Year of Biblical Literacy: A Creative Minority - Giving Allegiance to Jesus Alone

Daniel 3 A Creative Minority Giving Allegiance to Jesus Alone Introduction: If it is your first time joining us - Welcome! We have dedicated this year to Biblical Literacy; meaning we as a church are reading the Bible for ourselves to know first hand what it teaches and in order to be shaped by the story of God. And along with that we are teaching through the Bible on Sunday mornings - the main themes and characters. We are currently doing this mini series called a creative minority using the book of Daniel as Catalyst for how the people of God live faithfully as a religious minority. For the last month or so we’ve been looking at a period of Israel’s history known as the exile or exilic period…The Nation of Judah (the southern kingdom of Israel) after many years of God’s patience, and warning through his prophets - finally received their just judgment. The Babylonians came during the reign of Jehoakim and conquered Jerusalem taking the king, the royal family, court officials, the artist and all the treasure of Jerusalem to Babylon. This begins 70 years of captivity known as the exilic period. As was mentioned - something that is clearly seen in the prophets is the understanding that Yahweh - the personal God of Israel - goes into captivity with his people. He does not forsake them even in their exile and judgment. Now I think most of us know that Israel was a very unique nation and people group and this was because God had chosen Israel of all people on earth to be the one’s through whom he would redeem the world. In order to preserve them God had given the people Israel very distinct laws, a very specific culture and very unique form of worship compared to all the surrounding nations that distinguished them and kept them separated from the rest… of course all of that had been compromised which is what led to their Captivity and judgment. All that to say when the people of God were taken into exile they refused to go into the actual city of Babylon and instead had settled outside of the city walls by the river. Two reasons for this: One - they did not want to be corrupted by the Babylonian pagans… a little late for that maybe… but none the less maybe a new resolve to be loyal to Yahweh the God of Israel? The second is because they believed that it would only be a short while and the captivity would soon be over. God spoke to the Prophet Jeremiah and instructed him to write a letter to these captives You can read it in Jeremiah 29:4-14 But in essence of what God commanded the people is this - go into the city, to make a home there, to settle down - Even to cultivate a life in that city - build houses, plant gardens, eat the produce, marry and give in marriage - grow and cultivate families and SEEK THE PEACE AND PROSPERITY OF THE CITY to which I have carried you into exile. Pray to the LORD for it - because if it prospers, you too will prosper. The call to Israel then is: Be culture makers and influencers through building, gardening, family, working for societal peace and prosperity… Is this a call to a sort of Kingdom of God civil engineering?? Many in our time have seen incredible similarities between the Babylonian captivity and the post Christian era that the church is now living in. Many have grieved the loss of Christendom and Christian influence in our country and culture and have seen this as a kind of judgment of America "the once Christian nation”. Usually the response of these people is like the Jews to flee, or insulate from culture and specifically cultural hubs like large metropolitan areas - because of their moral corruption and impending doom of judgment. Others, myself included, see the Church in terms of what Israel was called by God to do in this passage - The church is called to be a colony of the kingdom of God whatever culture it is in - to pray and work to see God’s kingdom come and his will be done on earth as it is in heaven - We are to be fully involved in the life of our city and culture, working in it and praying for it. At the same time, we are not to adopt it’s cultural ideals and convictions or lose our distinctive identity as God’s holy people.. This is what Daniel and his friends did. Though they were Babylonian in the sense that they worked for the Babylonian government. They dressed Babylonian. They talked Babylonian. They succeeded in Babylon. They had jobs/careers in Babylonian government that they succeeded at. Yet they were very much still faithful as Jewish people. So, part of what the book of Daniel has taught the people of God for centuries – and I hope that it will teach us – is how we live Faithfully to Jesus in a culture that has a competing vision of what it means to be human. That has a competing vision of human flourishing. A competing vision of freedom. A competing vision of life. How do we live in a culture that has a competing vision of life and future and joy and hope and still remain faithful to God's vision of being human, of flourishing, of freedom and of life? 1. Babylon and it’s Civic Religion 1. A little back story since we’re dropping into chapter 3. In chapter 2 King Nebuchadnezzar has a dream about this image or Idol - it’s huge and it’s made up of different sections with all different types of metals - gold, silver, bronze, iron, and a mix of iron and clay - AND then out of nowhere a rock, that is made without hands, rolls and smashes into the image crushing it to dust that the wind