Readings for September 27 2009

The study notes this week are provided by Elizabeth Bryce, a newcomer to on-line blogging, who would appreciate your feedback on the study!

Take a moment to centre yourself in prayer:

Strengthen us, O God. When we are afraid to step forward and live with faith, strengthen us with stories of courage. When we are desperate to know all the answers, strengthen us with the patience to understand. When we are feeling the effects of illness or fatigue or broken hearts, strengthen us with the courage to continue. Help us to be wise and bold, persistent and compassionate, learners and leaders in your name, Amen

Throughout the fall, our readings from the Old Testament/Hebrew scriptures have focused on “wisdom” – asking: where does wisdom come from?

Question for reflection: What does the word wisdom mean for you?

Specifically, the bible explores what “wisdom” means for people of faith.
When we apply God’s wisdom to real life situations, sometimes that faith-full wisdom seems like foolishness according to human knowledge and culture.

Today we explore the story of Queen Esther, and see how her courageous but foolhardy wisdom helped to save the people of God from destruction.

BACKGROUND:

In 586 BC, the kingdom of Judea, the southern part of Israel, and its capitol at Jerusalem, were destroyed by King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon. A large part of the population were taken back to Babylon as slaves. The Jewish community were forced to live “in exile”at Babylon and had to struggle to maintain their identity as a distinct people, first under Babylonian rule, then under Persian rule. After generations of identifying themselves as the people of the promised land, what did it mean to be God’s people in a foreign land?

In spite of the real hardship of life in exile, this was a time when the writings and rituals of the Jewish people flourished. Threatened with extinction, they became stronger in their symbols and practice of faith. Many wonderful songs and stories developed during this time – the tale of Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego, the prophecy of Daniel, and Psalm 137, for example.

Question for reflection: Are there times in your life when hardship has produced creativity in you or in others? How did it impact your sense of identity?

Esther was a member of that exiled Jewish community and her relative Mordecai was one of its leaders. The Persian king, Ahasuerus (sometimes called Xerxes), disposed of his first wife Queen Vashti for refusing to entertain his drunken guests after a military victory. Ahasuerus was not a fan of equal marriage! Then he went looking for a beautiful woman to be his new wife. Unaware that Esther was Jewish, he made her his Queen.

Meanwhile, Mordecai annoyed the King’s official, Haman, who plotted to destroy the Jewish community because they would only bow in worship to Yahweh, and not to the King or, more specifically, his advisor Haman.

READ Esther’s Story: (3:12-13, 4:1-4, 8-17, 5:1-3, 7:1-3)

Then the king’s secretaries were summoned on the thirteenth day of the first month, and an edict, according to all that Haman commanded, was written to the king’s satraps and to the governors over all the provinces and to the officials of all the peoples, to every province in its own script and every people in its own language; it was written in the name of King Ahasuerus and sealed with the king’s ring. Letters were sent by couriers to all the king’s provinces, giving orders to destroy, to kill, and to annihilate all Jews, young and old, women and children, in one day, the thirteenth day of the twelfth month, which is the month of Adar, and to plunder their goods.

When Mordecai learned all that had been done, Mordecai tore his clothes and put on sackcloth and ashes, and went through the city, wailing with a loud and bitter cry; he went up to the entrance of the king’s gate, for no one might enter the king’s gate clothed with sackcloth. In every province, wherever the king’s command and his decree came, there was great mourning among the Jews, with fasting and weeping and lamenting, and most of them lay in sackcloth and ashes.

When Esther’s maids and her eunuchs came and told her, the queen was deeply distressed; she sent garments to clothe Mordecai, so that he might take off his sackcloth; but he would not accept them. Mordecai also gave Hathach (the messenger) a copy of the written decree issued in Susa for their destruction, that he might show it to Esther, explain it to her, and charge her to go to the king to make supplication to him and entreat him for her people.

