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Sermon by Rev Kinsey, "Sliding Scale of Vision"

10/29/2018

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Readings for Reformation Sunday, October 28, 2018
Mark 10:46-52, Psalm 46
Romans 3:19-28


"Sliding Scale of Vision," Pastor Fred
Is there such a thing as, a sliding scale of vision? 
 
When Jesus healed a blind man at Bethsaida on the north shore of the Sea of Galilee, earlier in the Gospel of Mark, he went from blind, to a blurry, seeing people that looked ‘like trees, walking,’ to finally, completely healed.  It took a couple tries to get it right!
 
And what about your vision? Where do you fall on the scale of sight?  Hopefully you have good coverage for vision care, because, our eyesight is so important, and is mostly only getting worse, as we age.  Myself, I have a stigma with my farsightedness, which means every year or two, the Ophthalmologist wants to strengthen my prescription, though, it wasn’t quite so urgent in the beginning.  I first got glasses for reading in the 8th grade, but wouldn’t wear them at school because I was so embarrassed to put them on, and feared the taunts I might get from my classmates!  Today, I’ve slid so far on the vision scale, I would hardly be able to read a Stop Sign without my glasses or contacts in, much less read a book. 
 
My sister, only 3 years older than me, has been talking about cataract surgery for years already.  She can’t wait to get her clear vision back!  But the doctors tell her she has to wait, it’s not that bad yet. 
 
I had a professor in seminary that lost his sight, slowly but surely, over a number of years.  It might have been glaucoma – I’m not sure, but he had enlisted student readers to help him keep up with the many journals and books he was interested in.  He never complained publically, but Kim was one of his readers, and she told me that privately he was, at first, quite bitter, which was understandable, because he was a very talented, well respected, writer.  Even giving a sermon was now much more difficult.  For his entire career he had always preached from a manuscript, and now had to re-teach himself to memorize what he wanted to say, and he was never, as satisfied.
 
Blind Bartimaeus has a very striking story of vision to tell us in the Gospel of Mark, too.  A beggar by the roadside in Jericho, his childlike faith in Jesus, instantly changed his life.  The sliding scale for his sight, went from zero to 100 instantly! 
 
But it wasn’t a foregone conclusion for Bart!  Like today, his begging was suspect, by those following Jesus.  Was his story true?  What was he really going to use his money for?  And ‘many,’ rudely tried to shush him up.  ‘Our Jesus shouldn’t be bothered, by the likes of such a sinner!, 
 
But Bart will not be denied.  He sees this as his chance.  He’s had time to dream, and hope, for a moment such as this.  Who hasn’t heard about the miracle worker from Galilee!  And Bart knew that, of course, Jesus would have to come this way, sooner or later.  Jericho was the gateway to Jerusalem, the last Rest Area on the Freeway before driving downtown into the big city of Jerusalem.  It was actually about a 15 mile trek, all uphill, to reach the holy city of Zion.  Jericho was by the Dead Sea, a warm climate, the Miami for the homeless, of Palestine. 
 
So Bart tries again, and cries out with a surprisingly loud voice over the din of the crowds, “Son of David, have mercy on me!”  “And Jesus stood still.”  This is a voice he recognizes, a cry he knows – not just as ‘the Son of David,’ but as ‘the Son of God.’  This is a voice of ‘the last and the least,’ of ‘the hungry and thirsty for righteousness sake,’ those who Jesus has come to heal and to lift up, and to usher into the kingdom, to be first. 
 
The whole Caravan stops now, and Jesus says, “Call him here.”  And now the fickle crowd changes their tune and for the first time, addresses Bart like a real person, “Take heart,” they say, “get up, he is calling you.” 
 
And you know the rest, right?!  It’s a simple story, on its face.  But one of the most seminal, in the entire gospel.  This is the turning point of Jesus’ ministry in northern Galilee, ‘on the way’ to Jerusalem, and his mission of victory in the cross and empty tomb. 
 
