Listen or Lick

Esther 7:1-6, 9-10, 20-22 Good News Translation (GNT)

7 ... the king and Haman went to eat with Esther 2 for a second time. Over the wine the king asked her again, “Now, Queen Esther, what do you want? Tell me and you shall have it. I'll even give you half the empire.”

3 Queen Esther answered, “If it please Your Majesty to grant my humble request, my wish is that I may live and that my people may live. 4 My people and I have been sold for slaughter. If it were nothing more serious than being sold into slavery, I would have kept quiet and not bothered you about it; but we are about to be destroyed—exterminated!”

5 Then King Xerxes asked Queen Esther, “Who dares to do such a thing? Where is this man?”

6 Esther answered, “Our enemy, our persecutor, is this evil man Haman!”

Haman faced the king and queen with terror.

9 Then one of them, who was named Harbonah, said, “Haman even went so far as to build a gallows at his house so that he could hang Mordecai, who saved Your Majesty's life. And it's seventy-five feet tall!”

“Hang Haman on it!” the king commanded.

10 So Haman was hanged on the gallows that he had built for Mordecai. Then the king's anger cooled down.

The Festival of Purim

20 Mordecai had these events written down and sent letters to all the Jews, near and far, throughout the Persian Empire, 21 telling them to observe the fourteenth and fifteenth days of Adar as holidays every year. 22 These were the days on which the Jews had rid themselves of their enemies; this was a month that had been turned from a time of grief and despair into a time of joy and happiness. They were told to observe these days with feasts and parties, giving gifts of food to one another and to the poor.

This coming Sunday is my turn to preach, and my practice is to read and contemplate all four of the Bible readings that the Lectionary appoints for the Sunday, and decide which one to preach on. Or sometimes they can all be wrapped into the sermon, our bishop likes to do that. But, together with Haman, I’ll be hanged if I see how my sermon for this coming Sunday can be based on this reading from Esther, who could possibly wrench a sermon out of a story about an evil man like Haman (you have to read the rest of the Book of Esther to understand what was going on), and who wants to preach about a man being hanged. But it’s Wednesday already, and high time to think about what to say from the pulpit on Sunday morning. “Children’s Time” is fairly easy, the kids know that Miss Beverly and Father Steve love them, and that they can usually count on Father Tom to bring candy or cupcakes or sometimes ice cream or American flags or something noisy to toot as they leave to go to their Sunday School class.

Would folks rather listen or lick? And why should the kids get better than the adults? Instead of a sermon, we’ll get the ice cream truck to come and we’ll have a treat. The one below is small enough to putt-putt down the aisle behind the choir during the processional hymn. And Haagen-Dazs was always a favorite anyway. C'mon on down, folks. Tom's buying.

TW+