Our Morning Prayer lectionary has been taking us through the Book of Esther. It’s a favorite of mine. The Jews are an exiled people and Esther is an orphaned cousin of Mordechai who has “adopted” her into his care. Well, that wasn’t much help when Esther was snatched away to be a pagan king’s concubine.
Esther, by heritage a Jew, but now fully assimilated into a nonreligious culture, is at the mercy of a male-dominated political system. But she has a keen survival instinct and rises in royal favor. The life she’s been forced into certainly breaks the rules of Torah (Jewish law), but she has had to acclimate herself to this to survive. Her Jewishness is hidden, is eliminated from her identity. She is leading a false life.
Esther finds herself in a dilemma when she discovers Haman’s plot to annihilate the Jewish people, her people. Now she needs to gather whatever fragments of her true self are still intact and she needs to act.
Her plea to the king is “If I have won your favor, O king, and if it pleases the king, let my life be given me – and the lives of my people – that is my request.” I can hear the king replying “WHAT? Those are YOUR people? Well, THAT changes things!”.
The book of Esther is unique, as it’s the only Old Testament book that does not contain any mention of God, and so its religious significance is often in question. Seems kind of strange, right? A Bible book with no mention of God. Yet Esther conveys a message that’s consistent with the reoccurring theme in the Bible – the survival and salvation of God’s people.
While the absence of mention of God in this book has created challenges to interpretation, God’s presence may be discerned in the loyalty, goodness, and triumph of the weak, the reversals of fortune where the good triumph over the wicked. Though God is not named, God can still be known.
Because the experience of Esther’s people was turned “from sorrow into gladness and from mourning into a holiday” [referring to the Jewish celebration of “Purim”] the case can be made that God is present and active. Seems whenever the humble are uplifted and the haughty brought down, the case can be made that God is present and active. And it happens over and over, for example –
In the prayers of Hannah in the Hebrew Scriptures and Mary in Christian Scriptures, the belief is clear that God is in the business of lifting the oppressed and bringing down the oppressor.
As Hannah prepares to leave her young son in the care of Eli the priest, she prays, “The LORD makes poor and makes rich; he brings low, he also exalts. He raises up the poor from the dust; he lifts up the needy from the ash heap” (1 Sam. 2:7–8a).
And as Mary anticipates the birth of Jesus, she prays the words we know as The Magnificat, “He has brought down the powerful from their thrones, and lifted up the lowly; he has filled the hungry with good things, and sent the rich away empty” (Luke 1:52–53).
There are other examples of such “Magnificat-like” prayers in the Bible, a recurring and empowering theme. These prayers tell us that if we’re looking for evidence of God’s presence, we do well to consider those times and places when there are great reversals and dramatic changes of fortune.
Right now, in our world, we could use a great reversal, a dramatic change. This week our city was under siege with paralyzing traffic due to the United Nations General Assembly. I’ve lived around a half mile from the U.N. for 33 years and it’s never as bad as this year.
The heads of state, the diplomats, and their entourages are making this very on-the-surface, show of power. A friend told me she witnessed traffic crossing Central Park coming to a halt as a motorcade slowed to a crawl while the passengers took photos. The show of power is just that – a show. A show that paralyzes a city and endangers lives. [Yes, I’m grouchy about it, it’s been a long week.]
What would make it all tolerable and perhaps even welcome, is if, after a week of meetings (and maybe more meetings, less dinners – hey, it’s NYC – get delivery!), if the week ended with some tangible results. To me, it never feels like anything of substance has occurred. They need a mother’s voice “No one goes out to play until homework is done!”.
Maybe this year will be different. Maybe, along with the collective NYC sigh of relief when they all leave, there will be a feeling of awe and anticipation because of what was accomplished. Maybe there will be hope. [“Oh, Deacon, so naive” – I hear you]
And where do we find God in all this? We can look closely at all that’s going on, in this city, this country, the world, and not see any evidence of God. Oh, there’s mention, but what evidence? Our institutions will not give us that. The only place we can look, with confidence, for God, is within ourselves and the only way we can be our true people-of-God selves, is when we, like Esther, embrace and disclose who we really are and claim the world as “our people”. That’s the power we have.
Let’s pray for great reversal, dramatic change and yes, a little peace and quiet would be nice.
Deacon Denise