From Bogata to Burkburnett: Rising to your role with God

 

By Richard B. Hearne
NTC Board of Laity, Chair

I use to think of these devotions as a waste of time—we had come together to work, so let’s just get to it. But I have learned that a time of refocusing ourselves from the secular world to a spiritual world is critical to keeping God’s will foremost in our minds and hearts.

The devotion that God put on my heart to deliver is from the Old Testament Book of Esther. Space does not allow me the luxury to write even a “Readers Digest” version of this book, which explains the celebration of Purim. My Wesley Study Bible reminds us that even though God is not mentioned, John Wesley notes that the “finger of God” directs events.

What is important is for us to know is that “the heroes of the story, Esther and Mordecai, rise to honor and privilege status in a foreign court as Jews. Little did Mordecai know that, through God’s providence, his good deed for a Gentile king would protect his own life. Neither did Esther know that her position would present her with the ‘opportunity’ to risk her life to save her people.” I am told by my Jewish friends that this is the first recorded holocaust event in scripture.
As I read the book recently, the following verses jumped off the page for me. Mordecai is speaking to Esther, encouraging her to intercede for the Jews with King Ahasuerus (Xerxes) to countermand the evil plan of Haman to kill all the Jews: “Do not think that in the king’s palace, you will escape any more than all the other Jews. 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.” Esther 4: 13–14. NRSV

As I addressed my colleagues on the CLT, I told them that two truths came to me from these two verses. First, God is working through many people and not just us. For the past two years, I have had this oppressive weight on my shoulders that we United Methodists, especially those of us in North Texas, had to do something to save the church of Jesus Christ. That the United Methodist Church is reaching a point of irrelevance in today’s society and we must do something or all will be lost.

The words of Mordecai assure me that the “church” will be fine. It has survived 2,000 years, and the NTC United Methodists will not cause God to fail — it is His church. If the United Methodist Church ceases to exist, God will raise up other disciples just as he raised up the Wesley brothers over 200 years ago. We just need to answer God’s call on our lives, and the rest will take care of itself.
Second, I am overwhelmed by the concept that we — you and me — are in leadership of the NTC or the local church as part of God’s plan.
 
Who knows — maybe God has decided that each of us is in a role at His direction. Would we act differently if we believed this? What if God is the one who has chosen those persons serving on the CLT or any other conference agency? I think this thought changes the way we approach the challenges ahead of us. Chosen by God — that is an awesome blessing and responsibility.