HomeGood Morning.
First, I am going to give a brief historical review just to put the topic of my sermon in perspective. If it seems like a lecture at first, don’t worry, I am going someplace with it.
We all know that the ancient kingdom of Israel divided into two parts, the northern kingdom of Israel and the southern kingdom of Judah.
The Assyria Empire conquered Israel and carried its people off into captivity and they were lost to history. Those are the ten lost tribes.
Years later (about 587 BCE) the Babylonian Empire conquered Judah and carried off its people, now called “Jews” into the Babylonian Captivity or the Babylonian Exile.
Later, the Persian Empire conquered the Babylonians, and so the Jews were now living under Persian rule. That is the time of the story told in the book of Esther.
Now the Book of Esther has two versions. There was an ancient ten chapter Hebrew version then, later, a translation of the Hebrew into Greek. That Greek translation has sixteen chapters; there is additional material that was added. If you grew up reading the Jewish or Protestant bible, you read the ten chapter version. If you grew up reading the Catholic bible, you read the sixteen chapter version.
I will be talking about the original ten chapter story.
This story is full of reversals and ironic twists, only some of which I will mention today. It is well written and nearly every paragraph contains a reversal or twist of some kind.
The ruler of the Persian Empire was Ahasueras, it is believed that this refers to Artaxerxes I. King Ahasueras gave a banquet for his court and called for his queen, Vashti to come present herself to his guests because he desires to show off her beauty. There is some thought among scholars that this presentation implied a disrobing.
Vashti refused to do the kings bidding. She had a good feminist reaction; she was indignant and said no.
Now this greatly displeased the king—this guy had life and death power over anyone and here was a woman defying him. And his advisors said to him, “This is not just about you and the Queen”. You see, they were concerned that if the Queen was able to get away with this, then throughout the empire every woman would defy her husband. So they suggested the Ahasueras that he banish Vashti from ever being in the royal presence again.
But now Ahasueras needed a new queen. His advisors suggested that he gather together all of the young virgins of the empire and that each one of them spend a night with him, that each have an audition, as it were.
Now the king allowed as how this was a good idea, and so all of the young virgins of the Empire were gathered together and among them was a young woman named Esther. Esther was the cousin of Mordechai, who had raised her because her parents were dead. And she was a good child and obeyed him in everything he ordered her to do.
When she was called into the harem, Mordecai told her not to reveal that she was Jewish, so she did not. Now, we all know that it is damaging to the soul to hide things about yourself, we know that it hurts and is difficult to line “in the closet”, but Esther did so.
Esther was pleasing to the king and was chosen to be his new Queen.
Haman was the chief advisor to the king and, for a variety of reasons which I will not now go into, he developed a hatred for the Jews. In fact, he planned with his associates a slaughter of the Jews, really, the extermination of the Jews.
Mordechai found out about Haman’s plot and sent word to Esther saying, “Now is time, you must act to save your people”.
Esther sent back word saying, “You don’t understand, I cannot simply walk in on the king”. In Persia in those days it was tradition in the court that if you walked in on the king uninvited, there was an immediate death sentence unless the king raised his scepter towards you indicating that you were welcome.
Mordechai responded by saying to Esther, “Don’t think that if they kill the Jews you will be safe”. He then goes on to say that if she does not act, help will come from elsewhere, but that it may be for just this time that she was put I her position.
Esther then tells Mordechai to gather the Jews of Susa, the capital of Persia, to fast and pray. She says that she will do what she can and, “If I die, I die”.
Esther walks in on the king and he raises his scepter towards her. She then invites both the King and Haman to come to a banquet the following night. At the banquet she invites them to come to yet another banquet on the next night.
At this second banquet the king asks her what she wants and she tells him that someone is out to kill her and her people. He asks who is doing this, she says it is Haman, by which she – reveals self to be Jew. The king becomes outraged at Haman, the Jews saved, and Haman is punished instead.
This story is fascinating because it contains both a “hidden” Jew, and a hidden God. God is never named in this book. There is only the vague reference to him that help will come from elsewhere and that Esther may be in her current position for this reason. Other than that vague reference, this is a book of human action, not God’s action.
