A royal command

From Helen

May I speak in the name of God: Father, Son and Holy Spirit.AMEN

I love stories, I love the excitement of characters and working out what might happen to different people. I can’t understand people who read the end of a novel first to see whether it is worth reading the rest of the book. 

This morning I want to tell you a story that is not a novel but is actually true and this is the story of Esther from whose book we heard this morning. Esther was a queen she did lots of great things, she protected her people and their faith and she did it all through prayer and faithfulness.  The story is good but what it means for us is even better. So please sit back and enjoy the tale of Esther …

The story of Esther began around 479BC.  She was a Jewish girl living in exile in Persia. The King whose name was Xerxes had a disagreement with his wife Vashti and so decided that he needed to find a new wife. See – Henry VIII was not the first! Anyway he put a plea across his empire and discovered the beautiful Esther who was a Jew. 

Esther impressed the king so much that he immediately made her his queen. Esther could have lived a nice quiet life. But ….

Esther’s cousin Mordecai became a high ranking government official and in this role he stopped an assassination plot. Hooray for Mordecai. Mordecai was second in rank to a man called Haman who loved himself. He tried to make Mordecai bow down and serve him, Mordecai refused and Haman decided to kill Mordecai and in order to do this he tried topersuade the king to condemn all Jews in the empire to death. 

Esther was aware of this and so she invited Haman and the king to a banquet. The king understanding the importance of good food was so pleased with Esther that he promised to grant her anything that she wanted. She asked for the king and Haman to come back for another meal the next day. 

The king by looking through his record books discovered that Mordecai had stopped an assassination plot and never been rewarded for this act. At the banquet the king approached Haman and asked what should be done for someone who had been so brave and helpful.  Haman assumed the King was talking about him and was very unhappy when he realised that in fact the king was talking about Mordecai whom Haman hated.

In the passage we heard this morning we heard of Esther telling the king that Haman had tried to kill her and her people. The king wasn’t very happy, Haman met an unpleasant ending and the King, Mordecai and Esther lived happily ever after.

It really is an amazing story but a story that tells us of someone’s bravery, about treachery and romance to name a few things but what can this mean for us?

Esther and Mordecai showed trust in God. In the midst of the darkness and fear they both kept trusting and taking risks knowing that God was with them. Mordecai would have known that having an enemy like Haman could mean death.  Esther would have known that whilst she was popular with her husband one mistake could mean separation, after all he had decided that he needed to marry Esther after a disagreement with his first wife.

In the last few weeks we have become more and more aware of the refugee crisis, we have come to realise even more fully that people are being treated incredibly badly; so much so that they have to flee from their home from their country. Esther and her people had been exiled, they had very little hope. They would always be foreigners in a strange land who were vulnerable as a result of this. For the refugees they are also vulnerable because they are fleeing hoping for somewhere to stay, they are hoping for protection.

As a Church we have a responsibility to reach out to all those in need. We trust God, we know His protection but we also need to think of the call on us to reach out to those in need. We do this by prayer and the trust that all will be well in the end. 

However, Esther did something practical she used her opportunity to save others and herself. We can do something practical too. In our Church we have sent money off to Christian Aid to help the situation and I know other things have been done as well. It is on our minds at the moment to do something as a result of all that we have seen or read in the media. The point is though that there are so many people who feel outside of things. There are people who would be scared to set foot in a Church thinking that they might be judged and not loved. What a call on us.

To love others is the most practical thing we can ever do. Esther stood for justice and she loved. We can stand for justice and love by reaching out to all those outside of society, to welcome the stranger, to love the unlovable, to be as Jesus to all. 

Esther stood up for justice, she trusted God and she was right to do so. 

I find Esther an interesting book because it is an amazing story, it would not be out of place in bestselling literature collections. Why?  Because it is about hope and trust. It is about the protection of God. The world has always needed to hear this message, it’s just that we have not always been so good at sharing the message. 

I was talking to someone in the week who spoke about the need to give good news. We have good news, the same faith, strength and hope that inspired Esther and Mordecai inspires us today. God who loved so much that He helped people to live went so far as to love us so much that He would come amongst us, die and rise again. 

God so loved the world, that He gave His only Son, that whoever believes in Him should not die but have eternal life. 

God loves us, we have good news. To follow Him means to be as He would be, to love and to share the good news. 

In every situation of despair we have the greatest news. In every situation of worry we have the greatest weapon – prayer. Prayer doesn’t make all our troubles go away but it does make them easier to deal with as we remember God is with us. AMEN