Service and Authority

Daniel 3:8-18

8Accordingly, at this time certain Chaldeans came forward and denounced the Jews. 9They said to King Nebuchadnezzar, ‘O king, live for ever! 10You, O king, have made a decree, that everyone who hears the sound of the horn, pipe, lyre, trigon, harp, drum, and entire musical ensemble, shall fall down and worship the golden statue, 11and whoever does not fall down and worship shall be thrown into a furnace of blazing fire. 12There are certain Jews whom you have appointed over the affairs of the province of Babylon: Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. These pay no heed to you, O king. They do not serve your gods and they do not worship the golden statue that you have set up.’

13 Then Nebuchadnezzar in furious rage commanded that Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego be brought in; so they brought those men before the king. 

14Nebuchadnezzar said to them, ‘Is it true, O Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, that you do not serve my gods and you do not worship the golden statue that I have set up? 15Now if you are ready when you hear the sound of the horn, pipe, lyre, trigon, harp, drum, and entire musical ensemble to fall down and worship the statue that I have made, well and good. But if you do not worship, you shall immediately be thrown into a furnace of blazing fire, and who is the god that will deliver you out of my hands?’

16Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego answered the king, ‘O Nebuchadnezzar, we have no need to present a defense to you in this matter. 17If our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the furnace of blazing fire and out of your hand, O king, let him deliver us. 18But 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.’

This is the Word of the LORD

Thanks be to God. 

Romans 13:1-14

Let every person be subject to the governing authorities; for there is no authority except from God, and those authorities that exist have been instituted by God. 2Therefore whoever resists authority resists what God has appointed, and those who resist will incur judgement. 3For rulers are not a terror to good conduct, but to bad. Do you wish to have no fear of the authority? Then do what is good, and you will receive its approval; 4for it is God’s servant for your good. But if you do what is wrong, you should be afraid, for the authority does not bear the sword in vain! It is the servant of God to execute wrath on the wrongdoer. 5Therefore one must be subject, not only because of wrath but also because of conscience. 6For the same reason you also pay taxes, for the authorities are God’s servants, busy with this very thing. 7Pay to all what is due to them—taxes to whom taxes are due, revenue to whom revenue is due, respect to whom respect is due, honor to whom honor is due.

8Owe no one anything, except to love one another; for the one who loves another has fulfilled the law. 9The commandments, ‘You shall not commit adultery; You shall not murder; You shall not steal; You shall not covet’; and any other commandment, are summed up in this word, ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ 10Love does no wrong to a neighbor; therefore, love is the fulfilling of the law.

11 Besides this, you know what time it is, how it is now the moment for you to wake from sleep. For salvation is nearer to us now than when we became believers; 12the night is far gone, the day is near. Let us then lay aside the works of darkness and put on the armor of light; 13let us live honorably as in the day, not in reveling and drunkenness, not in debauchery and licentiousness, not in quarreling and jealousy. 14Instead, put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to gratify its desires. 

This is the Word of the LORD

Thanks be to God.

One of the most important ministries of our congregation is inviting the city of Lowell into our home to vote. I am immensely proud that when the community comes together to decide important issues they do so in our activity center. The folks who vote in election after election in this town look to our congregation for hospitality, even if they don’t look to us for guidance. 

Like any ministry, serving as a polling place is not without its hiccoughs. My first year here was a midterm election year. When election day came, our yard was covered in political signs, Republicans, Democrats, non-Partisan races, local, statewide, national, all splayed across our lawn right up to the line where campaigning was no longer allowed. That’s no big deal, I expect to see that at a polling place. The problem came the next day, when one of the major political parties came and picked up all their signs, but the other left their advertisement littered across our yard. It didn’t matter which party it had been, but I never want this congregation to be seen as a single-party church.

Our politics should not shape our faith, it’s the other way around. Because Jesus is the Lord of our whole lives, our deeply held beliefs, our faith, ought to impact our politics too. Our faith should be shaped by what we read in the Bible. The one rule of faith, as we have long confessed, is scripture: the word of God. When we’re talking about how our faith shapes the way we relate to those who govern, Romans 13 lays it out pretty clearly. “Let every person be subject to the governing authorities; for there is no authority except from God, and those  authorities have been instituted by God.” Good. Bible says it. I believe it. That settles it. Hallelujah, Amen.

But, wait just a moment, it’s much more complicated than that. There can’t be a single-party church because scripture doesn’t always speak with one voice on a particular issue. Although Romans says be subject to the governing authorities, the Bible has dozens of stories of people resisting the governing authorities, I wonder what the author of Romans, the Apostle Paul would say to Shiprah and Puah, the Egyptian midwives who disobeyed Pharaoh’s order to murder Hebrew Children. I wonder what Paul would say to the judges who led rebellions agains foreign conquerors. I wonder what Paul would say to the prophets who had showdown after showdown with the unfaithful kings of Israel and Judah. I wonder what Paul would say to the early church leaders who were executed for disobeying orders to keep silent about the gospel. I wonder what Paul would say to Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego.

