+INJ Reformation B   November 1 & 2, 2009 +

Daniel 3:16-28 Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego replied to the king, “O Nebuchadnezzar, we do not need to defend ourselves before you in this matter. If we are thrown into the blazing furnace, the God we serve is able to save us from it, and he will rescue us from your hand, O king. But even if he does not, we want you to know, O king, that we will not serve your gods or worship the image of gold you have set up.” Then Nebuchadnezzar was furious with Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego, and his attitude toward them changed. 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, 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. Then King Nebuchadnezzar leaped to his feet in amazement and asked his advisers, “Weren’t there three men that we tied up and threw into the fire?” They replied, “Certainly, O king.” He said, “Look! I see four men walking around in the fire, unbound and unharmed, and the fourth looks like a son of the gods.” Nebuchadnezzar then approached the opening of the blazing furnace and shouted, “Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego, servants of the Most High God, come out! Come here!” So Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego came out of the fire, and the satraps, prefects, governors and royal advisers crowded around them. They saw that the fire had not harmed their bodies, nor was a hair of their heads singed; their robes were not scorched, and there was no smell of fire on them. Then Nebuchadnezzar said, “Praise be to the God of Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego, who has sent his angel and rescued his servants! They trusted in him and defied the king’s command and were willing to give up their lives rather than serve or worship any god except their own God.

Stand firm in the one true faith!

It was a long time ago. A lot has changed since then. It was far away, in much different set of circumstances. But the truth never changes. The one true faith that they believed is the one true faith that we believe. The one true faith they were willing to die for, is the one true faith that we are willing to die for. They stood firm in the one true faith. God grant that we also stand firm in the one true faith.

Their real names were Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah. They had been born in Israel, the land of the one true God. But the one true faith had all but died out. The godless kings of Judah led the people further and further into rebellion against the Lord. God kept warning his people that he would judge their idolatry, and drive them from the Promised Land. At the same time, God kept reminding his people that those who clung to him in faith had his forgiveness and salvation. So at a time when the true faith was found in fewer and fewer Israelites, God planted saving faith in the hearts of these three young men growing up in Israel.

It was only God’s gracious work in their hearts that kept Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah standing firm as they watched Nebuchadnezzar’s army rip across Judah like a storm, as they were taken captive to Babylon, and immersed in a training program in that pagan culture. They were given new names, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, in honor of Babylonian gods like Nabu, Aku, and Marduk. But by God’s grace, they stood firm in the one true faith.

But the biggest and hardest test came some time later. As a new king with a young empire, Nebuchadnezzar wanted to solidify his power base. So he held a great rally in his own honor. Nebuchadnezzar gathered everyone in his government, all his officials, from all throughout the empire, to Babylon’s parade grounds on the plain of Dura.. The main event was the dedication of his new statue: a 90 foot, 8 ½ story golden monstrosity. The purpose was to broadcast his greatness and power, to drum up nationalism and loyalty, and to intimidate, threaten, or eliminate anyone who opposed him. Then the herald loudly proclaimed, “This is what you are commanded to do, O peoples, nations and men of every language: As soon as you hear the sound of the horn, flute, zither, lyre, harp, pipes and all kinds of music, you must fall down and worship the image of gold that King Nebuchadnezzar has set up. Whoever does not fall down and worship will immediately be thrown into a blazing furnace.” (Daniel 3:4-6)

Then all the instruments played and all the people bowed. All, except for three young men: Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. Some officials noticed and told Nebuchadnezzar. Everything stopped. The king was furious. He gave them one last chance to bow to his statue and worship his gods, on pain of death in the blazing furnace. If you are ready to fall down and worship the image I made, very good. But if you do not worship it, you will be thrown immediately into a blazing furnace. Then what god will be able to rescue you from my hand?” (Daniel 3:15).

By God’s grace, they stood firm. Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego replied to the king, “O Nebuchadnezzar, we do not need to defend ourselves before you in this matter. If we are thrown into the blazing furnace, the God we serve is able to save us from it, and he will rescue us from your hand, O king. But even if he does not, we want you to know, O king, that we will not serve your gods or worship the image of gold you have set up.”  

We know how the story turns out. God saved them miraculously. He spared their life. Nebuchadnezzar acknowledged that the LORD was real, and really saved his people. The three young men were promoted in his government and allowed to continue worshiping the true God. It all turned out great.

But that wasn’t the point. That wasn’t what the three young men were necessarily expecting. They didn’t stand firm because they knew it would turn out well. Did you hear what they said: Our God can save us from dying in that furnace. But even if he does not, we want you to know, O king, that we will not serve your gods or worship the image of gold you have set up.”  We will not compromise our convictions; we will not serve another god besides the one true God; we will not deny the one true faith, even if we have to die. It was as Nebuchadnezzar said: “Praise be to the God of Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego, who has sent his angel and rescued his servants! They trusted in him and defied the king’s command and were willing to give up their lives rather than serve or worship any god except their own God.

It was a long time ago. A lot has changed since then. It was far away, in much different set of circumstances. But the truth never changes. The one true faith that they believed is the one true faith that we believe. The one true faith they were willing to die for, is the one true faith that we are willing to die for. They stood firm in the one true faith. God grant that we also stand firm in the one true faith.