blows away while the rock becomes a mountain that fills the whole earth. Nebuchadnezzar has no idea what it means and seeks for a wise man to tell him his dream and the interpretation. God reveals the dream and it’s interpretation to Daniel. Daniel explains that the head of Gold is the kingdom of Babylon specifically Nebuchadnezzar and the other metals are the subsequent kingdoms that will follow - the rock is the everlasting kingdom that God will set up one day and it's glory will fill the whole earth….Nebuchadnezzar is blown away and praises the God of Daniel, He says, "Surely your God is the God of gods and the Lord of kings and a revealer of mysteries, for you were able to reveal this mystery…. Then the king placed Daniel in a high position and lavished many gifts on him. He made him ruler over the entire province of Babylon and placed him in charge of all its wise men. Moreover, at Daniel’s request the king appointed Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego administrators over the province of Babylon, while Daniel himself remained at the royal court. 1. First thing to notice is that Daniel and his friends are in both the royal court and over seeing the provinces of Babylon - they are not hidden from the culture, living the life of hermits, just waiting for the exile to end but they have entered into some of the most influential and powerful positions in the empire in order to govern with God’s principles of righteousness and justice… 2. They are doing what God, through Jeremiah, instructed them to do - to seek the peace and prosperity of the place that God had exiled them to….. 3. We don’t know how much time has passed but in the chapter we just read Nebuchadnezzar has made this image he saw in his dream but he has made the whole statue of Gold - Sending a message that his kingdom, and dynasty will last contrary to the word of the God of Daniel.. He is trying to overturn the word of God but what does that actually mean? Nebuchadnezzar commands that everyone in his kingdom bow to this image whenever they hear the music play 4. Babylon has what is known as a civic religion - it mixes religion and politics. A Civic Religion has three main convictions: 1. Conviction one: the gods have chosen Babylon. They believe that the gods have given favor to Babylon. “That’s why we have conquered every other culture in the known world. Our god is better than your god. My god crushed your god. I took your gods stuff and put them in my gods temple. My god's rule. Our god is the best and he has chosen us.” 2. Second: Babylon and its king are agents of God’s rule, will, salvation and presence among human beings. So, wherever Babylon rules, our gods rule as well. And god has given us power to exert power and authority over the world wherever god wants us to extend our reach. 3. Thirdly: Babylon manifests god’s blessing. So, if you want peace, you have to submit to Babylon. If you want security, peace, justice, flourishing, you will give in to our rule and adopt our morals and principles - to do otherwise is futile - we have the power of the gods behind us… 1. This is what civic religion means. You can swap out Babylon for any nation. 5. Nebuchadnezzar and all his officials and people believe that Babylon defines reality, that Babylon gets to define what's right and wrong in the world, that Babylon defines what success is and what failure is. Babylon defines what hope and happiness is. Babylon is god. That's what's happening here. All of that is being symbolized by this image and the people are forced to pledge allegiance to it. 6. Now something that is very interesting to notice in the Bible is not just the story that is being told but how the story is being told… It is repeated multiple times that the king gives the command to worship his image. The King’s herald is loud and direct in carrying out the decree of the king, and ALL the kings officials, and ALL the people, bow down while this loud music plays.. again this is repeated a number of times in this small section and the author is trying to get us to imagine the immense social pressure to give into what everyone else is doing and adhering to - Everyone is caught up in this nationalistic spirit, celebration and hysteria - the king, the officials, all people, even the artists and musicians are playing it - Give in, give in, bow, bow, bow to this image, give allegiance to Nebuchadnezzar and to Babylon. The repetition used here is to heighten the tension of the story and for the reader to feel the heaviness of this scene in which conformity is normative and disobedience is unthinkable. 7. And yet in the midst of this there are 3 Jews, who are Babylonian officials and they do not and will not bow to this image. What was that like? 1. Here is an interesting Photo * 2. Most of you are probably not familiar with the name John Carlos. But you almost certainly know this image. It's 1968 at the Mexico City Olympics and the medals are being hung round the necks of Tommie Smith (USA, gold), Peter Norman (Australia, silver) and Carlos (USA, bronze). As the Star-Spangled Banner begins to play, Smith and Carlos, two black Americans wearing black gloves, raise their fists in the black power salute. It is a symbol of resistance and defiance, seared into 20th-century history, that Carlos feels he was put on Earth to perform. In this Guardian article he said, ”In life, there's the beginning and the end, The beginning don't matter. The end don't matter. All that matters is what you do in between – whether you're prepared to do what it takes to make change. There has to be physical and material sacrifice. When all the dust settles and we're getting ready to play down for the ninth inning, the greatest reward is to know that you did your job when you were here on the planet.” 