Reading Esther
Most Sundays I choose, for worship, a scripture from the lectionary. The lectionary is a three-year cycle of scripture readings used in many churches throughout the world.
In that entire three year cycle, the book of Esther only appears once: today, the eighteenth Sunday after Pentecost in year B of the three-year lectionary cycle.
Which means it doesn't get a whole lot of attention in Christian churches, which is too bad. It's such a great story! Modern Jews know how great it is, and they celebrate the story of Esther each year, in February or March, with a holiday called Purim, during which Jewish congregations will hilariously act out the story of Esther, dressing up, cheering the heroes of the story, and booing and hissing at the villains.
But we just get one reading every three years, and even that is sometimes overlooked.
And the lectionary gives us a weird reading. It skips around. It includes some verses from chapter seven and some verses from chapter nine. And, it’s a spoiler - it tells the end of the story, without telling the beginning or the middle.
Some of you are familiar with the story of Esther, and some of you are not, so instead of hearing bits and pieces from chapters 7 and 9, I’ve changed it so that we heard, instead, bits and pieces from chapter 3. But don’t worry; I’ll get to chapters 7 and 9 before the sermon is over.
Of course, if you want to hear the full story, go home and read the book of Esther for yourself.
Chapter 3 focuses on Mordecai, who was a Jew - and Haman, who was King Ahasuerus's vizier.
Haman’s Evil Plan
When Haman became vizier, it was expected that people would bow down to him when he passed by. But Mordecai would not bow down to Haman. Because he was a Jew, Mordecai believed that one should only bow down before God.
This enraged Haman. Haman was so furious that he wanted to get rid of Mordecai. In fact, Haman was so furious, he wanted to get rid of ALL the Jews. He wanted them all completely destroyed.
In other words, he wanted genocide.
Haman hatched a plan to get rid of the Jews, and went and presented his plan to the king. He said to the king, “The Jews are not like everyone else. They talk different. They dress different. They act different. They are a threat to the kingdom.”
Well, they weren’t a threat; but they were different, and how often are people who are different seen as a threat… just because they are different?
Overcoming Prejudice
I wish I could say this is something that only happened in ancient times, but sadly, we know this is not true. Every generation, there is some group of people being discriminated against, persecuted against, because they are different… because their race is different… because their religion is different… because their sexuality is different… because they don’t conform to gender norms…
...and, like Haman, there are people who are quick to spread rumors and lies about those who are different, in an attempt to get rid of them.
Next week, I’m going to start a sermon series about the apostle Paul, but I’ll tell you now that Paul had some prejudices and spread some stereotypes about gentiles. Mostly, this was a reflection of his Jewish society’s prejudices against gentiles, prejudices Paul couldn’t shake, even though he considered it his life’s purpose to serve and minister to the gentiles, letting them know that the way of Jesus is for them, too, and not just the Jews.
But it’s just so hard to overcome prejudices when those prejudices are such a part of the society one lives in.
We all have prejudices. We all hold stereotypes. We all make assumptions about other people. And those prejudices and assumptions are constantly reinforced by society, by the media. Our minds have been trained to make assumptions about "those people," and every day, those assumptions and prejudices are reinforced by the images we see and the messages we receive from society.
This is why critical race theory is so important. The prejudices that lead to racism are a part of our society. They are embedded in society. They are in the air we breathe and the water we drink. It’s like a river current in which we live - the current pulls us along. It’s not enough to say, “I’m not racist, I’m not making the current go…” That’s not enough. We must actively work against the flow.
So, it's a never ending yet necessary part of our life's work to become aware of our prejudices and assumptions, and work through them and dismantle them.
Because if we don't...we become no better than Haman, whose prejudices and assumptions about the Jews led him to do terrible things.
So Haman convinces himself that the Jews are evil because they are different, and he goes and tries to convince the king of this as well. He wants the king to agree to his plan to exterminate all the Jews.
First, he reiterates how different the Jews are, the implication being that those differences are a threat. And to further persuade the king, Haman promises money. Lots of money. Ten thousand kikkars of silver - that's about 750,000 pounds of silver - which will go into the king’s treasury if the king does what Haman requests.
In Love with Money
Well, money is persuasive. A lot of money can be overpowering in the way it grabs hold of someone. And, as it says in 1 Timothy, love of money is the root of all evil.
Needless to say, the king agreed to Haman's evil plan. He agreed to, because of his love of money.
This week, people were shot in grocery stores, schools, and a Shake Shack, but we have politicians in the U.S. who won’t act to end gun violence in schools, because they receive money from the NRA.
