God Moments

September 27, 2009

Esther

At Shrine Mont (which is not only where we go for our parish retreats, but where youth in the Diocese can go for summer camp), every night the campers in each cabin gather in a circle to share their day’s highs, lows and God-moments.  Several of our teenagers at St. Aidan’s have been formed by Shrine Mont, and so when we started our youth group back up for the year last week, they wanted to include that tradition in our weekly meeting.  

We’d barely begun to go around the circle when it became clear that the non-Shrine Mont campers weren’t sure what a God moment was and didn’t feel like they could pinpoint any such moments in their lives.  I was about to jump in and offer a religious definition — God moments as times when you felt sure God was with you, or saw God at work in the world.  But, in what was actually something of a God moment for me, the camper youths began defining it first.  Their way of talking about God moments was not so explicitly religious.  I won’t get their words right, but the gist was that a God moment might be a time when it felt like things made sense.  Or a time when you felt a sense of peace in a part of your life that needed it.  Or a moment when you were able to just relax and be yourself.  And after hearing these more tangible definitions, there were noises of recognition from the group.  Several kids that had earlier claimed they didn’t have any God moments were ready to amend their answers.  I was glad I’d managed to keep my mouth shut.

I’m reminded of that conversation by our story today from Esther.  Because something that is truly remarkable about this book of the Bible is that God is not ever explicitly mentioned.  Not once.    

And yet, even in the midst of this story that doesn’t mention God, in the midst of the reign of a decadent King and his blood-thirsty official, comes a story that has God moments all over it.  But they are God moments that you have to dig for a little.  Sometimes they are quiet and unexpected.  Sometimes they are seemingly insignificant events that become critical, or seeming coincidences that bring everything together, or decisions that affect much more than the person involved.  God’s company may not be recognized or mentioned by the players in this story, God may be flying under the radar, but God is still active and present.  

But the small bit of Esther we get in our lectionary cycle this morning isn’t enough to see that.  And so, since this is such a great story, I feel compelled to take a cue from our Jewish brothers and sisters and give you the condensed version of the entire story of Esther.  Each year in many synagogues, an annual play is staged during the Jewish festival of Purim to celebrate the events of the book of Esther.  During these plays, the audience boos whenever the villain Haman’s name is mentioned.  So we’re going to do that too.  

But I need a little help from the kids.  Can I get all the kids to come up here and help me?  Make noise and boo when you hear the name of the villain of the story - HAMAN.   

And everyone, listen for those God moments!

I retold the story of Esther, changing props with each charcter:

Queen Vashti - tiara

King - crown

Esther – scarf – later, tiara and scarf

Mordecai - hat

Haman – sinister mustache

Once there was a King who built for himself an incredible empire.  He decided to throw a 6 month party so that he could show off his wealth to nobles from all over the world.

At the end of the banquet, the King commanded the Queen to come before him so he could show off her beauty to everyone gathered.  But the Queen refused. 

The King was enraged.  He was afraid that if word got out, all the noble ladies of the land would hear about it and rebel against their husbands.  And so he ordered that the Queen would never appear before him again and her royal position would be given away.

Then the King had all the beautiful virgins of the land brought before him.  He would spend time (ahem!) with each one and then decide which would be his new Queen.

Among these women brought before the King was Esther.  Now Esther was a Jew, and like the other Jews in the land, she had been carried to this land many years ago as a captive.  

She was being brought up by her cousin Mordecai, who told Esther not to reveal to the King that she was a Jew.

From all the women, the King chose Esther to be the new Queen and set the crown upon her head.

Her cousin Mordecai spent his time sitting at the king’s gate and one day he overheard two of the king’s eunuchs conspiring to assassinate the King.  He told Esther and she told the King and the plotters were hanged on the gallows.

Soon after, the King promoted one of his aides, Haman, a remarkably conniving and hateful individual, to be his highest official.  Everyone was supposed to bow down to Haman.  

But Mordecai refused!  

