Esther 4:3-17 (NIV)
(1) In every province to which the edict and order of the king came, there was great mourning among the Jews, with fasting, weeping and wailing. Many lay in sackcloth and ashes.
(2) When Esther’s maids and eunuchs came and told her about Mordecai, she was in great distress. She sent clothes for him to put on instead of his sackcloth, but he would not accept them.
(3) Then Esther summoned Hathach, one of the king’s eunuchs assigned to attend her, and ordered him to find out what was troubling Mordecai and why.
(4) So Hathach went out to Mordecai in the open square of the city in front of the king’s gate.
(5) Mordecai told him everything that had happened to him, including the exact amount of money Haman had promised to pay into the royal treasury for the destruction of the Jews.
(6) He also gave him a copy of the text of the edict for their annihilation, which had been published in Susa, to show to Esther and explain it to her, and he told him to urge her to go into the King’s presence to beg for mercy and plead with him for her people.
(7) Hathach went back and reported to Esther what Mordecai had said.
(8) Then she instructed him to say to Mordecai,
(9) “All the king’s officials and the people of the royal provinces know that for any man or woman who approaches the king in the inner court without being summoned the king has but one law: that he be put to death. The only exception to this is for the king to extend the gold scepter to him and spare his life. But thirty days have passed since I was called to go to the king.”
(10)When Esther’s words were reported to Mordecai,
(11)He sent back this answer: “Do not think that because you are in the king’s house you alone of all the Jews will escape.
(12)For if you remain silent at this time, relief and deliverance for the Jews will arise from another place, but you and your father’s family will perish. And who knows but that you have come to royal position for such a time as this?”
(13)Then Esther sent this reply to Mordecai:
(14)“Go, gather together all the Jews who are in Susa, and fast for me. Do not eat or drink for three days, night or day. I and my maids will fast as you do. When this is done, I will go to the king, even though it is against the law. And if I perish, I perish.”
(15)So Mordecai went away and carried out all of Esther’s instructions.
Over the past couple of weeks we have been looking at the various walls that we construct around ourselves and our church that impede our ability to fulfill the commission that we have been given in Christ. We first looked at the wall of Insecurity and last week we looked at the wall of self-interest. This week we are going to look at the wall of caution.
I had trouble with this message. Esther is an interesting book. As I was preparing, I looked to see when Esther appears in the lectionary. Guess what, there is only one Sunday in the three year lectionary cycle that Esther appears. That is it.
I had read Esther as a kid, but this was the first time I read through the entire book in a long time. Esther is a unique book. It is one of a few books in the old testament that are basically a historical story. It is one of only a few books in the entire Bible that carries the name of a woman. It is also, I think, the only book in the Bible that does not specifically deal with God acting in humanity. That might be a slight exaggeration, God’s hand can be implied in a number of passages in Esther, but it is never explicitly mentioned.
In addition to that, I had a real difficulty finding a way to talk about Esther’s story in a way that would suggest we should tear down this wall of caution. So, I guess the first place to start is what we mean by caution.
The dictionary defines caution as an alertness and prudence in a hazardous situation; care; wariness. Another definition can be a warning against danger or evil; anything serving as a warning.
None of this sounds bad, in fact, it sounds pretty good. Caution serves a valid purpose in our world. There are a lot of dangers around us. There are lots of people who would do us harm. There are plenty of situations that can lead us astray. This is a dangerous world. Caution serves a valuable purpose. If we weren’t cautious, so much evil could befall us.
So, why are we talking today about tearing down a wall that keeps us safe in this troubled world? Surely, God doesn’t want us to put ourselves needlessly in harm’s way. What could we or God gain from that?
This was the problem I was having this week. I did a lot of reading. I talked to Pastor Skip; I talked to Pastor JP Bohanan at Bethany. But, finally, thanks to this help, I saw this story in a different light.
So, let’s look at Esther again. What is going on in Esther’s head? She has been chosen to be queen. Depending on what Bible translation you are reading, the name of the King changes. However, in all likelihood, the King in this case is the famous King Xerxes of Persia, modern day Iran. The Jews are living in a land not their own, a world foreign to them in many ways. But, due to a twist of fate, Esther, a Jew, ends up being Queen. However, her true identity is not known by the King or anyone else in the kingdom other than her close family. In fact, she was instructed to keep her true identity a secret. Esther has grown accustomed in life to following commands. That ability has gotten her far in life. But now, events she has no control over are going to change her reality very fast.
Mordecai lets her know that her people are being put in danger. In addition, she is being asked to not only help her people, but in doing so she is being asked to make her identity known to the King. Even more than that, she has to speak to the King and doing that without being summoned puts her in at a real risk of being executed. She is scared. She is unsure of what she should do. What is the right thing to do?
She tells Mordecai these worries and his response is not really what she might have been hoping for. He doesn’t say I understand your fear. He doesn’t say we’ll figure out something else. No, Mordecai says, Esther, grow up. Wake up, you have to do something. I know it’s dangerous. Yes, you could even lose your life, but if you don’t there are consequences for that too.
In the end, things work out for Esther and the Jewish people throughout the kingdom. Haman, their adversary is hung on the very gallows he had built for Mordecai. His ten sons are also hung and everyone in the kingdom who attempts to hurt the Jewish people is killed, all by the king’s edict that Mordecai was asked to write with the King’s seal.
But in the moment, Esther didn’t know how the story was going to end. She was afraid, the wall of caution she had built around herself was doing its job and keeping her safe from what was a likely danger. Esther realized that God was calling her in that moment to go over that wall, to put herself out there, relying solely on her God to see her through. Indeed, had she resisted and stayed behind her wall, the story likely would have turned out quite differently.
