• Esther 7:1-6,9-10,20-22

The Jewish orphan girl, Esther, whose original name was Hadassah, lived in Persia under the protection of her cousin, Mordecia.  The King of Persia was dazzled by her beauty and took her as his Queen.  In time, the King’s prime minister, Haman, was offended by a perceived slight of Mordecai and attempted to convince the King that all Jews were a threat to society and should be eliminated.  Risking her own personal position as Queen and even her life, Esther pleaded for “the lives of my people.”  The King granted her request.  He had Haman hanged on the gallows that Haman had prepared for Moredcai.  Later Mordecai sent a letter to all the Jews in Persia, instructing them to observe annually the date when “the Jews gained relief from their enemies,” (which is still observed among Jews as Purim).

• Psalm 124

Recalling one of the (many) times the Jews were at the mercy of an overpowering enemy, the psalmist blesses the Lord who spared them.  “Our life is like a bird escaped/from the snare of the fowlers.”

OR

• Numbers 11:4-6,10-16,24-29

This alternative version of the famous incident when God’s people rebelled in the wilderness (c.f. Exodus 16)  says they got bored with manna and longed for meat they had eaten in Egypt.  But in this version, seventy elders who helped Moses lead the people are gathered together when “the Lord came down in the cloud and spoke to Moses, and took some of the spirit that was on him and put it on the seventy elders; and when the spirit rested upon them, they prophesied.”  But they prophesied on just this one occasion.  However, two others, Eldad and Medad, who had stayed in the camp, continued to prophesy among the people.  When reports got back to Moses about Eldad and Meded, his assistant, Joshua, insisted that Moses stop them.  But Moses questioned his jealousy.  Moses then expressed his longing for a time when “all the Lord’s people were prophets….”

• Psalm 19:7-14

This excerpt extols the Lord’s teaching/covenant/commandments/judgement as more pure than gold and sweeter than honey.

• James 5:13-20

Consistent with the rest of this “letter” attributed to “James,” this excerpt equates faith with action.  He lists specific actions that unite the community of believers.  In particular, he writes that the “elders of the church should go to the sick, pray over them and anoint them with oil in the name of the Lord.”  He commends prayers and confession, too.  Finally, he encourages them to seek out members who have wandered away from the community.

• Mark 9:38-50

The flow of Mark’s narrative seems to be interrupted by some issues that would have been urgent in the early church, specifically, what to do about those functioning in the name of Jesus who have no direct connection to the original disciples (such as Paul?).  Mark writes that Jesus replied, “whoever gives a cup of water to drink because you bear the name of Christ will by no means lose the reward.”  Mark then supplies severe warnings against anyone who leads “these little ones” (new Christians?) astray.  Other miscellaneous issues are taken up and conclude with an aphorism: “salt is good, but if salt has lost its saltiness how can you season [with] it?”  Be salty and “be at peace with one another.”

The story of Hadassah/Esther is a dramatic and inspiring reminder of the consequences that one person’s singular act of valor can have.  The excerpt from Numbers considers the problem of differentiating between authentic and inauthentic representatives of God’s work in the world and the famous lament of Moses for a time when “all the Lord’s people were prophets….”

In today’s gospel, Jesus is presented as dealing with a vexing problem: who is and who is not authorized to function in Christ’s name?  The response by Jesus that Mark provides is striking in at least three ways.  First, the test is action, not teaching or theological precept.  Secondly, it is a simple test.  Thirdly, anyone can take the test and get it right.  “Whoever gives a cup of water to drink because you bear the name of Christ…..”  Earlier, Moses had expressed his longing for that day when “all the Lord’s people” will be engaged in the Lord’s work.

We conclude this Sunday with our sequential reading of the “Letter of James.”  And, consistent to the end, the writer finishes with a grab-bag of specific activities: pray, go to the sick, anoint, confess and bring back wanderers.  Before we leave “James,” we should return to Jean-Luc Nancy’s essay, Dis-Enclosure: The Deconstruction of Christianity, in which he expresses his appreciation for this “Epistle” and, what he points out is its “absence of theology.”  “The epistle is given over… to an act of faith.” (p.48)  Nancy reads in “James” an emphasis on “praxis.”  And then he follows with a stimulating insight:

“Praxis “exceeds the concept of it.  This is not, as we commonly think, that which is lacking in concept, but rather that which, in exceeding it, thrusts the concept out of itself and gives itself more to conceive, or more to grasp and to think, more to touch, and to indicate than that which itself conceives.  Faith would thus be here [in James] the practical excess of and in action….” (p.52)

Today’s readings, the striking response by Jesus in Mark’s narrative, the entire “Letter of James” and Nancy’s provocative appreciation of that “epistle” serve as an antidote to that tendency towards abstraction, conceptualizations and the intermediaries that grow around all that and come between biblical directness and us.  Mostly in narrative, but also in song and poetry, the Bible relays the message of God’s staggering love and its corollary commandment that we are to love God and others in return.  But it also, always, insists that at some point words become action; indeed, action is the equivalent for the words of faith.  Or, according to Nancy’s reading, action exceeds words.  Whether the act is as bold and deserving of memorial as Esther’s or as mundane as as a glass of water given in Christ’s name, the words do not exist for themselves.  They originated because some action was taken and they find their fulfillment only when like similar actions are taken.  Anyone can perform them.  And, they are the only true test of discerning an authentic actor in God’s name.  “Whoever gives a cup of water to drink because you bear the name of Christ….”