1 Today is the only time in the entire three year lectionary series when we get to hear from Esther. The story may or may not be one you re familiar with, as I was searching for a version of the story to read for the children s message, I realized that not every children s bible includes the story of Esther. And if they do, they omit huge plot points or add in things that aren t in the scripture. It s understandable of course, the story contains twists and turns that would rival a hollywood movie. The characters are big and over the top, and, well, there s a lot of death in this short book. There are a number of reasons to just skip it altogether and choose one of the other texts for this week, but there are also reasons to take a closer look: to tell the story of Esther;to see what the narrative says to you; and to do that we really need to place the lectionary into the fuller context. Now, I m not going to read the whole book, though I encourage you to do just that, but I m going to tell you the story of Esther the way that the children will hear it at the later service, from a book called The Children s Storybook Bible that was pulled together by Archbishop Desmond Tutu.
2 We get many of the highlights of the story, we hear who the major characters are and we get a good grasp of what happens. But we also miss a lot of the story. In the bible when the book begins there is a different Queen, Queen Vashti who defies the King and is sent away, the King searches for a new Queen and picks Esther. Esther is a Jew and that is apparently not something the King really pays attention to. He s not really the most observant King. Esther is an orphan who has been raised by her cousin Mordecai. Mordecai hears of a plot against the King, lets him know and saves the King's life, though the King doesn t initially know it s Mordecai he owes his life to. Haman is one of the advisors to the king and he plots against Mordecai and against all of the Jewish people. Esther is told about this plot and she decides to go against the rules and approach the King in the hopes of saving her people. It is here that our text picks up the story. And I m going to read The Message version, so it won t completely line up with what is in your bulletin, but it is pretty close.
3 Esther 7:1-6 The Message (MSG) 7 1-2 So the king and Haman went to dinner with Queen Esther. At this second dinner, while they were drinking wine the king again asked, Queen Esther, what would you like? Half of my kingdom! Just ask and it s yours. 3 Queen Esther answered, If I have found favor in your eyes, O King, and if it please the king, give me my life, and give my people their lives. 4 We ve been sold, I and my people, to be destroyed sold to be massacred, eliminated. If we had just been sold off into slavery, I wouldn t even have brought it up; our troubles wouldn t have been worth bothering the king over. 5 King Xerxes exploded, Who? Where is he? This is monstrous! 6 An enemy. An adversary. This evil Haman, said Esther. Haman was terror-stricken before the king and queen.
4 9 Harbona, one of the eunuchs attending the king, spoke up: Look over there! There s the gallows that Haman had built for Mordecai, who saved the king s life. It s right next to Haman s house seventy-five feet high! The king said, Hang him on it! 10 So Haman was hanged on the very gallows that he had built for Mordecai. And the king s hot anger cooled. 9: 20-22 Mordecai wrote all this down and sent copies to all the Jews in all King Xerxes provinces, regardless of distance, calling for an annual celebration on the fourteenth and fifteenth days of Adar as the occasion when Jews got relief from their enemies, the month in which their sorrow turned to joy, mourning somersaulted into a holiday for parties and fun and laughter, the sending and receiving of presents and of giving gifts to the poor. This is the word of the Lord Thanks be to God. If we Christians are unfamiliar with this story, that s not true for our Jewish brothers and sisters. The story of Esther is the basis for the Jewish festival of Purim. This festival is one of great celebration that the Jewish
5 people were saved by Esther. It is a joyful feast, there are stories and food and drink and there is a tradition of giving to charity during the celebration. While reading the story of Esther and reading commentaries about it, the thing that initially jumped out at me was Esther s courage. In chapter four we read about Mordecai going to Esther and telling her about the plot to kill her people and imploring her to go to the King, to do something to save them. Esther isn t so sure. She knows that to go to the King without being called for is a violation of protocol. A violation that could cost her her life. It is in this conversation that we hear the words we may associate with this book, Esther 4:14 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. There are two things about this part of Esther s story that call to me. The first is her courage. Esther, a Queen yes, but an ordinary young woman otherwise, defies the rules. She knows what she has to do and she is willing to do it, even though it may cost her her life. Courage is a strange thing. It can look so very different. This past spring Caitlyn Jenner was awarded the Arthur Ashe Courage Award at the ESPN
