10-20-2024 Rev Steven Marsh – Crushed and Waiting

Series: “Jesus’ Message: You Are Integral For Unity Being One Race And One Blood” – “Crushed and Waiting” : Job 38:1-7 and Mark 10:35-45

 

Grace Presbyterian Church aspires to make fully devoted followers of Jesus Christ who are remembering, telling, and living the way of Jesus. Today’s Bible readings remind us that God enters our real-life circumstances and experiences. And some of those circumstances and experiences crush us and leave us waiting for rebuilding to begin.

Jesus teaches that living as a servant-leader is the key to a life that matters. And, how we live as a servant leader in those crushing and waiting circumstances and experiences is important. Let me tell you the story of Rudy:

Rudy is the true story of a young overachiever and his tenacious pursuit of his dream to attend the University of Notre Dame and play football for the Fighting Irish. However, the road leading to his goal was filled with obstacles. First, because he was small and had barely average speed, there was little chance he would be able to make the Irish’s football squad as a walk-on. Second, Rudy was dyslexic, and his high school grades had suffered as a consequence. It would be almost impossible for him to be accepted by the prestigious university in the first place. Refusing to give up, he took a Greyhound into South Bend and met Father Cavanaugh, a scholastic priest who agreed to get him into a semester of Holy Cross Junior College. If his grades were good enough there, perhaps Notre Dame might consider letting him in…. Rudy’s grades…. improved dramatically. But three semesters and three rejection letters later, he is devastated and hopeless. His next semester is his last chance, because Notre Dame never allows seniors to transfer. He…. managed his way to South Bend, labored in class, and even scraped up enough odd jobs so he can [could] eat. He has been diligent and worked every angle he knew. But it hasn’t been enough. Rudy finds himself in the chapel where he had first met Father Cavanaugh. And once again, he pours out his soul to the elderly priest. “Maybe I haven’t prayed enough,” Rudy says, almost frantic. Father Cavanaugh answers with kind, narrow eyes, “I’m sure that’s not the problem. Praying is something we do in our time. The answers come in God’s time.” Rudy isn’t satisfied. There has to be something else he can do. “Have I done everything I possibly can? Can you help me?” Father Cavanaugh’s answer is measured but sure. “Son, in 35 years of religious studies, I’ve come up with only two hard, incontrovertible facts: There is a God, and I’m not Him.”[1]

 

Rudy was pursuing something that mattered, playing football at Notre Dame. What mattered most, from Father Cavanaugh’s perspective, was Rudy to deepen his sense of belonging to God.

Succeeding and resting in the truth that you belong to God and know who you are in Christ matters most. In this regard, Bobby Schuller in Change Your Thoughts Change Your World writes, “Bonding is my greatest need. There are people in my life who love me and want to know me better.” [2] The Old Testament and Gospel Readings remind us that participating in God’s mission through service, building personal and intimate relationships with God and others, is how we grow as followers of Jesus.

Job 38:1-7

 

Job 38 demonstrates that we have no understanding of God knowing each one of us from the laying of the foundation of the world. Job has characterized God’s creative purpose as a design of darkness. Job lacks understanding. But he truly wants to know why this persecution is happening to him. Job has distorted God’s creative intent in his argument with God. Job 38:4 reads, “Where were you when I laid the foundation of the earth? Tell me, if you have understanding.”

Mark 10:35-45

 

Mark 10 exhorts the community of faith to be selfless and grasp the meaning of the prediction of Jesus’ death. Jesus knows what’s ahead for his ministry and life. He doesn’t fully understand but knows the outcome. There is a profound lesson for the disciples. It’s not about who sits on the left and right side of Jesus, but an invitation to enter the known and unknown of the path of Jesus. Disciples then and now must enter into that known and unknown path of being a follower of Jesus Christ. James and John behaved exactly how we do. Mark 10:43-44 reads, “…. but whoever wishes to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wishes to be first among you must be slave of all. For the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”[3]

Leaving everything, following Jesus, serving others, and being a slave to all would appear not to be a great marketing strategy. However, Jesus attracted twelve initial disciples and by the time of Pentecost thousands and thousands and thousands of new disciples were following Jesus with what appeared to be a flawed marketing plan.

