Worship Matters: Daniel 3:1, 8-20 - First Sunday in Advent

Advent is my absolute favorite season of the church year. I love the lights, the music, the hopeful expectation. Unfortunately, in 2023, the fourth Sunday in Advent fell on Christmas Eve, which shortened the Advent season to a mere 21 days. To me, that felt like being made to wait for your Thanksgiving dinner, only to be told you have only ten minutes to eat it.

First candle of Advent by Aron n Alisons on flickr. CC BY-NC-SA 2.0

Advent is a season of watching and waiting, which should not be rushed. Unfortunately, this coincides with what is the busiest and most hectic time of the year. Our lives run full throttle until Christmas ends, and there’s nothing else to anticipate other than snow shoveling.

And yet, there is a 600-year period in salvation history you could describe as an Advent. This was the time that would pass between the fall of Jerusalem, the ending of the Davidic monarchy, and the birth of the new king descended from the House of David who will rule God’s people. We know him as Jesus.

These six centuries were an especially bleak and tumultuous time for God’s people, who suffered greatly under the despotic rule of ancient times’ greatest empires: Babylon, Persia, Greece, and Rome.

After destroying Jerusalem, King Nebuchadnezzar conscripted four Israelite men from the former ruling class who would assist him in governing the people he’d just conquered. These men were Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah, who he renamed Belteshazzar, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. They were to be educated in the language and literature of their new overlords, and in return, would be fed from the royal rations of food and wine.

Even though they enjoyed the best room and board in the kingdom, they were slaves. Nebuchadnezzar didn’t just take away their freedom; he took away their identities. But there were limits to his power.

One day, Nebuchadnezzar erects a gigantic golden statue of himself, ten times as tall as it is wide. He commands everyone in his kingdom to pray to it whenever they hear the music play.

But for Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, this is a line they will not cross. And their peers in the royal court are all too eager to “rat them out.”

They are brought before their king, who demands their worship. But they are defiant. They are prepared to die in the fiery furnace, fully knowing that God may not rescue them from the flames.

Nebuchadnezzar is so enraged that he turns up the heat seven times. The furnace burns so hot that his guards are burned to death as they hurl the men of God into the inferno.

But Nebuchadnezzar, looking from afar, sees something astonishing: there were four human beings walking among the flames, unbound and unharmed. The appearance of the fourth was like a god.

Who was this fourth being? Some have said it is an angel. Some Christians say it was Jesus. It could also be God, since God is frequently portrayed as a consuming fire in the Old Testament. Either way, what you have is three wise men, meeting God in Nebuchadnezzar’s homemade hell, then emerging without so much as a suntan.

They trusted God, they obeyed God, and they worshiped God and God alone. And they saw God’s salvation.

We are blessed in this country that we are not forced to worship any god or any man but have the freedom to worship our God without fear of persecution. But that doesn’t mean there aren’t other gods calling for or even demanding your worship. The hardest gods to resist are those that threaten to take away something you value if you do not bow down to them.

I’ve known Christians who’ve lost their jobs because they refused their boss’s orders to do something dishonest or unethical. Parents are forced to choose between bringing their children to church on Sunday mornings versus taking them to mandatory practices and matches. And who wants to miss out on all the fun and shiny things you see your friends enjoying on social media?

We worship the almighty dollar because there’s nothing in this world it cannot buy.

We worship worldly gods because they give us what we want, namely power, privilege, and control.

But worldly gods don’t care about your soul. They don’t care about your well-being, the well-being of others, the health of the planet; they’re coldly indifferent to justice, peace, and righteousness. They want to be your gods, laying claim to your time, your money, your attention, your aspiration. And they are unforgiving when you do not give them what they demand.

Nebuchadnezzar thought he owned the bodies, minds, and souls of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. But they said, “If we cannot worship God in life, we will worship him in death.” They worshiped God because they trusted God. They trusted God because they worshiped God. And they met the Savior in the flames.

Can you be that defiant to all the powers who want to lay claim to your time, your talent, your treasure, your identity? Can you be so bold as to deny the gods of this world, even when you must pay dearly for your refusal?

The world’s gods promise power, privilege, prestige, and control. But these are all empty promises. So don’t give them what isn’t theirs to claim.

Think about how your worship of God can be an act of defiance, and not just by coming to church on Sunday morning when there’s so many other things to do, but in the course of your week. Don’t buy something, but give something away. Don’t return an offense, forgive. Surrender to God the things that are beyond your control. Put something off until later so you can be present to God now. For even when the costs of worshiping God are high, you will meet your Savior. You will see your salvation.

Daniel 3:1, 8-30 (NRSVue)

King Nebuchadnezzar made a golden statue whose height was sixty cubits and whose width was six cubits; he set it up on the plain of Dura in the province of Babylon. 

⁸ Accordingly, at this time certain Chaldeans came forward and denounced the Jews. ⁹ They said to King Nebuchadnezzar, “O king, live forever! ¹⁰ You, O king, have made a decree, that everyone who hears the sound of the horn, pipe, lyre, trigon, harp, drum, and entire musical ensemble, shall fall down and worship the golden statue, ¹¹ and whoever does not fall down and worship shall be thrown into a furnace of blazing fire. ¹² There are certain Jews whom you have appointed over the affairs of the province of Babylon: Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. These men pay no heed to you, O king. They do not serve your gods, and they do not worship the golden statue that you have set up.”

¹³ Then Nebuchadnezzar in furious rage commanded that Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego be brought in, so they brought those men before the king. ¹⁴ Nebuchadnezzar said to them, “Is it true, O Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, that you do not serve my gods and you do not worship the golden statue that I have set up? ¹⁵ Now if you are ready, when you hear the sound of the horn, pipe, lyre, trigon, harp, drum, and entire musical ensemble, you should fall down and worship the statue that I have made. But if you do not worship, you shall immediately be thrown into a furnace of blazing fire, and who is the god who will deliver you out of my hands?”

¹⁶ Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego answered the king, “O Nebuchadnezzar, we have no need to present a defense to you in this matter. ¹⁷ 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.^[b] 18 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.”

¹⁹ Then Nebuchadnezzar was so filled with rage against Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego that his face was distorted. He ordered the furnace heated up seven times more than was customary ²⁰ and ordered some of the strongest guards in his army to bind Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego and to throw them into the furnace of blazing fire. ²¹ So the men were bound, still wearing their tunics,^[c] their trousers,^[d] their hats, and their other garments, and they were thrown into the furnace of blazing fire. ²² Because the king’s command was urgent and the furnace was so overheated, the raging flames killed the men who lifted Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. ²³ But the three men, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, fell down, bound, into the furnace of blazing fire.

²⁴ Then King Nebuchadnezzar was astonished and rose up quickly. He said to his counselors, “Was it not three men that we threw bound into the fire?” They answered the king, “True, O king.” ²⁵ He replied, “But I see four men unbound, walking in the middle of the fire, and they are not hurt, and the fourth has the appearance of a god.”^[e] 26 Nebuchadnezzar then approached the door of the furnace of blazing fire and said, “Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, servants of the Most High God, come out! Come here!” So Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego came out from the fire. ²⁷ And the satraps, the prefects, the governors, and the king’s counselors gathered together and saw that the fire had not had any power over the bodies of those men; the hair of their heads was not singed, their tunics^[f] were not scorched, and not even the smell of fire came from them. ²⁸ Nebuchadnezzar said, “Blessed be the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, who has sent his angel and delivered his servants who trusted in him. They disobeyed 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 utters blasphemy 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 deliver in this way.” ³⁰ Then the king promoted Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego in the province of Babylon.