1. The image certainly captures that sense of momentary rebellion. But what it cannot do is evoke the human sense of emotional turmoil and individual resolve that made it possible, or the collective, global gasp in response to its audacity. 8. Back to these 3 Jewish men - Everyone else is bowing; they don’t bow. But notice - it’s a quiet protest. They don’t picket, they don’t scream, and denounce Babylon, they don’t mock it’s gods or ideals, they don’t draw any attention to themselves they just don’t bow and wow does it shake things up. It causes a ruckus! 9. They are immediately reported to the King -“Therefore at that time certain Chaldeans came forward and maliciously accused the Jews. They declared to King Nebuchadnezzar, “O king, live forever! You, O king, have made a decree….There are certain Jews whom you have appointed over the affairs of the province of Babylon: Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. These men, O king, pay no attention to you; they do not serve your gods or worship the golden image that you have set up.” - Daniel 3:8-12 10. Tell the rest of the story… 11. Nebuchadnezzar gets super angry, gives them a second chance, threatens their lives.. and asks - Who is the god who will deliver you out of my hands??? 12. Great Response -vs.16 “O Nebuchadnezzar, we have no need to answer you in this matter. 17 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. 18 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.” 1. The King gets super ticked, heats the fire 7 times hotter than normal, and has these men thrown into the fire clothes, hats and all - the fire is so hot it kills the men that throw them in… and then the king sees something - four men in the midst of the fire…he says one looks like a son of the gods?? he calls to the men - come out they come out and they are not even singed, not even the faintest smell of smoke?? - the fire had no power over them! 2. Nebuchadnezzar responds and says, (vs.28) “Blessed be the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, who has sent his angel and delivered his servants, who trusted in him, and set aside[f] the king's command, and yielded up their bodies rather than serve and worship any god except their own God. 29 Therefore I make a decree: Any people, nation, or language that speaks anything against the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego shall be torn limb from limb, and their houses laid in ruins, for there is no other god who is able to rescue in this way.” Then the king promoted Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego in the province of Babylon.” 3. Why didn’t these Jews bow? It probably would have been so easy to justify - will anyone notice anyway? What difference can the 3 of us make against a whole empire? “I’ll bow my knee, but not my heart..If I don’t bow I’ll be seen as an enemy of the state a traitor and I work for the government - I’ll be dishonoring and biting the hand that feeds me… It’s just political..It might seem like a small matter but it’s huge! 4. They didn’t bow because these Jews knew who they were and deep in their convictions and Identity was the the fact that Yahweh, the God of the Jews, was the one true God, who made heaven and earth, and who had made humans in his image and after his likeness. All other god’s and idols are lies and are ripoffs of the one true God and anytime we give ourselves in worship and devotion to what is not the true God we dehumanize ourselves and sell ourselves short 1. “When human beings give their heartfelt allegiance to and worship that which is not God, they progressively cease to reflect the image of God. One of the primary laws of human life is that you become like what you worship; what’s more, you reflect what you worship not only to the object itself but also outward to the world around. Those who worship money increasingly define themselves in terms of it and increasingly treat other people as creditors, debtors, partners, or customers rather than as human beings. Those who worship sex define themselves in terms of it (their preferences, their practices, their past histories) and increasingly treat other people as actual or potential sex objects. Those who worship power define themselves in terms of it and treat other people as either collaborators, competitors, or pawns. These and many other forms of idolatry combine in a thousand ways, all of them damaging to the image-bearing quality of the people concerned and of those whose lives they touch.” ― N.T. Wright, Surprised by Hope: Rethinking Heaven, the Resurrection, and the Mission of the Church 2. What is at stake in the worship of idols is the glory and honor of the one true God, to whom we owe all allegiance, and glory for he made us, and the hope and flourishing of all humanity 2. America’s Civic Religion and Faithful Protest 1. It’s easy to look at this ancient text and think - yeah people were crazy ignorant back then - with their civic religions, myriad of gods, bowing down to Idols… We are so much more enlightened now… 1. Let me start by pointing out the fact that our country has a 300 ft statue and national song that represent the religion of our country - Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness. 