This week is All Saints Day Sunday, and in worship we will remember and honor the saints of the Crenshaw family. Saints, who lived a faithful and God honoring life and have claimed resurrection, saints and who are among us and continue to make this world a better place by doing no harm, doing good and staying in love with God. According to Paul the apostle, a saint is someone who is “sanctified in Christ Jesus.” This means no one is a saint by birth, but they are called to become saints. One example that I will focus on in the sermon this Sunday is of Matthew, one of the twelve apostles, saints so to speak. Matthew wasn’t someone who was born as a saint. Rather, he was a tax collector, a worst among the sinners, as the Jews of that time would think of him. However, despite his sinful human condition, Jesus called him. And Matthew left everything and followed Jesus. Once a sinner would become a saint that will be remembered until the ends of the earth. As Christians, how would Jesus like for us to live our calling to be saints in this world, following the example of those who have gone before us? After all, like Matthew, despite all our flaws, Jesus calls us to be saints.

Many people in Biblical and world history made a huge difference when they spoke up. Many have changed the course of history by speaking up. Moses spoke up before the most powerful man of that time. Daniel spoke up when he was offered the choice of food that was unclean according to his religious belief. Prophet Nathan spoke up before David and called him out to his face the sins of adultery and murder that David had committed. Jesus constantly confronted the Pharisees and spoke up to their face, calling them hypocrites. Some committed Americans spoke up that they wanted freedom, and the world witnessed history taking a turn. Martin Luther King spoke up against injustice and slavery issues. The list can go on. This week, we learn from a great woman in the Bible who spoke the right words at the right time, saving hundreds of thousands of Jews in Persia. We know this great woman of the Bible by the name of Esther. I will focus on chapter 4:9-17 of the book of Esther and talk about how Esther changed the history of the Jews by being bold and speaking the right words at the right time.