Sermons from First Congregational Church of Southington

Transcription

1 Sermons from First Congregational Church of Southington Fight for the Powerless Esther 7:1-10 Fifteenth Sunday after Pentecost August 28, So the king and Haman went in to feast with Queen Esther. 2 On the second day, as they were drinking wine, the king again said to Esther, What is your petition, Queen Esther? It shall be granted you. And what is your request? Even to the half of my kingdom, it shall be fulfilled. 3 Then Queen Esther answered, If I have won your favor, O king, and if it pleases the king, let my life be given me that is my petition and the lives of my people that is my request. 4 For we have been sold, I and my people, to be destroyed, to be killed, and to be annihilated. If we had been sold merely as slaves, men and women, I would have held my peace; but no enemy can compensate for this damage to the king. [a] 5 Then King Ahasuerus said to Queen Esther, Who is he, and where is he, who has presumed to do this? 6 Esther said, A foe and enemy, this wicked Haman! Then Haman was terrified before the king and the queen. 7 The king rose from the feast in wrath and went into the palace garden, but Haman stayed to beg his life from Queen Esther, for he saw that the king had determined to destroy him. 8 When the king returned from the palace garden to the banquet hall, Haman had thrown himself on the couch where Esther was reclining; and the king said, Will he even assault the queen in my presence, in my own house? As the words left the mouth of the king, they covered Haman s face. 9 Then Harbona, one of the eunuchs in attendance on the king, said, Look, the very gallows that Haman has prepared for Mordecai, whose word saved the king, stands at Haman s house, fifty cubits high. And the king said, Hang him on that. 10 So they hanged Haman on the gallows that he had prepared for Mordecai. Then the anger of the king abated. Today our Church celebrates a baptism. Another young charge enters our Christian community. I love baptisms. I especially love baptizing babies. While most of the ceremony is about what family, friends, and the community promise to do to help raise the child, the real message of the day is how much the child is doing for us. Ever wonder why we make these pledges during a baptism? Ever feel a bit perplexed that it is the family and not the child that are making the claims of faith? The answer to this mystery of infant baptism is deceptively simple and yet teaches us so much today about being an ally and empowering the powerless. The reason we make the pledges is that the child is too young to say the words or understand what they mean.

2 August 28, 2016 Sermon Page 2 of 6 We do something for a child who cannot do it themselves. And yet we celebrate the child, not ourselves who are doing most of the work, because I like to think the child s power is in their vulnerability. Through their powerlessness, the infant is making the powerful use their strength for the sake of another. Babies are masters of this. The crying or cooing of a defenseless infant can stop a full grown adult in his tracks. Anyone who has raises children are faced the irony that for all our parenting choices and authority in the household, the kids really run the show. And for all our blustering and whining that our kids should be grateful for all we do, and they should, at the end of the day kids can make us better people for it. We can learn to be caring by a child who can t see beyond their own needs. We can learn to be careful by a child who absentmindedly runs out into traffic. We can learn to be brave by a child who is being bullied at school. We can learn how to become strong through the weakness and meekness of another. Another reason I love baptisms, they bring folk to church that often don t come except maybe on Christmas or Easter. It s okay if this ever means you. I m not launching into attendance records. I love that a baby can bring us to Church. Really, if you think about it, Christmas and Easter are also all about the defenseless. In the dark of winter, our pews fill up so we can all get a glimpse of a baby in a manger. Then in the light of spring, those seats fill up again as we remember a man dying on a cross. It is the beginning and end of Christ s earthly life that bring us together. In many ways this shouldn t be surprising. Often extended families only come together just after births and just before deaths. It is in our weakest moments that we have such sway over others. People come to us when we lack the ability to come to them. And I don t know about you, but it is these moments, when a baby is born or when someone is sick, that I think to myself how I want to do better and wish I could spend more time with them. Christmas and Easter often work the same ways to rekindle faith practices. The powerlessness of others calls the powerful to reassess the use of their time and relations. During Baptisms, family, friends, and a whole Church community are asked to make vows to be better Christians. Yes, we do it for the sake of the child but in the process we are becoming better people. Sometimes it takes the birth or death of our Savior to wake us up from our selfish distractions. For all Christ s power, it is when Christ is one of the powerless that we hear the loudest call to be God s power on earth, to live out the mission. Christ says that he must leave us so that the Holy Spirit, an advocate, can come to us. Well, friends, we are filled with that spirit; we are those advocates Christ sends to the world. II. Scripture: Now what does that advocacy look like? Well today we heard a great example: Esther is a book within the Old Testament, that shares the story of the Jewish people while they are in Diaspora, having been captured by the Persian King, and living as religious minorities in a foreign land. This morning I am preaching the 8th installment of the Be the Church Sermon

