God the Grace-filled Gatherer
Read: Ephesians 1:1-10 He has made known to us the mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure that he set forth in Christ, as a plan for the fullness of time, to gather up all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth. (vv. 9-10 NRSV) The scope of Paul’s vision […]
Homecoming after Exile
Read: Isaiah 54:1-10 But my steadfast love shall not depart from you. (v. 10 NRSV) One cultural observer describes life today as “coping with the flux.” Our age is characterized as a time of ever accelerating change, motion, flux. Everything seems up in the air. All the familiar landmarks seem gone or only vaguely perceivable. […]
The Power of the Written Word
Read: Esther 9-10 [These days were] turned for them from sorrow into gladness and from mourning into a holiday; that they should make them days of feasting and gladness, days for sending gifts of food to one another and gifts to the poor. (v. 22) Of all the chapters of Esther, these are most difficult. […]
The Battle Is Not Done
Read: Esther 8 For how can I bear to see the calamity that is coming to my people? Or how can I bear to see the destruction of my kindred? (v. 6) It’s a bit like one of those scary movies. Just when the danger seems to be past, the villain jumps out to terrorize […]
Esther Argues Her Case
Read: Esther 7 Then Queen Esther answered, “If I have found favor in your sight, O king, and if it please the king, let my life be granted me for my wish, and my people for my request. (v. 3) All eyes are on Esther as this chapter opens. Will she do it? we wonder […]
No Rest for the Wicked
Read: Esther 6:4-14 Then the king said to Haman, “Hurry; take the robes and the horse, as you have said, and do so to Mordecai the Jew, who sits at the king’s gate. Leave out nothing that you have mentioned.” (v. 10) Haman can’t sleep either. He is like the people the psalmist describes who […]
Sleepless in Susa
Read: Esther 5:6:1-3 On that night the king could not sleep. And he gave orders to bring the book of memorable deeds, the chronicles, and they were read before the king. (v. 1) Have you ever experienced a coincidence that felt more like an act of Providence? Author Frederick Buechner says that a coincidence is […]
Haman Gets Indigestion
Read: Esther 5:9-14 Yet all this is worth nothing to me, so long as I see Mordecai the Jew sitting at the king’s gate. (v. 14) Some people are just impossible to please. Haman has just enjoyed a private dinner party with the royals and he has an invitation to a second. Yet, on his […]
Dinner for Three
Read: Esther 5:1-8 And Esther said, “If it please the king, let the king and Haman come today to a feast that I have prepared for the king.” (v. 4) From this time forward, Esther is every inch a queen. Fortified only by her three-day fast, she dons her “royal robes” and enters the throne […]