Weekly Sermon

"This is the Time" - September 1, 2002

The Reverend Anne Benefield

Geneva Presbyterian Church

Jeremiah 29:11-17; Esther 4:1-17

The book of Esther is quite a gem. It is unique because the name of God never appears in it. It takes place after the Babylonians conquered Israel and dispersed the Jews, carrying many of them to Babylon. Our passage today is from the middle of the story. Before I read it, let me explain what has happened so far. In the beginning of the story, the king of Babylon, King Xerxes divorces his queen. To find a new queen, he orders that beautiful maidens be brought to his court from all over his realm. One would be chosen as the new queen. A Jew named Mordecai presents his beautiful niece Esther, taking care not to reveal that she is Jewish. The king picks her and she becomes queen. Soon after she becomes queen, Mordecai learns of a plot to assassinate the king, which he reports to Esther, who tells the king. The assassins are caught and executed. In chapter 3, we meet the real villain of the story, Haman. He has risen to a very high place in the government. One of his first acts is to order everyone to bow down to him. Mordecai, being a Jew, refuses to bow down to Haman, which makes Haman murderously angry. Haman persuades the king to pass a decree that on a certain day all the Jews are to be killed. Mordecai pleads with Esther to intercede. This is where our reading begins. Esther 4:1-17 When Mordecai learned all that had been done, Mordecai rent his clothes and put on sackcloth and ashes, and went out into the midst of the city, wailing with a loud and bitter cry; he went up to the entrance of the king's gate clothed with sackcloth. And in every province, wherever the king's command and his decree came, there was great mourning among the Jews, with fasting and weeping and lamenting, and most of them lay in sackcloth and ashes. When Esther's maids and her eunuchs came and told her, the queen was deeply distressed; she sent garments to clothe Mordecai, so that he might take off his sackcloth, but he would not accept them. Then Esther called for Hathach, one of the king's eunuchs, who had been appointed to attend her, and ordered him to go to Mordecai to learn what this was and why it was. Hathach went out to Mordecai in the open square of the city in front of the king's gate, and Mordecai told him all that had happened to him, and the exact sum of money that Haman had promised to pay into the king's treasuries for the destruction of the Jews. Mordecai also gave him a copy of the written decree issued in Susa for their destruction, that he might show it to Esther and explain it to her and charge her to go to the king to make supplication to him and entreat him for her people. And Hathach went and told Esther what Mordecai had said. Then Esther spoke to Hathach and gave him a message for Mordecai, saying, "All the king's servants and the people of the king's provinces know that if any man or woman goes to the king inside the inner court without being called, there is but one law; all alike are to be put to death, except the one to whom the king holds out the golden scepter that they may live. And I have not been called to come in to the king these thirty days." And they told Mordecai what Esther had said. Then Mordecai told them to return answer to Esther, "Think not that in the king's palace you will escape any more than all the other Jews. For if you keep silence at such a time as this, relief and deliverance will rise for the Jews from another quarter, but you and your father's house will perish. And who knows whether you have not come to the kingdom for such a time as this?" Then Esther told them to reply to Mordecai, "Go, gather all the Jews to be found in Susa, and hold a fast on my behalf, and neither eat nor drink for three days, night or day. I and my maids will also fast as you do. Then I will go to the king, though it is against the law; and if I perish, I perish." Mordecai then went away and did everything as Esther had ordered him. Prayer: Lord, As we hear the story of Esther, may we recognize your saving grace and learn to rely on it in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen. Wait until I tell you what happens next: Esther, Mordecai, and all their friends fast. Haman prepares for the slaughter of the Jews by building a huge hallows on which Mordecai is to be hung. While all of this is going on, the king has trouble sleeping. He has his servants read the official records, where they come upon the story of how Mordecai saved the king's life. Mordecai was not rewarded at the time. The king asks Haman what should be done for one "whom the king delights to honor." Thinking himself the man the king is talking about, Haman suggests a series of elaborate things. When he finishes, the king orders that all these things shall be done to honor Mordecai. Next Esther risks her life by going to the king without being summoned, but he welcomes her. She reveals that she herself is a Jew. The order the king has signed would mean her death, too. She reveals how evil Haman is. The decree to kill the Jews is reversed. In the end, Haman is hanged on the very gallows, which he had prepared for Mordecai. This would make a great movie and it makes a fun Veggie tale, too. After all you have a beautiful heroine, a complicated plot with subplots galore, a villain and a good guy. But there is more to this story than entertainment. This is a story that