6 awards called the ESPY s. Giving her this award was controversial and caused much chatter around the internet and in the news, but to me the most interesting part of it was the conversations about what courage looks like. There are things that everyone pictures- Policemen, firemen, and our military folks who literally put their lives on the line for us every day. People of all ages who battle cancer or other diseases. Those who have great setbacks but struggle through to get their sense of normal back. But there are also quieter acts of courage. e.e. cummings said It takes courage to grow up and become who you really are. And I think that s true. I think for us as Christians that means growing up and figuring out who God has created us to be and having the courage to embrace that. For Esther that meant being a Queen who stood up for her people. Being a Queen meant doing what was right, regardless of the consequences. The second part of this story that I love is Mordecai s assertion that this act of courage he is asking Esther to undertake is the reason that she is Queen in the first place. Esther 4:14 says...who knows? Perhaps you have come to royal dignity for just such a time as this. I think that this probably appeals to us Presbyterians in a very Calvinistic way. It speaks a little predestination to us. And I also think it speaks to those of us who aren t
7 sure what exactly we have been called to do. Unsure about why God has put us in a particular place at a particular time. Because the answer to Mordecai's "Who knows?" Is God. When that phrase occurs elsewhere in the Hebrew Bible, and it often does, God always knows. As I was reading over this text, a song played in my head. And I won t sing, and I won t do any of the energizer moves I learned at Montreat last summer, but in the Katy Perry song Firework she says Maybe a reason why all the doors are closed/so you could open one that leads you to the perfect road/like a lightning bolt, your heart will glow/ And when it's time you'll know So what I m saying is that Queen Esther is a Firework. And Katy Perry is apparently a passable theologian? Maybe. However, one of my favorite theologians, Frederick Buechner, put it another way when he said, "The question is not whether the things that happen to you are chance things or God s things because, of course, they are both at once. There is no chance thing through which God cannot speak He speaks, I believe, and the words he speaks are incarnate in the flesh and blood of our selves and of our own footsore and sacred journeys Be not afraid, for lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world. He says he is with us on our
8 journeys. He says he has been with us since each of our journeys began. Listen for him. Listen to the sweet and bitter airs of your present and your past for the sound of him. The part of this quote about listening is the part I think we need to pay most attention to. Because while we heard about God and prayer in the children s version of Esther s story, neither God nor prayer are mentioned in the full story in the Bible. Esther is the one book of the bible where God is not present. No voices from above, no burning bushes, no angels bearing news. God does not make an appearance. Nor does Esther call out for God, this isn t a situation where she is praying and praying and just hears nothing, this is just a story of a woman, a Queen, as she goes about one part of her life and manages to save her people. In reading about this aspect of the story, it struck me that in this way, perhaps, some of us are much like Esther. How many of us have seen bushes burst into flames in front of us, or literally heard God telling us what to do? How much more common is it for us to go about our days and NOT see a burning bush or hear God s voice? I know that is the norm for me. I find God in my relationships, in songs on the radio, or in a story that says something profound to me, but I
9 don t ordinarily see big, loud, displays of God s presence. I have to pay attention. To look for God all around me and to listen for God in the silence. As I was reading about this story one commenter surmised that the teller of the story is a human struggling to know exactly where God fits in. And that we are drawn to Esther s story and to the hope that though God is not named, God can still be known. I don t know if that hits home for you, but it does for me. The struggle of how to be a person of faith in a secular society, the struggle of being in the darkness and not knowing when the light will come, the struggle of seeing people suffer and not being able to stop it. There are many times we look around and wonder where God is. So perhaps in those times we can think of Queen Esther. In a place where she and her people are outnumbered. In a place where she doesn t have the advantage of a burning bush. In a place where doing the right thing takes a huge amount of courage. And when we are in those places that are uncomfortable, or painful, or dark. When we are called on for big displays of courage, and when merely claiming our voices seems to take monumental bravery, we can think of Esther. And of God not being named, but the hope that God is present and that God won t leave us and that the future that God has created us for is happening.