Being a Dissident in a Pagan Land

A few weeks ago, I was privileged to teach the adult Bible study on Wednesday night at church. Our church is working through The Story – a 31-week survey of the major stories in the Bible, from Genesis to Revelation. My night was the week focused on the story of Daniel. 

I don’t know when you last read Daniel, but there are some really strange apocalyptic images in the book – check out Daniel 7:1-6, for example. We did talk about some of that imagery for a bit, but I was really more interested in thinking about Daniel 6:10-13 and the next few paragraphs. That’s where Daniel models “being a dissident in a pagan land” in ways you and I can learn from.

Little did I realize, as a kid growing up in Sunday School singing “Brave Daniel in the Lion’s Den,” what a model of faithful living Daniel actually was. The whole lion’s den and rescue story is amazing, and I’m not discounting that one bit – but I am thinking that I would do well to pay attention to how Daniel managed to remain a faithful Jewish young man in an incredibly pagan land.

Of great importance to the age in which we live, he managed to do that without being obnoxious for the sake of being obnoxious. We seem to be beset with that problem these days.

Here are a few things I learned from Daniel in preparing for that lesson. Daniel understood that he should fight battles worth fighting for. He’s already had his name changed from a Jewish name that means “God is my judge” to a Babylonian name, Belteshazzar. But that doesn’t seem to be a hill Daniel thinks he should die on – at least, there is nothing in the text to make us think that. It appears that Shadrack, Meshack, and Abed Nego – who also experienced name changes – along with Daniel, managed to do their jobs in a pagan government well and faithfully serve Yahweh at the same time.

They are doing their jobs so well that their Babylonian opponents – jealous little political neophytes – decide that their only way of getting rid of this rapidly advancing foreigner – a Jew, no less – would be to go after Daniel’s faith, not his job performance. By the way, I can’t imagine that some of the peripheral things he had to deal with in Babylon didn’t thoroughly irritate Daniel. But he had the good sense to know what was really worth fighting for, and those kinds of things dealt with the truth about God.

When I read – and honestly re-read – this story, I think I often failed to note just how comfortable Daniel was in the skin of his own faith. I’ve always admired people who seem comfortable in their own skin. I’m not sure I ever thought about that in terms of “the skin of their own faith.” Daniel didn’t seem to need to hide his faith, on the one hand, or wear his faith on his shirt sleeve, on the other. He was willing to let his life and behavior speak for his faith. I know it is sometimes tempting to pretend like we aren’t followers of Jesus, but I also know that we live in a culture where often, people are shouting so loudly about their status as a Jesus follower that you can’t help but wonder what they are hiding. Daniel managed to avoid both of those failures.

Daniel was courageous enough to keep the windows open. Three times a day, he prayed facing Jerusalem, with the windows opened. He no doubt knew that his Babylonian critics were waiting for an opportunity to catch him in some misdeed. But his faith was so important to him that he refused to hide and pray in the shadows of a dark room where the windows were shut. This clearly wasn’t bragging about himself and his faith, but modeling the importance of his faith. That was worth fighting for.

I’m currently reading Reorganized Religion: The Reshaping of the American Church and Why It Matters, by Bob Smietana. In chapter one, titled “A Changing World,” he says:

“For most of its history, America has been a mostly white, mostly Christian nation, run mostly by men and where conservative Christian ideas about sex and marriage and money and morals ruled the day. Organized religion was a powerful and well-respected force, and other social institutions often deferred to religious leaders and gave Christians a place of honor and respect.

The country is rapidly becoming a multi-ethnic, pluralistic, egalitarian nation, where women and men are increasingly seen as equal, where traditional ideas about the nuclear family have been replaced by a more inclusive, LGBT-affirming view of sex and marriage, and where the fastest-growing religious group in the country are the so-called Nones – those who claim no religious affiliation.” (page 9)

Regardless of how you feel about the changes Smietana notes, the simple fact is that believers face a different world that ever before – and if we expect to be a transformative influence in the name of Jesus in that world, then we need a few more Daniels. Women and men who understand what is actually worth fighting for, women and men who are comfortable in the skin of their own faith, and women and men who are courageous enough to live their lives of faith with the windows opened.

And . . . do all of that without being obnoxious.

I often say in class that “Jesus was often offensive, but He was offensive about what matters.” That’s another way of saying what I’ve said about Daniel.