"THE OTHER" September 27, 2015

Esther 3:7 – 4:14 Mark 9:38-50 This morning I need us to recognize that faith in God through Jesus Christ is about believing in what we do not understand. Faith in God through Jesus Christ is believing in what we, individually and collectively, even through our government or military cannot control. Faith in God through Christ is not believing in myth, nor fantasy, not a dream, theoretical paradigm or virtual reality. In the reality we consider to be normal life, there is the world of our creation: waking in the morning to an alarm clock, eating breakfast, going to work or school, enjoying a meal together in the evening, having time to relax and sleeping soundly, someday retiring to happily ever after. In that reality, life is defined, we are the center of our identity. We pay taxes to our elected officials, who provide roads and schools and safety and security. We amass education to increase our knowledge and understanding, to increase our accomplishments, in a known quantified universe. In 2001 that reality changed, not because of the new millennium, not an apocalypse or armageddon, but prior to 2001 our culture naively believed that we were in control of our destiny, that we could determine our own fate, that life was basically Good and strangers were not a threat to us. Then on one beautiful Tuesday morning, where the sky was blue, and life routine; we suddenly experienced the unthinkable. Terrorism went from being the isolated random act of a few radical crazies at Ruby Ridge or Waco, Texas; AND instead, commercial airplanes became weapons of mass destruction; Manhattan went from being Madison Avenue Designers, Wall Street's Stock Exchange, Broadway's White Lights, to being Ground Zero. In the aftermath of being attacked in our places of business, on our soil, without provocation, our leaders declared: “Whoever is not for us is against us!” The home of the free and land of the brave, became reactionary and defensive, concerned with our own survival, and we began going from one crisis to another, one hurricane to another, one school shooting to another, fear upon fear. The point is not to convince you of the error of our ways. Not for one brief hour, or even 15 minutes of that, to say that two thousand years ago, on the other side of the world there was a Good and Righteous man, God in our midst. But rather, that our reality, whether naive or defensive, in control or in fear, is only the known part of life, only that part of creation we want to believe we control, or fear we do not. The wholeness of creation requires that we also believe in THE OTHER. That if there is fear, there can also be hope. If there is Control and Chaos, there can also be God, Mercy and Compassion. Like Jesus' disciples we are fearful enough to react to an Us against Them; Me against the world; survival of the fittest. The solution to the Syrian Refugee Crisis is not how many million refugees each country can take, not a question of racism or fear or economies, or immigration. Millions of people are being forced to leave their homeland because of genocide, because of war and oppression. Many of our problems are because we have accepted a basic premise without considering an alternative reality, any Other reality. The idea of “Whoever is not for us is against us!” is nothing new, it was the cultural reality of Rome, which the Caesars and Senate legislated with the Pax Romana: an Enforced Peace of the Roman Legion. Empire after Empire throughout human history have sought to eliminate those who were different, those who were feared. Jesus instruction here to the disciples was not the Golden Rule, but rather a radical up-ending of reality, to consider what if GOD is in control? What if: “Whoever is not against us is actually for us?” What if we are only afraid of our fears of what we do not control? In the 1700s Jonathan Edwards was the charismatic preacher of the Great Awakening, who preached Hell-fire and brimstone. Edwards described Hell, with flames of fire burning away at your flesh, an unending terror, in order that people might fear Sin and choose the lesser suffering of working for their redemption. We already live in an world of fear, a time where we never know if on that routine visit to the doctor's office we might have an illness; when every day the business we work for may be sold or secrets be revealed; when the stock market may tumble; our home lose all value; when our spouse may abandon us; when our children may be taken from us by drugs, by relationships, by mental illness. Someone asked me why I never preach on Hell or Sin? I think we are acquainted with these very well, but that there is an alternative, there is redemption, there is hope, these are The OTHER that we need to believe in, that we need to be convinced we want. I believe we are not convinced by Fear as by Hope. But there are two things to remember... First that we each are responsible for our actions, and to harm another, to lead one who s naive astray and abuse them is wrong, and there is judgement for our wrong. Second, that there is a cost to discipleship, a cost to caring about others, that we are human and we might take on the sins of the world. If we who are the salt of the world were to become corrupt, how could we be made new? I do NOT believe Jesus was being rhetorical! I believe this was the linchpin for the disciples to come to a new reality. Jesus had described to Nicodemus that he must be born anew that life is not a straight line, but perpetually beginning again. That if we truly believe all those Not against us ARE for us, then if we became corrupted we could trust others to help us. But also, faith loves correlations, comparisons, word plays. I believe Jesus chose SALT as the image here, because another word for Saltiness is SAVOR, so who is to restore the SAVOR of the Faithful: the SAVIOR! Growing up in the Presbyterian Church, we never heard the story of Esther. The story of David, Yes! The 10 Commandments. Solomon and his wisdom. Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Gideon, Joshua, Samson, Hannah, Jonah, Rahab the Prostitute, Mary, Martha, Peter and Paul, Zachaeus; but Esther was obscure. This is a book that never mentions God. Esther is an Old Testament book that does not require following the 10 Commandments, or Redemption, or mention the Prophets, Priests or Kings of Israel. The Story of Esther is the Script of a Melodrama, read at the Feast of Purim, which annually occurs in March. This is “Theater of the Absurd,” because the ideas at the basis of this story are so absurd. After King David and King Solomon, when the People of Israel were beaten and dispersed in exile in Babylon, the Medes conquered the Babylonians, the Persians conquered the Medes, eventually the Greeks would conquer the Persians, and through it all Judaism repeatedly faced Genocide. Over and over throughout history, the people of faith have faced extermination, so the Feast of Purim and the Story of Esther were an annual remembrance that we have been here before. In a world focused on Power and Shame, on Vanity and Beauty; a world where others fear that anyone who is not like them must be against them... Here, the people of faith can offer feasts to feed the poor, to welcome enemies and strangers into our homes, and to laugh at the absurdity of our fears and prejudices of the OTHER. But also, that no matter who we are, we cannot escape the circumstance of the world; and who knows that perhaps God has put us in this place and time to act in this circumstance! To understand just how absurd is living in constant fear, reading Esther requires Other's participation. In the far off Land of Persia, there was a King Ahasuerus who was such a Fool he was only concerned with Beauty and Vanity, so pre-occupied with showing off beauty he held a Banquet and ordered his Wife the Queen to appear wearing nothing but her jewels. The queen refused, so the King called for a Beauty Pageant to pick the most beautiful woman in the Kingdom to be his new Queen, and not knowing she was Jewish, he chose Esther. SO, in the story every time you hear the name of the Foolish King Ahasuerus like Homer Simpson, the people are to say “DUH!” And every time the Name of the Beauty Pageant Winner Esther is Named, “You are to Wolf Whistle.” But where leaders are foolish and concerned with appearances, others play dangerous games of Power. Haman was the Grand Viser, who fearful and indignant calls for the Extermination of all the Jews for being different. Adding to his corruption, Haman offered Ahasuerus that for every Jew who was Killed, Haman would pay a reward into the Treasury. SO when the name of Haman is spoken, we identify the Villian with “Nya-aa-ah!” Ahasuerus has given to Queen Esther a Servant named Hathach, who had been made a Eunuch; when Hathach's name is spoken we collectively say “Ouch!” And the Hero of the story, who saved the King from a plot of assassination, who suffers indignity, wears sackcloth for the redemption of the people and never gives up hope, is Esther's Uncle Mordecai. When Mordecai's name is spoke people “Cheer!” Let's again read Esther 3:7 - 4:14.