The Tall People

                                                   The Tall People


You look around and wonder, are there any tall people any more?

Oh, not the height measured by feet and inches but a different kind of stature. The world seems to be filled with pancake people, flatlanders, dirt-eaters. It wasn't always so. There was time, at least there was a moment, when tall people were noticed. When, in comparison to the masses lying prostrate the tall ones literally stood out in their standing up. How was it so then and where are they now?

There was a day when the world was flat, long before Columbus proved it wasn't, at least in terrestrial terms.  But flat it was in ancient Babylon's day and suspicions remain that it still is. It was flat because the King of Babylon, Nebuchadnezzar, said it was to be flat. His image of gold set high before the people, the army band assembled, and when they struck up the national anthem, rather than rise and sing, all citizens were to fall flat and worship. And all did, but three tall men.

They knew the world was not flat, at least not the world beyond Nebuchadnezzar's grip. That kind of flatness belonged to Another and to any other they stood tall. The pancake people at their feet spoke from the dirt, where else can flat people speak from, and angrily called to Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego to get down and grovel. "Come on man, get down here with the rest of us. You got to go along to get along. You might get us all in trouble and we've had enough trouble since this King took us out of Judah. You don't have to worship the old tyrant in your heart. Just get down here with everyone else and get it over with. Besides, is this moment of bravery worth the consequences? Live to serve your Lord many days and serve this earthly lord just one."

But the tall people wouldn't listen to the pancake people, for they knew that the day they had to worship and serve the Most High God was this day, and this day only. So they took their stand and uttered their statement of faith that their God could rescue if He so chose, "but if not, we want you to know, O king, that we will not serve your gods or worship the image of gold you have set up." Their fate was set as their bodies were bound yet God had a different agenda than the nation's ruler. For Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego the Most High God had intentioned flame and fortune. But make no mistake, the victory was secured not with emergence from their furnaced apartment but when they were tall in a flat world.

The spirit of Nebuchadnezzar still calls to people inclined to flatness in our days. The images erected are not as blatant but the call is the same. "Worship me-- worship success rather than thank-God for it; worship the sport rather than enjoy the game; worship the material riches rather than use them for other's good; worship power and politics rather than see them as avenues for justice to flow; worship the self and taste the hopelessness of empty promises and breathe deeply the aroma of immorality so close to nostrils pressed in to it." This spirit of Nebuchadnezzar allows for in-between men today, not too flat, but never tall. Men "too decent to enjoy sin in its ugly rawness yet not dedicated enough to enjoy the feast of the fullness of life."*

The world bows down in flatness to all that is deemed great. But there were tall men in ancient Babylon, at least a few.  You look around and wonder, are there tall people today?

Help me to stand,
Cos

*Quote from Clovis Chappell, Methodist pastor early to mid 20th century who inspired this article