St. Thomas’ Episcopal Church, Owings Mills MD
September 26, 2021
Year B, Proper 21: The Eighteenth Sunday after Pentecost
Esther 7:1-6, 9-10; 9:20-22
Psalm 124
James 5:13-20
Mark 9:38-50
High Stakes For Esther, Jesus, and Us
If you were here last week, you may remember that I talked about “women of valor” – the women found in the Old and New Testaments - and the women right here in our own church, past and present – the women who do whatever they do – in the home or out in the world - with dedication, fidelity, and, most of all, wisdom.
Hopefully, last week’s sermon set the stage for today’s Old Testament lesson, where we encounter one of the most valorous of all biblical women: Esther.
Unfortunately, today’s selection drops into what’s nearly the end of Esther’s story, so, unless you’re familiar with this tale, you may have hard time understanding what’s going on.
So, I’ll attempt a quick recap.
The setting is Persia, where a Jewish community is living in exile.
Among these exiled Jews were the beautiful Esther and her cousin Mordecai. (Mordecai raised the orphaned Esther as his own daughter.)
Esther’s beauty caught the king’s eye and she was made part of the royal harem. And, after the king’s wife disobeyed him, he chose Esther as his new queen – although he did not know that she was a Jew.
Meanwhile, Mordecai learned of an assassination plot against the king. He passes that vital information to Esther who warned the king. Understandably, the stock of both Mordecai and Esther rose in the eyes of the king.
After the failed assassination plot, a man named Haman became the king’s top advisor. Mordecai had insulted Haman, and in response a furious and ambitious Haman is determined to kill Mordecai and all of the Jews in Persia.
In order to save the Jewish people, Mordecai tells Esther to go to the king and tell him that she is a Jew.
Esther is reluctant to do that – she was not supposed to go to the king unless he summoned her. But, she asks her fellow Jews to fast and pray for three days and then she will go before the king.
When Esther goes to the king, he is so pleased to see her that he offers her anything that she wants, up to half of the kingdom.
Esther then invites both the king and Haman to a banquet. This special invitation convinces Haman that he is in favor with both the king and the queen. He’s so confident, in fact, that he builds a gallows over at his house, all ready for Mordecai’s execution.
And that, more or less, brings us to today’s passage.
At the banquet, Queen Esther finally announces her wish to the king – that he save her life and the life of her people.
The king gets pretty worked up and steps out of the room for a few moments. Haman uses this opportunity to throw himself on Esther’s couch, begging for his life.
The king returns to see Haman on the queen’s couch. And Haman’s fate is sealed.
The king agrees to Esther’s request. And, not only that, in an ironic twist, he orders that Haman be executed on the gallows he had built for Mordecai.
And, as we heard at the end of today’s passage, this turn of events is a cause of great celebration among the Jews in Persia – and that joy continues to this day in the holiday of Purim.
It’s hard to capture the spirit of the Book of Esther in a brief summary. If you haven’t read it, check it out. It’s one of the most entertaining parts of the Bible, often described as a novella.
But, I wanted to spend some time on the story both because Esther really is a woman of valor, and also because she didn’t start out that way.
Early on in the book, Esther is passive, as would have been expected of her in that time and place. But, when Esther recognizes that the stakes are so high – we’re talking here about the very survival of her people – she gains the courage and wisdom she needs to approach the king.
The stakes were very high for Esther.
And the stakes were certainly very high for Jesus, too.
For the last two Sundays, we heard Jesus predict his suffering and death, and also his resurrection.
The disciples – at least the men – were not willing or able to hear what Jesus was telling them. The disciples just couldn’t or wouldn’t get it. Instead, Peter tried to turn Jesus away from his mission. And, as we heard last week, some of the disciples were busy jockeying for position, all wanting to be the “greatest.”
And now, in today’s gospel lesson at first we have yet another episode of “The Disciples Just Don’t Get It,” when they complain to Jesus that a non-disciple is casting out demons in the Lord’s name.
But, instead of picking on the disciples, I want to focus on the middle part of today’s lesson.
Jesus offers a hard teaching on just how high the stakes are for the disciples and for us.
Using very graphic examples, Jesus teaches that we need to get rid of whatever it is that causes us to stumble, whatever causes us to sin – because what we do or don’t do now has long-lasting, even eternal, consequences.
Now, I’m convinced that Jesus does not want us to mutilate ourselves, but he does want us to understand - to really get - just how high the stakes are for all of us.
The stakes are as high as can be.
It’s a lesson we need to learn and relearn throughout our lives – a lesson that we are often forced to learn as we get older.
I suppose when I was young I looked out at the expanse of my future and it seemed to be almost infinite.
And because there seemed to be so much time ahead, I thought there would always be plenty of opportunities to fix whatever got broken, to say the words that needed to be said, and to apologize for mistakes that I made.
Maybe you’ve had similar thoughts.
But, man, life flies by, filled with all sorts of twists and turns.
And over the years I’ve learned that sometimes what gets broken stays broken – that sometimes there just isn’t another chance to say what we’ve always meant to say – and sometimes we put off an apology for too long.
You know, as a priest, I’ve often had the privilege of being with people at the end of their lives.
There are some people who look back on their lives with few regrets – people who look ahead with confidence in the God who never lets go of us.
And there are also people who look back on their lives with lots of regrets – people who look ahead to a future that seems uncertain at best, because they haven’t given God and ultimate questions much thought or attention.
So, yes, the stakes for us are as high as can be.
But, remember, God gave Esther the courage to be a woman of valor at a time when her people needed her.
And, yes, it’s a lot of fun to point out how much the disciples just didn’t get it. But, remember, in the end, God gave them the faith and courage to recognize the high stakes and to give away their lives sharing the Good News.
And, God can do the same for us – giving us the strength and courage of Esther and the disciples – helping us to recognize just how high the stakes are – and, before it’s too late, inspiring us to change our ways and follow Jesus’ command to love God and love our neighbor.
May it be so.
Amen.
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