Friends, as we gather this evening, we carry the weight of a world that seems to be burning all around us. Gun violence stalks our streets, our schools, and our sacred spaces. Our political system blames the innocent for violence while ignoring their own actions and their own complicity. Our media largely mourns a provocateur while neglecting other victims and survivors of violence. We watch as systems of oppression crush the vulnerable, as empires build monuments to their own power and maintain or rebuild monuments to tyranny, all while people suffer in their shadows.
And sometimes we struggle with what it means to love our enemies when those enemies have sowed hatred, when they have threatened our very existence, when their violence feels like it might consume us all.
The Gun Violence Archive defines a mass shooting as one in which at least four people are killed or wounded, not including the perpetrator. Based on this definition and as of yesterday (September 13), there have been 319 mass shootings in the United States during 2025 (with a margin for error based on alternative definitions of a “mass shooting”). Those shootings have left 308 people dead and 1,403 wounded. Four occurred at a school or university, two occurred at a place of worship, and one, the recent shooting in Minnesota, occurred at both a school and a place of worship. There have been mass shootings on 162 of the 256 days in 2025 (approximately 1.25 mass shootings every day since the beginning of the year).
Expanding the definition to include any school shootings, regardless of the number of people injured or killed, there have 47 school shootings during 2025 resulting in 19 deaths and 77 injuries.
Then, on Wednesday, we learned that far right activist and provocateur, Charlie Kirk, had been murdered during a speaking event at Utah Valley University. On the same day, a 16-year-old at Evergreen High School outside Denver, CO, shot two classmates and then himself. The Evergreen High School shooting was quickly overshadowed by Kirk’s murder.
The United States is living in an epidemic and culture of violence. Rather than work towards legitimate solutions, many of our leaders would prefer to assign blame.
Friends, lets pause here to listen for a word from God.
Daniel 3:1-28 NRSVUE
King Nebuchadnezzar made a golden statue whose height was sixty cubits (that is 90 feet) and whose width was six cubits (nine feet); he set it up on the plain of Dura in the province of Babylon. 2 Then King Nebuchadnezzar sent for the satraps, the prefects, and the governors, the counselors, 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. 3 So the satraps, the prefects, and the governors, the counselors, the treasurers, the justices, the magistrates, and all the officials of the provinces assembled for the dedication of the statue that King Nebuchadnezzar had set up. When they were standing before the statue that Nebuchadnezzar had set up, 4 the herald proclaimed aloud, “You are commanded, O peoples, nations, and languages, 5 that when you hear the sound of the horn, pipe, lyre, trigon, harp, drum, and entire musical ensemble, you are to fall down and worship the golden statue that King Nebuchadnezzar has set up. 6 Whoever does not fall down and worship shall immediately be thrown into a furnace of blazing fire.” 7 Therefore, as soon as all the peoples heard the sound of the horn, pipe, lyre, trigon, harp, drum, and entire musical ensemble, all the peoples, nations, and languages fell down and worshiped the golden statue that King Nebuchadnezzar had set up.
8 Accordingly, at this time certain Chaldeans came forward and denounced the Jews. 9 They said to King Nebuchadnezzar, “O king, live forever! 10 You, 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, 11 and whoever does not fall down and worship shall be thrown into a furnace of blazing fire. 12 There are certain Jews whom you have appointed over the affairs of the province of Babylon: Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. These men 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 then king. 14 Nebuchadnezzar 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? 15 Now if you are ready, when you hear the sound of the horn, pipe, lyre, trigon, harp, drum, and entire musical ensemble, you should fall down and worship the statue that I have made. But if you do not worship, you shall immediately be thrown into a furnace of blazing fire, and who is the god who will deliver you out of my hands?”
16 Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego answered the king, “O Nebuchadnezzar, we have no need to present a defense to you in this matter. 17 If 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. 18 But 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.”
19 Then Nebuchadnezzar was so filled with rage against Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego that his face was distorted. He ordered the furnace heated up seven times more than was customary 20 and ordered some of the strongest guards in his army to bind Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego and to throw them into the furnace of blazing fire. 21 So the men were bound, still wearing their tunics, their trousers, their hats, and their other garments, and they were thrown into the furnace of blazing fire. 22 Because the king’s command was urgent and the furnace was so overheated, the raging flames killed the men who lifted Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. 23 But the three men, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, fell down, bound, into the furnace of blazing fire.
