Faithful in Babylon | Unbowed

Good morning. It's great to see you.

It's great to be together today. If we have not met, my name is

Josh. I have the joy of serving as

pastor here at the Garden. Well, this morning we are in

week four of our series through the book of Daniel titled

faithful in Babylon. And and today we get to this

fascinating story. This is a jam packed story all

in Daniel chapter 3 here that that a lot of if you grew up in

Daniel 3 · chapter mention

church, you know this one because it's in every children's

Bible. This is like one of the the the

the greatest hits Sunday school stories of Daniel's three

friends in the fiery furnace. I want to suggest to you this

morning that this isn't just a kids Bible story.

This is actually a profound story about allegiance and the

way in which fear tempts us to slip out of integrity.

Shortly after I moved to Boston, I was playing host to some

friends who were in from out of town.

They were visiting. And so we were going around the

city and doing all of the touristy things.

And on this particular day, we had been walking from kind of

government Centre across towards the North End and, and something

caught our attention in the Plaza there in front of Faneuil

Hall. Maybe you've been in that area

or passed through. I feel like normal Bostonians

don't actually ever go there. But but, but on this day, there

was a crowd gathered around a group of St. performers.

And they had they had a jam session, you know, they had

their their portable speakers. And there was this dance troupe

of young, extremely fit Jamaican and black guys out there doing

this just incredible dance routine with flips and spins and

breaking and all kinds of stuff, along with a generous amount of

crowd work. And we weren't in a hurry.

So on this day, I was like, you know, what's going on?

Let's check this out. So we peeked forward, like, kind

of what's going on? I, like, kind of found a spot to

peer in between the crowd. And as soon as I did, the MC,

the dude with a mic calls out. He's like, for this next part,

we need some volunteers. I need a couple of tall white

guys. And he looked right at me.

And I knew at that moment already that I was toast.

Like, like before I had a chance to back away, one of his

associates is there grabbing me by the arm, pulling me into the

middle of the circle. And he's, you know, we're giving

it up for the tall, sexy, rich white guys.

Come on. And so here I am in the middle

of this circle, 200 people downtown Boston.

And in the next few moments, you know, there's a choreography

that occurs, right? You know, step in this way.

He got to do a power Superman stance.

And before you know it, I am all of a sudden, I think serving as

a backup dancer for what can only be described as a scene

that probably like the vibes were Usher, but the cast were

middle-aged, out of shape white guys.

It was it was, it was one of the more embarrassing moments of my

life. But I tell you this humiliating

story because it's it makes an interesting point.

And that point is, you know, at no point in this process did

anybody hold a gun to my head, right?

I was not forced to do this, even though if you would have

asked me earlier in the day, what are the probabilities of

you doing a sexy, hip thrusting, gyrating dance in front of

strangers downtown Boston, I would have said very low.

It was not on my bingo sheet for the day.

But all of a sudden I ended up in this space where there was a

choreography, there was social pressure, and you take one step

and then you take another step and before you know it, you're

in a space doing things that don't feel like you at all.

And I tell this story because I think it has some parallels to

what we see here in the book of Daniel in chapter 3.

See, in Daniel chapter 3, we find that the Babylonian emperor

Daniel 3 · chapter mention

Nebuchadnezzar, who we talked about a lot last week, has built

a giant gleaming 9 story tall golden statue.

He, he set it up and, and then he summons people.

The officials from across the empire, from every people group,

every province, everybody's got to be there.

Show up to the plain of Dora to check out this new phenomenon.

Of course, they take the steps. They got an invitation from the

king. And so one after the other, they

all arrive there in the plain of Dora.

Music starts to play. There's the social lubricant,

and then before you know it, a herald gives them their next

step. He says you must fall down and

worship the image. Not only that, but in verse 6,

whoever does not bow will immediately be thrown into a

blazing for furnace. Now there's some really

interesting imagery here, especially if you were with us

last week when TC walked through Daniel's or the King's vision

that Daniel interpreted, which happens right before this in

Daniel chapter 2. This is fascinating because you

Daniel 2 · chapter mention

may remember that in in Daniel chapter 2, God gives the king a

Daniel 2 · chapter mention

vision of a statue. And sure enough, the king is

represented by like the golden head of this statue.

But do you remember what happens?

Like the rest of the statue is not made of gold, and this

stone, not carved by human hands, comes tumbling along,

knocks the statue down and supplants it.

God has just given the king a, a, a vision, the emperor a a

kind of a directive of like your Kingdom, your power, your

authority is limited. There's an end date on this.

There's a time stamp. You are not ultimate.

So what happens? He receives that in deep

humility and contemplates his mortality and limits.

No, he does what emperors do. He's like, let me build a giant

statue, right? Let's cover it in gold.

Let's make everybody worship, everybody fall down.

And this is the mode of empire that we met last week.