Jesus is “on the way” collecting followers, those who believe and show their support and faith, in action.  And Bartimaeus is the perfect follower.  Like the many ‘little-people’ believers in Mark’s gospel, Bart is a contrast, not only with those of unbelief, like the priests and leaders of Jerusalem, but even compared to his own Disciples who are following, still full of doubt, and never quit on board with Jesus kingdom message, during his lifetime, at least. 
 
In the story immediately preceding Blind Bart, it’s James and John, from the inner circle of his Disciples, who come to Jesus, asking a favor.  Jesus replies with the same question he will offer to Bart: “what do you want me to do for you?”  James and John want seats next to Jesus in his glory to come, basically the highest honor anyone could have.  And Jesus patiently walks them through how it works in God’s realm, one more time.  Yes, you will be baptized with the same baptism that I am baptized with, and drink the cup that I drink, but to sit in glory with me in the kingdom to come is only up to God, not me.  I live for you in this kingdom (on earth), to show you ‘the way,’ and that’s all you really need to know, and get right, for now.  Jesus cannot grant the request of James and John. 
 
When Jesus tells the crowds to call Bartimaeus to him, Bart ‘throws off his cloak, and springs up’ to present himself to Jesus.  Again, Jesus asks the exact same question, “what do you want me to do for you?”  “My teacher, let me see again.”  And Jesus simply says, with the same words he addressed the woman with the flow of blood for 40 years who touched his cloak in the crowd of people, “Go; your faith has made you well.”  From zero to 100, like a successful cataract surgery, “Immediately Bart regained his sight.”  “Truly I tell you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God as a little child will never enter it,” Jesus had taught his Disciples!  Faith and sight.  Bart’s request is something Jesus can work with! 
 
Finally, Blind Bart also outshines ‘the rich man’ who came to Jesus asking for an inheritance of life-everlasting.  He promised Jesus he followed all of the 10 Commandments, and was a good man.  But Jesus added an 11th request – go and sell all that you have, and give to the poor, and come and follow me.  But his possessions were many, and he could only walk away dismayed, and more unsure than before. 
 
Bart on the other hand, had nothing, save the cloak he spread on the road to gather the pennies he could, from his begging.  But now, when his dream comes true, that Jesus is calling to him, Bart springs up and casts that cloak aside.  He won’t need it any longer.  The one who is ‘the light of the world’ has come to invite him to the banquet, he won’t be looked down-on any more, or considered a sinner, for his poverty.  Today, in the presence of Jesus, he will be restored and made whole – and will follow Jesus on the way, to Jerusalem, to the life-giving tree. 
 
The message of Mark’s gospel is clear sighted, even for his cataract riddled followers.  The last shall be first, and the first shall be last.  The new realm of life, the kingdom of God that Jesus is bringing, in the freedom of the gospel, is reforming the whole world.  Bart is the model disciple.  He sees more clearly than Peter, and James, and John.  Neither is he a slave of the hierarchical laws that the scribes and keepers of the purse-strings in Jerusalem are.  He springs up to encounter the power of the life-giving teacher, of the realm of God, and his child-like faith is reckoned to him as righteousness, as St Paul and Luther liked to say, and Bart becomes a follower on the way to Jerusalem, a true disciple. 
 
Of course, we are much more like the 12 Disciples, full of doubts and tied to this world, almost as much as to the realm and kingdom of God’s world.  In the sliding scale of vision, we fall somewhere between Bart and the rich man, somewhere between the woman healed of her hemorrhage, and the Pharisees.  Some days we see clearly.  Some days we see people that look like trees, walking, and our faith is not always what we want it to be. 
 
But the thing is.  Jesus is never about the ‘test of faith,’ never about getting his title right (is it Messiah, or Teacher, or Son of David?), never about nailing the 10 Commandments perfectly (as if we could be perfect), like the rich man, (allegedly!).  Jesus calls us, to get up, and cast off whatever is holding us back, and follow him ‘on the way.’  And in the following, in the Caravan to the freedom land –together– the Spirit of God, will enliven us, and carry us.  For the power of God, is in our faithful discipleship.  God, will do the reforming!
 
