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This past Sunday, Maddie preached about resisting the temptations of the “inner ring” by diving into the story of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego in the book of Daniel. She talked about how, in our daily lives, being prophetic often looks like deciding not to conform in little ways when conforming goes against our values.
Resisting the temptation to conform is hard because conforming is often how we’re taught to belong– and it’s natural to want to belong! The problems come when the desire to belong runs our life and leads us astray. We can only resist that temptation consistently when we deconstruct our desire to belong to the invisible inner circles all around us. In her sermon, Maddie talked about a CS Lewis essay and a VeggieTales episode. More on those below! The Inner Ring, by C.S. Lewis In 1944, C.S. Lewis gave a lecture called “The Inner Ring,” in which he reflected on a temptation he believed was present in nearly every area of human life: the desire to be part of an exclusive group. Lewis argued that many of the worst decisions people make are by the longing to belong to an “inner ring” — a circle of people who seem more important, influential, knowledgeable, or accepted than everyone else. Whether in schools, workplaces, churches, social circles, or politics, we often find ourselves tempted to compromise our values in order to gain admission to these invisible groups. Lewis warns that the inner ring is ultimately a trap. The moment we gain entry into one exclusive circle, another appears just beyond it, promising an even greater sense of belonging. The pursuit never ends. Instead of chasing acceptance from increasingly exclusive groups, Lewis encourages us to focus instead on forming genuine friendships, engaging meaningful work, and living out our values. You can read the lecture itself at the link, it’s not very long and full of good insights! VeggieTales Episode: Rack, Shack, and Benny On Sunday, we dove into the story of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego from the book of Daniel. This story takes place during the Babylonian exile, after the Israelites were conquered. Daniel, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego were taken from their homeland along with the other Israelites. But, unlike the other Israelites, they were specially chosen to serve in the court of the Babylonian king, where they had to constantly navigate the pressures to conform to practices that went against their beliefs. The story of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego is about a time when the three Israelites stood up for their beliefs, refusing to worship a large golden statue. When the Babylonian king threw them in the furnace as punishment, God stayed with them and they miraculously survived. Maddie talked about the ways in which many of us are finding success in our own “exiles”-- how, like Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, we’ve gained access to all kinds of inner rings. That sometimes makes it harder to resist the temptation to try to get access to inner rings that are even more exclusive. As Maddie mentioned on Sunday, there is a VeggieTales version of this story! In this episode, Bob the Tomato, Larry the Cucumber, and Junior Asparagus work in a chocolate factory and are pressured to worship a gigantic chocolate bunny. It’s a great episode, Maddie’s favorite, and a great way to introduce kids– and people of all ages– to ideas about resisting social pressure. The link takes you to a YouTube playlist version of the episode. For the official episode, you’ll need to unfortunately subscribe to PureFlix.
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