Esther: Wise Woman Of Strength
Sermon
THE BEGINNING OF WISDOM
Sermons For Pentecost (Middle Third)
On a cold and dark March night during my first year at Princeton as assistant dean of the chapel, I left our little home on the edge of the campus to go back to my office. I had a lot of things to accomplish and imagined that the quiet and solitude of the office would be the best place to work. As I approached our office building, Murray-Dodge Hall, I was surprised to see that it was all lit up and I began to hear the sounds of a ruckus. I came through the door and into a lobby to the middle of an astonishing party, a celebration of some sort or another. People were in costume and had noisemakers. There was much cavorting. "Was this Mardi-Gras?" I wondered. "No, Shrove Tuesday had come and gone. What was going on?" I asked myself. "Had the group asked permission of the chapel office?" Working with undergraduates makes one always ready for surprises. It was clear here the surprise for me came in the form of a lot of drinking and rabble-rousing, not usual in Murray-Dodge. Then I saw the rabbi, an abstemious person, clearly a little looped and sidling toward me. "Rabbi!" I explained, "What is going on?" "It's Purim, didn't you know when it was?"
Not only did I not know when Purim was, I did not know what Purim was. But I resolved to find out, for it looked like a lot of fun. I was encouraged to join the celebration, but I went on to my office. It's hard to come to the middle of a party. But I made a promise to myself to learn about Purim, what it was, when it was, why it was, and how long it lasted.
Always one month before Passover, Purim celebrates the story of the Book Of Esther, a tale of twists and turns, ups and downs, ironies and reversals, and a mostly happy ending, at least for the Jews. The characters, especially when compared to the intricate plot, appear one dimensional. King Ahasuerus and Queen Esther, Mordecai and Haman are present to serve the story and the story goes something like this.
After King Ahasuerus, a.k.a. Xerxes, for those who know their history, disposes of his first wife, Vashti, and holds a search for a new queen. Esther enters the harem and gains favor of all who know her and when it is her turn with the king, she is chosen above all the rest to be queen. Esther's guardian is Mordecai, who tells Esther to tell no one about her Judaism and she does not until just the right moment, until she has proven herself indispensable. Mordecai discovers a plot to assassinate the king and reports it to Esther who then saves the king's life. Now she is indispensable. Now she has leverage.
Ahasuerus appoints Haman, above all the princes, and orders all the people to bow down before Haman, Mordecai would not bow down, which is just the excuse Haman was looking for to kill all the Jews. Haman was an inveterate anti-Semite.
In the meantime, the king asks Haman, "What should be done to a man the king delights to honor?" Since Haman imagines it is himself, he answers with great pomp and circumstance, "Let royal robes be brought, a crown on his head set. Let a prince conduct the man on royal horseback all through the square." Only it is Mordecai the king is planning to honor, and has Haman, the enemy who hates him, lead Mordecai through the square, all the time seething and plotting Mordecai's destruction with the rest of the Jews.
Esther understands the evil Haman is planning and invites Haman and the king to a banquet in her quarters. And when the king says to Queen Esther, "What is your petition? It shall be granted, even to half of my kingdom, it shall be fulfilled." Esther tells of the plot to annihilate all the Jews, herself included. When the king asks who would presume to do this, Esther proclaims, "A foe and an enemy! This wicked Haman." So Haman is hung on the gallows prepared for Mordecai and Mordecai is elevated to Haman's position.
This Book Of Esther is a great tale, raucous and ribald as the Purim celebration itself, which I have now attended a number of times with great enthusiasm. During the reading of the Book of Esther which is how the Purim celebration begins, every time Haman's name is mentioned the noisemakers are set off to drown out the evil one. And there are whistles of delight for Mordecai and shouts of joy for Esther and when the Jews are saved and Mordecai is elevated because Esther is so clever and so brave, well, that's when the celebration begins.
We don't need scholars to tell us that the tale of Esther is probably not historically accurate. We can sense on our own that it is a tale, a tale for inspiration, to give people spirit, to help people come to a sense of celebration. The tale of Esther gives us momentum and immense satisfaction. Scholars do tell us though, that the people the storywriter had in mind were the Jews of the second century before the common era, the Jews in the Eastern Diaspora. The tale was written as a model, to help them see how they might attain security and lead productive lives. Esther moves from being a powerless member of a powerless group, a woman in the Jewish Diaspora in Persia, to a queen who has the power to save her people. She uses her intelligence and her beauty, her grit and her grace. She is clever. She is brave. She serves as a model for all who find themselves downtrodden, oppressed, in exile. She serves to inspire all those who need momentum, all those who need hope.
