partly

Working for a school, we have occasions to have "staff development days" and being a catholic school we have occasion to do religious and spiritual discussions. Now I love this sort of thing, even though I'm not Catholic. I love discussing and analyzing theological issues.

The last meeting we had was about Heroes and Heroines from the Bible. We were asked to choose a hero or heroine from the Bible that we admired.

In the end I didn't come up with one but rather three: Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego from Daniel 3:13-30. For those who don't know the story, here it is in a nutshell: King Nebuchadnezzar builds a huge statue of himself and demands that everyone in the kingdom worship it. Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego refuse, and the king tosses them into a furnace, where God saves them from a horrible death. Nebuchadnezzar repents and rewards them.

There are three things that I love about this story.

First, it's totally about faith. Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego didn't get a visit from God, no burning bush, no midnight visitations. They just knew what was right and acted faithfully upon that belief. They were just average people who took a stand. It would have been easier to just bow down and do what was asked, privately believing what ever they wanted. I'm sure that, as in today's world, doing something based on faith alone was not a popular choice. And they did it knowing that death was the penalty for following their belief.

Secondly, they accepted the consequences of that action without losing or hiding behind that faith. The line in the Bible goes (Daniel 13:17-18): 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.

The key words are but even if He does not. Just because God can do something, doesn't mean he will do it. Conversely, just because God doesn't do something, doesn't mean he can't. The proof of faith isn't in the results of faith, it is in the faith itself. I have faith that God can save me. I have faith that God works for good in all things. I have faith that God wants only what is best for me and my own. But if that does not come to be, that does not mean my faith was wrong or misplaced.

I believe completely that God can save me. I believe that I could stand in front of a train and God has the ability to save me from that train. The trick in the question is will He? That, I don't have an answer to. And since I have no good reason to die in front of that train, it's not a question I'm willing to test. Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego had a reason to die in the furnace. They were faithfully following what they knew to be right. They believed God could save them, but they were willing to die for that belief if God did not save them.

To me, that is the essence of faith. Faith is not currency to be earned and saved and spent to get you out of a tight spot. Faith is not a 'get out of jail free' card that you can use to trump problems that come your way. Faith is not something that can be used to negate the consequences of your actions.

Faith is what gives you courage to take actions that have consequences.

Faith is gave Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego the courage to stand up for what was right and to accept that they would be put to death. They accepted the consequences of their actions because they had faith in God.

Yeah, yeah. I know what you're saying: But since they were saved in the story, doesn't that mean that God did save them for their faith? I'm gonna go out on a theological limb here and say: No. For I do not believe that they were saved as a reward for their faith. They were saved in order to influence Nebuchadnezzar. God saved them, not to save them, but to change Nebuchadnezzar. Their faith put them in a position where they could be used in such a way, but their survival wasn't a payoff for faith in God.

Which is the third thing I love about the story. We don't know what the bigger picture is. We don't even know for sure that we are part of that bigger picture. No one likes to think of themselves as pawns in the game of life but I believe that Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego would have died if their deaths would have been needed to influence Nebuchadnezzar. For that matter, if Nebuchadnezzar couldn't be changed they would have died, too. Not because they didn't have faith and not because God doesn't care but because there would be no point to saving them. Because results are not the point of faith.

If faith gives you the courage to take actions that have consequences, then the point of faith is faith alone. Having that faith and acting on that faith is all that matters. Sure it's nice that Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego are saved, but not being saved would not have invalidated their faith and they knew that.

Which is why I love the story.