James and John expected Jesus to do whatever asked of him, like who is the greatest and which one got to sit on the right or left side of Jesus. They wanted a special place in Jesus’ coming kingdom. They didn’t understand surrendering their wants in order to attain God’s. James and John struggled accepting the life God was giving them and wanted a life they were creating in their minds and hearts. They struggled with understanding the gospel, the good news, as a message of giving oneself up through service for the sake of others.

God does not abandon the faithful.[4] It’s not equal giving, but equal sacrifice. Leveraged giving spends your intellectual, emotional, spiritual, financial, physical, and time capital, sacrificially. Sacrificial and responsible giving makes the community stronger.

My friends, dependency on God combines God’s action and human action into experiencing the kingdom of God. Depend on God as you ponder your 2025 Pledge of Time and Treasure and a gift to replenish our cash reserves. Believe that dependence on God will lead you to obedient and sacrificial behavior in the volunteering and financial aspects of your Christian discipleship.

Grace Presbyterian Church exists to demonstrate and offer others a better way to live. Jesus says, “…whoever wishes to be first among you must be slave to all.” Leverage your giving by spending your intellectual, emotional, spiritual, financial, physical, and time capital, sacrificially, particularly in those crushing and waiting times. Amen.

 

This sermon was preached the Twenty-Second Sunday after Pentecost on Sunday, 20 October 2024

by the Rev. Dr. Steven M. Marsh in the Great Room and  Sanctuary at

Grace Presbyterian Church in Wichita, Kansas

 

Copyright Ó 2024

Steven M. Marsh

All rights reserved.

 

[1]The source is the film Rudy (Tristar, 1993), directed by David Anspaugh. Found October 12, 2021, on preachingtoday.com.

[2]Bobby Schuller, Change Your Thoughts Change Your World (Nashville, Tennessee: Nelson Books, 2019), 191.

[3]In the four paragraphs of textual analysis above, I have benefited from the thinking of Brady Banks, Jennifer T. Kaalund, George R. Hunsberger, Alicia D. Myers, and Nontombi Naomi Tutu in Joel B. Green, Thomas G. Long, Luke A. Powery, Cynthia L. Rigby and Carolyn J. Sharp, editors, Connections, Year B, Volume 3 (Louisville, Kentucky: Westminster John Knox Press, 2021), 389-394, 398-400, 400-401, 402-404, and 404-406.

[4]This insight is gleaned from Kathleen Bostrom in David L. Bartlett and Barbara Brown Taylor Feasting on the Word, Year B, Volume 4 (Louisville, Kentucky: Westminster John Knox Press, 2009), 154.

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10-13-2024 Rev Steven Marsh – Do Not Succeed At Something That Doesn’t Matter

Series: “Jesus’ Message: You Are Integral For Unity Being One Race And One Blood”

“Do Not Succeed At Something That Doesn’t Matter” –  Job 23:1-9, 16-17, Mark 10:17-31

 

Grace Presbyterian Church aspires to make fully-devoted followers of Jesus Christ who are remembering, telling, and living the way of Jesus. Today’s Bible readings remind us that God enters our real-life circumstances and experiences.

