Sermon Commentary for Sunday, September 29, 2024

Esther 7:1-6, 9-10, 9:20-22 Commentary

Wisdom Personified Personified

In her commentary on Esther for the Africana Bible Commentary, Dorothy Bea Akot identifies the genre of this text as a royal court intrigue or a Sophia/Wisdom tale. For those of us following the Lectionary texts of Hebrew Scripture. I am, on occasion, critical of what the Lectionary has chosen to leave out but here I think they’ve given us a masterful stroke of genius: a three part series on Wisdom:

Proverbs 1: Wisdom personified

Proverbs 31: Wisdom personified

Esther: Wisdom personified personified.

Whereas the king rushes to make a rash decision to have his first wife banished and/or killed. Esther shows some wisdom in slowing the process down to discern the right course of action. Furthermore, according to Akot, this story “addresses existential issues of identity, survival and cultural preservation by a Diaspora minority against a majority. It also addresses gender and power issues as well as the interrelationship of divine intervention by a ‘hidden God’ and human agency.” Wisdom is shown in the way that “Divine intervention and human agency collaborate to effect deliverance, as happens in Esther, where the Jews trust their “hidden” God and act in their predicaments.”

Esther and Mary in Conversation

What Happens?

Here we have two obscure girls with no great claims to notoriety who are, nonetheless, used by God to do extraordinary things among God’s people. Esther is an orphan, part of a persecuted minority in the midst of the great big Persian empire. Mary is from a small town, part of an underestimated religious sect in the midst of the great big Roman empire. Esther saves her people from a murderous rampage, from genocide, really. Mary gives the birth of the Messiah who will save us all from our sins. Both are used by God. Both have to act with exceptional courage and, one might easily add, wisdom.
How Does It Happen?

Even though God’s name is not spoken in the story of Esther, God’s power guides the action and equips Esther to do this hard thing. When an angel announces God’s plan to Mary, God is not hidden. In fact the text says, “The Lord is with you.” Like Esther, she agrees to collaborate to effect deliverance for her people and all the people of the world. And even though God is not hidden when the angel comes to Mary, God’s *purposes* must have felt hidden to Mary many times over.

When Simeon prophesies over the newborn at the Temple
When they have to flee Herod in the dark of night.
When she and her other children try to pull Jesus away from his ministry because it all seems so strange and troubled to her.
And nowhere must Mary have felt as bewildered by God’s hidden purposes than at the food of the cross…

Why does it happen?

Robert Alter says that “Reversal is the key to the plot of Esther.” There are two Hebrew words used prominently in this story that would be translated: “on the contrary” and “it was the opposite.”

Like a narrator’s voice dubbed in to contradict the action on the screen. (Arrested Development, Series of Unfortunate Events, or any of the sitcoms, like the office, where the actor “break the 4th wall”)

The king stays pretty static but everyone else — Esther, Mordechai and Haman — see their fortunes reversed.

This takes us back to the fact that the story is meant to be playful and even, joyful!

Mary also sings a song of joy after the Angel leaves her. And you might say “reversal is the key to the (song of Mary)” too. From obscurity to “the Mighty One has done great things for me.”

Scatters the proud; brings down rulers.
Lifts up the humble, like her! From her humble state, all generations will call her blessed.
The hungry are filled, the wealthy are sent away empty.

Looking back at the history of God’s people, isn’t this just the way of things? Jesse’s stump grows shoots, Abraham’s lack of children turns into descendants as numerous as the stars, Naomi’s bitterness turned to the joy of a baby in her lap. And, yes, Esther’s move from beauty queen to super hero.

Reversal is the key to the story of Esther, key to the song of Mary AND reversal is the key to God’s plan of salvation, God’s purpose to finally — joyfully — turn this whole world right way round.

Purim

Purim is a Jewish festival that happens in February or March each year The central act of the celebration is reading the story of Esther from the scroll, or megillah.

Folks dress up as characters in the story, although the one I attended had a few more Avengers and Disney princesses than the original. There’s lots of food and drink and merry-making. It’s a pretty jolly holiday.

But maybe that’s ok. Biblical scholar Robert Alter suggests that the strangest thing about this already strange story is how it “it offers strong evidence of having been written primarily for entertainment. It has variously been described as a farce, a burlesque, a satire, a fairy tale and a carnivalesque narrative and it is often quite funny.”

In fact, “It is not hard to understand how this delightful story, devoid though it is of spiritual concerns and covenantal gravity, became canonical. It of course provided the warrant for a festive early spring celebration that few wanted to give up. But even apart from the holiday, as a story it was for its early audiences, as it would continue to be, both highly amusing and gratifying, at once a vivid satire and a tale of national triumph that offered to diaspora Jews a pleasing vision of safety from imagined enemies and a grand entree to the courts of power.”

Worship Idea:

Following the tradition of reading the Megillah, you can offer an interactive Scripture reading in your context as well. It will likely extend beyond the limits of the Lectionary’s pericope but you can find many variation of a script for Purim online. As you read, invite the congregation to participate in the following ways: