Without the Common Prayer Liturgy for Ordinary Radicals we might
not have remembered this day. It reminds us of the grief of the parents of four
little girls through the words of the 77th Psalm. “I consider the
days of old, and remember years of long ago. I commune with my heart in the
night; I meditate and search my spirit: Will the Lord spurn forever, and never
again be favorable?” Has his steadfast love ceased forever? Has God forgotten
to be gracious?
The Common Prayer Liturgy for Ordinary Radicals reminds it was 55
years ago this weekend a man named Richard Chambliss placed a bomb under the
steps of Birmingham’s 16th Street Baptist Church. It exploded as
children filed into the church for Sunday School. It killed Addie Mae Collins,
Carole Robertson, Cynthia Wesley, and Denise McNair.
Though Chambliss was ultimately convicted nearly two decades after
the murders, he was first found not guilty by a jury of white Alabama men and the investigation closed in 1968. Years
later it was found that the FBI had evidence against Chambliss and
others, which it failed to reveal to prosecutors by order of J. Edgar Hoover.
That was the world in which Clarence Jordan preached. The country
was divided over the war in Vietnam, the flag was the symbol of division. Those
who opposed the war or objected to the way blacks were treated were told “America,
love it or leave it.” Churches displayed the flag on the altar as many chose to
side with the empire.
The world in which Clarence Jordan preached was threatening. It
was a place where white men could kill African American men, women and children
and go free. They could also kill white people who tried to help black people
achieve freedom. They tried to kill Clarence Jordan from time to time as you
can see on the front of your bulletin.
Clarence Jordan acted out as the great theologian Walter
Brueggemann said we Christians should. “The good news, that you can see all around now, is that the spirit is
moving among us. It is the spirit of Jesus. And Jesus is that great voice of otherwise, who saw the contradictions of the
gospel to the Roman Empire and who acted out an alternative.
This morning’s Historic Sermon is largely a 1968 sermon delivered
by Rev. Jordan. I have taken the liberty of imagining how Clarence might have
delivered it today. The sermon is based on the Book of Daniel’s three freedom
riders and a fiery furnace.
Once upon a time, there was an Emperor who called himself Antioch
Epiphanes, so blood-thirsty was this king that his subjects called him
Epipimes, which means “a man who has gone berserk,” cruelly punishing anyone
who dared take a stand for what they believed.
The Book of Daniel is a treatise on what risks are taken when his
or her government and his God are on a collision course. The book refers to
Nebuchadnezzar but is actually written about another, even more unjust and
brutal King. Written about King Epiphanes, this book is a historical parable in
which God calls his people to be faithful even though it often means disobeying
the government.
As the parable goes, the king brought three foreign, Jewish students,
Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, to be trained up in the wisdom of good,
patriotic, government-fearing Babylonians. At the end of their undergraduate
work, they were brought before the king to see if they had learned what they
needed to learn.
The problem was that what these three young fellows had actually
learned was the fact that God was alive and that God was the Lord of human
history and that he was not to be tinkered with even by those in high political
office. Take, for instance, this episode in the 3rd chapter of
Daniel.
King Epiphanes made a golden image, never a good thing in the Old
Testament. As Jews these three young men were attuned to the meaning of numbers
and the number 6 meant something evil to them. The King was taunting them with
this blasphemous idol. It was no accident that the idol measured a height of
threescore cubits and the breadth of six cubits, or 60X6.
Kings need people to worship the idols of the state in order to
prevent them from following the teachings of their God; racial injustices,
oppression, wars can be perpetrated in the name of country but not in the name
of God. Idols can be statues or flags, mottoes, patriotic songs; anything that
takes the focus off God and puts it on the kings.
Epiphanes was proud of this idol he created, so proud that he,
according to the Bible, sent for the governors, counselors,
treasurers, justices, the magistrates, and all the officials and people of the
provinces to assemble and to come to the dedication of the statue and ordered
them to stand with their hands on their hearts as the Babylonian national
anthem was played and the idol was displayed.
When they were standing before the statue, the
herald proclaimed, “You are commanded, O peoples, and nations, when you
hear the sound of the horn, pipe, lyre, harp, drum, and entire musical ensemble,
you are to stand and worship the golden statue that the King has set up.
The king knew the importance of
bringing together the horn, pipe, lyre, harp, drum, and entire musical ensemble
to whip up a crowd as they played the Babylonian national anthem. It worked,
whipping the king’s base into a patriotic frenzy, but not the three freedom
riders.
It was told to the king that
Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego paid no heed to the king’s idol. “They do not
serve your gods and they do not stand to worship the golden statue that you
have set up. Instead, all three took a knee while the band played the Babylonian national anthem and the rest
of the people did as the king ordered; standing with hand on heart.”
Epiphanes was furious, commanding
that Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego be brought before his throne; so, they
brought those young freedom riders before the King. “Is it true, O Shadrach,
Meshach, and Abednego, that you do not stand with your hands on your heart
while worshipping the golden statue that I myself built? Is it true that
instead, the three of you took a knee?” It was true, the three admitted.
The king said, “We are going to try
this again. When you hear the sound of the Babylonian national anthem you must
stand and show respect. But if you take a knee again, you shall immediately be
thrown into a furnace of blazing fire.” The band struck up the music. Still
the young men refused to stand and worship the idol.
Now, with your normal criminals,
womanizers, perjurers, and colluders, you need only run the furnace at normal
temperatures. But Epiphanes was filled with rage against Shadrach, Meshach, and
Abednego. He ordered the furnace heated up to seven times more than was
customary, and ordered the strongest guards in his army to bind Shadrach,
Meshach, and Abednego and throw them into the furnace.
Hours passed. The fire burned. Then
the king opened the door to the furnace and was astonished. “Was it not the
three freedom riders that we threw bound into the fire?” They answered, “True,
O king.” He replied, “But I see these men unbound, walking in the middle
of the fire, and they are not hurt.”
The fire had no power over those
men; the hair of their heads was not singed, their tunics not harmed. The King
summoned them and they walked out of the furnace completely unharmed.
What are we to learn from this
story? Rev. Jordan drew five lessons from this story in the middle of the civil
rights struggle and the war in Vietnam, lessons that have as much to do with
the times in which we live as they did in his day.
1. Human
institutions, whether they be political, religious, or otherwise are capable of
gross error. The degree of the error is usually in proportion to the power and
pride of the institution;
2. Institutions,
political and religious, often take extreme steps to produce total conformity
just as the Roman emperor deified himself and commanded there be no dissent;
3. God’s
call CAN be heard above the noise, above the marching bands and the flag
waving.
4. Anyone
who embarks on a course of obedience to God when that places him or her on a
collision course with his or her government must be prepared for the fiery
furnace; and
5. God
is the Lord of history; greater than kings and their furnaces.
In every generation there have been kings with their fiery
furnaces. In every generation, believers are called to choose between an oppressive government and the teachings of Christ. There have always been Shadrachs,
Meshachs, and Abednegos.
Their story is told in the Bible
because God knew there would be a need for Shadrachs, Meshachs, and Abednegos
in every generation including our own. What v our generation needs is more Clarence Jordans. AMEN
No comments:
Post a Comment