I hope you do! This is Laurie, Allen’s wife. I felt led to start posting Allen’s sermons from the year 2000 forward until his medical retirement in 2015. So thank you for reading and following along. I will post one sermon each week, perhaps adding an audio version of the sermon (if I can find the original). Or if I cannot, maybe I will just read it as he prepared it for those who prefer to listen instead of read.

This sermon below, entitled “Got a Minute?” was preached by Dr. J. Allen Reasons on September 24, 2000. The text was Esther 4:14.

          Like many of you, Laurie and I watched part of the Olympic games on Thursday as ladies from around the world sought to bring home gold in the women’s all-round gymnastics competition.  We watched as a Russian gymnast, Svetlana Khorkina, continued toward the gold medal as she prepared for the vaulting horse.  The top prize seemed to be hers to win.  It was her moment.  She had come to the games for this moment.

          She raced down the mat, hit the springboard, planted her hands on the vault, and hurled her body through the air with spins and flips.  As she came to the earth, she did not quite spin far enough around and landed short, on her knees.

          No one could believe it.  The announcers claimed that no one could win the gold with that kind of fall.  It was her moment, and she had lost it.  Her teammate would later say that she was depressed after the vault, because she had expected a gold medal.

          However, she went on, obviously dejected and disappointed.  She pressed on to her next event: the uneven bars.  As she swung from bar to bar, her hands slipped from the bar, and she fell, once more, to the mat.  Her mind was still on her missed opportunity with the vault.  It was over.

          But then, workers came out in the middle of the event, to the vaulting horse and adjusted its level.  Soon, word spread throughout the world.  The vaulting horse had accidentally been set five centimeters too low. 

The reason that Khorkina had missed her vault was not that she didn’t spin fast enough, but that the vaulting horse was not set high enough.  She did not get a high enough lift when she planted her hands.

          After the rotation of events was over, the Olympic Committee gave those who had vaulted when it was too low another chance.  For Khorkina, it was too late.  The medal was lost because of her later fall on the uneven bars.

          The vaulting horse was raised as soon as the error was found.  The committee apologized.  The athletes were given another chance.

          But the damage had been done.  After years and years of practicing, the favorite to win the gold had missed her opportunity because of a five-centimeter mistake.

          While that is a dramatic example of the importance of a specific moment in time, a missed opportunity, the truth is that each of us has those moments every day.  Each of us has opportunities for which perhaps our experiences have been preparing us for years.  The moment approaches, we race through our lives, hit the springboard, and vault through the air.  Will we, or will we not, hit the mark and win the gold?

          The vaulting horse takes on different shapes in our lives.  Whatever it looks like, it represents the opportunity we have to be everything we were created to be.

          The vaulting horse may take the form of a task at work in which you have the opportunity to use all of your gifts to their fullest.  As you prepare, you wonder, “Have I been working all my life for such a time as this?”

          The vault may look more like one of our children.  The situation arises in which you have the opportunity to model and teach the truth in a way that will make a lifelong difference.  You know this is one of the teachable moments.  You ask yourself, “Have I been preparing all my life for such a time as this?”

          The horse may take the shape of a friend who truly needs your friendship now.  An illness, a death, or a difficulty has pushed your friend to the limits of coping.  You know that this is a moment in which your friend needs your friendship.  You consider, “Have I been a friend all my life for such a time as this?”

          The horse may take the form of a stranger who needs your hand.  You look into his eyes and wonder, “God, have I been created and matured along the way for such a time as this?”

          This was the scene 2500 years ago in a small town called Susa.  The story is told in a small book in Scripture called Esther.  The book of Esther is one of the most beloved and well known by the Jews.

          Maimonides, the medieval Jewish theologian, placed Esther at the top of the sacred writings and said that when everything else passed away, the Law and Esther would remain.

          The reason for the high regard is that Esther celebrates the eternal miracle of the survival of God’s people by their activity at just the right moment.

The story of Esther is set in the Persian city of Susa.  It is at the far edge, both geographically and chronologically, of the Old Testament.