Whatever it takes, we can’t forsake each other, we can’t let go of the power of ‘the faith of Jesus,’ ‘on the way.’  Only on the road to Jerusalem, is there clarity and truth, hope and love.  It’s a sliding scale of vision.  We are always being reformed by the Spirit of God.  We walk together by faith!
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Sermon by Rev Fred Kinsey, "Faithful Moon Steps"

10/25/2018

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Readings for the 22nd Sunday after Pentecost, October 21, 2018
  • Job 38:1-7, (34-41) and Psalm 104:1-9, 24, 35c 
  • Hebrews 5:1-10  
  • Mark 10:35-45

​Faithful Moon Steps, (by Pastor Kinsey)
I wasn’t planning on seeing the new movie, First Man, starring Ryan Gosling as Neil Armstrong, the first person to walk on the moon.  But then I heard an interview with the director, that I was just listening to with one ear, but my other ear perked up when he said that, the way Ryan Gosling looks at his role as Neil Armstrong is that, it’s not about going to the moon – as dangerous and historic as that was – but for him it’s a movie about, returning home to planet earth, and to his family.  That snapped my head around and got my attention!
 
I remember watching the real thing with my family on our black and white TV in the summer of ‘69, fulfilling the dream that President Kennedy had set for the nation before the end of the decade, though he was no longer alive to see it himself.  I don’t think I could appreciate the magnificence of the feat, at just 13 years old, but it was thrilling none-the-less!  A little tin can of a space ship made it all the way to the moon, that giant orb in the night sky, which had never been done before.  And we could see those small steps Neil Armstrong took on behalf of all humankind – which actually were pretty big compared to us on earth – giant steps, as he hovered in slow-motion, through the moons’ much lighter gravity. 
 
In our First Reading from Job today, after 36 chapters of, Job and his friends, debating back and forth about God: Whether God is just or not, whether God cares about Job or not, how Job’s suffering must be his own fault, and on and on – finally, we hear the voice of God, which has been absent all this time. 
 
It’s a long build up, and now we, the reader, want to know.  Who is right?  Job or his friends?  Job contends that he is innocent, has done nothing wrong, to deserve the punishment he’s endured, losing all his wealth and his family, and being persecuted with illnesses.  Through it all, Job has kept his faith, for the most part, though he has also questioned God’s created order, and doubted whether or not God really has a handle on things, on what is just and what is not! 
 
And, like an improbable moon landing, the most stunning verse of Job may be this first verse, in chapter 38 of our reading: “The LORD answered Job out of the whirlwind…”  God comes not as a classical debater.  Not as a scribal superior.  But God speaks from a natural phenomenon, out of a wind-dervish, an act of creation, within God’s creation.  Like when God appeared in a burning bush to Moses, but this time, God is a mighty ruach, or wind, which is another word for Spirit. 
 
“Who is it that darkens counsel by words without knowledge,” God asks Job rhetorically?  The word “counsel” usually refers to planning, and the ‘counsel’ here, is the plans of God. Job has ‘darkened’ them, by repeatedly suggesting that the world seems disorderly, that God has “taken his hand off the wheel,” so to speak.  Yet instead of engaging Job’s argument, God reaffirms that not only does the world operate in an orderly fashion but that God is the author of that order. [Patrick J. Willson, The Christian Century]
 

Then God directs Job to, “Gird up your loins like a man, I will question you, and you shall declare to me.”  ‘Gird up your loins’ can either refer to getting ready for battle – putting on your armor.  Or it can mean, as it does here, to get ready for a difficult task. 
 
Indeed, God will question Job – not the other way around, as it has been throughout the long Dialog, to this critical juncture.  We only get 11 verses of God’s questions for Job in our reading today.  But there are actually 2 chapters – 64 verses – of questions! 
 
We are, along with Job, surprised and speechless!  And sometimes, ‘astonishment,’ at the creation God has made, is the only appropriate response. 
 
One of the physicists, that guided the space mission to Pluto, was so surprised, when it arrived, after 9 long years to get there, that all he could say at first was: “it’s just blowing my mind!”  Not a very scholarly observation, but that’s because, like a Whirlwind, the pictures that New Horizon sent back, were totally unexpected. They showed that there were ice mountains on Pluto!   
 
