Wednesday of the Fifth Week of Lent

Lectionary: 253

Is it true, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, that you will not serve my god,
or worship the golden statue that I set up?
Be ready now to fall down and worship the statue I have made....

The story of the three young men in the fiery furnace in the Book of Daniel lends itself to comedy. The list of musical instruments – “the trumpet, flute, lyre, harp, psaltery, bagpipe, and all the other musical instruments” – is over the top. The whole situation is ludicrous.

But the issue is serious, the freedom of God’s people to worship their own God. We worship the only god who is worthy of our love. In fact, despite the claims of billions of people, our God is the only god, period. There is no other.

Ancient rulers resolved religious differences with an approach of laissez faire, to each his own. Polytheism enabled rulers to unite different nationalities and tribes under one government. The Babylonian, Persian, Greek, and Roman empires offered the advantage of peaceful trade between cities near and distant. Caravans of camels, asses, and ships carried exotic fabrics, foods, gems, ideas, and culture; and traded them at reasonable prices. Empires succeeded not by force of arms but by popular acclaim. They didn’t need a quarrel about religion.

The Seleucid empire was an exception. One of the smaller empires that appeared after the death of Alexander the Great, the small-minded Antiochus IV Epiphanes tried to convert the Jerusalem temple to pagan worship, and to suppress the Jewish customs of circumcision and dietary observance. In some ways his “reforms” made sense; a defeated nation should not worship their defeated god. They should accept the conquering gods of their new governors.

The Jews, led by the Maccabean family, didn’t see it that way. Their religious tradition had already survived slavery in Egypt, the rise and fall of David’s empire, the Babylonian exile and the Diaspora. Displaced Jews built synagogues throughout the world but travelled thousands of miles to return to their holy city. They would not worship an alien god, nor would they ignore the repurposing of Jerusalem and its temple.

The Book of Daniel with its story of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego celebrated the freedom of God’s people to worship their own God despite the ridiculous imposition of foreign rulers. Many centuries later, we read it for the same reason. Once again, we laugh at the impotent Nebuchadnezzar and his astonished lackies.

But now we laugh at the far more dangerous tyrant:

Death is swallowed up in victory.

Where, O death, is your victory?

Where, O death, is your sting?”

The great English poet/priest John Donne celebrates the victory in immortal verse:

Death, be not proud, though some have called thee

Mighty and dreadful, for thou art not so;

For those whom thou think'st thou dost overthrow

Die not, poor Death, nor yet canst thou kill me.

From rest and sleep, which but thy pictures be,

Much pleasure; then from thee much more must flow,

And soonest our best men with thee do go,

Rest of their bones, and soul's delivery.

Thou art slave to fate, chance, kings, and desperate men,

And dost with poison, war, and sickness dwell,

And poppy or charms can make us sleep as well

And better than thy stroke; why swell'st thou then?

One short sleep past, we wake eternally

And death shall be no more; Death, thou shalt die.