January 30th: "The Great Re-Commitment: Doing What We Can with What We Have"

Watch the Sermon here

The First United Presbyterian Church of Loveland

“The Great Re-Commitment: Doing What We Can with What We Have”

Rev. Amy Morgan

January 30, 2022

Esther 4

When Mordecai learned all that had been done, Mordecai tore his clothes and put on sackcloth and ashes, and went through the city, wailing with a loud and bitter cry;

 2 he went up to the entrance of the king's gate, for no one might enter the king's gate clothed with sackcloth.

 3 In every province, wherever the king's command and his decree came, there was great mourning among the Jews, with fasting and weeping and lamenting, and most of them lay in sackcloth and ashes.

 4 When Esther's maids and her eunuchs came and told her, the queen was deeply distressed; she sent garments to clothe Mordecai, so that he might take off his sackcloth; but he would not accept them.

 5 Then Esther called for Hathach, one of the king's eunuchs, who had been appointed to attend her, and ordered him to go to Mordecai to learn what was happening and why.

 6 Hathach went out to Mordecai in the open square of the city in front of the king's gate,

 7 and Mordecai told him all that had happened to him, and the exact sum of money that Haman had promised to pay into the king's treasuries for the destruction of the Jews.

 8 Mordecai also gave him a copy of the written decree issued in Susa for their destruction, that he might show it to Esther, explain it to her, and charge her to go to the king to make supplication to him and entreat him for her people.

 9 Hathach went and told Esther what Mordecai had said.

 10 Then Esther spoke to Hathach and gave him a message for Mordecai, saying,

 11 "All the king's servants and the people of the king's provinces know that if any man or woman goes to the king inside the inner court without being called, there is but one law-- all alike are to be put to death. Only if the king holds out the golden scepter to someone, may that person live. I myself have not been called to come in to the king for thirty days."

 12 When they told Mordecai what Esther had said,

 13 Mordecai told them to reply to Esther, "Do not think that in the king's palace you will escape any more than all the other Jews.

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

 15 Then Esther said in reply to Mordecai,

 16 "Go, gather all the Jews to be found in Susa, and hold a fast on my behalf, and neither eat nor drink for three days, night or day. I and my maids will also fast as you do. After that I will go to the king, though it is against the law; and if I perish, I perish."

 17 Mordecai then went away and did everything as Esther had ordered him.

SECOND READING: Acts 9:36-41

Now in Joppa there was a disciple whose name was Tabitha, which in Greek is Dorcas. She was devoted to good works and acts of charity.

 37 At that time she became ill and died. When they had washed her, they laid her in a room upstairs.

 38 Since Lydda was near Joppa, the disciples, who heard that Peter was there, sent two men to him with the request, "Please come to us without delay."

 39 So Peter got up and went with them; and when he arrived, they took him to the room upstairs. All the widows stood beside him, weeping and showing tunics and other clothing that Dorcas had made while she was with them.

 40 Peter put all of them outside, and then he knelt down and prayed. He turned to the body and said, "Tabitha, get up." Then she opened her eyes, and seeing Peter, she sat up.

 41 He gave her his hand and helped her up. Then calling the saints and widows, he showed her to be alive.Teddy Roosevelt is credited with saying, “Do what you can, with what you’ve got, where you are.” That was easy enough for Roosevelt to say, considering that what he had was substantial inherited wealth, immense political power, and vast cultural influence, and where he was, was the White House. Nonetheless, he used what he had, where he was, to achieve some remarkable things – improved food safety, establishment of the National Forest service and five National Parks, and construction of the Panama Canal, to name a few. 

Willena Cannon, on the other hand, did not have the same resources, power, or influence as Roosevelt. But she still did what she could, with what she had, where she was. What she had was a college scholarship. Where she was, was A&T University in Greensboro, NC. And what she did? Well, that’s a longer story. 