The 3rd chapter of Daniel is one of the most beloved stories in scripture. It’s familiar to most of us. In the days of the Babylonian captivity, these three young men had risen to be low-to-mid-level officials in the court of Nebuchadnezzar. They followed, and sometimes enforced, Babylonian law on some of their own people. They recognized that even though King Nebuchadnezzar was the governing authority, that the LORD was still the source of all authority. When King Nebuchadnezzar issued an edict that all people had to bow down and worship a golden statue, they resisted. When they were put on trial and offered a way out, the remained faithful to God. “The stand of the three young men on principle was taken without hope of deliverance but for the sake of fidelity to the will of God as they understand it.”When they were asked for their closing statement they affirmed that God could save them, and that God chose not to, they would still remain faithful. They did not submit to the governing authorities when doing so would have meant betraying their covenant with God.

We can’t be a single party church because scripture doesn’t always speak with one voice, and the Holy Spirit does not always move uniformly through the community. Not everyone has the same line for when to take Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego as our example and resist idolatrous laws. A former professor of mine, the late Dr. David Bartlett, wrote a commentary on Romans and one his observations about Romans sums up the issues pretty well. He writes:

“Romans 13 is generally helpful but not always specifically helpful. It does not tell us what to do when we as citizens of a democracy can help make laws, not simply choose whether to obey them. It does not really raise the question of the proper response to tyranny.”

Paul writes his letter to the Romans around the time when Emperor Nero comes to power, and so he’s no stranger to bad rulers. The same God who creates, redeems, and sustains the world also orders it, and governing authorities are part of that plan. “Obedience to Civil Authority is a Christian duty, but it is to be exercised within the framework of the Christian’s more far-reaching commitment of obedience to God.” Paul is teaching that Christians ought to be good citizens, respected in their communities, and ought not undermine the rulers whom God has instituted. Because God is active in the world, at work through both individuals and nations, Christians do not receive a kind of spiritual “diplomatic immunity” that allows us to ignore the authority which is loaned from God to those who govern. Instead, we receive the assurance that in the same way that God accomplishes good through sinful people, God also works through sinful governing authorities. 

On the other hand, This passage has been misused to justify the church’s support for some awful practices by the various governing powers of history. It was used during the third Reich in Germany to justify support for the Holocaust. It was used during Jim Crow to justify the oppression of African Americans. It was used in South Africa to justify support for Apartheid. Each of those, and the innumerable others in history, is a blasphemous misuse of scripture. Kings like Nebuchadnezzar “proudly despise God, yet they arm themselves with religion to strengthen their power, and pretend to encourage the worship of God for the single purpose of retaining the people in obedience.” Romans 13 does not command blind obedience to whatever power is ruling at the time. Romans proclaims that our God reigns no matter which government claims authority.

Paul lists a number of the ten commandments in Romans 13. All of them are “shall nots,” telling us what God commands us not to do. Paul frames them in terms of loving our neighbor as ourselves. “In light of the commandments, love... is what we refuse, for the neighbor’s sake, to do.” His list, and summation that “love does no wrong to a neighbor,” helps me to draw the line where I can no longer be obey a governing authority, and must subject myself to the consequences of disobeying them.

If King Nebuchadnezzar requires me to pay taxes, I’ve got to subject myself to that authority, even if I disagree with how those taxes are paid. If Nebuchadnezzar tells me to obey traffic laws, and zoning codes, I’ve got to subject myself to that authority, even if it’s inconvenient. If King Nebuchadnezzar tells me not to text and drive, then no matter how much I want to check in while I’m on the move, I’ve got to subject myself to that authority.

But if King Nebuchadnezzar requires me to bow down and worship his golden statue, then I must choose the exclusive devotion God commands and fulfill that law. IfKing Nebuchadnezzar requires me to do wrong to a neighbor, I must choose the love God commands of me and fulfill that law. Committing myself, first and foremost, to the love God commands is going to put me at odds with the Chaldeans of the world.

When we discussed both of these passages at our Tuesday “Lunch Bunch” bible study, one of our regular attendees said “Something is going to happen one dat that we’re all going to have to stand up for our beliefs.” When we run into of King Nebuchadnezzar, we may find ourselves questioning if we have faith to step into the fiery furnace. Not everyone has the faith to take that stand. Not everyone recognizes it when it comes. Not everyone can hold fast and say that even if God chooses not to save us from suffering, “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.” In that moment, we can remember that Peter denied Jesus three times when he came to that moment. God still loved him and still worked through him.

We have the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, who loves us even when we mess up. When the governing authorities arrested and executed our Lord Jesus, he also submitted himself. Through his death at their hands, and his resurrection at God’s hands, all the world was saved. Nebuchadnezzar’s always fail eventually. Rome fell, Chaldea fell. But God’s kingdom has no end. Not even death can separate us from the coming rule of Christ.