Last week we finished a series of sermons looking at the work of the prophets in the Old Testament.  One of their key themes was that the people’s lack of faith and turning away from God had dreadful political consequences – the invasion by Assyria at first and then by Babylon.  These invasions led to the exile of the leading intellectuals and political figures. 

The Book of Esther is set in Babylon during the Exile.  The Jewish people had lived there for a generation and seemed to have been able to keep to their own laws and customs whilst showing they could be loyal citizens of the Empire.  Yet they were unhappy and longed for home and freedom.   

King Xerxes was king and seemed to have been a rather temperamental person.  He didn’t like the fact that his wife, Queen Vashti, snubbed him by not attending on him as soon as he called.  He divorced her and his officials started a search of the empire for beautiful young women who would please the king.   One beautiful young Jewish woman, Esther, was chosen to join the royal Harem: 

Reader: Esther also was taken to the king's palace and entrusted to Hegai, who had charge of the harem. The girl pleased him and won his favour. Immediately he provided her with her beauty treatments and special food. He assigned to her seven maids selected from the king's palace and moved her and her maids into the best place in the harem.  Esther had not revealed her nationality and family background, because Mordecai had forbidden her to do so. Every day he walked back and forth near the courtyard of the harem to find out how Esther was and what was happening to her.  (Esther 2: 8 -11) 

Esther kept her Jewishness secret and had been brought up by Mordecai her cousin.  We don’t know why she had kept her faith and race secret; maybe she knew that others would look down upon her, maybe she knew it wasn’t safe to tell others the truth about herself.  We know only too well from our own lives that sometimes we have to be secret, guarded, discrete.  We also know how difficult and stressful it is to be in the closet about oneself. 

Now the King, rather like many today, was a slave to his whims and he had high standards for his women:

Reader: Before a girl's turn came to go in to King Xerxes, she had to complete twelve months of beauty treatments prescribed for the women, six months with oil of myrrh and six with perfumes and cosmetics. And this is how she would go to the king: Anything she wanted was given her to take with her from the harem to the king's palace. In the evening she would go there and in the morning return to another part of the harem to the care of Shaashgaz, the king's eunuch who was in charge of the concubines. She would not return to the king unless he was pleased with her and summoned her by name. When the turn came for Esther to go to the king, she asked for nothing other than what Hegai, the king's eunuch who was in charge of the harem, suggested. And Esther won the favour of everyone who saw her. She was taken to King Xerxes in the royal residence in the tenth month, the month of Tebeth, in the seventh year of his reign.  Now the king was attracted to Esther more than to any of the other women, and she won his favour and approval more than any of the other virgins. So he set a royal crown on her head and made her queen instead of Vashti. And the king gave a great banquet, Esther's banquet, for all his nobles and officials. He proclaimed a holiday throughout the provinces and distributed gifts with royal liberality.  ( Esther 2: 12 – 18)

Reader: When the virgins were assembled a second time, Mordecai was sitting at the king's gate. But Esther had kept secret her family background and nationality just as Mordecai had told her to do, for she continued to follow Mordecai's instructions as she had done when he was bringing her up.  After these events, King Xerxes honoured Haman son of Hammedatha, the Agagite, elevating him and giving him a seat of honour higher than that of all the other nobles. All the royal officials at the king's gate knelt down and paid honour to Haman, for the king had commanded this concerning him. But Mordecai would not kneel down or pay him honour.  Then the royal officials at the king's gate asked Mordecai, "Why do you disobey the king's command?" Day after day they spoke to him but he refused to comply. Therefore they told Haman about it to see whether Mordecai's behaviour would be tolerated, for he had told them he was a Jew. When Haman saw that Mordecai would not kneel down or pay him honour, he was enraged.  Yet having learned who Mordecai's people were, he scorned the idea of killing only Mordecai. Instead Haman looked for a way to destroy all Mordecai's people, the Jews, throughout the whole kingdom of Xerxes.    (Esther 2: 19-20, 3 1 – 6) 

So now we start to see the ancient prejudice and lack of understanding of the Jewish people take on a dangerous edge.  Haman was affronted because Mordecai wouldn’t treat him like a god.  Mordecai knew that God alone is to be worshipped.  His inability to compromise on this point led to a dangerous time as Haman decided to move against the Jews.  Maybe he felt they were dangerous, maybe he couldn’t tolerate difference and diversity, maybe he felt this group were too independent to be controlled.  We know in our own time that minorities are often treated badly and viewed with suspicion.  Many of us have encountered prejudice and fear because we are different from the mainstream, seen as being dangerous as we don’t fit in – we don’t fit in either the social roles proscribed for us or into other people’s definitions of how we should behave of how we should love.  It takes courage to be different; especially when people like Haman are there to move against you.  We are lucky in that we live in a Western democracy and those who are against us are seen, increasingly as cranks.  Iris Robinson, the MP from the North of Ireland who has been making increasingly homophobic and stupid remarks about gay men is seen as a crank even within her own party – the Democratic Unionist Party – which itself isn’t noted as being an open tolerant and inclusive movement in the North!  But we know of many countries around the world where modern day Hamans move against our people, in Iran gay men are hung, in Uganda gays and lesbians are tortured and brutalised, in Jamaica we are shot.  In many countries trans people are persecuted and misunderstood.  Still minorities are persecuted and brutalised. 

