Absurdities

This week we’ve been celebrating Purim in our house, as others celebrated Holi. Two very different holy days but each with an element of absurdity, from the outside.

Holi is raucous abandon, as its literal explosion of color celebrates the new year and rebirth. Purim is the ultimate drag show as men dress as Vashti or Esther and we’re mandated to get so tipsy we can’t distinguish Mordechai from Haman. Both tell stories of the destruction of evil and victory for hope and resilience. Both are filled with noise, color, creativity and can look pretty absurd to the uninitiated.

But these absurdities are grounded in joy. We’re all witnessing a very different kind of absurdity this week - absurdities antithetical to these spiritual celebrations of joy and hope. Our legislators have once again abdicated their responsibility to safeguard us against despots, by not stopping this illegal war in its tracks. Our administration keeps changing its story about why exactly they have entangled us in war. Especially absurd are reports that the Department of War is gleefully telling soldiers who may face death, that this is a holy war to bring on Armageddon.

This absurdity is born out of the absurdity that scripture, in particular the non-canonical Apocrypha book of Revelations, is literal prophesy. Scripture, all scriptures, are contextual, metaphorical, allegorical, inspirational, and sometimes even historical – but not literal. Scholars have long known that this book was written at the height of Roman authoritarian power. To speak plainly any spiritual truths which didn’t solely deify Ceasar would lead to persecution &/or death. In the same way that Gene Roddenberry used science fiction to comment on the social challenges of the 1960s, this John (who may or may not have been the same John, known as an apostle) used fantastical imagery to convey commentary and instill resilience in the communities to which he was writing, without calling out empire. It wasn’t prophecy as understood as fortune-telling. It was prophecy as it was understood in antiquity – that of holding a mirror of truth up to peoples and powers.

One of the stories of Holi focuses on the evil king, Hiranyakashipu, who was incensed by his subjects – not the least of which was his own son – because they did not worship him as a god; so ordered the prince to be burned on a bonfire for maintaining his faith in Lord Vishnu. Similarly, the evil vizier Haman became incensed that Mordechai did not bow down to him and so ordered the genocide of all the Jews in Persia. Authoritarian despots are absurd. They are so filled with narcissistic poison that they would destroy whole worlds to force people to adore them.

When Queen Esther outs herself as a Jew, she simultaneously shines the light of truth on Haman’s evil plot. But here’s the thing, King Achashverosh is no innocent. Like Trump today, he got rid of Haman, (just as Trump just did with Noem) not because of the many evil things he did, but because in getting caught he made the King look bad.

So let us make noise, splash color and light, reveal the absurdities of evil to everyone who will listen until the whole world turns to the foolish and selfish kings and recognizes The Emperor Has No Clothes!