Making Way for Such a Time as This

Making Way for Such a Time as This

March 15, 2026

Minister: Rev. JT Smiedendorf

Readings: Esther 4:12-14 NRSV

Download a printable PDF of this sermon here.

CENTRAL FOCUS:

To uplift faithful courage to say yes when God calls us to act for movements of reversal and deliverance in our time and place.

The Philistines were on one hill, the Israelites on the opposing hill, with the valley between them.

12 When they told Mordecai what Esther had said, 13 Mordecai told them to reply to Esther, “Do not think that in the king’s palace you will escape any more than all the other Jews. 14 For if you keep silent at this time, relief and deliverance will rise for the Jews from another place, 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.”

These are the words of our ancient tradition.
May the Living Word of God in Scripture be alive within us, among us, and beyond us.

What do you think about, and what would you call a holiday where there is…
exchanging gifts of food and drink
giving to the poor
celebratory feasting
wearing masks and costumes,
encouragement to drink a lot of alcohol

Add in public recitation of the Scroll of Esther and you have the Jewish Festival of Purim which just happened a couple weeks ago. Esther, as literature, is historical fiction, written 400 years or so before Jesus. It is the story of minority life, the ancient Eastern diaspora of Jews, amidst a larger dominant culture.

The basic story highlights are… Queen Vashti is deposed, a young Esther is chosen as a replacement, government minister Haman is offended by the Jewish Mordecai, so Haman has all Jews condemned, Mordecai publicly laments this impending evil, Esther notices his lamentation from the palace and then communicates with Mordecai. And this communication includes our scripture reading this morning.

Mordecai’s response is a memorable one, familiar to many:

“For if you keep silence at such a time as this, relief and deliverance will rise 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.”

Last week, I shared about the story of David and Goliath and how there is a way in which David’s faithful imagination helped him find the courage to act even though he seemed to be up against such a fearful, imposing force. This week, I bring to us the story of Esther as another kind of faithful courage. For it is Esther who faces a daunting choice. In the story, we learn that anyone who goes in to the King without the King’s request for their presence is put to death. And so, Mordecai’s plea that she speak to the King about the devious plot of Haman to commit genocide against the Jews of the realm involves Esther risking her life by going to the King unsolicited and by sharing what the King does not know that she, his Queen, is Jewish, and that there is a plot against her people.

Martin Luther King once said…

“Unless one has found something for which one is willing to die, one isn’t fit to live.”

That quote might sound dramatic to resourced people whose lives go on fairly consistently and predictably. Yet, our stories of faith, our stories of Jesus, always have that ultimate frame in view, of mortality and of a cause greater than ourselves or our own family, maybe even greater than our own species.  As we follow Jesus in our Lenten journey toward Jerusalem, faith is asking us what we ultimately trust. What is our ultimate concern? What calls us into action beyond our ego-selves, our small selves?

Rabbi Meir Soloveichik of Congregation Shearith Israel in New York City called the Purim tale of Esther “the book of the vulnerability of [humanity] in general and specifically of the vulnerability of the Jew.” It is this very vulnerability that draws forth actions of faith. Conventional security and control of life do not require faith or faithful courage.

It’s interesting to me that there is a way in which, when we come together in worship on Sundays, we are trying to provide a kind of security, a kind of predictability, a kind of atmosphere of the known. First of all, we have an excellent security staff headed by Malcolm Williams looking out for us. We have a building that we take care of that insulates us from the unpredictability and changes of the weather. Not to mention, we have chairs and a setup that remains largely the same when we gather in this sanctuary room. Each Sunday our worship has a printed and fairly predictable order and style. And we have church-wide policies and practices meant to keep us organized and as safe as possible. This is all for the good and it will continue.

And yet, there is no way to live out a potent and relevant faith amidst the reality of life without embracing a faith that responds amidst our vulnerability. Our understanding and sensitivity to this teaching is perhaps most opportune right now as our experience of living with federal agents belligerently roaming our streets is so fresh. Most of us were unaccustomed to a real sense that anyone could be apprehended or assaulted or worse anywhere in our city, any day.

