Sermon for 9/28/03
For Such a Time as This - selections from Esther, Mark 9:38-50
(view lectionary notes for this text)
If you read the bulletin or the newsletter carefully each week and month, you might notice that for today's worship service, selections from the book of Esther were on the schedule. So I don't want to leave Esther out, even if we don't read a passage aloud today. After all, the short book of Esther appears in the three-year lectionary cycle on just one week, one Sunday, this Sunday in the cycle. It is a short book of the Bible, and a fascinating story, and I encourage you to read it in full this week. Maybe the most interesting fact about the book of Esther is that God is not mentioned anywhere in the entire book! Not one mention. And yet, this book was still considered somehow important enough and containing enough of a message for the church that it became part of the canon of scripture we know today. So what is for us to gain from this little book that doesn't even talk about God? We can only imagine the motivations of the players in Esther's story, only speculate on how Queen Esther saw herself as responding to God's call in her life. But I do want to share with you my favorite part of her story.
Just this past week, I started teaching an advanced lay speaking course for our district, which two of our own members here at St. Paul's are taking. I shared with them about a conference I attended for youth and young adults when I was in high school, called 'Exploration', a conference that explored the possibilities for ordained ministry for young people. Attending this conference was one of the earlier events that set me on my journey toward becoming a pastor. I still remember clearly that the theme for the event that year came from the book of Esther. Our emphasis was on part of one verse of Esther, Chapter 4:14b, which says, "And who knows, perhaps you have come to the kingdom for just such a time as this." Esther had, by a strange turn of events, been made Queen, and now her friend and advisor was challenging her to risk her own life in order to save many other innocent lives that were about to be lost. The "for such a time as this" prompting of Esther's advisor was our focus at Exploration. Perhaps, we heard from preachers and pastors, bishops and youth leaders, perhaps we were being called for such a time as this, this present day, this present context, this community, this church. It was a powerful message that stayed with me.
And then again, my second year in seminary, this verse in Esther returned to the center of my thoughts. We gathered in the chapel at Drew the week of September 11th, 2001, and at the close of worship we formed a circle in the chapel, and the dean of the school gave us words of comfort and challenge. She said to us that it was for just such situation, just such crises in the world and in people's lives, that it was exactly in the midst of such terrible situations that we were called to be ministers, pastors, leaders. For such a time as this, she assured us, for such a time as this, we were called to be in God's service.
And then, just this last week, at a gathering of clergy women in our Northeastern Jurisdiction, our own Bishop Violet Fisher spoke about what it meant to be like an Esther, as she called out this verse again, "for such a time as this." Didn't we understand, she asked us, that God had strategically placed us for such a time as this? Why, she prodded us to answer, why do we continue to stay in a church, in a denomination, when sometimes everything seems against us? For such a time as this we have been called to step out in action in God's kingdom, she insisted.
For such a time as this. The challenge of the call to ministry isn't just something that applies to pastors and preachers, words only for clergy people. As I am placed, you too are placed for such a time as this, called to be disciples even at this very hour, in this very location. Indeed, God has strategically placed you! Do you believe that? Do you know that to be true? Queen Esther was called to be a voice of justice in a land where justice was being overruled by tyranny. What are you called to do, in this time, in this hour - why has God placed you here? Why are you in this church today?
And then, just as you settle in to the challenge of the call to discipleship and ministry in Esther, we must turn ourselves back to our gospel text today. In Mark, we read, among other things, these words of Jesus that catch our attention. "If any of you put a stumbling block before one of these little ones who believe in me, it would be better for you if a great millstone were hung around your neck and you were thrown into the sea. If your hand causes you to stumble, cut it off; it is better for you to enter life maimed than to have two hands and to go to hell, to the unquenchable fire. And if your foot causes you to stumble, cut it off; it is better for you to enter life lame than to have two feet and to be thrown into hell. And if your eye causes you to stumble, tear it out; it is better for you to enter the kingdom of God with one eye than to have two eyes and to be thrown into hell." These are not words we like to hear. We can barely manage the words of challenge from Esther, barely gear ourselves up for action, when we must confront a passage like this. Jesus can't be serious, right? What is he getting at? He can't really mean what he's saying! Pastor Ronald Goetz writes, "to be sure, the hand-chopping, eye-plucking remedy for sin could never work, if for no other reason than the fact that we have more sins than we have bodily parts. If all offending parts were removed, in the end we would simply be torsos supporting heads. And there's the rub. Our hearts and minds are still intact. Yet from our hearts and minds come forth all our sins. We grant that we are not perfect, but we refuse to grant that our imperfections, such as they are, justify God's eternal rejection of us. How dare Jesus, or anyone, speak to us in terms of amputations, gnashing worms and unquenchable fires! Metaphors and myths notwithstanding, who does he think he is?"
On the one hand, we have a God who challenges us to step out, take up leadership roles, take risks, be faithful disciples who reach out to act for justice. And on the other hand, we have Jesus reminding us of our sinfulness, and telling us how costly our offenses can be. How can we step out as disciples like Esther when we're told that we may have to cut off our own sinful foot? Are we meant to be encouraged or discouraged by the time we are done reading these texts today?
Pastor Billy Strayhorn writes, "A radical concern with God and with God's own concerns is the key to fellowship with God, and such a relationship is so important that nothing must hinder it. Any hindrance is to be eliminated. Indeed, every human life will be evaluated in terms of a vital relationship to God. We're called to live our faith in such a way that there is no doubt who we follow." Indeed, the same God who calls us forward to service will also call us to accountability. The same God who asks us for servanthood demands that our service be careful and thorough. The same God who says that each of us, faults and all, is good enough to be in ministry, also says, that each of, whatever ministry we are in, is still human enough to have many faults, to lead or be led astray.
But instead of being overwhelmed by this predicament, we can still walk away encouraged. After all, writes another pastor, "It is ironic that the one who ended up mutilated for sin was Jesus himself." It is Christ's hands and feet that suffered because of the stumbling blocks others created. And it was Christ who came for such a time as this - for such a place as this, even for us in St. Paul's Church, even for us on this Sunday in September. Christ is for us for just such a time as this. We are challenged to serve and to serve faithfully, but we are always covered with the promise of God's boundless grace, the promise that God lifts us up when we stumble over obstacles, and the promise that God sets us just where we're meant to be. Poised at just the right place in just the right time, you have been set by God, for such a time as this. Are you ready? Amen.