24 Then King Nebuchadnezzar was astonished and rose up quickly. He said to his counselors, “Was it not three men that we threw bound into the fire?” They answered the king, “True, O king.” 25 He replied, “But I see four men unbound, walking in the middle of the fire, and they are not hurt, and the fourth has the appearance of a god.” 26 Nebuchadnezzar then approached the door of the furnace of blazing fire and said, “Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, servants of the Most High God, come out! Come here!” So, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego came out from the fire. 27 And the satraps, the prefects, the governors, and the king’s counselors gathered together and saw that the fire had not had any power over the bodies of those men; the hair of their heads was not singed, their tunics were not scorched, and not even the smell of fire came from them. 28 Nebuchadnezzar said, “Blessed be the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, who has sent his angel and delivered his servants who trusted in him. They disobeyed the king’s command and yielded up their bodies rather than serve and worship any god except their own God.”
The Empire’s Golden Choice
In today’s scripture, we see King Nebuchadnezzar’s golden statue, ninety feet tall and nine feet wide. This wasn’t just art, this was a statement. This was power made manifest, oppression cast in gold. We aren’t told what the statue depicted other than a god of some sort. It likely was a ruler god, a house deity sacred to the king’s family, or it might have been a likeness of the king himself.
Then came the command, a royal edict that was to be followed or else: when the music plays everyone must fall down and worship the statue. Everyone must submit to the empire’s demand. The command had less to do with religious devotion than it did with demonstrating the power of the king.
Empires always give us that same choice, don’t they? Bow down to our systems of inequality or face the consequences. Bow down to our violence or be consumed by it. Bow down to our hatred or watch your life go up in smoke.
Three Who Refused to Fall
Again, not out of devotion, but rather jealousy does the king learn that Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego are not participating in the enforced worship. The people reporting these men are upset that Jews have been appointed to government positions. So, they go to the king with a report. “Your Majesty, there are some people who aren’t following your decree. There are three Jewish men, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. They refuse to worship the statue you set up.”
In a world where the majority of people have bent their knees to the king and to his object of worship, these three men are still standing. In a system designed to make them bow, they remain upright. In a moment when conformity meant survival, they chose resistance.
Nebuchadnezzar gives them one more chance. One more opportunity to bow when the music plays.
Faith That Doesn’t Depend on Outcomes
Listen to their response. This is where faith meets empire head-on.
“If our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the furnace of blazing fire and out of your hand, O king, let God deliver us. But 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.”
Do you hear what they’re saying? They’re not claiming a prosperity gospel where faith means there won’t be suffering. They’re not demanding that God rescue them. They’re not even stating that they have absolute certainty that God will save them. They’re saying, “We have faith that our God CAN deliver us, and we believe our God WILL deliver us, but even if God doesn’t do it the way we expect, even if we burn in the flames, we will not bow to your statue.”
This is faith that doesn’t depend on outcomes. This is resistance that calculates the cost and deems it acceptable. This is love that’s stronger than fear of fire.
Repeat after me: “We will not bow!”
When Empire Cranks Up the Heat
The text tells us Nebuchadnezzar’s face was distorted with rage. He ordered the furnace heated up seven times more than usual. If that sounds like a drastic measure, remember that Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, were imperial officials. The king had appointed them to positions in his administration. Their refusal to worship the statue was not just a matter of religion, it was political. They were agitators whose refusal had the potential to ferment further disobedience and dissent.
Friends, when we stand up to empire, when we resist oppression, when we refuse to worship at the altar of violence and hatred, the empire doesn’t just get a little upset. It gets furious. It cranks up the heat. It tries to make an example of us.
The king selected some of his strongest soldiers to tie up the men and cast them into the fire. But the fire had been heated so quickly and to such a degree that the soldiers were killed by the flames before they could close the doors. The king’s rage consumed his own obedient servants.
But Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, fell bound into the fire.
Repeat after me: “They fell into the flames!”
