Let us pray: O God, guide my words that they may help us to glimpse your presence among us, and that they may inspire us to be more fully, your people. Amen.

    A suggestion was offered in the Worship Leader’s guide which is part of the curriculum we use for church school, inviting me to use these two posters as visual resources for worship. Here is the way that suggestion was worded: “Notice which image attracts you most and then take a moment to welcome that image as a companion and teacher in your worship experience today.”

    I’ve modified the suggestion somewhat, choosing instead to use them now, during this reflection time in worship. I would also suggest that each of the posters might attract you in different ways, as we consider the story of Esther which we heard read a few moments ago.

    It was mentioned in the introduction to the reading of the passage from Esther, that it stands alone as the only book of the Bible which has no mention of God. At first this may seem strange, and you may wonder how it happened that a book with that distinction could be included in the Bible. However, as the introduction also suggested, even though God is not specifically mentioned, there is a clear sense of God’s presence both directing and supporting Esther, as she risks her own life to save her people.

    One communion liturgy, in fact, it is one of the ones you can find in our own Communion Booklet, mentions the courage of Esther and the loyalty of Ruth. Even though I’ve said those words many times before, the courage of Esther has never really impressed me when I’ve read her story in times past. I’ve always appreciated the story, not the least because it is the biblical story that gave my mother her name, but also because it is a self-contained biblical short story, the story of a heroine, and a somewhat refreshing interlude from some of the other somewhat more ponderous books of the Hebrew Bible. It took this reading this time around for me to really do some thinking about the courage of Esther. Until this reading I never thought about the risk that Esther took when she threw the dinner party that would ultimately expose Haman as a racist, plotting genocide against her own people. As a court advisor to her husband the King Xerxes or Ahaseurus, depending on the translation you are reading, we can imagine there was a pretty clear loyalty between the two men. There was nothing to ensure that the King would believe Esther and her accusations against Haman, and who really knew what the consequences would be if the King chose not to believe her. Conspiracies are easy enough to believe and very hard to prove, and Esther could not be sure whether her husband would take her word on the matter. Who knew also what kind of power Haman commanded regardless of whether the king believed his wife or not? Did the court advisor, even though he had been exposed, have enough power among the rank and file to carry out his intentions anyway. As his exposer, you can imagine that the Queen Esther would be high on the list of intended targets, if he managed to escape the wrath of the king.

    This is Worldwide Communion Sunday. What insights does Esther’s story have for us, on this day when we mark our belonging to a community that extends around the world? Her courageous risking in order to save her people might have had more to say to us as members of the body of Christ if we lived in a time of persecution. I’m not sure that describes the Christian faith in contemporary North American culture. In fact, I think there is not enough separation between faith and culture in some sectors. It’s always easier to see the issues from a distance, but my reading of the current situation in the United States is that there is too much correlation between a particular expression of the Christian faith and the government in power. You’ve probably heard it called the Religious Right, and the influence that followers of that particularly conservative and fundamentalist branch of the Christian church is well documented. It’s somewhat harder to see with the same kind of perspective in our own backyard, but commentators have noted the closer relationship between our present Canadian government and that same branch of conservative Christianity. I’m not sure that Christianity needs us to stand up, like Esther against forces that are working against us. Unless you are thinking that liberal Christianity, as the United Church of Canada is often described, is being assailed by our more conservative sisters and brothers. Well, for one thing I think we are too diverse a denomination to say definitively that such a thing is happening, and I’m not sure it serves any purpose, at any time, and especially on World Communion Sunday to get into a civil conflict between branches of the same faith. So, let’s not claim Esther as our heroine for internal conflicts.

    If any faith group is facing persecution in our present time, it is those who follow the Muslim faith. The searing images of so-called Muslim extremists, bringing death to innocent victims, is hard to erase. Many moderate Muslim voices are speaking out against the suicide bombers. They are not true followers of Islam, we are told, but somehow the violent acts of a few seem to be more persuasive than the chorus of moderate and peace-loving voices that surround us. It is hard to know what mistaken attitudes and decisions led to the persecution of Maher Arar that we have learned about over the past few weeks, but it is not hard to imagine that a wrongly formed impression of the Muslim faith had something to do with it.

    It might seem a strangely ironic twist to use a Jewish heroine, Esther, as our example, in a stand against persecution of our Muslim sisters and brothers, but perhaps the irony is the most fitting lesson of all. Isn’t the story of God among us replete with surprising twists and ironic occurences? Who better then, than Esther, the Jewish queen and her stand against genocide, to guide us in our own stand? God calls us to stand against persecution. God calls us to stand against genocide. God calls us to live for peace, not war, to live for harmony, not conflict, to live for co-operation, not misunderstanding.

    So, on this World Communion Sunday, a day when we celebrate our community in Christ with sisters and brothers around the world, it is my hope that we will see this not as a chance to hunker down with other Christians against the world. No, I hope that our meal, a meal which strengthens us spiritually as well as physically, will be one which unites us in a purpose to take a stand against those who would react out of prejudice, to stand with people of faith, to stand with people who love peace, regardless of their own particular expression of that faith. World Communion is not about making us stronger in numbers, it is about making us stronger in resolve to work for understanding and against the forces that would seek to divide us, one faith community against another. Just a couple of weeks ago, in our gospel reading, Jesus had his eyes opened by a woman from a different faith. Is it our turn? Amen.