“Not For Sale”

A Sermon Based Upon Daniel 3: 8-30

By Rev. Dr. Charles J. Tomlin, DMin

Flat Rock-Zion Baptist Partnership

1st Sunday of Epiphany, January12th, 2014
2014 Winter Bible Study Sermon Series, 2/4 

“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." (Dan 3:18 NRS) "

Carlye Marney, a crusty but insightful Baptist preacher of another time, tells how a friend wanted to buy a gun from the gunsmith who made it.   According to Marney, the gun was an incredible showpiece.  The stock was walnut, inlayed and checkered.  Its intricate design revealed countless hours of hard and detailed handwork.  The bolt was a perfect shape, the receiver was polished to a high sheen, the trigger action smooth, and the barrel was true and straight.  The rifle was a shooter’s delight.   Marney’s friend fell in love with the gun at first sight and wanted desperately to own it. “I’ll buy it,” he declared to the gunsmith.  “Name your price.”  The would-be buyer had plenty of money and could easily afford it, whatever the cost.  But the old man who made it---who had poured years of skill and work into his perfect creation---was not in a mood to sell.  He cradled the beautiful rifle across his arm, looked down on it, and said, “I made if for my own; nobody could buy it; there isn’t anything I would take for it.”  Despite the offers that came, the old gunsmith wouldn’t budge.  The rifle was his and he wouldn’t sell at any price.  Marney’s friend smiled and said rather wistfully, “Everybody ought to have something somewhere that he wouldn’t sell for anything.” (As retold by Bill Ireland in his book on Daniel: Keeping Faith When the Heat Is On, Smyth Helwys, 2012).

Every person ought to have something that is not for sale, not for any price.  Do you have things like that in your life?   How about a healthy marriage?  Are you willing sacrifice to keep your marriage healthy and strong?   How about making time for your children?  Will you take time to do more than what they want, but do things with them that they need to gain lessons for life?   What we should know is that you don’t just ‘get a life’, but you must ‘make a life!’  And to gain such a life also means developing a faith that will sustain you during hard times that will come?   I love what actress Jennifer Lawrence did just before Thanksgiving, as she singlehandedly took on the raging “mean girl” culture of Hollywood, saying that being fair, being kind and caring is what matters most and her values are not for sale to the mean, cruel gods of Hollywood fame and fortune.  Her life is not for sale, at any price.

The most precious gifts of life---things that money can’t buy you can’t have, unless you are willing to sacrifice for them, saying no to some things and saying “yes” to others.  For if you want to have those ‘priceless’ moments and to appreciate the things money can’t buy, you have to say ‘no’ to and ‘not for sale’ to those who would take your most precious gifts away.  Unfortunately, things that should be priceless to people are few and far between today.  People are more than willing to put a price on almost most anything, even spending most of their life away on stuff that really doesn’t matter, rather than the things that matter most.

A case in point is taking time to be face to face with people, especially with our children.  Teresa’s cousin posted online a video of a person’s day; which recorded… most every moment from getting up to going to bed, and most everything in between,…and recorded it all with a cell phone camera.  It all caused the person who recorded to realize what they had missed and not lived, because they recorded it.   You just can’t replace living things life---to recording things.   I used to like amateur photography myself; but now I hardly take pictures at all.  There is a big change when you realize that you can’t take all these ‘pictures’ with you; but you can take only take the experiences.  

Of course, most of you how important experiences are; and how the great moments in life are to be lived, more than recorded, and that we should learn to use gagets, but not allow them to use us.   Unfortunately there are many, who don’t understand this, and don’t realize what they are missing and what kind of world they are creating by allowing technology to control their lives.   And too many parents are spending too little or making no effort whatsoever to connect in a living way with the children they’ve brought into the world; and society is already beginning to pay too big a price for it---a price we don’t want to pay, seeing children and teens act out anger, frustration, violence and self-destructive behavior.   

A couple of years ago, on the way from a doctor’s appointment, my wife and I stopped to eat at a restaurant on the outskirts of Charlotte.   A family of four was sitting in booth next to us.  Both of their children, one older child and the other a teen, where sitting there staring at the walls, while both parents were busy with their smart phones.  Maybe, the parents had just come from work and were only checking their emails, but I’m afraid it was much worse than that.  I’m afraid to tell you there was little or no conversation going on between them the entire time.  Think about what they were missing.  Think about how quickly those children would grow up.  Think about the memories they were not making together.  Think about how empty the lives of the children and the lives of the parents were going to become.  They were selling their souls for the sake of a mess of technological pottage.  