Do you know people who, like Esther, inspire and give hope to those who are downtrodden? Think about those you know while I tell you about Dorothy Day.
I saw her once in Central Park at a rally. By that time she was in her 70s. Her hair was yellow-white and braided over the top, the way she wore it for her whole life. She moved slowly, with a cane, for she suffered from arthritis. But her eyes were filled with wisdom, her face, though deeply wrinkled was filled with faith. Dorothy Day spent her life on the side of the downcast. "It is a strange vocation," she recalled in her memoirs, The Long Loneliness, "to love the destitute and dissolute, those people sleeping in doorways, foul with filth in the gutter, dying of hunger or drunkenness, fever and cold." At Saint Joseph's House, hospitality is offered to anyone in need, proving that the works of solace and mercy still comprise the most esteemed of all vocations. Those who arrive are treated with dignity, given a hot meal, a clean room, a sense of self-worth. All her life Dorothy Day lived within the Catholic Church, representing the life of Christ to those who were powerless. She used her intelligence and her beauty, her grit and her grace, on behalf of those who needed her most. Like Esther, she inspires us.
Can you think of others who like Esther and Dorothy Day, give hope to the people, who encourage us along the way?
"Service was as much a part of my upbringing as eating breakfast and going to school. It isn't something you do in your spare time. It was clear that it was the very purpose of life. Helping others had the highest value. There was no black home for the aged in South Carolina when I was growing up so my daddy, who was a minister, started one across the street from us. We all had to get out there and cook and serve. My mother died a few years ago, still running the home for the aged. She was cooking for six old people, all of them younger than she was." Marian Wright Edelman became the first black woman admitted to the bar in Mississippi. She is a graduate of Spelman College and Yale Law School and directed the NAACP Legal Defense Fund in Mississippi and New York. She then founded the Children's Defense Fund, where she serves as its tireless director, lobbying for health care, education and justice for the nation's poorest children, our most defenseless citizens. She uses her intelligence and her beauty, her grit and her grace, on behalf of those who need her most. Like Esther, she inspires us.
"And Mordicai recorded all that has happened and sent letters to the Jews enjoining them that they should keep the 14th day of the month of Adar, and the 15th day, year by year, as the day on which the Jews gained relief from their enemies, and as the month that had been turned for them from sorrow to gladness, from mourning into a holiday; that they should make them days of feasting and gladness, days of sending gifts of food to one another and presents to the poor." Amen.
Not only did I not know when Purim was, I did not know what Purim was. But I resolved to find out, for it looked like a lot of fun. I was encouraged to join the celebration, but I went on to my office. It's hard to come to the middle of a party. But I made a promise to myself to learn about Purim, what it was, when it was, why it was, and how long it lasted.
Always one month before Passover, Purim celebrates the story of the Book Of Esther, a tale of twists and turns, ups and downs, ironies and reversals, and a mostly happy ending, at least for the Jews. The characters, especially when compared to the intricate plot, appear one dimensional. King Ahasuerus and Queen Esther, Mordecai and Haman are present to serve the story and the story goes something like this.
After King Ahasuerus, a.k.a. Xerxes, for those who know their history, disposes of his first wife, Vashti, and holds a search for a new queen. Esther enters the harem and gains favor of all who know her and when it is her turn with the king, she is chosen above all the rest to be queen. Esther's guardian is Mordecai, who tells Esther to tell no one about her Judaism and she does not until just the right moment, until she has proven herself indispensable. Mordecai discovers a plot to assassinate the king and reports it to Esther who then saves the king's life. Now she is indispensable. Now she has leverage.
Ahasuerus appoints Haman, above all the princes, and orders all the people to bow down before Haman, Mordecai would not bow down, which is just the excuse Haman was looking for to kill all the Jews. Haman was an inveterate anti-Semite.
In the meantime, the king asks Haman, "What should be done to a man the king delights to honor?" Since Haman imagines it is himself, he answers with great pomp and circumstance, "Let royal robes be brought, a crown on his head set. Let a prince conduct the man on royal horseback all through the square." Only it is Mordecai the king is planning to honor, and has Haman, the enemy who hates him, lead Mordecai through the square, all the time seething and plotting Mordecai's destruction with the rest of the Jews.
