Mtr Taylor Devine

Dear Friend,

In this morning's reading from Daniel you might pretty quickly get the picture of what's going on. It's an almost comedic set up: King Nebuchadnezzar made a golden statue whose height was sixty cubits and whose width was six cubits; he set it up on the plain of Dura in the province of Babylon.

It proceeds as good stories do - with too much detail which can later be turned on its head: Then King Nebuchadnezzar sent for the satraps, the prefects, and the governors, the counsellors, the treasurers, the justices, the magistrates, and all the officials of the provinces, to assemble and come to the dedication of the statue that King Nebuchadnezzar had set up.

There's repetition and impossible expectations:
Whoever does not fall down and worship shall immediately be thrown into a furnace of blazing fire.’

And the characters are all set up.

But even with all these clues, all the set up, the end of the story is a surprise: Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego refuse because of who they are, and withstand the test because of who they are.

These early chapters of Daniel "encourage and console Jews facing persecution in the reign of Antiochus...it provides them with heroic role models who thrive because they remain faithful to Jewish law while serving a foreign king." God's sovereignty even in the face of exile and displacement is central. (Harper Collins Study Bible, NRSV, p. 1169)

It may seem an oversimplification, but the power of being who you are in the circumstances you're in is one of the most powerful things you can do. It may even lead you to more nearness to God in the openness that comes with standing in that reality of who you are. If I follow the Lord of Love who redeems and reconciles all things to himself, that identity changes things. In this Easter season how is it that we are invited in quiet or rowdier ways to be who we are in the midst of our circumstances - to be love, to see with the eyes of Christ, to believe in his reconciling power even today? How are we to be who we are bravely and kindly and with grace? When the story seems all set up, where are we called to stand as we walk in his Way?

In Christ,
Mtr. Taylor