Malcolm Gladwell published Revenge of the Tipping Point this month. Gladwell writes, “The Tipping Point is the biography of an idea,” I began, “and the idea is very simple.”[1] Historically, the tipping point idea of solving financial problems by robbing banks was made famous by celebrity bank robbers Bonnie and Clyde, John Dillinger, and “Pretty Boy” Floyd. Gladwell writes,

In 1965, a total of 847 banks were robbed across the entire United States—a modest number, given the size of the country…In the early afternoon of November 29, 1983, the Los Angeles field office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation received a call from a Bank of America branch in the Melrose District. The call was taken by Linda Webster…The suspect was a young white male wearing a New York Yankees baseball cap. Slender. Polite. Southern accent. Well dressed. He said please and thank you. Webster turned to her colleague, William Rehder, who ran the FBI’s local bank robbery division. “Bill, it’s the Yankee.” The Yankee Bandit had been active in Los Angeles since July of that year.[2]

The Yankee robbed one bank after another and on the afternoon of November 29th, he hit six banks in four hours. An idea of dealing with financial problems by robbing banks was implemented by thugs until the Yankee arrived on the scene. The Yankee was a class act.

And so, we face a tipping point in our approach to the 2024 Operating Budget and the 2024 Generosity Campaign for the 2025 Operating Budget. Finances, a social epidemic for institutions, individuals, families, and churches, are at a tipping point. At last Sunday’s Town Hall Meeting, we learned that Grace, like many mainline churches, is confronted with the chaos of the hurricanes of societal and cultural change.

Job 23:1-9, 16-17

Job 23 demonstrates we know that the question “Where is God” is answered by the church’s historic answer, “God is here.”[3] In the preceding speech to Job by Eliphaz, Eliphaz accuses Job of wickedness particularly in depriving others of clothing, water, food, and land. Eliphaz also blames Job for his own suffering. Job’s response was a clear argument with God about being elusive and absent. Job wants to present his case of innocence to God. He wants to learn and understand God’s reasoning. Job believes that God is hiding.[4]

Mark 10:17-31

Mark 10 exhorts the community of faith to be selfless. Jesus taught the man who approached him and teaches us that sacrificial living is God’s way. The point of the story of the rich man and the disciples is the relationship between discipleship and riches. Jesus states five imperatives to the rich man in the earshot of the disciples to go, sell, give, come, and follow. These five imperatives make one solid and seamless command with a promise inserted, between go, sell, and give and come and follow, “you will have treasure in heaven.” No matter how we might spiritualize this text, that is not to take it more literally as a lifetime journey, all disciples are implicated on what we do with wealth.[5]

God does not abandon the faithful.[6] Leveraged giving spends your intellectual, emotional, spiritual, financial, physical, and time capital, sacrificially. Sacrificial and responsible giving makes the community stronger. Mike Slaughter in The Christian Wallet writes, “Responsible investing means taking all that God has placed into our hands and fully deploying it in every sense of the word toward God’s preferred future picture—both for our own lives and for the lives of others. Investing in tomorrow also requires a simultaneous trust in God’s provision for both today and tomorrow.”[7] Leveraged giving spends your intellectual, emotional, spiritual, financial, physical, and time capital, sacrificially. It is responsible investing.

Dependency on God combines God’s action and human action into experiencing the kingdom of God. According to Barna Research, U.S. teens and adults have reported that, while they have mostly positive opinions of Jesus, their perceptions of the Church and Christians as a whole have often led them to doubt Christian beliefs. Other data Barna studies shows that the Church’s reputation in specific areas like pursuing justice and stepping up to help solve local problems is wavering among both teens and adults alike. It appears that most Christians (57%), including over seven in 10 practicing Christians (76%), are at a point in their spiritual journeys where they want to help the Church refocus on what’s truly important. Christians want to help the church realign with Jesus’ priorities.[8]

What are Jesus’ priorities? Micah 6:8 reads, “He (God) has told you, O mortal, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?” Might Grace rethink and organize a different way of being church when it comes to growth in membership? What about providing seminars at Grace on parenting, legal documents such as a Living Trust, Will, Power of Attorney, Medical Power of Attorney, post-traumatic stress syndrome, and living on a budget? How about Parent’s Night Out for parents in our children’s ministry as well as the parents of children in the neighborhoods of College Hill and Crown Heights? As it is the case in Kirk’s youth ministry, could we as a congregation and congregants develop a heart for reaching the unchurched and sharing the good news of Jesus Christ in word and deed?

