SONG OF SONGS

RUTH

ESTHER

LAMENTATIONS

ECCLESIASTES

THE FIVE MEGILOTH

Odd shaped pebbles roll

And tumble ‘round the Rock which

Smooths them into five smooth stonesOne of which will

kill a giant

1The Spirit of the Sovereign LORD is on me,because the LORD has anointed meto proclaim good news to the poor.He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted,to proclaim freedom for the captivesand release from darkness for the prisoners,

2 to proclaim the year of the LORD’s favorand the day of vengeance of our God,to comfort all who mourn,

3 and provide for those who grieve in Zion -to bestow on them a crown of beautyinstead of ashes,the oil of joyinstead of mourning,and a garment of praiseinstead of a spirit of despair.

Isaiah 61

Hooglied

Paasfees

Rut

Pinkster

fees

Klaag

liedere

9de van Ab

Prediker

Hutte

fees

Ester

Purim

feesOm INTIMITEIT

te vestig

binne ‘n

Verlossingskonteks

Om IDENTITEIT

te ontwikkel

binne ‘n

Verbondskonteks

Om LYDING

te herdefinieer

binne ‘n

Herstel-konteks

Om GODSDIENS

te ontmasker

binne ‘n

Voorsien-konteks

Om GEMEENSKAP

te vier

binne ‘n

Vyandige konteks

ESTER

Max Weber, the German sociologist,visited America in 1905 and spoke withadmiration of the “voluntary associations”that proliferated on our landscape.

A standard cliché about Americansociety is that the Americans are “joiners”and “belongers”. All of which is evidencethat persons know that they are no longersufficient unto themselves. [No individualis complete in himself; humanity isperson-in-relationship.]

We need community to complete ourhumanity. And yet these secular attemptsat community are notoriously void ofmeaning.

The American is a person without acommunity – part of a crowd, not of a group.David Reisman explored the Americancharacter in terms of its submission to thetyranny of crowds and the failure of theindividuals to heal their loneliness in thecrowd.

The myth of the selfsufficient individualpermeates the American self-consciousness.When these individuals get together incrowds the myth is simply accentuated, forthe crowd is not a company but aaggregate, a multiplication of individualsrather than an organic body. Even in thecrowd each person is an individual.

The congregation (qahal) is the basic working unit in God’s relations withthe Hebrew people. To be cut off from the community was the worstpunishment in their legal system. An individual, forced to exist alone inexile, was not a whole person. The biblical view of man is person-in-community, “a people of God”.

In the New Testament the

energies of ministry bring

churches into being… instead

of a mass of individuals,

pebbles in a box, there was a

consciousness of being one

body. Persons who had been

turned by Roman census-

takers into statistics were

initiated into communities offaith.

Ester

Purim

fees

Om

GEMEENSKAP

te vier binne

‘n Vyandige

konteks

Is dit moontlik vir ‘n geloofsgemeenskap om hoegenaamd te

oorleef in ‘n gans onverskillige en vyandiggesinde wêreld?

Can a community of faith prevail on the simple grounds of

being God’s people? – without demonstrating usefulness to

the society in general, and without access to power in that

society? This question is answered with a resounding

affirmative in the Esther story, and then celebrated noisily in

the feast of Purim.

God acted to preserve the community, His people. The result

was a wildly celebrative joy. Purim, an annual feast in the

early spring, is characterized by rejoicing and thanksgiving.

There are exchanges of gifts between friends and charity to

the poor. Life together is celebrated as a joyous gift, snatched

unbelievably from the gates of death and hell. A people who

had faced the possibility of not being are emphatically alive!

Community is not explained in historical terms, it is not

analysed in sociological terms, it enjoyed in the language

and rituals and food and laughter of a festival.

Joy is not an individual stroke of good luck. It is a community participating in God’s

redemption (Ester 8:15-16). Salvation is not only individual; it is corporate. In the

corporateness, and because of it, there is joy. Joy is not a private emotion; it

requires community for both its development and expression.

Henri Nouwen writes, “Our culture is a working, hurrying, and worrying culture with

many opportunities excepts the opportunity to celebrate life”. The two themes, the

indisputable fact of the community and the irrepressible feast of the community, are

interwoven in the story and the festival. The story of the survival of the community is

told; the joyous festival is celebrated. Esther and Purim; the story and the feast, are

two parts of the same thing, namely, the community of faith.

