Theme Scripture: Esther 4: 13-14 Don’t think for one minute that, unlike all the other Jews, you’ll come out of this alive simply because you are in the palace. In fact, if you don’t speak up at this very important time, relief and rescue will appear for the Jews from another place, but you and your family will die. But who knows? Maybe it was for a moment like this that you came to be part of the royal family.”
Much like the Jews in the Diaspora, the exiles living in the kingdoms that overthrew Jerusalem, we are living in in-between times right now. Because of COVID-19, the ups and downs of our political system, and a rapidly changing view of what church is, it seems as if we are in a sort of freefall, needing to learn to navigate the updrafts and cross-currents of each day. How do the actions of Esther, Ezra, and Nehemiah help US take our own action for good in moments like these, when we, as a crucial part of the Church of Christ Jesus, are called to step out in faith, relying on God’s grace to see us through these in-between times? Grounded in the words of the hymn, Amazing Grace, we will see how God is at work right here, right now, even as God was with the exiles out of Babylon who were returning to Jerusalem to rebuild the foundation of their faith and life together.