However, in all these places we organise to resist and make a life for ourselves.  This is no different to Mordecai who knew that he had to act to stop his people being subjected to a pogrom: 

Reader: When Mordecai learned of all that had been done, he tore his clothes, put on sackcloth and ashes, and went out into the city, wailing loudly and bitterly. But he went only as far as the king's gate, because no one clothed in sackcloth was allowed to enter it.  In every province to which the edict and order of the king came, there was great mourning among the Jews, with fasting, weeping and wailing. Many lay in sackcloth and ashes. When Esther's maids and eunuchs came and told her about Mordecai, she was in great distress. She sent clothes for him to put on instead of his sackcloth, but he would not accept them. Then Esther summoned Hathach, one of the king's eunuchs assigned to attend her, and ordered him to find out what was troubling Mordecai and why. So Hathach went out to Mordecai in the open square of the city in front of the king's gate. Mordecai told him everything that had happened to him, including the exact amount of money Haman had promised to pay into the royal treasury for the destruction of the Jews. He also gave him a copy of the text of the edict for their annihilation, which had been published in Susa, to show to Esther and explain it to her, and he told him to urge her to go into the king's presence to beg for mercy and plead with him for her people.  (Esther 12: 1-10) 

Mordecai used the skills and resources he had to get something done.  He had a link in the palace through Esther his cousin who was now queen.  So he used his contact, but the problem was getting to her so he was resourceful and asked her to help.  We can be very resourceful in getting things done.  We know of people who have used amazing skill, courage and ingenuity to get to this country in order to be safe, using people smugglers, escaping from custody and using wit and wisdom to be secure.  We know of our people who through the ages have used many skills in order to be safe and to build a better life here.  We continue to use our skills, our wit and our wisdom to build a better world – both here and abroad.   But sometimes we are scared, we don’t think we should rock the boat or disturb the status quo.  We are not alone, Esther also had these fears: 

Reader: Hathach went back and reported to Esther what Mordecai had said. Then she instructed him to say to Mordecai, "All the king's officials and the people of the royal provinces know that for any man or woman who approaches the king in the inner court without being summoned the king has but one law: that he be put to death. The only exception to this is for the king to extend the gold sceptre to him and spare his life.  But thirty days have passed since I was called to go to the king."   When Esther's words were reported to Mordecai,  he sent back this answer: "Do not think that because you are in the king's house you alone of all the Jews will escape. For if you remain silent at this time, relief and deliverance for the Jews will arise from another place, but you and your father's family will perish. And who knows but that you have come to royal position for such a time as this?"   (Esther 4: 10 – 14) 

Mordecai reminds Esther of who she is and that she was placed in the palace for God for “such a time as this”.  The story continues with Esther bravely asking the King for help and a rather grizzly end comes to the evil Haman.   

The words Mordecai uses to Esther ring down the ages, we too have been placed where we are “for such a time as this”.  We have been called to use our skills, our gifts, our wit, our wisdom, our humour, our money and our creativity to build up the Kingdom of God, and we, in this church, see that as building a more just and equitable society.   

We know our world is not fair, that many people are oppressed, victimised and denied their rights.  We know that often we can’t do anything about it, but on occasions we can make a difference.  We can write to the Home Office on behalf of asylum seekers, we can send letters on behalf of Amnesty International for political prisoners around the world, we can lobby politicians and use our vote to make our world a better place.  We can use our money to make a difference.   

This week we celebrate Pride in Manchester.  When I lived in London I came up one bank holiday weekend to see the Manchester Pride festival.  I was used to, what was then, a huge festival in London with large parties, lots of music and loads of community stalls.  In Manchester there were a few organisations with pasting tables up and down Canal Street.  The festival is now the largest in the UK and the only one which makes lots of money for good causes.  We have moved from Pride being about protesting for equality, to celebrating the equality we have increasingly got in our society.  We have our people in every rung of life and section of society and we have equality before the law.  But, for such a time as this we can make a difference.  We can tell people to write and protest about the way we treat asylum seekers.  We can sign petitions and write to ministers to ask for a better world.  We can use our money, our influence, our wit, our wisdom and our ingenuity to make the world a better and safer place – just as Mordecai and Esther did all those years ago.