When the Tables are Turned

Esther’s story is coming to a close. By chapters 8 and 9, she and Mordecai have both been lifted into positions of power and security, and they’re using that authority to deal with the threat of violence and genocide hanging over their people - to dissuade enemies from attacking them at all and to prepare their people to defend themselves when needed. As Esther 9:1 tells us, “On this day the enemies of the Jews had hoped to overpower them, but now the tables were turned.”

Would you like to sit with that phrase for a moment this morning? “Now the tables were turned.”

Many of us gathering over this reflection this morning are living in a different reality than just a week ago. There are military personnel and vehicles in our communities, protests in our cities, ICE operations creating all sorts of fear and anxiety for us, our friends and our neighbors. When we sit withe idea of tables turning, of a God who is always at work behind the scenes lifting up the downtrodden, reclaiming the disenfranchised, bringing deliverance for God’s people, what are we praying for? What are we willing to work for?

As you read this closing word from womanist theologian Renita J. Weems, ask Jesus to show you God at work today. Ask him to give you the insight and courage and clarity to see how you can join in that work in the ways uniquely given to you, big or small, quiet or loud, active or still.

“Where is God in times like these? God is in the resistance. God is in the truth-telling. God is in the refusal to let darkness have the last word. God is in the networks of people working for justice, in the voices decrying fascism, in the stubborn insistence that another world is possible.”

God, help us see you and join you. Amen.