Fourteen hundred years earlier, Abraham had set out from Ur, a small town about 150 miles southwest from Susa.  The journey was full of twists and turns, from slaves in Egypt, to refugees in Sinai, to loosely knit tribes in Canaan, to an energetic monarchy–and even survivors of a civil war.

But then, they were captive people again.  They were conquered by the Babylonians who were later succeeded by the Persians.  The Hebrews spent the next several centuries uprooted from the land they had come to identify as their own, separated from the worship in Jerusalem that had centered their common life for half a millennium, and dispersed across the fertile crescent to all points of the compass.

On one end of the geographical spectrum was Susa.  All we know about the Susa Jews we learn from the biblical story of Esther.

The story tells us about an interesting slice of history.  The King of Persia is Xerxes.  He is a showoff who enjoys flaunting his wealth.  In the story at hand, he hosted a party for 180 days.  The wine was abundant, served from gold goblets.  The guests reclined on couches of gold and silver.  The road leading up to the party was made from mother-of-pearl.

Keeping with his personality, King Xerxes was also proud of the women in his life.  On one occasion, he called his wife, Vashti, to join the party, just so all the men could see how beautiful she was.  Queen Vashti would have nothing to do with it.  She revolted.  She refused to succumb to the exploitation of her husband.

Her rebellion made the king so angry that he sent a message to all the women that the husband should be the ruler in the household.  What if all the women acted like Queen Vashti?

He decided it was time for a new wife.  He sent word for all the beautiful young ladies to come to the palace.  They went through 12 months of beauty treatments before they were allowed to be seen by the King.

At this point, the story becomes a Jewish story.  An old Jewish exile named Mordecai, a descendant of King Saul, lived at the town gate.  Exiled from his home in Jerusalem, Mordecai had become the primary caretaker of the daughter of his cousin.  Her name was Esther.  She was extraordinarily beautiful.

Mordecai determined that this beauty contest would be a great opportunity for a young Jewish girl, but with one caveat: she must not mention anything about her family.  She must never divulge her Jewish heritage.  She must never acknowledge her relationship with the old Jew at the gate.

The Hebrew name for Esther is Hadassah, which means bride.  It is possible that Esther is not a proper name, but a title.  Perhaps the book would be better entitled, “The Bride.”  Not only will she become the bride of King Xerxes, but she will also decide if she is going to serve symbolically for God’s people as the Bride.

Esther ultimately wins the heart of the King and becomes his Queen.  She begins her reign, all the while keeping her family heritage secret.

Enter the stage, Haman, one of the most hateful anti-Semitics who ever lived.  As the right -hand man to King Xerxes, Haman would preen and prance through the streets and force everyone to bow down to him.

This was the last straw for Uncle Mordecai.  He could endure the displacement of the exile.  He could handle the humiliation of the beggar’s life at the gate.  But he would not, he could not, bow down to anyone…only to his God.

Haman was more than Xerxes’s assistant.  He was from the tribe of Amalek.  The Amalekites had been Israel’s chief enemy during the wilderness wanderings under Moses.  The Amalekites were the chief opponents of God’s guidance.  Haman would seek to continue the tradition.

Haman told Xerxes about Mordecai’s insubordination and defiance.  He said that it was a vivid illustration of how the Jews were in general.  If you let one of them disobey, then all the Jews throughout Persia would take advantage of it. We have already seen how Xerxes wished to make an example of Vashti. So, without delay, the King shamelessly approved Haman’s plan to systematically exterminate the Jews in every city.  The plan was to be swift, accomplished in just one day, where all the men, women, and children would be killed.

Mordecai, from his position at the city’s gate, heard about the plan and got word to his adopted daughter, Esther.  He told her that she must tell the King not to do what he was planning.

His words were threatening.  “Do not think that because you are in the King’s house you alone of all the Jews will escape.  For if you remain silent at this time, relief and deliverance for the Jews will arise from another place, but you and your father’s family will perish.  And who knows but that you have come to royal position for such a time as this?” (Esther 4:13-14).

