Thought for the Day - Tested by Fire

Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego in the Burning Fiery Furnace, J.M.W. Turner, 1832 - Tate Gallery

A Thought for the Day given at a lunchtime service of Holy Communion at St Giles-in-the-Fields based on the text of Daniel 3.14-20, 24-25, 28.
Threatened with the flames of King Nebuchadnezzar’s firey furnace when they refuse to worship one of his golden statues, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego explain that God has the power to rescue them from the flames - but even if he does not, they will never capitulate. Nebuchadnezzar is furious and orders the furnace to be super-charged and the three men to be bound and thrown in to it. Looking into the furnace he is amazed to see a fourth person amidst the flames - one with the countenance of a God, protecting the other three, who walk out unscathed. King Nebuchadnezzar is amazed and blesses them.

In refusing to break the commandments even when faced with the prospect of their own death, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego offer a vivid example of strength of faith in the face of the most horrific persecution.

Today marks the eightieth anniversary of the death of the German Lutheran theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer, executed by hanging at Flossenburg Concentration Camp on 9th April 1945.

Bonhoeffer had spent three years as head of a seminary, training candidates for ordination in what was called The Confessing Church. Branded illegal by the Nazi regime, its members resisted Hitler’s attempts to control the church and recast its doctrine; that salvation was no longer in Jesus Christ alone, but in the Fuehrer and the resurrection of the German people as the master race. Ideas which most of the German church seemed to go along with at the time. Bonhoeffer and his brothers and sisters in the Confessing Church were horrified. Like Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, their faith in God remained steadfast, even in the face of persecution.

Bonhoeffer was arrested and held in prison for two years before he was moved to a concentration camp. He was killed days before the camp was liberated by the Allies. His letters and papers from prison, collated and published after his death, reveal his awareness of God’s presence - like the angel in the firey furnace - even in the darkest and most painful moments.

Bonhoeffer wrote that the Christian life will always be one of costly sacrifice as we learn to abandon our attachment to the powers of this world and live through the power of Christ alone. There is no such thing as cheap grace.

He put these words into action in his own life and paid the ultimate price.

May the example of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego and of Dietrich Bonhoeffer encourage us to stand firm in the face of injustice and oppression, strengthened in the knowledge that God is always with those who live in the truth of his Word. 

Image : Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego in the Burning Fiery Furnace, J.M.W. Turner, 1832 - Tate Gallery