The Jewish festival of Purim ends tonight when the first 3 stars come out. It is all about Esther so in case you missed the movie last night (at Compline). Here’s an abridged version:

When the current queen angers the king, he chucks her and picks a new wife from a selection of hot young women. Esther is the lucky (subjective) girl and takes her cousin Mordecai’s advice hiding the fact she's Jewish. When Mordecai angers Haman (the evil Vizier) Haman decides he's going kill every Jew in revenge. So Queen Esther called on her handmaids, and indeed all Jews to spend 3 days in deep prayer and fasting with her, before she broke protocol to get his attention. If the king was displeased, it could result in her death.

The King holds out his scepter to her, accepting her visit and she invites him to dinner, throwing a huge banquet over a couple of nights where she reveals she's Jewish and Haman wants to kill her and genocide her people. The king gets super pissed with Haman, now if this was a Disney version, he would drop the law and there’s your happy ending. But this is real life and he can’t take something back that has been written into law, so he gives Mordecai, Haman’s old job and together they fix it the best they can, giving the Jews permission to defend themselves against extermination. For 2 days there’s pitched battles in the streets, the Jews win, Haman ends up dead, and we get Purim and triangle-shaped cookies.

Esther showed one person can make a difference! If Vashti had not challenged Xerxes, the cycle of abuse would have continued. If Mordechai had not refused to bow to an idol and stand against Haman, the Jewish people would not have found freedom. If Esther had not had the faith and courage to risk her life, God would have found another way, but what would have happened to her? Just as we recently learned about John Wesley, one man who made a difference, Esther was one woman who made a huge difference and saved her people. If we stand apart from misfortune and do nothing to counter injustice, we will continue to live in a world that is polarized and unjust. Stand against hatred and anti-Semitism. We need to be promoting love not hate.