Depend on God as you ponder your 2025 Pledge of Time and Treasure and a gift to replenish our cash reserves. Believe that dependence on God will lead you to obedient and sacrificial behavior in the volunteering and financial aspect of your Christian discipleship. Remember the tipping point is the unfolding of an idea that develops behaviors of transformation. As Gladwell writes so eloquently, “Ideas and products and messages and behaviors spread just like viruses do.[9]

Your life is designed by God to be a wallet. As we read the Bible, we discover that God has given us prescription glasses enabling us to see more clearly the way of leveraging our giving from our life wallet. John Calvin refers to the Scriptures as spectacles for weak, failing eyes.[10]

Grace Presbyterian Church exists to demonstrate and offer others a better way to live. We do that by leveraging our giving. Jesus says, go, sell, give, come, and follow. Leverage your giving by spending your intellectual, emotional, spiritual, financial, physical, and time capital, sacrificially. Amen.

 

This sermon was preached the Twenty-First Sunday after Pentecost on Sunday, 13 October 2024

by the Rev. Dr. Steven M. Marsh in the Great Room and  Sanctuary at

Grace Presbyterian Church in Wichita, Kansas

Copyright Ó 2024

Steven M. Marsh

All rights reserved.

[1]Malcolm Gladwell, Revenge of the Tipping Point (New York, NY: Little, Brown and Company, 2024), ix.

[2]Malcolm Gladwell, Revenge of the Tipping Point, ix, 13, 15.

[3]My thanks to Thomas Edward Frank in David L. Bartlett and Barbara Brown Taylor, editors, Feasting on the Word, Year B, Volume 4 (Louisville, Kentucky, Westminster John Knox Press, 2009), 146, 148, and 150.

[4]In this paragraph of textual analysis, I have benefited from the thinking of Mark McEntire, Wyndy Corbin Reuschling, Anna George Traynham, Zaida Maldonado Perez, William Yoo, Matthew L. Skinner and Richard W. Voelz in Joel B. Green, Thomas G. Long, Luke A. Powery, Cynthia L. Rigby and Carolyn J. Sharp, editors, Connections, Year B, Volume 3 (Louisville, Kentucky: Westminster John Knox Press, 2020), 127-129, 129-131, 132-134, 135-137, 137-139, 140-142 and 142-143.

[5]Adapted from Lamar Williamson, Jr., Interpretation Commentary, Mark (Louisville, Kentucky, John Knox Press, 1983), 182-188.

[6]This insight is gleaned from Kathleen Bostrom in David L. Bartlett and Barbara Brown Taylor Feasting on the Word, Year B, Volume 4 (Louisville, Kentucky: Westminster John Knox Press, 2009), 154.

[7]Mike Slaughter, The Christian Wallet (Louisville, Kentucky: Westminster John Knox Press, 2016), 128.

[8]Adapted from Barna’s State of the Church Initiative, 2024.

[9]Malcolm Gladwell, Revenge of the Tipping Point, ix.

[10]For the analogy of spectacles for weak eyes see John Calvin in Book I, Chapter VI of Institutes of the Christian Religion, vol. 1, translated by Ford Lewis Battles and edited by John T. McNeill (Philadelphia: The Westminster Press, 1960), 69-74.

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10-06-2024 Rev Steven Marsh – Take Courage and Do Not Worry

Series: “Jesus’ Message: You Are Integral For Unity Being One Race And One Blood”

“Take Courage and Do Not Worry” – Job 1:1; 2:1-10

Hebrews 1:1-4; 2:5-12, Mark 10: 2-16 (13-16)

Malcolm Gladwell is one of my favorite authors. Twenty-five years ago, Gladwell published The Tipping Point: How Little Things Make a Big Difference. This month he published Revenge of the Tipping Point. Gladwell writes, “The Tipping Point is the biography of an idea,” I began, “and the idea is very simple.”[1]

It is that best way to understand the emergence of fashion trends, the ebb and flow of crime waves, or, for that matter, the transformation of unknown books into bestsellers, or the rise of teenage smoking, or the phenomena of word of mouth, or any number of the other mysterious changes that mark everyday life is to think of them as epidemics. Ideas and products and messages and behaviors spread just like viruses do.[2]

Ideas and behaviors follow strange pathways in Wichita, Sedgwick County, Kansas, The United States of America, and the world.

