I be bold enough to go against the system and the structure? Can I be bold enough to stand on love? Can I be bold enough to stand on community and unity and bringing people together? Or do I need to bow down to what has always been? And it's fascinating because I think there's a lot of times in our own life where we do. We feel that call. We feel that call to turn inward and discover who we really are. To be all that we are created to be. To get passionate about something and live it out in everything we do.
But then we come up against people who say, “No, no, no. That's not how we've always done it. No, no, no, because if you do that, then this and this and this might happen. And then what will we do?”
Well, I don't know because we never get to the point to see what we would do because we get afraid and we get apprehensive. And instead of remembering that God did not give us a spirit of fear, we let fear take over our actions and our thoughts. I wonder if a couple of these advisors were not just jealous that they saw something in Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego that was willing to step out. That was willing to do more. That was willing to actually bring some truth to where there's been illusion and deception. And they didn't like that idea. Because it went against what they knew.
Then we have the element of the furnace, the fiery furnace. And if there's something we all know is that we are in the world but we are not of the world and the fiery furnace represents the world. It is the ways of the world. Each and every day when you wake up, you are going to step into the furnace.
I always call it the educational sandbox that we call life. Well here is another one.
You're going to step into the fiery furnace. And in that fiery furnace you have to make a choice each and every time. Am I going to get scorched and burned? Am I going to fall down and disappear? Or am I going to be refined? Am I going to stand up against the heat and be refined? And that is exactly what our three decided to do.
Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego said we are not going to bow to any man, to any structure, to any system that brings us to a place of separation from our God. We know who our God is. We know who we are because of our God. And for that reason we will stay true to that.
So we look at them and we see Shadrach and Shadrach is humility. Shadrach is compassion. Shadrach is exactly what Jesus taught us.
Jesus was humble. He did not need to make a loud crazy stir in order to get people to listen. Yeah, he drew the crowds. He drew the masses. They came because he was different, because he was enlightened beyond them. He was able to see past everything that was right in front of them, the structures and the systems. He was able to stand on a foundation of love. He was able to recognize that this world has far more to it, a far greater purpose.
But he did it with humility. When he came to be the king he didn't come with parades. He didn't come on a big white horse. He didn't come wearing a crown and jewels and robes. He came as a man who was born in a small town where they said nothing good came out of that town. And yet in his humble magnificent presence he was more of a king than this world had ever seen prior to him. Because his throne, his kingdom, was far greater than any human could understand. It was built on love and truth. It was representation of what the world really could be if we would turn inward and discover that.
Meshach is love. He is the presence of love. There's no explanation needed to that. Love is. Truth is. God is. When you have love in all you do, in all you say, in all you think, there's no confusion. There's no animosity. There's no hate. Because when you are acting from a place of love, then the good prevails. Then the truth prevails.
Unconditional love doesn't have room to hate. It doesn't have room to break into these feuds over who's right and who's wrong. Unconditional love doesn't even need to look for that. It just is. It's just love.
And then there is Abednego, whose name means servant of light. He brings light wherever he is.
I want to ask you all in this moment do you feel that within yourself? Can you discover your inner Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego? Do you have that humility, that compassion? Do you have that love? Are you displaying that light? When you wake up each day, do you choose to say, “You know what? I know who I am in the story. I am all three. Because I'm going to step into this world. I'm going to step into this furnace and I am going to be just that. Compassionate, loving and I am going to bring the light that this world so desperately needs.”?
When you have all three of those things moving you and driving you in your life, you will withstand the flames. As a matter of fact, you will be so on fire in the Spirit that you will bring the flame. How can the flame of today's furnace touch you when you have the fire of the Spirit? And if you remember, King Nebuchadnezzar looked into that furnace and he said there's a fourth person in there.
And that fourth person, that fourth being, that fourth entity in the story, is one that we all have and we've always had and that is the Holy Spirit. And I'll tell you when you have humility and compassion, when you have love and peace, when you have light, then at the center of that is going to be the Spirit.
These three were thrown into the fire but they were able to stand on who they are called and created to be. They were able to be present and recognize the Spirit within them. Do you get it that each and every one of us sitting here reading, each and every one of us, if we turn inward, we can discover the Spirit? We can discover the Christ consciousness.
We can discover the I Am which is who we are. There is not a flame that can scorch us or burn us or put us out when we are in tune with our I Am. There is not a voice gossiping or a fearful presence that can shut us down when we recognize that we are the I Am. That the presence of that fourth being, it's not just an angel. It's not just God coming here to rescue us every time. It is the core of who we are.
We are Spirit. We are Christ. We are the I Am.
And so I challenge you all as you move out throughout this week, as you go into the world and you see the King Nebuchadnezzar's, you see the statues, you see those advisors who just want to keep advising you to turn and look away, to stay where you are, to build the barricade just so they don't get in and we don't get out. When you're going through the world and you have those things surrounding you like the flames of fire, then I challenge you all to bring your Shadrach, your Meshach, your Abednego, to bring your light and love and to bring the Spirit which is within you, which is who you are.
Remember, you always have a choice. Am I going to get burned by this fire or am I going to be refined?
Please pray with me. Our almighty God we recognize that through Jesus we were shown the way, that through our master teacher we were taught that we, too, can be miraculous, that we, too, can bring healing that, we, too, are the light and love of this world. So God, as we are here and your Spirit is within us may we feel your presence unlike ever before. May we turn inward and grab ahold of the light that we are and may we take it from this place and blaze forth in such a way that there is no question, in such a way where there is no barrier, in such a way where love and truth go before us in everything we say and everything we do.
God, help us to remember who we are and to be grateful that we are that because of you. It's in Jesus' name we pray. Amen.
Comments