The the image tells a lie. God says Babylon is not

ultimate. You're not the whole story.

Your Kingdom is partial and temporary and he says what is

God has said is fragile, I call eternal.

What you say is partial, I say is ultimate.

He takes what is afraid and he dresses it up in gold.

And look, this is not just an art project.

And the parallels to today are a little uncomfortably obvious,

are they not? I don't like getting political.

But like I can't read this and not think about the fact that

like the leader of our country is sending around images with

massive golden statues in Miami posting to social media about

the the massive golden images of himself.

Like we live in a moment that is in some ways very different and

in some ways the lust for power, the grandiosity, the the

delusional self promotion. It's as present today as it ever

was. But the point here is, is not

just grandiosity. It's what empire then does with

this grandiosity to force control and subjugation the way

that it puts pressure on individual people to slip out of

their integrity and conform. And I think this is important

because, as we talked about last week, we live in a moment of

anxiety that is producing the impulses of empire.

A desire to control, a desire to manage in this stream of fear

and control is very much running through at least a significant

portion of the church in America.

In this imagination, the church thinks like if we don't take the

country back, then we risk losing it.

It seeks to mobilize us all in a, a political fight to oppose

the forces of, of wokeness, right?

It, it says the, the, the goal here is, is control is making

sure that we have our morals, our politicians, our policies,

that we're central. We've got to leverage and

mobilize the architecture of empire to make this happen.

Friends, this is the way of the empire, not the way of the

cross. I want to be very clear this

morning that this anxiety system that is infected, even the

church, it is running through the machinery of the state.

And, and every time this happens, well, I can understand

the anxiety. I can appreciate the discomfort.

When we choose to run on the emperor's playbook, we

inevitably end up losing our own souls.

But as we look at this situation, as we look at this

story in Daniel 3 and the pressure exerted on these three

Jewish kids, still young men, they're at the base of this

statue with everybody else facing the pressure to conform,

to go along with the music, to, to declare their allegiance.

I think we have to ask, I asked as I sat with this text this

week, where do, where do I feel this pressure?

Where does the pressure for me show up to conform?

Like where in my in my soul do I experience the rub, the pull to

shift out of integrity and into something that can form

something that gets social reward.

And for me, Christian nationalism, while absolutely a

problem is, is not the temptation.

And maybe not for you either. I know most of you, many of you,

I don't think that that's the go to for a lot of us.

But I know that we live in a moment in a space where perhaps

for the first time in a long time, you don't get social kudos

generally for being a Christian, for talking about your faith.

We're a little bit weird, right? There has been a shift from some

assumptions, a moment that that the social scientists call

Christendom, where essentially naming that you're a Christian,

being a Christian showing up to church was, was a pretty good

move, regardless of what you thought about the spiritual

implications of it. Like socially, you've met some

people who had some connections, right?

You got some positive kudos from it.

And I can tell you that that has all slid not only because the

social scientists tell me that and say that we are now in a

post Christian moment, but also because I have introduced myself

as a pastor many times in conversation at a party in

Boston and just watch the room like go frigid.

All of a sudden, that person who immediately before was talking

freely and sharing about their life start apologizing for

cursing earlier in the conversation as though I'm like

somehow the agent of God to bring retrofusion on you for

saying a four letter word. Like we're, we're in a, a, a

different space now where sometimes the social pressure

actually runs in the other way, to self edit to hide those parts

of our self that don't jive with those around us for fear of, of

what others might think, what others might say, how others

might imagine us in the stories they might tell if we were in

integrity with our faith, if we were really honest about what we

knew to be true. And this is the question for

Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego in this text that they faced

this morning. They're on the plane of Doras.

Everybody is following the choreography.

Everybody is bowing. Everybody is stepping to the

tune of the King's drum. The question is, what will they

do? Will they too follow suit?

And in fact, they don't. But we read here that after the

instructions are given, after the horn and the flute and the

zither and the wire and the harp play that in fact they do not

fall down. And the people around them are

tattle tales. Man, these, these, these folk

out here are some snitches. They immediately come and

they're like, let me tell you what those guys did.

They probably didn't like them already.

And isn't it true sometimes, like sometimes when we when we

actually stand in our integrity, when everybody else is bowing,

then it makes other people uncomfortable and makes other

people not like us. You know what I mean?

Like I remember working at an employer that will remain

unnamed in the previous season of life that had just a super

toxic culture, to be honest. And, and the one way that us Co

workers and employees bonded was by talking crap about everybody,

right? Everybody was just the bosses,

this, the customers suck that, you know, that other guy that

you know, that was the whole culture, everybody.

This was how we connected. And I was part of it for a

while. And then I remember one day the

Holy Spirit came in and he was like, you're, you're being

really mean. You're you're gossiping about

people behind their backs. Like this is not an integrity.

This is gross. Like what are you?

