Showing Support (Esther)

 If you aren’t familiar with the story of Esther, here’s a little background: the king is King Ahasuerus [a-HA-sore-us], also known as Xerxes I. 

His queen—Queen Vashti—displeased him, so he disposed of her, and began a search for a new queen.

And that search ended with Esther. ***** Esther became the new queen.

King Ahasuerus had an advisor named Haman. Haman hated the Jews. And Haman devised a plan to get rid of all the Jews in the kingdom.

Esther herself was a Jew, along with her cousin Mordecai, although Esther kept her Jewish identity a secret. Yet if Haman’s plan were to proceed, she very likely would be found out, and she, along with all the other Jews, would be in great danger. 

Just because she was the queen did not mean she was safe. Just look what happened to the previous queen!

But, being the queen did give Esther access to the king. Perhaps, if she did it right, she could convince the king to stop Haman’s plan to destroy all the Jews.

Would the king be displeased by her boldness and audacity? Would he get rid of her just as he had gotten rid of his previous queen?

This is the big, scary, intimidating task that was set before Esther.

But the first thing Esther did is that she had all the Jews fast on her behalf. She called on them to fast and to pray. She called on them to lend her some of their strength. 

She knew that her own strength was not enough. She needed the strength and the help of her people, in order to have the courage to do what she knew needed to be done.

I think it’s far too easy for us to miss the point of this part of the story. 

Because we live in a highly individualistic society.

In fact, no society in human history, past or present, is as individualistic as ours.

In many traditional cultures, there is a more communal sense to things. It’s more about relations and connections.

When you meet someone, you immediately start asking about their family. Their parents. Their grandparents. And you start telling them about your family.

Family bonds and connections are important. Community connections are important.

But we’ve moved away from that. For us, it’s all about the individual.

*****

You may have heard the story about an anthropologist visiting Africa, who once proposed a game to children in an African tribe. He put a basket of fruit near a tree and told the children whoever got there first could have the basket. 

When he told them to run they all took each other's hands and ran together, then sat together enjoying their treats. He was surprised. He asked them why they had run together like that, since one of them could have had all the fruit for themself. They said: “How can one of us be happy if all the other ones are sad?”

Those children taught him the concept of ubuntu. Ubuntu means “I am because you are.” And ubuntu is something many in our own society just don’t understand.

Even now, when we read the story of Esther and preach on it and look to it for lessons for our lives, we often look just to Esther, and lift her up as “the hero,” and give her all the attention, as if she acted all alone; as if it was all her strength, and her strength alone, that enabled her to do what needed to be done.

That’s how we read and interpret the story.

And we miss that important detail, that before she did anything, Esther sought the strength of her community, her people, by asking them to fast and pray on her behalf.

We in the Disciples of Christ practice believer’s baptism. That means that we normally wait until an individual is old enough to affirm for themselves faith in Jesus Christ; we wait until they are old enough to respond to the presence of God’s love and grace in their lives.

Yet last month, on Easter, we baptized an individual who really wasn’t capable of making that affirmation for himself.

*****

In thinking about this, I was reminded of a story in scripture in which four men bring to Jesus their paralyzed friend. They try to carry him into the house where Jesus is, but there is a crowd and they can’t get through, so they go up on the roof and dig a hole in the roof and lower their friend down to Jesus from above.

And Jesus “saw their faith… and said to the paralytic, “Friend, your sins are forgiven.”

This story appears in both Mark 2 and Luke 5, and both times, that declaration of forgiveness is given when Jesus sees the faith of the friends. 

That paralyzed man couldn’t get to Jesus on his own. Physically, there was no way he could have entered that building. But I think that spiritually, as well—he didn’t have the faith, or the courage to ask, or the ability to believe. 

In this story, the paralyzed man never speaks, he never acts; he is a completely passive character.

But his friends do act, and because of their faith, the paralyzed man encounters grace and forgiveness.

This story convinced me that baptizing Max was the right thing to do. 

Now, here in Esther, we have something similar.

*****

Esther cannot do what she needs to do on her own. She needs the strength and the prayers of her people.

