For Such A Time As This

by Joseph E. Agne

Begin this Bible study by reviewing the Book of Esther. As you do so, think about the following questions:

• When you read the book of Esther, with whom do you identify -- Esther? Mordecai? Haman? Vashti? The unnamed strugglers? The king?
• If you look for a model to sustain long-term work against racism, who of the above lived the way you would like to live?
• When you are honest, are you Esther? Mordecai? Haman? Vashti? The unnamed strugglers? The king?
• Who are you in the eyes of God?
• Isn’t there a bit of each of these in each of us?

Now let’s look closely at this story. Esther became queen after the king of Persia disposed of Vashti, a prior queen, because she refused to come to him when he hailed her to show her off to his buddies at a banquet. The king did not know Esther was a Jew, who was in exile in his kingdom, nor did he know she was Mordecai’s niece.

Haman, the chief political minister of the king was able, proud and selfish. As he became more powerful, he became prouder and more selfish. Daily he would strut past the gate of the palace expecting everyone to bow before him. But not everyone bowed. Mordecai refused, saying he would only bow before God.

Furious, Haman sought revenge. Knowing Mordecai’s ethnicity, Haman tricked the king out of his official seal, then sealed an order that all the Jews were to be killed on a specific day. Haman prepared gallows in the town center for Mordecai.

Mordecai became distressed that all his people would be killed because he wouldn’t bow to Haman. He sent word to his niece, Esther, asking her to plead with the king for their lives.

Esther sent back word: No one could go into the presence of the king uninvited, not even the queen. If Esther were to go into the inner court without being called by the king, she would risk death.

Mordecai challenged Esther:

"Do not think that in the king’s palace you will escape any more than all the other Jews. For if you keep silence at such at time as this, relief and deliverance will rise for the Jews from another quarter, but you and your father’s family will perish. Who knows? Perhaps you have come to royal dignity for just such a time as this."

Esther agreed to go to the king, and Mordecai agreed to ask the Jews to pray and fast on Esther’s behalf. Esther said:

"I will go to the king, though it is against the law; and if I perish, I perish."

Esther went before the king. Before the guards noticed she was there uninvited, the king tipped his scepter toward her. Esther asked the king to come to a banquet for three people: the king, Esther and Haman.

This was heady stuff for Haman since no one had ever dined alone with the king and queen.

At the banquet, the king asked Esther:

"What is your petition? It shall be granted to you, even to the half of my kingdom."

Esther asked that her life and the lives of the Jewish people be spared.

The king, unaware of Haman’s order to have all the Jews slain, asked Esther to explain her requests.

Upon her reply, the king angrily left the room. Upon his return, he ordered that Haman be hung on the gallows Haman had prepared for Mordecai.

Esther revealed that Mordecai was her uncle. The king called Mordecai to the palace where the king issued another order that the Jewish people were to defend themselves against those carrying out the first order. They did so, preventing their own destruction.

Haman today

Haman is more than a biblical figure. He lives today. He has gotten hold of the seal, and he is ordering that people be marginalized, patronized, oppressed and killed. His methods are covert and blatant. He tries to convince us that:

• The increased hate violence in our nation is random acts of youth.
• It’s legal and good police work to stop drivers because they are Black.
• Treaties with indigenous nations no longer have legal standing and are evidence that Native Americans get privileged treatment at the expense of European Americans.
• Most of the racism in our country is caused by uneducated and unemployed white people rather than perpetuated by college graduates and corporate leaders who run our institutions.
• Cartoons caricaturing and blaming Arabs and Muslims are acceptable journalism.
• Mexican Americans should be so pleased to have jobs that they pay no attention to the poisons sprayed on them as they pick food for an affluent nation.
• Communities of color, indigenous nations and developing nations are ideal sites to dump waste, including nuclear waste.
• European American kids will never get college scholarships because all scholarships go to Asian American youth.
• Building prisons and expanding corporate contracting of prison labor are good for the U.S. economy.
• Scales of justice have tipped so white men need Affirmative Action to get fair treatment.
• Struggles against racism should be pitted against struggles against sexism, heterosexism, classism, militarism and ageism as the latter are ploys of people seeking special rights.

Haman’s power

Haman is let loose in our world and his power is great. Many of us need to confess those times when we are Haman’s people, carrying out his orders and benefitting from his orders. We are afraid to risk countering his orders. We decide the time is not right to put ourselves with others over against Haman.

None of us can fight Haman alone. He symbolizes the racism of the principalities and powers that stand over all of us. We need each other when we resist Haman, for he is strong. We must claim this time as the right time to work together against Haman’s racism. To be faithful in our time, we need Mordecai, Esther, the unnamed strugglers and Vashti.

We have differing roles, and we need to trust each other.

Every movement for justice needs people like Mordecai, who are unwilling to compromise. We are led by those who refuse to bow to any reality but God. These people can be punished, isolated, marginalized, removed from jobs and threatened with death, but they won’t bow.

And we need people like Esther, who breaks the law to get justice for her people. She risks her life when her uncle uncompromisingly challenges her:

"Who knows? Perhaps you have come to royal dignity for such a time as this."

In the midst of privilege, entitlement and her hidden ethnic identity, Esther says:

"I will go to the king, though it is against the law; and if I perish, I perish."

Many of us find ourselves in the midst of institutional privilege and entitlement. We often hide our commitments, if not our identities and connections to oppressed people. We pray that when "such-a-time-as-this" moments come, we will be faithful. Like Esther and Mordecai, we must stay in touch with those outside the palace if we are to be accountable to God. When we become isolated in the palace, it is almost impossible to keep faithful to our commitments.

Working as community

The struggle against Haman was not just a family affair of Mordecai and Esther. Haman had sealed an order that all the Jews were to be killed. Later, the king countered that they could fight back. Even the king did not claim power to revoke the first order -– an order that has set the powerful, destructive forces of his kingdom into motion perhaps beyond even his ability to control.

In local churches, villages, neighborhoods, annual conferences and local United Methodist Women units, people are working together against racism. They don’t get much coverage in the media, even the church media. They are the unnamed strugglers who day-to-day face the same dangers as Esther.

Vashti reminds us we are not the first to work against oppression. We are always on someone else’s shoulders. When we know our history, we learn how to be faithful from our foremothers and forefathers. The King ordered Vashti to come to him and she refused. She broke the law and paid for it.

In the tradition of Vashti, Esther breaks the law and risks her life. There are Vashtis in the lives of all who are working against racism.

Some of us are Vashti, some Esther, some Mordecai, some the unnamed strugglers, some the king. On various occasions, we change roles. We move from the palace to the neighborhoods and villages and vice versa, but wherever we find ourselves, we are there for such a time as this.

To be a faithful anti-racist community, we must understand and affirm the gifts each of us brings in the places we are. When we are isolated, Haman wins. When we are in community across barriers, we can, like Esther, fight against the racism of Haman. We can say:

"I will go to the king, though it is against the law; and if I perish, I perish."

When we are in community, Haman loses.

From response November 1999 Issue.