Alan Stern, principal investigator of the New Horizons mission, later declared, “I don't think any one of us could have imagined that this could have been a better toy store.”  So many new things to play with, was what he was getting at.  
 
In just the same way – there is such rich, and richly varied imagery, that God provides for our consideration – the more science explores the vastness of our universes and also investigates smaller and smaller particles of our existence.  God continues to blow our minds!
 
“Where were you when I laid the foundation of the earth,” God asks Job? …Who determined its measurements? …Or who laid its cornerstone?  (38:4-6)
“Can you lift up your voice to the clouds, and commission a shower of rain? Can you take charge of the lightning bolts and have them report to you for orders?” (38:34-35)
Are you the one who gave the horse its prowess, and adorned him with a shimmering mane? Did you create him to prance proudly and strike terror with his royal snorts? (39:19-20)
“Can you catch the eye of the beautiful Pleiades sisters, or distract Orion from his hunt? Can you get Venus to look your way or get the Great Bear and her cubs to come out and play? Do you know the ordinances of the heavens? Can you establish their rule on the earth? (38:31-33)
 
Our astonishment of God’s appearance in the whirlwind, as Dennis Tucker, Jr. notes  – asking basic, but unanswerable questions – is that, the book of Job is not really about, Job and his plight, as much as it’s, a revelation about who God is for us!  That’s the truly astonishing news of Job. 
                                                                                                                  
And our God, is a God who sets boundaries for us.  God has created a world, a universe, for us to exist, and have our being.  And it is more astonishing than we can imagine, the farther we explore it.  It does not mean, that bad things will not happen to good people, in the freedom of this created existence.  But only that God has established its boundaries, and that God is, and continues to be, the life force ‘in, with, and under’ everything, as Luther liked to say. 
 
The 64 verses of questions God throws back at Job, I think, only point us back to ourselves, and our life in community.  How do we respond to a creation so marvelously made?  How do we share it?  How do we care for it?  How can we set boundaries for our life together, that protect, yet are life-giving?
 
Like the disciples in our Gospel reading, James and John, we are tempted to want a permanent relationship with this magnificent divine One – a seat at the right or left hand of God.  But that’s not what Jesus came to bring, he tells his Disciples.  ‘Those who want to be great, must be servant of all.’  Our blessed assurance is actualized in our loving, and in our caring.
 
Just so, the wonderful, amazing, immensity of God’s creation, is also, humbling.  The pictures we have gotten from Hubble, and now, New Horizons, prove God’s vastness, and our fleeting wispiness ‘like a reed in the wind.’  And as much as we want to cozy up to God in Jesus, and rest assured – that we can rest, and be assured, that we will not be harmed, not have to go through the pain of suffering – yet God assures us here, only of God’s amazing creation, and power, and authority, which is meant to give us courage and faith right now, one day at a time, and help us to share it with our neighbor. 
 
When we are young, we want the adventure of going to the moon.  When we are older, we want the luck to make it back home!  The only way we find blessed assurance, is to take one small step at a time – faithful steps, trusting and knowing, that God (creator & sustainer) is walking by our side. 
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Sermon by Rev Fred Kinsey, "Siblings in the Arms of Jesus"

10/15/2018

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Readings for the 20th Sunday after Pentecost, October 7, 2018
  • Job 1:1, 2:1-10 and Psalm 26  
  • Hebrews 1:1-4, 2:5-12  
  • Mark 10:2-16


"Siblings in the Arms of Jesus," Pastor Kinsey
In our growing up families, children universally love and form attachment to their parents.  We are all dependent on a parent, grandparent or guardian to raise us. 
 
It’s notable, I think, that only relatively recently did scientists confirm that our brains are not fully developed into adult-like brains, until we’re 25, or so.  Families are important; families form us.
 
Certainly, children also rebel against their parents in their teenage years, not to mention the terrible 2’s!  And some families give their children adult responsibilities at a much earlier age than I know I ever had.  I saw that a lot living in rural Michigan for 20 years, where basically, poverty tends to enable that, and kids often have to grow up faster.  Some kids do this quite well, though even then, there are usually losses, and deficits they pay for, in their lives growing up. 
 
