God was with them as they went through

Here's my reflection for today's lunchtime Eucharist for St Martin-in-the-Fields:

But now thus says the Lord, / he who created you, O Jacob, / he who formed you, O Israel: / Do not fear, for I have redeemed you; / I have called you by name, you are mine. / When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; / and through the rivers, they shall not overwhelm you; / when you walk through fire you shall not be burned, / and the flame shall not consume you.

These words from the beginning of Isaiah 43 are emblematic of the story we have heard today of Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego in the Fiery Furnace (Daniel 3). Their experience was of God with them as they passed through the flames; their time of trial and trouble. King Nebuchadnezzar and his counsellors saw four men unbound, walking in the middle of the fire; and the fourth had the appearance of a god. God was with them as they went through their trial.

That is the story of the People of Israel; God was with them as they went through the waters of the Red Sea, God was with them as they went through the wilderness, God was with them as the crossed the waters of the Jordan into the Promised Land, and God was with them again as they went into exile in Babylon.

God was with them as they went through. That was their experience; an experience that they extended even into the experience of death itself. So, they sang with the Psalmist, ‘Even though I walk through the darkest valley, / I fear no evil; / for you are with me; / your rod and your staff— / they comfort me.’

Jesus came as Emmanuel, God with us, in order that we know that God is with us in all of life, not simply in the times of trial. For 90% of his time among us he lived an ordinary life as a child and young adult in Nazareth, that we might see God with us in every aspect of our day to day lives. He then experienced torment and trial himself, even unto death, as assurance that God remains with us in those times of trial too.

It was this reality that those he encountered in his ministry found hard to understand (John 8. 31-42). The reality of God being with us is what Jesus had experienced in God’s presence and is what he was sent into our world to show and share. We can readily understand why those encountering Jesus had difficulty in understanding, as their expectations of a Messiah had been shaped by dramatic stories of presence, such as that of Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego in the Fiery Furnace. They were looking for one who looked like a god and instead got Jesus, an ordinary man growing up in an ordinary family in an ordinary town. His ordinariness was a stumbling block to many and yet was the key to understanding what God was doing through the incarnation; as it was for understanding what God was revealing through the incarnation.

We continue in Jesus’ word and know the truth when we recognise the reality of God with us in our lives and world, especially in our trials and troubles, and as we seek to be the hands and feet, eyes and ears of God in our world by being with others. Being with is what Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego experienced of God in the fiery furnace and is what God revealed to us through Jesus. Being with others is then our response to all that we have received from God.

We gain comfort from these stories by remembering that God is with us in our time of trial, as was the case with Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego. God will go through this time of trial with us, whatever it entails for us. We experience challenge through these stories as we explore what it means today to continue in Jesus’ word, life and truth by finding ways to be with others at this time.

‘thus says the Lord, / I have called you by name, you are mine. / When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; / and through the rivers, they shall not overwhelm you; / when you walk through fire you shall not be burned, / and the flame shall not consume you.’

‘Jesus said to the Jews who had believed in him, ‘If you continue in my word, you are truly my disciples; and you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free.’

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Sofia Gubaidulina - The Canticle of the Sun of St Francis of Assisi part I.