Confession and Forgiveness (MPLS)

Esther 7:1–6, 9–10; 9:20–22

So the king and Haman went in to feast with Queen Esther. On the second day, as they were drinking wine, the king again said to Esther, “What is your petition, Queen Esther? It shall be granted you. And what is your request? Even to the half of my kingdom, it shall be fulfilled.” Then Queen Esther answered, “If I have won your favor, O king, and if it pleases the king, let my life be given me—that is my petition—and the lives of my people—that is my request. For we have been sold, I and my people, to be destroyed, to be killed, and to be annihilated. If we had been sold merely as slaves, men and women, I would have held my peace; but no enemy can compensate for this damage to the king.” Then King Ahasuerus said to Queen Esther, “Who is he, and where is he, who has presumed to do this?” Esther said, “A foe and enemy, this wicked Haman!” Then Haman was terrified before the king and the queen. Then Harbona, one of the eunuchs in attendance on the king, said, “Look, the very gallows that Haman has prepared for Mordecai, whose word saved the king, stands at Haman’s house, fifty cubits high.” And the king said, “Hang him on that.” So they hanged Haman on the gallows that he had prepared for Mordecai. Then the anger of the king abated.

Mordecai recorded these things, and sent letters to all the Jews who were in all the provinces of King Ahasuerus, both near and far, enjoining them that they should keep the fourteenth day of the month Adar and also the fifteenth day of the same month, year by year, as the days on which the Jews gained relief from their enemies, and as the month that had been turned for them from sorrow into gladness and from mourning into a holiday; that they should make them days of feasting and gladness, days for sending gifts of food to one another and presents to the poor.

Mark 9:38–50

John said to Jesus, “Teacher, we saw someone casting out demons in your name, and we tried to stop him, because he was not following us.” But Jesus said, “Do not stop him; for no one who does a deed of power in my name will be able soon afterward to speak evil of me. Whoever is not against us is for us. For truly I tell you, whoever gives you a cup of water to drink because you bear the name of Christ will by no means lose the reward.

“If any of you put a stumbling block before one of these little ones who believe in me, it would be better for you if a great millstone were hung around your neck and you were thrown into the sea. If your hand causes you to stumble, cut it off; it is better for you to enter life maimed than to have two hands and to go to hell, to the unquenchable fire. And if your foot causes you to stumble, cut it off; it is better for you to enter life lame than to have two feet and to be thrown into hell. And if your eye causes you to stumble, tear it out; it is better for you to enter the kingdom of God with one eye than to have two eyes and to be thrown into hell, where their worm never dies, and the fire is never quenched.

“For everyone will be salted with fire. Salt is good; but if salt has lost its saltiness, how can you season it? Have salt in yourselves, and be at peace with one another.”

‘Text Message’ Reflection:
From Pastor Holly Johnson

The gospel text has a speech from Jesus that seem disconnected; likely because a disciple interrupted Jesus and he chose to respond, and then go back to what he was trying to say before. The verses right before 38 have Jesus putting a child in the midst of them to try and help them understand faith. 

In the midst of that, John interrupts him to talk about someone else purporting to cast out demons in Jesus’ name. They say they tried to stop him. Jesus then stops his sermon about the trust of a child, and directly tells them to let people do good things, regardless of whether they are part of this group. 

Then he goes back to what he was trying to say, but his speech gets a little saltier. It feels like he’s a little exasperated with the incomprehension of the disciples, so his rhetoric starts veering into prophetic speech with references to hell and fire and extreme ideas about cutting off parts of your body that cause you to sin. 

It ends with this: Have peace with one another.  Hopefully that will silence the questions about who is the greatest, and who gets to heal and all the other places where they just seem to miss the mark.

‘Text Message’ Reflection Questions:

• We like to think we are the ones who “get it” and the disciples were the clueless ones. It’s most likely that Jesus would also be exasperated with things we fail to understand. What would Jesus’ speech to us be about? 
• Jesus puts a high priority on children—lifting them up as a model of faith. What lessons can we learn from a child’s faith?
• If children have something to teach us about how to be followers of Christ, how can we honor that in the life of our church?

Prayer:

God, you give us lessons again and again that we fail to understand. We are listening. We are learning. Help our unbelief, and grow our faith to match the trust of a child. In the meantime, may we be salty, and at the same time find ways to be at peace with one another. Amen.