October 18, 2020

Prelude – Hannah’s Song copyright A & E Pokel.

Hymn of the Day – ELW #419 ‘For All The Faithful Women’

1 Samuel 1:9-11, 19-20; 2:1-10

In the book of 1 Samuel, Hannah is in the most precarious of places.

In her time, women were vulnerable … dependent upon their fathers, husbands, brothers or even sons for their safety and security. Their worth to the family … to the community … was measured by their ability to produce children … especially sons. If they could not have children, women carried little value.

Hannah is barren and because of this condition, she is excluded from fully experiencing life in the community and even life within her family.

In her world, Hannah is considered cursed. Her husband’s other wife had a borne a number of sons and daughters. Because of this, the other wife … Peninnah … torments Hannah. She needles Hannah and makes her life miserable.

But it wasn’t just Peninnah that was a cause of Hannah’s sadness.

Hannah has been ridiculed by those around her because of this supposed curse … society expects women to produce children. So, in the community’s eyes she belongs on the lowest of rungs on society’s ladder.

Hannah is likely dealing with feelings of shame and inadequacy that comes with not meeting the expectations of the world around her … or the expectations of her family.

Hannah’s husband … Elkanah … shows his love to her by giving her double portions of the sacrifices he makes in the temple. He tries, but cannot, bring comfort to Hannah. He cannot understand why she is crying. His words are insufficient.

In fact, Elkanah’s words were likely harmful when he says, “Am I not worth more to you than 10 sons?” Basically, telling her that he should be enough.

Her loving husband cannot give her comfort, so Hannah turns to God.

At the temple … next to a priest … Hannah gives voice to her pain and isolation.

In her sadness … through her tears … Hannah prays to the Lord.

The prayer is so raw … so sorrowful … so unlike the usual prayers offered in the temple … that the priest thinks that Hannah had had too much wine and was drunk.

She assures the priest that this isn’t the case … that she is just deeply troubled and doesn’t want to be thought of as worthless.

It would be understandable if Hannah asked God to punish those who tormented her … but instead, she calls on God to open her womb and give her a son. She knows that God will hear her.

Hannah promises to ensure that the boy will lead a life dedicated to the Lord. She promises that her son will be a nazarite … one who voluntarily takes vow to follow God.

This vow required the person to abstain from all wine and anything else made from grapes, as well as to allow his hair to grow uncut.

Hannah finishes her prayer and she and Elkanah return home.

Some time later, Hannah is able to conceive and she bears a son, whom she names Samuel … a name that means “God hears.”

She finally gets the child she longed for … and then she gives him up to a life in the sanctuary … a life in service to God.

And in her joy, she sings a song of thanks.

There is a danger in this text for those who hear it.

In the hands of some, it can be used the way Peninnah would … to needle and to diminish another. That if prayer doesn’t work … if God doesn’t intervene … that the woman didn’t pray hard enough or must have done something wrong that God refuses to answer them.

In such a narrow view, rather than be a source of joy, the story becomes another point of sorrow and hopelessness.

Hannah’s prayer has a world-wide view.

She doesn’t ask God to intervene in her life, but rather in the life of the people.

Hannah’s hope defies what she perceives around her and empowers her to live in the face of the injustice that she witnesses and experiences. Through her prayer … Hannah gives voice to her hope … through her song … she gives voice to her faith that God will be with the vulnerable … that God is present in her life and in the life of the world.

That God remembers Hannah and she moves from profound sorrow to profound joy.

God has brought new life to the world … given Hannah a new life … and through Samuel … a new life to the people.

The heart of the prayer and of Hannah’s song is an affirmation that God’s actions bring about surprising reversals.

Through Hannah’s song of thanksgiving we are reminded that God turns the expectations of the world upside down.

… the poor are raised up

… the poor are made rich

… the needy are made the equal of princes

…  God will protect the faithful.

In response to the birth of Samuel, Hannah gives voice to God’s actions … to her thankfulness for those actions … and what they mean to the world.

The words of Hannah’s song are echoed centuries later by Mary’s song … which we call the Magnificat. It’s a song of the wonders of God’s actions in the life of another barren woman … Elizabeth … who gave birth to John the Baptist … and in Mary’s own life.

In both instances, new life shows up in the most unexpected … in the most inconceivable <sorry> … of places.

In both instances, we are reminded that we serve a God who hears us and knows us.

In a world of abundance, there are still places that are barren … physically barren  … spiritually barren … uncomfortable places where we are called to enter.

They can be places of hunger or fear … or even places that lack a sense of true community … a place where the vulnerable are neither protected nor welcomed.

There are places where people do not feel valued or secure … places where prayers are offered in hope … places where songs of joy are seldom … if ever … heard let alone sung.

If we are to live into our call to serve … to truly live into our faith … searching for those hearts seeking hope and love within these barren places … to those isolated or marginalized … should be an ongoing exercise.

And once we locate these hearts … strive to bring them into community … so they can experience the new life that is possible when the gift of grace … when God’s unconditional love is shared.

It is through these loving moments when we can hear and experience the songs of joy … a new song in a person’s life.

AMEN