Hosea remembered when things were

different – when bare economic survival

was accompanied by spiritual wealth. He

represented God as saying… Hosea 2:14-16.

Return to the wilderness became

synonymous with getting back to the

basics. In the light of that tradition it is

possible to see the Persian diaspora as a

kind of wilderness experience.

Ahasveros

Ek sal die Akorlaagte ‘n poort na ‘n nuwetoekoms maak.

Hosea 2:14

Wie weet, miskien is dit juis met die oog op

‘n tyd soos hierdie dat jy koningin geword het.Ester 4:14

Koop die tyd uit.Efesiërs 5:16, OAV

Maak die beste

gebruik van elke

geleentheid.Efesiërs 5:16, NAV

In one of George

MacDonald’s books,

there is a woman who

has met a sudden sorrow.

“I wish I’s never been

made”!, she exclaims

petulantly and bitterly;

to which her friend quietly

replies, “My dear, you’re

not made yet. You’re

only being made – and

this is the Maker’s

process”.

‘n Tyd daarna het koning

Ahasveros vir Haman, die

Agagiet, vereer en hom

bevorder. Haman het na

‘n manier om al die Jode

in die hele koninkryk

van koning Ahasveros

uit te roei.

Ester 3:1,6

There is danger, and there is threat:

there is an enemy. Pastoral work

takes place in an environment of

hostility. There are times in history

when it is overt; other times when it

is covert: always it is intense.

Haman

Ek stel vyandskap

tussen jou en die vrou,

tussen jou nageslag

en haar nageslag.

Haar nageslag sal jou

kop vermorsel en

jy sal hom in die

hakskeen byt.

Genesis 3:15

Trek die volle

wapenrusting aan wat

God julle gee, sodat julle

op julle poste kan bly

ondanks die listige

aanslae van die duiwel.

Efesiërs 6:10-11

Die draak was woedendoor die vrou en het weg-

gegaan om oorlog temaak teen haar

nakomelinge wat die gebooie van God nakom

en aan die getuienisvashou wat Jesus

gelewer het.

Openbaringe 12:17

Samuel vra toe: “Wat vir 'n geblêr van kleinvee is daar dan in my ore?En wat van die gebulk van beeste wat ek hoor?”. 1 Samuel 15:14

Mordegai

The importance of Mordecai for the pastor derives from his style

of leadership, a style that exemplifies the way of the servant.

It is noteworthy that in the one story in the Bible that is given over

to narrating the survival of God’s people, the leader most

responsible for the survival is a behind-the-scenes figure known

only as “the Jew”. This is an important observation, for the

leadership models that are most attractive are charismatic. But

when it comes to telling the story of the diaspora community of

faith surviving in a strange land the leadership model is plain and

unassuming: A servant.

Die Seun van d ie mens het ook n ie

gekom om gedien teword n ie , maar om

te dien en Sy lewete gee as losprysvir ba ie mense.

Markus 10 :45

Ester

It is probably that Hadassah, the Hebrew name for Esther is not a

proper name at all but a title, meaning “bride”, from the Akkadian

hadasstu, “bride”. If so, it is consistent with the extensive use of a

biblical metaphor that designates God’s people as his bride and

emphasizes, in the retelling of the Esther story, God’s affection for and

designs upon the community of faith, His people.

The most important single thing about the people of God is that they

are there. The exist. They are, not because of favourable conditions in

the empire, not because of certain perceived needs for which the

church can provide a market, but because God called them out of

nothing and made them a people (Hosea 1:10). They will continue for

the same reason. Nothing can annihilate that creation, not Amalek,

not Agag, not Haman, not Judas, not the Beast of the Apocalypse.

Hadassah, the Bride of Christ, is adorned for her husband!

God het haar dit vergun om fyn, helder blink

klere aan te trek. Hierdie fyn klere is die

regverdige dade van die gelowiges.Openbaringe 19: 8

…and to present

her to Himself as

a radiant church,

without stain or

wrinkle or any

other blemish,

but holy and

blameless.Efesiërs 5:27

As jy nóú swyg en daar kom van 'n ander kant af

[ָמקֹום] uitkoms en redding vir die Jode, sal jy en

jou familie omkom. Wie weet, miskien is dit juis

met die oog op 'n tyd soos hierdie dat jy koningin

geword het!”. Ester 4:14

.:ָחַרׁש to devise (from the idea of secrecy); to be

silent; to be deaf; hold peace; speak not a word;

hold tongue

God