Esther
3:1-15 The
Anger of Haman
After these
things King Ahasuerus promoted Haman son of Hammedatha the Agagite, and
advanced him and set his seat above all the officials who were with him. And
all the king’s servants who were at the king’s gate bowed down and did
obeisance to Haman; for the king had so commanded concerning him. But Mordecai
did not bow down or do obeisance. Then the king’s servants who were at the
king’s gate said to Mordecai, ‘Why do you disobey the king’s command?’ When
they spoke to him day after day and he would not listen to them, they told
Haman, in order to see whether Mordecai’s words would avail; for he had told
them that he was a Jew. When Haman saw that Mordecai did not bow down or do obeisance
to him, Haman was infuriated. But he thought it beneath him to lay hands on
Mordecai alone. So, having been told who Mordecai’s people were, Haman plotted
to destroy all the Jews, the people of Mordecai, throughout the whole kingdom
of Ahasuerus.
In the
first month, which is the month of Nisan, in the twelfth year of King
Ahasuerus, they cast Pur—which means ‘the lot’—before Haman for the day and for
the month, and the lot fell on the thirteenth day of the twelfth month, which
is the month of Adar. Then Haman said to King Ahasuerus, ‘There is a certain
people scattered and separated among the peoples in all the provinces of your
kingdom; their laws are different from those of every other people, and they do
not keep the king’s laws, so that it is not appropriate for the king to
tolerate them. If it pleases the king, let a decree be issued for their
destruction, and I will pay ten thousand talents of silver into the hands of
those who have charge of the king’s business, so that they may put it into the
king’s treasuries.’ So the king took his signet ring from his hand and gave it
to Haman son of Hammedatha the Agagite, the enemy of the Jews. The king said to
Haman, ‘The money is given to you, and the people as well, to do with them as
it seems good to you.’
Then
the king’s secretaries were summoned on the thirteenth day of the first month,
and an edict, according to all that Haman commanded, was written to the king’s
satraps and to the governors over all the provinces and to the officials of all
the peoples, to every province in its own script and every people in its own
language; it was written in the name of King Ahasuerus and sealed with the
king’s ring. Letters were sent by couriers to all the king’s provinces, giving
orders to destroy, to kill, and to annihilate all Jews, young and old, women
and children, in one day, the thirteenth day of the twelfth month, which is the
month of Adar, and to plunder their goods. A copy of the document was to be
issued as a decree in every province by proclamation, calling on all the
peoples to be ready for that day. The couriers went quickly by order of the
king, and the decree was issued in the citadel of Susa. The king and Haman sat
down to drink; but the city of Susa was thrown into confusion.
****
When Jesus finished instructing his disciples he said, "Oh,
and also, do not be political." Well, that may not be in any gospel
you've read but it seems to be a scripture that many people today
imagine. While sitting in a coffee shop recently two college students
were enjoying their break. One young woman described her courses and
mentioned "The Bible as Literature"; they were studying scripture
from a secular perspective. She found it fascinating and spoke with the
excitement of an unexpected discovery: "It's so
political!"
Indeed our scriptures deal with kings and emperors, governors and
generals, prosecutors and jailers. Our faith calls upon us to arrange our
loyalty to governments, to our work, even to our family, in relation to our
honor and worship of our God. As Bob Dylan once sang, "You're
gonna have to serve somebody." The Bible is a collection of stories
of rulers foreign and domestic and the hope for and awareness of a reign of
God. Our sacred books are a treatise on the horrors of corrupt rulers,
rulers who punished people for their beliefs and killed people for their
identity. The comedian Alan King offered this pearl of wisdom:
"A summary of every Jewish holiday: They tried to kill us, we won, let's
eat!" The Bible could be said to be one long story of resistance and
repentance and renewal.
Esther's story reminds me of Joseph and Daniel, Miriam and Moses,
Ruth and Elijah, John the Baptist and Paul the Apostle and every other story
where the people of God are in dire straits, withstanding or suffering or
fleeing the latest oppression: demonized, feared, persecuted. Esther
is the story about yet another empire that disrupts and defeats and displaces
people. As we get nearer to the story of the birth of Jesus, the story of
a family we meet as they are dislocated, then homeless and then fleeing as
refugees, it should be very familiar. And yet these are not just
stories. And so we must ask, who are we in this story?
Jim O’Hanlon has been a Pastor since 2000, of St.
Paul’s in Rye Brook since 2010. Raised a Roman Catholic, Jim was shaped
by the liturgical, social and church reforms of the Second Vatican Council.
Graduating from St. John's University he worked as a researcher for Gov. Mario
M. Cuomo.
Jim has actively collaborated with colleagues of
various faiths for local service projects and interfaith encounters. Jim
has participated in creating a coalition between clergy and law enforcement in
a national campaign to address gun violence called "Do Not Stand Idly
By."
He has worked on combating discrimination including
efforts for equality for members of the LGBTQ community; a joint TEDx Talk on
the Bible and Homosexuality has 900,000 views so far.
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