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June 26, 2016 Esther 4:1-17 and 2 Corinthians 4:7-11 Eastminster Presbyterian Church, Marietta GA Dr

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June 26, 2016 Esther 4:1-17 and 2 Corinthians 4:7-11 Eastminster Presbyterian Church, Marietta GA Dr ESTHER: GOD’S PLAN BUILDS OUR BOLDNESS June 26, 2016 Esther 4:1-17 and 2 Corinthians 4:7-11 Eastminster Presbyterian Church, Marietta GA Dr. Thomas Boone We’re into a sermon series titled God’s Gotta In chapter 1, we read about that ego. Xerxes Plan. So turn with me in your Bibles or on your spent six months, planning a feast that would devices to Esther 4. I’ll be reading verses 1-17. show off “the splendor and pomp of his greatness.” We could call this the “feast of I You’ve gotta grasp the backstory to this want you to see how great a guy I am!” passage to understand where I’m going with it. First I’ll lay that out and then, since time is After this narcissistic fest, Xerxes decides to limited, I’ll offer a couple of points where I show off his beautiful wife, Vashti, but she’s sense God may be challenging us. having nothing of it. She’s had it with his ego trip. So what does Xerxes do? He decides it’s Here’s the backstory . for a long time Jews time for a new wife who will do what he asks. were living in diaspora because they had to. In In Esther, verse 1:20; he has the nerve to Esther’s day, things were different. People actually pen a law to that effect: “all women could return home. Some did. Others chose will give honor to their husbands, high and low to remain. Esther is the story of one of these alike.” Yeah, that’ll work. families. Here is where things get interesting. I’m still You might wonder why anyone would stay. dealing with the backstory, but you’ll see Well, people adapted. In Persia even where this is going in a moment. Vashti stood foreigners could live comfortably, receive a up to Xerxes, was downgraded, Uncle Haman good education, and become someone. So, sees an opportunity for Esther, and she goes many Jews stayed because it was a better life. along with it. They develop a scheme for her They did so knowing they were making some to become queen knowing the context. It was compromises. the biggest Bachelor season of all time and she, Esther, wanted the man. That wasn’t Some Jews tried to minimize this by following going to happen with just a wink. Jewish traditions while others went so far as to sweep their identity under the rug. The latter Let me break this down for you. First, she had was the case with Esther. She’s what to look good enough and be cultured enough sociologists refer to as “high level to even be considered. That qualified her to assimilation,” or what we just call, “all in”. live in the first harem along with a few That’s point one, Esther was “all in” with the hundred other women all wanting the same good life her culture provided. prize. Out of all these women, only eight would get a shot of being the new queen. Then there’s the king himself. Xerxes was a These elite eight would go off to live in a Zoroastrian which would have made the smaller harem and go through 12 very trying prophets want to give Esther the “what-for”. months of beauty treatments. Esther made More than that, Xerxes was worshipped as a the cut! Are ya’ with me? Some of you are living god with an ego the size of his empire. nodding. You see, Esther had plenty strength of message, she gave her Uncle a response that character, it was just a question of how she sunk his ship. Her response is in verse 11. For used it: she could help herself or glorify God. time’s sake I’m moving straight to reading Hold onto that. between the lines. Are you ready? Now, after a year of being made to look like Esther is saying, “Are you that stupid? I just goddesses on earth, each of the eight, one by can’t risk what you’re asking me to do. It it’s one, spent a night with Xerxes. In the morning between me and my people, God’s people, I each would return to the second harem. The choose me.” Esther was plenty strong, but contest was over once Xerxes was satisfied culture had numbed her, so she used that enough to ask for a second visit from one of strength in a twisted way for herself. the contestants. Put two and two together folks. This was not what a good Jewish Up until this point, Esther is like any child of woman would do. God who has tasted the good life and accepted the cultural lie as to what life is all In Esther 2:16-17 here’s how the contest ends. about: success, comfort, looking good, and “And when Esther was taken to King living large. When God confronts her with the Ahasuerus (Xerxes), the king loved Esther mess around her, she turns away. The cost more than all the women, and she won grace was too high and the risk too heavy to do the and favor in his sight more than all the virgins, right thing. so that he set the royal crown on her head and made her queen instead of Vashti.” Yep, Praise God Haman doesn’t take no for an Esther won. answer. As heroic as Vashti had been with Xerxes in verses 12-14, Haman boldly shows The story doesn’t describe her life in much Esther what culture has done to her. Here’s detail after becoming queen, but enough is my take on it. “Don’t think that just because said so we know that life was good. At least it you’re sitting pretty and safe in the palace was for her. Granted it wasn’t long before she you’ll escape what happens to the rest of us. If wasn’t seeing as much of Xerxes as before, but you keep your mouth shut and your eyes let’s not get into all that. The point I want to closed, relief will come somehow from highlight is that while Esther is living her somewhere, but you’ll get swallowed up.” privileged life, horrible things are afoot. (Esther 4:13-14) Only then does he say the one line most people remember, “Who knows In chapter 3 we read that a politically whether you have not come to the kingdom sanctioned campaign of genocide against her for such a time as this?” See how much power real people is unfolding. Esther, numbed as this line has now that we have the backstory? she was by her culture, was completely out of touch with what was unfolding. That brings us So God broke through. He woke Esther up. to our reading with Esther’s Uncle begging her The internal strength God had planted in her to intercede. from the start, she finally used, not to help herself, but to do the right thing. She asked I wish I could say she was moved immediately for her people to fast and pray for her for three by his request and did the right thing. That days. She also fasted with her attendants didn’t happen. She talked about the request (which basically outed her as a Jew), and then with her Persian advisor and then, via she went to the king despite the risk. She messenger, the ancient form of a text moved from cultural queen to the trusting child of God He wanted her to be. Right then I knew I wasn’t there to train so much as to be trained. I decided to listen to This trusting child is who He wants each of us them. As they talked, I started hearing God. to be. It isn’t easy. He woke me up. I started seeing things I’d accepted culturally, but were in fact getting in I’m going to say this next point very carefully the way of what God was trying to do through since it’s the one each of us has to face. me, God’s plan for my life. Culture is crazy loud in our lives. Sometimes not even the hammer of genocide will wake us When I Came home and shared this up from how deeply it has shaped us. History experience with my wife Joy, God peeled back tells that story time and again. the curtain on a few things. Something of culture’s grip on us broke. This conversion Eric Metaxas wrote something that has stuck process is nowhere near over, but that was a with me. In his biography of Bonhoeffer, he cool moment in our faith. Folks, Esther had observed that “being a Christian is less about her time. Now it’s our time and Jesus wants cautiously avoiding sin than about each of us to wake up. He wants us to stop courageously and actively doing God’s will”. saying the words “Jesus is Lord,” then living (Bonhoeffer, Ch. 29) WE might agree with the cultural lies. It’s not all about stuff money this, but the problem Esther poses is one I can buy, the right political choice, our comfort, think we can relate to, especially well in East even our kids’ education or good nest eggs. Cobb suburbia. Here it is. These are fine, but they don’t come first. If this stuff is keeping us from doing the bold It is difficult to recognize how deeply our things Jesus wants his followers to do, that’s culture’s grip is on us.
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