Be with us, O Lord, for if you are with us nothing else matters; and if you are not with us, nothing else matters. Amen.
The Bible is full of rich and stimulating stories of faith. Once such story is that of Esther. It’s not a story that is well-known though, and it only shows up once every three years in our cycle of Sunday morning readings. While I will point to some aspects of the story that are worthy of our deeper consideration, I want to start by telling the story of Esther, both because it is a story that the Church should be more familiar with, but also because just hearing the story itself will be edifying to your faith.
The book of Esther opens with an over-the-top banquet given by King Ahasuerus; you might be more familiar with his Persian name – Xerxes. He is the king of the great Persian Empire. To understand why a book of Jewish scripture opens in Persia instead of Israel, we must recall some history. In the year 587 BC, the Babylonian empire invaded Jerusalem, destroying the Temple and killing many people. The elites of Jerusalem were taken away into captivity in Babylon, which was centered in modern-day Iraq. This era of Jewish history is known as the Exile.
However, as we know from history, every empire falls. In 539, the Babylonian Empire was defeated by the Persian Empire and when the Persians sacked Babylon they asked, “How did these Jews from Israel end up here?” The Persians had no issues with Israel, and so they allowed the Jews to return to their homeland. But 587 to 539 is a long time; it’s 48 years, two or so generations. Many Jews had established new lives in Babylon. Some had intermarried with Babylonians. For many, Babylon was the only home that they had ever known and they had learned how to remain faithful Jews in a foreign land, and so some Jews elected to remain in Babylon, which was now Persia, instead of returning to Israel. One such family was that of Esther.
Back to the party – it’s one that would make Mardi Gras seem like a tea party. The Bible says that the party went on for 6 months and that “Drinking was by flagons, without restraint.” It was intended to be a flashy show of wealth by the King. As you might imagine, if you’ve been partying for 6 months, things might get out of hand. One day, Xerxes decides that put on a further show of his prestige by commanding his wife, Queen Vashti, to parade around in front of the guests, showing off her body to them. But she refuses to be treated as an object or defined only by her appearance, and so she refuses the King’s request.
This enrages the King and also causes anxiety in the kingdom. Many of the men of the kingdom were worried that if Queen Vashti was not reprimanded, that their wives might also be emboldened to disobey their requests. Sadly, 2,500 years later women are still objectified and not given respect or autonomy when it comes to their bodies, and so just as we might expect to happen in the news today, Queen Vashti ends up being dismissed for her refusal.
So the King needs a new queen. Throughout the book of Esther, Xerxes is portrayed as an incompetent, emotional, easily manipulated, and reckless ruler. At every point of the story, he has to have advisors tell him what to do, because he has no clue. They recommend holding a contest with all the women of Persia to see who would be a fitting queen. A young Jewish girl, Esther, was being raised by her cousin, Mordecai in the kingdom. Esther eventually gains the King’s favor and becomes queen, though she doesn’t reveal her Jewish identity.
One day, Mordecai was walking through the city and heard two men planning to assassinate the King. Mordecai told Esther to tell the King about this plot, and in doing so, she further cemented her place as a loyal queen and Persian royalty. Though we might not hear it as such, this really is funny. The thought that a Jewish girl whose family chose to remain in Persia instead of returning to Israel would end up being the Queen of Persia is ridiculously improbable.
As the story continues, we hear that King Xerxes appoints a man named Haman to be his top advisor. Haman is xenophobic and manipulative of the King’s ineptitude. As the King’s right-hand man, he was to be given respect throughout the kingdom. On one occasion, as Haman walked by Mordecai, Mordecai refused to bow down to him, because as a faithful Jew, it would be idolatrous to do so. Haman’s fragile ego was bruised and he became enraged. So he went to the King and convinced the easily manipulated King that all the Jews in the kingdom, which included the land of Israel, should be killed. Sadly, this is not the last time that the Jewish people were the target of genocidal hatred.
Mordecai then learns of the order against the Jewish people and goes to Esther to ask her to persuade the King to rescind his order. Esther reminds Mordecai of the rule that you cannot approach the king without being summoned; if you do, you will be killed, even if you are the Queen. Mordecai replies, “You can either die for violating this rule, or you can die when they learn that you are a Jew; but either way, you will die.” Then Mordecai delivers the line that we might say is the summary of the story of Esther – “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.” Esther responds, “I will go to the king, though it is against the law; and if I perish, I perish.”
Esther reminds us that you can be full of fear and trembling while showing tremendous courage. Knowing that she can’t just walk into the throne room without being killed, she uses her wits to entice the King into an invitation. She puts on her royal garments and strolls around the hallway until she catches his eye. He says to her “What is it, Queen Esther? What is your request? It shall be given you, even to the half of my kingdom.” Esther requests a banquet be held and that Haman be made a guest of honor. This rather pleases Haman. He brags to his family about “the splendor of his riches, the number of his sons, all the promotions with which the king had honored him, and how he had advanced him above the officials and the ministers of the king. Even Queen Esther let no one but himself come with the king to the banquet that she prepared.” His evil plans have blinded him from realizing that he was walking into a trap. But all of his status and privilege were not enough for him; he couldn’t allow himself to ever be satisfied even though he had more than enough. When he again sees Mordecai not bowing to him, he is again enraged and orders that gallows be built to hang Mordecai from.
