07646
October 9, 2007

World needs everyday heroes

Cuban pastor uses Esther’s example to show how all are called to mission

by Evan Silverstein
Presbyterian News Service

The Rev. Dora E. Arce-Valentín

LOUISVILLE — As with Esther in the Old Testament, those providing deliverance must often first overcome grave internal struggles and outside threats, even risking their lives so others may survive, according to the Rev. Dora E. Arce-Valentín.

The pastor of Luyano Presbyterian Church in Havana, Cuba, preached during closing worship at the World Mission ’07 Conference here on Oct. 5.

The Cuban church leader used Esther’s biblical struggle of saving the Jews of Persia from death to illustrate God’s plan for each of us today and to reflect the plight of Christians in Cuba.

“The Lord has for each one of us to be heroes and heroines in everyday life,” said Arce-Valentín, who also is director of mission for the Presbyterian Reformed Church in Cuba. “To do what is necessary in every circumstance, in every critical moment.”

The Book of Esther explains how the feast of Purim came to be celebrated by the Jews. Esther, the beautiful, secretly Jewish wife of the Persian king Ahasuerus, and her cousin Mordecai, persuade the king to retract an order for the annihilation of Jews throughout the empire.

The king’s chief minister, Haman, had plotted the massacre and the date was decided by casting lots (purim). Instead, Haman was hanged on the gallows he built for Mordecai; and on the day planned for their annihilation, the Jews destroyed their enemies. According to the Book of Esther, the feast of Purim was established to celebrate that day.

Despite fear and hesitation, Esther reflects the characteristics of a heroine by risking her own death as she realized what was at stake to deliver her people, Arce-Valentín said.

She said the heroic element of the story of Esther and Mordecai lies in the fact that God put them in the right place at the right time, and they each bravely faced the challenge to do what was necessary.

“They are not concerned for themselves because they believe they have been put in a specific place at a specific time for a reason,” Arce-Valentín said. “It is an ability to recognize a critical moment and go forward to encounter it without thinking much of the consequences.”

She said that Esther and Mordecai had “a mission in the same way each of us has a place in the plan of God.”

However, living out God’s plan and joining Esther and Mordecai as heroes “is difficult because it requires us to pay attention to what God wants rather than focus on what we want,” said Arce-Valentín. “It means a constant search for God’s will in the midst of adversity, anxiety and fear, rather than sinking to the masochistic pleasure of complaining about the bad times we live in.”

In a world of cultural diversity and opposing beliefs, the story of Esther also teaches that it’s possible to resist the temptation to deal with differences using violence, oppression or superiority, or even worse to suppress difference all together, said Arce-Valentín.

“This perspective will help us make decisions that are in line with our faith wherever life presents us with the need to defend our way of thinking and living,” she said. “Our faith unites us in Christ’s love and reminds us that God created us in all our uniqueness and called it good.”

The Presbyterian Church in Cuba, which celebrates 40 years as an autonomous church in 2007, has existed for decades under the Castro’s communist regime, which has sought to suppress religious freedoms. This makes it easy for Cuban Presbyterians to identify with the suffering of the Jewish people in the Book of Esther, Arce-Valentín said.

“Our church in Cuba has never stopped looking at itself as a minority,” she said.

Faced with years of difficulties that included few resources, few pastors, small congregations and a society hostile to Christians, the Cuban church started to flourish in the 1980s thanks to “the grace of God” and to the persistence and the strong commitment of its members, lay leaders and pastors, Arce-Valentín said.

Thus the story of Esther reminds us that the hand of God is present in everything we do, she said. Even what appears to be a bad situation is indeed very much under the control of the Almighty, along with help from a few everyday heroes.

“The story of Esther teaches us, perhaps implicitly, that God works with real situations,” Arce-Valentín said. “It is about how God uses our talents, gifts, our life situations. God uses our strengths and weaknesses. God uses our providence and our errors. God uses our life in all of its dimensions.”

In closing, Arce-Valentín asked those present to allow Christians in Cuba and in other countries to work more closely with followers in the United States.

“Allow us to walk side-by-side with you to proclaim the good news to your people in this country,” she said.