"A Higher Authority"
Sermon on Daniel 3:1-30
September 3, 2006
Badin United Methodist Church
Rev. J. Curtis Goforth, O.S.L.
I heard an interview with a lady who has always been one of the most respected preachers in America. It became known somehow that she didn’t watch television. The interviewer asked her why it was that she didn’t watch television and she replied, “It’s because the advertisements do such a good job at making me believe that I need their products. When I see a Samsung cellular phone floating around in the clouds five times in the course of an hour I actually start believing that I need a Samsung cell phone.”
Now, I could never go so far as to not watch television, but I too am a terrible sucker for advertising. This past Christmas season, my wife and I were in Bed, Bath, and Beyond and she saw one of those Shiatsu massaging chair inserts. We both sat down and treated ourselves to a massage while we looked at the many features that could be ours for a mere $99.00. That shiatsu massager made my back and neck feel so good. I felt like a new man, and then I noticed their advertising slogan: “Makes you feel human again.” I wasn’t even aware of the fact that I didn’t feel human until I read their advertisement! But after reading it I was totally convinced that I needed that massaging chair just to feel human again. They had convinced me that I lived in a different world than the one I was living in.
But, not all advertising slogans are bad. For years the Army had an advertising slogan that was great, “Be All That You Can Be.” But for some reason, they have abandoned it in favor of this “An Army of One” business??? I personally have never seen an army of one, nor would I ever want to join an army of one, I don’t like my odds of surviving that tour. But my favorite advertising slogan ever belongs to (of all things) a hot dog producer. Hebrew National’s slogan is “We Answer to a Higher Authority.” This is because Hebrew National is a Jewish company that produces only kosher foods. This company is more concerned about producing foods that fit the stringent requirements of what can be considered kosher than about simply turning a profit, although I am sure they turn a substantial one.
“We answer to a higher authority.” I like that. It reminds me of the Old Testament lesson today from Daniel 3 and the story of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego in the fiery furnace. It may help for us to know a little bit of the background behind this story to understand it a little better. Daniel is one of those books of the Bible that is part history book. King Nebuchadnezzar sacked the whole of Jerusalem and took anybody who was anybody away into exile in Babylon, modern day Iraq. He took three Jewish princes named Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah and trained them up for the royal court in Babylon. They learned the Persian language and literature, they lived in the royal palace, they were fed from the royal table…well, sort of.
You see, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego (the names Nebuchadnezzar gave the three princes) refused to eat from the royal table. They wanted kosher foods. They “answered to a higher authority” and they would only eat vegetables and drink water. After three years’ time, the king examined his group of recruits and found that Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego were the three best fit in his whole court. They had even grown fat off of the vegetables and water! He rewarded them by placing Daniel in charge of Babylon and letting Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego help him in that capacity.
However, Nebuchadnezzar has a golden statue erected and he orders all his royal courts to come to the dedication. Everyone there is told to bow down and worship this golden statue as soon as they hear the music or they will be thrown into a fiery furnace. The Chaldeans take notice of the Jews and they see that as everyone else is bowing down to this statue that the Jews Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego aren’t.
The Chaldeans tell the king that the Jewish princes are not following orders and that they are not bowing down to worship this golden statue, and the king is absolutely livid. He calls for them immediately and reminds them of the situation they are in. He gives them a choice that their lives depend on. They can bow down and worship the statue when the trumpets sound, or they can be thrown into a fiery furnace. Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego when faced with this terrible situation of deny God or deny themselves their very lives decide that they have a higher authority than Nebuchadnezzar to answer to and refuse again to worship the golden statue.
The tell him, “O Nebuchadnezzar, we have no need to present a defense to you in this matter. If our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the furnace of blazing fire and out of your hand, O king, let him deliver us. But if not, be it known to you, O king, that we will not serve your gods and we will not worship the golden statue that you have set up."
Nebuchadnezzar is filled with rage and he orders the furnace to be heated up to seven times its customary heat. He orders some of the strongest men in his army (notice, not an army of one, but of many), to bind the Jewish princes and throw them into the fiery furnace to cook them up like kosher hot dogs. Now, the king had ordered the furnace to be made so hot, that as these soldiers lifted them to throw them into the fire, the soldiers themselves were killed immediately because the heat was so terrible. And down went Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego into the fiery furnace to their deaths.
But Nebuchadnezzar noticed that it looked like there were four men walking around unbound in the furnace. He asked his guards just to make sure that there were only three men bound and they told him that was indeed the case. He looked even closer and noticed that one of those four figures in the furnace had the appearance of a god, and he noticed that none of the men were even being harmed by the flames.
So Nebuchadnezzar called to the princes and told them to come out. All the king’s royal court had gathered around by this point and they saw with their own eyes Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego come out of the furnace and not so much as a hair on their heads was singed, even their clothes were fine. Nebuchadnezzar realized very quickly that he was not the higher authority after all. He made a decree that anybody who said anything derogatory about the God of Jews would be torn limb from limb and their house destroyed. He was in utter disbelief that Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego’s God could work like that. Finally, he promoted even them.
Now, most of us don’t live in royal palaces, eat royal food, and learn how to be royalty. And, we don’t exactly find ourselves faced with the alternative of worshipping a golden statue or being thrown into a furnace. In fact, there are probably very few of us who even care what brand of hot dog we are eating. Nonetheless, this story has a lot to teach us.
We all have a higher power to answer to in Christ our Lord. The golden statues we are tempted to worship take on forms that are much harder to identify. But every day we are tempted to do things that run contrary to our faith. Every day we are tempted to say things that are not in keeping with the way Christ would have us to act. Everyday. As followers of Christ, we have to answer to a higher authority in the way we treat others and in the way that we live our own lives and the things we worship.
Do you find yourself thinking about something more than you think about God? Guess what—-that which you think about more than God is your golden statue! You have a choice of who to answer to. Choose wisely. Your very life depends on it. Amen.