This week, unprecedented fires have threatened thousand year-old sequoias and filled our air with smoke, but we have politicians who won’t act to protect our climate, because they receive so much money from fossil fuel companies.
We have billionaires who have doubled and tripled their wealth during the pandemic while so many others have struggled, but we have politicians who won’t act to reform our tax structure - a tax structure that favors the wealthy and penalizes the poor - because they have too many millionaires and billionaires among their donors.
And those billionaires are taking joyrides into space using wealth that isn't even taxed by the government.
This week, a new plan put forward by the House Ways and Means committee avoids taxing the wealth of our country's billionaires. Nearly all of their wealth is shielded from taxes, and they pay far less of a percentage of their wealth into the U.S. treasury than most average Americans do.
But their wealth is power, and that power keeps politicians from insisting that they pay their fair share.
People wonder why our taxes keep going up - why our sales tax goes up, why our fuel tax goes up - yet there doesn't seem to be anything to show for it. It's because the wealthiest in this country use their wealth and their power to persuade politicians to treat them more favorably than everyone else.
And the poor and the vulnerable suffer.
A more fair tax plan would provide needed services to the poor. A more fair tax plan would save lives. But because of the love of money, we have politicians who won’t enact policies that will save lives…As in the time of Haman and Mordecai, the love of money is destroying people’s lives.
And just like many of our modern politicians, King Ahasuerus agreed to do what is evil instead of what is right because of his love for money.
Martin Luther King, Jr. called out politicians on this. He said: "We need leaders not in love with money, but in love with justice."
The problem had only gotten worse since King said those words. Today, we have people of faith calling out politicians on their love of money which keeps them from doing what is right and just.
The Poor People's Campaign: a National Call for Moral Revival has been a leader in this faith- based movement. People of faith are speaking out, gathering in protest, and courageously confronting politicians who continue to love money more than justice.
Just like Esther.
Oh, I haven't mentioned Esther yet. Esther was Mordecai's younger cousin. She grew up without a father or mother, so Mordecai raised her. Like Mordecai, Esther was a Jew. But through a series of events that you can read about yourself in the book of Esther, she ended up in the king's household and in fact became the queen.
But no one knew she was a Jew. She kept that part of her identity a secret.
You know, there is no one right way to live under oppression. Esther kept her Jewish identity hidden. Daniel, who also lived in a time when Jews were persecuted, prayed openly, and never hid who he was.
Yet both Esther and Daniel are heroes from the Bible. It’s like people who are lesbian, gay, or bisexual - many keep their identity a secret, often for reasons of safety and security; others are able to come out and be who they are openly, even defiantly. Ideally, every person could live out their identity openly, freely, but for some, it’s just not possible, or safe, to do so.
Esther kept her identity a secret; but when Haman’s plan became known, Mordecai told Esther that now, it was time. She needed to tell the king who she was, and she needed to ask the king to stop Haman’s evil plan from being put into action.
In Love With Justice
Which brings us to chapter 7. It took great courage - tremendous courage - for her to go to the king and tell him that she was a Jew, and to ask him to please not go along with Haman's evil plan. She didn't want to do it. She didn't want to speak out, because of the risk that involved.
And it took her several tries. Her courage failed her the first time, so she had to try again, which reminds me of people who have come out to me, revealed their true identities to me, and how it took them several tries to feel safe enough and brave enough to do so.
But finally, she was able to tell the king what she needed to tell him: that she was a Jew, and that it was her own people who would suffer and die if Haman’s plan was put in place.
And then, holding her breath, she waited for the king’s reaction. Would he side with her, and stop the evil plan? Or would he side with Haman, his vizier, and destroy the Jews - including Esther, now that he knew she was one of them?
It turns out that Haman already had some gallows constructed to begin carrying out his evil plan - and the first person he planned to hang on those gallows was Mordecai. The king decided that those gallows should instead be used to hang Haman. And the evil plan was cast aside.
Now, what about the money Haman had promised the king? Did the king already receive it?
I don’t know.
If Haman had not yet given the king the money, would the king still have decided to side with Esther?
I don’t know.
Because the power of money to persuade one to side with evil is hard to resist.
It doesn’t mean that money itself is evil. Money itself can do a lot of good. 1 Timothy doesn’t say that money is the root of all evil; it says that the love of money is the root of all evil.
When you love money more than you love justice, you can’t help but do what is evil.
I pray that our politicians learn this lesson.
I pray that we learn this lesson.
So that our money can be used for good, to help bring justice to the world, to help create a world of wholeness, a world where racism and prejudice and homophobia are overcome, a world where no one has to hide their identity in the closet out of fear.
Because a world like that is God’s kingdom come, on earth, as in heaven.
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