2024 09 27 Proper 21B Pentecost 19
Esther
7.1-6, 9-10, 9.20-22 Psalm 124 James
5.12-20 Mark 9.38-50
The Jewish festival
of Purim is celebrated about a month before the Passover. People often dress in costumes, to mask their
real identity like Esther hiding her ethnicity.
The book of Esther is read or performed somewhat like a pantomime, where
the audience will boo and stamp their feet at the name of the villain Haman. They wear masks because the story tells of the
beautiful young lady who hid her identity as a Jew. The story is written and retold in a literary
style that serves well as entertainment, However, what is important, is what God
is saying to us through the account.
To summarize;
The Jews had been taken into captivity and Esther, a beautiful orphan Jewish
girl, had been made Queen, after the last queen, Vashti had defied the king and
was deposed. Esther was obedient - a
rule keeper and a peacemaker in nature, and pleased all people, especially the
king.
Esther’s
cousin, Mordecai, who had brought Esther up, had previously saved the king by
alerting him to an assassination plot.
Mordecai was a proud and honourable Jew, who refused to bow to anyone but
God and this brought about hatred from one of the King’s officials, Haman. For Haman, it was not enough to hate
Mordecai, but he sought to annihilate all the Jews from the face of the Earth.
(one of many who would try this in the history of our world!) He issued an edict in the King’s name, which
he had the authority to do, as the King trusted in Haman in all matters,
without questioning him, and so, a law was made that couldn’t be repealed, that
on a certain date all the enemies of the Jews were allowed to kill the Jews and
plunder their goods. As it turned out
the citadel of Susa was perplexed at this unwarranted hatred, but there were
thousands who hated the Jews and were on board with this plan.
At this time
Mordecai asks Esther to intervene and plead to the king on their behalf, and says
to her; … “For if you remain
silent at this time, relief and deliverance for the Jews will arise from
another place, but you and your father's family will perish. And who knows but
that you have come to your royal position for such a time as this?”
Esther asks
Mordecai to send a message to the Jews in Susa to fast with her for three days
and nights. This book of Esther does not
mention God, but we know that fasting involves praying and pleading for God’s intervention
and deliverance. Our reading today is about the result of that praying and
fasting…. God’s intervention and deliverance.
And our Psalm reiterates the joy that comes with this, as it proclaims; “Blessed
be the LORD, who has not given us as prey to their teeth. We have escaped like a bird from the snare of
the hunters; the snare is broken, and we have escaped. Our help is in the name of the LORD, who made
heaven and earth.”
An important
aspect of the story of Esther and the celebration of the Purim, is that of
acknowledging that the deliverance that comes from God also comes through us
unmasking our true identity as the children of God and standing up for, and interceding
for those marked for destruction. Esther
sought the King’s intervention at the risk of losing her own life – You see, It
was the law that you would be put to death for approaching the King unless he
was inclined to show you mercy – even if you were the Queen. In saying nothing Esther may have remained
safely hidden in the palace, but at what cost to others? What would you have done?
SO very
often I have heard dinner conversations where people have expressed that
certain things in society go against the goodness of God, but the warning is
also expressed, “But don’t get involved because it could make you a target”. No one speaks up, because they fear the
consequence. In times when people were
concerned about what was shown on television or read in books, people would
often take a stand, and there are always others who agree with them, who remained
silent because they don’t want to be labelled as one of those “Uneducated
trouble makers”, “Weird”, “fundamentalist”, “flat earther”, “Conspiracy
theorist”. We’ve all heard these terms….
And maybe uttered them.
If we feel
pressure not to talk about things, we are being socially bullied into silence…
but who knows, perhaps we are born for such a time as this… Is it more loving to stay silent or to speak
out? We are called by God to follow the
way of Christ and lay down our lives for the life of others.
Among other
things our letter from James tells us that; “…if anyone among you wanders from
the truth and is brought back by another, you should know that whoever brings
back a sinner from wandering will save the sinner's soul from death and will
cover a multitude of sins.”
You can’t
bring back a sinner from wandering unless you make a judgement about what the
truth is. There are many a social media
post stating that we shouldn’t judge, but we can, and must use God’s discernment
about what the truth is. we need to
stand up for what is Godly, and it involves making some kind of judgement… not so much on the person – that is for God
to do – but certainly, we must point to what is the good and perfect will of
God. Jesus did this all the time. In fact, our reading today tells us that
everyone will be salted with fire. We
all face the consequences of our own sinful actions, but if we judge ourselves…
that is, we have salt in ourselves, and we will be able to discern what is good
and what is not, and be more naturally able to speak with people lovingly,
(knowing that we all fall short) and be at peace.
Jesus,
however, was not soft about sin. He says
that "If any of you cause one of these little ones who believe in me to
sin, it would be better for you if a great millstone were hung around your neck
and you were thrown into the sea. If
your hand causes you to sin, 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.” This is the kind of judgement we need to have
when examining ourselves – not actually cutting off our hand, of course, but
understanding the seriousness. Jesus
makes the seriousness clear because he, himself would have to die to save us
from that sin. We all DO sin. We fall short of God’s perfection and this is
how serious it is. But thanks be to God,
Jesus has paid the price for us – it is done – we need not worry about it
anymore, but rejoice that we are safe in God…. And yet, we need to remember
that sin is actually serious…. Otherwise Jesus’ dying for us was a senseless
and cruel act of God.
The reason
that Jesus came and died was to bring us life eternal, life abundant, and so
that we could have an uninterrupted relationship with God. God’s objective is for us to all have faith
in him and we, as His people, need to work with him to bring this faith to
others and we need to work with him in bringing to others those three aspects
of life… life eternal, life abundant,
and a close relationship with God. This
is what our reading from James is all about.
James asks, “Are
any among you sick?” If so, the elders
of the church should pray over them. And
James tells us that the prayer of faith will save the sick, and those who need
forgiveness will receive it. He also
says that we should confess our sins to one another and pray for one another,
so that we may be healed. I have this
theory that there is a sin worse than that of the taking of fruit of that tree
in the garden of Eden, and it was the sin of Adam not taking responsibility for
his sin, but blaming everyone else instead.
When we have salt in ourselves… judge our own actions and take
responsibility we can be healed.
We are exhorted
that, “The prayer of the righteous is powerful and effective. Elijah was a human like us, and he prayed
fervently that it might not rain, and for three years and six months it did not
rain on the earth. Then he prayed again,
and the heaven gave rain and the earth yielded its harvest.” We need to know that we are called and anointed
as part of our baptism to have this ministry and to exhibit this kind of
effective prayer. Just let that sink in
for a moment…. You and I are called and anointed to pray in such a way that our
prayer is powerful and effective… and it
isn’t a formula or the manner in which we pray that makes our prayer powerful,
but that we are righteous by our acceptance of Jesus and our standing in the
kingdom of God.
Esther interceded
for her people and saved a nation. We, as
people who are called to pray powerfully and effectively, healing the sick and
effecting change in our community, - interceding for our nation, do we realize
that we were born for such a time as this?
The festival of Purim is a festival of thanksgiving and joy, reminding
us that God will intervene and deliver, but we are born for such a time
as this and we need to play the part that God calls us to. To stand and be counted as God’s own people
in the royal kingdom of God, saving others by our intercession…. What action is God asking us to take this
day? We were born for such a time as
this.