What are you doing, man? And I, I felt that and I kind of

repented, had to make some apologies.

And then I, I like shifted my communication so everybody else

is talking crap about the others.

And, you know, I would like say something neutral.

And there's this just this scornful look that comes my way.

And well, that was awfully diplomatic, you know.

Now, because I've chosen not to participate, I become at the

centre of the contempt of the scorn.

Do you know what I'm talking about?

You felt what I'm talking about. And look, I want to be very

clear, because in Daniel Chapter 3, we find an emperor with the

Daniel 3 · chapter mention

power of the state. He's got a fiery furnace, he's

got soldiers, He's able to take people and throw their bodies

into the fire. This is not an eye roll, a

brunch, right? There are differences.

There are levels to how this kind of power, this kind of

social power can exert itself. And I'm not by any stretch of

the imagination trying to, to, to, to make them all the same.

They are not. What I do want us to be

attentive to though, friends, is the ways in which systems of

empire, systems of anxiety, systems of evil try to prop

themselves up at the expense of others and use anxiety to

control us, to loop us in, to, to pull us out of integrity.

I don't know how that happens for you, but I bet that

somewhere in your life that you feel that pull, you feel that

tension, that that tension to hide, to go along, to pretend to

self edit to, to be a little bit more acceptable.

And, and you're not likely, I hope, I think trying to avoid a

fiery furnace, right? Your life hopefully doesn't

depend on it right now, in this moment, in this place.

Maybe it's like you're standing in your family.

If that person says that thing and you interject and interrupt

it. And then the judgement that

comes from everybody for being the person who disrupted the

status quo, the peace, the tranquility that we've all

agreed on is important. Maybe it becomes that stepping

out in your company or in your friend group, deciding to not go

to the strip club for the bachelor party.

And maybe it's that, that small step where you where you just

say, like, look, I'm not over here trying to kick down the

statue. I, I, I'm not staging a counter

protest. I just am not going to bow down

like this takes me out of integrity and I will stand in my

faith. Sometimes we're called to make a

stand. A couple weeks ago, we looked at

all of the options that Daniel and his friends took to

negotiate, to make requests, to, to, to, to, to work within the

system. Sometimes that's an option and

sometimes it's not. Sometimes a moment of conscience

and crisis comes where we just have to say, this is the side I

am on. This is what I believe.

And in that moment they're very often is a is a pressure,

there's a cost, there's a consequence if we choose to

refuse the pressure to perform the ritual and bow to the King's

music. Here the the cost was high.

The the the scenario was was dangerous.

Here, Shadrach, Meshal and Abednego, if they denied this,

they were to be thrown immediately into the blazing

furnace we read in verse 6. So of course they don't.

We see. And then the king proposes what

I, I imagine from his perspective feels like mercy.

He says, hey guys, look, I want to make sure you're crystal

clear on the consequences of refusing my decree.

I'm going to give you one more chance.

And if you defy me, you're done. Straight into the fiery furnace

you go. And Shadrack, Michel and

Azariah, they say, look, King, we don't.

We don't need another chance. And I love how they respond to

this. It's so powerful.

They say here. Got to find where they say here,

they say. In verse #16 we don't need to

defend ourselves before you in this matter.

If we're thrown into the blazing furnace, the God we serve is

able to deliver us from it. And who will deliver us from

Your Majesty's hand? And then comes perhaps the most

important and the most significant line in all of the

texts here in verse 18. He's they say.

But even if he does not, we want you to know, Your Majesty, that

we will not serve your gods or worship the image that you have

set up. So we know what happens in this

story. We'll talk about it in just a

minute. In this moment, these men, these

young men, go against the grain of what everyone else is doing.

They stand up in their integrity.

They are faithful, they are courageous, and they are saved.

But I want to be honest. That's not always how this story

goes like that is a true story which occurs.

I believe this really happened in Scripture, but it's not

always the way it goes. A Dietrich Bonhoeffer protested

in Nazi journey and he was executed.

At the end of Hebrews Chapter 11.

Hebrews 11 · chapter mention

We read this whole history of people who who lived in faith

and were killed. There's a, a book that I, I read

growing up called Fox's book of Martyrs, which details story

after story of people who lived for their faith with the

apostles too. And, and here's my point in

saying this is that what I'm telling you this morning, what

I'm suggesting to you, what I'm promising you is not a, a get

out of jail free card. The, the, the moral of this

story is not like, if you do the right thing, then God will bail

you out and you won't have to pay any consequences.

You are on the right side and therefore you will win.

That's actually the story of Christian nationalism.

That's the story of Christendom. That's not the story of

Scripture, because what we actually see in this story is,

is that they go into the furnace.

The king is is filled with rage, The text tells us at their

refusal. See earlier, when they were just

making some dietary choices that were different, that could

happen in private, The king was OK with that.