3 August 28, 2016 Sermon Page 3 of 6 Series, 9 bold statements about the church. This week our theme Fight for the Powerless finds fertile soil in the book of Esther. The story is full of drama, and was the subject of the play developed at Silver Lake this summer by conferees from our own church in Sing, Song, and Praise. It was an incredible retelling of the story. So what goes on in this book? Well, lots, and I ll be summarizing lots. Esther an orphaned young woman finds herself among those who were made political prisoners in the Persian conquest of Israel. Israelites were exiled and taken from their lands, and relocated back to Persia, where the customs were different, and practicing their faith wasn t supported. You better bet some felt powerless at this moment. Our protagonist Esther is not alone however. She is taken under the wing of her Uncle Mordecai, who is an advisor to the king. Esther is brought with to serve the King at the castle and soon is added to the King s harem. Through her beauty and Esther s humility finds favor with the king, and she is made Queen. Meanwhile, Mordecai overhears of a plot on the King s life, and because of his advice, the king lives! Enter onto the scene Haman who also is an advisor to the king. Haman has advanced in ranks, and demands that his subjects bow to him. All do except Mordecai, who being a devout Jew refuses to break his covenant with God, and Haman is very unhappy about this. Haman is so angry that this one man from a defenseless people stands out before him, that he decides that he desires taking all Jewish lives. With a proud and prejudiced heart, he convinces the king to kill all of the Israelites, and to make a spectacle of Mordecai, the man who stood so tall. Mordecai, aware of the danger he and his people are in, covers himself in sackcloth, the clothing of the poor, homeless, and powerless, as a public mark of his grief. Esther too becomes aware of the threat. Yet as queen, she still hasn t disclosed her identity as a Jew, and when Mordecai sends news of the plans to kill the Jews, Esther knows that she must do something. To deepen the plot, the king has made it a law that anyone who approaches him without being called shall be put to death. Esther knows that talking with the king is the only thing that will save her people. She decides taking the risk is worth it.

4 August 28, 2016 Sermon Page 4 of 6 Go, gather all the Jews to be found in Susa, and hold a fast on my behalf, and do not eat or drink for three days, night or day. I and my young women will also fast as you do. Then I will go to the king, though it is against the law, and if I perish, I perish. Esther goes before the king, and asks that the King and Haman come to her palace the next day for a feast. The King and Haman consent. Meanwhile the King finds news of Mordecai s uncovering of the plot to end his life and commands Hamman to take Mordecai out of his sackcloth, the clothing of the poor and persecuted, and put on royal robes, the clothing of the powerful, then parade him around as a hero. The King wants all the land to see Mordecai as separate and privileged among his people, so they will not mourn him when the King makes an example of him. Meanwhile at the feast Esther plans, the young reveals her own identity as a member of the Jewish people and her awareness of the Hamman s prejudice and treachery. She is aware that her advocacy on behalf of the hated and feared community will set her apart, make her and her household a target, may even cost her life and livelihood. Yet who is she if she does not use the position she is given to speak for and empower the powerless? The King so moved by her courage, his heart turns upside down. The King moves from hating the powerless to hating the one who used his power against them. Immediately the King has Hamman hung on the rope he was intending for Mordecai and for now the Jewish people are saved from his prejudice. III. Social Implications Time and time again, scripture shows us an unintuitive truth: the powerless can be powerful. The meek, Christ says, shall inherit the earth. A child can bring people to Church and inspire them to devote themselves to God. A young woman can reveal her defenselessness to a King and turn away the fearful and angry fist of the powerful. You can call this defending the defense of the powerless, you can call this advocacy, and you can call this being an ally. Now you might be asking, Who are we in these stories? Are we the powerful or the powerless? Honestly, I don t think many of us would like the answer either way. We don t like being told that we are powerless. A hurt and a vulnerability set in that makes us want to strike out and show our strength. Likewise, we don t like being told we are the powerful ones, because we will think of all the ways we are oppressed or held down by others. The fact is that we are powerful in some situations and powerless in others. We may have more money than some of our friends who invite us over for a very simple meal or else we may have less money than friends who invite us over for a feast. A man in an office may be more respected than a woman but still might be the bottom man on the pecking order. Let us not

