Who knows but that... September 27, 2009

Esther 4
Mark 9: 38-50
How often we go through the motion of days, one upon another, responding to presenting circumstance as if the routine of having lived, having once been, were all that was left to us of a once nobler time? We hear shocking reports, sensationalized news written to command our attention, and we respond as if this were only so much more data. Breaking news of military attacks are received as if Weather reports. Cancers are named as if friends and family were coping with the Flu. It seems as if LIFE has lost life!

What Tom Brokaw described as “The Greatest Generation” is passing. Decades ago, their parents and grandparents described doing without, just trying to survive, in order that future generations would have a different world. This generation went off to World War, then to Conflict on the Korean Peninsula, in order that their children would be free, that evil might be destroyed once and for all. The creation of the bomb, was that evil would be ended, war would be no more, all humanity could be one. The League of Nations was a glorious ideal, that the world's leaders would stop playing political games for world domination and would instead sit down and talk together as reasonable women and men. The G8 was to be an Economic Summit of the leaders of the most powerful and prosperous nations, sharing discussion, sharing leadership for the World Economy. This year, this week, this summit was expanded to be the G20 recognizing the economic power and influence of developing nations, that old Monarchies and Colonizers must share power, must listen to those countries coming to the world stage. Yet in the midst of that Economic Summit, news broke from our leadership of evidence of a new evil, new threats, the potential of destabilization by yet another government developing secret capabilities for nuclear weapons. While all the nations of the world have agreed, that those countries without weapons of mass destruction would avoid development, and those possessing knowledge of the bomb would intentionally work to eliminate arsenals, there is a constant game of testing for power, for who can win at world domination. Our economy has become based on war and the weapons of war, the world economy based on fear and annihilation of one another. Where the Book of Esther named the planned genocide of the Jews by the Persians, as a horrible atrocity never before imagined by humanity, we have witnessed attempts at genocide in one nation upon another, civil war in every country on each of the developed continents.

Who knows? Who knows, but that, All the circumstances of life, ALL of human history, had been planned and orchestrated for this moment, that you, each one of us, could be motivated to act in faith? What if, those of us who have studied and researched our genealogies, knew we had a legacy, a vital inheritance won in the Crusades, protected by being brought to a new nation as those of our blood escaped plagues and famine, a treasure tempered by the pressures and heat of centuries, given to you. What would you do with that diamond? That treasure, that legacy, is faith. But if we have become so numb to life, so scarred and insular, and afraid, how can we risk sharing what we believe?

This week, members of the Women's Association in Bible Study asked a question. They said, “Grace seems to be a New Testament idea, is there Grace in the Old Testament?” There is, but we need to re-orient ourselves to see it. The Bible is not a reference book like a Thesaurus, for us to look up “grace”, and have examples of what we expect. Grace in the Old Testament is reflected in God's response to Adam and Eve when they sinned in the Old Testament, and were not condemned to death or to hell, but were given a new chance at life outside the garden. Esther is an example of God's grace in the Old Testament, a woman appointed for God's purposes.

The Book of Esther is a unique reference for our time. Unique, in that the Book of Esther never actually names God. A Reference for our Time, in that the story of Esther deals with risking to speak out, risking to reveal who you are and what you believe, by risking being vulnerable to the most powerful people in your world, even if that world seems far distant from faith in God.

The Story of Esther describes a time after King David, after Solomon, after the Deportation to Babylon, that Babylon was conquered in war by the Persians, and the People of Faith become a free people living within a culture that does not believe. The culture values beauty and power, values power and beauty so much that the first Queen is exiled for challenging the King's power, by her being unwilling to appear nude before the King's drunken friends. She is replaced as Queen by a Beauty Pageant. And Esther, an Orphaned child is chosen, solely for her beauty, to be Queen. Meanwhile, Haman the most powerful authority in the Country after the King, plots to have all the Jews exterminated, not knowing that Esther is a Jew. Esther is forced to play a deadly game, using her vulnerability and her faith in a world that values power and beauty. Like placing our arm around the Queen of England, there is ONE RULE everyone in the Palace knows, no one is allowed to address the King, no one is allowed to come into the presence of the King without being invited by the King. So, how does Esther, get an audience with the King to speak to him of Truth, when she has not been invited by him for over a month? Rather than assuming power, rather than using her sex and her beauty, Esther appeals to the King on the basis of her Vulnerability, that she has one wish: To share a dinner with him. The King and Haman the King's most powerful advisor come to the dinner, at which she is asked what she desires, and she becomes more vulnerable by asking they come to dinner again. Then finally, when asked what the king can do for her, Queen Esther reveals that she and her people are to be exterminated by Haman's plot. The story of Esther has truth for us, in that in a world dominated by Beauty and Power, the word of faith that cuts through is Vulnerability, not trying to play the game, not seeking after even greater power or dominating one's enemies, but stepping out of the game to be human, to be sincere.

The Gospel of Mark seems strange to us. We are offended by Jesus' words, suggesting that we should cut off a hand or foot or pluck out an eye, yet all this passage is stated to challenge and salt us. The disciples had been sent out by Jesus to baptize and heal and teach in his name. And they surprised themselves that they had authority, their commanding demons, and praying for people worked. All this worked so well, they began to argue among themselves which was more powerful, who could do the greatest things? They boast of having put down those who were not following their authority. But Jesus rebukes them, stating what is the opposite of human power; instead of assuming a War on Terror that “Those who are not For us most be agin us”, Jesus states: “those who are not Against us, Are for us!” The challenge to cut-off and pluck out, is not encouragement for Cutting and maiming one's self, but taking seriously, so seriously you are willing to cut out what is a cancer in our relationships.

We hear passage s about Jesus setting a baby in their midst, and we envision how cute and distracting the Middle aged man holding a baby. When what Jesus was suggesting was that in the midst of a Stockholder's meeting with all the politics and games of power, in the midst of High school's cliques about who are the prettiest, a baby has no power, can play no games, and yet their vulnerability, their need attracts us all.

We in the Syracuse area live a place once called SALT CITY, the Erie Canal was dredged to transport salt cured in this place to far distant locations. Today, we see salt as something to be avoided from our diets, a necessary evil for ice and cold. But in ages gone by they knew Salt used in moderation as a fertilizer, used in excess as able to destroy land for growing anything for generations. Our bodies are made up of salt water, and an imbalance causes our brains to operate in strange realities. Salt can be used in the curing of meats, in preservation. The difficulty, Jesus is naming is that if Salt has been used to absorb and is saturated, how can it be used? Our faith, our humanity, our compassion are super-saturated. Like the pitcher we use each week, we need to recognize and claim we are full of our worries, our concerns, our fears. We cannot take more in. So we pause in Sabbath, and pour out, trusting that God can take all we have. Then, emptying ourselves of our problems and fears and doubts, we are refilled and replenished for the week to come.