Vulnerability is made clear in Esther’s dilemma. She is at risk if she acts to go into the king on her own accord, and she is at risk if she does nothing. The story does not say explicitly what it was that was stirred in Esther when Mordecai offered his invitation to faithful courage. “For such a time as this,” he said.

I wonder what moments come to mind for each of us when we hear ‘for such a time as this.’ We may have already experienced a number of them in our lives. Or maybe that time is now for you. How was your faith active then and now amidst those ‘such as this’ times? Certainly, my friends, for such a time as this was Plymouth Congregational Church created, for a time when King Herod roams the streets abducting people, dismantles social safety networks, erodes norms of democracy and social cohesion, and flirts with Christian nationalism. For such a time as this will people from this congregation and many others join together on Palm Sunday afternoon and process to the state capitol to pray together and witness that there is another way, not the way of King Herod, but the way of the God of Creation who loves all people and all the earth, who calls for compassion and equity and justice.

Our ancient story does not say what stirred in Esther when Mordecai invited her into knowing that this was her time, her purpose, her opportunity to choose faithful courage and serve something much greater than just herself. Maybe it was the voice of a cherished elder who was like a father to her. Maybe it was the thought of what could happen to her people and those whom she loved. Maybe it was the sense that her community would be with her, that God would be with her. Maybe she realized that she was community and that if the community was at risk facing an injustice, that she was, too.

What we know is that she did respond. The story continues….

Then Esther said in reply to Mordecai, “Go, gather all the Jews to be found in Susa, and hold a fast on my behalf, and neither eat nor drink for three days, night or day. I and my maids will also fast as you do. After that I will go to the king, though it is against the law; and if I perish, I perish.”

(It is noteworthy that Esther asked for community prayer and fasting in order to support her and prepare her for her courageous and faithful action, and in so doing also to call on God’s help.)

Then Esther added to her courage some cleverness and arranged a plan to expose the truth and the one who intended genocide. You can read the story’s details. And there was celebration that the Jewish people were saved.

Maybe the holiday festival of Purim is a kind of reenactment of the celebration of Esther’s people and maybe it’s also a celebration for all the times that such liberation has occurred. Maybe it’s also a practice and a foretaste. Maybe there’s something about being in celebration that helps us to resist the heavy dark threat of King Herod with our own practice of lightness and delight and community. As I said, the festival of Purim involves sharing gifts with each other and with those in need, sharing a feast and dressing up in costumes like Halloween, and even an encouragement from the tradition to get drunk.

It’s a strange reversal to think about the party atmosphere of Purim and the serious story of threat and the story of Esther. But maybe that’s part of the essence here, the reversal, for Esther is a story of reversal, a reversal of fortune for those who would rise above an attempt to dominate others, a story of reversal for those who would seek their own glory at the expense of others. It is a reversal for those at risk on the margins who are brought back into blessing.

Maybe Esther is showing us how stories get reversed: through us, in moments of timely faithful response in the midst of vulnerability. Indeed, maybe it’s our courageous response that God needs in order to work out more stories of liberation and life, of peace and justice.

If you are coming from a more vulnerable social or personal location, take heart and find courage in Esther’s story. If you are in a more privileged position like Esther, take inspiration from her faithful choice for with the help of God, trusting God, she made the most of her location and of her opportunity to be courageous and faithful in action.

“For such a time as this,” Mordecai said.

In the Lord of the Rings saga, there is a moment when Frodo, the central hero of the journey to destroy the ring of power, says to his mentor and elder, “I wish the ring had never come to me. I wish none of this had happened.”

The wizard and elder Gandalf replies:

“So do all who live to see such times. But that is not for them to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us.”

And so it is with our lives, each and all, for such a time as this. Like Esther, our opportunity for faithful courage and choice is born of challenging and vulnerable times. Like Esther, may we pray together and then choose the courage that serves life in such times. AMEN