PRAYER / WORSHIP ACTIVITY
OPTION 1
10 minutes
Have some examples of simple family trees available. As people arrive, give them paper and a pencil and ask them to draw their own family tree as far back as they can go. Once everyone has completed the task, pray from the front, thanking God for the line of ancestors that led to each person in the congregation being born. (Be sensitive to those who are estranged from or don’t know their family, or for whom this might be a painful exercise.)
OPTION 2
10 minutes
You could ask a volunteer to read the following, or do it as a corporate reading. You could also have some background music. Put it on the screen and pause during the reading for parents to ‘translate’ any parts they don’t think their children will grasp in this form.
‘The mature children of God are only those who are moved by the impulses of the Holy Spirit. And you did not receive the “spirit of religious duty”, leading you back into the fear of never being good enough. But you have received the “spirit of full acceptance”, enfolding you into the family of God. And you will never feel orphaned, for as he rises up within us, our spirits join him in saying the words of tender affection, “Beloved father!” For the Holy Spirit makes God’s fatherhood real to us as he whispers into our innermost being, “You are God’s beloved child!” And since we are his true children, we qualify to share all his treasures, for indeed, we are heirs of God himself. And since we are joined to Christ, we also inherit all that he is and all that he has. We will experience being co-glorified with him provided that we accept his sufferings as our own’ Romans 8:14–17 (The Passion).
STORY
10 minutes
This story can be told by one person but the whole congregation needs to respond in different ways whenever they hear the names of the four main characters.
KING XERXES: make X-factor sign with arms
ESTHER: sign for lovely face – circle your face with your right hand
MORDECAI: hand on back of head like a skull cap
HAMAN: say ‘Hey, man!’ Once upon a time there was a very powerful king called KING XERXES. He ruled many kingdoms and had loads of money. One day he threw a big party to show off his wealth. He also wanted to show off his wife, who was very beautiful, but she refused to come. KING XERXES became very angry and had her taken away, but that left him with a problem: he needed to find a new wife. He told his servants to go out into all the lands he ruled and bring him all the most beautiful girls they could find so that he could choose a new wife.
Now in that very city lived a man called MORDECAI. He was one of God's people – a Jew. MORDECAI looked after his younger cousin ESTHER. When KING XERXES servants saw how beautiful ESTHER was, they took her at once to the palace to live with the other beautiful girls. ESTHER and the other girls each had a whole year of pampering and beauty treatments before they got to go on a date with KING XERXES. After their date, the girls would be taken to live in a different part of the palace and KING XERXES would decide if he wanted to see them again.
ESTHER was very popular with the servants in charge of the girls and when it was her turn for a date with KING XERXES, she took all the advice she was given. KING XERXES liked her best of all, so ESTHER was made queen. But, even though ESTHER was queen, she still could only see KING XERXES when he sent for her.
Meanwhile, MORDECAI stayed close to the royal palace and kept his ear to the ground. He heard about a plot to assassinate KING XERXES and so he told ESTHER and she told KING XERXES – the men who were plotting got caught. The story was written down in the history books.
KING XERXES had a right hand man called HAMAN. He was very important in KING XERXES’ palace. KING XERXES wanted to reward him so he ordered that everyone should bow down before HAMAN to honour him. But MORDECAI was a Jew and he would only bow down before God, not HAMAN. HAMAN was really mad that MORDECAI wouldn't bow down and he hatched a plot to kill not only MORDECAI, but all of God's people – the Jews. So HAMAN tricked KING XERXES into signing a law saying that on a certain day all the Jews should be destroyed. KING XERXES didn't realise that ESTHER was a Jew.
When MORDECAI heard about the new law, he was devastated. He got word to ESTHER about what was going to happen and asked her to plead with KING XERXES to change his mind. ESTHER knew that it was dangerous to go and see KING XERXES unless she was asked for, but after fasting and praying for three days, she plucked up the courage to knock on KING XERXES’ door.
KING XERXES was very pleased to see her and even more pleased when she invited him to dinner that night and asked him to bring HAMAN with him. HAMAN felt very important but he was still mad that MORDECAI wouldn't bow down to him, so he decided that he would have him hanged – he built an enormous gallows to do the job.
That night KING XERXES couldn't sleep, so he asked for the story of his reign to be read to him. One of the stories in it was the one where MORDECAI had found out about the plot to assassinate him. He realised that he had never thanked MORDECAI so the next morning, he called HAMAN in to ask him what he thought should be done to say thank you to someone who had done something amazing. HAMAN thought KING XERXES was talking about him, so he suggested all sorts of lovely treats. He was extremely cross when KING XERXES told him to go and do all the lovely things for MORDECAI.
Things only got worse for HAMAN when, that night, ESTHER told KING XERXES that he had been tricked by HAMAN into signing a law that would kill both her and all of God's people – the Jews. KING XERXES was very angry and ordered that HAMAN be hanged on his own gallows, the ones he had built to hang MORDECAI on. Then KING XERXES signed another law to say that the Jews should make plans to protect themselves against their enemies.
So, when the day came when God's people were supposed to be destroyed, they actually won a great victory over all their enemies and the Jews still celebrate this today. All because of Queen ESTHER!
REFLECTIVE RESPONSE TO THE STORY
OPTION 1
10 minutes
Before the service, prepare some salt dough (one cup of flour, half a cup of salt and about half a cup of water – you can scale this up depending on your numbers). Remember to keep it covered until this point in the service so that it doesn’t dry out. Give everyone a small piece, about the size of a ping-pong ball. Ask each person to model a crown and then scratch or carve their name onto it. They can take this home to remind them that while they are not a queen like Esther was, they are part of God’s royal family. The dough will eventually dry out itself. Alternatively, it can be baked for several hours in a very low oven or microwaved for ten seconds at a time until it’s hard.
OPTION 2
10 minutes
In the story, the king kept a record of the events of his reign. It’s important to us as the family of God to keep a record of the things God does among us. Give everyone a piece of quality paper and access to some nice writing implements. Ask them to write down something that has happened in the life of the church – it doesn’t matter whether this was long ago or a recent event. Get them to put a date of the event on it. Gather the papers in and have someone collate them (in chronological order) into a book. This could become an ongoing project.
GROUP DISCUSSION QUESTIONS
15 minutes
Divide into small, all-age groups and explore the following questions:
- In the story, Esther was taken from nowhere to be queen of a nation. How might she have been tempted to change who she was? What might she have forgotten?
- Esther’s cousin Mordecai was a crucial part of her story. Who has played an important part in our stories?
- What kind of things threaten us as Christians?
- In the moments where we feel threatened, what might we take from Esther’s story as patterns to follow?
- How can we keep what God has done front and centre in our remembering? For additional ideas, see the craft page with an Esther theme from Issue 21.
Jenny Cheung is a schools’ worker with Scripture Union Scotland and leads the children’s team at CLAN Gathering (New Wine Scotland)