There are times in all our lives when we are asked to do something, or put into a situation that requires we scale over that wall. Making the decision to do that is extremely difficult and frustrating and riddled with doubt.
When I was in high school and had the opportunity to go abroad for a year, I had lots of doubt. I had my life planned, in one way or another. I was going to graduate high school, go to college, then medical school, then become a doctor. I knew, beyond a shadow of a doubt that that is what I wanted to do. But then, God put this opportunity in my life that I hadn’t planned on. Granted, it wasn’t a decision like that of Esther. There was danger, sure, but more than that, there was the fear of failure and the worry that taking that opportunity would change my plans.
But, I went for it. And guess what, it did change my life, my plan, my view of my own existence. It gave me the opportunity to see the world in a different way. It gave me the opportunity to see and know God in a totally different way. I stand here this morning certain that had I not taken that opportunity, my life would have turned out very different and I likely would not be here. I would not have met my wife, I would not have Ian and Mia, and I would have missed out on an opportunity that God had put in my path so that I could come to know him the way He wanted me to.
As I was talking to Pastor Bohanan this week, he told me of another story that fits into this theme even better. I had been reading about Wesley’s “Aldersgate Experience.” This is how Wesley himself talked about how he came to know Christ in a new and different way than he had known him as an Anglican priest. He had the opportunity to spend some time with Moravians. He learned a lot about his own faith through them, sometimes in good ways and sometimes in not so good ways. JP and I were talking about this. I knew of the Moravian church but I really didn’t understand what Wesley was talking about in detail. As JP was explaining part of it to me, he mentioned how the Moravians took the Great Commission to a whole new level. They believe in mission work and have taken some steps toward that goal that even today we would question. One story in particular stunned me.
The Moravians went throughout the world spreading the message of the Gospel to everyone they encountered. At one point, they wanted to go to the West Indies, the Caribbean. For a number of different reasons, they were unable to go there. Part of the reason was church politics of the day made it very hard for them, not being the Anglican Church, to go to British territories to spread their understanding of the gospel there. They looked and looked for a way to make that happen, but couldn’t find one. Finally, they came upon one way that they could get there. A number of them actually sold themselves into slavery so they could be sent to the West Indies to preach the gospel among their fellow slaves, most of who had just arrived from Africa. Wow! Now that is a story of not just scaling over the wall of caution, but dismantling it stone by stone.
Now, we don’t have to sell ourselves into slavery. But, Christianity is full of stories like this. Let me ask you another question. Have you ever faced a decisive moment and crossed your fingers? We have seen it happen on thousands of occasions: a team in the final minutes of a game is down to one final shot that will determine the victor, many supporters in the crowd cross their fingers. A person who is hoping to receive good news in an upcoming announcement secretly crosses his fingers. A crossed finger in these instances is a form of body language that expresses hope and faith.
When a person is expressing a false hope or is attempting to disguise a true feeling, he or she often crosses his fingers, but does so behind his back. It indicates that the words being spoken are not really a true expression of how one feels; they are a lie. Crossed fingers give insight into depth of our desires and emotions.
Nearly everyone has experienced an occasion in which they have crossed their fingers. Most however, did not know that the crossed finger first originated with Christians. When it was first used, it had nothing at all to do with luck. It was a secret code. In the early days of the Church it was dangerous to be a Christian. Our faith was unpopular and illegal. Many who believed were tortured and fed to lions for sport. There were times when Christians were hated so badly that even a casual association with followers of the cross could mean death. When those who were Christians, met another Christian they would use “body language” or crossed fingers to indicate that they too were believers. If someone approached that they were unsure about, they would quickly hide their crossed fingers behind their back to disguise their identity. Crossed fingers represented the Cross of Christ. It indicated that a situation had been placed in the hands of God. It suggested that the believer was hoping and praying for victory in Christ. The blessing associated with crossed fingers for many was, “May Christ be victorious in my hour of need!”
That is significant, especially in the light of the words of the text from Psalm 23. We read the words “though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil.” There are two words that leap from this passage “though” and “through.” The only difference between the two words is the letter “r”. In American Sign Language, the letter “r” is made by crossing the middle finger over the index finger. It’s the sign of the cross.
The difference between our “though” situations and our “through” situations is the “r” the presence of Christ victorious in our hour of need. Without the cross, there is no “through” only a “though.”
Though we may walk in the darkness of a moment, our hope is that Christ is victorious in our hour of need so we walk through the dark moment fearing nothing, our hope and trust has been placed in God’s hand.
As Christians, we may not cross our fingers as much as early believers, but we do maintain hope and faith that in any given situation, Christ will be the victor. We don’t hide that hope or faith behind our backs, but only declare to the world, “My hope is built on nothing less than Jesus blood and righteousness. I dare not trust the sweetest frame but wholly lean on Jesus’ name. On Christ, the solid rock I stand, all other ground is sinking sand.”
From Esther we learn that God leads us to know his will. While we don’t need to take needless risks, sometimes the road God sets before us is littered with many dangers. Yet, we must continue on through the dangers.
The wall of caution is a tricky one. Sometimes caution can help us. But caution is risk-averse. God is not. God doesn’t work in terms of risk, or odds, or probabilities. God is there, calling us to him, sometimes on soft sand, and sometimes over minefields. So, let us learn from Esther. We can’t know the outcome, but if we follow where God leads, we end up closer to Him, and if we perish, so be it. We perish in the work of God, for the people of God, and there is nothing to fear in that.
No comments:
Post a Comment