Creed – Candle in a Cave

Reader’s Digest reported an incident where medical staff who transcribed medical audiotapes were confounded when one of them came upon a perplexing diagnosis: “This man has pholenfrometry!” [spell it out] Being unfamiliar with that condition, they checked the medical dictionary and with co-workers, to no avail. Finding the doctor in charge, they asked him. He listened to the tape, shook his head, and translated: “This man has fallen from a tree!”

There is a wonderful little acronym most are familiar with: KISS—keep it simple, stupid. That is advice we should follow; however, many are more prone to go in the direction of what we could call MESS—make it sound sophisticated. Complicate it. Confuse it.

Chapter 3 of the book of Daniel is a very familiar Bible story. We learned it as children. The story of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego (a.k.a. My Shack, Yo Shack, and A Bungalow). They are also known as the three young men.

The Babylonian king, Nebuchadnezzar, has made a statue and decreed that everybody is “to fall down and worship the golden image” or face death. (Daniel 3:5)

Even though they are captured Jews, the three young men and Daniel have risen to high places in Nebuchadnezzar’s court. Their rise to power and fame has also heightened jealousy among many, so these others are looking for a way to destroy them. When the jealous ones learn that the three young men are not worshiping the statue, they turn them over to Nebuchadnezzar.

Nebuchadnezzar confronts them. He tells them, you can worship the statue and live, but if you do not worship, you shall immediately be cast into a burning fiery furnace.” (Daniel 3:15a) It is then, in his ignorance, Nebuchadnezzar adds, “And who is the god who will deliver you out of my hands?” (Daniel 3:15b)

The three young men reply, “If this be so, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and he will deliver us out of your hand, O king. But if not, be it known to you, O king, that we will not serve your gods or worship the golden image that you have set up.” (Daniel 3:16-18)

Hear what they say: “Our God is faithful, and our God is able to save us.” Notice, they did not say, “Our God will save us, only that He is able to save us.” Then they add, “But if not.” That is, “Our God can save us, but if not, if our God chooses not to, so be it. We will remain faithful.”

Nebuchadnezzar is furious. He orders the furnace heated to seven times its normal temperature; the three men are bound and cast into it.

Nebuchadnezzar then watches, scratching his head. He asks his aides, “Did we not cast three men bound into the fire?” (Daniel 3:24b) You are correct; the aides answer. “But,” Nebuchadnezzar says, “I see four men unbound, walking in the midst of the fire, and they are not hurt; and the appearance of the fourth is like a son of the gods.” (Daniel 3:25) He calls the three out of the furnace, and they are unharmed. “The hair of their heads was not singed, their cloaks were not harmed, and no smell of fire had come upon them.” (Daniel 3:27b)

Nebuchadnezzar had asked, “Who is the god who will deliver you out of my hands?” He learns the answer. It is the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, who can save. He declares, “There is no other god who is able to rescue in this way.” (Daniel 3:29b)

Looking at this one episode in the lives of these three young men, what can we learn about faith? (Remember KISS and not MESS.) Their faith was not contingent upon whether God saved them or allowed them to die. Their faith was simply in God and His divine providence, without qualification.

Notice, we are not told the three weren’t afraid of burning to death, or that there would be no pain involved, or that they knew for certain what God’s plan was for them. However, their faith did declare, “Nebuchadnezzar, your kingship and your decrees do not rule over our lives; this furnace does not rule over our lives; pain, suffering, and even death do not get to decide who we will become.” The three defied all these things and declared, “We will be bound to no one and no thing, except to the one true God.” What happened? Well, duh. “God saved them from the fire.” However, for the three young men, that was not the main thing. What was? We see it in our reading from Exodus.

Moses is standing in front of the burning bush. The Lord tells Moses that he is sending him to Egypt to confront Pharaoh and free God’s people. Moses is an Israelite, and God wants him to return to the land he has escaped from—the land where he is a wanted man. The Lord wants Moses to confront and make demands of one of the most powerful individuals in the world—Pharaoh. “Moses,” God says, “I am sending you into the furnace.”

Moses says, “Who? Me? I’m a nobody.” In response, God did not say that it would be easy, that there was no need to be afraid, that Moses would be sleeping in five-star hotels the entire time. No. God said, “I am sending you into the furnace, and I will be with you.”

The Lord never spoke those words to Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, but through their faith, God proved they were true. How did Nebuchadnezzar put it? “But I see four men unbound, walking in the midst of the fire, and they are not hurt; and the appearance of the fourth is like a son of the gods.” (Daniel 3:25) God was with them.

For us, God never promises there will be no furnaces in our lives. He never says we’ll come out unscathed, but He does promise, “I will be with you.” Can we believe that?

