Rev. Betsy Aldrich Garland
September 27, 2009
Esther 7:1-6, 9-10; 9:20-22

Courage ... for Such a Time as This

Once upon a time, a long time ago, in a country far away, lived a very brave queen. She was very beautiful, and the king had taken her to be one of his many wives. Such was the fate of one young and vulnerable and poor. We know about her because it so happened that her people were in trouble. You see, they were Jewish exiles hiding out in one of the far corners of the Persian empire.

This is the Book of Esther, a strange little novel, that you will find in your Bible, right before Job and the Psalms. I’ll bet you’ve never even read it – but it contains one of the best known lines in the Bible: “Perhaps you have come ... for such a time as this.”

King Ahasuerus, leader of the known world, has thrown a party and, after a week of merriment, has ordered his beautiful queen Vashti to come so he can show her off to all his friends. Vashti refuses – perhaps she’s the first “women’s libber” – and, to set an example for other women who might think about disobeying their husbands, Ahasuerus deposes her as queen and issues a decree that every man is to be master in his own house.

Eventually he sobers up, and realizes he is queen-less. What to do? His advisors counsel that they round up all the beautiful young virgins for his harem, Esther among them. To make a long story short, Ahasuerus loves Esther more than the others and puts a crown on her head, making her queen.

Now the plot thickens: Because of political intrigue, a decree goes out to destroy, kill, and annihilate the Jews. Esther doesn’t know this, of course, because she is back in the harem. But her cousin Mordecai alerts her. What to do? Esther cannot go in to the king without being called, an offense punishable by death, nor can she admit to being a Jew. Yet Mordecai encourages Esther to take action and says to her:

“Do not think that in the king’s palace you will escape any more
than all the other Jews. 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.”

In reply, Esther tells Mordecai to ask all the Jews to fast – and she too will fast for three days while deciding what to do. Then, she will go to the king, though it is against the law; and, she says, “...if I perish, I perish.” Esther succeeds in winning the king’s favor, even up to one-half of his kingdom, and when he grants her any wish, she asks for salvation for her people – and he grants it! The Jews are spared and given a place of peace and privilege.

“You were born for such a time as this!” Esther could sit tight and save her own skin – or she could choose to act and save her people. Here is one of those pivotal times in history when one is faced with a choice: one road leads to life, and the other, to death. Esther had courage. She chose the way to life, for herself and for her people.

This is an interesting text to read during an interim time in a local church. What does it mean “in such a time as this” for us to have courage, to “choose life? When some of us, I know, are feeling that we are in exile?
Surely having courage means for us to come together as a community – as the Jews did in Esther’s time – to declare solidarity, and to take appropriate action for the future. That’s what we are doing when we reach out to people who have dropped away and brought them back into the fold. That’s what we are doing with our Cottage Meetings when we share what Edgewood Church means to us and listen to discern what God is calling us to be and do.

Our church of the past – with its social groups and couples clubs and youth programs – no longer exists, at least not in that form. But this congregation is still vital in the way it ministers to those who are hurting, to those who are reaching out to connect, to those who are looking for a place where they are known and valued and accepted for who they are.

At the Cottage Meeting this week, we reflected on the theme song from “Cheers” that captures this sentiment:

Sometimes you want to go
Where everybody knows your name.
And they’re always glad you came;
You want to be where you can see,
Our troubles are all the same;
You want to be where everybody knows your name.

Be glad there’s one place in the world
Where everybody knows your name,
And they’re always glad you came;
You want to go where people know,
People are all the same;
You want to go where everybody knows your name.

This congregation has been enormously important in the lives of many people over the years – and still is. So I ask you to consider this: What does Edgewood Church need to do now to assure that you are still here 20 or 30 or 100 years from now?

Surely to provide for continuity of leadership as the older generation turns over the reins to the next. Surely to provide for adequate resources in an economically challenging time, not only to call a settled minister but also to upgrade and maintain the property. And surely to reach out to the larger community and to replenish the faithful in the pews as others go on to the life eternal. Reaching out may be the hardest to do in a changing religious environment and an increasingly suspicious and secular world that either leans toward fundamentalism on the one hand or embraces agnosticism and nondenominational spirituality on the other.

But let me tell you this: Do we at Edgewood Church have something to offer? You bet we do! Consider the number of people who are alienated from their church of birth because they are divorced or gay or questioners -- and who seek us out. Some of you are sitting in these pews right now.
Consider the number of people who are lonely and isolated in this fast-paced, electronically-connected world who long for real human contact, to come to a place “...where everybody knows [their] name.”

Consider the number of un-churched people living in Edgewood and nearby who have never walked through the doors of a church and don’t know what they are missing! (Statistically, the un-churched are larger than any denomination, and they are waiting for us to make our case.) There is more at stake here than just the future of this congregation!

We can do these things – even if sometimes we think we can’t. Some famous women who walk in the footsteps of the likes of Queen Esther tell us we can. Listen to them: Harriet Beecher Stowe in the 19th century said, “All serious daring starts from within,” which should remind us of the importance of Bible study and prayer. Eleanor Roosevelt in the 20th said, “You must do the thing you think you cannot do.” Marian Wright Edelman today reminds us, “Whoever said anybody has a right to give up?”

Let us gather our courage to rebuild this community of faith, and to invite the world in to share the amazing love of God as we have experienced it in the life of Jesus the Christed One.

Yes, some things may need to change. We may have to share our pews with a visitor or two; wouldn’t that be wonderful! We may have to increase our pledges and offerings to achieve our dreams. We may have to reconstitute our organizational structure and start some new groups to bring people together to grow in their relationships with each other and with God. We may have to figure out how to be “church” in a different world from the one in which this church was founded. There is a compelling niche for a moderate to liberal theology and a progressive social agenda right here in Edgewood.

Let us do what we need to do. What’s the worst that can happen: Esther said it: “If I perish, I perish!” Yes, perhaps we were born “for just such a time as this!” And years from now, one of our little ones who sat on the chancel steps for the children’s story this morning, when he grows up, will say to his children, “Once upon a time, a long time ago, right here, people took courage to grow this church . . ..”

May it be so! Amen.