theology & Bible fun


The Collect for Sunday, September 30. 2018 (Proper 21)
O God, you declare your almighty power chiefly in showing mercy and pity: Grant us the fullness of your grace, that we, running to obtain your promises, may become partakers of your heavenly treasure; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
Bible Story: First Reading for Sunday, September 30, 2018, Proper 21B  
Esther 7:1-6, 9-10; 9:20-22
King Ahasuerus 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 servants 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.


The Response: Psalm 124

1 If the Lord had not been on our side, *
let Israel now say;

2 If the Lord had not been on our side, *
when enemies rose up against us;

3 Then would they have swallowed us up alive * 
in their fierce anger toward us;

4 Then would the waters have overwhelmed us * 
and the torrent gone over us;

5 Then would the raging waters *
have gone right over us.

6 Blessed be the Lord! *
he has not given us over to be a prey for their teeth.

7 We have escaped like a bird from the snare of the fowler; *
the snare is broken, and we have escaped.

8 Our help is in the Name of the Lord, *
the maker of heaven and earth.


 Questions to contemplate, and perhaps discuss with others, before Sunday
  1. Never mind the theology expressed in this 7th century AD* Collect (i.e, “chiefly in showing mercy and pity”), in your opinion, expectation, belief, hope, or experience how does God declare or show God’s power?
  2. In the Lectionary "theme park for the day," how, if at all, does the Collect fit into the Esther "scheme of things?
  3. Who are the two main heroes in the (5th century BC setting) Jewish novella about Esther?
  4. The Bible story "Esther" is loaded with delicious ironies! Read it and identify a few.
  5. In feet, how high is a gallows that’s 50 cubits high? 
  6. Seriously, this question is rated “R”, and is not “gallows humor.” Our OT lesson is too graphic a story for children’s Sunday School. The “drop” (i.e., length for fall) for which a hangman’s rope is tied is a combination of science (math calculation of several factors, what would they be?), art, skill, and intent. Visualize: what happens in a “short drop”? A “medium drop”? What would happen in a “long drop” from 50 cubits? What might be various “intents”?
  7. Our designated psalm for each Sunday is always meant to respond in some way to the First Reading. How does Psalm 124 respond to the Esther story? What might seem somewhat “ironic” about using Psalm 124 as the response to the Esther story?
* Hatchett, Marion J, Commentary on the American Prayer Book, Seabury, Third Printing, 1981, page 192, "Proper 21 (pp.182 and 232)