There’s a large sliding scale of parent-child dynamics in our growing up families. 
 
One of the privileges of my profession as pastor, for the last 32 years, has been to enter into a wide variety of family systems.  And I mean, there are lots of ways we construct family!  Some are more functional than others, and all families have dysfunction to some degree, just as a matter of course. 
 
In our Michigan parish, there was one extended family, wracked by alcoholism, abuse, imprisonment, and a web of lies, that we realized, if we wanted to, we could spend our whole ministry, every hour of every week of every year, counseling and caring for them.  So, setting boundaries on our relationship to best help them, while remaining faithful to our call, took some doing.   
 
Another family – actually members at the neighboring Presbyterian Church, but who always sent their two children to our VBS program – was a refreshing model of healthy relationships.  They not only had a successful environmental business they started on their own, but in their spare time, they had a folk band.  Mom played the fiddle and dulcimer, dad guitar, and their kids started playing with them on stage as soon as they were proficient, maybe 10, 12, years old.  Of course, they had their tensions and rough spots too.  But the way they worked and lived together was mostly life-giving.  And the son and the daughter are both professional musicians, and on their own, today. 
 
And, in between these two family systems, there are an infinite variety of families. 
 
Children learn from their parent, or parents.  Children learn what love is especially from their parents and guardians, but have no way of knowing as they grow, if that love is healthy, or not.  For better or worse, a bond is formed.  We all want, and need, to be loved as we grow up.  And sometimes it takes a lifetime to figure it out – those first 18, to 20, to 25 years – of our formation.  And so we internalize whatever blessings, or meanness, we learn from our parent.  Almost every child has some hurt hiding inside, because we can’t discern it when we’re young.  We carry it with us, and process it as we go.  Sometimes we act it out, not even knowing where it came from, without reflecting on the fact, that it could be different. 
 
In 1st century Palestine, children were on the very bottom of the social ladder, the lowest of the least.  They basically had no rights, and were not considered, full persons.  The most positive thing I guess you could say, was that they were an investment in the farm, another worker in the family business. 
 
Which is why it’s surprising then that Jesus stops to bless the children, and make us all stop, and look them in the eye!  He speaks sternly to his disciples, as Mark reports it, “Let the little children come to me; do not stop them; for it is to such as these that the kingdom of God belongs.” 
 
So, it’s an interesting juxtaposition that this story follows immediately after the jarring confrontation about divorce.  The sharp language of Jesus can be partly traced to his audience.  It’s the Pharisees, who come, not to fall reverently at his feet and listen to the Rabbi, but they come to test Jesus, that is, to try and trick him with an impossible conundrum.  The question of divorce was a hotly debated topic in 1st century Palestine, something like our issue of abortion.  So, this is a kind of Trumpian confrontation, designed to show their power, and risk further chaos, more than clarify. 
 
But Jesus has a refreshing take on the issue, actually.  He says, the Mosaic law allowing men to divorce their wives, was written for those who are hard of heart, such as the Pharisees, who came to test him.  But, says Jesus, where does our understanding of partnership and marriage come from?  And he goes back to the very first chapter of Genesis, from the very beginning of the creation of humans he says, we find that two people who love each other in marriage, have become one flesh, a godly-made-bond so important for family that, as Jesus concludes, no one should separate them! 
 
And to his disciples alone, Jesus says:  A man who separates himself from his wife by divorce goes against the intentions of the ‘one flesh.’  When two partners come together in marriage, they become ‘one person,’ now.  But more than that, Jesus adds perhaps the most shocking thing of all.  And if “she,” separates from her husband by divorce, she also goes against the intentions of ‘one flesh.’ 
 
She, was not part of the Mosaic and Levitical codes!  Women had no rights to divorce.  It was unheard of!  But Jesus, who began with the hard-heartedness of the Pharisees who want the option of divorce only for themselves, ends with this revolutionary equality of rights for female spouses. 
 
So, how does this connect with Jesus blessing the little children?  For one thing, at least, Jesus is still talking about the rights of the ‘least of these’ – for both women and children – Jesus came to liberate and include, the least of these, in the Jubilee year of release, in the inauguration of the kingdom and realm of God! 
 
