Esther 7:1-6, 9-10; 9:20-22 and Psalm 124 • James 5:13-20 • Mark 9:38-50
Do we realize our position of privilege? We are children of God, belonging to his royal family and, as should be because of this, we have great power and a great responsibility.
Our first reading is from the book of Esther. Let me tell you about Esther, the young Jewish girl who became Queen when the Persian King married her while the Jews were living in exile. They were in exile because of the great sin of the nation.
Esther was described as being highly obedient both to her uncle who brought her up and to her husband the King. So it was totally out of character that she should seek to speak to the king and, due to the law of that society, it took great courage as there was the threat of death for speaking out of turn, unless the king desired to spare her. Esther was highly courageous, as not only was she to initiate conversation with the King, but she had a huge favour to request. Her request was that the King should intervene in the plan that Haman, the king’s assistant (2 I C), had to annihilate the Jewish people.
Although it was not etiquette for her to initiate conversation with the king, she was the only Jew who had this position of privilege and relationship with the King, such that she could intercede for her people and nation. She prayed and fasted before taking action and others outside the palace prayed and fasted with her. When she did take action the result was favourable and the nation was saved.
We live in a privileged nation and we live lives of great privilege in the year 2018. But there are things in our nation that require us to take a stand as the people of God. When there are injustices and voices that need us to speak for them, we have a responsibility as the people of God to do so. Just like Esther we need to pray and fast with those outside our camp so that we are doing all things according to his will.
Esther lived inside the palace and only received and gave messages about standing together in prayer. I do wonder what those Jewish outsiders thought of Esther, the little Jewish girl who attracted the king and won the title of Queen.
In our Gospel reading we see that the Disciples of Jesus were not impressed by the outsider who was casting out demons in Jesus name. The disciples tried to stop him. I wonder if the outsiders in Esther’s time tried to stop her becoming Queen? If they had, God’s means to save them could not have come to be. And to paraphrase the words of her uncle in an earlier part of the book, “who knows, maybe you were put in this position for this very purpose”.
Who are our outsiders?
A JOKE –A virtuous woman dies, goes to heaven, and finds everything she expected: picturesque landscapes, perfect sunsets, and infinite tranquillity and serenity. Only one thing puzzles her: a high wall, far off in the distance that climbs almost to the clouds.
“What’s behind that wall?” she asks one of the angels.
“Oh, that’s where we put the Catholics,” the angel replies. “They think they’re the only ones up here.”
It seems that this Gospel reading is dealing with the quarrels in the early church where different groups all saw themselves as being more authentic than others. Nothing much has changed! So we could easily become complacent about the issue and just accept it, but look again at the reading because this is not a G rated script, but more; “warning, strong violence and themes of body dismembering!”
Mark 9:43 “If your hand causes you to stumble, cut it off; it is better for you to enter life maimed than to have two hands and to go to hell, to the unquenchable fire.”
Strong words and warnings that are not to be taken literally, but shockingly serious warnings which we’ve pretty much failed to heed. The severity of the words serve as a warning and follow the warning about causing a “little one to fall”.
Mark 9:42 "If any of you put a stumbling block before one of these little ones who believe in me, it would be better for you if a great millstone were hung around your neck and you were thrown into the sea.”
All of these strong statements are like a slap across the face, but so shocking that perhaps we fail to connect them with the original statement from the disciples which brought on this barrage of warnings. It was that statement being about the person casting out demons in Jesus’ name and the disciples trying to stop him.
Have we ever tried to stop someone who was doing something in Jesus name because they were not “one of us”?
Often, if we feel we are not in control, or even simply if we feel overlooked, it is all too easy to discourage, discount, even defame and reject those who are simply trying to do something in Jesus name. What would Jesus do?
These struggles happen because of our own feelings that we are right and others are not and, just like the disciples, we feel we are doing the right thing in stopping them, but we really need to stop and think about what we are doing and why?
It is something that happens in volunteer organization regularly. To be honest, there have been times when I felt I was trying to do things in Jesus name and I was stopped, discouraged and discounted. An example; Back when Joe was alive I noticed something that was in need and knew I could fix it. Joe said to go and do it, so I did, but later had someone confronted me over it. I was shocked as I had only wanted to help. And the fruit of that situation is that the thing I fixed is still used and amazing.