Hathach went and told Esther what Mordecai had said. Then Esther spoke to Hathach and gave him a message for Mordecai, saying, 'All the king’s servants and the people of the king’s provinces know that if any man or woman goes to the king inside the inner court without being called, there is but one law—all alike are to be put to death. Only if the king holds out the golden sceptre to someone, may that person live. I myself have not been called to come in to the king for thirty days.’ When they told Mordecai what Esther had said, Mordecai told them to reply to Esther, ‘Do not think that in the king’s palace you will escape any more than all the other Jews. 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.’ Then Esther said in reply to Mordecai, ‘Go, gather all the Jews to be found in Susa, and hold a fast on my behalf, and neither eat nor drink for three days, night or day. I and my maids will also fast as you do. After that I will go to the king, though it is against the law; and if I perish, I perish.’ Mordecai then went away and did everything as Esther had ordered him.

On the third day Esther put on her royal robes and stood in the inner court of the king’s palace, opposite the king’s hall. The king was sitting on his royal throne inside the palace opposite the entrance to the palace. As soon as the king saw Queen Esther standing in the court, she won his favour and he held out to her the golden sceptre that was in his hand. Then Esther approached and touched the top of the sceptre. The king said to her, ‘What is it, Queen Esther? What is your request? It shall be given you, even to the half of my kingdom.’ Then Esther said, “If it pleases the king, let the king and Haman come today to a banquet that I have prepared for the king.”

So the king and Haman went in to feast with Queen Esther. On the second day, as they were drinking wine, the king again said to Esther, ‘What is your petition, Queen Esther? It shall be granted you. And what is your request? Even to the half of my kingdom, it shall be fulfilled.’ Then Queen Esther answered, ‘If I have won your favour, O king, and if it pleases the king, let my life be given me—that is my petition—and the lives of my people—that is my request.”

The king was shocked to learn of Haman’s treachery, lifted the order to execute the Jews and hung Haman on the gallows constructed for the Jewish leaders. And so Esther’s story was told throughout the Jewish community in exile, to give them courage in the hard times.

Esther’s story demonstrates the folly of God’s wisdom. Entering the king’s presence unsummoned was even more disrespectful than Vashti’s refusal to appear when summoned. Esther literally put her life on the line. When she responded to Mordecai the first time, she was terrified to act. Mordecai responded with one of my favourite lines of scripture: “Who knows? Perhaps you have come to royal dignity for just such a time as this.”

The name of God does not appear in the book of Esther. And yet, with faith, Mordecai sees God’s hand at work in Esther’s position. God becomes seen through the faith and the courage of Esther and Mordecai.

Questions for reflection: Have there been times when you have felt that God was at work in your life or the life of someone you know? How do we give God credit for unseen interventions? Or, when God is not seen, does that mean God is absent? How can God be present in times of tragedy?

The background notes and reading of Esther are extensive this weel – I invite you to read the whole unabridged version sometime.

I will treat the other lectionary readings for this week more briefly!

They are:
Psalm 124 – A song of thanksgiving for victory – probably in reference to the Israelites’ escape from Egypt and the destruction of Pharoah’s army at the Red Sea.
Question for reflection: Does God really take sides? Of a particular nation? Or of those who are oppressed?

James 5:1-6,13-20 – The lectionary leaves out James 5:1-6, a section that addresses the danger of wealth and the exploitation of the poor by the rich, but it is more than worthy of our attention. James doesn’t pull his punches!
Question for reflection: Is it possible to be “privileged” and still live faithfully? How do we understand this as stewards of God’s creation?

James advises his readers to pray, not just in individual requests, but as an act of communal life. He calls them to restore the weary with their faith, and use symbols of healing (oil and laying on hands) to bring them comfort.
Question for reflection: How do you understand the power of prayer?

Mark 9:38-50 – Jesus makes real the cost of faith and ministry. A decision for the kingdom is an invitation to step away from the self-centred egoism of our time, and take a look at the bigger picture, the whole creation and its balance. The drama of Jesus’ imagery underlines the urgency of committing to the kingdom of God.
Question for reflection: What are you/we being called to “cut out” in order to be faithful to the kingdom’s priorities?

Closing Thought:
Dietrich Bonhoeffer wrote: “Do and dare what is right, not swayed by the whim of the moment. Bravely take hold the the real, not dallying now with what might be. Not in the flight of ideas but only in action is freedom. Make up your mind and come out into the tempest of living. God’s command is enough and your faith in God can sustain you. Then at last, freedom will welcome your spirit among great rejoicing.”