A Mother’s Prayer
June 03, 2012
A Mother's Prayer
I Samuel 2:1-10
by the Rev. Dr. E. Scott Jones
First Central Congregational UCC
3 June 2012
This weekend was the annual meeting of the Nebraska Conference of the United Church of Christ. In fact, it is still underway this morning. The theme is "The Changing Face of the Church." Ben Guess, who is the minister and executive for Local Church Ministries of the national setting of the UCC gave our keynote address on that topic. He discussed the various cultural trends affecting the church and gave exciting prospects for how the work of the church nationally is changing. He encouraged all of us that despite the changes underway, that the church will continue, its mission will continue, and that God will be faithful to God's plans. It was a great speech, and I pondered sharing more of my notes with you. Until I realized this morning that I had taken my notes on my iPad, yes I have acquired one since a month ago when I told you I'd never owned an Apple product. Before I left North Platte, Michael asked me if I'd leave the iPad with him, which I did. See, if I had written them down on paper I might have them with me. Or I could have left them in the motel room. You never know.
Today's lesson from the Hebrew Scriptures comes from a time when the culture was changing. In fact, this story is set in two contexts of radical transformation and the resulting anxiety. Because change always generates anxiety, even when it is good change. We want to hold onto the familiar and what has been good to us. The stories I Samuel tells are about early Israel, two hundred years after the Exodus, when they began a transition from a more egalitarian society into a dynastic monarchy, roughly around the year 1000 Before the Common Era. But the stories were written down and collected and edited into final form after the return from exile in Babylon, roughly four hundred years later.
When the Jews returned from exile in Babylon there was a burst of literary activity, all trying to come to terms with the fragmented, anxious reality of its time. Various authors took a wide range of perspectives, including the author of Ecclesiastes who wrote, "Meaningless! Meaningless! Utterly meaningless! Everything is meaningless."
But one group of authors and editors put together the Deuteronomic History, which includes the books of Deuteronomy, Joshua, Judges, I & II Samuel, and I & II Kings. The authors of these stories believed very differently from the author of Ecclesiastes. They believed you could find a sense of meaning in the great stories of Israel. These authors believed in a life-giving past, which could help to shape their identity during anxious times. I Samuel is partially an effort to find what from the past we can hold onto in shaping our lives in the present.
Do we live in fragmented, anxious times? Are we also concerned with how our past relates to our present and future? Do we wonder how to live as people of faith in a changed world? Our context, then, bears similarities to that in which these stories were written.
So, let us go to our ancient past, and read the story. It begins in one family's home, in a place called Ramathaim. Journey with me.
There was a man from Ramathaim of the Zuphites, in the hill country of Ephraim, whose name was Elkanah son of Jeroham son of Elihu son of Tohu son of Zuph, an Ephraimite. He had two wives, one named Hannah and the other Peninnah; Peninnah had children, but Hannah was childless.
These are the opening words of the biblical book of I Samuel and immediately we are set down in a particular place, with a particular family. And, as is so often the case in the biblical story, we don't begin with a king or someone extraordinary, just Elkanah from the hill country.
Elkanah does appear to be a well-established man: four generations of his family can be traced in this country. Maybe great-grandpa Zuph was the original homesteader?
Very significantly, we note that Elkanah is the husband of two wives. This tells us that Elkanah had some money. Scholars believe that the taking of multiple wives was a sign of prominence and wealth in the ancient Near East. A man had to be able to afford multiple wives and a large family, and the taking of multiple wives was itself a demonstration of a man's power and prestige.
On the negative side, this informs us something of women's typical roles in this society. What we encounter in this part of the Bible is a marriage and kinship system that anthropologist Gayle Rubin describes as "the traffic in women." Men acquired and used women to develop prestige and standing. The taking of another man's woman was a sure sign of a man's triumph over his foe. We will see even more of this as we read through I Samuel.
And, thus, we are immediately struck by a way the story is alien to us. This ancient culture had different customs around family and spousal relationships. In fact, it is a mistake to consider these biblical relationships marriages in the way we understand them. None of the biblical characters are described as being "married," no such word is used. Rather, again and again we read that a man "takes" a wife.
So, before we move beyond the second verse of this book of I Samuel, we are reminded that any attempt to discover a single biblical model for sexuality and relationships which can be applied to the ethical and political issues of our time is doomed to fail. That's a good point for us to remember and to share with our friends and neighbors who are unaware of this fact.
But despite the dissimilarities with our time and culture, there are strong similarities. Do men still use women and sex to establish power and prestige among their peers? Sure they do.
Quickly, the story focuses in on Hannah, by identifying her as a barren woman, who is unhappy with her infertility and how others treat her because of it. Here is a very common, human story. One we too might be acquainted with, maybe too personally acquainted with. Immediately we recognize this woman and her desires. She is a person just like we are.
Here we also encounter one of the great truths of the biblical tradition. God is always on the side of the underdog – the left out, the stranger, the oppressed. Throughout the biblical story infertile women reappear, and each time we are reminded that God is with them.
