Subscribe
Share
Share
Embed
Daniel Chapter 3
Sermons from Commons Church. Intellectually honest. Spiritually passionate. Jesus at the centre. Since 2014.
I get angry at injustice, inequality, anyone who rides a motorbike to loudly up 17th Ave. I mean, come on now.
Speaker 2:Welcome to the CommonsCast. We're glad to have you here. We hope you find something meaningful in our teaching this week. Head to commons.church for more information.
Speaker 1:Hi, everyone. It's so good to be with you today in the livestream. If we haven't met, I'm Bobbie, and I'm a pastor here at Commons. I'm even a pastor in your living room. I'm a pastor in your Instagram story.
Speaker 1:I'm a pastor in your Zoom calls. This is church in the time of COVID nineteen, so you just never know where my face might show up. Now, while there is a lot of pressure in the time of COVID nineteen, of course, economic pressure, family pressure, relationship pressure, there is also a flip side to pressure, And that's creativity. When you have walls around you, you find new ways to decorate the walls and knock windows into the walls and try new hobbies so the walls don't crush you to death. Well, whether you like it or not, obstacles and walls and social distancing all have the potential to open up creativity.
Speaker 1:And my hope is that we explore creativity in constructive rather than destructive ways because harm is real too. Well, last week, we began our series called How to Be Angry. And How to Be Angry is a series I've been internally writing for years. And I joked a week ago that you might wonder what I have to be so angry about. And I tell you everything, but you know, why not start with a list?
Speaker 1:I get angry at injustice, inequality, anyone who rides a motorbike to loudly up 17th Ave. I mean, come on now. I get angry at abuse and domestic violence and politics that manipulates our fear. I get angry at sexism and racism and the words, Bobby, you can't do that because watch me. Unless, of course, it's sports, I actually can't do sports.
Speaker 1:I get angry at being boxed in and being left out, and I get angry at my husband, but only when I haven't had enough food to eat because I need snacks. I get angry all the time, and I'll say it again. I'm not sad about that. The goal with anger is to listen to it, to welcome its alert mechanism, to let it wake you up to what matters most. But anger is not easy.
Speaker 1:Sometimes our anger is repressed, and other times our anger is full on rage. Our anger series looks at narratives in the Old Testament book of Daniel. And I really dig these post exilic works in the scriptures. The people closest to the text are deep in the human struggle of finding meaning in hard times. But tough times can lead to great questions like, who are we?
Speaker 1:And what matters to us? And where did we go wrong? Last Sunday, we spoke about how to be angry at God. And in the story from Daniel, the character of Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon, has a very bad dream. And he demands that the wise men in his court tell him what the dream means, only he wants them to interpret the dream cold without any clue about its content.
Speaker 1:If they can't do it, the king says he'll kill them and turn their homes into rubble. Enter Daniel, a handsome Jewish man who prays to God and talks the demand over with his best buds and then goes to bed. And when he wakes up, he knows what the dream means. Now, when we go through hard times, when life doesn't work out the way that we want it to, when our needs are unmet, we are tempted to blame God. But again and again in the scriptures, the people practice radical responsibility.
Speaker 1:They trust that no matter what, God is near. Even after they've messed up and live in the land of their enemies. So our anger at God can be transformed into wonder, at God's ability to take all that's wrong in the world and make something beautiful in its place. Today, we're in Daniel three, and we'll talk about how to be angry at others. So your outline is this.
Speaker 1:Part one, gold gods. Part two, power to challenge. Part three, hot, hot fury. And part four, a friend in the fire. But before we turn to Daniel chapter three, please join me in prayer.
Speaker 1:Let us pray. Loving God, source of all that is, we take just a moment to check-in with ourselves. Is there something uncomfortable in our spirit? Is there something uneasy in our mind? Is our body aching, sore, antsy?
Speaker 1:God, may you bring clarity to these sensations. And for those of us who are feeling joyful, present to what is, rested and creative, We're so grateful for that respite. It's likely that many of us feel a whole mix of all of this. And even in the mix, God, you are near. So spirit, engage our imaginations today.
Speaker 1:We're so grateful for the endless ways that you speak to us. Amen. The story begins like this. King Nebuchadnezzar made an image of gold and it's 60 cubits high and six cubits wide and set it up in the Plain Of Dura in the province of Babylon. Then the powerful king starts summoning.