2. Michael Gorman writes, “American civil religion values human liberty and rights as a divine gift and considers it, perhaps on par with strength, as one of the highest national values. The protection and furtherance of freedom is therefore a divine mandate and mission. The operative notion of both political corporate and personal, individual freedom is that of God-given, inalienable rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness; an idea derived both from the enlightenment and from one of the most important sacred texts of this civil religion: the Declaration of Independence.” - Michael Gorman - Reading Revelation Responsibly 3. America’s god is liberty and the pursuit of happiness. And what we want to do as Americans is bring that to bear on the world. We think of other nations who are not like us, we call them oppressive. What they do to women is oppressive, what they do in politics is oppressive because they don't think like we think. And we are God's chosen nation and we want to bring liberty and freedom to bear on your nation and we will kill you if we have to in order to protect our freedoms. If you want your country to be great and flourishing like America submit to our way of life, our democratic process, our vision of the pursuit of happiness. You submit to our way of life and you’ll have true flourishing. 1. Now maybe you are not of this nationalistic mindset - but just for a minute think about what we do as Californians - The rest of the US needs to catch up with our identity politics, our immigration and refugee policies; our pollution and energy policies - the rest of the nation is so backwards and we are so progressive! You want our flourishing - submit to our way of life, submit to our vision… 2. You think this is really any different to what took place in Babylon? It’s not - maybe in our time it’s a bit more subtle the idols we worship aren’t usually images that we bow to or maybe we’re just numb to it because it is so prevalent - and don’t realize how much we sacrifice to career, to beauty, to power, to fame, to sex, to freedom and to our own personal happiness. 3. So who are we? Are we first and foremost American Citizens, Californians, with this group or that group or are we first and foremost Citizens of the Kingdom of God - People who have been purchased by the blood of Jesus Christa and are under his reign? Who are we? A question that Shadrach, Meshach and Abedneggo probably asked themselves - Their actions flowed from their identity, and so will ours.. 4. And here is the protest piece - though God calls us to live in this country, and be good citizens of it, to pray for it, to pursue the peace and prosperity of the city he’s called us to - We Christians, live our lives in protest to our culture by being loyal to Jesus our King and His vision for the world; what He believes about life and love and freedom and joy and sex and money and power. And so just like these Jews in Babylon there are going to be things in our culture and about our country that we must say NO to, in order to be loyal to Jesus, and to our identity as the people of God, in order to be faithful to who God has redeemed us to be. 5. "Many in the wider culture do not share the stories and metaphors that shape us as Christians. Our Christian lives are lived on the border between the world into which we were born and another country, another city. The church is shaped by a vision of God's kingdom, the ordering of human life by an alternative vision. Christians belong to the church, the body of Christ, a community that confesses loyalty to Jesus Christ, who calls it to live a way of life that places Christians in profound tension with many of the fundamental values of the larger culture. Christians belong to an alternative culture - the people of God.. though they share many of the cultural identities with their fellow North Americans, their existence as citizens also makes them 'aliens' in their own country. To put it another way, Christian existence involves polarities that pull us in opposite directions and sometimes seem like contradictions, yet must be held together in creative tensions.” -Duane Friesen, Artist, Citizens, and Philosophers 6. Just like in this story we might not be protected from the fire, but God will be with us through whatever fire, oppression and attack comes - He promises his presence to his people to his church until the end. 1. And let me just say that like these three men who yielded up their bodies rather than compromise, who did not fear the king so all those that are in Jesus truly have nothing to fear - For inChrist and under our king - we have already been killed, buried, risen again, justified and glorified - our hope our joy is secure in the king and kingdom of God 7. And besides all that we never know how God might use even the smallest faithful protest to turn the hearts of people to him, to put his power, his kingdom, his life and vision for human flourishing on display that people might see that no god, no philosophy, is able to rescue like our God!!! 1. How might God be calling us in our lives, in our families, with our neighbors, in our jobs with coworkers, bosses or employees to protest the status quo and to be faithful to his reign and kingdom? Holy Spirit - enlighten our hearts and lives - illuminate so that we can properly assimilate your word and live in faithfulness to our Savior and king, Jesus Christ - for your glory and the salvation of the world we pray - Amen