Sermon
Preached September 30, 2018 at St. Alban’s Episcopal Church, Albany, CA
Proper 21, Year B, RCL
“let my life be given
me-- that is my petition-- and the lives of my people-- that is my request.”
This morning our first appointed reading is from one of the few books in
the entire bible named for and starring a woman, the book or scroll of Esther.
The text tells the story of a strong and beautiful woman who stands up for
herself and her oppressed people, saving their lives and overcoming their
enemies.
The book begins with the King of Persia, in a scene reminiscent of the
tv show Game of Thrones, throwing out his wife, Vashti, for disobeying his
orders. Queen Vashti refused to be objectified and shown off at a 7-day men’s
only drunken party the King was hosting. Harriet Beecher Stowe, called her
action “the first stand for women’s rights”[i]
and Elizabeth Cady Stanton wrote that Vashti "added new glory to [her] day
and generation...by her disobedience; for "Resistance to tyrants is
obedience to God."[ii]
The king decides at the encouragement of his staff to host a Beauty
Pageant of sorts in order to pick his next wife. Mordecai, who works in the
King’s citadel and raised his cousin Esther after her parents had died, ensured
that she was among the women competing to be the next Queen of Persia. She’s
favored by the King and becomes Queen Esther. Meanwhile, a new official named
Haman is placed in charge of the citadel and demands all who work for him to
bow to him, but Mordecai due to his piety refuses to do so. When Haman
discovers this, he vows to have all Mordecai’s people killed and gets the King
to agree to and fund the genocide. Mordecai begs Esther to do something. She
requests that Mordecai and their people fast for three days after which she
will go to the King and plead for their lives. Which brings us to today’s
passage in which Esther says, “let my life be given me – that is my petition –
and the lives of my people – that is my request.” She saves the lives of her
people and the man who had sought to destroy them is executed on the very
contraption he was planning to use on Mordecai.
Resistance to patriarchy and women standing up, confronting the powerful
and bringing about a change of fortune for themselves and those they love is
our tradition, not just a part of it. Reading the Book of Esther felt
particularly meaningful this week as Dr. Christine Blasey Ford courageously
spoke of the violence and suffering she experienced as a teenager and as Maria
Gallagher and Ana Maria Archila confronted Senator Flake in the Capitol
elevator. Wealthy, powerful, drunken, xenophobic men ruled the roost in ancient
Persia, and their contemporary counterparts in Washington thank God are being
challenged by numerous Vashti’s and Esther’s.
That is good news.
In today’s passage from Mark, Jesus seems to be encouraging his
followers to look inward within themselves rather than being overly concerned
by the actions of others who are casting out demons in Jesus’ name. In this time
of such profound consequence, for some of us it is easier to point out the
wrongs and hypocrisy of others, and harder to look at the ways we ourselves
have fallen short, failed to confront misogyny, been complicit in acts of
violence or defended the powerful rather than the powerless.
Esther
said to the King, “let my life be given me-- that is my petition-- and the
lives of my people-- that is my request.”
May we, like Esther and all those within the #metoo movement, find the
courage and the voice to speak our truths and to stand up to those whose
privilege and power keeps them and us from living into our fullness.
My husband Matt is visiting family in Virginia this weekend and when I
shared today’s readings with him, he reminded me of what a hero Esther is for
the Jewish people and how her triumph is celebrated at the spring festival of
Purim. In Matt’s mind, Esther’s story is forever linked with that of a
Holocaust survivor, Arie Torner, who volunteered as an usher at Matt’s
synagogue until he passed away when Matt was 14. Out of a group of nearly 1000
young men subjected to horrific experimentation by the notorious Dr. Mengele
during the Holocaust, Mr. Torner was one of fewer than 20 survivors. On the day
of Matt’s bar mitzvah, Mr. Torner, who was by then 70 years old, advised Matt,
“speak loud and clear, so everyone will hear you.” Matt wrote later in a poem
for the temple newsletter, “I know why he wanted me to speak up.” People of
goodwill of all faiths recognize the deep importance of the notions of speaking
up for justice and compassion—of remembering the past, and celebrating unity
and the dignity of every person.
A recent article explaining why a major company’s CEO banned PowerPoint
and bullet points from meetings and instead had employees read lengthy
narratives and customer reviews, reminds us why sharing our stories is so
important, according to the article in Inc.
magazine by Carmine Gallo:
Anthropologists
say when humans gained control of fire, it marked a major milestone in human
development. Our ancestors were able to cook food, which was a big plus. But it
also had a second benefit. People sat around campfires swapping stories.
Stories served as instruction, warning, and inspiration.
Recently,
I've talked to prominent neuroscientists whose experiments confirm what we've
known for centuries: The human brain is wired for story. We process our world
in narrative, we talk in narrative and--most important for leadership--people
recall and retain information more effectively when it's presented in the form
of a story, not bullet points.
This Sunday may we deepen our appreciation for the transformative power
of story, the stories of Vashti and Esther, and all those who bravely step
forward to speak their difficult truths of past abuses and violence to save
their lives and this nation’s.
Esther said to the King, “let my life be given me-- that is my petition-- and the lives of my people-- that is my request.”
[i] Stowe, Harriet Beecher (1878). Bible
heroines: being narrative biographies of prominent Hebrew women in the
patriarchal, national, and Christian eras, giving views of women in sacred
history, as revealed in the light of the present day. Fords, Howard, &
Hulbert. Retrieved February 27,
2009.
[ii] Stanton, Elizabeth (1895). The
woman's Bible: a classic feminist perspective. European Pub Co. ISBN 978-0-486-42491-0. Retrieved February
27, 2009.
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