Speaker 1:He summons the satraps, the prefects, the governors, advisers, treasurers, judges, and magistrates. Everyone who is everyone to assemble before the gold God that he made. And a messenger proclaims, attention, everyone, every race, color, and creed. As soon as you hear the horn, flute, zither, lyre, harp and pipe fall on your knees and worship the gold statue that King Nebuchadnezzar has set up, anyone who does not kneel will be thrown into a roaring furnace. Gulp.
Speaker 1:The messenger steps aside. His legs are trembling and the band begins to play. The text reads, all the nations and peoples of every language fell down and worshiped the image of gold that king Nebuchadnezzar had set up. Quite a start to a story. Right?
Speaker 1:Well, let's think about these gold god measurements for a moment. They are strange proportions, 60 cubits high and six cubits wide, which is 27 meters high and 2.7 meters wide. So wait for it. Wait for it. I mean, that can't be.
Speaker 1:No gold statue can stand with proportions like that. But that's the point. The story is satire. It's meant to show how ridiculous it is to demand worship of a thing that can't even stand up. And masterfully, the story uses long lists to take all that is different and distinct and colorful and blend it into one homogenous gray group before one gold god.
Speaker 1:All those different jobs in the king's court, all those instruments that play different sounds in the open air, all those people from far off nations with different dress and different languages here, All that diversity is erased. When the king says, I don't care what makes you different, what makes you unique, what formed your story, who you say you love, what God is like for you. You belong to me now. And I say you worship this gold god or you'll be thrown into the furnace I've stoked to have you killed. The gold god is a symbol that still resonates.
Speaker 1:I mean, you don't think we've left all the Nebuchadnezzars in the past, do you? When power shapes a system to erase difference and collapse history and demands not only your dollar but your soul, the result is to fall in line or get angry and rebel. It's like this. Bow to white supremacy or sit on the side of the one who was gunned down. Bow to patriarchy or move over so she can have her turn to speak.
Speaker 1:Bow to markets that preference the powerful or choose sustainable ways to form economies. I mean, what makes us forget who we are and bow before what we are not? What do we lose when we all talk the same and walk the same and believe the exact same thing? I mean, what anger festers inside of us when we are stripped of our distinct selves? Well, the stories in Daniel remind the people that they had known this pressure to conform.
Speaker 1:But there were these times when they found the power to resist. So next we move from the crowd to an exchange between a few men and the king. And there's a complaint and it goes like this. The men say to the king, I mean, we all know the rules about worship. You say whoever does not bow before the statue will be thrown into a blazing furnace, and we're down with that.
Speaker 1:But there are some Jewish men whom you have put in places of power. Their names are Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. And they are not listening to your orders. They do not worship the gold God. Now verses thirteen and fourteen read, furious with rage, Nebuchadnezzar summoned Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego.
Speaker 1:So these men were brought before the king and Nebuchadnezzar said to them, is it true Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego that you do not serve my gods or worship the image of gold I have set up? In his anger, the king reminds the men that if they do not conform, they will be thrown into the blazing furnace to which they say, we do not need to defend ourselves before you in this matter. If the God we serve is able to deliver us, then God will deliver us from the blazing furnace and from your majesty's hand. But even if God does not, we want you to know your majesty that we will not bow before the gold God you have made. I mean, it's like a mic drop.
Speaker 1:Bold move, gentlemen. Take that. I mean, though, does it seem like Shadrach, Meshach, Abednego are unreasonably calm here? Like, why aren't they defensive? Why don't they yell back?
Speaker 1:Why can't we sense fear here? Well, the ancient text seems to know something about healthy anger. But first, let's examine the extremes. On one end of anger's continuum is this reactive expression, and that's most definitely Nebuchadnezzar's go to, fury, rage, like violence against others. But the other end of anger's continuum is habitual suppression.
Speaker 1:You suppress anger when you think you don't have a right to be angry. When you believe your anger will make you unlovable. Or when you bottle your feelings and think that you can handle everything by yourself. But here's the deal, both reaction and suppression can make you and your relationships sick. There is a better way to be mad at others.
