sermon notes on Esther and the hidden hand of god for Sept. 27

September 27 Esther, James 5, Mark 9:38

Esther is a book for a time such as this. It is one of the few books in the Bible that does not explicitly mention God. The book considers what happens if you are trying to pass under the thumb of power. She is doing quite nicely as the wife in a harem, should she risk her position for the sake of her people. we have been reading of wisdom in passages of late, and again she exemplifies wisdom in a tough spot.

Yet God is present in the book. It  opens the door to the presence of God in the way things fall together. Still, it is not magic; real human being make decisions in real social space.Certainly God is present in the lives of Mordecai and Esther. God works in and through events, some comic, some horrifying.God may appear to be quite distant. God is working through the actions of real people even though they are far away from home and exile has continued long after the elite returned to Israel.

Esther is in a really tight spot.The story is constructed so that she cannot march into the king without being asked into his presence, but he has not called for her in some time. She could live her life. Her name is the Persian goddess, as is her guardian Mordecai.
She could conceal her Jewish identity and live in an opulent hiding place forever.she could walk away from her people.she responds, if I die, I die, even though she has asked for a period of fasting ( and can one assume prayer?)

She has to finagle a way out of the king’s ordinance that she must be called to his presence. Esther grows from a mere object, a teenager in a harem, to someone who makes difficult decisions in a really tight spot.Mordecai took on the responsibility of raising her, but now she is on her own to try to save her people, at the risk of her own life. If she stays quiet she could live a life of luxury. Like Moses, she turns her back on royal court life to support her troubled people.She learns, evaluates and plans (well plots). she has to understand the nature of those with whom she plots foShe uses the tools of power at her disposal to reverse the positions of the king and the evil Haman, who is bent on genocide.(Daniel da Silva plays on intelligence and careful planning in his books on Israeli intelligence services).for her plan to succeed. She is indirect and self-f effacing (Fox) tools of the colonial people to win protection for her people. Imperfect, unformed people are capable of doing important tasks. Few of of us have  the stalwart virtues of Mordecai, but those virtues got everyone in trouble. At one point or another, all of us find ourselves in the position, perhaps called to account, in making a decision that announces what kind of person we are.

Every day may be a time such as this.Most Of us do not receive direct transmissions from the almighty One. Here this story talks of a providence that goes beyond our seeing, a providence that seems to be visible only after the fact. God may sometimes work in miracle, but the divine hand seems to be more often a hidden hand. Indeed, God’s purposes work out through very human decisions and actions within a complex network of society.. Last week James wrote of god being near. God is as close as the matrix of our actions, as they ramify and play out in human history.