Stewardship of Life

For Such a Time as This

By Sharron R. Blezard, December 4, 2014

Narrative Lectionary Reflection for December 7, 2014

Second Week of Advent

For if you keep silence at 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. Esther 4:14

Seriously? A reading from the strange book of Esther for the Second Sunday of Advent? You must be kidding! This book is so unlike other books of the Bible. There’s no overt mention of God at all. In fact, it reads somewhat like a secular comedy of errors with a host of stereotypical and stock characters and larger than life actions. But maybe there is a point after all that we can harness for this season and for our study of God’s great narrative of divine interaction throughout time.

In the Revised Common Lectionary, this week belongs to John the Baptist, another rather unlikely messenger who seeks to point people to deliverance, to make the way smooth for the coming of the Lord. The young Jewish woman Esther is an unlikely candidate to bring her people to deliverance, and Mordecai is quick to point out that if she doesn’t follow through to try to save her people, relief will come from somewhere. But, he reminds her, maybe you have come to this place and this situation for this particular time and need. Indeed, through Esther and her bravery, the people of Israel are delivered.

But back to Advent and preparation and the times in which we currently live. Perhaps Esther is an example to all of us that we are called to seize the moment, to do the good we can with what we have in the situations in which we find ourselves. How easy it is to be silent, to keep quiet, to play nice, or to follow others when in our hearts we question something to be wrong or unjust.

The story of Esther reminds us that we can seize the moments and places in which we find ourselves to make a difference, to proclaim a good word, a prophetic word. We are called to respond in Christian love to when we see wrongs being committed. Maybe we all need a Mordecai to point us in the right direction, to call us to action, and to keep us from mounting a high horse and thinking we’re above or beyond a given situation.

As we wait, watch, listen, and hope in Advent, we are also called to action. Like Esther we are called to do what we can and to never underestimate that we can indeed make a difference and have an impact.

In the United States our news is filled with the horrors of racism, poverty, hunger, homelessness, and dissent. As Christians, how do we respond? How do we wrestle with these issues given our Lord’s command to love God and neighbor as ourselves? How can we use the witness of Esther and Mordecai to stand up to injustice and violence in our own contemporary contexts?

During Advent, we look for Christ to come—as he has come, as he continues to come in the face of the neighbor, the stranger, the hungry, the naked, and the imprisoned, and as he will ultimately come again to set aright this blindingly beautiful and tragically broken world.

In Worship

Invite worshipers to consider the words of the 20th century protestant leader Martin Niemoller from his post World War II lectures:

First they came for the Socialists, and I did not speak out—
Because I was not a Socialist.
Then they came for the Trade Unionists, and I did not speak out—
Because I was not a Trade Unionist.
Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out—
Because I was not a Jew.
Then they came for me—and there was no one left to speak for me.

Inaction can lead to disastrous results. We have the annals of history to prove that. Invite worshipers to consider one way they can speak out, can take a stand, can make a difference, can work on behalf of the marginalized and oppressed and to share that with someone sitting near them or to write it down on a chain of paper dolls. When we unite in action and voice in the name of Christ, wonderful things can and do happen.

With Children

Tell the story of Esther in simple children’s language. Ask them what they would do in Queen Esther’s shoes. Esther was quite literally a “life-saver.” Share the story of the invention of Life Savers Candy. Click here for more information. The candy was created to solve a problem and its creation was part luck when he saw the druggist’s pill making machine. Give each child a small roll of Life Saver’s Candy and challenge them to make a difference with where they are, with what they have, trusting that God is with them. It may be as simple as a hug or smile, or it may be naming a wrong or working to alleviate hunger in the community. Every small step—just like every Life Saver in the candy roll—makes a difference.

Photos: JD, Jinterwas, and Janos Balazs, Creative Commons. Thanks!