How many of you know the story of Esther? Esther only appears once in the entire 3-year lectionary cycle, on this, the 19th Sunday after Pentecost. And what the lectionary gives us are some random verses from chapter 7 and chapter 9. If I were to just read those verses, we’d miss so much!
This is a fascinating, exciting, and entertaining story. We don’t have time to read all of it in worship. I encourage you to do so sometime on your own. Or, if you ever get invited by a Jewish friend to attend a Purim spiel, something most Jewish congregations do in late winter, do so, for it’s a fun, hilarious, and entertaining reenactment of the story of Esther that they do every year.
For today, though, I’m going to start by reading some verses from chapter 3, reading from the Common English Bible today, and then move through the story from there…
The King promoted Haman above all the officials who worked with him. All the royal workers at the King’s Gate would kneel and bow facedown to Haman because the king had so ordered.
But Mordecai didn’t kneel or bow down. When Haman himself saw that Mordecai didn’t kneel or bow down to him, he became very angry. But he decided not to kill only Mordecai, for people had told him Mordecai’s race. Instead, he planned to wipe out all the Jews, Mordecai’s people, throughout the whole kingdom.
Haman said to the King, “A certain group of people exist in pockets among the other peoples in all the provinces of your kingdom. Their laws are different from those of everyone else, and they refuse to obey the king’s laws. There’s no good reason for the king to put up with them any longer. If the king wishes, let a written order be sent out to destroy them, and I will hand over ten thousand kikkars of silver to those in charge of the king’s business. The silver can go into the king’s treasuries.”
The king said to Haman, “Both the money and the people are under your power. Do as you like with them.”
Haman hated the Jews. The scripture says that Haman became angry after Mordecai refused to bow down, but I think Haman was just looking for an excuse, a reason, to carry out his cruel intentions against the Jews.
The Jews were different. They talked differently. They acted differently. They dressed differently. They worshiped differently.
All that bothered Haman; all those differences made him anxious; and rather than take the time to understand those differences, Haman made up lies about the Jews, saying that they were a threat to the kingdom.
They weren’t a threat, but Haman repeated those falsehoods to the king, and convinced the king to approve Haman’s plan of genocide.
Now, this is a tragic, dreadful way to begin a story. But if you read the whole story, you’ll see that it is tempered with humor and irony, and that the story itself is actually quite entertaining, especially when Haman’s whole plan backfires on him in hilarious fashion.
Because, yes, the villain gets his due. Haman is defeated, and his reign of terror comes to an end.
But.. unfortunately, animosity and hatred against those who are different did not end with Haman. In every generation, people have felt threatened by those who were different… I know some of our small groups are doing a study in conjunction with our kindness campaign, and one of the lessons is about how our anxiety can lead us to feel threatened by those who are different.
And when some feel threatened or anxious by those who are different, that can lead to words of hate, and acts of violence… just like it did for Haman.
In the 1840s and 1850s, Irish immigrants were coming to the United States in large numbers. Anxious Americans felt that they needed to save the nation from going broke to pay for “Paddy and Bridget,” who were arriving in unprecedented waves.
And they didn’t hesitate to make up stories and spread lies to turn people against the Irish immigrants. Just like Haman made up lies about the Jews, to turn people against them.
Meanwhile, in my home state of California, the gold rush brought tens of thousands of immigrants from China. According to an article on the Library of Congress website, “The Chinese immigrants endured an epidemic of violent racist attacks, a campaign of persecution and murder that today seems shocking. From Seattle to Los Angeles, from Wyoming to the small towns of California, immigrants from China were forced out of business, run out of town, beaten, tortured, lynched, and massacred, usually with little hope of help from the law. Racial hatred, an uncertain economy, and weak government in the new territories all contributed to this climate of terror and bloodshed.”
A lot of the attacks directed toward the Chinese began with made-up lies about what the Chinese immigrants were eating. In California, during Gold Rush times, people claimed that the Chinese immigrants were eating cats and dogs. Sounds familiar, doesn’t it?
Hatred toward people who are different is seen in our own time, with hateful rhetoric and even violent crimes being committed against Muslims, Mexicans, and other immigrant groups. They are labeled “thugs,” “dangerous criminals,” even though immigrants—even undocumented immigrants—actually commit fewer crimes than U.S. citizens, according to data collected from law enforcement agencies.
But that doesn’t stop the Hamans of our time from spreading their lies.
As I said, in the book of Esther, Haman doesn’t come out on top. In this Bible story, the villain doesn’t win.
Because it just so happened that Mordecai—the Jew Haman hated the most—had a younger cousin named Esther. (You knew there was going to be an Esther, since that’s the name of the book!)