5 August 28, 2016 Sermon Page 5 of 6 forget that for all their position and influence, Esther and Mordecai were still members of a fear and hated racial and religious minority. Just as in scripture, God calls on us to use our position as being powerful in some ways to help those who are not so powerful and to call on others to advocate for us in ways that we are less powerful. This reminds me of a saying in our house. When my fiancé Gabby is asked why she went to the White House to advocate at a forum on disability rights, among her answers, she says, if those in the transgender community are to ask our allies to advocate for us where we are powerless, then the transgender community needs to be good allies for others. Stated another away, if we want others to advocate for us, we need to advocate for others. You may have heard in the media or in church that we live in a narcissistic society. One element of that which I believe is true is that no matter who we are, who our community is, we are told to look out only for ourselves. In times of conflict and political campaigns this division and line drawing can become even more rampant, and so we strike out at each other out of fear. God is not so foolish to ignore that we as humans break ourselves off into communities for the sake of safety and support. But scripture time and again tells us to love our enemy and to love our neighbor. This does not mean we move into our neighbor's house or be unaware that a conflict is raging with our enemies. God doesn t tell Ester to announce to the King and court that she is Jewish because her identity doesn t matter. No, everyone, God, Ester, and the King are aware what a dangerous and uncomfortable thing it is to be an advocate. Helping out our neighbors means using our power to help those who we may think haven t earned it, who aren t one of us, who are a part of a community that we don t agree with politically, personally, or spiritually. Defending the powerless may mean turning to our friends, those who are like us politically, personally, and spiritually, and saying, I think you are going too far. I don t agree with them either but they don t deserve to be treated like this. Being an advocate is recognizing that in some situations, we have more sway with people than an outsider does. Being an advocate, for a community and for the self may mean telling your family that you are marrying someone of a different race or religion, that you are gay or transgender, that are voting or praying differently than them, that you have a mental or physical illness, that you are in money or marriage trouble. You put your vulnerability out there before you community fully aware that this may make them see you as another, an outsider, a traitor, a member of the enemy or a neighboring community. Yet we have the power, like the baptized child and like Esther, to use our vulnerability as a source of power. We can show our family and community that this group or type of person they hate is different but maybe not so different that they don t deserve our respect and dignity, maybe even love. In times of conflict, the defenseless of others, be it a baby or a woman standing up for her community among a group who is prejudiced against her, we are brought together and called on to be better. A child today will bring people of different kinds, genders, races, political, even

6 August 28, 2016 Sermon Page 6 of 6 religious affiliations together in one room and ask them all to try to do better as humans for the sake of the defenseless. Scripture today calls on us to stand in the presence of people whose lifestyle, gender, sexuality, disability, age, race, political or even religious affiliation we may fear, hate, or not understand, then calls on us to treat them with more dignity, respect, and love. Our neighbors, our enemies, our differences can make us better people but only if we are willing to advocate for one another. I ve used the world ally several times today and on your way home today I want you to think about that word. Ally is a political term, a term of war. It means that if someone from a different nation is under threat, you and your nation will jump to their defense. It means taking something that is someone else s problem and feeling it as your problem. Allyship is our way of saying, if you do that to them you do that to me. You do that to them and you will answer to me. In times of conflict, allyship is not something we need to put aside. It is in times of conflict, when lines are drawn between communities and affiliations that allyship is the most important. It doesn t make us traitors to say to our own side that we need to treat the other side with dignity and love. Today a child is baptized in our community. Today the powerless makes us promise to be better. By defending the powerless, we defend ourselves.