Speaker 1:A healthy way with anger is to notice and name and express how we feel. To notice it and name it and express how we feel. And Orangay Sofer calls this emotional agility. And we see agility in the three men in the story. Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego don't shirk away nor do they rage.
Speaker 1:They plant their feet and confront the abusive power of the king. Now here's the truth about anger. We actually feel anger in our bodies as anxiety, shortness of breath and tightness of muscles and strain in our vocal cords. And that makes sense because anger has this attacking energy which can feel like it threatens our relationships. But when we process anger in healthy ways, when we feel it and learn from it and express it, we can actually relax.
Speaker 1:And Alan Kelpin, a physician and psychotherapist cited by Gaber Mate in his work on stress puts it like this. Healthy anger is an empowerment and a relaxation. And no one says confrontation is easy or that you'll always get where you want to go. But three words are profound. When we hear them in the mouths of Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego, they say, we will not.
Speaker 1:Gosh, like that is such good anger. Those three words expose the lies that the king presents as truth. The king says, there is only one way to worship. There is only one way to belong. There is only one way to stay alive.
Speaker 1:Bow. Bow before this thing that I have made. Bow or die. And they reply, we will not. And still, careful confrontation does not always win the day.
Speaker 1:Sometimes the people that we confront turn the furnace up on high and say enough, enough of what you have to say. So next things get scary for our three heroes. It goes down like this. Verses 19 to 23 are told with this like breathless pace. Then Nebuchadnezzar was furious with Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego and his attitude toward them changed.
Speaker 1:He ordered the furnace heated seven times hotter than usual and commanded some of the strongest soldiers in his army to tie up Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego and throw them into the blazing furnace. So these men wearing their robes and trousers, turbans and other clothes were bound and thrown into the blazing furnace. The king's command was so urgent and the furnace so hot that the flames of the fire killed the soldiers who took up Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. And these three men firmly tied, fell into the blazing furnace. The fury of the king is big drama here.
Speaker 1:And Hebrew scholar, Robert Alter says that the fast paced drama is meant to compound the miracle of what is to come, but we're just not at a miracle yet. We're in crisis. So before we get to the miracle, I want to talk about something that I can't get out of my mind. On May 12, The Globe and Mail published a piece with the headline, at least nine women and girls killed in domestic homicides in Canada during pandemic. Across this country, power based violence is killing our sisters, our mothers, our aunties, and our neighbors.
Speaker 1:And of the details listed in the Globe and Mail piece, three women died here in Alberta. Alberta has the third highest rate of domestic violence in the country, and Calgary police say there is a citywide epidemic when it comes to violence against women by domestic partners. At least three of the men who killed their partners also took their own lives. What did these men believe about themselves and about the women in their lives and about their own needs? Because violence is a tragic expression of an unmet need.
Speaker 1:Again, I have found the work of Orin J. Sofer and his book, Say What You Mean, a mindful approach to nonviolent communication to be invaluable in our conversation about anger. And Sofra does such a good job explaining the social conditioning of women and men. And he helps us understand, at least in part, what is behind the anger we violently turn against others. And this is a bit of his summary.
Speaker 1:We limit our ability to have our needs met when we lock into gender roles. We tell men that they must be self sufficient, that the world is a meritocracy and anyone who works hard enough will succeed. We prize hyper individualism. Then we tell women that their primary role is caretaking. That virtue is in self sacrifice and giving is the highest good.
Speaker 1:We socialize so that women learn to ignore or negate their personal needs. And Sofer writes, complete self sufficiency isn't possible. And complete self sacrifice is rarely healthy when performed as a role. Now, you might not have a marriage or partnership with roles like this. You might have an incredibly gentle and caring husband and a strong and fiery wife.
Speaker 1:That's so great. Live those relationships out loud. We need new models like yours for family and for partnership here in Alberta. Action like this is what Sofur calls reclaiming our full humanity. And perhaps the miracle in the drama of COVID nineteen is our opportunity to take a long look at what our needs really are, especially in relationships.
Speaker 1:Like, you need more freedom? More power? Do you need to be heard? Do you need to feel less pressure? Do you need a little time to be alone?
Speaker 1:Do you need to tell the truth about something you've been hiding? Use your pandemic time to pay attention to your anger and what matters to you. And keep watch when anger is hanging out there under the surface of someone you love. And if you need help, please, please, please speak to someone. Anger does not have to be a weapon.