Haman was infuriated.  He learned that Mordecai was a Jew and began to plot to destroy all the Jews as punishment for Mordecai’s mistreatment of him.

Haman went to the king and told him about a people that was scattered and not keeping the King’s laws.  Haman asked the King to issue a decree that these people be destroyed.  The King agreed, and a decree was sent out to all the King’s provinces ordering the annihilation of all Jews on a certain day.

When Mordecai heard about this, he dressed in sackcloth and ashes, and told Esther about the King’s plan.  Mordecai told Esther she had to go to the King and beg for mercy for her people.

Esther was afraid because no one was allowed to go before the King without being called before him.  Anyone who went without permission was to be put to death.

But Mordecai told her, “Do not think that in the King’s palace you will escape any more than all the other Jews.  You cannot keep silence at such a time as this.  Who knows?  Perhaps you have come to royal dignity for just such a time as this.”

And so, Esther fasted for three days and then, dressed in her finest, she went before the King.  Luckily, Esther won the King’s favor and he allowed her to approach.  

The King asked Esther what she wanted. “Whatever it is, it shall be given to you,” he said, “even to the half of my kingdom.”

Instead of telling the King what she wanted, Esther asked the King and his aide Haman to come to a banquet she had prepared and they came.  

At the banquet, the King again asked what Esther wanted and promised to fulfill her request up to half his kingdom.  

Again, Esther responded by asking the King and Haman to come to a banquet the next day too.

Haman went home that day bragging about how he’d been the only one invited along with the King to Esther’s banquets.  But then, just when he was feeling so good about himself, he ran into Mordecai sitting at the King’s gate refusing to bow down to him.  Haman decided he had to have Mordecai hanged on the gallows the next day.

Luckily, that night, the King couldn’t sleep.  

And so he started thinking about that time, way back when, when two of his eunuchs had conspired to kill him and Mordecai had foiled their plot.  The King realized that nothing had ever been done to thank Mordecai.  And so the next day, when Haman came in, the King asked him, “What shall be done for the man whom the King wishes to honor?”  

Haman assumed the king was talking about him (of course), and so he suggested that this man should be honored by dressing him in royal robes and a crown and being paraded before the people on a fancy horse.  And so the king told Haman to do all these things for Mordecai.  Haman was outraged and embarrassed.  And just then it was time for Esther’s second banquet.

This time, when the King asked her what she wanted, Esther replied, “If I have won your favor, O King, let my life and the lives of my people be given me.  For there is a plot afoot to have us all killed.”

The King said, “Who is he who has presumed to do this?”

And Esther said, “A foe and enemy, this wicked Haman!”

The King rose in wrath and went into the garden.

But Haman stayed to beg for his life from Queen Esther.  When the King returned, he saw that Haman had thrown himself on the couch where Esther was reclining.

When the King saw this he said, “Will Haman even assault the Queen in my own house?”

And the King ordered Haman killed on the same gallows he had prepared for Mordecai.

Then he gave Queen Esther the house of Haman.

And he made Mordecai his highest official.

And since the King could not revoke his previous order that all the Jews in the land be killed, he sent out a second order that allowed the Jews to destroy any people that might attack them.  And so that day, the Jews struck down all their enemies.  And when they were finally safe, the day was declared a festival and a holiday.

Which brings us to the end of the story of Esther.  (Thank you noise-makers!)  

I think we’re a lot like Esther and the King and Mordecai and Haman and the rest of the characters in this story.  Every once in a very great while, we might actually be aware of God in our life, in our world, acting in and through us.  Every once in a while we think to look for our explicit God moments.  But mostly we’re pretty clueless.  More often than not, God seems uninvolved and distant, maybe even absent.  We see ourselves, rather than God, as the main characters of our life stories.  We live our lives without knowing ourselves to be worthy of God moments.   But what if God is there to be found throughout it all, in the big moments and also in the normal and ordinary, if only we start looking?  I wonder if you’ll notice your God moments today?  Amen.