While they should have treated this time together as ‘priceless’ or ‘sacred’ and teaching their children what was most important, instead they were teaching the importance of the wrong things.  Those parents were unwilling and unprepared to say this time together ‘not for sale’, and is non-negotiable for any price.  In the third chapter of Daniel, we have a story about three Hebrews, who became heroes in Israel, not simply because they said “yes” to God, but also because they said “no”---not for sale to the world around them.   Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego resisted king Nebuchadnezzar’s demand to have their souls and to negotiate their faithfulness to what is most important in their lives.  As the gospel song says, they wouldn’t bend, they wouldn’t bow, and as a result, they didn’t burn.   A lot of pressure was put on them to conform to what everyone else was doing, but they wouldn’t and they didn’t negotiate their faith and their life.  

THE PRESSURE TO CONFORM

We all know that we live in a time of individuality, where people can express themselves, and be who they want to be, but the truth is that the name of the game in our world is really conformity and uniformity.  Think about how people follow trends, fads, and want what everyone else has.   There is something in the human being that wants to belong and to find our identity with others, instead of letting God define who we are within ourselves and our own unique gifts. 

Nebuchadnezzar wanted everyone in his empire to conform to his standards for his own reasons.   He wanted everyone to worship just like him.  He want’s everyone to serve him.  He wanted his whole nation to be under his spell, within his power and to be nothing more than ‘clones’ of each other.   And Nebuchadnezzar had the ability to put the pressure on.  Anyone who did not comply would die.    Can you remember when the Gulf War started?   Millions of people across America were praying desperately for the men and women in harm's way. Saddam Hussein of Iraq was convinced that he was so powerful he could snatch up tiny Kuwait and no one would dare do anything about it.  In fact, he warned that if any nation tried to stop him, there would be "the mother of all battles." Thankfully, it turned out to be not even the daughter of all battles.

Saddam Hussein's enlarged ego affected his judgment, costing the Iraqi people severely. It is interesting that Saddam often referred to himself as a modern successor to King Nebuchadnezzar of ancient Babylon.  Saddam in his delusions of grandeur talked about building a kingdom as great and as extensive as ancient Babylon.  But Saddam's ancient model, Nebuchadnezzar, had an ego problem too.   He authorized the construction of a statue of gold, presumably of himself.  It was 90 feet tall and 9 feet wide.   When you consider that the Statue of Liberty is just 130 feet tall, you can get some idea of what a huge statue it was. It stood on the plain of Dura which was just south of the modern city of Baghdad. No doubt it could be seen for miles.  It was a feat of ancient architecture, but this statue was nothing more than the glorification of the ‘self’ of one single person.   It was in some ways similar to one of those communist leader paintings we have seen in the former Soviet Union, in China, and now still see in North Korea.  It is in a way saying, “I am more than a god,” because the God of Abraham, Issac, and Jacob refused to be glorified in any ‘graven image’ at all.   Also, it is interesting to note how Nebuchadnezzar knew the power of music. Have you ever noticed that the Bible is full of music?  Music is a God-given medium which has enormous power, for good or evil.   Let me give you a quotation and you guess who said it.  Here is the quotation: "Let me write the music of a nation and I will determine its morals." Who said that? Was it Thomas Jefferson, Irving Berlin, Elvis Presley?   No, it was Adolph Hitler?  He wrote that in his book, "Mein Kampf."

But this story in Daniel is more than just a warning about what music we listen to or the negative power of human egos that are out of control.   The real problem is that through music and because of an enlarged ego, Nebuchadnezzar wants to force conformity and worship among his people.  He not only wants his people’s money, but he wants their hearts and souls.  The empire of Nebuchadnezzar is about ‘control’ and it is about the ‘glorification’ of a “Head of State” at the expense of a people and to the neglect of the true God who saves, redeems and praised through the good of the leader and the people.   This selfish and egotistical  desire of Nebuchadnezzar suddenly makes the Hebrew boys, who had been acknowledge as some ‘good guys’ who were made administrators to serve and help the nation, now understood to be the ‘bad’ guys, because they will not conform to Nebuchadnezzar’s new standards.   But these Hebrew children refused to worship the golden statue as they were commanded.  They would rather die than break the second commandment---“You shall not make for yourself an idol...You shall not bow down to them or worship them." (Exodus 20:04).

THE POWER TO STAND OUT

As I was planning this message, back in November 2013, there was an interesting story about a family in New Haven, who bought a used desk off Craigslist for less than 200 hundred dollars.  When they got the desk home, and opened it up, hidden inside one of the draws was $98 thousand dollars.  Interestingly, when they were showing the desk on T.V., I saw some middle east script on a book that was on the desk.   It turns out the family were Jewish.   The father who bought the desk returned the money to the family who owned the desk, saying that it being honest was far more important than gaining 98k dollars.   Hello!  That man knew what it takes to ‘stand out’ in a money crazy world.

Daniel’s friends stood out because they resisted the King’s command to bow down to his statue.   This ancient story begs us to consider anew, in our own time:  What is the non-negotiable in our lives?   How does our God-given individuality and our unswerving devotion to God make a difference in how we live and who we are?  Is there something you will not negotiate?  Are there parts of your life and soul that are not for sale?  How important is it, to have something in us, about us, which belongs to no one, except to God and God alone?  

In the story of Dietrich Bonhoeffer, the great pastor and theologian of the German Confessing Church during WWII, we meet a person who would not negotiate his stance on Hitler, even though his country did not agree, at first.   Most everyone in his country and some in America too were supporting Hitler’s dream of the Third Reich.   When war finally broke out with Nazi Germany, Bonhoeffer was in the United States and some of his friends were begging him to stay here until the war was over.  They wanted to protect him, for surely he was a gifted Christian.  But Bonhoeffer could not stay.  His responsibility to his homeland was not for sale.  Bonhoeffer knew what Hitler was doing was wrong, and he also knew what he had to do, because he had written in an earlier book about Christian discipleship, that "When Christ calls a man (sic), He bids him come and die."  Bonhoeffer returned to Germany, refusing to conform and dance to Hitler’s hypnotizing music of a perfect German world, and joined the Christian underground against Hitler.  He refused to believe in the Kingdom of Hitler because he believed only in the coming Kingdom of God.  

After being arrested for being involved in a plot to kill Hitler, Bonhoeffer was in a prison awaiting execution.   But during this time alone, Dietrich Bonhoeffer wrote something which perfectly describes the kind of decisions we Christians face in our world, in our own Babylon, when the world tries to pull us away from our allegiance to Christ and to an make our allegiance to something else. These are his words:  “We always used to think that it was one of the inalienable rights of man (sic) that he should be able to plan his life in advance….. This is a thing of the past. ……But it makes all the difference in the world whether we accept this willingly and in faith…… or under compulsion. We are still left with the narrow way, ……..of living each day as if it were our last, yet living as though a great future still lay before us.”

How do we find the determination to live for God’s kingdom, and not the kingdoms of this world; whether they be personal, national, or spiritual?  How do we gain the power to stand out?  Is this not our calling and great challenge; to live each day as if it were our last, while at the same time, we live as though God has a future for us and the world?   The truth is that world is always against us, asking us to conform to its standards; to the things humans have made; and to the selfish desires of individual human want.  But what matters most, to us and to this world, is not what we can put together, but God has given and can give to us.  The greatest things in life are gifts from God, not things we can create, make or manufacture.  If we allow the world to ‘squeeze us into its mold and way of thinking, we will be lesser and smaller people; but if we will allow God truth to be our truth; then, we can gain the power to rise above the mediocrity and blandness of this world; and become a people who not only stand out, but who also stand up, and are counted of worth and value to God. 