Speaker 1:It can be a tool to bring you into the next part of your story. Okay. Back to the blazing furnace and this is peak bible story. King Nebuchadnezzar looks towards the fiery furnace and then he leaps to his feet and he says, weren't there three men that we threw into the furnace? Look, I see four men walking around the fire unbound and unharmed and the fourth looks like a son of the gods.
Speaker 1:Nebuchadnezzar approaches the fire and shouts, Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego, servants of the most high God, come out. Then out comes Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego and everyone in the court crowds around them. They are unharmed. Their hair isn't even singed. Their robes aren't even scorched.
Speaker 1:And once again, Nebuchadnezzar praises their God. But then, we have this reminder of how little has changed for the king when he declares, anyone who says anything against the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego will be cut into pieces and their homes will be turned into rubble. And once again, Nebuchadnezzar promotes the Jewish men in Babylon. Okay. Okay.
Speaker 1:What is up with the mystery man in the fire? Well, the Aramaic term here is son of God, and its Hebrew equivalent is an idiom that does not actually suggest a father son relationship, but rather a category of celestial figures. So some kind of angel of the Lord. Of course, later Christians will read the figure as Christ in the fire. Either way, this is a moment about power.
Speaker 1:And the Hebrew people shaped the Daniel story over hundreds of years to make sense of how they got overpowered by one brutal empire after another. And I love what biblical scholar Carol Newsome has to say about the creative storytelling of Daniel when she writes. One should not overlook the extent to which the very telling of the story itself engages the relationship of power and perception in an act of resistance to the claims of imperial rule. To tell a story is to create a world where the storyteller has a kind of sovereign power. So the writers and adapters of this fiery furnace tale make one thing very clear.
Speaker 1:The king is not the powerful one here. Oh, sure. He is brutal, but he does not hold the power the divine does. And with God, they do. The point of God's presence in the fire brings about what one scholar calls a radical relocation of power.
Speaker 1:And maybe that's what our anger at others is meant to do too. Like radically relocate power. Like if you don't have enough, you get to ask for more. And if you have too much, you get to give some away. We'll all be better for it.
Speaker 1:And to be the teller of your own story is an act of power too. And you might think, I don't know if I can tell my own story, Bobby. And I want you to know that you can. There is a creative force with you in your anger, and when you move through it, it can lead to love. One of the benefits of life in a pandemic is that we are sharing our creativity with each other.
Speaker 1:And early on, one of my favorite moments was an at home show by Josh Ritter on Instagram. And I know some of you are Josh Ritter fans because we have talked about it. And one evening from his home in Brooklyn, Josh set out to play through all of his album, The Animal Years. And you guys, I stinking love The Animal Years. I have so much nostalgia for that album.
Speaker 1:But I had no idea where the songs came from. So as Josh introduced the first song, he explained that it took some time for him to find his voice for the album. But when he found the right voice, it was so deeply satisfying. And he explained it like this. I felt I was getting rid of something inside of myself that I needed to get rid of in order to live.
Speaker 1:The animal years is a record that started with a lot of anger at a political system, at the rush to war, at all kinds of things big and small in my life. Writing the songs was an exercise to cut those angry bits out. And as I did, I found that they were turned into love songs. What do you do with the anger that you feel for others? You move through the fiery heart of it.
Speaker 1:And you come out having met something of the mystery of God there too. Right at the center of your anger, walking around in it with you is the one who says to you, I am the powerful one. And I'm not afraid to be with you when you're scared and lonely and tired and beat down and sad. Get close to God with your anger at others, but don't stop there. Turn your anger into love, always into love.
Speaker 1:Please join me as we close in prayer. Our God, thank you for the full experience of creation, for the good that calls us to goodness, for the beauty that calls us to what is beautiful, for the truth that calls us to speak our truth. May we say yes. Yes to all that you have for us. Perhaps we're aware of some anger that we feel for someone who has hurt us or for a system that has let us down or for the brutality of an unmet need.
Speaker 1:God, can we turn to our left and to our right? And can we find that you are there with us? Spirit of the living God present with us now. Enter the places of our anger and all our unmet needs, God. And will you heal us of all that harms us.
Speaker 1:Amen.