And so, we face a tipping point in our approach to the 2024 Operating Budget and the 2024Generosity Campaign for the 2025 Operating Budget. Finances, a social epidemic for institutions, individuals, families, and churches are at a tipping point. Listen to our sibling in Christ and Trustee Tom Rhoads. Tom…

Jesus teaches that healthy change occurs from a base of child-like dependence on God. To make any relationship work obstacles need to be embraced as opportunities for making things better. For Christians, having a child-like dependence on God is the best approach. In this regard, Bobby Schuller in Change Your Thoughts Change Your World writes, “When we face setbacks in life, our temptation will be to curse them, dwell on self-pity, blame others, or hurry on to something that isn’t meant to be…. There is no tragedy [setback] God can’t redeem. Though you cannot see it now, God will get you through whatever it is you’re facing, and you might even find a gift within.”[3] Believe that God is with you. Believe that God will see you through to a better outcome. Therein lies the significance of thinking and self-examination: Learn. Evaluate. Plan. Dream. Get back up after a fall. Press through the pain.[4] See obstacles, things that are in the way, as opportunities to grow. The Old Testament and Gospel Readings remind us that obstacles emerge for all people that can become opportunities for growth as a person. Satan tells God that Job only loves God for the things God does for him.

Job 1:1, 12 reads, There was once a man in the land of Uz whose name was Job. That man was blameless and upright, one who feared God and turned away from evil….The Lord said to Satan, “Very well, all that he has is in your power; only do not stretch out your hand against him!” So Satan went out from the presence of the Lord. And Mark 10:15 reads, “Truly I tell you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God as a little child will never enter it.” Remember, everything works for good for those who love Jesus, who place child-like dependance on God.

The Pharisees often attempted to trap Jesus over his abandonment of traditional thought and practice in Judaism. And Job teaches us to ask hard questions of God and patiently listen for the answers as an act of depending on God and being faithful to God.[5]

And so here we are experiencing a tipping point. Yes, the financial woes facing Grace Presbyterian Church are staggering, in fact insurmountable. Yes, insurmountable when we try to muster up our strength to solve them. But here is the tipping point. Jesus states that a child-like dependency on God combines God’s action and human action into experiencing the kingdom of God. To trust that God will lead each one of us to sacrifice by increasing our pledge in 2025 and make a sacrificial gift to replenish our cash reserves….is embracing the tipping point idea and its corresponding solution, behavior of sacrificial giving.

Depend on God as you ponder your 2025 Pledge and a gift to replenish our cash reserves. Be that dependent child believing that dependence on God will lead you to obedient and sacrificial behavior in the financial aspect of your Christian discipleship. Remember the tipping point is the unfolding of an idea that develops behaviors of transformation. As Gladwell writes so eloquently, “Ideas and products and messages and behaviors spread just like viruses do.[6]

See God work things out to a good and kingdom end in the obedience and sacrifice of following Jesus in your financial giving. Take courage and do not worry. Amen.

This sermon was preached the Twentieth Sunday after Pentecost on Sunday, 6 October 2024

by the Rev. Dr. Steven M. Marsh in the Sanctuary at Grace Presbyterian Church in Wichita, Kansas

Copyright 2024

Steven M. Marsh

All rights reserved.

[1]Malcolm Gladwell, Revenge of the Tipping Point (New York, NY: Little, Brown and Company, 2024), ix.

[2]Ibid.

