Sermon for Sunday 27th September 2009

Esther

What I love and hate about preaching from the lectionary is that you are not in control of what gets thrown at you. There is no opportunity to limit yourself to a few favourite texts or to a few easy texts and this morning has thrown me some really tricky ones.

I have, of course, actually made it harder for myself this week by choosing the reading from Esther but I couldn’t let it slip by unnoticed. This morning is the only time Esther appears in the lectionary so grapple with her I think we must.

The first problem with Esther is that God does not put in a single appearance throughout the whole book. Neither is there any theological reflection. This is a story – a chronicle of a momentous event in Jewish history which is marked to this day by the Jews by the feast of Purim. So to make sense of this morning’s tiny snippets, let me tell you the story. It’s a cracking tale so just slip into radio 4 or Jackanory mode for a few minutes.

Queen Vashti has insulted King Ahasuerus by not appearing before the King when summoned into his presence. Fearing that this unseemly behaviour may spread to other women, the King decides to replace her and he seeks for the most beautiful virgins in his kingdom to be brought before him. Amongst them is Esther, a Jew, who has been brought up by her uncle Mordecai. Esther pleases King Ahasuerus and she is crowned his queen but, on her uncle’s advice, she does not tell him she is a Jew.

Meanwhile Haman is appointed as the King’s chief advisor and general right-hand man. The King orders everybody to honour Haman but Mordecai, Esther’s uncle, refuses to bow to him. Enraged, Haman plots to destroy all of the Jews, men, women and children on the thirteenth day of the first month. The King signs the decree ordering the destruction of the Jews (not realising that this will include his queen) and it is declared throughout his whole kingdom. Mordecai appeals to Esther for help ‘Do not think that in the king’s palace you will escape any more than all the other Jews. For 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.’

So Esther holds a banquet and she invites the King and Haman. Haman had just that morning erected a gallows for Mordecai (there’s a sub-plot which leads to this but I won’t confuse the story). So back at the banquet, Esther asks the King to save her life and the lives of her people. The King is enraged that someone has plotted against his queen, still unaware she is a Jew. He asks who has done this terrible deed. Haman, of course, finds himself fingered and is hanged on the very gallows he had prepared for Mordecai. The end of the tale recounts Mordecai’s rise to power, the hanging of Haman’s ten sons and the killing of the Jew’s enemies including their women and children. 500 in one day, then 300 on another day and 75, 000 throughout the King’s provinces.

I’ve told you the whole story because it makes sense of the tiny snippet we heard but also because we need to get to the story’s shocking conclusion. Throughout the story we empathise with the persecuted Jews. To hear that they will be wiped out ruthlessly with such cold calculation on a certain day is shocking. But then at the end of the tale we are confused. Who are the good guys in this story? Haven’t the Jews just turned round and done exactly what they lamented to the King would be their fate? They have slaughtered the men, women and children of their enemies. It feel uncomfortable for a Bible story not to have a God-given shift towards the good as its ending. But doesn’t this story actually give us more of an insight into the world in which we actually live. Who are the good guys? In our gospel reading Jesus said ‘Whoever is not against us is for us.’ Discerning where God is at work in our world is not as simple as falling into tribal categories. God is at work all around us, through secular agencies; through Muslim, Jewish and Hindu organisations: through Catholic, Prebyterian, Lutheran, Evangelical and Liberal Christian congregations. Where healing, reconciliation and justice take place, there is God and we should seek to uphold and support God’s work wherever we encounter it.

But there’s something else about the shocking ending of Esther which I would like us to consider this morning. To hear of men, women and children being slaughtered is offensive to us, and rightly so. But we live comfortable lives and we are not persecuted. We live different lives. The bloody, violent oppression and persecution of a people affronts us but what about the quiet, hidden oppression and persecution of a people? Are we as upset or affronted by the prospect that Christian Aid predicts nearly a fifth of Bangladesh will be submerged due to climate change if we do not avert global warming, that’s you and me changing how we live; or are we upset that girls cannot go to school unless we support the fair-trade products produced in a village in India, that’s you and me in Waitrose and selecting our Christmas presents; or that investment decisions can kill just as surely as swords and arrows only they are less offensive to our sensibilities, that’s you and me selecting financial products.

But here is our calling, also in this story of Esther. Mordecai urges Esther not to keep silent in the face of disaster: ‘Perhaps you have come to royal dignity for just such a time as this’ he says. Esther is reluctant at first, fearing that she will fail in saving her people but Mordecai urges her to consider her vocation. In her position, what can she do? And you, in just such a time as this, in your position, I wonder, will you keep silent? What can you do? Look out for where you see God at work and join in.