18th Sunday after Pentecost-Proper 21B

18th Sunday after Pentecost-Proper 21B September 26, 2021 The book of Esther is an interesting book. It tells the story of Esther who becomes Queen in Persia after she wins a beauty pageant that the king puts on (after having set aside his previous wife who refused to show off her beauty at his request). Esther, who is a Hebrew, follows the counsel of her uncle and guardian Mordechi, and keeps her faith a secret from her new husband. Meanwhile, political machinations unfold between Haman, the king’s right-hand man and Esther’s uncle. When Mordechi refuses to pay homage to Haman because of his faith, Haman hatches a plot to kill all the Jews in Persia. In an epic plot twist, which we see today, Esther orchestrates the salvation of her uncle and her people and ensures the assassination of the dastardly Haman. The book is interesting, not just for its soap-opera-like drama and plot twists. Scholars say that “no other book of the Bible has received such mixed reviews from….both Jews and Christians. Some have criticized the book for what it contains; others, for what it lacks.” “The Persian king, for instance, is mentioned 190 times, but the God of Israel, not once-nor are such basic Jewish practices and institutions as the Law, covenant, prayer, dietary regulations, or Jerusalem…The book has [also] frequently been faulted for its moral tone. Not only are such basic Judaic values as kindness, mercy, and forgiveness lacking; but as many Jews and Christians have lamented, the story evidences a vengeful, bloodthirsty, and chauvinistic spirit. Intrigue, deceit, and hatred abound regardless of whether the spotlight is on Haman, Esther, Mordecai, or on their enemies.” i I had a picture book that told the story of Esther that I often would request for reading time at bed time from my parents, and I loved it: the way that good Queen Esther was able to turn the tables on the evil Haman ending in his execution! It fit perfectly in my child’s understanding of justice. It’s even more interesting to find this story from the Old Testament paired with our gospel reading for today. These past few weeks, Mark has been showing us Jesus and his disciples on the road to Jerusalem, and Jesus has been trying to teach them all he can about discipleship and what it means. In our gospel for last week, Jesus overhears the disciples arguing on the road over who is the greatest. When they get to the house, Jesus takes a little child into his arms and teaches his disciples, “Whoever wants to be first must be last of all and servant of all… Whoever welcomes one such child in my name welcomes me, and whoever welcomes me welcomes not me but the one who sent me.” Our reading today picks up immediately from that point, with Jesus (ostensibly) still holding the little child in his arms. The disciples launch into complaints about how they saw someone casting out demons in Jesus’ name and how they tried to stop him because “he was not following us.” Jesus tells them not to stop him, saying, “Whoever is not against us is for us.” He then refers back to the child and cautions the disciples to not put stumbling blocks before “these little ones.” We’ve heard these teachings of Jesus so often that it’s easy to disregard just how revolutionary they are to how we normally live our lives. We live our lives to be the greatest; but Jesus calls us to be the servants. We believe that lines between friends and enemies are clearly drawn, that whoever is not for us is against us; Jesus reminds us that there are no lines, that those who do not actively work against him are technically for him. We want to be Queen Esther or wiley Mordechi who outsmart the clearly evil Haman, but life is not that simple, and all of us are a strange mix of darkness and light, of kindness and selfishness, or hope and scarcity. This past week I listened to Brene’ Browns podcast Unlocking Us where she interviewed Jason Sudeikis and Brendan Hunt, two of the stars, co-creators, and writers of the hit show Ted Lasso. They’re talking about what the appeal is to the character of Ted Lasso, how they have created him to be just a normal, really nice guy and that these days, a normal nice guy seems “more interesting than Batman.” Brene’ says, “There is a scene where someone who is dealing with a ton of shame and pain has done what we all do with shame and pain, for the most part, has discharged it on someone else and then you’ve got Ted Lasso who’s like a freight train who just stops the shame and blame thing and leans into forgiveness and have we forgotten, do you think, that that’s not superhuman? That that possibility exists in all of us?” And Jason Sudeikis responds: “I think we have forgotten that. I think that’s a big part of why it was thrilling for us to conceive and then execute, because it did feel like a modern-day aberration and yet, it’s rooted in DNA, sociologically. It can seem so trite, but [we often see people in power acting in both] ignorance and arrogance and Ted is ignorant and curious and I think curiosity comes from a power of being able to ask questions and truly empathize, see what someone else is dealing with and there’s people much more clever than myself that came up with all those great kinds of quotes “You never know what battle someone else is dealing with, everybody’s life is a comedy and a tragedy and a drama.” I think it was Mark Twain, and I just think Ted and our intention was for him to embody those things but to do it in a sincere and genuine way but yeah, I think we have forgotten it a little bit and it breaks down a discourse and an opportunity for dialogue and loving someone for who they are versus hating them for what they’re not.”ii And that’s when I almost fell off my treadmill. Because Jason Sudeikis just encapsulated much of Jesus’s life, ministry, and teachings in that one line: that we are called to love someone for who they are versus hating them for what they’re not. How might this change they way that we think about our enemies or our rivals, those we need to forgive? What might that teach us about how we serve and how we not become impediments in the path to Jesus of the little ones? Your invitation this week is to join me and find one person in your life, and spend the week prayerfully working to love them for who they are as opposed to hating them for who they are not. i. Intro to Esther from the New Oxford Annotated Bible. Oxford: NYC, 1991, p 612 OT. ii. https://brenebrown.com/transcript/brene-with-jason-sudeikis-and-brendan-hunt/ Unlocking Us. October 7, 2020