Today's Meditation - Monday, September 21, 2020

 Today's Meditation

Read Esther 1:1-4, 10-20

This happened in the days of Ahasuerus, the same Ahasuerus who ruled over one hundred twenty-seven provinces from India to Ethiopia. ²In those days when King Ahasuerus sat on his royal throne in the citadel of Susa, ³in the third year of his reign, he gave a banquet for all his officials and ministers. The army of Persia and Media and the nobles and governors of the provinces were present, ⁴while he displayed the great wealth of his kingdom and the splendor and pomp of his majesty for many days, one hundred eighty days in all.

¹⁰On the seventh day, when the king was merry with wine, he commanded Mehuman, Biztha, Harbona, Bigtha and Abagtha, Zethar and Carkas, the seven eunuchs who attended him, ¹¹to bring Queen Vashti before the king, wearing the royal crown, in order to show the peoples and the officials her beauty; for she was fair to behold. ¹²But Queen Vashti refused to come at the king’s command conveyed by the eunuchs. At this the king was enraged, and his anger burned within him. ¹³Then the king consulted the sages who knew the laws (for this was the king’s procedure toward all who were versed in law and custom, ¹⁴and those next to him were Carshena, Shethar, Admatha, Tarshish, Meres, Marsena, and Memucan, the seven officials of Persia and Media, who had access to the king, and sat first in the kingdom): ¹⁵“According to the law, what is to be done to Queen Vashti because she has not performed the command of King Ahasuerus conveyed by the eunuchs?” ¹⁶Then Memucan said in the presence of the king and the officials, “Not only has Queen Vashti done wrong to the king, but also to all the officials and all the peoples who are in all the provinces of King Ahasuerus. ¹⁷For this deed of the queen will be made known to all women, causing them to look with contempt on their husbands, since they will say, ‘King Ahasuerus commanded Queen Vashti to be brought before him, and she did not come.’ ¹⁸This very day the noble ladies of Persia and Media who have heard of the queen’s behavior will rebel against the king’s officials, and there will be no end of contempt and wrath! ¹⁹If it pleases the king, let a royal order go out from him, and let it be written among the laws of the Persians and the Medes so that it may not be altered, that Vashti is never again to come before King Ahasuerus; and let the king give her royal position to another who is better than she. ²⁰So when the decree made by the king is proclaimed throughout all his kingdom, vast as it is, all women will give honor to their husbands, high and low alike.”

    I've spent the last month or so using Job as the meditation from the daily lectionary readings.  We turn to the book of Esther for the rest of this month.  It's an important story to be reminded of, if you haven't read it in a while.  The verses skipped in Chapter 1 are details of the riches and elaborately decorated hall of the King.

    We have a very interesting juxtaposition from the ending of Job (the book that follows Esther), where his daughters are named and he gave each of them a share of his inheritance and this book of Esther regarding the place of women and the king's dealings with his wife, Queen Vashti.  Women are treated far differently in these stories. 

    If we take a macro-view of the stories we see that treating women as equals in the book of Job, at the end of his story, only increased Job's prosperity and renown.  In the book of Esther, treating women poorly, as objects and property, ends up bringing a near annihilation of a people.  (Of course, we'll see as we go through this book that the intelligence of a woman circumvents this tragedy.)  But King Ahasuerus put the machine of destruction into motion the moment he dismissed his wife as little more than property to be commanded.  

    I think it is providence and fitting that this reading comes at this time, following the death of Ruth Bader Ginsberg, one of the staunchest allies for women's equality.  If we look throughout history, this bears truth in every culture and in every era - if people aren't treated fairly and with equity, that culture falls.  It is only in the strength of the equality of the people that its people and their culture thrives.

What can we do today that helps treat others with equity?

We Shall Overcome by Joan Baez