[3]Bobby Schuller, Change Your Thoughts Change Your World (Nashville, Tennessee: Nelson Books, 2019), 147.

[4]Adapted from Bobby Schuller, Change Your Thoughts Change Your World, 33.

[5]In the two paragraphs of textual analysis above, I have benefited from the thinking of Rebecca Abts Wright, Jill Duffield, Kimberly Bracken Long, Osvaldo D. Vena, Michael Lodahl, Leticia A. Guardiola-Saenz, and Peter J. Paris in Joel B. Green, Thomas G. Long, Luke A. Powery, Cynthia L. Rigby and Carolyn J. Sharp, editors, Connections, Year B, Volume 3 (Louisville, Kentucky: Westminster John Knox Press, 2021), 353-356, 356-358, 359-361, 362-364, 364-366, 367-369 and 369-371.

[6]Malcolm Gladwell, Revenge of the Tipping Point, ix.

 

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Series: “For Such A Time As This” “Living the Vision” Esther 5

We continue our series on Esther titled, “For Such A Time As This.” Living the vision is this week’s emphasis. The vision is to live a faithful life in an unfaithful culture. Living the Vision in kindness and generosity is significant in making a positive, hopeful, joyful, and non-anxious impact in society and the lives of others. As you recall, Esther is the story of the Jews protecting themselves from persecution during the Babylonian Captivity. It is a story filled with suspense, conspiracy, and bad decisions all being used for God’s purpose. It’s a story of a people delivered. It was a complicated time.

Thinking about living the vision is important. But actually living the vision is most important. Thinking about the vision develops new attitudes and expands one’s worldview. Living the vision puts attitudes and worldview into action. Rosa Parks was arrested in 1955 for refusing to give her bus seat to a white man. In her book Quiet Strength she writes:

 

When I sat down on the bus that day, I had no idea history was being made. I was only thinking of getting home. But I had made up my mind. After so many years of being a victim of the mistreatment my people suffered, not giving up my seat—and whatever I had to face afterwards—was not important. I did not feel any fear sitting there. I felt the Lord would give me the strength to endure whatever I had to face. It was time for someone to stand up—or in my case, sit down. So I refused to move.[1]

 

Living the vision of being free, a person created equal to everyone else, caused Rosa Parks to live such a vision in kindness, compassion, and non-violently. Remember, the purpose of the book of Esther is to help us understand that God is active in all aspects of life. The Book of Esther helps us see that God positions each one of us to accomplish God’s will. Now what is the vision God has for us through the life of Esther?

King Xerxes, Haman, and Esther Have Dinner Together (Esther 5:1-8)

Esther 5:1-8 articulates the vision God placed in the heart of Mordecai and was implemented by Esther. That vision is living a faithful life in an unfaithful culture. Esther takes the initiative to raise the issue about the Jews and Haman’s plot against them to King Xerxes. Esther takes the lead and Mordecai takes a step back. Esther dons her regalia as queen and enters inner court with the throne room door open. Queen Esther catches the king’s attention. The king asks Esther what her request is and he states she could ask for half of his kingdom. She asks Xerxes that he and Haman join her for a banquet that she has prepared. King Xerxes is delighted with the plan. At the banquet, Esther does not make the accusation against Haman. The plot is thickening. Instead she answers the question about whether she would like half of Xerxes’ kingdom with this: “If I have found favor with the king, may Haman and the king come again tomorrow for another banquet. There I will answer the king’s request of me.