That night, the King was having trouble sleeping, so he orders that book of the records of the kingdom be read to him. It seems that when you are an egotistical dictator that the best bedtime story is having people tell you how great you are. When they get to the part about Mordecai saving the King from the assassination attempt, Xerxes asks “How have we honored Mordecai for that great deed?” When he learns that nothing has been done, he summons Haman and asks him how the King should honor someone who has done great service for him. Haman assumes the King is talking about him, so he suggests that this person be given royal robes and ride the King’s horse around the town square to be honored by all. The King says “That sounds great; go do that for Mordecai.” Though Haman is embarrassed and angered by this turn of events, he has the banquet to look forward to.
At the banquet, the King again says to Esther that he will grant her whatever she wishes. Esther petitions that the lives of her people be spared. The clueless King doesn’t understand why her people are under threat, so she explains the plot and the angered King says “Who would do this to you?” She then points to Haman and says “The wicked Haman!” When Haman went to try to convince Esther to change her mind, the King assumed that Haman was trying to seduce her since he was found in her chambers. The King then ordered that Haman be hung on the very gallows that he had constructed for Mordecai. As to the order that had previously been issued against the Jews throughout Persia, another decree was issued that allowed the Jews to defend themselves against any attacks and the Jews defended themselves and slaughtered their enemies. Mordecai rose in stature among the Jewish community and the Jewish people celebrated extravagantly because they had been spared and were victorious. And to this day, each year Jews celebrate that same festival known as Purim.
It’s an amazing story and there are many things that I could say about it, but I want to focus briefly on two questions that follow from the story of Esther: “Where is God?” and “Where are you?”
The question “Where is God” is relevant because God is not in the book of Esther, at least not explicitly. Not once in the entire book is God’s name mentioned. The agent of salvation is Esther. This isn’t like the Exodus event where the hand of God is seen as parting the waters of the Red Sea. Rather, what we see in Esther is that it is assumed that God is behind the acts of salvation, even when not named. We catch a clue of this when Haman’s family says to him “If Mordecai, before whom your downfall has begun, is of the Jewish people, you will not prevail against him, but will surely fall before him.” There is an assumption that Haman will fall because God stands with the Jewish people, with the people who are being persecuted. This is certainly something that we see in the life of Jesus – that God is on the side of the oppressed and the lowly.
Sometimes in life, indeed it seems as if God is not present. It might seem like the only source of salvation is to be found in humanity, not from God. Psalm 124 which we heard this morning expresses the wisdom of knowing and trusting that God’s saving hand is always delivering us, even if we are unaware of it at the time: If the Lord had not been on our side, then our enemies would have defeated us in their anger, then would the waters of chaos rushed over us. The Psalm gives us a wonderful refrain to take with us as we consider that question “Where is God?” – “Our help is in the Name of the Lord, the maker of heaven and earth.” At times, God’s hand might seem absent, it might be invisible. But the story of Esther reminds us that even when we forget to put God’s name on our lips, even when it seems as if evil will overrun us, God remains with us and God’s salvation comes through subversive and unexpected people like Esther, through someone like you.
The second question that Esther poses to us is “Where are you?” Each of you has been given experiences, tools, passion, lessons in life. These lessons may have come in positive ways and maybe you’ve learned them through suffering. Either way, you have been shaped by the experiences that have brought you to today. You are who you are, and God can use that, whoever you are. You have talents, you have money, you have privileges. And who knows, it may very well be that God has brought you to such a time as this exactly because of who you are.
How many times have you thought or said “What Salisbury needs is this,” or “What St. Luke’s needs is that,” or “What our nation needs is more of this and less of that”? Esther shows us that sometimes you are God’s answer to your own questions. Queen Esther came to realize that her becoming royalty wasn’t about her, it was about her people and God’s salvation. In the same way, God has given you opportunities to use your voice to stand up for those without a voice, to use your money to make a difference with it, to use your intellect, your compassion, your patience to be God’s saving act in the situations you find yourself in. When we realize that our lives and our resources are not for us, but rather are for us to use for a time such as this, then we have a way to answer “Where are you.”
You are where God has placed you. You are the person who has been created by the love of God. You are the person who has been shaped by the life you have lived. And God can and will use you. As we see in Esther, it does take courage and some risk to be faithful stewards of our lives. And so the more we root ourselves in community and prayer, the more trust we will have to respond in faith. The Mordecais of our world are tapping on your shoulder, saying to you “Who knows? Perhaps you have come to this moment in your life for just such a time as this.” Will you show up?
