I Have Placed You

Context

Trust the Promise. Last Week: Jeremiah — I have a plan for you.

This week: Esther — I have placed you.

Period of the exile. 6th BCE. Babylon took over Israel. 5th BCE the Persians took over as the great regional power. Some Jews returned home, as we read about in the books of Ezra and Nehemiah. Many Jews remained scattered abroad. As resident aliens they were sometimes targeted for marginalization or even persecution.

The book of Esther tells the story of a crisis for the Jewish people in which they were target for elimination, genocide. The book tells the story of the faith and bravery of Mordecai and his cousin, the central figure of the book — Esther.

Summarize the basic plot up to the point of our reading.

King Ahaseuras (AKA - Xerxes) is reigning over a vast empire.

Esther, the fairest in the land, who has kept her Jewish heritage secret, is chosen to be his queen.

Mordecai, Esther’s cousin, is a pious and public Jew, and is in the service of the King.

Also in the service of the King, is an ambitious and vain official named Haman. He has been appointed above all other officials, second to the king himself.

Haman commands that all lesser officials must bow down in reverence to him whenever he passes. Mordecai refuses on religious grounds. He only bows down to God. Haman become infuriated and manipulates the king into issuing an edict to have all the Jews exterminated.

As we pick up the story, Mordecai, along with all the inhabitants of the capital city, are discovering the edict and its genocidal agenda.

Text

Esther 4:1–17 ESV

When Mordecai learned all that had been done, Mordecai tore his clothes and put on sackcloth and ashes, and went out into the midst of the city, and he cried out with a loud and bitter cry. He went up to the entrance of the king’s gate, for no one was allowed to enter the king’s gate clothed in sackcloth. And in every province, wherever the king’s command and his decree reached, there was great mourning among the Jews, with fasting and weeping and lamenting, and many of them lay in sackcloth and ashes. When Esther’s young women 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 command her to go to the king to beg his favor and plead with him on behalf of her people. And Hathach went and told Esther what Mordecai had said. Then Esther spoke to Hathach and commanded him to go to Mordecai and say, “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—to be put to death, except the one to whom the king holds out the golden scepter so that he may live. But as for me, 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 reply to Esther, “Do not think to yourself that in the king’s palace you will escape any more than all the other Jews. For if you keep silent at this time, relief and deliverance will rise for the Jews from another place, 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 do not eat or drink for three days, night or day. I and my young women 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.

Introduction

Most of the call and promise stories we have read thus far involve powerful signs and wonders.

Moses and the burning bush. I will go with you.

Elijah and the great wind, and rock-splitting earthquake.

Isaiah and the angels and the burning coal.

Jeremiah, dictates a letter from God.

Not so with this story.

There is no sign or wonder. No vision. No divine voice. God does not show up directly anywhere in the book of Esther. The call to Esther — go and speak to the king and plead for the life of the people — is accompanied by a promise that takes the form of a question: Who knows whether you have not come to the kingdom for such a time as this?

Often and for many of us, God’s call doesn’t arrive with supernatural signs and wonders — but God’s call is embedded in circumstances that we are faced with…and the promise that we are placed where and when we are for a purpose is posed as a question for us to wrestle with. (so that we can discover our own self-agency.)

Exegesis 1: Esther’s earth-bound view.

There is a death threat to all the Jews. Initiated by Haman, a high ranking official.

Mordecai solicits Esther’s action: petition for us.

Esther feels fear.

She can’t just go to the king without being invited. She will be executed.

Kings do that. Previous Queen was banished.

Besides there is no guarantee that he will honor her request anyway.

Haman a powerful official.

Not a powerful queen obtained from another emperor, just a jewish girl, orphan.

At first, she demurs. I can’t help in this situation, can I?

Implication 1: If we focus on the earthly plane, we will seem unequal to the task.

In the initial interchange, Esther is look at the situation on one level. The earthly level. There is Haman, there are the Jews, the king, Mordecai. Who is she? Just Esther. Just a jewish girl without parents or pedigree or wealth or privilege or status or leverage with the king. Who is not in the equation: God. There is not, at this moment, a spiritual perspective in place.

Installation Sunday. It is pretty challenging to come to a whole new church. — who am I to pull this off?

Only my resources…doubt!

Challenging to call a pastor!

Missing from the equation: God. Need God!

