Readings:
Daniel 3:14-28, 52-56; John 8:31-42

He gave orders for the furnace to be made seven times hotter than usual, and commanded certain stalwarts from his army to bind Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego and throw them into the burning fiery furnace. Then King Nebuchadnezzar sprang to his feet in amazement. He said to his advisers, ‘Did we not have these three men thrown bound into the fire?’ They replied. ‘Certainly, O king.’ ‘But,’ he went on, ‘I can see four men walking about freely in the heart of the fire without coming to any harm. And the fourth looks like a son of the gods’ Nebuchadnezzar exclaimed, ‘Blessed be the God of Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego: he has sent his angel to rescue his servants who, putting their trust in him, defied the order of the king, and preferred to forfeit their bodies rather than serve or worship any god but their own.‘
Daniel 3:19-25,28

Jesus said, ‘If you make my word your home you will indeed be my disciples, you will learn the truth, and the truth will make you free.’ They answered, ‘We are descended from Abraham and we have never been the slaves of anyone’… They repeated, ‘Our father is Abraham.’ Jesus said to them, ‘If you were Abraham’s children, you would do as Abraham did. As it is, you want to kill me when I tell you the truth as I have learnt it from God; that is not what Abraham did. What you are doing is what your father does.‘
John 8:31-33, 39-41

Many scholars believe that the book of Daniel was written between 167-164BC, when the Jews were suffering under the occupation of the Greek Antiochus Epiphanes, who tried to impose pagan ways of life, thought and worship on them. The author of Daniel is trying to strengthen the faith of his people, recalling their triumphant steadfastness in the past in face of fierce persecution. For the writer of Daniel, the truth is that God always has been and always will be with his people, and in illustrating this truth the author would not have had the same historical method which is used today. The Hebrew reader would ask, ‘what does the passage mean?’, while we tend to ask ‘Did these events really happen, and was it possible in those days to increase furnace heat sevenfold?’

For the Greek and Roman colonizers, Palestine, although one of the smallest nations within the empire, was also the most difficult to govern because the Jews were so dedicated to the one God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. They were rightly proud of their own history, their election as the chosen people, and considered descent from Abraham to be their salvation. When Jesus tells the descendants of Abraham that their father is the evil one, he is threatening their individual identity and national security. It is not surprising that they want to stone him.

We need to reflect, ponder and pray to understand the implications of this passage. Whatever words we use, whether salvation, justification, or right relationship with God, we cannot find it simply by being of a particular race, nation, religion or church. Yet it was this belief that salvation could only be found in Christianity, which gave impetus to its missionary movement. As the churches split and divided, each claiming to be the true Church, Christians persecuted and killed one another in good conscience, each convinced that they alone could offer salvation to all. This belief, although less prevalent today, still infects us, keeps us apart, weakens us all, prevents cooperation, and leaves each church so intent on its own maintenance that it has little or no energy left for mission.

As human beings, we need to belong to a family, a race, nation, group, tradition. But because we are each unique, have a unique relationship with God and with everyone and with everything else in creation, have a unique role to play in the world, and because we are free, it can never be enough to say ‘I am saved because I belong to this church, this religious group’ and so on. All these things are given to us to help us to find God, but they are not God himself. It is right that we should appreciate, love and be faithful to our own religious tradition, whatever it is, but we have to test our own tradition and our own understanding of it. Is it helping us to love God and our neighbour as ourselves?

Prayer
God, we thank you for all your gifts, the gift of creation, of the Scriptures, of tradition, of the Church. Help us to recognize you in your gifts without identifying you with them. We ask you this through Jesus Christ, our Lord.
Amen