Look out patriarchy!  You do not fit into the kingdom.  You abide by rules of privilege and exclusion which are not able to release the joy of Jubilee for all!  
 
And furthermore, with both stories together, we once again find the picture of family that Jesus advocates for, throughout the gospels.  All those who believe in this kingdom message and are followers of Jesus will be his siblings, brothers and sisters with Jesus, more so even, than his blood relatives.  He tells his disciples this same thing, just before his passion.  Now I call you my friends – we’re siblings.  And together, our parent is my Abba, says Jesus, my daddy, or Father, in heaven.
 
As God’s family, it’s not that we won’t have some dysfunctions.  Certainly we will.  But what holds us together as siblings is that we all refer to our heavenly Abba, our sovereign God, our common parent, that transcends our failings and frailties, who truly loves us and forgives us, and calls us God’s own. 
 
This is the beautiful picture portrayed in our gospel, it seems to me.  That Jesus, like our Abba-Father in heaven, took the little children in his arms, laid his hands on them, and blessed them.  God’s family includes us all, as siblings with one another, and with Jesus.  And our relationship in this family is what teaches us how to love one another – how to heal our wounds, and give us the opportunity to be a healthy functioning family. 
 
This is the picture Mark’s gospel paints for us: Jesus takes us up in his arms – all of us – lays his hands on us, and blesses us! 
 
God is blessing us, that we may be a blessing to others! 

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Sermon by The Rev Fred Kinsey, "Reversal"

10/3/2018

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Readings for 19th Sunday after Pentecost, September 30, 2018
  • Esther 7:1-6, 9-10; 9:20-22 and Psalm 124  
  • James 5:13-20  
  • Mark 9:38-50​

  • ​Reversal, Pastor Kinsey
    The reversal of fortune for the people of God in the book of Esther is stunning reading!  If not for Queen Esther, the chosen people would have perished, in this story! 
     
    Of course, it is a novella, in genre, with elements of a popular romance novel, and stylized characters, like Queen Esther as the young and beautiful heroine; Hamen, a wicked, scheming villain; cousin Mordecai, a wise older father figure; and King Ahasuerus, an inept and laughable ruler – with heavy notes, of contemporary parallels, to our own!  Thankfully, in the book of Esther, Good triumphs over evil, and like a telenovela, all ends happily, albeit, accidentally, for the heroine, Queen Esther.  
     
    It is not meant to be historical exactly, but it does take place in a real setting, at the height of the Persian Empire, as they controlled 127 surrounding countries, including Israel.  The Jews had been overrun by the Babylonians, who were then overrun by the Persians.  And the Persians permitted the Jews to return to Israel from exile, but some – like Mordecai and Esther – had stayed. 
     
    Among the reversals in the novella, is Esther’s rise from lowly courtier, all the way to Queen, which enables her, to position herself, to save her people – the biggest reversal of all!  And from the plot Esther cleverly devises, comes the Jewish Festival of Purim, celebrated usually in early March every year, ever since.  It’s a celebration of this reversal, and its subversive victory.  It can be as raucous as Mardi Gras, but meaningful as Christmas!
     
    Throughout, Esther does not reveal her Jewish heritage to the Persian court.  But in novella fashion, we the reader, are clued in from the beginning!  Will she survive?  Will she be caught?  Stay tuned next week and find out!
     
    But it is her proud cousin Mordecai, the other courtier, who puts them in danger, by steadfastly refusing to bow before the evil Haman, a zealous ideologue.  When Hamen becomes enraged with Mordecai’s behavior, he then plots how to get the king’s signature on the decree to destroy the entire Jewish population throughout the empire – a genocide. 
     
    It’s no wonder that Purim – a celebration of this reversal – is so popular to this day(!) given that the threat to Jews around the world has continued through the centuries, as they have become a perpetual scapegoat for too many despots and xenophobes.  So Purim is that 2-day festival that celebrates Queen Esther’s reversal of their Shoah, and victory over the evil courtier, and king’s edict, in a festival of thick satire and mocking costumes, a sort-of-Halloween of joyous rebellion!
     