The only thing Esther can do, at first, is ask for their help.

And, by their strength, and by their prayers and their fasting, Esther is then able to do what she needs to do.

But it started by asking for help.

Now Esther is a great hero from the Bible! There’s no doubt about that!

Yet sometimes the greatest act of the greatest hero… is to ask for help.

And sometimes, asking for help is also one of the hardest things we can do.

Let’s think back to last week’s scripture, which was about Jesus inviting Peter to walk on the water with him.

Peter stepped out onto the water, but when he saw the wind and the waves, he began to sink.

Maybe one reason he began to sink is that he thought he had to perform that task—walking on water—on his own, all by himself. 

What if, before he stepped out of the boat, called back to the other disciples, and said: “Hey, guys: I’m kinda nervous about this. Can you pray for me?”

Would that have made a difference?

And what if he had ignored the wind and waves, but instead kept his eyes focused on Jesus the whole time? When he took his eyes off Jesus and noticed the wind and the waves, he must have felt that it was just him, by himself, against the elements. 

And maybe for a moment he fought against the wind and the waves; and then, as he began to sink, he fought even harder, forgetting all about Jesus, giving in to the fear that he was about to drown.

But then Jesus reached out, and took Peter by the hand. Peter was not alone, after all; And he did not drown, but was brought safely back into the boat.

So: do you think it would have made a difference if Peter had asked the other disciples for support, to pray for him, first, before stepping out of the boat? Maybe they could have given him the faith and the courage and the spiritual strength he needed to stay above water, and not sink down into the waves.

Yet sometimes it is just so hard to ask for help.

*****

Esther asked for help. She asked her people to fast and pray for her. She knew she couldn’t do what needed to be done on her own. She didn’t have the strength, the courage, or the faith that was required.

But by the strength of her people, and the fasting and prayers they undertook on her behalf, she was able to go to the king, and put  a stop to Haman’s evil plan to rid the kingdom of her people.

Even though we do live in an individualistic age, we do know a little about the power of receiving strength from the community.

I was reminded of this the other day in a message that was sent out by our regional minister, William Crowder. 

A week ago, William Crowder and his wife Stephanie Crowder lost their son, Sollomon, who was found dead just one week before he was to graduate from Howard University.

In the message he sent out, he said: “We give thanks for a community of faith that has surrounded… our entire family with compassion, prayer, and unwavering care. In fact, your prayers have carried us when words have failed and have reminded us that we do not grieve alone.”

I think many of us have, in our lives, received this type of support from our community of faith; and many of us have shared in offering this type of support to others going through difficult times.

Last week, we celebrated the 189th anniversary of First Christian Church. And throughout our 189-year history, we have learned that ministry is done better when we do it together.

We do ministry together; with one another. 

We do ministry in partnership with a dozen other organizations in our community, who share with us the goal of bringing wholeness to our fragmented world.

We do ministry with ecumenical and interfaith partners in our community, which is a way of recognizing that we ourselves do not have an exclusive claim on God’s truth, and that we cannot possibly do what God is calling us to do on our own, but only when we work together.

We do ministry with nearly 3,000 other congregations with whom we are in covenant through the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ).

Through all these partnerships, we help one another do the task that God is calling us to do.

And now we are taking part in the New Beginnings process. Over 1,000 congregations have already taken part in New Beginnings, and we are drawing upon their wisdom and their strength.

And helping us through this process are our assessor, and our consultant, and our associate regional minister Alex Ruth.

We are not doing this alone, by ourselves. We are drawing on the strength of others, and we are drawing on the strength of the Holy Spirit, to follow the path God is calling us to.

The same is true for each of us. 

Yes, the path God calls you to is not always easy. Like Esther, you may be challenged, to do some difficult, scary, and even dangerous tasks, leaving behind the comfort, the security, or the familiarity of the past.

But whatever God is calling you to, you are not alone. The strength and the encouragement and the support of God’s people is with you. 

You can depend on them, just as they can depend on you, to provide the strength and the encouragement that is needed.