The art of setting a table

Lily Cathcart March 04, 2024 3 5

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Esther 7: 1-6 (NRSVA)

1 So the king and Haman went in to feast with Queen Esther. 2 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.’ 3 Then Queen Esther answered, ‘If I have won your favour, 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. 4 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.’ 5 Then King Ahasuerus said to Queen Esther, ‘Who is he, and where is he, who has presumed to do this?’ 6 Esther said, ‘A foe and enemy, this wicked Haman!’ Then Haman was terrified before the king and the queen.

I have heard of a time when women were taught the art of hosting a dinner, of proper etiquette, as if they were martial artists being taught how to win a fight. Instead of the placement of a foot, there was the tactical choice of a menu, rather than a handhold or grip there would be a strategically penned seating plan. And with the correct timing the tipping of your opponent, or perhaps a gravy boat, might mean victory as their social opponent was brought down by their own weight.

I wonder if Esther’s community ever gave her similar lessons, long before she was elevated to the rank of queen. I wonder if it is with those people in mind that she laid the table for a feast she must have been terrified to attend. She knew it could lead to her death at the hands of her somewhat easily led (and often inebriated) royal husband and his violent, self centred right-hand-man. But Esther is ingenious, she welcomes them, feeds them, gives them drink, relaxes them. Only then does she take a leap and tip the balance, toppling Haman’s plan to the floor and saving the very people who taught her to lay a table in the first place.

Prayer:

Dear God of balance,

Thank you that you so often give us the tools we need

Help us to find a way to bring balance and goodness to the world

Help us to teach each other whatever we know

Save us by creative means, as always

Amen