United Methodist Church Hyde Park, NY

 
FOR SUCH A TIME AS THIS
Esther [4:14]; 7:1-6, 9-10; 9:20-22
 
This passage is the only time we encounter Esther in the three-year lectionary. And to hear just these verses is like reading the happy ending of a fairy tale without knowing all that led up to it. Which is a real shame, because the plot of this unusual biblical account is a captivating story.
 
King Ahasuerus of Persia commands his wife, Queen Vashti, to appear before him in royal attire so that he can show off her great beauty to the princes who are feasting with him. When she refuses, she is cast away from the court. Ahasuerus has his officials gather to him all the fair, young women in his kingdom so that he can choose a new queen from among them. Living in the palace is a minor official named Mordecai, a Jew who has adopted and raised as a daughter his young cousin Esther. Of all the women brought before Ahasuerus, Esther alone is favored, and concealing from him that she is Jewish, she becomes his queen.
 
Also living in the palace is Haman, the grand vizier. He has a personal grudge against Mordecai, who has refused to make obeisance to him. Filled with fury, Haman determines that avenging himself on Mordecai will not satisfy him. He plots to destroy all of Mordecai’s people – all the Jews. Deceiving King Ahasuerus regarding his plans, Haman is able to have an edict issued in the king’s name ordering the death of every Jew in the kingdom. When Mordecai learns of Haman’s machinations, he sends a message to Esther urging her to plead with her husband the king for her people’s lives. She reminds him that if she goes to the king inside the inner court without first being called, she will be put to death – unless the king holds out his golden scepter to her, indicating that she may live. Mordecai appeals to her with these words: “Do not think that in the king’s palace you will escape any more than all the other Jews. For if you keep silence as such a time as this, relief and deliverance will rise for the Jews from another quarter, but you and your father’s family will perish. Who knows? Perhaps you have come to royal dignity for just such a time as this.”
 
Convinced by his words, Esther prepares for her risky task with three days of fasting and prayer. Then she puts on her royal robes and enters the inner court of the king’s palace. Unsure of the king’s reception and her fate, she stands in silence and waits. It is the climactic moment of the entire book. But as soon as Ahasuerus sees her, he holds out to her the golden scepter that is in his hand, thereby sparing her life. She successfully exposes Haman’s plot, the king issues a counter-edict saving the Jews, and in the end, Haman is hanged on the very gallows on which he had planned to execute Mordecai.
 
The story of Esther is truly spun out of the stuff of fairy tales: from the implausible idea of a Jewish maiden being chosen as queen of Persia to her role as the instrument of salvation for her people. Esther was presented with an extraordinary opportunity, one she neither sought nor even expected, but one to which she responded selflessly, courageously, and wisely. None of us expects to be placed in a position such as Esther’s any time in our lives. But each of us will be presented with opportunities, times when we are in the right place at the right time to make a real difference for the good.
 
Rosa Parks never intended to start a civil rights revolution. That’s not why the black seamstress refused to give up her seat to a white man. She always insisted that her feet were tired and she just didn’t want to walk another step. Like Esther, she didn’t set out to be a hero. But, even with tired feet, she must have known that her refusal to move to the back of the bus would have consequences. Her simple, but courageous, act of civil disobedience sparked the Montgomery bus boycott and captured the attention of the nation, opening eyes to the humiliation and cruelty
inherent in segregation laws of the time. Rosa Parks went on to spend much of her life as an active member of the NAACP and other civil rights organizations.
 
Texan R.H. Woody had no idea what lay ahead as he prepared for his job as a department store Santa. When 15 children appeared silently before him, talking to each other with their hands, and not their voices, he realized that they were deaf. In 30 years as Santa Claus, he had never met even one deaf child. Reaching into his memory, he thought back to the sign language he had learned years before at a church where several members of the congregation were deaf. Not saying a word, he moved his fingers hesitantly, then faster and faster, and the children were filled with joy. It was the first time they had ever been able to talk to Santa Claus like other children.
 
Homer Fahrner had no plan to start a statewide service organization. But thirty-three years ago this past June, the 73-year-old California farmer was greatly distressed by what he saw: hungry children, senior citizens unable to afford fresh produce, and food lying on the ground. As he put it, “Well, somebody had to do it.” Taking a practice long outdated and applying it to a new time, he placed an ad in a local paper offering to start a group to deal with hunger. The result was Senior Gleaners, a volunteer, nonprofit organization whose 750 members’ average age is 73. They collect food and household products from markets and farms, then sort, clean and box them for distribution. According to their website, Senior Gleaners annually provides over 13 million pounds of food and other necessities to 120 charities.
 
It is possible to find thousands of people throughout recorded history who were instrumental in effecting great change in their time – like Esther, or Martin Luther, or Rosa Parks – just as there have always been countless millions more who because of their sensitivity to a situation and willingness to do something about it, made a real difference in the lives of those around them –like R.H. Woody or Homer Fahrner.
 
To each of us is offered opportunity; to each of us comes the challenge to recognize it and respond. If we fail to live up to the moment, we can only regret what might have been. A poet named Hazel Lee called this work just that: “What Might Have Been.”
I held a moment in my hand,
Brilliant as a star,
Fragile as a flower,
A shiny sliver out of one hour.
I dropped it carelessly.
O God! I knew not
I held opportunity.
 
Circumstances beyond her control had made Esther an alien in a foreign land and an orphan. Circumstances beyond her control had brought her to the king’s palace and made her queen of Persia. Yet once Esther was in this favored position, a very serious choice confronted her. When informed by Mordecai of Haman’s plot to annihilate all the Jews of Persia, she could persist in concealing her Jewish race and faith, ignore who she was, and continue to enjoy the comforts of royal living . . . or she could put her life in jeopardy by appearing unbidden before the king, revealing her true identity, and beg the king to spare the lives of her people. Esther took Mordecai’s words to heart. She made the difficult, but hoped for choice, and all the Jews of Persia were saved. Her story was recorded and included in the Bible for all to read and be inspired, and Esther has gone down in history as a woman of courage and destiny.
 
Moments of destiny and decision arrive unbidden and unexpected. There will be a time when you will unexpectedly find yourself in a position to make a difference in the lives of others. It may entail risk; it may well demand courage; or it may just require a simple act of love or grace. It is up to you to recognize and respond to the opportunity: to perceive a need, to realize a new possibility, and to apply what you know or use your influence, to do good. For who knows whether you have not come to the kingdom for such a time as this?