Today in the Revised Christian Lectionary, we have a difficult topic with which to contend. It is the story of Esther. Because this story is so complex, I have made a sign board with the names and descriptors of four of the main players in today’s reading. Juanita has determined to find a children’s book on Esther for our kids, and to tell you the truth, I wish I’d had access to one! Let’s try to understand the story for the sake of honoring our Jewish friends and for the sake of viewing a woman of courage.
Esther is a Jewish woman living in the midst of a time when antagonism toward Gentiles ran high among Jews. Esther and her cousin Mordecai lived in such a contentious setting. Ahasuerus, whom I will call Xerxes, is mentioned 190 times in this book, but the God of Israel not once. Xerxes has decided to depose his present queen and begin a search for another. Without disclosing her Jewish identity, Esther, at Mordecai’s behest, enters the competition to become queen and wins, due to her beauty.
The introduction to the book of Esther found in the New Revised Standard Version of the Bible tells us that this story lacks in basic Judaic values such as kindness, mercy and forgiveness. Perhaps you recall Norm’s reading last week where we are told that there are three things the Lord requires of us: Justice, Mercy and Humility as we walk with God. These are NOT the hallmarks of the Esther story! Let’s look at what has been described as a book with a “vengeful, bloodthirsty and chauvinistic spirit,” which abounds in “intrigue, deceit and hatred.”
Esther will turn out to be the lynch pin between Mordecai, a Jew, and Haman, the king’s advisor. Haman wants Mordecai and all Jews dead. Through a complex series of events, Esther will shift the King’s wrath from Mordecai to Haman who will be hanged, along with his 10 sons, on the gallows built for Mordecai. However, she will not succeed in getting Xerxes to withdraw his racist anti-semitic pogrom, but she does secure the right for the Jews to defend themselves, which they do. In summary, the NRSV tells us that,
“…in the case of Mordecai and Esther, Providence can be relied upon to reverse the ill-fortunes that beset individuals or the nation—provided that such leaders and their followers actively do their part, acting wisely and courageously.”
Hooray for Mordecai and Esther (also known as Hadassah). Hooray for courageous people who can say to themselves, “perhaps I was born for this moment.” Our children will be making masks today, as the Jewish people do, in their enjoyment and celebration of Esther every year during Purim, which falls in February or March each year.
It is clear to see, in Esther’s story, how her resources served her: Her beauty, her courage to enter into a plot that could lead to her death, and her ability (guided through prayer) to choose the right words to persuade the king. Now let us undertake to comprehend the story of a Native American woman, probably mythical like Esther, whom I believe came as a redeemer figure to the Lakota Sioux. Jesus is the redeemer figure in Christian theology.
I first learned this story from Lakota Sioux storytellers in Vermillion, SD. Later, I would find it well told again in the book Buffalo Woman Comes Singing by Brooke Medicine Eagle. I have edited it to fit our time constraints.
A long, long time ago the Lakota people lived settled, agrarian lives in the woodlands and came out to the prairies to hunt buffalo. One day, two young men from a small hunting encampment were out scouting among the tall prairie grasses. They moved with focused awareness, watching simultaneously for enemies and for wild game. Suddenly, in the distance, they noticed something moving. A strange aura surrounded it.
The figure was coming directly toward them. It was a two-legged (a human being) surrounded by a bright and beautiful light. It was a woman with long, flowing hair and she carried a bundle on her back.
The two men in this story were of very different sorts. The first man looked on the beautiful woman with lust. She was alone and undefended. He approached her in order to assault her sexually. She opened her arms, her shawl, to him and a mist surrounded them. When it cleared, she opened her arms and released the man’s skull and bones, which crumbled into dust and blew away with the wind. “Thus was his selfish intention broken apart and dispelled.” (p.5)
The second young man, the kind of person Brooke’s people call a true warrior, looked with pure awe upon the woman. “As with all true warriors, his intent was not to harm or take for himself, but to serve All Our Relations, and the whole Circle of Life.” He beseeched her to come and teach his people, which she did. She presented them with the sacred pipe, “whose high purpose is use in sacred rites to bring about a reunion with all things in the Circle of Life—a remembering of ourselves as one with all things, with All our Relations.” The circle of life contains not only two legged creatures, but all creatures, plants, rocks, earth, stars, planets and everything found in the Web of Life. The White Buffalo Calf Woman calls us to live a life of deep ecology upon Mother Earth, for ourselves and the generations of children who follow us. (p. 6)
Let us move now from the stories of two mythical women who were powerful, courageous and influential, three adjectives whom I believe also pertain to our Secretary of State, Hilary Rodham Clinton. Truth be known, I believe that both she and our President, Barack Obama, were born for a time like this, in the words of Mordecai to Esther. And I believe that they, perhaps more than any Administration members in history, have come to see the humanity in even the roughest rogues around the globe.
This is not to say that they will suffer fools or aggressors gladly, but, like Jesus, they will invite everyone to the table of reconciliation.
Mrs. Clinton, while battling for the presidential nomination, made a big issue out of the suggested naiveté of Barack Obama in terms of foreign relations. She ran ads trying to scare people into thinking that he would be unequipped to make a good decision if awakened at 3 AM with news of attack or emergency. She scoffed at his statement that he would meet with the leader of Iran to discuss the use of nuclear power. I believe it took a real act of courage for Mr. Obama to ask her to be the Secretary of State, and I believe it took a real act of courage for her to accept.
I was greatly encouraged last week when Mrs. Clinton withstood a probing interview by Margaret Warner of PBS as to why the Obama Administration will not only look at the recommendations of the military in terms of planning a strategy in Afghanistan. I believe they will also look at the opinions of cultural historians, retired military leaders, and yes, even Providence. I urge you to read the 12th and 13th chapter of Paul’s letters to the Romans. It was from this wisdom that I wrote to George W. Bush as he considered the invasion of Iraq. And it is from them I will write to Barack Obama. Paul quotes Proverbs when he exhorts,
“No, if your enemies are hungry, feed them; if they are thirsty, give them something to drink; for by doing this you will heap burning coals upon their heads. Do not overcome evil by evil, but overcome evil with good.”
May we all find the courage of Esther, the White Buffalo Calf Woman, and Hilary Rodham Clinton to face this hour of decision, which will impact the lives of thousands of military personnel and their families.
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