They were willing to make some accommodations.

But this time, this time their defiance demonstrated to all of

Babylon that there was another way, a way of not submitting to

the king, a way of following another empire, a way of faith

and courage. And that is the thing that

scares scared leaders the most, demonstrating that we all don't

have to follow, that the emperor doesn't actually have clothes,

that this is actually nonsense. And so when they break free,

it's a tremendous threat to the king of Babylon.

And he says, I will not stand it.

They turn the furnace up. They take their strongest guys

and they Chuck them straight away right into the blaze.

And this is so cool because I love this, like it.

If, if I were to have thought about how God rescued, how God

intervened in this situation, I don't think I could have come up

with such a cool story because God doesn't do what I think we

would have prayed for or thought about.

He doesn't like to change the King's heart.

Like the king doesn't stop being an evil dictator.

He doesn't, you know, somehow quiet the blaze.

He, he doesn't like, give them invisibility cloaks so that they

can bail out. They go straight into the fire.

The fire is lethal. It it eats up everyone around

it, consuming even the soldiers that threw them in.

But to these men who have been faithful, all the fire can

consume is their chains, the things that bind them.

Those are consumed, and the men stand there free, walking around

in the flame. And this is such a cool moment

in the story. It's so compelling.

In this moment. The king looks in, expecting for

them to be silenced, expecting for them to be snuffed out,

expecting for his his rule and his authority and the fear by

which he exerts control on everyone to be reinforced.

He looks into the fire expecting to see nothing but ash and

instead sees not three men before King is like what is

going on? And the text records that that

the 4th appears like a son of the gods.

Jesus is with them in the fire. Man, I get goosebumps thinking

about that. Like is anybody else excited?

Are you guys asleep like this? Come on, this is like this is so

cool, right? Like Jesus meets them in the

fire and I wonder, I have to wonder like was Jesus there the

whole time? I wonder if that's actually like

he was hanging out. I, I mean, I can tell you this,

I don't think that they experience Jesus if they're not

faithful to their conscience, if they don't risk it, if they

don't enter the fire, They didn't, they didn't get to

experience the presence of Jesus before they made a stand.

They made a risk. But but Jesus says, man, if

you're not ashamed of me on that final day, I won't be ashamed of

you either. And this is what we see here.

These men step out in faith, in courage and believe, not in the

belief that this is all going to work out, that God has a perfect

plan for your life. And then I'm going to end up

rich and famous and and healthy and wealthy because I did the

faithful thing. They say we believe God can show

up. We think he will.

But even if he doesn't, we're going to stand in our integrity.

Friends, where does this hit for you this morning?

Where is the pressure in your life to to bow?

Maybe just a little to self edit, to minimize, to present a,

a version of you forward at, at at work, in your family, with

your classmates or your housemates or your friends,

maybe even here in the church. It's like a little bit more

attractive in this way where you slip a little bit out of

integrity where everybody else is doing it.

And so you just keep the choreography going and you say,

like, that's not that big of a deal.

They could have done that. Daniel's friends could have,

they could have said, well, this is this is just my yoga pose for

the day. I'm not really bowing in my

heart. I'm standing up, but they said

no, this is a line and I'll stand even if it costs me

friends. What might it look like for us

to be a community that really believes that following Jesus is

worth it? Like, not because we're culture

warriors and need to attack the other side.

Not because we, you know, are so certain that we have all the

right answers and need to insist and, and battle, but simply to

be people of integrity who, who, who deeply read and wrestle with

the scriptures, who follow our Lord.

And then when all of culture is running in the other direction,

even if it costs us, even when we say, like, man, I really want

a partner right now, but I haven't found somebody who

shares my values. Man, I I like, I'm lonely and

I'd love to be having sex with this person right now, but I'm

going to wait on covenantal union.

Where are we going to take those, those moments where we

pause and when we say, hey, like, I want to be in integrity,

not, and not because of some social pressure, but because

actually I believe Jesus that you are the way, the truth, the

life that you know better, that your way is life in flourishing.

And so even if everybody's running in the opposite

direction, I'm going to be faithful and I'm going to follow

you, not because I'm better than them, but because I trust you,

even if it costs me. I want to be faithful.

I want to be unbowed, friends, as we enter into a time of

reflection and response this morning, where's the rub for you

here? Like I know that it's present

for me. I'm not the Holy Spirit up here

this morning trying to to tell you the things in your life you

need to fix. But but if you're listening, I

bet the Holy Spirit is highlighting some things for

you. Are you willing to take a stand

of courage to be faithful even if people are going in the other

direction, to be somebody who is willing to pay a price to trust

Jesus? Friends, I think if we do, we

will experience His power, we will experience his presence,

and we will be a witness that even the Emperor has to come

face to face with and say I cannot control, I cannot

explain. There's something there that's

different. May we be such a people.