The Fourth Figure in the Fire
As King Nebuchadnezzar looks into the furnace he’s perplexed.
“Wait a minute,” he says to his advisors. “Didn’t we throw three men, bound, into the fire? But I see four men, unbound, walking around in the fire, and they are not hurt! And the fourth one looks like a god!”
Say it with me: “There’s a fourth man in the fire!”
Friends, who’s the fourth man? That’s Jesus, showing up in the flames. That’s Christ, present in the furnace. That’s God-with-us, walking in the fire with those who refuse to bow to empire.
This is the first time in the Bible that we explicitly see Jesus represented in human form. No, chronologically, it’s still approximately 600 years until his birth and life on Earth, but here’s Jesus, the eternal God, showing up in the fire.
Say it with me: “Jesus is eternal!”
The Word which became flesh has always been. The Christ who walked among us has always been walking with the oppressed. The Jesus who was crucified and rose again has always been present in the fires of resistance.
That fourth figure in the furnace is the same Jesus who stands with parents whose children have been gunned down in our streets and in our schools. This is the same Jesus who stands with every person who refuses to bow to hatred, who resists violence, and who chooses love in the face of empire’s flames.
Unbound in the Fire
Then the king calls out to the men in the furnace: “Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, servants of the Most High God, come out! Come here!”
The text says, “the fire had not had any power over them; the hair of their heads was not singed, their tunics were not harmed, and no smell of fire came from them.”
Repeat after me: “The fire had no power!”
When they went into the fire, they were bound. When they came out, they were unbound. The only thing that burned in that furnace was the ropes that held them captive!
The fire that was meant to destroy them became the fire that set them free!
Jesus in Our Furnaces
Church, we are living in furnaces right now. The furnace of gun violence. The furnace of systemic oppression. The furnace of hatred and division. The furnace of empire’s demand that we bow down to its golden images of power and domination.
And we’re struggling with what it means to love enemies who have sowed seeds of destruction. We’re wrestling with how to respond to those whose violence threatens our very existence. But we know Jesus is with us.
Repeat after me: “Christ is in the fire with us!”
When children are wounded and murdered in schools, Jesus is there, weeping with their parents, holding the broken bodies, standing against the systems that allow such horror.
When immigrants are caged at borders and throughout our country, Jesus is there, locked up with the detained, crying out for justice, refusing to bow to xenophobia's golden statue.
When LGBTQIA+ youth are rejected by their families, their churches, and their communities, Jesus is there, walking with them through the flames of rejection, loving them when others refuse to love.
When women are denied bodily autonomy, Jesus is there, standing with them against patriarchy’s furnace, refusing to let empire control their bodies.
When Black bodies are broken by police, Jesus is there, unbound in the fire of white supremacy, walking with the families and marching with the protesters.
Repeat after me: “Jesus shows up in the flames!”
Violence is Always Wrong
Friends, let me be clear: violence is always wrong. Hard and full stop. Even when the target of violence is someone whose rhetoric and actions oppress us and those we love, we are called to act with love.
That doesn’t mean that we have to mourn their death. That doesn’t mean we have to recognize any value in their legacy. It doesn’t even mean we have to mark their passing in any certain way. What it means is that we must recognize that violence and the glorification and acceptance of violence only leads to more violence.
This week Charlie Kirk was murdered during a speaking engagement. He was a far-right-wing activist, speaker, organizer, and provocateur. His rhetoric was Queerphobic—particularly Transphobic—misogynistic, racist, and generally hateful. He organized young people to support a convicted felon, rapist, and pedophile for president and founded Turning Point USA which was by all measures a hate group. Though he professed Christianity, he advanced a white Christian nationalist version of our faith. He was a hero to many people, particularly young white men, who he held under the spell of his oratory.
That said, he was a husband, a father, a colleague, and a friend. He was a child of God. We don’t have to mourn his death. Honestly, we shouldn’t join the national canonization of Kirk which led to him being honored with flags at half-mast on September 11th, but we cannot support his murder and still claim to be a Christian. We cannot profess faith in a God who was murdered by the forces of empire and glorify the murder of any human.
