Redeeming Danger and Living Out Faith
What stops you from practicing and living out your faith more? If you are anything like me, you know you should be sharing your faith and that faith itself should be incorporated into every aspect of life, but there are a whole lot of things that frighten you or get in the way. The biggest fear that stopped me from sharing my faith, for the longest time, was not fitting in, being awkward, or losing friends. In today’s world, you might also feel like your job, your home, your status, your safety, and your freedom might be on the line if you shared and practiced your faith. These are real dangers, so we must acknowledge them, but they should in no way stop us. Instead, God will use these and all dangers, redeeming the danger to show the strength that is faith in Jesus Christ and to create greater relationships with our ever-faithful God.
Before moving on, I want to acknowledge one of the most common fears I hear when people are talking about sharing their faith. People have told me, “I don’t know enough”. In some ways that is true. You will never know everything. I sure don’t. Yet, you do know enough. Like any relationship, if you know Jesus and have a relationship with Jesus, that is more than enough to introduce anyone to him, to express his character, to share what a difference that relationship has made in your life and so much more. Being able to quote Scripture, give a theological argument, or preach for hours is great, but it is not what is needed to start a relationship. If they ask a question and you don’t know the answer, it is alright to say “I don’t know”. Use that as an opportunity to say, “What do you think?”, “Let’s explore that together”, “Can I pray on it” or “Can I ask someone else?” Not knowing is not really a danger in this way, it is rather an opportunity to live in faith and relationship.
Okay, back to the dangers of living out our faith. As we look at our two readings from the prophet Daniel, we see that both Daniel and his three friends, Shadrach, Meshech, and Abednego, were in immense danger for practicing their faith, and yet they knowingly practiced their faith anyways. They were exiles in Babylon and Persia, but they still had a lot to lose. Both Daniel and his friends had acquired immense position and status. Then, of course, if they disobeyed, each of the edicts put their life on the line and yet they remained faithful to our singular God. They risked everything to follow God faithfully.
Daniel and his friends didn’t make excuses, either. They didn’t shy away from danger and they didn’t concede even an aspect of their faith. I have never been in a situation like this, but I can imagine myself saying, isn’t it more important that I stay alive or that I hold this position of authority so that I can make a bigger difference for Jesus and his good news? What does it really matter if we bow down once to a statue, if we follow something for just a short time, or if we stop praying and worshipping for just 30 days? I find myself still wrestling with those questions, but the truth is that it matters greatly. What is authority without truth or justice, which comes from faith in God? What is life without a connection with its source, God? If we concede even a little, we are turning against and losing an essential aspect of what is good and right. In some sense, if we live into fear, we lose all that we were afraid to lose anyways.
That’s the interesting thing about the exile of Israel that we talked about last week. It was all caused by a lack of faithfulness in God. This lack of faithfulness started in small ways. King David, not acting out God’s justice on his children. King Solomon, gave way to the worship of foreign god’s through his foreign wives. From there it just kept going downhill to injustice, mistreatment and more, until eventually, the consequence was that Israel could not be trusted with any of it anymore. So it was taken away. As Jesus reminds us, those that prove themselves trustworthy or faithful with a little will be given more, but those who don’t, will have it taken away.
That is what we see with Daniel and his friends from the beginning of the book of Daniel. They practiced their faith in whatever ways they could. At first, it was something as simple as not eating the meat sacrificed to other gods and God consistently blessed them, and their work, and led them so that they were given more. Their faith had met itself in an even more faithful God and the story just continues in showing God’s graciousness.
Today, we get to three great temptations of fear. 1) Following culture 2) Putting our praise somewhere else 3) Putting God to the side. Both stories show us how Babylon and Persia were cultures not following God, just like ours. They have a whole lot of other gods, leaders, and things around them that would try to lead people in another direction that is not God. These two kingly commands to worship the king alone, would have been very regular and part of everyday life. There is a lot in today’s culture that wants to lead us away from God, to follow something else, to have us define our own version of what is good, yet we are meant to be a whole different culture in Christ, a whole new kingdom. We have to follow our cultural leader in Jesus, more than all of this.
Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego were tempted to praise this giant statue of gold. Everyone else was praising it, even the music was. Yet, it didn’t deserve their praise. Idols are very obvious in that they don’t deserve our praise, because they are just objects but everything in this world, doesn’t deserve praise half as much as God does, the one who created it, or Jesus, the one who died for it. In our daily life, it would seem that we are way more willing to give our praise to something that isn’t God. Why? Is death on the line? At every moment, we should be asking, who really deserves our thanks and praise.
Daniel was tempted to stop praying or worshipping God for 30 days. Yet, it would seem that he actually does the opposite. He seems spurred by the command and goes home to pray on his upper floor. He keeps praying three times a day, until one day the other leaders come to his house and trap him. He could have been like us and said, “I’m too busy”, he was leading a third of an empire, he would have had a lot to do. He could have said, “But I’m up for this promotion” or “It's only for a few days”, but he didn’t. How easy is it to put our faith to the side, even for a moment? When it no longer seems beneficial, practical, comfortable, or easy. God is our life and by being faithful, we meet our ever-faithful God. We need God consistently, not just when it seems practical.
Finally, that brings us to the resolution and the redemption of danger. Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego refuse to bow down to this image Nebachanezar has set up. Nebachanezar says, “What god can save you from this?” They say something really important, “Our God can save us from this and we believe he will, but even if he doesn’t we will not bow down and worship”.
The first part is the most essential, we know God can save us and we should believe that he will. The second part is a hard point because we all want salvation, healing, and God to step-in in wonderful ways. We know he can too, but we also know that God knows what is best. We must trust him through all of it. The waiting, the hardship, the danger, the sickness, and more, even to death. He is a trustworthy and faithful God, even if he doesn’t always do what we want Him to do. I’ve seen in my own life, how sometimes I had to lose something to gain something more in him. I know God would have preferred another way, to just give me the thing but it was about what I needed to truly receive it.
Their response enraged Nebachanezar and as a result, he overheats the furnace, binds them, and throws the three of them into the fire. As they stand in the fire, their bindings burn away and they are set free, standing beside one that looks like God. The danger, now becomes the instrument by which they are set free and by which this great community of Babylonian leaders can see and know God.
Practically, the same thing happens with Daniel, he is thrown into a Lion’s den. King Denarius has a little more allegiance to Daniel, so he says, “May the God whom you serve continually, deliver you”. This danger Daniel faces gives the king the opportunity to see Daniel’s faith, and even if just for a moment, join in it. Daniel spends the nights with the lions. The next morning the king asked “Was the God you serve able to deliver you?” Again God sets Daniel free and uses it as an opportunity to show God to the world.
Both times, the king responds by honoring both God and his faithful followers. The kings become defenders of the faith and they send out a grand decree of our God’s wonder and glory. This would have been a huge change of heart because these kings would have depended on their gods because usually, they presented their right as king based on them being a descendant of their god. This would have been an act of great humility for someone whose thrown, somewhat, depended on it.
This is all telling us that the dangers we face are real temptations that try to scare us away from faithfulness, but they don’t have to be stumbling blocks at all. Instead, the dangers are actually the very instrument that allows God to deliver, to be known, and to build relationships with others. As an amazing gift, God will often use danger to build you up too. We can’t be sure how people will react to God and that can be a tough part, but that is just yet another danger we must face with faith, but there is far more good in facing the danger caused by faith.
Lastly, as the 3 went into the blazing furnace and God became present, and as Daniel entered into what should have been his tomb, we should remember God's great power to enter in and overcome all danger, even suffering and death. God became present and was born a human in Jesus, entering the suffering, dangers, and temptations of this world to overcome them and help us do the same. Then Jesus entered into the jaws of death, he lay dead in a tomb for three days and came out the other side so that we too might be delivered even from death. What is left for us to be afraid of if death, suffering, danger, and temptation have all been overcome? What is left, but a powerful and overcoming faith, if only we believe in it and live it out. AMEN.
