Esther 7:1-6, 9-10, 9:20-22
Rembrandt: Ahasuerus and Haman at the Feast of Esther
Pushkin Museum, Moscow (1660)
Inside Job
Funny how sometimes
Someone on the inside
Can make a difference.
Can stand up to tyranny.
Can be publicly brave.
Can risk her own life.
Can expose resident evil.
Can save her people.
Oh, Esther, wherefore art thou?
Scott L. Barton
So the king and Haman went in to feast with Queen Esther. On
the second day, as they were drinking wine, the king again said to Esther,
“What is your petition, Queen Esther? It shall be granted you. And what is your
request? Even to the half of my kingdom, it shall be fulfilled.” Then Queen
Esther answered, “If I have won your favor, O king, and if it pleases the king,
let my life be given me—that is my petition—and the lives of my people—that is
my request. For we have been sold, I and my people, to be destroyed, to be
killed, and to be annihilated. If we had been sold merely as slaves, men and
women, I would have held my peace; but no enemy can compensate for this damage
to the king.” Then King Ahasuerus said to Queen Esther, “Who is he, and where
is he, who has presumed to do this?” Esther said, “A foe and enemy, this wicked
Haman!” Then Haman was terrified before the king and the queen. Then Harbona,
one of the eunuchs in attendance on the king, said, “Look, the very gallows
that Haman has prepared for Mordecai, whose word saved the king, stands at
Haman’s house, fifty cubits high.” And the king said, “Hang him on that.” So
they hanged Haman on the gallows that he had prepared for Mordecai. Then the
anger of the king abated.
Mordecai recorded these things, and sent letters to all the
Jews who were in all the provinces of King Ahasuerus, both near and far, enjoining
them that they should keep the fourteenth day of the month Adar and also the
fifteenth day of the same month, year by year, as the days on which the Jews
gained relief from their enemies, and as the month that had been turned for
them from sorrow into gladness and from mourning into a holiday; that they
should make them days of feasting and gladness, days for sending gifts of food
to one another and presents to the poor.
+ + +
Mark 9:38-50
Tasty
He says that I should be at peace,
and look to my own salt;
That is, my flavor should increase,
and be less apt to fault
the faith of others doing good,
as if their recipe
is somehow poison, and not food
that helps some child to see
that she is loved by God no less
than any I might feed;
Remember, that it's God who blesses -
Let none this love impede.
Scott L. Barton
John said to him, “Teacher, we saw someone casting out
demons in your name, and we tried to stop him, because he was not following
us.” But Jesus said, “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. 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.
“If any of you put a stumbling block before one of these
little ones who believe in me, it would be better for you if a great millstone
were hung around your neck and you were thrown into the sea. If your hand
causes you to stumble, cut it off; it is better for you to enter life maimed
than to have two hands and to go to hell, to the unquenchable fire. And if your
foot causes you to stumble, cut it off; it is better for you to enter life lame
than to have two feet and to be thrown into hell. And if your eye causes you to
stumble, tear it out; it is better for you to enter the kingdom of God with one
eye than to have two eyes and to be thrown into hell, where their worm never
dies, and the fire is never quenched.
“For everyone will be salted with fire. Salt is good; but if
salt has lost its saltiness, how can you season it? Have salt in yourselves,
and be at peace with one another.”
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