For Such a Time as This? Who Knows?
Esther 4:1-17
Emmanuel Baptist Church; Rev. Kathy Donley
October 15, 2023
Note: A recording of the worship service in which this sermon was preached may be found here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zhyoUxGiCZk
Some of you are troubled by the book of Esther. There are many things which might distress us – the sexualization of women and the violence with which the story ends are high on the list. You are not alone in wondering about the place and value of this book within the Bible.
In 1946, when three shepherds tossed some rocks into a cave, they heard pottery break and discovered some ancient scrolls which had been stored in jars for centuries. This was at a place called Qumran, near the Dead Sea. The scrolls they found, now called the Dead Sea Scrolls, are one of the greatest archaeological finds in modern times. Tens of thousands of fragments of text were found in eleven caves within a two mile radius. There were many different kinds of writing – some political, some religious, some legal. About 200 of the scrolls were manuscripts from every single book of the Jewish Bible. Every book, that is, except for the book of Esther.[1] Most scholars believe that these scrolls were created by the Essenes, a Jewish sectarian community that flourished about 200 years before Jesus. They apparently had no use for the book of Esther.
The book of Esther does not mention God, which was also a problem for some. So, when Egyptian Jews translated the Bible into Greek, a translation we now call the Septuagint, they wrote in 107 new verses. They wanted to make a secular story sacred. All of this is to say that we who are Bible nerds could spend a lot of time studying many fascinating issues within and around this book. If you’re interested in a detailed Bible study of Esther, share that with someone working on adult faith formation.
Our time today is limited, so I am recognizing those valid concerns and setting them aside. Despite its troubling aspects, the book of Esther has endured.
Here’s a quick summary of the plot. The villain of the story is Haman. Haman is plotting to kill all the Jews in Persia, mostly because he doesn’t think he has gotten the respect he deserves from one named Mordecai. Haman has the trust of King Xerxes. He has convinced Xerxes that these people are foreigners who don’t obey his laws. King Xerxes has authorized Haman to find and destroy them all over the kingdom of Persia. What the king doesn’t know is that his new queen, a woman named Esther, is Jewish. She is Mordecai’s cousin and adopted daughter. We pick up the story as Mordecai has learned of Haman’s plot.
The news has spread. Jewish people throughout Persia are afraid and mourning. Mordecai protests publicly, by sitting outside the king’s gate wearing sackcloth and ashes. But Esther, who lives within the palace walls, is insulated from such information. Perhaps she would prefer not to know. But Mordecai offers her proof. He confronts her with the very real threat of genocide.
Those of us who went to the American Baptist Mission Summit this summer heard an amazing sermon on this text by Rev. Frederick Douglas Haynes. The sermon was entitled “Too Woke Not to Weep”. In it, Rev Haynes implored us to stay awake to the realities of poverty and injustice faced by people around us, even if our privilege shelters us from them. That was what Mordecai did. He woke Esther up to the reality that her people were suffering.
Esther comes to understand what is happening. She agrees it is a serious problem. But her first response is to be overwhelmed. It is a huge thing, under the control and machinations of powerful men. She comes and goes at the king’s bidding. She cannot even talk to him unless he summons her, and he hasn’t done that for a month. She may be considered the queen, but she is one of many women in the king’s harem. What can she possibly do to change the situation?
Mordecai replies with the most quoted words in this book “Who knows? Perhaps you have come to royal dignity for just such a time as this.” Maybe you are in the place you are for this particular moment in history. Perhaps you have more power than you think.
For such a time as this. For a time of potential genocide, for a time of blatant injustice and oppression. That was Esther’s time. What might it be for us? A time of war, when major world powers are again choosing war, a time when old toxic ideologies which we might have thought long defeated are popular again, a time when families are divided over politics and worldviews and faith, a time when most of our institutions are being challenged and many seem to be failing. “Who knows, perhaps you have come into the kingdom for just such a time as this.” That’s another translation of that verse.
Who knows? This phrase is repeated throughout the Bible in response to the realities of life that are hidden or uncertain or beyond human comprehension.[2]
When King David was told that the child Bathsheba was carrying, his child, would die, he fasted and prayed and said “Who knows? The Lord may be gracious to me and the child may live.”
