Esther &: 2-5; Mark 9:38-41

Here is a question you have been struggling with, or maybe not.  Did the island or continent of Atlantis really exist?  I recently found out that some -and only some- think that Prince Edward Island in the Canadian Maritimes region was the cause for the legend.  Some geological maps have the odd island with its rare red soil move all over the eons.  It’s that where the legend came from? In that vein, the Maritimes are the location of a disappeared population of French speakers called the Accadians.  Our first resident, Chakrita, went to a school called Accadia University in Nova Scotia.  Once the British defeated the forces of New France, the region of the Accadians became English speaking only.  Many of the French speakers wound up in Quebec, others made their way to Louisiana where in the hot stagnant humid weather “Accadian” became “Cajun.”  Eastern Canada has been a battlefield for English and French forces.  The people of Quebec City will not let you forget that. There is a whole museum dedicated to the battle of the Plains of Abraham in Quebec City in 1759 when the British defeated the French and some local Indians.  To this day the people in and around that town called any English speaker “Anglais.” While Montreal is brimming with (mostly) French speaking diversity, Quebec City, the provincial capital, is more stuck in its ways and stuck to its roots, which are mostly in Brittany. So it was odd and sad for me to find a statue of a soldier in old British uniform near the walled city dedicated to the “sons of Quebec who gave their lives in South Africa for the (British) Empire.” How sad and maddening history can be.

                  I will not refer to the strange place in history we find ourselves in as a country.  It would be unwise and further inflame nerve endings for all of you here.  But there is a message I believe in today’s texts.  The message is about the grace we find in those we consider strange are frightening.  We meet again Esther, a heroine of Judaism, and a less compelling figure to Christians as the book does not seem to be that much about God.  But Esther and her people were sort of the Rohingnya of Persia, a group that had been in the region for a long time but regained its identity, kind of like Accadians.  Groups that do not quite fit in, even after centuries, usually have to find ways to gain power and prominence through extraordinary achievements, as long as those achievements do not threaten the groups in power.  In Mark there is wide spread distrust of people who preach in the name of Jesus but who are not part of the core group. Jesus tells them they too can belong. 

                  Friends, this has always been our problem. We cannot imagine that the people whom we consider alien in appearance, speech, opinion or faith can be a vehicle of God’s grace. This becomes extra hard in a politically poisonous.                     So what does this mean?  It means that we can only do and say what we think is right and hope God’s working will attach itself to what we do or say.  Some of our well-meant words will be misunderstood or our well-intentioned actions misinterpreted.  As human justice proves itself more and more flawed and limited, it means we must trust in God’s eventual justice.  And one thing we know: God does not have favorites while, at the same time, God has a loving heart for the powerless.  The Bible attests to that again and again.  What flows from this is the understanding that we must not dismiss the voices of any of our brothers and sisters provided they do disparage other groups, just because they say what we do not like.  In the end we are not the arbiters of where God’s grace will work the most.  That said, we must, like Jesus, pay attention particularly to those whose voices have never been the voices of power, because we have been trained to disregard them.  That’s is what the people of Quebec are saying: we are being ignored and that is also what the non-French speaking people in Quebec who have been heading for the exits are saying.  It is also precisely what Esther is saying and what Jesus seems to be referring to.  History keeps repeating itself and humanity seems to learn very little for power always changes its clothes as does powerlessness.  There is hope for you and I here also, friends.  Whatever you say or do today, tomorrow, in the weeks or months or years to come, can be a vehicle for God’s grace and action. As the text says, God even notices the simple cup of water we give someone.  To increase the odds of God using us, let us be deliberate in what we say or do.  May God give us wisdom.