God Taps #3 | “Such a Time”

0:00 This fall, and by the way, welcome to autumn, to nor'easter season. We look a little soggy around the edges this morning, but stars in your crown, you made it. Fifth Avenue Presbyterian Church has embarked on a sermon series exploring moments when God taps someone on the shoulder and says, I have a mission for you, a plan for you. In week one, we looked at God's call to Isaiah, and we talked about how our faith invites us through the contours of worship to consider the work that God would have us do in this world. In week two, we looked at the curious story of Balaam and his donkey. And we talked about moments when God puts an angel in our path and says, do not do that. In that same sermon, I invited you to consider joining a letter writing campaign shaped by our outreach committee, asking members of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee to call for the end of a program that deports immigrants not to their lands of birth, but to third country prisons without due process. And we've had an amazing response to this effort.

1:30 And my oh my, bless their young hopeful souls, our youth group mailed 161 letters this past Friday. Give it up for them. Along the way, we have received helpful feedback. You've made our efforts better and more focused. So I encourage you, please check out FAPC.org slash advocacy for our updated webpage. Lucas Kaler, chair of the outreach committee, will be available after service today. I think he's going to be upstairs at the activities fair, and you can check with him there. He'll have copies of the letters and we'll be able to resource you and answer more questions about this effort. Today, as promised, we're going to consider what God might be asking each of us to do in the unique corners of the world where we live and work and interact.

2:36 And in wrestling with this question, we're going to be aided by the book of Esther. Our Jewish brothers and sisters know the story of Esther quite well. The scroll of Esther sits at the heart of the festival of Purim. At the same time, I realize that Esther is not necessarily a familiar book to most Christians. So let's take a moment to consider the backstory to today's passage, a bit of context before we get started. The book of Esther takes place during Israel's exilic period, some 470 years before Christ. In that season of biblical history, a significant portion of the Judean population can be found living in captivity in the ancient nation of Persia. At that time, the ruler of Persia was King Ahasuerus.

3:39 Ahasuerus was an ill-mannered, rash, and rather dangerous fellow. He exerted absolute control over his empire. His word was law. At the same time, Ahasuerus loved feasts. He once threw a banquet that lasted 180 days. Dignitaries from across the Middle East came to sit at the king's bounteous tables. At these events, Ahasuerus was known to drink heavily. And in these inebriated moments, the partying king developed a reputation for being impulsive and sort of a jerk. Case in point, at the beginning of the book of Esther, Ahasuerus has thrown another enormous banquet.

4:37 And in the midst of this feasting, the king gets deep into his cups. And then on a whim, he demands that his consort, Queen Vashti, put on a crown and parade her legendary beauty before his many guests. Vashti rolls her eyes. she's had enough of the king's loudish behavior. She refuses to appear and the king flies into a rage. He banishes Vashti. You're fired. And shortly thereafter, the king announces, this is true, a national beauty pageant to find a new queen. This is where Esther comes into the picture. Esther, an attractive young Jewish woman, enters the king's contest. Now, down through the centuries, a lot of ink has been spilled debating Esther's motivation in putting on some eyeliner and heading to the palace.

5:37 Was this an ethical decision? A wise decision? Why would anyone want to become the consort of the mercurial and brutish king? Why, indeed, today's text reminds us, as if we need any reminding, that there have always been people who are eager, who will do almost anything to get close to the world's seats of power, in the hope, perhaps, that a little of that power will rub off on them. As you may have guessed, Esther wins the beauty contest. The good book tells us the king is smitten. He's infatuated by her. He professes deep affection for his new bride. Oh, and one more key fact. This occurs.

6:29 Esker leverages her charms to increase her stature, all while hiding her Jewish heritage from the king and his court. For a time, things are calm. until the king hosts yet another drunken party. This time Ahasuerus is flattered by a shady fellow named Haman. The king, a sucker for sycophancy, names Haman the viceroy of Persia, a position of enormous power and influence. Once again, the king's rash decision has serious consequences. Haman has a run-in with a Jewish man named Mordecai. Mordecai refuses to bow before Haman.

7:24 Bowing is something that one does before God and not mere mortals. The new viceroy is angry and he decides to flex his power. He wants to punish Mordecai and the entire Jewish population of Persia with him. Sitting in the throne room, Haman begins a whisper campaign against Persia's Jews. He explains that he's uncovered a threat to the realm. Jews are not obeying your law. I'd like your permission, Haman asks, to wipe them out, all of them. The mercurial king nods. He gives Haman a thumbs up for genocide. The last two things you need to know before we read our text are that Mordecai learns of Haman's evil plan to kill all the Jews. And two, Mordecai happens to be Esther's cousin, the man who raised her from when she was an orphan.

