Courage When It Counts (Isaiah 6:1-8[9-13]; 1 Corinthians 15:1-11; Luke 5:1-11)
Listen.February 7th, 2010
Rev. Dr. Craig A. Wagner
Introduction
The book of Esther reads like a good news/bad news story. You know those jokes?
- Doctor: I have some good news and some bad news.
- Patient: What’s the good news?
- Doctor: The good news is that the tests you took showed that you have only 24hourse to live.
- Patient: That’s the good news? What’s the bad news?
- Doctor: The bad news is that I forgot to call you yesterday.
For Esther it starts off like this…
Bad news: She was born in slavery in a foreign land.
Good News: Her family is together.
Bad News: Parents die leaving her an orphan.
Good news: A kind cousin, Mordecai raises her.
Bad News: Selfish king scoops up all the beautiful girls for a pageant.
More bad news: If she doesn’t satisfy the king, she still has to stay in his harem the rest of her life.
Good news: She’s the winner! She becomes queen.
Bad news: Wicked Haman is so mad at her cousin that he gets permission to have all the Jews killed.
And on it goes through the whole book. Have you ever felt this way? Things are going along really well, everything is fine and then all of a sudden a crisis hits. You never even saw it coming. Out of the blue your life is thrown into a crisis situation: perhaps there is a serious illness the life of someone close to you; or a serious car accident; or a crisis pregnancy; or you have to resist carrying out unethical practices at work. Where do we find courage to meet those times of stress that crises bring into our lives? Courage is not the absence of fear, rather it withstands fear and allows us to take the risks to meet the crisis head on.
The strongest source of courage is our faith in God. This is the only power that can help us overcome and meet the challenges that life throws at us. This is what sustained Esther and helped her stand against the evil plot that would have destroyed the Jewish population.
In the crisis find your calling
Haman has gotten really mad at Esther’s cousin, Mordecai because he did not bow down to him when Haman walked the streets. He takes his complaint to King Xerxes and tells the king that the only solution is to kill all the Jewish inhabitants of Persia (Iran). The king agrees. Esther, the queen, feels that the circumstances are closing around her. She is trying to avoid it, but her cousin reminds her that if this happened, no one would be spared: not even the queen. Mordecai wants Esther to go to the king and ask for the people to be spared.
One would think that would not be too difficult, yet according to the law, if anyone approached the king without being summoned, that person would be put to death – unless the king raised his scepter.
Here was a crisis situation for Esther. She was fearful. She was also placed in her position by God so that the possibility of sparing God’s people was present. She would realize that the opposite of courage is not cowardice, but conformity.
Perhaps we discover our own courage when confronted by a crisis and in that time we discover our calling: why God has placed us where he has. If we discover that we will be amazed at the courage God provides through faith. We can rise to the occasion. For example, if our child has a rare disease, we might rise to the occasion and crusade a movement to fund research. If we are affected by injustice, hunger, and oppression, we might rise to the occasion and champion a cause to raise funds and to spearhead a political movement to stop the injustice. If we have lost a job and know how difficult it is to make it through – not just financially, but emotionally we may rise to the occasion and work to create jobs, or counseling centers.
God is on the lookout for those who will stand up for him and for his people. Are we such people? Through faith in Christ, I pray that we allow the spirit to work in our hearts and lives and raise us to stand for Jesus and his way.
There are times when the situations in life seem to be overpowering and difficult. The going gets tough. That is when a person of faith stands up and is counted as a child of God. The situation may not always turn out the way we want, or even anticipate, but the call is not for success, it is for faithfulness to the gospel. Esther single-handedly stopped the shedding the innocent blood of her people the Jews. God raised her up and put her in a position that required her to speak up and not conform to the king’s edict.
For us: The characteristics, the attitudes of Christ are our guide. We are people who are called to live out the fruit of the spirit in all situations: kindness, love, peace and so on in all situations of life. Stop conforming and stand up for the gospel of Jesus and his community of faith.
Use fear to find faith
Esther realizes that she has a unique position and therefore a unique call in the crisis. If she goes to see the king she may perish, but if she doesn’t try, she will surely perish. She will have to do something. However, once she decides to do something and go see the king, she calls for a period of fasting and prayer from her people.
Notice, she doesn’t simply run into the king without thought or preparation. She takes her predicament to the Lord and fasts as a way of repentance and preparation. This is a powerful pause in the drama. We shouldn’t gloss over it too quickly. If Esther were to go too quickly, she would appear foolish and perhaps even reckless. So she waits on the Lord until the appropriate time.
When a crisis occurs in life or when we are threatened in life by a huge problem or even a powerful person, where do we find help? Do we tend to rely upon our self to muscle it through? Do we run in blindly flailing at the problem – red faced and angry? Do we cry or get frustrated?
Or do we rely upon God? Do we take time, if possible, to focus on Christ? Do we look to God and set aside the time needed for meditation, prayer and other spiritual disciplines so that God connects with us and guides us in the way that will bring his desired results? Too many of us think that we are the ones who can get us through any difficulty, and so we fail to use the fear, the problems, the anxieties, the stress to help us find where true courage and power comes from: Christ the Lord.
Often when we feel threatened or afraid, our first instinct is to gather the wagons around us. Build the walls for protection and then get ready for the attack. Or we may simply try to hide – ignore the problem and it will simply vanish. Just imagine if Esther would have done that! The amount of bloodshed would have been significant: the dying, the pain the suffering would have been immense.
The fear of the consequences to inaction drove Esther to faith in God and in his guidance for this crisis situation. Do the crises in our lives drive us to find the deep and wonderful faith that the spirit has given us so that we may stand up for God and his ways and his people?
Lose yourself to find your courage
Esther went from a position of self-preservation to a concern for her people. When she moved beyond concern for her own well-being she found the courage to go to the king without being summoned. As she approached, he held up the scepter and she was accepted. He listened to her and the final outcome was that the true enemy of the people, Haman was executed and the people of God saved.
When she looked beyond her own survival she was able to view the problem from a different perspective. In Esther’s situation it took an extreme issue and almost being backed into the wall with no where to turn and then she knew. She was the one. It was up to her to act courageously. And she did.
Often we hear or see stories of regular people who do heroic things. Just last week we saw the story of a windsurfer in Florida who was surfing when attacked by sharks. Unfortunately, he did not survive, but the life-guard without thought to his own safety jumped in and pulled the man ashore. Often that’s what it takes to meet a crisis: look beyond yourself and jump in to make a difference. Losing oneself for the sake of the gospel is to live as Jesus lived and care for and love people in his name. Then our crises can be met with the courage of Jesus.
Are we focused as the people of God on ourselves and a personal sense of salvation or are we focused on the mission that Christ has called us to do? It may seem like a crisis, or at least a fearful time – when we invite someone to worship with us (how about inviting someone to the concert on March 5th?). We have a fear of rejection – how about welcoming a new neighbor and sharing the meaning of life in community here at CLC?
How about a stop to obsessing about others and develop a love for God’s people that is stronger than our self-consciousness and our selfishness? The courage to meet the challenge in life is found in faith in Jesus Christ our Lord.
Conclusion
In the book The Good and Beautiful God: Falling in love with the God Jesus knows there is a story about a man addressing a business conference: He holds up a paper with a black blot right in the center. “What do you see on this paper?” he asks. They all replied, “A black blot.” “No. I see white space!” He went on to explain that often we see the problems and the crises in life and forget the blessings, the power, the love and the life that is ours in Christ Jesus. When crises arise it is hard to move beyond that one event, but God’s presence and blessings are so much greater… in faith may we be aware and stand up for Jesus in all aspects of life. Amen.