Esther

 Reading: the book of Esther

A quick outline of the book of Esther.

The story of Easter is one that you may not be familiar with. The people of Israel were in exile. About 587 years before Christ, Jerusalem was destroyed and in the 10 years following that the Jewish elite were deported to Babylon, around the same time many Jewish people left the land and move to a variety of places. About 539 BC Cyrus the Persian king conquered Babylon, some of the Jews went back home, but some did not.

The book of Esther begins with King Ahasuerus throwing a banquet, 6 months into the banquet, [yes, a banquet that went for at least 6 months!] he calls his wife to come and show the people at the banquet how beautiful she is, but Vashti refuses. Vashti is no longer allowed to be in the presence of the King, and a decree goes out that all the beautiful young virgins to come to the King's harem, and one would be chosen to be the new Queen.

Esther was chosen to be the new Queen.

Esther's uncle Mordecai overheard a plot to kill the King, he told Esther who warned the King, and his life was saved.

The King's main adviser is a man named Haman, he does not like the Jews. Haman tells the King that there are certain people who do not keep the King's Laws and the King should proclaim a decree for them all to be destroyed. The King accepts Haman’s word, and the decree is sent throughout the land. Then Esther steps in and speaks to the King, the decree cannot be reversed, but another decree goes out that the Jewish people can defend themselves.

There are some oddities in the book of Esther, in its 10 chapters there is no mention of God, the temple, the exodus, or the salvation history of the Jewish people. Esther doesn’t see God or hear from God. Yet Esther is a role model of bravery. She is not perfect. She would have broken all sorts of Torah rules in living in the Palace. Yet, when push came to shove, she chose to risk her life, for the life of her people.

The book of Esther could easily be a soap opera or melodramatic movie. We have a fickle King, a villain, plot twists, an unlikely heroine, war and death, triumph and tragedy. A Hollywood directors dream. Yet this book is in the Bible. I wonder why it was chosen to be included. What does this story of gluttony, promiscuity, and violence have to say to us today.

Esther is part of a religious and ethnic minority. Her ancestors most likely moved to Persia following the fall of Jerusalem; about 100 years later Ahasuerus was King. Even though Jewish people have been living in Persia for 100 years, their life is still perilous, as we see from the actions of Haman, who, by the way, is of Canaanite heritage.   

How do we see people who have a different religious or ethnic background to ourselves? Do we treat them as worth less, more expendable, not as deserving of education, health, work, and housing? Do we trust people from a different background less than people who look like us and speak like us and have similar values? What do you know about the experience of migrants and refugees?

The King is portrayed as incompetent and power drunk. The opening scene has the king giving a banquet for officials and nobles and governors and generals. After 180 days, the king gives a week-long banquet for everyone in Susa in the palace garden. While this happening the queen, Vashti, was giving a banquet for the women. As the story continues there is much feasting and drinking. The King makes rash decisions, and relies for advice from others, who have their own agenda.

I wonder what we look for in our leaders, elected and unelected. I hear people speak about the Royal Family in terms of stability, decency, dedication, and a selfless devotion to the greater good. We do not see this in King Ahasuerus.

Esther, as many people from minority groups do, blends in as much as she can. She joined the other young women in becoming part of the harem. Esther was aware of what was happening and spoke up against injustice. Not the injustice of young women being sexual playthings for the king; but the injustice that could have seen many people killed. In speaking on behalf of her people, Esther took a risk, she risked her life; she could have continued to hide that she was Jewish. The King had not noticed. But she spoke up.

When do we speak up and speak out? Is it for ourselves or for others?  

Nothing in the story of Esther suggests that God spoke to her or gave her a sign, there is no burning bush or voice from heaven.

So often God's action in our life, God's activity in the world around us, is hidden from us; not because God is trying to hide, but because God acts in what looks like our ordinary life.

Most of us will never entertain an Angel, like Mary and Joseph did.
Most of us will not be able to tap a rock and have freshwater flow from it, like Moses.
Most of us will not touch the holes in the hands of Jesus as Thomas did.

We may wish for the certainty of the burning bush, or walking through the Red Sea, but reality is, most of us will not have those experiences.

We can learn from Esther.
We can learn what it is like to be everyday believers.
To be the good news,
To be hope and light
to be ready, to speak, to act.

Our lives, like Esther’s will not be perfect. We will break God’s heart at times, but God still trusts us and calls us to act for humanity.

  

Poem

 

Esther – a woman of action;

   a role-model for the ordinary

   to be extra-ordinary;

   a role-model who took direct action.

   The rabbis have considered her a prophet,

   who neither spoke a word with God

   nor from God,

   but who risked her life

   to save her people.

 

Jeremiah

   Amos

   Jesus

   Caroline Chisholm

   William Wilberforce

   Oscar Romero

   Mother Theresa…

spoke out

   against the wrongs in their societies;

   took action

   to redress those wrongs;

   to offer the world a glimpse

   of the realm of God:

   a community

   of mutual relationship;

   a community in which

   trust, obligation, morality, common good, tradition, goodwill,

   co-operation, religious values, neighbourliness

   and more

   are valued as basic to the good health,

   the wholeness,

   of that community.

 

This alternative vision

   is the realm we are called to live:

   to stand with those whose lives are hurt by the prevailing systems,

   to identify

   not with the powerful

   but the vulnerable.

 This is our risky journey

 of discipleship.

 

© Jeff Shrowder, 2012. (Adapted from a sermon from some years ago, which may have drawn on material from other, long-forgotten, sources.)