Sermon on Esther

Claiming our Story: Esther
Esther 4:11-16

We all have a narrative. A story we tell ourselves about our lives, our families, our struggles, our experiences, our world – some of these narratives include precise details - Henry was born on May 10 at 5:44 p.m. Central Standard Time – but there are other parts of all of our narratives that are more subjective or abstract – Henry would tell you his parents lived comfortably until he was a teenager when in reality every month was tight, many bills went unpaid, the family did without luxuries and some necessities but it wasn’t until Henry was old enough did he grasp their level of poverty.  

We all have these stories and they inform who we understand ourselves to be even if some of them are not grounded in historical fact. Which can be both good and bad. We mustn’t dismiss fiction as it can speak of truths that a history book overlooks,  stories like Romeo and Juliett, Huckelberry Fin, Grapes of Wrath and too many more to name have framed the narrative of the past we carry into the present. But some narratives are repeated to placate ourselves or a society – to contribute to a false narrative or to maintain the status quo.

For good or ill, probably a bit of both, the book of Esther is widely viewed not as a historical account but as a story that contributes to the narrative of the Jewish people’s faith and struggle for survival. 

So the story goes that King Ahasuerus along with officials and military leaders were in the middle of a 5 month celebration, followed by a 7 day long celebration for the entire city of Susa. During the festivities the King had a little too much wine and asked for his wife, Queen Vashti to basically be objectified by all the men he was entertaining – scripture says something like “show her beauty.” Vashti refuses and of course that doesn’t go over very well, the narrative turns to fear as the King says, if she would refuse me then all the women of the land might have the audacity to refuse such objectification over their bodies – and of course we can’t have that – probably not the exact words but I am actually being true to the essense of the text – so the queen is removed from her position and they basically stage The Bachelor Susa Style and invite women from all over the land to vie for the affection of the King. Enter Esther – if this truly was Bacherlor style you would see her step out of the limo and sees her beauty and a voiceover reveals that her parents have died and so she was raised by her cousin Mordecai who encouraged her to enter the contest. What even the producers don’t know is that Esther is a Jew, Mordecai instructed her not to reveal this. So after a year of beauty prep – Esther goes to the King and he chooses her, she becomes the next queen.

In the meantime the King has also chosen a right hand man named Hamaan, who likes the power of his new position and demands that the people bow before him. Esther’s cousin is keeping a close eye on her so is always hanging around the palace – Hamaan notices Mordecai because he will not bow to him, as a Jew he bows to no one but God. And so enraged by this Haman goes to the King, launches a case against these dangerous Jews who do not respect the throne and asks for an edict to annihilate Mordecai and ALL of his people – the King agrees.

And then we come to our scripture this morning. Mordecai hears the news that he and all Jewish people have been condemned to death – with emotions I don’t think any of us could grasp he tears his clothes in rage, in  despair and sends a message to Esther, telling her what is happening and asking her to intercede. Our scripture is Esther’s response via messenger to Mordecai. She says:

¹¹‘All the king’s servants and the people of the king’s provinces know that if any man or woman goes to the king inside the inner court without being called, there is but one law—all alike are to be put to death. Only if the king holds out the golden sceptre to someone, may that person live. I myself have not been called to come in to the king for thirty days.’

Then the narrator speaks up:

¹²When they told Mordecai what Esther had said, ¹³Mordecai told them to reply to Esther, ‘Do not think that in the king’s palace you will escape any more than all the other Jews. ¹⁴For 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.’ ¹⁵Then Esther said in reply to Mordecai, ¹⁶‘Go, gather all the Jews to be found in Susa, and hold a fast on my behalf, and neither eat nor drink for three days, night or day. I and my maids will also fast as you do. After that I will go to the king, though it is against the law; and if I perish, I perish.’

It might surprise you that Esther hesitates, but the reality is that she is risking not only her position as queen since the king was perfectly happy to replace his first wife, and she is not only being exposed as a Jew but also she risks her very life for approaching the king without invitation to save the Hebrew people. I read a commentator this week that said her decision is shocking because after all Esther was named queen for her beauty and not her bravery. It is almost like we haven’t come that far from the days when women were judged by their beauty but also if judged as beautiful meant that they lacked intelligence. I hope you can hear the sarcasm in my voice – because as appalling as this story is, much of it fits all too well in our societal expectations of sex and gender as well as fear and power. We still live in a world where women are expected to be objectified and a world where we make decisions based on slippery slope – if we allow this to happen, if we allow Queen Vashti, the first wife to refuse the king then all women will know they can refuse a man. If Mordecai doesn’t bow to Hamaan all the Jews are a danger to the throne. There is this sense of fragile power – and those who hold all the power will do almost anything to protect it. And as far as this situation might seem from us, it is about protecting the status quo, and that is a part of our everyday lives. Even those of us who say we are against it, easily fall back into its comforts and into the same fear of what could happen if current system is challenged.

