If Not You, Then Who? Esther 4:1-17 - Second Sunday in Advent

If not you, then who?

This question was spoken repeatedly by the presenter at an adoption fair Elizabeth and I attended back in 2014. Every year, 20,000 youth age out of the foster care system without permanent families. The lack of family support can have dire consequences on the teen’s ability to successfully navigate the adult world—which they are probably not prepared to face. They need families to have promising futures. 

If not you, then who?

This question lies at the heart of ever appeal for volunteer and financial support from charities and nonprofits, from HAVIN, Bethesda Lutheran Services, to the local volunteer fire department and even this church. Your support and participation can mean the difference between life and death for real people. Perhaps, someday, even you.

Click here to read today's sermon text

Today, we are introduced to one of the most consequential women in the bible. Her name is Esther, and she was a young, orphaned Jew living in the ancient Persian city of Susa, shortly after the seventy-year exile in Babylon had ended. Not all the Jews had the resources to go back home. This included not only Esther, but also Mordecai, her father’s uncle, who took her in and looked after her. 

John Everett Millais, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Things went from bad to worse for Esther when she was forcibly taken from her uncle to be one of many personal slaves for King Ahasuerus. But God was with her, and she quickly found favor with the king—so much so, that he made her queen in place of Vashti, his ex-wife, whom he had recently deposed. When Mordecai learns that some of the king’s servants are plotting to assassinate him, he tells Esther, who then tells the king, and his favor for her grows even greater. 

Meanwhile, the king promotes one of his officials, a man named Haman. He then decrees that all the people of Persia are to bow down and pay him homage. Mordecai refuses to do this, and Haman becomes so enraged that he asks the king for an edict to kill all the Jewish people living within the empire, which the king happily grants him. 

Suddenly, Esther finds herself in the difficult position of being the only person who could stop the destruction of her people. Unfortunately, the king does not know that she is a Jew. Even worse, there was a law that no one can approach the king without first being summoned—and unless the king extends his gold scepter, that person will die. 

If you keep silent,” he says, “God will bring us deliverance in some other way. But could it be that you have become queen for such a time as this?” If not you, then who?

Incidentally, Esther is not the only young woman who will bear the weight of God’s salvation upon her shoulders. The other young woman is Mary the mother of Jesus. She, too, will risk death in her obedience to God. But she, too, had a choice—like Esther had a choice—and they chose faith, hope, and love, even over their very lives. Salvation history leapt forward upon their shoulders. Through these ordinary and humble women, God changed the world. 

Through Esther and Mary we see how great an impact you can have on the world when God acts through your faith. You don’t need to be superhuman. You just need to be yourself—putting your God-given gifts and passions to life, sharing with others the love God has for you. 

Unfortunately, most people go through life never realizing how great an impact they can have. Society crumbles when good people see suffering and injustice and choose to do nothing about it. Society crumbles when times get tough and love grows cold. 

But things do not need to be the way they are. 

But you are a child of God. You are baptized into the Body of Christ. God’s graciousness to you is not just for you, it’s for the world. God loves the world through you. Therefore, you are going to find yourself in moments of decision, just like Esther—when God will invite you to turn your faith, hope, and love into action. 

Take our gift drive for Bethesda. When you take a child’s list, you are committing time and money—which may be in short supply for you. Plenty of other churches support Bethesda, and if we hadn’t asked for a list, I imagine they would’ve found others willing to help. But it’s a privilege for us; a privilege for you to give—and who knows, you could be the first person to ever give that child a gift they actually want?

Buying gifts is easy, though. Launching an after-school tutoring ministry or a mentoring program is hard. You don’t have much to lose by Inviting a friend or neighbor to church; standing up against social injustice can be dangerous. It will cost you only time to volunteer at the clothing closet or the food bank. But the cost of becoming a missionary to people in underdeveloped countries is, for most, too astronomical to bear. All of these things matter to God—and God uses real, ordinary people to do them. 

The more you leap at the opportunity to do the simple, easy things—the more prepared you will be when God calls you to do something bigger. 

What happened when Esther approached the king? He extended her golden scepter to her, and because she asked, he issued a decree that made the Jews a protected people within his empire. 

God is going to do what God is going to do, with or without you, with or without our church. But why pass on the chance to do something significant, and change the world for even one person? Why should we keep mourning the decay of our community, and the lives being wrecked by poverty, drugs, and lack of opportunities, if God has given us the ability to do something about it? 

Your world will not change until you step forward and to turn faith, hope, and love into action. 

It won’t always be easy or without risk, and success is never guaranteed. But that’s not the point. The point is that God’s good purposes are worth living for and are even worth dying for. If not you, then who? If not now, then when? Could it be that God has raised you up for a time such as this?