Willena was the daughter of African-American farmers in a small town in North Carolina. She had witnessed first-hand the violence and cruelty of the KKK, and she fumed at the injustice of Jim Crow laws that barred her from restaurants and other public places. By the time she arrived at A&T in 1961, she had heard about the student protests in Greensboro that resulted in the Woolworth’s lunch counter being desegregated. 

It might have been enough for her to accept and enjoy the achievements of those students who had gone before her. She might have prioritized her personal safety, her academic studies, or her responsibilities to her family. She might have felt that because she didn’t have much, and she was not anywhere special, she couldn’t really do anything. 

But, no. Willena, along with almost the entire student body of A&T, took it upon themselves to desegregate another restaurant in Greensboro. Willena was arrested, but she continued to peacefully protest segregation and work for justice. 

She knew the risks of what she was doing. Her family asked her to leave early on Thanksgiving holiday for fear that her activities would bring retaliation against them. People in her small town who resisted or rebelled against racial oppression were found dead in a swamp, and no one ever dared speak of them. 

But Willena continued to do what she could to work for racial justice and, later on, for labor justice. She used what she had – her hard-working determination, a college degree, and a strong community. And she used it where she was – in Greensboro, which had become one of the central locations of the civil rights movement.  

What Willena managed to do was remarkable. But what is even more remarkable is that she tried to do it. She had to realize and take ownership of what power she did have, in a society that had done just about everything possible to render black women powerless. She had to accept the risks of committing to working for justice. And she had to know that she had come to Greensboro in 1961 “for such a time as this.” 

Queen Esther was somewhere in-between Teddy Roosevelt and Willena Cannon. She was Queen of a vast empire. But she was also a woman in a highly patriarchal society, which meant she had almost no agency or independence. And she was a Jew, which meant she was an outsider and a minority in Persia. What she had was wealth and status, but it was entirely dependent on the king. Where she was, was in the royal palace, but that place was subservient to the power and desires of the king. 

When Esther’s cousin and adoptive father, Mordecai, comes to her asking her to do what she can – advocate for her people with the king – with what she has, where she’s at, Esther is well aware of the risks and her own limitations. She feels powerless and afraid. She fears her efforts to help might be futile and fatal. 

And then Mordecai wonders if perhaps her rise to royalty is no accident of fate or reward for her beauty and charm but could actually be the work of divine intervention. He isn’t asking her to risk her life for nothing. Mordecai knows that God will not allow the Jews to be destroyed by Haman’s evil plan. “Deliverance will rise” from somewhere. God can work through Esther, with what she has, where she’s at, or God will find another way. But God will not fail. And so Esther need not fear failure either. 

And so she agrees to do what she can. She asks the king to overturn Haman’s edict, and through the twists and turns and revelations of this story, the Jews are victorious and Haman and his sons perish. Empowered by God. Esther does what she can, with what she has, where she’s at, and she saves her people. 

Friends, I know that right now many of us feel like we’re doing all we can. Some of us may feel like we can’t do much of anything. What we have is not enough. We don’t have enough energy or time. We don’t have enough health or safety. We don’t have enough skills or strength. The many losses of these last two years are constant reminders of what we don’t have. 

And the risks of doing what needs to be done right now feel extremely high for many of us. Risks to our health or to our relationships. Risks to our safety or to our reputation. It feels like everyone is afraid right now, and it is keeping us from doing what we can, or even from realizing what we can do. 

For many of us, where we’re at is at home. Some of us are on Zoom 10 hours a day. And some of us are in a million different places doing a zillion different things, trying to keep things going with fewer resources and less help than ever. All of these feel like places of powerlessness. The risks of going out or taking off or staying in weigh on each of us differently, but they weigh on us. We don’t feel like there’s much we can do from where we are right now. 

But, friends, there are things that need to be done. There are people who need love, there are people who need justice, there are people who need peace. And we are not powerless to help. We can do what we can, with what we have, where we’re at. 