Exegesis 2: Mordecai expands the frame of reference.

Mordecai expands the frame of reference.

He can tell from Esther’s response, that she has bee in the royal system too long. She has gotten separated from her Jewish faith and practice.

He is pious and public Jew. He offers a word to Esther that is strong, one that calls her back to her Jewish sensibilities.

WHO YOU ARE: Your welfare is caught up in this. You are a Jew yourself. You have a stake in this. We are talking about your life as much as mine or that of any other Jew. There is no sitting it out.

WHAT GOD DOES: If you don’t do anything, God will still act. Mordecai reminds Esther of God’s reality. God will act.

God saved Israel from Egypt through Moses.

God saved the Jews from Babylon and the Persians through Daniel, and Ezrah, and Nehemiah.

God will save the Jews in this moment — BUT, if you don’t play your part — you will find yourself as part of the problem, not the answer.

YOU ARE PLACED — has God not placed you right where you are for just this very moment?!

Pharoah wanted Moses dead. But God saved through him.

Jezebel wanted Elijah dead. God saved through him.

Is it really impossible that even if King Ahaseuras could put you to death, that God is going to save through you?

Implication 2: We need to expand each other’s frames of reference.

Often a spiritual friend, the community, sermon, prayer, helps us to have our frame of reference re-expanded. Value of church.

Just this past week, I was talking with a clergy friend.

I was feeling stress, needing perspective. You believe in God, right? Right. Just sit on that for a second.

WHO YOU ARE. We are Christians. We believe in God the Father, Jesus Christ who died and rose again, and the Holy Spirit. We believe in a supernatural world.

Creed: I believe. I believe in — trust God the F, S, HS. This is what I stake my life on. Few things in life that have been as defining as the affirmation of faith. No sitting it out.

WHAT GOD DOES. Spiritual community also helps us remember what God does.

The God of the Bible — the God who saved Israel from Egypt, Jews from Babylon, and by the end of the book of Esther will save them from Haman — is the same God who saves the whole world in Jesus Christ.

Doing it not just back then, but doing it now. When God looks at the world. He sees the hurting and the lost and he reaches out to them.

We have a decision to make: to be part of that mission. The churches/our mission: To share in what God is doing.

Part of the solution, part of the problem. A basic decision.

God is active in LCPC and Ormond Beach. Basic decision for me: Do I want to be a part of the solution there. YES.

YOU ARE PLACED.

Jesus said, Your are like a light on a hill. We are to be salt and light.

Loving and engaging the world and people around us with that love.

I am called to LCPC.

Your are called to LCPC. Why are you here. The music. The preaching. The community…even something deeper.

You have been placed here, for just this time.

Changes in the community. You are here for that.

challenges in society. You are here for that.

Exegesis 3: Esther commits in action

Esther determines to take action.

She asks for three days of fasting and prayer. Then she will go in.

Mordecai joins her in this, along with the whole Jewish community.

I wil go in: If I die, I die.

Not a cynical remark. A faithful one. Commending herself to God absoluteluy.

Shadrach, meshach, Abednego. Fiery furnace. Daniel and the lion’s den. I will not worship the idol you have set up.

God is able to save us, but even if he doesn’t we will live or die by our faith.

Jesus — to Pilate, you have no power over me. My life is in God’s hands.

In the end, the faith of Esther and Mordecai works in with God’s plans behind the scenes and the Jews are saved. So many factors emerged in the course of the story that Mordecai and Esther could not know ahead of time or predict. But all came together.

Implication 3: We commit in action

We discover that we are placed when we determine to abandon ourselves to God’s purpose.

Here at LCPC. No going back. I’m in your hands. Also in God’s hands.

You are in my hands. Each other’s hands.

We are all in God’s hands.

Can’t steer a parked car.

get moving in your church.

In your marriage.

in your job.

you are the one who is there. God is working. Now is the time.

Conclusion

God doesn’t always move with signs and wonders.

But Esther is a sign. She is still celebrated today by the Jews. Every year. The celebration of purim. The day when God saved the Jews from their enemy Haman.

Esther a sign that God works through ordinary people who recognize him, step up to the task at hand, and entrust themselves to God.

That is a promise from God.

Children’s Sermon

Installation comparison to a light bulb installation.

Pastoral Prayer

Welcome and Announcements

Prayer of Confession and Assurance of Pardon