First reading: 1 Samuel 3.1-10;Second reading: 1 Samuel 3.11-20
You’ve heard me say it before,
and I say it again …
The Bible holds infinite value for at least two reasons …
- it’s grounded in sorrow and loss …
- it holds fast to the ideals …
As for the sorrow and loss, the Bible is the real McCoy …
the real deal …
nothing artificial about it …
no one is pretending anything …
the stories, prayers, and hymns of the Bible are forged in the fires of loss and death …
the reality of the human condition.
As for holding fast to the ideals - you bet …
a God of mercy and love, a creator who calls this world into being … life abundant … a world brimming over with energy and hope … and a creature to care for it all … a strange creature, part dirt, part divinity, feet on the ground; head in the heavens … aka - you and me.
The Bible takes seriously the human condition … but nowhere does the Bible give up hope.
When all seems lost,
God creates a way through the sea …
In the wilderness, God is present …
a pillar of cloud by day to shield us from the sun and lead the way …
a column of fire at night to warm our hearts and ward off the demons …
when we’re hungry, manna in the morning …
when we’re thirsty, water from a rock …
and always ahead of us, somewhere out there, the Promised Land … we’ll get there, we’ll make it … when war is no more, and the tears are gone, and all of creation made new.
The story of Samuel is just such a story …
It begins so simply, with a family, and a woman’s heartache:
There was a man, Elkanah … from the hill country of Ephraim … he had two wives; the name of the one was Hannah, and the name of the other Peninnah. Peninnah had children, but Hannah had no children.
Every year, this family journeyed to the shrine at Shiloh to offer sacrifices to the LORD of hosts … after the reasonable portions were offered to the priests, and consumed in the fires of the altar, the rest was divided up between Peninnah and her children, each with a share, and a double share for Hannah, because, as the story goes, Elkanah loves Hannah.
Hannah grieves for the children she doesn’t have … and to make matters worse: Peninnah provoked her, to irritate her … to add insult to injury.
The Bible says: Hannah was deeply distressed and prayed to the Lord, and wept bitterly. She made this vow: “O Lord of hosts, if only you will look on the misery of your servant, and remember me, and not forget your servant, but will give to your servant a male child, then I will set him before you as a nazirite until the day of his death. He shall drink neither wine nor intoxicants, and no razor shall touch his head.”
Hannah bargains with God … which opens up a can of worms for us …
If you scratch my back, I’ll scratch yours.
If you invite me to your home, I’ll invite you to mine.
If you’re nice to me, I’ll be nice to you.
More to the point … can we bargain with God?
If you heal me, I’ll become a missionary or a minister.
If you give me riches and power, I’ll use them only to make this a better world.
How many soldiers in how many foxholes have promised God the moon if only God would save them from the jaws of death.
Yes, we all bargain with God, we bargain with life, we bargain with the world.
I can’t tell you that it’s wrong to make a bargain with God … nor can I tell you bargaining is how it works …
This much I can say: God hears our prayers, our laments … God feels our losses and our sorrows … God knows our heartache!
The Psalmist writes: You have kept count of my tossing; put my tears in your bottle.
Every prayer is answered …
God says Yes - more often than not …
God says No - from time-to-time …
God says Maybe - we’ll see how it plays out …
None of us know fully the mind of God … but this we know for sure: God is trustworthy …
I am with you always … to deliver and defend …
I am with you in your joys and pleasures;
I am with you in your despair and loss …
I am with you when your faith is strong;
I am with you when your faith falters and fails …
I am with you when you love me;
I am with you when you deny me …
I am with you when you make your vows;
I am with you when you break them …
I am with you in your conception and birth …
I am with you in the days of your life, as the world turns …
I am with you at the end … when the last mortal breath is taken, there I am.
In due course, Hannah conceives and bears a son … Samuel … which means: “God heard” … or … “I have asked/borrowed him from the LORD” …
Hannah stands by her vow …
She brings Samuel to the Shrine of Shiloh … there to learn, work and grow, in the things of God, under the tutelage of Eli, a good and decent man, with two lousy sons who are priests in the shrine … they’re guilty of crimes against God and the people - they skim the coffers, fleece the flock, fatten themselves …
But Samuel is there as well …
He grows in wisdom and stature … his mother stands by him!
As the story goes, so poignantly,
His mother used to make for him a little robe
and take it to him each year,
when she went up with her husband to offer the yearly sacrifice.
Then, one evening, three times the call, a voice … at first Samuel thinks Eli has called him … after the third time, Eli says: Go, lie down; and if he calls you, you shall say, ‘Speak, Lord, for your servant is listening.’
So Samuel went and lay down in his place, and the voice called him again … with a commission, a purpose, a plan:
No longer to serve the LORD in Shiloh, but to be a prophet to the people … to the nation, to the world.
Who would have known, at the time, what was afoot in the heart of God?
Throughout history, those rare and gifted persons who actually turn the wheels of government and church, who make a lasting difference …
Who would have known?
February 12, 1809, a log cabin, rural Kentucky … a boy is born to Thomas and Nancy Lincoln, and they name him Abe.
April 10, 1880, Boston, Massachusetts, Francis Perkins, who would play a pivotal role in the Roosevelt administration, shaping post-Depression policy, including Social Security and minimum wage laws.
January 15, 1929, Atlanta Georgia … the son of a preacher man, Martin Luther King, Jr. whose birthday we celebrate tomorrow.
Who would have known?
And who knows where and how the future is already being shaped by God … a child is born … here in Altadena, Lisbon, Mexico City, Tokyo, London … who can see the future?
Samuel grows up to become a major player in Israel’s story … and one day, born of Mary, in Bethlehem, another little boy, who grows up to become the Savior of the world.
To God be the glory. Amen and Amen!
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