NL 413: Fiery Furnace

Happy Thanksgiving!

*Call to Worship (Responsive) (Daniel 3- NRSVCE)

Leader: Blessed are you, O LORD, God of our ancestors, and worthy of praise;

People: and glorious is your name for ever!

Leader: For you are just in all that you have done; all your works are true and your ways right,

People: and all your judgements are true.

Leader: God of the exiled. We, like Daniel and his friends, find ourselves away from our true home. We are refugees, immigrants, and ex-patriots, because our final allegiance is to a kin-dom that is not of this world. For now we are called to build houses and live in them, plant gardens and eat from what is planted, to seek the welfare of the city and nation we are called to. Yet we are not to bow down to the idols of this present age. We are called to seek your kin-dom first, to plant and nurture seeds, to faithfully resist and disobey injustice. Today we light a candle of hope as we wait with eager expectation for your coming kin-dom.

Episode Breakdown

Intro (00:00:00)

Context is Key (00:01:18)

Overall Context

Last Time on Tales of Faith (Jeremiah)

‘Ad’ Break (00:12:51)

Text Me (00:14:47)

Section 1: Daniel 3:1 “An Homage to My Ego” (00:0

Optional Reading 1: Daniel 3:2-7 “Who was there again?” (00:17:22)

Section 2: Daniel 3:8-12 “Whistle Blowers” (00:22:50)

Section 3: Daniel 3:13-15 “One Last Chance” (00:32:43)

Section 4: Daniel 3:16-18 “Nah, We’re Good” (00:35:35)

Section 5: Daniel 3:19-23 “If There’s Anything More Important than my Ego on this Ship, I want it hunted down and shot” (00:39:49)

Section 6: Daniel 3:24-27 “One of Them is Real Shiny” (00:55:56)

Section 7: Daniel 3:28-30 “Actually, Your God is OK” (01:26:34)

Interstitial 1: Daniel 3:24-90 (NRSVCE) “Singing in the Furnace” (01:26:34)

The rest of the story (01:14:02)

Foreshadowing: Next Week on Tales of Faith (Ezekiel 37, Valley of Dry Bones)

That’ll Preach (01:18:06)

Sermon Thoughts

Teaching Children