    The greatest danger may be how the king is such a buffoon, himself!  He’s ruled by his emotions, instead any clear plan, or any ability to listen to good advice!  (Proving, you don’t need Twitter to wreak havoc!)  And a perfect illustration of this is in chapter 3, before our reading today.  After the king has announced his edict to annihilate the Jewish people, what do Hamen and the King do – they sit down together to enjoy a drink!  For them, it’s just another executive order to sign, but for the many hard-working people of the kingdom it names, the consequences are devastating, a calamity! 
     
    So when Esther finally gets the King’s ear to make her case against the evil Hamen, in our Reading today, she is successful, only by accident! 
     
    I had (Trudy) our reader include verses 7 & 8, just two of the omitted ones from our First Reading today, that describe this part of the scene.  In it, Esther uses her good graces with the king to ask that she, and especially the lives of all her people, be spared.  The king, still not ‘getting it’ that she is Jewish, says, who has presumed to do this (to you)?! 
     
    “A foe and enemy,” Esther tells him, “this wicked Hamen! Then Hamen was terrified before the king and the queen.” 
     
    Then now comes vss. 7-8: “The king rose from the feast in wrath and went into the palace garden, but Haman stayed to beg his life from Queen Esther, for he saw that the king had determined to destroy him. (8)When the king returned from the palace garden to the banquet hall, Haman had thrown himself on the couch where Esther was reclining; and the king said, ‘Will he even assault the queen in my presence, in my own house?’ ...” 
     
    The king thought that his courtier, Hamen, because he was prostrate on the couch, was making sexual advances on his Queen, totally mistaking that Hamen was pleading for his life.   And so, it’s not Hamen’s plot to annihilate all of Esther’s people, that moves the king, and informs his final decision.  But it’s his personal jealousy.  The king does order Hamen to be hanged.  So, he does the right thing, for all the wrong reasons!  His laughable – if it wasn’t so dangerous-kind-of-ineptitude, that his good courtier’s all around him, try their best to contain – reads suspiciously like Bob Woodward’s tell-all book, “Fear!” 
     
    Our human suffering, does not always make sense.  It can come out of the blue.  In fact, the capricious kind, may be a sizable chunk of it, if you consider natural disasters like hurricanes, floods, and earthquakes, along with the misguided edicts of our rulers and elected leaders! 
     
    But here, in the book of Eether, we discover as a people of faith, that our lives – though not determined by any authority other than our God – can and are, significantly shaped by the social and political systems that we live under – even in a democracy, which has been said to be, the worst form of government, except for all the others that have been tried! 
     
    When the disciple John said to Jesus, “Teacher, we saw someone casting out demons in your name, and we tried to stop him, because he was not following us.”  Jesus’ response was, “Do not stop him; for no one who does a deed of power in my name will be able soon afterward to speak evil of me. Whoever is not against us is for us.” 
     
    Jesus is willing to make common alliance with other groups, other organizations, other practitioners, who weren’t following him.  Like skewed lines – parallel but which will never intersect – Why would you want to stop this healer from doing good, Jesus says – from exorcising demons and bad spirits, and saving people from the forces of evil that rebel against God (as we say in our baptismal service)?!  We need to be open to everyone who isn’t against us! 
     
    And, in the face of evil and oppression, including despots, we need a strong faith; we need courage, to stand together, as the people of God! 
     
    Like Queen Esther, we often don’t know the outcome of our efforts to do good, we can only do them because we believe we are acting as God would have us act, for the life of the world our God has created and made for us.  Our real life, of course, is not a Novella.  But our faith – in hope, and in action – is based on the ultimate assurance that good does prevail over evil – over the chaos which too often seems so close and dangerous – and is built on the strong foundation of God’s action, the vindication, on the third day – the Great Reversal! 
     
    Jesus said, “Whoever is not against us is for us. For truly I tell you, whoever gives you a cup of water to drink because you bear the name of Christ will by no means lose the reward.”
     
    Let us, “Have salt in ourselves! And be at peace with one another.”   
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