We may not be Teddy Roosevelt or Queen Esther, but we probably have more than Willena Cannon started out with. We may not be in places of political power or great social influence, but we may be exactly where God is working God’s purposes out. And what we do may not change the world or the course of history, it might not earn us a Wikipedia page or win us a gold medal. But what we do might save a life. It might feed a soul. It might strengthen a community. It might contribute to a movement. What we do, with what we have, where we are, matters. 

Tabitha did not save Christians from persecution or convert masses of people to the faith. She doesn’t have her own book in the Bible. She isn’t recorded among the great martyrs of the early church. 

But she did what she could with what she had where she was at. What she had was likely not much. Since no husband or family is mentioned, and she is clearly in a community of widows, Tabitha was likely a widow herself, dependent upon the generosity of her community for support. But she also clearly had a gift for making clothing and the resources to acquire the necessary materials. 

Where she was, was Joppa, which was a prosperous seaside port city. However, in recent decades, Joppa had experienced violent uprisings and attacks and had been demolished and rebuilt. Its strategic location created a diverse population in the city, making Christians just one of several minorities. It is here in Joppa, just after the resurrection of Tabitha, that Peter receives a vision to bring Christianity to the Gentiles. In the story of the book of Acts, Tabitha is at the crossroads of the Church’s expansion to include all people, to fulfill Jesus’s commission to make disciples of all nations. 

Tabitha could not have known the importance of what she did, what she had, or where she was at. But her commitment, her contributions to her community were so important that they sent for Peter, asking him to come without delay. They had likely heard about Peter healing people, as he had just done for a man who was paralyzed and bedridden in the neighboring town of Lydda. But they weren’t asking Peter to heal Tabitha. They were asking for a resurrection. 

Why? Why ask for the impossible for a poor widow who makes clothes? If Peter has the power to bring people back from the dead, why not use that power to resurrect Stephen, the disciple who was stoned to death? What was so important about Tabitha that her community would ask for her to be revived? What was so important about her that Peter would come and accomplish this miracle? 

The truth is: nothing. She was no Teddy Roosevelt, no Queen Esther. But she still did what she could with what she had where she was at. And what she did was so valuable, so meaningful, to a small community of Christians in Joppa, that she experienced something that no apostle or evangelist or martyr of the early church did. She came back to life from the dead. Not because she was important, or powerful, or significant to the course of history. But because God empowered her. God empowered Peter to come and call her back to life. And God empowered her to rise up and continue the good work God began in her before her death. 

And friends, God will empower us. No matter how frightened or burned out, no matter how under resourced or unskilled, no matter how isolated or over-extended – God will empower us to do what we can, with what we have, where we are. Because no matter how insignificant our contributions may seem, they matter, deeply, to someone. 

Maybe what we can do is bake cookies and deliver them to neighbors, as Dick Webster has been doing throughout the pandemic. Maybe what we can do is help give flu shots, as Paula Waldorf did last fall. Maybe what we can do is bring music to homebound residents, as Steve and Jeannie have done for years. Maybe what we can do is bring a meal when someone is ill, or mentor a young person, or teach someone how to use some new technology, or shovel snow for a neighbor. 

These things don’t solve world hunger or make history. But they do matter. They matter so much that when we die, God has promised us resurrection. Maybe not an immediate resurrection, like Tabitha’s. But a physical resurrection that will enable us to continue doing God’s work in a new and redeemed creation. What we do, with what we have, where we are matters because God is working through us, in ways great and small, to complete the reign of God on earth. 

It doesn’t matter if we don’t have much. It doesn’t matter if where we are feels limiting. God is empowering each of us to do what we can. God is empowering all of us together to bring about God’s reign of love, justice, and peace. God is empowering us to live as resurrection people, people of purpose and promise. 

So let us re-commit, friends, to doing what we can, with what we have, where we are, until God’s reign on earth is complete. 

To God be all glory forever and ever. Amen.