In our Gospel, we are told, “Jesus began to show his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and undergo great suffering at the hands of the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and on the third day be raised.” Jesus said, “I am headed into the furnace.” Peter’s response was very human. Perhaps he was terrified. Perhaps he simply couldn’t imagine losing Jesus. Whatever was going through Peter’s mind, he said, ‘This must never happen.’” Jesus rebuked him. Why? Because Jesus knows He will not be alone in the furnace. He has already said, “The hour is coming, indeed it has come, when you will be scattered, each to his own home, and will leave me alone. Yet I am not alone, for the Father is with me.” (John 16:32-33) Jesus says to Peter, “Follow me.” It is as though Jesus were saying, “I know the furnace is a terrifying place, but follow me, because when you face your own furnace, I will be with you. I will lead you through.”

The three young men defied the furnace. They did not allow it to dictate who they would become. Instead, in their defiance, they declared, “We believe in God.”

Moses defied the furnace in his life and through his words. In doing so, he declared, “God is with me.”

Jesus, fully aware of the furnace, defied it. He declared, “I believe in the Father.”

Jesus says to us, “Follow me, and I will lead you through the furnace, and we will defy it together.”

When you are standing in front of the furnace, all the complicated answers do you no good. If you can even remember them, they fall away. When they do, what remains of your faith?

Imagine: there you are, standing in front of the furnace, burning seven times hotter than ever before.

Why did this happen? How did you end up in such a place?

I don’t know.

Will God save you from all the hurt and the pain?

I don’t know.

How is it going to turn out? Will you live?

I don’t know.

You don’t seem to know very much. Is there anything you do know?

Yes.

What’s that?

“I believe in one God, the Father Almighty. I believe in one Lord Jesus Christ, the only Son of God. I believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the giver of life.” I may not know much, but I do know there is a God and that He is with me.

We can all find ourselves standing in front of any number of furnaces. And it is in those furnaces that our faith becomes costly. They bring with them pain in various forms—evil, loss, death, pain, suffering.

While standing in front of that furnace, we may have no answers as to why any of this is happening or what the outcome will be, but there is one thing we can hold fast to—I believe. We can defy the furnace. It does not mean it won’t hurt. It does not mean that we will not experience great fear, or that we will see a happy outcome, all tied up with a pretty little bow. However—I believe—does mean we are not walking into the furnace alone. So follow Jesus. He has gone before us into the furnace, and He promises, ‘I am with you always, to the end of the age.’”

I believe.

I’ll share with you a portion of Psalm 116:1-10 as a closing prayer. Let us pray: I love the Lord, because he has heard
my voice and my pleas for mercy.

Because he inclined his ear to me,
therefore I will call on him as long as I live.

The snares of death encompassed me;
the pangs of Sheol laid hold on me;
I suffered distress and anguish.

Then I called on the name of the Lord:
“O Lord, I pray, deliver my soul!”

Gracious is the Lord, and righteous;
our God is merciful.

The Lord preserves the simple;
when I was brought low, he saved me.

Return, O my soul, to your rest;
for the Lord has dealt bountifully with you.

For you have delivered my soul from death,
my eyes from tears,
my feet from stumbling;

I will walk before the Lord
in the land of the living.

I believed, even when I spoke:
“I am greatly afflicted.”

Amen.

The report states that on Lake Isabella, in California, a couple were new to sailing. I’ve done a little sailing in the past and know that it requires a bit of instruction before you get out there on your own; however, with only a few hours, the couple purchased themselves a brand new 22-foot sailboat, invited friends, and headed out. Nothing went right. No matter how hard they tried, they couldn’t get the boat going. It was very sluggish in almost every maneuver, no matter how much wind was blowing or power they applied through the inboard motor. After about an hour of trying to make it go, they put into a nearby marina, thinking someone there could tell them what was wrong. A thorough topside check revealed everything was in perfect working condition. So, one of the marina guys jumped in the water to check underneath to see if perhaps the keel was not properly deployed or damaged. He came up choking on water, he was laughing so hard. Under the boat, still strapped securely in place, was the boat trailer! There was no problem with the boat. It was all operator error.

This is reportedly an urban legend, but a fella in Oregon says it really happened. The only difference, he didn’t have to get in the water. He could see the trailer’s license plate sticking up.

My friend St. Josemaría Escrivá wrote, “I never talk politics. I do not approve of committed Christians in the world forming a political-religious movement. That would be madness, even if it were motivated by a desire to spread the spirit of Christ in all the activities of men.” (Christ is Passing By, #153)

I happen to agree with that 100%. After almost a decade of preaching in this church, you may have noticed that I don’t fly anyone’s flag. If we were to fly a flag in this sanctuary, the only thing it would say is “Sinners in the hands of a Loving God,” because once you strip away all the rest, that is all that remains. As the Church and a Christian people, that is what we should be most concerned about. So today, I’m not planning on breaking my rule, but I would like to address how we engage in that realm of politics and what I believe the role of Christianity and the Church should be. If you all walk away unhappy with what I say, then I’ll feel like I did my job.