Every year Elkanah and his family make the less than twenty-mile journey from their home in Ramathaim to the ancient shrine of Shiloh to worship God. For two hundred years, before the construction of the temple in Jerusalem, Shiloh was the center of worship for the Israelite people.
Elkanah and his family come to worship, and Hannah is grieved by her infertility. Elkanah tries to comfort her. Some commentators see him as a model husband, comforting his grieving wife. Another suggests a more complicated motive for Elkanah. Could it be that he has children and heirs with Penninah and doesn't want to complicate matters with children from Hannah? Or maybe he finds pleasure in Hannah and her beauty and he doesn't want to complicate that with childbearing? Is he afraid that if she becomes pregnant or a mother that she will no longer be the attractive wife he delights in?
But Elkanah is not the focus of our story. Hannah is. Hannah does not settle for the conditions that life has given her. She takes matters into hand, and sets out to change her circumstances. She comes to the shrine and begins to pray. Scripture says, "In her wretchedness, she prayed to the Lord, weeping all the while."
Here we encounter a person in distress, who is moved to worship and prayer, seeking consolation and help from God. Her faith and spirituality become the sources of all that is to follow in this story.
The shrine of Shiloh is overseen by the priest Eli and his sons Hophni and Phinehas. Elsewhere we will learn that the priesthood was corrupt, particularly Eli's sons, and that they have been taking advantage of and exploiting the worshippers who come to the shrine. Because of this, they will experience the judgment of God.
Despite this corruption and exploitation, Hannah still comes here, faithfully and courageously seeking God and God's help.
As she prays silently, she moves her lips. The priest Eli sees this and thinks that she is drunk and comes over to scold her, "How long will you make a drunken spectacle of yourself? Sober up!"
Hannah responds with the truth. She is pouring her heart out to God, she says. She does not give the details of her prayer, but Eli, rebuked, blesses her and asks that God grant her prayer.
Elkanah and his family return home and soon after Hannah becomes pregnant and gives birth to a son. In her praying, she had vowed to the Lord that if God gave her a son, she would dedicate him to the Lord. She names the child Samuel, which means, "I asked the Lord for him." She spends three years weaning the child, and then she brings him to the shrine at Shiloh and leaves him there in the service of God.
When Hannah brings her son to dedicate him to the service of God, she sings her great song of praise. Please note something. Hannah's song is not on the occasion of discovering she's pregnant. Nor does it occur when the child is born. No, she sings this great and wonderful song when she dedicates her child to the service of God. And the song is not about motherhood. It is about social justice.
In the midst of the anxious, troubled, and changing times in which she lived, Hannah sings of a just and peaceful society. The poor and needy are raised up and sit with the nobles, taking seats of honor. The wicked perish, and no more does strength or war prevail. Mark McEntire of Belmont University writes that "Hannah sings of a future when the threats of oppression and death that have terrorized Israel for so long might finally be overcome."
She sings of a future that draws upon the very best of the past. Since the Exodus and the early formation of the people, they have tried to live in an egalitarian society, enjoying moments of peace and prosperity as God has reigned over them. Occasionally, when trouble arose, usually military difficulties with a neighboring people, God would call forth a judge to lead the people, end the violence and oppression, and guide them back to wholeness. Hannah claims the very best of this tradition and projects it forward into the future.
Hannah's Godly vision is an early version of the good news that we Christians encounter in the story of Jesus. Luke has borrowed so heavily from Hannah's story in his telling of Mary. Mary's song, the Magnificat, is taken directly from this song of Hannah. Mary sings:
He has brought down rulers from their thrones but has lifted up the humble.
He has filled the hungry with good things but sent the rich away empty.
Hannah is a prophet whose vision has helped to define and create our Judeo-Christian tradition. When we here at First Central stand on the side of the oppressed and the poor, we stand in the tradition of our mother Hannah.
Hannah does not raise her child. She leaves him at the shrine and visits once a year, bringing a new robe. Some remark that she has sacrificed her son and left him to be raised among a group of priests that we know to be corrupt and exploitative.
Scholar David Jobling admits that we should not be sentimental about Hannah. When we are, we actually rob her of her power and strength. He asks a very profound question. What does Hannah desire? Our first response would be, "a son." But Jobling is not so sure, because she does not raise that son and the theme of her great song is not motherhood but justice.
David Jobling believes that what Hannah desires is a son who will be a leader of Israel. And a leader who will further her vision of justice. Jobling writes, "She consciously sets out to change her world and succeeds in doing so." The child Samuel grows up to become the priest, judge, and prophet of his people. He is the last leader of that more egalitarian period before dynastic monarchy arises.
Hannah experiences anguish and distress because of her personal situation and during a time of great national crisis. This compels her to seek God in prayer and worship. The result of her experience is that she seeks justice not only for herself, but for others who are also among the poor and the needy. In the midst of changing times, she expresses faith in God and casts a vision for the future, building upon the very best elements of the past, claiming that past as essential to shaping the people now. Hannah did what she could to make her world a better place.
In our time and our place . . . given our personal and national circumstances . . . what lesson might Hannah's story have for us?
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