Esther's choice
Commentary
Esther's acceptance into the Jewish canon was attended by controversy. The story is a legend that explains the Jewish minor feast of Purim. It is an historical novel artfully written. The leader will encounter irony, humor, satire, and patriotic fervor. While the story is fiction, there is nothing fictitious about the historicity of the plot, the threat of genocide. In the past there have been some Christian reactions to Esther that need to be understood as biased piety that has contributed to anti-Semitism.
The reading from James gives us a glimpse of prayerful pastoral care in one corner of the ancient church. A passage like this can be adroitly used to encourage a congregation to think of pastoral care as the responsibility of the whole church and to encourage new initiatives in prayerful caring within the congregation.
As you reflect on the gospel lesson, review last week's reading for the setting of today's letter which is still the intense special meeting to which Jesus summoned the 12. John makes an observation designed to get the approval of Jesus. John gets instead an unexpected reply and Jesus verbally takes them all into the woodshed.
Sermon Seeds In The Lessons
Esther 7:1-6, 9-10
Tell the story of Esther since congregational familiarity cannot be assumed. These comments also assume the preacher's familiarity with the story. We are indebted to feminist scholars who in recent years have rightly recognized Queen Vashti as an overlooked heroine. She refused to let her husband, King Ahasuerus, parade her before the ogling eyes of his drunken guests. She refused to be either a sex object or an attractive ornament to the royal court. The king was not only angry out of personal pique, but also because he could envision the wives of the nobility following Vashti's example by asserting their own independence. As a result of her refusal Vashti lost her crown, but kept her honor and integrity. The poet/pastor, Thomas John Carlisle in Eve and After shares with us some portraits of women of the Old Testament. One poetic portrait is The Valor of Vashti (Eerdmans Press, 1984). Check it out. He has a similar book of portraits of women in the New Testament, Beginning With Mary, from the same publisher.
The rediscovery of Vashti pushes Esther a bit off center stage. The same scholars tend to see her story as non-threatening to a patriarchal society. This judgment upon Esther may not take into account her vulnerability as an orphaned member of a minority group in a potentially hostile society. All Esther and Mordecai had to work with were their wits and guile. Maybe Vashti had a powerful family or a private stash of cash to fall back upon. There are situations of limited options. Ahasuerus was mesmerized by the beauty of Esther and she was the queen. She saw an opportunity to help her people and she did. I think here of William Styron's novel, Sophie's Choice, the story of a concentration camp survivor. It was made into a movie in 1982 with Meryl Streep playing Esther. While interred in the camp with her little daughter she gave the child up for adoption by an SS officer, hopefully to insure the child's survival. After her own liberation Sophie had occasions to reflect upon her decision and wonder about the outcome. The common thread between the story of Esther and that of Sophie is the context of extreme peril.
Some Christian comments in the past about the story of Esther, including a comment by Luther, have played an unfortunate role in the support of prejudice. Artur Weiser was for many years a professor at the University of Tubingen in Germany. I couldn't believe my eyes when I came across this comment in his highly-esteemed book, The Old Testament. "The book of Esther ... is a memorial to the nationalist spirit of Judaism which had become fanatical, and as the result of Jew-baiting had lost all touch with the great tasks which the prophets had placed before their people ... The fact that Luther was 'an enemy' of the book and felt a profound objection to it as having 'too much of Judaism' with 'heathen naughtiness' is a testimony to the impartial clarity of the Christian verdict." (The Old Testament, Its Formation and Development, Association Press.)
Weiser wrote these words in 1939 when the swastika flew over Germany. Did he know his words would lend support to the jack-booted Hamans around him who in the service of a sinister and fanatical creed were planning the Holocaust? And Weiser took his cue from Luther. We can cringe at the accounts of vengeance mentioned in Esther, but they are humanly understandable. But in this century we all have blood on our hands and the spirit of Haman is still abroad.
James 5:13-20
In the Puritan churches of colonial New England each service of worship included a practice called the posting of the bills. People would hand notes to the deacons listing requests for intercessory prayer. These requests were passed on to the pastor who included them in the morning prayer. A number of churches today have similar practices. Church programs make places for various kinds of support groups. Responsible healing services are held. Suggestive services for personal comfort and celebration are finding their ways into books of worship. All these are contemporary ways of incorporating prayerful concern into congregational life.
Mark 9:38-50
In the church of Mark's day there were Christian preachers who modeled their style after that of the Divine Wonder Workers of the Gentile world. The Christian variety proclaimed a Jesus of Power and Glory and made all sorts of cheap promises. In other words, theirs was a triumphalist gospel without a cross. This helps us understand the way Mark underlines the teaching of Jesus about the cross way in this section of his gospel. Jesus is not a messiah of power and glory. His glory is in the cruciform shape of his servanthood.
It was to one of these wonder-working type of preachers that John's comment referred. He fully expected Jesus would support their effort to stop the exorcist who was casting out demons in the name of Jesus. After all, Jesus had rebuked Peter for thinking of ministry in those terms. "Stop trying to stop them!" said Jesus in so many words. Their concern is to be for the integrity of their own servanthood. How does this sit with those of us who cast a jaundiced eye at those who pursue what we deem to be shallow or celebrity styles of ministry?