The Challenge of Loving Enemies
But friends, here’s where it gets complicated. Here’s where our faith gets tested in ways that make us uncomfortable. Because Jesus also calls us to love our enemies. Jesus calls us to pray for those who persecute us.
How do we love those who have sowed hatred?
How do we pray for those who would destroy us if they could?
I don’t have easy answers, church. But I know this and say it with me: “Love doesn't mean letting evil win!”
Loving our enemies doesn’t mean bowing to their golden statues. Forgiving those who harm us doesn’t mean enabling their continued violence. Praying for our persecutors doesn’t mean failing to resist persecution.
Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego loved Nebuchadnezzar enough to refuse to participate in his system of oppression. They loved him enough to show him a better way. They loved him enough to demonstrate that there is a power greater than empire, a love stronger than fear, a God who walks with the oppressed in their furnaces.
Repeat after me: “We love by resisting!”
The Empire's Conversion
And look what happens to Nebuchadnezzar. This king who demanded worship, who threatened death, who cranked up the furnace seven times, he sees Jesus in the fire with those three men, and everything changes.
He calls them out with respect. He praises their God.
Say it with me: “Even empire can be transformed!”
The very systems that seem determined to destroy us can be transformed when they encounter the power of resurrection, the strength of refusal, and the love that walks unafraid through flames.
The transformation didn’t happen because Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego compromised with empire. It happened because they refused to compromise. It happened because they stood firm. It happened because they chose the fire over the false worship.
Standing in Our Own Fires
So, what does this mean for us today? What does this mean as we face our own furnaces, our own golden statues, our own demands to bow down?
It means we keep standing when the music of empire plays.
Say it with me: “We keep standing!”
When the culture of gun violence demands that we accept mass shootings, school shootings, and political assassinations as normal, we keep standing for life.
When systems of oppression demand that we accept inequality as inevitable, we keep standing for justice.
When hatred and division demand that we choose sides and demonize enemies, we keep standing for love.
When despair demands that we give up hope, we keep standing for resurrection.
Repeat after me: “We will keep standing!”
The Promise of the Fourth Figure
And when we stand, when we refuse to bow, when we walk into the furnaces that empire has prepared for us, we do not walk alone.
Before we even get thrown into the furnace of resistance, Christ is already there, waiting for us. Before we face the flames of standing up to oppression, Jesus has already taken up residence in that fire.
Every person who has ever stood up to injustice, who has refused to bow to oppression, who has chosen love over fear; they know this truth.
Repeat after me: “Christ is with us in the fire!”
The Fire That Frees
Church, the fire that threatens to consume us can become the fire that frees us. The furnace of resistance can become the place where our bonds are burned away. The flames of standing up to empire can become the flames that set us loose to dance with divinity.
When we refuse to bow, when we choose the fire over false worship, we discover that we are not destroyed. We are liberated. The only thing that burns away is whatever was holding us back from full freedom, full faith, full resistance to all that would diminish life.
Say it with me: “In the fire, we are set free!”
The Call to Stand
Today, I’m calling you, church. I’m calling you to stand up when the music of empire plays. I’m calling you to refuse the golden statues of our age. I’m calling you to choose the fire of resistance over the comfort of conformity.
Repeat after me: “I will stand!”
When gun violence demands our silence, say with me: “I will stand!”
When oppression demands our compliance, say with me: “I will stand!”
When hatred demands our participation, say with me: “I will stand!”
And when the furnace gets heated seven times hotter, when the empire cranks up its rage against our resistance, when the fires of persecution threaten to consume us, say it with me: “Jesus is already in the fire!”
Conclusion: Walking in the Flames
Friends, we serve a God who shows up in the most remote places. A God who walks with us in furnaces. A God who refuses to let empire have the final word. A God whose love is stronger than all the fires that threaten to consume us.
From the mountain called Golgotha to the streets of our own cities, from the ancient furnaces of Babylon to the modern furnaces of oppression, Jesus is present, Jesus is walking, Jesus is calling us to stand.
Say it with me one more time: “We will not bow!”
Say it with me: “We will stand in the fire!”
Say it with me: “Jesus will stand with us!”
Go forth, church. Walk into the flames of resistance with confidence. Stand against the golden statues of this age with courage. And remember you do not stand alone.
Amen.