Esther’s parents had died, so Mordecai raised Esther as his own…
…Until the day that the king decided he needed a new queen. The king chose Esther; she became his new queen.
Throughout all this, Esther kept secret the fact that she was a Jew, and she kept secret the fact that Mordecai was her cousin.
When Haman got the king’s approval to begin killing the Jews, Esther realizes it was time to reveal her truth, and intercedes with the king on behalf of the Jews.
What a difficult decision that must have been! When you read the story, Esther’s fear is obvious. She doesn’t know how the king will react.
Her hope, of course, is that the king will stop the genocide when he realizes that the Jews are the kin of his own queen. But the king could just as easily decide that Esther should join the Jews when they are rounded up and killed.
Despite her fear, Esther approaches the king, and offers to prepare him a lavish feast. And she invites Haman to the feast.
And during the feast, the king says, “Queen Esther, what is your request? What is it that you want to tell me?”
And Esther says, “If it pleases the king, let the king and Haman come to another feast that I will prepare tomorrow night.”
Did she lose her nerve? Was it part of her plan? I don’t know.
But the following night, the king and Haman both return for another night of feasting.
And again, while they are feasting, the king asks: “What is it, Queen Esther? What is your request?”
And Esther says: “The lives of my people are in jeopardy. I and my people have been sentenced to be destroyed, to be killed, to be annihilated.”
And the king, startled into compassion for his Queen and her people, asks, “Who is he, who has presumed to do this?”
And Esther looks at Haman and says, “A foe and enemy, this wicked Haman!”
And then the king orders that Haman be executed on the very gallows that Haman had prepared for Esther’s cousin Mordecai… and thus, the Jews are saved.
But it wouldn’t have happened without Esther’s brave decision to speak out on behalf of the Jews.
We need some Esthers today, to speak out against the malicious lies of all the Hamans, lies intended to divide people, lies that tear us apart, lies that seek to destroy those who are different from us.
Some of these lies are obvious, but some are so deeply ingrained in us that we don’t even realize that they are lies.
I’ve mentioned before about how, when I was teaching, I’d have to question the assumptions I sometimes made about my students. Why did I react one way with one student, and another way with another student?
And I’d search within me, to see if there is some hidden lie within me, a lie that had been passed down from previous generations, prompting me to act in a certain way. If there was a lie there, I’d want to know, so I could work to replace it with truth.
Fortunately, I’ve learned to engage in this sort of self-reflection, because of the trainings and events I’ve attended that were put on with the support of our church’s pro-reconciliation, anti-racism ministry.
Some years back, our denomination, the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ), made a commitment to be a pro-reconciliation, anti-racist church. And we knew that this work needed to start within.
What lies did we as a church believe and accept, even if we were doing so unconsciously?
We knew that the demographics of our leadership didn’t match the demographics of our membership, and we were willing to ask why. Clergy of color, for example, were finding it harder to find ministry positions than white.
What lies were we living out?
And we began a process of discernment and action, to uncover the lies, to reveal the truth, and to more faithfully work towards God’s kingdom where there are no distinctions in terms of prejudice. “Neither Jew nor Greek, male or female.”
And that work continues today. It will continue as long as there are Hamans in this world, spreading their lies about people who are different.
That’s why today and next week, many Disciples congregations throughout the United States and Canada are highlighting the work of our reconciliation ministry.
From 2003 to 2005, our Disciples General Minister was Chris Hobgood, who was a passionate promoter of our pro-reconciliation, anti-racism priority. Every other priority, he said, falls under this one.
At the time we had a priority of establishing 1,000 new congregations by the year 2020—a goal we achieved, by the way.
Chris Hobgood said that unless we prioritize being a pro-reconciliation, anti-racist denomination while establishing those congregations, then we would end up establishing 1,000 racist congregations.
In his brief time as leader of our denomination, he did a lot to further pro-reconciliation, anti-racism work, and our denomination is certainly a much better and more faithful part of Christ’s church because of it.
He was an Esther for our church, confronting lies with truth, holding us accountable for the ideas we have and the ideas we share about people who are different than we are.
Today, our current General Minister and President, Terri Hord Owens, continues to call us to emphasize the work of racial reconciliation. She points out that we’ve been saying, for many years now, that we are pro-reconciliation, anti-racism; so let’s be who we say we are. Let’s be the church we say we are.
Let’s work for justice for all God’s children. Let’s confront and challenge the lies that are told about our siblings in Christ who just happen to be of another race or culture. And let’s continue this work until there are no more Hamans in our world, spreading lies, speaking words of harm.
We will be, as the prophet says, repairers of the breach. We will be uniters, instead of dividers. Instead of harm, there will be healing. Instead of lies, there will be truth. Instead of hate, there will be love.
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