8:28 Mordecai sends a messenger to Esther, letting her know of Haman's evil plan. Mordecai asks Esther to intervene to convince the king to stop the proposed massacre of her people. And this sets the stage for today's text. My friends, let's listen now for God's word as it comes to us from Esther chapter 4, beginning with the ninth verse.

8:58 Hathak went and told Esther what Mordecai had said. Then Esther spoke to Hathak and gave him a message for Mordecai. 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. Only if the king holds out his golden scepter to someone, may that person live. I myself have not been called to come in to the king for 30 days. When they told Mordecai what Esther had said, Mordecai told them to reply to Esther, do not think that in the king's palace you will escape any more than all the other Jews.

9:55 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 family will perish. Who knows? Perhaps you have come to royal dignity for just such a time as this. then Esther said in reply to Mordecai go gather all the Jews to be found in Susa and hold a fast on my behalf and neither eat nor drink for three days night and day I and my maids will also fast as you do after that 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.

10:54 This is the word of God. For you, the people of God, thanks be to God. So Queen Esther faces a dilemma. What am I supposed to do? My cousin wants me to act. Does he understand my predicament? The king has declared that anyone who shows up uninvited to the throne room will be killed. My cousin Mordecai says, go to the throne room and advocate for your people. has Mordecai forgotten that the king doesn't know that I'm a Jew has he forgotten that the king has already given a green light for this genocide has he forgotten that I'm a woman living in a court where patriarchy drips from every gilded candlestick the old man's plan is beyond risky one misstep and I'll be squashed like a beetle and no one, no one would give poor little old Esther a second thought I bet they'd hold another beauty pageant within the week Mordecai's response to Esther's hesitation is famous do you think you're going to escape persecution by being silent don't be naive if you do nothing deliverance will eventually come for your people but one thing is certain you and me and our whole family will be destroyed you wanted influence okay now use it Put your smarts and your seductive powers to use for good, for vulnerable people.

12:41 Who knows? Perhaps you have come to royal dignity for just such a time as this. Mordecai's words pack a potent punch. You realize, don't you, that you, you have the power to change things. What remains to be seen is whether you can find the courage to do what needs to be done. Mordecai's words sting a bit, although they're delivered with a dose of humility. Who knows, says the old man. Who knows? Perhaps you've come to royal dignity for just such a time as this. Maybe this is your moment, maybe not. Who knows? Mordecai's caveat here who knows is important it's important for Esther it's important for us because we want to know Esther wants to know how can I be sure when do I know that God wants me to take a risk for the good of others is this the challenge that I ought to accept go now step into the throne room without a net and be brave? So brave. How do we know when we've entered into, stumbled on, such a time as this? Let's try to answer that question.

14:10 A little over a week ago, Annie Dillard died. For those of you who do not know her work, Dillard was both a novelist and a naturalist. She wrote luminous essays about creation and humanity's place in it. I'm a huge fan. Dillard won the Pulitzer Prize at the age of 28 for her collection of essays, Pilgrim at Tinker Creek. Although my favorite compendium of Dillard's goes by the winsome title, Teaching a Stone to Talk. I mention Dillard because while the subject of her writings ranged from solar eclipses to the habits of creek-dwelling muskrats, a common refrain runs through her work. Dillard's counsel to us mortals can, I think, be boiled down to four words.

15:12 Be quiet and attend. With great consistency, Dillard's essays remind us that if we look really hard, if we listen without jabbering to others or to ourselves, nothing is dull. Nothing lacks wonder. Not a bite of a chicken salad sandwich. No ripple in the water. No stone on the shore. No rustle in the grass. No bicycle leaning against a trash can. No thing and no moment is devoid of meaning. If you settle your soul and are quiet. If you open your mind to what is happening around you, Dillard. opined, you will begin to see that a holy fire illumines everything. Mordecai's simple, humble challenge to Esther echoes with Dillard's wisdom.

16:19 He begins by acknowledging her agency. She is the queen. And then he invites Esther to pay attention to the moment. Who knows? Perhaps you've come to royal dignity for just such a time as this. Such a time. Such a time. What is such a time? last spring I found myself in a fascinating conversation with FAPC member Min Jin Lee Min Jin in case you haven't noticed has both a huge heart and a many layers deep intellect she wanted to talk about time we discussed the nature of time philosophical and theological perspectives on time we distinguished between the tick-tock moving of the second hand time and time that is pregnant with holy possibility.

17:14 Our conversation got me thinking about a classic Christian question, a question that theologians have pondered for centuries. How do we know when we have entered into sacred time? God's time. In today's text, the Hebrew phrase Mordecai uses for this sort of time is Le'et K'zot. Who knows, this might be Le'et K'zot, such a time, a pivotal time, God's time. How do we know when we've stepped across that invisible threshold and entered holy time? Here I want to make an appeal to John Calvin. No eye rolling.

