September 27, 2009 - Proper 21, Year B (RCL)
It could have been a disaster.
That’s what Esther thought
as she left the king’s presence.
It could have backfired.
He could have taken offense,
exploded with rage
that she dare challenge his decision.
She had risked everything - not just the lives of her people
but her own life as well.
And it was worth it.
They would be saved.
But was it really a risk?
What had happened
that made Esther
so afraid?
Esther
wasn’t the king’s first wife.
That had been Vashti,
loved and honored
by the king and all his subjects.
Until one night
after six months of celebration
and a particularly elaborate feast
which, as a women
she wasn’t invited to,
that night
the king got drunk
and sent his servants to her
to demand her presence
so that he could show her off
to his guests.
Vashti
wasn’t having any part of it. She refused
the king
got incensed
and removed her
from the throne.
And Esther, one of the royal concubines
was set in her place.
She was a Jew by birth
one of the many
who had been carried into exile,
but all that mattered to the king
was that she was beautiful.
Meanwhile, other things were going on in the city.
The king promoted one man, Haman,
above all his other officials
and commanded
that everyone honor him.
But another man, Mordecai,
who happened to be
Esther’s uncle,
refused.
He was a Jew, and the only one he was going to bow down to
was God.
And Haman took revenge,
and plotted to kill not only Mordecai
but all the Jews.
And he spread rumors about them,
and suggested to the king
that maybe
they were a threat.
And the king ordered Haman
to deal with it,
and Haman ordered that the Jewish people
be absolutely and utterly
destroyed.
Genocide.
And Mordecai contacted Esther the queen,
and told her
that this
was it.
She had to act.
She alone
had the power
to sway the king
and save her people.
And perhaps it was for this very reason
that she had been made queen.
And Esther planned a banquet
and invited the king
and begged him
for mercy.
It could have been a disaster.
After all, last time a queen challenged the king
she lost her throne,
and that was over something relatively trivial;
this time she was speaking out
on behalf of suspected traitors.
She could die.
But this time
the king was sympathetic.
I guess he didn’t know
she was a Jew,
he didn’t know
that the power he had given to Haman
could cost him
his queen.
And he revoked the order,
and the people were saved.
And Haman
was sent to the gallows instead.
The story of Esther
is one of the great stories of the old Testament,
and one of the great stories of Judaism,
remembered and celebrated every year
at Purim.
But it’s also a story that is important for us all.
One of the unusual things about the book of Esther
is that God never appears.
At least not explicitly.
God is never named; God is never appealed to.
And yet
as we read it
it’s clear that God is there,
out of sight
but not out of mind.
Because the whole book
is the story of the people of God
and the story of one person
acting on behalf
of God’s people,
and one person
acting
on behalf of God.
And the reality is
that that’s what our lives are like.
Because those times
when we meet God directly
for most of us
are few and far between.
We’re not like Abraham
who kept receiving directions from God
about where to go and when,
or Moses
who talked to God in the burning bush,
or Paul who met Jesus
on the road to Damascus.
Let alone the disciples
who got to walk alongside Jesus day by day for three whole years!
When we meet God
it’s not quite face to face in the same way.
We hear God speak through scripture,
we speak to God in prayer,
we meet God in the Eucharist.
But for most of us,
we know that God is present
but somehow
just
out of sight.
There are times when we talk about God and to God directly,
but most of the time
we are busy living as the people of God in the world,
putting our faith
into practice in the everydayness of our lives.
We’re busy doing what the prophet Micah recommended:
doing justice,
loving mercy, and walking humbly
with God.
Most of the time
our faith is not so much explicit
as implicit;
it shapes everything
we do.
And we live in a world
where God doesn’t so often
intervene on a grand scale.
We live in a world
where God works through people, individuals doing
the work of God
in their own neighborhoods, their own communities,
their own lives.
We are more like Esther
that we might think.
On Thursday night
I went to see the band U2 at the Meadowlands.
It was the largest crowd ever to fill the Giants Stadium.
They played songs from their newest album
alongside the great hits.
But the climax came towards the end, as hundreds of people filed on stage wearing masks
of Aung Sun Su Kyi, the imprisoned Burmese pro democracy leader;
and the band sang the song dedicated to her, “Walk on.”
And then
Bishop Tutu’s face filled the screen above the stage.
And we were treated
to a message,
a message of hope,
a message of encouragement,
reminding us
that throughout history
all it has taken to change the world
is people,
people like us
hearing a call to justice
and acting on it.
It takes just one.
“One love, one blood, one life
You got to do what you should
One life with each other
Sisters, brothers
One life but we're not the same
We get to carry each other, carry each other”
And it segued into
a verse
of Amazing Grace.
Eighty four thousand people - give or take a few -
eighty four thousand people
joined the band
singing
Amazing Grace.
And their faith
is inextricably bound up
in their work
to eradicate poverty
and AIDS.
They’ve heard the call of God through the prophet Micah
to do justice
to love mercy,
to walk humbly
with God.
It’s easy to write them off.
They’re wealthy;
it doesn't cost them much
to get up and preach to their fans.
But as I read the reviews of the concert
I realized how risky it is
for U2 to put justice
front and center.
Some of the fans
were disappointed in the concert.
They don’t want to hear about poverty.
They don’t want to hear about justice.
They’re not sure
they’ll bother going to another concert,
or buy another U2 album.
U2 risks losing their popularity, they risk losing
their success.
But they’ve heard the call,
they can’t ignore it.
Their faith
shapes how they live,
and God works through them,
four men
doing
the work of God
on stage
and in the world.
They are more like Esther
that they might think.
And back to us.
We’re not rock stars.
And we’re not queens.
We don’t speak to thousands;
we don’t rule kingdoms.
But it doesn’t matter.
As far as I can tell
the scale
is not important.
There’s a saying in the Talmud:
“To save one life is as if you have saved the world.”
God calls us
to be like Esther,
to live out our faith,
to work
on behalf
of God.
We do that
when we bring food to the food pantry.
thirty three bags of it
in the last three weeks.
We do it
when we stop and listen to someone who is having a difficult time.
We do it
when we donate to help fight Aids in Africa.
We do it
when we decide to use the criteria of justice and mercy
when we choose who and what to vote for.
We do it
whenever
we live out our faith
doing God’s work
without counting
the cost.
So, this week,
stop.
Take time.
Listen.
And see
what God
is calling you
to do.
© Raewynne J. Whiteley 2009