Our Business; Our Call; Our God
Daniel 3: 12-14 & 16-18
MATTHEW 14: 22-33
January 16, 2022
** We begin by watching the first 5 minutes of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s sermon ‘But If Not’, which he preached on November 5th 1967 at the Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta Georgia.
King Nebuchadnezzar ordered all the people to worship him and his gods … he was the powerful king of Babylon. And, he ordered every single person to bow down to the golden image; EVERYBODY. We heard as Dr. King again revealed the story of those three remarkable young men of faith …. Young men who not only believed in the God of Creation; they did not only give lip service to God but they followed God’s expectations while refusing to accept all of the world’s gods especially the king’s GOLDEN IMAGE. Friends, these young men made it their business and their call to commit to their conscience; the higher law of their God. They declared to the king …. “We don’t need to bow to you; we don’t need to worship what you worship; our God will deliver us!”
Imagine the moment when these three young men were actually brought in front of the king who was surrounded by armed guards and the king’s most fervent followers …. Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego who had been facing so many personal attacks on their social media for aligning with God and they kept hearing the angry shouts of their neighbors when they stopped for coffee at WAWA just because they didn’t bow down to the golden image and the king the neighbors worshiped. Neighbors who readily obeyed the pompous human being who declared that people needed to bow to him; he was after-all the most powerful one … those neighbors lifted his name up … and indeed they did whatever he told them to do accepting his lies and bowing as they worshiped the GOLDEN STATUE this king had set up to control them … even many who said they believed in the true God of creation but they forgot God to fit in with man especially this king of theirs whose words they seem to cherish more than what Scripture taught.
These three men of faith chose to stand against the unjust human law that was in contrast with the directives and teaching of God. As moral men … as men of faith … they could not turn a blind eye and fall in line with their neighbors, television commentators, and others to accept and obey unjust human laws no matter how popular those laws were. Because, they knew … they had heard God’s Word and believed it … they had sensed God’s love and accepted it … and they knew that they could not choose to go against God merely to fit in with society.
And, they were put directly in front of the king who had appointed them to government jobs. A king who was shouting and screaming in anger towards anyone who would not bow down to him … and they had said NO to him. NO to him. How dare they? Their jobs were on the line. No to the screaming, insulting king who had the power to do them harm …
The three of them knew that their business in life … their call as to how to live life … and their God were aligned together not separate categories to be carefully sorted out so that the human king and his minions would be happy. They knew … THEY WERE men of faith … they were literally willing to put their own lives on the line because their loyalty, their business, their life’s call … were all tied to their love of God.
Of course we benefit from having the specific teaching of Jesus who clarified God’s expectations, He said, “The word that you hear from me is not mine but the Father’s who sent me.” We have the benefit of being able to pick up our Bibles to read the prophet’s reminder of what God thinks is “good and what the Lord requires. To act justly, to love all with mercy, and to walk humbly with our God; the God of creation.”
As I noted, before we sang the hymn, it is ironic that on the night before an evil racist assassin’s bullet shot him dead on that Memphis motel balcony that Dr. King asked that ‘Precious Lord, Take My Hand’ be played. “Hear my cry, hear my call. Hold my hand lest I fall. Take my hand precious Lord, take me home.” King knew that he was always in danger of getting tossed into the fiery pit of 1960’s racist hate and division but the business of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was to stand up for justice! The call of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was to showcase the teachings of Jesus Christ and the love of God. And, the God he served was the God we are also called to serve each and every day not just on Sunday mornings.
Serving God … connecting with God … actually that’s what I call loving God. And, that my friends is the first Commandment of God that Jesus clearly declared to the world. LOVE GOD … OBEY GOD … “If anyone loves me, he will keep my word and my Father will love him and we will come to him and make our home with him. Whoever does not love me does not keep my words.” You cannot be a Christian … you won’t be welcomed through those pearly gates … you cannot ever claim to be born again for Jesus if you refuse to love God and do not accept and keep the teachings of Jesus Christ just as Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego kept God’s laws. The choice is God or the world … your choice and mine.
Now, I certainly pray and hope that not a single one of us is called to face the type of punishment these three faced by standing up for their faith but these men never ever doubted God and God’s power. They knew God loved them … they knew God had the power to rescue them. They knew God’s love could deliver them …. As Dr. King preached, “they knew God in nature; they had seen God in their personal life; they never doubted God’s power to deliver them.”
And, here we are on a cold January morning … choosing to come to worship God either in person or online. We have survived through some very difficult times … we are here alive and well connected to a church where God’s call is answered; where God has delivered food to the hungry. We are connected to a church that since before the first foundation was laid in 1858 that has been making disciples for Jesus Christ out of love. A church, that God willing, will still be providing vital ministry in 2035 and beyond … if … if we choose to reenergize, renew, and make a personal decision that this year … 2022 will be the year when each of us … not just the pastor … not just the leaders … not just the Sunday School teachers … a year in which each of us decides that our daily business; our daily call; and our very existence are directly connected and focused on our God!
We can get through any storm with God on our side … we can stand up to those human voices choosing to divide and trying to force us to bow down to their gods and their leaders rather than the true God. If we make an active decision to truly mean what we say when we say that we love God that is a beginning. That we accept that God is real … God’s power is overwhelming and that like Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego then we can declare to the world, “WE WILL NEVER SERVE YOUR gods …. NEVER EVER … and we won’t worship nor bow down to any golden statue nor human being you attempt to force us to worship.”
“Meanwhile the boat fighting a strong headwind was being battered by the sea. Very early in the morning Jesus came to His disciples walking on the lake. They were terrified but Jesus said, “Be encouraged! It’s me! Do not be afraid.”
We then hear Peter in a challenging mode say ‘hey Jesus if it is you then order me to walk over to you on the water.” Jesus invited him in and was doing ok until he took his eyes off of Jesus and became frightened … “Lord rescue me!”
Friends, we have allowed our time to be to be taken away from us by the world’s expectations … we have found focus for our life’s call as determining out to fit in with society … we have take our eyes off of Jesus; we have not allowed Jesus to encourage us; as we move forward into 2022 and beyond we need to shout out ‘Lord Rescue me!” And, then we need to keep our eyes focused on the Lord … not afraid in our faith … rediscovering our call through God’s Word and worship … and then living our lives as faith-filled people realizing how blessed we are to be connected with a church as loving as this one but knowing this church’s doors could close as easily as Wenonah’s, Varga’s, and Billingsport’s have over these last 5 years.
It’s your decision … your business … your call for your life but thankfully God is not only my God and your God but God wants every person to come to acknowledge who God is and then to walk humbly with God the rest of our days finding strength, peace, and hope. AMEN