can teach us about our relationship with God. As one writer said, "though the name of God be not in it, his finger is." In Homiletics, a magazine for pastors about preaching, one commentator writes: "There is no mention here of Judeo-Christian values such as kindness, mercy and forgiveness. No reference to the God of Israel, although the Persian king is mentioned 190 times. Missing entirely from Esther is the mention of such basic religious practices and institutions as the Law, covenant, dietary regulations or the city of Jerusalem. Yet…Esther is decisive. "First, she calls for a fast (4:16). They will do nothing until they have sought divine guidance. "Second, she and Mordecai agree that the time must be right. There is no indication that before this emergency, they sought to challenge an essentially godless culture as an ethnic and religious minority in Persia. When conditions changed, however, Mordecai argues that Esther had arrived at the court of the king 'for just such a time as this' (4:14). If she does not act now, all will be lost." And finally, "they must consider-and take-the risk. What Esther proposed was against the law. Yet, she said, 'If I perish, I perish.'" [Homiletics Online, "Rules of Engagement," Esther 7:1-6, 9-10; 9:20-22, 10/1/2000, page 2] It would be hard to find a better approach to action: 1. Seek God's guidance. 2. Seek God's timing. 3. Consider and accept the risk of acting on faith. Seeking God's guidance is a central principle of faith. We usually seek God's guidance through prayer, but Esther and Mordecai choose to fast. We don't fast much any more, although judging from the spat of articles this week on what makes us fat and the statistics published lately on the number of Americans who are overweight, there are plenty of us who need to fast. Fasting is a powerful spiritual discipline. The idea is that as you fast you empty yourself, opening yourself to God. You make room for God. Fasting is almost the opposite of the way we tend to pray. We often pray as if we were ordering fast food, but a rushed process does not facilitate seeking God's will. We need to set aside our busy agendas and make time for God. I recently heard about a practice of many Christians to abstain from eating before receiving communion. Fasting prior to sharing the bread of heaven and the cup of the covenant is a powerful experience. We feel hunger and thirst for Christ on a physical as well as a spiritual level. Esther and Mordecai fasted; let us also open ourselves to God's guidance. We moved our monthly communion to next week as part of our Homecoming worship service. I would ask you to join me in fasting before the service next week so that as we begin another year together we would be especially open to the Lord's will. The second thing that Esther and Mordecai did was to confirm that the time to act was right. God's timing isn't necessarily our timing. Waiting on the Lord isn't always easy. In preparation for our special service for 911, I've been reading a fascinating book about a chaplain who specializes in crisis intervention. He writes that in the first days following 911, he felt called to go to help, but he and his partner at "We Care Ministries" had a rule that they never went to an emergency or disaster unless they were formally invited. (They have witnessed the problem when the cite of a catastrophe is overwhelmed by well-meaning people who are not part of an organized effort.) The chaplain packed his bags and waited one long week. Finally, he called his partner and said, "Maybe it is time to break our rule." His partner insisted they wait. Minutes later, they received a call from the coordinators at Ground Zero asking them to come. Later they realized that because they had waited they arrived at the critical time when most out-of-town crisis chaplains were leaving for home. Sometimes God's timing means waiting; sometimes God's timing means going even though you don't think you are ready to go. The final thing that Esther and Mordecai did was to seriously consider and accept the risk when following God's plan. Knowing that presenting oneself to the king uninvited was an offense punishable by death, Esther says, "If I perish, I perish." As we approach the anniversary of 911, we will hear again the inspiring stories of those who risked their lives to save others. We don't often think about it, but everyone who works at the Pentagon understands and accepts the risk of defending this great country. Civilians and military alike chose to devote their lives to protecting our freedoms working at the Pentagon. In New York, firefighters and other emergency officers risked their lives by going into the burning towers. Most of the firefighters knew the towers would come down. Firefighters know the temperature of burning fuel and the temperature when steel beams melt. Yet, they went into the buildings because they knew the risk and accepted it. Many never came back out again, but their calm leadership helped many people escape. Esther, Mordecai, and the heroes of 911 here in the Pentagon and in New York took the risk of living faithfully. Four hundred years after Esther risked her life to save the Jewish people, another Jew would lay down his life for those he loved including us. As people in New York and Washington made choices to act in faith, many prayed to the man who laid down his life our Savior, Jesus Christ who bore the risk of love and calls us to follow him today. Amen.