We have seen in our time the rise of tattoos and body piercing as expressions of human identity.  One of the girls who was kidnapped in Ohio, was interviewed by Dr. Phil, and she had rings in her lip and in her nose, and do you know what she said?  “These are signs of my new found freedom!”  You had to feel for her; being treated less an animal for over 10 years.  God bless her!  Those nose rings were signs of new found independence, as well as, signs of deep and inward pain.   But what we also know is that a human person does not have to wear tattoos or body piercing to show our independence, but we are already made different, individual, ‘fearfully and wonderfully made’ as the Psalmist says, and we are made to be “free to be in Christ.”  The more we show our devotion to Christ in our hearts, the less we need to show signs of our freedom.  It is the truth that makes us free.  And God’s truth is something we already have from the inside out because of what Christ has done in showing God’s unconditional love for us.   Now, we are free to be anything we can be in Christ!   We don’t have to conform to this world, but we can be ‘transformed’ by the ‘renewing of our minds’ and our hearts, through God’s unending, unceasing, relentless love that forces nothing on us, but makes us free to be and become our fullest, best potential because of being loved, rather than being used.   Because ‘perfect love’ cast out all fear, we can have the power to stand out.

THE PROMISE OF FAITHFULNESS

I've got one final question for you this morning.   Does anybody know how old the lowly marshmallow is?  Do you think it is 50 years old? 100 years? Maybe 200 years?  Would you believe the marshmallow was around before 1942,  when “Columbus sailed the ocean blue” and discovered America?   Interestingly, there's a very real possibility that Jesus, Mary and Joseph might have actually eaten marshmallows while they were in exile in Egypt.  For you see, historians estimate that the marshmallow came into being over 4000 years ago.

Some historians claim marshmallows got their name when Pharaohs discovered that by squeezing the mallow plant a sweet, sticky substance surfaced.   Those mallow plants grew  wild in marshes (that’s why they are called “marshmallows” even though modern ones are more like “mushmallows”).   Honey was flavored with the extract from these plants. The delicacy was so special it was reserved for gods or royalty alone.  Marshmallows were introduced in France in the mid 1800s, in small candy stores.  Doctors used the marshmallow to cook and hardened to create a medicinal candy that was used to soothe children's sore throats, suppress coughs, and help heal minor cuts, scrapes, and burns.

Consumers liked the marshmallow's unique texture and taste so much that candy makers needed a way to make marshmallows faster.  That’s how they came up with a "starch mogul" system that was developed in the late 1800s.  This system allowed marshmallows to be made in 24 to 48 hours.   Today, modern marshmallows are made of corn starch (like jelly beans). Today's marshmallows don't actually include any mallow; as they are a combination of corn syrup, corn starch, sugar, and gelatin.   Trying to speed up the process, in 1848, a man named Alex Doumak came up with a revolutionary process called the "extrusion” which involved pumping the marshmallow mixture through long pipes and cutting it into the shape we are familiar with today.  In the early 1950's the "jet-puffed" process was developed. This process infuses air into the marshmallow giving it a lighter, fluffier texture.  Today, extruded, jet-puffed marshmallows can be cooked, cooled, formed, bagged, and packed in just 60 minutes.  Marshmallows are available around the world but are only made by three companies. Americans purchase more than 95 million pounds of marshmallows annually.

Why all this talk about marshmallows?  Well, in this story we’re talking about a big fire. And if there's going to be a big fire, you want to make sure somebody brings the marshmallows. The fire we're talking about is the one in the fiery furnace where Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego, could have been toast, but might have roasted marshmallows instead.   A miracle like this has been etched in popular minds.  It is really amazing how many times this event has been put to music.   There are Bluegrass versions, a Jazz version, a blues version, 2 Raggae versions, about 5 Gospel music and several Contemporary Christian music versions, a version done by the Beastie Boys, and of course, my favorite, Johnny Cash's version of “Fourth Man In The Fire” where he sings: "They didn't bow, they didn't bend, they didn't burn."

THEY DIDN'T BOW:   You see the Chaldeans didn't like the fact that these Jews got the breaks and the favored positions. So, they waited and plotted and then the time came. Nebuchadnezzar built the golden idol in the areas where Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego where government administrators; but still, they didn't bow.  The Chaldeans couldn't wait to tell the King how Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego didn’t bow down and worship the idol.  It was all petty, nasty and slimy politics.  Still, they didn’t bow, so the King had to deal with it.

