Esther 14:1-6, 12-14
First of all, I am soooo glad that Chrstians chose to use simple ashes on the forehead for ash Wednesday instead of what Queen Esther did. Tangled hair, ashes and dung?? One thing for sure though, we know that Esther clearly took repentence seriously. She appealed to God in a dramatic way. When I think of the Easters of my youth I think of finery, Easter bonnets, fine dresses, new suits and shiny new shoes. The attire that Esther donned and the Easter clothes of my youth seem like counterpoints. They seem to tell the whole story of lenten repentance and onto the glorious new life of Easter.
Counterpoints are very important. Even if it's as simple as the expression "it's always darkest before the dawn", a true story is told. A lesson is there for us - the darkness and then the dawn. (light). There is not one without the other.
It was intensely difficult for me coming to terms with being gay but now I have never been happier. A butterfly struggles so fiercely to break out of it's cocoon but when it succeeds, we see the beauty and freedom that are the hallmarks of the butterfly. A gay youth struggles to hold on after they are beaten and bullied. They find it hard to see that it does get better, it will get better, much better.
In Lent we are asked to explore the journey of our humanity as Jesus did. We are asked to examine our lives. Sometimes that means we will enter a personal dark place. We may have to admit things about ourselves, perhaps things we have done. It is a time to be brutally honest with ourselves and place them before God. It is no different than presenting yourself with tangled hair, ashes and dung. We could not be more vulnerable in front of God. We could probably feel less lovable than we ever have. However, this is the darkness before the dawn.
In examining yourself you give God the opportunity to reach out and say, yes I love you, I always will. Let me cleanse you of the dung in your life. We are not asked to don sackloth, ashes and dung but we are asked to see that to grow sometimes we need some personal pruning. Sometimes we need to enter the dark spots in our lives to reach the Son.
As an added bonus (to me and you), I am copying here a prayer that was offered last evening at an LGBTQ prayer meeting I attended. Thank you brother Eric.
O, Great Spirit, you embraced our humanity and so taught us how to truly be human.
Help us to follow loving examples and bring out in us all that is truly human.
Teach us to appreciate the intense good that lies in being human, climaxed by the gift
of genuine self-giving.
Enable us to make use of all the gifts you have given us in a way they are designed
uniquely for each of us, especially for the good of others.
Make us realize that only when we are genuinely human can we be true seekers of
the divine. Amen.
Counterpoints are very important. Even if it's as simple as the expression "it's always darkest before the dawn", a true story is told. A lesson is there for us - the darkness and then the dawn. (light). There is not one without the other.
It was intensely difficult for me coming to terms with being gay but now I have never been happier. A butterfly struggles so fiercely to break out of it's cocoon but when it succeeds, we see the beauty and freedom that are the hallmarks of the butterfly. A gay youth struggles to hold on after they are beaten and bullied. They find it hard to see that it does get better, it will get better, much better.
In Lent we are asked to explore the journey of our humanity as Jesus did. We are asked to examine our lives. Sometimes that means we will enter a personal dark place. We may have to admit things about ourselves, perhaps things we have done. It is a time to be brutally honest with ourselves and place them before God. It is no different than presenting yourself with tangled hair, ashes and dung. We could not be more vulnerable in front of God. We could probably feel less lovable than we ever have. However, this is the darkness before the dawn.
In examining yourself you give God the opportunity to reach out and say, yes I love you, I always will. Let me cleanse you of the dung in your life. We are not asked to don sackloth, ashes and dung but we are asked to see that to grow sometimes we need some personal pruning. Sometimes we need to enter the dark spots in our lives to reach the Son.
As an added bonus (to me and you), I am copying here a prayer that was offered last evening at an LGBTQ prayer meeting I attended. Thank you brother Eric.
O, Great Spirit, you embraced our humanity and so taught us how to truly be human.
Help us to follow loving examples and bring out in us all that is truly human.
Teach us to appreciate the intense good that lies in being human, climaxed by the gift
of genuine self-giving.
Enable us to make use of all the gifts you have given us in a way they are designed
uniquely for each of us, especially for the good of others.
Make us realize that only when we are genuinely human can we be true seekers of
the divine. Amen.
Then Queen Esther, seized with deadly anxiety, fled to the Lord. She took off her splendid apparel and put on the garments of distress and mourning, and instead of costly perfumes she covered her head with ashes and dung, and she utterly humbled her body; every part that she loved to adorn she covered with her tangled hair. She prayed to the Lord God of Israel, and said: “O my Lord, you only are our king; help me, who am alone and have no helper but you, for my danger is in my hand. Ever since I was born I have heard in the tribe of my family that you, O Lord, took Israel out of all the nations, and our ancestors from among all their forebears, for an everlasting inheritance, and that you did for them all that you promised. And now we have sinned before you, and you have handed us over to our enemies.
Remember, O Lord; make yourself known in this time of our affliction, and give me courage, O King of the gods and Master of all dominion! Put eloquent speech in my mouth before the lion, and turn his heart to hate the man who is fighting against us, so that there may be an end of him and those who agree with him. But save us by your hand, and help me, who am alone and have no helper but you, O Lord.
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