The book of Esther is one of my favorites from the Bible. I love Esther’s courage and Mordecai’s will and determination that do not let her back down. I don’t know how many of you know the story well, so I will go over some of the details that were not read this morning. King Xerxes is the king in power, and the Jews have recently returned to the land out of exile. Many are back in Jerusalem, but the city itself is in shambles….there is not much protection, and being new in town and the regular under-dog, the Jews were often persecuted. Just before this chapter, the king’s assistant, Haman, who hates the Jews, devises a plan for them to be killed. He has the king sign an official decree, which by law, cannot be overturned. This is when Mordecai comes to the King’s gate to urge Esther to speak out and get involved. As we hear in the story, Esther is reluctant. She had not been invited to see the king in a month and could be killed for entering his court without permission. Much like Moses, her excuses are to no avail. Mordecai pushes back and urges her that she must go speak out. That even though she lives in the palace, as a Jew, she will not be spared. She has a responsibility to do something to save the Jews.
Like the last two call stories we have heard, Esther is asked to take on the impossible. She is asked to risk death and save thousands upon thousands of people. Her task is not easy and will require a lot of her.
Have I mentioned God calls us to the impossible? That God places before us huge obstacles and challenges? What we are called to do is not easy, but it is necessary. While the call before us is challenging and risky, it’s not the risk that tugs on our heart strings….it’s the need. I don’t think anyone signs up specifically for the job where they could die…not at first anyway. At first you sign up to help people, to save lives, to feed children, and protect victims of violence. We sign up to fight an injustice, or change circumstances, and find out later that the risk is much larger than we expected.
This last week I was talking with some women about being prophetic—about speaking truth to power and challenging the problems in our world and we talked about how hard it is. And then from there talked about how hard it is to continue to grow in our discipleship, to always be helping someone new, going beyond ourselves for the sake of someone else—often people we have never met or will never see again, but we keep helping and doing because it is what we are called to do. Most of us admitted that if we had known what would be required of us as Christians—all that we would be asked to sacrifice, the challenges we would face, we probably wouldn’t have signed up. But we didn’t face the challenges first. First we saw and felt the overwhelming love of God. First we were compelled by the needs of others, and then we decided we would do whatever was necessary to help.
The need is real and the circumstances are urgent. People need potable water. People need basic health care. People need to sleep at night and not to hear gun shots or bombs. People need education. People need to know they are valued and precious—not just in God’s eyes but in our eyes. Remember God uses us to reach us—and when we live that love, we share God.
As Christian, we learn we do not just live for ourselves—we are not independent free agents. Instead, we are connected to each other. God has created us to be inter-dependent—we are to rely on one another—ask for help and offer assistance. Our livelihood and well-being are inherently connected to that of our neighbor. As the scriptures say in 1 Corinthians…when one part of the body suffers, the whole body suffers. If one sister in Christ suffers—so do each of us. If one brother suffers, so do all others. We may not always feel the physical pain, but our livelihood suffers when they cannot do or create or live as God intended them to.
Living in a privileged society, it can be easy to feel comfortable, to settle into a place of privilege. For us, water flows freely and clean. Food is easily accessible. Hearing gunfire is the exception rather than the rule. Education is public, free, and mandatory rather than a privilege maintained for the elite of society. We enjoy so much privilege it has become everyday to us—so normal that we take it for granted and often forget that millions around the world do not and will never enjoy such “everyday” luxury.
Celebrating Pentecost reminds us that we are a global church and that God is the God of all nations. That Christ died for everyone and loves us all equally. We are reminded that in Christ there is no Jew nor Greek, no slave nor free—that in Christ there is no hierarchy—that we shouldn’t find distinctions of class between Christians, that there shouldn’t be separation based on race in our churches. As we hear other languages spoken, we are reminded of the other faithful disciples who have gathered to pray and praise and worship God this morning.
And as we see Esther, the woman with power risking even unto death for the welfare of a people we are reminded of the call to risk for those same brothers and sisters around the world so that they don’t have to worship in secret, so that they have clean water to drink, and food enough to fill their bellies.
When we have great privilege or power, we also have an obligation—a responsibility to do something with it. We are called to help others, to fight for their rights, to speak out against injustice. We have an obligation to make a difference—to use our power—individually and collectively to do something to save God’s people.
The call is not easy. It is risky and challenging. But we are not compelled by the risk, we are compelled by the need—the individual lives that are crying out for comfort, mercy, and safety. We are much like Esther, we enjoy a position of power and could rest well in our palace of everyday luxuries, while others suffer, but we are called to help. We are called to speak out, to make a difference. And we cannot be so vain as to think that we will be unaffected by the persecution that happens to our brothers and sisters. If they suffer, so do we, and we need to be faithful to the call and make a change in our world.
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