Sermon Notes Nov. 15-I Samuel, 1,2

Nov. 15, I Sam. 1, 2 Heb. 10:11-14

I will skip over the apocalyptic imagery of the gospel. We have time to return to it as Advent approaches. Also, I am still embarrassed that another Christian group thought that the world was going to end a few Wednesdays ago.Still, Hannah’s story is one of endings and new beginnings, part of  the apocalyptic framework.

Hannah’s name means grace. this is a picture of God’s vision for the world too. In her trouble, Hannhah prays.It comes at a cost due to her vow. See ps. 18, 113, and Mary’s song. Representative of national need. Infertility seems to be on the increase in our time.Few things create such a yearning, yawning void in a life. the males are of little help elkanah like many men thinks it is about himself. He does try to comfort her, but what can he say?  He does try to be of some comfort, as he tries to assure her of his love.then she has to deal with Peninah (Jewel). One senses that she sees real rivalry here, as Hannah is favored but the second wife has the offspring, so it is reminiscent of the Jacob story.she is not the favorite, but she knows she should be.(Elkanah-God created))

Let’s spend some time speculating about Elkanah and Penninah. I assume he could afford two wives. He is caught in a bit of an emotional  tangle. I can just imagine him busting his buttons at the birth of Samuel and the five other children-I still got it..

.It must be a tough  issue to be a less loved wife. She has done everything right, but her husband does not  hold her in the same regard as Hannah. She is then insecure about her position in the family.So she lashes out in resentment and frustration-what about me? she makes an enemy of Hannah.(I hear more than a bit of Cinderella’s stepmother and sisters in her opponent). Her great prayer ends with not by might  does one prevail.”

Eli misunderstands her fervent prayer.Hannah. She is the one who drives the action. It is her voice we hear more than any other. She is the subject of the key verbs. Knowing the book of Judges we freeze and Hannah offers her son to god, as we fear that he will be a child sacrifice, not devoted to service in the shrine of sacrifice and pilgrimage. Hannah  prays in the face of wrongful  rebuke about being drunk , and ultimately conceives, bears, and even names her son.  Hannah’s song is politically explosive. We tend to try to keep a wall of separation between religious practice  and the world of politics and economics. Hannah sees a personal gift as a signal to a society.Mary will follow its structure for her own surprise birth about one thousand years later. Hannah’s son Samuel will anoint David as a new king, and the New Testament has Jesus to be known as a son of David.

Some of us resemble Elkanah or Penninah more than Hannah. God’s grace extends to them all. I hope that the two women could find common ground,. common cause and that elkanah became less self-focused. God works with material at hand with infinite patience. Christ as sacrifice and priest, as the entryway to the presence-move beyond the religious rites to a person and through a person. Jesus is not confused priest such as Eli.New life seems ot be a fundamental purpose for God. It is a fundamental spiritual drive from emptiness to fullness as well, from lifeless to lively and promoting life itself.