Then Jesus really put it to them. Note his reference to the "little ones." They are to be advocates of the voiceless, the dispossessed, the poor, the outsiders, the victims. Verses 43 through 50 bristle with conviction and passionate appeal. He reminds them of the complete claim of God upon them. The closing words are enigmatic. I would paraphrase them, "Stop arguing among yourselves. The place for salt is in the soup."
The reading from James gives us a glimpse of prayerful pastoral care in one corner of the ancient church. A passage like this can be adroitly used to encourage a congregation to think of pastoral care as the responsibility of the whole church and to encourage new initiatives in prayerful caring within the congregation.
As you reflect on the gospel lesson, review last week's reading for the setting of today's letter which is still the intense special meeting to which Jesus summoned the 12. John makes an observation designed to get the approval of Jesus. John gets instead an unexpected reply and Jesus verbally takes them all into the woodshed.
Sermon Seeds In The Lessons
Esther 7:1-6, 9-10
Tell the story of Esther since congregational familiarity cannot be assumed. These comments also assume the preacher's familiarity with the story. We are indebted to feminist scholars who in recent years have rightly recognized Queen Vashti as an overlooked heroine. She refused to let her husband, King Ahasuerus, parade her before the ogling eyes of his drunken guests. She refused to be either a sex object or an attractive ornament to the royal court. The king was not only angry out of personal pique, but also because he could envision the wives of the nobility following Vashti's example by asserting their own independence. As a result of her refusal Vashti lost her crown, but kept her honor and integrity. The poet/pastor, Thomas John Carlisle in Eve and After shares with us some portraits of women of the Old Testament. One poetic portrait is The Valor of Vashti (Eerdmans Press, 1984). Check it out. He has a similar book of portraits of women in the New Testament, Beginning With Mary, from the same publisher.
The rediscovery of Vashti pushes Esther a bit off center stage. The same scholars tend to see her story as non-threatening to a patriarchal society. This judgment upon Esther may not take into account her vulnerability as an orphaned member of a minority group in a potentially hostile society. All Esther and Mordecai had to work with were their wits and guile. Maybe Vashti had a powerful family or a private stash of cash to fall back upon. There are situations of limited options. Ahasuerus was mesmerized by the beauty of Esther and she was the queen. She saw an opportunity to help her people and she did. I think here of William Styron's novel, Sophie's Choice, the story of a concentration camp survivor. It was made into a movie in 1982 with Meryl Streep playing Esther. While interred in the camp with her little daughter she gave the child up for adoption by an SS officer, hopefully to insure the child's survival. After her own liberation Sophie had occasions to reflect upon her decision and wonder about the outcome. The common thread between the story of Esther and that of Sophie is the context of extreme peril.
Some Christian comments in the past about the story of Esther, including a comment by Luther, have played an unfortunate role in the support of prejudice. Artur Weiser was for many years a professor at the University of Tubingen in Germany. I couldn't believe my eyes when I came across this comment in his highly-esteemed book, The Old Testament. "The book of Esther ... is a memorial to the nationalist spirit of Judaism which had become fanatical, and as the result of Jew-baiting had lost all touch with the great tasks which the prophets had placed before their people ... The fact that Luther was 'an enemy' of the book and felt a profound objection to it as having 'too much of Judaism' with 'heathen naughtiness' is a testimony to the impartial clarity of the Christian verdict." (The Old Testament, Its Formation and Development, Association Press.)
Weiser wrote these words in 1939 when the swastika flew over Germany. Did he know his words would lend support to the jack-booted Hamans around him who in the service of a sinister and fanatical creed were planning the Holocaust? And Weiser took his cue from Luther. We can cringe at the accounts of vengeance mentioned in Esther, but they are humanly understandable. But in this century we all have blood on our hands and the spirit of Haman is still abroad.
James 5:13-20
In the Puritan churches of colonial New England each service of worship included a practice called the posting of the bills. People would hand notes to the deacons listing requests for intercessory prayer. These requests were passed on to the pastor who included them in the morning prayer. A number of churches today have similar practices. Church programs make places for various kinds of support groups. Responsible healing services are held. Suggestive services for personal comfort and celebration are finding their ways into books of worship. All these are contemporary ways of incorporating prayerful concern into congregational life.
Mark 9:38-50
In the church of Mark's day there were Christian preachers who modeled their style after that of the Divine Wonder Workers of the Gentile world. The Christian variety proclaimed a Jesus of Power and Glory and made all sorts of cheap promises. In other words, theirs was a triumphalist gospel without a cross. This helps us understand the way Mark underlines the teaching of Jesus about the cross way in this section of his gospel. Jesus is not a messiah of power and glory. His glory is in the cruciform shape of his servanthood.
It was to one of these wonder-working type of preachers that John's comment referred. He fully expected Jesus would support their effort to stop the exorcist who was casting out demons in the name of Jesus. After all, Jesus had rebuked Peter for thinking of ministry in those terms. "Stop trying to stop them!" said Jesus in so many words. Their concern is to be for the integrity of their own servanthood. How does this sit with those of us who cast a jaundiced eye at those who pursue what we deem to be shallow or celebrity styles of ministry?
Then Jesus really put it to them. Note his reference to the "little ones." They are to be advocates of the voiceless, the dispossessed, the poor, the outsiders, the victims. Verses 43 through 50 bristle with conviction and passionate appeal. He reminds them of the complete claim of God upon them. The closing words are enigmatic. I would paraphrase them, "Stop arguing among yourselves. The place for salt is in the soup."