I think that is why Esther hestitates, initially she is living in the false security of the status quo. She did not want to approach the king on behalf of her people – things were going well for her, and what good would it do, she didn’t even know if she would live long enough to speak to him. But Mordecia points out to her that the status quo is not in her favor – even though she lives in the castle she would not be safe from the King’s call for the death of all Jews. And so she decides to take a risk, to try to change the way things are, even if that means one exposing herself as a Jew and two breaking protocol and risking her life.

The line that seems to stand out – that Mordecia speaks twice to Esther is: “such a time as this” Mordecai first says “if you keep silent in such a time as this” and then later says maybe she was put in this place as queen for “such a time as this”

For such a time as this.

Last weekend I went to see Selma.  Have any of you seen it? Anyone want to share what was significant in it for you? I am exposing my age a little but it was hard to believe how recently these events took place. There is an emphasis in the movie on clergy, Dr. King particularly called out white clergy who were remaining silent in the face of racial injustice but the movie also acknowledged the numbers of clergy who were present during the march from Selma to Birmingham. I reflected on what it would be like to be a Christian or a pastor in the midst of the civil rights movement, to be speaking from a pulpit weekly at such a time as that…

But then on Monday I went to the Marade and near the end a man stood on the side of the road with a small sign and handwritten on it that said

Some generations are called upon to be great

And being that he was much older I thought about what he had seen and lived through with the images of marchers fresh in my mind from that film, but then I realized, he just might not be talking about his generation, he might be talking about mine.

For such a time as this.

The narrative of our world is that we have come so far since the days of the civil rights movement – and in some ways that is absolutely true and yet the work is not complete.

Another piece of Selma that seemed significant was a conversation that Dr. King had in jail with one of this fellow leaders. He said, *"What good is having the right to sit at a lunch counter," he asked, "if you can't afford to buy a hamburger?"

There remains signficant racial disparity in terms of econmics as well as numbers of incarceration. The work for equality is not over. For such a time as this.

We can look to the past – to the risks taken, the dreams offered, the marches, the losses – and we learn from them all…they fill our growing narrative of hope leading to the reality that

--not one but every generation is defined by their response
to the injustice of the moment.--

For such a time as this.

Esther first had to acknowledge her own complicity in upholding the status quo but then she took risks, she risked her life for the lives of others. She responded to the situation where she found herself. Last week we talked about Moses allowing who he was to lead him into who he could be. Esther’s story holds some of those same qualities but the emphasis is on acting in the moment, being present to the needs and cries of the world.

Living into the well known quote from a poem by June Jordan that states that

We are the ones we have been waiting for.In such a time as this.

When the economic disparity is growing and the rich are becoming richer and the poor poorer.
In such a time as this: we are the ones we have been waiting for

When young black men as well as law enforcement are  demonized and fear and hostility and violence follows

In such a time as this: we are the ones we have been waiting for

When fear and the media allow Islamic extremist to frame the narrative of what it means to be Muslim

In such a time as this: we are the ones we have been waiting for

In the powerlessness of undocumented immigrants who are recognized as illegal before human

In such a time as this….we are the ones we have been waiting for

When there is movement in both religious and civil circles around rights for LGBTQ folks – yet with large movements, small injustices remain that must not be ignored.

In such a time as this: we are the ones we have been waiting for

When women continue to be seen and treated as objects and one in four women in the US will experience domestic violence in her lifetime.

In such a time as this…we are the ones we have been waiting for

In such a time as this…

Breathe out Fear

Breathe in Hope
Breathe out Hate
Breathe in Healing
Breathe out Hostility

Breath - we so take it for granted but in each breath we find life, in each breath we receive and in each breath we let go.
Our world is full of beautiful things for us to breathe in but so too is our world, our lives, our bodies full of that which we must release - pain, anger, fear to name only a few.

There is always going to be something in the news to give us pause. This week it is the death of Jessica Hernandez, a 17 year old girl who was shot and killed by police while driving a stolen car and hitting an officer with said car. I don't pretend to know the specifics of what happened on Monday night, or the character of this girl but I do believe that there is something here we must let go of. We seem to have an understanding that guns, or bombs - that violence protects us, but again and again that doesn't prove true.

Friends and family are grieving the death of this girl, the police who were given weapons to kill must face their role in this, and the rest of us are left wondering if there is such a thing as safety at all. I don't know many 17 year olds who would believe that aggressive driving would lead the police to kill them. Maybe this needs to be a conversation about authority. Some have taken the threat very seriously issuing instructions: 10 Rules of Survival if Stopped by the Police. This specifically targets  young black men whose stories are only now coming to the forefront of public view. But I wonder, would something have changed if Jessica had seen this video? Is that our best hope?

Or can we hope that someday we will realize that violence leads to fear which leads to violence. That we are stuck in a cycle of death. When will we finally have enough and begin the work of dismantling the systems and assumptions that exist on the belief that safety only comes through force when in fact none of us are safe. Nor should safety be our goal. Our goal is not for my kids to be safe while someone elses child is shot - our goal must be finding ways to hold each other accountable in ways that do not reflect that which we are trying to stop.

I offer no solutions, but maybe a start...the next time you are afraid...breathe out fear, breath in love...and keep breathing.