Today’s readings begin with an encounter between the faithful Hebrews -- Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego -- and King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon.  After the king summoned his royal administrators to a desert convocation, they were asked to worship a golden idol.  Most of them were fine with this -- whatever the king demands, they would do.  Except some of them noted that Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego did not show up at the convocation. “Who do these dissenters think they are! Let’s tell on them!”  The king felt affronted, likely prompted by these tattletales.  He then called the three dissenters to account.   

Their response to the king is calm, measured, and clear: “If our God, whom we serve, can save us from the white-hot furnace and from your hands, O king, may he save us!  But even if he will not, know, O King, that we will not serve your god or worship the golden statue that you set up.”  No fear or compromise -- just plainspoken commitment to follow the truth. They were not eager to become martyrs, but they had chosen to follow God wherever he would lead them. 

This enraged the king, but his evil response produced a miracle that later caused him to repent.  That was not his first repentance, of course.  But for many of us, sometimes it takes more than one miracle!

This story about faithfulness reminds me of these verses: “Study the generations long past and understand; has anyone hoped in the Lord and been disappointed?  Has anyone persevered in his fear and been forsaken? Has anyone called upon him and been rebuffed?”  (Sirach 2:10)  Sirach also writes this warning: “Woe to craven hearts and drooping hands, to the sinner who treads a double path!”  (v. 12).  Dissonance between the truth and our willingness to live by it eventually gets sorted out.  Let us resolve the dissonance before woe comes to us! 

We may not face a fiery furnace, but we have similar tensions caused by demands to conform to the world rather than to conform to the truth of our faith.  Like Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, let us follow their example not to compromise but instead to persevere.  Their witness caused the king to repent!  If you need musical accompaniment for additional inspiration, I suggest that you try the late Johnny Cash, who along with his wife June Carter, sings through the story with enthusiasm here.  “They held on to the will of God so we are told.  They would not bow before the idols made of gold.  They were protected by the Fourth Man in the fire.  They wouldn’t bend, they wouldn’t bow, they wouldn’t burn.” I have always loved that music, which has stayed with me from my youth. 

Today’s gospel presents tough words by our Lord to some good folks who, according to the text, had “believed in him” already.  Perhaps they believed, but that belief did not produce understanding.  I also get that feeling sometimes, don’t you?  But Jesus did not mince words about the dissonance between how they thought of themselves and the reality of their condition.  I sometimes hear people say, “I’d like to think that….”  Of course, we would like to think many things, but that does not make them so!  I am also one of those people.  It is hard to see ourselves as we are, particularly when we need mercy and forgiveness for our faults and flaws.    

Lord, help us see ourselves as we are, but also to see your offer of mercy just as clearly.  Help us to run toward you while we have the ability to do so.  Give us courage to live truly and not by lies, knowing that you are near us, even in the fire.  Deliver us especially from droopy hands and double paths, which lead us away from the good we desire and so desperately need.  Thanks be to God.