THEY DIDN'T BEND:  There in the court they were offered a second chance.  But they didn't bend.  This made Nebuchadnezzar angry. How dare they contest his authority? And even though they were favored by the king, they couldn't escape the King's wrath.  Now, he was really going to throw them into the Fiery Furnace.   But still, they didn't bow and they didn't bend.  They told the King that God could save them, but even if God didn't, it wouldn't change their own love for God.

THEY  DIDN’T BURN: All that did was stoke the King's anger. So he stoked the fire in the furnace seven times hotter than normal.   But to everybody's surprise, when the king looked in the fiery furnace they were still alive. They didn't bow they didn't bend, they didn't burn.

But not only that, but there was someone else with them.  Someone who had the appearance of a god greater than Nebuchadnezzar and all other human political powers.  Because this ‘angelic’, ‘god-like’, or more than physical figure, was with them, when they opened the door of the furnace, nothing was harmed, not their clothes, not their shoes, not even a hair on their head was singed.  They didn't even smell like smoke.  If you know anything about Barbecue, you know that it doesn’t take much smoke, to smell like smoke.   All of this is to explain just how miraculous, otherworldly, and different it all turned out.   They didn't bow, they didn't bend, they didn't burn and it all turned out different, because these Hebrew children were different.   In the end, Nebuchadnezzar had to call them by their ‘testimony’ to get them to come out of the fire, as his command praises the true God saying,  “Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego,  servants of the Most High God, come out!  Come here!?”  Then we are told that Nebuchadnezzar was so impressed that he declared that if anyone, anywhere ever says anything against their God, they will be punished severely because there has never been another god who rescue like that.

So, what does this story tell us?   I think it has one big message. No matter what we face in life, no matter how hot the heat is put on us, or what kind of pressure cooker we find ourselves put into, we are not alone, God is with us.  If we will remain faithful to him, he will remain faithful to us.  If we will be willing to be different in the world; then things can and will turn out different for us.   You don’t have to tell me, I know that everyone who trusts God is not spared the destructive powers of this world.   Jesus wasn’t.    The prophets and the apostles weren’t always rescued either.  This is why those Hebrew children said in faith to Nebuchadnezzar: “Our God is able to rescue…. BUT IF HE DOESN’T, KNOW THIS FOR CERTAIN, YOUR MAJESTY: WE WILL NEVER SERVE YOUR GODS OR WORSHIP THE GOLD STATUE YOU’VE SET UP.”  (3:18).  The main issue isn't whether we'll always be spared the flames of life or whether God will keep us from suffering.   That's not really what’s being suggested in this story.  Jesus even said that we can expect to feel the heat. "In this world you will have trouble....but have faith, for I have overcome the world."   And Jesus didn’t ‘overcome’ by escaping the pain, but by going through it.   Thus, the biblical faith we are called to have is this: God doesn't promise to take us out of the flames and the fires of life, but God promises to be right there with us, smack dab in the middle of the flames and the fire; and he will get us through to the other side---because He is with us in Jesus Christ.

Unfortunately, there is such thing as a life that is truly “fireproof”.   That’s a myth.  Accepting Christ doesn't give us fire insurance from to escape the ‘hells’ of this world.  But it does give us a promise to escape the unending fire and it is a promise to know God’s presence in whatever situation we find ourselves. In other words, we can have a fireproof faith!   This is the faithfulness of God that fueled the 'fireproof faith" of Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego and it should be the ‘faithfulness’ that can ‘fuel’ our faith as well.  For you see, it really didn't matter to them whether they were rescued by God or not. They already belonged to God.  Their “faith” was the only thing they needed to know for “certain” (3:18, CEB).  In an ‘uncertain’ world what they knew for certain what Paul knew:  “Nothing can separate us from the love of God in Christ” (Romans 8: 38-39).   With this kind of faith ‘for certain’ nothing would cause them to renounce their faith: no decree, no 90 foot golden idol, no king, not even the threat of death in the fiery furnace.  They were faithful because God is faithful.  God was present with them as the guest in the furnace.  God was the “fourth man” in the fire with Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego.  They didn't bow, they didn't bend, they didn't burn!

The fires of life are going to happen, so let the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, be your Fourth Man in the midst of the fires of life.  When are thrown from the frying pan into the fire; when your life feels like it's caught in the cross fire and you're facing another baptism by fire, remember: are not alone, and of course, don’t forget the marshmallows.  Amen.