Brave and Courageous

Have you ever found yourself in a situation where you had to be brave, where you had to show courage? What was it like? How did you handle it? This is the time of year when we like to scare ourselves. It gives us a chance to show off how brave we, and how courageous we can be. So we watch scary movies, we pay outrageous prices for a kids costume, we may even go visit a haunted house.

In high school one of my favorite things to do in the fall was to go to haunted houses. Now why anyone in their right mind would enjoy going to a place where people are dressed up in scary costumes and jump out at you and scream “boo” is beyond me. But I enjoyed it. There were three or four really good ones that were close.

One time I went with a couple of my buddies. You walk in and you go through a couple of spooky scenes and then you get to the scariest part. There aren’t any actors there; in fact it is nothing more than a maze. But it is completely in the dark. You literally can see nothing. You hear everything. You don’t necessarily know that there are no actors in there until the end, but you find yourself wondering around in the dark. Your eyes do you no good.

So here I am walking through this thing with a couple of friends. Being the brave and macho high school guys that we were, we were huddled up so close together that you would not have been able to stick a piece of paper between us. You know, it is kind of the “circle the wagons” strategy for survival. And while this is impressive to the girls and prevents people who aren’t going to hurt you anyway from hurting you, it doesn’t do a whole lot of good when you are wandering around in the pitch black dark. And we learned this the hard way. We also learned at the same time that when you are wondering through the dark, it is always a good idea to have at least one hand out in front of you.

As I was leading the pack and we are walking slowly through the darkness we suddenly stopped. This was an unscheduled stop. But there was nothing I could do, there was a wall there. And I banged my head pretty good. In fact it was hard enough that there was also a recoil action where my head went back, and because my buddy was so close, the back of my head hit his head, and that sent his head back, and he hit the head of the guy behind him. It was almost like a three-stooges movie. Bang. Ouch. Ouch. Ouch.

Courageous? Brave? Well, not exactly. Our readings for the week gives us a pretty amazing example of bravery and courage in the story about a woman named Esther. Generally we don’t hear a whole lot about Esther. In our lectionary, which is the series of scripture readings for each Sunday in the year, we cover a good majority of the biblical text. But in three years time there is not one single reading from the book of Esther.

There is also something rather curious about the book of Esther. Do you know what that is? Nowhere in the entire book will you see any direct mention about God. Interesting huh? And yet, this is a great and profound story, and even thought the word “God” is not found in the book, his fingerprints are everywhere. In fact, the way that we see God working in the book of Esther is rather close to the way that we see God working in our own lives and world today.

Esther was queen to King Xerxes in the Persian Empire. His empire was huge. The eastern border was in modern day India, and the western border was Greece. The southern border was Ethiopia. This place was absolutely enormous, and the king was absolutely powerful.

They had some interesting customs and practices in the Persian kingdom. One of them was that you did not ever go into the king’s presence unless you were summoned by the king. Breaking this rule was punishable by death. This ruled applied to everyone, even to the queen. It made no difference. So even though Esther was queen of Persia, she was not allowed to enter the king’s presence unless she was summoned.

Normally this wouldn’t have presented much of an issue, but in this story it turns out to be something of a problem. You see, there is this guy named Haman. He is kind of full of himself and not a very nice guy. He is a high ranking official in the king’s court and had grown accustomed to people bowing in his presence. One day he was out walking and people were bowing as usual except for one man. His name was Mordecai. He refused to bow.

So here is Haman and he is mortified by Mordecai’s refusal to bow before him. Why was Mordecai doing this, or not doing this as the case may be? We aren’t told why, but it causes some serious problems. Because Haman learns that Mordecai is a Jew and he goes and has the order decreed that all Jews in the kingdom are to be executed. And because he has the power that he does, it works and the decree is made.

Mordecai is not just a Jew, but he is also the cousin of Esther. In fact he raised her from childhood, and stayed in contact with her. He goes to her and tells her that she has to go before the king and make the king aware of what Haman is up to.

Can you imagine what Esther must have been thinking or feeling at this point in time? How would you have responded? Would you have said, “OK. I’ll go do it right now. I’ll be back in a moment.”? Would you have said, “How about if I just send him a text or an e-mail?”? Would you have said, “No. I don’t think so. I really enjoy this whole breathing thing that I’ve got going on now, and I would hate to see it come to an end.”?

Esther was kind of afraid. I don’t blame her. I can’t say that I would have reacted any differently if I was faced with a similar situation. So when Mordecai tells her about what is happening with Haman and how he wants Esther to go before the king, Esther says, “Well, you know it’s the law and the King hasn’t called me into his presence in thirty days.”

It is at this point that we see great faith on the part of Mordecai first and then followed by Esther. Mordecai says, “If you keep silent this time, then relief and deliverance for the Jews will rise up from another place. Who knows whether you have not come to a kingdom for such a time as this?”

Now, even though Mordecai does not say the word “God” here, he is expressing faith and confidence in God working and being faithful to the promises that he makes to his people. God would be the one who would bring about relief and deliverance. This is why Esther is where she is, for such a time as this. God has been at work this whole time.

It is a wonderful confession of hope and confidence in God. This can be a challenging thing to do. Because sometimes the evidence of a situation around us will tell us that the situation is impossible. Yet the eyes of faith are able to see beyond what our physical eyes can see. The eyes of faith tell us that God is active in our world. He does care about his people and what is going on in our lives. He does not give up on us or leave us or abandon us.

The situation facing the Jews in the Persian kingdom, from a human perspective was impossible it was hopeless. Yet because of God there is hope. Even if we can’t see it. Even if we don’t know how it is all going to work out. Because God is worthy of our trust. He is faithful. He keeps his promises.

Esther too, then responds faithfully. She doesn’t march into the king’s presence, not yet. But she fasts and she asks all the Jews of the city to fast together with her. This isn’t just an act of not eating, but it is an urgent and prayerfully seeking after God’s will. When the fast is over, Esther bravely and courageously goes before the king. He spares her life and eventually she and her entire people are saved.

It is nothing short of a miracle. It is nothing that would have been possible without God’s presence and working in the situation. Even though we don’t see him acting in the same way that we did back in the Exodus. He is no less active. Here he is working through his people. They are not the bravest or best skilled of folks, but neither do they need to be, because God’s strength is seen in their weaknesses.

This same God is the one who also works in our lives and in our midst. His love for you is shown in the great lengths that he goes through in bring about salvation, not from execution at the hands of the Persians, but from sin and death and the devil. He did this for you and me through and for the sake of Jesus. In baptism you and I are restored to God and live life with him as his own dearly loved daughters and sons.

The Holy Spirit calls, gathers, enlightens and sanctifies us and all his people. He unites us together as a family in this thing called the church (not the building, remember?), where we daily and richly receive the forgiveness of our sins. He includes us as fellow workers in his mission in our world, where we proclaim the good news of God’s love, grace and mercy in Jesus. Where we show people just how much God loves them. We do this both in the ways that we love and care for one another, and the ways that we love and care for our neighbors.

It is a challenge that can seem overwhelming sometimes. It can seem scary and difficult. But God has us here for such a time as this. He is very active in our world and in our midst. So we face whatever challenges he gives to us in total confidence knowing that he is with us ever step of the way, and in our lives his great strength and faithfulness are made known. What an awesome God we serve. Amen.