That is one side of the coin, but I also need to remember this as I deal with people – and in our Street Chaplaincy organisation, often people want to do things to help…. And others get upset about it! For example; the lady who makes chocolate crackles for special occasions … her own donation… but others think it is pointless and an extra unnecessary thing to worry about… but is it? People on the street often talk about the chocolate crackle lady and how they love it. As people from many different Christian traditions express a desire to have an impact, I need to remember that Chaplaincy doesn’t belong to me, but to God and anything done in his name are people working for him and therefore we are on the same team…. Sometimes instead of stopping things, just because it is not “MY” thing, I need to instead ask how I can help. Can you imagine a world where we all encouraged each other like this?
Why was Jesus so very adamant about this issue? In what ways are these “outsiders”, the “Little ones” that we mustn’t cause to stumble? I think a classic example is in the life of the famous painter, Vincent Van Gogh. Did you know that in his earlier life he was a zealous Christian who was devoting his whole life to serving and working as a missionary?
There is an article on the net that I would highly recommend, by Aaron Gloy.
http://aarongloy.com/2014/03/25/the-tragic-faith-story-of-vincent-van-gogh/
Van Gogh would eventually move to Amsterdam with the intent of studying theology at a school there. When he was unable to pass the entrance exam, he opted instead to study at a protestant missions school near Brussels.
It was from here that Van Gogh went to the mission field.
Moved by his conviction to share the gospel, Van Gogh took a position as an evangelist in a small mining community in Belgium. Like a true missionary, Van Gogh committed to live a poor, meagre lifestyle amongst the miners in order to adopt their way of life and more effectively minister to them. The local priesthood, however, did not like that at all. They found Van Gogh’s actions insulting to their vocation. So together they dismissed Van Gogh for what they called “undermining the dignity of the priesthood.”
This had a profound effect on Vincent Van Gogh. Personally, I’m not sure he ever fully recovered from it.
I find his painting of the church of Auvers interesting…. What do you notice? The church is closed. There is a divide between the church and outside.
When we hurt the people in God’s family it is a serious thing. If it is our eye that causes us to do this it is better to… well … you know what Jesus said… but we often fail to even see that we have sinned in this way. In fact consider that this most graphic warning is not given to the woman caught in adultery or the tax collectors etc.., but to the disciples who tried to stop an someone in ministry.
From the letter of James: 5:16 “Therefore confess your sins to one another, and pray for one another, so that you may be healed. The prayer of the righteous is powerful and effective.”
We need safe people who we can…. Let’s use the word “debrief” with. Really… we need to confess our sins to one another – but I think the concept maybe too foreign, so to begin with we need to understand debrief - it means that we discuss situations in safety and confidentiality, not to work out an answer or be told what to do, but so that we can logically and rationally have help with seeing the situation clearly…. Perhaps once we do this we can than reach a point of confessing. In doing this we keep a watch on our actions and help each other…. We cover a multitude of sins… because let’s face it, we are going to get things wrong a lot. We are human and fallible, but in realizing what we are doing we can make a change.
We are told the prayer of the righteous is powerful and effective, but to be righteous with God we need to be in a right relationship with both each other and with God. Abraham believed God and it was credited as righteousness. There is a righteousness that comes through faith and by being aligned with God through the life of Christ and all have access to this righteousness.
The Gospel reading ends with, 9:49 "For everyone will be salted with fire. 9:50 Salt is good; but if salt has lost its saltiness, how can you season it? Have salt in yourselves, and be at peace with one another."
We are completely forgiven, set free and redeemed by Jesus, but the fire that we need to be salted with is our own willingness and desire to live fully submitted to God by examining ourselves and actually being courageous & willing to look our own sin fair and square in the eye. Do you have salt in yourself? Do you examine your motives and actions in the light of God’s law? That is the salt we all need, but we can have confidence to do this only when we understand God’s mercy and grace.
It is vital that we all get serious with ourselves because we need the powerful and effective prayers of the righteous. We are told that the prayers of Elijah stopped the rain. We can sit comfortable in our palaces….or in our case, our comfortable churches, but like Queen Esther we have this position for a reason and it is to save God’s chosen people. Like those praying and fasting with Esther we need to see the salvation of God over the matters that darken our society… the salvation of the unheard voices for whom we need to speak. It’s time we claimed back the spiritual ground that we’ve been losing and built up the church of God – not just our denominational Church, but God’s Church.
