THE FIVE MEGILOTH ESTHER RUTH LAMENTATIONS...exile, was not a whole person. The biblical view of man...
Transcript of THE FIVE MEGILOTH ESTHER RUTH LAMENTATIONS...exile, was not a whole person. The biblical view of man...
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