26th Sunday in Ordinary Time
September 30, 2012
GRACE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH
Esther 7:1-10, 9:20-22
Rev. Daniel Fultz
The Beauty Queen
One of the really great stories of the Bible is the story of Esther. It only comes
around in the lectionary once every three years and I can’t resist visiting it.
It has all the elements of a modern day drama, including sex, violence, and even
humor. There is the beautiful and exotic setting, the Persian Empire in the 5th
century before Christ. This empire centered in present day Iran spanned three
continents, and included Pakistan, Afghanistan, Libya, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and
everything in between. There were the rich and handsome, fun loving good ol’
boy leading man, Ahasuerus (who in Greek was known as Xerxes or perhaps his
son Artaxerxes); the wise teacher Mordecai; the evil villain Haman; and the most
unusual of heroines, the very young “beauty queen.” Worse than that, in the
beginning of the story anyway, Esther was a bimbo. Well looking back it may not
seem so, but what was her job? She was window dressing. Her job was to dress
up the palace, entertain all the ‘frat brothers’ that hung out with the king, and
provide for the sexual appetites of the ‘good ol’ boy in chief.’
It all starts when the former queen, Queen Vishti, refused to behave sufficiently as
a bimbo should. The king summoned her for a party, to show her off to his
friends, but she refused to come. Uppity, they call that. So she got fired and there
was a job opening.
Do you remember Jackie O, the widow of JFK who married the Greek shipping
tycoon Aristotle Onassis? At least in the made for TV version of her life, there is
a scene where she is sitting on the deck of a yacht with Onassis and some of his
good ol’ boy friends. They are discussing politics. Jackie offers her opinion.
Onassis tells her something to the effect, as I recall, to be quite, her job was to sit
there and be pretty. Jackie gets really mad and storms off, and that is the end of
that relationship. Jackie wasn’t going to be anybodies bimbo. Apparently, neither
was Vishti. But what about Esther? How is she going to play her role?
Esther had an uncle named Mordecai. He was her mentor, her moral guide. Also
turns out, among the twists of the story, Mordecai refused to bow down before
Haman, who is the King’s right hand man, so Haman hates him. In one of the
stories more humorous events early on, Haman wants to through a parade for
himself and pass a law that all must bow down to him. He suggest this to the king,
but in typical sitcom fashion, the King loves the idea but thinks Haman in talking
about Mordecai and gives the parade for him complete with the required bowing.
And makes Haman lead the way calling out to everyone to bow down to Mordecai.
This sends Haman’s blood boiling. And, since Mordecai is a Jew, Haman hates all
Jews, and plots to have them all killed. Interesting, isn’t it how bigotry and hatred
grow in our hearts from a perceived slight, real or imagined, by one individual, and
so quickly it grows to envelop an entire group, a race, a nation, a religion.
To make a long and complicated story short, and leaving out many important
details, Esther must act to save her people. The problem is two-fold; first, no one
knows she is a Jew, and to speak out on their behalf could mean that she suffers
their fate. Secondly, how to approach the king? Anyone who enters the king’s
presence without invitation, if they displease the king, may be killed, and it had
been a long time since the king had sent for her. Just to go to the king was to risk
her life. Mordecai told 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.” (4:12-14) Esther tells her uncle that she will
act, stating famously, “If I perish, I perish.”
Mustering up all her courage, and clearly stepping out of her assigned role as
bimbo, Esther steps into the presents of the king. At first he doesn’t notice her as
her life hangs in thin air. At last he sees her, smiles and calls her to him. So far
she is alive. He asks what she wants. She invites him to a dinner party and Haman
as well. They come. Does she loose her nerve, or is this part of the plan, or is it
simply a literary devise to allow the plot to thicken. At any rate, she asks them to
come to yet another dinner on the next night. In the mean time Haman has a
gallows built on which he plans to have Mordecai hanged. This gallows is of
comic book proportions, over 7 stories high.
Then, at the dinner the next night, she tells the King about the plot to kill her
people, she identifies herself with those who are being persecuted, and she asks for
the king’s help. The king is outraged. “Who would do such a thing?”
“Why,” says Esther, “it is Haman.” You can imagine Haman’s shock. The king
steps out to the garden to compose his thoughts. When he returns, Haman has
thrown himself at her feet begging mercy. When the king comes in, he mistakes
Haman’s petition as an attack on the Queen, and has him hauled off to be hanged,
along with his whole family, on the very gallows that he had prepared for
Mordecai, and the Jewish people are saved.
The story is the basis for the Jewish holiday of Purim, where gifts are given to one
another and to the poor, and the story is sometimes told in synagogues complete
with costumed readers and the audience booing and hissing at Haman’s name, in
true melodrama fashion. As someone once said of all Jewish festivals, the story is,
‘they tried to kill us, they didn’t, let’s eat.’
Apart from the fact that it is a well told and entertaining story, why do we read it in
church? There is no mention of God. The Jews in this story do not seem to
practice their faith, or at least it is not mentioned. There is no talk of dietary laws,
or Sabbath keeping. There are the incidents of Mordecai not bowing down to
Haman and of Esther fasting but there is no specific way in which a religious
significance is drawn. The book is criticized for this and the Jews in the story are
criticized for being so secular, for having accommodated so well into the dominant
Persian culture.
But wait. Remember this story is told to Jews in diaspora. They live all over the
world and in every culture imaginable. Over the centuries Jews have adapted to
survive. And that kind of leads us to the moral of this story. In part, this story is
an entertaining way to explain how the feast of Purim came about. Hidden in the
humor, it gives the serious message to not set a trap for another because it could
turn out that the trap is set for you. But more importantly it talks about the
importance of standing up for what is right, regardless of the size of the enemy,
and regardless of how small you think you are.
Hebrew literature loves this kind of David and Goliath story. Here is little Esther,
whose name means ‘star’ in Persian, and ‘hidden’ in Hebrew. Chosen for her
beauty not her brains or her courage; trained to be a source of pleasure to the King;
Esther finds enough of both brains and courage to save her people.
What is going on in the world that threatens pain and suffering, and even death to
the people of God? Am I willing to risk the displeasure of those with influence in
my world to say the truth? How has God brought me to this place “for such a time
as this?” How can you and I work together for the sake of the world, not counting
the cost?
Eph. 3:20, 21
Now to the One who by the power at work within us is able to do far more
abundantly than all we can ask or imagine, to God be glory in the church and in
Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever. Amen.