Take Courage

Esther 7:1 – 10

John 16: 28 – 33

September 27, 2015

Marilyn B. Kendrix

INTRODUCTION TO SCRIPTURE

Our Old Testament reading this morning is from the book of Esther.Esther shares the distinction with the Book of Ruth as the only two books of the Bible named for women. The book of Esther is the story of a Jewish woman, Esther, whose uncle Mordecai is a leader of the Jewish community. Prior to our reading today, we are told that Mordecai saved the king from a plot to kill him and is duly rewarded. Later, when the king decides to marry, he sends for all the eligible young ladies from which to select his queen. Mordecai made sure that Esther would be among the group of young ladies but warned his niece not to reveal that she was Jewish to the king.Quite predictably, the King fell head over heals for beautiful Esther and married her, making her is queen. When we pick up the story, a palace intrigue has occurred leading the King’s prime minister, Haman to order that Mordecai and all his people, the Jews, be killed. In the passage that we will hear, Esther reveals for the first time that she is Jewish and that it is her people who are about to be put to death by the evil Haman.

In the New Testament reading from the Gospel of John, we enter the scene when Jesus is trying to help the disciples understand what is coming – his crucifixion and here, in this reading, Jesus is assuring them that they need not fear – that God is with him and with them. “Take courage,” he tells them.

SERMON

When I initially began to write this sermon, I thought of citing real life cases that demonstrate courage.I thought about pointing out folks who have courageously spoken out against oppression, even when speaking out might mean putting their very lives at risk. You know, folks like Malala Yousefsai. And in my search for other such examples, I stumbled across a website with step-by-step instructions for how to stop being so outspoken. This website suggests that being outspoken is a flaw that will cause you to lose friends and not be well thought of. Here’s some of what this website suggests:

  • Take note of your words.
  • Learn to be patient.
  • Avoid confrontations.
  • Work on presenting a good image of yourself to other people.
  • Think positive thoughts and don’t [be] so negative all the time![1]

The interesting thing is that all the pictures that accompany this advice were pictures of women, the suggestion being that women are the ones who need to work on being less outspoken. I thought about that advice and wondered where we would be if Rosa Parks had taken note of her words and avoided confrontations.

I wondered where we would be if Harriet Beecher Stowe had learned to be patient.

I wondered where we would be if Susan B. Anthony had worried about appearing too negative as she fought for a woman’s right to vote. And as I wondered about these women, it occurred to me that what they shared was courage, the courage to speak out against what they saw as wrongs in their society, no matter whether speaking out made them popular or not. Like Esther, theysaid what needed to be said and trusted that God would be there. This speaking of truth for the sake of others seems a lot like courage to me and it got me to thinking about the meaning of courage. We so often think of courage only as something that is associated with actions, rather than words and yet the root of the word courage is cor—the Latin word for heart – as in coronary. In one of its earliest forms, the word courage had a very different meaning than it does today. Courage originally meant “to speak one’s mind by telling all of one’s heart.” Over time, this definition has changed, and, today, courage is more synonymous with being heroic.We certainly need heroes, but I think we’ve lost touch with the idea that speaking honestly and openly about who we are, about what we’re feeling, and about our experiences - good and bad - is the very definition of courage.[2]Which brings me to Esther.

The book of Esther has been somewhat controversial over the years because it also has the distinction of being one of only two books of the entire Bible that don’t not ever mention God. (The other one is Song of Songs.) It was undoubtedly included as part of our biblical canon because it celebrates one Jewish person’s loyalty to her people, even to the point of risking her life to save them. Esther’s is a story of tenacious courage. In this scripture, we understand that being courageous is a demonstration of faith in God, whether God is mentioned by name or not. That God is the solid Rock that allows each of us to sing “No storm can shake my inmost calm while to that Rock I’m clinging.”

That is the point that Jesus is making in the passage we heard from the Gospel of John. Jesus warns that the hour is coming when his followers will be scattered, that they will hide themselves out of fear. But, Jesus assures them that they need not fear. Take courage, he says. “I am not alone because God is with me.” Even though the disciples will face persecution he commands them to take courage, for God is with them, too.

Being courageous is a demonstration of faith in God.

Well, most of us will not be faced with persecution of the sort that the disciples were facing. Most of us will not have to worry about a king’s prime minister threatening us to have us all killed. So, what do we face that requires courage, the kind of courage that would have us speak our minds by opening up our hearts to one another?

