This Sermon was preached at Shiloh United Methodist Church (Montpelier, VA) in March 2017.

Today we are on the fourth week of a sermon series I am calling Salvaged Lives. The root of the word salvaged and the root of the word salvation are, “salvare” which means “to save.”  The noun form of salvage means the “rescue of a disabled ship” but I think it can also mean, “the rescue of a disabled life”

Today, we are going to learn from the life of Esther. At first it may not seem that a Queen has a life that needs to be salvaged. From all outer appearances it would seem that a Queen does not have a disabled life.

But appearances can be deceiving.

Because we can have all the things we have ever dream of, beautiful clothes, soft beds, plenty of food, but if we aren’t living in the middle of God’s will, we are not complete, the things of this world can not bring us the peace our souls long for…so let me tell you Esther’s story…

Esther was beautiful. Her parents had died and so she was raised by her Uncle, Mordecai. Mordecai loved her as a daughter he taught her all the customs and traditions of their Jewish faith. But Mordecai, Esther and all the Jews lived in exile from Jerusalem. They lived under the King Ahasuerus.

Their lives were not easy,

they were poor, oppressed,

taunted and stepped on by the native born people.

One day, the King’s men came to Esther’s village looking for a new queen, they brought her to the palace.

Her kindness touched everyone. 

She was beautiful, but there were many beautiful women in the land. Esther was unique because she was kind and humble. Unlike some of the other beautiful women, Esther appreciated the comforts of the palace, she was the kind of woman who probably noticed the servants and said thank you.

She also won the king’s favor and he chose her to be his queen.

No one in the palace knew that Esther was Jewish, her uncle Mordecai told her to keep that a secret. Mordecai wanted to keep an eye on his daughter and so he got a job at the palace gate. He learned that two disgruntled employees were plotting to kill the king. He told Esther, Esther told the king and he was very appreciative that his life was saved.

Later, the king appointed Haman as his chief aid. Hamas was arrogant but effective. He was boastful and jealous, but not in front of the king. He convinced the king that the Jews were a problem in the kingdom because every day when he passed by Mordecai at the palace gate, Mordecai would not kneel and bow down to Haman. Why?

Because the Jews did not worship people, they only worshiped God. Haman hated this and because he did not understand the Jewish beliefs he was afraid. Because he was afraid Haman wanted the Jews to follow his rules or die. The king allowed Haman to make a decree throughout the whole land that on a certain day all the people would be allowed to kill all the jews and take all of their possessions, a genocide. Mordecai told Esther that she had to talk to the king and get this stopped. But Esther was afraid……

Here we get to the gist of the story…What would you do if you were Esther? If you had finally arrived at a place of comfort and position would you be willing to give it all away and possibly your life to save your people….or what if….

If you finally got that promotion at work that you have worked hard for, sacrificed time with your family for…would you risk it all to tell the boss that his or her decision was wrong?  

If you were riding the metro in Washington D.C., or a train in Portland, OR and you saw some guys bullying a woman wearing a hijab, would you get involved?

Like Esther, I think we would weigh the risk, to our physical selves, we would agonize over what to do… weighing the pluses or minuses, evaluating the threats and the risk. In the end it would come to this question, who are you? For Esther she had to choose if she would tell the king that she was a Jew or if she would stay safe in her identity as Queen.

Where is your identity found? Is it found in your work? in your social position? in your safety? in minding your own business? ….or is it found in Christ?

Would you walk away and stay the same?

Or would you act and take the risk?

Esther sends word to Mordecai, I can’t do it, everyone knows the law can not be changed so it doesn’t matter, there’s nothing I can do, plus you know I can’t go to the king, he has to invite me and I haven’t even seen him in a month so he’s probably not going to call me. I can’t do it,

I’m not the one…. Esther was afraid…can you blame us?/I mean her!

(So often I get the question, how can I be a Christian at work without saying I am, without using the church words? You don’t have to wear your cross outside your shirt to be a Christian, to witness to Christ’s work in the world you don’t have to shout Jesus)

In the whole book of Esther God is never mentioned, but God’s presence is obvious in this Scripture, John Wesley said “the finger of God directs events.” Even though Esther is scared, the finger of God points to her from Mordecai, he tells her that if she does not speak up on behalf of her people, deliverance will come from somewhere else, but,…. what if? what if she was put in this place for just such a moment as this?

When have you been put somewhere to be a vessel of God’s Holy Spirit? When have you felt called to speak up?

Or maybe you were at the right place at the right time to make a difference in someone’s life?

Maybe it was just a moment, a split second, you don’t know what came over you but you knew you had to act…and you did, you stepped “out of your comfort zone to become someone else’s blessing.” (pg. 640 WSB)

I believe it is in these moments that our lives are salvaged, we get so caught up in ourselves, our sin,

their sin,

our judgments,

our anger,  but it is in these moments that the Holy Spirit breaks the record of our wrongs that plays in our heads,

the Holy Spirit bursts into our plain,

ordinary lives and rescues us from ourselves ….sometimes it’s only for a brief moment the Spirit of God points and says,

“You, you are the one to be  a  bearer of blessing to God’s world!!” 

It is in these moments that we get the choice to claim our identity in Christ; we are Christians led to be bold, to be brave, and to be strong, not by our will, but by God’s will. 

   You know I love bumper sticker saying and this one I would give to Esther, “Be the kind of woman that when your feet hit the floor each morning the devil says, “Oh no (crap), she’s up!”

Our feet hit the floor each day and it is by God’s grace that we can move past the fear,

beyond the calculations of risk,

away from the negative self talk and into God’s will.

Just like Esther, we may not actually hear the voice of God or touch Jesus,

but we know every day, God is present with us,

we know every day God walks with us,

we know every day God calls us beyond ourselves,

we know every day God calls us to be faithful,

every day, whether we write it on our name tag or not, we are Christians

and every day,

God uses us to be bearers of blessing in God’s kingdom……..

Esther steps up and she saves her people, this ordinary woman from humble beginnings became a queen, but we remember her as an extraordinary savior of her people. This is the finger of God’s grace that comes into our lives and acts and makes us more than we think we can be…not by our will, but by God’s will.

We get the choice. To say yes to God’s will, or we can walk away…

Esther could have walked away but she chose to act. She left her comfort zone and leaped into the arms of God.

Through the power of God, Esther saved many lives… but her life was saved too from the dangers of fear, selfishness, hate and complacency.

What if, we looked at our lives differently?

What if we saw that no matter where we are, we can be God’s blessings? What if every day when our feet hit the floor, we knew that God was going to use us?

How would the world be different if we lived seeking and doing God’s will …not our own?

We can’t imagine the vastness of the answer to that question, but what we do know is this, “Thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.” That is the peace our souls long for. Amen