Haman Becomes Ill (5:9-14)

Esther 5:9-14 describes Haman leaving the banquet. When he passed Mordecai at the Palace Gate, Mordecai did not kneel before Haman. Mordecai never knelt and bowed to Haman. He was faithful to God and kept his integrity intact. Haman went directly home. When he arrived home, Haman’s expansive ego took over and he rages on about Mordecai and his disrespect by not bowing to him when he walked by. Haman’s friends and wife instructed Haman to build “gallows” some eighty feet high. The Hebrew is literally translated “a tall tree trunk or pole”. Yes, this is how the Persians disposed of their enemies. By impalement. The friends and his wife tell Haman to build the “gallows” first and then tell King Xerxes to hang Mordecai on it. Impalement adds an additional component of disgrace. Haman was implementing his plan. He could no longer be patient. Mordecai was already a condemned man but the edict would not take effect for a year. Haman wanted Mordecai disposed of now. With this plan, Haman had his damaged ego placated. He could now go to the banquet the next day with the king in good spirits.

Christians can learn much from the journey that Mordecai and Esther undertook of living the vision of being faithful in an unfaithful culture. Mordecai, Esther, and the Jews in captivity in Persia, known as “the Diaspora”, learned how to live a productive life in such a time of threatened extermination.

How do we live the vision of being faithful in an unfaithful culture in North America? Daily, North American Christians must deal with the tensions that arise between the full Gospel and our individualistic and consumeristic culture. Daily, we have options. We can deny there’s any tension in this regard and become like “the nations”. Do we cut ourselves off from contact and relationship with outside influences, becoming isolationist? Or do we seek and discover a compromise, which adapts to the culture without losing the integrity of our faith, just like Mordecai and Esther?

Think with me now. Yes, limited control is the key. It’s like steering a canoe only from the front. It can be done, but it is exhausting. Mordecai and Esther were steering from the front. Neither of them steered the government from the back. Yes, Esther was queen and Mordecai was the king’s right-hand person. Esther and Mordecai had limited control. And they remained faithful in an unfaithful culture.

God has purposed a vision for us to live having limited power. Why, so we remain faithful to the One whose name is YHWH, “I am who I am”. Lean into God when you feel out of control, because you are. Trust Jesus when trusting yourself isn’t working, because it isn’t. Take Jesus’ hand for it is strong and reliable, because the hand of an individualistic and consumeristic cultural promise is weak and unreliable. Bank your hope on the One who knows you the best and loves you the most. Amen!

 

 

This sermon was preached the Seventeenth Sunday after Pentecost on Sunday,15 September 2024

by the Rev. Dr. Steven M. Marsh in the Sanctuary

at Grace Presbyterian Church in Wichita, Kansas

 

Copyright Ó 2024

Steven M. Marsh

All rights reserved.

[1]Today in the Word (Spring 2002), 19.

 

 

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Now is the Time – Living the Vision

Series: “For Such A Time As This”

“Living the Vision”

Esther 5

 

We continue our series on Esther titled, “For Such A Time As This.” Living the vision is this week’s emphasis. The vision is to live a faithful life in an unfaithful culture. Living the Vision in kindness and generosity is significant in making a positive, hopeful, joyful, and non-anxious impact in society and the lives of others. As you recall, Esther is the story of the Jews protecting themselves from persecution during the Babylonian Captivity. It is a story filled with suspense, conspiracy, and bad decisions all being used for God’s purpose. It’s a story of a people delivered. It was a complicated time.

Thinking about living the vision is important. But actually living the vision is most important. Thinking about the vision develops new attitudes and expands one’s worldview. Living the vision puts attitudes and worldview into action. Rosa Parks was arrested in 1955 for refusing to give her bus seat to a white man. In her book Quiet Strength she writes:

 

When I sat down on the bus that day, I had no idea history was being made. I was only thinking of getting home. But I had made up my mind. After so many years of being a victim of the mistreatment my people suffered, not giving up my seat—and whatever I had to face afterwards—was not important. I did not feel any fear sitting there. I felt the Lord would give me the strength to endure whatever I had to face. It was time for someone to stand up—or in my case, sit down. So I refused to move.[1]

 

Living the vision of being free, a person created equal to everyone else, caused Rosa Parks to live such a vision in kindness, compassion, and non-violently. Remember, the purpose of the book of Esther is to help us understand that God is active in all aspects of life. The Book of Esther helps us see that God positions each one of us to accomplish God’s will. Now what is the vision God has for us through the life of Esther?