It begins by understanding truth. Is there such a thing as an ultimate truth? Yes. I’m sure some of you cross your fingers at specific points, but we speak what we believe as the ultimate truth when we confess our faith in the Creeds—“We believe in one God, the Father, the Almighty….” However, for many, the ultimate truth does not end there. We have what we believe are ultimate truths about everything from the abhorrent abomination of mint chocolate ice cream to questions of sexuality, end-of-life issues (euthanasia, assisted suicide, aging), immigration and refugees, the war in Ukraine, Israel, or Africa, etc.

The point is that we have the truth of our Creed, and then we have these other truths, which are often opinions or personal truths. This then leads to a great deal of the current strife we experience—if it is true for me, whether you agree with it or not, then it must unequivocally be true for you. If you disagree with me, which in many cases is the opinion or personal truth of the majority, you are a terrible person. When you say, “I’m going to remain silent,” well, then you are an evil person. This is also where Christianity comes in because Christians love this—someone will haul out the quote from Dietrich Bonhoeffer (even though he never said it): “Silence in the face of evil is itself evil: God will not hold us guiltless. Not to speak is to speak. Not to act is to act.” Therefore, if I speak an opinion or personal truth and you either a) disagree or b) do not stand up in support of my personal truth, then you’re going to hell. I say abortion is evil. You say that not supporting women’s rights is evil. Some choose to remain silent, so we both say they are evil. Ultimately, by calling someone evil, we are saying that God is on our side and we are the righteous. It is this arrogance that leads to heresies like the one we see on the rise today—Christian nationalism.

One of the great contemporary Anglican theologians, N.T. Wright states, “Christian nationalism is impoverished as it seeks a kingdom without a cross. It pursues a victory without mercy. It acclaims God’s love of power rather than the power of God’s love.” He then references our Gospel reading for today when he writes, “We must remember that Jesus refused those who wanted to ‘make him king’ by force just as much as he refused to become king by calling upon ‘twelve legions of angels.’ Jesus needs no army, arms, or armoured cavalry to bring about the kingdom of God. As such, we should resist Christian nationalism as giving a Christian facade to nakedly political, ethnocentric and impious ventures.”

Someone or some group begins to believe that they know the absolute truth, so they demand that this truth be not only believed by everyone but legislated and imposed on everyone. To make their case even more potent, they break the Second Commandment by taking the Lord’s Name in vain, claiming God is on their side.

In the end, if we continue on this course, we will successfully destroy the nation and, worse, the Church. It is the hard lesson the German Lutherans learned as the Nazis began to rise to power—Christianity and government do not go together. It is why Jesus fled when they tried to make Him king. As the state is on the rise, it will make certain concessions to the Church to gain support; however, once the state has full power, it will expect the Church to make concessions to it, ultimately bringing the Church to a point where it will either compromise the Faith or be persecuted by the state they helped to build. You may be thinking, “Father John, you’ve been reading too many dystopian novels.” Maybe, but that’s not where this line of thought originates. It is coming from history. When the Church gets into bed with the state, it is always the Church that ends up getting short-sheeted.

Enough of that. What’s the point? If this is a problem, then what is the solution?

The short version of a popular quote, generally attributed to G.K Chesterton, “We are all in the same boat.” The long version of that quote is, “We are all in the same boat in a stormy sea, and we owe each other a terrible loyalty.” However, today, it is popular to say, “We are all in the same storm but not the same boat.” It is then explained that some are in a little dingy without a paddle, others are on super yachts, and others ride around in aircraft carriers. At first, this appears to be a valid point, but it is also a lie. We are all in the same boat, but we’ve forgotten what Chesterton said, “We owe each other a terrible loyalty.” There is nothing wrong with the boat we are in, but someone forgot to detach the trailer. Our boat is good, but operator error is wreaking havoc, and we are the operator.

Whether in the Church or society, it is true (not opinion!), “The eye cannot say to the hand, ‘I don’t need you!’ And the head cannot say to the feet, ‘I don’t need you!’” (1 Corinthians 12:21) Our boat is fine, but so many seem to be under the impression that they’re the only ones in it.

The storm on the rough waters has always been interpreted as life, and the boat has always represented the Church and our faith. The fantastic thing about that boat is that it has always accommodated and made room for everyone, including those who aren’t even Christian. Why? Because this boat is not of our making. It is of God’s making, and there is not a single person—not one—that our God desires to perish. Every person we allow in is a way of allowing Jesus in. You might not like them, you may disagree with everything they say, you may not want anything to do with them, but let them in the boat. Let Jesus in the boat. They are a child of God and you owe them a terrible loyalty.

When the disciples saw Jesus walking on the water, they were terrified. Jesus said to them, “It is I; do not be afraid.” Some who walk up to the boat may be so different from us that we become afraid, but Jesus says the same thing to us, “Do not be afraid. Let them on the boat and we will all get safely to the other side.”

Let us pray: Lord Jesus, Son of God, our brother and our savior, we give you glory. Protect your Church and make us one. Send your Spirit to guide us and to lead us back to unity and love. Lord Jesus, we praise your holy name forever. Amen.

Tag: Creed

Sermon: Proper 17 RCL A1 – “Defying the Furnace”

Sermon: Proper 12 RCL B – “The Boat”

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