Martin Luther grew up in a time and place where the one true faith had all but vanished from the visible church. Growing up in Germany around 1500, Martin Luther was taught that if you wanted to be saved, you needed to use the goodness inside you to live the best life you could. If you did, God would give you his grace, his power flowing into you to get you the rest of the way. It was a faith in which God does something and you do something, and together, it adds up to salvation. It was a faith in which people looked to their own works, in addition to Christ’s works, to be saved.

So for most of his younger years, Martin Luther did not know the one true faith. He was haunted by his own conscience, his own sin, his own inability to please God by anything he did. He was tormented by guilt and terror before God’s perfect justice. As a monk, then a priest, then a professor of theology, he studied and gave lectures on the Bible. After years of wrestling with his own conscience and learning the Scriptures, he finally found what he was missing – the peace of forgiveness, that comes only by faith in Jesus. He slowly began to realize that the Bible taught a different faith than he had been taught. He knew from experience that  salvation can never come from our works, since all of our works are sinful and can never please God. There is nothing we can do that can possibly pay for even a single sin or earn God’s favor in the slightest. But now Luther learned that salvation comes to us purely as a gift from God, 100% his work, none of it ours. The price of salvation was paid in full by God’s Son, Jesus Christ, when he died on the cross. God in grace gives us the righteousness that Christ achieved by his perfect life and his sacrificial death. Luther discovered that the one true faith taught in the Bible was salvation by God’s grace alone, through faith in Jesus alone, given to us in Holy Scripture alone.

As time went on, Luther also discovered, to his surprise, that it was dangerous to hold to the one true faith. At first, he thought that the corruption in the church at the time needed to be cleared away – the indulgences, performing Masses for the dead, relics, and all the rest of it – and that once that was gone, the church would be set right again. But he slowly and sadly realized that the problem went much deeper than surface corruption – all the way to the heart of the Roman Catholic Church itself. He was surprised and disillusioned to find that the Church of Rome opposed the one true faith. As he taught and preached the gospel, he was warned that he was fighting hundreds of years of teaching by the church councils and popes. He was questioned by authorities in the Roman Catholic Church, and told to stop his preaching. He was excommunicated by Pope Leo. Finally, Luther’s case went to court before Emperor Charles of the Holy Roman Empire. Luther was given an ultimatum: recant or die. Take back what you’ve taught and written, or you will be condemned to death as a heretic.

But Luther stood firm in the one true faith.

Unless I am convinced by the testimony of the Scriptures or by clear reason, I am bound by the Scriptures I have quoted and my conscience is captive to the Word of God. I cannot and will not recant anything, since it is neither safe nor right to go against conscience. May God help me. Amen.

His response is an echo of that response 2,000 years earlier on the plain of Dura:

If we are thrown into the blazing furnace, the God we serve is able to save us from it, and he will rescue us from your hand, O king. But even if he does not, we want you to know, O king, that we will not serve your gods or worship the image of gold you have set up.”

Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. Martin Luther. That a was a long time ago. A lot has changed since then. It was far away, in much different set of circumstances. But the truth never changes. The one true faith that they believed is the one true faith that we believe. The one true faith they were willing to die for, is the one true faith that we are willing to die for. They stood firm in the one true faith. God grant that we also stand firm in the one true faith.

We live in religious climate that makes everything very foggy, very hazy. It’s difficult and unpopular to make a clear, absolute statement about faith. It sometimes seems like it’s only a debate between my faith and your faith, my church’s teaching and your church’s teaching, and no one ever wants to hear that one person’s beliefs or one church’s beliefs are better than another. We don’t generally have our lives threatened because of our faith. We are blessed with religious freedom in the United States.

But would we have the courage to stand firm when our lives are on the line? Do we have the courage to stand firm now, when our lives are not on the line? Do we sometimes act like we’re under a gag order? Like we can’t speak freely? Like it’s somehow out of bounds or inappropriate to say that our faith is the one true faith? Do we sometimes speak too respectfully about other religions and false churches, as if the one true faith doesn’t matter? Why wait until our lives are threatened to speak up and to stand firm?

But the one true faith does matter. It does matter who God is, and how we get right with him: only by God’s grace, unmerited, unearned, undeserved, apart from any of our worth or works or effort. That’s the one true faith; may God help us to stand firm in it, even to the point of death. It does matter how we can be sure of our forgiveness and eternal life in heaven: only through faith in God’s Son, Jesus Christ, his sacrificial death on the cross and his resurrection from the dead That’s the one true faith; may God help us to stand firm in it, even to the point of death. It does matter how God’s forgiveness and salvation come to us: only through the Holy Spirit’s gift of faith, given through God’s Word and through the sacrament of Baptism and through the sacrament of the Lord’s Supper. That’s the one true faith; may God help us to stand firm in it, even to the point of death.

Listen to God’s gracious promise from Isaiah 43:1-3. “Fear not, for I have redeemed you; I have summoned you by name; you are mine. When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and when you pass through the rivers, they will not sweep over you. When you walk through the fire, you will not be burned; the flames will not set you ablaze. For I am the LORD, your God, the Holy One of Israel, your Savior.” It was God’s gracious promise that gave the three men in the fiery furnace strength to stand firm in the one true faith; that gave Martin Luther strength to stand firm in the one true faith; it is God’s gracious promise of salvation in Jesus that enables us to stand firm with them in the one true faith, in life and in death. Amen.