Well, I have an example in a book that we will all read in our All-Church book read this fall. The book is Gather at the Table: The Healing Journey of a Daughter of Slavery and a Son of the Slave Trade.There are some copies on the table here. This book, I think, provides a wonderful example of the kind of courage – in its original meaning of speaking one’s mind by telling all of one’s heart – that I’ve been talking about. You see, this book was written by two authors, two very different people, one black and one white, Thomas DeWolf and Sharon Morgan. DeWolf is a member of the same DeWolf family that we heard about a few years ago when his cousin, filmmaker Katrina Brown came here to Redeemer to screen and speak about her film, Traces of the Trade. This film, you may remember, tells the story of Katrina Brown’s (and Tom DeWolf’s) forefathers,the DeWolf family who were the largest slave-trading family in U.S. history. In a nation that tries desperately to distance itself from its history of slavery and especially from the complicity of the North in that enterprise, this film, Traces of the Trade, demonstrates the kind of courage I’m talking about. Tom DeWolf has contributed to the outing of his family

with his own book, Inheriting the Trade: A Northern Family Confronts Its Legacy as the Largest Slave-Trading Dynasty in U.S. History.

His co-author of Gather at the Table, Sharon Morgan, founder of OurBlackAncestry.com, a website devoted to helping people appreciate and explore African American family history and culture, is an author of several other books in her own right as well. These two people came together to write this book,

Gather at the Table, a book that they say “is an honest exploration into the deep social wounds left by racism, violence and injustice, as they work through their own prejudices in search of reconciliation — and ultimately find friendship.”And that’s the reason that I chose to preach on courage as we kick off this All-Church book read. Talking about racism in America requires real courage andthis daughter of slaves and son of slave traders show real courage as they travel together, examining their pasts and sharing with one another their families and culture. They show themselves willing to be uncomfortable in order to be truly honest.They discover the gift of truly listening to one another, with the deep kind of listening that allows each

to believe the life story of the other.

We are particularly blessed that Sharon Morgan will join us at Redeemer when we discuss this book on Wednesday, November 4th. Put the date on your calendar.

You have between now and then to read this book.

I don’t know if Sharon or Tom would say that their being courageous was a demonstration of faith in God, but just like the book of Esther, I don’t think one needs to mention God explicitly to see God helping these two people work their way toward friendship.

Being courageous is a demonstration of faith in God.

Esther spoke up, revealing herself to the king as a Jewish woman, in order to save the lives of her people. It took courage for her to utter those words. But her faith in the God of Abraham and Sarah gave her the courage to say what needed to be said.

Being courageous is a demonstration of faith in God.

It took courage for Sharon and Tom to make their journey and then to write about it.

And, honestly, it’ll take some courage to read this book, one in which the anger and fear that comes of being black in America is laid bare. But I believe that we are up for the task.

In her book, Disunity in Christ, author Christena Cleveland, says that we form strong bonds when we have shared experiences but that most people in America, most Christians in America,have no shared experiences across racial lines. She maintains that in order for us to do what many of us want so desperately to do, move beyond race, we need to enter into conversations about race across the racial divide.[3] Here at Redeemer, we figured that out long ago and so, we’ve already discovered

what Sharon and Tom came to know during their journey, that there are so many more ways that we are the same than there are ways that we are different. And yet it still takes courage to engage these kinds of conversations. As followers of Jesus Christ, we can dare to take courage.

Being courageous is a demonstration of faith in God.

There are so many things in the living of life that are scary, that can cause us to tremble in fear – starting a new job, being fired from an old job, the first day in a new school, taking the call from the doctor with test results. The list can go on and on.

But Jesus tells the disciples, as they faced a fearful future to “take courage.” Not ‘have courage’ that you must muster all by yourself. No, Jesus says “take courage.” We don’t need to muster courage all on our own. No, we are to take courage from Jesus, Emmanuel, God with us. I’d like to end this sermon with all of us taking courage. So, close you eyes and think about the thing that is scaring you the most right now. Take a moment.

Now open your eyes, and join me in reading a small bit of Psalm 27,

printed in your bulletin.

1 The Lord is my light and my salvation;
whom shall I fear?
The Lord is the stronghold* of my life;
of whom shall I be afraid?

13 I believe that I shall see the goodness of the Lord
in the land of the living.
14 Wait for the Lord;
be strong, and let your heart take courage;
wait for the Lord!

Take courage! Amen

[1]

[2]

[3]Christena Cleveland, Disunity in Christ (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2013), 27.