Esther rises to the occasion.  Not only does she tell Xerxes she knows about the plot, but she also manages to have Haman executed by the very rope that was intended for Mordecai.  She even goes further by convincing Xerxes to give Mordecai, the old Jew by the gate, Haman’s job.

I wish the story ended there.  It was the opportunity.  Esther seized the moment.

But opportunities continue.  In the next moment, she and Mordecai use their power to slaughter 75,000 of their old enemies.

The lesson of the day is very clear.  God presents incredible moments before us.  What will we do with them?

          Esther is removed as far away from Jerusalem as possible.  She has intermarried in the pagan court of the Persian king.  If that were not enough, she is in the middle of the deliberate program for annihilation of the Jews by Haman.

          There is no evidence in the book that the Jews even worship.  The people do not seem to have an organized purpose.  They display no moral superiority, turning out as bad as the Persians in their readiness to kill.

          The name of God is not even mentioned in the book.

          The moment is not conditioned by the circumstances of where we live and where we work.  The moment is not governed by how good we think we are or even how prepared we feel.

          The moment is about our willingness to open our eyes to what is around us and our being willing to recognize that this just might be the moment for which God has been preparing me.

          I believe with all my heart that we are at a moment just like that as a church right now. 

As our budget for 2001 will soon be presented, who knows but that we have been preparing for such a time as this?

As we plan the first adult mission trip to a remote village in Mexico, who knows but that we have been preparing for such a time as this?

As over 600 people gathered at Fifth Avenue Baptist Church for worship and fellowship last Sunday and almost half that many gathered on Wednesday evening for dinner, Bible study, and children/youth ministries, who knows but that we have been preparing for such a time as this?

At a time when West Virginia spends a great deal of time analyzing the different options in her economic future, who knows but that we have been preparing for such a time as this?

As Marshall University continues to rise in national awareness through its educational excellence and into the national spotlight through the coaching of Bob Pruett, our site is only a few blocks from the campus.  Who knows but that we have been preparing for such a time as this?

In your family, who knows but that you have been preparing for such a time as this?

Youth, as you attend your classes in school tomorrow, who knows but that you have been preparing for such a time as this?

Adults, in your work, who knows but that we have been preparing for such a time as this?

Who knows?  Who knows?

It was Tuesday afternoon in Huntington this week.  One of the worshipers in this room was at a local grocery store.  Esther, we will call her.  As Esther entered the store, she walked past the cash register where she noticed an older woman was paying for her small purchase of milk, cat food, and bologna.

But then, the old woman began leaning and falling against her shopping cart.  No one was rushing to help.  Everyone else stood around to watch.  That was the safer thing to do.  But if this lady fell to the floor, who knows what damage could happen to her.

Instead, Esther raced past the spectators and grabbed the lady before she fell.  Not finding a nearby chair, she helped the lady to her own car and held her there until the ambulance arrived.

After checking her over, the paramedics allowed the lady to go home.  Our Esther stayed with her; in fact, she took her home in her car.

Certainly Esther could have ignored the commotion and done her shopping.  She could have joined the gallery who watched the tragedy unfold.  Instead, Esther seized the moment, and it allowed an opportunity for God’s love to live in a checkout lane.

Who knows…who knows?

Our God, we come to you this morning with many questions about the circumstances of our past and many fears about the situations of our futures.  We wonder why certain things have happened and what if certain things will happen.

We know that you are the God of our yesterday.  We know that you are the God of our tomorrow.  However, in living in the past and the future, we so often forget that you are the God of our present.  This is the moment you have given us, and it is a moment before you in worship.

God, I pray for those in this room who are reeling from decisions and circumstances of another day.  May those days be preparations for a moment which you have designed for your glory.

I pray for those who live in anxious concern about the tomorrows.  May this day be one in which we find strength, direction, and perspective for tomorrow.

God, we give you this moment, this hour.  Who knows, but that you have been preparing us for such a time as this.  In Christ name, Amen.