When Jonah took a message of impending destruction to the people of Ninevah, the king proclaimed a fast and ordered the people to pray and he said Who knows? God may relent and change his mind; he may turn from his fierce anger, so that we do not perish.’
So Mordecai says to Esther, “Who knows? Perhaps you are where you are for just such a time as this.”
The implied answer is “Only God knows.” Is this a time when peace might prevail over war? Is this a time when we will radically re-invent our institutions or must we continue to suffer through the brokenness? Only God knows.
The ambiguity, the uncertainty, the not-knowing are part of the faithful risk-taking that Esther models for us.
The First Baptist Church of Albany launched Pearl Street Baptist Church at a time when First Baptist was going strong. Who would have thought that the time was ripe to plant a new church? Who knew that they were in the kingdom for such a time?
Pearl Street was only thirty-four years old and struggling when they raised the motivation and the money to move up the hill to State Street and build the building that we are worshipping in right now. Who knew that it was the right time for that?
The 1960’s were a time of great social change including the civil rights movement and anti-war movements. The city of Albany was being radically reshaped by the building of the plaza. In that moment, we joined together with others to form FOCUS Churches. Who knew?
Only a few Baptist churches were grappling with the questions of sexual orientation and the ever widening circle of grace and inclusion in the 1980’s and 90’s. Who knew that Emmanuel would be called to join that ministry at such a time?
In each of those pivotal times in our history and others, we were blessed with some Mordecais and some Esthers. There were some Mordecais to wake us up to the reality around us, the urgent human needs from which we might be sheltered. Those Mordecais also remind us that we are more than we think we are. They break us out of our paralysis, our temptation to think that there’s nothing we can do about it anyway.
And there were some Esthers. Some people who listened to the Mordecais and rallied the community and led with decisive action.
Esther offers us a model that is inspiring and instructive for such a time as this. We should notice that she doesn’t act alone. She calls for others to pray and fast. She looks to her community for support. Earlier I referred to additions to the book in the Greek translation. One of those additions is her prayer which ends with the words “and save me from my fear.”
She feels the fear and resolves to act anyway. She knows the risks, but says “If I perish, I perish.” “If I die, I die.” Sometimes what we are called to do looks foolish or reckless. And it might be. That doesn’t mean it is not faithful. For people of the Resurrection, death has no ultimate power. So, there are occasions when we might say with Esther, we will do what we believe God is calling us to do and if we die, we die.
Esther resolves to act. She summons her community for support. And she takes action. She seeks an audience with the king and when he grants her permission, she invites him to a dinner party. As she wines and dines him, he asks to hear her request, which he ultimately grants. She has no political power. She has no economic power. She has no leverage to convince the king to rescind his decree. But she uses her specific gifts which included her relationship, her charm, her gifts of hospitality and words and strategy and imagination.
Esther might have continued to believe that she was powerless, that her gifts were inadequate, but instead she took a faithful risk and changed the story of her people.
This story stands out because people and churches often don’t act and the story doesn’t get changed. We may not take action because
· We feel our gifts are not enough to make a difference, or that we don’t have the right gifts, or that we have no gifts at all.
· We feel that we have to do everything the way we have always done it, even when the situation has dramatically changed.
· We think we have to do things the way everyone else is doing them, and we compare ourselves to other churches and find ourselves wanting.[3]
This story, which has endured for centuries, is a reminder that we are more and we have more than we think. It is a call to creative courageous stewardship, to giving our time and energy and finances to risky faithful action in this time and place. If we die in doing so, then we die faithfully.
And who knows? Maybe we have come to this place, to this community, to this challenge, to this moment for just such a time as this.
[1] Dan Clendenin, https://www.journeywithjesus.net/essays/373-queen-esther-unedited
[2] Walter Brueggemann, Who Knows? https://churchanew.org/brueggemann/who-knows
[3] These bullet points and much of the flow of this sermon comes from the work of the Rev. Dr. Rochelle Stackhouse in For Such a Time as This: A Bible Study for Stewardship in Challenging Times published by the United Church of Christ https://www.uccresources.com/