Esther understands the evil Haman is planning and invites Haman and the king to a banquet in her quarters. And when the king says to Queen Esther, "What is your petition? It shall be granted, even to half of my kingdom, it shall be fulfilled." Esther tells of the plot to annihilate all the Jews, herself included. When the king asks who would presume to do this, Esther proclaims, "A foe and an enemy! This wicked Haman." So Haman is hung on the gallows prepared for Mordecai and Mordecai is elevated to Haman's position.
This Book Of Esther is a great tale, raucous and ribald as the Purim celebration itself, which I have now attended a number of times with great enthusiasm. During the reading of the Book of Esther which is how the Purim celebration begins, every time Haman's name is mentioned the noisemakers are set off to drown out the evil one. And there are whistles of delight for Mordecai and shouts of joy for Esther and when the Jews are saved and Mordecai is elevated because Esther is so clever and so brave, well, that's when the celebration begins.
We don't need scholars to tell us that the tale of Esther is probably not historically accurate. We can sense on our own that it is a tale, a tale for inspiration, to give people spirit, to help people come to a sense of celebration. The tale of Esther gives us momentum and immense satisfaction. Scholars do tell us though, that the people the storywriter had in mind were the Jews of the second century before the common era, the Jews in the Eastern Diaspora. The tale was written as a model, to help them see how they might attain security and lead productive lives. Esther moves from being a powerless member of a powerless group, a woman in the Jewish Diaspora in Persia, to a queen who has the power to save her people. She uses her intelligence and her beauty, her grit and her grace. She is clever. She is brave. She serves as a model for all who find themselves downtrodden, oppressed, in exile. She serves to inspire all those who need momentum, all those who need hope.
Do you know people who, like Esther, inspire and give hope to those who are downtrodden? Think about those you know while I tell you about Dorothy Day.
I saw her once in Central Park at a rally. By that time she was in her 70s. Her hair was yellow-white and braided over the top, the way she wore it for her whole life. She moved slowly, with a cane, for she suffered from arthritis. But her eyes were filled with wisdom, her face, though deeply wrinkled was filled with faith. Dorothy Day spent her life on the side of the downcast. "It is a strange vocation," she recalled in her memoirs, The Long Loneliness, "to love the destitute and dissolute, those people sleeping in doorways, foul with filth in the gutter, dying of hunger or drunkenness, fever and cold." At Saint Joseph's House, hospitality is offered to anyone in need, proving that the works of solace and mercy still comprise the most esteemed of all vocations. Those who arrive are treated with dignity, given a hot meal, a clean room, a sense of self-worth. All her life Dorothy Day lived within the Catholic Church, representing the life of Christ to those who were powerless. She used her intelligence and her beauty, her grit and her grace, on behalf of those who needed her most. Like Esther, she inspires us.
Can you think of others who like Esther and Dorothy Day, give hope to the people, who encourage us along the way?
"Service was as much a part of my upbringing as eating breakfast and going to school. It isn't something you do in your spare time. It was clear that it was the very purpose of life. Helping others had the highest value. There was no black home for the aged in South Carolina when I was growing up so my daddy, who was a minister, started one across the street from us. We all had to get out there and cook and serve. My mother died a few years ago, still running the home for the aged. She was cooking for six old people, all of them younger than she was." Marian Wright Edelman became the first black woman admitted to the bar in Mississippi. She is a graduate of Spelman College and Yale Law School and directed the NAACP Legal Defense Fund in Mississippi and New York. She then founded the Children's Defense Fund, where she serves as its tireless director, lobbying for health care, education and justice for the nation's poorest children, our most defenseless citizens. She uses her intelligence and her beauty, her grit and her grace, on behalf of those who need her most. Like Esther, she inspires us.
"And Mordicai recorded all that has happened and sent letters to the Jews enjoining them that they should keep the 14th day of the month of Adar, and the 15th day, year by year, as the day on which the Jews gained relief from their enemies, and as the month that had been turned for them from sorrow to gladness, from mourning into a holiday; that they should make them days of feasting and gladness, days of sending gifts of food to one another and presents to the poor." Amen.
