A reading of the holy gospel according to Saint John. This is a toughie, so try to follow it. Jesus said to those Jews who believed in him. That's the opening sentence. Jesus said to those Jews who believed in him, if you live according to my teaching, you are truly my disciples.
Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free. Please, that's a very familiar phrase. You know? We throw it around like nobody's business. And what is their reply?
We are descendants of Abraham. Never have we been slaves to anyone. What do you mean by saying you will be free? Notice they had been slaves in Babylonia. They had been slaves in Egypt.
And here they tell Christ we've been slaves to no one. And Jesus answered them, I give you my assurance, everyone who lives in sin is a slave of sin. No slave has a permanent place in the family, but the son has a place there forever. That is why if the son frees you, you will really be free. I realize you are of Abraham Stock.
Nevertheless, you are trying to kill me because my word finds no hearing among you. I tell what I have seen in the father's presence. You do what you have heard from your father. They retorted, our father is Abraham. Jesus said, if you were Abraham's children, you would be following Abraham's example.
The fact is you're trying to kill me. A man who has told you the truth which I have heard from God. Abraham did nothing like that. Indeed, you are doing your father's works. And they cried out, we are no illegitimate breed.
We have but one father, and that is god himself. Jesus answered, were god that's a contrary to fact condition. Were god your father, you would love me for I came forth from god and am here. I did not come of my own will. It was he who sent me.
And this is the good news of the lord. In the name of the father and of the son and of the holy spirit, amen. You could write a a library of commentary upon that reading we have had from Saint John. I would like to go back to one thought taken from that reading from the prophet Daniel about the three young men in the fiery furnace. Notice, god exposed them to the flame.
God let them be bound and thrown into the fiery furnace. He did not save them from the fiery furnace. They were chucked into it like a bundle of logs. They were saved only after they had been exposed to the flames, to the furnace that the king Nekabukka Doniger had heated seven times above its normal temperature, to have it good and hot. God didn't save them from being thrown into the furnace.
God didn't pluck them away from the danger. He did not keep them from being exposed. He did not, he did not fail to put their faith to a test. And now please notice when these two when these three young men are are committed to being thrown either either to adoring the idol to follow the king's command. It's the same thing with Thomas More.
When old Henry the eighth said, you've got to say I'm I'm the supreme head of the church, all you have to do is say yes. And every bishop of England said yes with one exception, John Fisher. And Moore said, no. John Fisher said, no. You're not supreme.
A few Carthusian monks said, no. You are not supreme, and they lost their heads. It's the same thing here. All all these three young men were asked to do is to say, king, you're the you're you're the boss. Do you tell us what to do?
And we do it. But the three young men said, Nicks, we'd not. God is our lord, and we're not going to follow your word and bow to any golden image. Notice, the Jews had done it time and again in the in in their Sinai, in their forty years in the desert. They were bowing all around to false gods.
But the three young guys, they they say, oh, no. Then they say, even if god doesn't save us from the flames, we will not adore you. We're not going in there expecting to be saved from these flames. Now remember, the word of god is is good news. Notice present tense.
Present tense is. Not will be or was. It is there's something here for all of us, something that that should stimulate us, that that should give fiber and strength to our religious life. And by religious life, I say it's very simple. It means allegiance to god almighty.
And if it isn't that, it's not religion. There are plenty of things that can help us, but those things in themselves are not religion. The fact that these three guys allow themselves to be thrown into a fire and being exposed to losing their lives, in itself, that's that's not an act of religion. Plenty of firemen do it. Plenty of husbands have gone into a house to save their wife and have sacrificed their lives in a futile attempt.
Plenty of parents have gone into burning homes to try to rescue kids when the place was blamed was burning and lost their lives. That was that need not be an act of religion at all. So let's face it. If physical action is to have a signature of religion, it's got to be more than the physical. And so when these three young men allow themselves by a cold act of the will to be exposed to to to certain death, they do so with two convictions, that their god can save them, but he may not save But whether it goes one way or the other, their faith is not disturbed.
Now my friends, that's the thought I want to leave with you. We are all notice, we we pray in the lord's prayer that we will be delivered from temptation. That phrase gives people all kinds of trouble because they're saying, how can god tempt me? Why is that fair? That's like dangling a piece of candy in front of a little kid, and when the kid puts his arm out together, you smack him.
Well, maybe if you're trying to train a dog, that kind of a thing is is sensible. But you see, we are faith means confidence. It means more than that, but it means it means certitude based upon my my trust in a witness. That's one aspect of faith. The other aspect of faith with which Luther emphasized was this act of trust, of confidence.
Now in any given instance of practical affairs of life where we are following God's will, when we are being exposed to the fiery furnace in one way or the other, there's where we need faith in both its meanings, and we need it desperately. We need it desperately. Because you you just take this take this matter of prayer. God says, ask ask anything you want. You ask in my name, and you'll get it.
Pray and you can move mountains. Well, all I can say, go out and try it. See how many mountains you move. Have you gotten everything you prayed for? And the answer is, of course, I haven't.
And you see, when that happens to some people, they can't take it. They have been, as we say, tempted, and they fail. Now as I say, the one just one little tiny thought I wanna leave with you is that God Almighty, who saved these three young men from the fiery furnace, did not save them from being exposed to the fiery furnace. They didn't this god of theirs did not save them from being condemned, from being bound, from seeing the fire all heated up, having themselves thrown into it without any certitude that they were going to be saved from it. And yet in no way was their faith disturbed.
That's the point. That's the point. And the final point is this, that that kind of faith is a gift of god. You can't manufacture it. There's a great mystery here.
I'm the first one to admit that. But this is something this is a gift. And so when we pray to be freed from temptation, let's think of what we're saying. Because if we're praying with any common sense, any any any sensible attitude, we are praying in the in the vernacular in the vernacular of these three young men in the fiery furnace that they trusted in their god, and that trust included his making the decision, Not my will, but thine be done. In the name of the father and of the son and of the holy spirit.
Amen.