18:04 This is a Presbyterian church. If we don't reference Calvin once a quarter, we'll have our license pulled. I tend to think that Calvin's greatest contribution to Christian theology lies in two areas. First, his description of humanity as totally depraved, which is not a very pleasant notion, but is proven factually true every single day. And two, Calvin's thoughts about vocation. Calvin wrote extensively about the work humans are called to do and the place that faith plays in our work. Writing in the mid-1500s, Calvin had an uncommonly broad understanding of what counts as Christian vocation. He rejected the idea that the only people whom God has called to service are clergy, are priests and nuns.

19:05 Calvin believed that every Christian is called to serve God in the world, in every sphere of human existence. As such, the reformers' writings conferred dignity and meaning on every sort of work, from accounting to sanitation, from police officers to teachers, from nurses to surgeons, from lawyers to politicians, from farmers to truckers, from railroad engineers to bankers, from plumbers to architects, from electricians to stay-at-home parents to students, from fishermen to tax collectors. Calvin describes society's many jobs as a web of sacred calling, as places where we are all summoned to use our talents to build a healthy world.

20:02 Now, what does that have to do with Esther? Well, Calvin brings an interesting perspective to today's text, and I think to this entire sermon series, and it goes like this. We are all called, all. Each of us is summoned to see our work as a sacred charge, as a uniquely important venue in which our faith can inspire and guide us. Now, does this apply to Esther?

20:36 Well, the good book introduces to Esther, telling us that she's leveraged her sex appeal to score an apartment in the palace. Is that a calling? Why did she do it? Has she been summoned to a place in high society by the Almighty? Or was Esther simply smitten by the trappings of the queen's office, the finery, the feasts, the maidservants? Maybe Esther, once an orphan, clawed her way to the top to ensure that she would never be poor again. That she would always have a roof over her head. Or maybe it's as simple as this. Esther entered the king's beauty contest because she wanted, for once, a little power for herself. A small slice of the influence that comes from being proximate to the throne. And who can blame her?

21:36 Curiously, neither the good book nor Mordecai wag a finger at Esther. Instead, the old man looks at his cousin and pulls a Calvin. Who knows? So Esther, nice digs. You're living large, living your dream. I've got just one question for you. Do you know what time it is? Have you asked yourself while navigating the vipers of the palace what your calling is? in this moment when your people are in such grave danger. I wonder, have you considered whether this might be such a time, a pivotal time, God's time? A whole lot of speeches were delivered this past week at the United Nations. I'd like to draw your attention to one that was spoken in the General Assembly by the Prime Minister of Canada, Mr. Mark Carney.

22:47 Carney, like Mordecai, began his talk musing about what time it is in world history. And this is what he said. This in many respects is a time that comes along only once or twice every century. A time when we ask what lies ahead. It's not, I think, said Carney, wishful multilateralism which defends only the status quo, nor is it a cold realpolitik that dismantles the status quo altogether. The alternative that Canada and many others are pursuing is values-based realism, an approach that's both principled and pragmatic. Values-based realism, principled and pragmatic.

23:49 The juxtaposition of these different words caught my attention. Barney was describing Kennet's approach to this messy world, but he could have been describing Mordecai and Esther. According to the good book, Esther's known innocent waif. She's the consort of an erratic king, and she attained her position through natural beauty, sweet-talking seduction, and pragmatic politicking. Esther's impressive. She's managed to wrap an incredibly mercurial ruler, a hazardous around her finger. And yet in today's passage, she's frightened. Everything that she's worked for is at risk.

24:36 So here's the question. Does our faith want us to see Esther as the poster child for moral purity? No. and I would say to you my friends that is a good thing this story isn't pitched to the morally pure it's aimed at the rest of us the good news in Esther is that imperfect hearts and tainted souls have a role to play in God's kingdom they have a calling they too will be tapped on the shoulder by God and asked to use their intelligence, imagination, and unconventional skills to do good, to care for the vulnerable, to stand alongside angels who are trying to heal this messy, messy world. And this is precisely what Esther does. If you keep reading her story, the queen puts on her nicest dress, pragmatic, and then she goes unannounced to see the king, brave. His majesty is smitten but attentive, realistic. Esther tells him the truth about her heritage, principled, and then she leverages the king's favor to save her people, faithful.

26:08 In all this, the good book lays down a challenge. Yes, scripture celebrates Esther's smarts and her bravery, but it also wants us to attend to the queen's internal struggles and the spiritual nudge that puts her on a risky path. Can you, Mordecai asks his highly placed and imperfect cousin, can you feel God's finger tapping you on your pretty perfumed shoulder? And this is when Calvin starts to nod. There you have it. The Spirit is whispering that same question to the faithful every day. Could this be the moment when your labor becomes a calling? When holy fire paints the edges of all that you can see?

27:09 when your work plays a part in healing this broken old world? Who knows? Asks Mordecai. Who knows?