King Xerxes, Haman, and Esther Have Dinner Together (Esther 5:1-8)

Esther 5:1-8 articulates the vision God placed in the heart of Mordecai and was implemented by Esther. That vision is living a faithful life in an unfaithful culture. Esther takes the initiative to raise the issue about the Jews and Haman’s plot against them to King Xerxes. Esther takes the lead and Mordecai takes a step back. Esther dons her regalia as queen and enters inner court with the throne room door open. Queen Esther catches the king’s attention. The king asks Esther what her request is and he states she could ask for half of his kingdom. She asks Xerxes that he and Haman join her for a banquet that she has prepared. King Xerxes is delighted with the plan. At the banquet, Esther does not make the accusation against Haman. The plot is thickening. Instead she answers the question about whether she would like half of Xerxes’ kingdom with this: “If I have found favor with the king, may Haman and the king come again tomorrow for another banquet. There I will answer the king’s request of me.

Haman Becomes Ill (5:9-14)

Esther 5:9-14 describes Haman leaving the banquet. When he passed Mordecai at the Palace Gate, Mordecai did not kneel before Haman. Mordecai never knelt and bowed to Haman. He was faithful to God and kept his integrity intact. Haman went directly home. When he arrived home, Haman’s expansive ego took over and he rages on about Mordecai and his disrespect by not bowing to him when he walked by. Haman’s friends and wife instructed Haman to build “gallows” some eighty feet high. The Hebrew is literally translated “a tall tree trunk or pole”. Yes, this is how the Persians disposed of their enemies. By impalement. The friends and his wife tell Haman to build the “gallows” first and then tell King Xerxes to hang Mordecai on it. Impalement adds an additional component of disgrace. Haman was implementing his plan. He could no longer be patient. Mordecai was already a condemned man but the edict would not take effect for a year. Haman wanted Mordecai disposed of now. With this plan, Haman had his damaged ego placated. He could now go to the banquet the next day with the king in good spirits.

Christians can learn much from the journey that Mordecai and Esther undertook of living the vision of being faithful in an unfaithful culture. Mordecai, Esther, and the Jews in captivity in Persia, known as “the Diaspora”, learned how to live a productive life in such a time of threatened extermination.

How do we live the vision of being faithful in an unfaithful culture in North America? Daily, North American Christians must deal with the tensions that arise between the full Gospel and our individualistic and consumeristic culture. Daily, we have options. We can deny there’s any tension in this regard and become like “the nations”. Do we cut ourselves off from contact and relationship with outside influences, becoming isolationist? Or do we seek and discover a compromise, which adapts to the culture without losing the integrity of our faith, just like Mordecai and Esther?

Think with me now. Yes, limited control is the key. It’s like steering a canoe only from the front. It can be done, but it is exhausting. Mordecai and Esther were steering from the front. Neither of them steered the government from the back. Yes, Esther was queen and Mordecai was the king’s right-hand person. Esther and Mordecai had limited control. And they remained faithful in an unfaithful culture.

God has purposed a vision for us to live having limited power. Why, so we remain faithful to the One whose name is YHWH, “I am who I am”. Lean into God when you feel out of control, because you are. Trust Jesus when trusting yourself isn’t working, because it isn’t. Take Jesus’ hand for it is strong and reliable, because the hand of an individualistic and consumeristic cultural promise is weak and unreliable. Bank your hope on the One who knows you the best and loves you the most. Amen!

 

This sermon was preached the Seventeenth Sunday after Pentecost on Sunday,15 September 2024

by the Rev. Dr. Steven M. Marsh in the Sanctuary

at Grace Presbyterian Church in Wichita, Kansas

 

Copyright Ó 2024

Steven M. Marsh

All rights reserved.

[1]Today in the Word (Spring 2002), 19.

 

 

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