Sermon by Herman Kauffman
Union Center Church of the Brethren
December 30, 2001

Jesus Comes: For Such A Time As This

Hebrews 1:1-2, 2:18
Matthew 2:16-18
Esther 4:10-14

If I've heard it once, I've heard it a hundred times: "I'm glad that 2001 is coming to an end." Perhaps you have said it yourself. It's been a hard year for many persons:

• Many of you have suffered with health concerns this past year;
• Others of you have been touched by death within your extended family;
• Some have been touched by the economy with job loss or loss of investments;
• We were all touched by the tragic events of September 11 and the subsequent war-like actions in Afghanistan.

Yes, it has been a tough year and perhaps toughest of all by the younger ones among us who had not been touched quite so closely by war and mass tragedy before. Some among us have lived through the bombing of Pearl Harbor, World War II, the Depression, the Korean Conflict, the Kent State tragedy and the War in Vietnam. But there are those among us who were born after the Vietnam War ended and for whom World War II and the Depression are but chapters in a history book - little different than the chapters about the American Revolution or the Civil War.

For our high school young people, it may be the first time they have been confronted with the possibility of military service or what Jesus and their church has to say about war. O, to be certain, they have been exposed to violence throughout their lifetime. Violence and shootings in high schools like Columbine have touched this generation of students like no generation before. But somehow the terrorist events of September 11 and the bombings and destruction in Afghanistan touch us on an entirely different level.

The National Youth Conference this coming summer, which many of our youth will be attending, has a theme: For Such a Time as This; that seems much more timely now than when it was first selected. It comes from the Old Testament story of Esther.

Esther is Queen of the Empire ... but that is a story in itself. She had been taken from the home of her Uncle Mordecai as a young lady to the court of the King for what we might call a national beauty contest, held to select a successor to the former queen who had lost favor with the King when she had refused the demands of the king.

We are told that Esther was very beautiful, her parents were both dead, and that she was a Jew. To shorten a long story, we are told that Esther was admired by all who saw her and that when she appeared before the king, he loved her more than all the others and set a royal crown on her head and made her queen. The king did not know that Esther was a Jew, who was in exile in his kingdom, nor did he know that she was Mordecai's niece.

However, there was one who did. His name was Haman and he had great power in the kingdom. Haman was a man much like Adolph Hitler, in that he thought he had a solution for "the Jewish problem". Haman tricked the king out of his official seal, then sealed an order that all the Jews were to be killed on a specific day.

Uncle Mordecai becomes distressed that all of his people will be annihilated and sends word to his niece, Queen Esther - who apparently does not know what is happening out in the real world - and asks Esther to plead with the king for their lives. Esther sends word back to Mordecai that it doesn't work that way at the Royal Palace - No one could go into the presence of the king without being invited, not even the queen. If she were to take this initiative she would risk death.

But Mordecai challenges Esther with these words (4:13-14):

"Do not think that in the king's palace you will escape any more than all the other Jews. For if you keep silence at such a time as this, relief and deliverance will rise for the Jews from another quarter, but you and your father's family with perish.

Who knows? Perhaps you have come to royal dignity for just such a time as this."

Now let's break for a moment - holding the Esther story in suspense while we receive this word from our Creator.

In the time of King Herod, after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea, wise men from the East came to Jerusalem, asking, "Where is the child who has been born king of the Jews? For we observed his star at its rising, and have come to pay him homage."

When King Herod heard this, he was frightened... and (to shorten the story) ... he sent and killed all the children in and around Bethlehem who were two years old and under.... (Matthew 2:1-16)

Remember the Jews of Jesus' day were captive to foreign rule. Herod wanted to keep his power and control and was willing to use that power to destroy any perceived threat to his power - even that of an unknown infant. It was For Such a Time as This that Jesus came.

The Letter to the Hebrews (1:1-2, 2:18) reminds us that "Because he himself was tested by what he suffered, he is able to help those who are being tested."

Somehow that help must have also been available to Esther for scripture tells us that Esther went to the king, invited him and Haman to a special banquet. At the Banquet the King asked Queen Esther for her request, saying, "It shall be given you, even to the half of my kingdom." Esther asks that her life and the lives of the Jewish people be spared.

The final outcome is that Haman is hung from the gallows, Mordecai is honored, and the plot to annihilate the Jews is defeated. And to this day the Jews celebrate this event with the Feast of Purim with a day of feasting and gladness.

But what about us today? Are their persons like Esther in our midst today who are called to be in position today to stand up for what is right even at the risk of death? Who stood up to Hitler for the Jewish people of Germany? Who will stand up to the terrorists of the world today? And who will stand up for what is right in the eyes of God? Who will say "No" to the ways of violence, war and bombings as a "right response" to acts of violence and bombings?

A recent article in the Christian Century begins with this statement: "It is not a propitious time to be a pacifist in the United States." ("Nonviolent voices" by William Vance Trollinger, Jr., December 12, 2001, pp. 18-22)

The article goes on to state that over 90% of Americans continue to support the military campaign in Afghanistan ... and there are warnings everywhere that this time of national crisis is not the time for dissent.

And yet ... for Christian who choose to follow the way of Jesus ... and more specifically for the Church of the Brethren who seek to continue the work of Jesus peacefully, simply, together; and who have stated "that all war is sin" ... perhaps we have been called for such a time as this.

We shudder to think of the evil conceived in the minds of persons like Hitler and Haman who would seek to annihilate the Jewish people in differing historical times. We shudder to think of the utter violence, destruction, and death caused by terrorists acts on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. Likewise, we shudder to think how individual racists could bomb a building in Oklahoma City or how a disturbed youth could turn a gun on school mates in Columbine.

And yet we continue to sanction violence... the violence of racism and hatred, the violence that puts a gun into the hands of unstable and violent persons, the violence of revenge that showers bombs on innocent people in Afghanistan destroying their homes and their livelihoods.

The Christian Century article points out that "from the beginning some Christians have been particularly enthused about countering violence with violence."

But then says the author, William Vance Trollinger Jr of the University of Dayton, "In the midst of this stand the historic peace churches - Mennonites, Quakers, and Brethren. From their beginnings ... these groups have refused to countenance warfare, committed as they are to the proposition that nonviolence is at the heart of the Gospels and at the heart of what it means to be a Christian - that is, to follow Jesus is to reject the sword."

The author goes on to quote denominational statements such as the words of Judy Mills Reimer who calls on those of us in the Church of the Brethren to "remember who we are and whose we are" and "This is a time to stand by our belief as Christians that all war is wrong." The writer also quotes from Church of the Brethren Web pages that our commitment ... is not limited to denominational headquarters. They then quote from the statement developed and approved at our district conference last Sept. 15 urging "the use of nonviolent approaches and interventions."

Like Esther in her day, it may well be that you and I as followers of the Prince of Peace may be called to this time and place for such a time as this. We may not see the immediate results that came when Esther went to the King. After all, Jesus came for such a time as this - was born into a time and place of violence as a threat to the status quo and died on a cross because he was still a threat to the status quo. But Jesus came to show us another way, he lived a life of love and service, and he died to set us free from the fear of death and sin. The truth that Jesus came for such a time as this frees us to be peacemakers and still be able to rejoice even when we live amidst the death, the violence, and the destruction of this world.

The story of Esther also ends with rejoicing ... for the Jewish people have come from certain death and annihilation to life and gladness thanks to the brave efforts of a young Jewish girl and her uncle who were in the right place and the right time to be God's servants. May that be our legacy as well. Amen.