Now, it must be said that the courage of Esther is not in question. She does say to Mordechai that she could die, and she seems to hesitate to bring the subject before the king, having two banquets before she does so. But when the time comes, she is willing to give her life. So she has courage.
But she uses discernment. She does not challenge the authority of the king as does Vashti. Instead, she awaits right time and circumstance to seek what she wants. This challenges the thinking of those of us--like myself--who sometimes believe that confrontation is always the right step. In the case of Esther, it is her cunning and careful consideration that wins the day.
She chooses the moment to reveal who she is and in doing so makes the revelation powerful.
A Few years ago, Maureen Dowd wrote a column about the struggle for gay rights titled “The number is one”. She was saying that it is sometimes easy for people to deny rights to “them” over there. It is easy to deny rights to “Gays and Lesbians” if they are a nameless, formless, faceless mass of people “over there”; just some “them”. But it is not so easy when “them” has a single face. It is not so easy when one is talking about Aunt Joan or cousin Charlie or my good friend Francis. Should gays have rights? To that peopIe can say, No. Should Aunt Joan have rights? That puts a different twist on it, it puts a face to it.
Ahasueras was perfectly willing to let the Jews be slaughtered until he recognized that “the Jews” included his beloved wife Esther.
But in order for that to happen, in order for people to be swayed in that way, individuals must know when to reveal the truth about themselves. They must know when to use the quiet voice of truth to say, “I am gay” or “I am a Jew”.
Socially the story tells us that unexpected help can come from unlikely sources. Who would have thought that a Jewish Queen could save the people.
About a month ago I was reading stories about the movement for civil rights for African Americans. There was a story by one young man—well he was young when the story happened forty years ago—who took part in a Sit-in at a lunch counter in the south. Now the people who engaged in these sit-ins were spat upon, hit, punched, and often arrested. At one point this young man looked up and saw what he described as “an old white woman” coming towards him. He thought “Oh, here comes another slap or insult”. Instead, she put a cup of coffee in front of him, and said “I’m proud of you boys; this should have happened years ago”. He described it as the most uplifting thing he experienced during the entire civil rights movement.
Think of it: she put herself in jeopardy in taking that act; she aligned herself with the civil rights workers. She didn’t yell and scream; she didn’t jump up and down; she just did a simple act of kindness. And in that moment she said to all of the other people in that luncheonette, “they’re right; I’m with them; hate them, hate me”. What power!
The story says that there is other hidden power as well.
For those of us who believe in divinity, the story implies that even when we cannot see its workings, the divine power is in fact guiding events.
Esther begins this story as a young virgin. Now I’m speculating here, but at that time, and in that culture, women were married at age 13 or so. So Esther is 13 to 16 at the latest, probably closer to 13. She is a child by our standards. And she begins as a child; she obeys everything Mordechai says, as a good child should.
But she ends as the primary character. This thirteen, fourteen, fifteen year old girl shows a depth of personal strength and courage. Whereas she began by obeying Mordecai, she ends by telling him what to do – gather the Jews together, fast and pray for me.
The story tells us that there is hidden strength within every person, even women and children. It shows the strength that exists in people whom we would dismiss.
More than that, it speaks to the hidden strength within ourselves.
What courage lies within us? What depth of moral virtue and of spiritual strength lies within us? We do not know and are not aware.
The lessons of this story that I wish to highlight today are:
Do not confuse courage with conflict. It is not always the loud, brash voice that sways others; sometimes that has the opposite effect. It is often the quiet voice of revelation that convinces others, that opens the heart of others.
Do not confuse discernment with lack of courage.
But do not confuse inaction with wisdom. Too often we rationalize our inaction and pretend that it is wisdom and discernment.
There are times to wait, and there are times to act. Reading the signs of the times is not easy,
Whatever our path through life, when times of trouble come, may we find strength within ourselves, may we find strength flowing to us from others, may we open to kindness and support no matter its source. And when the time comes, may we be willing to give kindness and support no matter its cost.
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